Selected and Edited by A. Grove Day and Bacil F. Kirtley
Copyright ©1986 A. Grove Day and Bacil F. Kirtley

On the island of Maupiti, one of the Leeward group of the Society Islands where I once lived for several months, I retired on the first night of my arrival on the island in a small bedroom which opened doorless from the main living room, where the family of Pihau Tane, my host, slept. Tired and exhausted from my trip I slept soundly. But at about two in the morning I found myself awakened by some force outside myself. Raising myself on one elbow, I looked about. Sitting in the middle of the doorway was a vague figure which slowly took the very tangible form of an old man. He was so old that his eyes had sunk to pinpoints and his long upper and lower teeth protruded beyond his gums. One hand was raised in a gesture of command and he looked straight in front of him, as though looking out the window. When I first saw him he was wavering and mistlike, but before long I saw him with absolute distinctness. Where the light came from I do not know. While I watched, wide awake but powerless to move because of the strange effect on me of this curious phenomenon, I saw shapes slowly rising from the floor. They were black shapes, half seal, half cat, with long black bodies that curled around one side of the ancient figure. They were like seals in their movements, but each animal - if that is what they were - had four very short paws, no tail, and in their catlike head were set enormous eyes.

This continued for some time. There seemed no end to the stream of little black monsters that rose from the floor, caressed the mummylike figure, and then circled upward and vanished into the ceiling. Although some curious things happened to me before, this was my first real occult experience in the South Seas and a sort of hypnotic terror came over me. I began to repeat a formula for the banishment of demons and the powers of darkness.

I had scarcely started when the seated figure turned its head slowly toward me, and from what I had thought were eyeless sockets shot dark gleams, like fires glowing in a pit.

The head grew large, the shriveled gums and protruding teeth still hideously plain, and the body assumed proportions to match the head. The arm raised in command slowly reached out till the long bony fingers were just within reach of my face.

I had the feeling that I was being hypnotized, first into a daze and then into a deep sleep, and I sank away, dimly remembering that the demon’s head had swelled until it touched the ceiling before I lost consciousness. The black stream of animals had ceased the moment I commenced the formula. As I dropped into sleep I seemed to fall into an ancient state of being, something from thousands of years ago, so that I was terrified at first, happy at last that I could do so.