o the temporary house or shed in which the body was kept for
some time after death, compare C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 264,
266; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ p. 250. As for
the custom of keeping the body for months in the ordinary house,
surrounded by the family, see Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 286. As to
the practice of hanging food beside the body, even after its
removal to its last place of rest, see J. Dumont d'Urville,
_Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l'Oceanie, Histoire du Voyage_, iv.
(Paris, 1842), p. 33; Clavel, _op. cit._ p. 46.

The bodies of the dead were regularly subjected to a kind of embalmment,
which had the effect of preserving them for a longer or shorter time. As
soon as decomposition appeared imminent, the corpse was stripped of its
ornaments and placed in the usual canoe-shaped coffin, the trunk being
propped up so as to facilitate the work of the embalmers. The task of
embalming was entrusted to women, relations of the deceased, who rubbed
the body daily with coco-nut oil and perfumes. They had no intercourse
with the rest of the family, and took their meals apart without ever
washing their hands. According to one account, the anointment was
performed by night, while during the day the body was exposed to the sun
on the stone platform of the house. The products of decomposition were
carefully received in vessels and carried away to the place of
sepulture; and the corpse was gradually eviscerated through the rectum.
The friction was continued until the desiccated body was reduced to the
state of a mummy, though sometimes, in spite of all precautions, it
crumbled into dust. If the operation was successful, the mummy, wrapt in
many bandages, was covered by a second canoe attached to the first, and
was then placed on a scaffold in a _morai_ or sanctuary specially
consecrated to it. But sometimes the mummy was fastened up to the roof
or wall of the house wherein the person had died; and it might be kept
there even for years. When it was deposited in a _morai_, no woman was
allowed to approach it under pain of death.[99] Sometimes the head was
detached from the body and kept in the house, where it was treated with
respect. Sometimes it was carried away and hidden in some almost
inaccessible cave in the mountains or beside the sea. This was done as a
precaution to save the skulls from falling into the hands of enemies,
who were eager to bear them off as trophies.[1