ETHNOGRAPHY. 



of whites, they always betray the greatest fear of falling in with any 

 maial, or strange blacks, who, they take it for granted, would put 

 them to death immediately. This extreme timidity is, indeed, one 

 cause of the ferocity which the natives sometimes display. If a party 

 of blacks in the interior, who are unacquainted with white men, be 

 approached suddenly, and taken by surprise, they are commonly 

 seized with a panic which deprives them of reason. Supposing that 

 they are surrounded and destined to death, they seize their weapons, 

 and rush forward in frenzy, to sell their lives as dearly as possible. 



RELIGION. 



The lack of religious feeling in these natives has already been 

 mentioned. The missionaries have found it impossible, after many 

 years' labor, to make the slightest impression upon them. They do 

 not ascribe this to any attachment, on the part of the blacks, to their 

 own creed, if such it may be called, for they appear to care little 

 about it. Some of their ceremonies, which partook of a religious 

 character, have been lately discontinued, but. nothing has been sub- 

 stituted in their place. It is not true, however, as has been frequently 

 asserted, that the natives have no idea of a supreme being, although 

 they do not, allow this idea to influence their actions. The Wellington 

 tribe, at least, believe in the existence of a deity called Baiamai, who 

 lives on an island beyond the great sea to the east. His food is fish, 

 which come up to him from the water, when he calls to them. Some 

 of the natives consider him the maker of all things, while others attri- 

 bute the creation of the world to his son Burambin. They say of him, 

 that Baiamai spoke, and Burambin came into existence. When the 

 missionaries first came to Wellington, the natives used to assemble 

 once a year, in the month of February, to dance and sing a song in 

 honor of Baiamai. This song was brought there from a distance by 

 strange natives, who went about teaching it. Those who refused to 

 join in the ceremony were supposed to incur the displeasure of the 

 god. For the last three years the custom has been discontinued. In 

 the tribe on Hunter's River, there was a native famous for the compo- 

 sition of these songs or hymns, which, according to Mr. Threlkeld 

 were passed from tribe to tribe, to a great distance, until many of the 

 words became at last unintelligible to those who sang them. 



Dararrvirgal, a brother of Baiamai, lives in the far west. It was 

 he who lately sent the small-pox among the natives, for no better 



