THE ABOEIGINES OP THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEA.N. 16 



clouds from whence tliey came.* The New Zealanders 

 believed that after death the heart would be taken to the 

 clouds accordmg to Malte Brun (vol. ii, p. 381), but the 

 Encyclopcedia Britannica (art., " New Zealand") says that 

 their idea was that the spirit survived the body, and retired 

 to some place under the earth, and that it occasionally 

 revisits the earth. 



The Fijians believed in a future state, but it had no retri- 

 bution in it. It was a place of rest.f Sir John Lubbock 

 says that these people believed that as they died, so Avould 

 be their condition after death. Moreover the road to mbulu 

 or heaven was long and difficult; many souls perished by the 

 way, and no diseased or infirm person could possibly over- 

 come all its dangers. Hence as soon as a man felt the 

 approach of old age, he notified his children that it was time 

 for him to die. A family consultation Avas held, a day 

 appointed, and a gi-ave dug. An instance is given by a Mr. 

 Hunt^ who was iiiAated by a young man to his mother's 

 funeral. On going to it he Avas surprised to see no corpse, 

 and on asking where it Avas, Avas shoAvn the Avoman, Avho Avas 

 Avalking along as gay and liA^ely as any one present. Having 

 aniA-ed at the graA^e she took an affectionate farcAA^ell of her 

 childi-en and friends, and then cheerfully submitted to be 

 strangled.^ 



Bolatoo Avas the lieaA^en of the Tongas, Avhich they thought 

 lay someAvhere in the north-AA^est. It Avas a spiritual para- 

 dise. ISome of the people, according to their tradition, once 

 drifted there in a cance, but did not at first knoAv it. They 

 found, hoAvever, that they could not get anything any more 

 than if it Avere a shadoAv ; so the gods advised them to 

 return, AAdiich they did, but soon died, OAviug to the air Avhich 

 they had breathed. § 



The ancient traditions of the Samoans placed their heaA^ens 

 in the AA^est, the direction from Avhence they came, and Avhither, 

 if they behave themseh^es, they should return.|| 



The ideas of the Tahitians Avere A'ague and indefinite. 

 They generally spoke of the place to which departed spirits 

 go as Po, or the state of ]jight, the abode of gods, and deified 



* Malte Brun's Oeog., p. 359. 



t Fiji and Fijians^ cliap. 7. 



\ Smithsonian Report, 1869, p. 360. 



§ CWal Islands, vol. ii, p. 153. 



II Ten Years in the Pacific, vol. ii, p. 365. 



