ddened, and then kept for some
years in the house of the chief's eldest son, till finally they were
deposited in the grave of a kinsman. In some of the inland villages of
this part of New Guinea the widow is sometimes throttled by her
relations at the death of her husband, in order that she may accompany
him to the other world.[409]

[Sidenote: Deaths attributed by the Yabim to sorcery.]

The Yabim believe that except in the case of very old people every death
is caused by sorcery; hence when anybody has departed this life, his
relations make haste to discover the wicked sorcerer who has killed
their kinsman. For that purpose they have recourse to various forms of
divination. One of them has been already described, but they have
others. For example, they put a powder like sulphur in a piece of bamboo
tube and kindle a fire under it. Then an old man takes a bull-roarer and
taps with it on the bamboo tube, naming all the sorcerers in the
neighbouring villages. He at the mention of whose name the fire catches
the powder and blazes up is the guilty man. Another way of detecting the
culprit is to attach the feather of a bird of paradise to a staff and
give the staff to two men to hold upright between the palms of their
right hands. Then somebody names the sorcerers, and he at whose name the
staff turns round and the feather points downwards is the one who caused
the death. When the avengers of blood, wrought up to a high pitch of
fury, fall in with the family of the imaginary criminal, they may put
the whole of them to death lest the sons should afterwards avenge their
father's murder by the black art. Sometimes a dangerous and dreaded
sorcerer will be put out of the way with the connivance of the chief of
his own village; and after a few days the murderers will boldly shew
themselves in the village where the crime was perpetrated and will
reassure the rest of the people, saying, "Be still. The wicked man has
been taken off. No harm will befall you."[410]

[Sidenote: Bull-roarers (_balum_). Initiation of young men.]

It is very significant that the word _balum_, which means a ghost, is
applied by the Yabim to the instrument now generally known among
anthropologists as a bull-roarer. It is a small fish-shaped piece of
wood which, being tied to a string and whirled rapidly round, produces a
humming or booming sound like the roaring of a bull or the muttering of
distant thunder. Instruments of this sort are employed by savag