XIII SPIRITUAL EXISTENCES 23 



which they are regarded. Nevertheless these 

 beings are not wholly malevolent. It is held that 

 in some way their presence in the house brings 

 prosperity to it, especially in the form of good crops ; 

 and so essential to the welfare of the house are the 

 heads held to be that, if through fire a house has 

 lost its heads and has no occasion for war, the 

 people will beg a head, or even a fragment of one, 

 from some friendly house, and will instal it in their 

 own with the usual ceremonies. 



The Toh of the heads are but a few among many 

 that are conceived as surrounding the houses and 

 infesting the tombs, the rivers, the forests, the 

 mountains, the caves, and, by those who live near 

 the coast, the sea ; in fact every locality has its 

 Toh, and, since they are easily offended and roused 

 to bring harm, the people are careful to avoid 

 offence and to practise every rite by which it is 

 thought possible to propitiate them. Death and 

 sickness, especially madness, accidental bodily in- 

 juries, failure of crops, in fact almost any trouble 

 may be ascribed to the malevolent action of Toh. 

 Examples of the way conduct is influenced by this 

 belief are the following : — 



In clearing a patch of jungle in preparation for 

 sowing /^<3fz, it is usual to leave a few trees standing 

 on some high point of the ground in order not to 

 offend the Toh of the locality by depriving them of 

 all the trees, which they are vaguely supposed to 

 make use of as resting-places. Such trees are 

 sometimes stripped of all their branches save a few 

 at the top ; and sometimes a pole is lashed across 

 the stem at a height from the ground and bunches 

 of palm leaves hung upon it ; a " bull-roarer," which is 

 used by boys as a toy, is sometimes hung upon such 

 a cross-piece to dangle and flicker in the breeze.^ 



^ We are not aware that the *' bull-roarer" is put to any other uses than 

 this by any of the tribes. 



VOL. II C 



