Abstract
IN the Report to the Colonial Office of the Special Commissioner for British New Guinea during the past year, there is a long and very interesting account of some of the superstitions of the natives of that country, written by Mr. H. H. Romilly. One of the most sacred obligations, he says, on the relatives of a deceased man is to place in his grave, and in his accustomed haunts, food and water for the spirit of trie departed. It is thought that this spirit is all that remains of the deceased, and the human appetites take posses sion of it, or, rather, remain in existence, just as if the body had not died. If, however, he is killed in battle, there i? not the same necessity of constantly feeding his spirit; the head of one of the tribe or race who killed him is sufficient. If the slayer is a white man, the angry spirit can be laid by a large payment of goods to the relatives of the deceased, and this constantly hap pens. Dreams are, to them, voices from the land of spirits, telling them what to do, for whom to work, from whom to steal, and what to plunder. White men are always attended by a familiar spirit, which is blamed f >r any mischief that befalls the natives in a locality where a white man happens to be. If the white man is a friend of theirs, they merely demand compensa tion, which he will pay, says Mr. Romilly, if he is a wise man; if he is unfriendly to them, the unfortunate white man may pre pare for the worst. His attendant spirit will not help him, for it flies at the sound of a gun. On the death of a relative, there is a great drumming and burning of torches to send the spirit safely and pleasantly on its travels. In some parts of the country, certain trees have spirits, and on feast-days a portion of the food is set apart for these spirits. It is worthy of remark that all their spirits are malignant, and these have to be over come by force of arms, by blessings, or by cursings. They cannot grasp the idea of a beneficent spirit, but regard them all as resembling Papuans generally-that is, vindictive, cruel, and revengeful. Consequently, these spirits are much feared; though they cannot be seen, yet they constantly use arrows and spears when they are vexed. The great opposer of spirits is fire, and hence, on every possible occasion, bonfires and torches are employed. Strange to say, though fire is thus all-powerful with them, they have no god or spirit of the fire. In this they are at least true to their belief, for no spirit can be, with them, beneficent. Sorcerers are implicitly believed in, and they generally do a good trade in the sale of charms, which are made, not on any fixed principle, but according to the freaks of fancy of the sor cerer or the purchaser. Sometimes it is a bit of bark, sometimes a crab's claw-worked in the most fantastic way. These are pro tectors against all injuries or accidents that may happen to a man. A sailor will wear one as a protection against shipwreck, another charm saves its wearer from wounds in battle, another from disease, and so on. Besides being a sorcerer, that person age is also a physician and surgeon, and usually the astrologer and weather prophet of his district. It can hardly be said that he is skilled in these professions. An unvarying mode of treat ment of a patient who is suffering pain from any cause whatever is to make a long, and sometimes a deep, incision over the abdomen. As may be imagined, this is not a very safe remedy. In one instance Mr. Romilly mentions, a woman, who-was suf fering severely from several spear-wounds, was thus treated by the native sorcerer, who, in pursuit of his profession of surgeon, inflicted by far the most severe wound the poor woman received, thus destroying the chance of life which she had before he attended her. Many of the tribes are, through the influence of the missionaries, shaking off these superstitions. “But even these people,” says Mr. Romilly, “the most civilized in New Guinea, and many of them professed Christians, in times of great excitement revert to their old habits. This was shown during the autumn of 1886. At that time a severe epidemic raged along the south coast. The people were dying, by hun dreds, of pneumonia, and were beside themselves with fear. The usual remedies for driving away spirits at night were tried, remedies which had been in disuse for years; torches were burnt, horns were blown, and the hereditary sorcerers sat up all night cursing; but still the people died. Then it was decided that the land spirits we e working this harm, and the whole population moved their canoes out in the bay and slept in them at night; but still the people died. Then they returned to their village, and fired arrows at every moving object they saw…. In course of time the epidemic wore itself out; but while it lasted the civilized Motuans were as superstitious as any of their neighbours could have been.”
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Superstition and Sorcery in New Guinea . Nature 39, 594–595 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/039594a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039594a0