205.

[117] Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 123.

[118] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 173.

But whether deposited on biers or buried under the pavement, the remains
of the dead were liable to be carried off in time of war by foes, who
regarded such an exploit as a great deed of heroism. Hence when an
invasion of the enemy in force was expected, the custom was to remove
the bodies from the _morai_ and bury them elsewhere.[119] The heads of
enemies killed in battle were invariably kept and hung up as trophies of
victory in the house of the conqueror. They seem to have been smoked in
order to preserve them better.[120] It is said that they were used as
cups to drink kava out of.[121]

[119] Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 134.

[120] Melville, _Typee_, p. 206.

[121] Clavel, _op. cit._ p. 47.

After ten months or a year the obsequies were concluded by another
funeral feast, which might last from eight to thirty days according to
the rank of the deceased and the opulence of his family. At the same
time offerings of food were presented afresh at the tomb, and the
decorations were renewed, consisting of branches and leaves and strips
of white bark-cloth, which waved like flags at the end of little white
wands. At these anniversary feasts, to which, if the deceased was a man
of quality, only chiefs were in many cases admitted, great quantities
of pigs were consumed.[122] The intention of the feast is said to have
been to thank the gods for having permitted the dead person to arrive
safely in the other world.[123]

[122] Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp. 117 _sq._

[123] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 173.

Sec. 9. _Fate of the Soul after Death_

The souls of the dead were supposed to depart either to an upper or to a
lower world, either to heaven or to a subterranean region called
Havaiki. The particular destination of a soul after death was
determined, not by moral considerations, not by the virtue or vice of
the deceased, but by the rank he had occupied in this life: people of
quality went to the upper world, and common people went to the lower, to
Havaiki.[124] According to a more precise account, heaven was inhabited
by deities of the highest order, by women who had died in childbed, by
warriors who had fallen on the field of battle, by suicides, and
especially by the aristocratic class of the chiefs. This celestial
region was supposed to be a happy land, abounding in bread-fruit paste
(_popoi_), pork, an