Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/369

] (5) Burying alive. Nothing seems more inhuman than the practice of burying sick and aged people alive, yet it is certain that when this was done there was generally a kindness intended. It is true that sometimes the relatives of the sick became tired of waiting upon them, and buried them when they thought they ought to be ready for it; but even in such cases the sick and aged acquiesced. It was common for them to beg their friends to put them out of their misery. Some years ago a man at Mota buried his brother, who was in extreme weakness from influenza; but he heaped the earth loosely over his head, and went from time to time to ask him whether he were still alive. Of late years, though old people ask for it, their friends will not consent. Not long ago in Pentecost, a woman after a lingering sickness in a time of famine was buried, and was heard for three days crying in her grave. In Lepers' Island the patient was sometimes strangled, with his own consent.

(6) Burning alive. This has only been heard of at Araga, Pentecost Island. In fighting time there, if a great man were very angry with the hostile party, he would burn a wounded enemy. When peace had been made, and the chiefs had ordered all to behave well that the country might settle down in quiet, if any one committed such a crime as would break up the peace, such as adultery, they would tie him to a tree, heap firewood round him, and burn him alive, a proof to the opposite party of their detestation of his wickedness. This was not done coolly as a matter of course in the execution of a law, but as a horrible thing to do, and done for the horror of it; a horror renewed in the voice and face of the native who told me of the roaring flames and shrieks of agony.