Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/216

Rh man. Tomwaya Lakwabulo, for instance, insisted that the children cannot travel alone, but must be carried by a controlling spirit and placed in the woman; yet he informed me that their wailing could be heard on the north shore near Kaybola. Or, again, the man of Kiriwina, who told me how the spirit child might enter from a baler, also spoke of an older spirit "giving" that child. Such inconsistencies are probably the result of several mythological cycles of ideas, meeting, so to speak, and intersecting on the locus of this belief. One of these cycles contains the idea of rejuvenation; another that of fresh life floating on the sea towards the island; another that a new member of the family comes as a gift from some ancestral spirit.

It is important, however, that, in all principal points, the various versions and descriptions agree, overlap and fortify one another; and we are left with a composite picture which, though blurred in some of its details, presents a strong outline when viewed from a distance. Thus all spirits rejuvenate; all children are incarnated spirits; the identity of sub-clan is preserved throughout the cycle; the real cause of childbirth is the spirit initiative from Tuma.

It must be remembered, however, that the belief in reincarnation is not one which exercises a great influence over custom and social organization in the Trobriands; rather it is one of those doctrines which lead a quiet and passive existence in folk-lore, and affect social behaviour only to a small extent. Thus, for instance, although the Trobrianders firmly believe that each spirit becomes a Rh