place in the religion of the people is taken by the
ghosts of the more recently departed. In fact here, as elsewhere, the
existence of the dead seems to be dependent on the memory of the living;
when they are forgotten they cease to exist. Further, it deserves to be
noticed that in the Solomon Islands what we should call a man's natural
powers and capacities are regarded as supernatural endowments acquired
by communication with a mighty ghost. If a man is a great warrior, it is
not because he is strong of arm, quick of eye, and brave of heart; it is
because he is supported by the ghost of a dead warrior, whose power he
has drawn to himself through an amulet of stone tied round his neck, or
a tuft of leaves in his belt, or a tooth attached to one of his fingers,
or a spell by the recitation of which he can enlist the aid of the
ghost.[558] And similarly with all other pre-eminent capacities and
virtues; in the mind of the Solomon Islanders, they are all supernatural
gifts and graces bestowed on men by ghosts. This all-pervading
supernatural power the Central Melanesian calls _mana_.[559] Thus for
these savages the whole world teems with ghostly influences; their minds
are filled, we may almost say, obsessed, with a sense of the unseen
powers which encompass and determine even in its minute particulars the
life of man on earth: in their view the visible world is, so to say,
merely a puppet-show of which the strings are pulled and the puppets
made to dance by hands invisible. Truly the attitude of these savages to
the universe is deeply religious.

We may now consider the theory and practice of the Central Melanesians
on this subject somewhat more in detail; and in doing so we shall begin
with their funeral customs, which throw much light on their views of
death and the dead.

[Sidenote: Burial customs in the Solomon Islands. Land burial and sea
burial. Land-ghosts and sea-ghosts.]

Thus, for example, in Florida, one of the Solomon Islands, the corpse is
usually buried. Common men are buried in their gardens or plantations,
chiefs sometimes in the village, a chief's child sometimes in the house.
If the ghost of the deceased is worshipped, his grave becomes a
sanctuary (_vunuhu_); the skull is often dug up and hung in the house.
On the return from the burial the mourners take a different road from
that by which they carried the corpse to the grave; this they do in
order to throw the ghost off the scent and so prevent him