return, and we can cut up this fish in safety, and it shall be fairly portioned out to this one, and to that one, and to that other." But as soon as Maui had gone, his brothers began at once to eat food, and to cut up the fish. Had Maui previously reached the sacred place, the heart of the deity would have been appeased with the offering of a portion of the fish which had been caught by his disciples, and all the male and female deities would have partaken of their portions of the sacrifice. But now the gods turned with wrath upon them, on account of the fish which they had thus cut up without having made a fitting sacrifice.1

3

Among many peoples custom prescribes fasting after a death. Lucian says that at the funeral feast the parents of the deceased are prevailed upon by their relatives to take food, being almost prostrated by a three days' fast.2 We are told that among the Hindus children fast three days after the death of a parent, and a wife the same period after the death of her husband; but according to a more recent statement, to be quoted presently, they do not altogether abstain from food. In one of the sacred books of India it is said that mourners shall fast during three days, and that, if they are unable to do so, they shall subsist on food bought in the market or given unasked. Among the Nayādis of Malabar "from the time of death until the funeral is over, all the relations must fast." Among the Irulas of the Neilgherries "the relatives of the deceased fast during the first day, that is, if . . . . the death occur after the morning meal, they refrain from the evening one, and eat nothing till the next morning. If it occur during the night, or before the morning meal, they refrain from all food till the evening. Similar fasting is observed on every return of the same day of the week, till the obsequies take place. Among

sq.

1 Grey, Polynesian Mythology, p. 26

2 Lucian, De luctu, 24.

3 Ward, View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos, ii. 76 sq.

4 Vasishtha, iv. 14 sq. Cf. Institutes

of Vishnu, xix. 14.

5 Thurston, in the Madras Government Museum's Bulletin, iv. 76.

6 Harkness, Description of a Singular Race inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, P. 97.

2

the Bogos of Eastern Africa a son must fast three days after the death of his father. On the Gold Coast it is the custom for the near relatives of the deceased to perform a long and painful fast, and sometimes they can only with difficulty be induced to have recourse to food again. So also in Dahomey they must fast during the " corpse time," or mourning. Among the Brazilian Paressí the relatives of a dead person remain for six days at his grave, carefully refraining from taking food.* Among the aborigines of the Antilles children used to fast after the death of a parent, a husband after the death of his wife, and a wife after the death of her husband. In some Indian tribes of North America it is the custom for the relatives of the deceased to fast till the funeral is over." Among the Snanaimuq, a tribe of the Coast Salish, after the death of a husband or wife the surviving partner must not eat anything for three or four days. In one of the interior divisions of the Salish of British Columbia, the Stlatlumh, the next four days after a funeral feast are spent by the members of the household of the deceased person in fasting, lamenting and ceremonial ablutions. Among the Upper Thompson Indians in British Columbia, again, those who handled the dead body and who dug the grave had to fast until the corpse was buried."

In several instances fasting after a death is observed only in the daytime.

David and his people fasted for Saul and Jonathan until even on the day when the news of their death arrived.10 Among the Arabs of Morocco it is the custom that if a death takes place in the morning everyone in the village refrains from food until

the deceased is buried in the afternoon or evening; but if a person dies so late that he cannot be buried till the next morning the people eat at night. In the Pelew Islands, as long as the dead is unburied, fasting is observed in the daytime but not in the evening. In Fiji after a burial the kana-bogi, or fasting till evening, is practised for ten or twenty days. In Samoa it was common for those who attended the deceased to eat nothing during the day, but to have a meal at night. In the Tuhoe tribe of the Maoris, "when a chief of distinction died his widow and children would remain for some time within the whare potae [that is, mourning house], eating food during the night time only, never during the day." The Sacs and Foxes in Nebraska formerly required that children should fast for three months after the death of a parent, except that they every day about sunset were allowed to partake of a meal made entirely of hominy. Among the Kansas a man who loses his wife must fast from sunrise to sunset for a year and a half, and a woman who loses her husband must observe a similar fast for a year. In some tribes of British Columbia and among the Thlinkets, until the dead body is buried the relatives of the deceased may eat a little at night but have to fast during the day. Among the Upper Thompson Indians a different custom prevailed: "nobody was allowed to eat, drink, or smoke in the open air after sunset (others say after dusk) before the burial, else the ghost would harm them.” 8

Very frequently mourners have to abstain from certain victuals only, especially flesh or fish, or some other staple or favourite food.

