pow, the mourning is
renewed. The women assemble, and are led to the door by the nearest
relation, who strikes a shark's tooth several times into the crown of
her head: The blood copiously follows, and is carefully received upon
pieces of linen, which are thrown under the bier. The rest of the women
follow this example, and the ceremony is repeated at the interval of two
or three days, as long as the zeal and sorrow of the parties hold out.
The tears also which are shed upon these occasions, are received upon
pieces of cloth, and offered as oblations to the dead: Some of the
younger people cut off their hair, and that is thrown under the bier
with the other offerings. This custom is founded upon a notion that the
soul of the deceased, which they believe to exist in a separate state,
is hovering about the place where the body is deposited; that it
observes the actions of the survivors, and is gratified by such
testimonies of their affection and grief.

Two or three days after these ceremonies have been commenced by the
women, during which the men seem to be wholly insensible of their loss,
they also begin to perform their part. The nearest relations take it in
turn to assume the dress, and perform the office which have already been
particularly described in the account of Tubourai Tamaide's having acted
as chief mourner to an old woman, his relation, who died while we were
in the island. One part of the ceremony, however, which accounts for the
running away of the people as soon as this procession is in sight, has
not been mentioned. The chief mourner carries in his hand a long flat
stick, the edge of which is set with shark's teeth, and in a phrenzy,
which his grief is supposed to have inspired, he runs at all he sees,
and if any of them happen to be overtaken, he strikes them most
unmercifully with this indented cudgel, which cannot fail to wound them
in a dangerous manner.

These processions continue at certain intervals for five moons, but are
less and less frequent, by a gradual diminution, as the end of that time
approaches. When it is expired, what remains of the body is taken down
from the bier, and the bones having been scraped and washed very clean,
are buried, according to the rank of the person, either within or
without a morai: If the deceased was an earee, or chief, his skull is
not buried with the rest of the bones, but is wrapped up in fine cloth,
and put in a kind of box made for that purpose, which is