note 414: R. Poech, "Vierter Bericht ueber meine Reise nach
Neu-Guinea," _Sitzungsberichte der mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen
Klasse der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), cxv.
(1906) Abteilung 1, pp. 901, 902.]

LECTURE XII

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE NATIVES OF GERMAN NEW GUINEA
(_continued_)

[Sidenote: The Bukaua of German New Guinea.]

In the last lecture I described the beliefs and practices concerning the
dead as they are to be found among the Yabim of German New Guinea.
To-day we begin with the Bukaua, a kindred and neighbouring tribe, which
occupies the coast lands of the northern portion of Huon Gulf from
Schollenbruch Point to Samoa Harbour. The language which the Bukaua
speak belongs, like the language of the Yabim, to the Melanesian, not to
the Papuan family. Their customs and beliefs have been reported by a
German missionary, Mr. Stefan Lehner, whose account I follow.[415] In
many respects they closely resemble those of their neighbours the Yabim.

[Sidenote: Means of subsistence of the Bukaua. Men's clubhouses.]

The Bukaua are an agricultural people who subsist mainly on the crops of
taro which they raise. But they also cultivate many kinds of bananas and
vegetables, together with sugar-cane, sago, and tobacco. From time to
time they cut down and burn the forest in order to obtain fresh fields
for cultivation. The land is not held in common. Each family has its own
fields and patches of forest, and would resent the intrusion of others
on their hereditary domain. Hunting and fishing supply them with animal
food to eke out the vegetable nourishment which they draw from their
fields and plantations.[416] Every village contains one or more of the
men's clubhouses which are a common feature in the social life of the
tribes on this coast. In these clubhouses the young men are obliged to
sleep, and on the platforms in front of them the older men hold their
councils. Such a clubhouse is called a _lum_.[417]

[Sidenote: Beliefs of the Bukaua concerning the souls of the dead.
Sickness and disease attributed to ghostly agency.]

The Bukaua have a firm belief in the existence of the human soul after
death. They think that a man's soul can even quit his body temporarily
in his lifetime during sleep or a swoon, and that in its disembodied
state it can appear to people at a distance; but such apparitions are
regarded as omens of approaching death, when the soul will depar