POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
621 
Under the influence of these causes, in the course of a 
few weeks the muscles dried up, and the whole body 
appeared as if covered with a kind of parchment. It 
was then clothed, and fixed in a sitting posture; a small 
altar was erected before it, and offerings of fruit, food, 
and flowers, daily presented by the relatives, or the 
priest appointed to attend the body. In this state it 
was preserved many months, and when it decayed, the 
skull was carefully kept by the family, while the other 
bones, &c. were buried within the precincts of the family 
temple. 
It is singular that the practice of preserving the bodies 
of their dead by the process of embalming, which has 
been thought to indicate a high degree of civilization, 
and which was carried to such perfection by one of the 
most celebrated nations of antiquity, some thousand 
years ago, should be found to prevail among this people. 
It is also practised by other distant nations of the Pacific, 
and on some of the coasts washed by its waters. 
In commencing the process of embalming, and placing 
the body on the bier, another priest was employed, who 
was called the tahua hiire tiapapau, literally ^^corpse-pray¬ 
ing priest.’’ His office was singular: when the house for 
the dead had been erected, and the corpse placed upon 
the platform or bier, the priest ordered a hole to be dug 
in the earth or floor, near the foot of the platform. Over 
this he prayed to the god, by whom it was supposed the 
spirit of the deceased had been required. The purport 
of his prayer was, that all the dead man’s sins, and 
especially that for which his soul had been called to the 
po, might be deposited there, that they might not attach 
in any degree to the survivors, and that the anger of the 
god might be appeased. 
3 X 
