PART XII.SAVAGE DEATH AND BURIAL.

Burying Alive in Figi.PART XII.SAVAGE DEATH AND BURIAL.

Burying Alive in Figi.

Killing to cheat death—Preparing the king’s “grave grass”—The tomb and its living tenant—Figian mourning symbols—Murder of sick Figians—“Pray don’t bury me!”—The ominous cat clawing—The sacrifice of fingers—The token of the bloody apron—The art of embalming—The sin-hole—Ceremonies at King Finow’s funeral—Heroic appeals to the departed king—The scene at the sepulchre—The journey of the sand bearers—The Mée too Buggi—Devotion of Finow’s fishermen—The Sandwich Islanders’ badge of mourning—Putting the tongue in black—A melancholy procession—The house of Keave—The pahio tabu.

It by no means follows that a disrespect for human life is synonomous with a personal indifference to death. To whatever savage land we turn—to the banks of the Mosquito, where lives the barbarous Sambo Indian; to the deserts of Africa, the abodeof the Griqua and Damara; to the shores of solitary lakes far away in Northern America—we find a horror of death, or rather of the work of death’s hands, singularly incompatible with the recklessness of life observable in the countries named.

No country on the face of the earth, however, can vie in the matter of death and burial ceremonials with Figi. Here it would seem at first sight that fear of death was unknown, so much so that parents will consent to be clubbed to death by their children, and mothers murder and with their own hands bury their children—where even the grave has so few terrors that people will go down alive into it. It may, however, be worth considering whether this apparent trifling with life may not have for its source dread of the grim reaper in such blind and ignorant excess as to lead tokillingto save fromdying—to cheat death in fact, and enable the cunning cannibal to slink out of the world unmissed and unquestioned as to the errors of his life. This may seem the wildest theory; but it should be borne in mind that in Figi, as in many other barbarous countries, it is believed that all that is evil of a man lives after him, and unless necessary precautions are adopted, remains to torment his relations; it is not improbable, therefore, that these latter, if not the ailing one himself, may favour this death-cheating system.

As regards burying alive, this at least may be said in favour of the Figians: they are no respecters of persons. The grey hairs of the monarch are no more respected than those of the poorest beggar in his realm. Indeed, according to the testimony of an eye-witness—Mr. Thomas Williams—the king is more likely to be sent quick to the grave than any one else. Here is an instance:—

“On my first going to Somosomo, I entertained a hope that the old king would be allowed to die a natural death, although such an event would be without precedent. The usage of the land had been to intimate that the king’s death was near by cleaning round about the house, after which, his eldest son when bathing with his father took a favourable opportunity, and dispatched him with his club.

“I visited him on the 21st, and was surprised to find him much better than he had been two days before. On being told, therefore, on the 24th that the king was dead, and that preparations were being made for his interment, I could scarcely credit the report. The ominous wordpreparingurged me to hasten without delay to the scene of action, but my utmost speed failed to bring me to Nasima—the king’s house—in time.The moment I entered it was evident that as far as concerned two of the women I was too late to save their lives. The effect of that scene was overwhelming. Scores of deliberate murderers in the very act surrounded me: yet there was no confusion, and, except a word from him who presided, no voice—only an unearthly, horrid stillness. Nature seemed to lend her aid and to deepen the dread effect; there was not a breath stirring in the air, and the half subdued light in that hall of death showed every object with unusual distinctness.

“All sat on the floor; the middle figure of each group being held in a sitting posture by several females, and hidden by a large veil. On either side of each veiled figure was a company of eight or ten strong men, one company hauling against the other on a white cord which was passed twice round the neck of the doomed one, who thus in a few minutes ceased to live. As my self command was returning to me the group furthest from me began to move; the men slackened their hold and the attendant women removed the large covering, making it into a couch for the victim.... One of the victims was a stout woman and some of the executioners jocosely invited those who sat near to have pity and help them. At length the women said ‘she is cold.’ The fatal cord fell and as the covering was raised I saw dead the oldest wife and unwearied attendant of the old king.”

