THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE NATIVES OF NORTHERN AND EASTERN MELANESIA

Northern Melanesia. Material culture of the North Melanesians.

In the last lecture I concluded my account of the belief in immortality and the worship of the dead among the natives of Central Melanesia. To-day we pass to what may be called Northern Melanesia, by which is to be understood the great archipelago lying to the north-east of New Guinea. It comprises the two large islands of New Britain and New Ireland, now called New Pomerania and New Mecklenburg, with the much smaller Duke of York Island lying between them, and the chain of New Hanover and the Admiralty Islands stretching away westward from the north-western extremity of New Ireland. The whole of the archipelago, together with the adjoining island of Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, is now under German rule. The people belong to the same stock and speak the same language as the natives of Central and Southern Melanesia, and their level of culture is approximately the same. They live in settled villages and subsist chiefly by the cultivation of the ground, raising crops of taro, yams, bananas, sugar-cane, and so forth. Most of the agricultural labour is performed by the women, who plant, weed the ground, and carry the produce to the villages. The ground is, or rather used to be, dug by sharp-pointed sticks. The men hunt cassowaries, wallabies, and wild pigs, and they catch fish by both nets and traps. Women and children take part in the fishing and many of them become very expert in spearing fish. Among the few domestic animals which they keep are pigs, dogs, and fowls. The villages are generally situated in the midst of a dense forest; but on the coast the natives build their houses not far from the beach as a precaution against the attacks of the forest tribes, of whom they stand greatly in fear. A New Britain village generally consists of a number of small communities or families, each of which dwells in a separate enclosure. The houses are very small and badly built, oblong in shape and very low. Between the separate hamlets which together compose a village lie stretches of virgin forest, through which run irregular and often muddy foot-tracks, scooped out here and there into mud-holes where the pigs love to wallow during the heat of the tropical day. As the people of any one district used generally to be at war with their neighbours, it was necessary that they should live together for the sake of mutual protection.[⁶²⁷]

Commercial habits of the North Melanesians. Their backwardness in other respects.

Nevertheless, in spite of their limited intercourse with surrounding villages, the natives of the New Britain or the Bismarck Archipelago were essentially a trading people. They made extensive use of shell money and fully recognised the value of any imported articles as mediums of exchange or currency. Markets were held on certain days at fixed places, where the forest people brought their yams, taro, bananas and so forth and exchanged them for fish, tobacco, and other articles with the natives of the coast. They also went on long trading expeditions to procure canoes, cuscus teeth, pigs, slaves, and so forth, which on their return they generally sold at a considerable profit. The shell which they used as money is the Nassa immersa or Nassa calosa, found on the north coast of New Britain. The shells were perforated and threaded on strips of cane, which were then joined together in coils of fifty to two hundred fathoms.[⁶²⁸] The rights of private property were fully recognised. All lands belonged to certain families, and husband and wife had each the exclusive right to his or her goods and chattels. But while in certain directions the people had made some progress, in others they remained very backward. Pottery and the metals were unknown; no metal or specimen of metal-work has been found in the archipelago; on the other hand the natives made much use of stone implements, especially adzes and clubs. In war they never used bows and arrows.[⁶²⁹] They had no system of government, unless that name may be given to the power wielded by the secret societies and by chiefs, who exercised a certain degree of influence principally by reason of the reputation which they enjoyed as sorcerers and magicians. They were not elected nor did they necessarily inherit their office; they simply claimed to possess magical powers, and if they succeeded in convincing the people of the justice of their claim, their authority was recognised. Wealth also contributed to establish their position in the esteem of the public.[⁶³⁰]

The Rev. George Brown on the Melanesians.

With regard to the religious ideas and customs of the natives we are not fully informed, but so far as these have been described they appear to agree closely with those of their kinsfolk in Central Melanesia. The first European to settle in the archipelago was the veteran missionary, the Rev. George Brown, D.D., who resided in the islands from 1875 to 1880 and has revisited them on several occasions since; he reduced the language to writing for the first time,[⁶³¹] and is one of our best authorities on the people. In what follows I shall make use of his valuable testimony along with that of more recent observers.

North Melanesian theory of the soul. Fear of ghosts, especially the ghosts of persons who have been killed and eaten.

The natives of the archipelago believe that every person is animated by a soul, which survives his death and may afterwards influence the survivors for good or evil. Their word for soul is nio or niono, meaning a shadow. The root is nio, which by the addition of personal suffixes becomes niong "my soul or shadow," niom "your soul or shadow," niono "his soul or shadow." They think that the soul is like the man himself, and that it always stays inside of his body, except when it goes out on a ramble during sleep or a faint. A man who is very sleepy may say, "My soul wants to go away." They believe, however, that it departs for ever at death; hence when a man is sick, his friends will offer prayers to prevent its departure. There is only one kind of soul, but it can appear in many shapes and enter into animals, such as rats, lizards, birds, and so on. It can hear, see, and speak, and present itself in the form of a wraith or apparition to people at the moment of or soon after death. On being asked why he thought that the soul does not perish with the body, a native said, "Because it is different; it is not of the same nature at all." They believe that the souls of the dead occasionally visit the living and are seen by them, and that they haunt houses and burial-places. They are very much afraid of the ghosts and do all they can to drive or frighten them away. Above all, being cannibals, they stand in great fear of the ghosts of the people whom they have killed and eaten. The man who is cutting up a human body takes care to tie a bandage over his mouth and nose during the operation of carving in order to prevent the enraged soul of the victim from entering into his body by these apertures; and for a similar reason the doors of the houses are shut while the cannibal feast is going on inside. And to keep the victim's ghost quiet while his body is being devoured, a cut from a joint is very considerately placed on a tree outside of the house, so that he may eat of his own flesh and be satisfied. At the conclusion of the banquet, the people shout, brandish spears, beat the bushes, blow horns, beat drums, and make all kinds of noises for the purpose of chasing the ghost or ghosts of the murdered and eaten men away from the village. But while they send away the souls, they keep the skulls and jawbones of the victims; as many as thirty-five jawbones have been seen hanging in a single house in New Ireland. As for the skulls, they are, or rather were placed on the branch of a dead tree and so preserved on the beach or near the house of the man who had taken them.[⁶³²]

Offerings to the souls of the dead.

With regard to the death of their friends they deem it very important to obtain the bodies and bury them. They offer food to the souls of their departed kinsfolk for a long time after death, until all the funeral feasts are over; but they do not hold annual festivals in honour of dead ancestors. The food offered to the dead is laid every day on a small platform in a tree; but the natives draw a distinction between offerings to the soul of a man who died a natural death and offerings to the soul of a man who was killed in a fight; for whereas they place the former on a living tree, they deposit the latter on a dead tree. Moreover, they lay money, weapons, and property, often indeed the whole wealth of the family, near the corpse of their friend, in order that the soul of the deceased may carry off the souls of these valuables to the spirit land. But when the body is carried away to be buried, most of the property is removed by its owners for their own use. However, the relations will sometimes detach a few shells from the coils of shell money and a few beads from a necklace and drop them in a fire for the behoof of the ghost. But when the deceased was a chief or other person of importance, some of his property would be buried with him. And before burial his body would be propped up on a special chair in front of his house, adorned with necklaces, wreaths of flowers and feathers, and gaudy with war-paint. In one hand would be placed a large cooked yam, and in the other a spear, while a club would be put on his shoulder. The yam was to stay the pangs of hunger on his long journey, and the weapons were to enable him to fight the foes who might resist his entrance into the spirit land. In the Duke of York Island the corpse was usually disposed of by being sunk in a deep part of the lagoon; but sometimes it was buried in the house and a fire kept burning on the spot.[⁶³³]

Burial customs in New Ireland and New Britain. Preservation of the skull.

In New Ireland the dead were rolled up in winding-sheets made of pandanus leaves, then weighted with stones and buried at sea. However, at some places they were deposited in deep underground watercourses or caverns. Towards the northern end of New Ireland corpses were burned on large piles of firewood in an open space of the village. A number of images curiously carved out of wood or chalk were set round the blazing pyre, but the meaning of these strange figures is uncertain. Men and women uttered the most piteous wailings, threw themselves on the top of the corpse, and pulled at the arms and legs. This they did not merely to express their grief, but because they thought that if they saw and handled the dead body while it was burning, the ghost could not or would not haunt them afterwards.[⁶³⁴] Amongst the natives of the Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain the dead are generally buried in shallow graves in or near their houses. Some of the shell money which belonged to a man in life is buried with him. Women with blackened bodies sleep on the grave for weeks.[⁶³⁵] When the deceased was a great chief, his corpse, almost covered with shell money, is placed in a canoe, which is deposited in a small house. Thereupon the nearest female relations are led into the house, and the door being walled up they are obliged to remain there with the rotting body until all the flesh has mouldered away. Food is passed in to them through a hole in the wall, and under no pretext are they allowed to leave the hut before the decomposition of the corpse is complete. When nothing of the late chief remains but a skeleton, the hut is opened and the solemn funeral takes place. The bones of the dead are buried, but his skull is hung up in the taboo house in order, we are told, that his ghost may remain in the neighbourhood of the village and see how his memory is honoured. After the burial of the headless skeleton feasting and dancing go on, often for more than a month, and the expenses are defrayed out of the riches left by the deceased.[⁶³⁶] Even in the case of eminent persons who have been buried whole and entire in the usual way, a special mark of respect is sometimes paid to their memory by digging up their skulls after a year or more, painting them red and white, decorating them with feathers, and setting them up on a scaffold constructed for the purpose.[⁶³⁷]

Disposal of the dead among the Sulka of New Britain.

Somewhat similar is the disposal of the dead among the Sulka, a tribe of New Britain who inhabit a mountainous and well-watered country to the south of the Gazelle Peninsula. When a Sulka dies, his plantation is laid waste, and the young fruit-trees cut down, but the ripe fruits are first distributed among the living. His pigs are slaughtered and their flesh in like manner distributed, and his weapons are broken. If the deceased was a rich man, his wife or wives will sometimes be killed. The corpse is usually buried next morning. A hole is dug in the house and the body deposited in it in a sitting posture. The upper part of the corpse projects from the grave and is covered with a tower-like structure of basket-work, which is stuffed with banana-leaves. Great care is taken to preserve the body from touching the earth. Stones are laid round about the structure and a fire kindled. Relations come and sleep for a time beside the corpse, men and women separately. Some while afterwards the soul of the deceased is driven away. The time for carrying out the expulsion is settled by the people in whispers, lest the ghost should overhear them and prepare for a stout resistance. The evening before the ceremony takes place many coco-nut leaves are collected. Next morning, as soon as a certain bird (Philemon coquerelli) is heard to sing, the people rise from their beds and set up a great cry. Then they beat the walls, shake the posts, set fire to dry coco-nut leaves, and finally rush out into the paths. At that moment, so the people think, the soul of the dead quits the hut. When the flesh of the corpse is quite decayed, the bones are taken from the grave, sewed in leaves, and hung up. Soon afterwards a funeral feast is held, at which men and women dance. For some time after a burial taro is planted beside the house of death and enclosed with a fence. The Sulka think that the ghost comes and gathers the souls of the taro. The ripe fruit is allowed to rot. Falling stars are supposed to be the souls of the dead which have been hurled up aloft and are now descending to bathe in the sea. The trail of light behind them is thought to be a tail of coco-nut leaves which other souls have fastened to them and set on fire. In like manner the phosphorescent glow on the sea comes from souls disporting themselves in the water. Persons who at their death left few relations, or did evil in their life, or were murdered outside of the village, are not buried in the house. Their corpses are deposited on rocks or on scaffolds in the forest, or are interred on the spot where they met their death. The reason for this treatment of their corpses is not mentioned; but we may conjecture that their ghosts are regarded with contempt, dislike, or fear, and that the survivors seek to give them a wide berth by keeping their bodies at a distance from the village. The corpses of those who died suddenly are not buried but wrapt up in leaves and laid on a scaffold in the house, which is then shut up and deserted. This manner of disposing of them seems also to indicate a dread or distrust of their ghosts.[⁶³⁸]

Disposal of the dead among the Moanus of the Admiralty Islands. Prayers offered to the skull of a dead chief.

Among the Moanus of the Admiralty Islands the dead are kept in the houses unburied until the flesh is completely decayed and nothing remains but the bones. Old women then wash the skeleton carefully in sea-water, after which it is disjointed and divided. The backbone, together with the bones of the legs and upper arms, is deposited in one basket and put away somewhere; the skull, together with the ribs and the bones of the lower arms, is deposited in another basket, which is sunk for a time in the sea. When the bones are completely cleaned and bleached in the water, they are laid with sweet-smelling herbs in a wooden vessel and placed in the house which the dead man inhabited during his life. But the teeth have been previously extracted from the skull and converted into a necklace for herself by the sister of the deceased. After a time the ribs are distributed by the son among the relatives. The principal widow gets two, other near kinsfolk get one apiece, and they wear these relics under their arm-bands. The distribution of the ribs is the occasion of a great festival, and it is followed some time afterwards by a still greater feast, for which extensive preparations are made long beforehand. All who intend to be present at the ceremony send vessels of coco-nut oil in advance; and if the deceased was a great chief the number of the oil vessels and of the guests may amount to two thousand. Meantime the giver of the feast causes a scaffold to be erected for the reception of the skull, and the whole art of the wood-carver is exhausted in decorating the scaffold with figures of turtles, birds, and so forth, while a wooden dog acts as sentinel at either end. When the multitude has assembled, and the orchestra of drums, collected from the whole neighbourhood, has sent forth a far-sounding crash of music, the giver of the feast steps forward and pronounces a florid eulogium on the deceased, a warm panegyric on the guests who have honoured him by their presence, and a fluent invective against his absent foes. Nor does he forget to throw in some delicate allusions to his own noble generosity in providing the assembled visitors with this magnificent entertainment. For this great effort of eloquence the orator has been primed in the morning by the sorcerer. The process of priming consists in kneeling on the orator's shoulders and tugging at the hair of his head with might and main, which is clearly calculated to promote the flow of his rhetoric. If none of the hair comes out in the sorcerer's hands, a masterpiece of oratory is confidently looked forward to in the afternoon. When the speech, for which such painful preparations have been made, is at last over, the drums again strike up. No sooner have their booming notes died away over land and sea, than the sorcerer steps up to the scaffold, takes from it the bleached skull, and holds it in both his hands. Then the giver of the feast goes up to him, dips a bunch of dracaena leaves in a vessel of oil, and smites the skull with it, saying, "Thou art my father!" At that the drums again beat loudly. Then he strikes the skull a second time with the leaves, saying, "Take the food that has been made ready in thine honour!" And again there is a crash of drums. After that he smites the skull yet again and prays saying, "Guard me! Guard my people! Guard my children!" And every prayer of the litany is followed by the solemn roll of the drums. When these impressive invocations to the spirit of the dead chief are over, the feasting begins. The skull is thenceforth carefully preserved.[⁶³⁹]

Disposal of the dead in the Kaniet Islands. Preservation of the skull.

In the Kaniet Islands, a small group to the north-west of the Admiralty Islands, the dead are either sunk in the sea or buried in shallow graves, face downward, near the house. All the movable property of the deceased is piled on the grave, left there for three weeks, and then burnt. Afterwards the skull is dug up, placed in a basket, and having been decorated with leaves and feathers is hung up in the house. Thus adorned it not only serves to keep the dead in memory, but is also employed in many conjurations to defeat the nefarious designs of other ghosts, who are believed to work most of the ills that afflict humanity.[⁶⁴⁰] Apparently these islanders employ a ghost to protect them against ghosts on the principle of setting a thief to catch a thief.

Death attributed to witchcraft.

Amongst the natives of the Bismarck Archipelago few persons, if any, are believed to die from natural causes alone; if they are not killed in war they are commonly supposed to perish by witchcraft or sorcery, even when the cause of death might seem to the uninstructed European to be sufficiently obvious in such things as exposure to heavy rain, the carrying of too heavy a burden, or remaining too long a time under water. So when a man has died, his friends are anxious to discover who has bewitched him to death. In this enquiry the ghost is expected to lend his assistance. Thus on the night after the decease the friends will assemble outside the house, and a sorcerer will address the ghost and request him to name the author of his death. If the ghost, as sometimes happens, makes no reply, the sorcerer will jog his memory by calling out the name of some suspected person; and should the ghost still be silent, the wizard will name another and another, till at the mention of one name a tapping sound is heard like the drumming of fingers on a board or on a mat The sound may proceed from the house or from a pearl shell which the sorcerer holds in his hand; but come from where it may, it is taken as a certain proof that the man who has just been named did the deed, and he is dealt with accordingly. Many a poor wretch in New Britain has been killed and eaten on no other evidence than that of the fatal tapping.[⁶⁴¹]

Burial customs in the Duke of York Island. Preservation of the skull.

When a man of mark is buried in the Duke of York Island, the masters of sorcery take leaves, spit on them, and throw them, with a number of poisonous things, into the grave, uttering at the same time loud imprecations on the wicked enchanter who has killed their friend. Then they go and bathe, and returning they fall to cursing again; and if the miscreant survived the first imprecations, it is regarded as perfectly certain that he will fall a victim to the second. Sometimes, when the deceased was a chief distinguished for bravery and wisdom, his corpse would be exposed on a high platform in front of his house and left there to rot, while his relatives sat around and inhaled the stench, conceiving that with it they absorbed the courage and skill of the departed worthy. Some of them would even anoint their bodies with the drippings from the putrefying corpse for the same purpose. The women also made fires that the ghost might warm himself at them. When the head became detached from the trunk, it was carefully preserved by the next of kin, while the other remains were buried in a shallow grave in the house. All the female relatives blackened their dusky faces for a long time, after which the skull was put on a platform, a great feast was held, and dances were performed for many nights in its honour. Then at last the spirit of the dead man, which till that time was supposed to be lingering about his old abode, took his departure, and his friends troubled themselves about him no more.[⁶⁴²]

Prayers to the spirits of the dead.

The souls of the dead are always regarded by these people as beings whose help can be invoked on special occasions, such as fighting or fishing or any other matter of importance; and since the spirits whom they invoke are always those of their own kindred they are presumed to be friendly to the petitioners. The objects for which formal prayers are addressed to the souls of ancestors appear to be always temporal benefits, such as victory over enemies and plenty of food; prayers for the promotion of moral virtue are seemingly unknown. For example, if a woman laboured hard in childbirth, she was thought to be bewitched, and prayers would be offered to the spirits of dead ancestors to counteract the spell. Again, young men are instructed by their elders in the useful art of cursing the enemies of the tribe; and among a rich variety of imprecations an old man will invoke the spirit of his brother, father, or uncle, or all of them, to put their fingers into the ears of the enemy that he may not hear, to cover his eyes that he may not see, and to stop his mouth that he may not cry for help, but may fall an easy prey to the curser and his friends.[⁶⁴³] More amiable and not less effectual are the prayers offered to the spirits of the dead over a sick man. At the mention of each name in the prayer the supplicants make a chirping or hissing sound, and rub lime over the patient. Before administering medicine they pray over it to the spirits of the dead; then the patient gulps it down, thus absorbing the virtue of the medicine and of the prayer in one. In New Britain they reinforce the prayers to the dead in time of need by wearing the jawbone of the deceased; and in the Duke of York Island people often wear a tooth or some hair of a departed relative, not merely as a mark of respect, but as a magical means of obtaining supernatural help.[⁶⁴⁴]

North Melanesian views as to the land of the dead.

Sooner or later the souls of all the North Melanesian dead take their departure for the spirit land. But the information which has reached the living as to that far country is at once vague and inconsistent. They call it Matana nion, but whereabout it lies they cannot for the most part precisely tell. All they know for certain is that it is far away, and that there is always some particular spot in the neighbourhood from which the souls take their departure; for example, the Duke of York ghosts invariably start from the little island of Nuruan, near Mioko. Wherever it may be, the land of souls is divided into compartments; people who have died of sickness or witchcraft go to one place, and people who have been killed in battle go to another. They do not go unattended; for when a man dies two friends sleep beside his corpse the first night, one on each side, and their spirits are believed to accompany the soul of the dead man to the spirit land. They say that on their arrival in the far country, betel-nut is presented to them all, but the two living men refuse to partake of it, because they know that were they to eat it they would return no more to the land of the living. When they do return, they have often, as might be expected, strange tales to tell of what they saw among the ghosts. The principal personage in the other world is called the "keeper of souls." It is said that once on a time the masterful ghost of a dead chief attempted to usurp the post of warden of the dead; in pursuance of this ambitious project he attacked the warden with a tomahawk and cut off one of his legs, but the amputated limb immediately reunited itself with the body; and a second amputation was followed by the same disappointing result. Life in the other world is reported to be very like life in this world. Some people find it very dismal, and others very beautiful. Those who were rich here will be rich there, and those who were poor on earth will be poor in Hades. As to any moral retribution which may overtake evil-doers in the life to come, their ideas are very vague; only they are sure that the ghosts of the niggardly will be punished by being dumped very hard against the buttress-roots of chestnut-trees. They say, too, that all breaches of etiquette or of the ordinary customs of the country will meet with certain appropriate punishments in the spirit land. When the soul has thus done penance, it takes possession of the body of some animal, for instance, the flying-fox. Hence a native is much alarmed if he should be sitting under a tree from which a flying-fox has been frightened away. Should anything drop from the bat or from the tree on which it was hanging, he would look on it as an omen of good or ill according to the nature of the thing which fell on or near him. If it were useless or dirty, he would certainly apprehend some serious misfortune. Sometimes when a man dies and his soul arrives in the spirit land, his friends do not want him there and drive him back to earth, so he comes to life again. That is the explanation which the natives give of what we call the recovery of consciousness after a faint or swoon.[⁶⁴⁵]

The land of the dead. State of the dead in the other world supposed to depend on the amount of money they left in this one.

Some of the natives of the Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain imagine that the home of departed spirits is in Nakanei, the part of the coast to which they sail to get their shell money. Others suppose that it is in the islands off Cape Takes. So when they are sailing past these islands they dip the paddles softly in the water, and observe a death-like stillness, cowering down in the canoes, lest the ghosts should spy them and do them a mischief. At the entrance to these happy isles is posted a stern watchman to see that no improper person sneaks into them. To every ghost that arrives he puts three questions, "Who are you? Where do you come from? How much shell money did you leave behind you?" On his answers to these three questions hangs the fate of the ghost. If he left much money, he is free to enter the realm of bliss, where he will pass the time with other happy souls smoking and eating and enjoying other sensual delights. But if he left little or no money, he is banished the earthly paradise and sent home to roam like a wild beast in the forest, battening on leaves and filth. With bitter sighs and groans he prowls about the villages at night and seeks to avenge himself by scaring or plaguing the survivors. To stay his hunger and appease his wrath relatives or friends will sometimes set forth food for him to devour. Yet even for such an impecunious soul there is hope; for if somebody only takes pity on him and gives a feast in his honour and distributes shell money to the guests, the ghost may return to the islands of the blest, and the door will be thrown open to him.[⁶⁴⁶]

Fiji and the Fijians.

So much for the belief in immortality as it is reported to exist among the Northern Melanesians of New Britain and the Bismarck Archipelago. We now pass to the consideration of a similar belief among another people of the same stock, who have been longer known to Europe, the Fijians. The archipelago which they occupy lies to the east of the New Hebrides and forms in fact the most easterly outpost of the black Melanesian race in the Pacific. Beyond it to the eastward are situated the smaller archipelagoes of Samoa and Tonga, inhabited by branches of the brown Polynesian race, whose members are scattered over the islands of the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the south. Of all the branches of the Melanesian stock the Fijians at the date of their discovery by Europeans appear to have made the greatest advance in culture, material, social, and political. "The Fijian," says one who knew him long and intimately, "takes no mean place among savages in the social scale. Long before the white man visited his shores he had made very considerable progress towards civilisation. His intersexual code had advanced to the 'patriarchal stage': he was a skilful and diligent husbandman, who carried out extensive and laborious agricultural operations: he built good houses, whose interior he ornamented with no little taste, carved his weapons in graceful and intricate forms, manufactured excellent pottery, beat out from the inner bark of a tree a serviceable papyrus-cloth, upon which he printed, from blocks either carved or ingeniously pieced together, elegant and elaborate patterns in fast colours; and, with tools no better than a stone hatchet, a pointed shell, and a firestick, he constructed large canoes capable of carrying more than a hundred warriors across the open sea."[⁶⁴⁷]

Political superiority of the Fijians over the other Melanesians.

Politically the Fijians shewed their superiority to all the other Melanesians in the advance they had made towards a regular and organised government. While among the other branches of the same race government can hardly be said to exist, the power of chiefs being both slender and precarious, in Fiji the highest chiefs exercised despotic sway and received from Europeans the title of kings. The people had no voice in the state; the will of the king was generally law, and his person was sacred. Whatever he touched or wore became thereby holy and had to be made over to him; nobody else could afterwards touch it without danger of being struck dead on the spot as if by an electric shock. One king took advantage of this superstition by dressing up an English sailor in his royal robes and sending him about to throw his sweeping train over any article of food, whether dead or alive, which he might chance to come near. The things so touched were at once conveyed to the king without a word of explanation being required or a single remonstrance uttered. Some of the kings laid claim to a divine origin and on the strength of the claim exacted and received from their subjects the respect due to deities. In these exorbitant pretensions they were greatly strengthened by the institution of taboo, which lent the sanction of religion to every exertion of arbitrary power.[⁶⁴⁸] Corresponding with the growth of monarchy was the well-marked gradation of social ranks which prevailed in the various tribes from the king downwards through chiefs, warriors, and landholders, to slaves. The resulting political constitution has been compared to the old feudal system of Europe.[⁶⁴⁹]

Means of subsistence of the Fijians. Ferocity and depravity of the Fijians.

Like the other peoples of the Melanesian stock the Fijians subsist chiefly by agriculture, raising many sorts of esculent fruits and roots, particularly yams, taro, plantains, bread-fruit, sweet potatoes, bananas, coco-nuts, ivi nuts, and sugar-cane; but the chief proportion of their food is derived from yams (Dioscorea), of which they cultivate five or six varieties.[⁶⁵⁰] It has been observed that "the increase of cultivated plants is regular on receding from the Hawaiian group up to Fiji, where roots and fruits are found that are unknown on the more eastern islands."[⁶⁵¹] Yet the Fijians in their native state, like all other Melanesian and Polynesian peoples, were entirely ignorant of the cereals; and in the opinion of a competent observer the consequent defect in their diet has contributed to the serious defects in their national character. The cereals, he tells us, are the staple food of all races that have left their mark in history; and on the other hand "the apathy and indolence of the Fijians arise from their climate, their diet and their communal institutions. The climate is too kind to stimulate them to exertion, their food imparts no staying power. The soil gives the means of existence for every man without effort, and the communal institutions destroy the instinct of accumulation."[⁶⁵²] Nor are apathy and indolence the only or the worst features in the character of these comparatively advanced savages. Their ferocity, cruelty, and moral depravity are depicted in dark colours by those who had the best opportunity of knowing them in the old days before their savagery was mitigated by contact with a milder religious faith and a higher civilisation. "In contemplating the character of this extraordinary portion of mankind," says one observer, "the mind is struck with wonder and awe at the mixture of a complicated and carefully conducted political system, highly finished manners, and ceremonious politeness, with a ferocity and practice of savage vices which is probably unparalleled in any other part of the world."[⁶⁵³] One of the first civilised men to gain an intimate acquaintance with the Fijians draws a melancholy contrast between the baseness and vileness of the people and the loveliness of the land in which they live.[⁶⁵⁴]

Scenery of the Fijian islands.

For the Fijian islands are exceedingly beautiful. They are of volcanic origin, mostly high and mountainous, but intersected by picturesque valleys, clothed with woods, and festooned with the most luxuriant tropical vegetation. "Among their attractions," we are told, "are high mountains, abrupt precipices, conical hills, fantastic turrets and crags of rock frowning down like olden battlements, vast domes, peaks shattered into strange forms; native towns on eyrie cliffs, apparently inaccessible; and deep ravines, down which some mountain stream, after long murmuring in its stony bed, falls headlong, glittering as a silver line on a block of jet, or spreading like a sheet of glass over bare rocks which refuse it a channel. Here also are found the softer features of rich vales, cocoa-nut groves, clumps of dark chestnuts, stately palms and bread-fruit, patches of graceful bananas or well-tilled taro-beds, mingling in unchecked luxuriance, and forming, with the wild reef-scenery of the girdling shore, its beating surf, and far-stretching ocean beyond, pictures of surpassing beauty."[⁶⁵⁵] Each island is encircled by a reef of white coral, on which the sea breaks, with a thunderous roar, in curling sheets of foam; while inside the reef stretches the lagoon, a calm lake of blue crystalline water revealing in its translucent depths beautiful gardens of seaweed and coral which fill the beholder with delighted wonder. Great and sudden is the contrast experienced by the mariner when he passes in a moment from the tossing, heaving, roaring billows without into the unbroken calm of the quiet haven within the barrier reef.[⁶⁵⁶]

Fijian doctrine of souls.

Like most savages, the Fijians believed that man is animated by a soul which quits his body temporarily in sleep and permanently at death, to survive for a longer or a shorter time in a disembodied state thereafter. Indeed, they attributed souls to animals, vegetables, stones, tools, houses, canoes, and many other things, allowing that all of them may become immortal.[⁶⁵⁷] On this point I will quote the evidence of one of the earliest and best authorities on the customs and beliefs of the South Sea Islanders. "There seems," says William Mariner, "to be a wide difference between the opinions of the natives in the different clusters of the South Sea islands respecting the future existence of the soul. Whilst the Tonga doctrine limits immortality to chiefs, matabooles, and at most, to mooas, the Fiji doctrine, with abundant liberality, extends it to all mankind, to all brute animals, to all vegetables, and even to stones and mineral substances. If an animal or a plant die, its soul immediately goes to Bolotoo; if a stone or any other substance is broken, immortality is equally its reward; nay, artificial bodies have equal good luck with men, and hogs, and yams. If an axe or a chisel is worn out or broken up, away flies its soul for the service of the gods. If a house is taken down, or any way destroyed, its immortal part will find a situation on the plains of Bolotoo; and, to confirm this doctrine, the Fiji people can show you a sort of natural well, or deep hole in the ground, at one of their islands, across the bottom of which runs a stream of water, in which you may clearly perceive the souls of men and women, beasts and plants, of stocks and stones, canoes and houses, and of all the broken utensils of this frail world, swimming or rather tumbling along one over the other pell-mell into the regions of immortality. Such is the Fiji philosophy, but the Tonga people deny it, unwilling to think that the residence of the gods should be encumbered with so much useless rubbish. The natives of Otaheite entertain similar notions respecting these things, viz. that brutes, plants, and stones exist hereafter, but it is not mentioned that they extend the idea to objects of human invention."[⁶⁵⁸]

Reported Fijian doctrine of two human souls, a light one and a dark one.

