When the author of the death has been discovered in one way or another,
the corpse is decked with all the ornaments that can be collected from
the relatives and prepared for burial. A shallow grave is dug under the
house and lined with mats. Then the body is lowered into the grave: one
of the sextons strikes up a lament, and the shrill voices of the women
in the house join in the melancholy strain. When he lies in his narrow
bed, the ornaments are removed from his person, but some of his tools,
weapons, and other belongings are buried with him, no doubt for his use
in the life hereafter. The funeral celebration, in which the whole
village commonly takes part, lasts several days and consists in the
bringing of offerings to the dead and the abstinence from all labour in
the fields. Yams are brought from the field of the departed and cooked.
A small pot filled with yams and a vessel of water are placed on the
grave; the rest of the provisions is consumed by the mourners. The next
of kin, especially the widow or widower, remain for about a week at the
grave, watching day and night, lest the body should be dug up and
devoured by a certain foul fiend with huge wings and long claws, who
battens on corpses. The mourning costume of men consists in smearing the
face with black and wearing a cord round the neck and a netted cap on
the head. Instead of such a cap a woman in mourning wraps herself in a
large net and a great apron of grass. While the other ensigns of woe are
soon discarded or disappear, the cord about the neck is worn for a
longer time, generally till next harvest. The sacrifice of a pig brings
the period of mourning to an end and after it the cord may be laid
aside. If any one were so hard-hearted as not to wear that badge of
sorrow, the people believe that the angry ghost would come back and
fetch him away. He would die.[399] Thus among these savages the mourning
costume is regarded as a protection against the dangerous ghost of the
departed; it soothes his wounded feelings and prevents him from making
raids on the living.
[Sidenote: Fate of the souls of the dead.]
As to the place to which the souls of the dead repair and the fate that
awaits them there, very vague and contradictory ideas prevail among the
natives of this district. Some say that the ghosts go eastward to Bukaua
on Huon Gulf and there lead a shadowy life very like their life on
earth. Others think that the spirits hover near the village where they
lived in the flesh. Others again are of opinion that they transmigrate
into animals and prolong their life in one or other of the bodies of the
lower creatures.[400]
[Sidenote: The Yabim and Bukaua tribes.]
Leaving Cape King William we pass eastward along the coast of German New
Guinea and come to Finsch Harbour. From a point some miles to the north
of Finsch Harbour as far as Samoa Harbour on Huon Gulf the coast is
inhabited by two kindred tribes, the Yabim and the Bukaua, who speak a
Melanesian language. I shall deal first with the Yabim tribe, whose
customs and beliefs have been described for us with a fair degree of
fulness by two German missionaries, Mr. Konrad Vetter and Mr. Heinrich
Zahn.[401] The following account is based chiefly on the writings of Mr.
Vetter, whose mission station is at the village of Simbang.
[Sidenote: Material and artistic culture of the Yabim.]
Like the other natives of New Guinea the Yabim build permanent houses,
live in settled villages, and till the ground. Every year they make a
fresh clearing in the forest by cutting down the trees, burning the
fallen timber, and planting taro, bananas, sugar-cane, and tobacco in
the open glade. When the crops have been reaped, the place is abandoned,
and is soon overgrown again by the rank tropical vegetation, while the
natives move on to another patch, which they clear and cultivate in like
manner. This rude mode of tillage is commonly practised by many savages,
especially within the tropics. Cultivation of this sort is migratory,
and in some places, though apparently not in New Guinea, the people
shift their habitations with their fields as they move on from one part
of the forest to another. Among the Yabim the labour of clearing a patch
for cultivation is performed by all the men of a village in common, but
when the great trees have fallen with a crash to the ground, and the
trunks, branches, foliage and underwood have been burnt, with a roar of
flames and a crackling like a rolling fire of musketry, each family
appropriates a portion of the clearing for its own use and marks off its
boundaries with sticks. But they also subsist in part by fishing, and
for this purpose they build outrigger canoes. They display considerable
skill and taste in wood-carving, and are fond of ornamenting their
houses, canoes, paddles, tools, spears, and drums with figures of
crocodiles, fish, and other patterns.[402]
[Sidenote: Men's clubhouses (_lum_).]
The villages are divided into wards, and every ward contains its
clubhouse for men, called a _lum_, in which young men and lads are
obliged to pass the night. It consists of a bedroom above and a parlour
with fireplaces below. In the parlour the grown men pass their leisure
hours during the day, and here the councils are held. The wives cook the
food at home and bring it for their husbands to the clubhouse. The
bull-roarers which are used at the initiatory ceremonies are kept in the
principal clubhouse of the village. Such a clubhouse serves as an
asylum; men fleeing from the avenger of blood who escape into it are
safe. It is said that the spirit (_balum_) has swallowed or concealed
them. But if they steal out of it and attempt to make their way to
another village, they carry their life in their hand.[403] Among the
Yabim, according to Mr. Zahn, religion in the proper sense does not
exist, but on the other hand the whole people is dominated by the fear
of witchcraft and of the spirits of the dead.[404] The following is the
account which Mr. Vetter gives of the beliefs and customs of these
people concerning the departed.