These victims are used topave the king’s grave. They are calledgrass, and when they are arranged in a row at the bottom of the sepulchre the king’s corpse is couched on them. It is only, however, great chiefs who demand so extensive a human couch; a dignitary of minor importance is content with two bodies as his grave floor: sometimes a man and a woman, sometimes two women. If an important personage dies it is considered intolerable if his confidential man—his bosom friend and adviser—should object to accompany his master asgrass. It is very common, too, when a great man dies in Figi to strangle and bury with him an able bodied man, who takes with him his club to protect the exalted one from the malicious attacks of his enemies in the land of spirits. For the same purpose a bran new and well oiled club is placed in the dead hand of the chief himself. To return, however, to the dead king of Somosomo and Mr. Williams’ narrative:

“Leaving the women to adjust the hair of the victims, to oil their bodies, cover their faces with vermilion, and adorn them with flowers, I passed on to see the remains of the deceased Tnithaken. To my astonishmentI found himalive. He was weak but quite conscious, and whenever he coughed placed his hand on his side as though in pain. Yet his chief wife and a male attendant were covering him with a thick coat of black powder, and tying round his arms and legs a number of white scarfs, fastened in rosettes with the long ends hanging down his sides. His head was turbaned in a scarlet handkerchief secured by a chaplet of small white cowries, and he wore armlets of the same shells. On his neck was the ivory necklace formed in long curved points. To complete his royal attire according to the Figian idea, he had on a very large newmasi, the train being wrapped in a number of loose folds at his feet. No one seemed to display real grief, which gave way to show and ceremonies. The whole tragedy had an air of cruel mockery. It was a masquerading of grim death—a decking as for a dance bodies which were meant for the grave.

“I approached the young king whom I could not regard without abhorrence. He seemed greatly moved and embraced me before I could speak. ‘See,’ said he, ‘the father of us two is dead! His spirit is gone. You see his body move, but that it does unconsciously.’” Knowing that it would be useless to argue the point the missionary ceased to care about the father, but begged of the young king that no more victims might be sacrificed, and after some little show of obstinacy gained his point.

Preparations were then made for conveying the still living man to the grave. The bodies of the women—the gravegrass—were fastened to mats and carried on biers; they were carried behind the king, whose stirring body was not brought out at the door of the house, but the wall being knocked down he was carried through that way (Mr. Williams is unable to account for this singular proceeding). The funeral procession moved down to the sea-side and embarked in a canoe which was silently paddled to the sepulchre of Figian royalty. Here arrived, the grave was found ready dug, the murderedgrasswas packed at the bottom, and after the king’s ornaments were taken off him he too was lowered into the hole, covered with cloth and mats and then with earth, and “was heard to cough after a considerable quantity of soil had been thrown into the grave.”

Although this is an end to the body, many other ceremonies remain for performance. The most ordinary way to express sorrow for the dead in Figi is toshave—the process being regulated according to the affinity ofthe mourner to deceased. Fathers and sons will shave their heads and cheeks as bare as pumpkins; nephews and cousins shave merely the summit of the cranium. Among the women, however, the mourning customs are much more horrible and lasting in effect. Some burn fantastic devices on their bodies with hot irons, while others submit to have their fingers chopped off. On the occasion of the royal death and burial above narrated, “orders were issued that one hundred fingers should be cut off; but only sixty were amputated, one woman losing her life in consequence. The fingers being each inserted in a slit reed were stuck along the eaves of the king’s house.”

“Mourning Suit of Leaves.”

Among the various modes of expressing grief among the Figians, Mr. Williams records that of lying out night after night along the grave of a friend; allowing the great mop of hair to go untouched for months; abstinence from oiling the body (a tremendous mortification); and the wearing garments of leaves instead of cloth. These practices, however, are optional; others there are that are imperative, and among them one almost unmentionable from its loathsome character. The ceremony is calledVathavidiulo, or “jumping of worms,” and consists of the relatives of deceased assembling the fourth day after the burial, and minutely discussingthe present condition of the body of the departed. The next night, however, is not passed in so doleful a manner; for then takes place theVakadredre, or “causing to laugh,” when the most uproarious fun is indulged in for the purpose of enabling the mourners to forget their grief. On the death of a man high in station, a ludicrous custom is observed, says Williams:—“About the tenth day, or earlier, the women arm themselves with cords, switches, and whips, and fall upon any men below the highest chiefs, plying their whips unsparingly. I have seen grave personages, not accustomed to move quickly, flying with all possible speed before a company of such women. Sometimes the men retaliate by bespattering their assailants with mud; but they use no violence, as it seems to be a day on which they are bound to succumb.”

It will be easily understood that since so little respect is paid to the lives of kings and great warriors, bloodshed and barbarous murder are rife enough among the poorer classes. And there can be no doubt that, although the various frightful customs peculiar to the Figians have their foundation, and are still upheld as a rule in a purely religious spirit, extensive advantage is taken of the same in furthering mercenary and spiteful ends. The brother of a dead Figian of considerable means, might, for instance, find it convenient to persuade the widows—the heirs to the property—to show their devotedness by consenting to be strangled and buried with their husband, that he may, as next of kin, take immediate possession of the goods and chattels, etc. Where the dead man was poor, his relatives would probably rather be at the pains to convince the widow of her duty than at the expense of maintaining her.

