Note 34 — ELEGY ON CAPTAIN COOK.
Reading edition
l. 22. Morai.—The Morai is a kind of funeral altar, which the people of Otaheite raise to the memory of their deceased friends. They bring to it a daily tribute of fruits, flowers, and the plumage of birds. The chief mourner wanders around it in a state of apparent distraction, shrieking furiously, and striking at intervals a shark’s tooth into her head. All people fly her, as she aims at wounding not only herself, but others.