fitted to impress the
susceptible native mind with an awful sense of the invisible beings that
haunt these sacred groves. Natives have been known to come on pilgrimage
to the spot expecting to meet ghosts and gods face to face.[776]

[Sidenote: The ghost and the pandanus tree.]

Many are the perils and dangers that beset the Path of the Souls (_Sala
Ni Yalo_). Of these one of the most celebrated is a certain pandanus
tree, at which every ghost must throw the ghost of the real whale's
tooth which was placed for the purpose in his hand at burial. If he hits
the tree, it is well for him; for it shews that his friends at home are
strangling his wives, and accordingly he sits down contentedly to wait
for the ghosts of his helpmeets, who will soon come hurrying to him. But
if he makes a bad shot and misses the tree, the poor ghost is very
disconsolate, for he knows that his wives are not being strangled, and
who then will cook for him in the spirit land? It is a bitter thought,
and he reflects with sorrow and anger on the ingratitude of men and
especially of women. His reflections, as reported by the best authority,
run thus: "How is this? For a long time I planted food for my wife, and
it was also of great use to her friends: why then is she not allowed to
follow me? Do my friends love me no better than this, after so many
years of toil? Will no one, in love to me, strangle my wife?"[777]

[Sidenote: Hard fate of unmarried ghosts.]

But if the lot of a married ghost, whose wives have not been murdered,
is hard, it is nevertheless felicity itself compared to the fate of
bachelor ghosts. In the first place there is a terrible being called the
Great Woman, who lurks in a shady defile, ready to pounce out on him;
and if he escapes her clutches it is only to fall in with a much worse
monster, of the name of Nangganangga, from whom there is, humanly
speaking, no escape. This ferocious goblin lays himself out to catch the
souls of bachelors, and so vigilant and alert is he that not a single
unmarried Fijian ghost is known to have ever reached the mansions of the
blest. He sits beside a big black stone at high-water mark waiting for
his prey. The bachelor ghosts are aware that it would be useless to
attempt to march past him when the tide is in; so they wait till it is
low water and then try to sneak past him on the wet sand left by the
retiring billows. Vain hope! Nangganangga, sitting by the stone, only
smiles grimly and asks,