The murder of the sick among the Figians is regarded as a simple and proper course, and one that need not be observed with anything like secrecy. A fellow missionary of the Rev. Mr. Williams found a woman in Somosomo who was in a very abject state through the protracted absence of her husband. For five weeks, although two women lived in the same house, she lay uncared for, and was reduced to a mere skeleton, but being provided with food and medicine from the mission-house, began to get well. One morning, as an attendant was carrying the sick woman’s breakfast, he was met and told by her relations that he could take the food back—the woman was buried. The man then related to the missionaries that while he was at the sick house the previous day, an old woman came in, and addressing the patient, said, “I came to see my friend, and inquire whether she was ready to be strangled yet; but asshe is strong we will let her he a while.” It would seem, however, that in the course of an hour or so the woman’s barbarous nurses saw fit to alter their plans.

This is not the only instance of the kind quoted by travellers familiar with the manners and customs of the Figians. Take the following:—“Ratu Varam (a chief) spoke of one among many whom he had caused to be buried alive. She had been weakly for a long time, and the chief, thinking she was likely to remain so, had a grave dug. The curiosity of the poor girl was excited by loud exclamations, as though something extraordinary had happened, and on stepping out of the house she was seized and thrown into the grave. In vain she shrieked with horror, and cried out, ‘Do not bury me! I am quite well now!’ Two men kept her down by standing on her, while others threw the earth in upon her until she was heard no more.”

If a Figian ceases to exist, towards the evening a sort of wake is observed. Parties of young men sit and “watch” the body, at the same time chaunting the most melancholy dirges. Early the next morning the preparations for the funeral and the funeral feast commence. Two go to dig the grave, others paint and dress the body, while others prepare the oven, and attend to culinary matters. The two grave diggers seated opposite each other make three feints with their digging sticks, which are then stuck into the earth, and a grave rarely more than three feet deep is prepared. Either the grave-diggers or some one near repeat twice the words “Figi Tonga.” The earth first thrown up is laid apart from the rest. When the grave is finished mats are laid at the bottom, and the body or bodies, wrapped in other mats or native cloths, are placed thereon, the edges of the mats folding over all; the earth is then thrown in. Many yards of the man’smasiare often left out of the grave and carried in festoons over the branches of a neighbouring tree. The sextons go away forthwith and wash themselves, using during their ablution the leaves of certain shrubs for purification, after which they return and share the food which has been prepared for them. Mr. Williams further relates that a respectable burial is invariably provided for the very poorest of the community, and that he has repeatedly seen poor wretches unable to procure a decent mat to lie on while alive, provided with five or six new ones to lie on in the grave. Moreover, the fact of a person dying far out at sea, or even being killed in battle with a distant tribe, whose horrid maws have provided him a sepulchre, does not diminish the responsibilityof his relations in the matter of his funeral obsequies. Thekoloku, as the after-death ceremonies are named, takes place just as if the man had died at home, and the desire to make sacrifice is even more imperative. For instance, a bold and handsome Figian chief, named Ra Nibittu, was drowned at sea. As soon as the doleful news reached the land, seventeen of his wives were straightway strangled, and their bodies used as grass in a grave dedicated to the dead Ra Nibittu. Again, after the news of the massacre of the Namena people at Vicca in 1839, eighty women were strangled to accompany the spirits of their murdered husbands.

In Figi, as in England, the popular superstition concerning the midnight howling of a dog is prevalent, and thought to betoken death. A cat purring and rubbing against the legs of a Figian is regarded just as ominously. If, where a woman is buried, the marks of cat scratchings are found on the soil, it is thought certain evidence that while in life the woman was unchaste. Should a warrior fail after repeated efforts to bring his complexion by aid of various pigments to the orthodox standard of jetty blackness, he regards himself, and is regarded by others, as a doomed man, and of course the more he frets and fumes about the matter, the more he perspires, and the less chance he has of making the paint stick.

A proper winding up of this string of curious horrors connected with Figian death and burial, will be the Figian doctrine of the universal spread of death, as furnished to Mr. Williams, from whom it is only justice once more to remark these particulars are chiefly derived. “When the first man, the father of the human race was being buried, a god passed by this first grave and enquired what it meant. On being informed by those standing by that they had just buried their father, he said, ‘Do not inter him; dig the body up again.’—‘No,’ was the reply, ‘we cannot do that; he has been dead four days, and is unfit to be seen.’—‘Not so,’ said the god, ‘disinter him, and I promise you he shall live again.’ Heedless, however, of the promise of the god, these original sextons persisted in leaving their father’s remains in the earth. Perceiving their perverseness, the god said, ‘By refusing compliance with my demands, you have sealed your own destinies. Had you dug up your ancestor, you would have found him alive, and yourselves also as you passed from this world, should have been buried, as bananas are, for the space of four days, after which you should have been dug up, not rotten, but ripe. But now, as a punishment for your disobedience, you shall die and rot.’—‘Ah!’ say theFigians, after tearing this legend recounted, ‘Ah! if those children had dug up that body!’”

