Adventures in New Guinea James Chalmers

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they terribly fear. Sickness in the family, death, famine, scarcity of
fish, etc.--these terrible spirits are at work and must be propitiated.
Pigs are never killed but in the one place, and then they are offered to
the spirit. The blood is poured out there, and the carcase is then
carried back to the village, to be divided, cooked, and eaten.
Pigs' skulls are kept and hung up in the house. Food for a feast, such
as at house-building, is placed near the post where the skulls hang, and
a prayer is said. When the centre-post is put up, the spirits have
wallaby, fish, and bananas presented to them, and they are besought to
keep that house always full of food, and that it may not 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.