THROUGH HAWAII. 361 
morning, take medicine, and then walk all day as if 
nothing were the matter with them.” 
We were desirous of witnessing the interment of the 
person who died last night, but were disappointed; it 
was, as most of their funerals are, performed in secret. 
A few particulars, relative to their mode of burying,' 
we have been able to gather from the people of this 
place and other parts of the island. The bones of the 
legs and arms, and sometimes the skull, of their kings 
and principal chiefs, those who were supposed to have 
descended from the gods, or were to be deified, were 
usually preserved, as already noticed. The other 
parts of the body were burnt or buried, while these 
bones were either bound up with cinet, wrapped in 
cloth, and deposited in temples for adoration, or dis¬ 
tributed among the immediate relatives, who, during 
their lives, always carried them wherever they went. 
This was the case with the bones of Tamehameha; 
and it is probable that some of his bones were brought 
by his son Rihoriho on his recent visit to England, as 
they supposed that so long as the bones of the deceased 
were revered, his spirit would accompany them, and 
exercise a supernatural guardianship over them. 
They did not wash the bodies of the dead, as was 
the practice with some of the South Sea Islanders. 
The bodies of priests, and chiefs of inferior rank, were 
laid out straight, wrapped in many folds of native tapa, 
and buried in that posture; the priests generally within 
the precincts of the temple in which they had officiated. 
A pile of stones, or a circle of high poles, surrounded 
their grave, and marked the place of their interment. 
It was only the bodies of priests, or persons of some 
importance, that were thus buried. The common people 
3 A 
