sunshine and
amid the rich tropical verdure a few paces outside of these gloomy
caverns. It is with a shiver and a sense of relief that the visitor
escapes from them to the warm outer air and sees again the ferns and
creepers hanging over the mouth of the cave like a green fringe against
the intense blue of the sky.[532]

[Sidenote: Sea-caves.]

While this is the general character of the caves which are to be found
hidden away in the forests, many of those near the shore consist simply
of apertures hollowed out in the face of the cliffs by the slow but
continuous action of the waves in the course of ages. On the beach
itself sea-caves are found in which the rising tide precipitates itself
with a hollow roar as of subterranean thunder; and at a point, some way
back from the strand, where the roof of one of these caves has fallen
in, the salt water is projected into the air in the form of intermittent
jets of spray, which vary in height with the force of the wind and
tide.[533]

[Sidenote: Prayers and sacrifices offered to the dead by the New
Caledonians.]

With regard to the use which the natives make of these caves as
charnel-houses and mortuary chapels, Father Lambert tells us that any
one of them usually includes three compartments, a place of burial, a
place of skulls, and a place of sacrifice. But often the place of skulls
is also the place of sacrifice; and in no case is the one far from the
other. The family priest, who is commonly the senior member of the
family, may address his prayers to the ancestors in the depth of the
cavern, in the place of skulls, or in the place of sacrifice, whenever
circumstances call for a ritual of unusual solemnity. Otherwise with the
help of his amulets he may pray to the souls of the forefathers
anywhere; for these amulets consist of personal and portable relics of
the dead, such as locks of hair, teeth, and so forth; or again they may
be leaves or other parts of plants which are sacred to the family; so
that a wizard who is in possession of them can always and anywhere
communicate with the ancestral spirits. The place of sacrifice would
seem to be more often in the open air than in a cave, for Father Lambert
tells us that in the centre of it a shrub, always of the same species,
is planted and carefully cultivated. Beside it may be seen the pots and
stones which are used in cooking the food offered to the dead. In this
worship of the dead a certain differentiation of function