uring the afternoon of the day of the diver's decease, preparations
were making for paying the last rites to his remains, and carrying
them by torch-light to their sepulcher, the sea; for, as in Odo, so
was the custom here.

Meanwhile, all over the isle, to and fro went heralds, dismally
arrayed, beating shark-skin drums; and, at intervals, crying--"A man
is dead; let no fires be kindled; have mercy, oh Oro!--Let no canoes
put to sea till the burial. This night, oh Oro!--Let no food be cooked."

And ever and anon, passed and repassed these, others in brave attire;
with castanets of pearl shells, making gay music; and these sang--

Be merry, oh men of Mondoldo,
A maiden this night is to wed:
Be merry, oh damsels of Mardi,--
Flowers, flowers for the bridal bed.

Informed that the preliminary rites were about being rendered, we
repaired to the arbor, whither the body had been removed.

Arrayed in white, it was laid out on a mat; its arms mutely crossed,
between its lips an asphodel; at the feet, a withered hawthorn bough.

The relatives were wailing, and cutting themselves with shells, so
that blood flowed, and spotted their vesture.

Upon remonstrating with the most abandoned of these mourners, the
wife of the diver, she exclaimed, "Yes; great is the pain, but
greater my affliction."

Another, the deaf sire of the dead, went staggering about, and
groping; saying, that he was now quite blind; for some months
previous he had lost one eye in the death of his eldest son and now
the other was gone.

"I am childless," he cried; "henceforth call me Roi Mori," that is,
Twice-Blind.

While the relatives were thus violently lamenting, the rest of the
company occasionally scratched themselves with their shells; but very
slightly, and mostly on the soles of their feet; from long exposure,
quite callous. This was interrupted, however, when the real mourners
averted their eyes; though at no time was there any deviation in the
length of their faces.

But on all sides, lamentations afresh broke forth, upon the
appearance of a person who had been called in to assist in
solemnizing the obsequies, and also to console the afflicted.

In rotundity, he was another Borabolla. He puffed and panted.

As he approached the corpse, a sobbing silence ensued; when holding
the hand of the dead, between his, the stranger thus spoke:--

"Mourn not, oh friends of Karhownoo, that this your brother lives
not. His wound