Sacrifices of pig and other foods have to be made to inhabitants of the under world, and feasts are laid out for them, which they are supposed to devour when no one is near—a spiritual feast, so spiritual, indeed, that none but those who believe in these things can see the slightest signs of any of the food having been touched. Such incredulity, however, has no effect on the natives, they look at you in a pitying way when you infer that the food has not been touched—such is belief. In connection with their religion certain peculiarly shaped stones are denominated sacred and {156} are said to contain the spirits of departed relatives. In the case of a chief the stone is placed in a hut to preserve it from rough weather, and round it are arranged effigies of the chief, and perhaps of one or two of his nearest relations. These images, or demits as they are called, are ghastly looking things, and when one comes suddenly up against them their full horror is apparent. After death the chief is decapitated and the skull is cleaned and bleached, and then, with a preparation of clay and fibre, a face representing his, as it was while he was alive, is modelled on the bare skull; his peculiarities in feature are emphasised to a degree bordering on caricature, but they are not meant as caricatures, but are intended only to bring back to the beholders the characteristic points of the chief’s face. [Illustration 52: A MEMORIAL EFFIGY, MALEKULA, NEW HEBRIDES This figure represents a departed chief who has gone to the under world and become a “Demit.” The figure is made on a framework of wood or bamboo, covered with clay and vegetable fibre. The head is the real skull of the chief covered in the same way as the body with real hair and beard; the arms, round which are pigs’ tusks, are made from a small plant, the root forming the hands. One of the reasons the natives have for making figures in this way is that the chief may still be able to look upon his friends. At the side of the figure is a bundle of sacred pigs’ jaws; in front is a priest.] The body of the effigy is built up on a framework of wood, and covered with the same preparation of clay and fibre and modelled in a like manner, but, as a rule, it is seriously out of proportion. When this imitation body is finished it is coloured in three shades, red, black, and white (sometimes blue is found on them, but as the natives are unable to obtain this colour naturally it is only used where the traders can supply it). Down the trunk of the body long stripes are made, running {157} vertically or horizontally, and round the legs bands of these alternate colours are painted. The shoulders and knees are decorated with grotesque faces, surmounted by tufts of fibre which often rise to a distance of three or four inches. A bamboo cane is stuck in each of these tufts, and on the top of it splendid specimens of boars’ tusks are sometimes to be seen.