Types of spirit beings

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8.3.1 Types of spirit beings

Several kinds of spirit beings have already been mentioned. The spirit or ghost of the dead uraurato has been covered in the preceding sections. To summarize: 1 depending upon the cause of death, the ghost could be helpful or harmful, 2 the ghost could communicate verbally or through various sounds such as whistling, 3 it could teach musical tunes for dances, it could take in food like soup although a more common way to take food in was to “feed on” the smoke from a burning food sacrifice, and 4 it eventually went off to its more or less permanent abode. A final example of an uraurato—David A. was with his cousin and a very old man one night at a campsite deep in the jungle. He was quite young at the time and was afraid of the eerie atmosphere that surrounded their camp. He heard whistles and the sound of an approaching motor car. The old man assured him that there was nothing to be afraid of. In time, ghosts arrived and the old man began conversing with them. He asked what the noise was which they were hearing. The ghost answered that it was his little motor car. He said that the campers’ eyes were “sealed” and they couldn’t see it. After a conversation about the ghosts’ whereabouts and their current activity they were waiting for the Judgment Day because they didn’t know who was “good”, the sound of the car engine faded away into the distance. David A. said that this old man was one of the last who was able to contact ghosts of the dead. He died in 1953. Since the church is strong now, there are none who carry on this art of communication with the spirit world. Reflecting back, David A. recalled that the sounds seemed very real. He wondered if we had anything like it in America. There are several “spirit beings” or tambaran in Tok Pisin which recur in Rotokas stories. Kuokuo is a female being with very long breasts. She has the bad habit of surrounding her victim with her breasts and dragging him down into her den. Other spirit beings are Kovaova, a female, Guato, a male, and Oovato, a very short one. We have no recorded stories featuring these tambarans. The most common tambaran in Rotokas stories is the almost manlike being named Iso. He is sometimes referred to as the “wild man.” He has a long tail, blond hair, and was commonly encountered in the jungle. His reputation was that of a lazy, good-natured trickster for the most part who lived in a cave with his family. The father of a man now living in Togarao had an encounter with this being in the past. Iso, with his long blond hair, appeared to be a “half-caste.” The man did not want to fight with him, but was forced to do so. After a long struggle, the man tied the long hair of the tambaran to a tree and ran off. The following morning, the men of the village went back to the tree and found the hair still at the base, but Iso had left the scene of the fight. A common story is about Iso and his jewsharp. A rather unpleasant man, who was not attractive in the least, sat under a tall tree. He was discouraged, realizing that he would probably never have a wife. To cheer him up, Iso, sitting high in the branches, began to play his jewsharp bamboo mouth harp. The man couldn’t locate the source of this pleasant sound and in disgust, he kicked the tree. Iso dropped his jewsharp in surprise. The man picked up the instrument and found that he could play it and make the same pleasant sounds. He returned to his village and locked himself in his house to practice with his new discovery. A woman passing by heard the music coming from inside the house. She was so attracted to it that she forced her way in and declared her love for the man because of the “strong magic” that he had brought back from the jungle. They were married and the two lived happily ever after. Other stories have Iso as a tambaran who enjoys wrestling, who is too lazy to build a house for his family so he lives in a cave, and as a being who, together with his son and mother-in-law, was killed by an angry human. Although sometimes identified as ghosts of the dead, uraura, there is another category of spirits, the tugarato demon, which in every case are evil in their behavior and intent. This type of spirit can “possess” a human being. The spirit is encouraged to do so by the offering of a pig. There are said to be two degrees of response to the indwelling evil spirit: first degree—behavior similar to an insane person who more often lives in the jungle with little or no communication one was reported to have been eating feces, and second degree—behavior similar to an intoxicated person unable to think or speak clearly or to hold a utensil such as a knife, spear, etc. Possession by an evil spirit is not desired. It is, in fact, feared. In the past, the way to exorcise an evil spirit was through the power of the ruvarupato white magic practitioner. He or she was able to concoct a magical 97 potion from leaves, etc. which was effective in causing the evil spirit to leave. Today, a Christian believer will pray that the power of God will be effective in removing an evil spirit from a person. The person working with us in language analysis in the early days, told us one morning that he was awakened by knocking on the door of his house. Others in the immediate neighborhood had also heard the knocking sound. Their conclusion was that it was not coming from a human source but from a tugarato. The young man was active in the church at that time and relatively well educated. A friend and Catholic priest, who was responsible for Catholics of the Rotokas area, told us once of an incident referred to in Tok Pisin as sutim diwai spear the tree. A tree limb had fallen on a young Catholic boy in Nupatoro. The villagers of all three church denominations, led by the village councilor, gathered at the base of the tree. They commenced to cut the tree down and then speared it repeatedly in order to “kill the evil spirit” that was resident there. This spirit was blamed for the accident. Afterwards the spears were removed and put in a hole in order to “repay the female spirit.” A similar incident had also occurred in Togarao the year before, when a man fell from the branches of a tall sago palm. In contrast to the evil spirits are the clan spirits cultural heroes already named in chapter 6. To briefly review: Pauto is the supreme, benevolent clan spirit. He protects the clan, is eternal, and has been likened to the God of Christianity. Another name for Pauto is Urotuto, the guardian spirit of the clan. This spirit being is the source of power for the avatapato, as will be seen in the next section. It should also be noted that in the services and literature of all three church denominations, Pauto has been identified in the Scripture and teaching as the God of Christianity. The indigenous concepts of what the Rotokas clan guardian spirit is like seem to fit very well the character of God as found in Scripture. After having described the individual spirit beings, let me again point out that at this time there is less than a carefully defined concept of who or what each being is. This is illustrated by the following account. A young man told us of a spirit tugarato? outside of his house and near the houses of three other men who were affected by its presence, as well. It banged on the outside wall and called to them. It appeared as a small snake with brown hair described as “similar to your wife’s.” The being hid under the mat in the house of R., who was able to get some of its hair. We were told that it was actually the ghost of one of the men’s father uraurato?. It was a “good spirit”pauto? and would go away when told to do so. Its name? Iso

8.3.2 Powers of spirit beings