tion exists between the ghosts of these two
regions in as much as the ghosts of the Western Melanesians all live in
islands, but the ghosts of all Eastern Melanesians live underground in a
subterranean region which commonly bears the name of Panoi. The exact
position of Panoi has not been ascertained; all that is regarded as
certain is that it is underground. However, there are many entrances to
it and some of them are well known. One of them, for example, is a rock
on the mountain at Mota, others are at volcanic vents which belch flames
on the burning hill of Garat over the lake at Gaua, and another is on
the great mountain of Vanua Lava. The ghosts congregate on points of
land before their departure, as well as at the entrances to the
underworld, and there on moonlight nights you may hear the ghostly crew
dancing, singing, shouting, and whistling on the claws of land-crabs. It
is not easy to extract from the natives a precise and consistent account
of the place of the dead and the state of the spirits in it; nor indeed,
as Dr. Codrington justly observes, would it be reasonable to expect full
and precise details on a subject about which the sources of information
are perhaps not above suspicion. However, as far as can be made out,
Panoi or the abode of the dead is on the whole a happy region. In many
respects it resembles the land of the living; for there are houses there
and villages, and trees with red leaves, and day and night. Yet all is
hollow and unreal. The ghosts do nothing but talk and sing and dance;
there is no clubhouse there, and though men and women live together,
there is no marrying or giving in marriage. All is very peaceful, too,
in that land; for there is no war and no tyrant to oppress the people.
Yet the ghost of a great man goes down like a great man among the
ghosts, resplendent in all his trinkets and finery; but like everything
else in the underworld these ornaments, for all the brave show they
make, are mere unsubstantial shadows. The pigs which were killed at his
funeral feast and the food that was heaped on his grave cannot go down
with him into that far country; for none of these things, not even pigs,
have souls. How then could they find their way to the spirit world? It
is clearly impossible. The ghosts in the nether world do not mix
indiscriminately. There are separate compartments for such as died
violent deaths. There is one compartment for those who were shot, there
is another for those