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Robert W. Williamson - The Mafulu

R >> Robert W. Williamson >> The Mafulu




There are also, besides the sorcerers, a number of specialists, who
can hardly perhaps be called true sorcerers, but who have certain
specific powers, or are acquainted with certain specific forms of
incantation, and whose services are from time to time sought by
the people. It is impossible for me to point to any definite line
of demarcation between the true sorcerers and these smaller people;
and it cannot be doubted that the powers of the latter, like those
of the former, are, or have been, based upon the supernatural, even
though they themselves do not claim to be and are not regarded as
being magic men in the highest sense. I think I may regard them as
being more or less the Mafulu equivalents of the Roro individuals
whom Dr. Seligmann calls "departmental experts." [112]

Dealing first with the true sorcerers, they undoubtedly include
among their number the men who perform the special ceremonial already
described for ascertaining whether a sick chief is or is not destined
to die. They also seem to include the makers or providers of the
various charms, including those which are carried in the little charm
bags and the love charms used by young men, as already mentioned. There
are also two other matters which are regarded as coming within the
province of the true sorcerers, of which one relates to rain and the
other relates to illness and death. I will deal with them separately.

The rain sorcerer is apparently merely a diviner. Dr. Seligmann would
perhaps include him among the departmental experts, but the Fathers
of the Mission regard him as being a true sorcerer. He is the man
to whom the people go in anticipation of a proposed important event,
such as a big feast, or perhaps a fighting or large hunting expedition,
to ascertain and inform them whether the period in which it is proposed
that the event shall occur will be fine or wet; but he does not profess
to be able to do more than this, and they never expect him to prevent
or bring about the rain, or in any way hold him responsible for the
weather as it may in fact eventually occur.

The sorcery connected with illness and death is not so simple; and
there is no doubt that it is not confined to powers of divination,
but includes powers of actual causation. This department of
sorcery obviously includes the ceremonial in connection with the
supposed dying chief. But it is not confined to this ceremony,
as it is generally believed by the Mafulu people that sickness,
which does not necessarily end in death, and death itself, can be,
and commonly is, brought about by the operation of sorcerers in one
way or another through the medium of certain things. The only things
of this nature concerning which I was able to obtain information are
(1) the inedible part of some vegetable food which the victim has
recently eaten (_e.g.,_ the outside part of a sweet potato or banana
or the cane part of a sugar cane), and (2) the victim's discharged
excrement or urine. I found no trace of any use for purposes of
sorcery of the edible remnants of the victim's food, nor (except
as regards a woman's placenta, to which I shall refer presently)
of any part of his body, such as his hair or nails; and, in fact,
the free way in which the natives throw away their hair when cut is
inconsistent with any belief as to its possible use against them.

First, the inedible remnants of recently consumed vegetable food. The
use of this as a medium for causing illness and death is apparently
confined to the case of a victim who has passed the stage of very
young childhood. Why this is so I could not learn; though in point
of fact a mere infant would hardly be eating such things as a regular
practice. A man or woman, however, never carelessly throws aside his
own food remnants of this character; and his reason for this is fear
of sorcery. He carefully keeps them under his control until he can
take them to a river, into which he throws them, after which they
are harmless as a medium against him. The fear concerning these
remains is that a sorcerer will use them for a ceremony somewhat
similar to that described in connection with the death of a chief,
but in a hostile way. No such precautions are taken with reference
to similar food eaten by very young children.

Secondly, the discharged excrement and urine. This, for some reason,
only applies to the case of an infant or quite young child. Here again
I could not learn the reason for the limitation; but it is confirmed
by the fact that grown-up persons take no pains whatever to avoid
the passing of these things into the possession of other people,
whereas, as regards little children, the mothers or other persons
having charge of them always take careful precautions. The mother
picks up her little child's excrement, and wraps it in a leaf, and then
either carefully hides it in a hole in the ground, or throws it into
the river, or places it in a little raised-up nest-like receptacle,
which is sometimes erected near the house for this purpose, and where
also it is regarded as being safe. One of these receptacles, shaped
like an inverted cone, is shown in Plate 91, and a somewhat similar
one is seen in Plate 64. As regards the urine, she pours upon it,
as it lies on the ground or on the house floor or platform, a little
clean water which she obtains from any handy source, or sometimes from
a little store which, when away from other water supply, she often
carries about with her for the purpose. I could get no information as
to the way in which the sorcerer would use the excrement or urine as
a medium for hostile purposes; though there is apparently no process
similar to that of the fire used in connection with the inedible food
remnants of the adult.

