PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 623 
reed wall of the Bure, and hit a boy within, who was doing the 
invocation chant and beating his bamboo upon the ground. The 
lad fell back, breathing quick, and the people cried out that he 
was possessed; but he was dying. When they saw the blood 
flowing they then woke up to the fact. The Vuniduvu then 
professed to be possessed, ran backwards, shaking all over his 
frame with simulated ‘ possession,” and as soon as he reached the 
bushes, ran at full speed from the scene. This belief in the 
Vodevode proved, as I had abundant opportunities of observing, 
a most obstinate infatuation. I pointed out a young man with a 
gunshot wound through the neck, who, a few days before, had 
been in the invulnerable condition, and asked how they accounted 
for his hurt. ‘‘He had broken the /aéu, and eaten bananas” 
was the reply. Another warrior limped past, with a hole in his 
thigh. “He had connection with a woman just before the fight,” 
they explained, “and that destroyed the charm.” These people. 
are full of explanations as to failures. Another of the beliefs of 
the people is that in sprites or fairies. ‘“ Veli” they call them. 
A Veli they describe as a little hairy figure carrying a spear. A 
similar belief is to be found in Melanesia, and also in British 
Venezuela, and Brazilian Guiana, where the Indians tell of a 
wild hairy man, who they call “didi”; short, thick-set, powerful, 
his body covered with hair, and who lives in the forest. The 
Fijians avow that the Ve/zs produce the echoes, and I was told, 
when in the hills, that at the town of Nasaucoko was a woman 
who had been under their power for some months. When in the 
district of Wainimala, at the foot of the Dividing Range, a thick 
wood was shown where the secret rites of the “ Nanga,” or 
“Mbaki,” were performed. It was extremely difticult to extract 
from the natives any information as to these. They resemble those 
of Freemasonry in their initiations and mysteries, and the secret 
was kept until lately with a like marvellous success. The secret 
mysteries of the Vazga, practised for years before the open demon- 
stration ; the stone enclosures containing men of different grades 
of initiation ; the central mound, with the boar’s head upon the 
top, dedicate to the demon ; the extraordinary proceedings that 
form a part of the more public ceremonies surpassing and 
forbidding description, together with the magic charm that the 
whole affair is supposed to exert upon the health of the ruling 
chief, make it a most interesting study, particularly when taken 
in conjunction with the “ Duk Duk” of the Duke of York’s 
Group and other secret societies throughout Polynesia. 
The mountaineers practice circumcision and some very horrible 
surgical rites, such as the patients rarely recover from. They 
also tattoo women, first in their private parts and then at the 
corners of the mouth; the latter tattoo marks being indicative of 
the existence of more elaborate tattooing in the former locality. 
