TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. 29 



Neither at Cape York^ nor in any of the Islands 

 of Torres Strait^ so far as I am aware^ do the abo- 

 rig'ines appear to have formed an idea of the exis- 

 tence of a Supreme Being' ; the absence of this 

 behef ma}^ appear questionable^ but my informant, 

 Gi'om, spoke quite decidedly on this point, having- 

 frequently made it the subject of conversation with 

 the Kowrareo-a blacks. The sino-ular belief in the 

 transmig-ration of souls, which is g-eneral among- the 

 whole of the Australian tribes, so far as known, also 

 extends to the islands of Torres Strait. The people 

 holding- it imag-ine that, immediately after death, 

 they are chang-ed into white people or Europeans, 

 and as such pass the second and final period of 

 their existence j nor is it any part of this creed that 

 future rewards and punishments are awarded. It 

 may readily be imag'ined that when ig-norant and 

 superstitious savag-e tribes, such as those under con- 

 sideration, were first visited by Europeans, it was 

 natural for them to look with wonder upon being-s 

 so strang-ely different from themselves, and so in- 

 finitely superior in the powers conferred by civiliza- 

 tion, and to associate so much that was wonderful 

 with the idea of supernatural ag-ency. At Darnley 

 Island, the Prince of Wales Islands, and Cape York, 

 the word used at each place to sig-nify a white man, 

 also means a g-host.* The Cape York people even went 



* Frequently when the children were teasing Gi'om. they would 

 be gravely reproved by some elderly person telling them to leave 

 her, as "poor thing! she is nothing, only a ghost!" (igur ! uri 

 longa, mata markai.) 



