itchcraft 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 imper