100 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



away in the loft of the building. When the flesh is nearly gone, the 

 skull is taken off, and having been carefully cleansed, is preserved as 

 an object of worship, or rather as representing the spirit of the de- 

 ceased, which has become a divinity. 



In the northern cluster, a still stranger custom prevails, and one 

 which it costs an effort to believe. According to Grey's account, 

 after the first ceremonies of wailing, the body is washed and laid out 

 upon a new mat, which is spread on a large oblong plate, made of 

 several tortoise-shells sewed together. From two to six persons, 

 according to the size of the corpse, seat themselves opposite one 

 another on the floor of the house (commonly the dwelling of the de- 

 ceased) and hold the plate, with the body of their friend, upon their 

 knees. When tired, they are relieved by others, and in this way the 

 service is kept up for a space of time, varying with the rank of the 

 deceased, from four months to two years ! All persons, whether free- 

 born or slaves, receive these peculiar honours after death. During 

 the time the corpse is thus lying in state, a fire is kept up day and 

 night in the house, and its extinction would be regarded as a most 

 unlucky omen. At the end of the period, the remains are sometimes 

 wrapped in mats, and deposited in the loft of the house ; but more 

 commonly they are buried in a piece of ground set apart for the pur- 

 pose, and the grave is marked by a stone erected at the head, another 

 at the foot, and a third laid horizontally across these two. The skulls 

 of the chiefs are preserved and treated with the same marks of reve- 

 rence as at the other islands. To our inquiry how the people could 

 afford to spend their time in this preposterous manner, Grey replied 

 at once, " One half of them have nothing else to do," a statement 

 which, from what little we saw of the islands and the people, we could 

 very well believe. 



GOVERNMENT. 



From what we learned, it is likely that the form of government 

 differs to some extent on each of the four clusters into which the 

 group is divided. We have, however, no definite information except 

 in regard to those of Apamama and Makin. On the former we find 

 a system of civil policy similar to that which prevails in Polynesia. 

 Society is divided into three ranks, chiefs or nobles (ua or damata), 

 landholders (katoka), and common people or serfs (kawa). The 

 oamata are the free and well-born natives, who possess the greater 



