The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3)

S >> Sir James George Frazer >> The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3)

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[Sidenote: Simulation of death and resurrection.]

In these initiatory rites, as in the similar rites of the neighbouring
tribes on the mainland of New Guinea, we may perhaps detect a simulation
of death and of resurrection to a new and higher life. But why
circumcision should form the central feature of such a drama is a
question to which as yet no certain or even very probable answer can be
given. The bodily mutilations of various sorts, which in many savage
tribes mark the transition from boyhood to manhood, remain one of the
obscurest features in the life of uncultured races. That they are in
most cases connected with the great change which takes place in the
sexes at puberty seems fairly certain; but we are far from understanding
the ideas which primitive man has formed on this mysterious subject.

[Sidenote: The natives of Dutch New Guinea.]

That ends what I have to say as to the notions of death and a life
hereafter which are entertained by the natives of German New Guinea. We
now turn to the natives of Dutch New Guinea, who occupy roughly speaking
the western half of the great island. Our information as to their
customs and beliefs on this subject is much scantier, and accordingly my
account of them will be much briefer.

[Sidenote: Geelvink Bay and Doreh Bay. The Noofoor or Noomfor people.
Their material culture and arts of life.]

Towards the western end of the Dutch possession there is on the northern
coast a deep and wide indentation known as Geelvink Bay, which in its
north-west corner includes a very much smaller indentation known as
Doreh Bay. Scattered about in the waters of the great Geelvink Bay are
many islands of various sizes, such as Biak or Wiak, Jappen or Jobi, Run
or Ron, Noomfor, and many more. It is in regard to the natives who
inhabit the coasts or islands of Geelvink Bay that our information is
perhaps least imperfect, and it is accordingly with them that I shall
begin. In physical appearance, expression of the face, mode of wearing
the hair, and still more in manners and customs these natives of the
coast and islands differ from the natives of the mountains in the
interior. The name given to them by Dutch and German writers is Noofoor
or Noomfor. Their original home is believed to be the island of Biak or
Wiak, which lies at the northern entrance of the bay, and from which
they are supposed to have spread southwards and south-westwards to the
other islands and to the mainland of New Guinea.[482] They are a
handsomely built race. Their colour is usually dark brown, but in some
individuals it shades off to light-brown, while in others it deepens
into black-brown. The forehead is high and narrow; the eye is dark brown
or black with a lively expression; the nose broad and flat, the lips
thick and projecting. The cheekbones are not very high. The facial angle
agrees with that of Europeans. The hair is abundant and frizzly. The
people live in settled villages and subsist by agriculture, hunting, and
fishing. Their large communal houses are raised above the ground on
piles; on the coast they are built over the water. Each house has a long
gallery, one in front and one behind, and a long passage running down
the middle of the dwelling, with the rooms arranged on either side of
it. Each room has its own fireplace and is occupied by a single family.
One such communal house may contain from ten to twenty families with a
hundred or more men, women, and children, besides dogs, fowls, parrots,
and other creatures. When the house is built over the water, it is
commonly connected with the shore by a bridge; but in some places no
such bridge exists, and at high water the inmates can only communicate
with the shore by means of their canoes. The staple food of the people
is sago, which they extract from the sago-palm; but they also make use
of bread-fruit, together with millet, rice, and maize, whenever they can
obtain these cereals. Their flesh diet includes wild pigs, birds, fish,
and trepang. While some of them subsist mainly by fishing and commerce,
others devote themselves almost exclusively to the cultivation of their
gardens, which they lay out in clearings of the dense tropical forest,
employing chiefly axes and chopping-knives as their instruments of
tillage. Of ploughs they, like most savages, seem to know nothing. The
rice and other plants which they raise in these gardens are produced by
the dry method of cultivation. In hunting birds they employ chiefly bows
and arrows, but sometimes also snares. The arrows with which they shoot
the birds of paradise are blunted so as not to injure the splendid
plumage of the birds. Turtle-shells, feathers of the birds of paradise,
and trepang are among the principal articles which they barter with
traders for cotton-goods, knives, swords, axes, beads and so forth. They
display some skill and taste in wood-carving. The art of working in iron
has been introduced among them from abroad and is now extensively
practised by the men. They make large dug-out canoes with outriggers,
which seem to be very seaworthy, for they accomplish long voyages even
in stormy weather. The making of pottery, basket-work, and weaving,
together with pounding rice and cooking food, are the special business
of women. The men wear waistbands or loin-cloths made of bark, which is
beaten till it becomes as supple as leather. The women wear petticoats
or strips of blue cotton round their loins, and as ornaments they have
rings of silver, copper, or shell on their arms and legs.[483] Thus the
people have attained to a fair degree of barbaric culture.

