m into the nether world. Looking down to see
where he was going, what was the horror of the ghost to perceive a great
net spread by Akaanga and his assistants to catch him at the foot of the
tree! Into this fatal net the doomed spirit inevitably fell to sink in a
lake of fresh water and there to wriggle like a fish for a time. At last
the net was pulled up with the ghost in it, who, half-drowned, was now
ushered trembling into the presence of the grim hag Miru, generally
known as "the Ruddy," because her face reflected the glowing heat of the
ever-burning oven in which she cooked her ghostly victims. At first,
however, she fed, and perhaps fattened, them on a diet of black beetles,
red earth-worms, crabs, and small blackbirds. Thus refreshed, they had
next to drain bowls of strong kava brewed by the fair hands of the hag's
four lovely daughters. Reduced to a state of insensibility by the
intoxicating beverage, the ghosts were then borne off without a struggle
to the oven and cooked. On the substance of these hapless victims Miru
and her son and her peerless daughters regularly subsisted. The leavings
of the meal were thrown to the servants. Such was the fate of all who
died what we should call a natural death, and therefore of all cowards,
women, and children. They were annihilated.[67]

[67] W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, pp.
161 _sq._; _id._, "Mangaia (Hervey Islands)," _op. cit._ pp. 346
_sq._

Not so with warriors who fell fighting on the field of battle. For a
time, indeed, their souls wandered about among the rocks and trees where
their bodies were thrown, the ghastly wounds by which they met their
fate being still visible. The plaintive chirping of a certain cricket,
rarely seen but heard continually at night, was believed to be the voice
of the slain warriors sorrowfully calling to their friends. At last the
first who fell would gather his brother ghosts at a place a little
beyond Araia, on the edge of the cliff and facing the sunset. There they
would linger for a time. But suddenly a mountain sprang up at their
feet, and they ascended it over the spears and clubs which had given
them their mortal wounds. Arrived at the summit they leaped up into the
blue expanse, thus becoming the peculiar clouds of the winter or dry
season. During the rainy season they could mount up to the warriors'
paradise in the sky. In June, the first month of winter, the atmosphere
was pervaded by thes