It will have been noticed that the mode of rendering the inedible
food remnants of a grown-up person immune from sorcery, and one
of the methods of making the infants' excrement immune, is that of
throwing them into the river; and even as regards infants' urine,
which apparently is not, and as a rule hardly could be, actually
thrown into the river, the protection is obtained by pouring water
upon it. I think that the belief among the islands of the Pacific in
the power of water to protect against the machinations of spirits or
ghosts is not confined to the Mafulu natives, or indeed to those of
New Guinea. Dr. Codrington mentions its existence as regards human
excrement in Melanesia. [113] I would also refer to a custom of the
Mafulu women after childbirth of throwing the placenta into the river,
a practice which is similar to that of the Koita women, who drop the
placenta into the sea. [114] Probably these practices relating to
placenta are also based upon some idea of protection from sorcerers
and spirits, although I was informed that among the Mafulu there is
no superstitious fear connected with the matter now. If the custom
is in fact superstitious in origin, the list of media for the use of
sorcery already given by me requires enlarging. [115]

Serious illness or death of either an adult or an infant, if not
caused by visible accident, is by the Mafulu, as by other natives,
generally attributed, subject to limitations, to the sorcerers. The
belief of the Mafulu as to this arises if the victim, being an ordinary
person, is comparatively young, or in the strength of life, say under
forty or forty-five, or if the victim, being a chief or a member of
a chief's family or a person of very high position, is even over that
age, unless he is very old, and old age is recognised as the natural
cause of his illness or death.

If the belief arises that the calamity, especially that of death,
has been brought about by spiritualistic influence, the family will
probably go to some person who is believed to be in touch with spirits
and able to designate the culprit. I cannot say whether or not the
person so employed is regarded as being a sorcerer in the full sense
of the word, or as merely one of the inferior types of magic men
above referred to. Probably he is only the latter, as I do not think
there are any juvenile sorcerers among the Mafulu, and this particular
person may be quite a young boy; indeed, there is in a village near to
the Mafulu Mission Station a young boy who is supposed to have this
power. As a matter of fact this boy is not quite right in his head;
but this state of mind is not among the Mafulu in any way a necessary,
or indeed a usual, qualification for a sorcerer or magic man of any
sort. The person appealed to will perhaps tell them who has done the
deed, or will make some oracular statement which will lead to his
identification. The culprit identified by him will in any case be a
member of another clan, and most probably of another community. When
he has been discovered, there will probably be a fight, in which
the members of the victim's clan, or even, especially if the victim
be a chief or big person, the whole of his community, will join the
injured relatives, this question of suspected causing of death being,
like that of non-repayment of the price paid for a runaway wife,
one of the frequent causes of intercommunity fighting.

Reverting here to the matter of ghosts and spirits, one cannot help
noting a similarity between, on the one hand, the ghostly element
of living food plants and the ghostly element of human excrement,
which constitute the food of the ghosts, and, on the other hand, the
physical inedible remnants of food recently eaten by an adult victim
and the physical excrement and urine of an infant victim, which are the
media used for hostile sorcery through the power of spirits; though,
as regards the latter, I have no evidence of a belief that the spirits
eat them. I tried to get further into this matter, but was unable to
do so. Again one is struck by the fact that the special _gabi_ tree,
which is the tree used for the interment of chiefs and notables, is
one of the trees whose presence is regarded as indicating a place
inhabited by spirits. These elements of similarity tend, I think,
to suggest the possibility of some confusion in the native mind as
to the difference between ghosts and spirits, or of some originally
ghostly origin in what are now regarded as spirits.

