70 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



cases came before him will give a very good idea of 

 the ways of the sorcery man in Papua : 



1C The number of sorcery cases will at once attract 

 attention as remarkable. It does not, however, 

 indicate any widespread growth of sorcery or even 

 any unusual energy on the part of the village police 

 or the magistrate to root out this offence. The 

 largest tribe in the Division, the Maisin people, were 

 perturbed at the number of deaths in their villages, 

 and came to the conclusion that the deaths must be 

 due to the sorcery experts among their friends the 

 Kubiri people. They decided that this could not be 

 allowed to go on without making the Kubiri people 

 pay for it. So the Maisin natives to the number of 

 seventy-one went to the Kubiri villages and said, ' You 

 must pay for these people you have killed ' fortun- 

 ately the Papuan will usually accept a pig as compen- 

 sation for any relative, especially if the Government is 

 near * or else our sorcerers will make pouri-pouri and 

 take payment by making all sorts of disasters happen 

 to your tribe.' The Kubiri people promptly handed 

 over the required pigs and other articles, more appar- 

 ently from fear of pouri-pouri than from fear of any 

 actual violence. News was shortly brought to the 

 Government station and a summons sent to the Maisin 

 people to come in. This they did to the number of 

 sixty-five, and the six stragglers arrived during the 

 next few days and explained that they were away 

 from the village when the summons came. They all 



