but Barak would have none of it. He said that he could not manage to get a white man made sick. Mr. Green still retains the hair. Barak speedily got well, and reformed his life. Poor Punty died some years ago.
Even now the old people believe firmly in the efficacy of the remedies prescribed by the doctors, and in their powers to do injury to enemies. The doctors gain influence generally by much self-laudation, much talking, and some adroit depreciation of others; but sometimes by accident. On one occasion an old doctor told the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer that he had gained his influence by a misadventure. He was cutting a branch of a gum-tree at a great height from the ground, and was stupidly sitting on the part of the branch which he was severing from the trunk, when it broke, and he fell with it to the ground. He was not hurt, and he at once was made a doctor. Whether the doctor was telling a true story, or sarcastically illustrating the mode in which honors and titles are sometimes gained amongst the whites, cannot now be ascertained.
The Rev. Mr. Hagenauer says that the Aborigines of Gippsland believe in the existence of a good and superior Being, whom they name Mamengorook (Mamen, father, and gorook, our); but they seem to regard him but little, and are unwilling to say more than that he lives at a distance from them. He is described as being white, very clean, and in Keledia (great brightness or glory).
Of evil spirits they can speak fluently. One called Ngatya does harm to them continually, and of him they stand in dread. In all evils which befall them Ngatya has a part. Great fires and great floods, as well as sickness and death, have their origin in Ngatya. If a man dies, Ngatya is blamed: he has come underground in the depth of the night, and has caused their warrior to close his eyes.
It is generally believed that the corrobboree is held to satisfy Ngatya; but Mr. Hagenauer suggests that this dance is a mere bodily enjoyment, and is an imitation of the playing of young emus and the curious dances of the native companions (Grus Australasiensis) on the large plains.
The blacks are very often attacked by the evil spirits, who are supposed to inflict injuries and give diseases by such simple means as the thrusting of twigs and small pieces of wood into the eye or the ear. The late Mr. Thomas was witness to some of the panics which from time to time overtake the tribes. He says that on the 12th December 1845, when several Aborigines were encamped near him, three young male blacks, belonging to the native police—severally named Quandine, Tom-boko, and Yeaptune— who were sleeping together in one miam, awoke suddenly in the early morning, and declared that they were seized with the disease called Tur-run. They stated that thin twigs of she-oak had been thrust into their eyes, and that this had been done by some sorcerers; and they despaired; and dismay spread amongst the people; and there was great confusion in the encampment. But presently nine female doctors approached. They led the young men to a large fire made wholly of bark, which they had prepared specially for them, and in a suitable place away
