SUPERSTITIONS AND DISEASES. 51 



of providing food for it is derided by the intelligent old aborigines, as ' white 

 fellow's gammon.' 



It is a remarkable coincidence with the superstition of the lower orders in 

 Europe, that the aborigines believe every adult has a wraith, or likeness of 

 himself, which is not visible to anyone but himself, and visible to him only before 

 his premature death. If he is to die from the bite of a snake, he sees his wraith 

 in the sun ; but in this case it appears in the form of an emu. If, in the evening, 

 after sunset, a person walking with a friend sees his own likeness — ' muuruup 

 man,' and, if a woman, ' muuruup yernan,' — the friend says, ' Something will 

 happen to you, as you have seen your wraith.' This so preys on the mind of the 

 individual that he falls into low spirits, which he tries to relieve by recklessness 

 and carelessness in battle. 



After the disposal of the body of a good person, its shade walks about for 

 three days ; and, although it appears to people, it holds no communication with 

 them. Should it be seen and named by anyone during these three days, it 

 instantly disappears. At the expiry of three days it goes off to a beautiful 

 country above the clouds, abounding with kangaroo and other game, where life 

 will be enjoyed for ever. Friends will meet and recognize each other there ; but 

 there will be no marrying, as the bodies have been left on earth. Children under 

 four or five years of age have no souls and no future life. The shades of the 

 wicked wander miserably about the earth for one year after death, frightening 

 people, and then descend to UmmekuUeen, never to return. There was a belief 

 current among the aborigines, that the first white men seen by them were the 

 embodied spirits or shades of deceased friends. Whether this belief originated 

 with the tribes of Port Phillip, or was transmitted from the Sydney district, it is 

 now impossible to ascertain ; but there is no doubt that it did exist among the 

 aborigines of Victoria at the time of its first occupation by the white man. 



Some of the ideas described above may possibly have originated with the 

 white man, and been transmitted from Sydney by one tribe to another. 



On the sea coast, opposite Deen Maar — now, unfortunately, called Julia 

 Percy Island — there is a haunted cave called Tarn vrirring, ' road of the spirits,' 

 which, the natives say, forms a passage between the mainland and the island, 

 When anyone dies in the neighbourhood, the body is wrapped in grass and buried ; 

 and if, afterwards, grass is found at the mouth of the cave, it is proof that a good 

 spirit, called Puit puit chepetch, has removed the body and everything belonging 

 to it through the cave to the island, and has conveyed its spirit to the clouds ; 