According to one account, the Fijians imagined that every man has two souls, a dark soul, consisting of his shadow, and a light soul, consisting of his reflection in water or a looking-glass: the dark soul departs at death to Hades, while the light soul stays near the place where he died or was killed. "Probably," says Thomas Williams, "this doctrine of shadows has to do with the notion of inanimate objects having spirits. I once placed a good-looking native suddenly before a mirror. He stood delighted. 'Now,' said he, softly, 'I can see into the world of spirits.'"[⁶⁵⁹] However, according to another good authority this distinction of two human souls rests merely on a misapprehension of the Fijian word for shadow, yaloyalo, which is a reduplication of yalo, the word for soul.[⁶⁶⁰] Apparently the Fijians pictured to themselves the human soul as a miniature of the man himself. This may be inferred from the customs observed at the death of a chief among the Nakelo tribe. When a chief dies, certain men who are the hereditary undertakers call him, as he lies, oiled and ornamented, on fine mats, saying, "Rise, sir, the chief, and let us be going. The day has come over the land." Then they conduct him to the river side, where the ghostly ferryman comes to ferry Nakelo ghosts across the stream. As they attend the chief on his last journey, they hold their great fans close to the ground to shelter him, because, as one of them explained to a missionary, "His soul is only a little child."[⁶⁶¹]

Absence of the soul in sleep. Catching the soul of a rascal in a scarf.

The souls of some men were supposed to quit their bodies in sleep and enter into the bodies of other sleepers, troubling and disturbing them. A soul that had contracted this bad habit was called a yalombula. When any one fainted or died, his vagrant spirit might, so the Fijians thought, be induced to come back by calling after it. Sometimes, on awaking from a nap, a stout man might be seen lying at full length and bawling out lustily for the return of his own soul.[⁶⁶²] In the windward islands of Fiji there used to be an ordeal called yalovaki which was much dreaded by evil-doers. When the evidence was strong against suspected criminals, and they stubbornly refused to confess, the chief, who was also the judge, would call for a scarf, with which "to catch away the soul of the rogue." A threat of the rack could not have been more effectual. The culprit generally confessed at the sight and even the mention of the light instrument; but if he did not, the scarf would be waved over his head until his soul was caught in it like a moth or a fly, after which it would be carefully folded up and nailed to the small end of a chief's canoe, and for want of his soul the suspected person would pine and die.[⁶⁶³]

Fijian dread of sorcery and witchcraft.

Further, the Fijians, like many other savages, stood in great terror of witchcraft, believing that the sorcerer had it in his power to kill them by the practice of his nefarious art. "Of all their superstitions," says Thomas Williams, "this exerts the strongest influence on the minds of the people. Men who laugh at the pretensions of the priest tremble at the power of the wizard; and those who become christians lose this fear last of all the relics of their heathenism."[⁶⁶⁴] Indeed "native agents of the mission who, in the discharge of their duty, have boldly faced death by open violence, have been driven from their posts by their dread of the sorcerer; and my own observation confirms the statement of more than one observer that savages not unfrequently die of fear when they think themselves bewitched."[⁶⁶⁵] Professed practitioners of witchcraft were dreaded by all classes, and by destroying mutual confidence they annulled the comfort and shook the security of society. Almost all sudden deaths were set down to their machinations. A common mode of effecting their object was to obtain a shred of the clothing of the man they intended to bewitch, some refuse of his food, a lock of his hair, or some other personal relic; having got it they wrapped it up in certain leaves, and then cooked or buried it or hung it up in the forest; whereupon the victim was supposed to die of a wasting disease. Another way was to bury a coco-nut, with the eye upward, beneath the hearth of the temple, on which a fire was kept constantly burning; and as the life of the nut was destroyed, so the health of the person whom the nut represented would fail till death put an end to his sufferings. "The native imagination," we are told, "is so absolutely under the control of fear of these charms, that persons, hearing that they were the object of such spells, have lain down on their mats, and died through fear."[⁶⁶⁶] To guard against the fell craft of the magician the people resorted to many precautions. A man who suspected another of plotting against him would be careful not to eat in his presence or at all events to leave no morsel of food behind, lest the other should secrete it and bewitch him by it; and for the same reason people disposed of their garments so that no part could be removed; and when they had their hair cut they generally hid the clippings in the thatch of their own houses. Some even built themselves a small hut and surrounded it with a moat, believing that a little water had power to neutralise the charms directed against them.[⁶⁶⁷]

The fear of sorcery has had the beneficial effect of enforcing habits of personal cleanliness.

"In the face of such instances as these," says one who knows the Fijians well, "it demands some courage to assert that upon the whole the belief in witchcraft was formerly a positive advantage to the community. It filled, in fact, the place of a system of sanitation. The wizard's tools consisting in those waste matters that are inimical to health, every man was his own scavenger. From birth to old age a man was governed by this one fear; he went into the sea, the graveyard or the depths of the forest to satisfy his natural wants; he burned his cast-off malo; he gave every fragment left over from his food to the pigs; he concealed even the clippings of his hair in the thatch of his house. This ever-present fear even drove women in the western districts out into the forest for the birth of their children, where fire destroyed every trace of their lying-in. Until Christianity broke it down, the villages were kept clean; there were no festering rubbish-heaps nor filthy raras."[⁶⁶⁸]

Fijian dread of ghosts. Uproar made to drive away ghosts.

Of apparitions the Fijians used to be very much afraid. They believed that the ghosts of the dead appeared often and afflicted mankind, especially in sleep. The spirits of slain men, unchaste women, and women who died in childbed were most dreaded. After a death people have been known to hide themselves for a few days, until they supposed the soul of the departed was at rest. Also they shunned the places where people had been murdered, particularly when it rained, because then the moans of the ghost could be heard as he sat up, trying to relieve his pain by resting his poor aching head on the palms of his hands. Some however said that the moans were caused by the soul of the murderer knocking down the soul of his victim, whenever the wretched spirit attempted to get up.[⁶⁶⁹] When Fijians passed a spot in the forest where a man had been clubbed to death, they would sometimes throw leaves on it as a mark of homage to his spirit, believing that they would soon be killed themselves if they failed in thus paying their respects to the ghost.[⁶⁷⁰] And after they had buried a man alive, as they very often did, these savages used at nightfall to make a great din with large bamboos, trumpet-shells, and so forth, in order to drive away his spirit and deter him from loitering about his old home. "The uproar is always held in the late habitation of the deceased, the reason being that as no one knows for a certainty what reception he will receive in the invisible world, if it is not according to his expectations he will most likely repent of his bargain and wish to come back. For that reason they make a great noise to frighten him away, and dismantle his former habitation of everything that is attractive, and clothe it with everything that to their ideas seems repulsive."[⁶⁷¹]

Killing a ghost.

However, stronger measures were sometimes resorted to. It was believed to be possible to kill a troublesome ghost. Once it happened that many chiefs feasted in the house of Tanoa, King of Ambau. In the course of the evening one of them related how he had slain a neighbouring chief. That very night, having occasion to leave the house, he saw, as he believed, the ghost of his victim, hurled his club at him, and killed him stone dead. On his return to the house he roused the king and the rest of the inmates from their slumbers, and recounted his exploit. The matter was deemed of high importance, and they all sat on it in solemn conclave. Next morning a search was made for the club on the scene of the murder; it was found and carried with great pomp and parade to the nearest temple, where it was laid up for a perpetual memorial. Everybody was firmly persuaded that by this swashing blow the ghost had been not only killed but annihilated.[⁶⁷²]

Dazing the ghost of a grandfather.

A more humane method of dealing with an importunate ghost used to be adopted in Vanua-levu, the largest but one of the Fijian islands. In that island, as a consequence, it is said, of reckoning kinship through the mother, a child was considered to be more closely related to his grandfather than to his father. Hence when a grandfather died, his ghost naturally desired to carry off the soul of his grandchild with him to the spirit land. The wish was creditable to the warmth of his domestic affection, but if the survivors preferred to keep the child with them a little longer in this vale of tears, they took steps to baffle grandfather's ghost. For this purpose when the old man's body was stretched on the bier and raised on the shoulders of half-a-dozen stout young fellows, the mother's brother would take the grandchild in his arms and begin running round and round the corpse. Round and round he ran, and grandfather's ghost looked after him, craning his neck from side to side and twisting it round and round in the vain attempt to follow the rapid movements of the runner. When the ghost was supposed to be quite giddy with this unwonted exercise, the mother's brother made a sudden dart away with the child in his arms, the bearers fairly bolted with the corpse to the grave, and before he could collect his scattered wits grandfather was safely landed in his long home.[⁶⁷³]

Special relation of grandfather to grandchild. Soul of a grandfather reborn in his grandchildren.

Mr. Fison, who reports this quaint mode of bilking a ghost, explains the special attachment of the grandfather to his grandchild by the rule of female descent which survives in Vanua-levu; and it is true that where exogamy prevails along with female descent, a child regularly belongs to the exogamous class of its grandfather and not of its father and hence may be regarded as more closely akin to the grandfather than to the father. But on the other hand it is to be observed that exogamy at present is unknown in Fiji, and at most its former prevalence in the islands can only be indirectly inferred from relics of totemism and from the existence of the classificatory system of relationship.[⁶⁷⁴] Perhaps the real reason why in Vanua-levu a dead grandfather is so anxious to carry off the soul of his living grandchild lies nearer to hand in the apparently widespread belief that the soul of the grandfather is actually reborn in his grandchild. For example, in Nukahiva, one of the Marquesas Islands, every one "is persuaded that the soul of a grandfather is transmitted by nature into the body of his grandchildren; and that, if an unfruitful wife were to place herself under the corpse of her deceased grandfather, she would be sure to become pregnant."[⁶⁷⁵] Again, the Kayans of Borneo "believe in the reincarnation of the soul, although this belief is not clearly harmonised with the belief in the life in another world. It is generally believed that the soul of a grandfather may pass into one of his grandchildren, and an old man will try to secure the passage of his soul to a favourite grandchild by holding it above his head from time to time. The grandfather usually gives up his name to his eldest grandson, and reassumes the original name of his childhood with the prefix or title Laki, and the custom seems to be connected with this belief or hope."[⁶⁷⁶]

A dead grandfather may reasonably reclaim his own soul from his grandchild.

Now where such a belief is held, it seems reasonable enough that a dead grandfather should reclaim his own soul for his personal use before he sets out for the spirit land; else how could he expect to be admitted to that blissful abode if on arriving at the portal he were obliged to explain to the porter that he had no soul about him, having left that indispensable article behind in the person of his grandchild? "Then you had better go back and fetch it. There is no admission at this gate for people without souls." Such might very well be the porter's retort; and foreseeing it any man of ordinary prudence would take the precaution of recovering his lost spiritual property before presenting himself to the Warden of the Dead. This theory would sufficiently account for the otherwise singular behaviour of grandfather's ghost in Vanua-levu. At the same time it must be admitted that the theory of the reincarnation of a grandfather in a grandson would be suggested more readily in a society where the custom of exogamy was combined with female descent than in one where the same custom coexisted with male descent; since, given exogamy and female descent, grandfather and grandson regularly belong to the same exogamous class, whereas father and son never do so.[⁶⁷⁷] Thus Mr. Fison may after all be right in referring the partiality of a Fijian grandfather for his grandson in the last resort to a system of exogamy and female kinship.

Footnote 627:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, D.D., Melanesians and Polynesians (London, 1910), pp. 23 sq., 125, 320 sqq.

Footnote 628:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 294 sqq.; P. A. Kleintitschen, Die Küstenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel (Hiltrup bei Münster, N.D.), pp. 90 sqq. The shell money is called tambu in New Britain, diwara in the Duke of York Island, and aringit in New Ireland.

Footnote 629:[ (return) ]
Rev. G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 307, 313, 435, 436.

Footnote 630:[ (return) ]
Rev. G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 270 sq., compare pp. 127, 200.

Footnote 631:[ (return) ]
Rev. G. Brown, op. cit. pp. v., 18.

Footnote 632:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 141 sq., 144, 145, 190-193.

Footnote 633:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 142, 192, 385, 386 sq.

Footnote 634:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. p. 390. The custom of cremating the dead in New Ireland is described more fully by Mr. R. Parkinson, who says that the life-sized figures which are burned with the corpse represent the deceased (Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee, pp. 273 sqq.). In the central part of New Ireland the dead are buried in the earth; afterwards the bones are dug up and thrown into the sea. See Albert Hahl, "Das mittlere Neumecklenburg," Globus, xci. (1907) p. 314.

Footnote 635:[ (return) ]
R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (Stuttgart, 1907) p. 78; P. A. Kleintitschen, Die Küstenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel (Hiltrup bei Münster, N.D.), p. 222.

Footnote 636:[ (return) ]
Mgr. Couppé, "En Nouvelle-Poméranie," Les Missions Catholiques, xxiii. (1891) pp. 364 sq.; J. Graf Pfeil, Studien und Beobachtungen aus der Südsee (Brunswick, 1899), p. 79.

Footnote 637:[ (return) ]
R. Parkinson, op. cit. p. 81.

Footnote 638:[ (return) ]
P. Rascher, M.S.C., "Die Sulka, ein Beitrag zur Ethnographic Neu-Pommern," Archiv für Anthropologie, xxix. (1904) pp. 214 sq., 216; R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee, pp. 185-187.

Footnote 639:[ (return) ]
R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee, pp. 404-406.

Footnote 640:[ (return) ]
R. Parkinson, op. cit. pp. 441 sq.

Footnote 641:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 176, 183, 385 sq. As to the wide-spread belief in New Britain that what we call natural deaths are brought about by sorcery, see further P. Rascher, M.S.C., "Die Sulka, ein Beitrag zur Ethnographic Neu-Pommern," Archiv für Ethnographie, xxix. (1904) pp. 221 sq.; R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee, pp. 117 sq. 199-201; P. A. Kleintitschen, Die Küsten-bewohner der Gazellehalbinsel (Hiltrup bei Münster, N.D.), p. 215.

Footnote 642:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 387-390.

Footnote 643:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 35, 89, 196, 201.

Footnote 644:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 177, 183, 184.

Footnote 645:[ (return) ]
G. Brown, op. cit. pp. 192-195.

Footnote 646:[ (return) ]
P. A. Kleintitschen, Die Küstenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel, pp. 225 sq. Compare R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee, p. 79.

Footnote 647:[ (return) ]
Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji (London, 1904), p. xiv.

Footnote 648:[ (return) ]
Thomas Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, Second Edition (London, 1860), i. 22-26.

Footnote 649:[ (return) ]
Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iii. 77; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 18.

Footnote 650:[ (return) ]
Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iii. 332 sqq.; Thomas Williams Fiji and the Fijians, Second Edition (London, 1860), i. 60 sqq.; Berthold Seeman, Viti (Cambridge, 1862), pp. 279 sqq.; Basil Thomson, The Fijians (London, 1908), pp. 335 sq.

Footnote 651:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 60 sq.

Footnote 652:[ (return) ]
Basil Thomson, The Fijians, pp. 338, 389 sq. The Fijians are in the main vegetarians, but the vegetables which they cultivate "contain a large proportion of starch and water, and are deficient in proteids. Moreover, the supply of the principal staples is irregular, being greatly affected by variable seasons, and the attacks of insects and vermin. Very few of them will bear keeping, and almost all of them must be eaten when ripe. As the food is of low nutritive value, a native always eats to repletion. In times of plenty a full-grown man will eat as much as ten pounds' weight of vegetables in the day; he will seldom be satisfied with less than five. A great quantity, therefore, is required to feed a very few people, and as everything is transported by hand, a disproportionate amount of time is spent in transporting food from the plantation to the consumer. The time spent in growing native food is also out of all proportion to its value" (Basil Thomson, op. cit. pp. 334 sq.). The same writer tells us (p. 335) that it has never occurred to the Fijians to dry any of the fruits they grow and to grind them into flour, as is done in Africa.

Footnote 653:[ (return) ]
Capt. J. E. Erskine, Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific (London, 1853), pp. 272 sq.

Footnote 654:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 46, 363. As to the cruelty and depravity of the Fijians in the old days see further Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji (London, 1904), pp. xv. sqq.

Footnote 655:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 6 sq. As to the scenery of the Fijian archipelago see further id., i. 4 sqq.; Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 46, 322; Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, Australasia, vol. ii. Malaysia and the Pacific Archipelago, edited by F. H. H. Guillemard (London, 1894), pp. 467 sqq.; Miss Beatrice Grimshaw, From Fiji to the Cannibal Islands (London, 1907), pp. 43 sq., 54 sq., 76-78, 106, 109 sq.

Footnote 656:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 5 sq., 11; Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 46 sq. However, there is a remarkable difference not only in climate but in appearance between the windward and the leeward sides of these islands. The windward side, watered by abundant showers, is covered with luxuriant tropical vegetation; the leeward side, receiving little rain, presents a comparatively barren and burnt appearance, the vegetation dying down to the grey hues of the boulders among which it struggles for life. Hence the dry leeward side is better adapted for European settlement. See Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 320 sq.; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 10; B. Seeman, Viti, an Account of a Government Mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands in the years 1860-1861 (Cambridge, 1862), pp. 277 sq.

Footnote 657:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 241; J. E. Erskine, op. cit. p. 249; B. Seeman, Viti (Cambridge, 1862), p. 398.

Footnote 658:[ (return) ]
William Mariner, An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, Second Edition (London, 1818), ii. 129 sq. The matabooles were a sort of honourable attendants on chiefs and ranked next to them in the social hierarchy; the mooas were the next class of people below the matabooles. See W. Mariner, op. cit. ii. 84, 86. Bolotoo or Bulu was the mythical land of the dead.

Footnote 659:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 241.

Footnote 660:[ (return) ]
This is the opinion of my late friend, the Rev. Lorimer Fison, which he communicated to me in a letter dated 26th August, 1898.

Footnote 661:[ (return) ]
Communication of the late Rev. Lorimer Fison in a letter to me dated 3rd November, 1898. I have already published it in Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 29 sq.

Footnote 662:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 242; Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji, pp. 163 sq.; Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 39 sq.

Footnote 663:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 250.

Footnote 664:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 248.

Footnote 665:[ (return) ]
Lorimer Fison, op. cit. p. xxxii.

Footnote 666:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 248 sq.; Lorimer Fison, op. cit. pp. xxxi. sq.

Footnote 667:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 249.

Footnote 668:[ (return) ]
Basil Thomson, The Fijians (London, 1908), p. 166. A rara is a public square (Rev. Lorimer Fison, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiv. (1885) p. 17).

Footnote 669:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 241.

Footnote 670:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 50.

Footnote 671:[ (return) ]
Narrative of John Jackson, in Capt. J. E. Erskine's Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific (London, 1853), p. 477.

Footnote 672:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 85.

Footnote 673:[ (return) ]
Lorimer Fison, op. cit. pp. 168 sq.

Footnote 674:[ (return) ]
W. H. R. Rivers, "Totemism in Fiji," Man, viii. (1908) pp. 133 sqq.; Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 134 sqq.

Footnote 675:[ (return) ]
U. Lisiansky, A Voyage Round the World (London, 1814), p. 89.

Footnote 676:[ (return) ]
Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London, 1912), ii. 47.

Footnote 677:[ (return) ]
Compare Totemism and Exogamy, iii. 297-299.

LECTURE XIX

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE NATIVES OF EASTERN MELANESIA (FIJI) (continued)

Fijian indifference to death.

At the close of last lecture I illustrated the unquestioning belief which the Fijians entertain with regard to the survival of the human soul after death. "The native superstitions with regard to a future state," we are told, "go far to explain the apparent indifference of the people about death; for, while believing in an eternal existence, they shut out from it the idea of any moral retribution in the shape either of reward or punishment. The first notion concerning death is that of simple rest, and is thus contained in one of their rhymes:—

"Death is easy:

Of what use is life?

To die is rest."[⁶⁷⁸]

Again, another writer, speaking of the Fijians, says that "in general, the passage from life to death is considered as one from pain to happiness, and I was informed that nine out of ten look forward to it with anxiety, in order to escape from the infirmities of old age, or the sufferings of disease."[⁶⁷⁹]

John Jackson's account of the burying alive of a young Fijian man. Son buried alive by his father.

The cool indifference with which the Fijians commonly regarded their own death and that of other people might be illustrated by many examples. I will give one in the words of an English eye-witness, who lived among these savages for some time like one of themselves. At a place on the coast of Viti Levu, the largest of the Fijian Islands, he says, "I walked into a number of temples, which were very plentiful, and at last into a bure theravou (young man's bure), where I saw a tall young man about twenty years old. He appeared to be somewhat ailing, but not at all emaciated. He was rolling up the mat he had been sleeping upon, evidently preparing to go away somewhere. I addressed him, and asked him where he was going, when he immediately answered that he was going to be buried. I observed that he was not dead yet, but he said he soon should be dead when he was put under ground. I asked him why he was going to be buried? He said it was three days since he had eaten anything, and consequently he was getting very thin; and that if he lived any longer he would be much thinner, and then the women would call him a lila (skeleton), and laugh at him. I said he was a fool to throw himself away for fear of being laughed at; and asked him what or who his private god was, knowing it to be no use talking to him about Providence, a thing he had never heard of. He said his god was a shark, and that if he were cast away in a canoe and was obliged to swim, the sharks would not bite him. I asked him if he believed the shark, his god, had any power to act over him? He said yes. 'Well then,' said I, 'why do you not live a little longer, and trust to your god to give you an appetite?' Finding that he could not give me satisfactory answers, and being determined to get buried to avoid the jeers of the ladies, which to a Feejeean are intolerable, he told me I knew nothing about it, and that I must not compare him to a white man, who was generally insensible to all shame, and did not care how much he was laughed at. I called him a fool, and said the best thing he could do was to get buried out of the way, because I knew that most of them work by the rules of contrary; but it was all to no purpose. By this time all his relations had collected round the door. His father had a kind of wooden spade to dig the grave with, his mother a new suit of tapa [bark-cloth], his sister some vermilion and a whale's tooth, as an introduction to the great god of Rage-Rage. He arose, took up his bed and walked, not for life, but for death, his father, mother, and sister following after, with several other distant relations, whom I accompanied. I noticed that they seemed to follow him something in the same way that they follow a corpse in Europe to the grave (that is, as far as relationship and acquaintance are concerned), but, instead of lamenting, they were, if not rejoicing, acting and chatting in a very unconcerned way. At last we reached a place where several graves could be seen, and a spot was soon selected by the man who was to be buried. The old man, his father, began digging his grave, while his mother assisted her son in putting on a new tapa [bark-cloth], and the girl (his sister) was besmearing him with vermilion and lamp-black, so as to send him decent into the invisible world, he (the victim) delivering messages that were to be taken by his sister to people then absent. His father then announced to him and the rest that the grave was completed, and asked him, in rather a surly tone, if he was not ready by this time. The mother then nosed him, and likewise the sister. He said, 'Before I die, I should like a drink of water.' His father made a surly remark, and said, as he ran to fetch it in a leaf doubled up, 'You have been a considerable trouble during your life, and it appears that you are going to trouble us equally at your death.' The father returned with the water, which the son drank off, and then looked up into a tree covered with tough vines, saying he should prefer being strangled with a vine to being smothered in the grave. His father became excessively angry, and, spreading the mat at the bottom of the grave, told the son to die faka tamata (like a man), when he stepped into the grave, which was not more than four feet deep, and lay down on his back with the whale's tooth in his hands, which were clasped across his belly. The spare sides of the mats were lapped over him so as to prevent the earth from getting to his body, and then about a foot of earth was shovelled in upon him as quickly as possible. His father stamped it immediately down solid, and called out in a loud voice, 'Sa tiko, sa tiko (You are stopping there, you are stopping there),' meaning 'Good-bye, good-bye.' The son answered with a very audible grunt, and then about two feet more earth was shovelled in and stamped as before by the loving father, and 'Sa tiko' called out again, which was answered by another grunt, but much fainter. The grave was then completely filled up, when, for curiosity's sake, I said myself, 'Sa tiko' but no answer was given, although I fancied, or really did see, the earth crack a little on the top of the grave. The father and mother then turned back to back on the middle of the grave, and, having dropped some kind of leaves from their hands, walked away in opposite directions towards a running stream of water hard by, where they and all the rest washed themselves, and made me wash myself, and then we returned to the town, where there was a feast prepared. As soon as the feast was over (it being then dark), began the dance and uproar which are always carried on either at natural or violent deaths."[⁶⁸⁰]

The readiness of the Fijians to die seems to have been partly a consequence of their belief in immortality.

The readiness with which the Fijians submitted to or even sought death appears to have been to some extent a direct consequence of their belief in immortality and of their notions as to the state of the soul hereafter. Thus we are informed by an early observer of this people that "self-immolation is by no means rare, and they believe that as they leave this life, so will they remain ever after. This forms a powerful motive to escape from decrepitude, or from a crippled condition, by a voluntary death."[⁶⁸¹] Or, as another equally early observer puts it more fully, "the custom of voluntary suicide on the part of the old men, which is among their most extraordinary usages, is also connected with their superstitions respecting a future life. They believe that persons enter upon the delights of their elysium with the same faculties, mental and physical, that they possess at the hour of death, in short, that the spiritual life commences where the corporeal existence terminates. With these views, it is natural that they should desire to pass through this change before their mental and bodily powers are so enfeebled by age as to deprive them of their capacity for enjoyment. To this motive must be added the contempt which attaches to physical weakness among a nation of warriors, and the wrongs and insults which await those who are no longer able to protect themselves. When therefore a man finds his strength declining with the advance of age, and feels that he will soon be unequal to discharge the duties of this life, and to partake in the pleasures of that which is to come, he calls together his relations, and tells them that he is now worn out and useless, that he sees they are all ashamed of him, and that he has determined to be buried." So on a day appointed they met and buried him alive.[⁶⁸²]

The sick and aged put to death by their relatives.

The proposal to put the sick and aged to death did not always emanate from the parties principally concerned; when a son, for example, thought that his parents were growing too old and becoming a burden to him, he would give them notice that it was time for them to die, a notice which they usually accepted with equanimity, if not alacrity. As a rule, it was left to the choice of the aged and infirm to say whether they would prefer to be buried alive or to be strangled first and buried afterwards; and having expressed a predilection one way or the other they were dealt with accordingly. To strangle parents or other frail and sickly relatives with a rope was considered a more delicate and affectionate way of dispatching them than to knock them on the head with a club. In the old days the missionary Mr. Hunt witnessed several of these tender partings. "On one occasion, he was called upon by a young man, who desired that he would pray to his spirit for his mother, who was dead. Mr. Hunt was at first in hopes that this would afford him an opportunity of forwarding their great cause. On inquiry, the young man told him that his brothers and himself were just going to bury her. Mr. Hunt accompanied the young man, telling him he would follow in the procession, and do as he desired him, supposing, of course, the corpse would be brought along; but he now met the procession, when the young man said that this was the funeral, and pointed out his mother, who was walking along with them, as gay and lively as any of those present, and apparently as much pleased. Mr. Hunt expressed his surprise to the young man, and asked him how he could deceive him so much by saying his mother was dead, when she was alive and well. He said, in reply, that they had made her death-feast, and were now going to bury her; that she was old; that his brother and himself had thought she had lived long enough, and it was time to bury her, to which she had willingly assented, and they were about it now. He had come to Mr. Hunt to ask his prayers, as they did those of the priest. He added, that it was from love for his mother that he had done so; that, in consequence of the same love, they were now going to bury her, and that none but themselves could or ought to do so sacred an office! Mr. Hunt did all in his power to prevent so diabolical an act; but the only reply he received was, that she was their mother, and they were her children, and they ought to put her to death. On reaching the grave, the mother sat down, when they all, including children, grandchildren, relations, and friends, took an affectionate leave of her; a rope, made of twisted tapa [bark-cloth], was then passed twice around her neck by her sons, who took hold of it, and strangled her; after which she was put into her grave, with the usual ceremonies. They returned to feast and mourn, after which she was entirely forgotten as though she had not existed."[⁶⁸³]

Wives strangled or buried alive at their husbands' funerals.

Again, wives were often strangled, or buried alive, at the funeral of their husbands, and generally at their own instance. Such scenes were frequently witnessed by white residents in the old days. On one occasion a Mr. David Whippy drove away the murderers, rescued the woman, and carried her to his own house, where she was resuscitated. But far from feeling grateful for her preservation, she loaded him with reproaches and ever afterwards manifested the most deadly hatred towards him. "That women should desire to accompany their husbands in death, is by no means strange when it is considered that it is one of the articles of their belief, that in this way alone can they reach the realms of bliss, and she who meets her death with the greatest devotedness, will become the favourite wife in the abode of spirits. The sacrifice is not, however, always voluntary; but, when a woman refuses to be strangled, her relations often compel her to submit. This they do from interested motives; for, by her death, her connexions become entitled to the property of her husband. Even a delay is made a matter of reproach. Thus, at the funeral of the late king Ulivou, which was witnessed by Mr. Cargill, his five wives and a daughter were strangled. The principal wife delayed the ceremony, by taking leave of those around her; whereupon Tanoa, the present king, chid her. The victim was his own aunt, and he assisted in putting the rope around her neck, and strangling her, a service he is said to have rendered on a former occasion to his own mother."[⁶⁸⁴] In the case of men who were drowned at sea or killed and eaten by enemies in war, their wives were sacrificed in the usual way. Thus when Ra Mbithi, the pride of Somosomo, was lost at sea, seventeen of his wives were destroyed; and after the news of a massacre of the Namena people at Viwa in 1839 eighty women were strangled to accompany the spirits of their murdered husbands.[⁶⁸⁵]

Human "grass" for the grave.

The bodies of women who were put to death for this purpose were regularly laid at the bottom of the grave to serve as a cushion for the dead husband to lie upon; in this capacity they were called grass (thotho), being compared to the dried grass which in Fijian houses used to be thickly strewn on the floors and covered with mats.[⁶⁸⁶] On this point, however, a nice distinction was observed. While wives were commonly sacrificed at the death of their husbands, in order to be spread like grass in their graves, it does not transpire that husbands were ever sacrificed at the death of their wives for the sake of serving as grass to their dead spouses in the grave. The great truth that all flesh is grass appears to have been understood by the Fijians as applicable chiefly to the flesh of women. Sometimes a man's mother was strangled as well as his wives. Thus Ngavindi, a young chief of Lasakau, was laid in the grave with a wife at his side, his mother at his feet, and a servant not far off. However, men as well as women were killed to follow their masters to the far country. The confidential companion of a chief was expected as a matter of common decency to die with his lord; and if he shirked the duty, he fell in the public esteem. When Mbithi, a chief of high rank and greatly esteemed in Mathuata, died in the year 1840, not only his wife but five men with their wives were strangled to form the floor of his grave. They were laid on a layer of mats, and the body of the chief was stretched upon them.[⁶⁸⁷] There used to be a family in Vanua Levu which enjoyed the high privilege of supplying a hale man to be buried with the king of Fiji on every occasion of a royal decease. It was quite necessary that the man should be hale and hearty, for it was his business to grapple with the Fijian Cerberus in the other world, while his majesty slipped past into the abode of bliss.[⁶⁸⁸]

Sacrifices of foreskins and fingers in honour of the dead. Circumcision performed on a lad as a propitiatory sacrifice to save the life of his father or father's brother. The rite of circumcision followed by a licentious orgy.

