pp. 182 _sq._]

[Footnote 158: Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 297.]

[Footnote 159: Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 197.]

LECTURE VI

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE OTHER ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA

[Sidenote: Customs and beliefs concerning the dead in the other tribes
of Australia.]

In the last lecture I concluded my account of the beliefs and practices
of the Central Australian aborigines in regard to the dead. To-day I
propose to consider the customs and beliefs concerning the dead which
prevail among the native tribes in other parts of Australia. But at the
outset I must warn you that our information as to these other tribes is
far less full and precise than that which we possess as to the tribes of
the centre, which have had the great advantage of being observed and
described by two highly qualified scientific observers, Messrs. Spencer
and Gillen. Our knowledge of all other Australian tribes is
comparatively fragmentary, and accordingly it is impossible to give even
an approximately complete view of their notions concerning the state of
the human spirit after death, and of the rites which they observe for
the purpose of disarming or propitiating the souls of the departed. We
must therefore content ourselves with more or less partial glimpses of
this side of native religion.

[Sidenote: Belief in the reincarnation of the dead among the natives of
Queensland. The _ngai_ spirits.]

The first question we naturally ask is whether the belief in the
reincarnation of the dead, which prevails universally among the Central
tribes, reappears among tribes in other parts of the continent. It
certainly does so, and although the evidence on this subject is very
imperfect it suffices to raise presumption that a similar belief in the
rebirth or reincarnation of the dead was formerly universal among the
Australian aborigines. Unquestionably the belief is entertained by some
of the natives of Queensland, who have been described for us by Mr. W.
E. Roth. Thus, for example, the aborigines on the Pennefather River
think that every person's spirit undergoes a series of reincarnations,
and that in the interval between two reincarnations the spirit resides
in one or other of the haunts of Anjea, a mythical being who causes
conception in women by putting mud babies into their bodies. Such spots,
haunted by the fabulous being Anjea and by the souls of the