[Sidenote: Fear of ghosts. Ideas of the spirit-world.]

Now it is significant that among these comparatively advanced savages
the fear of ghosts and the reverence entertained for them have developed
into something which might almost be called a systematic worship of the
dead. As to their fear of ghosts I will quote the evidence of a Dutch
missionary, Mr. J. L. van Hasselt, who lived for many years among them
and is the author of a grammar and dictionary of their language. He
says: "That a great fear of ghosts prevails among the Papuans is
intelligible. Even by day they are reluctant to pass a grave, but
nothing would induce them to do so by night. For the dead are then
roaming about in their search for gambier and tobacco, and they may also
sail out to sea in a canoe. Some of the departed, above all the
so-called _Mambrie_ or heroes, inspire them with especial fear. In such
cases for some days after the burial you may hear about sunset a
simultaneous and horrible din in all the houses of all the villages, a
yelling, screaming, beating and throwing of sticks; happily the uproar
does not last long: its intention is to compel the ghost to take himself
off: they have given him all that befits him, namely, a grave, a funeral
banquet, and funeral ornaments; and now they beseech him not to thrust
himself on their observation any more, not to breathe any sickness upon
the survivors, and not to kill them or 'fetch' them, as the Papuans put
it. Their ideas of the spirit-world are very vague. Their usual answer
to such questions is, 'We know not.' If you press them, they will
commonly say that the spirit realm is under the earth or under the
bottom of the sea. Everything there is as it is in the upper world, only
the vegetation down below is more luxuriant, and all plants grow faster.
Their fear of death and their helpless wailing over the dead indicate
that the misty kingdom of the shades offers but little that is
consolatory to the Papuan at his departure from this world."[484]

[Sidenote: Fear of ghosts in general and of the ghosts of the slain in
particular.]

Again, speaking of the natives of Doreh, a Dutch official observes that
"superstition and magic play a principal part in the life of the Papuan.
Occasions for such absurdities he discovers at every step. Thus he
cherishes a great fear of the ghosts of slain persons, for which reason
their bodies remain unburied on the spot where they were murdered. When
a murder has taken place in the village, the inhabitants assemble for
several evenings in succession and raise a fearful outcry in order to
chase away the soul, in case it should be minded to return to the
village. They set up miniature wooden houses here and there on trees in
the forest for the ghosts of persons who die of disease or through
accidents, believing that the souls take up their abode in them."[485]
The same writer remarks that these savages have no priests, but that
they have magicians (_kokinsor_), who practise exorcisms, work magic,
and heal the sick, for which they receive a small payment in articles of
barter or food.[486] Speaking of the Papuans of Dutch New Guinea in
general another writer informs us that "they honour the memory of the
dead in every way, because they ascribe to the spirits of the departed a
great influence on the life of the survivors.... Whereas in life all
good and evil comes from the soul, after death, on the other hand, the
spirit works for the most part only evil. It loves especially to haunt
by night the neighbourhood of its old dwelling and the grave; so the
people particularly avoid the neighbourhood of graves at night, and when
darkness has fallen they will not go out except with a burning brand....
According to the belief of the Papuans the ghosts cause sickness, bad
harvests, war, and in general every misfortune. From fear of such evils
and in order to keep them in good humour, the people make provision for
the spirits of the departed after death. Also they sacrifice to them
before every important undertaking and never fail to ask their
advice."[487]

[Sidenote: Papuan ideas as to the state of the dead.]

A Dutch writer, who has given us a comparatively full account of the
natives of Geelvink Bay, describes as follows their views in regard to
the state of the dead: "According to the Papuans the soul, which they
imagine to have its seat in the blood, continues to exist at the bottom
of the sea, and every one who dies goes thither. They imagine the state
of things there to be much the same as that in which they lived on
earth. Hence at his burial the dead man is given an equipment suitable
to his rank and position in life. He is provided with a bow and arrow,
armlets and body-ornaments, pots and pans, everything that may stand him
in good stead in the life hereafter. This provision must not be
neglected, for it is a prevalent opinion that the dead continue always
to maintain relations with the world and with the living, that they
possess superhuman power, exercise great influence over the affairs of
life on earth, and are able to protect in danger, to stand by in war, to
guard against shipwreck at sea, and to grant success in fishing and
hunting. For such weighty reasons the Papuans do all in their power to
win the favour of their dead. On undertaking a journey they are said
never to forget to hang amulets about themselves in the belief that
their dead will then surely help them; hence, too, when they are at sea
in rough weather, they call upon the souls of the departed, asking them
for better weather or a favourable breeze, in case the wind happens to
be contrary."[488]

[Sidenote: Wooden images of the dead (_korwar_).]

