Mrs Fashionable vs Mr Farmer Rustina Zahra
install download
http://ebookstep.com/product/mrs-fashionable-vs-mr-farmer-
rustina-zahra/
Download more ebook from https://ebookstep.com
We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebookstep.com
to discover even more!
Isabella Aurora Rustina Zahra
http://ebookstep.com/product/isabella-aurora-rustina-zahra/
Mr and Mrs Players Wedding Meliza Caterin
http://ebookstep.com/product/mr-and-mrs-players-wedding-meliza-
caterin/
Mrs Pargeter s Patio A Mrs Pargeter Mystery 9 Brett
Simon
http://ebookstep.com/product/mrs-pargeter-s-patio-a-mrs-pargeter-
mystery-9-brett-simon/
Mr Mercedes Stephen King
http://ebookstep.com/product/mr-mercedes-stephen-king/
The Puzzles of Life Ekka Zahra Puspita Dewi
http://ebookstep.com/product/the-puzzles-of-life-ekka-zahra-
puspita-dewi/
Seducing Mr Playboy Nev Nov
http://ebookstep.com/product/seducing-mr-playboy-nev-nov/
Mr Stalker is My Boss Misyuna
http://ebookstep.com/product/mr-stalker-is-my-boss-misyuna/
Immagini VS Parole 1st Edition Davide Bertozzi
http://ebookstep.com/product/immagini-vs-parole-1st-edition-
davide-bertozzi/
A Proposal from Mr Stranger Ally Jane
http://ebookstep.com/product/a-proposal-from-mr-stranger-ally-
jane/
Other documents randomly have
different content
CHAPTER XV
Ancestor worship the religion of the New Hebrides—Temples and strange figures, and some sacred
dances.
Ancestor worship was undoubtedly the original religion of the New
Hebrideans, and in many islands the present form of worship is
based upon it. According to Mr. Macdonald, a resident in Exate, the
followers of it believe that after death the soul passes through six
stages before it finally dies. When its earthly life is over it goes to
the gate of Hades, which is situated at Tukitaki, at the western
extremity of the island. Here it meets Seritan the cannibal
executioner, and his two assistants Vanas and Maxi. Certain
questions are then put by them to the soul, and if it does not answer
them satisfactorily it is passed on to Maseasi, who cuts out its
tongue, splits its head open, and twists it back. If the questions
asked by these officials at the gate are well answered, then the {154}
soul is permitted to go on in peace through its various stages.
Seritan in olden days was a noted cannibal chief, hence his work
now in Hades seems particularly suitable to his past experience. This
idea of the hereafter has a faint resemblance to the Maori beliefs;
they hold that there are certain stages to be gone through, and the
same belief of questions being asked is adhered to—though their
final end, if they be worthy men and true, is not annihilation, as far
as I could gather from the older chiefs, but a life of pleasure.
The trouble is, however, that they have undoubtedly got their
ideas mixed up—a fault one finds with nearly all the savage races of
to-day.
In Efaté there are certain classes of people who are allowed to
pass unquestioned into Hades—those belonging to the Namtaku
tribe, and others who have certain figures carved on their bodies.
Why they don’t all go through this operation and escape the chance
of having their necks broken is a mystery, but they are not the only
believers in certain religious rites who do not bother about testing
them.
THE “M’AKI” GROUND AND THE JAWS OF THE SACRED PIGS, NEW HEBRIDES
Modifications of the above belief are also held in other islands,
and in Malekula it is supposed {155} that three stages only are gone
through before the perfect spiritual condition is reached, and that
the soul then fades away into nothingness.
The sacred men of these islands will tell you that they
periodically visit the first stopping-place of the departed souls, and
they say it is a long way under the ground. In this place all the
important affairs of the world are discussed and arranged, and it is
from here that the spirits work and punish those who do not follow
the dictates of the sacred men. These priests or sacred men in this
way have gained a tremendous control over their fellow-men, for
superstition is strong and no native dare disobey a sacred man.
Sacrifices of pig and other foods have to be made to inhabitants
of the under world, and feasts are laid out for them, which they are
supposed to devour when no one is near—a spiritual feast, so
spiritual, indeed, that none but those who believe in these things
can see the slightest signs of any of the food having been touched.
