GHOST WORSHIP AND TREE WORSHIP. 649 



feel the strain imposed upon their consciences harder than they 

 can bear. 



One of the most striking pieces of evidence I have been able to 

 obtain, however, is that of the Tanese in the New Hebrides, who, 

 says Mr. Turner, in a passage I have already partly quoted, " have 

 no idols. The banyan tree forms their sacred grove or temple for 

 religious worship. . . . The spirits of their departed ancestors 

 were among their gods. Chiefs who reached an advanced age 

 were after death deified, addressed by name, and prayed to on vari- 

 ous occasions. They were supposed especially to preside over the 

 growth of the yams and the different fruit trees. The first fruits 

 were presented to them, and in doing this they laid a little of the 

 fruit on some stone " (query, a gravestone ?) " or shelving branch 

 of the tree, or some more temporary altar of a few rough sticks 

 from the bush, lashed together with strips of bark, in the form of 

 a table with its four feet stuck in the ground. All being quiet, the 

 chief acted as high priest and prayed aloud thus : ' Compassionate 

 father, here is some food for you ; eat it ; be kind to us on account 

 of it/ And instead of an amen, all united in a loud shout." * 



In Fiji, once more, the first fruits of the yam harvest are pre- 

 sented to the ancestors in the Nanga or sacred stone inclosure ; 

 and no man may taste of the new crop till the presentation has 

 been made, a trait found also among other savages. The yams 

 thus offered are piled up in the inclosure, and no one is allowed to 

 touch them under pain of severe ghostly punishment. A mission 

 teacher told Mr. Fison that when he visited the spot he saw among 

 the weeds that grew there numerous yam vines which had sprung 

 from the piles of decayed offerings — a most suggestive fact in the 

 light of the origin I conjecturally assign to cultivation. f 



In all these cases, and many others that might be quoted, it is 

 to ancestral spirits as such that the offering is made. But often 

 our authorities mention gods rather than ghosts, though the dis- 

 tinction between the two is probably but a small one. Among the 

 Basutos, for instance, when the corn has been thrashed, it is left 

 in a heap on the thrashing-floor, and can not be touched till a 

 religious ceremony has been performed to sain it. The owners 

 bring a new vessel, never used, to the spot, in which they boil a 

 little of the corn as a sacrificial duty. Then they throw a few 

 handfuls on the heap, saying : " Thank you, gods ; give us bread 

 to-morrow also." When this has been done, the rest may safely 

 be eaten.J Many other cases are recorded by Mr. Frazer in the 

 appendix to The Golden Bough. 



* Op. cit., p. 319. 



\ Rev. L. Fison in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xiv, p. 27 



\ Casalis, The Basutos, p. 252. 



VOL. XLII. 44 