A curious sacrifice offered in honour of a dead chief consisted in the foreskins of all the boys who had arrived at a suitable age; the lads were circumcised on purpose to furnish them. Many boys had their little fingers chopped off on the same occasion, and the severed foreskins and fingers were placed in the chief's grave. When this bloody rite had been performed, the chief's relatives presented young bread-fruit trees to the mutilated boys, whose friends were bound to cultivate them till the boys could do it for themselves.[⁶⁸⁹] Women as well as boys had their fingers cut off in mourning. We read of a case when after the death of a king of Fiji sixty fingers were amputated and being each inserted in a slit reed were stuck along the eaves of the king's house.[⁶⁹⁰] Why foreskins and fingers were buried with a dead chief or stuck up on the roof of his house, we are not informed, and it is not easy to divine. Apparently we must suppose that, when they were buried with the body, they were thought to be of some assistance to the departed spirit in the land of souls. At all events it deserves to be noted that according to a very good authority a similar sacrifice of foreskins used to be made not only for the dead but for the living. When a man of note was dangerously ill, a family council would be held, at which it might be agreed that a circumcision should take place as a propitiatory measure. Notice having been given to the priests, an uncircumcised lad, the sick man's own son or the son of one of his brothers, was then taken by his kinsman to the Vale tambu or God's House, and there presented as a soro, or offering of atonement, in order that his father or father's brother might be made whole. His escort at the same time made a present of valuable property at the shrine and promised much more in future, should their prayers be answered. The present and the promises were graciously received by the priest, who appointed a day on which the operation was to be performed. In the meantime no food might be taken from the plantations except what was absolutely required for daily use; no pigs or fowls might be killed, and no coco-nuts plucked from the trees. Everything, in short, was put under a strict taboo; all was set apart for the great feast which was to follow the performance of the rite. On the day appointed the son or nephew of the sick chief was circumcised, and with him a number of other lads whose friends had agreed to take advantage of the occasion. Their foreskins, stuck in the cleft of a split reed, were taken to the sacred enclosure (Nanga) and presented to the chief priest, who, holding the reeds in his hand, offered them to the ancestral gods and prayed for the sick man's recovery. Then followed a great feast, which ushered in a period of indescribable revelry and licence. All distinctions of property were for the time being suspended. Men and women arrayed themselves in all manner of fantastic garbs, addressed one another in the foulest language, and practised unmentionable abominations openly in the public square of the town. The nearest relationships, even that of own brother and sister, seemed to be no bar to the general licence, the extent of which was indicated by the expressive phrase of an old Nandi chief, who said, "While it lasts, we are just like the pigs." This feasting and orgy might be kept up for several days, after which the ordinary restraints of society and the common decencies of life were observed once more. The rights of private property were again respected; the abandoned revellers and debauchees settled down into staid married couples; and brothers and sisters, in accordance with the regular Fijian etiquette, might not so much as speak to one another. It should be added that these extravagances in connexion with the rite of circumcision appear to have been practised only in certain districts of Viti Levu, the largest of the Fijian Islands, where they were always associated with the sacred stone enclosures which went by the name of Nanga.[⁶⁹¹]

These orgies were apparently associated with the worship of the dead, to whom offerings were made in the Nanga or sacred enclosure of stones.

The meaning of such orgies is very obscure, but from what we know of the savage and his ways we may fairly assume that they were no mere outbursts of unbridled passion, but that in the minds of those who practised them they had a definite significance and served a definite purpose. The one thing that seems fairly clear about them is that in some way they were associated with the worship or propitiation of the dead. At all events we are told on good authority that the Nanga, or sacred enclosure of stones, in which the severed foreskins were offered, was "the Sacred Place where the ancestral spirits are to be found by their worshippers, and thither offerings are taken on all occasions when their aid is to be invoked. Every member of the Nanga has the privilege of approaching the ancestors at any time. When sickness visits himself or his kinsfolk, when he wishes to invoke the aid of the spirits to avert calamity or to secure prosperity, or when he deems it advisable to present a thank-offering, he may enter the Nanga with proper reverence and deposit on the dividing wall his whale's tooth, or bundle of cloth, or dish of toothsome eels so highly prized by the elders, and therefore by the ancestors whose living representatives they are: or he may drag into the Sacred Nanga his fattened pig, or pile up there his offering of the choicest yams. And, having thus recommended himself to the dead, he may invoke their powerful aid, or express his thankfulness for the benefits they have conferred, and beg for a continuance of their goodwill."[⁶⁹²] The first-fruits of the yam harvest were presented with great ceremony to the ancestors in the Nanga before the bulk of the crop was dug for the people's use, and no man might taste of the new yams until the presentation had been made. The yams so offered were piled up in the sacred enclosure and left to rot there. If any one were impious enough to appropriate them to his own use, it was believed that he would be smitten with madness. Great feasts were held at the presentation of the first-fruits; and the sacred enclosure itself was often spoken of as the Mbaki or Harvest.[⁶⁹³]

Periodical initiation of young men in the Nanga.

But the most characteristic and perhaps the most important of the rites performed in the Nanga or sacred stone enclosure was the periodical initiation of young men, who by participation in the ceremony were admitted to the full privileges of manhood. According to one account the ceremony of initiation was performed as a rule only once in two years; according to another account it was observed annually in October or November, when the ndrala tree (Erythrina) was in flower. The flowering of the tree marked the beginning of the Fijian year; hence the novices who were initiated at this season bore the title of Vilavou, that is, "New Year's Men." As a preparation for the feasts which attended the ceremony enormous quantities of yams were garnered and placed under a strict taboo; pigs were fattened in large numbers, and bales of native cloth stored on the tie-beams of the house-roofs. Spears of many patterns and curiously carved clubs were also provided against the festival. On the day appointed the initiated men went first into the sacred enclosure and made their offerings, the chief priest having opened the proceedings by libation and prayer. The heads of the novices were clean shaven, and their beards, if they had any, were also removed. Then each youth was swathed in long rolls of native cloth, and taking a spear in one hand and a club in the other he marched with his comrades, similarly swathed and armed, in procession into the sacred enclosure, though not into its inner compartment, the Holy of Holies. The procession was headed by a priest bearing his carved staff of office, and it was received on the holy ground by the initiates, who sat chanting a song in a deep murmuring tone, which occasionally swelled to a considerable volume of sound and was thought to represent the muffled roar of the surf breaking on a far-away coral reef. On entering the enclosure the youths threw down their weapons before them, and with the help of the initiated men divested themselves of the huge folds of native cloth in which they were enveloped, each man revolving slowly on his axis, while his attendant pulled at the bandage and gathered in the slack. The weapons and the cloth were the offerings presented by the novices to the ancestral spirits for the purpose of rendering themselves acceptable to these powerful beings. The offerings were repeated in like manner on four successive days; and as each youth was merely, as it were, the central roller of a great bale of cloth, the amount of cloth offered was considerable. It was all put away, with the spears and clubs, in the sacred storehouse by the initiated men. A feast concluded each day and was prolonged far into the night.

Ceremony of death and resurrection.

On the fifth day, the last and greatest of the festival, the heads of the young men were shaven again and their bodies swathed in the largest and best rolls of cloth. Then, taking their choicest weapons in their hands, they followed their leader as before into the sacred enclosure. But the outer compartment of the holy place, where on the previous days they had been received by the grand chorus of initiated men, was now silent and deserted. The procession stopped. A dead silence prevailed. Suddenly from the forest a harsh scream of many parrots broke forth, and then followed a mysterious booming sound which filled the souls of the novices with awe. But now the priest moves slowly forward and leads the train of trembling novices for the first time into the inner shrine, the Holy of Holies, the Nanga tambu-tambu. Here a dreadful spectacle meets their startled gaze. In the background sits the high priest, regarding them with a stony stare; and between him and them lie a row of dead men, covered with blood, their bodies seemingly cut open and their entrails protruding. The leader steps over them one by one, and the awestruck youths follow him until they stand in a row before the high priest, their very souls harrowed by his awful glare. Suddenly he utters a great yell, and at the cry the dead men start to their feet, and run down to the river to cleanse themselves from the blood and filth with which they are besmeared. They are initiated men, who represent the departed ancestors for the occasion; and the blood and entrails are those of many pigs that have been slaughtered for that night's revelry. The screams of the parrots and the mysterious booming sound were produced by a concealed orchestra, who screeched appropriately and blew blasts on bamboo trumpets, the mouths of which were partially immersed in water.

Sacrament of food and water.

The dead men having come to life again, the novices offered their weapons and the bales of native cloth in which they were swathed. These were accordingly removed to the storehouse and the young men were made to sit down in front of it. Then the high priest, cheered perhaps by the sight of the offerings, unbent the starched dignity of his demeanour. Skipping from side to side he cried in stridulous tones, "Where are the people of my enclosure? Are they gone to Tongalevu? Are they gone to the deep sea?" He had not called long when an answer rang out from the river in a deep-mouthed song, and soon the singers came in view moving rhythmically to the music of their solemn chant. Singing they filed in and took their places in front of the young men; then silence ensued. After that there entered four old men of the highest order of initiates; the first bore a cooked yam carefully wrapt in leaves so that no part of it should touch the hands of the bearer; the second carried a piece of baked pork similarly enveloped; the third held a drinking-cup of coco-nut shell or earthenware filled with water and wrapt round with native cloth; and the fourth bore a napkin of the same material. Thereupon the first elder passed along the row of novices putting the end of the yam into each of their mouths, and as he did so each of them nibbled a morsel of the sacred food; the second elder did the same with the sacred pork; the third elder followed with the holy water, with which each novice merely wetted his lips; and the rear was brought up by the fourth elder, who wiped all their mouths with his napkin. Then the high priest or one of the elders addressed the young men, warning them solemnly against the sacrilege of divulging to the profane any of the high mysteries they had seen and heard, and threatening all such traitors with the vengeance of the gods.

Presentation of the pig.

That ceremony being over, all the junior initiated men (Lewe ni Nanga) came forward, and each man presented to the novices a yam and a piece of nearly raw pork; whereupon the young men took the food and went away to cook it for eating. When the evening twilight had fallen, a huge pig, which had been specially set aside at a former festival, was dragged into the sacred enclosure and there presented to the novices, together with other swine, if they should be needed to furnish a plenteous repast.

Acceptance of the novices by the ancestral spirits.

The novices were now "accepted members of the Nanga, qualified to take their place among the men of the community, though still only on probation. As children—their childhood being indicated by their shaven heads—they were presented to the ancestors, and their acceptance was notified by what (looking at the matter from the natives' standpoint) we might, without irreverence, almost call the sacrament of food and water, too sacred even for the elders' hands to touch. This acceptance was acknowledged and confirmed on the part of all the Lewe ni Nanga [junior initiated men] by their gift of food, and it was finally ratified by the presentation of the Sacred Pig. In like manner, on the birth of an infant, its father acknowledges it as legitimate, and otherwise acceptable, by a gift of food; and his kinsfolk formally signify approval and confirmation of his decision on the part of the clan by similar presentations."

The initiation followed by a period of sexual license. Sacred pigs.

Next morning the women, their hair dyed red and wearing waistbands of hibiscus or other fibre, came to the sacred enclosure and crawled through it on hands and knees into the Holy of Holies, where the elders were singing their solemn chant. The high priest then dipped his hands into the water of the sacred bowl and prayed to the ancestral spirits for the mothers and for their children. After that the women crawled back on hands and feet the way they had come, singing as they went and creeping over certain mounds of earth which had been thrown up for the purpose in the sacred enclosure. When they emerged from the holy ground, the men and women addressed each other in the vilest language, such as on ordinary occasions would be violently resented; and thenceforth to the close of the ceremonies some days later very great, indeed almost unlimited, licence prevailed between the sexes. During these days a number of pigs were consecrated to serve for the next ceremony. The animals were deemed sacred, and had the run of the fleshpots in the villages in which they were kept. Indeed they were held in the greatest reverence. To kill one, except for sacrifice at the rites in the Nanga, would have been a sacrilege which the Fijian mind refused to contemplate; and on the other hand to feed the holy swine was an act of piety. Men might be seen throwing down basketfuls of food before the snouts of the worshipful pigs, and at the same time calling the attention of the ancestral spirits to the meritorious deed. "Take knowledge of me," they would cry, "ye who lie buried, our heads! I am feeding this pig of yours." Finally, all the men who had taken part in the ceremonies bathed together in the river, carefully cleansing themselves from every particle of the black paint with which they had been bedaubed. When the novices, now novices no more, emerged from the water, the high priest, standing on the river bank, preached to them an eloquent sermon on the duties and responsibilities which devolved on them in their new position.[⁶⁹⁴]

The intention of the initiatory rites seems to be to introduce the young men to the ancestral spirits. The drama of death and resurrection. The Fijian rites of initiation seem to have been imported by Melanesian immigrants from the west.

The general intention of these initiatory rites appears to be, as Mr. Fison has said in the words which I have quoted, to introduce the young men to the ancestral spirits at their sanctuary, to incorporate them, so to say, in the great community which embraces all adult members of the tribe, whether living or dead. At all events this interpretation fits in very well with the prayers which are offered to the souls of departed kinsfolk on these occasions, and it is supported by the analogy of the New Guinea initiatory rites which I described in former lectures; for in these rites, as I pointed out, the initiation of the youths is closely associated with the conceptions of death and the dead, the main feature in the ritual consisting indeed of a simulation of death and subsequent resurrection. It is, therefore, significant that the very same simulation figures prominently in the Fijian ceremony, nay it would seem to be the very pivot on which the whole ritual revolves. Yet there is an obvious and important difference between the drama of death and resurrection as it is enacted in New Guinea and in Fiji; for whereas in New Guinea it is the novices who pretend to die and come to life again, in Fiji the pretence is carried out by initiated men who represent the ancestors, while the novices merely look on with horror and amazement at the awe-inspiring spectacle. Of the two forms of ritual the New Guinea one is probably truer to the original purpose of the rite, which seems to have been to enable the novices to put off the old, or rather the young, man and to put on a higher form of existence by participating in the marvellous powers and privileges of the mighty dead. And if such was really the intention of the ceremony, it is obvious that it was better effected by compelling the young communicants, as we may call them, to die and rise from the dead in their own persons than by obliging them to assist as mere passive spectators at a dramatic performance of death and resurrection. Yet in spite of this difference between the two rituals, the general resemblance between them is near enough to justify us in conjecturing that there may be a genetic connexion between the one and the other. The conjecture is confirmed, first, by the very limited and definite area of Fiji in which these initiatory rites were practised, and, second, by the equally definite tradition of their origin. With regard to the first of these points, the Nanga or sacred stone enclosure with its characteristic rites was known only to certain tribes, who occupied a comparatively small area, a bare third of the island of Viti Levu. These tribes are the Nuyaloa, Vatusila, Mbatiwai, and Mdavutukia. They all seem to have spread eastward and southward from a place of origin in the western mountain district. Their physical type is pure Melanesian, with fewer traces of Polynesian admixture than can be detected in the tribes on the coast.[⁶⁹⁵] Hence it is natural to enquire whether the ritual of the Nanga may not have been imported into Fiji by Melanesian immigrants from the west. The question appears to be answered in the affirmative by native tradition. "This is the word of our fathers concerning the Nanga," said an old Wainimala grey-beard to Mr. Fison. "Long, long ago their fathers were ignorant of it; but one day two strangers were found sitting in the rara (public square), and they said they had come up from the sea to give them the Nanga. They were little men, and very dark-skinned, and one of them had his face and bust painted red, while the other was painted black. Whether these two were gods or men our fathers did not tell us, but it was they who taught our people the Nanga. This was in the old old times when our fathers were living in another land—not in this place, for we are strangers here. Our fathers fled hither from Navosa in a great war which arose among them, and when they came there was no Nanga in the land. So they built one of their own after the fashion of that which they left behind them." "Here," says Mr. Basil Thomson, "we have the earliest tradition of missionary enterprise in the Pacific. I do not doubt that the two sooty-skinned little men were castaways driven eastward by one of those strong westerly gales that have been known to last for three weeks at a time. By Fijian custom the lives of all castaways were forfeit, but the pretence to supernatural powers would have saved men full of the religious rites of their Melanesian home, and would have assured them a hearing. The Wainimala tribes can name six generations since they settled in their present home, and therefore the introduction of the Nanga cannot have been less than two centuries ago. During that time it has overspread one third of the large island."

The general licence associated with the ritual of the Nanga may be a temporary revival of primitive communism.

A very remarkable feature in the Nanga ritual consists in the temporary licence accorded to the sexes and the suspension of proprietary rites in general. What is the meaning of this curious and to the civilised mind revolting custom? Here again the most probable, though merely conjectural, answer is furnished by Mr. Fison. "We cannot for a moment believe," he says, "that it is a mere licentious outbreak, without an underlying meaning and purpose. It is part of a religious rite, and is supposed to be acceptable to the ancestors. But why should it be acceptable to them unless it were in accordance with their own practice in the far-away past? There may be another solution of this difficult problem, but I confess myself unable to find any other which will cover all the corroborating facts."[⁶⁹⁶] In other words, Mr. Fison supposes that in the sexual licence and suspension of the rights of private property which characterise these festivals we have a reminiscence of a time when women and property were held in common by the community, and the motive for temporarily resuscitating these obsolete customs was a wish to propitiate the ancestral spirits, who were thought to be gratified by witnessing a revival of that primitive communism which they themselves had practised in the flesh so long ago. Truly a religious revival of a remarkable kind!

Description of the Nanga or sacred enclosure of stones.

To conclude this part of my subject I will briefly describe the construction of a Nanga or sacred stone enclosure, as it used to exist in Fiji. At the present day only ruins of these structures are to be seen, but by an observation of the ruins and a comparison of the traditions which still survive among the natives on the subject it is possible to reconstruct one of them with a fair degree of exactness. A Nanga has been described as an open-air temple, and the description is just. It consisted of a rough parallelogram enclosed by flat stones set upright and embedded endwise in the earth. The length of the enclosure thus formed was about one hundred feet and its breadth about fifty feet. The upright stones which form the outer walls are from eighteen inches to three feet high, but as they do not always touch they may be described as alignments rather than walls. The long walls or alignments run east and west, the short ones north and south; but the orientation is not very exact. At the eastern end are two pyramidal heaps of stones, about five feet high, with square sloping sides and flat tops. The narrow passage between them is the main entrance into the sacred enclosure. Internally the structure was divided into three separate enclosures or compartments by two cross-walls of stone running north and south. These compartments, taking them from east to west, were called respectively the Little Nanga, the Great Nanga, and the Sacred Nanga or Holy of Holies (Nanga tambu-tambu). The partition walls between them were built solid of stones, with battering sides, to a height of five feet, and in the middle of each there was an opening to allow the worshippers to pass from one compartment to another. Trees, such as the candlenut and the red-leaved dracaena, and odoriferous shrubs were planted round the enclosure; and outside of it, to the west of the Holy of Holies, was a bell-roofed hut called Vale tambu, the Sacred House or Temple. The sacred kava bowl stood in the Holy of Holies.[⁶⁹⁷] It is said that when the two traditionary founders of the Nanga in Fiji were about to erect the first structure of that name in their new home, the chief priest poured a libation of kava to the ancestral gods, "and, calling upon those who died long, long ago by name, he prayed that the people of the tribe, both old and young, might live before them."[⁶⁹⁸]

Comparison of the Nanga with the cromlechs and other megalithic monuments of Europe.

The sacred enclosures of stones which I have described have been compared to the alignments of stones at Carnac in Brittany and Merivale on Dartmoor, and it has been suggested that in the olden time these ancient European monuments may have witnessed religious rites like those which were till lately performed in the rude open-air temples of Fiji.[⁶⁹⁹] If there is any truth in the suggestion, which I mention for what it is worth, it would furnish another argument in favour of the view that our European cromlechs and other megalithic monuments were erected specially for the worship of the dead. The mortuary character of Stonehenge, for example, is at least suggested by the burial mounds which cluster thick around and within sight of it; about three hundred such tombs have been counted within a radius of three miles, while the rest of the country in the neighbourhood is comparatively free from them.[⁷⁰⁰]

Footnote 678:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, Second Edition (London, 1860), i. 242 sq.

Footnote 679:[ (return) ]
Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iii. 86.

Footnote 680:[ (return) ]
John Jackson's Narrative, in Capt. J. E. Erskine's Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific (London, 1853), pp. 475-477. The narrator, John Jackson, was an English seaman who resided alone among the Fijians for nearly two years and learned their language.

Footnote 681:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 96.

Footnote 682:[ (return) ]
United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnology and Philology, by H. Hale (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 65. Compare Capt. J. E. Erskine, op. cit. p. 248: "It would also seem that a belief in the resurrection of the body, in the exact condition in which it leaves the world, is one of the causes that induce, in many instances, a desire for death in the vigour of manhood, rather than in the decrepitude of old age"; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 183: "The heathen notion is, that, as they die, such will their condition be in another world; hence their desire to escape extreme infirmity."

Footnote 683:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 94 sq. Compare Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 183-186; Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji (London, 1904), pp. xxv. sq.

Footnote 684:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 96. Compare Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 188 sq., 193 sqq., 200-202; Lorimer Fison, op. cit. pp. xxv. sq.

Footnote 685:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 200.

Footnote 686:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 189; Lorimer Fison, op. cit. p. xvi.

Footnote 687:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 189.

Footnote 688:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 197.

Footnote 689:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 100. Williams also says (op. cit. i. 167) that the proper time for performing the rite of circumcision was after the death of a chief, and he tells us that "many rude games attend it. Blindfolded youths strike at thin vessels of water hung from the branch of a tree. At Lakemba, the men arm themselves with branches of the cocoa-nut, and carry on a sham fight. At Ono, they wrestle. At Mbau, they fillip small stones from the end of a bamboo with sufficient force to make the person hit wince again. On Vanua Levu, there is a mock siege."

Footnote 690:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 198.

Footnote 691:[ (return) ]
Rev. Lorimer Fison, "The Nanga, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiv. (1885) pp. 27 sq. On the other hand Mr. Basil Thomson's enquiries, made at a later date, did not confirm Mr. Fison's statement that the rite of circumcision was practised as a propitiation to recover a chief from sickness. "I was assured," he says, "on the contrary, that while offerings were certainly made in the Nanga for the recovery of the sick, every youth was circumcised as a matter of routine, and that the rite was in no way connected with sacrifice for the sick" (Basil Thomson, The Fijians, pp. 156 sq.). However, Mr. Fison was a very careful and accurate enquirer, and his testimony is not to be lightly set aside.

Footnote 692:[ (return) ]
Rev. Lorimer Fison, "The Nanga, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiv. (1885) p. 26. Compare Basil Thomson, The Fijians, p. 147: "The Nanga was the 'bed' of the Ancestors, that is, the spot where their descendants might hold communion with them; the Mbaki were the rites celebrated in the Nanga, whether of initiating the youths, or of presenting the first-fruits, or of recovering the sick, or of winning charms against wounds in battle."

Footnote 693:[ (return) ]
Rev. Lorimer Fison, op. cit. p. 27.

Footnote 694:[ (return) ]
Rev. Lorimer Fison, "The Nanga, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiv. (1885) pp. 14-26. The Nanga and its rites have also been described by Mr. A. B. Joske ("The Nanga of Viti-levu," Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, ii. (1889) pp. 254-266), and Mr. Basil Thomson (The Fijians, pp. 146-156). As to the interval between the initiatory ceremonies Mr. Fison tells us that it was normally two years, but he adds: "This period, however, is not necessarily restricted to two years. There are always a number of youths who are growing to the proper age, and the length of the interval depends upon the decision of the elders. Whenever they judge that there is a sufficient number of youths ready for admission, a Nanga is appointed to be held; and thus the interval may be longer or shorter, according to the supply of novices" (op. cit. p. 19). According to Mr. Basil Thomson the rites were celebrated annually. Mr. Fison's evidence as to the gross license which prevailed between the sexes after the admission of the women to the sacred enclosure is confirmed by Mr. Basil Thomson, who says, amongst other things, that "a native of Mbau, who lived for some years near the Nanga, assured me that the visit of the women to the Nanga resulted in temporary promiscuity; all tabus were defied, and relations who could not speak to one another by customary law committed incest" (op. cit. p. 154).

Footnote 695:[ (return) ]
Rev. Lorimer Fison, "The Nanga, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xiv. (1885) pp. 14 sqq.; Basil Thomson, The Fijians, pp. 147, 149.

Footnote 696:[ (return) ]
Rev. Lorimer Fison, op. cit. p. 30.

Footnote 697:[ (return) ]
Rev. Lorimer Fison, op. cit. pp. 15, 17, with Plate I.; Basil Thomson, The Fijians, pp. 147 sq. Mr. Fison had not seen a Nanga; his description is based on information received from natives. Mr. Basil Thomson visited several of these structures and found them so alike that one description would serve for all. He speaks of only two inner compartments, which he calls the Holy of Holies (Nanga tambu-tambu) and the Middle Nanga (Loma ni Nanga), but the latter name appears to imply a third compartment, which is explicitly mentioned and named by Mr. Fison. The bell-shaped hut or temple to the west of the sacred enclosure is not noticed by Mr. Thomson.

Footnote 698:[ (return) ]
Rev. Lorimer Fison, op. cit. p. 17.

Footnote 699:[ (return) ]
Basil Thomson, The Fijians, p. 147.

Footnote 700:[ (return) ]
As to these monuments see Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Prehistoric Times, Fifth Edition (London, 1890), p. 127.

LECTURE XX

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE NATIVES OF EASTERN MELANESIA (FIJI) (concluded)

Worship of ancestors in Fiji.

In the last lecture I described the rites of ancestor worship which in certain parts of Fiji used to be celebrated at the sacred enclosures of stones known as Nangas. But the worship of ancestral spirits was by no means confined to the comparatively small area in Fiji where such sacred enclosures were erected, nor were these open-air temples the only structures where the homage of the living was paid to the dead. On the contrary we are told by one who knew the Fijians in the old heathen days that among them "as soon as beloved parents expire, they take their place amongst the family gods. Bures, or temples, are erected to their memory, and offerings deposited either on their graves or on rudely constructed altars—mere stages, in the form of tables, the legs of which are driven into the ground, and the top of which is covered with pieces of native cloth. The construction of these altars is identical with that observed by Turner in Tanna, and only differs in its inferior finish from the altars formerly erected in Tahiti and the adjacent islands. The offerings, consisting of the choicest articles of food, are left exposed to wind and weather, and firmly believed by the mass of Fijians to be consumed by the spirits of departed friends and relations; but, if not eaten by animals, they are often stolen by the more enlightened class of their countrymen, and even some of the foreigners do not disdain occasionally to help themselves freely to them. However, it is not only on tombs or on altars that offerings are made; often, when the natives eat or drink anything, they throw portions of it away, stating them to be for their departed ancestors. I remember ordering a young chief to empty a bowl containing kava, which he did, muttering to himself, 'There, father, is some kava for you. Protect me from illness or breaking any of my limbs whilst in the mountains.'"[⁷⁰¹]

Fijian notion of divinity. Two classes of gods, namely, gods strictly so called, and deified men.

"The native word expressive of divinity is kalou, which, while used to denote the people's highest notion of a god, is also constantly heard as a qualificative of any thing great or marvellous, or, according to Hazlewood's Dictionary, 'anything superlative, whether good or bad.'... Often the word sinks into a mere exclamation, or becomes an expression of flattery. 'You are a kalou!' or, 'Your countrymen are gods!' is often uttered by the natives, when hearing of the triumphs of art among civilized nations."[⁷⁰²] The Fijians distinguished two classes of gods: first, kalou vu, literally "Root-gods," that is, gods strictly so called, and second, kalou yalo, literally, "Soul-gods," that is, deified mortals. Gods of the first class were supposed to be absolutely eternal; gods of the second class, though raised far above mere humanity, were thought nevertheless to be subject to human passions and wants, to accidents, and even to death. These latter were the spirits of departed chiefs, heroes, and friends; admission into their number was easy, and any one might secure his own apotheosis who could ensure the services of some one to act as his representative and priest after his death.[⁷⁰³] However, though the Fijians admitted the distinction between the two classes of gods in theory, they would seem to have confused them in practice. Thus we are informed by an early authority that "they have superior and inferior gods and goddesses, more general and local deities, and, were it not an obvious contradiction, we should say they have gods human, and gods divine; for they have some gods who were gods originally, and some who were originally men. It is impossible to ascertain with any degree of probability how many gods the Fijians have, as any man who can distinguish himself in murdering his fellow-men may certainly secure to himself deification after death. Their friends are also sometimes deified and invoked. I have heard them invoke their friends who have been drowned at sea. I need not advert to the absurdity of praying to those who could not save themselves from a watery grave. Tuikilakila, the chief of Somosomo, offered Mr. Hunt a preferment of this sort. 'If you die first,' said he, 'I shall make you my god.' In fact, there appears to be no certain line of demarcation between departed spirits and gods, nor between gods and living men, for many of the priests and old chiefs are considered as sacred persons, and not a few of them will also claim to themselves the right of divinity. 'I am a god,' Tuikilakila would sometimes say; and he believed it too. They were not merely the words of his lips; he believed he was something above a mere man."[⁷⁰⁴]

Writers on Fiji have given us lists of some of the principal gods of the first class,[⁷⁰⁵] who were supposed never to have been men; but in their account of the religious ritual they do not distinguish between the worship which was paid to such deities and that which was paid to deified men. Accordingly we may infer that the ritual was practically the same, and in the sequel I shall assume that what is told us of the worship of gods in general holds good of the worship of deified men in particular.

The Fijian temple (bure).

Every Fijian town had at least one bure or temple, many of them had several. Significantly enough the spot where a chief had been killed was sometimes chosen for the site of a temple. The structure of these edifices was somewhat peculiar. Each of them was built on the top of a mound, which was raised to the height of from three to twenty feet above the ground and faced on its sloping sides with dry rubble-work of stone. The ascent to the temple was by a thick plank, the upper surface of which was cut into notched steps. The proportions of the sacred edifice itself were inelegant, if not uncouth, its height being nearly twice as great as its breadth at the base. The roof was high-pitched; the ridge-pole was covered with white shells (Ovula cypraea) and projected three or four feet at each end. For the most part each temple had two doors and a fire-place in the centre. From some temples it was not lawful to throw out the ashes, however much they might accumulate, until the end of the year, which fell in November. The furniture consisted of a few boxes, mats, several large clay jars, and many drinking vessels. A temple might also contain images, which, though highly esteemed as ornaments and held sacred, were not worshipped as idols. From the roof depended a long piece of white bark-cloth; it was carried down the angle so as to hang before the corner-post and lie on the floor. This cloth formed the path down which the god was believed to pass in order to enter and inspire his priest. It marked the holy place which few but he dared to approach. However, the temples were by no means dedicated exclusively to the use of religion. Each of them served also as a council-chamber and town-hall; there the chiefs lounged for hours together; there strangers were entertained; and there the head persons of the village might even sleep.[⁷⁰⁶] In some parts of Viti Levu the dead were sometimes buried in the temples, "that the wind might not disturb, nor the rain fall upon them," and in order that the living might have the satisfaction of lying near their departed friends. A child of high rank having died under the charge of the queen of Somosomo, the little body was placed in a box and hung from the tie-beam of the principal temple. For some months afterwards the daintiest food was brought daily to the dead child, the bearers approaching with the utmost respect and clapping their hands when the ghost was thought to have finished his meal just as a chiefs retainers used to do when he had done eating.[⁷⁰⁷]

Worship at the temples.

