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In the meantime proper preparations were made for the funeral of His Majesty Kalakaua, than whom no king was ever more beloved by his people. The usual ceremonies were carried out as customary for the lying in state of a sovereign, or chief of the royal family. The casket was laid on a cloth of the royal feathers, which was spread over a table in the centre of the Red Chamber in the Iolani Palace, and guards were detailed for duty by day and by night. For this service twenty men are always selected, whose office it is to bear aloft the royal kahilis, which are never lowered during the course of the whole twenty-four hours. The attendants are divided into four watches of three hours each. Those relieving form a line, and take their positions as the stations are vacated by their predecessors, who, on resigning the plumes of state, return to their homes. The watchers are generally selected from men who can claim ancestry from the chiefs; of these there are quite a number still living, of well-known families, although now generally poor in worldly possessions. While in attendance at the side of the royal casket, some sang the death-wail or old-time mèlès or chants belonging solely to the family of the deceased chieftain; and in the mean-