[Sidenote: Beliefs of the Yabim concerning the state of the dead. The
ghostly ferry.]
They do not believe that death is the end of all things for the
individual; they think that his soul survives and becomes a spirit or
ghost, which they call a _balum_. The life of human spirits in the other
world is a shadowy continuation of the life on earth, and as such it has
little attraction for the mind of the Papuan. Of heaven and hell, a
place of reward and a place of punishment for the souls of the good and
bad respectively, he has no idea. However, his world of the dead is to
some extent divided into compartments. In one of them reside the ghosts
of people who have been slain, in another the ghosts of people who have
been hanged, and in a third the ghosts of people who have been devoured
by a shark or a crocodile. How many more compartments there may be for
the accommodation of the souls, we are not told. The place is in one of
the islands of Siasi. No living man has ever set foot in the island, for
smoke and mist hang over it perpetually; but from out the mist you may
hear the sound of the barking of dogs, the grunting of swine, and the
crowing of cocks, which seems to shew that in the opinion of these
people animals have immortal souls as well as men. The natives of the
Siasi islands say that the newly arrived ghosts may often be seen
strolling on the beach; sometimes the people can even recognise the
familiar features of friends with whom they did business in the flesh.
The mode in which the spirits of the dead arrive at their destination
from the mainland is naturally by a ferry: indeed, the prow of the
ghostly ferry-boat may be seen to this day in the village of Bogiseng.
The way in which it came to be found there was this. A man of the
village lay dying, and on his deathbed he promised to give his friends a
sign of his continued existence after death by appearing as a ghost in
their midst. Only he stipulated that in order to enable him to do so
they would place a stone club in the hand of his corpse. This was done.
He died, the club was placed in his cold hand, and his sorrowing but
hopeful relations awaited results. They had not very long to wait. For
no sooner had the ghost, armed with the stone club, stepped down to the
sea-shore than he called imperiously for the ferry-boat. It soon hove in
sight, with the ghostly ferryman in it paddling to the beach to receive
the passenger. But when the prow grated on the pebbles, the artful
ghost, instead of stepping into it as he should have done, lunged out at
it with the stone club so forcibly that he broke the prow clean off. In
a rage the ferryman roared out to him, "I won't put you across! You and
your people shall be kangaroos." The ghost had gained his point. He
turned back from the ferry and brought to his friends as a trophy the
prow of the ghostly canoe, which is treasured in the village to this
day. I should add that the prow in question bears a suspicious
resemblance to a powder-horn which has been floating about for some time
in the water; but no doubt this resemblance is purely fortuitous and
without any deep significance.
[Sidenote: Transmigration of human souls into animals.]
From this veracious narrative we gather that sometimes the souls of the
dead, instead of going away to the spirit-land, transmigrate into the
bodies of animals. The case of the kangaroos is not singular. In the
village of Simbang Mr. Vetter knows two families, of whom the ghosts
pass at death into the carcases of crocodiles and a species of fabulous
pigs respectively. Hence members of the one family are careful not to
injure crocodiles, lest the souls of their dead should chance to be
lodged in the reptiles; and the members of the other family would be
equally careful not to hurt the fabulous pigs if ever they fell in with
them. However, the crocodile people, not to be behind their neighbours,
assert that after death their spirits can also roam about the wood as
ghosts and go to the spirit-land. In explanation they say that every
human being has two souls; one of them is his reflection on the water,
the other is his shadow on the land. No doubt it is the water-soul which
goes to the island of Siasi, while the land-soul is free to occupy the
body of a crocodile, a kangaroo, or some other animal.[405]
[Sidenote: Return of the ghosts.]
But even when the ghosts have departed to their island home, they are by
no means strictly confined to it. They can return, especially at night,
to roam about the woods and the villages, and the living are very much
afraid of them, for the ghosts delight in doing mischief. It is
especially in the first few days after a death that the ghost is an
object of terror, for he is then still loitering about the village.
During these days everybody is afraid to go alone into the forest for
fear of meeting him, and if a dog or a pig strays in the wood and is
lost, the people make sure that the ghost has made off with the animal,
and the aggrieved owners roundly abuse the sorrowing family, telling
them that their old father or mother, as the case may be, is no better
than a thief. They are also very unwilling to mention the names of dead
persons, imagining that were the ghost to hear his name pronounced he
might fancy he was being called for and might accordingly suspend his
habitual occupation of munching sour fruits in the forest to come and
trouble the living.
