"Yes, it is good, and no harm will be mine." Muttering hurriedly to himself, he pulled carefully each finger, cracking all, till he came to the ninth, no crack, then more earnest muttering, and an appealing look to me, "Tamate is it good?" "Yes, Veata." A long, hard pull, and a crack, and then the tenth—all right. In some places the pulling the fingers signify friendship, and everywhere it is done by friends to any one taken suddenly sick. I remember once at Aroma, a chief not much accustomed to smoking had two or three long whiffs from a bamboo pipe; he was sitting close by me and thrust his hands towards me; not knowing what he wanted, he turned to the other side, and a friend caught his hands and pulled his fingers, not at all happy if one failed to crack. The man, I found, was smoke-sick, and this was the cure.
I was going to ask Veata what it all meant, but he insisted on my not speaking. The first thing produced was a small net bag containing two large seeds; on one was a very good, clear, and well shaped crystal, and underneath small shells to represent nose and eyes. That was the male, and the other, unadorned, was the female. They were never spoken to but for death, and were the cause of many deaths. He now asked me if I was afraid? "Oh, dear no, go on." He next produced a piece of bamboo ten inches long in which there was a black stone, basaltic, and another very small one. The one was father and the other child; these were for seasons, and gave plenty or scarcity. In taking the large stone out it fell, which much disconcerted him, and he had again to go over his prayers. Next came a cone, from the end of the pandanus growth, and made like a scent bottle. He took the lid off, and wapped in various kinds of weeds was another stone he handled very carefully, a co-partner with the last, only both together produced sickness and death; the latter was a female.
He then laid down a small parcel done up in native cloth very carefully, and whilst undoing it was very solemn in appearance, and muttering all the time. Another stone was produced wrapped in weeds, with two small stones enclosed in a network of string, and another substance wrapped up in leaves. These were of power to make children, and were appealed to for the barren, only the women must never see them.
