234 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



binds it in her girdle. 1 These practices 'require no 

 comment. 



There remains the Australian evidence, which is 

 important, because the aboriginal population of that 

 continent is on the lowest stage of culture now extant, 

 and it has been until the early part of the last century 

 .wholly cut off, as far as we know, from intercourse 

 with other peoples. Prior to recent investigations 

 it was known that the Australian natives believed in a 

 posthumous existence in flesh and blood. Members 

 of various tribes had repeatedly recognised|white men 

 as departed relations and acquaintances who had 

 found their way back. This is the " Jump up White- 

 fellow " belief which has been so often discussed since 

 the time when the experiences of William Buckley 

 were made public. He was a convict who escaped 

 from the penal settlement at Port Phillip Bay in the 

 year 1803, and was found by some of the Wudthaurung 

 tribe carrying a piece of a broken spear. The frag- 

 ment in question had been placed on the grave of one 

 Murrangurk accord ing to tribal custom by his kindred ; 

 and by this means Buckley was identified with the de- 

 ceased. He lived with the natives for more than thirty 

 years and married a native wife. 2 Since his time other 

 white men have been similarly identified by natives 

 in various parts of Australia as old friends and former 

 members of their tribes ; and the belief has been 

 reported from the most widely sundered localities. 



It is indeed by no means confined to Australia. It 



" may be traced northward," as Prof. Tylor says, 



"by the Torres Islands to New Caledonia, where the 



natives thought the white men to be spirits of the 



1 Krauss, Volksgl. 136. 2 Dawson, no; Howitt, 442 



