10!^ USEFUL PLANTS OF (UJAM. 



injulc of lici' and ii'iated cocoiiiit. 'Plic woinon had tluMr special 

 ft'asts, div.ssiilii- lliciiisclvcis in uala attire and docoratint^ their porsons 

 with Mowers and I >ris'-ht .shells and heads. They arranged themselves 

 in a lini;' of twch c or thirteen, rciiiainin<>' statior.ary. sino-jno- in verse 

 their stories and traditions in perfect time and in threo-part harmony — 

 "trehl(\ contralto, and falsetto'' — accompanied at times by one of the 

 chief men. who assist at these festivities, carrvin"' the tenor. 'Vho 

 words were accompanied ))y movements of the hands, with which 

 they sounded rattles or castanets made of shells, all in such perfect 

 time and with mo\ cmcMits of the body and g-estures Httino- so well with 

 the words as to call foith no littl(> a<lmirati()n for their aptitude for 

 learninu" thini>-s to which they :ipply themselves." 



Burial (^-eukisionies. — At funerals the demonstrations of orief were 

 very extravaoant, accompanied by much weepino-, fasting", and sound- 

 ing- on shell trumpets. The w^ailing- continued a week or longer, 

 accoi'ding to the atlVction and esteem in which the deceased was held. 

 The people assembled, dolefully chanting, around a mound which they 

 raised over the grave, or near it, decorated with flowers, palms, shcdls, 

 and other things esteemed by theuL'' The mother of the deceased 

 usually cut otf some hair as a souvenir of her grief, recording the 

 nights that had passed since his death })y knots in a cord worn around 

 her neck. These demonstrations were greater on the occasion of a high 

 chief's or Chamorri's death and at the death of a matron of distinction, 

 for in addition to the ordinary manifestations of grief they would 

 cover the streets with g-arlands of pahiis, erect arches and other devices 

 expressive of mourning, destroys coconut trees, burn houses, break 

 up boats, and raise before their houses the tattered sails as a sign of 

 their grief and sorrow, and to their songs they added elegies no less 

 eloquent than sorrowful, which grief would teach to the rudest and 

 most l)arbarous among them, exclaiming with man}" tears, that thence- 

 forth life would not be worth living, he being gone Avho was the life 

 of all, the sun of their nobility, the moon which lighted them in 

 the night of their ignorance, the star of all th(Mr deeds of prowess, 

 the valor of their battles, the honor of their race, of their \illage, of 

 their land; and thus they would continue far into the night, praising 

 the deceased, whose tomb they crowned with paddles as a symbol of 

 one celel)rated as a fisherman, or with spears as a device for the brave, 

 or w ith Ijoth paddles and spears if he were both a brave warrior and 

 an expert fisherman.^ 



« Garcia, Vida y Martyrio de Sanvitores, pp. 200-201, 1683. 



^ Chiefs were sometimes buried under buildings called " great houses" (debajo de 

 Unas rasas que llanian grarides.) (Garcia, p. 220.) 



'The recitation or chanting of elegies was called taitai, a word which is now used 

 for the verbs "to read" and "to pray." The corresponding nouns "prayer" and 

 "lecture" are called tinaitai. 



