hrough an intermediate stage of ancestor
worship, 114 _sq._; all the conspicuous features of the country
associated by the Central Australians with the spirits of their
ancestors, 115-118; dramatic ceremonies performed by them to commemorate
the deeds of their ancestors, 118 _sq._; examples of these ceremonies,
119-122; these ceremonies were probably in origin not merely
commemorative or historical but magical, being intended to procure a
supply of food and other necessaries, 122 _sq._; magical virtue actually
attributed to these dramatic ceremonies by the Warramunga, who think
that by performing them they increase the food supply of the tribe, 123
_sq._; hence the great importance ascribed by these savages to the due
performance of the ancestral dramas, 124; general attitude of the
Central Australian aborigines to their dead, and the lines on which, if
left to themselves, they might have developed a regular worship of the
dead, 124-126.

Lecture VI.--The Belief in Immortality among the other Aborigines of
Australia

Evidence for the belief in reincarnation among the natives of other
parts of Australia than the centre, p. 127; beliefs of the Queensland
aborigines concerning the nature of the soul and the state of the dead,
127-131; belief of the Australian aborigines that their dead are
sometimes reborn in white people, 131-133; belief of the natives of
South-Eastern Australia that their dead are not born again but go away
to the sky or some distant country, 133 _sq._; beliefs and customs of
the Narrinyeri concerning the dead, 134 _sqq._; motives for the
excessive grief which they display at the death of their relatives, 135
_sq._; their pretence of avenging the death of their friends on the
guilty sorcerer, 136 _sq._; magical virtue ascribed to the hair of the
dead, 137 _sq._; belief that the dead go to the sky, 138 _sq._;
appearance of the dead to the living in dreams, 139; savage faith in
dreams, 139 _sq._; association of the stars with the souls of the dead,
140; creed of the South-Eastern Australians touching the dead, 141;
difference of this creed from that of the Central Australians, 141; this
difference probably due in the main to a general advance of culture
brought about by more favourable natural conditions in South-Eastern
Australia, 141 _sq._; possible influence of European teaching on native
beliefs, 142 _sq._; vagueness and inconsistency of native beliefs as to
the state of the dead, 143; custom a good