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from notes archived at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i |
Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(1) | Consultant: | ||
At a death of a person, the family notifies all the relatives of the man. They come to the house of the dead bringing gifts, usually food, but often mats, clothes, and perfume. The visitors appproach the house, sit down and the chief of the family party announces that they have arrived. A member of the deceased's family invites them into the house, where the gifts are presented to the dead. Mats and clothes are laid beside the corpse. The corpse is lifted and laid on the newly given mats, until another similar gift arrives, when it is transferred. When a person is known to be sick and near dying, all his relatives (which means most of the village and that neighbouring it) come and sit about his house waiting for the death. They play about and enjoy themselves, while the family of the sick man must feed them. Great wailing is set up the moment the person dies, but it lasts for a very short time only. This is repeated at the grave again when the body is buried. Relatives make such inane cries as "Why are you leaving us so soon? Why did you have to go?" The body is properly dressed (today in the best clothes than can be afforded) and the skin rubbed with oil. The burial usually takes place that day. At the grave the body is wrapped with good mats which have been presented to the dead. The mua was buried with his ornaments of office, i.e. the bone and shell necklace and pendant. Bottles of perfume are often buried in the grave. A child is often laid away with his favorite toy. In place of the old mats, some strips of cloth are bought and buried with the dead. White cloth is placed on the bottom and a nice piece of silk laid on top of the body. After the death the family and relatives who come to stay with them remain in the house for five days. Nothing can be changed or disturbed from the order in which the dead saw the house hold goods last. There is no sweeping or cleaning. The family and relatives are tabued from entering the sea to bathe or taking out canoes to fish. The sea is tabu to them. (Perhaps this is due to the fact that the spirits of the dead go to 'oroi, or Limarei, which is the place of the dead. On the morning of the fifth day the ghost of the dead is supposed to return to his home and see that everything is still the same. If he is satisfied, he leaves again immediately. The tabus are then lifted and a great feast is prepared. The clothes of the dead are kept and worn as cherished garments. However they are never washed. The young people of the family who die are set up in a chair dressed in their best clothes, decorated with garlands of flowers and have their face painted with turmeric. In this manner they are kept on exhibition for a day before burial. Father Griffon states that the mourning period for them was ten days instead of five. Father Soubreyan said he did not know of this or agree. | ||||||
Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(2) | Consultant: | ||
When a chief died the people punched their eyes sometimes for two days as a sign of grief. They burnt their flesh and wounded themselves in mourning. While digging the sau's grave they would remove their clothing and get sunburnt and with it the pain, as a sign of true sorrow. Coconut oil and perfume, and turmeric were rubbed on the bodies of the dead. | ||||||
Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(3) | Consultant: | |
When visitors came to a house of the dead outside their own district, they sat outside and announced their arrival in the following manner. The leader of the party would call out: "Kalong e.. e.. fagate (or if a woman had died, "han ate"), noaia taritari ne ou Kafat, Ufamorat, Hanfakaga, Varomua" etc., calling all the names of the chiefs of the district which was making the visit (above for Malha'a). Then the leader would call on the district 'atua, who was formerly a great chief of the district. The calling of this name would also signify to the people in the house what district the people outside came from. Ravak was the 'atua of Malhaha. Pauufu, a female, was the 'atua of Motusa, Itutiu. This announcing and calling upon the 'atua is called "he'o 'atua". When this announcement was finished, the visitors came into the house bringing their mats which they laid by the corpse as gifts. The chief of the people present would give his thanks to the visitors, who would sit with the family of the dead. When the body is ready to be carried to the grave the family kiss it farewell, saying "Fa ga tei mariu'ou." While the body was in the house no cooked food could be brought in. Everyone accompanied the body to the burial and after that returned to the house for the funeral feast. After the burial the chief and the mafua sat inside the house and the man in charge of the food called out the amount of food that was present and its division by baskets among the different people. This food was to last five days, then on the fifth a second koua was made. A third followed on the tenth and the burial and mourning period was over. Many of the mats presented to the dead, are given by his family to the chiefs present, the grave diggers and the pure of the work. Only food is taken home by the rest of the people in exchange for the mats that are brought. |
