Handbook to the ethnographical collections . Ijull-roarcr from ]5iitisli New Guinea. Spirit, and the man who is in comnuuiication with a powerfulspirit rapidly becomes a person of importance. In the SolomonIslands the ghosts of the dead assume paramount imi) are built for relics and images of the departed hero, andofferings made at them (fig. 32). The shades of the dead arethe principal objects of reverence also in the Admiralty Islandsand New Guinea; in Torres Straits there is a cult of certaintribal heroes. Throughout Melanesia exists a Ijelief in mana, a 138 OCEANIA. word for
Handbook to the ethnographical collections . Ijull-roarcr from ]5iitisli New Guinea. Spirit, and the man who is in comnuuiication with a powerfulspirit rapidly becomes a person of importance. In the SolomonIslands the ghosts of the dead assume paramount imi) are built for relics and images of the departed hero, andofferings made at them (fig. 32). The shades of the dead arethe principal objects of reverence also in the Admiralty Islandsand New Guinea; in Torres Straits there is a cult of certaintribal heroes. Throughout Melanesia exists a Ijelief in mana, a 138 OCEANIA. word for which there is noactual translation, but whichimplies personal influence,peisonal magnetism, or per-sonality generally. Every-where is the belief that thesoul after death must under-take a journey, beset withvarious perils, to the abodeof departed sjiirits, which isusually represented as lyingtowards the west. As a ruleonly the souls of brave men,or initiates, or men who havedied in fight, win through tothe most desirable abode. Thelife of the ghosts themselvesis not everywhere believed tobe eternal ; for instance, inthe Solomon Islands they aresupposed after a certain periodto become transformed intoants nests and to form foodfor other ghosts. The abodeof departed spirits is oftenrepresented as lying beneaththe earth (New Caledonia,New Hebrides, western Papuo-Melanesians) or in one case assituated on a mountain (east-ern Papuo-Melanesians). Magicis practised everywhere, butprofessional magicians arerare, except in New Ireland,where a long and severe courseof initiation is un
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjoycetho, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1910
