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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
The priest next addressed the corpse^ usually sayingy 
Eti ia oe na te hara e vai ai, With you let the guilt now 
remain.'’ The pillar or post of the corpse^ as it was called^ 
was then planted in the hole^ perhaps designed as a per¬ 
sonification of the deceased^ to exist after his body 
should have decayed—the earth was thrown over, as 
they supposed, the guilt of the departed—and the hple 
filled up. 
At the conclusion of this part of the curious rite, the 
priest proceeded to the side of the corpse, and, taking a 
number of small slips of the fa maia, plantain leaf-stalk, 
fixed two or three pieces under each arm, placed a few 
on the breast, and then addressing the dead body, said. 
There are your family, there is your child, there is your 
wife, there is your father, and there is your mother. Be 
satisfied yonder, (that is, in the world of spirits.) Look 
not towards those who are left in this world.—^The con¬ 
cluding parts of the ceremony were designed to impart 
contentment to the departed, and to prevent the spirit 
from repairing to the places of his former resort, and so 
distressing the survivors. 
This was considered a most important ceremony, being 
a kind of mass for the dead, and necessary for the peace 
of the living, as well as the quiet of the deceased. It 
was seldom omitted by any who could procure the accus¬ 
tomed fees for the priest, which for this service were 
generally furnished in pigs and cloth, in proportion to 
the rank or possessions of the family. 
All who were employed in embalming, which they 
called muri, were, during the process, carefully avoided 
by every person, as the guilt of the crime for which the 
deceased had died, was supposed in some degree to 
attach to such as touched the body. They did not feed 
