78 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



The native went about as usual for seven days, and on the 

 evening of the seventh wrapped himself in his mat and was found 

 dead next morning. The gods had called him to the great world 

 of the spirits. Last year the well-known Waikato chief Hori 

 Kukutai died. He was extremely superstitious, and he likewise 

 imagined he heard the spirit- voices calling him. and prepared to 

 obey the summons. Some little time before he died, Lord 

 Rmfurlv, the Governor of this colony, made a trip round the 

 Province of Auckland in the Government yacht, and Kukutai 

 was one of the party. The aged chief enjoyed himself immensely 

 till the vessel approached the North Cape ; he was a good sailor, 

 and in excellent spirits. As, however, they approached Te 

 Reinga. the legendary cliff where the souls of the dead natives 

 plunge through the portal of Hades and gain entrance to the 

 spirit underworld, Hori began to get depressed, and to sink 

 deeper and deeper into a state of profound melancholy. He said 

 the lapping of the water and the sighing of the wind were the 

 voices of his dead ancestors calling him. To appease them, he 

 threw overboard a shirt belonging to one of the Crown Ministers, 

 and quickly followed this by some articles of attire belonging to 

 other members of the ship's company. His own clothes were 

 at first reserved, but as his symptoms increased he would have 

 thrown them overboard too : and it was feared that he would 

 have jumped over the side had he not been carefully watched 

 and attended by those on board. As it was, so great was his 

 nervous prostration that grave fears were entertained that he 

 might succumb. 



Mr. Andrew Lang* relates the following interesting case 

 occurring in Melanesia. ' The story is vouched for by Mr. J. J. 

 Atkinson, late of Noumea, New Caledonia. To him one day a 

 Kanaka of his acquaintance paid a visit, and seemed loth to go 

 away. He took leave, returned, and took leave again, till 

 Mr. Atkinson asked him the reason of his behaviour. He then 

 explained that he was about to die. and would never see his 

 English friend again. As he seemed in perfect health, Mr. 

 Atkinson rallied him on his hypochondria; but the poor fellow 

 replied that his fate was sealed. He had lately met in the wood 

 one whom he took for the Kanaka gill of his heart ; but he be- 

 came aware too late that she was no mortal woman, but a wood- 

 spirit in the guise of the beloved. The result would be his death 

 within three days; and. as a matter of fact, he died." 



This peculiar form of melancholia which has a fatal termination 

 when affecting persons free from obvious organic disease is a 

 most potent ami frequent cause of death in times of epidemic 

 sickness. Thus, in the great pestilence called okuu. which swept 



* " Myth, Ritual, ami Religion," vol. i., p. L05. 



