Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/78

52 transparent crystal of vast magnitude" with "a great many beautiful pillars of crystal, handsomely carved, and emitting prismatic colours," he says: "This description of the Godhead bears a striking resemblance to the description in the 3rd verse of the 4th chapter of Revelations (sic). They believe in the existence of a Son of God, equal with him in omniscience, and but slightly inferior to his Father in any attribute. Him they call 'Grogoragally.' His divine office is to watch over the actions of mankind, and to bring to life the dead to appear before the judgment-seat of his Father, who alone pronounces the awful judgment of eternal happiness m heaven ('Ballima') or eternal misery in 'Oorooma' (hell), which is a place of everlasting fire (gumby). . . . The Son watches the actions of men, and quickens the dead immediately upon their earthly interment. He acts as mediator for their souls to the great God, to whom the good and bad actions of all are known. . . . He does not seem in their belief to be coequal with his Father;. . . his office seems chiefly to be to bring at the close of every day the spirits of the dead from all parts of the world to the judgment-seat of his Father, where alone there is eternal day. There he acts as intercessor for those who have only spent some portion of their lives in wickedness. Boyma, listening to the mediation of his Son, allows Grogorogally to admit some such into Ballima." These extracts, given verbatim et literatim, disclose the attitude of Mr. Manning's mind. His phraseology, and even his capital letters, are chosen for the purpose of conveying to the reader's mind the elements of Christian theology, he thinks he has discovered in the beliefs of "the aborigines of New Holland." His mind was so imbued with Christian conceptions that probably he could not do otherwise. Anyhow, is obvious that there is a great deal