POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
5^5 
sustained when the natives first embraced Christianity^ 
with regard to the burial of those who died at a 
distance from the Missionary station. The heat of the 
climate was such as often to render it necessary to inter 
them on the day of their decease^ or on that which fol- 
lowed^ and they had not time to send for a native teacher. 
To obviate this^ a prayer suitable to be offered up at the 
time of interment was written^ and distributed among 
the natives^ for the use of those who resided at a distance. 
This appeared not only according to Christian propriety^ 
but necessary^ from any latent influence of the former 
superstitions^ which might lurk in the minds of those 
who^ though they renounced idolatry^ were but very par¬ 
tially instructed in many points of Christian doctrine. 
At the Missionary stations^ the corpse has seldom 
been brought to the place of worship. We in general 
repair to the house^ and, offering up a prayer with the 
family, accompany the procession to the place of inter¬ 
ment ; our practice, however, in this respect is not uni¬ 
form, but is regulated by circumstances. 
On reaching the burying - ground, we stand by the 
side of the grave, which is usually about six feet deep, 
and when the cof&n is lowered down, address the friends 
of the deceased, and the spectators, and conclude the 
service with a short prayer. 
At first they believed that the deceased must be in 
some degree benefited by this service; and that such 
should occasionally have been their ideas, is by no means 
surprising, when we consider the mass of delusion from 
which they had been so recently delivered. This, how¬ 
ever, rendered it necessary for us to be more explicit in 
impressing upon their minds, that the state of the dead 
was unalterably fixed, and that our own benefit alone 
