with presents, but sooner or later his
fate is sealed.[439]

[Sidenote: Many hurts and maladies attributed by the Kai to the action
of ghosts. In other cases the sickness is traced to witchcraft.
Capturing a lost soul.]

However, the Kai savage is far from attributing all deaths without
distinction to sorcerers.[440] In many hurts and maladies he detects the
cold clammy hand of a ghost. If a man, for example, wounds himself in
the forest, perhaps in the pursuit of a wild beast, he may imagine that
he has been speared or clubbed by a malignant ghost. And when a person
falls ill, the first thing to do is naturally to ascertain the cause of
the illness in order that it may be treated properly. In all such
enquiries, Mr. Keysser tells us, suspicion first falls on the ghosts;
they are looked upon as even worse than the sorcerers.[441] So when a
doctor is called in to see a patient, the only question with him is
whether the sickness is caused by a sorcerer or a ghost. To decide this
nice point he takes a boiled taro over which he has pronounced a charm.
This he bites, and if he finds a small stone in the fruit, he decides
that ghosts are the cause of the malady; but if on the other hand he
detects a minute roll of leaves, he knows that the sufferer is
bewitched. In the latter case the obvious remedy is to discover the
sorcerer and to induce him, for an adequate consideration, to give up
the magic tube in which he has bottled up a portion of the sick man's
soul. If, however, the magician turns a deaf ear alike to the voice of
pity and the allurement of gain, the resources of the physician are not
yet exhausted. He now produces his whip or scourge for souls. This
valuable instrument consists, like a common whip, of a handle with a
lash attached to it, but what gives it the peculiar qualities which
distinguish it from all other whips is a small packet tied to the end of
the lash. The packet contains a certain herb, and the sick man and his
friends must all touch it in order to impregnate it with the volatile
essence of their souls. Armed with this potent implement the doctor goes
by night into the depth of the forest; for the darkness of night and the
solitude of the woods are necessary for the success of the delicate
operation which this good physician of souls has now to perform. Finding
himself alone he whistles for the lost soul of the sufferer, and if only
the sorcerer by his infernal craft has not yet brought it to death'