6.95 



Afier Life. — I also failed to obtain a satisfactory account 

 of the beliefs concerning the doings of the spirit Bo'i during 

 the wailing and the period after the burial, though I obtained 

 some hints on the subject and on that of a future life. On 

 the whole, however, I am not very confident as to the accuracy 

 of these facts, as I obtained them from one informant only, 

 and that a Mission boy. (^o^) This informant told me, with 

 reference to the doings of the spirit at and about the time of 

 death, that when a man is sick his soul wanders on a ''bridge" 

 towards the Biida — the place of future life. All the other 

 spirits try to frighten it away, and if they succeed and the 

 intruder turns back from the Bu'da, then the man does not 

 die. If, on the contrary, the spirit succeeds in entering the 

 Bii'iJa, the man expires. The Rev. W. J. V. Saville kindly 

 gave me another account of the Binia : — ''The spirit goes to 

 the south-western end of the Island of Mailu, and sails away 

 towards the horizon. There is a ladder there, and the soul 

 descends.'' This account, apart from the high authority of 

 my informant, is borne out by the fact that similar ideas 

 concerning an after-life are entertained by the Motu. 



There seems to be a certain amount of doubt as to whether 

 the idea of Blida is native or due to missionary influence. (102) 

 I have inquired carefully into this subject, and though I was 

 not able to obtain details concerning the Binla, my native 

 informants, without exception and independently, agreed that 

 both the word Biula and the belief in it were indigenous, and 

 that Biula was situated below the earth. One very good 

 informant told me that it was a big native village on an 

 underground river called Bom 11. Slight variations, or even 

 substantial differences, in the accounts of such a matter are 

 not, however, astonishing. An ethnologist from another 

 planet, for instance, might find it a matter of considerable 

 discussion if he inquired where we located our heaven or hell. 

 But though the spirit goes to the Biula, it is not altogether 

 apart from its body, as both the post-burial wailing and the 

 following practices testify. 



Final Mortuary Feast and Treatment of the Skidl . — Some 

 two or three months after the burial the body was unearthed 

 and the head cut off, this custom being called Lea ho'o, or 

 Bo oh 00. The soft tissues that remained were removed by 

 boiling the head in a native clay-pot, which was done in the 

 bush by the man's wife or mother, and the head was then 

 dried and placed in a basket, called Toha. The baskets were 



: (101) I have to thank the Rev. W. J. V. Saville for having 

 helped me in obtaining details about this difl&cult subject. 



(102) Several persons interested in Papuan ethnology and know- 

 ing the natives, expressed this doubt to me personally. 



