Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/255

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[The following story has been sent to me by Mr. D. Jenness, of Balliol College, Oxford, who has recently been conducting anthropological researches at the instance of the University Committee for Anthropology in the D'Entrecasteaux Group, New Guinea, and is now attached to the Stefannson Expedition to the Arctic; so that I must make myself responsible for the publication of this interesting piece of Fijian folklore. It was collected from a Fijian mission-teacher at Goodenough Island, who has since died.—R. R. Marett.]

ago some white men with two Fijians went to one of the islands in the Fiji group to have a look at it. The Fijians were left in charge of the boat. One said to the other,—"You look after the boat while I have a look round." So he went away, and looking down on to the beach in a certain place he saw what appeared to be two men, one of whom, catching sight of him, fled away. He knew they could not be ordinary men because the island was uninhabited, so he crept up to the one that remained, busily digging in the sand, and caught hold of him. His captive, however, suddenly straightened up to a great height, and ran up a small hill, with the Fijian clinging round his neck. On the top of the hill was a tree called Mafa, and the being entered into a hole in its side, leaving the Fijian in a trance without. By and by he came to, and went down to the boat and slept. In the afternoon the being came to him and told him to go back to the tree, where he would find a small stone wrapped in a piece of calico. So the man went and found it. At night the being came again to him and told him to take great care of the stone, which was a crystal like glass. "You must not show it to anyone," it said, "and, if you are wishing anything, you have only to look into the stone." So the Fijian went back home. Thereafter, when a man was ill, the Fijian had only to look into the stone, and it told him the remedy. Many cures were worked in this way. After a time some English doctors heard of these wonderful cures, and sent for him to help them at the hospital. No one, however, knew anything about the stone. While he was at the hospital, two young