m fighting and thrashing the ghosts afresh. Repairing at
last with united forces to the place where the corpse was laid out in
state, the brave ghost-killers were there entertained at a feast, after
which all, except the near relatives, returned to their various homes at
nightfall. So similar to actual warfare was this custom of fighting the
ghosts that it went by the name of "a younger brother of war."[51]
Apparently every death was attributed to the action of ghosts who had
carried off the soul of the departed brother or sister; and in order to
prevent a repetition of the catastrophe it was deemed necessary to repel
or even to slay the ghostly assailants by force of arms.

[51] W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, pp.
268 _sq._

The mourning ceremonies lasted from ten to fifteen days according to the
rank and age of the deceased. During the whole period no beating of bark
for the manufacture of the native cloth was permitted in the district
where the death had occurred. A woman who wished to beat out her
bark-cloth must go to another part of the island. This rule is said to
have been dictated by a fear of offending the female demon Mueu, who
introduced the beating of bark-cloth into the world, but who herself
beats out cloth of a very different texture; for her cloth-flail is the
stroke of death.[52]

[52] W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, p.
182.

Some months after the decease of a person of note funeral games called
_eva_ were performed in honour of the departed. These ceremonies
invariably took place by day. They were of four sorts.

First, there was the _eva tapara_, or "funeral dirge." In this the
mourners appeared with blackened faces, shaved heads, streaming blood,
and stinking garments. This, we are told, was a most repulsive
exhibition.[53]

[53] W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, p.
271.

Second, there was the _eva puruki_ or "war dirge." In this the people
arrayed themselves in two columns facing each other, both sides armed
with spears made of a brittle kind of wood instead of the fatal
iron-wood (_Casuarina equasitifolia_), out of which the spears used in
real warfare were made. The performance began with an animated
conversation between the leaders of the two squadrons of supposed
enemies as to the grounds for war. When this was concluded, the person
most nearly related to the deceased began the history of the heroic