400 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
wreaths and garlands of the most odoriferous 
flowers. The body was also placed on a kind of 
bed of green fragrant leaves, which were also 
strewed over the floor of the dwelling. During 
the period which elapsed between the death and 
interment of the body, the relatives and surviving 
friends sat round the corpse, indulging in melan¬ 
choly sadness, giving vent to their grief in loud 
and continued lamentations, often accompanied 
with the use of the shark’s tooth; which they em¬ 
ployed in cutting their temples, faces, and breasts, 
till they were covered with blood from their self- 
inflicted wounds. The bodies were frequently 
committed to the grave in deep silence, unbroken 
excepting by occasional lamentations of those who 
attended. But on some occasions, the father deli¬ 
vered an affecting and pathetic oration at the 
funeral of his son. 
The bodies of the dead, among the chiefs, were, 
however, in general preserved above ground : a 
temporary house or shed was erected for them, 
and they were placed on a kind of bier. The 
practice of embalming appears to have been long 
familiar to them; and the length of time which 
the body was thus preserved, depended altogether 
upon the costliness and care with which the pro¬ 
cess was performed. The methods employed were 
at all times remarkably simple: sometimes the 
moisture of the body was removed by pressing the 
different parts, drying it in the sun, and anointing 
it with fragrant oils. At other times, the intes¬ 
tines, brain, &e. were removed; all moisture was 
extracted from the body, which was fixed in a 
sitting position during the day, and exposed to 
the sun, and, when placed horizontally, at night 
was frequently turned over, that it might not remain 
