THE KINGSMILL ISLANDERS. 
103 
destroyed after birth. According to Wood, this custom does not pre¬ 
vail at Makin. 
There are professed tattooers, who are held in great estimation, and 
receive very high prices; this confines the art to the wealthy and 
those of rank. The young men are not tattooed before the age of 
twenty, and slaves never. The tattooing is mostly in short oblique lines, 
about the eighth of an inch apart. These are arranged in perpendicular 
rows, of which there are four or five down the back on each side of 
the spine, with a similar marking in front, beginning just below the 
collar-bone. The legs also are marked. 
The women are tattooed in the same manner, but not so much as 
the men. Owing to the lightness of the lines, and the distance between 
them, they do not show very conspicuously. The colouring matter 
used is charcoal, mixed with cocoanut-oil. The instrument employed 
is a piece of bone, cut like a fine-toothed comb, similar to that used at 
the Samoan Group. The tattooing is done at different times, to alle¬ 
viate the pain which attends the operation. 
Of all their customs, the funeral ceremonies are the most remark¬ 
able. When a man dies, his body is taken to the mariapa, washed, and 
laid out on a clean mat, where it remains for eight days, and every 
day at noon it is taken into the sun, washed, and oiled. During this 
time the friends are engaged in wailing and singing praises of the dead, 
and dancing; but they think it a great weakness to shed tears on such 
occasions. After this mourning, the body is sewed up in two mats, and 
sometimes buried in the house of the nearest relatives, the head being 
always turned towards the east. In other cases, it is stored away in 
the loft. When the flesh is nearly gone, the skull is taken off, carefully 
cleaned, oiled, and put away. The skulls of their ancestors are kept by 
chiefs as a kind of household deity, to which they frequently offer up 
prayers and entreaties, to have a regard and to keep watchful care 
over their descendants. The skulls are not unfrequently taken down, 
bound around with wreaths, anointed with oil, and have food set before 
them. In passing from one island to another, these skulls are always 
carried along, as if members of the family, and treated with every 
mark of reverence. 
The funeral ceremonies on Makin, according to Wood, are still 
more extraordinary; but we have no good reason to doubt the facts, 
as they seem to be somewhat allied to those above related. After the 
first ceremonies of wailing, the body is washed and laid out upon a 
new mat, which is spread on a large oblong plate, made of several 
tortoise-shells sewed together. From two to six persons, according 
to the size of the corpse, seat themselves opposite to one another on 
