THE EVIL SPIRIT. 61 



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 exceed- 

 ingly vague and indefinite. That they do not re- 

 gard 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 in- 

 visible and superior powers — objects of dread and 

 fear, rather than veneration or love — has been tes- 

 tified in Captain Grey's most interesting chapter 

 upon " Native Customs," and confirmed by my 

 own experience. I used sometimes to question 

 Miago upon this point, and from him I learned 

 their belief in the existence of an evil spirit, haunt- 

 ing dark caverns, wells, and places of mystery and 

 gloom, and called Jinga. I heard from a settler 

 that upon one occassion, 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 



