SAMOAN GROUP. 



139 



for the attendants, consisting of pigs, taro, bread-fruit, &c. ; presents 

 are made by all the relatives to the family of the deceased, and if the 

 family can afford it, a small canoe is procured for a coffin. After the 

 body has lain in the grave some time, they take up the skull and place 

 it in a box in their houses. The reason assigned for this is to prevent 

 their enemies from possessing themselves of it, for it was a custom in 

 their wars to violate the sanctity of the grave. We heard that a few 

 of the bodies of chiefs had been preserved by oil and heat ; and the 

 missionaries informed me that they had seen the bodies of those who 

 died thirty or forty years before, preserved in this manner. 



Their mode of showing their grief is to burn themselves to blisters, 

 (forming indelible marks,) with little rolls of twisted tapa, which, on 

 being lighted, soon produced a coal. They also scratch their bodies. 

 The females are said (in token of affliction for deceased friends) to 

 have pricked holes in the corpse, and sucked out the fluids. All these 

 practices may be now said to be passing away, and are almost 

 obliterated. 



There is already a very great difference, not only in dress but in 

 appearance, between those who have adopted Christianity, and those 

 who adhere to heathenism. The latter have a wild look, to which 

 their long hair, tied in a bunch behind, adds not a little ; and when 

 going to war they let it hang down in wild confusion, which increases 

 their savage appearance. 



DEVIL MAN. 



On the other hand, the Christians crop their hair short, — a fashion 

 which was introduced by the missionaries. 



The hair of the children is cropped close, except a lock on each 

 side of the head. The manners of the people in the Christian and 



