y of sickness. These savages think that
sickness is caused by a malicious or angry spirit, apparently the spirit
of a dead person; for a patient will say, "The _korwar_" (that is, the
wooden image which represents a particular dead person) "is murdering
me, or is making me sick." So the medicine-man is called in, and sets to
work on the sufferer, while the _korwar_, or wooden image of the spirit
who is supposed to be doing all the mischief, stands beside him. The
principal method of cure employed by the doctor is massage. He chews a
certain fruit fine and rubs the patient with it; also he pinches him all
over the body as if to drive out the spirit. Often he professes to
extract a stone, a bone, or a stick from the body of the sufferer. At
last he gives out that he has ascertained the cause of the sickness; the
sick man has done or has omitted to do something which has excited the
anger of the spirit.[515]

[Sidenote: Ghosts of slain enemies dreaded.]

From all this it would seem that the souls of the dead are more feared
than loved and reverenced by the Papuans of Windessi. Naturally the
ghosts of enemies who have perished at their hands are particularly
dreaded by them. That dread explains some of the ceremonies which are
observed in the village at the return of a successful party of
head-hunters. As they draw near the village, they announce their
approach and success by blowing on triton shells. Their canoes also are
decked with branches. The faces of the men who have taken a head are
blackened with charcoal; and if several have joined in killing one man,
his skull is divided between them. They always time their arrival so as
to reach home in the early morning. They come paddling to the village
with a great noise, and the women stand ready to dance in the verandahs
of the houses. The canoes row past the _roem sram_ or clubhouse where
the young men live; and as they pass, the grimy-faced slayers fling as
many pointed sticks or bamboos at the house as they have killed enemies.
The rest of the day is spent very quietly. But now and then they drum or
blow on the conch, and at other times they beat on the walls of the
houses with sticks, shouting loudly at the same time, to drive away the
ghosts of their victims.[516]

That concludes what I have to say as to the fear and worship of the dead
in Dutch New Guinea.

[Footnote 475: G. Bamler, "Tami," in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_,
iii. (Berlin, 1911) pp. 489-492.]