WORKS OF THE DEVIL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13909, 7 December 1910, Page 6

WORKS OF THE DEVIL.

WITCHCRAFT IN MELANESIA

The natives of tho Melanesian group, said Bishop Wilson at the Melanesian garden party yesterday, 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 hewould lay himself down and die. "I asked one of my boys who had been thus possessed," added the Bishop, "why he did not summon his faith in God to his aid, and he said he had, and but for this he would have v died."

Another mysterious business mentioned by the Bishop as occurring in the Islands was the making of mone3" by women, which they did, said he, 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. She then scratched her head, and money came from her hair; then she drank milk from a eocoanut 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 tho old woman's husband had come up for confirmation, and on being taxed prior to the ceremony by his Lordship, had confessed that for three years he and his wife had had nothing whatever to do with the money making, 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 had produced great masses of money.

"I believe the devil has to do with all this, and with the witchcraft and magic," concluded his Lordship. "You may not think so" (as a dubious smile appeared on the faces of some of his listeners), "but I do, and in Melanesia we have to fight against him."