in particular of the Port Lincoln District. 189 



souls resort. On its journey to tins island the soul is accom- 

 panied b}' a redbillj a kind of sea-bird, notorious for its 

 piercing shrill voice, audil)le during the night. It appears 

 that since they have found out the existence of the race of 

 Avhite people, they have adopted the notion that their souls will 

 hereafter appear in the bodies of such Avhite people. "Whatever 

 be the cause, at present this is their belief, and they look upon 

 the -whites as being only the embodied souls of their fore- 

 fathers. It may be instanced as a proof of how firmly they 

 do believe, or rather have believed this, that in the idea they 

 had recognised in some of the settlers natives long ago de- 

 parted from life, they actually gave them the names which 

 these had gone by when alive. This notion is not confined 

 to the Port Lincoln lilacks, but prevails also with those of 

 Adelaide and Victoria. To INIr. Blandowski, one of our 

 .(\ustralian travellers, it has occurred that an old lubra (black 

 woman), supposing him to be her former husband resuscitated, 

 has most tenderly embraced and kissed him. 



The last words of a young Port Lincoln native, hanged in 

 Adelaide a few years ago, Avere to the effect that in course of 

 time he would become a white man, and yet this man had by 

 Europeans been taught more correct A"iews. 



These apparently conflicting two ideas — one, that an island 

 is the receptacle of the soul ; the other, that they re-appear 

 in bodies of white people — may, perhaps, be reconciled by 

 the assumption of the natives that the island is the place of 

 residence for a certain period only. This is the more probable, 

 as they decidedly believe in a change of the souls, and assign 

 to them this island as an intermediate place of residence. 



We can scarcely assume that the natives have originally 

 liad any conception of future reward or punishment for good 

 or evil acts committed in this life, but yet they seem to think 

 that the fate of man depends on his own conduct, as may be 

 illustrated by the following anecdote : — 



It had been reported that in the neighborhood of Streaky 

 Bay a blackfcllow had been shot by the crew of a whaler, 

 because he had speared one of their dogs which had furiously 

 attacked him. Some time afterwards the crew of a 

 stranded whaler landed in the neighborhood, and on express- 

 ing a supposition that they might be the same men who had 

 killed the blackfcllow, their misfortune was ascribed as the 

 consequence of their former cruel deed. 



Among the superstitious notions of the Port Lincoln blacks, 

 their belief in the existence of a demon monster is most 



