with nettles.[1] The object of this ceremony is made plain by the custom observed in Amboina and Uliase of sprinkling sick people with pungent spices, such as ginger and cloves, chewed fine, in order by the prickling sensation to drive away the demon of disease which may be clinging to their persons.[2] With a similar intention some of the natives of Borneo and Celebes sprinkle rice upon the head or body of a person supposed to be infested by dangerous spirits; a fowl is then brought, which, by picking up the rice from the person’s head or body, removes along with it the spirit or ghost which is clinging like a burr to his skin. This is done, for example, to persons who have attended a funeral, and who may therefore be supposed to be infested by the ghost of the deceased.[3] Similarly Basutos, who have carried a corpse to the grave, have their hands scratched with a knife from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger, and magic stuff is rubbed into the wound,[4] for the purpose, no doubt, of removing the ghost which may be adhering to their skin. The people of Nias carefully scrub and scour the weapons and clothes which they buy, in order to efface all connection between the things and the persons from whom they bought them.[5] It is probable that the same dread of strangers, rather than any desire to do them honour, is the motive of certain ceremonies which are sometimes observed at their reception, but of which the intention is not directly
- ↑ J. Crevaux, Voyages dans l’Amérique du Sud, p. 300.
- ↑ Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 78.
- ↑ Perelaer, Ethnographische Beschrijving der Dajaks, pp. 44, 54, 252; Matthes, Bijdragen tot de Ethnologie van Zuid-Celebes, p. 49.
- ↑ H. Grützner, “UeberdieGebräuche der Basutho,” in Verhandl. d. Berlin. Gesell. f. Anthropologie, etc. 1877, p. 84 sq.
- ↑ Nieuwenhuisen en Rosenberg, “Verslag omtrent het eiland Nias,” in Verhandel. v. h. Batav. Genootsch. v. Kunsten en Wetenschappen, xxx. 26.