Such incredulity, however, has no effect on the natives, they look at
you in a pitying way when you infer that the food has not been
touched—such is belief.
In connection with their religion certain peculiarly shaped stones
are denominated sacred and {156} are said to contain the spirits of
departed relatives. In the case of a chief the stone is placed in a hut
to preserve it from rough weather, and round it are arranged effigies
of the chief, and perhaps of one or two of his nearest relations.
These images, or demits as they are called, are ghastly looking
things, and when one comes suddenly up against them their full
horror is apparent. After death the chief is decapitated and the skull
is cleaned and bleached, and then, with a preparation of clay and
fibre, a face representing his, as it was while he was alive, is
modelled on the bare skull; his peculiarities in feature are
emphasised to a degree bordering on caricature, but they are not
meant as caricatures, but are intended only to bring back to the
beholders the characteristic points of the chief’s face.
A MEMORIAL EFFIGY, MALEKULA, NEW HEBRIDES
This figure represents a departed chief who has gone to the under world and
become a “Demit.”
The figure is made on a framework of wood or bamboo, covered with clay
and vegetable fibre. The head is the real skull of the chief covered in the
same way as the body with real hair and beard; the arms, round which are
pigs’ tusks, are made from a small plant, the root forming the hands. One of
the reasons the natives have for making figures in this way is that the chief
may still be able to look upon his friends. At the side of the figure is a bundle
of sacred pigs’ jaws; in front is a priest.
The body of the effigy is built up on a framework of wood, and
covered with the same preparation of clay and fibre and modelled in
a like manner, but, as a rule, it is seriously out of proportion. When
this imitation body is finished it is coloured in three shades, red,
black, and white (sometimes blue is found on them, but as the
natives are unable to obtain this colour naturally it is only used
where the traders can supply it). Down the trunk of the body long
stripes are made, running {157} vertically or horizontally, and round
the legs bands of these alternate colours are painted. The shoulders
and knees are decorated with grotesque faces, surmounted by tufts
of fibre which often rise to a distance of three or four inches. A
bamboo cane is stuck in each of these tufts, and on the top of it
splendid specimens of boars’ tusks are sometimes to be seen.
The hands of these idols are made from the roots of a sapling,
and add to the weirdness of the picture. Bracelets of boars’ tusks are
also found on some of these effigies.
Other sheds and places of worship contain somewhat different
things. The sacred stone is guarded by nude wooden figures of men
and women, cut in the roughest style and free from ornament. The
posts holding up the shed have also elaborate figures of strangely
misshaped heads with shapeless bodies attached.
But to the more important part of their religion. In every village
there is a “sing-sing” ground laid out—this is the slang term for it,
but it is appropriate. These grounds are kept for dancing, not the
frivolous dancing of the Europeans, but a sacred, awe-inspiring,
religious ceremony. The very idea of frivolity seems wrong in such a
place. {158} The cleared space is surrounded by a dense, dark bush,
and on the edge of the clearing high wooden posts slanting in
various directions are stuck into the ground. These drums, for such
they are, are grotesque things, standing from four to six feet high,
with a dark slit down the centre, and a fearsome face carved on the
front; some are all face and look like terrible nightmares, and each
has behind it a carved stone.
Picture yourself on one of these grounds on a warm moonlight
night, when a dance is to take place. Dense clouds are rolling over
the sky and now and then obscuring the moon or sending fitful
shadows across the bare space; beyond is black bush so thick that it
looks like a weird inferno. You wait and listen, and hear nothing but
the roar of the distant volcano. Presently a crowd of stark naked
natives make their appearance and take up their position each by
the side of a drum, and begin a dull beating noise to call the
dancers. In the centre of the ground is a circle of five or six white
poles, some thirty feet long, bent and crooked and leaning all ways.
DRUM GROVE AT MELE, NEW HEBRIDES
These drums are made of large tree-trunks, burnt out in the centre through
the long slot down the middle; both the slot and the round openings are
sound-holes. The meaning of the designs on the drums is unknown. A heavy
round drum-stick of wood is used. Every one of the drum-groves I have seen
appeared to be haunted by an old man or two. Round the drums the “M’AKI”
ceremony takes place.
