RACES BIBLIOGRAPHY COMMITTEE. 315 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 
Huts are built of wood, on wooden piles about 9 feet above 
the ground. The house slants towards the back. In the front 
there is a platform. They plant yams, taro, sweet potatoes, sugar- 
cane, and always have plenty. There is a very large supply of 
sago, and at all times itis used. Spoons made from cocoanuts 
are used for sago and any other soft food, a one-pronged fork is 
used for other food. They always cook in pots bought from the Motu 
tribe. They have two mealsa day asa rule, sometimes only one. 
Husband sleeps in the Eramo, and only occasionally visits his 
wife, and very seldom sleeps a whole night with her. When 
they are alone in plantations they will have intercourse. 
Father and small children will eat together, and mother, grown- 
up daughters, daughters-in-law or other female relatives eat apart. 
Sometimes grown-up sons will eat with the father, but more 
frequently come in after the meal and have their food. 
Strangers are kindly treated and fed regularly as long as they 
like to remain. Male strangers live in the Eramos, women in 
houses with other women. They cover themselves from the cold 
with a cloth, made by the men from the bark of a tree, some 
made from mulberry tree. 
They are greatly given to ornamenting themselves, using 
various coloured ochres, and marking in various ways. They 
wear feathers and shell ornaments of various kinds, also collars, 
garters, and anklets made of netted twine. All men on feast 
days wear a large carved belt, made from the bark of a tree. 
They are all well nourished. 
wiIzaRDs (Karisu Vita). 
There are none here, but plenty at Kerema and Vailala. A 
spirit enters into a man, and he becomes Karisu Vita. The spirit 
gives him power. When he desires to kill anyone he gets various 
kinds of plants, cooks them, and drinks the water. He then goes 
outside, and near to where the party is asleep whom he wishes to 
destroy. He goes through some incantations, when pigs’ and 
dogs’ bones enter into sleeping one, who soon wakes up ill, and 
not long after dies. The spirit is said then to carry heart, lungs 
and liver to some other place, where they are buried. 
These Karisu Vita are employed by others, and receive large 
payment in pigs, shell ornaments and feathers. 
When anyone is sick the Karisu Vita is fetched, who prays, and 
then extracts from the sick one’s body pigs’ and dogs’ bones, and 
sometimes men’s. He is then paid. Should the sick one die, it 
is because some spirit is having revenge for some misdeed. 
The Karisu Vita can cause sickness, and can drive it away. 
They declare the cause of death, and point out who killed. 
