EMBALMING. 
401 
long on the same side. The inside was then filled 
with cloth saturated with perfumed oils, which were 
also injected into other parts of the body, and care¬ 
fully rubbed over the outside every day. This, 
together with the heat of the sun, and the dryness 
of the atmosphere, favoured the preservation of 
the body. 
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, were 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 per¬ 
fection by one of the most celebrated nations of 
antiquity, some thousand years ago, should be 
found to prevail among this people. It is also prac¬ 
tised 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 bure tiapa- 
pau, literally “ corpse-praying priest.” His office 
was singular: when the house for the dead had 
been erected, and the corpse placed upon the plat¬ 
form or bier, the priest ordered a hole to be dug in 
the earth or floor, near the foot of the platform. 
