The Mafulu: Mountain People of British New Guinea

by Robert Wood Williamson

Magic or sorcery, and those who practise it, and incantations and charms, and those who supply charms, are naturally associated with either ghosts or spirits, or both. Among the Mafulu people they are, I was assured, associated solely with spirits, and not with ghosts; and, though I have no confirmatory evidence of the accuracy of this statement, I can only in these notes assume that it is correct. It may well be, however, that in the minds of the people themselves the distinction between the ghost of a person who has lived and died and the spirit which has never lived in visible human form is not really quite clearly defined; or that powers which are now regarded by them as spirits have had an origin, possibly long ago, in what were then believed to be ghosts. I shall revert to this point at a later stage.

Sorcery.

The Mafulu magic men or sorcerers are different from those of the Mekeo plains. There is not among the Mafulu, as there is in Mekeo, a large body of powerful professional sorcerers, who are a source of constant terror to the other people of their own villages, and are yet to a certain extent relied upon and desired by those people as a counterpoise to the powers of sorcerers of other villages; and a Mafulu native, unless prevented by a fear of outside hostility in no way connected with the supernatural, will travel alone outside his own community in a way in which fear of the sorcerers would make a Mekeo native unwilling to do so. The Mafulu sorcerers are a somewhat less powerful people; but they claim, and are supposed to have, certain powers of divination, or actual causation, or both, of certain things. So far as I could learn, the sorcerer’s supernatural powers would never be exercised in a hostile way against anyone of his own village, or indeed of his own clan, or even, as a rule, of his own community. Apparently the sorcerer’s victim is nearly always a member of some other community; and the sorcerers of a community do not appear to be in any way either feared or shunned by the members of that community. And, even as regards their acts of hostility against members of other communities, these do not seem to be performed to an extent in any way approaching what is found in Mekeo.

It seemed to me at first, as regards these sorcerers, that there was a confusion in the Mafulu mind between divination and causation. The question as to this arose specially in connection with the ceremony for ascertaining whether a chief was or was not going to die. The people of a clan and the ailing chief certainly assume that the sorcerers who perform the ceremony under instructions, whether they be of the same community or of some other community, will by their magical powers merely divine the death or recovery of the chief; and the idea does not enter their heads that these sorcerers may actually cause the death. And yet they will accuse a hostile sorcerer of causing the death by an exactly similar ceremony, and will go to war over the matter. Probably, however, it is rather a question of the sorcerer’s assumed volition—that is, it is assumed that the friendly sorcerer does not want the chief to die, and the people rely upon him to confine himself to a divination ceremony, and not to engage in hostile sorcery; whereas a hostile sorcerer might do the latter. I may add that I was led to suspect that the burning test was regarded as being only a matter of divination, and that the causation, if it occurred, was effected by means of the previous incantation.

There are also, besides the sorcerers, a number of specialists, who can hardly perhaps be called true sorcerers, but who have certain specific powers, or are acquainted with certain specific forms of incantation, and whose services are from time to time sought by the people. It is impossible for me to point to any definite line of demarcation between the true sorcerers and these smaller people; and it cannot be doubted that the powers of the latter, like those of the former, are, or have been, based upon the supernatural, even though they themselves do not claim to be and are not regarded as being magic men in the highest sense. I think I may regard them as being more or less the Mafulu equivalents of the Roro individuals whom Dr. Seligmann calls “departmental experts.”[5]

Dealing first with the true sorcerers, they undoubtedly include among their number the men who perform the special ceremonial already described for ascertaining whether a sick chief is or is not destined to die. They also seem to include the makers or providers of the various charms, including those which are carried in the little charm bags and the love charms used by young men, as already mentioned. There are also two other matters which are regarded as coming within the province of the true sorcerers, of which one relates to rain and the other relates to illness and death. I will deal with them separately.

The rain sorcerer is apparently merely a diviner. Dr. Seligmann would perhaps include him among the departmental experts, but the Fathers of the Mission regard him as being a true sorcerer. He is the man to whom the people go in anticipation of a proposed important event, such as a big feast, or perhaps a fighting or large hunting expedition, to ascertain and inform them whether the period in which it is proposed that the event shall occur will be fine or wet; but he does not profess to be able to do more than this, and they never expect him to prevent or bring about the rain, or in any way hold him responsible for the weather as it may in fact eventually occur.

The sorcery connected with illness and death is not so simple; and there is no doubt that it is not confined to powers of divination, but includes powers of actual causation. This department of sorcery obviously includes the ceremonial in connection with the supposed dying chief. But it is not confined to this ceremony, as it is generally believed by the Mafulu people that sickness, which does not necessarily end in death, and death itself, can be, and commonly is, brought about by the operation of sorcerers in one way or another through the medium of certain things. The only things of this nature concerning which I was able to obtain information are (1) the inedible part of some vegetable food which the victim has recently eaten (e.g., the outside part of a sweet potato or banana or the cane part of a sugar cane), and (2) the victim’s discharged excrement or urine. I found no trace of any use for purposes of sorcery of the edible remnants of the victim’s food, nor (except as regards a woman’s placenta, to which I shall refer presently) of any part of his body, such as his hair or nails; and, in fact, the free way in which the natives throw away their hair when cut is inconsistent with any belief as to its possible use against them.

First, the inedible remnants of recently consumed vegetable food. The use of this as a medium for causing illness and death is apparently confined to the case of a victim who has passed the stage of very young childhood. Why this is so I could not learn; though in point of fact a mere infant would hardly be eating such things as a regular practice. A man or woman, however, never carelessly throws aside his own food remnants of this character; and his reason for this is fear of sorcery. He carefully keeps them under his control until he can take them to a river, into which he throws them, after which they are harmless as a medium against him. The fear concerning these remains is that a sorcerer will use them for a ceremony somewhat similar to that described in connection with the death of a chief, but in a hostile way. No such precautions are taken with reference to similar food eaten by very young children.

Secondly, the discharged excrement and urine. This, for some reason, only applies to the case of an infant or quite young child. Here again I could not learn the reason for the limitation; but it is confirmed by the fact that grown-up persons take no pains whatever to avoid the passing of these things into the possession of other people, whereas, as regards little children, the mothers or other persons having charge of them always take careful precautions. The mother picks up her little child’s excrement, and wraps it in a leaf, and then either carefully hides it in a hole in the ground, or throws it into the river, or places it in a little raised-up nest-like receptacle, which is sometimes erected near the house for this purpose, and where also it is regarded as being safe. One of these receptacles, shaped like an inverted cone, is shown in [Plate 91], and a somewhat similar one is seen in [Plate 64]. As regards the urine, she pours upon it, as it lies on the ground or on the house floor or platform, a little clean water which she obtains from any handy source, or sometimes from a little store which, when away from other water supply, she often carries about with her for the purpose. I could get no information as to the way in which the sorcerer would use the excrement or urine as a medium for hostile purposes; though there is apparently no process similar to that of the fire used in connection with the inedible food remnants of the adult.