Temples were often unoccupied for months and allowed to fall into ruins, until the chief had some request to make to the god, when the necessary repairs were first carried out. No regular worship was maintained, no habitual reverence was displayed at the shrines. The principle of fear, we are told, seemed to be the only motive of religious observances, and it was artfully fomented by the priests, through whom alone the people had access to the gods when they desired to supplicate the favour of the divine beings. The prayers were naturally accompanied by offerings, which in matters of importance comprised large quantities of food, together with whales' teeth; in lesser affairs a tooth, club, mat, or spear sufficed. Of the food brought by the worshippers part was dedicated to the god, but as usual he only ate the soul of it, the substance being consumed by the priest and old men; the remainder furnished a feast of which all might partake.[⁷⁰⁸]

The priests.

The office of priest (mbete, bete) was usually hereditary, but when a priest died without male heirs a cunning fellow, ambitious of enjoying the sacred character and of living in idleness, would sometimes simulate the convulsive frenzy, which passed for a symptom of inspiration, and if he succeeded in the imposture would be inducted into the vacant benefice. Every chief had his priest, with whom he usually lived on a very good footing, the two playing into each other's hands and working the oracle for their mutual benefit. The people were grossly superstitious, and there were few of their affairs in which the priest had not a hand. His influence over them was great. In his own district he passed for the representative of the deity; indeed, according to an early missionary, the natives seldom distinguished the idea of the god from that of his minister, who was viewed by them with a reverence that almost amounted to deification.[⁷⁰⁹]

Oracles given by the priest under the inspiration of the god. Paroxysm of inspiration.

The principal duty of the priest was to reveal to men the will of the god, and this he always did through the direct inspiration of the deity. The revelation was usually made in response to an enquiry or a prayer; the supplicant asked, it might be, for a good crop of yams or taro, for showers of rain, for protection in battle, for a safe voyage, or for a storm to drive canoes ashore, so that the supplicant might rob, murder, and eat the castaways. To lend force to one or other of these pious prayers the worshipper brought a whale's tooth to the temple and presented it to the priest. The man of god might have had word of his coming and time to throw himself into an appropriate attitude. He might, for example, be seen lying on the floor near the sacred corner, plunged in a profound meditation. On the entrance of the enquirer the priest would rouse himself so far as to get up and then seat himself with his back to the white cloth, down which the deity was expected to slide into the medium's body. Having received the whale's tooth he would abstract his mind from all worldly matters and contemplate the tooth for some time with rapt attention. Presently he began to tremble, his limbs twitched, his features were distorted. These symptoms, the visible manifestation of the entrance of the spirit into him, gradually increased in violence till his whole frame was convulsed and shook as with a strong fit of ague: his veins swelled: the circulation of the blood was quickened. The man was now possessed and inspired by the god: his own human personality was for a time in abeyance: all that he said and did in the paroxysm passed for the words and acts of the indwelling deity. Shrill cries of "Koi au! Koi au!" "It is I! It is I!" filled the air, proclaiming the actual presence of the powerful spirit in the vessel of flesh and blood. In giving the oracular response the priest's eyes protruded from their sockets and rolled as in a frenzy: his voice rose into a squeak: his face was pallid, his lips livid, his breathing depressed, his whole appearance that of a furious madman. At last sweat burst from every pore, tears gushed from his eyes: the strain on the organism was visibly relieved; and the symptoms gradually abated. Then he would look round with a vacant stare: the god within him would cry, "I depart!" and the man would announce the departure of the spirit by throwing himself on his mat or striking the ground with his club, while blasts on a shell-trumpet conveyed to those at a distance the tidings that the deity had withdrawn from mortal sight into the world invisible.[⁷¹⁰] "I have seen," says Mr. Lorimer Fison, "this possession, and a horrible sight it is. In one case, after the fit was over, for some time the man's muscles and nerves twitched and quivered in an extraordinary way. He was naked except for his breech-clout, and on his naked breast little snakes seemed to be wriggling for a moment or two beneath his skin, disappearing and then suddenly reappearing in another part of his chest. When the mbete (which we may translate 'priest' for want of a better word) is seized by the possession, the god within him calls out his own name in a stridulous tone, 'It is I! Katouviere!' or some other name. At the next possession some other ancestor may declare himself."[⁷¹¹]

Specimens of the oracular utterances of Fijian gods.

From this last description of an eye-witness we learn that the spirit which possessed a priest and spoke through him was often believed to be that of a dead ancestor. Some of the inspired utterances of these prophets have been recorded. Here are specimens of Fijian inspiration. Speaking in the name of the great god Ndengei, who was worshipped in the form of a serpent, the priest said: "Great Fiji is my small club. Muaimbila is the head; Kamba is the handle. If I step on Muaimbila, I shall sink it into the sea, whilst Kamba shall rise to the sky. If I step on Kamba, it will be lost in the sea, whilst Muaimbila would rise into the skies. Yes, Viti Levu is my small war-club. I can turn it as I please. I can turn it upside down." Again, speaking by the mouth of a priest, the god Tanggirianima once made the following observations: "I and Kumbunavannua only are gods. I preside over wars, and do as I please with sickness. But it is difficult for me to come here, as the foreign god fills the place. If I attempt to descend by that pillar, I find it pre-occupied by the foreign god. If I try another pillar, I find it the same. However, we two are fighting the foreign god; and if we are victorious, we will save the woman. I will save the woman. She will eat food to-day. Had I been sent for yesterday, she would have eaten then," and so on. The woman, about whose case the deity was consulted and whom he announced his fixed intention of saving, died a few hours afterwards.[⁷¹²]

Human sacrifices in Fiji.

Ferocious and inveterate cannibals themselves, the Fijians naturally assumed that their gods were so too; hence human flesh was a common offering, indeed the most valued of all.[⁷¹³] Formal human sacrifices were frequent. The victims were usually taken from a distant tribe, and when war and violence failed to supply the demand, recourse was sometimes had to negotiation. However obtained, the victims destined for sacrifice were often kept for a time and fattened to make them better eating. Then, tightly bound in a sitting posture, they were placed on hot stones in one of the usual ovens, and being covered over with leaves and earth were roasted alive, while the spectators roared with laughter at the writhings and contortions of the victims in their agony. When their struggles ceased and the bodies were judged to be done to a nicety, they were raked out of the oven, their faces painted black, and so carried to the temple, where they were presented to the gods, only, however, to be afterwards removed, cut up, and devoured by the people.[⁷¹⁴]

Human sacrifices offered when a king's house was built or a great new canoe launched.

However, roasting alive in ovens was not the only way in which men and women were made away with in the service of religion. When a king's house was built, men were buried alive in the holes dug to receive the posts: they were compelled to clasp the posts in their arms, and then the earth was shovelled over them and rammed down. And when a large new canoe was launched, it was hauled down to the sea over the bodies of living men, who were pinioned and laid out at intervals on the beach to serve as rollers on which the great vessel glided smoothly into the water, leaving a row of mangled corpses behind. The theory of both these modes of sacrifice was explained by the Fijians to an Englishman who witnessed them. I will quote their explanation in his words. "They said in answer to the questions I put respecting the people being buried alive with the posts, that a house or palace of a king was just like a king's canoe: if the canoe was not hauled over men, as rollers, she would not be expected to float long, and in like manner the palace could not stand long if people were not to sit down and continually hold the posts up. But I said, 'How could they hold the posts up after they were dead?' They said, if they sacrificed their lives endeavouring to hold the posts in their right position to their superior's turanga kai na kalou (chiefs and god), that the virtue of the sacrifice would instigate the gods to uphold the house after they were dead, and that they were honoured by being considered adequate to such a noble task."[⁷¹⁵] Apparently the Fijians imagined that the souls of the dead men would somehow strengthen the souls of the houses and canoes and so prolong the lives of these useful objects; for it is to be remembered that according to Fijian theology houses and canoes as well as men and women were provided with immortal souls.

High estimation in which murder was held by the Fijians.

Perhaps the same theory of immortality partially accounts for the high honour in which the Fijian held the act of murder and for the admiration which he bestowed on all murderers. "Shedding of blood," we are told, "to him is no crime, but a glory. Whoever may be the victim,—whether noble or vulgar, old or young, man, woman, or child,—whether slain in war, or butchered by treachery,—to be somehow an acknowledged murderer is the object of the Fijian's restless ambition."[⁷¹⁶] It was customary throughout Fiji to give honorary names to such as had clubbed to death a human being, of any age or either sex, during a war. The new epithet was given with the complimentary prefix Koroi. Mr. Williams once asked a man why he was called Koroi. "Because," he replied, "I, with several other men, found some women and children in a cave, drew them out and clubbed them, and then was consecrated."[⁷¹⁷] Mr. Fison learned from another stout young warrior that he had earned the honourable distinction of Koroi by lying in wait among the mangrove bushes at the waterside and killing a miserable old woman of a hostile tribe, as she crept along the mudflat seeking for shellfish. The man would have been equally honoured, adds Mr. Fison, if his victim had been a child. The hero of such an exploit, for two or three days after killing his man or woman, was allowed to besmear his face and bust with a mixture of lampblack and oil which differed from the common black war-paint; decorated with this badge of honour he strutted proudly through the town, the cynosure of all eyes, an object of envy to his fellows and of tender interest to the girls. The old men shouted approval after him, the women would lulilu admiringly as he passed by, and the boys looked up to him as a superior being whose noble deeds they thirsted to emulate. Higher titles of honour still were bestowed on such as had slain their ten, or twenty, or thirty; and Mr. Fison tells us of a chief whose admiring countrymen had to compound all these titles into one in order to set forth his superlative claims to glory. A man who had never killed anybody was of very little account in this life, and he received the penalty due to his sin in the life hereafter. For in the spirit land the ghost of such a poor-spirited wretch was sentenced to what the Fijians regarded as the most degrading of all punishments, to beat a heap of muck with his bloodless club.[⁷¹⁸]

Ceremony of consecrating a manslayer. The temporary restrictions laid on a manslayer were probably dictated by a fear of his victim's ghost.

The ceremony of consecrating a manslayer was elaborate. He was anointed with red oil from the hair of his head to the soles of his feet; and when he had been thus incarnadined he exchanged clubs with the spectators, who believed that their weapons acquired a mysterious virtue by passing through his holy hands. Afterwards the anointed one, attended by the king and elders, solemnly stalked down to the sea and wetted the soles of his feet in the water. Then the whole company returned to the town, while the shell-trumpets sounded and the men raised a peculiar hoot. Custom required that a hut should be built in which the anointed man and his companions must pass the next three nights, during which the hero might not lie down, but had to sleep as he sat; all that time he might not change his bark-cloth garment, nor wash the red paint away from his body, nor enter a house in which there was a woman.[⁷¹⁹] The reason for observing these curious restrictions is not mentioned, but in the light of similar practices, some of which have been noticed in these lectures,[⁷²⁰] we may conjecture that they were dictated by a fear of the victim's ghost, who among savages generally haunts his slayer and will do him a mischief, if he gets a chance. As it is especially in dreams that the naturally incensed spirit finds his opportunity, we can perhaps understand why the slayer might not lie down for the first three nights after the slaughter; the wrath of the ghost would then be at its hottest, and if he spied his murderer stretched in slumber on the ground, the temptation to take an unfair advantage of him might have been too strong to be resisted. But when his anger had had time to cool down or he had departed for his long home, as ghosts generally do after a reasonable time, the precautions taken to baffle his vengeance might be safely relaxed. Perhaps, as I have already hinted, the reverence which the Fijians felt for any man who had taken a human life, or at all events the life of an enemy, may have partly sprung from a belief that the slayer increased his own strength and valour either by subjugating the ghost of his victim and employing it as his henchman, or perhaps rather by simply absorbing in some occult fashion the vital energy of the slain. This view is confirmed by the permission given to the killer to assume the name of the killed, whenever his victim was a man of distinguished rank;[⁷²¹] for by taking the name he, according to an opinion common among savages, assumed the personality of his namesake.

Other funeral customs based on a fear of the ghost.

The same fear of the ghost of the recently departed which manifested itself, if my interpretation of the customs is right, in the treatment of manslayers, seems to have imprinted itself, though in a more attenuated form, on some of the practices observed by Fijian mourners after a natural, not a violent, death.

Persons who have handled a corpse forbidden to touch food. Seclusion of grave-diggers.

Thus all the persons who had handled a corpse were forbidden to touch anything for some time afterwards; in particular they were strictly debarred from touching their food with their hands; their victuals were brought to them by others, and they were fed like infants by attendants or obliged to pick up their food with their mouths from the ground. The time during which this burdensome restriction lasted was different according to the rank of the deceased: in the case of great chiefs it lasted from two to ten months; in the case of a petty chief it did not exceed one month; and in the case of a common person a taboo of not more than four days sufficed. When a chief's principal wife did not follow him to the other world by being strangled or buried alive, she might not touch her own food with her hands for three months. When the mourners grew tired of being fed like infants or feeding themselves like dogs, they sent word to the head chief and he let them know that he would remove the taboo whenever they pleased. Accordingly they sent him presents of pigs and other provisions, which he shared among the people. Then the tabooed persons went into a stream and washed themselves; after that they caught some animal, such as a pig or a turtle, and wiped their hands on it, and the animal thereupon became sacred to the chief. Thus the taboo was removed, and the men were free once more to work, to feed themselves, and to live with their wives. Lazy and idle fellows willingly undertook the duty of waiting on the dead, as it relieved them for some time from the painful necessity of earning their own bread.[⁷²²] The reason why such persons might not touch food with their hands was probably a fear of the ghost or at all events of the infection of death; the ghost or the infection might be clinging to their hands and might so be transferred from them to their food with fatal effects. In Great Fiji not every one might dig a chief's grave. The office was hereditary in a certain clan. After the funeral the grave-digger was shut up in a house and painted black from head to foot. When he had to make a short excursion, he covered himself with a large mantle of painted native cloth and was supposed to be invisible. His food was brought to the house after dark by silent bearers, who placed it just within the doorway. His seclusion might last for a long time;[⁷²³] it was probably intended to screen him from the ghost.

Hair cropped and finger-joints cut off in mourning.

The usual outward sign of mourning was to crop the hair or beard, or very rarely both. Some people merely made bald the crown of the head. Indeed the Fijians were too vain of their hair to part with it lightly, and to conceal the loss which custom demanded of them on these occasions they used to wear wigs, some of which were very skilfully made. The practice of cutting off finger-joints in mourning has already been mentioned; one early authority affirms and another denies that joints of the little toes were similarly amputated by the living as a mark of sorrow for the dead. So common was the practice of lopping off the little fingers in mourning that till recently few of the older natives could be found who had their hands intact; most of them indeed had lost the little fingers of both hands. There was a Fijian saying that the fourth finger "cried itself hoarse in vain for its absent mate" (droga-droga-wale). The mutilation was usually confined to the relations of the deceased, unless he happened to be one of the highest chiefs. However, the severed joints were often sent by poor people to wealthy families in mourning, who never failed to reward the senders for so delicate a mark of sympathy. Female mourners burned their skin into blisters by applying lighted rolls of bark-cloth to various parts of their bodies; the brands so produced might be seen on their arms, shoulders, necks, and breasts.[⁷²⁴] During the mourning for a king people fasted till evening for ten or twenty days; the coast for miles was tabooed and no one might fish there; the nuts also were made sacred. Some people in token of grief for a bereavement would abstain from fish, fruit, or other pleasant food for months together; others would dress in leaves instead of in cloth.[⁷²⁵]

Men whipped by women in time of mourning for a chief.

Though the motive for these observances is not mentioned, we may suppose that they were intended to soothe and please the ghost by testifying to the sorrow felt by the survivors at his decease. It is more doubtful whether the same explanation would apply to another custom which the Fijians used to observe in mourning. During ten days after a death, while the soul of a deceased chief was thought to be still lingering in or near his body, all the women of the town provided themselves with long whips, knotted with shells, and applied them with great vigour to the bodies of the men, raising weals and inflicting bloody wounds, while the men retorted by flirting pellets of clay from splinters of bamboo.[⁷²⁶] According to Mr. Williams, this ceremony was performed on the tenth day or earlier, and he adds: "I have seen grave personages, not accustomed to move quickly, flying with all possible speed before a company of such women. Sometimes the men retaliate by bespattering their assailants with mud; but they use no violence, as it seems to be a day on which they are bound to succumb."[⁷²⁷] As the soul of the dead was believed to quit his body and depart to his destined abode on the tenth day after death,[⁷²⁸] the scourging of the men by the women was probably supposed in some way to speed the parting guest on his long journey.

The dead taken out of the house by a special opening made in a wall. Examples of the custom among Aryan peoples.

When a certain king of Fiji died, the side of the house was broken down to allow the body to be carried out, though there were doorways wide enough for the purpose close at hand. The missionary who records the fact could not learn the reason of it.[⁷²⁹] The custom of taking the dead out of the house by a special opening, which is afterwards closed up, has not been confined to Fiji; on the contrary it has been practised by a multitude of peoples, savage, barbarous, and civilised, in many parts of the world. For example, it was an old Norse rule that a corpse might not be carried out of the house by the door which was used by the living; hence a hole was made in the wall at the back of the dead man's head and he was taken out through it backwards, or a hole was dug in the ground under the south wall and the body was drawn out through it.[⁷³⁰] The custom may have been at one time common to all the Aryan or Indo-european peoples, for it is mentioned in other of their ancient records and has been observed by widely separated branches of that great family down to modern times. Thus, the Zend-Avesta prescribes that, when a death has occurred, a breach shall be made in the wall and the corpse carried out through it by two men, who have first stripped off their clothes.[⁷³¹] In Russia "the corpse was often carried out of the house through a window, or through a hole made for the purpose, and the custom is still kept up in many parts."[⁷³²] Speaking of the Hindoos a French traveller of the eighteenth century says that "instead of carrying the corpse out by the door they make an opening in the wall by which they pass it out in a seated posture, and the hole is closed up after the ceremony."[⁷³³] Among various Hindoo castes it is still customary, when a death has occurred on an inauspicious day, to remove the corpse from the house not through the door, but through a temporary hole made in the wall.[⁷³⁴] Old German law required that the corpses of criminals and suicides should be carried out through a hole under the threshold.[⁷³⁵] In the Highlands of Scotland the bodies of suicides were not taken out of the house for burial by the doors, but through an opening made between the wall and the thatch.[⁷³⁶]

Examples of the custom among non-Aryan peoples.

But widespread as such customs have been among Indo-european peoples, they have been by no means confined to that branch of the human race. It was an ancient Chinese practice to knock down part of the wall of a house for the purpose of carrying out a corpse.[⁷³⁷] Some of the Canadian Indians would never take a corpse out of the hut by the ordinary door, but always lifted a piece of the bark wall near which the dead man lay and then drew him through the opening.[⁷³⁸] Among the Esquimaux of Bering Strait a corpse is usually raised through the smoke-hole in the roof, but is never taken out by the doorway. Should the smoke-hole be too small, an opening is made in the rear of the house and then closed again.[⁷³⁹] When a Greenlander dies, "they do not carry out the corpse through the entry of the house, but lift it through the window, or if he dies in a tent, they unfasten one of the skins behind, and convey it out that way. A woman behind waves a lighted chip backward and forward, and says: 'There is nothing more to be had here.'"[⁷⁴⁰] Similarly the Hottentots, Bechuanas, Basutos, Marotse, Barongo, and many other tribes of South and West Africa never carry a corpse out by the door of the hut but always by a special opening made in the wall.[⁷⁴¹] A similar custom is observed by the maritime Gajos of Sumatra [⁷⁴²] and by some of the Indian tribes of North-west America, such as the Tlingit and the Haida.[⁷⁴³] Among the Lepchis of Sikhim, whose houses are raised on piles, the dead are taken out by a hole made in the floor.[⁷⁴⁴] Dwellers in tents who practise this custom remove a corpse from the tent, not by the door, but through an opening made by lifting up an edge of the tent-cover: this is done by European gypsies [⁷⁴⁵] and by the Koryak of north-eastern Asia.[⁷⁴⁶]

The motive of the custom is a desire to prevent the ghost from returning to the house.

In all such customs the original motive probably was a fear of the ghost and a wish to exclude him from the house, lest he should return and carry off the survivors with him to the spirit land. Ghosts are commonly credited with a low degree of intelligence, and it appears to be supposed that they can only find their way back to a house by the aperture through which their bodies were carried out. Hence people made a practice of taking a corpse out not by the door, but through an opening specially made for the purpose, which was afterwards blocked up, so that when the ghost returned from the grave and attempted to enter the house, he found the orifice closed and was obliged to turn away disappointed. That this was the train of reasoning actually followed by some peoples may be gathered from the explanations which they themselves give of the custom. Thus among the Tuski of Alaska "those who die a natural death are carried out through a hole cut in the back of the hut or yaráng. This is immediately closed up, that the spirit of the dead man may not find his way back."[⁷⁴⁷] Among the Esquimaux of Hudson Bay "the nearest relatives on approach of death remove the invalid to the outside of the house, for if he should die within he must not be carried out of the door but through a hole cut in the side wall, and it must then be carefully closed to prevent the spirit of the person from returning."[⁷⁴⁸] Again, "when a Siamese is dead, his relations deposit the body in a coffin well covered. They do not pass it through the door but let it down into the street by an opening which they make in the wall. They also carry it thrice round the house, running at the top of their speed. They believe that if they did not take this precaution, the dead man would remember the way by which he had passed, and that he would return by night to do some ill turn to his family."[⁷⁴⁹] In Travancore the body of a dead rajah "is taken out of the palace through a breach in the wall, made for the purpose, to avoid pollution of the gate, and afterwards built up again so that the departed spirit may not return through the gate to trouble the survivors."[⁷⁵⁰] Among the Kayans of Borneo, whose dwellings are raised on piles above the ground, the coffin is conveyed out of the house by lowering it with rattans either through the floor, planks being taken up for the purpose, or under the eaves at the side of the gallery. "In this way they avoid carrying it down the house-ladder; and it seems to be felt that this precaution renders it more difficult for the ghost to find its way back to the house."[⁷⁵¹] Among the Cheremiss of Russia, "old custom required that the corpse should not be carried out by the door but through a breach in the north wall, where there is usually a sash-window. But the custom has long been obsolete, even among the heathen, and only very old people speak of it. They explain it as follows: to carry it out by the door would be to shew the Asyrèn (the dead man) the right way into the house, whereas a breach in the wooden wall is immediately closed by replacing the beams in position, and thus the Asyrèn would in vain seek for an entrance."[⁷⁵²] The Samoyeds never carry a corpse out of the hut by the door, but lift up a piece of the reindeer-skin covering and draw the body out, head foremost, through the opening. They think that if they were to carry a corpse out by the door, the ghost would soon return and fetch away other members of the family.[⁷⁵³] On the same principle, as soon as the Indians of Tumupasa, in north-west Bolivia, have carried a corpse out of the house, "they shift the door to the opposite side, in order that the deceased may not be able to find it."[⁷⁵⁴] Once more, in Mecklenburg "it is a law regulating the return of the dead that they are compelled to return by the same way by which the corpse was removed from the house. In the villages of Picher, Bresegard, and others the people used to have movable thresholds at the house-doors, which, being fitted into the door-posts, could be shoved up. The corpse was then carried out of the house under the threshold, and therefore could not return over it."[⁷⁵⁵]

Some people only remove in this manner the bodies of persons whose ghosts are especially feared.

Even without such express testimonies to the meaning of the custom we may infer from a variety of evidence that the real motive for practising it is a fear of the ghost and a wish to prevent his return. For it is to be observed that some peoples do not carry out all their dead by a special opening, but that they accord this peculiar mode of removal only to persons who die under unlucky or disgraceful circumstances, and whose ghosts accordingly are more than usually dreaded. Thus we have seen that some modern Hindoo castes observe the custom only in the case of people who have died on inauspicious days; and that in Germany and the Highlands of Scotland this mode of removal was specially reserved for the bodies of suicides, whose ghosts are exceedingly feared by many people, as appears from the stringent precautions taken against them.[⁷⁵⁶] Again, among the Kavirondo of Central Africa, "when a woman dies without having borne a child, she is carried out of the back of the house. A hole is made in the wall and the corpse is ignominiously pushed through the hole and carried some distance to be buried, as it is considered a curse to die without a child. If the woman has given birth to a child, then her corpse is carried out through the front door and buried in the verandah of the house."[⁷⁵⁷] In Brittany a stillborn child is removed from the house, not by the door, but by the window; "for if by ill-luck it should chance otherwise, the mothers who should pass through that fatal door would bear nothing but stillborn infants."[⁷⁵⁸] In Perche, another province of France, the same rule is observed with regard to stillborn children, though the reason for it is not alleged.[⁷⁵⁹] But of all ghosts none perhaps inspire such deep and universal terror as the ghosts of women who have died in childbed, and extraordinary measures are accordingly taken to disable these dangerous spirits from returning and doing a mischief to the living.[⁷⁶⁰] Amongst the precautions adopted to keep them at bay is the custom of carrying their corpses out of the house by a special opening, which is afterwards blocked up. Thus in Laos, a province of Siam, "the bodies of women dying in childbirth, or within a month afterwards, are not even taken out of the house in the ordinary way by the door, but are let down through the floor."[⁷⁶¹] The Kachins of Burma stand in such fear of the ghosts of women dying in childbed that no sooner has such a death occurred than the husband, the children, and almost all the people in the house take to flight lest the woman's ghost should bite them. "The body of the deceased must be burned as soon as possible in order to punish her for dying such a death, and also in order to frighten her ghost (minla). They bandage her eyes with her own hair and with leaves to prevent her from seeing anything; they wrap her in a mat, and they carry her out of the house, not by the ordinary door, but by an opening made for the purpose in the wall or the floor of the room where she breathed her last. Then they convey her to a deep ravine, where no one dares to pass; they lay her in the midst of a great pyre with all the clothes, jewellery, and other objects which belonged to her and of which she made use; and they burn the whole to cinders, to which they refuse the rites of sepulture. Thus they destroy all the property of the unfortunate woman, in order that her soul may not think of coming to fetch it afterwards and to bite people in the attempt."[⁷⁶²] Similarly among the Kayans or Bahaus of Central Borneo "the corpses of women dying in childbed excite a special horror; no man and no young woman may touch them; they are not carried out of the house through the front gallery, but are thrown out of the back wall of the dwelling, some boards having been removed for the purpose."[⁷⁶³] Indeed so great is the alarm felt by the Kayans at a miscarriage of this sort that when a woman labours hard in childbed, the news quickly spreads through the large communal house in which the people dwell; and if the attendants begin to fear a fatal issue, the whole household is thrown into consternation. All the men, from the chief down to the boys, will flee from the house, or, if it is night, they will clamber up among the beams of the roof and there hide in terror; and, if the worst happens, they remain there until the woman's corpse has been removed from the house for burial.[⁷⁶⁴]

Sometimes the custom is observed when the original motive for it is forgotten.

Sometimes, while the custom continues to be practised, the idea which gave rise to it has either become obscured or has been incorrectly reported. Thus we are told that when a death has taken place among the Indians of North-west America "the body is at once taken out of the house through an opening in the wall from which the boards have been removed. It is believed that his ghost would kill every one if the body were to stay in the house."[⁷⁶⁵] Such a belief, while it would furnish an excellent reason for hurrying the corpse out of the house as soon as possible, does not explain why it should be carried out through a special opening instead of through the door. Again, when a Queen of Bali died, "the body was drawn out of a large aperture made in the wall to the right-hand side of the door, in the absurd opinion of cheating the devil, whom these islanders believe to lie in wait in the ordinary passage."[⁷⁶⁶] Again, in Mukden, the capital of Manchuria, the corpses of children "must not be carried out of a door or window, but through a new or disused opening, in order that the evil spirit which causes the disease may not enter. The belief is that the Heavenly Dog which eats the sun at an eclipse demands the bodies of children, and that if they are denied to him he will bring certain calamity on the household."[⁷⁶⁷] These explanations of the custom are probably misinterpretations adopted at a later time when its original meaning was forgotten. For a custom often outlives the memory of the motives which gave it birth. And as royalty is very conservative of ancient usages, it would be no matter for surprise if the corpses of kings should continue to be carried out through special openings long after the bodies of commoners were allowed to be conveyed in commonplace fashion through the ordinary door. In point of fact we find the old custom observed by kings in countries where it has apparently ceased to be observed by their subjects. Thus among the Sakalava and Antimerina of Madagascar, "when a sovereign or a prince of the royal family dies within the enclosure of the king's palace, the corpse must be carried out of the palace, not by the door, but by a breach made for the purpose in the wall; the new sovereign could not pass through the door that had been polluted by the passage of a dead body."[⁷⁶⁸] Similarly among the Macassars and Buginese of Southern Celebes there is in the king's palace a window reaching to the floor through which on his decease the king's body is carried out.[⁷⁶⁹] That such a custom is only a limitation to kings of a rule which once applied to everybody becomes all the more probable, when we learn that in the island of Saleijer, which lies to the south of Celebes, each house has, besides its ordinary windows, a large window in the form of a door, through which, and not through the ordinary entrance, every corpse is regularly removed at death.[⁷⁷⁰]

Another Fijian funeral custom.

To return from this digression to Fiji, we may conclude with a fair degree of probability that when the side of a Fijian king's house was broken down to allow his corpse to be carried out, though there were doors at hand wide enough for the purpose, the original intention was to prevent the return of his ghost, who might have proved a very unwelcome intruder to his successor on the throne. But I cannot offer any explanation of another Fijian funeral custom. You may remember that in Fiji it was customary after the death of a chief to circumcise such lads as had reached a suitable age.[⁷⁷¹] Well, on the fifth day after a chief's death a hole used to be dug under the floor of a temple and one of the newly circumcised lads was secreted in it. Then his companions fastened the doors of the temple securely and ran away. When the lad hidden in the hole blew on a shell-trumpet, the friends of the deceased chief surrounded the temple and thrust their spears at him through the fence.[⁷⁷²] What the exact significance of this curious rite may have been, I cannot even conjecture; but we may assume that it had something to do with the state of the late chief's soul, which was probably supposed to be lingering in the neighbourhood.

Fijian notions concerning the other world and the way thither. The River of the Souls.

