Mar 4, 1789 Home Logbook Mar 6, 1789
Revised Jun 29 2021
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Light Winds and Calms with cloudy Wr. and some Rain. Wind NEBE, Westly Calm, WSW. Thermr. 79½° and 82¾°.
Employed at the Forge. Cooper repairing Casks. Sailmakers the Awnings. Hands sawing Plank out of a large Vee Tree Tynah has given to me, and in the morning breamed and payed the larboard bend[s] with Pitch. Plentifull suppplies. Sick list four Venereals and one man recovering from a Cold. The Wr. so cloudy could make no observations.
This afternoon the Father of the deceased I have spoken of yesterday, I found at work making a long Box for a Coffin for his Son. The sides and bottom were fastened by Seizings through holes on each side, and at each Corner a Stick about four feet long was fastened, on which was placed a light Roof covered with white cloth, and ornamented with black feathers. The Mother was seated close by the Corps in a mournfull posture with two young children by her, and the countenance of the Father also bespoke much inward greif and distress in performing this among the last of his good offices to his son. To morrow afternoon they said he would be carried out of the House, and as I requested to be present they told me they would wait untill I came to them. I however paid them an early visit in the morning, when I found the Father just returned from the Hills where he had been to gather Reeds and Sticks to fence in the Toopapow, and an assistant with him who had dug a hole in the ground sufficient for the interment of the deceased at the expiration of a month. The Boy was now in the Coffin which was covered over with a fine peice of white Cloth, and they only waited for the ground to be completed. By noon the Father had railed the Grave neatly round with the Reeds, and small Posts being drove at each corner of the Grave to support the Coffin, every thing was ready for it to be removed. The Parents now exhibited a deep scene of distress, and the mother particularly, who seemed to have no
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mercy on herself so violently she drove the Sharks tooth into the crown of her head. As soon as their greif abated, the Father rose, and taking hold of one end of the Coffin, by the help of another person it was carried to the place appointed. Here the Father cut his head as much as the Mother had done hers and expressed as much sorrow for about 10 minutes and then retired to his House. The Morai was placed within the Railing, and a small distance without it was a Pole with a Basket of Breadfruit and some Cocoa nutts, concerning which I find it very difficult to give any certain accounts.
These people are below the middle Class, the ceremony therefore attending a Burial is perhaps less attended to, there was no more however, than what I have related, on this occasion.
The use of Coffins I was at first told was taken from us, but upon more particular enquiry I find it was first adopted at Oaitepeha Bay from the Burial of the Spanish Commander who died there. It was from them also they first got an Idea of the Graves being dug East and West which I have before Spoke of and was not certain whether such a custom was not among themselves. They have no particular way or directions in fixing their Toopapows, for they are to be seen in all directions. Toopapow signifies the Dead Body, and also the whole shed and parts that surround it. The Morai means a Temple, an Altar, or place of Worship.
I may state the above instance as an example of Parental tenderness and sorrow at the loss of a Child, equal to what it would have been on the most civilized society. We see the Father in the height of sorrow and distress assisting his beloved son in his last moments, and when life no longer remained, effecting such offices, manfully Struggling against a weight of sorrow that would carry every thing before it, but for that intuitive principal duty, which nothing can get the better of among these people.
Mar 4, 1789 Home Logbook Mar 6, 1789