[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

696 MALEKULA
on the boat. For some time this man sat still, as though lost in
thought. Suddenly he said : “ There is trouble at Benaur. We
must go back to-night. We must not stop to dance or feast.
We must eat just a little and then at once return.â€ù The other
members of the party gave heed to him, and sailed back to their
village. When they arrived there they found that all the women
had fled to the bush, and that only the native teacher had
remained. He told them that while they were away, a rnan-of-
war had been and had raided Benaur, smashing or carrying off
all the pigs’ tusks and other ceremonial objects.
Clairvoyants are not always believed; some are regarded
as imposters, others as genuine. l Doubtless their influence
depends, in part, upon their personality, and their successful
prophecies in the past. At one time a certain man had a son
who seemed to be nearly dying. As a last resort he went to a
clairvoyant of a neighbouring village and asked for his help.
The man came and looked at the boy for a long time, “ sang
into â€ù his belly, and ï¬Ånally passed his thumb forwards over the
right nostril. This was a good sign ; had he passed it over the
left nostril it would have been anaindication that the boy would
not recover. The clairvoyant then told the people to move the
patient into another house, and that he would be betteron the
morrow. People said that he was telling lies, but they did as he
bade them, and matters turned out even as he had said.
It may well be, of course, that a notable magician is also
a clairvoyant, One of the most famous of such people was a man
called Ates Vinbamp of Nemep. He is credited with having
seen Sydney while in a trance, and with having foretold the
coming of the white man into the New Hebrides long before
anything was known either of them or their cities. It is said,
too, that he could walk along the bottom of the sea. One day
he did so, and set up at a deep spot on its floor a very tall torlor
pole which projected right out of the water just off one of the
coastal islets. So great, indeed, was his influence that he succeeded
in changing the beliefs of many people as to the home of the
dead. It was not, he said, Wikise, as all men had believed, but
another place the name of which he knew, but might not divulge,
whose entrance was reached through the sacred place or nem-
brmbrkzm of Nemep. Since he was also the nimbaiin nowor of
his clan, he alone had access to this nembrmbrkzm, where he said
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