506 SUPERSTITIONS AND TRADITIONS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Nevertheless, even the Australian savage manifests such vague 

 traces of the rudiments of religious belief as are implied by a faith 

 in some supernatural power. The aborigines occasioual] y refer to an 

 imaginary evil-beiug, whom those I am describing call Jahnac, to 

 whom they give credit for all sickness and misfortunes that may 

 befal them, and whose principal occupation, they say, is to roam about 

 the earth at night, watching to harm such stragglers as may unfor- 

 tunately happen to fall in his way. Some of the valiant ones, 

 indeed, will even boast of personal encounters and interviews 

 with him ; but what Jaimac is like, or what his powers are, none can 

 distinctly tell. Even to those who boast of having encountered him 

 Jahnac remains a mystery. Still they appear to have an indistinct idea 

 of something that has the power of injuring them. Anything and 

 everything accordingly, which frightens them, is Jahnac ; but, however 

 much they may dislike leaving their fires at night for fear of coming 

 in contact with him, Jahnac is not worshipped by them, nor do they 

 seek in any way to propitiate him, or manifest respect for him other- 

 wise than what is implied by abject fear. 



But although entertaining such vague and grovelling ideas of any 

 spiritual power, and, properly speaking, destitute of all conception of 

 a Supreme Being — these savages, nevertheless, labor under many 

 strange delusions, tantamount, in some cases, to what might be called 

 a religious belief. It generally follows that where the mind is not 

 pre-occupied by any higher form of religious belief, it becomes the 

 dupe of designing cunning and craftiness. This is strikingly exem- 

 plified in the Australian savage. 



In the description of the different Tribes given in a former paper, 

 it was mentioned that the Cockatoo-men, or a portion of that tribe, 

 had acquired a strange and mysterious influence over their neighbors. 

 I shall now endeavor to relate in what manner this influence is exer- 

 cised, and the light in which its possessors are regarded, by those 

 who do not belong to the exclusive circle. 



The Cockatoo-men are believed to control the elements, and to 

 direct the heavenly bodies ; through Jahnac, their ally, they are sup- 

 posed to have the power of inflicting disease and death upon whom- 

 soever they will. The voice of the Cockatoo-man is heard in the 

 thunder, and lightning is the bursting forth of his wrath, or the 

 manifestation of his displeasure and approaching vengeance. No 

 sooner does the vivid flash dart along the horizon, and the distant 

 murmur of thunder fall upon the ear, than the native crouches within 

 his wigwam, and cries : — " The Cockatoo-man speaks — he is sulky !" 

 Should the husband, the wife, or the child, feel the pains of sickness, 