In Greenland everybody who had lived in the same house with the dead, or who had touched his corpse, was for some time forbidden to partake of certain kinds of food. Among the Upper Thompson Indians "parents bereft of a child did not eat fresh meat for several months." 10 Among the Stlatlumh of

In

British Columbia a widow might eat no fresh food for a whole year, whilst the other members of the deceased person's family abstained from such food for a period of from four days to as many months. A widower was likewise forbidden to eat fresh meats for a certain period, the length of which varied with the age of the person-the younger the man, the longer his abstention. In some of the Goajiro clans of Colombia a person is prohibited from eating flesh during the mourning time, which lasts nine days. Among the Abipones, when a chief died, the whole tribe abstained for a month from eating fish, their principal dainty. While in mourning, the Northern Queensland aborigines carefully avoid certain victuals, believing that the forbidden food, if eaten, would burn up their bowels. Easter Island the nearest relatives of the dead are for a year or even longer obliged to abstain from eating potatoes, their chief article of food, or some other victuals of which they are particularly fond. Certain Papuans and various tribes in the Malay Archipelago prohibit persons in mourning from eating rice or sago. In the Andaman Islands mourners refuse to partake of their favourite viands,7 After the death of a relative the Tipperahs abstain from flesh for a week. The same is the case with the Arakh, a tribe in Oudh, during the fifteen days in the month of Kuâr which are sacred to the worship of the dead. Among the Nayadis of Malabar the relatives of the deceased are not allowed to eat meat for ten days after his death.10 According to Toda custom the near relatives must not eat rice, milk, honey, or gram, until the funeral is over.11 Among the Hindus described by Mr. Chunder Bose a widow is restricted to one scanty meal a day, and this is of the coarsest description and always devoid of fish, the most esteemed article of food in a Hindu lady's bill of fare. The son, again, from

11

8 Browne, quoted by Dalton, op. cit. p. 110.

9 Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, i. 84.

10 Thurston, in the Madras Government Muscum's Bulletin, iv. 76.

11 Idem, ibid. i. 174. Dr. Rivers says (Todas, p. 370) that, among the Todas, a widower is not allowed to eat rice nor drink milk, and that on every return of the day of the week on which his wife died he takes no food in the morning but only has his evening meal. The same holds good for a widow.

the hour of his father's death to the conclusion of the funeral ceremony, is allowed to take only a meal consisting of atab rice, a sort of inferior pulse, milk, ghee, sugar, and a few fruits, and at night a little milk, sugar, and fruits-a régime which lasts ten days in the case of a Brahmin and thirty-one days in the case of a Sûdra.1 In some of the sacred books of India it is said that, during the period of impurity, all the mourners shall abstain from eating meat. In China "meat, must, and spirits were forbidden even in the last month of the deepest mourning, when other sorts of food had long been allowed already." 3

The custom of fasting after a death has been ascribed to different causes by different writers. Mr. Spencer believes that it has resulted from the habit of making excessive provision for the dead.1 But although among some peoples the funeral offerings no doubt are so extensive as to reduce the survivors to poverty and starvation," I have met with no statement to the effect that they are anxious to give to the deceased all the eatables which they possess, or that the mourning fast is a matter of actual necessity. It is always restricted to some fixed period, often to a few days only, and it prevails among many peoples who have never been known to be profuse in their sacrifices to the dead. With reference to the Chinese, Dr. de Groot maintains that the mourners originally fasted with a view to being able to sacrifice so much the more at the tomb; and he bases this conclusion on the fact that the articles of food which were forbidden till the end of the deepest mourning were the very same as those which in ancient China played the principal part at every burial sacrifice. But this prohibition may also perhaps be due to a belief that the offering of certain victuals to the dead pollutes all food belonging to the same species.

Professor Wilken, again, suggests that the mourners abstain from food till they have given the dead his due, in