248 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



or on Hipchinbrook, or at Mourilyan. Those who are 

 terrified or inconvenienced agree to ascribe it to him, and 

 having done so there is nothing of the mysterious to 

 explain away. Usually the boy upon whom the responsi- 

 bility is fixed is not available for cross-examination ; but 

 that renders the fact all the more conclusive. Here is 

 the storm. Peter of the Palms must have made it. 



An old gin known as Kitty, and who lived on Hinchin- 

 brook Island, was famed on account of her successful 

 manipulation of the weather. She was a grim personage — 

 held in respect, if not awe, because of the peculiar dis- 

 tinctions ascribed to her. She could command not only 

 the wind and the rain, but the thunder and lightning also, 

 and to offend her was to run the risk of bringing about 

 a terrifying storm. Years after her death blacks had 

 faith in her potency for ill. One of the few white men 

 who have attempted to climb the highest peaks of the 

 island mountain, informed me that when he reached a 

 certain elevation, the boys who accompanied him never 

 spoke above an awe-struck whisper, and solemnly reproved 

 him whensoever he uttered an unguarded exclamation. 

 They were afraid that the debil-debil might be aroused ; 

 that Kitty would resent the intrusion of her haunt. At 

 last they refused to go higher, and the ascent up in the 

 dreaded regions was continued alone, while they abandoned 

 themselves to sinister prognostics. One lonely night was 

 spent high up on the mountain, and when the adventurer 

 came back on his tracks in the morning, the boys were 

 surprised to find that no harm had befallen him. To go 

 into the very stronghold of mischievous and vindictive 

 spirits, and to come away again, was to them almost be- 

 yond comprehension, and because no hurricane swooped 

 down upon them, as they hurried to the lower and safer 

 levels, nothing short of the marvellous. 



However fantastic this supposition of human influence 

 on the weather, there is an inclination to treat it with a 

 semblance of respect when it is borne in mind that up to 

 a comparatively recent date a similar belief prevailed even 



