178 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
many depredations as the Sandwich Islanders. 
They have, however, one very delicate method of 
preserving the recollection of the dead, which the 
latter do not appear to employ; that is, of having 
a small portion of the hair of the deceased passed 
through a perforation in one of their ears, in¬ 
geniously braided in the form of an ear-ring, and 
worn sometimes for life. 
But the Sandwich Islanders have another cus¬ 
tom, almost peculiar to themselves, viz. singing at 
the death of their chiefs, something in the manner 
of the ancient Peruvians. I have been peculiarly 
affected more than once on witnessing this cere¬ 
mony. 
A day or two after the decease of Keeaumoku, 
governor of Maui, and the elder brother of Kua- 
kini, governor of Hawaii, I was sitting with the 
surviving relatives, who were weeping around the 
couch on which the corpse was lying, when a 
middle-aged woman came in at the other end of 
the large house, and, having proceeded about half 
way towards the spot where the body lay, began 
to sing in a plaintive tone, accompanying her song 
with affecting gesticulations, such as wringing her 
hands, grasping her hair, and beating her breasts* 
I wrote down her monody as she repeated it. She 
described, in a feeling manner, the benevolence of 
the deceased, and her own consequent loss. One 
passage was as follows :— 
Ue, ue, ua mate tuu Arii, Alas, alas, dead is my chief, 
Ua mate tuu hatu e tuu hoa, Dead is my lord and my 
friend; 
Tuu hoa i ta wa o ta wi, My friend in the season of 
famine, 
Tuu hoa i paa ta aina, My friend in the time of 
drought, 
Tuu hoa i tuu-ilihune, My friend in my poverty, 
