IN BUliU. 405 



payment from those who desire some evil to befall an eneniy 

 without suspicion of its originator. The Swangi is supposed 

 to be able to cover with misfortune whom he will without 

 their being aware whence the disaster comes. 



Their dead are buried in the forest in some seclnded spot 

 far from other graves, and marked often by a merang or grave 

 pole, and over which at certain intervals their relatives place 

 tobacco, cigarettes, and various offerings. ^Vhen the body is 

 decomposed, the son or nearest relative disinters the head, 

 wraps a new cloth about it, and places it in the Matakau at the 

 back of his house, or in a little hut erected for it near the 

 grave. It is the representative of his forefathers ^\hose behests 

 he holds in the greatest respect. 



The day after our arrival was spent from break of day in 

 botanising, collecting birds, and in examining the lake. This 

 is a magnificent sheet of water, several miles in diameter and 

 some 40 to 50 fathoms deep, indented with many beautiful 

 bays, embracing the hills ^hich abruptly rise up from it on all 

 sides. It was not an easy matter to get the Merinyo of the 

 place to give us a boat and rowers to make an examination of its 

 margins,, and only after a long invocation to the spirit of the 

 Lake would he consent to accompany us. It is only with 

 the utmost awe and dread that they trust themselves on its 

 surface. They have many strange legends concerning it. One 

 of these is that at certain periods a Lagundi tree {Vitex sp.) 

 suddenly grows up the centre of the Lake, its appearance 

 l>eing accompanied by fearful storms of wind and waves, and 

 the terrified cries of the birds that crowd its margins. On 

 the subsiding of the storm the Lagundi is found to have dis- 

 appeared. Another superstition is, that on the firing of a gun 

 a thunderstorm is liable to break out, sent by the angered 

 spirits. Every chief, therefore, on his arrival at the Lake 

 plants a white stick in the ground as a signal of peace. Ihe 

 Wakolo men who rowed me kept up an invocation the whole 

 time we were out, and they positively refused to take me 

 out into the middle or even very far from the shore. A 

 crocodile— one of the animals sacred in the mythology ot l.uru 

 is also supposed to reside in the lake, T^'hence once a year 



^t pays a visit to the shore. . . 



It is singular that no- fish except eels live m its waters. 



