e blood flows in streams,
and thrust spears into the inner part of the thigh, into their sides
below the arms-pits, and through the cheeks into the mouth. All these
operations convey an idea of such rigorous discipline, as must require
either an uncommon degree of affection, or the grossest superstition, to
exact. I will not say, that the last has no share in it; for sometimes
it is so universal, that many could not have any knowledge of the person
for whom the concern is expressed. Thus we saw the people of Tongataboo
mourning the death of a chief at Vavaoo; and other similar instances
occurred during our stay. It should be observed, however, that the more
painful operations are only practised on account of the death of those
most nearly connected with the mourners.[186] When a person dies, he is
buried, after being wrapped up in mats and cloth, much after our manner.
The chiefs seem to have the _fiatookas_ appropriated to them as their
burial-places; but the common people are interred in no particular spot.
What part of the mourning ceremony follows immediately after, is
uncertain; but that there is something besides the general one, which is
continued for a considerable length of time, we could infer, from being
informed, that the funeral of Mareewagee's wife, as mentioned before,
was to be attended with ceremonies that were to last five days, and in
which all the principal people were to commemorate her.

[Footnote 185: How the inhabitants of the Caroline Islands express their
grief on such occasions, may be seen, _ibid_. tom. xv. p. 308.--D.]

[Footnote 186: The practice of wounding the body on the death of
friends, appears to have existed in ancient times, and among different
people. Moses forbids it to the Israelites, in Levit. xix. 28. "Ye shall
not make _any cutting in your flesh_ for the dead, nor print any mark
upon you." So in Deut. xiv. 1.; and Parkhurst, in his Heb. Lexicon,
commenting on the passage in Deuteronomy, says, the word rendered _to
cut_, is of more general signification, including "all assaults on their
own persons from immoderate grief, such as beating the breasts, tearing
the hair, &c. which were commonly practised by the heathen, who have no
hope of a resurrection." He instances in the Iliad xix, line 284, in the
Eneid iv, line 673, the case of the Egyptians mentioned by Herodotus, Q.
85, and several other passages in different writers. It would be easy to
find out similar examples in the ac