Search the blog:

Please enter a search term to begin your search.

Hungry Devils

“Oh this is a good one,” I hear from the other side of the curtain. I am standing in a make shift clinic in Ponmuili a village in south central Pentecost translating for Dr Yumi from Health Care Ministries. We are treating patients from villages that live in stone age conditions. Spending time with doctors and nurses has taught me that when a medical professional refers to a case as a “good one” it is rarely good for the patient. In fact a good case will often turn your stomach. 

The patient presented with a thumb half gnawed off, what remained was swollen, discolored and oozing pus. Alecia our daughter was conducting registration for the clinic and thus was the first to see him, when she asked why he needed to see the doctor his only answer was to wave his half eaten thumb under her nose. She decided that was reason enough and bumped him to the front of the line for triage.

The nurse in triage stared speechless at the mangled digit. This was not accident, the thumb was not cut or crushed or broken. It was half eaten. An antiseptic bath was prepared and the thumb began to soak in preparation for cleaning. “What happened to your thumb?” the nurse asked. “A devil ate it.”, was the nonchalant reply.  Kara, who was translating assumed she had misunderstood so repeated her question more slowly this time,  the man answered slowly trying to make this obtuse foreigner understand what he thought should have been obvious just from a quick look at his thumb. “While I was sleeping a devil came and ate my thumb.”

For westerners the idea of a devil causing someone physical harm is ridiculous. Many westerners reject the idea of the spiritual entirely, others may believe but cleanly distinguish between the physical and spiritual realms and insist that they do not mingle. A devil may tempt someone or discourage you but it cannot eat someone’s thumb.

 Yet for Ni-Vanuatu the physical and spiritual realms are one and the same. Spiritual and physical realities are tightly interwoven. The spiritual can and does impact the physical world. A verbal swear is assumed to have a real physical impact. And devils do get hungry.

A commonly feared devil here on Santo is the patua, these devils prowl the night sky looking for unsuspecting victims. The hoot of an owl, a rooster crowing at the moon and even the rustle of a rat on the thatch roofing are interpreted as the approach of a patua. These devils swoop down on the sleeping, eat their intestines and then stuff their body cavities with leaves or grass. The unsuspecting victim gets up the next morning unaware that he is a walking dead man. He falls suddenly ill and passes away in spite of any incantations by a local witchdoctor or ministrations by western trained medical professionals.

This view is reinforced by local doctors and nurses. Workers at the regional hospital fear being held responsible for the deaths of their patients. When it appears certain that a patient will die a nurse will take the family aside and quietly confide that the doctors have determined it is not a medical issue but a spiritual one. They have gone so far as to claim that on autopsy they have discovered the deceased’s abdominal cavity to be stuffed with leaves. The grieving family nods knowingly, clearly there was nothing the hospital could have done.

So what did happen to his thumb? Half of the answer is found in kava. Kava is the local drug of choice. A strong hypnotic found in the roots of the kava plant induces feelings for peace and tranquility when ingested. It also causes its users to fall into a deep trancelike sleep There have been fatalities in Vanuatu from men falling into a kava stupor in the middle of the road, there they peacefully sleep through flying traffic, the squeal of brakes and blaring horns until someone hits them. A man with enough kava in his system can sleep for days and through anything; even through something or someone eating their thumb.

The second half of the equation is rats. Rats are epidemic in Vanuatu. Other than the island boa constrictor and house cats, rats have no natural enemies here. Since Ni-Vanuatu are afraid of snakes and find cats very tasty the rats pretty much have a free reign of the place. Rats are everywhere, unafraid of humans and bloodthirsty. More than one night I have awoken in a village to find huge rats scampering overhead in the rafters or scurrying beside me on the floor.

Recently a young missionary couple received a fledgling parrot as a present. They were delighted with the bird and pampered it like a child. However they made the mistake of leaving it unattended in the hut where they had been sleeping while they went outside to eat supper. They returned to the hut to find a group of twenty cat sized rats fighting over the bloody remains of their parrot. They were stunned to find the rats brazenly refuse to be shooed away from their prize. I don’t think they slept much that night.

Brazen, bloodthirsty rats explain why many Ni-Vanuatu wash their hands after eating not before; going to bed with the smell of food on your fingers can be dangerous and why babies always sleep with their mothers; it is not a matter of convenience but protection. It also explains why food is suspended on strings from the rafters over a smoking fire; it is the only way to keep it safe.

A local pastor came in and took one look at the patient’s thumb. “Ah, he ate something oily like tuna fish and then fell into a kava stupor, the rats smelled the oil and came and ate his thumb. The kava kept him from waking up.” He explained.  He took the patient aside and began to explain to him that the Devil didn’t come to steal his thumb but his soul.

  Bryan Webb

To support our ministry via secure online donation please use the following link Support Our Ministry

If you enjoyed this blog please share it.