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

[Sidenote: Offerings to appease ghosts.]

In the last lecture I gave you some account of the fear and awe which
the Kai of German New Guinea entertain for the spirits of the dead.
Believing that the ghost is endowed with all the qualities and faculties
which distinguished the man in his lifetime, they naturally dread most
the ghosts of warlike, cruel, violent, and passionate men, and take the
greatest pains to soothe their anger and win their favour. For that
purpose they give the departed spirit all sorts of things to take with
him to the far country. And in order that he may have the use of them it
is necessary to smash or otherwise spoil them. Thus the spear that is
given him must be broken, the pot must be shivered, the bag must be
torn, the palm-tree must be cut down. Fruits are offered to the ghost by
dashing them in pieces or hanging a bunch of them over the grave.
Objects of value, such as boars' tusks or dogs' teeth, are made over to
him by being laid on the corpse; but the economical savage removes these
precious things from the body at burial. All such offerings and
sacrifices, we are told, are made simply out of fear of the ghost. It is
no pleasure to a man to cut down a valuable palm-tree, which might have
helped to nourish himself and his family for years; he does it only lest
a worse thing should befall him at the hands of the departed
spirit.[450]

[Sidenote: Mode of discovering the sorcerer who caused a death.]

But the greatest service that the Kai can render to a dead man is to
take vengeance on the sorcerer who caused his death by witchcraft. The
first thing is to discover the villain, and in the search for him the
ghost obligingly assists his surviving kinsfolk. Sometimes, however, it
is necessary to resort to a stratagem in order to secure his help. Thus,
for example, one day while the ghost, blinded by the strong sunlight, is
cowering in a dark corner or reposing at full length in the grave, his
relatives will set up a low scaffold in a field, cover it with leaves,
and pile up over it a mass of the field fruits which belonged to the
dead man, so that the whole erection may appear to the eye of the
unsuspecting ghost a heap of taro, yams, and so forth, and nothing more.
But before the sun goes down, two or three men steal out from the house,
and ensconce themselves under the scaffold, where they are completely
c