89 small child and ran away into the jungle. She hung herself from a tree shortly after. There had been problems
all along with the marriage and she was known for her quick temper. Later in the chapter, another case of suicide by hanging will be mentioned, in which a spirit being is
blamed for having encouraged the suicide. Stories are told of people jumping to their death from the top of the Ivitu vagapa [63-meter-high waterfall
described in section 2.2.2], as well as other cliffs in the area. This method of suicide, however, did not occur during the time we lived in the Rotokas area.
Murder
There has been only one case of murder in the Rotokas area that we have been aware of during our time there, though there could have been others. This was a most unfortunate event in which a young man cut
another person living in the same house so severely with his bush knife that the person bled to death in a matter of minutes. This occurred on the coast and insanity was said to have been a factor.
In the past, when contract murder was involved, betel nut was given by the one desiring the murder to the second person, who was to carry out the killing. This was to insure that the first person would take any blame
or consequence of the murder and not the actual murderer. If, in fact, there were some consequences, the first person was to give a secret feast to the second in order to assure a continuing good relationship between them.
If clansmen of the victim were to see a feast between two suspects, they could easily assume the reason for the feast and return to kill them both.
There was a supernatural deterrent to murder in the past. If the murderer thought too much about the person he or she had killed, then these thoughts could very likely attract the ghost of the dead person. The
ghost could retaliate and the murderer would end up murdered. When a person dies of natural causes, however, relatives and friends may attract the deceased’s ghost by
their continual thoughts of him, and the ghost may come to them to find out the reason. This remembering of the deceased is given in these terms: Rera-ia viupaparoveira He is always thinking of him. The verb stem
viupa means “scarring as from a wound”. When the ghost is satisfied that the thoughts arise only from sorrow, he “fades away” roroverikoopesiko—now archaic words.
Death is also attributed to sorcery, and this will be covered in section 8.4.2 describing Black Magic.
8.2.2 Natural causes of death
We have witnessed or have been close to several deaths in the Rotokas area. One occurred during a visit to the former Patrol Post of Wakunai in the late 1960’s. Early in the morning, my Rotokas friends and I heard
wailing coming from a nearby house. We found there an older man who had drunk denatured alcohol during a “party.” He died just outside of his house. This was my first experience of hearing the “singsing krai” and of
observing the display of grief.
A young man who had had an enlarged abdomen, with a good deal of pain, was working in the jungle cutting sago palm. He vomited blood and tried to return to his village of Ruruvu. Being too weak and with
obviously severe complications, he died on the trail. His death occurred in the evening, and when the message came to our village, a signal was sent out to the
surrounding villages by means of the slit gong. This carved-out wooden drum was about two meters or more long and a meter high. The announcement of death is a series of moderately rapid beats, followed by two series
of three slow and deliberate beats. The day following the young man’s death, milled timber was brought up by carriers from the Catholic
sawmill at the Asitavi Mission station on the coast at least a five-hour hike. A coffin was built to size. The next morning, after relatives and friends had arrived from surrounding villages, the young man was buried in a
grave two meters deep. There was no service held, since he was Catholic and an appropriate church official was not in the area to perform the ceremony.
On August 19, 1965, we received word that a child in Ruruvu was very ill and dying. Medicine and save knowledge were requested. I arrived about midnight and found the house full of men, women with infants,
but only a few children. There was little talking among those gathered. An older man, possibly the grandfather, was holding the child, who appeared to be about six months old.
About half an hour later, the councilor of Ruruvu offered his house because of better seating arrangements. During the early morning hours, the women slept in an adjoining room while the men sat up, talking only
occasionally. The father took over the responsibility of holding the child and would shake it or tap its face if the eyes appeared to be closing. The child appeared to me to be delirious and the eyes were rolling
90 continuously. Whooping cough was the most likely reason for the death. This sickness had been epidemic
throughout the area at that time. At about 3 a.m., a meal was served by the councilor and the people’s spirits seemed to lift. The men talked
a bit more about various subjects. Rice was served along with tea. Corned beef was an extra treat for three of us.
After the meal, there was louder talking and some laughter. Then at their request, I prayed for the child and they seemed to quiet down once again. Several of the men left and others found places along the benches
to sleep. All of this time, the child’s mother was in an adjoining room. By 5 a.m., there were few of us still awake. The child coughed and stirred more, which seemed to encourage the father to take a more active
interest in caring for it. Another man and I left at about 5:15 a.m.
That evening, we returned with more medicine. This time the mother and father, who was holding the child, were sitting together in a small house. There were several who kept vigil with the parents, including the
Sisivi councilor and brother of the older man who had held the child the previous evening. I stayed only a short time. That night the child died.
Around the 22nd of September, 1973, a two-year-old girl daughter of our close friends died after a short period of illness. She had been carried to the small hospital at Wakunai for treatment. The sickness was
epidemic, especially in the Wakunai area, at the time. The symptoms included severe constipation. It seemed that if the child could vomit or defecate, it stood a chance of recovery. Otherwise death was inevitable.
