SAVAGE LIFE IN NEW BRITAIN. 453 



of the world and the ancient civilisations, as revealed on the cylinders 

 of Chaldea, some of which date back to 4,000 B.C., and in the folk-lore 

 of many peoples, and still lingering- among us, as some assert, in our 

 maypole and Christmas tree. The banyan tree is one calculated to 

 arouse curiosity and wonder among a primitive race. Contrary to 

 ordinary methods of vegetable growth, instead of rooting first in the 

 ground, it grows down to it. A seed carried by a bird or a breeze and 

 lodged on some palm or tree, bursts into life, and sends down itr. 

 roots to the earth in long rope-like tentacles. These each take root, 

 and develop into a trunk, and many others follow, until the original 

 tree on which it first sprouted is killed and hundreds of titinks, big 

 and little, cover large areas of ground. Such deviation from the 

 ordinary life of vegetable matter can only be accounted for, according 

 to the savage mind, by supernatural agency, and the people regai'd 

 the tree wiith great fear. This tree is also held in fear by the 

 Indians. " A Bengal folk-tale tells of a certain banyan tree haunted 

 by spirits who had a habit of wringing the necks of all who ventured 

 to approach the tree at night. In another Indian stoiy a tree that 

 ^•rew beside a Brahntan's house was inhabited by a Saakehinni, a 

 female spirit of white complexion, who one day seized the Brahman's 

 wife, and thrust her into a hole in the tree.''* It is, however, veiy 

 difficult to learn what particular form of malice the Banyan tree 

 spirit in New' Britain favours. I am disposed to think the minds o^ 

 the people hold it in a general dread of illness and death rather than 

 as producing special forms of punishment for intrusion upon its 

 sacred precincts, and it is one of the surest signs of growing enlighten- 

 ment when a man dares its dreadful influence by -approaching and 

 handling the tree without fear and consequent illness. 



A shooting star is to the savage of New Britain a thing of fear. 

 On Duke of York Group it is called a Wirua. Now, wirua means to 

 •die by violence principally, and a wirua is the coi'pse for a cannibal 

 feast. Hence, when a shooting star flashes across the sky, people cry 

 out "A wirua, a iviruaf" and the belief is that when the star flashes 

 on its way a person has just been killed for cannibal purposes. In New 

 Britain the name given to a meteor is tuluffiai ra virua — i.e-, the 

 soul of a body killed for cannibalistic purposes. Another name for 

 meteor on one part of New Britain is -palalilivai, the etymology of 

 which is obscure. LUivai means either the kneecap or the calyx of the 

 ■c^coanut or scoop. Pal may mean skin or house, according as to its 

 context. Palalilivai also means the ignis fatuus, the similarity of a 

 meteor to which is clearly seen, and in all probability the word refers 

 primarily to that. It is evidently a compound word, the true etymo- 

 logical meaning of which is now lost. The words tvhigiai ra virua, 

 however, show how vitally connected in the savage mind are human 

 affairs with the super-human world. 



The flying-fox is a favoui'ite dish with the people, and is also an 

 object of fear, especially in the islands of Duke of York. The word 

 for a poor man is qanau, which is also the name for a flying fox, 

 and again the connection of the human and the spiritual is denoted. 

 This animal inhabits dens and caves of the eai-th, and becomes active 

 only at night, a time which is full of teiTor for the savage. It is the 



* The Sacred Tree. Mr. J. H. Philpot. 



