had happened, was a shrinking of the muscular parts and eyes; but the
hair and nails were in their original state, and still adhered firmly;
and the several joints were quite pliable, or in that kind of relaxed
state which happens to persons who faint suddenly. Such were Mr
Anderson's remarks to me, who also told me, that on his enquiring into
the method of effecting this preservation of their dead bodies, he had
been informed, that, soon after their death, they are disembowlled,
by drawing the intestines, and other _viscera_, out at the _anus_;
and the whole cavity is then filled or stuffed with cloth, introduced
through the same part; that when any moisture appeared on the skin, it
was carefully dried up, and the bodies afterward rubbed all over with
a large quantity of perfumed cocoa-nut oil; which, being frequently
repeated, preserved them a great many months; but that, at last, they
gradually moulder away. This was the information Mr Anderson received;
for my own part, I could not learn any more about their mode of
operation than what Omai told me, who said, that they made use of the
juice of a plant which grows amongst the mountains, of cocoa-nut oil,
and of frequent washing with sea-water. I was also told, that the
bodies of all their great men, who die a natural death, are preserved
in this manner; and that they expose them to public view for a very
considerable time after. At first, they are laid out every day, when
it does not rain; afterward, the intervals become greater and greater;
and, at last, they are seldom to be seen.[1]

[Footnote 1: The method of embalming, above described, is very
different from that practised among the Egyptians and other ancient
people. For an account of the latter, the reader may turn to Beloe's
Herodotus, vol. i. where observations are collected from several
authors.--E.]