SINGULAR FUNERAL PROCESSION. 413 
cut, ground down to the required thickness, po¬ 
lished, and perforated, without iron tools, before a 
single line could be fixed upon the head-dress, 
required a degree of patience that is surprising. 
The manufacture was regarded as a sacred work; 
emblems of intercourse with the gods were re¬ 
quired to be placed in front of the parae when it 
was made. 
This part covered the breast of the wearer; a 
succession of pieces of black and yellow cloth 
fastened to the pearl-shell netting, surrounded the 
body, and reached sometimes to the loins, to the 
knees, or even to the ankles. The beautiful 
mother-of-pearl shell net-work was fringed with 
feathers; a large bunch of man-of-war-bird’s 
plumage was fixed at each end of the board, and 
two elegantly shaped oro-oro feather tassels, hang¬ 
ing from each end, were attached to the light 
board by cords, also covered with feathers. 
In one hand the heva carried a paeho, a terrific 
weapon, about five feet long, one end rounded for 
a handle, the other broad and flat, and in shape 
not unlike a short scythe. The point was orna¬ 
mented with a tuft of feathers, and the inner or 
concave side armed with a line of large, strong, 
sharks’ teeth, fixed in the wood by the fibres of the 
tough ieie. In the other hand he held a tete or 
kind of clapper, formed with a large and a smaller 
pearl-oyster shell, beautifully polished. 
The man thus arrayed led the procession, which 
came from the valley, whither, as if under the 
paroxysm of grief, the party had retired at the 
death of the person for whom this was used, and 
continued, as he walked along, to strike or jingle 
the shells against each other, to give notice of his 
approach. He was attended by a number of men 
