700 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



Food in this district is abundant, and the natives are all 

 plump and well fed. 



Wiza7rls. 



The native wizards say that the temeses appear to men in 

 their sleep and confer magic powers upon them. 



They may use their powers for evil, but generally, in the 

 cases I have known, it has been for good, such as for bring- 

 ing rain. 



They are often consulted and paid to lay charms on people 

 to cause death. 



In connection with the discovering of causes of death, let 

 me relate the following incident. In the village of Balel or 

 Verelumbon many people were dying, and suspicion fell 

 upon one man, a sacred man, called Mulunevit, that he was 

 causing the deaths. In great wrath, Mulunevit arose and 

 slew a pig, vowing that he was innocent, and sent the carcase 

 of the pig to a bush village called Baruta, ordering them to 

 bring the " Nelimp " to find out the guilty person. This 

 " Nelimp " is a piece of bamboo, 6 to 12-ft. long. Three 

 men are blindfolded and raise it aloft in their hands. They 

 say it begins to pull in a certain direction, and they move 

 on directed by its drawing. At last it leads them to the 

 house of the guilty one and transfixes the thatch. In this 

 case it struck the house of a man in Verelumbon called 

 Ambungtemen, who had to pay two pigs, one to the relatives 

 of the dead and another to the witch-finders. Of course 1 

 did not see this, but such is the natives' account. 



Death. 



Women and children are buried in the bush, a mound is 

 heaped over the grave, and a banana planted in the centre ; 

 reeds and branches are also stuck in, and her mats, &c. are 

 hung over them. 



As to the burial of men, they are either buried or exposed 

 on a bier in the bush until the flesh decays, and then their 

 bones are buried undei* a heap of stones in the Batua or 

 burial place. Their huts are left to rot. Sacrifices of pigs 

 are offered at intervals at the grave, and one oi' two men 

 watch it for a month (30 days), all the while blowing on 

 conches or bamboos at intervals. Gashes are cut on the 

 bodies of mourners, and j^igs are sacrificed at the funeral 

 according to the rank of the deceased. 



Spirit world is called Leiemis, and is somewhere beIo\^% 



