384 SURGERY. 



would not be disturbed. This custom, therefore, seems to 

 have been both ingenious and convenient.* 



Although they usually went to bed soon after dark, still the 

 natives of Tahiti were not entirely without candles; for 

 which they used the "kernels of a kind of oily nut, which 

 they stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust 

 through the middle of them." These candles burned a con- 

 siderable time and are said to have given a pretty good light. 

 The Society Islanders had no knowledge of medicine as dis- 

 tinct from witchcraft ; but some wonderful stories are told of 

 their skill in surgery. I will give perhaps the most extra- 

 ordinary. "It is related," says Mr. Ellis, " although," he 

 adds, with perfect gravity, " I confess I can scarcely believe 

 it, that on some occasions, when the brain has been injured 

 as well as the bone, they have opened the skull, taken out 

 the injured portion of the brain, and, having a pig ready, 

 have killed it, taken out the pig's brains, put them in the 

 man's head, and covered them up." f 



The nostrils of the female infants were often pressed or 

 spread out during infancy, because they looked on a flat nose 

 as a mark of beauty. In the same way the boys sometimes 

 had their forehead and the back of their head pressed up- 

 wards, so that the upper part of the skull appeared in the 

 shape of a wedge. This was supposed to make them look 

 more formidable in war. J 



The dead were not buried at once, but were placed on a plat- 

 form raised several feet above the ground, and neatly railed 

 in with bamboo. The body was covered with a cloth, and 



* Since the above was written, I dinner or breakfast was brought to me. 

 have met with the following passage in This gave me a few moments' relief 

 Burchell : " I had sufficient reason for from the fatigue of incessant con versa- 

 admiring one of the customs of the tion." Travels in Southern Africa, vol. 

 Bachapins ; that, notwithstanding they ii., p. 408. 

 never at any other time left me alone, f I.e. vol. ii., p. 277. 

 they always retired the moment my } Ellis, I.e. vol. i., p. 343. 



