Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/161

] he is then able to loose and take back the sick man's soul so that he may recover.

At Santa Cruz, when a man of consideration dies, his ghost becomes a duka. A stock of wood is set up in his house to represent him. This remains, and is from time to time renewed, until after a time the man is forgotten, or the stock is neglected by the transference of attention to some newer and more successful duka. When the stock is first put up, a pig is killed, and the two strips of flesh from along the back-bone inside are put before the stock as food for the duka represented. These do not stay long, but are taken away and eaten. When the stocks are renewed the same is done again; and from time to time offerings of food are made to the duka before the stock, laid there for a time, and then taken up and eaten. In case of danger at sea, a duka is called by name, a man's father or a deceased chief, or a certain Lata who is not remembered as a man, and a bit of food is thrown out; 'This is for you to eat.' Betel-nuts are placed on sacred stones for the duka. When a garden is planted they spread feather-money and red native cloth round it for the duka, and take it away again. A patient who has recovered from sickness under the treatment of a native doctor gives a pig for the duka concerned in the cure; and when a pig is killed a bit of meat is placed before the stock that represents him. Offerings of first-fruits of yams are made in the same way, in the form of mash or pudding. The economical offerings of Santa Cruz may be explained by the belief that the duka, themselves immaterial, have taken the immaterial substance of their gifts; the gross material therefore may be taken by fleshly men.

(2) The character of what may be called sacrifices in the Banks' Islands and Northern New Hebrides differs very much from that of the sacrifices of the Solomon Islands in two respects; the offerings are as a rule made to spirits and not to ghosts, and there is no use of fire to consume what is offered. It is true that fragments of food are thrown for the ghosts of the lately deceased; by an action no doubt closely connected with the sacrifices of the western islands, but not with the