MICRONESIA. 99 



ever they may chance to blow. At last it is supposed to arrive at the 

 Kainakaki, a sort of elysium, where the spirits pass their time in 

 feasting, dancing, and whatever occupations were most agreeable to 

 them in their bodily existence. This elysium is placed by the natives 

 on the island of Tarawa. On this there are several mounds, or raised 

 areas, of various sizes, the largest being about a mile long by half a 

 mile in breadth.* None of these exceed twenty-four feet in height 

 above the surrounding soil, but even so slight an elevation is enough 

 to make them conspicuous in one of these islands. Each of these 

 mounds is supposed to be the site of a Kainakaki or paradise, which 

 is, of course, invisible to mortal eyes. The ground is considered 

 sacred, and though usually overgrown with trees, no native will ven- 

 ture to cut them down. When a tree falls, it is taken away, and 

 another planted in its place. If the persons who die are old and 

 feeble, their shades are carried to the Kainakaki by the spirits of 

 those who have died before them. The souls of infants are received 

 by the shades of their female relatives, and nursed and brought up, 

 till they are able to take care of themselves. Only those who are tat- 

 tooed (being chiefly persons of free birth) can expect to reach the 

 Kainakaki. All others are intercepted on their way, and devoured 

 by a monstrous giantess, called Baine. 



On Makin, this belief respecting the Kainakaki did not prevail, and 

 Grey thought (though his knowledge on such points was very limited) 

 that the natives supposed the spirits of the dead to remain near the 

 places where they resided in life, and sometimes to appear in dreams 

 to their friends and relatives. 



The funeral ceremonies are among the most remarkable of their 

 customs. At Apamama, when a man dies, his body is taken to the 

 maniapa, or council-house of the town, where it is washed and laid 

 out on a clean mat. Here it remains for eight or ten days, during 

 which the people express their grief by wailing and singing songs in 

 praise of the dead, and what is rather singular, by dancing. They 

 esteem it, moreover, a great weakness to shed tears at such times. 

 Every day, at noon, the body is taken out into the sun, and washed 

 and oiled. When the mourning is ended, the corpse is sewed up in 

 two mats, and sometimes buried in the house of the nearest relatives, 

 the head being always turned towards the east, sometimes stowed 



* This, it must be remembered, was the information which Kirby received from natives 

 of Apamama ; he had never visited Tarawa. 



