1769 MOURNING CEREMONIES 171 
the younger people cut off all or a part of their hair, and 
throw that also under the bier. 
When the ceremonies have been performed for two or 
three days, the men, who till now seemed to be entirely 
insensible of their loss, begin their part. They have a 
peculiar dress for this occasion, and patrol the woods early 
in the morning and late at night, preceded by two or three 
boys, who have nothing upon them but a small piece of 
cloth round their waists, and who are smutted all over 
with charcoal. These sable emissaries run about their 
principal in all directions, as if in pursuit of people on 
whom he may vent the rage inspired by his sorrow, which he 
does most unmercifully if he catches any one, cutting them 
with his stick, the edge of which is set with shark’s teeth. 
But this rarely or never happens, for no sooner does this figure 
appear than every one who sees either him or his emissaries, 
inspired with a sort of religious awe, flies with the utmost 
speed, hiding wherever he thinks himself safest, but by all 
means quitting his house if it lies even near the path of 
this dreadful apparition. 
These ceremonies continue for five moons, decreasing, 
however, in frequency very much towards the latter part 
of that time. The body is then taken down from the 
ewhatta, the bones washed and scraped very clean, and 
buried according to the rank of the person, either within or 
without some one of their marais or places of public 
worship; and if it is one of their carees, or chiefs, his skull 
is preserved, and, wrapped up in fine cloth, is placed in a 
kind of case made for the purpose, which stands in the 
marai. The mourning then ceases, unless some of the 
women, who find themselves more than commonly afflicted 
by their loss, repeat the ceremony of poopooing, or bleeding 
themselves in the head, which they do at any time or in any 
place they happen to be when the whim takes them. 
The ceremonies, however, are far from ceasing at this 
stage; frequent prayers must be said by the priest, and 
frequent offerings made for the benefit of the deceased, or 
more properly for that of the priests, who are well paid 
