The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 109

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

109

6. History of Missions.—We should like to write
at least a page on the twenty lessons of this course!
The first eight lessons give a survey of Mission
History. The next six lessons enlighten the student
on Lutheran Missions in particular, and the last six
lessons introduce him to a number of outstanding
figures in the glorious work of missions. Ah, what
a change in the attitude of our people to the great
work of missions there would be, could they be in-
duced to study a course on Missions such as is
offered them here by the Walther League!

We hope that we have succeeded in interesting
at least a number of our readers in the courses
offered by the Walther League School of Corre-
spondence. Such should write for particulars to
Prof. P. 12. Kretzmann, Ph. D., D. D., 801 De Mun
Ave., St. Louis, Mo. F. J. 1.

Among the Papuans.

The Papuan’s Superstitions.

The Papuan is known as leading a carefree life,
a sort of dolce far niente (sweet doing nothing)
existence. In spite of that, the Kanaka really lives
a most miserable existence, verily filled with worries,
the greatest of which is rooted in his insuperable
superstition. He imagines himself hounded on
every step he takes by evil spirits or their harmful
influences ; and he is thus pursued by a fear that robs
him of all trust and confidence in his fellow-men.
He knows not but that his next neighbor or even
his best friend might be secretly employing charms
or spells to prepare troubles for him, or to cause
sickness and death to come to him. He senses snares
wheresoever he goes; he persuades himself of the
duplicity and perfidy of others. We are no longer
surprised to find distrustfulness the most remark-
able characteristic of the New Guinean.

On the other hand, however, the European finds
the Kanaka more amenable to him than to his
fellow-natives, just because of this very character-
istic. The Papuan holds the foreigner to be superior
to himself in many things, and in particular to be
immune from the influences of the evil spirits with
_ which he must wrestle; for, evidently, they have no
visible effect upon the white man who comes from
a distant land where probably there are other bad
spirits and other charms, but against whom the local
demons are powerless. No matter how often they
are told that the evil spirits and magic have nothing
to do with their physical condition, — for instance,
their falling into sickness or their dying, —and

that these are but natural effects of natural causes,
the Kanakas will not believe it, but will reply : “Idle
talk; we know better.”

When things go well with the Papuan, he
ascribes all to a good spirit; reverses, failures (as
of the yam crop, perhaps), a sickness, and death are
ascribed to some occult power, be it of spirit or of
man. How readily he sees witchcraft as the cause of
failure is seen in the statement of a young archer,
Kamok, that “of late he has been missing almost
every shot, solely because he and the chief of Kre-
mendi are at outs with each other, the chief having
bewitched the betel-trees, in which the pigeons and
hornbills usually collect, all because some school-
children had stolen part of the nuts.

When the Papuan stubs his toe against a stone in
the road, it happens because some one had bewitched
the place for him. When, by a slip of the knife, he
suffers a cut or a stab, it happens because some one
bewitched the knife or the wood he was working on.
He is not open to reasoning, for him there can be
but one cause for things to happen, and that is
witchcraft. Rain, sunshine, and windstorms are
made by the natives. Whenever, in any one locality,
the rains are untimely for the yam plants, the
natives will soon be heard to say: “The people -of
such and such a place made rain because they don’t
want us to have good yams.” ’

Charms are employed for various purposes.
There are love-charms to imbue women with the love
impulse, or to make them responsive to improper
advances. ‘There are disease-charms, to inflict ill-
ness. There are rain- and sunshine-charms. That
there should be much profiteering in this matter is
natural, just as there is a business of making
counter-magic to counteract the evil effects of spells.
The love-charms which are so extensively used can
probably be accounted for by the fact that there are
many more men than women in New Guinea.

As a rule, the efficacy of a charm depends upon
its intimate relation to the person to be bewitched.
Some object that was a part of, or that was used by,
the person,—as_hair, clothing, remains of food,
spittle, excrements, or even footprints, —all these
are means employed to make charms. The Papuan,
therefore, removes all idle traces of such things. The
noted cleanliness of these people is occasioned less
by love of order than through fear of putting evil-
minded persons in position of getting means for
charms and spells. The native takes pains to burn
or bury his hair after shaving or cutting. Food-
remains are cast into the fire. The expectorations
connected necessarily with the chewing of betel nuts