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Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(1)

Consultant:

Fr.Soubreyan

A house was supposed to have been built on Muasol, and in it were interred the bodies of the mua.

A sau is supposed to have been buried in the house ri lamlam in Juju.

Mua were buried in a sitting position.

In some cemeteries real houses have been built over the graves. In Noa'tau was one full-sized European house with veranda for the dead to live in.

The sand which was put on the graves had to be brought from a distant beach to prove the families' affection.

ri lamlam = high house

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(2)

Consultant:

Kitione

The stone graves are constructed with the idea that they are houses over the dead. The body does not rest within the stone chamber but underneath it.

Sand is used to cover a grave only as a make-shift until the stone covering is put on. The sand is piled up and smoothed over.

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(3)

Consultant:

Undisclosed

The top stone of a vault in Sisilo the sau's burial spot measured 17'x 7'x 14". This was a piece of coral sandstone or reef conglomerate.

This was the largest single piece in the cemetery surface stones and lies in the north east corner of the plot.

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(4)

Consultant:

Tuirotuma

There are three tamura on the island of Solkope. They are Kauut, Mulo, Marae.

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(5)

Consultant:

Niua

Matairoa & Raupa were two men who took stones off the bottom between shore and reef and made a ri hafu. The bottom off Oinafa village has no stones in the center, between shore line stones and reef.

This ri hafu was supposed to be built on the Paptea end of Vaimea tamura, people have dug for it. A man digging for Tahiti starch plants found one of these shells and so the Oinafa people dug for the ri hafu. The two men were buried in the ri hafu they built. Decorated with disc pearl shells on top. Built near old tamura, Vaimea. A very large ri hafu.

ri hafu = stone house

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(6)

Consultant:

Poar

The cemetery of Oinafa is built up of several strata. The lowest is a large terrace of sand surrounded or edged by a stone wall. In this graves were dug, with each side and the top being lined by a slab of stone. As these filled up the terrace, later graves were built on top of the first one, and then exactly on top of some of these a third level has been built.

The transition is notably marked by the use of smaller stones to make a wall in place of the single slab.

The old graves were built in the following fashion: A grave is dug and the four sides lined with stone slabs. The body is laid on the floor which does not have a stone lining, with the head always to the east, so that the body can see the sun come up. A capstone is put on the tops of the walls and the ri hafu is constructed. This is completely covered over with sand and the ends marked with sticks. In five days the pa is built on top. This is set over the ri hafu, the end stones set by the stick markers. This had no cap or table stone.

MacGregor has a notation to see a photo (in Bishop Museum Archives).

There is also a sketch accompanying this note.

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(7)

Consultant:

Undisclosed

Tamura in Juju village - Va Va'u Moho

Stones - haf papol

Fufua is a large stone carried from the island of Solnohu to the cemetery of Ouheta. This may have been done by a Tongan. At any rate, when two Rotuman women were in Tonga the king asked them to prove it. They named the stream behind Hanga Riamkao, and the stone Fufua. This the king did not know, but Tongans later coming to Rotuma asked about the stone.

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(8)

Consultant:

Fr.Soubreyan

The stones on the graves at Maftoa and Sisilo and Juju were all carried from Mafmanu (foot of hill) and Losa. This was to show great affection.

At Maftoa, they had kava and a great feast and then went to Losa to get the stone. One version says that the "devil" came to them after the feast and made them so strong that 10 men could lift a great stone. Another version says that the king walked and stooped under the stone (the whole district carrying it) and they were afraid to drop it. So they were forced to bring the stone in.

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(9)

Consultant:

C. Jacobson

The stone slabs on the tamura of Rotuma were all cut and carried from Ranavi'i in Itu'mutu. They were usually carried over bush trails even to Noa'tau and to Sisilo. Sometimes they were put on rafts and swimmers pushed it round.

In carrying a slab they often put a girl on it, so that the men would be ashamed to drop it.

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(10)

Consultant:

Niua

Ri hafu made of sand stone slabs. 4-5' high walls. 6 pieces. The best ones had a stone floor, all had stone top. 20' long or so. Too big to be opened today. All tops opened and new members of family put in as they died. If a favorite son died, they would put him in and then tapu the ri hafu forever. Next death would mean a new ri hafu.

Old men were dumped in, often buried without a ri hafu. Men were buried with their heads to the west, women to the east. One to see sunrise, two to see sunset.

One pa was built over a ri hafu. Some consisted of 4 stone slabs as walls, other pa of stone walls of beachstones. Slabs were taken from conglomerate sandstone at the edge of beach. It splits in great slab 3-6" wide. Some pa had table stones of great size. Usually on chiefs' graves, and those of importance.

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(11)

Consultant:

Varomua

Ri Hafu
The chamber for the corpse is made of six stones, in the form of a box. The top or table stone is very heavy and is not removed once set. When later burials are made in the ri hafu, one end is lowered. The stones are six great slabs cut from the reef. They vary in size according to the "house" to be made. The top stone is often eighteen inches in thickness. The subsequent interments are people of the same family as the man for whom the ri hafu was made.

Makpurou (Manpurou)
This is the upper chamber of the grave termed in earlier notes as the pa, consisting of five slabs of stone, four sides and a top stone.

Fiso'a
The second type of structure over the ri hafu is the fiso'a of four stone slabs, making a chamber, but without the table stone. This latter is the distinguishing point from the makpurou.

