Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/309

] and the man kills the rat; it begins to putrefy: 'How it stinks!' cries the man. 'You will be as bad,' says the rat. 'But I shall live again,' says the man. 'No! like me,' says the rat. The other story is a variant of the common one about changing the skin. There was a man who had two boys living with him, and used to change his skin every day and come out to work with them. One evening he put on his old skin again, and the boys killed him because he had deceived them. If he had lived, all men would have changed their skins and never died.

A ghost after death is atmat, dead-man, but, as in Lepers' Island, the same word is used to designate a man's soul when he is alive. At death the atmat leaves the body, but linger near it for five days. It is not driven away, but goes off itself to the abode of the dead called Banoi; in case of fainting, the man on recovering says he was not allowed to enter. The corpse is watched till it is buried; in the case of a great man for three or four days; it is then rolled in the mats valued as money and taken to the gamal; if a great man, the mats are many, and the swathed corpse is set up between two stakes. After a time it is buried; a great man is buried in the village place in a qaru, with stones set up and with dracænas and other coloured shrubs planted round. After the burial the fire is lighted for the death-meal, and they go on ’eating the death' for a hundred days, which are counted on a cycas leaf. By way of mourning the relatives smear themselves with smut and ashes. The ghosts, going away, or being let go, make their way down the coast, along the beach, to Vatanggele, where they are heard singing, shouting, and drumming. The place of assembly before the descent into Banoi is a point of land opposite Ambrym, where there is a stream the ghosts cannot pass, and a tree from which they leap into the sea; a shark waiting below bites off the noses of those who have not killed pigs in accordance with the customs of the island. There is a town in Banoi, with houses, trees, sweet-smelling plants, and shrubs with coloured leaves, but no gardens, because there is no work. The new-comer is weak at first, and rests