RELIGION. 



293 



Van DER Goes [1S5S, 92] understood it at Waba. What squatting means I hâve explained 

 on page 276. The bending of the head as an act of dévotion (Chalmers [1885, 118]) is 

 unknown in Papua Tâlandjang. 



It will strike everybody that the temple is never entirely deserted, and that inside or 

 in front, behind the surrounding fence, young men especially are to be found. Actually the 

 temple is inhabited by a number of thèse youths, novices, who also sleep there and who, 

 during a longer or shorter period after the years of puberty, are not allowed to hâve any 



Fig. 190. Interior of the temple at Tobàdi. 



connection with the parental home. They may even not be seen closely by any female 

 being. They told us most earnestly that the women would die in conséquence; — from 

 Tumleo, Erdvveg [1902, 296] mentions that a woman who enters the parâk would be killed 

 by the men. It has happened several times that young men from the temple who were 

 visiting us, on hearing the voices of women who came to the dispensary for the treatment of 

 wounds, ran away in great fear, in order not to be seen by them. I lay some stress on this 

 institution of H. B., only referred to by others in passing, because I nowhere saw it kept up 

 as strictly and as long as by the villages of the Jôtëfa tribe. Amongst the Tugeri the 



