649 



mysterious shadows moving in the dark. He can be heard, 

 however, as he moves about. The Bard' us travel great 

 distances ; they come like the wind, quickly and invisible, but 

 B>s to the exact method of these aerial flights my informants 

 were unable to give me any details, saying that this was 

 entirely the concern of the Bard'u, and referring me to such 

 a one for further information. This, of course, was hopeless, 

 since a Bard'u is extremely careful in preserving his incognito, 

 especially to white men. I knew, however, the names of some 

 men in Mailu who were suspected of belonging to the craft, 

 and these were precisely the men who would not even give the 

 popular version of the problem. 



There was some lack of precision in the statements, andla-ck 

 of agreement between my informants, when I came to inquire 

 about the details of the method used by the Bard'u in securing 

 his victim. In broad outline, the version universally 

 approved by my informants corresponded exactly with the 

 description given by Prof. Seligman of the Koita. C^^) The 

 Bard'u comes to Mailu and finds his victim asleep in the 

 house. He kills the man and restores him to life again ; or 

 he touches him with a magical substance, when he pines away 

 and presently dies. Or else a Bard'u, fixing upon two or 

 three men fishing or walking in the gardens, stuns them with 

 properly administered blows of a club, but the victim never 

 knows he has been operated upon by a Bard'u. 



In general outline this is the belief universally held. 

 There were, however, discrepancies among my informants' 

 statements in respect to details. Thus some said that the 

 Bard'u opens the man's body and takes something out of it, 

 or puts something into it — a version identical again with that 

 obtained in m.ore detail by Prof. C. G. Seligman among the 

 Koita. Another of my informants told me that the Bard'u's 

 method consists in the touching of a man's body, or even his 

 footprints, v/ith some leaves, and then in putting the latter 

 into a preparation also called Bard'u. The ingredients of this 

 mixture are salt water, wild ginger roots, and Gohii, the bark 

 of the native cinnamon tree. Yet another informant said 

 that sometimes the Bard'u simply touches the victim with his 

 mixture. ^"^^^ 



(78) Op. cif., pp. 170 and 171. Cf. also pp. 187 and 188 and 

 pi. xxxi. 



(79) This also corresponds with what Dr. Seligman found to be 

 the practiioe amongst the Bard'u of the Milne Bay natives (op. 

 cit., pp. 638 and 639). As the influence of the Southern Massim 

 is strong in Mailu, I am inclined to think that the two above- 

 mentioned versions concerning Bard'us may be the outcome of 

 the Massim beliefs superimposed upon the original doctrines 

 derived from the Western Papuo-Melanesian stock of ideas. 