On this and many adjacent islands, cutting off a portion of the little finger as a sacrifice to the gods for the recovery of a superior sick relation is very commonly done; indeed there is scarcely a person living at Tonga but who has lost one or both or a considerable portion of both little fingers. Those who can have but few superior relations, such as those near akin to Tooitonga, or the king, or Veachi, have some chance of escaping, if their relations are tolerably healthy. It does not appear that the operation is painful. Mr. Mariner records that he has witnessed more than once little children quarrelling for the honour (or rather out of bravado) of having it done. The finger is laid flat upon a block of wood, a knife, axe, or sharp stone is placed with the edge upon the line of the proposed separation, and a powerful blow given with a mallet or large stone, the operation is finished. From the nature and violence of the action the wound seldom bleeds much. The stump is then held in the smoke and steam arising from the combustion of fresh plucked grass; this stops any flow of blood. The wound is not washed for two days; afterwards it is kept clean, and heals in about two or three weeks without any application whatever. One joint is generally taken off, but some will have a smaller portion, to admit of the operation being performed several times on the same finger, in case a man has many superior relations.

In certain islands of the Polynesian group there was observed at the approaching dissolution of a man of any importance a rite terribly fantastic and cruel. As soon as the dying man’s relatives were made acquainted with the impending calamity, they straightway and deliberately proceeded to act the part of raving mad men. “Not only,” says Ellis, “did they wail in the loudest and most affecting manner, but they tore their hair, rent their garments, and cut themselves with knives or with shark’s teeth in the most shocking manner. The instrument usually employed was a small cane about four inches long, with five or six shark’s teeth fixed in on opposite sides. With one of these instruments every female provided herself after marriage, and on occasions of death it was unsparingly used.

“With some this was not sufficient: they prepared a sharp instrument, something like a plumber’s mallet, about five or six inches long, rounded at one end for a handle, and armed with two or three rows of shark’s teeth fixed in the wood at the other. With this, on the death of a relativeor friend, they cut themselves unmercifully, striking the head, temples, cheeks, and breast, till the blood flowed profusely from the wounds. At the same time they uttered the most deafening and agonizing cries; and the distortion of their countenances, their torn and dishevelled air, the mingled tears and blood that covered their bodies, their wild gestures and unruly conduct, often gave them a frightful and almost inhuman appearance. I have often conversed with these people on their reasons for this strange procedure, and have asked them if it was not exceeding painful to cut themselves as they were accustomed to do. They have always answered that it was very painful in some parts of the face, that the upper lip or the space between the upper lip and the nostrils was the most tender, and a stroke there was always attended with the greatest pain.... The females on these occasions sometimes put on a kind of short apron of a particular sort of cloth, which they held up with one hand, while they cut themselves with the other. In this apron they caught the blood that flowed from these grief-inflicted wounds until it was almost saturated. It was then dried in the sun and given to the nearest surviving relations, as a proof of the affection of the donor, and was preserved by the bereaved family as a token of the estimation in which the departed had been held.

“I am not prepared to say that the same enormities were practised here as in the Sandwich Islands at these times, but on the death of a king or principal chief, the scenes exhibited in and around the house were in appearance demoniacal. The relatives and members of the household began; the other chiefs of the island and their relatives came to sympathize with the survivors, and on reaching the place joined in the infuriated conduct of the bereaved. The tenantry of the chiefs came also, and giving themselves to all the savage infatuation which the conduct of their associates, or the influence of their superstitious belief inspired, they not only tore their hair and lacerated their bodies till they were covered with blood, but often fought with clubs and stones till murder followed.”

As soon as an individual of the islands above alluded to died, a ceremony known as “tahna tertera” was performed, with a view of discovering the cause of death. In order to effect this the priest took his canoe, and paddled slowly along on the sea near the house where the body was lying, to watch the passage of the spirit, which they supposed would fly upon him with the emblem of the cause for which the person died. If he had been cursed by the gods, the spirit would appear with a flame,fire being the agent employed in the incantations of the sorcerers; if killed by the bribe of some enemy given to the gods, the spirit would appear with a red feather, an emblem signifying that evil spirits had entered his food. After a short time the tahna or priest returned to the house of the deceased, and told the survivors the cause of his death, and received his fee, the amount of which was regulated by the circumstances of the parties. To avert mischief from the dead man’s relations, the priest now performed certain secret ceremonies, and in a day or two he again made his appearance with a cheerful countenance, to assure them that they need no longer go in fear, received another fee, and took his departure.

