Stones employed in Huli rituals are sometimes referred to under the generic label of liru, after the most common form of ritual stone, though specific terms are more usually used. Another generic term for ritual stones, which appears to be Duna in origin as it has no specific referent amongst Huli, is auwi. Of the specific categories listed below, all except guru wali have been indentified with the aid of examples of the stones in question. The description of guru wali stones draws on three independent accounts which are all in close accord with one another. 1

bari numbi erepolecircular stone club heads with drilled central holes, employed in the yabo ritual.
erepole“broken-back”: corrugated crescent-shaped fossils, generally dark in colour. Of two specimens examined, one was identified as an ammonite, the other as an Inocerarnus mussel CJ. Chappell pers.comm.).
guru wali“guru-woman” (male dama spirit): cylindrical stones with appendages held to be “arms”, sometimes sufficient in number to include “legs”.
hone“light-coloured”: tan- or light-coloured cylindrical stones, varying in cross-section from oval to circular (cf ni hone, wane/abo keba).
igiri labo“boy-water spirit”: stone pestles of all shapes and sizes.
liru/
liru kui		“/iru-bone/real”: a broad category referring to rough-surfaced spherical or slightly elongated stones.
nanabe
 		a general category employed for most carved stone figures, including anthropomorphs, birds, etc..
ni tangi“sun-hat”: stone mortars of all shapes and sizes.
nihabane“sun-egg”: smooth, black spherical stones, commonly 8-12 cm in diameter, employed in toro sorcery. Two examples have been identified as chert cobbles (].Chappell pers.comm.).
nihonesee hone
wane labo I
wane labo keba		“female water spirit-digging stick”: cylindrical stones, similar in form to hone though usually “flatter” in section, and generally light green in colour.
wane labo andu“female water spirit-breast”: thin black glassy stones.

  1. (An extract from The Death of a Great Land: Ritual, History and Subsistence Revolution in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea; Australian National University, Canberra, 1995) ) [↩]