It remains to say a little as to the notions which the Fijians entertained of the other world and the way thither. After death the souls of the departed were believed to set out for Bulu or Bulotu, there to dwell with the great serpent-shaped god Ndengei. His abode seems to have been generally placed in the Nakauvandra mountains, towards the western end of Viti Levu, the largest of the Fijian Islands. But on this subject the ideas of the people were, as might be expected, both vague and inconsistent. Each tribe filled in the details of the mythical land and the mythical journey to suit its own geographical position. The souls had generally to cross water, either the sea or a river, and they were put across it by a ghostly ferryman, who treated the passengers with scant courtesy.[⁷⁷³] According to some people, the River of the Souls (Waini-yalo) is what mortals now call the Ndravo River. When the ghosts arrived on the bank, they hailed the ferryman and he paddled his canoe over to receive them. But before he would take them on board they had to state whether they proposed to ship as steerage or as cabin passengers, and he gave them their berths accordingly; for there was no mixing up of the classes in the ferry-boat; the ghosts of chiefs kept strictly to themselves at one end of the canoe, and the ghosts of commoners huddled together at the other end.[⁷⁷⁴] The natives of Kandavu, in Southern Fiji, say that on clear days they often see Bulotu, the spirit land, lying away across the sea with the sun shining sweetly on it; but they have long ago given up all hope of making their way to that happy land.[⁷⁷⁵] They seem to say with the Demon Lover,

"O yonder are the hills of heaven

Where you will never win."

The place of embarcation for the ghosts.

Though every island and almost every town had its own portal through which the spirits passed on their long journey to the far country, yet there was one called Nai Thombothombo, which appears to have been more popular and frequented than any of the others as a place of embarcation for ghosts. It is at the northern point of Mbua Bay, and the ghosts shew their good taste in choosing it as their port to sail from, for really it is a beautiful spot. The foreland juts out between two bays. A shelving beach slopes up to precipitous cliffs, their rocky face mantled with a thick green veil of creepers. Further inland the shade of tall forest trees and the softened gloom cast by crags and rocks lend to the scene an air of solemnity and hallowed repose well fitted to impress the susceptible native mind with an awful sense of the invisible beings that haunt these sacred groves. Natives have been known to come on pilgrimage to the spot expecting to meet ghosts and gods face to face.[⁷⁷⁶]

The ghost and the pandanus tree.

Many are the perils and dangers that beset the Path of the Souls (Sala Ni Yalo). Of these one of the most celebrated is a certain pandanus tree, at which every ghost must throw the ghost of the real whale's tooth which was placed for the purpose in his hand at burial. If he hits the tree, it is well for him; for it shews that his friends at home are strangling his wives, and accordingly he sits down contentedly to wait for the ghosts of his helpmeets, who will soon come hurrying to him. But if he makes a bad shot and misses the tree, the poor ghost is very disconsolate, for he knows that his wives are not being strangled, and who then will cook for him in the spirit land? It is a bitter thought, and he reflects with sorrow and anger on the ingratitude of men and especially of women. His reflections, as reported by the best authority, run thus: "How is this? For a long time I planted food for my wife, and it was also of great use to her friends: why then is she not allowed to follow me? Do my friends love me no better than this, after so many years of toil? Will no one, in love to me, strangle my wife?"[⁷⁷⁷]

Hard fate of unmarried ghosts.

But if the lot of a married ghost, whose wives have not been murdered, is hard, it is nevertheless felicity itself compared to the fate of bachelor ghosts. In the first place there is a terrible being called the Great Woman, who lurks in a shady defile, ready to pounce out on him; and if he escapes her clutches it is only to fall in with a much worse monster, of the name of Nangganangga, from whom there is, humanly speaking, no escape. This ferocious goblin lays himself out to catch the souls of bachelors, and so vigilant and alert is he that not a single unmarried Fijian ghost is known to have ever reached the mansions of the blest. He sits beside a big black stone at high-water mark waiting for his prey. The bachelor ghosts are aware that it would be useless to attempt to march past him when the tide is in; so they wait till it is low water and then try to sneak past him on the wet sand left by the retiring billows. Vain hope! Nangganangga, sitting by the stone, only smiles grimly and asks, with withering sarcasm, whether they imagine that the tide will never flow again? It does so only too soon for the poor ghosts, driving them with every breaking wave nearer and nearer to their implacable enemy, till the water laps on the fatal stone, and then he grips the shivering souls and dashes them to pieces on the big black block.[⁷⁷⁸]

The Killer of Souls.

Again, there is a very terrible giant armed with a great axe, who lies in wait for all and sundry. He makes no nice distinction between the married and the unmarried, but strikes out at all ghosts indiscriminately. Those whom he wounds dare not present themselves in their damaged state to the great God Ndengei; so they never reach the happy fields, but are doomed to roam the rugged mountains disconsolate. However, many ghosts contrive to slip past him unscathed. It is said that after the introduction of fire-arms into the islands the ghost of a certain chief made very good use of a musket which had been providentially buried with his body. When the giant drew near and was about to lunge out with the axe in his usual style, the ghost discharged the blunderbuss in his face, and while the giant was fully engaged in dodging the hail of bullets, the chief rushed past him and now enjoys celestial happiness.[⁷⁷⁹] Some lay the scene of this encounter a little beyond the town of Nambanaggatai; for it is to be remembered that many of the places in the Path of the Souls were identified with real places in the Fijian Islands. And the name of the giant is Samu-yalo, that is, the Killer of Souls. He artfully conceals himself in some mangrove bushes just beyond the town, from which he rushes out in the nick of time to fell the passing ghosts. Whenever he kills a ghost, he cooks and eats him and that is the end of the poor ghost. It is the second death. The highway to the Elysian fields runs, or used to run, right through the town of Nambanaggatai; so all the doorways of the houses were placed opposite each other to allow free and uninterrupted passage to the invisible travellers. And the inhabitants spoke to each other in low tones and communicated at a little distance by signs. The screech of a paroquet in the woods was the signal of the approach of a ghost or ghosts; the number of screeches was proportioned to the number of the ghosts,—one screech, one ghost, and so on.[⁷⁸⁰]

A trap for unwary ghosts.

Souls who escape the Killer of Souls pass on till they come to Naindelinde, one of the highest peaks of the Kauvandra mountains. Here the path ends abruptly on the brink of a precipice, the foot of which is washed by a deep lake. Over the edge of the precipice projects a large steer-oar, and the handle is held either by the great god Ndengei himself or, according to the better opinion, by his deputy. When a ghost comes up and peers ruefully over the precipice, the deputy accosts him. "Under what circumstances," he asks, "do you come to us? How did you conduct yourself in the other world?" Should the ghost be a man of rank, he may say, "I am a great chief. I lived as a chief, and my conduct was that of a chief. I had great wealth, many wives, and ruled over a powerful people. I have destroyed many towns, and slain many in war." "Good, good," says the deputy, "just sit down on the blade of that oar, and refresh yourself in the cool breeze." If the ghost is unwary enough to accept the invitation, he has no sooner seated himself on the blade of the oar with his legs dangling over the abyss, than the deputy-deity tilts up the other end of the oar and precipitates him into the deep water, far far below. A loud smack is heard as the ghost collides with the water, there is a splash, a gurgle, a ripple, and all is over. The ghost has gone to his account in Murimuria, a very second-rate sort of heaven, if it is nothing worse. But a ghost who is in favour with the great god Ndengei is warned by him not to sit down on the blade of the oar but on the handle. The ghost takes the hint and seats himself firmly on the safe end of the oar; and when the deputy-deity tries to heave it up, he cannot, for he has no purchase. So the ghost remains master of the situation, and after an interval for refreshment is sent back to earth to be deified.[⁷⁸¹]

Murimuria, an inferior sort of heaven. The Fijian Elysium.

In Murimuria, which, as I said, is an inferior sort of heaven, the departed souls by no means lead a life of pure and unmixed enjoyment. Some of them are punished for the sins they committed in the flesh. But the Fijian notion of sin differs widely from ours. Thus we saw that the ghosts of men who did no murder in their lives were punished for their negligence by having to pound muck with clubs. Again, people who had not their ears bored on earth are forced in Hades to go about for ever bearing on their shoulders one of the logs of wood on which bark-cloth is beaten out with mallets, and all who see the sinner bending under the load jeer at him. Again, women who were not tattooed in their life are chased by the female ghosts, who scratch and cut and tear them with sharp shells, giving them no respite; or they scrape the flesh from their bones and bake it into bread for the gods. And ghosts who have done anything to displease the gods are laid flat on their faces in rows and converted into taro beds. But the few who do find their way into the Fijian Elysium are blest indeed. There the sky is always cloudless; the groves are perfumed with delicious scents; the open glades in the forest are pleasant; there is abundance of all that heart can desire. Language fails to describe the ineffable bliss of the happy land. There the souls of the truly good, who have murdered many of their fellows on earth and fed on their roasted bodies, are lapped in joy for ever.[⁷⁸²]

Fijian doctrine of transmigration.

Nevertheless the souls of the dead were not universally believed to depart by the Spirit Path to the other world or to stay there for ever. To a certain extent the doctrines of transmigration found favour with the Fijians. Some of them held that the spirits of the dead wandered about the villages in various shapes and could make themselves visible or invisible at pleasure. The places which these vagrant souls loved to haunt were known to the people, who in passing by them were wont to make propitiatory offerings of food or cloth. For that reason, too, they were very loth to go abroad on a dark night lest they should come bolt upon a ghost. Further, it was generally believed that the soul of a celebrated chief might after death enter into some young man of the tribe and animate him to deeds of valour. Persons so distinguished were pointed out and regarded as highly favoured; great respect was paid to them, they enjoyed many personal privileges, and their opinions were treated with much consideration.[⁷⁸³]

Few souls saved under the old Fijian dispensation.

On the whole, when we survey the many perils which beset the way to the Fijian heaven, and the many risks which the souls of the dead ran of dying the second death in the other world or of being knocked on the head by the living in this, we shall probably agree with the missionary Mr. Williams in concluding that under the old Fijian dispensation there were few indeed that were saved. "Few, comparatively," he says, "are left to inhabit the regions of Mbulu, and the immortality even of these is sometimes disputed. The belief in a future state is universal in Fiji; but their superstitious notions often border upon transmigration, and sometimes teach an eventual annihilation."[⁷⁸⁴]

Concluding observations.

Here I must break off my survey of the natural belief in immortality among mankind. At the outset I had expected to carry the survey further, but I have already exceeded the usual limits of these lectures and I must not trespass further on your patience. Yet the enquiry which I have opened seems worthy to be pursued, and if circumstances should admit of it, I shall hope at some future time to resume the broken thread of these researches and to follow it a little further through the labyrinth of human history. Be that as it may, I will now conclude with a few general observations suggested by the facts which I have laid before you.

Strength and universality of the natural belief in immortality among savages. Wars between savage tribes spring in large measure from their belief in immortality. Economic loss involved in sacrifices to the dead.

In the first place, then, it is impossible not to be struck by the strength, and perhaps we may say the universality, of the natural belief in immortality among the savage races of mankind. With them a life after death is not a matter of speculation and conjecture, of hope and fear; it is a practical certainty which the individual as little dreams of doubting as he doubts the reality of his conscious existence. He assumes it without enquiry and acts upon it without hesitation, as if it were one of the best-ascertained truths within the limits of human experience. The belief influences his attitude towards the higher powers, the conduct of his daily life, and his behaviour towards his fellows; more than that, it regulates to a great extent the relations of independent communities to each other. For the state of war, which normally exists between many, if not most, neighbouring savage tribes, springs in large measure directly from their belief in immortality; since one of the commonest motives for hostility is a desire to appease the angry ghosts of friends, who are supposed to have perished by the baleful arts of sorcerers in another tribe, and who, if vengeance is not inflicted on their real or imaginary murderers, will wreak their fury on their undutiful fellow-tribesmen. Thus the belief in immortality has not merely coloured the outlook of the individual upon the world; it has deeply affected the social and political relations of humanity in all ages; for the religious wars and persecutions, which distracted and devastated Europe for ages, were only the civilised equivalents of the battles and murders which the fear of ghosts has instigated amongst almost all races of savages of whom we possess a record. Regarded from this point of view, the faith in a life hereafter has been sown like dragons' teeth on the earth and has brought forth crop after crop of armed men, who have turned their swords against each other. And when we consider further the gratuitous and wasteful destruction of property as well as of life which is involved in sacrifices to the dead, we must admit that with all its advantages the belief in immortality has entailed heavy economical losses upon the races—and they are practically all the races of the world—who have indulged in this expensive luxury. It is not for me to estimate the extent and gravity of the consequences, moral, social, political, and economic, which flow directly from the belief in immortality. I can only point to some of them and commend them to the serious attention of historians and economists, as well as of moralists and theologians.

How does the savage belief in immortality bear on the question of the truth or falsehood of that belief in general? The answer depends to some extent on the view we take of human nature. The view of the grandeur and dignity of man.

My second observation concerns, not the practical consequences of the belief in immortality, but the question of its truth or falsehood. That, I need hardly say, is an even more difficult problem than the other, and as I intimated at the outset of the lectures I find myself wholly incompetent to solve it. Accordingly I have confined myself to the comparatively easy task of describing some of the forms of the belief and some of the customs to which it has given rise, without presuming to pass judgment upon them. I must leave it to others to place my collections of facts in the scales and to say whether they incline the balance for or against the truth of this momentous belief, which has been so potent for good or ill in history. In every enquiry much depends upon the point of view from which the enquirer approaches his subject; he will see it in different proportions and in different lights according to the angle and the distance from which he regards it. The subject under discussion in the present case is human nature itself; and as we all know, men have formed very different estimates of themselves and their species. On the one hand, there are those who love to dwell on the grandeur and dignity of man, and who swell with pride at the contemplation of the triumphs which his genius has achieved in the visionary world of imagination as well as in the realm of nature. Surely, they say, such a glorious creature was not born for mortality, to be snuffed out like a candle, to fade like a flower, to pass away like a breath. Is all that penetrating intellect, that creative fancy, that vaulting ambition, those noble passions, those far-reaching hopes, to come to nothing, to shrivel up into a pinch of dust? It is not so, it cannot be. Man is the flower of this wide world, the lord of creation, the crown and consummation of all things, and it is to wrong him and his creator to imagine that the grave is the end of all. To those who take this lofty view of human nature it is easy and obvious to find in the similar beliefs of savages a welcome confirmation of their own cherished faith, and to insist that a conviction so widely spread and so firmly held must be based on some principle, call it instinct or intuition or what you will, which is deeper than logic and cannot be confuted by reasoning.

The view of the pettiness and insignificance of man.

On the other hand, there are those who take a different view of human nature, and who find in its contemplation a source of humility rather than of pride. They remind us how weak, how ignorant, how short-lived is the individual, how infirm of purpose, how purblind of vision, how subject to pain and suffering, to diseases that torture the body and wreck the mind. They say that if the few short years of his life are not wasted in idleness and vice, they are spent for the most part in a perpetually recurring round of trivialities, in the satisfaction of merely animal wants, in eating, drinking, and slumber. When they survey the history of mankind as a whole, they find the record chequered and stained by folly and crime, by broken faith, insensate ambition, wanton aggression, injustice, cruelty, and lust, and seldom illumined by the mild radiance of wisdom and virtue. And when they turn their eyes from man himself to the place he occupies in the universe, how are they overwhelmed by a sense of his littleness and insignificance! They see the earth which he inhabits dwindle to a speck in the unimaginable infinities of space, and the brief span of his existence shrink into a moment in the inconceivable infinities of time. And they ask, Shall a creature so puny and frail claim to live for ever, to outlast not only the present starry system but every other that, when earth and sun and stars have crumbled into dust, shall be built upon their ruins in the long long hereafter? It is not so, it cannot be. The claim is nothing but the outcome of exaggerated self-esteem, of inflated vanity; it is the claim of a moth, shrivelled in the flame of a candle, to outlive the sun, the claim of a worm to survive the destruction of this terrestrial globe in which it burrows. Those who take this view of the pettiness and transitoriness of man compared with the vastness and permanence of the universe find little in the beliefs of savages to alter their opinion. They see in savage conceptions of the soul and its destiny nothing but a product of childish ignorance, the hallucinations of hysteria, the ravings of insanity, or the concoctions of deliberate fraud and imposture. They dismiss the whole of them as a pack of superstitions and lies, unworthy the serious attention of a rational mind; and they say that if such drivellings do not refute the belief in immortality, as indeed from the nature of things they cannot do, they are at least fitted to invest its high-flown pretensions with an air of ludicrous absurdity.

The conclusion left open.

Such are the two opposite views which I conceive may be taken of the savage testimony to the survival of our conscious personality after death. I do not presume to adopt the one or the other. It is enough for me to have laid a few of the facts before you. I leave you to draw your own conclusion.

Footnote 701:[ (return) ]
Berthold Seeman, Viti, an Account of a Government Mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands (Cambridge, 1862), pp. 391 sq.

Footnote 702:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 216.

Footnote 703:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 216, 218 sq.; Basil Thomson, The Fijians, p. 112.

Footnote 704:[ (return) ]
Hazlewood, quoted by Capt. J. E. Erskine, Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific (London, 1853), pp. 246 sq.

Footnote 705:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iii. 83 sq.; Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 217 sqq.

Footnote 706:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iii. 49, 86, 351, 352; Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 221-223; B. Seeman, Viti, pp. 392-394.

Footnote 707:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 191 sq.

Footnote 708:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 223, 231.

Footnote 709:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 87; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 226, 227; Basil Thomson, The Fijians, pp. 157 sqq.

Footnote 710:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 87 sq.; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 224 sq.; Capt. J. E. Erskine, op. cit. p. 250; Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji (London, 1904), pp. 166 sq. As for the treatment of castaways, see J. E. Erskine, op. cit. p. 249; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 210. The latter writer mentions a recent case in which fourteen or sixteen shipwrecked persons were cooked and eaten.

Footnote 711:[ (return) ]
The Rev. Lorimer Fison, in a letter to me dated August 26th, 1898. I have already quoted the passage in The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 378.

Footnote 712:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 225 sq.

Footnote 713:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 231.

Footnote 714:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 97; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 53.

Footnote 715:[ (return) ]
John Jackson's Narrative, in Capt. J. E. Erskine's Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific (London, 1853), pp. 464 sq., 472 sq. The genital members of the men over whom the canoe was dragged were cut off and hung on a sacred tree (akau-tambu), "which was already artificially prolific in fruit, both of the masculine and feminine gender." The tree which bore such remarkable fruit was commonly an ironweed tree standing in a conspicuous situation. As to these sacrifices compare Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 97; Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji, pp. xvi. sq.

Footnote 716:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i, 112.

Footnote 717:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 55.

Footnote 718:[ (return) ]
Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji, pp. xx., xxi. sq.; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 247; B. Seeman, Viti (Cambridge, 1862), p. 401.

Footnote 719:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 55 sq. The writer witnessed what he calls the ceremony of consecration in the case of a young man of the highest rank in Somosomo and he has described what he saw. In this case a special hut was not built for the manslayer, and he was allowed to pass the nights in the temple of the war god.

Footnote 720:[ (return) ]
See above, pp. 205 sq., 229 sq., 258, 279 sq., 323, 396, 415.

Footnote 721:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 55.

Footnote 722:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 98, 99 sq. Compare Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji, p. 163: "A person who has defiled himself by touching a corpse is called yambo, and is not allowed to touch food with his hands for several days." The custom as to a surviving widow is mentioned by Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 198.

Footnote 723:[ (return) ]
Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji, p. 167.

Footnote 724:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 101; Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 197 sq.; Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji, p. 168; Basil Thomson, The Fijian, p. 375.

Footnote 725:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 197, 198.

Footnote 726:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 99.

Footnote 727:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 198 sq.

Footnote 728:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, l.c.

Footnote 729:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 197.

Footnote 730:[ (return) ]
K. Weinhold, Altnordisches Leben (Berlin, 1856), p. 476.

Footnote 731:[ (return) ]
The Zend-Avesta, Part i. The Vendidâd, translated by James Darmesteter (Oxford, 1880), p. 95 (Fargard, viii. 2. 10) (Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv.).

Footnote 732:[ (return) ]
W. R. S. Ralston, The Songs of the Russian People, Second Edition (London, 1872), p. 318.

Footnote 733:[ (return) ]
Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine (Paris, 1782), i. 86.

Footnote 734:[ (return) ]
J. A. Dubois, Mœurs, Institutions et Cérémonies des Peuples de l'Inde (Paris, 1825), ii. 225; E. Thurston, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India (Madras, 1906), pp. 226 sq.

Footnote 735:[ (return) ]
J. Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer 3rd ed. (Göttingen, 1881), pp. 726 sqq.

Footnote 736:[ (return) ]
Rev. J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1900), p. 242.

Footnote 737:[ (return) ]
The Sacred Books of China, translated by James Legge, Part iii. The Lî-Kî, i.-x. (Oxford, 1885) pp. 144 sq. (Bk. ii. Sect. i. Pt. II. 33) (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxvii.); J. F. Lafitau, Mœurs des Sauvages Ameriquains (Paris, 1724), ii. 401 sq., citing Le Comte, Nouv. Mémoires de la Chine, vol. ii. p. 187.

Footnote 738:[ (return) ]
Relations des Jésuites, 1633, p. 11; id., 1634, p. 23 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858); J. G. Kohl, Kitschi-Gami (Bremen, 1859), p. 149 note.

Footnote 739:[ (return) ]
E. W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899), p. 311.

Footnote 740:[ (return) ]
David Crantz, History of Greenland (London, 1767), i. 237. Compare Hans Egede, Description of Greenland, Second Edition (London, 1818), pp. 152 sq.; Captain G. F. Lyon, Private Journal (London, 1824), p. 370; C. F. Hall, Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition (Washington, 1879), p. 265 (Esquimaux).

Footnote 741:[ (return) ]
P. Kolben, The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London, 1731-1738), i. 316; C. P. Thunberg, "An Account of the Cape of Good Hope," in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, xvi. (London, 1814) p. 142; Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), ii, Série, ii. (1834) p. 196 (Bechuanas); id., vii. Série, vii. (1886) p. 587 (Fernando Po); T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, Relation d'un Voyage d'Exploration au Nord-est de la Colonie du Cap de Bonne-Espérance (Paris, 1842), pp. 502 sq.; C. J. Andersson, Lake Ngami, Second Edition (London, 1856), p. 466; G. Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's (Breslau, 1872), pp. 210, 335; R. Moffat, Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa (London, 1842), p. 307; E. Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1861), p. 202; Ladislaus Magyar, Reisen in Süd-Afrika (Buda-Pesth and Leipsic, 1859), p. 350; Rev. J. Macdonald, Light in Africa, Second Edition (London, 1890), p. 166; E. Béguin, Les Ma-Rotse (Lausanne and Fontaines, 1903), p. 115; Henri A. Junod, Les Ba-Ronga (Neuchâtel, 1898), p. 48; id., The Life of a South African Tribe, i. (Neuchâtel, 1912) p. 138; Dudley Kidd, The Essential Kafir (London, 1904), p. 247; A. F. Mockler-Ferryman, British Nigeria (London, 1902), p. 234; Ramseyer and Kühne, Four Years in Ashantee (London, 1875), p. 50; A. B. Ellis, The Land of Fetish (London, 1883), p. 13; id., The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast (London, 1887), p. 239; E. Perregaud, Chez les Achanti (Neuchâtel, 1906), p. 127; J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), p. 756; H. R. Palmer, "Notes on the Korôrofawa and Jukoñ," Journal of the African Society, No. 44 (July, 1912), p. 414. The custom is also observed by some tribes of Central Africa. See Miss A. Werner, The Natives of British Central Africa (London, 1906), p. 161; B. Gutmann, "Trauer und Begräbnisssitten der Wadschagga," Globus, lxxxix. (1906) p. 200; Rev. N. Stam, "Religious Conceptions of the Kavirondo," Anthropos, v. (1910) p. 361.

Footnote 742:[ (return) ]
C. Snouck Hurgronje, Het Gajoland en zijne Bewoners (Batavia, 1903), p. 313.

Footnote 743:[ (return) ]
Aurel Krause, Die Tlinkit-Indianer (Jena, 1885), p. 225; Franz Boas, in Sixth Report of the Committee on the North-western Tribes of Canada, p. 23 (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Leeds Meeting, 1890); J. R. Swanton, Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida (Leyden and New York, 1905), pp. 52, 54 (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History).

Footnote 744:[ (return) ]
J. A. H. Louis, The Gates of Thibet (Calcutta, 1894), p. 114.

Footnote 745:[ (return) ]
H. von Wlislocki, Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Zigeuner (Münster i. W., 1891), p. 99.

Footnote 746:[ (return) ]
W. Jochelson, The Koryak (New York and Leyden, 1908), pp. 110 sq. (The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History).

Footnote 747:[ (return) ]
W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources (London, 1870), p. 382.

Footnote 748:[ (return) ]
Lucien M. Turner, "Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory," Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1894), p. 191.

Footnote 749:[ (return) ]
Mgr. Bruguière, in Annales de l'Association de la Propagation de la Foi, v. (Lyons and Paris, 1831) p. 180. Compare Mgr. Pallegoix, Description du royaume Thai ou Siam (Paris, 1854), i. 245; Adolf Bastian, Die Volker des östlichen Asien, iii. (Jena, 1867) p. 258; E. Young, The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe (Westminster, 1898), p. 246.

Footnote 750:[ (return) ]
S. Mateer, Native Life in Travancore (London, 1883), p. 137. Compare A. Butterworth, "Royal Funerals in Travancore," Indian Antiquary, xxxi. (1902) p. 251.

Footnote 751:[ (return) ]
Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London, 1912), ii. 35.

Footnote 752:[ (return) ]
S. K. Kusnezow, "Über den Glauben vom Jenseits und den Todtencultus der Tscheremissen," Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, ix. (1896) p. 157.

Footnote 753:[ (return) ]
P. S. Pallas, Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs (St. Petersburg, 1771-1776), iii. 75; Middendorff, Reise in den äussersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens, iv. 1464.

Footnote 754:[ (return) ]
Exploraciones y Noticias hidrograficas de los Rios del Norte de Bolivia, publicados por Manuel V. Ballivian, Segunda Parte, Diario del Viage al Madre de Dios hecho por el P. Fr. Nicolas Armentia, en los años de 1884 y 1885 (La Paz, 1890), p. 20: "Cuando muere alguno, apénas sacan el cadáver de la casa, cambian la puerta al lado opuesto, para que no dé con ella el difunto."

Footnote 755:[ (return) ]
Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 100, § 358.

Footnote 756:[ (return) ]
For some evidence on this subject, see R. Lasch, "Die Behandlung der Leiche des Selbstmörders," Globus, lxxxvi. (1899) pp. 63-66; Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), pp. 20 sq.; A. Karasek, "Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Waschamba," Baessler-Archiv, i. (1911) pp. 190 sq.

Footnote 757:[ (return) ]
Rev. N. Stam, "The Religious Conceptions of the Kavirondo," Anthropos, v. (1910) p. 361.

Footnote 758:[ (return) ]
Alfred de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 198.

Footnote 759:[ (return) ]
Félix Chapiseau, Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche (Paris, 1902), ii. 164.

Footnote 760:[ (return) ]
For some evidence on this subject see Psyche's Task, pp. 64 sq.

Footnote 761:[ (return) ]
Carl Bock, Temples and Elephants (London, 1884), p. 262.

Footnote 762:[ (return) ]
Ch. Gilhodes, "Naissance et Enfance chez les Katchins (Birmanie)," Anthropos, vi. (1911) pp. 872 sq.

Footnote 763:[ (return) ]
A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo (Leyden, 1901-1907), i. 91.

Footnote 764:[ (return) ]
Ch. Hose and W. McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London, 1912), ii. 155.

Footnote 765:[ (return) ]
Franz Boas, in Sixth Report of the Committee on the North-western Tribes of Canada, p. 23 (separate reprint from the Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Leeds Meeting, 1890).

Footnote 766:[ (return) ]
Prevost, quoted by John Crawford, History of the Indian Archipelago (Edinburgh, 1820), ii. 245. Compare Adolf Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien, v. (Jena, 1869) p. 83.

Footnote 767:[ (return) ]
Mrs. Bishop (Isabella L. Bird), Korea and her Neighbours (London, 1898), i. 239 sq.

Footnote 768:[ (return) ]
Arnold van Gennep, Tabou et Totémisme à Madagascar (Paris, 1904), p. 65, quoting Dr. Catat.

Footnote 769:[ (return) ]
B. F. Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie van Zuid-Celebes (The Hague, 1875), p. 139; id., "Over de âdá's of gewoonten der Makassaren en Boegineezen," Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Derde Reeks, ii. (Amsterdam, 1885) p. 142.

Footnote 770:[ (return) ]
W. M. Donselaar "Aanteekeningen over het eiland Saleijer," Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, i. (1857) p. 291.

Footnote 771:[ (return) ]
See above, p. 426.

Footnote 772:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, Second Edition (London, 1860), i. 167.

Footnote 773:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iii. 83; Basil Thomson, The Fijians, p. 117.

Footnote 774:[ (return) ]
Basil Thomson, op. cit. p. 121.

Footnote 775:[ (return) ]
Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji, p. 163.

Footnote 776:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, i. 239.

Footnote 777:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 243 sq. Compare Berthold Seeman, Viti, an Account of a Government Mission to the Vitian of Fijian Islands in the years 1860-1861 (Cambridge, 1862), p. 399; Lorimer Fison, Tales from Old Fiji, p. 163; Basil Thomson, The Fijians, pp. 120 sq., 121 sq.

Footnote 778:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i, 244 sq.

Footnote 779:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 83.

Footnote 780:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 245 sq.

Footnote 781:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 246 sq.

Footnote 782:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 247.

Footnote 783:[ (return) ]
Ch. Wilkes, op. cit. iii. 85 sq.

Footnote 784:[ (return) ]
Th. Williams, op. cit. i. 248.

NOTE

MYTH OF THE CONTINUANCE OF DEATH [⁷⁸⁵]

The following story is told by the Balolo of the Upper Congo to explain the continuance, if not the origin, of death in the world. One day, while a man was working in the forest, a little man with two bundles, one large and one small, went up to him and said, "Which of these bundles will you have? The large one contains knives, looking-glasses, cloth and so forth; and the small one contains immortal life." "I cannot choose by myself," answered the man; "I must go and ask the other people in the town." While he was gone to ask the others, some women arrived and the choice was left to them. They tried the edges of the knives, decked themselves in the cloth, admired themselves in the looking-glasses, and, without more ado, chose the big bundle. The little man, picking up the small bundle, vanished. So when the man came back from the town, the little man and his bundles were gone. The women exhibited and shared the things, but death continued on the earth. Hence the people often say, "Oh, if those women had only chosen the small bundle, we should not be dying like this!"[⁷⁸⁶]

Footnote 785:[ (return) ]
See above, p. 77.

Footnote 786:[ (return) ]
Rev. John H. Weeks, "Stories and other Notes from the Upper Congo," Folk-lore, xii. (1901) p. 461; id., Among Congo Cannibals (London, 1913), p. 218. The country of the Balolo lies five miles south of the Equator, on Longitude 18° East.