The class of magic men who are something less than sorcerers,
and whose powers are perhaps confined to the knowledge of certain
specific forms of incantation, would probably include the person who
does the nose-boring, and perhaps the person who detects the causes
of death above referred to. It would also, I think, include the
men who ascertain the whereabouts of a stolen article and discover
the thief, and who perform the ceremony in connection with hunting,
and the persons who effect, or profess to effect, cures of a more or
less superstitious nature, all of whom are probably not regarded as
full sorcerers.

The professional pig-killer is not, as such, either a sorcerer or
a magic man in the minor sense; and, if there has originally been
anything of a superstitious or magic character associated with him or
his functions, I was unable to find any trace of it, except perhaps
as regards the ceremony and incantation in connection with hunting,
which apparently is commonly performed by him.


Charms.

The Mafulu people believe in charms. I have already referred to those
used by young men desirous of marrying. But there are many other more
important charms for various purposes, such as averting illness and
death, success in hunting and fishing, and perhaps preservation in
time of war. These charms may be stones, small pieces of different
sorts of bark, flowers, or various kinds of poisons, though the
poisons appear to be only used for averting illness and death. They
are all procured from sorcerers, who may be of the same or of some
other village, or of another community, and there are sorcerers who
have specialities in certain sorts of charms. These charms are often
carried inside the small charm bags already mentioned.


Omens.

They believe in omens; but of these I was only able to hear of two
examples--namely, flying foxes, [116] and fireflies, the latter,
though common in the plains, being rare on the mountains, and both of
these are bad omens. Any person or party starting off on a journey,
or on a hunting or fishing expedition, and meeting either of these
creatures would probably at once turn back; and I was told that even a
full war party starting off on a punitive expedition would turn back,
or at least halt for a time, if it met one or other of them. I cannot
help thinking there must be some other omens, which I have failed
to discover.


General.

Referring generally to supplications, incantations, and acts
of propitiation, the only examples of them which I was able to
discover were the above-mentioned supplication to the river prior
to fishing, which is apparently spoken by the fishers themselves,
and not merely by a sorcerer or magic man, and the incantations in
connection with nose-piercing, with hunting, with a dying chief,
with the stone operation for stomach complaints, and with the plant
remedies for wounds, and the acts of propitiation, if such they are,
in connection with ceremonious pig-killing, and especially with the
ceremonies performed at a big feast and at or following a funeral; and
as regards the incantations I could learn nothing as to their nature,
nor as to the specific spiritual powers for the influencing of which
they are intended, nor the way in which those powers are moved by them.

In fact, concerning the whole question of ghosts, spirits, sorcery,
charms, omens and superstitions, I cannot imagine that I have
accomplished more than the mere touching of the fringe of it; and I am
sure that, when the Mafulu people have got rather more into touch with
civilisation, and become more accessible and communicative about these
things, there will be much more to be learnt. It may perhaps be that
some of the apparently superstitious acts are, like many such acts
performed in England, based upon beliefs which have long since been
forgotten, and have themselves become mere formalities, to which the
natives do not attach serious superstitious importance; though their
fear of ghosts and spirits is undoubtedly a very real and general one.

There are no secret societies or mysteries, such as are met with
in some of the Solomon Islands, and they have no superstition as
to sneezing.


Taboo.

The subject of taboo may perhaps be referred to under the present
heading, for, though there appear to be no totemic taboos, and
though I have no material showing that the Mafulu taboos are based on
superstitious ideas, it may, I imagine, be assumed that, while some
of these taboos are possibly partly based on medical common sense,
the element of superstition enters more or less into many of them. I
have already referred to a few general restrictions connected with
etiquette, and what I now propose to mention are food taboos.

