-"No savvy," he
replied, more lightly still. At length the leaves burst in a flame,
which he continued to feed; a thick, light smoke blew in my face, and
the flames streamed against and scorched my clothes. He in the meanwhile
addressed, or affected to address, the evil spirit, his lips moving
fast, but without sound; at the same time he waved in the air and twice
struck me on the breast with his green spray. So soon as the leaves were
consumed the ashes were buried, the green spray was imbedded in the
gravel, and the ceremony was at an end.

A reader of the "Arabian Nights" felt quite at home. Here was the
suffumigation; here was the muttering wizard; here was the desert place
to which Aladdin was decoyed by the false uncle. But they manage these
things better in fiction. The effect was marred by the levity of the
magician, entertaining his patient with small talk like an affable
dentist, and by the incongruous presence of Mr. Osbourne with a camera.
As for my cold, it was neither better nor worse.

I was now handed over to Terutak', the leading practitioner or medical
baronet of Apemama. His place is on the lagoon side of the island, hard
by the palace. A rail of light wood, some two feet high, encloses an
oblong piece of gravel like the king's Pray Place; in the midst is a
green tree: below, a stone table bears a pair of boxes covered with a
fine mat; and in front of these an offering of food, a cocoa-nut, a
piece of taro or a fish, is placed daily. On two sides the enclosure is
lined with maniap's; and one of our party, who had been there to sketch,
had remarked a daily concourse of people and an extraordinary number of
sick children; for this is in fact the infirmary of Apemama. The doctor
and myself entered the sacred place alone; the boxes and the mat were
displaced; and I was enthroned in their stead upon the stone, facing
once more to the east. For a while the sorcerer remained unseen behind
me, making passes in the air with a branch of palm. Then he struck
lightly on the brim of my straw hat; and this blow he continued to
repeat at intervals, sometimes brushing instead my arm and shoulder. I
have had people try to mesmerise me a dozen times, and never with the
least result. But at the first tap--on a quarter no more vital than my
hat-brim, and from nothing more virtuous than a switch of palm wielded
by a man I could not even see--sleep rushed upon me like an armed man.
My sinews fainted, my eyes closed, my br