Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/310

 270 The Religion of the Andaman Islanders.

" V. He is angered by the commission of certain sins, while to those in pain or distress he is pitiful, and sometimes deigns to afford relief.

" VI. He is the Judge from whom each soul receives its sentence after death, and, to some extent, the hope of escape from the torment of Jereg-lar-mugu is said to affect their course of action in the present life."

I will deal briefly with a few of these points : —

I. I found that Puluga or Biliku was generally regarded as being in appearance like an Andamanese. He (or she) was often spoken of as being of great size. One Puchikwar man gave as the height of Bilik the height of the post of my hut (18 feet). He was sometimes described as being white (or red) skinned " like a European." Once I was told that he had a beard. (The Andamanese never have more than a few scanty hairs on the chin.) He was never described to me as looking like fire. But it was clear from the diversity of opinion that there was no fixed belief on the subject.

As to his or her invisibility, I wonder whether Mr. Man's informant meant more than that nobody ever sees him. I do not know of any Andamanese word meaning " invisible."

II. I think this only means that the Andamanese have never conceived of Puluga as having a father or mother. He is immortal in just the sense that all other beings in the Andamanese myths are immortal. No one has ever supposed it possible that they might come to an end.

III. I have pointed out that the belief in Puluga as creator is not universal, and is probably only a secondary element of the myth.

V. I went most carefully into this question and could never find that Puluga was angry against anything except the particular actions (such as burning beeswax) with which I have dealt. I can only say that on this point