Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/144

116 The next day according to the prediction, the chief came and searched the island; the man told him that as the island and all that was on it belonged to a white man of whom Tameameah was very fond, he ought not to come there to search for bones, when there was so many on the main island. The chief took no notice, but searched and took several bundles of bones with him, though not those of the king and chiefs. Tereacoo departed, and on the ensuing night the deceased king and many chiefs appeared to the man, and thanked him for what he had done, assuring him that the white man would protect him, and that he should one day become a great man. Mr. Manning was as superstitious as the natives, and declared he had heard many instances of a similar nature. Shortly after we went to the sleeping-house where the women were. Mr. Manning went out to walk about; in a few minutes he returned in a terrible fright and perspiration. Seeing him look so wild, I asked him what was the matter; when he got more composed, he told me, very seriously, that as he was walking by the prickly pear-trees, saying his prayers and counting his beads, he saw the Chief Tereacoo, who had died about a month since, walking before him, attended by a number of people dressed in the white cloth of the country. I laughed heartily at this relation, and tried to persuade him it was all imagination; but he still persisted in having seen the spirits. The next morning I went round the island, which seems as though it had been kept for a burial place, for I saw hundreds of bundles