doubtless carried a bright lantern. And he was certainly a man of
counsel, for as soon as he heard the details of these disturbances
he was in a position to explain their nature. 'Your child,' said
he, 'must certainly die. This is the evil spirit of our island who
lies in wait to eat the spirits of the newly dead.' And then he
went on to expatiate on the strangeness of the spirit's conduct.
He was not usually, he explained, so open of assault, but sat
silent on the house-top waiting, in the guise of a bird, while
within the people tended the dying and bewailed the dead, and had
no thought of peril. But when the day came and the doors were
opened, and men began to go abroad, blood-stains on the wall
betrayed the tragedy.

This is the quality I admire in Paumotuan legend. In Tahiti the
spirit-eater is said to assume a vesture which has much more of
pomp, but how much less of horror. It has been seen by all sorts
and conditions, native and foreign; only the last insist it is a
meteor. My authority was not so sure. He was riding with his wife
about two in the morning; both were near asleep, and the horses not
much better. It was a brilliant and still night, and the road
wound over a mountain, near by a deserted marae (old Tahitian
temple). All at once the appearance passed above them: a form of
light; the head round and greenish; the body long, red, and with a
focus of yet redder brilliancy about the midst. A buzzing hoot
accompanied its passage; it flew direct out of one marae, and
direct for another down the mountain side. And this, as my
informant argued, is suggestive. For why should a mere meteor
frequent the altars of abominable gods? The horses, I should say,
were equally dismayed with their riders. Now I am not dismayed at
all--not even agreeably. Give me rather the bird upon the house-