Footnote 390:[ (return) ]

N. von Miklucho-Maclay, "Ethnologische Bemerkungen über die Papuas der Maclay-Küste in Neu-Guinea," Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie, xxxv. (1875) pp. 66-93; id., xxxvi. (1876) pp. 294-333.

Footnote 391:[ (return) ]

N. von Miklucho-Maclay, op. cit. xxxvi. (1876) p. 302.

Footnote 392:[ (return) ]

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), pp. 109 sqq.; Totemism and Exogamy, ii. 470.

Footnote 393:[ (return) ]

N. von Miklucho-Maclay, op. cit. xxxvi. (1876) pp. 300-302.

LECTURE XI

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE NATIVES OF GERMAN NEW GUINEA (continued)

The Papuans of Cape King William.

In my last lecture I gave you some account of the beliefs and practices concerning the dead which have been recorded among the Papuans of German New Guinea. To-day I resume the subject and shall first speak of the natives on the coast about Cape King William, at the foot of Mount Cromwell. We possess an account of their religion and customs from the pen of a German missionary, Mr. Stolz, who has lived three years among them and studied their language.[394] His description applies to the inhabitants of two villages only, namely Lamatkebolo and Quambu, or Sialum and Kwamkwam, as they are generally called on the maps, who together number about five hundred souls. They belong to the Papuan stock and subsist chiefly by the cultivation of yams, which they plant in April or May and reap in January or February. But they also cultivate sweet potatoes and make some use of bananas and coco-nuts. They clear the land for cultivation by burning down the grass and afterwards turning up the earth with digging-sticks, a labour which is performed chiefly by the men. The land is not common property; each family tills its own fields, though sometimes one family will aid another in the laborious task of breaking up the soil. Moreover they trade with the natives of the interior, who, inhabiting a more fertile and better-watered country, are able to export a portion of their superfluities, especially taro, sweet potatoes, betel-nuts, and tobacco, to the less favoured dwellers on the sea-coast, receiving mostly dried fish in return. Curiously enough the traffic is chiefly in the hands of old women.[395]

Propitiation of ghosts and spirits. The spirit Mate. Spirits called Nai.