In the Banks Islands[1] the soul is called atai in Mota and talegi in Motlav. It is believed to leave the body in vivid dreams and in fainting attacks, health depending on its presence and sound condition. A man can be deprived of his soul either by a ghost (tamate) or by a spirit (vui), or the soul may be merely damaged, the two events leading to illness of different degrees of severity. When the soul has been taken by a vui, it can be recovered by one called a gismana, who sends out his soul to seek the captured soul and restore it to its owner,[2] this procedure corresponding closely with that of the Indonesian leeches.
The atai of Mota is said to have signified originally something peculiarly connected with a person and sacred to him; it might be a snake or a stone. We are told particularly that it does not mean a thing in which the soul is thought to be contained.[3] It is never used for the shadow, though the related ata is the word for the shadow in Samoa and for the reflected image in New Zealand.
In Maewo in the New Hebrides the soul is called tamaniu, a word applied in Mota to the guardian animal, while in Pentecost Island and Lepers’ Island the soul is tamtegi, a word related to the tamate which in other islands means ghost.
In Ambrim the body is supposed to be tenanted by the nin mauwan, or the spirit of life, which leaves the body temporarily in sleep, and becomes the ghost (temar) at death. When an important man is seriously ill, the nin mauwan of his son or brother may leave his body in sleep and consult with the ghosts of the sick man’s father or grandfather to learn the issue of the illness.
Pigs are believed to have a nin mauwan, but this does not become a temar or ghost when it dies. Nevertheless, the nin mauwan survives the death of the animal, and when
