Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 4, 2025
They said when a man died in Otaheite and was carried to the Tupapow that as soon as night came he was surrounded by spirits, and if any person went there by himself they would devour him: therefore they said that not less than two people together should go into the surgeon's cabin for some time.
In walking today with Tinah near a tupapow I was surprised by a sudden outcry of grief. As I expressed a desire to see the distressed person Tinah took me to the place where we found a number of women, one of whom was the mother of a young female child that lay dead.
As soon as the body is deposited in the Tupapow, the mourning is renewed. The women assemble, and are led to the door by the nearest relation, who strikes a shark's tooth several times into the crown of her head: The blood copiously follows, and is carefully received upon pieces of linen, which are thrown under the bier.
In the centre of this house, or Tupapow, posts are set up to support the bier, which is at length conveyed thither, and placed upon it, and here the body remains to putrify till the flesh is wholly wasted from the bones.
I must more explicitly observe, that there are two places in which the dead are deposited; one a kind of shed, where the flesh is suffered to putrify; the other an inclosure, with erections of stone, where the bones are afterwards buried. The sheds are called Tupapow and the inclosures Morai. The Morais are also places of worship.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking