The dinghy put out from Douar and by leaning over its side I could see the glowing corals, the wavering memories, the blue and the vermilion starfish, the black and the red beche-de-mer, and the coloured little fishes darting in and out of the shrubberies of the underwater garden. but not for long was I looking at the beauty of the coral. Waier's cliffs jut up dead black from that jade-blue sea. the fiery convulsion that burnt them black contorted and twisted and gouged them into fantastic pillar shapes, here and there like misshapen colossi. their deeply fretted skyline makes the island look like an incinerated uin. the mile-long crescent wall got lower, and we rounded the point where it disappears down under the water and entered the crescent by on the other side.

The sea spent itself out on the reef, a line of flurried white in the distance. the shallow bay was still. A fish plopped, distinct in the silence, and the creak of the rowlocks seemed unnaturally loud. Two diamond-rays, hugely flat and pale yellow-grey, did away under the keel as we came in towards the strip of white sand beach. The beach was shadowed by a grove of cocopalms. the nuts and dead fronds had fallen and fallen to built up a matted thick debris well above the level of the sand. Over the tops of the palms rose the black, gouged cliffs. Between the palms and the cliffs grew some cotton trees that have a silver-white bark and these were bare, ghostly against the black rock. In the twisted leafless branches of one a black bird hung dead. that was the last touch. Waier needed to make it the most theatrically macabre place. I ever expect to see, "Macabre", in my diary, does indicate the feeling Waier produced at a time when I knew absolutely nothing about the rites of Waier.

A.O.C. Davies was the Superintendent on Mer in 1924-5. the islanders liked this keen-minded, active, youngish Queenslander who, without prejudice to his authority, did not set himself above and apart. He interested himself in the island lore the better to understand its people, and it was not unusual for him to have the most knowledgeable of the old men down at his house at night, gathered round the pressure lamp and smoking his tobacco, telling him stories of the life that used to be. when he had checked one informant against another, and got got general agreement on the version of some legend or rite, he wrote it down. In the way of Davies gathered the full story of the Bomai-Malu cult from men who had been members of it: he was even inducted into the fraternity. And in this way he learnt what had never been revealed to J.S. Bruce, who was for many years in charge of Mer, and what had remained unknown to Professor A.C. Haddon, who led the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait Islands in the eighties: he learnt all about Waiet-the legend of Waiet's coming to Waier, and the whole story of the Waier cult.

Waiet lived on Mabuiag, one of the western islands, and he was a super-being whose position (Davies says) can best be described as a "King of Nature". with him lived his wife, Weiba, and their daughter, Guinau. Every day Waier used to go to the spring where the women and girls came to draw water, accompanied by the disciples who fell into two classes, the zogo-le, his priests, and the tami-leb, attendants. He would select any female he fancied and who was not pregnant, and have intercourse with her. If he was in a contrary mood he might order his attendants to cut off her head. One day Waiet felt indisposed and did not go for his walk, but the zogo-le decided to emulate Waiet and, meeting his wife, Weiba, and daughter, Guinau, they seized them and had intercourse with them; and afterwards the tami-leb cut off their heads.

Waiet, on hearing of this, decided to take his drum and leave Mabuiag. Crying and beating his drum, he went over the sea to Nagir Island, but when he heat his drum on Nagir it did not sound well, so he went to another island, Oidol. But his drum did not sound well on Oidol either, so he went to Mer. Malu was in possession at Mer, so Waiet went across the Douar, but that was not good either, so he crossed to Waier. He found the crescent bay in Waier and climbed the black cliffs behind the beach and there he beat his drum and it echoed from the cliffs and sounded well. Waiet began to sing and his singing and his drumming attracted two women who were on the island, and they began to dance. Waiet took some young white leaves of a sprouting coconut and decked his head with them, and he, too, began to dance. the women came to him and he had intercourse with them. Then he made himself a heap of coconuts and sat down on them saying, "Here will I stay." The legend also says that Waiet micturated from the top of the cliffs, and that made the abundance of fish in the lagoon-like bay. From that time Waiet was the fertility god of the Mer people and Waier was his place.  

Waiet became an image, an effigy that represented the head, trunk and arms of a man-like figure, squatted on a heap of coconuts, without legs, for the god had found his place and had no need to wander more. His face was of one piece of turtleshell carved with yes, nostrils and mouth. Other plates of turtleshell, sewn together with coconut twine, formed the body, which was supported by a stake of wongai wood and had two outstretched arms. the god had a head-dress of tern feathers that had been dipped in blood and red ochre. A string of human rib bones hang from his forehead. These, too, were painted with blood and red earth.

Passi, who was Davies's principal informant on the Waiet cult, said that the bones were those of a white boy. but who the white boy was, or how and when he had come, and why he was killed, Passi would not say. Another string of rib bones was round Waiet's neck, together with a crescent ornament of pearlshell, called a mai. At his waist were suspended human arm and leg bones. Strings of large white cowrie shells, which have a sacred and sexual significance at representing the female vagina, hung from Waiet's shoulders. Down his back were two strings of smaller white cowries, joined in the middle by a human jawbone which, Davies says, was "apparently that of a young person". The arms were extended straight out from the shoulders, palms upwards, and under the right arm was a basket, and under the lft arm rested Waiet's gabba-gabba, his stone club with a star-shaped head. In front of the god were several large clam shells.

The rites of Waiet used to take place every year and last for eight days. For the rest of the year Waier was almost deserted. A few men went there to fish - and the belief was that if they looked at the top of the cliff while they were there they would not catch anything. the island was avoided by women, because it needed only a man of the fraternity to testify that a woman had been seen trying to peek at Waiet and she would be punished by death, either immediate or, more terribly, as one of the sacrificial victims. the men who belonged to the Waiet fraternity - it was like a lodge - went across to Douar at the appointed time, with their families. there was virtually no excuse for the absence of any woman or any young girl who had reached the age of puberty. they camped in shelters built beforehand on Douar. the men formed in procession and walked across the shallow passage to Waier at low tide, taking with them food supplies, the novices who were to be initiated into the cult, and the captives for sacrifice. sometimes wrongdoers of Mer were included and men who had been taken prisoner in the fairly constant warfare that went on between the islands.

Three zogo-le priests and three tami-leb attendants had gone ahead to Waier to make preparations. they gathered fresh coconuts for Waiet to sit on, repaired any part of him that needed attention, and anointed the god with coconut oil and turtle grease. Next day the zogo-le took Waiet out of his recess and sit him on his heap of coconuts on the ledge and the two lesser zogo-le posted themselves one on either side. On a lower ledge the tami-leb sat, and they had long black and red hour-glass drums. The chief zogo-le cried out his command for the rites to begin, the tami-leb beat their drums and the high-priest of Waiet danced. Down below, on the beach, a procession formed. Each man held in his mouth a red-ochred shell, to represent a still tongue. thus the men stood before Wait and each made an offering to the god. then all, silently, withdrew. Afterwards the procession re-formed, the older men in the lead and wearing regalia according to their standing and seniority, then came the novices, then the bound captives, and the young men who had been initiated at the previous ceremonies brought up the rear.  

The captives were placed aside under guard. The initiates - boys of about fourteen who had reached puberty - were brought forward to the foot of the cliff and presented to Waiet, and there they were initiated. Passi refused to tell Davies what form the Waiet initiation took. When I was on Waiet, a native named Sabban pointed out a narrow cleft that ran, at ground level, right through the cliffs of the island and he said that boys had to shout through this. Any youth who could not make himself heard on the other side knew he was a weakling and would soon die. Up on the cliff ledge a fire had been made in front of Waiet. some of this sacred fire was placed in a clam shell and lowered down the cliff, after a speech by the chief zogo-le. Each initiate prepared a coconut shell and in this he was given coals of the sacred fire. He swung the shell five times, like a censer. then the initiates marched with their coals to the cooking place, and lighted thee a fire, which it was their duty to tend.

The captives were now divided into five groups, or lest one for each day the men would remain on Waier. The sacrifice for that day was brought to the foot of the cliff. the chief zogo-le ordered a tattoo of drums and then cried out, "Prepare the sacrifice!" The captive was taken to the water's edge where he was scrubbed with pumice stone and cleansed with salt-water. Then he was taken back to the cliff, a vine rope fastened round him, and the tami-leb hauled him up to Waiet's ledge. there the three zogo-le marked off with lime on the victim's body the flesh portion each desired. The most favoured portions were the breast and the arm muscle. the tami-leb also marked off their portions. The chief zogo-le made a speech explaining that the rites of Waiet were to ensure propagation and that, for the concluding ceremonies to be productive, Waier demanded sacrifices first.

The tami-leb laid the bound captive in front of Waiet. The chief zogo-le took a upi, a bamboo knife with a razor-like edge, and he cut off the genital organ and placed these in Waiet's extended palms. Then the victim was killed by being struck on the head with Waiet's stone club. The priests and attendants cut off their marked portions of the body, which was then lowered down the cliff, where other portions were cut off and placed on banana leaves. These were carried to the cooking fire and placed on the ground there. All the men danced and beat drums, but in this dance they did not sing. then, in order of seniority, each man seated himself before a flesh-portion. the leaves were carried away to the earth oven of hot stones and, strapped in the leaves, the flesh was cooked and afterwards it was eaten.

The ritual feast was followed by a number of dances. In one the men hung bones of dugong round their necks, and doubtless this was an increase rite, its purpose to make more plentiful the dugong, the pork of the sea. Another was a solo dance by a man who fastened his tongue so that it protruded, and painted it red and, with his red tongue lolling out, he danced before a line of seated men who held their arms out, palms upwards. No houses were allowed on Waier and after the dances the men slept in crevices at the foot of the cliffs. The rites went on for five days and then Wiet was put back into his recess. The zogo-le and the tami-leb came down from the cliff, and covered the cooking fire with sand. A procession formed with the chief zogo-le at its head and, to the beating of drums and chanting, marched back at low tide across the passage to Douar. 

the women on Douar had prepared a feast. When the kopamauri ovens were opened and the fish and the pork, the fruits and the vegetables set out on the ground, the "table" of food was arranged in an oval form to represent the female organ of procreation. the zogo-le occupied the top-centre and the tami-leb the lower-centre positions. the feast went on until late in the afternoon. then the chief zogo-le spoke to the assembly. the fertility of the species was within the gift of Waiet, and now the propitiated god decreed that, on this night, no woman was to regard herself as the wife of the betrothed of any man - all were brides of Waiet. And women who were childless would, on the night, have opportunity to become fecund. the chief zogo-le chose for himself the woman or girl he wanted, the other priests and the tami-leb next made their choices, then the other men each took a woman, strictly in order of their seniority in the cult, right down to the most junior of the initiates. there were always, Pasi said, more women than men .

Behind this night of orgy there appears to have been a social necessity and purpose - to ensure the population strength of Mer which, if it could not maintain a high enough birth-rate, would be overrun by its enemies, particularly those of Erub which could usually muster a greater number of women than Mer. At sunrise next day all the men and women rejoined their families and, according to what Passi told Davies, any excess afterwards was punishable with death. 

Davies had been across to Waiet with old Passi, who had told him what he had told no other white man about the rites of Waiet. the Superintendent gathered that the cult had been active even after the first missionaries came, up till about 1890, and perhaps a few years later than that. Paul nodded in the direction of the cliffs but, although Davies had been made a "blood brother" of Passi's, the native would not point out to him the exact location of Waiet's ledge.

Empire Day, 24th May, being a school holiday, Davies went across to Waier (in 1925) in his sailing dinghy, accompanied by the policeman Kaikai and another policeman, Jimmy Wailu. He said he wanted to "wander about" and they put him ashore and went out into the bay fishing. Davies was thinking about the Waiet rites as he looked up at the cliffs. "I decided," he says, "to have a look-see." He climbed up the cliffs. It is a stiff climb of over a hundred feet, but he found that there were handholds cut in the rock, and by using these he came to Waiet's ledge - and he found Waiet. there, in a recess cave, squatted on a heap oif rotted coconuts, was the effigy. the turtleshell face and body-plates were in good condition but the coconut twine had decayed and the figure was in a state of collapse. However, it could be restored and, Davies decided, the place for it was the Queensland Museum. the extraordinary happening which ensued between his discovering Waiet and its installation in the Museum at Brisbane, where it is now, are best told, I feel, in the words of Mr Davies himself:

Mr A.O.C. Davies is still a schoolteacher, nearing the retiring age, in Brisbane. I am indebted to him for the account of what happened after he gathered up Waiet from the ledge on the black cliffs of Mer and, bringing the effigy back to Mer, found that, after fifty years of Christianity, the old god was still zogo.  

Papua New Guinea Visit - Part 4