The girls, decked out in their savage finery, danced; the old men chanted; the warriors smoked and chatted; and the young and lusty, of both sexes, feasted plentifully, and seemed to enjoy themselves as pleasantly as they could have done had it been a wedding.
The islanders understand the art of embalming, and practise it with such success that the bodies of their great chiefs are frequently preserved for many years in the very houses where they died.

I saw three of these in my visit to the Bay of Tior.

One was enveloped in immense folds of tappa, with only the face exposed, and hung erect against the side of the dwelling.

The others were stretched out upon biers of bamboo, in open, elevated temples, which seemed consecrated to their memory.

The heads of enemies killed in battle are invariably preserved and hung up as trophies in the house of the conqueror.