Death in a Simbu village brings sadness as well as fear .
The person that has passed away is gone, but the family still feel connected to the cadaver. Because of this connection, they fear for what may happen to the body once it is buried.
The common belief is that the spirits of the 'Sanguma' world will remove the body in the dead of night for a cannibalistic feast. This fear is so strong that a temporary shelter is built by the fresh grave side and up to twenty young men armed to the teeth with weapons and electric torches keep a vigil every night for a whole week. Anything - animals, night birds, insects, domestic animals, humans - that is caught in the vicinity (say 100m radius) is killed.
After the week is over, they think that the body is decomposed enough not to provide a cannibalistic feast for the evil sanguma spirits, so end their vigil.
Maybe, anyone of you out there that reads this will laugh at it as we are now in the 21st century and people should be more civilized. But what I have written here is so real for the Simbu people and this behaviour still exists.
If the stories about the Sanguma spirit intrigues you, do con tact me through this blog and we will see about some more discussions.
Cheers!
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