A Rotokas person described the cause of death as “hot blood,” saying that the blood gathers in the intestines, causing this area to become very warm. The area stays “hot” even after the child has died. Whatever
the cause, the death was quite sudden. A child could be walking about or eating and shortly afterward it was dead.
The girl’s body was carried back to Togarao, where mourners came from surrounding villages and hamlets. The parents are well known for their faithful service in the church, as well as for their important
position in clan business affairs. The main mourners were aunts and uncles of the child’s clan. The singsing krai consisted of hummed tunes in two- and three-part harmony. These were led by one man,
with the women harmonizing. Wailing went on at the same time and the name of the child was often called out. Phrases such as, “my little one,” “my child,” “come to me, my child,” etc. were expressed.
The father did not participate much in all of this. Apparently, he was not pleased with his wife, whom he thought should have spent more of his income to care for the family’s personal needs. The father had been
employed and had been sending money back for family needs. It was said that to show his dissatisfaction with his wife, he spent an unusual amount, K24, for store-bought food to feed the mourners.
Neighbors of the family and some relatives helped build the small coffin for the child. The body was measured with a bamboo stick and the “case” was made to fit, with no room to spare. The building of the
coffin was disorganized and without any apparent direction. It was finished well after dark by lantern light. In the morning, the coffin and child were draped with deep red cloth. A cross made of attractive flowered
fabric was placed on the top of this covering material. The United Church teacher from Voko school gave the few words of the service and led in some singing. The mother sat on one side of the little church and the father
on the other. After the indoor service, the coffin was carried to the cemetery and buried with another short service.
Handfuls of earth were thrown on the coffin by some of the people attending. Only a few days after the death described above, the girl’s first cousin also became ill. Again this illness
was brief—one moment the child was asking for food and a few minutes later dead. Dehydration seemed to play a part. The mother had tried to make her drink, but without success. At the moment of the child’s death,
her mother began to cry loudly. My wife and David A. went almost immediately to be with her. Soon other women were gathered in the cookhouse to cry with the mother. A message sent by our two-
way radio to the father in Wakunai reached him around noon of that day. Later he told me that he had had a strange sensation that very morning of drops of moisture on his head and on the back of his neck. He wondered
if they might have been tears. His walk back to the village took several hours and he arrived about 5 p.m. in the evening. As he ran through the village to his home, he was already wailing.
By this time, the body had been carried into the house. There it was held and fondled by both parents. The father placed the dead child’s arms around his neck as if she were embracing him. The mother was especially
grief stricken. She cried continually for nearly twenty hours, then intermittently after that. Again, a coffin was made; again, in the same haphazard way with several men telling how it should be
built. Finally, after darkness made work on the coffin difficult, it was carried inside and the ends were nailed
91 into place. Leaves covered with bath powder were placed in the box on top of a cloth spread over the bottom.
Eventually, the child’s body was laid directly on top of the leaves. By morning of the second day, red earth, oovato, had been rubbed over the front of the child’s hair. The
wailing continued in much the same way as with the cousin’s death. Men from Ibu, who were the father’s clansmen, led much of the mourning tunes with the women harmonizing. There was a brief period during
which food was served to the mourners. It had been prepared by the village women, but for the most part, cooked in the child’s parent’s cookhouse. The mourning then continued on again until dawn.
The next morning, Wednesday, many of the mourners left to mourn the death of an old man from Ibu who had died during the night. There was no “quick service” for the child, since the mother was extremely reluctant
to give her body up. She demanded that the body be buried not in the village cemetery, but near the proposed site of their new house. This was against the government officer’s word as told to the parents by the village
councilor.
Arrangement of mourners
Partly because of the concern that the child would never be seen again, the father asked that I photograph her body. Pictures were taken, as he requested, with him holding the body, which by this time was stiff. The
mother sat close by although she did not want to have the pictures taken. I believe the father was prompted to ask for the photographs by having remembered a picture of a relative, which we had given to them. A few
years after the picture was taken, the person died and the picture was valued.
The father had at first wanted to cremate the body. His reason was so that worms wouldn’t spoil it. He was persuaded not to do so, and eventually, the child was buried in the village cemetery. The councilor had
reasoned with them, saying that although the body would be in the cemetery, the child’s ghost uraura would remain with them.
After the burial, as the mother was attempting to sleep, she felt something moving her and believed it was the girl’s ghost trying to gain her attention. The father felt that it is in God’s will to answer prayer for the return
of a child’s ghost. He stated that it would be able to help the parents by such a visit. The father was also quite concerned that his child not die on the same day she had been born. He said
many children around this area do that. No reason was given for the concern. One other instance of a natural death has been cited in the chapter on Marriage. In this case, a man died
near Sisivi. His wife, a healthy woman, died very shortly afterwards [see section 1.3.3].
8.2.3 Disposing of the body
