General.
Referring generally to supplications, incantations, and acts of propitiation, the only examples of them which I was able to discover were the above-mentioned supplication to the river prior to fishing, which is apparently spoken by the fishers themselves, and not merely by a sorcerer or magic man, and the incantations in connection with nose-piercing, with hunting, with a dying chief, with the stone operation for stomach complaints, and with the plant remedies for wounds, and the acts of propitiation, if such they are, in connection with ceremonious pig-killing, and especially with the ceremonies performed at a big feast and at or following a funeral; and as regards the incantations I could learn nothing as to their nature, nor as to the specific spiritual powers for the influencing of which they are intended, nor the way in which those powers are moved by them.
In fact, concerning the whole question of ghosts, spirits, sorcery, charms, omens and superstitions, I cannot imagine that I have accomplished more than the mere touching of the fringe of it; and I am sure that, when the Mafulu people have got rather more into touch with civilisation, and become more accessible and communicative about these things, there will be much more to be learnt. It may perhaps be that some of the apparently superstitious acts are, like many such acts performed in England, based upon beliefs which have long since been forgotten, and have themselves become mere formalities, to which the natives do not attach serious superstitious importance; though their fear of ghosts and spirits is undoubtedly a very real and general one.
There are no secret societies or mysteries, such as are met with in some of the Solomon Islands, and they have no superstition as to sneezing.