s of all the villages, a
yelling, screaming, beating and throwing of sticks; happily the uproar
does not last long: its intention is to compel the ghost to take himself
off: they have given him all that befits him, namely, a grave, a funeral
banquet, and funeral ornaments; and now they beseech him not to thrust
himself on their observation any more, not to breathe any sickness upon
the survivors, and not to kill them or 'fetch' them, as the Papuans put
it. Their ideas of the spirit-world are very vague. Their usual answer
to such questions is, 'We know not.' If you press them, they will
commonly say that the spirit realm is under the earth or under the
bottom of the sea. Everything there is as it is in the upper world, only
the vegetation down below is more luxuriant, and all plants grow faster.
Their fear of death and their helpless wailing over the dead indicate
that the misty kingdom of the shades offers but little that is
consolatory to the Papuan at his departure from this world."[484]

[Sidenote: Fear of ghosts in general and of the ghosts of the slain in
particular.]

Again, speaking of the natives of Doreh, a Dutch official observes that
"superstition and magic play a principal part in the life of the Papuan.
Occasions for such absurdities he discovers at every step. Thus he
cherishes a great fear of the ghosts of slain persons, for which reason
their bodies remain unburied on the spot where they were murdered. When
a murder has taken place in the village, the inhabitants assemble for
several evenings in succession and raise a fearful outcry in order to
chase away the soul, in case it should be minded to return to the
village. They set up miniature wooden houses here and there on trees in
the forest for the ghosts of persons who die of disease or through
accidents, believing that the souls take up their abode in them."[485]
The same writer remarks that these savages have no priests, but that
they have magicians (_kokinsor_), who practise exorcisms, work magic,
and heal the sick, for which they receive a small payment in articles of
barter or food.[486] Speaking of the Papuans of Dutch New Guinea in
general another writer informs us that "they honour the memory of the
dead in every way, because they ascribe to the spirits of the departed a
great influence on the life of the survivors.... Whereas in life all
good and evil comes from the soul, after death, on the other hand, the
spirit works for the most part only