The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Part 28

According to their ancient creed, every man and every woman has two spirits, and in the nether world, called _sarooka_, is a large house where there is room for all the people of Windessi. When a woman dies, both her spirits always go down to the nether world, where they are clothed with flesh and bones, need do no work, and live for ever. But when a man dies, only one of his spirits must go to the under world; the other may pa.s.s or transmigrate into a living man or, in rare cases, into a living woman; the person so inspired by a dead man's spirit becomes an _inderri_, that is, a medicine-man or medicine-woman and has power to heal the sick. When a person wishes to become a medicine-man or medicine-woman, he or she acts as follows. If a man has died, and his friends are sitting about the corpse lamenting, the would-be medicine-man suddenly begins to s.h.i.+ver and to rub his knee with his folded hands, while he utters a monotonous sound. Gradually he falls into an ecstasy, and if his whole body shakes convulsively, the spirit of the dead man is supposed to have entered into him, and he becomes a medicine-man. Next day or the day after he is taken into the forest; some hocus-pocus is performed over him, and the spirits of lunatics, who dwell in certain thick trees, are invoked to take possession of him. He is now himself called a lunatic, and on returning home behaves as if he were half-crazed. This completes his training as a medicine-man, and he is now fully qualified to kill or cure the sick. His mode of cure depends on the native theory of sickness. These savages think that sickness is caused by a malicious or angry spirit, apparently the spirit of a dead person; for a patient will say, "The _korwar_" (that is, the wooden image which represents a particular dead person) "is murdering me, or is making me sick." So the medicine-man is called in, and sets to work on the sufferer, while the _korwar_, or wooden image of the spirit who is supposed to be doing all the mischief, stands beside him. The princ.i.p.al method of cure employed by the doctor is ma.s.sage. He chews a certain fruit fine and rubs the patient with it; also he pinches him all over the body as if to drive out the spirit. Often he professes to extract a stone, a bone, or a stick from the body of the sufferer. At last he gives out that he has ascertained the cause of the sickness; the sick man has done or has omitted to do something which has excited the anger of the spirit.[515]

[Sidenote: Ghosts of slain enemies dreaded.]

From all this it would seem that the souls of the dead are more feared than loved and reverenced by the Papuans of Windessi. Naturally the ghosts of enemies who have perished at their hands are particularly dreaded by them. That dread explains some of the ceremonies which are observed in the village at the return of a successful party of head-hunters. As they draw near the village, they announce their approach and success by blowing on triton sh.e.l.ls. Their canoes also are decked with branches. The faces of the men who have taken a head are blackened with charcoal; and if several have joined in killing one man, his skull is divided between them. They always time their arrival so as to reach home in the early morning. They come paddling to the village with a great noise, and the women stand ready to dance in the verandahs of the houses. The canoes row past the _roem sram_ or clubhouse where the young men live; and as they pa.s.s, the grimy-faced slayers fling as many pointed sticks or bamboos at the house as they have killed enemies.

The rest of the day is spent very quietly. But now and then they drum or blow on the conch, and at other times they beat on the walls of the houses with sticks, shouting loudly at the same time, to drive away the ghosts of their victims.[516]

That concludes what I have to say as to the fear and wors.h.i.+p of the dead in Dutch New Guinea.

[Footnote 475: G. Bamler, "Tami," in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_, iii. (Berlin, 1911) pp. 489-492.]

[Footnote 476: G. Bamler, _op. cit._ pp. 507-512.]

[Footnote 477: G. Bamler, _op. cit._ pp. 513 _sq._]

[Footnote 478: G. Bamler, _op. cit._ pp. 514 _sq._]

[Footnote 479: G. Bamler, _op. cit._ pp. 515 _sq._]

[Footnote 480: G. Bamler, _op. cit._ p. 516.]

[Footnote 481: G. Bamler, _op. cit._ pp. 493-507.]

[Footnote 482: J. L. van Ha.s.selt, "Die Papuastamme an der Geelvinkbai (Neu-guinea)," _Mitteilungen der geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, ix. (1890) p. 1; F. S. A. de Clercq, "De West en Noordkust van Nederlandsch Nieuw-Guinea," _Tijdschrift van het Kon. Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, Tweede Serie, x. (1893) pp. 587 _sq._]

[Footnote 483: J. L. van Ha.s.selt, _op. cit._ pp. 2, 3, 5 _sq._; A.

Goudswaard, _De Papoewa's van de Geelvinksbaai_ (Schiedam, 1863), pp. 28 _sqq._, 33 _sqq._, 42 _sq._, 47 _sqq._]

[Footnote 484: J. L. van Ha.s.selt, "Die Papuastamme an der Geelvinkbai (Neu-guinea)," _Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, ix. (1891) p. 101.]

[Footnote 485: H. van Rosenberg, _Der Malayische Archipel_ (Leipsic, 1878), p. 461.]

[Footnote 486: H. van Rosenberg, _op. cit._ p. 462.]

[Footnote 487: M. Krieger, _Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, N.D., preface dated 1899), pp. 401, 402.]

[Footnote 488: A. Goudswaard, _De Papoewa's van de Geelvinksbaai_ (Schiedam, 1863), p. 77. Compare O. Finsch, _Neu-Guinea und seine Bewohner_ (Bremen, 1865), p. 105.]

