about a hundred feet in length, which diminishes in height towards the
rear. This represents the belly of the monster which is to swallow up
the candidates. To keep up the delusion a pair of great eyes are painted
over the entrance, and above them the projecting roots of a betel-palm
represent the monster's hair, while the trunk of the tree passes for his
backbone. As the awe-struck lads approach this imposing creature, he is
heard from time to time to utter a growl. The growl is in fact no other
than the humming note of bull-roarers swung by men, who are concealed
within the edifice. When the procession has come to a halt in front of
the artificial monster, a loud defiant blast blown on shell-trumpets
summons him to stand forth. The reply follows in the shape of another
muffled roar of the bull-roarers from within the building. At the sound
the men say that "Balum is coming up," and they raise a shrill song like
a scream and sacrifice pigs to the monster in order to induce him to
spare the lives of the candidates. When the operation has been performed
on the lads, they must remain in strict seclusion for three or four
months, avoiding all contact with women and even the sight of them. They
live in the long hut, which represents the monster's belly, and their
food is brought them by elder men. Their leisure time is spent in
weaving baskets and playing on certain sacred flutes, which are never
used except at such seasons. The instruments are of two patterns. One is
called the male and the other the female, and they are supposed to be
married to each other. No woman may see these mysterious flutes; if she
did she would die. Even if she hears their shrill note in the distance,
she will hasten to hide herself in a thicket. When the initiatory
ceremonies are over, the flutes are carefully kept in the men's
clubhouse of the village till the next time they are wanted for a
similar occasion. On the other hand, if the women are obliged to go near
the place where the lads are living in seclusion, they beat on certain
bamboo drums in order to warn them to keep out of the way. Sometimes,
though perhaps rarely, one of the lads dies under the operation; in that
case the men explain his disappearance to the women by saying that the
monster has a pig's stomach as well as a human stomach, and that
unfortunately the deceased young man slipped by mistake into the wrong
stomach and so perished miserably. But as a rule the candidates pass
into the right stomach and after a sufficient period has been allowed
for digestion, they come forth safe and sound, the monster having kindly
consented to let them go free in consideration of the roast pigs which
have been offered to him by the men. Indeed he is not very exacting, for
he contents himself with devouring the souls of the pigs, while he
leaves their bodies to be consumed by his worshippers. This is a kindly
and considerate way of dealing with sacrifice, which our New Guinea
ghost or monster shares with many deities of much higher social
pretensions. However, lest he should prove refractory and perhaps run
away with the poor young men in his inside, or possibly make a dart at
any women or children who might be passing, the men take the precaution
of tying him down tight with ropes. When the time of seclusion is up,
one of the last acts in the long series of ceremonies is to cast off the
ropes and let the monster go free. He avails himself of his liberty to
return to his subterranean abode, and the young men are brought back to
the village with much solemnity.
[Sidenote: The return of the novices to the village.]
An eye-witness has described the ceremony. The lads, now ranking as
full-grown men, were first bathed in the sea and then elaborately
decorated with paint and so forth. In marching back to the village they
had to keep their eyes tightly shut, and each of them was led by a man
who acted as a kind of god-father. As the procession moved on, an old
bald-headed man touched each boy solemnly on the chin and brow with a
bull-roarer. In the village preparations for a banquet had meanwhile
been made, and the women and girls were waiting in festal attire. The
women were much moved at the return of the lads; they sobbed and tears
of joy ran down their cheeks. Arrived in the village the newly-initiated
lads were drawn up in a row and fresh palm leaves were spread in front
of them. Here they stood with closed eyes, motionless as statues. Then a
man passed behind them, touching each of them in the hams with the
handle of an axe and saying, "O circumcised one, sit down." But still
the lads remained standing, stiff and motionless. Not till another man
had knocked repeatedly on the ground with the stalk of a palm-leaf,
crying, "O circumcised ones, open your eyes!" did the youths, one after
another, open their eyes as if awaking from a profound stupor. Then they
sat down on the mats and partook of the food brought them by the men.
Young and old now ate in the open air. Next morning the circumcised lads
were bathed in the sea and painted red instead of white. After that they
might talk to women. This was the end of the ceremony.[411]
[Sidenote: The essence of the initiatory rites seems to be a simulation
of death and resurrection; the novice is supposed to be killed and to
come to life or be born again. The new birth among the Akikuyu of
British East Africa.]
