A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
A woman seeking her missing husband meets a ghost whom she mistakes for him. While she fishes with a torch, it holds and consumes her child, explaining the crying as a mosquito bite. She recognizes the deception and uses coconut branches placed along the shore to delay its pursuit: it mistakes and eats them as if they were the fleeing woman.
She climbs a pandanus and repeatedly knocks the climbing ghost down with fruit. The resistance lasts until dawn. In daylight she sees it change into a hermit crab. This ending gives an explicit final animal form; it does not establish that every hermit crab is a ghost or say the apparent husband was her actual deceased spouse.
Origins & earliest records
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1891), Chapter XIX, III.15, p. 409. Chapter XIX identifies islander-written manuscripts as its basis, without naming each individual contributor.
Records & interpretation
Complete relevant selected tale or explicitly abridged footnote read. Local identity, separate versions and unnamed narrator limitations retained.
In the literature
“turned into a hermit crab”
Chapter XIX III.15, p.409; daylight ending · R. H. Codrington
Branches laid along the shore distract the pursuing ghost, which eats them as though they were the woman. She climbs a pandanus and knocks it down repeatedly with fruit until dawn; then sees it become a hermit crab. The account does not say that she kills it or that ordinary hermit crabs are all ghosts.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Melanesians, Chapter XIX, III.15, p. 409
Published collected witness; modern oral/community variants not exhausted.
- 02
The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891; University of Toronto historical scan/OCR. Complete selected Chapter XIX II.1–2 and III.14–17 narratives and the complete separately marked Qat-wuruga manuscript abstract independently read. Chapter XIX p356 says stories except the first derive from islanders’ manuscripts supplied to him; no individual writer supplied for these selected accounts. Original manuscripts not independently inspected.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891; University of Toronto historical scan/OCR. Complete selected Chapter XIX II.1–2 and III.14–17 narratives and the complete separately marked Qat-wuruga manuscript abstract independently read. Chapter XIX p356 says stories except the first derive from islanders’ manuscripts supplied to him; no individual writer supplied for these selected accounts. Original manuscripts not independently inspected.
- A woman seeking her lost husband mistakes a ghost for him. While she fishes with a torch, it consumes her child and initially explains the crying as a mosquito bite. The account does not establish that the apparent husband is her actual deceased spouse.
Chapter XIX III.15 The Woman and the Ghost, Aurora, p.409; mistaken husband
- Branches laid along the shore distract the pursuing ghost, which eats them as though they were the woman. She climbs a pandanus and knocks it down repeatedly with fruit until dawn; then sees it become a hermit crab. The account does not say that she kills it or that ordinary hermit crabs are all ghosts.
Original island manuscript not inspected; unidentified narrators not invented. Specific local version, not present community consensus. No ceremonial formulas copied; facsimile not visually checked in this batch.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary collected textCodrington, Chapter XIX, III.15, p. 409Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.