Abaroo became well, and firmly believed that she owed
her cure to the treatment she had received. Are not these, I say, links,
subordinate ones indeed, of the same golden chain? He who believes in magic
confesses supernatural agency, and a belief of this sort extends farther
in many persons than they are willing to allow. There have lived men
so inconsistent with their own principles as to deny the existence of a God,
who have nevertheless turned pale at the tricks of a mountebank.
But not to multiply arguments on a subject where demonstration
(at least to me) is incontestable, I shall close by expressing my firm belief
that the Indians of New South Wales acknowledge the existence
of a superintending deity. Of their ideas of the origin and duration
of his existence; of his power and capacity; of his benignity or maleficence;
or of their own emanation from him, I pretend not to speak. I have often,
in common with others, tried to gain information from them on this head;
but we were always repulsed by obstacles which we could neither pass by
or surmount. Mr. Dawes attempted to teach Abaroo some of our notions
of religion, and hoped that she would thereby be induced to communicate hers
in return. But her levity and love of play in a great measure defeated
his efforts, although every thing he did learn from her served to confirm
what is here advanced. It may be remarked, that when they attended at church
with us (which was a common practice) they always preserved profound silence
and decency, as if conscious that some religious ceremony on our side
was performing.
The question of, whether they believe in the immortality of the soul
will take up very little time to answer. They are universally fearful
of spirits.* They call a spirit 'mawn'. They often scruple to approach
a corpse, saying that the 'mawn' will seize them and that it fastens upon them
in the night when asleep.** When asked where their deceased friends are
they always point to the skies. To believe in after existence is to confess
the immortality of some part of being. To enquire whether they assign
a 'limited' period to such future state would be superfluous. This is one
of the subtleties of speculation which a savage may be supposed not to have
considered, without impeachment either of his sagacity or happiness.
[* "It is remarkable," says Cicero, "that there is no nation, whether
barbarous or civilized, that does not believe in the existence of spirits".]
[**As they often eat to satiety, even to produce sickness, may not this be
the effect of an overloaded stomach: the nightmare?]
Their manner of interring the dead has been amply described.
