reason assigned for this
custom, according to Ella, was to keep away evil spirits. Even common
people observed a similar custom. After burial they kept a fire blazing
in the house all night, and they were careful to clear the intervening
ground so that a stream of light went forth from the house to the grave.
The account which the Samoans gave of the custom, according to Turner,
was that it was merely a light burning in honour of the departed, and a
mark of their tender regard for him. Dr. George Brown believed that the
original motive for the custom was to warm the ghost, and probably at
the same time to protect the mourners against dangerous spirits.[163]

[160] G. Turner, _Samoa_, p. 146

[161] J. B. Stair, _Old Samoa_, pp. 183 _sq._

[162] W. T. Pritchard, _Polynesian Reminiscences_, pp.
149 _sq._; S. Ella, _op. cit._ p. 642; G. Brown, _Melanesians
and Polynesians_, pp. 403 _sq._

[163] G. Turner, _Samoa_, p. 149; S. Ella, _op. cit._
pp. 640 _sq._; G. Brown, _Melanesians and Polynesians_, p. 402.

The head was deemed a very sacred part, and in olden days the bodies of
chiefs were often buried near their houses until decomposition had set
in, when the head was cut off and interred in some family burying-place
inland, to save it from insult in time of war. This interment of the
head was accompanied with feasts, dances, and sham-fights. The skull was
borne to the appointed place on a kind of stage, attended by a troop of
armed men. With these sham-fights Dr. George Brown, who records the
custom, compares the sham-fights which used to take place among the
Melanesians of the Duke of York Island when the body of a chief was laid
on a high platform in front of his house, one company of warriors
striving to deposit the corpse on the platform, while their adversaries
attempted to prevent them from doing so.[164] The meaning of these
curious sham-fights is obscure. Perhaps the attacking party represented
a band of evil spirits, who endeavoured to snatch away the chief's
body, but were defeated in the nefarious attempt.

[164] G. Brown, _Melanesians and Polynesians_, pp. 388
_sq._, 404 _sq._

One or two families of chiefs in the island of Upolu used to practise a
rude kind of embalming. The work was done exclusively by women. The
viscera having been removed and buried, the women anointed the body
daily with a mixture of oil and aromatic juices. To let the fluids
escape, they punctur