Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/218

 Among the common people, marriage was a mere matter of bargain. The usual price of a wife was a whale’s tooth, an old musket, or a hatchet and some tobacco. A man could have as many wives as he could afford to buy and support. Once paid for he had an entire right to them and might club, roast, and eat them if he so  desired. Elopements were rare, but did sometimes occur, for there were several runaway matches while we  were at these islands.

One day the funeral of a chief occurred. Before the burial took place the mother of the deceased chief  declared that she was old and had lived long enough,  and requested that she might be strangled and buried,  in order that she might go to the spirit-land with her  son. One of the wives of the dead chief expressed the same desire; so they were both partially strangled by  their friends and placed in the grave, one on either side  of the chief, each with the right hand placed upon his  breast. Several of the mourners also cut off their little toes or the first joint of their little fingers and placed  them in the grave as tokens of grief. A few strips of tapa and a mat were thrown over the bodies, then some  sticks were laid across, and the grave filled with earth. We could hear the faint moans of the two poor women, not yet dead, as the clods fell and were trodden down  upon them.

The old and infirm, all who suffered from lingering diseases, and even children, often requested their nearest  relatives to either wring their heads off or strangle them. An instance of this kind happened while we were lying here. A boy, while hunting on the reef for beche de mer,