BURIAL AND WITCHCRAFT 
of their wits; for it is the recognised symbol that 
some one has been there who does not want you to 
pass. It has a correlative in a friendly symbol, which 
is also a broken bough, but in this instance it is not 
entirely severed from the tree. 
Another superstition is ‘‘ Wada,” which, as far as 
one can ascertain, seems to be a belief in an invisible 
man who stands near a tree, but is so like it that he 
cannot be seen. As you go through the forest ““Wada”™ 
may touch you, and then you are doomed. After this 
there is nothing for you to do but go home and die; 
and so great is the power of suggestion, that a person 
who believes he has been touched by “ Wada” gene- 
rally does die. 
Mavai practised ‘‘ Wada,” but it took a somewhat 
pharmaceutical form with him. He made an abomin- 
able mixture of rotten bananas, and all sorts of 
decomposing matter. This he kept in his house and 
gave to persons he wanted to be rid of, generally 
without any evil effect, but that never shook his belief 
in the efficacy of his decoctions. It was delightfully 
comical to see the seriousness with which he sat com- 
pounding his horrid messes, and telling you of their 
dire results. It may be wondered how ever he got 
the dread substance administered ; but then, of course, 
Mavai was all-powerful, and the person who refused 
to take his “ Wada” drugs would probably have en- 
countered ‘‘ Wada’”—a sure and certain ‘“‘ Wada’— 
in the person of Mavai himself. 
There was also some confusion of ‘“‘ Wada” with a 
stone or a stick, and therein probably one might find 
the truth about the real deadliness of the charm, 
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