e points pierced through
the cheeks into the mouth, the other ends went over the shoulder and
were kept in position by another arrow, the point of which was tied to
the ends of the arrows passing over one shoulder, while the other end
was tied to the ends of the other arrows which passed over the other
shoulder. Thus each fisherman was decorated with a triangle of arrows,
of which the apex consisted of six arrow-heads in his mouth, while the
base dangled on his back. With this remarkable equipment they walked
round the grave, beating their faces and heads with their paddles, or
pinching up the skin of the breast and sticking a spear right through
it.[211]

[208] Mariner defines a _malai_ as "a piece of ground, generally
before a large house, or chief's grave, where public ceremonies
are principally held" (_Tonga Islands_, vol. ii., "Vocabulary"
_s.v._). It is the same word as _malae_ or _marae_, noticed
above, p. 116, note^3.

[209] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 379-384.

[210] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ i. 440-442.

[211] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 404 _sq._

The grave of a chief's family was a vault paved with a single large
stone, while the four walls were formed each of a single block. The
vault was about eight feet long, six feet broad, and eight feet deep,
and was covered at the top by one large stone.[212] So heavy was this
covering stone that, as we have seen, from a hundred and fifty to two
hundred men were required to lift and lower it.[213] Mariner estimated
that the family vault in which King Finow was interred was large enough
to hold thirty bodies. When the king's corpse was being deposited in it,
Mariner saw two dry and perfectly preserved bodies lying in the vault,
together with the bones of several others; and he was told by old men
that the well-preserved bodies had been buried when they, his
informants, were boys, which must have been upwards of forty years
before; whereas the bodies of which nothing but the bones remained had
been buried later. The natives attributed the exceptional preservation
of the two to the better constitution of their former owners; Mariner,
or more probably his editor, Dr. Martin, preferred to suppose that the
difference was due to the kind or duration of the disease which had
carried them off. Apparently the natives did not suggest that the bodies
had been embalmed, which they would almost certainly have done if they
had known of such