ctims for other purposes than to paddle his canoe to heaven. When a
great chief died, two commoners were sometimes sacrificed for the
purpose of escorting him to the abode of bliss; one of them carried the
chief's girdle, and the other bore the head of the pig that had been
slaughtered for the funeral feast. The head was intended as a present to
the warden of the infernal regions, who, if he did not get this
perquisite, would revile and stone the ghost, and shut the door in his
face.[130] The number of human victims sacrificed at the death of a
priest varied with the respect and fear which he had inspired in his
lifetime;[131] a common number seems to have been three.[132]

[130] Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 163.

[131] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ p. 228.

[132] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i, 170.

The runaway English sailor, Roberts, who had long resided in the
islands, assured the Russian explorer Lisiansky "that, on the death of a
priest, three men must be sacrificed; two of whom are hung up in the
burying-ground, while the third is cut to pieces, and eaten by
visitors; all but the head, which is placed upon one of the idols. When
the flesh of the first two are wasted away, the bones that remain are
burnt. The custom of the country requires, that the men destined for
sacrifice should belong to some neighbouring nation, and accordingly
they are generally stolen. This occasions a war of six, and sometimes of
twelve, months: its duration, however, depends upon the nearest relation
of the deceased priest; who, as soon as he is acquainted with his death,
retires to a place of taboo; and till he chooses to come out, the blood
of the two parties does not cease to flow. During his retirement, he is
furnished with everything he may require, human flesh not
excepted."[133]

[133] U. Lisiansky, _Voyage round the World_, pp. 81 _sq._

A curious mode of preparing a dead man to appear to advantage before the
gods in the other world was to flay his corpse. A Catholic missionary
tells us that when a dead body began to swell up, in consequence of
internal putrefaction, it was customary to flay it and to preserve the
skin as a precious relic in the family treasury, where the eye of a
profane stranger could never fall on it.[134] The reason for observing
the custom is not mentioned by this missionary, but it is explained by
another missionary, Father Amable. It happened that the king or head
chief of the i