[Footnote 489: F. S. A. de Clercq, "De West- en Noordkust van Nederlandsch Nieuw-Guinea," _Tijdschrift van het Kon. Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, Tweede Serie, x. (1893) p. 631. On these _korwar_ or _karwar_ (images of the dead) see further A. Goudswaard, _De Papoewa's van de Geelvinksbaai_, pp. 72 _sq._, 77-79; O. Finsch, _Neu-Guinea und seine Bewohner_, pp. 104-106; H. von Rosenberg, _Der Malayische Archipel_, pp. 460 _sq._; J. L. van Ha.s.selt, "Die Papuastamme an der Geelvinkbaai (Neu-Guinea)" _Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, ix. (1891) p. 100; M. Krieger, _Neu-Guinea_, pp.

400 _sq._, 402 _sq._, 498 _sqq._ In the text I have drawn on these various accounts.]

[Footnote 490: J. L. van Ha.s.selt, _l.c._]

[Footnote 491: A. Goudswaard, _De Papoewa's van de Geelvinksbaai_, pp.

78 _sq._; O. Finsch, _Neu-Guinea und seine Bewohner_, pp. 105 _sq._]

[Footnote 492: A. Goudswaard, _op. cit._ p. 79; O. Finsch, _op. cit._ p.

106.]

[Footnote 493: J. L. van Ha.s.selt, _op. cit._ p. 100.]

[Footnote 494: A. Goudswaard, _op. cit._ p. 78.]

[Footnote 495: F. S. A. de Clercq, _op. cit._ p. 632.]

[Footnote 496: F. S. A. de Clercq, _op. cit._ p. 632.]

[Footnote 497: F. S. A. de Clercq, _op. cit._ p. 632.]

[Footnote 498: A. Goudswaard, _De Papoewa's van de Geelvinksbaai_, pp.

70-73; O. Finsch, _Neu-Guinea und seine Bewohner_ pp. 104 _sq._; M.

Krieger, _Neu-Guinea_, p. 398.]

[Footnote 499: J. L. van Ha.s.selt, in _Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, iv. (1886) pp. 118 _sq._ As to the spirit or spirits who dwell in tree tops and draw away the souls of the living to themselves, see further "Eenige bijzonderheden betreffende de Papoeas van de Geelvinksbaai van Nieuw-Guinea," _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Landen Volkenkunde van Neerlandsch-Indie_, ii. (1854) pp. 375 _sq._]

[Footnote 500: A. Goudswaard, _De Papoewa's van de Geelvinksbaai_, p.

73; J. L. van Ha.s.selt, in _Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, iv. (1886) p. 118; M. Krieger, _Neu-Guinea_, pp. 398. _sq._]

[Footnote 501: A. Goudswaard, _De Papoewa's van de Geelvinksbaai_, pp.

75 _sq._]

[Footnote 502: J. L. van Ha.s.selt, in _Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, iv. (1886) 117 _sq._; M. Krieger, _op. cit._ pp.

397 _sq._]

[Footnote 503: A. Goudswaard, _op. cit._ pp. 74 _sq._]

[Footnote 504: _Nieuw Guinea ethnographisch en natuurkundig onderzocht en beschreven_ (Amsterdam, 1862), p. 162.]

[Footnote 505: F. S. A. de Clercq, "De West- en Noordkust van Nederlandsch Nieuw-Guinea," _Tijdschrift van het Kon. Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, Tweede Serie, x. (1893) pp. 198 _sq._]

[Footnote 506: F. S. A. de Clercq, _op. cit._ p. 201.]

[Footnote 507: F. S. A. de Clercq, _op. cit._ pp. 202, 205.]

[Footnote 508: F. S. A. de Clercq, _op. cit._ p. 211.]

[Footnote 509: J. W. van Hille, "Reizen in West-Nieuw-Guinea,"

_Tijdschrift van het Kon. Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, Tweede Serie, xxiii. (1906) p. 463.]

[Footnote 510: F. S. A. de Clercq, _op. cit._ pp. 459 _sq._, 461 _sq._ A German traveller, Mr. H. Kuhn, spent some time at Sekar and purchased a couple of what he calls "old heathen idols," which are now in the ethnological Museum at Leipsic. One of them, about a foot high, represents a human head and bust; the other, about two feet high, represents a squat sitting figure. They are probably ancestral images (_korwar_ or _karwar_). The natives are said to have such confidence in the protection of these "idols" that they leave their jewellery and other possessions unguarded beside them, in the full belief that n.o.body would dare to steal anything from spots protected by such mighty beings.

See H. Kuhn, "Mein Aufenthalt in Neu-Guinea," _Festschrift des 25jahrigen Bestehens des Vereins fur Erdkunde zu Dresden_ (Dresden, 1888), pp. 143 _sq._]

[Footnote 511: A. F. R. Wollaston, _Pygmies and Papuans_ (London, 1912), pp. 132 _sq._, 136-140.]

[Footnote 512: J. L. D. van der Roest, "Uit the leven der bevolking van Windessi," _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Landen Volkenkunde_, xl.

(1898) pp. 159 _sq._]

[Footnote 513: J. L. D. van der Roest, _op. cit._ pp. 161 _sq._]

[Footnote 514: J. L. D. van der Roest, _op. cit._ p. 162.]