SELF-INFLICTIONS FOR THE DEAD. 409 
reaching the place, joined in the infuriated conduct 
of the bereaved; the tenantry of the chiefs also 
came, and, giving themselves up to all the savage 
infatuation which the conduct of their associates or 
the influence of their superstitions inspired, they 
not only tore their hair, and lacerated their bodies 
till they were covered with blood, but often fought 
with clubs and stones till murder followed. 
Auna has now some dreadful indentations on 
his skull from blows he received by stones on one 
of these occasions at Huahine ; and in almost one 
of the last otohaa observed in the same island, a 
man was killed by the contents of the musket of 
another. Since the introduction of fire-arms, they 
have been used in these seasons; and the smoke 
and report of the guns must have added to the din 
and terrible confusion of the scene. I cannot 
conceive of a spectacle more appalling, than that 
which the infuriated rabble, smeared with their 
own blood, presenting every frightful distortion in 
feature, and frantic madness in action, must often 
have exhibited. This scene was sometimes con¬ 
tinued for two or three successive days, or longer, 
on the death of a person of distinction. 
I have often conversed with the people on their 
reasons for this strange procedure, and have asked 
them if it was not exceedingly painful to them to 
cut themselves as they were accustomed to do. 
They have always answered that it was very painful 
in some parts of the face—that the upper lip, or 
the space between the upper lip and the nostril, 
was the most tender, and a stroke there was always 
attended with the greatest pain—that it was their 
custom, and therefore considered indispensable, as it 
was designed to express the depth of their sorrow— 
that any one who should not do so, would be con- 