Haf fau
This is the table stone of the Makpurou.

Haf höt'aki.
This is a flat stone laid horizontally on the sand which is thrown over the ri hafu. Every ri hafu is buried in sand, and the superstructure built on top. The haf höt'aki is a single stone laid flat, and sometimes encompassed with a pa or stone wall or cement form, but which does not form an integral part with the hafhöt'aki.

Lei
The lei was a single stone set upright as a marker for the graves of chiefs. It may be surrounded by a pa. Usually the lei seem to be about three feet in height.

Pa
The pa of former times was a fiso'a or chamber of four slabs which had been filled in with sand. Example in Vaimoso in Oinafa. These have been used for modern burials.

Today the word pa is used for various structures in the cemeteries. First it was the filled-in chamber of four slabs, then it came to be used for the rectangular structure of small coral blocks built up in the form of a pa, then a "stone wall" fiso'a--type of fiso'a, and now the small pyramided lime stone or cement structure built on the sand piled over the grave. Pa also is used to denote the stone wall that is built around the entire cemetery.

(The word pa was used in notes taken in Oinafa to denote any structure built over the ri hafu.)

The various structures just listed are found indiscriminately in cemeteries. Every ancient grave seems to have had a ri hafu, in which several bodies were put at different times. The super structure seemed to be determined by the importance of the person buried and the zeal of the family to show their grief by going to a lot of hard work to impress their neighbors. Chiefs and the young members of the family especially young men seem to have received the greatest attention both in the funeral rites and the embellishments of the grave. The fiso'a and makpurou were the usual types of super structures. The haf höt'aki was less work as it meant only bringing one stone more. The lei was only set up on the graves of chiefs.

The pa seems to have gone through a great transformation and that word is used today for all the superstructures constructed on the graves of the recent dead. A European head stone is called a headstone or haf höt'aki.

The modern pa is a hollow stepped block of cement, built on the sand that is heaped over the grave proper. The old ri hafu has given place to one of cement, made in wooden forms around the spot where the man is to be laid, the morning before the burial. One side of the forms is the sand in which the grave is dug. Perhaps ten inches from this are set up the wooden walls and the cement is poured in between. In a grave I witnessed a piece of iron roof was but put over as a top stone, and the grave covered with sand. The stepped pa which is built in the center of the grave and which is not as large as the "ri hafu" does not have any prototype as far as can be seen.

The term pa (wall, fence, enclosure) was also used as the name of a stepped foundation built over the spot where a man was killed. This was built while I was in the village, and I think a quite recent feature.

The stepped pa on the graves are usually triple steps.

House Burial
It was quite common in Rotuma to bury the dead in the floor of the house. According to Varomua only a ri hafu was made, with the stone top the level of the floor. However, the burial of Chloe Howard in Juju had a large European stone 6 x 4' laid over it and the family used it as a table and bench.

Commissioner MacDonald forbade house burials and caused the house of Chloe to be burnt down and the spot left clear.

Sa'anga
This was a pit for the burial of all those killed in a battle. The defeated dead were placed on the bottom and the victor's dead were placed on top. The latter were often accorded the honor of being wrapped in mats, but this was not for the loser's.

These were usually made not far from the scene of the battle, but there is one sa'anga in the big cemetery now used in Malhaha. It is just inside the hedge from the road, and in line with the grave on the highest point in the cemetery where lie the stone wristlets of Fouma.

Fungaroto: Burial in a canoe which has been sawed in half, to make a sort of coffin. This was done for chiefs and young men, but with no apparent restrictions as to family or rank. It was usual for a man to request this type of burial, if it were to be made. The canoe coffin was placed inside the ri hafu.

It may well be interesting to note that the present tavane are too small to lay a man in, unless sideways. Kitione has stated that such burial canoes were made for the sau.

fugaroto = lidless coffin, shaped like a canoe, as used in former times.

tavane = small kind of canoe

Category:

Death

Topic:

Graves(12)

Consultant:

Fr.Soubreyan

The graves are built on terraces or terraced platforms. Sometimes they appear to be built up from the covering of the graves with sand, until a little mound has been built.

The grave itself is made of four stone slabs cut or taken from the beach, and set up as a chamber just wide enough and long enough to hold the body. Each slab is set on edge to make a long, thin boxlike chamber. Then a fifth stone is laid over the top to close the grave. This then is covered with sand which is flattened on top. Sometimes the sand will be made into a small terrace and then another pile is put on top leaving a flat foundation of the terrace around it. The top pile is smoothed off. This is tended every day, swept and smoothed off. Flowers, garlands, strings of titi, are brought to decorate the grave. The strings are often suspended over the graves. The family visits the grave every day. Food is left on it at night for the dead. Stories are told here, dances heldon the top of the flat tops, food eaten here, and lights and food left on top at night for the dead. Graves are gathering places where the relatives come and sit with the dead.

In fact when the first Catholic fathers came they were ill received and not fed. At night they would steal out to the graves and eat the offerings of the family to their dead.

Perfume is poured over the graves and over the attendants and friends at the funeral. Formerly the Rotumans made native perfume. Bottles of perfume are buried today with the dead.

Formerly people were buried in the houses. The tombstone of Charlie Howard's wife was inside the house where it was used as a table, until Dr. MacDonald made the people tear down the house.

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