The meaning of these curious ceremonies observed on the return of the
lads to the village is not explained by the writer who describes them;
but the analogy of similar ceremonies observed at initiation by many
other races allows us to divine it with a fair degree of probability. As
I have already observed in a former lecture, the ceremony of initiation
at puberty is very often regarded as a process of death and
resurrection; the candidate is supposed to die or to be killed and to
come to life again or be born again; and the pretence of a new birth is
not uncommonly kept up by the novices feigning to have forgotten all the
most common actions of life and having accordingly to learn them all
over again like newborn babes. We may conjecture that this is why the
young circumcised Papuans, with whom we are at present concerned, march
back to their village with closed eyes; this is why, when bidden to sit
down, they remain standing stiffly, as if they understood neither the
command nor the action; and this, too, we may surmise, is why their
mothers and sisters receive them with a burst of emotion, as if their
dead had come back to them from the grave. This interpretation of the
ceremony is confirmed by a curious rite which is observed by the Akikuyu
of British East Africa. Amongst them every boy or girl at or about the
age of ten years has solemnly to pretend to be born again, not in a
moral or religious, but in a physical sense. The mother of the child,
or, if she is dead, some other woman, goes through an actual pantomime
of bringing forth the boy or girl. I will spare you the details of the
pantomime, which is very graphic, and will merely mention that the
bouncing infant squalls like a newborn babe. Now this ceremony of the
new birth was formerly enacted among the Akikuyu at the rite of
circumcision, though the two ceremonies are now kept distinct.[412]
Hence it is not very rash to conjecture that the ceremony performed by
the young Papuans of Finsch Harbour on their return to the village after
undergoing circumcision is merely a way of keeping up the pretence of
being born again and of being therefore as ignorant and helpless as
babes.
[Sidenote: The mock death of the novices as a preliminary to the mock
birth.]
But if the end of the initiation is a mock resurrection, or rather new
birth, as it certainly seems to be, we may infer with some confidence
that the first part of it, namely the act of circumcision, is a mock
death. This is borne out by the explicit statement of a very good
authority, Mr. Vetter, that "the circumcision is designated as a process
of being swallowed by the spirit, out of whose stomach (represented by a
long hut) the release must take place by means of a sacrifice of
pigs."[413] And it is further confirmed by the observation that both the
spirit which is supposed to operate on the lads, and the bull-roarer,
which apparently represents his voice, are known by the name of _balum_,
which means the ghost or spirit of a dead person. Similarly, among the
Tugeri or Kaya-Kaya, a large Papuan tribe on the south coast of Dutch
New Guinea, the name of the bull-roarer, which they call _sosom_, is
given to a mythical giant, who is supposed to appear every year with the
south-east monsoon. When he comes, a festival is held in his honour and
bull-roarers are swung. Boys are presented to the giant, and he kills
them, but brings them to life again.[414] Thus the initiatory rite of
circumcision, to which all lads have to submit among the Yabim, seems to
be closely bound up with their conception of death and with their belief
in a life after death; since the whole ceremony apparently consists in a
simulation of dying and coming to life again. That is why I have touched
upon these initiatory rites, which at first sight might appear to have
no connexion with our immediate subject, the belief in immortality and
the worship of the dead.
[Sidenote: General summary as to the Yabim.]
On the whole we may say that the Yabim have a very firm and practical
belief in a life after death, and that while their attitude to the
spirits of the departed is generally one of fear, they nevertheless look
to these spirits also for information and help on various occasions.
Thus their beliefs and practices contain at least in germ the elements
of a worship of the dead.
[Footnote 394: Stolz, "Die Umgebung von Kap König Wilhelm," in R.
Neuhauss's _Deutsch New-Guinea_ (Berlin, 1911), iii. 243-286.]
[Footnote 395: Stolz, _op. cit._ pp. 252-254.]
[Footnote 396: Stolz, _op. cit._ pp. 245-247.]
[Footnote 397: Stolz, _op. cit._ pp. 247 _sq._]
[Footnote 398: Stolz, _op. cit._ pp. 248-250.]
[Footnote 399: Stolz, _op. cit._ p. 258.]
[Footnote 400: Stolz, _op. cit._ p. 259.]
[Footnote 401: K. Vetter, in _Komm herüber und hilf uns! oder die Arbeit
der Neuen-Dettelsauer Mission_, Nos. 1-4 (Barmen, 1898); _id._, in
_Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land_, 1897, pp. 86-102; _id._, in
_Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xi. (Jena, 1892)
pp. 102-106; _id._, in _Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu
Jena_, xii. (Jena, 1893) pp. 95-97; H. Zahn, "Die Jabim," in R.
Neuhauss's _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii (Berlin, 1911) pp. 287-394.]
[Footnote 402: K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf uns!_ ii. (Barmen,
1898) pp. 6-12.]
