The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead
Chapter 75 : The natives also ascribed sickness to the arts of white men, whom they identified with

The natives also ascribed sickness to the arts of white men, whom they identified with the spirits of the dead; and a.s.signed this belief as a reason for their wish to kill the strangers.[551]

[Footnote 517: F. H. H. Guillemard, _Australasia_, II. _Malaysia and the Pacific Archipelagoes_ (London, 1894), p. 458.]

[Footnote 518: J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (London, 1900), pp. 498 _sq._ As to the mediums of exchange, particularly the sh.e.l.l-money, see R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), pp. 323 _sqq._; R.

Parkinson, _Dreissig Jahre in der Sudsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), pp. 82 _sqq._]

[Footnote 519: Le Pere Lambert, _Moeurs et Superst.i.tions des Neo-Caledoniens_ (Noumea, 1900). This work originally appeared as a series of articles in the Catholic missionary journal _Les Missions Catholiques_.]

[Footnote 520: Lambert, _Moeurs et Superst.i.tions des Neo-Caledoniens_, pp. ii., iv. _sq._; 255.]

[Footnote 521: George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa a Hundred Years Ago and long before_ (London, 1884), pp. 340 _sqq._]

[Footnote 522: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 13-16.]

[Footnote 523: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 235-239.]

[Footnote 524: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 238, 239 _sq._]

[Footnote 525: Above, pp. 136 _sq._, 235 _sq._]

[Footnote 526: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 24, 240.]

[Footnote 527: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 274.]

[Footnote 528: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 24, 26.]

[Footnote 529: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 211.]

[Footnote 530: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 218.]

[Footnote 531: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 224 _sq._]

[Footnote 532: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 275 _sqq._]

[Footnote 533: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 276.]

[Footnote 534: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 288 _sq._]

[Footnote 535: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 290, 292.]

[Footnote 536: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 292 _sq._]

[Footnote 537: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 293 _sq._]

[Footnote 538: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 294.]

[Footnote 539: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 296 _sq._]

[Footnote 540: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 297 _sq._]

[Footnote 541: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 298.]

[Footnote 542: Lambert, _op. cit._ p. 300.]

[Footnote 543: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 301 _sq._]

[Footnote 544: Lambert, _op. cit._ pp. 217 _sq._, 300.]

[Footnote 545: George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa a Hundred Years Ago and long before_ (London, 1884), pp. 340 _sqq._]

[Footnote 546: G. Turner, _op. cit._ pp. 340, 341, 343, 344.]

[Footnote 547: G. Turner, _op. cit._ pp. 342 _sq._]

[Footnote 548: G. Turner, _op. cit._ p. 345.]

[Footnote 549: G. Turner, _op. cit._ pp. 346 _sq._]

[Footnote 550: G. Turner, _op. cit._ pp. 345 _sq._]

[Footnote 551: G. Turner, _op. cit._ p. 342.]

LECTURE XVI

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE NATIVES OF CENTRAL MELANESIA

[Sidenote: The islands of Central Melanesia. Distinction between the religion of the Eastern and Western Islanders.]

In our survey of savage beliefs and practices concerning the dead we now pa.s.s from New Caledonia, the most southerly island of Melanesia, to the groups of islands known as the New Hebrides, the Banks' Islands, the Torres Islands, the Santa Cruz Islands, and the Solomon Islands, which together const.i.tute what we may call Central Melanesia. These groups of islands may themselves be distinguished into two archipelagoes, a western and an eastern, of which the Western comprises the Solomon Islands and the Eastern includes all the rest. Corresponding to this geographical distinction there is a religious distinction; for while the religion of the Western islanders (the Solomon Islanders) consists chiefly in a fear and wors.h.i.+p of the ghosts of the dead, the religion of the Eastern islanders is characterised mainly by the fear and wors.h.i.+p of spirits which are not supposed ever to have been incarnate in human bodies. Both groups of islanders, the Western and the Eastern, recognise indeed both cla.s.ses of spirits, namely ghosts that once were men and spirits who never were men; but the religious bias of the one group is towards ghosts rather than towards pure spirits, and the religious bias of the other group is towards pure spirits rather than towards ghosts.

