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

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676 MALEKULA
mention of the sorcerer muttering any spell when working nimesian
mmls similar to the spell used in " making " war, but this may
well be an omission on the part of the informant.
The people of Looru, and perhaps also of Uraau, have
a special means oi bringing about an enerny’s death which appears
to be regarded by the natives as a form of nimesirm. In the
nembrmbrkrm of each oi these villages stands a stone: “ The
Stone of Famine " (Nevet Namar). Each of these stones is the
abode of, or “ has ", a spirit (nevet namar ioiien m'mzm'm'n). The
sorcerer takes some of his enerny’s excrement, puts it i.n a coco-nut
and places it on the must namar. The spirit of the stone then
devours it—iu accordance with the general theory that ghosts
eat eXcrement—a.nd the victim dies.‘
The other magical methods mentioned above all seem to
work through the agency of " poison It is often very riifï¬Åcult
to be sure whether the “ poison â€ù used is of a magical nature or
whether it is genuine poison as the white man understands this
word. This is particularly true in connection with nendur and
nimesian, i.n the practice of which “ poison â€ù is put in the food
of a man, who after eating it falls ill with vomiting and dies.
In nimbwilei katkat it seems more probable that the poison is only
magical. The method followed for this is to coat the end of
a hollow bamboo rod with the " poison â€ù, or to put a small
pellet of it just inside the tube. When the man he wishes to kill
comes in view, the sorcerer points the bamboo in his direction
and then, taking inï¬Ånite care not to inhale the “ poison â€ù himself,
he blows it towards his victim, as though from a blow‘-gun.
Another method of poisoning a man from a distance which is also
called nimbwilei katkat is to rub the “ poison â€ù on to the point
of a spear. A man then takes this weapon and hides in the
undergrowth which lines the bush-path along which he expects
his foe to come. As this man walks past him, the sorcerer makes
a feint towards him with his spear and thereby conveys into
his body the poisonous quality of the substance on the spear-point.
The victim sees and feels nothing, but after a while he will grow
sick and die. Another sure way of making a man ill, which
‘ It is stated in the notes that this spirit Oi the stone “ is used just as the
cycas spirit is used in one kind of death magic ". Nowhere else is there any
mention of the cycas spirit being used for this purpose. It is ossible, however,
that the form oi magic called m'mbu/unu involves the aid oip the spirit of the
cycas which is burnt.—C. H. W.
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