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Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(4) | Consultant: | Undisclosed |
When we go to the house where a corpse is, we call upon a person whom we trust, from among those who are dead. Long dead = safe. Motusa call upon Pau'fu saying "I, Pau'fu, greet you". Fa ga tei = gentlemen. Noa'ia for receiving the Kafotu, the man of Sahoa (the descendant of a sau. Fariroa = descendant of a mua). If we come to Noa'tau and all the chiefs. --> With regard to this appeal each place has a man to call upon. |
Probably meaning: we add the names of all the chiefs in greeting formula. | ||||
Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(5) | Consultant: | |
When a member of a family died, nothing was disturbed in the house from that moment until the time that his spirit should visit the house again five days later. The body having been buried, his family would come and spend most of their time around the grave keeping it company. Relations and others would come at night (at least) and under a song leader would sing funeral songs. (These she called kautemo, but when asked what a mam e was, she said these were sung at funerals and temo at weddings.) The kautemo or songs at the grave were well known songs led by a temo leader of one's own ho'ag or from another ho'ag. He was borrowed from the chief in whose ho'ag he lived. These songs were probably kept up most of the day and night as today when the relatives gather around and sing Christian hymns over the body. During the five days after the death the family spend most of their time at the grave and never wash themselves. On the fifth day the relatives or family go to their house and there the spirit of the dead comes and tells through the ape'aitu the cause of his death. He never returns to bother them again. The house is then swept up and everything put in order. There is a koua called kakau sasi, and at this time the relatives who have not washed for five days are taken to the sea with a net and they do a little fishing and clean their bodies. Many times the feasting is prolonged and the final day of mourning comes on the tenth. As soon as one has died the women of the family will cut their hair in crazy fashion to make it look unkempt and sorrowful. They also take rolls of uha, light the ends and sear their body with these to show their great grief. There is no cutting of the skin or lopping off the ends of their fingers as the Tongans do. Upon being questioned, Catherine said there was no resin or gummy substance used to seal the graves and no sun cure to preserve the dead body. If they wanted to see their dead, they went into the ri haf where the body had been deposited and stayed with it. There was no dancing on the graves nor food put on them. (This is absolutely contrary to observances of Father Griffon who has seen food, lights and dancing on top of the graves.) Graves were meeting places where a family would sit and have a yarn. The Catholic fathers when they first came to Rotuma lived on the food they stole from the tops of the graves at night. |
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Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(6) | Consultant: | ||
When a man dies, his wife must sit on his legs. When a woman dies, her husband sits on her head. Sits for all night. Then buried next day. Burial in own district. The husband of dead wife returns to his own district, if he came from outside. He never bathes for 5 days and leaves his former house untouched. Nothing is moved because the spirit will return in 5 days to his house. Nothing is swept out or disturbed because the spirit might be injured in his return. At the end of these five days, the relations of the dead go fishing for a short time and bathe. Then they return and have kava. If a young person has died they wait 10 days. For an old man 5 days. Husband takes kava every meal for 5 days after his wife's death. | ||||||
Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(7) | Consultant: | ||
When a man died or was buried and his ghost did not remain in the grave so that the people saw him in various places. His relatives would be angry because other people would be afraid. Then someone would go to his grave and speak to him, and ask him not to wander about in this way, but to remain in his place where he'd gone to and not come back to this world. When a woman died and came back, it meant she returned for her child. A left child might die from neglect and this was the explanation. When a person died, he was wrapped in a white mat and carried out feet first, (so he couldn't look back?). A senior person would pronounce a farewell while the deceased was leaving. He was taken to a stone house [ri hafu] prepared for him at the cemetery. Often a man would build this for himself. |
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Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(8) | Consultant: | ||
