worship
and receptacles for the dead." Compare J. R. Forster,
_Observations_, p. 545, "To ornament the _marais_ and to honour
by it the gods and the decayed buried there, the inhabitants
plant several sorts of trees near them."

[165] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 271.

[166] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 405. Elsewhere (p.
401), speaking of the Tahitian burial customs, Ellis observes
that "the skull was carefully kept in the family, while the
other bones, etc., were buried within the precincts of the
family temple."

[167] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 470. As to the Tahitian
custom of burying the dead in the _marais_, see also C. E.
Meinicke, _Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans_, ii. 183 _sq._,
according to whom only the bodies of persons of high rank were
interred in these sanctuaries.

In the Marquesas islands the _morais_ appear to have been also used
occasionally or even regularly as burial-places. Langsdorff, one of our
earliest authorities on these islands, speaks of a _morai_ simply as a
place of burial.[168] He tells us that the mummified bodies of the dead
were deposited on scaffolds in the _morai_ or family burial-place, and
that the people of neighbouring but hostile districts used to try to
steal each other's dead from the _morais_, and deemed it a great triumph
when they succeeded in the attempt. To defeat such attempts, when the
inhabitants of a district expected to be attacked in force by their
enemies, they were wont to remove their dead from the _morai_ and bury
them in the neighbourhood.[169] Again, in their monograph on the
Marquesas islands, the French writers Vincendon-Dumoulin and Desgraz
recognise only the mortuary aspect of the _morais_. They say: "The
_morais_, funeral monuments where the bodies are deposited, are set up
on a platform of stone, which is the base of all Nukahivan
constructions. They are to be found scattered in the whole extent of the
valleys; no particular condition seems to be required in the choice of
the site. Near the shore of Taiohae is the _morai_ which contains the
remains of a brother of the _atepeiou Patini_, an uncle of Moana, who
died some years ago, as they tell us."[170]

[168] G. H. von Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 115.

[169] G. H. von Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 134.

[170] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _Iles Marquises ou
Nouka-hiva_ (Paris, 1843), p. 253.

Thu