The Gilbert Islands lie in the PacificOcean to the north-west of Australia.There are 24 islands in the chain, and the most northerly is Makin-Meang.The islanders regard Makin-Meang as a half-way house between the living and the dead. When an islander dies, his ghost has to make it's way up the chain of islands to Makin- Meang, to land on the southern beach and walk upto the northern end, known as the Place of Dread, where the Watcher at the Gate, Nakaa, sits in wait with a net in his hand to strangle the ghosts to prevent them passing through the Gate to Paradise. The only assistance the ghost can get is from his relatives performing certain rituals over his dead body, which should help prevent Nakaa from trapping the ghost,so enabling the soul to travel to Paradise. Depending on which island the person died on, the route from the south to the north takes either the west side of the island for the dead from the other islands, or the eastern side for native Makin-Meang islanders.As there is higher traffic of ghosts on the eastern side of the island, if you have to walk from one end of the island to the other, take the eastern side, having first checked if anyone is likely to die during your trip, andyou should have a lower risk ofmeeting ghosts on the way. If youhave to walk on the western side, youshould never look back, for the risk of seeing a ghost going the same way as you. If you see a ghost while looking behind you, legend says you will be dead within a year! Arthur Grimble became a District Officer in the Gilbert Islands in 1916. He didn't believe a word of the legend,even if it had been a legend for atleast sixty generations of islanders before he arrived there. As he was based on Makin- Meang, he naturally became curious. The native islanders remained silent on the subject, but hefound an assistant from Tarawa who would tell him, although he was afraid, but who found a local police constable who would show Arthur up to the Place of Dread. The constable insisted that as Arthur was not alocal, they would have to travel up the western side of the island, the same way as the majority of the ghosts did. It was a long journey, and after they had been walking for an hour, the constable stopped and told Arthur to find a seed-coconut and hold it infront of him in both hands and to plant it in Nakaa's grove as a gift. Arthur had to carry the enormous nut for another 5 miles, until they arrived at a place where the trees ended, just before the northern beach.There he was told to plant it. The constable refused to continue any further, and told Arthur he would have to go on alone for the rest of the way. Arthur went on alone and was very disappointed. He had expected tofind something eerie, but the beach was just sand and bare rock, and very hot. When Arthur returned to the constable, he was grumpy and very thirsty. As he hadn't been there veryl ong, he had not learned how to climb a tree to reach the coconuts to drink from, so he asked the constable to get one for him, who refused as the trees belonged to Nakaa. The constable just wanted to be away as soon as possible. Arthur grumbled some more - it had all been a waste of time - nothing to see,and now he was very thirsty indeed.They started back down the eastern path, with the constable behind Arthur, as he now refused to walk with him. Before long, Arthur saw another islander walking towards them. He was about fifty, had a bad limp due to his foot being twisted, and had a scar on his left cheek. He was wearing a decorated mat held by a belt around his waist. Arthur spoke to him as they passed, but the villager ignored him. Arthur turned to the constable and asked him to stop the man, but the constable said he couldn't see anyone there. When Arthur insisted that the man had passed them both, the constable began to scream and sweat profusely. He put his arm over his eyes and ran off into the trees. Arthur had to continue the walk on hisown. When Arthur arrived at the village, hot, thirsty and cross, he found the constable already there talking to the Native Magistrate.Arthur went over to complain that the constable had tried to make him look a fool by pretending not to see anyone on the path. The Magistrate was calm,and asked Arthur to describe the man he had seen. He then explained that a villager had died about two hours before, unexpectedly. Arthur insisted on seeing the body, which, after some argument, was finally arranged. The body lay in the village, surrounded bypeople sitting with their arms raised both at the head and feet of the deadman. Other villagers were beating the walls of the dead man's house with sticks, to frighten away strange ghosts. It was the same man that Arthur had seen whilst walking. That was enough for him. Legend or not, he was content to allow the villagers to continue with their rituals to allow the man to escape the net of Nakaa,and he was never heard to ridicule their customs again.
