By rights it should have been otherwise.The mat should have been buried with its owner;but,the family being poor,it was thriftily reserved for a fresh service.The widow should have flung herself upon the grave and raised the voice of official grief,the neighbours have chimed in,and the narrow isle rung for a space with lamentation.But the widow was old;perhaps she had forgotten,perhaps never understood,and she played like a child with leaves and coffin-stretchers.In all ways my guest was buried with maimed rites.Strange to think that his last conscious pleasure was the CASCO and my feast;strange to think that he had limped there,an old child,looking for some new good.And the good thing,rest,had been allotted him.
But though the widow had neglected much,there was one part she must not utterly neglect.She came away with the dispersing funeral;but the dead man's mat was left behind upon the grave,and I learned that by set of sun she must return to sleep there.This vigil is imperative.From sundown till the rising of the morning star the Paumotuan must hold his watch above the ashes of his kindred.Many friends,if the dead have been a man of mark,will keep the watchers company;they will be well supplied with coverings against the weather;I believe they bring food,and the rite is persevered in for two weeks.Our poor survivor,if,indeed,she properly survived,had little to cover,and few to sit with her;on the night of the funeral a strong squall chased her from her place of watch;for days the weather held uncertain and outrageous;and ere seven nights were up she had desisted,and returned to sleep in her low roof.That she should be at the pains of returning for so short a visit to a solitary house,that this borderer of the grave should fear a little wind and a wet blanket,filled me at the time with musings.I could not say she was indifferent;she was so far beyond me in experience that the court of my criticism waived jurisdiction;but I forged excuses,telling myself she had perhaps little to lament,perhaps suffered much,perhaps understood nothing.And lo!in the whole affair there was no question whether of tenderness or piety,and the sturdy return of this old remnant was a mark either of uncommon sense or of uncommon fortitude.