Lead, kindly light!

Archives-July 1945

THE usual tranquillity of night in Rarotonga was disturbed by agonised cries coming from the summit of a steep bush-clad hill at the back of the settle ment. A nervous crowd gathered as near as they dared to the foot of the hill.

They listened. “Aue! Help! Save me! a ghost brought me up the hill and now I cannot get down!” The crowd retreated a few paces. “A ghost!” they whispered .Footsteps approached from the rear. Ah! Thank heaven! The inevitable policeman has arrived.

“A ghost!” they tell him. “A ghost has taken someone up the hill and now he cannot get down! Again the agonised cries floated down from the high dark ness. A Rarotongan policeman is a brave and stalwart man - but a ghost! There is nothing in the regulations on what to do

about a ghost on top of a hill at midnight.

This was a matter for the sergeant. Some time elapsed while the sergeant was located and brought to the scene. The pleas from the hill were more terrified but weaker. There were graves at the foot of the hill. First one must run the gauntlet through the graves.

Then the climb up the steep track through the dark, crowding bush - and somewhere up there ... Shoulder to shoulder the police men started the ascent. “We must stick together. Whatever happens WE MUST STICK TOGETHER!” So they came upon poor Tamate prostrate with exhaustion and

fright. With difficulty they got him down the hill and bit by bit the awed crowd heard his story. He had spent the evening chat ting with friends and eventually started out to make his way home. But when he neared the fatal hill he noticed a light before him and a Voice bade him follow the light and it would lead him home. The denouement? Well, cold, scientific research reveals that during their long evening chatting together, Tamate and his friends frequently moistened their throats with that golden nectar commonly known as bush-beer, the night was very dark and the departing guest took with him the oil lamp from the table. Bush-beer being what it is, he failed to notice that The Light was held in his own outstretched hand.

But the people will not believe it. If Tamate says a ghost led him up the hill, then a ghost led him up the hill. Ghosts have ears and an annoyed ghost can be a nasty customer to meet on a dark night.