"Missionary influence has eroded much of the tribes' cultural heritage, which was inseparably linked with the traditional mythology, beliefs and rituals, and wilted when these were abandoned. Above all, the conversion of part of a community tends to destroy the social unity of the whole tribe. ... The converts [in the Nishi tribe] seem to have been lacking in tolerance and tact ... old parents were abandoned by their converted children, who claimed that they could not stay in dwellings where 'devils' were worshipped ... the converts went a step further by abusing and physically attacking priests as they invoked the gods in the performance of traditional Nishi rituals."