aid out horizontally and often turned over, that it might not remain
long on the same side. By these means, combined with the heat of the sun
and the dryness of the atmosphere, the process of desiccation was
effected in the course of a few weeks: the muscular parts and the eyes
shrivelled up; and the wizened body resembled a skeleton covered with
parchment or oilcloth. Thus reduced to a mummy, it was clothed and fixed
in a sitting attitude: a small altar was erected before it; and
offerings of fruit, food, and flowers were daily presented by the
relatives or by the priest who was appointed to attend to it. For if the
deceased was a chief of high rank or great renown, a priest or other
person was set apart to wait upon the corpse and to present food to its
mouth at different hours of the day. They supposed that the soul still
hovered over the mouldering remains and was pleased by such marks of
attention. Hence during the exposure of the body in the temporary house
the mourners would sometimes renew their lamentations there, and,
wounding themselves with shark's teeth, wipe off the blood on a cloth,
and deposit the bloody rag beside the mummy as a proof of their
affection. In this state the desiccated body was preserved for many
months till the flesh had completely decayed; Ellis was of opinion that
the best-preserved of these mummies could not be kept for more than
twelve months. The bones were then scraped, washed, and buried within
the precincts of the family temple (_morai_), if the deceased was a
chief; but if he was a commoner, they were interred outside of the holy
ground. However, the skull was not buried with the bones; it was
carefully wrapt in fine cloth and kept in a box by the family, it might
be for several generations. Sometimes the box containing the skull was
deposited at the temple, but often it was hung from the roof of the
house.[206] At marriage the skulls of ancestors were sometimes brought
out and set before the bride and bridegroom in order, apparently, to
place the newly wedded pair under the guardianship of the ancestral
spirits who had once animated these relics of mortality.[207] In time of
war victorious enemies would sometimes despoil the temples of the
vanquished and carry off the bones of famous men interred in them; these
they would then subject to the utmost indignity by converting them into
chisels, borers, or fish-hooks. To prevent this sacrilege the relations
of the dead conveyed the bon