THROUGH HAWAII. 
169 
the house where the corpse was lying, they began to 
lament and wail. The crowds of mourners around the 
house opened a passage for them to approach it, and 
then one or two of their number came forward, and 
standing a little before the rest, began a song or recita¬ 
tion, shewing her birth, rank, honours, and virtues, 
brandishing a staff or piece of sugar-cane, and accom¬ 
panying their recitation with attitudes and gestures 
expressive of the most frantic grief. When they had 
finished, they sat down, and mingled with the throng¬ 
ing multitudes in their loud and ceaseless wailing. 
Though these ceremonies were so popular, and almost 
universal on the decease of their chiefs, they do not 
appear to have been practised by the common people 
among themselves. The wife did not knock out her 
teeth on the death of her husband, nor the son his, 
when he lost his father or mother, neither did parents 
thus express their grief when bereaved of an only 
child Sometimes they cut their hair, but in general 
only indulged in lamentations and weeping for several 
days. 
Anxious to make ourselves - acquainted with their 
reasons for these practices, we have frequently con¬ 
versed with the natives respecting them. The former, 
such as polling the hair, knocking out the teeth, tatau- 
ing the tongue, &c. they say is designed to shew the 
loss they have sustained, and perpetually to remind 
them of their departed friends. Kamehamaru , queen 
of Rihoriho, who died on her recent visit to England, 
gave me a fine answer to this effect, on the occasion of 
the death of Keopuolani, her husband’s mother. A few 
days after the interment, I went into a house where a 
number of chiefs were assembled, for the purpose of 
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