THE ABORIGINES OF THE ISLANDS OP THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 63 



belief in these is not as universal as it is in the Supreme 

 Being, and in other good spirits, still a large number of the 

 peoj)le bold to such a belief. In Sumatra the people believed 

 in an evil deity ;* and in Borneo the Dyaks had a strong- 

 belief in the existence of evil spirits, their medical system 

 having been connected with divination ; while the people of 

 Java had a faith similar to that of these Dyaks. In New 

 Guinea the vague notions which the people had of a univer- 

 sal spirit were practically represented by several malevolent 

 powers.f 



In New Holland, while the people had crude notions of a 

 good and an evil sj^irit, they disregarded the former, and paid 

 all their homage of fear (which hath torment) to the latter.^ 



According to Sir J. Lubbock, the Australians dimly 

 imagine a being, spiteful, malevolent, but weak, and 

 dangerous only in the dark. Indeed their religion consists 

 of a belief in the existence of ghosts or spirits, or at any rate 

 of evil beings who are not men ; a belief wdiich, he says, can 

 hardly be said to influence thein in the daytime, but which 

 makes them very unwilling to c^uit their camp-fire by night, 

 or to sleep near a grave. § W. B. Wildy adds that the 

 Northern Australians who are very low, wearing almost no 

 clothes, and eating roots, grubs, Avorms, lizards and snakes, 

 are afraid of an evil sj)irit, which they call Browl ; and that 

 under the trees up which they bury their dead, they will 

 smooth the grass, in order to detect any visitation of Browl, 

 and that before they retire at night, they Avill take a light, 

 and hunt about, calling "BroAvl, Browl," as if to bring him 

 from his hiding place.ll 



The Fijians likeAvise believe in demons, and the people of 

 the Samoan Islands seem to prefer to propitiate the evil 

 spirit, rather than to adore the good one.lT 



No people in the world seem to have been more super- 

 stitious than the South Sea Islanders, or more entirely under 

 the influence of dread from imaginary demons or supernatural 

 beings. They have not only their greater, but their minor 

 demons, and sorceiy and Avitchcraft Avere extensively 

 practised.** Wherever sorcery and Avitchcraft are practised 



* Malte Bruii'i, Geog., vol. ii, p. 3 13. 



t Encyclopcedia Britt., articles, " Borneo," " Java," and " New Guinea." 



J Jotornal of Tyerman and Bennet, vol. ii, p. 266*. 



§ Smithsonian Report, 1869, pp. 356, 361. 



II Ten Years in the Pacific, Walpole, vol. ii, y>. 365. 



if Polynesian Researches, chap. 19. ** Ibid. 



