THE SORCERER. 55 



their custom never to refuse to each other anything that is asked. 

 The professions of the sorcerer and medicine-man are usually com- 

 bined in the same individual. These men in the Shortlands have a 

 great reputation in the minds of the natives, being accredited by 

 them with a knowledge almost universal ; and the precincts of their 

 dwellings are tabooed even to the chief. One of them named 

 Kikila, a sinister-looking individual with but one eye, had obtained 

 much repute in the practice of his profession. When on one occasion 

 Lieutenant Oldham complained to the chief that some of the calico 

 had been removed by the natives from the surveying-marks, the 

 services of Kikila were employed to bring about the death of the 

 unknown culprit. The sorcerer was not himself aware who the 

 man was ; but we were told that for one of so much repute this was 

 ([uite unnecessary. We never learned the result of his incantation; 

 but in all probability they effected their purpose soon enough by 

 working on the fears of the unfortunate offender. How it was to 

 be done we could not satisfactorily ascertain ; but there was no 

 doubt as to the efficacy of the means employed in the minds of the 

 natives. 



Amongst the powers of the sorcerers are those of influencing the 

 weather. But such powers are not confined to men of this class 

 alone. In Ugi, different natives are accredited with being able to 

 bring wind and rain ; and I knew one man who had earned for 

 himself a considerable reputation as a " wind-prophet." These 

 powers are claimed by Mule, the Treasury chief, amongst his other 

 prerogatives. 



As far as I could ascertain, these natives keep no record, even in 

 the memory, of the lapse of yeai\s. Nor are they acquainted with 

 their own age. More than once when trying to obtain the date of 

 jiarticular events, I received the wildest replies. The safest method 

 to employ in making such inquiries is to get the native to refer a 

 recent event to some epoch in his own life, or in the case of earlier 

 occurrences to associate them with his boyhood, manhood, or mar- 

 riage. When he asserts that a certain event occurred whilst his 

 father was a child, he is probably to be trusted ; but when he goes 

 back to the time of his grandfather, no further reliance can be placed 

 on his statements, except as implying an indefinite number of yeai's, 

 I have observed elsewhere (page 76) that a grandfather is deemed a 

 personage of such a high antiquity that these islanders, when re- 

 ferring to past events, seldom care to go beyond. 



