RECOVERY FROM SEVERE INJURIES. 1G5 



plaited mat of palm-leaves, in his wretched home where the sunlight 

 rarely enters ; and there he awaits, perhaps without regret, his ap- 

 proaching death. When consciousness leaves him, his friends regard 

 him as alread}'' dead, attributing the spasmodic breathing and the 

 convulsive efforts of the dying man to the agency of some evil spirit. 



The influence of superstition probably explains the indifference 

 which prevails as to the welfare of the sick and aged. Those 

 afflicted with such an infirmity as blindness are kindly treated by 

 their fellows. I was particularly struck, whilst looking on at a 

 feast in the village of Treasury, by the attention that was paid to 

 the wants of a young blind man who sat aloof from the rest. He 

 was blind from his birth, and I particularly pleased him by sitting 

 down beside him and giving him a stick of tobacco. 



In the case of those who have received some severe injury, such 

 as a gunshot wound, considerable care is shown by the friends in 

 their welfare. I saw much of the natives who were wounded 

 during the hostilities carried on between the natives of Treasury 

 and the Shortlands, and was astonished at the ease with which 

 they recovered from apparently hopeless injuries. My experience 

 goes to support the opinion laid down by Professor Waitz in his 

 "Anthropology of Primitive Peoples,"^ that the healing power of 

 nature is greater among savage than among civilized races. The 

 principle of non-interference was literally carried out in defiance of 

 the laws of hygiene and of the experience of modern surgery. 

 After the unfortunate conflict on the islet of Tuluba, ofi" the west 

 coast of Alu, I visited the wounded man and woman who had been 

 brought back to their homes. I found the woman lying in a 

 dingy little house in which I had to stand still for a few minutes 

 before I could see my patient. Five days had elapsed since the 

 fight ; and the condition of a wound, which has been left alone for 

 this period in a tropical climate, may be well imagined. She had 

 received a severe tomahawk wound just above the right knee, 

 smashing the bone and implicating the joint. The parts were much 

 swollen and there was profuse suppuration. No attempt had been 

 made to wash the wound, and in consequence it stunk horribly. A 

 few pieces of split bamboo, less than a foot in length, were lashed 

 in a slack fashion around the joint by means of rattan ; but they 

 could have given little or no support. Under the couch, which 

 was merely a layer of poles raised about a foot from the ground, 



1 English edition : translated by J. F. Collingwood : London, 1SG3 : p. 126. 