When deserted these “sing-sing” grounds are uncanny enough,
but on a dance night they are worse, and when the drumming
commences, which {159} sounds as if it came from the bowels of the
earth, and makes the flesh of your back feel as if it wanted to come
off, the climax is reached. You become chock-full of the
supernatural, and would not be in the least surprised if the earth
opened up and the dancers appeared amidst flames and smoke.
Nothing quite as bad does happen, but, presently, lights are seen
flashing in the bush, and dark objects holding torches come out and
calmly take up their position in the circle, till nearly a hundred
human beings, naked save for paint and streamers, are moving
about.
Suddenly the drumming noise changes to a sort of tattoo, and
then a file of men line up and begin to keep time to the drums with
their feet; slowly at first, and then faster and faster till the very earth
shakes, and the dull thudding echoes through the dark bush. Then a
savage song is heard, a low chanting, and the men begin to whirl
round and round the posts till the eye becomes glazed and the
flickering light from the torches conjures up a thousand things that
never happen, but the drumming, monotonous beating of those
wooden images goes on and the tapping of the feet. The crowd of
women over by the bush stand watching in an almost hypnotic state,
their bodies swaying {160} unconsciously to the beating of the drums
and the feet—black naked women with vermilion-coloured faces, and
white, staring, rolling eyes watching every movement of the dance.
Then a sudden dying away of the drums and the shuffling of the feet
and silence. It is weird indeed.
The women step forward, it is their turn now, and a wild scene
commences. More weird and more noisy than ever. Their shrill
voices, mingling with the thumping of the drums and the gruff
monotones of the men, make the bush resound. This is kept up for a
long time, and then suddenly they all rush off and the place is left in
darkness.
On the morrow a big feast is held and the chief kills the sacred
pigs. The ceremony attached to this is worth seeing, as it is one of
those customs that are so time-worn that both their significance and
original meaning are lost and only the outward ceremony remains.
For this the natives are highly decorated with flowers and paint, and
their frills and plumes are extra well attended to. After a few
preliminary canters round the dancing ring to drive away the evil
spirits, the chief and sacred men appear, carrying spears. To the
accompaniment of drums these worthies pirouette round the
ground. When this exercise is finished a band of {161} natives face
them and sing a wild song. Girls next appear before the chief, highly
be-plumed and be-feathered and with faces stained bright red. They
in their turn dance and sing. Next comes the procession composed
of men only, who carry the pig, which, like Paddy’s, has a string tied
to its leg in case it tries to get away. The procession goes round the
whole circle while the drums are beaten in a quick tattoo—the
squeals of the pig do not in the least affect these stolid drummers,
who ever keep time and never smile. At last, when the circle is
complete, the pig is cast at the feet of the chief, who spears it with
much gusto and then flings the spear away. The pig is sometimes
properly killed afterwards, but it is not considered necessary. It is
then carried away to where the spear, thrown by the chief, has
fallen. This is the way the pig is sacrificed to the sacred stone. Each
stone has to have its pig, so the killing goes on until the right
number has been slain. Then comes the cooking of all the dead and
dying grunters, and the biggest feast of the season is commenced.
So fat is the feast that at least half-a-dozen of those taking part in it
have to be removed and rubbed down by their comrades, or the
women-folk, to save them from death from over-gorging. {162}
There are many other ways of performing these dance and pig
ceremonies, and each island, in fact each village, varies the
performance, but they all begin with a dance and end with a feast,
which is the usual programme for savage functions.
LEAVING SANTO, A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS, NEW HEBRIDES
CHAPTER XVI
Concerning witchcraft—More about burials—The gentle art of making love—The rain-makers.
Superstition and witchcraft are strongly in evidence in the New
Hebrideans, and the natives have more than their share of both.
