ittle to be looked for among savages as among ourselves.

[Sidenote: Mummification of the corpse.]

When the body had remained a few days on the stage in the open air,
steps were taken to convert it into a mummy. For this purpose it was
laid in a small canoe manned by some young people of the same sex as the
deceased. They paddled it across the lagoon to the reef and there rubbed
off the skin, extracted the bowels from the abdomen and the brain from
the skull, and having sewed up the hole in the abdomen and thrown the
bowels into the sea, they brought the remains back to land and lashed
them to the wooden framework with string, while they fixed a small stick
to the lower jaw to keep it from drooping. The framework with its
ghastly burden was fastened vertically to two posts behind the house,
where it was concealed from public view by a screen of coco-nut leaves.
Holes were pricked with an arrow between the fingers and toes to allow
the juices of decomposition to escape, and a fire was kindled and kept
burning under the stage to dry up the body.[304]

[Sidenote: Garb of mourners. Cuttings for the dead.]

About ten days after the death a feast of bananas, yams, and germinating
coco-nuts was partaken of by the relations and friends, and portions
were distributed to the assembled company, who carried them home in
baskets. It was on this occasion that kinsfolk and friends assumed the
garb of mourners. Their faces and bodies were smeared with a mixture of
greyish earth and water: the ashes of a wood fire were strewn on their
heads; and fringes of sago leaves were fastened on their arms and legs.
A widow wore besides a special petticoat made of the inner bark of the
fig-tree; the ends of it were passed between her legs and tucked up
before and behind. She had to leave her hair unshorn during the whole
period of her widowhood; and in time it grew into a huge mop of a light
yellow colour in consequence of the ashes with which it was smeared.
This coating of ashes, as well as the grey paint on her face and body,
she was expected to renew from time to time.[305] It was also on the
occasion of this feast, on or about the tenth day after death, that
young kinsfolk of the deceased had certain patterns cut in their flesh
by a sharp shell. The persons so operated on were young adults of both
sexes nearly related to the dead man or woman. Women generally operated
on women and men on men. The patients were held down during the
operati