400 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
wreaths and garlands of the most odoriferous 
flowers. The body was also placed on a kind of 
bed of green fragrant leaves, which were also 
strewed over the floor of the dwellings During: 
the period which elapsed between the death and 
interment of the body, the relatives and surviving 
friends sat round the corpse, indulging in melan¬ 
choly sadness, giving vent to their grief in loud 
and continued lamentations, often accompanied 
with the use of the shark’s tooth ; which they em¬ 
ployed in cutting their temples, faces, and breasts, 
till they were covered with blood from their self- 
inflicted wounds. The bodies were frequently 
committed to the grave in deep silence, unbroken 
excepting by occasional lamentations of those who 
attended. But on some occasions, the father deli¬ 
vered an affecting and pathetic oration at the 
funeral of his son. 
The bodies of the dead, among the chiefs, were, 
however, in general preserved above ground : a 
temporary house or shed was erected for them, 
and they were placed on a kind of bier. The 
practice of embalming appears to have been long 
familiar to them; and the length of time which 
the body was thus preserved, depended altogether 
upon the costliness and care with which the pro¬ 
cess was performed. The methods employed were 
at all times remarkably simple: sometimes the 
moisture of the body was removed by pressing the 
different parts, drying it in the sun, and anointing 
it with fragrant oils. At other times, the intes¬ 
tines, brain, &c. were removed; all moisture was 
extracted from the body, which was fixed in a 
sitting position during the day, and exposed to 
the sun, and, when placed horizontally, at night 
was frequently turned over, that it might not remain 