Besides those things to which I have already alluded, there is a
peculiar idea held in some of the islands that certain sacred men
have the power of killing by witchcraft. The method adopted by
them is similar in many respects to the usual custom, that of making
an image of the man or woman whose death is required, and then
doing to it what it is wished shall happen to the original. In the
island of Tanna the method differs slightly, for here, instead of an
image being made, part of the person’s property is stolen and taken
to the sacred man who works destruction to its late owner, but he
must have this property in his possession, or his maledictions will
fail. {164}
The sacred men who are supposed to possess these powers are
called Narak-burners, and they hold their position through being the
possessors of certain stones known as Narak stones, which they, or
their fathers, have at some time found and buried in the vicinity of
their house. Some of these stones are in the British Museum and
show no signs of anything supernatural about them, but the natives
hold them in great dread and reverence.
When a man desires the death of any one, he visits the Narak—
he may only desire to give him a disease, but it is usually death he is
after when calling on the Narak-burner—and brings with him some
hair or food or some particle of clothing belonging to the man he
wishes shall suffer. This he presents to the Narak, who doctors it up
and then wraps it in leaves and burns it over a sacred fire, lit, it is
presumed, over or near the place where the Narak stones are
hidden. As the article begins to burn, so sickness falls upon the
owner, who goes on getting worse until the article is completely
turned to ashes; then death comes.
A SACRED MAN, AOBA, NEW HEBRIDES
Such is the superstition, but of its power I cannot speak. A large
payment of shell-money {165} or pigs has to be made to the Narak-
burner before he starts his work, and if a man hears that his effigy is
being thus dealt with, or fancies it is because he feels sick, he will
hurry off to the “burner” and offer him a bigger price for his freedom
than his enemy has paid for his death. The result of this may be
guessed, and a keen bidding often results; if he be rich he is allowed
to live, but a poor man has no chance.
It is through the fear of Narak burning and evil wishing that the
natives bury their hair when they cut it off, and also take care never
to leave any half-finished food about. They throw all their refuse into
a stream of water, which it is believed removes the power of the
Narak-burner.
There are so many quaint ceremonies connected with the lives of
these natives that a whole volume might be devoted to them alone;
and even then to deal with them all thoroughly the volume would
have to be a big one. In this book I only intend touching on the
outskirts of those which affect their lives most closely, and even then
many of the details must be left out, partly because they can only be
explained in a scientific work, and partly because they are so
intricate. The whys and the wherefores would lead into endless
paths. {166}
If a native is rich, the first way he shows it is by changing his
name, and, as in England, money has to be spent for this privilege;
in the New Hebrides it means a feast, and a big one at that. On
announcing his desire for a new name to the chief, and proving that
he has the means of paying for it, the native goes away by himself
for a few weeks, during which time he is considered “duli” and is not
allowed to see a woman, and only permitted to eat certain things, as
in the case of the New Guinea natives when they become ibito.
After his seclusion he is known by his new name, and attends the
big religious feast which he himself has provided.
Other ways are found for changing names, and certain natives
are rewarded for their bravery and good deeds by being given a new
one, in much the same way as a man is knighted in England.
The marriage laws are similar to those in the other islands; and
pigs are often given to the parents in exchange for their daughter.
The girl being chosen more often for her working capabilities than
for her beauty.
The burial ceremony and disposal of the corpse vary considerably
in the different islands, but since the introduction of Christianity they
are changing {167} to the ordinary Christian burial. In Oceania the
author says that in old days “In Efaté the body was carefully
prepared for burial and then dressed. The burial was accompanied
with much solemnity, and great wailing, and animals were slain in
sacrifice to the dead at the grave. It was supposed that the spirits or
essence of the animals slain would accompany the souls of the
deceased to the spirit-world, the entrance to which was the
westermost point of Efaté, at a place called Takituki.”
“In Malekula,” says Lieutenant Boyle T. Somerville, “a sort of
mummy is made, of which specimens were brought to his ship by a
white trader, who had procured them in exchange for a rifle at the
conclusion of a ‘sing-sing.’ They are said to be the effigies of the
chief, whose skull (the only portion retained of all his remains)
formed the head. This is plastered with mud to represent a living
face, a body of bamboo twigs and mud, highly coloured in black,
white and red and purple stripes, forms the figure. On each shoulder
a highly conventional face is moulded, looking to right and left
respectively, and in each hand is a pig’s lower jaw.”
