DOBUAN BELIEFS AND FOLK-LORE. 419 



When making a garden knives and axes are charmed, and there 

 are special incantations before burning off, before digging, before 

 planting, while the crop is growing, when the harvest is reaped. 



Every part of a canoe is charmed as it is being made right up 

 to the launching. Fishing and hunting nets are charmed, spears 

 and implements of warfare, houses and trees. 



If a woman becomes the envy of the other women because of her 

 good gardening qualities, and the care she takes of her supplies of 

 yams, thus earning the title of Arawata — the highest title a woman 

 can possess — the jealous will try to get hold of her peeling shell, 

 which they will bewitch so as to cause her to be reckless and careless 

 over the food and to lose her title. 



If a young man becomes a hardworking gardener, much to the 

 joy of hi? friends, the neighbouring families will become jealous 

 and will secretly bewitch his gardening tools, so as to cause him to 

 hate them and become lazy. 



// the young folk become too fond of their distant relations and 

 visit them too often, the near relations become jealous and secretly 

 bewitch their food and drink, also their sleeping houses to keep 

 them at home. 



// visitors come repeatedly until their hosts are tired of seeing 

 them, the latter will charm the rollers on which the visitors' canoe 

 will be launched, so that they will not return for a long time. 



Rain, wind, drought, blessing and calamity are brought about 

 by human agency. 



Eclipses of the sun and the moon are caused by women with 

 secret powers who throw spears made out of the small ribs of the 

 cocoanut leaf through the interstices of the houses. 



From the above it will be understood how firm a hold sorcery 

 and witchcraft have of this people, in fact they will tell you that 

 in order to escape the evils awaiting them they must ever be on 

 the watch and never over-confident. To scorn or try to throw off 

 the effects of incantations, except through medicine men, will only 

 result in speedy death. 



The Origin of Cannibalism. — A giant named Tokedokeketa 

 lived on Fergusson Island, near the sulphur springs. He was of 

 immense size and a great warrior. He had a wife, and his mother 

 lived with them. It was his custom to go out with his net, into 

 which he put all the people he could catch. He and his wife and 

 mother lived on the victims he caught. Human flesh was their 

 only food. The giant was wont to blow a conch-shell and beat 

 a drum when he returned with human prey in his net. At last 

 the people of the land were so exasperated at their losses through 

 Tokedokeketa's depredations that they gathered together and 

 determined to kill their enemy. The giant poled along the coast 

 in his canoe, and as usual hauled it up at the landing-place of the 

 Wariboa tribe. He proceeded inland to the plain, where the host 

 was preparing to meet him. When the warriors saw him coming 

 with his great net on his back they divided into companies and 



