THE ISLAND OF NIAS AND ITS PEOPLE. 237 



mate children are put into a sack, with an egg and a stick 

 of sugar-cane, and hung on a limb to starve. Murders are 

 avenged in blood by the friends of the victim, or the crime 

 is brought before the chief and punished with a fine, of which 

 the relatives receive a part. In case this is not acceptable to 

 them, they proceed to exercise justice according to their own 

 views. 



Thefts are punished by death or fine. If the thief is not 

 found, a curse is issued against him, by, for instance, burning 

 a dog alive and invoking a similar fate upon the guilty man. 

 Ordeals are employed for the detection of thefts — as the ordeal 

 of water ; or a hen's head is cut off, and notice is taken of the 

 person toward whom the decapitated fowl flies. The resumption 

 of friendly relations after disagreement is sealed by the impreca- 

 tion of a terrible curse upon the party who shall renew the quar- 

 rel. The parties and their friends in succession take in hand a 

 palm-leaf which is supposed to represent the person upon whom 

 the curse is destined to fall, present it before the ancestral fig- 

 ures, and say, " If any malice is left in N. N.'s heart, if he seeks 

 to do harm to the other, then twist his neck, O image of my 

 father, image of my grandfather ! " 



When a child is born, the father and mother must refrain 

 from doing anything that can possibly suggest evil, lest it fall 

 upon the child. They must not slay any beast, they must not 

 eat of a pig that has died (to which otherwise they are not 

 averse), they must not pass by where a man or an animal has 

 been killed, or make an idol or a water-trough, or blow a bel- 

 lows, or burn a field, or heat iron, or take a knife in hand, etc. 

 In any such cases, the child is supposed to acquire some of the 

 unpleasant qualities associated with the obnoxious object or act, 

 in a symbolical if not real sense. 



In time the child is introduced to the ancestral gods, and a 

 name is given him, which usually has some particular signifi- 

 cance, and often relates to some fact in the family history. 

 Daughters are not welcome, and are liable to be given such 

 names as " The no use," or " It doesn't taste well." But many of 

 the unpleasant names that are heard are such as are given as 

 nicknames " for luck " ; for, when a child is called by his true 

 name, the evil spirits may learn it and bring harm to him. Cir- 

 cumcision is customary, in connection with which offerings are 

 made for the child's health, and to inform the ancestral gods 

 that the rite has been performed. 



The price of brides varies according to their station, and is 

 shared by the girl's relatives, the chief, and the people of the 

 village; but the village people's share gets divided into too 

 small sums to be reckoned in money, and is paid out in little 