In order to communicate with these powerful spirits and to obtain their
advice and help in time of need, the Papuans of Geelvink Bay make wooden
images of their dead, which they keep in their houses and consult from
time to time. Every family has at least one such ancestral image, which
forms the medium whereby the soul of the deceased communicates with his
or her surviving relatives. These images or Penates, as we may call
them, are carved of wood, about a foot high, and represent the deceased
person in a standing, sitting, or crouching attitude, but commonly with
the hands folded in front. The head is disproportionately large, the
nose long and projecting, the mouth wide and well furnished with teeth;
the eyes are formed of large green or blue beads with black dots to
indicate the pupils. Sometimes the male figures carry a shield in the
left hand and brandish a sword in the right; while the female figures
are represented grasping with both hands a serpent which stands on its
coiled tail. Rags of many colours adorn these figures, and the hair of
the deceased, whom they represent, is placed between their legs. Such an
ancestral image is called a _korwar_ or _karwar_. The natives identify
these effigies with the deceased persons whom they portray, and
accordingly they will speak of one as their father or mother or other
relation. Tobacco and food are offered to the images, and the natives
greet them reverentially by bowing to the earth before them with the two
hands joined and raised to the forehead.

[Sidenote: Such images carried on voyages and consulted as oracles. The
images consulted in sickness.]

Such images are kept in the houses and carried in canoes on voyages, in
order that they may be at hand to help and advise their kinsfolk and
worshippers. They are consulted on many occasions, for example, when the
people are going on a journey, or about to fish for turtles or trepang,
or when a member of the family is sick, and his relations wish to know
whether he will recover. At these consultations the enquirer may either
take the image in his hands or crouch before it on the ground, on which
he places his offerings of tobacco, cotton, beads, and so forth. The
spirit of the dead is thought to be in the image and to pass from it
into the enquirer, who thus becomes inspired by the soul of the deceased
and acquires his superhuman knowledge. As a sign of his inspiration the
medium shivers and shakes. According to some accounts, however, this
shivering and shaking of the medium is an evil omen; whereas if he
remains tranquil, the omen is good. It is especially in cases of
sickness that the images are consulted. The mode of consultation has
been described as follows by a Dutch writer: "When any one is sick and
wishes to know the means of cure, or when any one desires to avert
misfortune or to discover something unknown, then in presence of the
whole family one of the members is stupefied by the fumes of incense or
by other means of producing a state of trance. The image of the deceased
person whose advice is sought is then placed on the lap or shoulder of
the medium in order to cause the soul to pass out of the image into his
body. At the moment when that happens, he begins to shiver; and,
encouraged by the bystanders, the soul speaks through the mouth of the
medium and names the means of cure or of averting the calamity. When he
comes to himself, the medium knows nothing of what he has been saying.
This they call _kor karwar_, that is, 'invoking the soul;' and they say
_karwar iwos_, 'the soul speaks.'" The writer adds: "It is sometimes
reported that the souls go to the underworld, but that is not true. The
Papuans think that after death the soul abides by the corpse and is
buried with it in the grave; hence before an image is made, if it is
necessary to consult the soul, the enquirer must betake himself to the
grave in order to do so. But when the image is made, the soul enters
into it and is supposed to remain in it so long as satisfactory answers
are obtained from it in consultation. But should the answers prove
disappointing, the people think that the soul has deserted the image, on
which they throw the image away as useless. Where the soul has gone,
nobody knows, and they do not trouble their heads about it, since it has
lost its power."[489] The person who acts as medium in consulting the
spirit may be either the house-father himself or a magician
(_konoor_).[490]

[Sidenote: Example of the consultation of an ancestral image.]

