doubt for the convenience of the
ghost.

[Sidenote: Prayers to ancestors.]

"Their gods," we are told, "were their ancestors, whose relics they kept
up and idolised. At one place they had wooden idols before the chiefs'
houses. The office of the priest was hereditary. Almost every family had
its priest. To make sure of favours and prosperity they prayed not only
to their own gods, but also, in a general way, to the gods of other
lands. Fishing, planting, house-building, and everything of importance
was preceded by prayers to their guardian spirits for success. This was
especially the case before going to battle. They prayed to one for the
eye, that they might see the spear as it flew towards them. To another
for the ear, that they might hear the approach of the enemy. Thus, too,
they prayed for the feet, that they might be swift in pursuing the
enemy; for the heart, that they might be courageous; for the body, that
they might not be speared; for the head, that it might not be clubbed;
and for sleep, that it might be undisturbed by an attack of the enemy.
Prayers over, arms ready, and equipped with their relic charms, they
went off to battle."[548]

[Sidenote: "Grand concert of spirits."]

The spirits of the dead were believed to go away into the forest. Every
fifth month they had a "spirit night" or "grand concert of spirits."
Heaps of food were prepared for the occasion. The people assembled in
the afternoon round a certain cave. At sundown they feasted, and then
one stood up and addressed the spirits in the cave, saying, "You spirits
within, may it please you to sing a song, that all the women and men out
here may listen to your sweet voices." Thereupon a strange unearthly
concert of voices burst on their ears from the cave, the nasal squeak of
old men and women forming the dominant note. But the hearers outside
listened with delight to the melody, praised the sweet voices of the
singers, and then got up and danced to the music. The singing swelled
louder and louder as the dance grew faster and more furious, till the
concert closed in a nocturnal orgy of unbridled license, which, but for
the absence of intoxicants, might compare with the worst of the ancient
bacchanalia. The singers in the cave were the old men and women who had
ensconced themselves in it secretly during the day; but the hoax was not
suspected by the children and young people, who firmly believed that the
spirits of the dead really assembled that