ifferent races.

[191] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 218 _sq._

[192] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 410; J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp.
196, 362.

[193] See _Folk-lore in the Old Testament_, ii. 82 _sqq._

The natives stood in great fear of the spirits of the dead, which were
supposed to haunt the places of their former abode and to visit the
habitations of men, but seldom on errands of mercy or benevolence. They
woke the survivors from their slumbers by squeaking noises to upbraid
them with their past wickedness or to reproach them with the neglect of
some ceremony, for which the ghosts were compelled to suffer. Thus the
people imagined that they lived in a world of spirits, which surrounded
them night and day, watching every action of their lives and ready to
revenge the smallest slight or the least disobedience to their
injunctions, as these were proclaimed to the living by the priests.
Convulsions and hysterics, for example, were ascribed to the action of
spirits, which seized the sufferer, scratched his face, tore his hair,
or otherwise maltreated him.[194]

[194] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 406.

This fear of the spirits of the dead induced the Society Islanders to
resort to some peculiar ceremonies for the protection of the living
against the ghosts of persons who had recently died. One of these quaint
rites was performed by a priest, who went by the name of the
"corpse-praying priest" (_tahua bure tiapa-pau_). When the corpse had
been placed on a platform or bier in a temporary house, this priest
ordered a hole to be dug in the earth or floor, near the foot of the
platform, and over this hole he prayed to the god by whom the spirit of
the deceased had been summoned to its long home. The purport of the
prayer was that all the dead man's sins, and especially that for which
his soul had been called to the region of Night (_po_), should be
deposited in that hole, that they should not attach in any degree to the
survivors, and that the anger of the god might be appeased. The priest
next addressed the corpse, usually saying, "With you let the guilt now
remain." The pillar or post of the corpse, as it was called, was then
planted in the hole, earth was thrown over the guilt of the departed,
and the hole filled up. After that, the priest proceeded to the side of
the corpse, and taking some small slips of plantain leaf-stalk he fixed
two or three of them under each arm, placed a few on the breast, and
then, addressi