THE PELEW ISLANDS, 
Mr. M. Wilson followed the body to the place of in¬ 
terment ; he ohferved an elderly woman getting out of the 
new-made grave, whom he conceived might be the mother, 
or fome near relation, whom affection had drawn to the me¬ 
lancholy fcene, to be fatisfied that every thing was duly pre¬ 
pared.—When the corpfe was laid in the earth, the lamenta¬ 
tion of the women attending was very great.—It appeared, 
on this occallon, as well as at the funeral of Raa Kook’s 
fon? that no men, but thofe who conveyed the body, were 
prefent; thefe laft fad offices were left to the tendernefs of 
the weaker fex: the men only aflembled round the body, 
before it was carried to the grave, where they preferved a fo¬ 
ie mil ffience; their minds, from principles of fortitude or 
philofophy, being armed to meet the events of mortality 
with manly fubmiffion, divefted from the external tefti- 
mony of human weaknefs. 
They had places appropriated to fepulture. Their graves 
were made as ours are in country church-yards; having the 
mould raifed up in a ridge, over where the body was depo- 
fited.—Some had ftones raifed above them, with a flat one 
i 
laid horizontally over, and furrounded by a kind of hurdle- 
work, to prevent any one from treading over them. 
T t 2 
THEIR 
