blazing in the house all night, and had the space between the house
and the grave so cleared as that a stream of light went forth all
night from the fire to the grave. The account the Samoans give of it
is, that it was merely a light burning in honour of the departed, and
a mark of tender regard.

_The unburied_ occasioned great concern. No Roman was ever more
grieved at the thought of his unburied friend wandering a hundred
years along the banks of the Styx than were the Samoans while they
thought of the spirit of one who had been drowned, or of another who
had fallen in war, wandering about neglected and comfortless. They
supposed the spirit haunted them everywhere, night and day, and
imagined they heard it calling upon them in a most pitiful tone, and
saying, "Oh, how cold! oh, how cold!" Nor were the Samoans, like the
ancient Romans, satisfied with a mere "_tumulus inanis_" at which to
observe the usual solemnities; they thought it was possible to obtain
the soul of the departed in some tangible transmigrated form. On the
beach, near where a person had been drowned, and whose body was
supposed to have become a porpoise, or on the battlefield, where
another fell, might have been seen, sitting in silence, a group of
five or six, and one a few yards before them with a sheet of native
cloth spread out on the ground in front of him. Addressing some god of
the family he said, "Oh, be kind to us; let us obtain without
difficulty the spirit of the young man!" The first thing that happened
to light upon the sheet was supposed to be the spirit. If nothing came
it was supposed that the spirit had some ill-will to the person
praying. That person after a time retired, and another stepped
forward, addressed some other god, and waited the result. By-and-by
something came; grasshopper, butterfly, ant, or whatever else it
might be, it was carefully wrapped up, taken to the family, the