ner to be attached in
death.

[Sidenote: Prayers for fish.]

Again, when a shoal of fish has made its appearance on the reef, a
number of superstitious ceremonies have to be performed before the
people may go and spear them in the water. On the eve of the fishing-day
the medicine-man of the tribe causes a quantity of leaves of certain
specified plants to be collected and roasted in the native ovens. Next
day the leaves are taken from the ovens and deposited beside the
ancestral skulls, which have been arranged and decorated for the
ceremony. All the fishermen, armed with their fishing-spears, repair to
the holy ground or sacred grove where the skulls are kept, and there
they draw themselves up in two rows, while the medicine-man chants an
invocation or prayer for a good catch. At every verse the crowd raises a
cry of approval and assent. At its conclusion the medicine-man sets an
example by thrusting with his spear at a fish, and all the men
immediately plunge into the water and engage in fishing.[529]

[Sidenote: Prayers for sugar-cane.]

Again, in order that a sugar plantation may flourish, the medicine-man
will lay a sugar-cane beside the ancestral skulls, saying, "This is for
you. We beg of you to ward off all curses, all tricks of wicked people,
in order that our plantations may prosper."[530]

[Sidenote: Prayers for yams.]

Again, when the store of yams is running short and famine is beginning
to be felt, the New Caledonians celebrate a festival called _moulim_ in
which the worship of their ancestors is the principal feature. A staff
is wreathed with branches, apparently to represent a yam, and a hedge of
coco-nut leaves is made near the ancestral skulls. The decorated staff
is then set up there, and prayers for the prosperity of the crops are
offered over and over again. After that nobody may enter a yam-field or
a cemetery or touch sea-water for three days. On the third day a man
stationed on a mound chants an invocation or incantation in a loud
voice. Next all the men go down to the shore, each of them with a
firebrand in his hand, and separating into two parties engage in a sham
fight. Afterwards they bathe and repairing to the charnel-house deposit
coco-nut leaves beside the skulls of their ancestors. They are then free
to partake of the feast which has been prepared by the women.[531]

[Sidenote: Caverns used by the natives as charnel-houses in the Isle of
Pines.]

While the beliefs and customs of