[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

DEATH AND DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 549
This is thought to be the spirit of the tree coming out. If these
little explosions are heard at night near the houses, one or two
men will go out with bows and arrows and shoot at the trees to
drive their spirits away. The spirit of the mbal avov tree, in
particular, may sometimes be seen moving about in the dark
in a vaguely human form. Should anyone then shoot at it, it
at once becomes stationary, and on approaching it, it is seen to
have returned to its tree form.
As we have seen, a oeremony is performed on the tenth day
after a man’s death to speed the nimwinin on its way to the
other world, but for about a month the ghost is conceived to
haunt the locality, and in particular its house. This is not,
however, usually abandoned on the death of the owner; his
sons or other close relatives generally continue to live in it.
But if a ghost is particularly feared or is unusually troublesome
a pudding is put out near the approach to the house or houses
with the words : " Aavu, naiew timmgk etingk â€ù (“ Grandfather,
this here is thy pudding â€ù). This is not done so much to propitiate
or conciliate the ghost as to give him food so that he may not
come and eat that which the people have cooked for themselves.
People are very much afraid of eating anything which has been
touched by a ghost. Hysteria and various kinds of sickness are
attributed to this cause. For this reason a man is afraid of eating
in the dark, lest a ghost should come up and nibble the other
end of the piece of food which he is biting. There is no visible
change in the food which a ghost has eaten ; he is supposed to
consume it " spiritually " in some way. If those who have
set out a special pudding for a ghost to feed upon see that part
of it really has been eaten away, they are annoyed for they know
that something, perhaps a rat, has come and taken part of that
which was put out for the temss.
Sometimes the spirits of the dead will behave like poltergeist.
They beat the rhythm of the village on the gongs, roll logs along
the floor and move stones, all without the appearance of any
visible agency, ‘
If a ghost makes itself particularly offensive there are two
recognized ways of keeping it away from the dwelling-houses,
In one, a man paints his face black, as he does for ï¬Åghting, puts
wanamngk rattles on his ankles, and leaves of the mbwing-
mbwingamb in his belt. Then he blows a conch and armed with
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