d colour these stones differ from each
other, each of them bearing a resemblance, real or fanciful, to the
particular species of yam which it is supposed to quicken. But the
method of operating with them is much the same for all. The stone is
placed before the skulls, wetted with water, and wiped with certain
leaves. Yams and fish, cooked on the spot, are offered in sacrifice to
the dead, the priest or magician saying, "This is your offering in order
that the crop of yams may be good." So saying he presents the food to
the dead and himself eats a little of it. After that the stone is taken
away and buried in the yam field which it is designed to fertilise.[543]
Here, again, the prayer and sacrifice to the dead are purely religious
rites intended to propitiate the spirits and secure their help; while
the burying of the yam-shaped stone in the yam-field to make the yams
grow is a simple piece of homoeopathic or imitative magic. Similarly in
order to cultivate taros and bananas, stones resembling taros and
bananas are buried in the taro field or the banana grove, and their
magical virtue is reinforced by prayers and offerings to the dead.[544]

[Sidenote: The religion of the New Caledonians is mainly a worship of
the dead tinctured with magic.]

On the whole we may conclude that among the natives of New Caledonia
there exists a real worship of the dead, and that this worship is indeed
the principal element in their religion. The spirits of the dead, though
they are supposed to spend part of their time in a happy land far away
under the sea, are nevertheless believed to be near at hand, hovering
about in the burial-grounds or charnel-houses and embodied apparently in
their skulls. To these spirits the native turns for help in all the
important seasons and emergencies of life; he appeals to them in prayer
and seeks to propitiate them by sacrifice. Thus in his attitude towards
his dead ancestors we perceive the elements of a real religion. But, as
I have just pointed out, many rites of this worship of ancestors are
accompanied by magical ceremonies. The religion of these islanders is in
fact deeply tinged with magic; it marks a transition from an age of pure
magic in the past to an age of more or less pure religion in the future.

[Sidenote: Evidence as to the religion of the New Caledonians furnished
by Dr. G. Turner.]

Thus far I have based my account of the beliefs and customs of the New
Caledonians concerning the dead