As an example of these consultations we may take the case of a man who
was suffering from a painful sore on his finger and wished to ascertain
the cause of the trouble. So he set one of the ancestral images before
him and questioned it closely. At first the image made no reply; but at
last the man remembered that he had neglected his duty to his dead
brother by failing to marry his widow, as, according to native custom,
he should have done. Now the natives believe that the dead can punish
them for any breach of customary law; so it occurred to our enquirer
that the ghost of his dead brother might have afflicted him with the
sore on his finger for not marrying his widow. Accordingly he put the
question to the image, and in doing so the compunction of a guilty
conscience caused him to tremble. This trembling he took for an answer
of the image in the affirmative, wherefore he went off and took the
widow to wife and provided for her maintenance.[491]

[Sidenote: Ancestral images consulted as to the cause of death.
Offerings to the images.]

Again, the ancestral images are often consulted to ascertain the cause
of a death; and if the image attributes the death to the evil magic of a
member of another tribe, an expedition will be sent to avenge the wrong
by slaying the supposed culprit. For the souls of the dead take it very
ill and wreak their spite on the survivors, if their death is not
avenged on their enemies. Not uncommonly the consultation of the images
merely furnishes a pretext for satisfying a grudge against an individual
or a tribe.[492] The mere presence of these images appears to be
supposed to benefit the sick; a woman who was seriously ill has been
seen to lie with four or five ancestral figures fastened at the head of
her bed. On enquiry she explained that they did not all belong to her,
but that some of them had been kindly lent to her by relations and
friends.[493] Again, the images are taken by the natives with them to
war, because they hope thereby to secure the help of the spirits whom
the images represent. Also they make offerings from time to time to the
effigies and hold feasts in their honour.[494] They observe, indeed,
that the food which they present to these household idols remains
unconsumed, but they explain this by saying that the spirits are content
to snuff up the savour of the viands, and to leave their gross material
substance alone.[495]

[Sidenote: Images of persons who have died away from home.]

In general, images are only made of persons who have died at home. But
in the island of Ron or Run they are also made of persons who have died
away from home or have fallen in battle. In such cases the difficulty is
to compel the soul to quit its mortal remains far away and come to
animate the image. However, the natives of Ron have found means to
overcome this difficulty. They first carve the wooden image of the dead
person and then call his soul back to the village by setting a great
tree on fire, while the family assemble round it and one of them,
holding the image in his hand, acts the part of a medium, shivering and
shaking and falling into a trance after the approved fashion of mediums
in many lands. After this ceremony the image is supposed to be animated
by the soul of the deceased, and it is kept in the house with as much
confidence as any other.[496]

[Sidenote: Sometimes the head of the image is composed of the skull of
the deceased.]

Sometimes the head of the image consists of the skull of the deceased,
which has been detached from the skeleton and inserted in a hole at the
top of the effigy. In such cases the body of the image is of wood and
the head of bone. It is especially men who have distinguished themselves
by their bravery or have earned a name for themselves in other ways who
are thus represented. Apparently the notion is that as a personal relic
of the departed the skull is better fitted to retain his soul than a
mere head of wood. But in the island of Ron or Run, and perhaps
elsewhere, skull-topped images of this sort are made for all firstborn
children, whether male or female, young or old, at least for all who die
from the age of twelve years and upward. These images have a special
name, _bemar boo_, which means "head of a corpse." They are kept in the
room of the parents who have lost the child.[497]

[Sidenote: Mode of preparing such skull-headed images.]

The mode in which such images are prepared is as follows. The body of
the firstborn child, who dies at the age of years or upwards, is laid in
a small canoe, which is deposited in a hut erected behind the
dwelling-house. Here the mother is obliged to keep watch night and day
beside the corpse and to maintain a blazing fire till the head drops off
the body, which it generally does about twenty days after the death.
Then the trunk is wrapped in leaves and buried, but the head is brought
into the house and carefully preserved. Above the spot where it is
deposited a small opening is made in the roof, through which a stick is
thrust bearing some rags or flags to indicate that the remains of a dead
body are in the house. When, after the lapse of three or four months,
the nose and ears of the head have dropped off, and the eyes have
mouldered away, the relations and friends assemble in the house of
mourning. In the middle of the assembly the father of the child crouches
on his hams with downcast look in an attitude of grief, while one of the
persons present begins to carve a new nose and a new pair of ears for
the skull out of a piece of wood. The kind of wood varies according as
the deceased was a male or a female. All the time that the artist is at
work, the rest of the company chant a melancholy dirge. When the nose
and ears are finished and have been attached to the skull, and small
round fruits have been inserted in the hollow sockets of the eyes to
represent the missing orbs, a banquet follows in honour of the deceased,
who is now represented by his decorated skull set up on a block of wood
on the table. Thus he receives his share of the food and of the cigars,
and is raised to the rank of a domestic idol or _korwar_. Henceforth the
skull is carefully kept in a corner of the chamber to be consulted as an
oracle in time of need. The bodies of fathers and mothers are treated in
the same way as those of firstborn children. On the other hand the
bodies of children who die under the age of two years are never buried.
The remains are packed in baskets of rushes covered with lids and
tightly corded, and the baskets are then hung on the branches of tall
trees, where no more notice is taken of them. Four or five such baskets
containing the mouldering bodies of infants may sometimes be seen
hanging on a single tree.[498] The reason for thus disposing of the
remains of young children is said to be as follows. A thick mist hangs
at evening over the top of the dense tropical forest, and in the mist
dwell two spirits called Narwur and Imgier, one male and the other
female, who kill little children, not out of malice but out of love,
because they wish to have the children with them. So when a child dies,
the parents fasten its little body to the branches of a tall tree in the
forest, hoping that the spirit pair will take it and be satisfied, and
will spare its small brothers and sisters.[499]

