[60] Ibid. p. 137.
[61] Cameron, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xiv. 364 sq.
[62] Günther, quoted by Thomas, in Man, 1905, p. 51.
[63] Ridley, op. cit. pp. 135, 136, 140. Langloh Parker, op. cit. p. 70.
[64] Manning, loc. cit. p. 159 sqq.
It seems probable that these statements represent a mixture of Christian ideas and genuine aboriginal beliefs. There is reason to believe that the Australian notion of an “All-father” is not in the first instance due to missionary influence;[65] we have records of it from a comparatively early date, it is spread over a wide area, it has been found among natives who live in a state of great isolation, and the multitude of different names by which the “All-father” is called in different tribes does not suggest a recent origin from a common source. He may very well be a mythical ancestor. Mr. Howitt observes that the master in the sky-country represents the Australian idea of a headman—“a man who is skilful in the use of weapons of offence and defence, all-powerful in magic, but generous and liberal to his people, who does no injury or violence to any one, yet treats with severity any breaches of custom or morality.”[66] But he may also be a personification of supernatural force in general, or a being who has been invented to account for all kinds of marvellous phenomena. The word altjira, by which the Arunta call their great god, is apparently not a proper name; according to Kempe, it is applied to five gods, whose names he gives, as also to the sun, moon, and remarkable things generally.[67] And Mulkari, who figures in the beliefs of some Queensland tribes, is described not only as “a benevolent, omnipresent, supernatural being,” but as “anything incomprehensible,” as the supernatural power who makes everything which the blacks cannot otherwise account for.[68] On the other hand, it is hardly possible to doubt that in various instances Christian conceptions have been infused into the aboriginal belief either by the natives themselves or by our informants.[69] Biblical traits are conspicuous in some of the legends. Bishop Salvado tells us that, according to West Australian beliefs, the Creator, Motogon, “employa ces paroles: ‘Terre, parais dehors’: et il souffla, et la terre fut créée. ‘Eau, parais dehors’; et il souffla, et l’eau fut créée.”[70] The believers in Nourelle give the following account of the origin of death:—The first created man and woman were told not to go near a certain tree in which a bat was living, as the bat was not to be disturbed. But one day the woman, while gathering firewood, went near the forbidden tree; the bat flew away and after that came death.[71] And the same natives also believe that Nourelle created a great serpent, to which he gave power over all created things.[72] So also the doctrine of a hell with everlasting fire has almost certainly a foreign origin; and in some other points the genuineness of the Australian theories of retribution is at least open to doubt, even though the function of a judge cannot be regarded as incompatible with the notion of a mythical headman in the sky. Messrs. Spencer and Gillen observe that it would be a very easy matter indeed to form, as the result of a general statement such as might be made by any individual native in reply to a question, a perfectly wrong impression with regard to the native’s idea as to the existence of anything like a supreme being inculcating moral rules.[73] Of the Central Australian aborigines they say:—“Any such idea as that of a future life of happiness or the reverse, as a reward for meritorious or as a punishment for blameworthy conduct, is quite foreign to them…. We know of no tribe in which there is a belief of any kind in a supreme being who rewards or punishes the individual according to his moral behaviour, using the word moral in the native sense.”[74] So far as the Arunta are concerned, this statement is confirmed by Mr. Strehlow. He writes that their god Altjira, who lives in the sky and shows himself to man in the lightning, is a good god who never inflicts any punishments on human beings.[75]
[65] See especially Howitt, op. cit. p. 504 sqq.; Lang, Magic and Religion, p. 25 sqq.; Thomas, in Man, p. 50 sqq.; von Leonhardi, in Globus, xci. 287.
[66] Howitt, op. cit. p. 507. See also ibid. p. 501.
[67] Thomas, in Folk-Lore, xvi. 431.
[68] Roth, op. cit. pp. 36, 153.