INDEX

Abinal, Father, [49]
Abipones, their belief in sorcery as a cause of death, [35]
Abnormal mental states explained by inspiration, [15]
Aborigines, magical powers attributed by immigrants to, [193]
Abstinence from certain food in mourning, [198], [208], [209], [230], [314], [360], [452]
Abundance of food and water favourable to social progress, [90] sq.
Action as a clue to belief, [143]
Actors personating ghosts and spirits, [176], [179] sq., [180] sqq., [185] sqq.
Adiri, the land of the dead, [211], [212], [213], [214]
Admiralty Islands, [393], [400], [401]
—— Islanders, their myths of the origin of death, [71], [76] sq.
Advance of culture among the aborigines of South-Eastern Australia, [141] sq., [148] sq.
Africa, aborigines of, their ideas as to the cause of death, [49] sqq.;
use of poison ordeal in, [50] sqq.
——, British Central, [162]
——, British East, [61], [66], [254]
Agriculture, rise of, favourable to astronomy, [140] sq.;
Fijian, [408]
Akamba, their story of the origin of death, [61] sq.
Akikuyu, resurrection and circumcision among the, [254]
Alcheringa or dream times, [96], [103], [114]
—— ancestors, their marvellous powers, [103]
—— home of the dead, [167]
Alfoors of Celebes, [166]
Alligators, ghosts in, [380]
Alols, bachelors' houses, [221], [222]
Altars, stones used as, [379]
Amputation of fingers in mourning, [199], [426] sq., [451]
Amulets consisting of relics of the dead, [332], [370]
Ancestor, totemic, developing into a god, [113]
Ancestor-worship possibly evolved from totemism, [114] sq.
Ancestors, reincarnation of, [92] sqq.;
marvellous powers ascribed to remote, [103], [114] sq.;
totemic, traditions concerning, [115] sqq.;
dramatic ceremonies to commemorate the doings of, [118] sqq.;
possible evolution of worship of, in Central Australia, [125] sq.;
worshipped, [221], [297] sq., [328] sqq., [338], [340];
ghosts of, appealed to for help, [258] sq.;
offerings to, [298];
prayers to, [329] sq., [332] sqq.
See also [Dead]
Ancestral gods, foreskins of circumcised lads offered to, [427];
libations to, [430], [438]
—— images, [307] sqq., [315], [316] sq., [321], [322]
—— spirits help hunters and fishers, [226];
shrines for, [316], [317];
worshipped as gods, [369];
worshipped in the Nanga, [428] sq.;
first-fruits offered to, [429];
cloth and weapons offered to, [430] sq.;
novices presented to, at initiation, [432] sq., [434].
Angola, the poison ordeal in, [51] sq.
Angoni, their burial customs, [162]
Animals, souls of sorcerers in, [39];
spirits of, go to the spirit land, [210];
sacrifices to the souls of, [239];
transmigration of dead into, [242], [245];
ghosts in the form of, [282];
ghosts turn into, [287];
ghosts incarnate in, [379] sq.
Animistic views of the Papuans, [264]
Anjea, a mythical being, [128]
Annam, [67], [69]
Anointing manslayers, [448]
Ant-hills, ghosts turn into, [287]
Ant totem, dramatic ceremony concerned with, [120] sq.
Ants' nests, ghosts turn into, [351]
Anthropology, comparative and descriptive, [230] sq.

Antimerina of Madagascar, burial custom of the, [461]
Anuto, a creator, [296]
Apparitions, [396];
fear of, [414]
Appearance of the dead in dreams, [229]
Araucanians of Chili, their disbelief in natural death, [35], [53] sq.
Arawaks of Guiana, [36];
their myth of the origin of death, [70]
Arm-bone, final burial ceremony performed with the, [167] sq.;
lower, of dead preserved, [274]
—— -bones, special treatment of the, [199];
of dead preserved, [225], [249]
Aroma district of British New Guinea, [201], [202]
Arrow-heads made of bones of the dead, [352]
Art, primitive religious, [114];
Papuan, [220]
Arugo, soul of dead, [207]
Arumburinga, spiritual double, [164]
Arunta, the, of Central Australia, [94];
ceremonies connected with totems, [119] sqq.;
their magical ceremonies for the multiplication of the totems, [122] sq.;
their customs as to the hair of the dead, [138];
their cuttings for the dead, [155] sq., [159];
burial customs of the, [164] sq., [166]
Aryan burial custom, [453]
Asa, Secret Society, [233]
Ashantee story of the origin of death, [63] sq.
Ashes smeared on mourners, [184], [361]
Astrolabe Bay in German New Guinea, [218], [230], [235], [237]
Astronomy, rise of, favoured by agriculture, [140] sq.
Asylums, [243]
Asyrèn, dead man, [457]
Ataro, a powerful ghost, [377]
Atonement for sick chief, [427]
Aukem, a mythical being, [181]
Aurora, one of the New Hebrides, [360], [382]
Australia, causes which retarded progress in, [89] sq.;
germs of a worship of the dead in, [168] sq.
See also [Central Australia], [Western Australia]
——, the aborigines of, their ideas as to death from natural causes, [40] sqq.;
their primitive character, [88], [91];
the belief in immortality among, [127] sqq.;
thought to be reborn in white people, [130], [131] sqq.;
their burial customs, [144] sqq.;
their primitive condition, [217]
——, South, beliefs as to the dead in, [134] sqq.
Australia, South-Eastern, beliefs as to the dead in, [133] sq., 139;
burial customs among the aborigines of, [145] sqq.
——, Western, burial customs in, [147], [150], [151]
Authority of chiefs based on their claim to magical powers, [395]
Avenging a death, pretence of, [282], [328]

Bachelor ghosts, hard fate of, [464]
Bachelors' houses, [221]
Bad and good, different fate of the, after death, [354]
Baganda, the, their ideas as to the causes of death, [56] n. [2];
their myth of the origin of death, [78] sqq.
See also [Uganda]
Bahaus, the, of Borneo, [459]
Bahnars of Cochinchina, [74]
Bakaïri, the, of Brazil, [35]
Bakerewe, the, of the Victoria Nyanza, [50]
Bali, burial custom in, [460]
Balking ghosts, [455] sqq.
Balolo, of the Upper Congo, their myth of the continuance of death, [472]
Balum, ghost or spirit of dead, [244];
name for bull-roarer, [250];
name for a ghost or monster who swallows lads at initiation, [251], [255], [260], [261];
soul of a dead man, [257], [261]
Bamler, G., [291], [297] sq.
Bananas in myths of the origin of death, [60], [70], [72] sq.
Bandages to prevent entrance of ghosts, [396]
Bandaging eyes of corpse, [459]
Banks' Islands, [343], [353], [386];
myths of the origin of death in, [71], [83] sq.
—— Islanders, funeral customs of the, [355] sqq.
Bantu family, [60]
Baronga, the, [61];
burial custom of the, [454]
Bartle Bay, [206], [208]
Basutos, the, [61];
burial custom of the, [454]
Bat in myth of origin of death, [75]
Bathing in sea after funeral, [207] sq.;
as purification after a death, [314], [319]
Battel, Andrew, [51] sq.
Bechuanas, the, [61];
burial custom of the, [454]
Beetles in myth of the origin of death, [70]
Belep tribe of New Caledonia, [325]
Belief, acts as a clue to, [143]
Belief in immortality, origin of belief in, [25] sqq.;
almost universal among races of mankind, [33];
among the aborigines of Central Australia, [87] sqq.;
among the islanders of Torres Straits, [170] sqq.;
among the natives of British New Guinea, [190] sqq.;
among the natives of German New Guinea, [216] sqq.;
among the natives of Dutch New Guinea, [303] sqq.;
among the natives of Southern Melanesia, [324] sqq.;
among the natives of Central Melanesia, [343] sqq.;
its practical effect on the life of the Central Melanesians, [391] sq.;
among the natives of Northern Melanesia, [393] sqq.;
among the Fijians, [406] sqq.;
strongly held by savages, [468];
destruction of life and property entailed by the, [468] sq.;
the question of its truth, [469] sqq.
Belief in sorcery a cause of keeping down the population, [38], [40]
Berkeley, his theory of knowledge, [11] sq.
Berlin Harbour in German New Guinea, [218]
Bernau, Rev. J. H., [38]
Beryl-stone in Rose Mary, [130]
Betindalo, the land of the dead, [350]
Bhotias, the, of the Himalayas, [163]
Biak or Wiak, island, [303]
Bilking a ghost, [416]
Bird in divination as to cause of death, [45]
Birds, souls of sorcerers in, [39]
Birth, new, at initiation, pretence of, [254]
Birthplaces, the dead buried in their, [160]
Birth-stones and birth-sticks (churinga) of the Central Australians, [96] sqq.
Bismarck Archipelago, [70], [394], [402]
Black, mourners painted, [178], [241], [293];
gravediggers painted, [451]
—— -snake people, [94]
Blackened, faces of mourners, [403]
Blood of mourners dropped on corpse or into grave, [158] sq., [183], [185];
and hair of mourners offered to the dead, [183];
of pigs smeared on skulls and bones of the dead, [200];
soul thought to reside in the, [307];
of sacrificial victim not allowed to fall on the ground, [365]
—— revenge, duty of, [274], [276] sq.;
discharged by sham fight, [136] sq.
Bogadyim, in German New Guinea, [230], [231]
Boigu, the island of the dead, [175], [184], [213]
Bolafagina, the lord of the dead, [350]
Bolotoo, the land of souls, [411]
Bones of the dead, second burial of the, [166] sq.;
kept in house, [203];
worn by survivors, [225];
disinterred and kept in house, [225], [294];
making rain by means of the, [341]
—— and skulls of dead smeared with blood of pigs, [200]
Bonitos, ghosts in, [380]
Boollia, magic, [41] sq.
"Born of an oak or a rock," [128]
Bougainville, island of, [393]
Boulia district of Queensland, [147], [155]
Bow, divination by, [241]
Bread-fruit trees, stones to make them bear fruit, [335] sq.
Breaking things offered to the dead, [276]
Breath, vital principle associated with the, [129] sq.
Brett, Rev. W. H., [35] sqq.
Brewin, an evil spirit, [45]
Brittany, burial custom in, [458]
Brothers-in-law in funeral rites, [177]
Brown, Rev. Dr. George, [48], [395]
Buandik, the, [138]
Buckley, the convict, [131]
Buginese, burial custom of the, [461]
Bugotu, [350], [352];
in Ysabel, [372], [379]
Building king's house, men sacrificed at, [446]
Bukaua, the, of German New Guinea, [242], [256] sqq.
Bull-roarers, [243];
used in divination, [249];
described, [250];
used at initiation of young men among the Yabim, [250] sqq.;
among the Kaya-Kaya, [255];
at initiation among the Bukaua, [260] sq.;
associated with the spirits of the dead, [261];
at initiation among the Kai, [263], [291];
at initiation of young men among the Tami, [301], [302]
Bulotu or Bulu, the land of the dead, [462], [463]
Bundle, the fatal, [472];
story of, [77] sq.
Bures, Fijian temples, [439]
Burial different for old and young, married and unmarried, etc., [161] sqq.;
and burning of the dead, [162] sq.;
special modes of, intended to prevent or facilitate the return of the spirit, [163] sqq.;
second, custom of, [166] sq.;
in trees, [203];
in island, [319];
in the sea, [347] sq.
—— customs of the Australian aborigines, [144] sqq.;
in Tumleo, [223];
of the Kai, [274];
of the New Caledonians, [326] sq., [339] sq.;
in New Ireland, [397] sq.;
in the Duke of York Island, [403].
See also [Corpse], [Grave]
—— -grounds, sacred, [378]
Buried alive, old people, [359] sq.
Burma, [75]
Burning and burial of the dead, [162] sq.
—— bodies of women who died in childbed, [459]
Burns inflicted on themselves by mourners, [154], [155], [157], [327], [451]
Burnt offerings to the dead, [294]
—— sacrifices, reasons for, [348] sq.;
to ghosts, [366], [367] sq., [373]

Burying alive the sick and old, Fijian custom of, [420] sqq.
—— people in their birthplaces, [160]
Bushmen, [65]
Buwun, deities, [296]

Caffres of South Africa, their beliefs as to the causes of death, [55] sq.
Calabar, poison ordeal in, [52]
California, Indians of, [68]
Calling back a lost soul, [312]
Calm and wind produced by weather-doctors, [385] sq.
Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, [171], [191]
Canaanites, the heathen, [154]
Canadian Indians, burial custom of the, [454]
Canarium nuts, first-fruits of, offered to ghosts, [368] sq.
Cannibal feasts in Fiji, [446]
Cannibals fear the ghosts of their victims, [396]
Canoe, men sacrificed at launching a new, [446] sq.
Canoes, Papuan, [220]
Cape Bedford in Queensland, [129], [130], [131]
—— King William in German New Guinea, [218], [238]
Carnac in Brittany, [438]
Catching soul in a scarf, [412] sq.
Cause, Hume's analysis of, [18] sq.
Causes, the propensity to search for, [17] sq.;
two classes of, [22]
Caves used as burial-places or charnel-houses, [330] sqq.
Celebes, Central, [72]
Central Australia, aborigines of, their ideas as to natural death, [46] sq.;
their ideas as to resurrection, [68];
their belief in immortality, [87] sqq.;
their belief in reincarnation of the dead, [92] sqq.;
their attitude towards the dead, [124] sqq.
Cereals unknown to Melanesians and Polynesians, [408]
Ceremonial impurity of manslayer, [229] sq.
Ceremonies performed in honour of the Wollunqua, a mythical water-snake, [108] sqq.;
dramatic, to commemorate the doings of ancestors, [118] sqq.;
funeral, of the Torres Straits Islanders, [176] sqq.
See also [Dramatic Ceremonies], [Dramatic Representations], [Funeral Ceremonies], [Totems]
Chameleon in myths of the origin of death, [60] sqq.
Chams of Annam, [67]
Charms imparted by dead in dreams, [139]
Charnel-houses, [221] sq., [225], [328]
Cheating the devil, [460]
Chepara, the, [139]
Cheremiss of Russia, burial custom of the, [457]
Cherokee Indians, [77]
Chief, spirit of dead, a worshipful ghost, [352]
Chief's power in Central Melanesia based on a fear of ghosts, [391]
Chiefs deified after death, [369]
Chiefs' authority based on their claim to magical powers, [395]
Chieftainship, rise of, [141]
Childbed, treatment of ghosts of women dying in, [358];
special fear of ghosts of women dying in, [458] sqq.
Childless women, burial of, [458]
Children, Central Australian theory of the birth of, [93] sq.;
belief of Queensland natives as to the birth of, [128]
Children buried in trees, [161], [312] sq.;
stillborn, burial of, [458]
Child-stones, [93] sq.
Chingpaws of Burma, [75]
Choi, disembodied human spirits, [128]
Chukchansi Indians, [163]
Churinga, sacred sticks or stones, [96] sqq.
Circumcision as initiatory rite of young men, [233];
among the Yabim, [250] sqq.;
among the Akikuyu, [254];
among the Bukaua, [260] sq.;
among the Kai, [290] sq.;
among the Tami, [301] sq.;
as a propitiatory sacrifice, [426] sqq.
Clans, totemic, [104]
Clay, widow's body smeared with, [223]
Cleanliness due to fear of sorcery, [386] sq., [414]
Cleft stick used in cure, [271]
Clercq, F. S. A. de, [316]
Cloth and weapons offered to ancestral spirits, [430] sq.
Clubhouses for men, [221], [225], [226], [243], [256] sq., [355]
Cochinchina, [74]
Coco-nut trees of dead cut down, [208], [209], [327];
stones to blight, [335]
—— -nuts tabooed, [297]
Codrington, Dr. R. H., [54] sq., [344], [345] sq., [353], [355], [359], [362] sq., [368], [380] sq.
Collins, David, [133]
Commemorative and magical ceremonies combined, [122], [126]
Commercial habits of the North Melanesians, [394]
Communal houses, [304]
Communism, temporary revival of primitive, [436] sq.
Comparative and descriptive anthropology, their relation, [230] sq.

Comparative method applied to the study of religion, [5] sq.;
in anthropology, [30]
Compartments in land of the dead, [244], [354], [404]
Competition as a cause of progress, [89] sq.
Conception in women, Central Australian theory of, [93] sq.;
belief of Queensland natives concerning, [128]
Conception of death, the savage, [31] sqq.
Concert of spirits, [340] sq.
Confession of sins, [201]
Congo, natives of the, their ideas as to natural death, [50];
worship of the moon on the, [68]
Consecration of manslayers in Fiji, [448] sq.
Consultation of ancestral images, [308] sqq.
Continence, required in training yam vines, [371]
Continuance of death, myth of the, [472]
Contradictions and inconsistencies in reasoning not peculiar to savages, [111] sq.
Convulsions as evidence of inspiration, [443], [444]
Co-operative system of piety, [333]
Coorgs, the, [163]
Cord worn round neck by mourners, [241], [242], [249], [259], [361]
Corpse inspected to discover sorcerer, [37], [38], [53] sq.;
dried on fire, [135], [184], [249], [313], [355];
tied to prevent ghost from walking, [144];
mauled and mutilated in order to disable the ghost, [153];
putrefying juices of, received by mourners on their bodies, [167], [205];
carried out feet foremost, [174];
decked with ornaments and flowers, [232];
painted white and red, [233];
crowned with red roses, [233], [234];
stript of ornaments before burial, [234], [241];
kept in house, [355];
property displayed beside the, [397];
persons who have handled a corpse forbidden to touch food with their hands, [450] sq.;
carried out of house by special opening, [452] sqq.
Corpses mummified, [313];
of women dying in childbed burnt, [459]
Costume of mourners, [184], [198], [241] sq.;
of widow and widower, [204]
Costumes of actors in dramatic ceremonies concerned with totems, [119] sqq.
Crabs in myth of the origin of death, [70]
Cracking joints of fingers at incantation, [223]
Creator, the, and the origin of death, [73]
Crocodiles, transmigration of dead into, [245]
Cromlechs, [438]
Crops, ghosts expected to make the crops thrive, [259], [284], [288] sq.
Cross-questioning a ghost by means of fire, [278]
Cultivation of the ground, spirits of ancestors supposed to help in the, [259]
Culture, advance of, among the aborigines of South-Eastern Australia, [141] sq., [148] sq.; advanced, of the Fijians, [407]
Cursing enemies, [370], [403], [404]
Cutting down trees of the dead, [208], [209]
Cuttings of the flesh in honour of the dead, [154] sqq., [183], [184] sq., [196], [272], [327], [359]

Dance of death, [185] sqq.
Dances as funeral rites, [179] sqq., [200];
masked, of the Monumbo, [228];
masked, of a Secret Society, [233];
at deaths, [293] sq.;
of masked men in imitation of spirits, [297];
at festivals, [316];
at festivals of the dead, [321];
at funeral feasts, [399]
—— and games at festivals, [226]
Dark, ghosts dreaded in the, [197], [283], [306], [467];
female mourners remain in the, [360]
Daula, a ghost associated with the frigate-bird, [376]
Dawson, James, [42], [142], [143]
Dazing a ghost, [416]
Dead, worship of the, [23] sqq., [31], [328] sqq., [338];
seen in dreams, [27];
belief in the reincarnation of the, [92] sqq., [107];
spirits of, associated with conspicuous features of the landscape, [115] sqq.;
reincarnation of the, [124] sq., [127] sqq.;
souls of the, supposed to go to the sky, [133] sq., [135], [138] sq., [141], [142];
souls of the, supposed to be in stars, [134], [140];
names of the, not mentioned, [135];
magical virtue attributed to the hair of the, [137] sq.;
appear to the living in dreams, [139], [195], [213], [229];
attentions paid to the, in regard to food, fire, property, etc., [144] sqq.;
property of, deposited in grave, [145] sqq.;
motive for destroying the property of the, [147] sq.;
economic loss entailed by sacrifices to the, [149];
incipient worship of the, in Australia, [149], [150];
feared, [152] sq., [173] sqq., [196] sq., [201], [203], [244], [248];
cuttings of the flesh in honour of the, [154] sqq., [183], [184] sq., [196], [327], [359];
thought to be strengthened by blood, [159];
disposed of in different ways according to their age, manner of death, etc., [161] sqq.;
fear of the, [168];
germs of a worship of the, in Australia, [168] sq.;
destruction of the property of the, [174];
land of the, [175] sq., [192], [193], [194] sq., [202], [203], [207], [209] sq., [211] sqq., [224], [228] sq., [244], [260], [286] sq., [292], [299], [305] sq., [307], [322], [326], [345], [350] sq., [353] sq., [404] sqq., [462] sqq.;
personated by masked men, [176], [179] sq., [182] sq., [185] sqq.;
food offered to the, [183], [211], [214], [232], [241], [332], [338], [348] sq., [364] sq., [367] sq., [372] sq., [396] sq., [429], [442], [467];
elements of a worship of the, in Torres Straits, [189];
laid on platforms, [199], [203], [205];
worshipped in British New Guinea, [201] sq.;
prayers to the, [201] sq., [214], [259], [288], [307], [329] sq., [332] sqq., [340], [376] sq., [401], [403] sq., [427], [441];
names of, not mentioned, [210], [246];
monuments of the, [225];
offerings of hunters and fishers to the, [226];
oracles of the, [235];
buried in the house, [236], [347], [352], [397], [398], [399];
offerings to the, [239], [276], [292], [298];
transmigrate into animals, [242], [245];
spirits of the, give good crops, [247] sq.;
elements of a worship of the dead among the Yabim, [255];
spirits of the, believed to be mischievous, [257];
ancestors supposed to help in the cultivation of the ground, [259];
first-fruits offered to the, [259];
buried under houses, [259];
envious of the living, [267], [381];
burnt offerings to the, [294];
predominance of the worship of the, [297] sq.;
power of the, over the living, [298], [306] sq., [307];
sacrifices to the, [307], [338];
wooden images (korwar) of the, [307] sqq., [315], [316] sq., [321], [322];
buried in island, [319];
festival of the, [320] sq.;
medicine-men, inspired by spirits of the, [322];
spirits of the, embodied in their skulls, [338];
spirits of the, identified with white men, [342];
buried in the sea, [347] sq., [397];
relics of the, preserved, [348];
bodies of the, preserved for a time in the house, [351];
represented by wooden stocks, [374], [386];
burned in New Ireland, [397];
carried out of house by special opening, [452] sqq.
See also [Ghost]
Dead kings of Uganda consulted as oracles, [151]
Death, the problem of, [31] sqq.;
the savage conception of, [31] sqq.;
thought to be an effect of sorcery, [33] sqq.;
by natural causes, recognised by some savages, [55] sq.;
myths of the origin of, [59] sqq.;
personified in tales, [79] sqq.;
not regarded as a natural necessity, [84] sqq.;
the second, of the dead, [195], [286], [299], [345], [350], [351], [354];
attributed to sorcery, [249];
violent, ascribed to sorcery, [268] sq.;
myth of the continuance of, [472]
Death and resurrection at initiation, ceremony of, [431], [434] sq.;
pretence of, at initiation, [254] sq., [261], [302]
Death-dances, [293] sq.;
of the Torres Straits Islanders, [179] sqq.
Deaths from natural causes, disbelief of savages in, [33] sqq.;
attributed to sorcery, [136], [203];
set down to sorcery or ghosts, [203], [268], [270]
Deceiving the ghost, [237], [273], [280] sqq., [328]
Deceiving the spirits, [298]
Deification of the dead, [24], [25];
of parents, [439]
Deity consumes soul of offering, [297]
Demon carries off soul of sick, [194]
Demons as causes of disease and death, [36] sq.
Demonstrations, extravagant, of grief at a death, dictated by fear of the ghost, [271] sqq.
Déné or Tinneh Indians, their ideas as to death, [39] sq.
Departure of ghost thought to coincide with disappearance of flesh from bones, [165] sq.
Descent of the living into the nether world, [300], [355]
Descriptive and comparative anthropology, their relation, [230] sq.
Descriptive method in anthropology, [30]
Desertion of house after a death, [195], [196] n. [1], [210], [248], [275], [349], [400];
of village after a death, [275]
Deserts as impediments to progress, [89], [90]
Design emblematic of totem, [168]
Destruction of house after a death, [210]
—— of life and property entailed by the belief in immortality, [468] sq.
—— of property of the dead, [174], [459];
motive for, [147] sq., [327]
Development arrested or retarded in savagery, [88] sqq.
Dieri, the, [138];
their burial customs, [144]
Differentiation of function in prayer, [332] sq.
Disbelief of savages in death from natural causes, [34] sqq.
Disease supposed to be caused by sorcery, [35] sqq.;
demons regarded as causes of, [36] sq.;
recognised by some savages as due to natural causes, [55] sq.;
special modes of disposing of bodies of persons who die of, [162], [163].
See also [Sickness]

Diseases ascribed to ghosts, [257]
Disinterment of the bones of the dead, [225], [294]
Dissection of corpse to discover cause of death, [53] sq.
Divination to discover cause of death, [35], [36], [37] sq., [38], [39] sq., [44], [45] sq., [50] sqq., [53] sq., [136];
by liver, [54];
by dreams, [136], [383];
by the skulls of the dead, [179];
to discover sorcerer who caused death, [240] sq., [249] sq., [257], [402];
by bow, [241];
by hair to discover cause of death, [319];
by means of ghosts, [389] sq.;
to discover ghost who has caused sickness, [382]
Divinity of kings, [16];
of Fijian kings, [407] sq.;
Fijian notion of, [440] sq.
Dog, in myth of the origin of death, [66];
the Heavenly, [460]
Dogs sacrificed to the dead, [232], [234];
sacrificed in epidemics, [296]
Doreh Bay in Dutch New Guinea, [303], [306]
Dragon supposed to swallow lads at initiation, [301].
See also [Monster]
Drama of death and resurrection at initiation, [431], [434] sq.
——, evolution of, [189]
Dramatic ceremonies in Central Australia, magical intention of, [122] sq., [126]
—— concerned with totems, [119] sqq.
—— to commemorate the doings of ancestors, [118] sqq.
Dramatic representation of ghosts and spirits by masked men, [176], [179] sq., [180] sqq., [185] sqq.
Drawings on ground in religious or magical ceremony, [112] sq.
—— on rocks, [318]
Dread of witchcraft, [413] sq.
Dreamer, professional, [383]
Dreams as a source of the belief in immortality and of the worship of the dead, [27] sq., [214];
divination by, [136];
appearance of the dead to the living in, [139], [195], [213], [229];
savage faith in the truth of, [139] sq.;
consultation of the dead in, [179];
danger of, [194];
the dead communicate with the living in, [248]
Driving away the ghost, [178], [197], [248], [305], [306], [323], [356] sqq., [396], [399], [415]
Drowning of ghosts, [224]
Duke of York Island, [393], [397], [403], [404]
Dying, threats of the, [273]

Ears of corpse stopped with hot coals, [152];
of mourners cut, [183], [272], [327]
Earth-burial and tree-burial, [161], [166] sq.
Earthquakes ascribed to ghosts, [286], [288];
caused by deities, [296]
Eating totemic animals or plants, [120] sq.
Economic loss entailed by sacrifices to the dead, [149];
entailed by the belief in immortality, [468] sq.
Eel, ghost in, [379]
Eels offered to the dead, [429]
Egypt, custom at embalming a corpse in ancient, [178]
Elysium, the Fijian, [466] sq.
Embryology of religion, [88]
Emu totem, dramatic ceremonies concerned with, [122], [123]
Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia, [42]
Epilepsy ascribed to anger of ghosts, [257], [283]
—— and inspiration, [15]
Erdweg, Father Josef, [218], [219], [227]
Erskine, Capt. J. E., [409]
Ertnatulunga, sacred store-house, [99]
Erythrophloeum guiniense, in poison ordeal, [50]
Esquimaux, burial custom of the, [454], [456]
Essence, immaterial, of sacrifice absorbed by ghosts and spirits, [285], [287], [374]
Euhemerism, [24] sq.
Euhemerus, [24]
European teaching, influence of, on native beliefs, [142] sq.
Evil spirits regarded as causes of death, [36] sq.
Excitement as mark of inspiration, [14]
Exogamy with female descent, [416], [418]
Exorcism as cure for sickness, [222] sq.
Experience defined, [12];
two sorts of, [13] sq.
—— and intuition, [11]
External world, question of the reality of, [13] sq.;
an illusion, [21]
Eye, soul resides in the, [267]
Eyes of corpse bandaged, [459]

Faints ascribed to action of ghosts, [257], [283]
Faith, weakening of religious, [4]
Falling stars the souls of the dead, [229], [399]
Family prayers of the New Caledonians, [332] sq., [340]
—— priests, [332], [340]
Famine, the stone of, [334] sq.
Fasting in mourning for a king, [451] sq.
Father-in-law, mourning for a, [155]
Favourable natural conditions, their influence in stimulating social progress, [141] sq., [148] sq.
Fear of ghosts, [134], [135], [147], [151] sqq., [158], [173] sqq., [195], [196] sq., [201], [203], [229] sq., [232], [237], [276], [282] sq., [305], [321], [327], [347], [396], [414] sq., [449], [455], [467];
a moral restraint, [175];
the source of extravagant demonstrations of grief at death, [271] sqq.;
taboo based on, [390] sq.;
a bulwark of morality, [392];
funeral customs based on, [450] sqq.;
of women dying in childbed, [458] sqq.
Fear of the dead, [152] sq., [168], [173] sqq., [195], [196] sq., [201], [203], [244], [248]
—— of witchcraft, [244]
—— the only principle of religious observances in Fiji, [443]
Feasts provided for ghosts, [247] sq.
See also [Funeral Feasts]
Feather-money offered to ghosts, [374], [375]
Feet foremost, corpse carried out, [174]
Ferry for ghosts, [224], [244] sq., [350], [412], [462]
Festival of the dead, [320] sq.
Fig-trees, sacred, [199]
Fighting or warrior ghosts, [370]
Fiji and the Fijians, [406] sqq.
——, human sacrifices in, [446] sq.
Fijian islands, scenery of, [409] sq.
—— myths of origin of death, [66] sq., [75] sq.
Fijians, belief in immortality among the, [406] sqq.;
their advanced culture, [407]
Fingers amputated in mourning, [199], [451]
—— of living sacrificed in honour of the dead, [426] sq.
Finsch Harbour in German New Guinea, [218], [242], [262]
Fire as a means of keeping off ghosts, [131]
—— -flies, ghosts as, [352]
—— kindled on grave, to warm ghost, [144] sq., [196] sq., [209], [211], [223], [275], [359]
—— supplied to ghost, [246] sq.;
used to keep off ghosts, [258], [283];
used in cross-questioning a ghost, [278]
Firstborn children, skull-topped images made of dead, [312]
First-fruits offered to the dead, [259];
of canarium nuts offered to ghosts, [368] sq.;
offered to deified spirits of dead chiefs, [369];
offered to ghosts, [373] sq.;
of yams offered to the ancestral spirits, [429]
Fish offered by fishermen to the dead, [226];
prayers for, [329];
ghost in, [379]
—— totem, dramatic ceremony concerned with, [119] sq., [121]
Fishermen pray to ghosts, [289]
——, stones to help, [337]
Fison, Lorimer, [407], [412], [416], [418], [428] n. [1], [434], [435] sqq., [438] n. [1], [445], [448]
Fits ascribed to contact with ghosts, [283].
See also [Epilepsy]
Florida, one of the Solomon Islands, [346], [347], [348], [349], [367], [368], [376], [377], [379], [380]
Flutes, sacred, [221], [226], [233], [252]
Flying-foxes, souls of the dead in, [405]
Food placed on grave, [144];
offered to the dead, [183], [201], [208], [211], [214], [232], [241], [332], [338], [364] sq., [367] sq., [372] sq., [396] sq., [429], [442], [467];
abstinence from certain, in mourning, [198], [208], [209], [230], [314], [360], [452];
supply promoted by ghosts, [283];
offered to ancestral spirits, [316];
offered to the skulls of the dead, [339] sq., [352];
offered to ghosts, [348] sq.;
of ghosts, the living not to partake of the, [355]
—— not to be touched with the hands by gravediggers, [327];
not to be touched with hands by persons who have handled a corpse, [450] sq.
—— and water, abundance of, favourable to social progress, [90] sq.;
offered to the dead, [174]
Fool and Death, [83]
Footprints, magic of, [45]
Foundation-sacrifice of men, [446]
Fowlers pray to ghosts, [289]
Frenzy a symptom of inspiration, [443], [444] sq.
Frigate-bird, mark of the, [350];
ghost associated with the, [376]
Frigate-birds, ghosts in, [380]
Frog in stories of the origin of death, [61], [62] sq.
Fruit-trees cut down for ghost, [246]
—— of the dead cut down, [399]
Funeral ceremonies intended to dismiss the ghost from the land of the living, [174] sq.
—— ceremonies of the Torres Straits Islanders, [176] sqq.
—— customs of the Tami, [293] sq.;
of the Central Melanesians, [347] sqq., [355] sqq.;
based on fear of ghosts, [450] sqq.
—— feasts, [348], [351], [358] sq., [360], [396];
orations, [355] sq.
Forces, impersonal, the world conceived as a complex of, [21]
Foreskins sacrificed in honour of the dead, [426] sq.;
of circumcised lads presented to ancestral gods, [427]

