een held.[188] Some of the younger
mourners used also to cut off their hair and throw it under the bier
with the other offerings.[189] When the deceased was a child, the
parents, in addition to other tokens of grief, used to cut their hair
short on one part of their heads, leaving the rest long; sometimes they
shaved a square patch on the forehead; sometimes they left the hair on
the forehead and cut off all the rest; at other times they removed all
the hair but a lock over one or both ears; or again they would clip
close one half of the head, while on the other half the tresses were
suffered to grow long; and these signs of mourning might be continued
for two or three years.[190]

[187] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 135, 218; J. R. Forster,
_Observations made during a Voyage round the World_, p. 560.

[188] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 410.

[189] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 218; J. R. Forster, _Observations
made during a Voyage round the World_, p. 560.

[190] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 352 _sq._

Captain Cook tells us that the custom observed by mourners of offering
their own blood, tears, and hair to their departed relative or friend
"is founded upon a notion that the soul of the deceased, which they
believe to exist in a separate state, is hovering about the place where
the body is deposited: that it observes the actions of the survivors,
and is gratified by such testimonies of their affection and grief."[191]
This explanation, in perfect harmony with the vigilance, vanity, and
jealousy commonly ascribed to ghosts, is in all probability correct. Yet
it deserves to be noticed that the custom of voluntarily hacking the
body with shark's teeth to the effusion of blood was singularly enough
practised by the Society Islanders on occasions of joy as well as of
sorrow. When a husband or a son returned to his family after a season of
absence or exposure to danger, his arrival was greeted, not only with
the cordial welcome and the warm embrace, but with loud wailing, while
the happy wife or mother cut her body with shark's teeth, and the
gladder she was the more she gashed herself.[192] Similarly many savage
peoples weep over long-absent friends, or even over strangers, as a
polite form of greeting in which genuine sorrow can hardly be supposed
to play a part.[193] It is difficult to see how such observances can be
based on superstition; apparently the emotion of joy may express itself
in very different ways in d