n the deceased. If some enemy had
bribed the gods to kill him, the spirit would come with a red feather,
as a sign that evil spirits had entered into his food. After a short
time the diviner returned to the house, announced the cause of death to
the survivors, and received his fee, the amount of which was regulated
by the circumstances of the family. After that a priest was employed to
perform ceremonies and recite prayers for the purpose of averting
destruction from the surviving members of the family; but the nature of
the ceremonies has not been recorded.[184]

[184] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 398 _sq._

When it was manifest that death was approaching, the relatives and
friends, who had gathered round the sufferer, broke into loud
lamentations and other demonstrations of sorrow, which redoubled in
violence as soon as the spirit had departed. Then they not only wailed
in the loudest and most affecting tone, but tore out their hair, rent
their garments, and cut themselves with shark's teeth or knives in a
shocking manner. The instrument usually employed was a small cane, about
four inches long, with five or six teeth fixed into it on opposite
sides. Struck forcibly into the head, these instruments wounded it like
a lancet, so that the blood poured down in copious streams. Every woman
at marriage provided herself with one of these implements and used it
unsparingly on herself on the occasion of a death in the family. Some
people, not content with this instrument of torture, provided themselves
with a sort of mallet armed with two or three rows of shark's teeth; and
with this formidable weapon, on the demise of a relative or friend, they
hammered themselves unmercifully, striking their skulls, temples,
cheeks, and breast, till the blood flowed profusely from the wounds. At
the same time they uttered the most deafening and agonising cries; and
what with their frantic gestures, the distortion of their countenances,
their torn and dishevelled hair, and the mingled tears and blood that
trickled down their bodies, they presented altogether a horrible
spectacle. This self-inflicted cruelty was practised chiefly by women,
but not by them alone; for the men on these occasions committed the like
enormities, and not only cut themselves, but came armed with clubs and
other deadly weapons, which they sometimes plied freely on the bodies of
other people. These dismal scenes began with the nearest relatives of
the deceased, but they