WITCHCRAFT AND MYSTERY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 928, 8 December 1910, Page 3

WITCHCRAFT AND MYSTERY.

Christchurch, December 6, The natives of the Melanesian group, said Bishop Wilson at a Melanesian garden party to-day, are firm believers in witchcraft, and of many mysterious happenings of which one could give no explanation. He was fully convinced the devil himself was at the bottom of them. For instance, an islander would become possessed of witchcraft, which, after causing him pains in various parts of his body, would end in a heavy weight pressing on his head, and he would lay himself down and die.

“ I asked one of my boys wno had been thus possessed,” said the bishop, “ why he did not summon his faith in God to his aid. He

said he had, and but for this he would have died.”

Another mysterious business mentioned by the bishop as occurring in the islands was the making of money by women in a most extraordinary way. One old woman he had seen sang a song, and immediately native money dropped from nowhere on to the ground all around her head, and money came from her hair. Then she drank milk from a cocoanut, and money was found in the husk- She then danced, and money rolled on the ground. He had thought it clever conjuring, but the other day the old woman’s husband had come for confirmation, and on being taxed prior to the ceremony had confessed that for three years he and his wife had had nothing whatever to do with the making of money, and then at last three or four little spirits in the woman had said to him, “We want food.” He had refused, and they had asked “ Why ! we give you money.” He had then fed his wife with the particular food the spirits wanted, and next morning she hah produced great masses of money.

“ I believe the devil has to do with all this, and with the witchcraft and magic,” concluded Bishop Wilson.