The bodies of the chiefs and persons of rank and affluence were embalmed. The art of embalming, generally thought to indicate a high degree of civilization, appears to have been known and practised among the Polynesians from a very remote period, and however simple the process, it was thoroughly successful. The intestines, brain, etc., were removed, and the body fixed in a sitting posture, and exposed to the direct rays of the sun. The inside was, after a while, filled with shreds of native cloth, saturated with perfumed oil, with which the exterior was plentifully and vigorously anointed. This, together with the heat of the sun and the dryness of the atmosphere, favoured the preservation of the body.

Under the influence of these causes, in the course of a few weeks the muscles were dried up, and the whole body appeared as if covered with a kind of parchment. It was then clothed, and fixed in a sitting posture; a small altar was erected before it, and offerings of fruit, food, and flowers daily presented by the relatives or the priest appointed to attend the body. In this state it was kept many months, when the body was buried, and the skull preserved by the family.

In commencing the process of embalming, and placing the body on the bier, another priest was employed, who was called thetahna lure tiapapau, or “corpse-praying priest.” His office was singular. When the house for the dead had been erected, and the corpse placed upon the bier, the priest ordered a hole to be dug near the foot of it. Over this hole the priest prayed to the god by whom it was supposed the spirit of the deceased had been required. The purport of his prayer was, that all the dead man’s sins, and especially that for which his soul had been called away, might be deposited there; that they might not attach in any degree to the survivors; and that the anger of the god might be appeased. Afterthe prayer, the priest, addressing the deceased, exclaimed, “With you let the guilt now remain.” Then a pillar of wood was planted in the “sin-hole,” and the earth filled in. Then the priest, taking a number of small slips of plantain leaf-stalk, approached the body, and laid some under the arms, and strewed some on the breast, saying, “There are your family; there are your children, there is your wife, there is your father, and there is your mother. Be contented in the world of spirits. Look not towards those you have left in the world.” And—or so thought the benighted creatures among whom this singular rite was performed—the dead man’s spirit being hoodwinked into the belief that the chief of his relations were no longer inhabitants of the world, ceased to trouble itself further about mundane affairs, and never appeared in ghostly shape at the midnight couches of living men.

All who were employed in the embalming, which was calledmuri, were during the process carefully avoided by every person, as the guilt of the crime for which the deceased had died was supposed in some degree to attach to such as touched the body. They did not feed themselves, lest the food defiled by the touch of their polluted hands should cause their death, but were fed by others. As soon as the ceremony of depositing the sin in the hole was over, all who had touched the dead man or his garments fled precipitately into the sea, where for a long time they bathed, and came away leaving their contaminated clothes behind them. At the conclusion of their ablutions they dived, and brought from the sea-bed some bits of coral. Bearing these in their hands, their first journey was to the sin-hole of the defunct, at which the bits of coral were cast, with the adjuration, “With you may all pollution be!”

On the death of Finow, King of Tonga, Mr. Mariner informs us, the chiefs and grand company invited to take part in his funeral obsequies, seated themselves, habited in mats, waiting for the body of the deceased king to be brought forth. The mourners (who are always women), consisting of the female relations, widows, mistresses, and servants of the deceased, and such other females of some rank who chose out of respect to officiate on such an occasion, were assembled in the house and seated round the corpse, which still lay out on the blades of gnatoo. They were all habited in large old ragged mats—the more ragged the more fit for the occasion, as being more emblematical of a spirit broken down, or, as it were, torn to pieces by grief. Their appearance was calculated to excite pity and sorrow in the heart of anyone, whether accustomed or not to sucha scene; their eyes were swollen with the last night’s frequent flood of grief, and still weeping genuine tears of regret; the upper part of their cheeks perfectly black, and swollen so that they could hardly see, with the constant blows they had inflicted on themselves with their fists.

Among the chiefs and matabooles who were seated on the marly, all those who were particularly attached to the late king or to his cause evinced their sorrow by a conduct usual indeed among these people at the death of a relation, or of a great chief (unless it be that of Tooitonga, or any of his family), but which to us may well appear barbarous in the extreme; that is to say, the custom of cutting and wounding themselves with clubs, stones, knives, or sharp shells; one at a time, or two or three together, running into the middle of the circle formed by the spectators to give these proofs of their extreme sorrow for the death, and great respect for the memory of their departed friend.

