Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/214

Rh during the night into the woman. But even in this case, the woman is said to be visited in her dream by the spirit of some deceased maternal relative, so that a controlling spirit is still essential to conception. It is important to note that the water must always be fetched by her brother or by her mother's brother; that is, by a maternal kinsman. To give an example: a man from the village of Kapwani, on the northern shore, was asked by his sister's daughter to procure her a child. He went several times to the beach. One evening he heard a sound like the wailing of children. He drew water from the sea into the baler and left it in his kadala's (niece's) hut over night. She conceived a child, a girl. This child, unfortunately, turned out to be an albino, but this mischance was not due to the method of conception.

The chief points in which this belief differs from the one first described are that the pre-incarnated spirit child is endowed with more spontaneity—it can float across the sea and enter the bathing woman without help—and that its entry is effected per vaginam, or else through the skin of the abdomen if conception takes place in the hut. I found this belief prevalent in the northern part of the island, and especially in its coastal villages.

The nature of the spirit-child, or pre-incarnated baby, is not very clearly defined in traditional folk-lore. In answer to a direct question, the majority of informants said that they did not know what it was or what it looked like. One or two, however, who, through their superior intelligence, had worked out their beliefs in greater detail and with more consistency, said that it was like the fœtus Rh