Sessions with Unabelin First Session, April 22, 1932

I will tell you about one ancestor of mine. I have his name, Unabelin. 2 One day he went into the bush to look for pepper leaves. The ghosts captured him. 3 He climbed up a tree. The tree belonged to the ghosts. 4 A ghost came. He stood at the foot of the tree. My ancestor, he wished to climb down. He saw the ghost. The ghost said: “Unabelin, see, your father and mother have come.” He climbed down. The ghost took him. 5 He took him to the place of the stone. The stone is called babewutam. It is part blue, part white, part black. 6 All the ghosts were gathered there. They were making a big tamberan 7 house. They held him fast there. His sister Kumai went into the bush. She looked for him. She called out. She heard him. He replied. She said: “Where is he? I don’t see him. But he answers.” She returned to the village. She slept. In the morning, she called again. He answered. He said: “Bring me a little yam.” An ubulalik yam. 8 “I am hungry.” She said: “He calls from where?” She returned to the village. She got a yam. She called: “Here is the yam.” But she heard only his answer. She did not find him. It was night. She slept. Next day she heard him call: “Bring me a yam. I am hungry. Come quickly. I am very hungry.” She does not find him. Each day he complains about the yam. 9 The ghosts hold him fast. Finally, they finished the tamberan enclosure. All the little boys went inside. Unabelin was just a little boy, about as old as Midjulumon. 10 He had not been eaten by the tamberan yet. The tamberan devoured the novices. 11 His sister called him every day. Every day he answered. But the ghosts hold him fast. They said: “Wait until the tamberan house is finished.” They kill pigs; they work sago; they mash taro. They make croquettes. They give him the head of the pig and one hind leg and one foreleg and sago and taro. They filled up a net bag with the food. They adorned him. They brought him to a place called Usheihim, a place in the region called Manialum, past the ghosts of all his ancestors who were dead. They all saw him. He emerged in the village. He fell down unconscious. He threw down the filled net bag. It was not the head of a pig. It was only a piece of fern root. It was not sago. It was not taro. It was meibasip fruit. He was unconscious. They wept over him. They got leaves of malenogulo, waiyasy unlsuh, ilamen, and kolokosili, 1 and they got nettles. They rubbed him with these leaves. They built fires. They built a fire on this side of him. They built a fire on that side of him. They built a fire at his feet. They built a fire at his head. He slept unconscious. They rubbed him with leaves. They made the fire bigger. He stirred a little now. They took the good nettles, the nettles used in sickness, amigwelu and uheluh. They rubbed him. They rubbed his belly, his back, his shoulders, his legs. He got up. He threw away the piece of fern root. He ate the fruit. He threw away the pieces of wood. 2 But he did not speak. He sat there silently. He sat there silently. It was night. They slept. They gave him hot water to drink. 3 Now he can talk. He said: “I was carried off by ghosts. You think that is only a place? Many ghosts live there. They have built a big initiatory enclosure and tamberan house there.” 4