distinctly, and solemnly. They said in these words—"Come, bring back the kidney-fat—make haste." Malcolm appeared, and, without speaking a word, seized the dying man in a savage manner, and rubbed him violently; devoting his attentions mostly to the sides of the poor wretch, which he pushed and beat unmercifully. He then announced that the cure was complete. All the men jumped up. There was joy and noise in all parts of the camp, where previously there had been silence and mourning. The sick man arose, lighted his pipe, and smoked composedly in the midst of his friends.
The men told Mr. Thomas with triumph, and with much scorn of his unbelief in native remedies, how easily a doctor of their people could cure diseases which white doctors would regard as incurable; and they pointed to the patient with not unjustifiable pride, as a proof of the power of the Flying Doctor.
The blacks firmly believed that Malcolm had flown as the hawk flies, had stooped on the wild black who had stolen the kidney-fat, and had taken it from him, and had replaced it in the body of the patient—and nothing that Mr. Thomas said to them had the slightest effect on their minds.
They believe that if the wild black who has stolen kidney-fat eats any, even the smallest portion of it, the man whom he has deprived of it will surely die.
The following accounts of some beliefs and curious practices of the natives have been given to me by Mr. Alfred W. Howitt, the well-known explorer, and now a Police Magistrate in Gippsland. The existence of the Birra-arks and the Barrn is well known to old blacks. Mr. Howitt says he has endeavoured to find a Birra-ark, but without success. He thinks one may be found perhaps in other parts of Victoria. The belief in the existence of the Birraarks is universal; and that which he has written down, he says, is believed by all the Gippsland natives.[1]
Mr. Howitt has written down also some of the myths of the natives, and has given a singularly interesting account of Bolgan, whose bones were found in the manner described in the native language in another part of this work.
Bowkan, Brewin, and Bullundoot.
"The Aboriginal natives of the neighbourhood of the Mitchell River, and of the Lakes in North Gippsland, believe in three spiritual beings—Bowkan, a beneficent spirit; Brewin,[2] a malignant spirit; and with Brewin is associated
- ↑ It is generally supposed that the blacks have no idea of religion; but it is pretty certain that they have strong superstitions of some sort. It is well known that they will often cower in the most abject terror in their mia-mias at the supposed entrance of some spirit; and they will not venture to eat without first casting some peace-offering to him over their shoulders; nor can the boldest of them be induced to venture out in the dark if he imagines that this spirit is anywhere about.—Mr. H. B. Lane, MS.,30th October 1862.
- ↑ The native sorcerers, according to Grey, are named Boyl-yas in Western Australia, and they have a mighty influence on the minds and actions of the natives. "The Boyl-yas are natives who have the power of Boyl-ya; they sit down to the northward, the eastward, and southward. The Boyl-yas are very bad; they walk away there (pointing to the east). . . . . The Boyl-yas eat np a great many natives—they eat them up as fire would. . . . . The Boyl-yas move stealthily—you sleep and they steal on you; very stealthily the Boyl-yas move. These Boyl-yas are dreadfully revengeful. . . . . They come moving along in the sky. . . . . The natives cannot
