rooted among uncivilised men. I am able to base this statement,
to some extent, on facts within my own knowledge. In December
1848, H.M.S. Rattlesnake, the ship to which I then
belonged, was anchored off Mount Ernest, an island in Torres
Straits. The people were few and well disposed; and, when a
friend of mine (whom I will call B.) and I went ashore, we made
acquaintance with an old native, Paouda by name. In course of
time we became quite intimate with the old gentleman, partly by
the rendering of mutual good offices, but chiefly because Paouda
believed he had discovered that B. was his father-in-law.
And his grounds for this singular conviction were very
remarkable. We had made a long stay at Cape York hard by;
and, in accordance with a theory which is widely spread among
the Australians, that white men are the reincarnated spirits of
black men, B. was held to be the ghost, or narki, of a
certain Mount Ernest native, one Antarki, who had lately died,
on the ground of some real or fancied resemblance to the latter.
Now Paouda had taken to wife a daughter of Antarki's, named
Domani, and as soon as B. informed him that he was the ghost of
Antarki, Paouda at once admitted the relationship and acted upon
it. For, as all the women on the island had hidden away in fear
of the ship, and we were anxious to see what they were like, B.
pleaded pathetically with Paouda that it would be very unkind
not to let him see his daughter and grandchildren. After a good
deal of hesitation and the exaction of pledges of deep secrecy,
Paouda consented to take B., and myself as B.'s friend, to see
Domani and the three daughters, by whom B. was received quite as
one of the family, while I was courteously welcomed on
his account.