Gaboon, the, [54]
Gajos of Sumatra, burial custom of the, [455]
Gall used in divination, [54]
Game offered by hunters to the dead, [226]
Ganindo, a warrior ghost, [363] sq.
Gardens, ghosts of, [371]

Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain, [48], [69], [398], [405]
Geelvink Bay, in Dutch New Guinea, [303], [307]
Genital members of human victims hung on tree, [447] n. [1]
German burial custom, [453], [458]
Ghost appeased by sham fight, [137];
hunted into the grave, [164] sq.;
thought to linger near body till flesh is decayed, [165] sq.;
elaborate funeral ceremonies designed to get rid of, [174] sq.;
driven away, [178], [197], [248];
extracted from body of patient, [271];
calls for vengeance, [278];
cursed and ill-treated, [285];
who causes sunshine and rain, [375]
—— -posts, [375]
—— -seer, [204] sq., [214], [229]
—— -shooter, [387] sq.
Ghostly ferry, [350], [412].
See also [Ferry]
Ghosts, mischievous nature of, [28];
as causes of sickness, [54] sqq., [195], [197], [222], [300], [305], [322], [389];
feared, [134], [135], [147], [151] sqq., [158], [173] sqq., [195], [196] sq., [201], [203], [229] sq., [232], [237], [271] sqq., [276], [282] sq., [305], [321], [327], [347], [396], [414] sq., [449], [457], [467];
attentions paid to, in regard to food, fire, property, etc., [144] sqq.;
feared only of recently departed, [151] sq.;
of nearest relations most feared, [153];
represented dramatically by masked men, [176], [179] sq., [182] sq., [185] sqq.;
should have their noses bored, [192], [194] sq.;
return of the, [195], [198], [246], [300];
carry off the souls of the living, [197];
cause bad luck in hunting and fishing, [197];
identified with phosphorescent lights, [198], [258];
appear to seer, [204] sq.;
of slain enemies especially dreaded, [205];
of the hanged specially feared, [212];
certain classes of ghosts specially feared, [212];
malignity of, [212], [381];
drowned, [224];
village of, [231] sq., [234];
give information, [240];
provided with fire, [246] sq.;
feasts provided for, [247] sq.;
thought to give good crops, [247] sq.;
communicate with the living in dreams, [248];
diseases ascribed to action of, [257];
of the slain, special fear of, [258], [279], [306], [323];
of ancestors appealed to for help, [258] sq.;
precautions taken against, [258];
expected to make the crops thrive, [259], [284], [288] sq.;
natural death ascribed to action of, [268];
sickness ascribed to action of, [269] sq., [271], [279], [372], [375], [381] sqq.;
deceived, [273], [280] sqq., [328];
thought to help hunters, [274], [284] sq.;
in the form of animals, [282];
help the living by promoting supply of food, [283];
cause earthquakes, [286], [288];
as patrons of hunting and other departments, [287];
die the second death, [287];
turn into animals, [287];
turn into ant-hills, [287];
of warriors invoked by warriors, [288];
invoked by warriors, farmers, fowlers, fishermen, etc., [288] sqq.;
of men may grow into gods, [289] sq.;
of the dead in the form of serpents, [300];
driven away, [305], [306], [323], [356] sqq., [396], [399], [415];
cause all sorts of misfortunes, [306] sq.;
call for vengeance, [310], [468];
sacrifices to, [328];
of power and ghosts of no account, distinction between, [345] sq.;
of the recent dead most powerful, [346];
prayers to, [348];
of land and sea, [348];
food offered to, [348] sq.;
live in islands, [350], [353];
live underground, [353] sq.;
worshipful, [362] sq.;
public and private, [367], [369] sq.;
first-fruits offered to, [368] sq., [373] sq.;
warlike, [370];
of gardens, [371];
human sacrifices to, [371] sq.;
incarnate in sharks, [373];
sacrifices to, at planting, [375];
sanctuaries of, [377] sq.;
incarnate in animals, [379] sq.;
envious of the living, [381];
carry off souls, [383];
in stones, [383] sq.;
inspiration by means of, [389] sq.;
killed, [415] sq.;
dazed, [416];
prevented from returning to the house, [455] sq.;
unmarried, hard fate of, [464]
Ghosts and spirits, distinction between, in Central Melanesia, [343], [363];
regulate the weather, [384] sq.
—— of women dying in childbed, special fear of, [458] sqq.;
special treatment of, [358].
See also [Dead] and [Spirits]
Giant, mythical, thought to appear annually with the south-east monsoon, [255]
Gifford, Lord, [2], [3]
Girdle made from hair of dead, [138]
Gnanji, the, of Central Australia, [92]
Goat in story of the origin of death, [64]
God, the question of his existence, [2];
defined, [9] sq.;
knowledge of, how acquired, [11] sqq.;
inferred as a cause, [22] sq.;
and the origin of death, [61] sqq.;
in form of serpent, [445], [462]
Gods created by man in his own likeness, [19] sq.;
of nature, [20];
human, [20], [23] sqq.;
unknown among aborigines of Australia, [91];
often developed out of ghosts, [289] sq.;
ancestors worshipped as, [340], [369];
ancestral, sacrifice of foreskins to, [427];
ancestral, libations to, [438];
two classes of, in Fiji, [440]
—— and spirits, no certain demarcation between, [441]
Goldie, Rev. Hugh, [52]

Good crops given by ghosts, [247] sq.
—— spirit, [143]
—— and bad, different fate of the, after death, [354]
Gran Chaco, in Argentina, [165]
Grandfather, soul of, reborn in grandchild, [417];
his ghost dazed, [416]
Grandfather and grandchild, their relation under exogamy and female kinship, [416], [418]
Grandidier, A., [49]
Grass for graves, euphemism for human victims buried with the dead, [425] sq.
—— -seed, magical ceremony for increasing, [102]
Grave, food placed on, [144], [145];
property of dead deposited in, [145] sqq.;
hut erected on, [203];
of worshipful dead a sanctuary, [347];
stones heaped on, [360];
sacrifices to ghost on, [382]
Gravediggers, purification of, [314];
secluded, [327];
secluded and painted black, [451]
Graves, huts built on, for use of ghosts, [150] sq.;
under the houses, [274].
See also [Huts]
Great Woman, the, [464]
Greek tragedy, W. Ridgeway on the origin of, [189]
Greeks, purificatory rites of ancient, [206]
Greenlanders, burial custom of the, [454]
Grey, Sir George, [41];
taken for an Australian aboriginal, [131] sqq.
Grief, extravagant demonstrations of grief in mourning, their motives, [135] sq.
—— at a death, extravagant demonstrations of, dictated by fear of the ghost, [271] sqq.
Grihya-Sutras, [163]
Ground drawings in magical or religious ceremony, [112] sq.
Groves, sacred, the dead buried in, [326]
Guadalcanar, one of the Solomon Islands, [350], [372]
Guardian spirits, [227]
Guiana, Indians of, their ideas as to the cause of death, [35] sqq.;
their offerings to the dead, [165]
Gullet of pig sacrificed, [368]
Gulu, king of heaven, [78]
Gypsies, European, burial custom of, [455]

Haddon, Dr. A. C., [171], [172] sq., [175], [176], [180]
Hagen, Dr. B., [230], [231]
Haida, burial custom of the, [455]
Hair burnt as charm, [43];
cut in mourning, [135], [320], [451];
of widow unshorn, [184];
of dead child worn by mother, [315];
of gravediggers not cut, [327];
used as amulet, [332]
—— of the dead, magical virtue attributed to, [137] sq.;
worn by relatives, [249];
divination by means of, [319]
—— of mourners offered to the dead, [183];
cut off, [183], [204]
Hakea flower totem, dramatic ceremony concerned with, [119], [121]
Hands, gravediggers and persons who have handled a corpse not to touch food with their, [327], [450] sq.
Hanged, ghosts of the, specially feared, [212]
Hare in myth of the origin of death, [65]
Harumae, a warrior ghost, [365] sq.
Hasselt, J. L. van, [305]
Hauri, a worshipful ghost, [372]
Head-dress of gravediggers, [327]
Head-hunters, [352]
Head of corpse cut off in order to disable the ghost, [153];
removed and preserved, [178].
See also [Skulls]
Heads of mourners shaved, [208]
——, human, cut off in honour of the dead, [352]
Heaps of stones on grave, [360]
Heart supposed to be the seat of human spirit, [129]
—— of pig sacrificed, [368]
Heavenly Dog, [460]
Hebrew prophets, [14]
Hen in myth of the origin of death, [79]
Highlands of Scotland, burial custom in the, [453], [458]
Hindoos, burial custom of the, [453], [458]
Historical method of treating natural theology, [2] sq.
History of religion, its importance, [3]
Hiyoyoa, the land of the dead, [207]
Hole in the wall, dead carried out through a, [452] sqq.
Holy of Holies, [430], [431], [433], [437], [438]
Homer on blood-drinking ghosts, [159]
Homicides, precautions taken by, against the ghosts of their victims, [205] sq.;
purification of, [206];
honours bestowed on, in Fiji, [447] sq.
See also [Manslayers]
Homoeopathic magic, [288], [376]
—— or imitative magic, [335], [336], [338]
Honorary titles of homicides in Fiji, [447] sq.
Hood Peninsula of British New Guinea, [47], [202], [203]
Hos of Togoland, their myth of the origin of death, [81] sqq.

Hose, Ch., and McDougall, W., quoted, [265] [n.], [417]
Hottentots, their myth of the origin of death, [65];
burial custom of the, [454]
House deserted after a death, [195], [196] n. [1], [248], [275], [349], [400];
deserted or destroyed after a death, [210];
dead buried in the, [236], [347], [352], [397], [398], [399];
dead carried out of, by special opening, [452] sqq.
Houses, native, at Kalo, [202];
communal, [304]
Howitt, Dr. A. W., [44] sq., [139], [141]
Human gods, [20], [23] sqq.
—— nature, two different views of, [469] sqq.
—— sacrifices to ghosts, [371] sq.;
in Fiji, [446] sq.
Hume's analysis of cause, [18] sq.
Hunt, Mr., his experience in Fiji, [423] sq.
Hunters supposed to be helped by ghosts, [274], [284] sq.
Huon Gulf, in German New Guinea, [242], [256]
Hut built to represent mythical monster at initiation, [251], [290], [301] sq.
Huts erected on graves for use of ghosts, [150] sq.;
erected on graves, [203], [223], [248], [259], [275], [293], [294]
Hypocritical lamentations at a death, [273]
—— indignation of accomplice at a murder, [280] sqq.

Idu, mountain of the dead, [193], [194] sq.
Iguana in myth of origin of death, [70]
Ilene, a worshipful ghost, [373]
Ill-treatment of ghost who gives no help, [285]
Illusion of the external world, [21]
Images of the dead, wooden (korwar or karwar), [307] sqq., [311], [315], [316] sq., [321], [322];
of sharks, [373];
in temples, [442]
Imitation of totems by disguised actors, [119] sqq.;
of totemic animals, [177]
Imitative magic, [335], [336], [338], [376]
Immortality, belief in, among the aborigines of Central Australia, [87] sqq.;
among the islanders of Torres Straits, [170] sqq.;
among the natives of British New Guinea, [190] sqq.;
among the natives of German New Guinea, [216] sqq.;
among the natives of Dutch New Guinea, [303] sqq.;
among the natives of Southern Melanesia, [324] sqq.;
among the natives of Central Melanesia, [343] sqq.;
among the natives of Northern Melanesia, [393] sqq.;
among the Fijians, [406] sqq.;
strongly held by savages, [468]
Immortality, limited sense of, [25];
origin of belief in, [25] sqq.;
belief in human, almost universal among races of mankind, [33];
rivalry between men and animals for gift of, [74] sq.;
question of the truth of the belief in, [469] sqq.;
destruction of life and property entailed by the belief in, [468] sq.
—— in a bundle, [77] sq.
Impecunious ghosts, hard fate of, [406]
Impurity, ceremonial, of manslayer, [229] sq.
Im Thurn, Sir Everard F., [38] sq.
Incantations or spells, [385]
Inconsistencies and contradictions in reasoning not peculiar to savages, [111] sq.
Inconsistency of savage thought, [143]
Indians of Guiana, their ideas about death, [35] sqq.;
their beliefs as to the dead, [165]
—— of North-West America, burial custom of the, [455], [460]
Indifference to death, [419];
a consequence of belief in immortality, [422] sq.
Indo-European burial custom, [453]
Infanticide as cause of diminished population, [40]
Influence of European teaching on native beliefs, [142] sq.
Initiation at puberty regarded as a process of death and resurrection, [254], [261]
—— of young men, [233];
in Central Australia, [100];
among the Yabim, [250] sqq.;
among the Bukaua, [260] sq.;
among the Kai, [290] sq.;
in Fiji, [429] sqq.
Insanity, influence of, in history, [15] sq.
—— and inspiration not clearly distinguished, [388]
Insect in divination as to cause of death, [44], [46]
Inspiration, theory of, [14] sq.;
of medium by ancestral spirits, [308] sqq.;
by spirits of the dead, [322];
by ghosts in Central Melanesia, [388] sq.;
attested by frenzy, [443], [444] sq.
—— and insanity not clearly distinguished, [388]
Insufflations, magical, to heal the sick, [329]
Intichiuma, magical ceremonies for the multiplication of totems, [122] sq.
Intuition and experience, [11]
Invocation of ghosts, [288] sq.;
of the dead, [329] sq., [332] sqq., [377], [378], [401], [441]
Island, dead buried in, [319]
—— of the dead, fabulous, [175]
Islands, ghosts live in, [350], [353]
Isle of Pines, [325], [330], [337]

Israelites forbidden to cut themselves for the dead, [154]
Ivory Coast, [52]

Jackson, John, quoted, [419] sqq., [447]
Jappen or Jobi, island, [303]
Jawbone of husband worn by widow, [204];
lower, of corpse preserved, [234] sq., [236], [274];
of dead king of Uganda preserved and consulted oracularly, [235]
Jawbones of the dead preserved, [351] sq.;
of dead worn by relatives, [404]
Journey of ghosts to the land of the dead, [286] sq., [361] sq., [462] sqq.
Juices of putrefaction received by mourners on their bodies, [167], [205], [403]
—— of putrefying corpse drunk by widow, [313];
drunk by women, [355]

Kachins of Burma, burial custom of the, [459]
Kafirs, their beliefs as to the causes of death, [56]
Kagoro, the, of Northern Nigeria, [28] n. [1], [49]
Kai, the, of German New Guinea, [71], [262] sqq.;
theory of the soul, [267]
Kaikuzi, brother of Death, [80]
Kaitish, the, [68], [158], [166]
Kalo, in British New Guinea, [202] sq.
Kalou, Fijian word for "god," [440]
Kalou vu, "root gods," [440]
Kalou yalo, "soul gods," [440]
Kami, the souls of the dead, [297] sq.
Kamilaroi tribe of New South Wales, [46], [155]
Kanaima (kenaima), [36], [38]
Kani, name applied to ghosts, to bull-roarers, and to the monster who is thought to swallow lads at circumcision, [301]
Kaniet islands, [401]
Kava offered to ancestral spirits, [440]
Kavirondo, burial custom of the, [458]
Kaya-Kaya or Tugeri, the, of Dutch New Guinea, [255]
Kayans, the, of Borneo, [417];
burial custom of, [456] sq., [459]
Kemp Welch River, [202]
Keramo, a fighting ghost, [370]
Keysser, Ch., [262], [263] sq., [267], [269] n. [3]
Kibu, the land of the dead, [175]
Kibuka, war-god of Uganda, [366]
Kidd, Dudley, [55]
Kidney-fat, extraction of, [43]
Killer of Souls, the, [465] sq.
Killing a ghost, [415] sq.
King, mourning for a, [451] sq.
King's corpse not carried out through the door, [452], [461]
Kings, divinity of, [16];
sanctity of Fijian, [407] sq.
Kintu and the origin of death, [78] sqq.
Kiwai, beliefs and customs concerning the dead in island of, [211] sqq.
Koita or Koitapu, of British New Guinea, [193]
Kolosh Indians, [163]
Komars, the, [163]
Koroi, honorary title of homicides in Fiji, [447] sq.
Korwar, or karwar, wooden images of the dead, [307] sqq., [315], [316] sq., [321], [322]
Koryak, burial custom of the, [455]
Kosi and the origin of death, [76] sq.
Knowledge, natural, how acquired, [11]
—— of God, how acquired, [11] sqq.;
of ghosts essential to medical practitioners in Melanesia, [384]
Kulin, the, [138]
Kurnai tribe of Victoria, [44], [138]
Kweariburra tribe, [153]
Kwod, sacred or ceremonial ground, [179]

Lambert, Father, [325], [327], [328], [332], [339]
Lamboam, the land of the dead, [260], [292], [299]
Lamentations, hypocritical, at a death, [271] sqq., [280] sqq.
Land burial and sea burial, [347] sq.
—— cleared for cultivation, [238], [242] sq., [256], [262] sq., [304]
—— ghosts and sea ghosts, [348]
—— of the dead, [175] sq., [192], [193], [194] sq., [202], [203], [207], [209] sq., [211] sqq., [224], [228] sq., [244], [260], [286] sq., [292], [299], [305] sq., [307], [322], [326], [345], [350] sq., [353] sq., [404] sqq., [462] sqq.;
journeys of the living to the, [207], [355];
way to the, [212] sq., [462] sqq.
Landtman, Dr. G., [214]
Lang, Andrew, [216] sq.
Laos, burial custom in, [459]
Leaf as badge of a ghost, [391]
Leaves thrown on scene of murder, [415]
Leg bones of the dead preserved, [221], [249]
Legs of corpse broken in order to disable the ghost, [153]
Lehner, Stefan, [256]
Lepchis of Sikhim, burial custom of the, [455]
Le Souëf, A. A. C., [40] sq.
Libations to ancestral gods, [430], [438]
Licence, period of, following circumcision, [427] sq.;
following initiation, [433], [434] n. [1], [436] sq.
Licentious orgy following circumcision, [427] sq.

Life in the other world like life in this, [286] sq.
Lightning, savage theory of, [19]
Lights, phosphorescent, thought to be ghosts, [198], [258]
Lime, powdered, used to dust the trail of a ghost, [277] sq.
Lio'a, a powerful ghost, [346]
Liver extracted by magic, [50];
divination by, [54]
Livers of pigs offered to the dead, [360] sq.
Lizard in divination as to cause of death, [44];
in myths of the origin of death, [60] sq., [70], [74] sq.
Lizards, ghosts in, [380]
Local totem centres, [97], [99], [124]
Long soul and short soul, [291] sq.
Lost souls, recovery of, [270] sq., [300] sq.
Luck, bad, in fishing and hunting, caused by ghosts, [197]
Luck of a village dependent on ghosts, [198]
Lum, men's clubhouse, [243], [250], [257]

Mabuiag, island of, [174]
Macassars, burial custom of the, [461]
Macluer Gulf in Dutch New Guinea, [317], [318]
Mad, stones to drive people, [335]
Madagascar, ideas as to natural death in, [48] sq.
Mafulu (Mambule), the, of British New Guinea, [198] sqq.
Maggots, appearance of, sign of departure of soul, [292]
Magic as a cause of death, [34] sqq.;
Age of, [58];
attributed to aboriginal inhabitants of a country, [193];
homoeopathic or imitative, [288], [335], [336], [338], [376];
combined with religion, [111] sq., [334], [335], [336], [337], [338], [376];
Melanesian conception of, [380] sq.;
working by means of personal refuse, [413] sq.
See also [Sorcery] and [Witchcraft]
—— and religion compared in reference to their destruction of human life, [56] sq.
Magical ceremonies for increasing the food supply, [102];
ceremonies for the multiplication of totems, [124] sq.;
intention of dramatic ceremonies in Central Australia, [122] sq., [126];
virtues attributed to sacred stones in New Caledonia, [334] sqq.
Magician or priest, [336], [338].
See also [Sorcerer]
Magicians, their importance in history, [16];
but no priests at Doreh, [306]
Malagasy, their ideas as to natural death, [48] sq.
Malanta, one of the Solomon Islands, [350]
Malayalis, the, of Malabar, [162]
Malignity of ghosts, [212], [381]
Malo, island of, [48]
Man creates gods in his own likeness, [19] sq.
——, grandeur and dignity of, [469] sq.;
pettiness and insignificance of, [470] sq.
Mana, supernatural or spiritual power, [346] sq., [352], [371], [380]
Manoam, evil spirits, [321]
Manoga, a worshipful ghost, [368]
Manslayers, precautions taken by, against the ghosts of their victims, [205] sq., [258], [279], [323];
secluded, [279] sq.,
consecration of, [448] sq.;
restrictions imposed on, [449].
See also [Homicides]
Mari or mar, ghost, [173]
Mariget, "ghost-hand," [177]
Mariner, William, [411]
Mariners, stones to help, [337]
Markets, native, [394]
Marotse, burial custom of the, [454]
Marquesas Islands, [417]
Married and unmarried, different modes of disposing of their corpses, [162]
Masai, their myth of the origin of death, [65] sq.
Masked men, dramatic representation of ghosts and spirits by, [176], [179] sq., [180] sqq., [185] sqq.
—— dances, [297];
of the Monumbo, [228]
Masks worn by actors in sacred ceremonies, [179];
used in dances, [233], [297]
Masquerades, [297]
Massim, the, of British New Guinea, [206]
Master of Life, [163]
Matacos Indians, [165]
Mate, a worshipful spirit, [239]
Material culture of the natives of New Guinea, [191];
of the natives of Tumleo, [219] sq.;
of Papuans, [231];
of the Yabim, [242] sq.;
of the Noofoor, [304] sq.;
of the New Caledonians, [339];
of the North Melanesians, [393] sqq.
Mawatta or Mowat, [47]
Mbete, priest, [443], [445]
Mea, a spiritual medium, [196]
Mecklenburg, burial custom in, [457]
Medicine-men, their importance in history, [16];
inspired by spirits of the dead, [322]
Medium inspired by soul of dead, [308] sq.
Mediums, spiritual, [196]
Mediums who send their souls to deadland, [300]
Megalithic monuments, [438]

Melanesia, Central, belief in immortality among the natives of, [343] sqq.
——, Northern, belief in immortality among the natives of, [393] sqq.
——, Southern, belief in immortality among the natives of, [324] sqq.
Melanesian myths of the origin of death, [69], [71] sq., [83] sq.;
theory of the soul, [344] sq.
Melanesians, their ideas as to natural deaths, [48], [54] sq.;
Central, funeral customs of the, [347] sqq., [355] sqq.;
and Papuans in New Guinea, [190] sq.
Memorial trees, [225]
Men sacrificed to support posts of new house, [446] sq.;
whipped by women in mourning, [452]
Men's clubhouses, [221], [225], [226], [243], [256] sq., [355]
Mentras or Mantras of the Malay Peninsula, [73]
Merivale on Dartmoor, [438]
Messengers, the Two, myth of origin of death, [60] sqq.
Messou, Indian magician, [78]
Metals unknown in Northern Melanesia, [395]
Metempsychosis, widespread belief in, [29]
Methods of treating natural theology, [1] sqq.
—— of natural knowledge, [11]
Mexicans, the ancient, [163]
Meyer, H. E. A., [42]
Migration of villages, [339]
Migratory cultivation, [243]
Miklucho-Maclay, Baron N., [235]
Milky Way, Central Australian belief as to the, [140];
souls of dead go to, [153]
Milne Bay, [207]
Mimika district in Dutch New Guinea, [318]
Minnetaree Indians, [163]
Misfortunes of all kinds caused by ghosts, [306] sq.
Moanus, the, of the Admiralty Islands, [400]
Monarchical government, rise of, [141] sq.
Monsoon, south-east, festival at, [255]
Monsoons, seasons determined by, [216]
Monster supposed to swallow lads at initiation, [251] sq., [255], [260], [261], [290] sq., [301] sq.
Monumbo, the, of German New Guinea, [227] sq.
Monuments of the dead, [225]
Moon, the waxing and waning, in myths of the origin of death, [60], [65] sqq.
—— in relation to doctrine of resurrection, [67] sq.;
worship of the, [68]
Moral restraint afforded by a fear of ghosts, [175]
—— depravity of the Fijians, [409]
Morality, superstition a crutch to, [175]
Mortuary dramas, [189]
Mos, a disembodied soul, [224]
Mota, island of, [387]
Motlav, in the Banks' Islands, [357]
Motu, the, of British New Guinea, [192]
Mound erected in a totemic ceremony, [110] sq.
Mounds on graves, [150], [164]
Mourners, professional, [136]
—— smeared with white clay, [158], [177];
painted black, [178], [293], [403];
garb of, [184], [198];
cut their hair, [183], [204], [320], [451];
abstain from certain foods, [198], [208], [209], [230], [314], [360], [452];
restrictions observed by, [313] sq.;
tattooed, [314];
purified by bathing, [314], [319];
plastered with mud, [318];
cut or tear their ears, [183], [272], [327];
secluded, [360];
smeared with ashes, [361];
anoint themselves with juices of putrefying corpse, [403];
amputate their fingers, [199], [451];
burn their skin, [154], [155], [157], [327], [451].
See also [Cuttings] and [Seclusion]
Mourning, hair cut in, [135];
extravagant demonstrations of grief in, [135] sq.;
for a father-in-law, [155];
amputation of fingers in, [199];
varying period of, [274], [293];
for a king, [451] sq.
—— costume, [249], [274], [320];
a protection against ghosts, [241] sq.;
of widower and widow, [259] sq.
Mowat or Mawatta, [47]
Mud, mourners plastered with, [318]
Mukden, burial custom in, [460]
Mukjarawaint tribe, [155]
Mummies of dead preserved in houses, [188]
Mummification of the dead, [184], [185], [313]
Mungai, places associated with totems, [117], [124]
Murder, leaves thrown on scene of, [415]
—— highly esteemed in Fiji, [447] sq.
Murdered man, ghost of, haunts murderer, [248]
Murimuria, a second-rate heaven, [466]
Murray Island, [174]
Mutilations, bodily, at puberty, [303]
Myth of the prelogical savage, [266]
—— of the continuance of death, [472]
Myths of the origin of death, [59] sqq.

