Treatment

Leprosy And Native

Some Solomon Is. History

Letter to the Editor WITH reference to the report, in the September issue of the “P.1.M.”, of the statement made to the New Zea land newspapers by Rt. Rev. W. H. Bad deley, Bishop of Melanesia, that “two years ago it was not thought that leprosy existed in the Solomon Islands”, I fear the Bishop has been either misinformed or misrepresented.

Apart from the fact that, to my know ledge, the disease has been treated in the Islands for the past 17 years, it was

known to have existed and was reported in 1875, when natives were being recruit ed for the Queensland plantations.

There is a native name for leprosy. On Simbo it is called “pongupongu” and, when taking a leper from that island in 1932, I was informed by Nziruviri, the Chief of the Island, that it had always existed there. In earlier days the people of the village of Kumbukota were cre dited with a knowledge of a cure for the disease. At that place there is a red stream and. it was the general belief that if a man walked in it, his skin would develop sores and eventually he would

contract leprosy.

In 1908, Mr. A. M. Hocart who, in con junction with Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, con ducted a research into the manners and customs of the Simbo people, mentioned that “a drawing of Kundakolo’s repres ents the leprous spirits or spirits of lep rosy (tomate pongupongu) as covered with sores; they are toeless (ngopu), and lean on a staff”. He further states: “These spirits live in the bush or in the stones of shrines. At Titiro a succession of priests (iama) became lepers, so they gave up the place”. Also: “In the days of old those who ‘knew leprosy’ could cause the disease by a mere blow”.

In his book. “Melanesians and Poly nesians”, Dr. George Brown gives an in teresting account of the treatment of cases of leprosy by Fijians, which was communicated by the late Rev. W.

Moore, who was a missionary in Fiji for many years. The letter was written in 1859.

Mr. Moore was writing of one of his native teachers, Wiliami Lawaleou, who had become a leper and had been cured by smoking. The process was as fol lows: “The leper is taken to a small empty house: he is stripped, his body rubbed all over with green leaves, and then bur ied in them; a small fire is kindled, and a few pieces of the sinu tree —a poisonous tree —are laid on it; and as soon as the thick black smoke begins to ascend, the leper is bound hand and foot, a rope is fastened to his heels, and he is drawn up over the fire, leaving his head some 15 inches from the ground in the midst of the poisonous smoke.

“The door is then closed, and his friends retire a little distance, whilst the poor sufferer is left to cry and shout and plead from the midst of the suffocating steam; but they are often allowed to re main for hours, and finally faint away.

“When the friends think the leper suf ficiently smoked, they remove the fire, scrape the slime from the body, and cut deep gashes until the blood flows freely; the leper is then taken down and laid on his mats to await the result. In some cases death —in many life and health”.

Mr. Moore relates that in Wiliami’s case the work was effectually done.

Wiliami was no longer a leper, but in good health and usefully employed in preaching.

I am, etc.,

A. Middenway.

“Bingara”, Rowlison Parade, North Sydney, 21/10/1938.

Professor Peter H. Buck, Director of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum at Honolulu, Hawaii, and Mrs. Buck, hope to be pre sent at the New Zealand centenary cele brations at the close of 1939. Professor Buck, who is an authority on the Maori race, was invited to take charge of the Maori section of the celebrations, but had regretfully to decline owing to the pres sure of other duties. If time will permit he will also pay a visit to Tonga.