Note 1 — Religion and Superstitious Beliefs and Practices

I have been unable to find an account of any spiritual or partly spiritual being associated with the beliefs of Papuans or Melanesians who can be regarded as being similar to Tsidibe. Perhaps the nearest approach to him will be found in Qat of the Banks Islands, of whom much is told us by Dr. Codrington in The Melanesians, and who apparently is not regarded as having been of divine rank, but is rather a specially powerful, but perhaps semi-human, spiritual individual, who, though not having originally created mankind and the animal and vegetable world and the objects and forces of nature as a whole, has had, and it would seem still has, considerable creative and influencing powers over them all. But I could learn no detailed legends concerning Tsidibe; and the scanty information given to me concerning him differs from what we know of Qat.