When Tavo Epenisi's father Faktafono was sick, all the chiefs gathered at his home and drank kava day and night for weeks without eating until Faktafono died. Then over 100 pigs were killed right and left, from one end of the district to the other. All the coconut trees on the beach side of the road were cleared off for the length of the district. Niua saw the 'atua of a young man return to his house on the 4th night when he was sleeping with seven others in the house. He heard the dogs barking, woke up and saw the face and body of the dead man in the door. The body is kept in the house till all relatives could come and see the body. Mats brought as gifts. Body wrapped in white mats. After burial a feast--the last food for dead man on earth. Feasting lasts 10 days if rich family and then pa built and otherwise 5. Pa did not matter so much in old days. The feasting went on to keep body company, otherwise he'd be lonely. Some slept at grave after death out of affection. If one was sleeping there, the 'atua would wake him up if it was going to rain. On the 5th day after death the wife (i.e. widow), if he had none the daughters, were taken down for a bath in the sea. Bath consisted of going down and fishing with nets. Tabued sea beforehand. Allowed to fish again after bath. On 5th day, 'atua comes back from 'oroi for a visit. When an Oinafa man was killed by a falling coconut tree as he was cutting leaves from the first which had just fallen, his family marked the spot under the trees where he died, with a little circle of sand and stone. Later after the burial ceremonies, this place was thoroughly cleared for fifty yards along the beach and a little stone point was set up to mark the place. This monument is called a pa. Here the family slept on the monument base several nights after the death to prove to the other natives that their father's ghost was not about to molest them. When the burial was going on, the eldest daughter did not attend the grave but went to this spot of the accident and took away one of the fronds of the coconut tree and helped clear up the spot. A similar spot is marked by the roadside where a boy was killed when the road was being made. |
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Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(9) | Consultant: | ||
When a person came to visit the family of someone who had just died, the visitors sat outside and announced themselves by calling their god. This is the hei 'atua. The people called the name of their god and kalog. The family could recognize the people by the district god they called upon. When a man died the walls of his house were broken down. For 5 days it was tabu to sweep in the house, talk loudly or make a noise, and to make a fire. The spirit was supposed to return to his house on the fifth day, but some regard was made of him for 10 days. On the fifth day the relatives were taken for a bath, by having fishing (more or less mock) with a net. Before this it was tabu to wash with fresh or salt water, or to use the sea. |
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Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(10) | Consultant: | ||
It was customary for all people from outside districts, when visiting the house of one who has just died, to call upon the god of their own district to protect them and to announce them to the house they were about to enter. They would enter the house after calling the name of their district god, who was supposed to protect them in the district they were visiting. Outside the house, the Motusa people would say, "I am Pau'fu, chief, thank you, man of sau rank. I am descent of the sau. Thank you for bearing the stroke of death. I am a man of the mua rank, Fa ga tei. Then Tausia and Morasiu and chiefs of Noa'tau, this speech is to be ended." Translation of C.M.Churchward. Then they entered the house of the dead. This speech was to prevent any man of Noa'tau killing those from Motusa. Pau'fu would save them. The people of Motusa would approach the house of the dead, and say "I Pau'fu challenge to fight Noa'tau, N. Paufu Tausia and all you chiefs." Translation of C.M.Churchward. |
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Category: | Death | Topic: | Rituals(11) | Consultant: | ||
When a chief or young person died to whom the family were very much attached, the corpse was dressed in fine clothes, oiled and flower necklaces put around his neck, and set up against the two posts leaned against the rafters of the house, as a sort of back rest. Today these are set on a chair. Two women will sit by the corpse and fan it all night. The burial will take place the next day, and until then the body is fanned by two women, one on each side. Many women will work at this honor relieving the others in relays. When a person dies, all the kainaga come to the house of the dead. When a new group approaches they wait outside the house and are formally announced. This is always done in the case of a visiting chief to a deceased chief by the mafua. This is called hei 'atua. The mafua says "Ua'aki te fak gagaj." |
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