Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/177

 but he does not specify the means which they use to ascertain who is the murderer, which, he says, are various, and probably as effectual as that which Mr. Thomas describes. Captain Grey also describes the custom of throwing spears at the culprit.

The religious belief of the aborigines seems to be confined to very few articles of faith, amongst which the most important are the belief in a powerful malevolent spirit, in the existence of the soul after death, and its occasional re-appearance in a visible form—in short, a belief in ghosts, called by them meering; their belief in the supernatural powers of their priests, or koragees. They have also a strange idea that white men are black men raised from the dead. Whether this notion (which appears to be also prevalent in Western Australia) arose from its being the only way in which they could account for the appearance amongst them of a race differing so widely from their own; or whether it is a misconception of the doctrine of the resurrection, taught to some of them by the missionaries, is more than I can say. One lad, of the name of Rimmull, told me that he had been taught by the missionaries, that if "black fellow did good to white fellow, when he died he should plenty jump up white fellow with God."

Such is the imperfect information which, from time to time, I have been able to glean with respect to the aborigines of this country; but I wish it to be remembered that the difficulty which Europeans find in obtaining true information, with regard to the customs of savage tribes, is augmented four-fold when they attempt to obtain any explanation of these customs, or any