[Sidenote: Offerings to ghosts.]
Hence in order to keep the short-tempered ghost in good humour by
satisfying his wants, lest he should think himself neglected and wreak
his vexation on the survivors, the people go a-fishing after a death, or
they kill a pig or a dog; sometimes also they cut down a fruit-tree. But
it is only the souls of the animals which are destined for the
consumption of the ghost; their bodies are roasted and eaten by the
living. On a grave you may sometimes see a small basket suspended from a
stick; but if you look into it you will find nothing but a little soot
and some fish scales, which is all that remains of the fried fish.
[Sidenote: Ghosts provided with fire.]
The Yabim also imagine that the ghost has need of fire to guide him to
the door of the man who has done him to death by sorcery. Accordingly
they provide the spirit with this necessary as follows. On the evening
of the day on which the body has been buried, they kindle a fire on a
potsherd and heap dry leaves on it. As they do so they mention the names
of all the sorcerers they can think of, and he at whose name the
smouldering leaves burst into a bright flame is the one who has done the
deed. Having thus ascertained the true cause of death, beyond reach of
cavil, they proceed to light up the ghost to the door of his murderer.
For this purpose a procession is formed. A man, holding the smouldering
fire in the potsherd with one hand and a bundle of straw with the other,
leads the way. He is followed by another who draws droning notes from a
water-bottle of the deceased, which he finally smashes. After these two
march a number of young fellows who make a plumping sound by smacking
their thighs with the hollow of their hands. This solemn procession
wends its way to a path in the neighbouring forest. By this time the
shades of night have fallen. The firebearer now sets the fire on the
ground and calls on the ghost to come and take it. They firmly believe
that he does so and that having got it he hies away to cast the glowing
embers down at the door of the man who has done him to death. They even
fancy they see the flickering light carried by the invisible hand
retreating through the shadows into the depth of the forest; and in
order to follow it with their eyes they will sometimes climb tall trees
or launch a canoe and put out to sea, gazing intently at the glimmering
ray till it vanishes from their sight in the darkness. Perhaps the gleam
of fire-flies, which abound in these tropical forests, or the flashing
of a meteor, as it silently drops from the starry heaven into the sea,
may serve to feed this superstitious fancy.[406]
[Sidenote: Ghosts thought to help in the cultivation of the land.]
But the spirits of the dead are supposed to be able to help as well as
harm the living. Good crops and a successful hunt are attributed to
their influence. It is especially the spirits of the ancient owners of
the land who are credited with the power of promoting the growth of the
crops. Hence when a clearing has been made in the forest and planted
with taro, and the plants are shewing a good head of leaves,
preparations are made to feast the ghosts of the people to whom the land
belonged in days gone by. For this purpose a sago-palm is cut down,
sago-porridge made, and a wild boar killed. Then the men arrayed in all
their finery march out in solemn procession by day to the taro field;
and the leader invites the spirits in a loud voice to come to the
village and partake of the sago-porridge and pork that have been made
ready for them. But the invisible guests content themselves as usual
with snuffing up the fragrant smell of the roast pork and the steam of
the porridge; the substance of these dainties is consumed by the living.
Yet the help which the ghosts give in the cultivation of the land would
seem to be conceived as a purely negative one; the offerings are made to
them for the purpose of inducing them to keep away and not injure the
growing crops. It is also believed that the ghosts of the dead make
communications to the living in dreams or by whistling, and even that
they can bring things to their friends and relations. But on the whole,
Mr. Vetter tells us, the dominant attitude of the living to the dead is
one of fear; the power of the ghosts is oftener exerted for evil than
for good.[407] The ghost of a murdered man in particular is dreaded,
because he is believed to haunt his murderer and to do him a mischief.
Hence they drive away such a dangerous ghost with shouts and the beating
of drums; and by way of facilitating his departure they launch a model
of a canoe, laden with taro and tobacco, in order to transport him with
all comfort to the land of souls.[408]
[Sidenote: Burial and mourning customs among the Yabim.]
