Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/77

Rh Mr. Lang's mind "broods fondly over" my remark that many expressions rhetorically used by him "convey to our minds reminiscences of Christian teaching of which the savage mind is guiltless." He interprets it as an assertion that, though under European influences, the Australian blackfellows are guiltless of Christian teaching, particularly with regard to Baiame. But it will be observed that the remark was a general protest against Mr. Lang's method of argument, and contained no affirmation respecting any specific race or belief. Hence, he cannot fasten upon me the charge of inconsistency in the mode of dealing with Baiame. My theory about Baiame is one that Mr. Lang quotes again and again, namely, that "the points of his story most resembling the Christian conception of Creator have been unconsciously evolved, first by white explorers, then by missionaries, and lastly by the natives themselves under European influence." Let me give an example of what I mean by the unconscious evolution by white explorers. I will take Mr. Manning's account, which I have had the opportunity of reading since my criticism was written. He was not, perhaps, literally an explorer, but an early settler. I have not space for the whole account, interesting and inportant though it be. Extracts will, however, show how Mr. Manning treated Baiame, or Boyma, as he writes the name. After describing him as "seated on a throne of