[Footnote 403: K. Vetter, _op. cit._ ii. 8; H. Zahn, "Die Jabim," in R.
Neuhauss's _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii. 291, 308, 311.]
[Footnote 404: H. Zahn, _op. cit._ iii. 291.]
[Footnote 405: K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf uns!_ iii. 21 _sq._
According to Mr. H. Zahn (_op. cit._ p. 324) every village has its own
entrance into the spirit-land.]
[Footnote 406: K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf uns!_ iii. 19-24;
_id._, in _Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xii.
(1893) pp. 96 _sq._]
[Footnote 407: K. Vetter, _Komm herüber und hilf uns!_ ii. 7, iii. 24;
_id._, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und den
Bismarck-Archipel_, 1897, p. 94.]
[Footnote 408: K. Vetter, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land_,
1897, p. 94.]
[Footnote 409: K. Vetter, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land_,
1897, pp. 94 _sq._; _id._, _Komm herüber und hilf uns!_ iii. 15-19.
Compare H. Zahn, "Die Jabim," in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_,
iii. 320 _sq._]
[Footnote 410: H. Zahn, "Die Jabim," in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch
Neu-Guinea_, iii. 318-320.]
[Footnote 411: K. Vetter, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelms-Land und
den Bismarck-Archipel_, 1897, pp. 92 _sq._; _id._, in _Mitteilungen der
Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xi. (1892) p. 105; _id._, _Komm
herüber und hilf uns!_ ii. (1898) p. 18; _id._, cited by M. Krieger,
_Neu-Guinea_, pp. 167-170; O. Schellong, "Das Barlum (_sic_)-fest der
Gegend Finsch-hafens (Kaiserwilhelmsland), ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss der
Beschneidung der Melanesier," _Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie_,
ii. (1889) pp. 145-162; H. Zahn, "Die Jabim," in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch
Neu-Guinea_, iii. 296-298.]
[Footnote 412: W. S. Routledge and K. Routledge, _With a Prehistoric
People, the Akikuyu of British East Africa_ (London, 1910), pp. 151
_sq._ Compare _Totemism and Exogamy_, iv. 228; C. W. Hobley, "Kikuyu
Customs and Beliefs," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_,
xl. (1910) pp. 440 _sq._]
[Footnote 413: K. Vetter, in _Nachrichten über Kaiser Wilhelmsland und
den Bismarck-Archipel_, 1897, p. 93.]
[Footnote 414: R. Pöch, "Vierter Bericht über meine Reise nach
Neu-Guinea," _Sitzungsberichte der mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen
Klasse der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), cxv.
(1906) Abteilung 1, pp. 901, 902.]
LECTURE XII
THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE NATIVES OF GERMAN NEW GUINEA
(_continued_)
[Sidenote: The Bukaua of German New Guinea.]
In the last lecture I described the beliefs and practices concerning the
dead as they are to be found among the Yabim of German New Guinea.
To-day we begin with the Bukaua, a kindred and neighbouring tribe, which
occupies the coast lands of the northern portion of Huon Gulf from
Schollenbruch Point to Samoa Harbour. The language which the Bukaua
speak belongs, like the language of the Yabim, to the Melanesian, not to
the Papuan family. Their customs and beliefs have been reported by a
German missionary, Mr. Stefan Lehner, whose account I follow.[415] In
many respects they closely resemble those of their neighbours the Yabim.
[Sidenote: Means of subsistence of the Bukaua. Men's clubhouses.]
The Bukaua are an agricultural people who subsist mainly on the crops of
taro which they raise. But they also cultivate many kinds of bananas and
vegetables, together with sugar-cane, sago, and tobacco. From time to
time they cut down and burn the forest in order to obtain fresh fields
for cultivation. The land is not held in common. Each family has its own
fields and patches of forest, and would resent the intrusion of others
on their hereditary domain. Hunting and fishing supply them with animal
food to eke out the vegetable nourishment which they draw from their
fields and plantations.[416] Every village contains one or more of the
men's clubhouses which are a common feature in the social life of the
tribes on this coast. In these clubhouses the young men are obliged to
sleep, and on the platforms in front of them the older men hold their
councils. Such a clubhouse is called a _lum_.[417]
[Sidenote: Beliefs of the Bukaua concerning the souls of the dead.
Sickness and disease attributed to ghostly agency.]