Among the Yabim the dead are usually buried in shallow graves close to
the houses where they died. Some trifles are laid with the body in the
grave, in order that the dead man or woman may have the use of them in
the other world. But any valuables that may be deposited with the corpse
are afterwards dug up and appropriated by the survivors. If the deceased
was the householder himself or his wife, the house is almost always
deserted, however solidly it may be built. The reason for thus
abandoning so valuable a piece of property is not mentioned; but we may
assume that the motive is a fear of the ghost, who is supposed to haunt
his old home. A temporary hut is built on the grave, and in it the
family of the deceased take up their abode for six weeks or more; here
they cook, eat, and sleep. A widower sits in a secluded corner by
himself, invisible to all and unwashed; during the period of full
mourning he may not shew himself in the village. When he does come forth
again, he wears a mourning hat made of bark in the shape of a cylinder
without crown or brim; a widow wears a great ugly net, which wraps her
up almost completely from the head to the knees. Sometimes in memory of
the deceased they wear a lock of his hair or a bracelet. Other relations
wear cords round their necks in sign of mourning. The period of mourning
varies greatly; it may last for months or even years. Sometimes the
bodies of beloved children or persons who have been much respected are
not buried but tied up in bundles and set up in a house until the flesh
has quite mouldered away; then the skull and the bones of the arms and
legs are anointed, painted red, and preserved for a time. Mr. Vetter
records the case of a chief whose corpse was thus preserved in the
assembly-house of the village, after it had been dried over a fire. When
it had been reduced to a mummy, the skull and the arm-bones and
leg-bones were detached, oiled, and reddened, and then kept for some
years in the house of the chief's eldest son, till finally they were
deposited in the grave of a kinsman. In some of the inland villages of
this part of New Guinea the widow is sometimes throttled by her
relations at the death of her husband, in order that she may accompany
him to the other world.[409]
[Sidenote: Deaths attributed by the Yabim to sorcery.]
The Yabim believe that except in the case of very old people every death
is caused by sorcery; hence when anybody has departed this life, his
relations make haste to discover the wicked sorcerer who has killed
their kinsman. For that purpose they have recourse to various forms of
divination. One of them has been already described, but they have
others. For example, they put a powder like sulphur in a piece of bamboo
tube and kindle a fire under it. Then an old man takes a bull-roarer and
taps with it on the bamboo tube, naming all the sorcerers in the
neighbouring villages. He at the mention of whose name the fire catches
the powder and blazes up is the guilty man. Another way of detecting the
culprit is to attach the feather of a bird of paradise to a staff and
give the staff to two men to hold upright between the palms of their
right hands. Then somebody names the sorcerers, and he at whose name the
staff turns round and the feather points downwards is the one who caused
the death. When the avengers of blood, wrought up to a high pitch of
fury, fall in with the family of the imaginary criminal, they may put
the whole of them to death lest the sons should afterwards avenge their
father's murder by the black art. Sometimes a dangerous and dreaded
sorcerer will be put out of the way with the connivance of the chief of
his own village; and after a few days the murderers will boldly shew
themselves in the village where the crime was perpetrated and will
reassure the rest of the people, saying, "Be still. The wicked man has
been taken off. No harm will befall you."[410]
[Sidenote: Bull-roarers (_balum_). Initiation of young men.]
It is very significant that the word _balum_, which means a ghost, is
applied by the Yabim to the instrument now generally known among
anthropologists as a bull-roarer. It is a small fish-shaped piece of
wood which, being tied to a string and whirled rapidly round, produces a
humming or booming sound like the roaring of a bull or the muttering of
distant thunder. Instruments of this sort are employed by savages in
many parts of the world at their mysteries; the weird sound which the
implement makes when swung is supposed by the ignorant and uninitiated
to be the voice of a spirit and serves to impress them with a sense of
awe and mystery. So it is with the Papuans about Finsch Harbour, with
whom we are at present concerned. At least one such bull-roarer is kept
in the _lum_ or bachelors' clubhouse of every village, and the women and
uninitiated boys are forbidden to see it under pain of death. The
instrument plays a great part in the initiation of young men, which
takes place at intervals of several years, when there are a number of
youths ready to be initiated, and enough pigs can be procured to furnish
forth the feasts which form an indispensable part of the ceremony. The
principal initiatory rite consists of circumcision, which is performed
on all youths before they are admitted to the rank of full-grown men.
The age of the candidates varies considerably, from four years up to
twenty. Many are married before they are initiated. The operation is
performed in the forest, and the procession of the youths to the place
appointed is attended by a number of men swinging bull-roarers. As the
procession sets out, the women look on from a distance, weeping and
howling, for they are taught to believe that the lads, their sons and
brothers, are about to be swallowed up by a monster called a _balum_ or
ghost, who will only release them from his belly on condition of
receiving a sufficient number of roast pigs. How, then, can the poor
women be sure that they will ever see their dear ones again? So amid the
noise of weeping and wailing the procession passes into the forest, and
the booming sound of the bull-roarers dies away in the distance.
[Sidenote: The rite of circumcision; the lads supposed to be swallowed
by a monster (_balum_). The sacred flutes.]