244 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
or some other relative, sat on the other, through 
the day; and when overcome with fatigue and 
watching, falling asleep in the same station at 
night; yet I never heard the least murmur or 
repining word against the dealings of God. It 
was but the excess of sorrow, on account of the 
bereavement. Two months afterwards she became 
a mother; and, during our continuance on the 
island, Mrs. Ellis was considered as the guardian 
of her infant daughter. Since our departure, the 
child has been trained, by its mother, according 
to the direction of Mrs. BarfF, and will probably 
succeed to the government of the island at its 
grandfather’s death. 
Mahine, the pious and venerable chief, still lives 
to be an ornament to the Christian religion, a 
nursing father to the infant churches established 
in his country, and the greatest blessing to the 
people whom he governs. His daughter-in-law, 
who it was hoped would have supplied to him the 
place of his departed son, has been removed by 
death, and disappointed those hopes. The orphan 
princess, an interesting and amiable child, is 
under the Christian guardianship of Maihara, the 
daughter of the king of Raiatea, and sister to the 
nominal queen of the island. 
Many barbarous ceremonies attended pagan 
interment, but, since the abolition of idolatry, the 
1 rites and usages of Christian burial, as far as they 
seemed desirable, or the circumstances of the 
people would admit, have been introduced, and 
are generally observed. At each of the Missionary 
stations, a piece of ground near the sea-shore, and 
at some distance from the houses, has been devoted 
by the government to the purposes of interment, 
and all who die near are buried there. 