The Bukaua have a firm belief in the existence of the human soul after
death. They think that a man's soul can even quit his body temporarily
in his lifetime during sleep or a swoon, and that in its disembodied
state it can appear to people at a distance; but such apparitions are
regarded as omens of approaching death, when the soul will depart for
good and all. The soul of a dead man is called a _balum_. The spirits of
the departed are believed to be generally mischievous and spiteful to
the living, but they can be appeased by sacrifice, and other measures
can be taken to avert their dangerous influence.[418] They are very
touchy, and if they imagine that they are not honoured enough by their
kinsfolk, and that the offerings made to them are insufficient, they
will avenge the slight by visiting their disrespectful and stingy
relatives with sickness and disease. Among the maladies which the
natives ascribe to the anger of ghosts are epilepsy, fainting fits, and
wasting decline.[419] When a man suffers from a sore which he believes
to have been inflicted on him by a ghost, he will take a stone from the
fence of the grave and heat it in the fire, saying: "Father, see, thou
hast gone, I am left, I must till the land in thy stead and care for my
brothers and sisters. Do me good again." Then he dips the hot stone in a
puddle on the grave, and holds his sore in the steam which rises from
it. His pain is eased thereby and he explains the alleviation which he
feels by saying, "The spirit of the dead man has eaten up the
wound."[420]
[Sidenote: Sickness and death often ascribed by the Bukaua to sorcery.]
But like most savages the Bukaua attribute many illnesses and many
deaths not to the wrath of ghosts but to the malignant arts of
sorcerers; and in such cases they usually endeavour by means of
divination to ascertain the culprit and to avenge the death of their
friend by taking the life of his imaginary murderer.[421] If they fail
to exact vengeance, the ghost is believed to be very angry, and they
must be on their guard against him. He may meet them anywhere, but is
especially apt to dog the footsteps of the sorcerer who killed him.
Hence when on the occasion of a great feast the sorcerer comes to the
village of his victim, the surviving relatives of the dead man are at
particular pains to protect themselves and their property against the
insidious attacks of the prowling ghost. For this purpose they bury a
creeper with white blossoms in the path leading to the village; the
ghost is thought to be filled with fear at the sight of it and to turn
back, leaving his kinsfolk, their dogs, and pigs in peace.[422]
[Sidenote: Fear of the ghosts of the slain.]
Another class of ghosts who are much dreaded are the spirits of slain
foes. They are believed to pursue their slayers to the village and to
blind them so that sooner or later they fall an easy prey to their
enemies. Hence when a party of warriors has returned home from a
successful attack on a village, in which they have butchered all on whom
they could lay their hands, they kindle a great fire, dance wildly about
it, and hurl burning brands in the direction of the battlefield in order
to keep the ghosts of their slaughtered foes at bay. Phosphorescent
lights seen under the houses throw the inmates into great alarm, for
they are thought to be the souls of the slain. Sometimes the vanquished
in battle resort to a curious ruse for the purpose of avenging
themselves on the victors by means of a ghost. They take the
sleeping-mat of one of the slain, roll it up in a bundle along with his
loin-cloth, apron, netted bag, or head-rest, and give the bundle to two
cripples to carry. Then they steal quietly to the landing-place of their
foes, peering warily about lest they should be observed. The bundle
represents the dead man, and the cripples who carry it reel to and fro,
and finally sink to the ground with their burden. In this way the ghost
of the victim, whose things are carried in the bundle, is supposed to
make their enemies weak and tottery. Strong young men are not given the
bundle to carry, lest the ghost should spoil their manly figures;
whereas if he should wound or maim a couple of poor cripples, no great
harm is done.[423]
[Sidenote: Ghosts of ancestors appealed to for help, especially in the
cultivation of the ground. First-fruits offered to the spirits of the
dead.]
However, the Bukaua also look on the ghosts of their ancestors in a more
amiable light as beings who, if properly appealed to, can and will help
them in the affairs of life, especially by procuring for them good
crops. Hence when they are planting their fields, which are formed in
clearings of the forest, they take particular care to insert shoots of
all their crops in the ground near the tree stumps which remain
standing, because the souls of their dead grandfathers and
great-grandfathers are believed to be sitting on the stumps watching
their descendants at their work. Accordingly in the act of planting they
call out the names of these forefathers and pray them to guard the field
in order that their living children may have food and not suffer from
hunger. And at harvest, when the first-fruits of the taro, bananas,
sugar-cane, and so forth have been brought back from the fields, a
portion of them is offered in a bowl to the spirits of the forefathers
in the house of the landowner, and the spirits are addressed in prayer
as follows: "O ye who have guarded our field as we prayed you to do,
there is something for you; now and henceforth behold us with favour."
