We shall begin our survey of these islands with New Caledonia in the south, and from it shall pass northwards through the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands to the Bismarck Archipelago, which consists chiefly of the two great islands of New Britain and New Ireland with the group of the Admiralty Islands terminating it to the westward. For our knowledge of the customs and religion of the New Caledonians we depend chiefly on the evidence of a Catholic missionary, Father Lambert, who has worked among them since 1856 and has published a valuable book on the subject. 1 To be exact, his information applies not to the natives of New Caledonia itself, but to the inhabitants of a group of small islands, which lie immediately off the northern extremity of the island and are known as the Belep group. Father Lambert began to labour among the Belep at a time when no white man had as yet resided among them. At a later time circumstances led him to transfer his ministry to the Isle of Pines, which lies off the opposite or southern end of New Caledonia. A comparative study of the natives at the two extremities of New Caledonia revealed to him an essential similarity in their beliefs and customs; so that it is not perhaps very rash to assume that similar customs prevail among the aborigines of New Caledonia itself, which lies intermediate between the two points observed by Father Lambert. 2 The assumption is confirmed by evidence which was collected by Dr. George Turner from the mainland of New Caledonia so long ago as 1845. 3 Accordingly in what follows I shall commonly speak of the New Caledonians in general, though the statements for the most part apply in particular to the Belep tribe.
The New Caledon- ians.
The souls of the New Caledonians, like those of most savages, are supposed to be immortal, at least to survive
____________________
the shell-money, see R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians ( Oxford, 1891), pp. 323 sqq.; R. Parkinson, Dreissig Jähre in der Südsee ( Stuttgart, 1907), pp. 82 sqq.
Le Père Lambert, Mœurs et Super- stitions des Néo-Calédoniens (Nouméa, 1900). This work originally appeared as a series of articles in the Catholic missionary journal Les Missions Catho- liques.
George Turner, LL.D., Samoa a Hundred Years Ago and long before ( London, 1884), pp. 340 sqq.
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Publication Information: Book Title: The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead. Volume: 1. Contributors: J. G. Frazer - author. Publisher: Macmillan. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1913. Page Number: 325.
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