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

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MAGIC 677
probably belongs to the same branch of malevolent magic, is to
smear the handle oi some implement, for instance, the rope of his
basket, with the " poison " when he is not looking; presently
the man will pick it up to carry it away. The poison on the rope
rubs into his skin and so affects him that after a while he falls
down, remains ‘sick, and at last dies. i
In all these types of death- and sickness-magic the evil
influences are directed against a certain individual cither by using
something which has been closely associated with hirn—as, for
instance, the remains of his food or his excrement—or else by
some gesture such as blowing or thrusting with a spear towards
him. There is a further method wherein a. spell is uttered to direct
the evil forces. This is called revurei nimwinm Zen wut ihet
(meaning literally : “ They spit the spirit into that which is bad ").
In one hand the sorcerer takes a stone, in the centre of which
there is a small depression, and in the other he carries a spray
of the tree, mbal a-var. He spits into the depression in the stone,
saying : " The spirit of X—", mentioning the name of his
enemy, and immediately presses the butt end of the branch down
on the spittle. Holding it in position there, he now places both
stone and branch in a shallow pit which he had prepared before-
hand and buries them, the branch projecting above the ground.
When the leaves on the branch wither and fall oï¬Å, the wretched
victim dies. It is thought, apparently, that by means of his spell
the sorcerer has entrapped the spirit of his foe in the spittle which
is now being crushed between the branch and the stone.
What may perhaps be termed “ conditionally malevolent “
magic is sometimes employed by men to protect their gardens,
particularly their coco-nut trees. Some object pregnant with evil
is placed on the tree, but will only operate against a man if the
latter attempts to steal the fruit. One form of this magic, itu
nambar was mes, has already been described, whereby a thief
is rendered impotent. Another, termed simply itu nambav, makes
the offender blind. The details of it have not been preserved, but,
as in the former, a certain “ medicine " is put in a section of the
bamboo, nambru or temes, and fastened on to the tree which is to
be protected. It is said that it the owner is a good man he will
put it in some obvious place so that all passers-by may know
what he has done, but if he is an evil-minded person he will
hide it so that men are not warned of what will befall them if they
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