ABSTRACT
Between the white men's activities and their own, and between the things they make themselves and those which the white men bring with them, primitives certainly do draw a line of demarcation. The primitive who has a successful hunting expedition, or reaps an abundant harvest, or triumphs over his enemy in war, debits this favourable result to the indispensable assistance of the unseen powers. He himself undertakes nothing without having a medicine to ensure success. German missionaries in New Guinea have been witnesses of the same circumstances and express the same views. The natives of the Jabim tribe believe themselves to be dependent in a very special way upon the spirits of the dead (balum) in their agricultural pursuits. For the Papuans, to bring yams to maturity is an undertaking the success of which depends, first and foremost, upon mystic causes.
