SPIRITS GOOD AND BAD. 49 



worship. It seems to be true respecting some of the 

 tribes, but not so of all. 



By the word Nooralie, one writer (Mr. Bulmer) says 

 the blacks understand a Superior Being, who has 

 existed for ages and ages, and still exists. Of the 

 belief of the Cape River tribes another writer says : 

 " When a black fellow dies, whose actions have been 

 what they regard as good, he is said to ascend to 

 Boor ala (i.e., to the Creator, literally Good}. The 

 milky way is said to be the smoke from celestial grass, 



set fire to by departed women, as a signal to direct the 



/ 

 dead to the eternal camp fires of the tribe." 



As we have sometimes represented to our children 

 the chief of demons as the " old black man," so, with- 

 out intending it, however, as a retaliation, some of the 

 tribes speak of the devil as a " white man." And with 

 very good reason, I think, if we consider the barbarities 

 of some of the early squatters ; and the wickedness of 

 some of these men even at this day can hardly be sur- 

 passed by any heathen or pagan. 



Among some of the tribes there seems to have been 

 an idea of the return of the spirit of man to the earth 

 again, but, if so, he was to return white. " In early 

 times," says Curr, " white men, seen by blacks, were 

 thought to be their deceased countrymen come back 



