In the Solomon Islands the sacrificial ritual is more highly developed. It may be described in the words of a native of San Cristoval. "In my country," he wrote, "they think that ghosts are many, very many indeed, some very powerful, and some not. There is one who is principal in war; this one is truly mighty and strong. When our people wish to fight with any other place, the chief men of the village and the sacrificers and the old men, and the elder and younger men, assemble in the place sacred to this ghost; and his name is Harumae. When they are thus assembled to sacrifice, the chief sacrificer goes and takes a pig; and if it be not a barrow pig they would not sacrifice it to that ghost, he would reject it and not eat of it. The pig is killed (it is strangled), not by the chief sacrificer, but by those whom he chooses to assist, near the sacred place. Then they cut it up; they take great care of the blood lest it should fall upon the ground; they bring a bowl and set the pig in it, and when they cut it up the blood runs down into it. When the cutting up is finished, the chief sacrificer takes a bit of flesh from the pig, and he takes a cocoa-nut shell and dips up some of the blood. Then he takes the blood and the bit of flesh and enters into the house (the shrine), and calls that ghost and says, 'Harumae! Chief in war! we sacrifice to you with this pig, that you may help us to smite that place; and whatsoever we shall carry away shall be your property, and we also will be yours.' Then he burns the bit of flesh in a fire upon a stone, and pours down the blood upon the fire. Then the fire blazes greatly upwards to the roof, and the house is full of the smell of pig, a sign that the ghost has heard. But when the sacrificer went in he did not go boldly, but with awe; and this is the sign of it; as he goes into the holy house he puts away his bag, and washes his hands thoroughly, to shew that the ghost shall not reject him with disgust." The pig was afterwards eaten. It should be observed that this Harumae who received sacrifices as a martial ghost, mighty in war, had not been dead many years when the foregoing account of the mode of sacrificing to him was written. The elder men remembered him alive, nor was he a great warrior, but a kind and generous man, believed to be plentifully endowed with supernatural power. His shrine was a small house in the village, where relics of him were preserved.[588] Had the Melanesians been left to themselves, it seems possible that this Harumae might have developed into the war-god of San Cristoval, just as in Central Africa another man of flesh and blood is known to have developed into the war-god of Uganda.[589]
Footnote 552:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), pp. 122, 123, 124, 180 sq.
Footnote 553:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), pp. 247, 253.
Footnote 554:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, op. cit. p. 248.
Footnote 555:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, op. cit. pp. 255 sqq., 264 sqq.
Footnote 556:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, op. cit. 253 sq.
Footnote 557:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, op. cit. pp. 254, 258, 261; compare id., pp. 125, 130.
Footnote 558:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, op. cit. pp. 120, 254.
Footnote 559:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, op. cit. pp. 118 sqq.
Footnote 560:[ (return) ]
R. H. Codrington, op. cit. pp. 254 sq.