porter's journal. 



123 



bored through shells and other hard substances, and gave 

 the proprietors of them a hog each for the use of a nail a 

 few hours. 



Their coffins are dug out of a solid piece of white woody 

 in the manner of a trough ; the size is just sufficient to 

 cram the body in, and it is polished and otherwise finished 

 in a style which proves they pay a great respect to the re- 

 mains of their friends. When a person dies, the body is 

 deposited in a coffin, and a stage erected, either in a house 

 vacated for the purpose, in which the coffin is placed, or a 

 small house of sufficient size to contain the coffin is built 

 in front of a tabbooedhouse, on the platform of stones, in 

 which the coffin is deposited. The former is practised 

 with the corpse of women, the latter with those of men; 

 guardians are appointed to sleep near and protect them. 

 When the flesh is mouldered from the bones, they are, as 

 I have been informed, carefully cleansed : some are kept 

 for relics, and some are deposited in the morais. 



Their fans, of which they are very careful, are made 

 with surprising neatness, and consist of a curious piece 

 of mat work, o^ a semi-circular form, attached to a han- 

 dle, generally representing four figures of their gods, two 

 above and two below, squatting back to back. The fans 

 are made of a stiff kind of grass, or perhaps the palmetto 

 leaf, and the handles either of sandal wood, toa, ivory, or 

 human bones, neatly carved into figures of their gods. 

 These fans are held in high estimation, and they take much 

 pains in preserving them clean, whitening them from time 

 to time with chalk, or some other similar substance. This 

 appendage to their dress, I am informed, is common to all 

 the islands of the groups of Marquesas and Washingtpn ^ 

 indeed we saw several at Rooahoogah. 



Mr. Fleurien, in his narrative of the voyage of Captain 

 Marchand, gives the following description of the fans seen 

 by that navigator while at St. Christiana : " Among their 

 ornaments, we may likewise reckon large fans, formed of 

 the fibres of some plaited bark or coarse grass, which they 

 frequently whiten with lime, and which they make use of 

 to cool themselves ; and parasols made of large palm leaves, 

 which they adorn with feathers of different sizes and vari- 

 ous colours." (Page 156, vol. i.) 



This description is badly calculated to give a correct 



