Mr.
Banks was stripped entirely of his European clothes, and a small piece of cloth was tied round his middle.

His face and body were then smeared with charcoal and water, as low as the shoulders, till they were as black as those of a negro: the same operation was performed on the rest, among whom were some women, who were reduced to a state as near to nakedness as himself; the boy was blacked all over, after which the procession set forward, the chief mourner having mumbled something like a prayer over the body.

It is the custom of the Indians to fly from these processions with the utmost precipitation.

On the present occasion several large bodies of the natives were put to flight, all the houses were deserted, and not an Otaheitan was to be seen.

The body being deposited on the stage, the mourners were dismissed to wash themselves in the river, and to resume their customary dresses and their usual gaiety.
They are, however, so jealous of any one approaching these abodes of the dead, that one of Cook's party, happening one day to pull a flower from a tree which grew in one of these sepulchral inclosures, was struck by a native who saw it, and came suddenly behind him.