fall when the
wind is strong. The great spirit causes food to grow, and to him
presentations of food are made.

Spirits, when they leave the body, take a canoe, cross the lagoon, and
depart to the mountains, where they remain in perfect bliss; no work, and
nothing to trouble them, with plenty of betel-nuts. They dance all night
long, and rest all day. When the natives begin planting, they first take
a bunch of bananas and sugar-cane, and go to the centre of the
plantation, and call over the names of the dead belonging to their
family, adding, "There is your food, your bananas and sugar-cane; let our
food grow well, and let it be plentiful. If it does not grow well and
plentiful, you all will be full of shame, and so shall we."

When they go on trading expeditions, they present their food to the
spirits at the centre post of the house, and ask the spirits to go before
them and prepare the people, so that the trading may be prosperous.

No great work and no expedition is undertaken without offerings and
prayer.

When sickness is in the family, a pig is brought to the sacred place of
the great spirit, and killed. The carcase is then taken to the sacred
place of the family, and the spirits are asked to accept it. Sins are
confessed, such as bananas that are taken, or cocoanuts, and none have
been presented, and leave not given to eat them. "There is a pig;
accept, and remove the sickness." Death follows, and the day of burial
arrives. The friends all stand round the open grave, and the chief's
sister or cousin calls out in a loud voice, "You have been angry with us
for the bananas we have taken (or cocoanuts, as the case may be), and you
have, in your anger, taken this child. Now let it suffice, and bury your
anger." The body is then placed in the grave, and covered over with
earth.

CHAPTER III. SKETCHES OF PAPUAN LIFE.

Journey inland from Port Moresby--Evening with a chief--Savage life--Tree
houses--Uakinumu--Inland natives--Native habits of eating--Mountain
scenery--Upland natives--Return to Uakinumu--Drinking out of a
bamboo--Native conversation--Keninumu--Munikahila--Native
spiritists--Habits and influence of these
men--Meroka--Kerianumu--Makapili--The Laroki Falls--Epakari--Return to
Port Moresby.

In 1879, I made a long journey inland, in a north-easterly direction from
Port Moresby. I visited many native villages, and explored the
mountainous country along the course of and between th