a chief was found lying on a platform of sticks
placed across forks of a tree about 12 feet from the ground, a mode
which was compared with the method of underground burial which had
previously been met with (_Transactions of the Ethnological Society,
New Series_, Vol. V. p. 42). Mr. Portman records (_History of our
Relations with the Andamanese_, Vol. II., p. 547) similar tree burial
of two chiefs and the wife of a chief, and refers to the practice of
burying underground "or, what is more honourable," on a platform up
in a tree (_Ibid_., Vol. I., p. 43). The practice is also mentioned
by Mr. Man, who, after referring (_The Andaman Islanders_, p. 76)
to underground interment and platform burial, of which "the latter
is considered the more complimentary," states (pp. 76 and 77) that a
small stage is constructed of sticks and boughs about 8 to 12 feet
above the ground, _generally_ (the italics are mine) between the
forked branches of some large tree, and to it the body is lashed.

[108] 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_.

[109] Dr. Stapf thinks it is probably a species of Podocarpus or
Dacrydium.

[110] Dr. Seligmann refers (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_,
p. 185) to a specimen of _Ficus rigo_, in which a taboo, having the
power of making Koita folk sick, is believed to be immanent. I do
not know whether or not the _gabi_ tree is _Ficus rigo_, but, if it
be so, there is an interesting similarity in this respect between
these people and the Mafulu.

[111] A knotted wisp of grass is, I think, a common form of taboo
sign in parts of New Guinea; and Dr. Seligmann refers (_Melanesians of
British New Guinea_