[Sidenote: Mummification of the dead.]

In some parts of Geelvink Bay, however, the bodies of the dead are
treated differently. For example, on the south coast of the island of
Jobi or Jappen and elsewhere the corpses are reduced to mummies by being
dried on a bamboo stage over a slow fire; after which the mummies, wrapt
in cloth, are kept in the house, being either laid along the wall or
hung from the ceiling. When the number of these relics begins to
incommode the living inmates of the house, the older mummies are removed
and deposited in the hollow trunks of ancient trees. In some tribes who
thus mummify their dead the juices of corruption which drip from the
rotting corpse are caught in a vessel and given to the widow to drink,
who is forced to gulp them down under the threat of decapitation if she
were to reject the loathsome beverage.[500]

[Sidenote: Restrictions observed by mourners. Tattooing in honour of the
dead. Teeth of the dead worn by relatives.]

The family in which a death has taken place is subject for a time to
certain burdensome restrictions, which are probably dictated by a fear
of the ghost. Thus all the time till the effigy of the deceased has been
made and a feast given in his honour, they are obliged to remain in the
house without going out for any purpose, not even to bathe or to fetch
food and drink. Moreover they must abstain from the ordinary articles of
diet and confine themselves to half-baked cakes of sago and other
unpalatable viands. As these restrictions may last for months they are
not only irksome but onerous, especially to people who have no slaves to
fetch and carry for them. However, in that case the neighbours come to
the rescue and supply the mourners with wood, water, and the other
necessaries of life, until custom allows them to go out and help
themselves. After the effigy of the dead has been made, the family go in
state to a sacred place to purify themselves by bathing. If the journey
is made by sea, no other canoe may meet or sail past the canoe of the
mourners under pain of being confiscated to them and redeemed at a heavy
price. On their return from the holy place, the period of mourning is
over, and the family is free to resume their ordinary mode of life and
their ordinary victuals.[501] That the seclusion of the mourners in the
house for some time after the death springs from a fear of the ghost is
not only probable on general grounds but is directly suggested by a
custom which is observed at the burial of the body. When it has been
laid in the earth along with various articles of daily use, which the
ghost is supposed to require for his comfort, the mourners gather round
the grave and each of them picks up a leaf, which he folds in the shape
of a spoon and holds several times over his head as if he would pour out
the contents upon it. As they do so, they all murmur, "_Rur i rama_,"
that is, "The spirit comes." This exclamation or incantation is supposed
to prevent the ghost from troubling them. The gravediggers may not enter
their houses till they have bathed and so removed from their persons the
contagion of death, in order that the soul of the deceased may have no
power over them.[502] Mourners sometimes tattoo themselves in honour of
the dead. For a father, the marks are tattooed on the cheeks and under
the eyes; for a grandfather, on the breast; for a mother, on the
shoulders and arms; for a brother, on the back. On the death of a father
or mother, the eldest son or, if there is none such, the eldest daughter
wears the teeth and hair of the deceased. When the teeth of old people
drop out, they are kept on purpose to be thus strung on a string and
worn by their sons or daughters after their death. Similarly, a mother
wears as a permanent mark of mourning the teeth of her dead child strung
on a cord round her neck, and as a temporary mark of mourning a little
bag on her throat containing a lock of the child's hair.[503] The
intention of these customs is not mentioned. Probably they are not
purely commemorative but designed in some way either to influence for
good the spirit of the departed or to obtain its help and protection for
the living.