IN BVllU, 405 



payment from those who desire some evil to befall an eneiry 

 without suspicion of its orif^iuator. The Swaiigi is supposed 

 tii^hfl able to cover with misfortune whom he will without 

 their htnng aware whence the disaster eoniea. 



Tlieir dead are bnried in the forest in some secluded spot ' 

 far from other graves, and marked often by a merang or grave 

 2>oIe, and over which at certain intervals their relatives jvkcR 

 tobacco, cigarettea, and various offerings. When the body m 

 deeoraposcdj the son or nearest relative disinters the head, 

 wraps ft new cloth about it, and places it in theSfatakau at the 

 back of his house, or in a little hut erected for it near the 

 grave. It is the representative of his forefathers whose behests' 

 he holds in the greatest respect. 



The day after our arrival was spent from break of day in 

 botiinising, eollecting'birds, and in examining the lake. This 

 is a magnificent sheet of water, several miles in diameter and 

 some 40 to 50 fathoms deep, indented with many beautiful 

 bays, embracing the hills which abruptly rise up from it on all 

 sides. It was not an easy matter to get the Merinyo of the 

 place to give us a boat and rowers to make an examination of its 

 margins, and only after a long invocation to the spirit of the 

 Lake would he consent to accompany us. It is only with 

 the utmost awe and dread that they trust themselves on its ! 

 surface. Tliey have many strange legends concerning it. One 

 of these is that at certain periods a Lagundi tree (Yit&t sp.) 

 suddenly grows np the centre of the Lake, its appearance 

 l)eing accompanied by fearful storms of wind and waves, and 

 the terrified cries of the birds that crowd its margins. On 

 the subsiding of the storm the Lagnndi is found to have dis- 

 appeared. Another superstition is, that on the firing of a gim 

 a thunderstorm is liable to break out, sent by the angered 

 s])irits. Every chief, therefore, on his arrival at the Lake 

 plants a white stick in the gronnd as a signal of peace. The 

 Wakolo men who rowed me kept up an invocation the whole 

 time we were out, and they positively refused to take me 

 out into the middle or even very far from the shore. A 

 crocodile— one of the animals sacred in the mythology of Buru 

 — is also supposed to reside in the lake, whence once a year 

 it pays a visit to the shore. 

 It is singular that no Mi exeept eels livf in its waters. 



