The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-05
MANAHIKI sOUL-sNARERs.
How the South Pacific Islanders Get
Even With Their Enemies.

| A little while ago, while turning over
some mementos of many years spent in
the Pacific Islands, 1 came across a
small circle of fine cane about two in
ches in diameter; from the side toward
the center a delicate network of the
fibers of some plant was constructed,
leaving a small hole in the center large
enough for. say, bee to crawl through.
The article weighed less than a quarter
of an ounce, yet, small and harmless
as it appeared. it is not so very many
years ago that it and others like it
were objects of deadly terror to the ma
tives of many of the Pacific islands,
particularly those of Manahiki (I4umph-
rey Island), for the simple-looking thing
was a soul catcher''-that is, a des-
/ troyer of human life.
Manahiki is one of a group of low
| lying atoll islands to the north north
west of Samoa, and its people today are
about the best educated of all the Ma
| layo- Polynesian people. They elect a
king and parliament, have one of the
most beautifully adorned churches in
the Pacific Islands, and nearly all the
younger members of the community can
now not only speak, but read and write
/ English. The island iS-for an atoll-
unusually fertile, and the people a fine,
stalwart handsome copper-cofored
race. The main industries are the max
/ ing of ''copra" (dried coeoanuD and
diving for pearl shell.
Soul catching" in the heather days,
prior to 1868, could be and was practiced
by any one who desired revenge or the
life of an enemy. Indeed, although the
people were nominally Christians in 1873.
it was still in vogue. The modus oper-
andi is very simple: Say that two men,
/ Rika and Tetoro. quarrel Rika ac-
cuSes Tetoro of going out into the lagoon
at night time, lifting his (Rika'S) fish
traps and abstracting the contents. He
| therefore demands compensation. Tetoro
| denies the theft. The relatives of both
men takes sides. and the quarrel as
sumes all the elements of a feud, with
| bloodshed. 1t may be that Tetoro is a
man of means, or chiefly rank and in
huence, and treats his accuser with
Scorn.
VERY we'll" the injured Rika cries,
IF 1 cannot get justice from you 1 shall
snare your soul. and you will die of a
wasting sickness"
Tetoro, even if he is innocent, begins
/ to feel uneasy at this threat, and, while
vigorously denying the theft, offers Rika
| present of a pig to end the matter.
1 Rika's relatives at once clamor, not only
for their original demands, but for the
pig as well. Possibly a free fight ensues
and Rika's people get badly used, and
threats of soul sharing" are heard on
all sides.
/ Then Rika's wife makes the snare for
Tetoro's soul. Taking her mat out into
the village square, or upon a we'll ire
quented road or path, she suspends the
snare from the branches of trees, or
sticks placed in the ground in such a
position that she can closely watch the
orifice in the center of the square
Rikas friends-male and female. come
with her. They bring food and eat 1t
and throw fragments under the snare to
attract the flies, with which the island
is infested. If but one fly crawls
through the hole Tetoro is a dead man,
unless he suddenly gives in and allows
himself to be bled For not only do Rika S
people watch the snare, but his own as
we'll No one of them would dare to at
| tempt to destroy the snare-the death
of the interferer byzeecult power would
And so for hours and shours-some-
times for days-many pairs of eyes
watch the little circle of cane, and Te-
toro and his friends are now ready to
yield, but feel that still more extortion-
ate demands may be made. Then at
last a fly is seen to crawl through, and
a shout goes through the village.
'Ua hopo tie lago! Ia hopo te lago!
/ CA fly has passed through:) Tetoro
/ hears the cries and Immediately inn
| AGNES he feels i'll. His wife and rela-
/ tives crowd about him and try to cheer
! him up, but his face assumes melan-
/ choly look, and as the time passes on
he refuses lbs food. Perhaps he may
confess that he did steal Rika's fish,
and tremblingly offer to make full res
titution if Rika will catch a fly and
make it go through the circle from the
reverse side through which the first one
| entered voluntarily. Usually this is
done. and what might have become a
lasting family feud had Tetoro died of
| funk" through being bewitched ends
up by the payment of so much property
! to Ril<a and a feast for which both par
ties provide the viands.-Pall Mall Ga
zette