A TRIP TO THE TROBRIANDS 69 



small hand-nets set on poles, constructed on very much 

 the same principle as butterfly nets. The fish are 

 always eaten fresh and the natives seem to have no 

 way of preserving them. 



The " medicine man " or sorcerer came a great 

 deal under my notice in the Trobriands. The 

 sorcerer is a man of evil over all the South Seas. 

 Ordinarily, a native with more brains and less 

 principles than the average, he finds that a lazy and 

 well-fed existence is obtainable by pretending to 

 exercise powers of magic. These sorcerers are very 

 much like the medical quacks of civilised peoples, and 

 their great art consists of inventing imaginary diseases 

 and thus frightening people into sickness. All over 

 the South Seas the barb of the stingaree is used by 

 the medicine man as " magic." In my early days in 

 the South Seas the sorcerers did not profess to have 

 any power over the white man, but lately their im- 

 pudence seems to be growing, and a medicine man will 

 sometimes pretend that he has cast the evil eye on a 

 white man. Usually he waits until the white man is 

 sickening of some fever and then he pretends that his 

 '' magic " is the cause of that illness. 



A steady campaign is carried on by the Australian 

 Government officials against the practice of sorcery; 

 but it seems doubtful whether it has very much effect. 

 At any rate I notice that last year the Resident 

 Magistrate in one district had to record no less than 

 174 cases of sorcery. His narrative of how these 



