d removes bodily sickness. He is
whistled for in the Paumotuan manner, and is said to appear; but the
king has never seen him. The doctors treat disease by the aid of Chench:
eclectic Tembinok' at the same time administering "pain-killer" from his
medicine-chest, so as to give the sufferer both chances. "I think mo'
betta," observed his majesty, with more than his usual self-approval.
Apparently the gods are not jealous, and placidly enjoy both shrine and
priest in common. On Tamaiti's medicine-tree, for instance, the model
canoes are hung up _ex voto_ for a prosperous voyage, and must therefore
be dedicated to Taburik, god of the weather; but the stone in front is
the place of sick folk come to pacify Chench.

It chanced, by great good luck, that even as we spoke of these affairs,
I found myself threatened with a cold. I do not suppose I was ever glad
of a cold before, or shall ever be again; but the opportunity to see the
sorcerers at work was priceless, and I called in the faculty of Apemama.
They came in a body, all in their Sunday's best and hung with wreaths
and shells, the insignia of the devil-worker. Tamaiti I knew already:
Terutak' I saw for the first time, a tall, lank, raw-boned, serious
North-Sea fisherman turned brown; and there was a third in their company
whose name I never heard, and who played to Tamaiti the part of
_famulus_. Tamaiti took me in hand first, and led me, conversing
agreeably, to the shores of Fu Bay. The _famulus_ climbed a tree for
some green cocoa-nuts. Tamaiti himself disappeared a while in the bush
and returned with coco tinder, dry leaves, and a spray of waxberry. I
was placed on the stone, with my back to the tree and my face to
windward; between me and the gravel-heap one of the green nuts was set;
and then Tamaiti (having previously bared his feet, for he had come in
canvas shoes, which tortured him) joined me within the magic circle,
hollowed out the top of the gravel-heap, built his fire in the bottom,
and applied a match: it was one of Bryant and May's. The flame was slow
to catch, and the irreverent sorcerer filled in the time with talk of
foreign places--of London, and "companies," and how much money they had;
of San Francisco, and the nefarious fogs, "all the same smoke," which
had been so nearly the occasion of his death. I tried vainly to lead him
to the matter in hand. "Everybody make medicine," he said lightly. And
when I asked him if he were himself a good practitioner-