Young men are not supposed to eat wild pig until they have married,
but this is the only food restriction which is put upon them. [117]
A woman who is about to give birth to a child must eat no food
whatever for a day or rather longer (never more than two days),
before the child is born. I have already referred to the food taboo
on persons undergoing the nose-piercing operation, and the optional
food taboo to which the nearest relative of a deceased person may
submit, in lieu of wearing the mourning string. There is also a
general taboo against any food other than sweet potato and chewing
of betel-nuts, with its condiments of lime and pepper, upon any male
person who intends to take part, either as a dancer or singer, in any
ceremonial dance. This latter term includes the dance at a big feast
and the women's dance on the eve of it, but not the dancing during
the six months' interval before it. It also includes the dance at
any of the various minor ceremonies above described, and at a funeral
ceremony. The period of restriction in the case of the big feast begins
when the formal croton-leaf invitation has gone out to the guests,
about a month before the date of the feast. In the case of a funeral
it is necessarily only quite short, and in cases of other ceremonies
it varies, being largely dependent on the length of period during
which the approach of the ceremony is known. During the period of
restriction the people avail themselves largely of the privilege of
betel-chewing, and prior to a big feast their mouths get very red. In
connection with personal ceremonies upon assumption of the perineal
band, admission to the _emone_ (excepting, as regards this, the case
of a child of very tender years), qualifying for drumming and dancing,
devolution of chieftainship and nose-piercing, the person concerned,
male or female, is under the same food restriction for a day prior
to that of the ceremony, and as regards nose-piercing this taboo
is prior to the actual piercing, and is quite distinct from the
subsequent taboo already referred to. There does not appear to be
any taboo connected with fishing, hunting or war.

The observance of all these taboos is secured only by superstitious
belief or public opinion, or both, there being no method of enforcing
them by punishment or by any exercise of authority by the chiefs.






CHAPTER XIX

Note on the Kuni People

Father Egedi, who has studied the Kuni people, and has written a
series of articles about them in numbers of _Anthropos_, told me
that he regarded them as being a cross between the Papuan-speaking
Mafulu and the Melanesian-speaking Papuo-Melanesians of Mekeo and the
adjoining coast. Whether or not this is absolutely and strictly correct
is a question upon which I will not venture to express an opinion.

In general physique and appearance the Kuni are distinctly and strongly
of the type of the Mafulu, whilst their language is Melanesian; and,
as regards other matters, they in some respects resemble and in other
respects differ from the Mafulu.

As regards physique, Father Egedi distinguishes the Kuni from the
natives of the adjoining coast by their slighter development, slender
limbs and darker colour of skin, in which respects they resemble the
Mafulu; but he regards them as being lower-statured than the tribes
of the interior, which term includes the Mafulu, [118]with greater
regularity of features, and of lighter colour, all of which tallies,
I think, with my own observation of them. But the fact that they are
shorter in stature than the Mafulu, who are themselves shorter than
the coast natives, is perhaps a matter for surprise, if they are
a cross between the two. I have not measured any Kuni heads; but I
should be disposed from general observation to say that they are very
similar to those of the Mafulu, being predominantly mesaticephalic,
with tendencies to brachycephalism. [119]

Many of the Lapeka people, who are Kuni, but are on the borders of
the Upper Mekeo district, seemed to me to have distinctly flattish
faces, with remarkably delicately cut features--some of the women
in particular being exceedingly pretty in profile--and very bright
sparkling eyes. Where these local characteristics came from I cannot
say, as it could hardly be the result of an intermixture of Mekeo
blood. [120]

The oblique eye, which is occasionally found on the coast, [121] but
which I never saw in Mafulu, is, according to Father Egedi, present,
though only rare, among the Kuni. His large amount of opportunity
for observation, and his known care and ability in this respect,
compel me to assume his accuracy; but I can say that I saw a good
many of these eyes among them, and indeed once, having about twenty
of these Kuni people squatting in front of me, I observed that about
half of them had distinctly oblique eyes.

Father Egedi speaks of their hair as being "generally black, rarely
bright, and more rarely chestnut"; and as to this, I would refer to
the fact that the predominating colour of hair among the Mafulu is
dark or darkish brown, so that in this respect the Kuni apparently
tend more to the black-haired coast type of native than do the Mafulu.

