notp:s on the tannese. 65t) 



generally the Nui-rikers word is taken. He says what the 

 " refuse " was, and the victim is able to remember where it 

 could have been got ; and so water is poured on the lire 

 and the victim recovers. A Nuruk stone may produce any 

 form of fatal disease, rarely, if ever, a single disease. 



It is unusual to assume that everything connected with 

 Nilruk is a disception. Nothing can be farther fi-ora the 

 truth. The Nfiruker believes in his own power, and so their 

 peo])le. There is no scepticism amongst Tannese on any 

 religious matter : scepticism is a parasite of the Gospel. A 

 Tannese never thinks of deception being practised in these 

 matters. If a ISuruker says a man's Nfirfik has been taken, 

 he is able to present satisfactory evidence of its truth. 

 Indeed deception is not possible. If a man said he had taken 

 someone's Nuruk when he had not done so, purely with hope 

 of getting pay, he could no more keep the secret to himself 

 than our proverbial woman. To tell another would be to 

 tell the man himself. 



The coincidence between the burning of Ni'iruk and the 

 state of the victim is astonishing. A man's Nuruk is taken 

 and he falls ill ; it is recovered, and he recovers. A man falls 

 ill without knowing that his Nuruk has been taken; search is 

 made for it; when found he recovers. So constant is this 

 that no native mind can resist the conclusion of their being 

 a direct and objective connection. And even men with minds 

 better trained than the unsophisticated native mind have 

 been unable to resist drawing the inference the natives draw. 

 Good intelligent christians accept evidence of direct answers 

 to prayer less satisfactory and conclusive than that presented 

 in cases of Nitruk. One has to approach such evidence in 

 an immovable belief that there is no such connection between 

 the victim and his Nurfik before he can reject the evidence 

 that there is such a connection. I do not affirm that there is 

 such a connection, but I do maintain that we must have 

 something more satisfactory than the stock explanations of 

 mental reflex action and imposture. Reflex action through 

 the mind there is ; imposture I am well convinced there is 

 not. 



Every Niiruk stone has a name. One is known as 

 Kasamkaseivia, other Kalaplaben (night or blackness), 

 Tagirakau (said to be a very powerful one, and one that 

 "peeps" when separated from its little stones), Numanu- 

 liluhuasul, and Kusasiva. The name of my Nfiruk stones 

 has not been recovered. These stones are not at present in 