The sentiments expressed by these victims of popular superstition were to the following purpose. “Finow, I know well your mind; you have departed to Bolotoo, and left your people under suspicion that I or some of those about you are unfaithful; but where is the proof of infidelity? where is a single instance of disrespect?” Then inflicting violent blows and deep cuts in the head with a club, stone, or knife, would again exclaim at intervals, “Is this not a proof of my fidelity? does this not evince loyalty and attachment to the memory of the departed warrior?” Then perhaps two or three would run on and endeavour to seize the same club, saying with a furious tone of voice, “Behold the land is torn with strife, it is smitten to pieces, it is split by revolts; how my blood boils; let us haste and die! I no longer wish to live: your death, Finow, shall be mine. But why did I wish hitherto to live? it was for you alone; it was in your service and defence only that I wished to breathe; but now, alas! the country is ruined. Peace and happiness are at an end; your death has insured ours: henceforth war and destruction alone can prosper.” These speeches were accompanied with a wild and frantic agitation of the body, whilst the parties cut and bruised their heads every two or three words with the knife or club they held in their hands. Others, somewhat more calm and moderate in their grief, would parade up and down with rather a wild and agitated step, spinning and whirling the club about, striking themselves with the edge of it two or three times violently upon the top or back of the head, and then suddenly stopping and looking stedfastly at the instrument spattered with blood, exclaim,“Alas! my club, who could have said that you would have done this kind office for me, and have enabled me thus to evince a testimony of my respect for Finow? Never, no never, can you again tear open the brains of his enemies. Alas! what a great and mighty warrior has fallen! Oh, Finow, cease to suspect my loyalty; be convinced of my fidelity! But what absurdity am I talking! if I had appeared treacherous in your sight, I should have met the fate of those numerous warriors who have fallen victims to your just revenge. But do not think, Finow, that I reproach you; no, I wish only to convince you of my innocence, for who that has thoughts of harming his chiefs shall grow white headed like me (an expression used by some of the old men). O cruel gods to deprive us of our father, of our only hope, for whom alone we wished to live. We have indeed other chiefs, but they are only chiefs in rank, and not like you, alas! great and mighty in war.”

Such were their sentiments and conduct on this mournful occasion. Some, more violent than others, cut their heads to the skull with such strong and frequent blows, that they caused themselves to reel, producing afterwards a temporary loss of reason. It is difficult to say to what length this extravagance would have been carried, particularly by one old man, if the prince had not ordered Mr. Mariner to go up and take away the club from him, as well as two others that were engaged at the same time. It is customary on such occasions, when a man takes a club from another, to use it himself in the same way about his own head; but Mr. Mariner, being a foreigner, was not expected to do this; he therefore went up and, after some hesitation and struggle, secured the clubs one after another, and returned with them to his seat, when, after a while, they were taken by others, who used them in like manner.

After these savage expressions of sorrow had been continued for nearly three hours, the prince gave orders that the body of his father should be taken to Felletoa to be buried. In the first place, a bale of gnatoo was put on a kind of hurdle, and the body laid on the bale; the prince then ordered that, as his father was the first who introduced guns in the wars of Tonga, the two carronades should be loaded and fired twice before the procession set out, and twice after it had passed out of the marly; he gave directions also that the body of Finow’s daughter, lately deceased, should be taken out in the model of a canoe, and carried after the body of her father; that during his life, as he wished always to have her body in his neighbourhood, she might now at length be buried with him.

Matters being thus arranged, Mr. Mariner loaded the guns and fired four times with blank cartridge. The procession then went forward, and in the course of two hours arrived at Felletoa, where the body was laid in a house on the marly at some distance from the grave, till another and smaller house could be brought close to it; and this was done in course of an hour. The post being taken up, the four pieces which compose the building (a kind of shed in a pyramidal form, the eaves reaching within four feet of the ground) were brought by a sufficient number of men, and put together at the place where it was wanted. This being done, the body was brought on the same hurdle or hand-barrow to the newly-erected building (if it may be so termed); and then being taken off the hurdle, it was laid within, on the bale of gnatoo, and the house was hung round with black gnatoo, reaching from the eaves to the ground.

The women, who were all assembled and seated round the body, began a most dismal lamentation. In the mean time a number of people, whose business it is to prepare graves, were digging the place of interment under the direction of a mataboole, whose office is to superintend such affairs. Having dug about ten feet, they came to the large stone covering a vault; a rope was fastened double round one end of the stone, which always remains a little raised for the purpose, and was raised by the main strength of 150 or 200 men, pulling at the two ends of the rope towards the opposite edge of the grave till it was brought up on end. The body being oiled with sandal-wood oil, and then wrapped in mats, was handed down on a large bale of gnatoo into the grave; the bale of gnatoo was then, as is customary, taken by the before-mentioned mataboole as his perquisite. Next, the body of his daughter, in the model of a canoe, was let down in like manner, and placed by his side. The great stone was then lowered down with a loud shout. Immediately certain matabooles and warriors ran like men frantic round about the place of sepulture, exclaiming, “Alas! how great is our loss! Finow, you are departed: witness this proof of our love and loyalty!” At the same time they cut and bruised their own heads with clubs, knives, axes, etc.

