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. [117]
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 tab