Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/195

Rh to death by the weight. Life was held of no consequence, and parents who were ill or felt the weakness of age coming used to ask their children to bury them. A missionary was once invited by a young man to attend the funeral of the latter's mother; she walked cheerfully to the grave, and sat down in it to have the earth heaped about her by her children, and was much surprised when the missionary interfered to prevent the proceeding.



"And I have heard," he continued, "of a young man who was ill and feared he would get thin and be laughed at by the girls of his acquaintance. He asked his father to bury him, and the latter consented. When the youth had taken his place in the grave he asked to be strangled. The father scolded him, and told him to sit still and be buried just like other folks, and make no further trouble. Thereupon the youth became quiet, and the burial was completed."

"Can this really be true?" queried the youth.