The whole company now formed themselves into a single line, the women first, and afterwards the men, but without any particular order as to rank, and proceeded towards the back of the island for the purpose of getting a quantity of sand in small baskets.

They sang loudly the whole way, as a signal to all who might be in the road or adjacent fields to hide themselves as quickly as possible, for it issacrilegious for any body to be seen abroad by the procession during this part of the ceremony; and if any man had unfortunately made his appearance, he would undoubtedly have been pursued by one of the party, and soon dispatched with the club. So strictly is this attended to, that nobody in Mr. Mariner’s time recollected a breach of a law so well known. Even if a common man was to be buried, and Finow himself was to be upon the road, or in the neighbourhood of the procession whilst going to get sand at the back of the island, he would immediately hide himself; not that they would knock out the king’s brains on such an occasion, but it would be thought sacrilegious and unlucky, the gods of Bolotoo being supposed to be present at the time. The chiefs are particularly careful not to infringe upon sacred laws, lest they should set an example of disobedience to the people. The song on this occasion, which is very short, is sung first by the men and then by the women, and so on alternately; and intimates (though Mr. Mariner has forgotten the exact words) that thefala(which is the name of this part of the ceremony) is coming, and that every body must get out of the way.

When they arrived at the back of the island, where anybody may be present, they proceeded to make a small basket of the leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, holding about two quarts, and to fill it with sand; this being done, each of the men carried two upon a stick across the shoulder, one at each end: while the women only carried one, pressed in general against the left hip, or rather upon it, by the hand of the same side, and supported by the hand of the opposite side, brought backwards across the loins, which they consider the easiest mode for women to carry small burdens; they then proceeded back the same way, and with ceremony, to the grave. By this time the grave above the vault was nearly filled with the earth lately dug out, the remaining small space being left to be filled by the sand, which is always more than enough for the purpose. It is considered a great embellishment to a grave to have it thus covered, and is thought to appear very well from a distance, where the mound of clean sand may be seen; besides which it is the custom, and nobody can explain the reason why—which is the case with several of their customs. This being done, all the baskets in which the sand was brought, as well as the remaining quantity of earth not used in filling up the grave, are thrown into the hole out of which the earth was originally dug. During the whole of this time the company was seated, still clothed in mats, and their necks strung with the leaves of the ifi tree; after this they arose and went to their respectivehabitations, where they shaved their heads, and burnt their cheeks with a small lighted roll of tápa, by applying it once upon each cheek bone; after which, the place was rubbed with the astringent berry of the matchi, which occasioned it to bleed, and with the blood they smeared about the wound in a circular form, to about two inches in diameter, giving themselves a very unseemly appearance.

They repeat this friction with the berry every day, making the wound bleed afresh; and the men in the meantime neglect to shave and to oil themselves during the day: they do it, however, at night, for the comfort which this operation affords. After having, in the first place, burnt their cheeks and shaved their heads, they built for themselves small temporary huts for their own accommodation during the time of mourning, which lasts twenty days. Early in the morning of the twentieth day, all the relations of the deceased chief, together with those who formed his household, and also the women who were tabooed by having touched his dead body whilst oiling and preparing it, went to the back of the island (without any particular order or ceremony) to procure a number of flat pebbles, principally white, but a few black, for which they made baskets on the spot to carry them in, as before mentioned, when they went to procure sand. With these they returned to the grave, strewed inside of the house with the white ones, as also the outside, as a decoration to it; the black pebbles they strewed only upon the white ones which covered the ground directly over the body. After this the house over the tomb was closed up at both ends with a reed fencing, reaching from the eaves to the ground; and at the front and back with a sort of basket-work made of the young branches of the cocoa-nut tree, split and interwoven in a very curious and ornamental way, which remains till the next burial, when they are taken down, and after the conclusion of the ceremony new ones are put up in like manner. A large quantity of provisions was now sent to the marly by the chiefs of the different districts of the island, ready prepared and cooked, as also a considerable quantity prepared by Finow’s own household: among these provisions was a good supply of cava root. After the chiefs, matabooles, and others were assembled, the provisions and cava were served out in the usual way. During this time no speech was made, nor did any particular occurrence take place. The company afterwards repaired each to his respective house, and got ready for a grand wrestling-match and entertainment of dancing the Mée too Buggi (literally, “the dance, standing up with paddles”).

Funeral Obsequies of King Finow.

