GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 53 



On Vaitupu : " The dead were buried inside the houses, and in 

 the grave they deposited with the body pearl-shell fish hooks, 

 necklaces, and other ornaments."* In the Hervey Group : " If 

 a body were buried in the earth, the face was invariably laid 

 downwards, chin and knees meeting, and the linibs well secured 

 with strongest sinnet cord. A thin covering of earth was laid 

 over the corpse, and large heavy stones piled over the grave. 

 The intention was to render it impossible for the dead to rise up 

 and injure the living. The head of the buried corpse was always 

 turned to the rising sun, in accordance with their ancient solar 

 worship. It was customary to bury with the dead some article 

 of value a female would have a cloth-mallet laid by her side, 

 whilst her husband would enjoin his friends to bury with him a 

 favourite stone adze, or a beautiful white shell (Ovula ovum) 

 worn by him in the dance. Such articles were never touched 

 afterwards by the living."! 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 



The old order has changed to such an extent that it is difficult 

 to gain information upon the former social system. The elder 

 natives are averse to discussing what they now regard as the 

 shameful and deplorable past, From tales and odd remarks I 

 was however able to glean a little. 



As usual among the Polynesians, sexual morality on Funafuti 

 was of the laxest before the introduction of Christianity, and 

 chastity was unknown. A wife belonged to her husband in so 

 far as she shared his home, he supported her and he was entitled 

 to the produce of her labour in cooking, weaving, fishing, garden- 

 ing, and so forth, but he did not claim the exclusive right to her 

 person. If a man desired the society of another's wife, he might 

 throw a pebble into the hut as he walked past ; the complaisant 

 husband, accepting the signal, would then leave and allow the 

 visitor to enter unmolested. 



A marriage was celebrated by the presentation of coconuts and 

 other trifling gifts. Where friends or relatives opposed a union, 

 the couple would sleep in the bush, and stay away from the 

 village till they were forgiven, much in the way that Pritchard 

 describes runaway matches in Samoa.J Matriarchal rule pre- 

 vailed over patriarchal ; a bridegroom left his father's house to 

 join his wife's family, sometimes two sisters and their husbands 

 shared a hut. Dr. Gill writes of Nanomana : "Women here 

 though married are common ; but the children belong to the 

 legal husband." 



* Turner loc. cit., p. 284. 



t GUI The South Pacific and New Guinea, 1892, p. 23. 

 I Pritchard Polynesian Reminiscences, 1866, p. 136. 

 Dr. Gill's MS. Diary. 



