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.
Taboo.
The subject of taboo may perhaps be referred to under the present heading, for, though there appear to be no totemic taboos, and though I have no material showing that the Mafulu taboos are based on superstitious ideas, it may, I imagine, be assumed that, while some of these taboos are possibly partly based on medical common sense, the element of superstition enters more or less into many of them. I have already referred to a few general restrictions connected with etiquette, and what I now propose to mention are food taboos.
Young men are not supposed to eat wild pig until they have married, but this is the only food restriction which is put upon them.[10] A woman who is about to give birth to a child must eat no food whatever for a day or rather longer (never more than two days), before the child is born. I have already referred to the food taboo on persons undergoing the nose-piercing operation, and the optional food taboo to which the nearest relative of a deceased person may submit, in lieu of wearing the mourning string. There is also a general taboo against any food other than sweet potato and chewing of betel-nuts, with its condiments of lime and pepper, upon any male person who intends to take part, either as a dancer or singer, in any ceremonial dance. This latter term includes the dance at a big feast and the women’s dance on the eve of it, but not the dancing during the six months’ interval before it. It also includes the dance at any of the various minor ceremonies above described, and at a funeral ceremony. The period of restriction in the case of the big feast begins when the formal croton-leaf invitation has gone out to the guests, about a month before the date of the feast. In the case of a funeral it is necessarily only quite short, and in cases of other ceremonies it varies, being largely dependent on the length of period during which the approach of the ceremony is known. During the period of restriction the people avail themselves largely of the privilege of betel-chewing, and prior to a big feast their mouths get very red. In connection with personal ceremonies upon assumption of the perineal band, admission to the emone (excepting, as regards this, the case of a child of very tender years), qualifying for drumming and dancing, devolution of chieftainship and nose-piercing, the person concerned, male or female, is under the same food restriction for a day prior to that of the ceremony, and as regards nose-piercing this taboo is prior to the actual piercing, and is quite distinct from the subsequent taboo already referred to. There does not appear to be any taboo connected with fishing, hunting or war.
The observance of all these taboos is secured only by superstitious belief or public opinion, or both, there being no method of enforcing them by punishment or by any exercise of authority by the chiefs.
[1] I have been unable to find an account of any spiritual or partly spiritual being associated with the beliefs of Papuans or Melanesians who can be regarded as being similar to Tsidibe. Perhaps the nearest approach to him will be found in Qat of the Banks Islands, of whom much is told us by Dr. Codrington in The Melanesians, and who apparently is not regarded as having been of divine rank, but is rather a specially powerful, but perhaps semi-human, spiritual individual, who, though not having originally created mankind and the animal and vegetable world and the objects and forces of nature as a whole, has had, and it would seem still has, considerable creative and influencing powers over them all. But I could learn no detailed legends concerning Tsidibe; and the scanty information given to me concerning him differs from what we know of Qat.