During the intervals of the dances, several matabooles, warriors, and others, indulged in bruising and cutting their heads with clubs, axes, etc., as proofs of their fidelity to the late chief; among them two boys, one about twelve, the other about fourteen years of age (sons of matabooles), made themselves very conspicuous in this kind of self-infliction; the youngest in particular, whose father was killed in the service of the late chief, dining the great revolution at Tonga, after having given his head two or three hard knocks, ran up to the grave in a fit of enthusiasm, and dashing his club with all his force to the ground, exclaimed, “Finow! why should I attempt thus to express my love and fidelity towards you? My wish is that the gods of Bolotoo permit me to live long enough to prove my fidelity to your son.” He then again raised his club, and running about bruised and cut his little head in so many places, thathe was covered with streams of blood. This demonstration on the part of the young hero was thought very highly of by every one present, though, according to custom, nothing at that time was said in his praise; agreeable to their maxim, that praise raises a man’s opinions of his own merit too high, and fills him with self-conceit. The late Finow’s fishermen now advanced forward to show their love for their deceased master in the usual way, though instead of a club or axe, each bore the paddle of a canoe, with which they beat and bruised their heads at intervals, making similar exclamations to those so often related. In one respect, however, they were somewhat singular, that is, in having three arrows stuck through each cheek in a slanting direction, so that while their points came quite through the cheek into the mouth, the other ends went over their shoulders, and were kept in that situation by another arrow, the point of which was tied to the ends of the arrows passing over one shoulder, and the other end to those of the arrows passing over the other shoulder, so as to form a triangle; and with this horrible equipment they walked round the grave, beating their heads and faces as before stated with the paddles, or pinching up the skin of the breast and sticking a spear quite through: all this to show their love and affection for the deceased chief.

After these exhibitions of cruelty were over, this day’s ceremony (which altogether lasted about six hours) was finished by a grand wrestling match, which being ended, every one retired to his respective house or occupation; and thus terminated the ceremony of burying the King of the Tonga Islands.

The Sandwich Islanders observe a number of singular ceremonies on the death of their kings and chiefs, and have been till very recently accustomed to make these events occasions for the practice of almost every enormity and vice.

“The people here,” writes Mr. Mariner, “had followed only one fashion in cutting their hair, but we have seen it polled in every imaginable form; sometimes a small round place only is made bald just on the crown, which causes them to look like Romish priests; at other times the whole head is shaved or cropped close, except round the edge, where, for about half an inch in breadth, the hair hangs down its usual length. Some make their heads bald on one side, and leave the hair twelve or eighteen inches long on the other. Occasionally they cut out a patch in the shape of a horse*-shoe, either behind or above the forehead; and sometimes we have seen a number of curved furrows cut from ear to ear, or from the forehead to theneck. When a chief who had lost a relative or friend had his own hair cut after any particular pattern, his followers and dependants usually imitated it in cutting theirs. Not to cut or shave off the hair indicates want of respect towards the deceased and the surviving friends; but to have it cut close in any form is enough. Each one usually follows his own taste, which produces the endless variety in which this ornamental appendage of the head is worn by the natives during a season of mourning.

“Another custom, almost as universal on these occasions, was that of knocking out some of the front teeth, practised by both sexes, though perhaps most extensively by the men. When a chief died, those most anxious to show their respect for him or his family, would be the first to knock out with a stone one of their front teeth. The chiefs related to the deceased, or on terms of friendship with him, were expected thus to exhibit their attachment; and when they had done so, their attendants and tenants felt themselves, by the influence of custom, obliged to follow their example. Sometimes a man broke out his own tooth with a stone; more frequently, however, it was done by another, who fixed one end of a piece of stick or hard wood against the tooth, and struck the other end with a stone till it was broken off. When any of the men deferred this operation, the women often performed it for them while they were asleep. More than one tooth was seldom destroyed at one time; but the mutilation being repeated on the decease of every chief of rank or authority, there are few men to be seen who had arrived at maturity before the introduction of Christianity to the islands with an entire set of teeth; and many by this custom have lost the front teeth on both the upper and lower jaw, which, aside from other inconveniences, causes a great defect in their speech. Some, however, have dared to be singular, and though they must have seen many deaths, have parted with but few of their teeth.

“Cutting one or both ears was formerly practised on these occasions, but as we never saw more than one or two old men thus disfigured, the custom appears to have been discontinued.

“Another badge of mourning, assumed principally by the chiefs, is that of tatooing a black spot or line on the tongue, in the same manner as other parts of their bodies are tatooed.

“The Sandwich islanders have also another custom 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 ceremony.

“A day or two after the decease of Keeaumoku, governor of Maui, and the elder brother of Kuakina, 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:—

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