NOTES ON THE TANNESE. 651 



3. Belief in one snpreme divinity called Uhgen. It is not 

 however certain that Uhgen is a being. It is clearly the 

 supernatural power that is behind all things. A watch, a gun 

 lock, even a stone wall that a missionary will build, is nadi 

 man Uhgen, a thing made by God. The native mind does 

 not think of more than one Uhgen. But Uhgen com- 

 prehends the great supernatural power or powers for that 

 matter, conceived of as a nnity, behind all things, and is 

 benevolent. But beyond that the native mind has not 

 reasoned out what his character is. 



4. Behef that Uhgen has spoken to man. This is the key 

 to the understanding of a Tanna man's religion. Ask about 

 any natural feature, the answer is " Uhgen put it there." 

 Ask who gave names to the Iniaiums, "Uhgen did." Ask 

 about the origin of any custom, " Uhgen gave it to our fore- 

 fathers long ago." Above all ; whei-e do Tannese get their 

 sacred stones ? The answer is, " Uhgen gave them to our 

 foi'efathers long ago." But ask who makes bread-fruit, fish, 

 yams, rain, wind, sunshine, the answer is, " Such and such a 

 man." How does he do it? "Uhgen gave this power to 

 certain of our ancestors long ago." In short, Ughen made 

 the world and committed, what we call Providence, to certain 

 men. On the caprice of these, their fellow men must depend. 

 It is these fellows that do all the mischief in human life. 



5. We come now to consider the toots by means of which 

 these men, to whom the Providence of the world is committed, 

 execute their trust. The outward forms of these tools are 

 the ".stone idols" for the most part. These are called 

 nauvetimin literally, perhaps, the lutnps. The Tannese have 

 " lumps " for doing everything in the whole universe of 

 heaven and earth. There are some supernatural powers 

 possessed by the Tannese which do not require the aid of 

 " lumps." It was Uhgen that showed the ancients how to do 

 these things. This knowledge is strictly a revelation from 

 Uhgen. This knowledge consists of: — 



(I.) Things that are Talismanic. There are certain stones 

 handled or carried about the person when engaged in Avar. 

 This will bring the enemy within range. There is a process 

 of capturing a butterfly which is an indication that the person 

 is to go to war and will be victorious. A small piece of wood 

 carried on the person will render him invisible to others while 

 he can see them. And so on ad infinitum. 



(2.) Tilbahans, what is now known as taboo. These are 

 without number, and most useful amongst a people who have 



