410 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
sidered deficient in respect for the deceased, and 
also as insulting to his family. The acts of vio¬ 
lence committed, they added, were the effects of 
the paroxysms of their sorrow, which made them 
neneva , or insensible. They continued till their 
grief was ua maha , or satisfied, which often was 
not the case till they had received several severe 
blows upon the tender part above mentioned. 
The females on these occasions sometimes put 
on a kind of short apron of a particular sort of 
cloth, which they held up with one hand, while 
they cut themselves with the other. In this apron 
they caught the blood that flowed from the grief- 
inflicted wounds, until it was almost saturated. It 
was then dried in the sun, and given to the nearest 
surviving relations as a proof of the affection of the 
donor, and was preserved by the bereaved family 
as a token of the estimation in which the departed 
had been held. 
Had the otohaa been confined to instances of 
death, or seasons of great calamity, it would not 
have appeared so strange, as it does in connexion 
with the fact, that it was practised on other occa¬ 
sions, when feelings the most opposite to those of 
calamity were induced. In its milder form, it was 
an expression of joy, as well as of grief; and when 
a husband or a son returned to his family, after a 
season of absence, or exposure to danger, his 
arrival was greeted, not only with the cordial wel¬ 
come, and the warm embrace, but loud wailing was 
uttered, and the instrument armed with shark's 
teeth applied, in proportion to the joy experienced. 
The early visitors, and the first Missionaries, 
were much surprised at this strange and contra¬ 
dictory usage; and, in answer to their inquiries, 
were informed, that it was the custom of Tahiti. 
