their common ones, and in all respects similar to that lately seen by us at Oheitepeha, in which the remains of Waheiadooa are deposited, embalmed in the same manner.  When we arrived at the place, the body was under cover, and wrapped up in cloth within the toopapaoo; but, at my desire, the man who had the care of it, brought it out, and laid it upon a kind of bier, in such a manner, that we had as full a view of it as we could wish; but we were not allowed to go within the pales that enclosed the toopapaoo.  After he had thus exhibited the corpse, he hung the place with mats and cloth, so disposed as to produce a very pretty effect.  We found the body not only entire in every part; but, what surprised us much more, was, that putrefaction seemed scarcely to be begun, as there was not the least disagreeable smell proceeding from it; though the climate is one of the hottest, and Tee had been dead above four months.  The only remarkable alteration that had happened, was a shrinking of the muscular parts and eyes; but the hair and nails were in their original state, and still adhered firmly; and the several joints were quite pliable, or in that kind of relaxed state which happens to persons who faint suddenly.  Such were Mr Anderson’s remarks to me, who also told me, that on his enquiring into the method of effecting this preservation of their dead bodies, he had been informed, that, soon after their death, they are disembowlled, by drawing the intestines, and other viscera, out at the anus; and the whole cavity is then filled or stuffed with cloth, introduced through the same part; that when any moisture appeared on the skin, it was carefully dried up, and the bodies afterward rubbed all over with a large quantity of perfumed cocoa-nut oil; which, being frequently repeated, preserved them a great many months; but that, at last, they gradually moulder away.  This was the information Mr Anderson received; for my own part, I could not learn any more about their mode of operation than what Omai told me, who said, that they made use of the juice of a plant which grows amongst the mountains, of cocoa-nut oil, and of frequent washing with sea-water.  I was also told, that the bodies of all their great men, who die a natural death, are preserved in this manner; and that they expose them to public view for a very considerable time after.  At first, they are laid out every day, when it does not rain; afterward, the intervals become greater and greater; and, at last, they are seldom to be seen.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The method of embalming, above described, is very different from that practised among the Egyptians and other ancient people.  For an account of the latter, the reader may turn to Beloe’s Herodotus, vol. i. where observations are collected from several authors.—­E.]