eased, unless he happened to be one of the highest
chiefs. However, the severed joints were often sent by poor people to
wealthy families in mourning, who never failed to reward the senders for
so delicate a mark of sympathy. Female mourners burned their skin into
blisters by applying lighted rolls of bark-cloth to various parts of
their bodies; the brands so produced might be seen on their arms,
shoulders, necks, and breasts.[724] During the mourning for a king
people fasted till evening for ten or twenty days; the coast for miles
was tabooed and no one might fish there; the nuts also were made sacred.
Some people in token of grief for a bereavement would abstain from fish,
fruit, or other pleasant food for months together; others would dress in
leaves instead of in cloth.[725]

[Sidenote: Men whipped by women in time of mourning for a chief.]

Though the motive for these observances is not mentioned, we may suppose
that they were intended to soothe and please the ghost by testifying to
the sorrow felt by the survivors at his decease. It is more doubtful
whether the same explanation would apply to another custom which the
Fijians used to observe in mourning. During ten days after a death,
while the soul of a deceased chief was thought to be still lingering in
or near his body, all the women of the town provided themselves with
long whips, knotted with shells, and applied them with great vigour to
the bodies of the men, raising weals and inflicting bloody wounds, while
the men retorted by flirting pellets of clay from splinters of
bamboo.[726] According to Mr. Williams, this ceremony was performed on
the tenth day or earlier, and he adds: "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."[727] As the soul of the dead was
believed to quit his body and depart to his destined abode on the tenth
day after death,[728] the scourging of the men by the women was probably
supposed in some way to speed the parting guest on his long journey.

[Sidenote: The dead taken out of the house by a special opening made in
a wall. Examples of the custom among Aryan peoples.]

When a certain king of Fiji died, the side of the house was broken down
to allow the body to be carried out, though there were doorways