ANECDOTES OF THE NATIVES.
I heard an anecdote at Perth that bears upon this subject: A native of the name of Tonquin asked a settler, who lived some distance in the interior, permission to spend the night in his kitchen, of which that evening another native was also an inmate. It seems that some hate, either personal, or the consequences of a quarrel between their different tribes, existed in the mind of Tonquin towards his hapless fellow lodger; and in the night he speared him through the heart, AND THEN VERY QUIETLY LAID DOWN TO SLEEP! Of course in the morning no little stir took place. Tonquin was accused, but stoutly denied the charge. So satisfied, however, was the owner of the house of the guilt of the real culprit, that had he not made his escape, he would have been executed red hand--as the border wardens used to say--by the man, the sanctity of whose roof-tree he had thus profaned. Tonquin afterwards declared that he NEVER SLEPT FOR NEARLY A FORTNIGHT, being dogged from place to place by the footsteps of the avengers of blood. He escaped, however, with his life, though worn almost to a shadow by constant anxiety. When I saw him some years afterwards, I thought him the finest looking native I had ever seen, but he was apparently, as those who knew him best reported him to be, insane. If not the memory of his crime, and the consequent remorse which it entailed upon him, perhaps the fugitive life he was compelled to lead in order to avoid the wrath of human retribution, had been used to make manifest the anger of Heaven for this breach of one of those first great laws of human society, which are almost as much instincts of our nature as revelations from the Creator to the creatures of his will!
SUPERSTITIONS.
The natives have a superstitious horror of approaching the graves of the dead, of whom they never like to speak, and when induced to do so, always whisper. A settler, residing in a dangerous part of the colony, had two soldiers stationed with him as a guard: upon one occasion five natives rushed in at a moment when the soldiers were unprepared for their reception, and a terrible struggle ensued: the soldiers, however, managed, while on the ground, to shoot two of them, and bayonetted the remaining three. The five were afterwards buried before the door, nor could a more perfect safeguard have been devised; no thought even of revenge for their comrades would afterwards induce any of the tribe to pass that fearful boundary.
Their most curious superstition, however, remains to be recorded; it is the opinion they confidently entertain, and which seems universally diffused among them, that the white people are their former fellow countrymen, who in such altered guise revisit the world after death. Miago assured me that this was the current opinion, and my own personal observation subsequently confirmed his statement. At Perth, one of the settlers, from his presumed likeness to a defunct member of the tribe of the Murray River, was visited by his supposed kindred twice every year, though in so doing they passed through sixty miles of what was not unfrequently an enemy's country.
Their religious opinions, so far as I have been able to obtain any information on the subject, are exceedingly vague and indefinite. That they do not regard the grave as man's final resting place, may, however, be fairly concluded, from the superstition I have just alluded to, and that they believe in invisible and superior powers--objects of dread and fear, rather than veneration or love--has been testified in Captain Grey's most interesting chapter upon Native Customs, and confirmed by my own experience.
THE EVIL SPIRIT.
I used sometimes to question Miago upon this point, and from him I learned their belief in the existence of an evil spirit, haunting dark caverns, wells, and places of mystery and gloom, and called Jinga. I heard from a settler that upon one occasion, a native travelling with him, refused to go to the well at night from fear of this malevolent being; supposed to keep an especial guardianship over fresh water, and to be most terrible and most potent in the hours of darkness. Miago had never seen this object of his fears, but upon the authority of the elders of his tribe, he described its visible presence as that of a huge many-folded serpent; and in the night, when the tall forest trees moaned and creaked in the fitful wind, he would shrink terrified by the solemn and mysterious sounds, which then do predispose the mind to superstitious fears, and tell how, at such a time, his countrymen kindle a fire to avert the actual presence of the evil spirit, and wait around it--chanting their uncouth and rhythmical incantations--with fear and trembling, for the coming dawn.
I have preserved these anecdotes here, because I can vouch for their authenticity, and though individually unimportant, they may serve to throw additional light upon the manners, customs, and traditions of the Aborigines of Australia; but to all really interested in the subject, I would recommend a perusal of Captain Grey's second volume. I have as yet neither space nor materials to attempt any detailed account of the customs, superstitions, or condition of this strange people; but it would be impossible to pass them by quite unnoticed: nor can the voyager, whose chief object is to make their native land a field for the exertions of British enterprise, be wholly indifferent to the manner in which our dominion may affect them. The history of almost every colony, founded by European energy, has been one fearful catalogue of crime; and though by the side of the Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese, English adventurers seem gentle and benevolent, still cruelty and oppression have too often disgraced our name and faith.
FUTURE PROSPECTS.