It is not a little remarkable that the islanders whose bent is towards ghosts have carried the system of sacrifice and the arts of life to a higher level than the islanders whose bent is towards pure spirits; this applies particularly to the sacrificial system, which is much more developed in the west than in the east.[552] From this it would seem to follow that if a faith in ghosts is more costly than a faith in pure spirits, it is at the same time more favourable to the evolution of culture.

[Sidenote: Dr. R. H. Codrington on the Melanesians.]

For the whole of this region we are fortunate in possessing the evidence of the Rev. Dr. R. H. Codrington, one of the most sagacious, cautious, and accurate of observers, who laboured as a missionary among the natives for twenty-four years, from 1864 to 1887, and has given us a most valuable account of their customs and beliefs in his book _The Melanesians_, which must always remain an anthropological cla.s.sic. In describing the wors.h.i.+p of the dead as it is carried on among these islanders I shall draw chiefly on the copious evidence supplied by Dr.

Codrington; and I shall avail myself of his admirable researches to enter into considerable details on the subject, since details recorded by an accurate observer are far more instructive than the vague generalities of superficial observers, which are too often all the information we possess as to the religion of savages.

[Sidenote: Melanesian theory of the soul.]

In the first place, all the Central Melanesians believe that man is composed of a body and a soul, that death is the final parting of the soul from the body, and that after death the soul continues to exist as a conscious and more or less active being.[553] Thus the creed of these savages on this profound subject agrees fundamentally with the creed of the average European; if my hearers were asked to state their beliefs as to the nature of life and death, I imagine that most of them would formulate them in substantially the same way. However, when the Central Melanesian savage attempts to define the nature of the vital principle or soul, which animates the body during life and survives it after death, he finds himself in a difficulty; and to continue the parallel I cannot help thinking that if my hearers in like manner were invited to explain their conception of the soul, they would similarly find themselves embarra.s.sed for an answer. But an examination of the Central Melanesian theory of the soul would lead us too far from our immediate subject; we must be content to say that, "whatever word the Melanesian people use for soul, they mean something essentially belonging to each man's nature which carries life to his body with it, and is the seat of thought and intelligence, exercising therefore power which is not of the body and is invisible in its action."[554] However the soul may be defined, the Melanesians are universally of opinion that it survives the death of the body and goes away to some more or less distant region, where the spirits of all the dead congregate and continue for the most part to live for an indefinite time, though some of them, as we shall see presently, are supposed to die a second death and so to come to an end altogether. In Western Melanesia, that is, in the Solomon Islands, the abode of the dead is supposed to be in certain islands, which differ in the creed of different islanders; but in Eastern Melanesia the abode of the dead is thought to be a subterranean region called Panoi.[555]

[Sidenote: Distinction between ghosts of power and ghosts of no account.]

But though the souls of the departed go away to the spirit land, nevertheless, with a seeming or perhaps real inconsistency, their ghosts are also supposed to haunt their graves and their old homes and to exercise great power for good or evil over the living, who are accordingly often obliged to woo their favour by prayer and sacrifice.

According to the Solomon Islanders, however, among whom ghosts are the princ.i.p.al objects of wors.h.i.+p, there is a great distinction to be drawn among ghosts. "The distinction," says Dr. Codrington, "is between ghosts of power and ghosts of no account, between those whose help is sought and their wrath deprecated, and those from whom nothing is expected and to whom no observance is due. Among living men there are some who stand out distinguished for capacity in affairs, success in life, valour in fighting, and influence over others; and these are so, it is believed, because of the supernatural and mysterious powers which they have, and which are derived from communication with those ghosts of the dead gone before them who are full of those same powers. On the death of a distinguished man his ghost retains the powers that belonged to him in life, in greater activity and with stronger force; his ghost therefore is powerful and wors.h.i.+pful, and so long as he is remembered the aid of his powers is sought and wors.h.i.+p is offered him; he is the _tindalo_ of Florida, the _lio'a_ of Saa. In every society, again, the mult.i.tude is composed of insignificant persons, '_numerus fruges consumeri nati_,' of no particular account for valour, skill, or prosperity. The ghosts of such persons continue their insignificance, and are n.o.bodies after death as before; they are ghosts because all men have souls, and the souls of dead men are ghosts; they are dreaded because all ghosts are awful, but they get no wors.h.i.+p and are soon only thought of as the crowd of the nameless population of the lower world."[556]