During Mr. Hardy’s travels in these islands, he came across a kind
of graveyard where chiefs were {168} supposed to be buried
underground, and a heap of stones and rocks marked the spots
where they lay.
The skull-huts, already alluded to, show that this is still another
form of burial—they are innumerable.
Rain-making is almost as universal as feeding, and every race
has its rain-maker, who, for a consideration, will tap the cloudless
sky and bring torrents of water down to quench the thirst of the dry
earth. In the New Hebrides the rain-maker goes into the forest and
there collects the branches of a certain tree, which he cuts into
lengths and lays a dozen or so of them parallel to each other. He
then takes another dozen and threads them through the parallel
ones, forming a kind of flat basket-work hurdle. Over this
contrivance he mutters prayers, and then buries it in a dried-up
creek where the water should be running.
More incantations follow this proceeding, and then heavy stones
and rocks are placed over the rain producer, and the inhabitants all
wait for the rain, which, strange to say, generally comes.
THE STONE “DEMITS,” OR THE SOULS, WITH THEIR ATTENDANT WOODEN
FIGURES, MALEKULA ISLAND, NEW HEBRIDES.
There is no lack of faith in these natives, and when once they
have applied to the rain-maker they set to work to make preparation
for the rain, which reminds me of an amusing anecdote I heard in
America. In Belmont there had been a tremendous drought, and
{169}
the farmers were in such a fright that they unanimously decided to
appoint a certain day on which rain should be prayed for. On the
Sunday chosen, the farmers, their wives, and families rose early and
started off to church. Just as one party were leaving home a little
child of five or six years old suddenly sprang down from the buggy
and cried out for them to wait a minute, as she disappeared into the
house. Every one wondered what was the matter, and presently,
when the child appeared carrying a great big carriage umbrella, they
all burst into roars of laughter. “Why,” said the father, “you silly child,
there’s not a cloud in the sky.”
For a moment the child looked perplexed. “But, daddy,” she said
in a tone of wonder, “aren’t we going to pray for rain?”
The natives of the New Hebrides are very much like this little girl,
and perhaps their faith brings about the results they desire. Who
knows? Sometimes, however, they get more than they desire.
One writer gives an amusing description of what happened in
1890, at Ambrym, an island adjoining Malekula, when rain was
asked for.
“Make us rain,” said the natives to the {170} rain-maker, “or our
yams will not grow and we shall starve.”
The wise man consented, and after the machine, described
above, was duly placed in a dry water-hole, the rain came down in
torrents and did not cease for forty-eight hours. It was so severe
that the entire surface of the harbour was fresh to the depth of
three or four inches; and the water-hole, where the machine had
been placed, had ten feet of water in it; whilst the yams in the
plantation were being literally washed out of the ground. So great
was the consternation of the natives that they were beside
themselves with fear, and rushing to the rain-maker implored him to
stop the rain. This, however, was no easy task, as the old man
explained, because his machine was buried under ten feet of rushing
water. Being unable to dive he could not get it out, and until it was
fished out the rain would continue. The scene can be better pictured
than described. At last in desperation the aid of the shore natives,
who are good divers and swimmers, was sought, and soon the
machine was brought out of the creek, and the rain stopped
immediately afterwards.
The most remarkable thing about these and like superstitions is
that more often than not they come {171} off as the sages predict
they will; and when once one does there is no longer any room for
doubt, in the minds of those who wish to believe. That incident of
rain-making in 1890 will be talked about for years, and the name of
the rain-maker will be handed down to future generations.
CHAPTER XVII
Native clothing and ornaments—Their arts and industries, their canoes and weapons, and their way
of fishing.
