Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/454

388 fastened double round one end of the stone, which always remains a little raised for this purpose by means of certain bodies placed un- derneath ; it was elevated by the main strength of 150 or 200 men, pulling at the two ends of the rope, towards the opposite edge of the grave, till it was brought up on eiid. The body, being oiled with sandal-wood oil and then wrapped in Hamoa mats, was handed down on a large bale of gnatoo into the grave ; the bale of gnatoo was then, as is customary, taken by the before-mentioned mataboole as his perquisite. Next, the body of his daughter, in the model of a canoe, was let down in like manner and placed by his side *. The great stone was then lowered down with a loud shout. Immediately certain matabooles and warriors ran like men frantic round and about the fytocay exclaiming, " Alas ! how great is " our loss ! Finow ! you are departed ; witness cious enough to hold thirty bodies. Two bodies which Mr. Mariner saw there, and which were in a very dry but perfect state, had been buried, as he was told by old men, when they were boys, and consequently must have been there up- wards of forty years ; while several others, of which nothing remained but the bones, had not been buried so long : this circumstance the natives suppose to be owing to different kinds of constitution, though, in all probability, to the kind or duration of disease of which they died.
 * This grave, which was considered a large one, is capa-