While the family are feasting on the rest of the first-fruits, the
householder will surreptitiously stir the offerings in the bowl with his
finger, and will then shew the bowl to the others as a proof that the
souls of the dead have really partaken of the good things provided for
them.[424] A hunter will also pray to his dead father to drive the wild
pigs into his net.[425]
[Sidenote: Burial and mourning customs of the Bukaua.]
The Bukaua bury their dead in shallow graves, which are sometimes dug
under the houses but more usually in front of or beside them. Along with
the corpses are deposited bags of taro, nuts, drinking-vessels, and
other articles of daily use. Only the stone axes are too valuable to be
thus sacrificed. Over the grave is erected a rude hut in which the
widower, if the deceased was a married woman, remains for a time in
seclusion. A widow on the death of her husband remains in the house.
Widow and widower may not shew themselves in public until they have
prepared their mourning costume. The widower wears a black hat made of
bark, cords round his neck, wicker work on his arms and feet, and a torn
old bracelet of his wife in a bag on his breast. A widow is completely
swathed in nets, one over the other, and she carries about with her the
loincloth of her deceased husband. The souls of the dead dwell in a
subterranean region called _lamboam_, and their life there seems to
resemble life here on earth; but the ideas of the people on the subject
are very vague.[426]
[Sidenote: Initiation of young men among the Bukaua. Lads at
circumcision supposed to be swallowed by a monster.]
The customs and beliefs of the Bukaua in regard to the initiation of
young men are practically identical with those of their neighbours the
Yabim. Indeed the initiatory ceremonies are performed by the tribes
jointly, now in the territory of the Bukaua, now in the territory of the
Yabim, or in the land of the Kai, a tribe of mountaineers, or again in
the neighbouring Tami islands. The intervals between the ceremonies vary
from ten to eighteen years.[427] The central feature of the initiatory
rites is the circumcision of the novices. It is given out that the lads
are swallowed by a ferocious monster called a _balum_, who, however, is
induced by the sacrifice of many pigs to vomit them up again. In spewing
them out of his maw he bites or scratches them, and the wound so
inflicted is circumcision. This explanation of the rite is fobbed off on
the women, who more or less believe it and weep accordingly when their
sons are led away to be committed to the monster's jaws. And when the
time for the ceremony is approaching, the fond mothers busy themselves
with rearing and fattening young pigs, so that they may be able with
them to redeem their loved ones from the belly of the ravenous beast;
for he must have a pig for every boy. When a lad bleeds to death from
the effect of the operation, he is secretly buried, and his sorrowful
mother is told that the monster swallowed him and refused to bring him
up again. What really happens is that the youths are shut up for several
months in a house specially built for the purpose in the village. During
their seclusion they are under the charge of guardians, usually two
young men, and must observe strictly a rule of fasting and chastity.
When they are judged to be ready to undergo the rite, they are led forth
and circumcised in front of the house amid a prodigious uproar made by
the swinging of bull-roarers. The noise is supposed to be the voice of
the monster who swallows and vomits up the novice at circumcision. The
bull-roarer as well as the monster bears the name of _balum_, and the
building in which the novices are lodged before and after the operation
is called the monster's house (_balumslum_). After they have been
circumcised the lads remain in the house for several months till their
wounds are healed; then, painted and bedizened with all the ornaments
that can be collected, they are brought back and restored to their
joyful mothers. Women must vacate the village for a long time while the
initiatory ceremonies are being performed.[428]
[Sidenote: Novices at circumcision supposed to be killed and then
restored to a new and higher life.]
The meaning of the whole rite, as I pointed out in dealing with the
similar initiatory rite of the Yabim, appears to be that the novices are
killed and then restored to a new and better life; for after their
initiation they rank no longer as boys but as full-grown men, entitled
to all the privileges of manhood and citizenship, if we can speak of
such a thing as citizenship among the savages of New Guinea. This
interpretation of the rite is supported by the notable fact that the
Bukaua, like the Yabim, give the name of _balum_ to the souls of the
dead as well as to the mythical monster and to the bull-roarer; this
shews how intimately the three things are associated in their minds.
Indeed not only is the bull-roarer in general associated with the souls
of the dead by a community of name, but among the Bukaua each particular
bull-roarer bears in addition the name of a particular dead man and
varies in dignity and importance with the dignity and importance of the
deceased person whom it represents. The most venerated of all are
curiously carved and have been handed down for generations; they bear
the names of famous warriors or magicians of old and are supposed to
reproduce the personal peculiarities of the celebrated originals in
their shape and tones. And there are smaller bull-roarers which emit
shriller notes and are thought to represent the shrill-voiced wives of
the ancient heroes.[429]