312 NEJV GUINEA [chap. 



path leading up to it. WHiat it was, whether the spoil of some 

 encounter with the Alfuros or not, we did not learn, but on another 

 occasion we found a small box containing the skeleton of a young 

 cliild in a like situation. It was an offering to Narvoii — a spirit 

 in whom the Jobi islanders believe in common with the Dorei 

 people. Narvoii is no malicious demon like the Manuen, but a 

 good spirit, whose abode is in the mists and the tops of giant forest- 

 trees, where he lives in company with a female spirit named Ingira. 

 He is a little mannikin with long white hair, old and decrepid; who 

 wanders ceaselessly at night in the forest and haunts the outskirts 

 of the villages, ever on the watch for children, whom he kills 

 because he loves them and likes to have them always with him. 

 All young children who die, and even those who are killed by 

 their mothers at biith, are offered to Narvoii in the manner I have 

 described, in the hope that he will be thus propitiated, and refrain 

 from killing others. 



In Jobi, as in other parts of Xew Guinea, there is no lack of 

 malaria, and though the sea-dweUings and consequent canoe-life of 

 the people is no doubt a great safeguard against it, they are by no 

 means exempt from its effects. Of other diseases we saw little or 

 nothing, with the single exception of a skin affection which, though 

 not uncommon in jSTorth-west Xew Guinea and, I believe, in otlier 

 parts of the island and Polynesia also, appeared to be very frequent 

 at Ansus ; so frequent indeed that probably not less than fifteen or 

 twenty per cent of the population were affected. It is a form of 

 gyrate psoriasis, which, spreading from various centres, covers the 

 skin with circles of extraordinary accuracy of outline. In time 

 these meet, and ultimately the greater part, or even the whole of 

 the body, becomes covered with these marks, ring forming within 

 ring much as the wavelets caused by the splash of a pebble in a 

 pool. Individuals suffering from this disorder, which would seem 

 to be of a most obstinate character, if not actually incurable, are 

 conspicuous at some little distance, owing to the whitish and scaly 

 appearance presented by the skin. The patterns formed by this 



