FUNERALS IN TAVIUNL 8i 



all but the highest chiefs. The men never retaliate in earnest 

 beyond throwing mud occasionally, and the custom is to en- 

 deavour to escape as quickly as possible. 



' Funeral feasts are kept up by friends at a distance out of 

 respect to the dead, and for the purpose of consoling the living ; 

 and even if the news does not reach the loving friend of the 

 departed until a year has elapsed, the feast is still observed. 



' Every canoe arriving at a place for the first time after the 

 death of a great chief must show the loloku of the sail. A long 

 masi, fixed to the mast-head or yard, is sometimes the lolokii ; 

 or a whale's tooth is thrown from the mast-head, so as to fall 

 into the water, when it is scrambled for by people from the 

 shore. When the canoe gets nearer, both the sail and masi 

 are thrown into the water. 



' The final ceremony in honour of the departed chief is the 

 laiva-ni-mate, or the accomplishing some unusually great or 

 important work, such as the building of a canoe, the weaving 

 of a bale of cloth, roll of matting, or the making of an im- 

 mense ball of sennit, in memory of the dead, whose name is 

 given to the finished work. 



' In some parts a long line of women march in procession, 

 each bearing a green basket of white sand to strew over the 

 grave ; one party chants in a loud tone E-ui-e, to which the 

 other responds E-yara, and the effect is both solemn and 

 agreeable. 



' In the case of a chief drowned at sea, or slam and eaten 

 by his enemies, the loloku is as carefully observed as if he 

 had died naturally. This was the case when Ra Bithi, the 

 pride of Somo-Somo, was lost at sea seventeen of his wives 

 were sacrificed. Again, after the news of the massacre of the 

 Namena people in 1839, eighty women were strangled, to 

 accompany the spirits of their murdered husbands.' 



6 