In Malekula, Efaté, and Tanna the natives wear as many adornments
and cram as many ornaments on their bodies as they can, and since
this weakness of theirs has been found out, both visitors and
missionaries trade on it, when endeavouring to get on the right side
of them. Everybody going to these places nowadays takes with him
a good supply of trumpery adornments, and exchanges them for
native things of ten times their value. Ivory rings and shell rings
were the most precious ornaments the New Hebrideans originally
wore, but the less wealthy covered themselves with armlets, fibre
belts, flowers, and if they could get a comb to stick in their hair they
fancied themselves immensely superior to those who had not such a
mark of distinction. Trade beads are now added to their possessions,
and they work them into most artistic {173} patterns and wear them
round their necks. A small mirror will often be seen hanging from a
native’s ear-ring, and many other strange combinations of
savagedom mixed with civilisation are met with in these islands to-
day. A native wearing a calico loin-cloth and a top-hat poised on his
woolly head and kept in position by a string round his chin is not an
uncommon sight. Another may be seen wearing a pair of knee-
breeches, a tennis shirt, with the collar turned up, and a trader’s hat.
Another, perhaps dispensing with the breeches, will wear only the
hat and shirt. Altogether they seem to do their very best to imitate
an English clown, though of course they are not aware of the fact.
OLD CANNIBAL CHIEF WHOM THE ARTIST MET ON THE ISLAND OF AOBA,
NEW HEBRIDES.
To meet a burly native with elaborate ear-rings, an ivory spike
through his nose, and his face well marked, with a collar and dickey
hanging round his neck, seems absolutely ridiculous, but the proud
possessor of such a costume will strut about as if he were the best-
dressed man in the islands. As may be supposed they look
particularly coy, some of them, and only require a banjo and a pair
of trousers to make ideal Christy Minstrels. The humour of their
costumes, needless to say, does not strike them, and their less-
clothed neighbours look on them with envy, whilst the girls bill and
coo at the {174} sight of them—such is fashion. A tappa loin-cloth,
similar to the Fijian cloth, was originally the fashion amongst the
women in parts of this group of islands, prior to the coming of the
white man, and it was held round the waist by a belt of fibre and
ornamented with coloured or stained grass. But, back in the bush,
the married women were the only ones who wore anything that
could be really called a costume, the younger women’s attire being
only flimsy grass mats made of streamers, and tied round their
waists—which from a point of decency would be equal to a piece of
mosquito netting. The men were always clothed to a certain extent,
owing to a peculiar belief they hold that they must not be seen
naked.
Feathers play a prominent part in head dress on special
occasions, such as at the dance I have already mentioned. The hair
is never shaved off the men’s heads but left to grow wild, and some
of them possess very fine beards and moustaches, but all cannot
boast such growth. I have seen a good few with moustaches like
boarding-house tooth-brushes.
Tattooing is not common, but cicatrices are, and most men bear
curious marks on their bodies. These are made when they are quite
young by cutting a pattern on the skin and then continually {175}
removing the scab until a deep kind of scar is formed. It takes a long
time to become perfect, but when it is they are exceedingly proud of
it.
TYPE OF MAN FROM THE ISLAND OF TANNA, NEW HEBRIDES
Paint is sometimes used for decorating their faces and bodies in
place of tattooing, but it is very ugly and disfigures both the men
and women. Red, black, and white are the chief colours used, and
no particular design characterises the work; the painter generally
puts what his fancy suggests, and no meaning is attached to it, as is
generally the case with the native markings.
The women are the workers here as elsewhere, and at basket-
making and mat-plaiting they are splendid hands. Clothes used to be
made by them and bartered for food to villagers on the coast. The
mats are made from fibre, which in its turn is made from the
pandanus leaf by cutting it into long shreds with a piece of shell and
then allowing it to dry. Most of the mats have some sort of a pattern
on them, and are now greatly prized by collectors. In the New
Hebrides they are put on the floor of the huts, and are also used as
screens to cut off the sleeping apartments from the day room. Some
more artistic than others are fringed with feathers or tassels of
discoloured grass. These, however, are generally made to sell to the
tourist. {176}
Baskets are also manufactured in some of the islands. Pottery,
however, is a forgotten art here, and a legend accounting for the
number of old and broken pieces which may still be found in the
bush is worth relating.
The natives believe that their islands at one time in the world’s
history were brought up out of the sea by a beautiful goddess, Li
Maui Tukituki; they say that when the world was quite new she was
carrying home some water in jars, but, owing to the rocky state of
the land she spilled the water, which made her so angry that she
threw the jars at the ground and in that way punished it and made it
