r slayers to the village and to
blind them so that sooner or later they fall an easy prey to their
enemies. Hence when a party of warriors has returned home from a
successful attack on a village, in which they have butchered all on whom
they could lay their hands, they kindle a great fire, dance wildly about
it, and hurl burning brands in the direction of the battlefield in order
to keep the ghosts of their slaughtered foes at bay. Phosphorescent
lights seen under the houses throw the inmates into great alarm, for
they are thought to be the souls of the slain. Sometimes the vanquished
in battle resort to a curious ruse for the purpose of avenging
themselves on the victors by means of a ghost. They take the
sleeping-mat of one of the slain, roll it up in a bundle along with his
loin-cloth, apron, netted bag, or head-rest, and give the bundle to two
cripples to carry. Then they steal quietly to the landing-place of their
foes, peering warily about lest they should be observed. The bundle
represents the dead man, and the cripples who carry it reel to and fro,
and finally sink to the ground with their burden. In this way the ghost
of the victim, whose things are carried in the bundle, is supposed to
make their enemies weak and tottery. Strong young men are not given the
bundle to carry, lest the ghost should spoil their manly figures;
whereas if he should wound or maim a couple of poor cripples, no great
harm is done.[423]

[Sidenote: Ghosts of ancestors appealed to for help, especially in the
cultivation of the ground. First-fruits offered to the spirits of the
dead.]

However, the Bukaua also look on the ghosts of their ancestors in a more
amiable light as beings who, if properly appealed to, can and will help
them in the affairs of life, especially by procuring for them good
crops. Hence when they are planting their fields, which are formed in
clearings of the forest, they take particular care to insert shoots of
all their crops in the ground near the tree stumps which remain
standing, because the souls of their dead grandfathers and
great-grandfathers are believed to be sitting on the stumps watching
their descendants at their work. Accordingly in the act of planting they
call out the names of these forefathers and pray them to guard the field
in order that their living children may have food and not suffer from
hunger. And at harvest, when the first-fruits of the taro, bananas,
sugar-cane, and so forth have been brou