Concerning matters other than physique and language, as I only passed
through the Kuni district, and did not attempt serious ethnological
investigation there, I can say but little beyond what I learn from
Father Egedi's articles and a few other sources; and the material
thus available only deals with a few questions.

It would appear from Father Egedi's observations that the relationship
between villages arising from the splitting up into two or more of
an original family village is not so permanent as I believe it to be
among the Mafulu. Dr. Seligmann says [122] that among the Kuni Father
Egedi "could find no trace of intermarrying groups, or groups of clans
claiming common descent," which statement applies to my investigations
among the Mafulu. He further says [123] that "The Dilava folk"
(Dilava is a Kuni village) "marry into all the surrounding villages;
and when a death occurs it is the head of the family of the deceased
who says when mourning shall cease"--statements of which the former,
and I believe the latter, could hardly be correctly made concerning
the Mafulu. He also refers [124] to Kuni war chiefs, an office which
does not exist among the Mafulu, and apparently understands that the
office of these war chiefs is non-hereditary, a statement which could
not be made of any Mafulu chief; and he refers [125] to a funeral
ceremony which is quite unknown in Mafulu. But his statement [126]
that the _kufu_ (club-house) system seems less developed than in
Mekeo would apply very strongly to the Mafulu.

The Kuni superstitious remedies for illnesses, as described by Father
Egedi, are quite different from those of Mafulu, and their food
restrictions, as enumerated by him, are in some respects substantially
distinct from those of the Mafulu, though some of them are more or
less similar.

According to him Kuni women, though they may not enter the village
_kufu_ or club-house, are allowed upon its platform, which is not
the case with the Mafulu _emone_; and eldest sons of Kuni influential
people may not enter into the _kufu_ until their parents have given a
specific feast, which custom is apparently not identical with that of
the Mafulu above described by me, and which applies to all sons of all
members of the village, and not merely to those of influential people.

The Kuni houses differ from those of the Mafulu, being more or
less round or oval in apparent shape, even though the floor is
rectangular. Also according to Father Egedi, Kuni _kufu_ are of
several various sorts, and some of them are constructed in specific
ways, and have specific carved and painted decorations, some of which
are imitative of animals and objects held in veneration; and these
different types of club-house, which include one used only by elderly
bachelors and widowers, have specific names--all of which is quite
different from what is found in Mafulu. Among these club-houses Father
Egedi includes one built at feast times higher up the ridge, outside
the village, for guests' accommodation, which, though apparently
somewhat similar in purpose to the guests' houses at a Mafulu feast,
differs from them in form. Indeed, as regards building construction,
the only point of strong similarity between the Kuni and the Mafulu
which I can trace is the long fireplace extending from front to back
of the building, which with the Kuni is apparently very like that of
the Mafulu.

Father Egedi's statement as to Kuni cannibalism, that speaking
generally it appears to be confined to the bodies of people killed in
war or in private vendetta, and that, though other cases are recorded,
they are regarded as a violation of a custom and are detested, might be
equally well said of the Mafulu; though I did not actually hear of any
known record there of the other cases mentioned. Again his statement
that the actual killer must not share in the feast holds good with
the Mafulu; but I believe that this idea exists elsewhere also.

Concerning the Kuni implements I can only refer to Dr. Seligmann's
statement, [127] that they do not appear to use bows and
shields--which, if correct, is a point of difference between them and
the Mafulu--and to a few other things referred to by Father Egedi in
his articles. From his descriptions I should imagine that the Kuni
pig-bone implements and their bamboo cutting knives are similar, and
that their wooden vegetable dishes are somewhat similar to those of
the Mafulu. But the Kuni have cooking pots (which they get from the
coast), and use forks and spoons and various other implements and
utensils which are not found in Mafulu, and their mode of producing
fire is quite different from the Mafulu mode.

I recognise that the above comparative notes on Kuni culture are only
of a very fragmentary character; but Father Egedi expresses the general
opinion that, though the language of the Kuni people is Melanesian,
their habits and customs "may be considered as making one with those
of the Mafulu people."

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