Nai, souls of the dead, [240]
Nai Thombothombo, in Fiji, [463]
Nails of dead detached, [145];
preserved, [339]

Naindelinde in Fiji, [465]
Naiteru-kop, a Masai god, [65]
Namaquas, their myth of the origin of death, [65]
Nambanaggatai, in Fiji, [465]
Nambi and the origin of death, [78] sqq.
Name of mythical water-snake not uttered, [105]
Names of the dead not mentioned, [135], [210], [246]
Nandi, their myth of the origin of death, [66]
Nanga, sacred stone enclosure, [428] sqq.;
description of, [437] sq.
Nangganangga, the foe of unmarried ghosts, [464]
Nanja tree or stone, [98]
—— spot, [164], [165]
Narrinyeri tribe of South Australia, [43];
their beliefs as to the dead, [134] sqq.
Nassau, Rev. R. H., [51]
Native beliefs influenced by European teaching, [142] sq.
Natural theology defined, [1], [8]
—— death, disbelief of savages in, [33] sqq.
—— causes of death recognised by some savages, [55] sq.
—— features of landscape associated with traditions about the dead, [115] sqq.
Nature, gods of, [20];
souls of the dead identified with spirits of, [130];
two different views of human, [469] sqq.
Nayars, the, of Cochin, [162] sq.
Ndengei, Fijian god in form of serpent, [445], [462], [464], [465], [466]
Necklaces worn in mourning, [198]
Negen Negorijen in Dutch New Guinea, [316], [317]
Negrito admixture in New Guinea, [198]
Nemunemu, a creator, [240]
Nether world, the lord of the, [286];
abode of the dead in the, [292], [299], [322], [326], [353] sq.;
descent of the living into the, [300];
See also [Land of the Dead]
Nets worn by widows in mourning, [249], [260], [274], [293];
worn by women in mourning, [241]
New birth at initiation, pretence of, [254]
New Britain (New Pomerania), [48], [69], [393], [394], [402], [404]
—— Caledonia, natives of, [324];
their beliefs and customs concerning the dead, [325] sqq.;
their system of family prayers, [332] sq., [340];
material culture of the, [339]
—— Georgia, [48]
—— Guinea, aborigines of, their ideas as to natural death, [47];
the races of, [190] sq.;
belief in immortality among the natives of British, [190] sqq.;
belief in immortality among the natives of Dutch, [303] sqq.;
belief in immortality among the natives of German, [216] sqq.
New Hebrides, myth of the origin of death in, [71], [343], [353]
—— Ireland (New Mecklenburg), [393], [397]
—— South Wales, aborigines of, their ideas as to the causes of death, [45] sq.; as to the home of the dead, [133] sq.
Newton, Alfred, [90] n. [1]
Neyaux, the, of the Ivory Coast, [52]
Ngai, human spirit, [129]
Ngoc, the, of Annam, [69]
Ngoni, the, [61]
Nias, island of, [70]
Nigeria, Northern, [28] n. [1], [49]
Niggardly people punished in the other world, [405]
Noblemen alone immortal, [33]
Noofoor, the, of Dutch New Guinea, [303]
Noomfor, island, [303]
Norse burial custom, [453]
Noses bored, ghosts should have their, [192], [194] sq.
Novices presented to ancestral spirits at initiation, [432] sq., [434]
Nukahiva, one of the Marquesas Islands, [417]

Objects offered to the dead broken, [276]
Offering, soul of, consumed by deity or spirit, [297], [298]
Offerings of food and water to the dead, [174];
of food to the dead, [183], [201], [208], [211], [214], [232], [241], [332], [338], [364] sq., [367] sq., [372] sq., [396] sq., [429], [442], [467];
of blood and hair to the dead, [183];
of game and fish to the dead, [226];
to the dead, [239], [276], [292];
of first-fruits to the dead, [259];
to ancestors, [298];
of food to ghosts, [348] sq.;
to ghosts, [364] sq.;
of first-fruits to ancestral spirits, [429];
of cloth and weapons to ancestral spirits, [430] sq.
See also [Sacrifices]
——, burnt, to the dead, [294]
Oknanikilla, local totem centre, [97], [99], [124]
Old and young, difference between the modes of burying, [161], [162] sq.
Old people buried alive, [359]
Olympia, Pelops at, [159]
Omens after a death, [319]
Opening, special, for carrying dead out of house, [452] sqq.
Oracles of dead kings, [151]
—— of the dead, [151], [176], [179], [235]

Oracular responses of Fijian priests, [443] sqq.
Oranges, spirits of the dead play with, [326]
Ordeal to detect sorcerer, [50] sqq.
Orgy, licentious, following circumcision, [427] sq.
Origin of belief in immortality, [26] sqq.
—— of death, myths of the, [59] sqq.
Orion's belt, [368]
Ornaments of corpse removed before burial, [223], [234], [241]

Pahouins, the, [54]
Palsy, a Samoan god, [72]
Pandanus, reason for planting, [362]
—— and ghosts, [463]
Panoi, Melanesian land of the dead, [83], [345], [353] sq., [355], [356]
Papuan art, [220]
Papuans, animistic views of the, [264]
—— and Melanesians in New Guinea, [190] sq.
Paraks, temples, [220]
Parents deified, [439]
Parkinson, R., [219], [221]
Pelops, human blood offered on grave of, [159]
Penates in New Guinea, [308], [317]
Pennefather River, natives of the, their belief in reincarnation of the dead, [128]
Perche, burial custom in, [458]
Personal refuse, magic working through, [386], [413] sq.
Personification of natural phenomena, [20];
of death, [81]
Phosphorescent lights supposed to be ghosts, [198], [258]
Physostigma venenosum in poison ordeal, [52]
Piety, two types of, [23];
co-operative system of, [333]
Pigs, blood of, smeared on skulls and bones of the dead, [200];
sacrificed to the dead, [201];
sacrificed to monster who swallows lads at initiation, [251], [253], [260], [290], [301];
sacrificed at grave, [356];
sacrificed at burial, [359];
sacrificed to ghosts, [365] sq.;
sacrificed vicariously for the sick, [373], [374], [375];
sacred, [433]
——, livers of, offered to the dead, [360] sq.
Pines, Isle of, [325], [330], [337]
Pirnmeheel, good spirit, [143]
Place of sacrifice to ghosts, [370]
Planting, sacrifices to ghosts at, [375]
Platforms, dead laid on, [199], [203], [205]
Plato, on death, [33]
Pleiades, the, [368]
Plum-tree people, [94]
—— totem, dramatic ceremony connected with, [120], [121]
Poison ordeal to detect sorcerers, [50] sqq.
Political constitution of the Fijians, [407]
Pollution, ceremonial, of gravediggers, [327]
Polynesian blood, infusion of, in New Guinea, [291]
—— race, [406]
Polytheism and monotheism, [11]
Polytheism discarded, [20] sq.
Population, belief in sorcery a cause of keeping down the, [38], [40], [46] sq., [51] sqq.
Port Lincoln tribe of S. Australia, [42]
—— Moresby, [193], [195]
Poso in Celebes, [72]
Posts of new house, men sacrificed to support, [446] sq.
Potsdam Harbour, in German New Guinea, [218], [227]
Pottery, native, [220];
in New Guinea, [305]
——, Fijian, [407]
—— unknown in Northern Melanesia, [395]
Practical character of the savage, [274]
Prayer-posts, [333] sq.
Prayers to the dead, [201] sq., [214], [222] sq., [259], [288], [307], [329] sq., [332] sqq., [340], [376] sq., [401], [403] sq., [427], [441];
to ghosts, [348]
Precautions taken against ghosts, [152] sq., [258];
against a wife's ghost, [197];
against ghosts of the slain, [205] sq.
Predominance of the worship of the dead, [297] sq.
Prelogical savage, myth of the, [266]
Pretence of attacking persons engaged in attending to a corpse, [177], [178]
—— of avenging the dead, [136] sq., [282], [328]
See also [Sham fight]
Priest, family, [332], [340]
——, chief or high, [430], [431], [432], [433], [434]
—— or magician, [336], [338]
Priests, Fijian, [433] sqq.
Private or tame ghosts, [369] sq., [381], [382], [386]
—— property, rights of, consolidated by taboo, [390]
Problem of death, [31] sqq.
Progress partly determined by competition, [89] sq.
——, social, stimulated by favourable natural conditions, [148] sq.
Promiscuity, temporary, [427] sq., [433], [434] n. [1], [436] sq.
Property displayed beside the corpse, [397]
——, rights of private, consolidated by taboo, [390];
temporarily suspended, [427] sq.

Property of dead deposited in grave, [145] sqq., [359], [397];
motive for destroying, [147] sq.;
hung up on trees, [148];
destroyed, [327], [459];
burnt, [401] sq.
Prophecy inspired by ghosts, [388]
Prophets inspired by ghosts, [388] sq.
——, Hebrew, [14]
Propitiation of the dead, [201], [307], [338];
of ghosts and spirits, [226], [239], [348]
Puberty, initiation at, [254] sq.;
bodily mutilations at, [303]
Public ghosts, [367], [369]
Purification of homicides, [206], [229]
—— by bathing and shaving, [208]
—— of mourners by bathing, [314], [319]

Queensland, belief in reincarnation of the dead among the aborigines of, [127] sqq.;
burial customs in, [147]

Rain sent by a mythical water-snake, [112], [114];
prayers for, [288];
stones to make, [336] sq.
—— and sunshine caused by a ghost, [375]
—— -ghost, [375]
—— -making, [288];
by the bones of the dead, [341]
Rat in myth of the origin of death, [67]
Rationality of the savage, [264] sqq.
Rebirth of the dead, [93] sq., [107], [127] sq.
See also [Reincarnation]
—— of parents in their children, [315]
Recovery of lost souls, [194], [270] sq., [300] sq.
Red, skulls painted, [178]
Red bark in poison ordeals, [50], [52]
—— paint, manslayers smeared with, [448], [449]
—— roses, corpse crowned with, [233], [234]
Reflection or shadow, soul associated with, 207, 267
Refuse, personal, magic working by means of, [413] sq.
Reincarnation, widespread belief in, [29].
See also [Rebirth]
—— doctrine of, unknown in Torres Straits, [172]
—— of the dead, belief of Central Australians in, [92] sqq., [107]
—— of the dead, [124] sq., [127] sq.;
of Australian aborigines in white people, [130], [131] sqq.;
of parents in their children, [315];
of grandfather in grandchild, [417], [418]
Relics of the dead as amulets, [332], [370];
preserved, [348]
Religion, importance of the history of, [3];
embryology of, [88]
Religion and magic compared in reference to their destruction of human life, [57] sq.;
combined in ritual, [111] sq., [334], [335], [336], [336], [337], [338], [376]
—— and theology, how related, [9]
Resemblance of children to the dead, a source of belief in the transmigration of souls, [28] sq.
Restrictions observed by mourners, [313] sq.;
ceremonial, laid on gravediggers, [327];
imposed on manslayers, [449]
Resurrection, ceremony of, among the Akikuya, [254]
—— from the dead after three days, [67] sq.;
of the dead, steps taken to prevent the, [144];
as an initiatory rite at puberty, [254] sq., [261], [302], [431], [434] sq.
Return of the ghosts, [195], [198], [246], [300]
Revelation, the question of a supernatural, [8] sq.
Revival, temporary, of primitive communism, [436] sq.
Rheumatism attributed to sorcery, [45]
Rhodesia, [77]
Ribs of dead distributed among relatives, [400]
Ridgeway, W., on the origin of Greek tragedy, [189]
Rights of property temporarily suspended, [427] sq.
Ritual combining elements of religion and magic, [111] sq.
Rivalry between man and animals for gift of immortality, [74] sq.
River crossed by souls of the dead, [299], [462]
Rocking stone, [213]
Roro-speaking tribes of British New Guinea, [47], [196], [198]
Roth, W. E., [128]
Run or Ron, island, [303], [311]
Russia, burial custom in, [453]

Saa, in Malanta, [350], [351], [372], [378]
Sacrament of pork and water at initiation, [432] sq.
Sacred stones in New Caledonia, magical virtues attributed to, [334] sqq.
—— enclosure of stones (Nanga) in Fiji, [428] sqq., [437] sq.
—— pigs, [433]
Sacrifice, crude motives for, [298] sq.;
place of, [332]
—— of dogs in epidemics, [296];
of foreskins and fingers in honour of the dead, [426] sq.
Sacrifices to the dead, economic loss entailed by, [149]
—— to the dead, [239], [307], [338].
See also [Offerings]

Sacrifices, burnt, reasons for, [348] sq.;
burnt, to ghosts, [366], [367] sq., [373]
—— to ghosts, [328]; at planting, [375]
——, human, to ghosts, [371] sq.;
human, in Fiji, [446] sq.
Sacrificial ritual in the Solomon Islands, [365] sq.
Saddle Mountain in German New Guinea, [262]
St. Joseph River in New Guinea, [196], [198]
Sakalava, the, of Madagascar, [49];
burial custom of, [461]
Saleijer, island of, burial custom in, [461]
Samoa, [406]
—— Harbour, in German New Guinea, [256]
Samoan myth of the origin of death, [72]
Samoyeds, burial custom of the, [457]
Samu-yalo, the killer of souls, [465]
San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, [347], [376]
Sanctuaries, primitive, [99]
—— of ghosts, [377] sq.
Sanctuary, grave of worshipful dead becomes a, [347]
Sanitation based on fear of sorcery, [386] sq., [414]
Santa Cruz Islands, [343]
Santa Cruz, in the Solomon Islands, burial customs at, [352];
sacrifices to ghosts in, [374] sq.
Savage, myth of the prelogical, [266]
——, practical character of the, [274]
——, rationality of the, [264] sqq.
—— notions of causality, [19] sq.;
conception of death, [31] sqq.;
disbelief in death from natural causes, [33] sqq.;
thought vague and inconsistent, [143]
—— religion, the study of, [7]
Savagery, importance of the study of, [6] sq.;
a case of arrested or retarded development, [88] sq.;
rise of monarchy essential to emergence from, [142]
Savages pay little attention to the stars, [140];
strength and universality of belief in immortality among, [468]
Savo, one of the Solomon Islands, [347]
Scarf, soul caught in a, [412] sq.
Scenery of Fiji, [409] sq.
Schomburgk, Richard, [38]
Schürmann, C. W., [42] sq.
Scientific conception of the world as a system of impersonal forces, [20] sq.
Scotland, burial custom in, [453], [458]
Sea, land of the dead at the bottom of the, [307], [326]
—— -burial, [397]
—— -burial and land-burial, [347] sq.
—— -ghosts and land-ghosts, [348]
Seclusion of widow and widower, [204], [248] sq., [259], [275];
of relatives at grave, [209];
of mourners, [223] sq., [313] sq., [360];
of novices at circumcision, [251] sq., [260] sq., [302];
of manslayers, [279] sq.;
of gravediggers, [327], [451];
of female mourners, [398]
Seclusion and purification of manslayer, [229] sq.
Second death of the dead, [195], [287], [299], [345], [350], [351], [354]
Secret societies, [395]
—— Society (Asa), [233]
Seemann, Berthold, [439] sq.
Seer describes ghosts, [204] sq.
Seget Sélé, the, of Dutch New Guinea, [317]
Seligmann, Dr. C. G., [47], [191], [197], [206]
Selwyn, Bishop, [363]
Serpent and his cast skin in myths of the origin of death, [60], [69] sqq., [74] sq., [83]
——, god in form of, [445], [462]
Serpents, souls of the dead in the form of, [300]
Setting sun, ghosts attracted to the, [175] sq.
Sexual licence following initiation, [433], [434] n. [1], [436] sq.
Shadow or reflection, human soul associated with, [129], [130], [173], [207], [267], [395], [412]
Shadows of people seized by ghosts, [378], [383]
Shaking of medium a symptom of inspiration, [308], [309], [311]
Sham attack on men engaged in attending to a corpse, [177], [178]
—— burial, [356]
—— fight to appease ghost, [136] sq.;
as a funeral ceremony, [235] sq., [327] sq.;
as a ceremony to promote the growth of yams, [330].
See also [Pretence]
Sharks animated by ghosts, [348]
——, ghosts incarnate in, [373], [380];
images of, [373]
Shaving heads of mourners, [208]
Sheep in story of the origin of death, [64]
Shell-money, [394];
laid on corpse and buried with it, [398]
Shortlands Islands, [71]
Shrine of warrior ghost, [365]
Shrines for ancestral spirits, [316], [317]
Siamese, burial custom of the, [456]
Siasi Islands, [244]
Sick and old buried alive in Fiji, [420] sqq.
Sickness caused by demons, [194];
caused by ghosts, [56] sq., [195], [197], [222], [269] sq., [271], [279], [300], [305], [322], [372], [381] sqq., [389]
—— supposed to be an effect of witchcraft, [35] sqq.

Sickness and death set down to sorcery, [240], [257]
—— and disease recognised by some savages as due to natural causes, [55] sq. See also [Disease]
Sido, his journey to the land of the dead, [211] sq.
Sins, confession of, [201]
Skin cast as a means of renewing youth, [69] sqq., [74] sq., [83]
Skull-shaped stones in rain-making, [336] sq.
Skulls, spirits of the dead embodied in their, [338]
—— and arm-bones, special treatment of the, [199] sq.;
carried by dancers at funeral dance, [200]
—— of the dead preserved, [199] sqq., [209], [249], [318], [328], [339], [347], [351] sq., [398], [400] sq., [403];
preserved and consulted as oracles, [176], [178] sq., [179];
used in divination, [213];
kept in men's clubhouses, [221], [225];
inserted in wooden images, [311] sq., [321];
religious ceremonies performed with the, [329] sq.;
food offered to the, [339] sq., [352];
used to fertilise plantations, [340];
used in conjurations, [402]
Sky, souls of the dead thought to be in the, [133] sq., [135], [138] sq., [141], [142]
Slain, ghosts of the, especially dreaded, [205], [258], [279], [306], [323]
Sleep, soul thought to quit body in, [257], [291], [395], [412]
Smith, E. R., [53]
Smyth, R. Brough, [43] sq.
Snakes, ghosts in, [380]
Sneezing, omens from, [194]
Social progress stimulated by favourable natural conditions, [141] sq., [148] sq.
—— ranks, gradation of, in Fiji, [408]
Solomon Islands, [343], [346] sqq.;
sacrificial ritual in the, [365] sq.
Somosomo, one of the Fijian islands, [425], [441], [442]
Sorcerers, their importance in history, [16]
—— catch and detain souls, [267], [268] sq., [270]
—— put to death, [35], [35] sq., [37] sq., [40] sq., [44], [50], [136], [250], [269], [277], [278] sq., [341] sq.
See also [Magician]
Sorcery as the supposed cause of natural deaths, [33] sqq., [136], [268], [270], [402];
sickness and death ascribed to, [257]
—— a cause of keeping down the population, belief in, [38], [40], [46] sq., [51] sqq.
—— Fijian dread of, [413] sq.;
See also [Magic] and [Witchcraft]
Sores ascribed to action of ghosts, [257]
Soro, atonement, [427]
Soul, world-wide belief in survival of soul after death, [24], [25], [33]
Soul of sleeper detained by enemy, [49];
human, associated with shadow or reflection, [173], [267], [395], [412];
pretence of carrying away the, [181] sq.;
detained by demon, [194];
recovery of a lost, [194], [270] sq.;
thought to quit body in sleep, [257], [291], [395], [412];
resides in the eye, [267];
thought to pervade the body, [267];
two kinds of human, [267] sq.;
caught and detained by sorcerer, [267], [268] sq., [270];
long soul and short soul, [291] sq.;
of offering consumed by deity or spirit, [297], [298];
thought to reside in the blood, [307];
Melanesian theory of the, [344] sq.;
of sick tied up by ghost, [374];
North Melanesian theory of the, [395] sq.;
in form of animals, [396];
Fijian theory of the, [410] sqq.;
caught in a scarf, [412] sq.;
of grandfather reborn in grandchild, [417];
of offerings consumed by gods, [443]
—— -stuff or spiritual essence, [267] sq., [270], [271], [279].
See also [Spirit]
Souls, recovery of lost, [300] sq.;
River of the, [462];
the killer of, [464] sq.
—— of animals, sacrifices to the, [239];
of animals offered to ghosts, [246]
—— attributed by the Fijians to animals, vegetables, and inanimate things, [410] sq.
—— of the dead identified with spirits of nature, [130];
turned into animals, [229];
as falling stars, [229];
live in trees, [316]
—— carried off by ghosts, [197], [383];
of sorcerers in animals, [39]
—— of noblemen only saved, [33];
of those who died from home called back, [311]
Spells or incantations, [385]
Spencer and Gillen, [46] sq., [91] sq., [103], [104], [105], [106], [108], [116] sqq., [123] sq., [140], [148], [156], [157], [158]
Spider and Death, [82] sq.
Spirit, human, associated with the heart, [129];
associated with the shadow, [129], [130].
See also [Soul]
Spirits, ancestral, help hunters and fishers, [226];
worshipped in the Nanga, [428] sq.;
cloth and weapons offered to, [430] sq.;
novices presented to, at initiation, [432] sq., [434]
—— of animals go to the spirit land, [210]
—— consume spiritual essence of sacrifices, [285], [287], [297], [298]
—— of the dead thought to be strengthened by blood, [159];
reborn in women, [93] sq.;
give information to the living, [240];
give good crops, [247] sq.;
thought to be mischievous, [257]

Spirits and ghosts, distinction between, in Central Melanesia, [343], [363]
—— and gods, no certain demarcation between, [441]
——, grand concert of, [340] sq.;
represented by masked dancers, [297];
in tree-tops, [313]
——, guardian, [227]
—— of nature identified with souls of the dead, [130].
See also [Dead] and [Ghost]
Spiritual essence or soul-stuff, [267] sq., [279].
See also [Soul-stuff]
Squatting posture of corpse in burial, [207]
Stanbridge, W. E., [44]
Stars associated with the souls of the dead, [134], [140];
little regarded by savages, [140];
falling, the souls of the dead, [229]
Steinen, K. von den, [35]
Sternberg, L., [15] n. [1]
Stick, cleft, used in cure, [271]
Stillborn children, burial of, [458]
Stocks, wooden, as representatives of the dead, [374], [386]
Stolz, Mr., [238], [239]
Stomach, soul seated in, [291] sq.
Stone, a rocking, [213]
—— used in rain-making, [288]
—— of Famine, [334]
—— of the Sun, [336]
Stonehenge, [438]
Stones, sacred, in New Caledonia, magical virtues attributed to, [334] sqq.;
sacred, in sanctuaries, [377] sq.
—— used as altars, [379]
Stones inhabited by ghosts, [383] sq.
Store-houses, sacred, in Central Australia, [99], [101]
Strangling the sick and aged in Fiji, [423] sq.
Sua, human spirit or ghost, [193]
Suicide to escape decrepitude of old age, [422] sq.
Suicides, burial of, [164], [453], [458]
Sulka, the, of New Britain, [398] sq.
Sumatra, the Gajos of, [455]
Sun and the origin of death, [77]
——, ghosts attracted to the setting, [175] sq.
——, Stone of the, [336]
Sunshine, the making of, [336]
—— and rain caused by a ghost, [375]
Supernatural or spiritual power (mana) acquired from ghosts, [346] sq., [352], [371], [380]
Superstition a crutch to morality, [175]
Supreme Being unknown among aborigines of Central Australia, [91] sq.;
among the Monumbo, [228]
Survival of human soul after death, world-wide belief in, [24], [25], [33]
Swallowed by monster, pretence that candidates at initiation are, [251] sqq., [260] sq., [290] sq., [301] sq.
Swine sent to ravage fields by ghosts, [278]
Symbolism of prayer-posts, [333] sq.

Taboo, meaning of, [390];
in Central Melanesia based on a fear of ghosts, [390] sq.;
a prop of monarchical power, [408]
Tabu, demon, [194]
Tago, spirits, [297]
Tahiti, [439]
Tamanachiers, an Indian tribe, [70] sq.
Tami Islanders of German New Guinea, [291] sqq.
Taming a ghost, [370]
Tamos, the, of German New Guinea, [230]
Tanna, one of the New Hebrides, [369], [439]
Tanoa, king of Fiji, [425]
Taplin, Rev. George, [43], [134] sqq.
Tapum, guardian spirits, [227]
Taro, prayer for good crop of, [289]
Tasmanians, the, [89]
Tattooing as sign of mourning, [314]
Teeth of dead worn by relatives, [314] sq., [400], [404];
used as amulets, [332];
preserved as relics, [339];
used to fertilise plantations, [340]
Temples (paraks) in Tumleo, [220] sq.
——, Fijian, [439], [441] sq.
Terer, a mythical being, [181]
Thapauerlu, a pool, [105], [108]
Theology, natural, defined, [1], [8]
—— and religion, how related, [9]
Thomson, Basil, [408], [414], [428] n. [1], [429] n. [1], [434] n. [1], [436]
Threats of the dying, [273]
Three days, resurrection after, [67] sq.
Threshold, the dead carried out under the, [453], [457];
movable, [457]
Thrush in story of the origin of death, [61] sq.
Thunder the voice of a mythical being, [112], [114], [143]
Tindalo, a powerful ghost, [346]
Tinneh or Déné Indians, their ideas as to death, [39] sq.
Tlaloc, Mexican rain-god, [163]
Tlingit Indians, [163];
burial custom of the, [455]
To Kambinana, [69]
To Korvuvu, [69]
Togoland, West Africa, [81]
Toll exacted from ghosts, [224]
Tollkeeper, ghostly, [224]
Tonga, [406], [411]

Tongans, their limited doctrine of immortality, [33]
Torres Islands, [343], [353]
—— Straits Islanders, their ideas as to sickness and death, [47];
their belief in immortality, [170] sqq.;
their ethnological affinity and social culture, [170] sqq.;
funeral ceremonies of the, [176] sqq.
Totem, a dominant, [113];
design emblematic of, [168]
Totemic ancestor developing into a god, [113];
ancestors, traditions concerning, [115] sqq.
—— animals, imitation of, [177]
—— clans, [104];
animals and plants eaten, [120] sq.;
animals and plants dramatically represented by actors, [121] sq.
Totemism, [95];
possibly developing into ancestor worship, [114] sq.;
in Torres Straits, [172]
Totems, dramatic ceremonies connected with, [119] sqq.;
eaten, [120] sqq.;
magical ceremonies for the multiplication of, [124] sq.
Tracking a ghost, [277] sq.
Traditions of the dead associated with conspicuous features of the landscape, [115] sqq.
Transmigration, widespread belief in, [29];
of dead into animals, [242], [245];
of souls, [322];
Fijian doctrine of, [467]
Travancore, burial custom in, [456]
Tree of immortality, [74]
Tree-burial, [161], [166], [167], [199], [203];
of young children, [312] sq.
—— -tops, spirits in, [313]
Trees, property of dead hung up on, [148];
as monuments of the dead, [225];
huts built in, [263];
souls of the dead live in, [316]
Tremearne, Major A. J. N., [28] n. [1]
Truth of the belief in immortality, question of the, [469] sqq.
Tsiabiloum, the land of the dead, [326]
Tube inserted in grave, [277]
Tubes, magical, [269], [270]
Tubetube, island of, [206], [209], [210]
Tugeri or Kaya-Kaya, the, of Dutch New Guinea, [255]
Tully River in Queensland, [130]
Tulmeng, lord of the nether world, [286]
Tumleo, island of, [218] sqq.
Tumudurere, a mythical being, [207]
Tumupasa, burial custom of the Indians of, [457]
Turner, Dr. George, [325], [339], [369]
Turrbal tribe, [146]
Tuski of Alaska, burial custom of the, [456]
Two Messengers, the, myth of the origin of death, [60] sqq.

Uganda, first man in, [78];
dead kings of, worshipped, [151];
jawbones of dead kings of, preserved, [235];
war-god of, [366].
See also [Baganda]
Unburied dead, ghosts of the, [349]
Unfruitful wife, mode of impregnating, [417]
Unkulunkulu, [60]
Unmarried ghosts, hard fate of, [464]
Umatjera tribe, [68], [166]
Urabunna, the, of Central Australia, [95]

Vagueness and inconsistency of savage thought, [143]
Vale tambu, the Sacred House, [438]
Vanigela River, [202], [203]
Vanua Lava, mountain, [355]
—— -levu, one of the Fijian Islands, [416], [417], [418], [426]
Vaté or Efat, one of the New Hebrides, [359], [376]
Vengeance taken on enemies by means of a ghost, [258];
ghost calls for, [278], [310], [468]
Vetter, Konrad, [242], [244], [245], [248], [255]
Vicarious sacrifices of pigs for the sick, [372], [374], [375]
Victoria, aborigines of, their ideas as to natural death, [40] sq., [42];
their beliefs as to the dead, [142];
their burial customs, [145], [145] sq.;
cuttings for the dead among the, [154] sq.
Views of human nature, two different, [469] sqq.
Village of ghosts, [231] sq., [234]
—— deserted after a death, [275]
Viti Levu, one of the Fijian Islands, [419], [428], [435], [445]
Vormann, Franz, [228] sq.
Vuatom, island, [70]

Wagawaga, in British New Guinea, [206] sqq.
Wainimala in Fiji, [436]
Wakelbura, the, [152]
Wallace, Alfred Russel, on death, [85] sq.
War, ancestral images taken to, [310], [315];
perpetual state of, [339]
—— -god of Uganda, [366]
Warramunga, the, of Central Australia, [94];
their totem the Wollunqua, [103] sqq., [108] sqq.;
dramatic ceremonies connected with totems among the, [123] sq.;
cuttings for the dead among the, [156] sqq.;
burial customs of the, [167] sq.
Warrior ghost, [363] sq.
Warriors pray to ghosts, [288]

Wars among savages undertaken to appease angry ghosts, [468]
Wa-Sania, tribe of E. Africa, [66]
Washing body a rain-charm, [375]
Watch-an-die, tribe of W. Australia, [41]
Watch at the grave, [293]
—— of widow or widower on grave, [241]
Water as a barrier against ghosts, [152];
poured as a rain-charm, [375] sq.
—— great, to be crossed by ghosts, [224]
—— -snake, great mythical (Wollunqua), [104] sqq., [108] sqq.
Way to the land of the dead, [212] sq.
Weakening of religious faith, [4]
Weapons deposited with the dead, [145] sqq.;
deposited at grave, [211];
of dead broken, [399]
Weather regulated by ghosts and spirits, [384] sq.
—— -doctors, [385] sq.
Weaving in New Guinea, [305]
Weismann, August, on death, [84] sq.
Wemba, the, of Northern Rhodesia, [77]
Western Australia, beliefs as to death among the natives of, [41] sq.
Whale's teeth as offerings, [420], [421], [429], [443], [444]
Whip of souls, [270]
Whipping men in mourning, [452]
White ants' nests, ghosts turn into, [351]
—— clay smeared on mourners, [158], [177]
—— men identified with the spirits of the dead, [342]
—— people, souls of dead Australian aborigines thought to be reborn in, [130], [131] sqq.
Whitened with chalk, bodies of lads after circumcision, [302]
Widow, mourning costume of, [184], [204];
seclusion of, [204];
killed to accompany the ghost of her husband, [249], [275];
drinks juices of putrefying corpse, [313]
Widower exposed to attacks of his wife's ghost, [197];
costume of, [204];
seclusion of, [204], [248] sq., [259]
Widows cut and burn their bodies in mourning, [176]
Wigs worn by Fijians, [451]
Wiimbaio tribe, [145]
Wilkes, Charles, [424] sq.
Williams, Thomas, [408], [412], [413], [452], 467
Williamson, R. W., [201]
Wind, ghosts float down the, [176]
Windessi, in Dutch New Guinea, burial customs at, [318] sq.
Wingara, early mythical times, [116]
Witchcraft, fear of, [244];
death ascribed to, [277], [402];
Fijian terror of, [413] sq.;
benefits derived from, [414]
Witchcraft or black magic in Central Melanesia, [386] sq.
—— as a cause of death, [34] sqq.
See also [Sorcery]
Witchetty grub totem, dramatic ceremonies concerned with, [121] sq., [123]
Wives of the dead killed, [399];
strangled or buried alive at their husbands' funerals in Fiji, [424] sq.
Woibu, the land of the dead, [211]
Wolgal tribe, [146]
Wollunqua, mythical water-snake, totem of the Warramunga, [103] sqq., [108] sqq., [125];
ceremonies in honour of the, [108] sqq.
Woman, old, in myths of the origin of death, [64], [71] sq.
——, the Great, [464]
Women thought not to have immortal spirits, [92];
cut and burn their bodies in mourning, [154] sqq., [196], [203];
excluded from circumcision ground, [291], [301];
dance at deaths, [293];
drink juices of putrefying corpse, [355];
not allowed to be present at sacrifices, [367];
whip men in mourning, [452];
burial of childless, [458];
the cause of death, [472]
—— dying in childbed, special treatment of their ghosts, [358];
their ghosts specially feared, [212], [458] sqq.
Wordsworth on immortality, [26] n. [1]
Worship of ancestors, [221], [328] sqq., [338];
predominance of the, [297] sq.;
possibly evolved from totemism, [114] sq.
See also [Worship of the dead].
—— of ancestors in Central Australia, possible evolution of, [125] sq.;
of ancestral spirits in the Nanga, [428] sq.
—— of the dead, [23] sqq., [328] sqq., [338];
in part based on a theory of dreams, [27] sq.;
elements of it widespread, [31];
in British New Guinea, [201] sq.;
predominance of the, [297] sq.
—— of the dead, incipient, in Australia, [149], [150], [168] sq.
—— of the dead in Torres Straits, elements of a, [189];
among the Yabim, elements of a, [255]
Worshipful ghosts, [362] sq.
Wotjobaluk, the, [67], [139]
Wraiths, [396]
Wurunjerri, the, [146]

Yabim, the, of German New Guinea, [242] sqq.;
their ideas as to death, [47]
Yams, prayers for, [330];
stones to make yams grow, [337] sq.
Young children buried on trees, [312] sq.

Young and old, difference between the modes of burying, [161], [162] sq.
Youth supposed to be renewed by casting skin, [69] sqq., [74] sq., 83
Ysabel, one of the Solomon Islands, [350], [372], [379], [380]
Yule Island, [196] n. [2], [197]

Zahn, Heinrich, [242], [244]
Zend-Avesta, [453]
Zulus, their story of the origin of death, [60] sq.

END OF VOL. I

Works by J. G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.

THE GOLDEN BOUGH

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