When one of the natives is sick, the friends collect at the hut, where he is lying, and chant over him, to appease the offended spirit that has afflicted him. The same prescription is given for all diseases, which is a tea, made from an herb found upon the island. If death takes place, the friends of the deceased assemble, and mourn over the body, keeping it until it becomes very offensive. Frequently, in the midst of their most bitter mourning and lamentation, some of the mourners will intentionally say or do something calculated to excite mirth, when they all burst out into immoderate laughter, as if their mourning were the affectation of children, and as soon as the humorous excitement has passed over, again relapse into their mournful strain of howling and chaunting. When the body can be kept no longer, and the day of interment arrives, the grave is dug, and the corpse taken upon sticks, and carried to it by the friends of the deceased, followed by a large concourse, who move along without order, and some one occasionally breaks in upon their solemnity by a humorous trick, which gives rise to others, and sets them all laughing. This is soon again succeeded by mourning. The body is lowered into the grave, and covered up, when a little canoe, with a sail to it, and laden with small pieces of cocoa-nut or other food, having been previously prepared, is taken to the sea-shore on the leeward part of the island, and sent off, with a fair wind, to bear far away from the island the spirit of the deceased, that it may not afterwards disturb the living. This ceremony is considered indispensably necessary, and is never neglected. At the head of the grave a cocoa-nut is planted, the tree that springs from which, is held sacred, and its fruits never eaten, in times of the greatest famine. Their burial places are usually a short distance back of the houses, and the females are strictly prohibited from going to them.