Spirit-Person Narratives
Spirit-Person Narratives are grouped here as a public-text classification across the AusFigures corpus. The category describes source framing and archive coding; it is not a claim that the underlying supernatural account is true.
- Search-ready records
- 1,255
- Public sources
- 7
- States / territories
- 8
- Dated span
- 1842–2017
Classification follows the public archive coding layer and may be revised when source context or terminology is reviewed.
Representative records — first 60
- Federici in Federici's ghost#2705It was in the final scene that tragedy struck. Federici, as Satan, was to spirit Faust down to hell. Standing over the stage trapdoor in a mirage of smoke and fire, Federici wrapped his scarlet cloak around his victim.…
- Federici in Federici's ghost#2704In 1887, British opera singer Frederick Baker (Signor ‘Federici’) arrived in Australia to perform with Messrs. Williamson, Garner and Musgrove’s Opera Company. He was to play in several operas, culminating with a star t…
- spirit in Canberra history and legends#3678ew revolvers, and stood in readiness for defence. But this was unneces- sary, as the animal, on reaching the open grave, stopped suddenly, and with head erect, surveyed the surround- 76 CANBERRA: ings, pawed the earth f…
- spirit in Canberra history and legends#3677miller being John Gregory; Woden, the residence of Dr. Murray; Jerrabomberra, the estate of P. C. Palmer; Tuggranong, owned by one McQuoid, a victim of the Dunbar disaster; northwards were the farmsteads of the Shumacks…
- supernatural in Australian Legends#3770, and how to put it out! Now the blacks had for ages used the stem of the waratah to enwrap any hot thing they wished to handle. They said that it entirely prevented burns. In the earliest days of white occupancy of Aus…
- supernatural in Australian Legends#3769izon down on the New South Wales Coast, somewhere in the mists of my past. But in Allambee's days there were different things everywhere. Whether of the animal world or the plant world or of the spirit world the aborigi…
- spirits in Australian Legends#3768to the Murray, as Central Queensland. This is perhaps the prettiest, and was obtained from a young native who lived mostly ina compound at Wahgunyah. He was camped with two gins on a reserve near Burryjaa Station, in N.…
- spirits in Australian Legends#3767hes the two netfuls of grubs walked up and up until they reached the sky. The women down below probed the holes in the logs in vain, for there were no grubs to be got. Bathing in the seas of the moon, Yunguipan and the…
- spirits in Australian Legends#3766from that camp followed. In his hurry and his excitement Yunguipan rushed without thinking of possible danger, to the sacred place. He reached it and found that he and the sisters were surrounded by others of the maiden…
- spirits in Australian Legends#3765le who believed that they were travelling to a big initiation ceremony were surprised to see a large number of men suddenly appear amongst them with all their weapons, and marking one another with the red ochre of war a…
- spirits in Australian Legends#3764led and clattered and fell one against the other. The Milky Way-the "pukkan" or track up which departed spirits often reached the world to which they went-also billowed and it split, and in some places is never joined t…
- spirits in Australian Legends#3763ess, with just a shred of the red of the burning west left, and with the stars showing brightly, and a rising moon putting an inquisitive edge over the haze of the east, the sky heaved and billowed arid tumbled and tott…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3761ey may be seen under each fallen leaf, having no doubt gone there to escape the terrific heat. AT LOW TIDE This is a story of, in part, the coming of white men to Australia. Whether it is wholly true or not does not, pe…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3760ask just how to make some rain for himself. Wingaree left his tree and soared up into the sky and reached the place behind the cloud. There he sat watching until the rain spirit appeared. It was too angry to speak. Wing…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3759long cloud lay on the horizon, and Wingaree imagined that he could hide behind it and watch until the rain spirit came into view, and then he could step out and show his great respect and ask just how to make some rain…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3758n came from and search out the spirit that was there; and one hot night when the moon was full and the air was scorched and the ground was baked and the grass was all burnt off and the trees were withered, he decided th…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3757till to a very big lake that always had water in it. Wingaree was, however, very clever, and he believed that he could make rain. But he was afraid to put his powers to the test, for if he made any mistake the rain woul…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3756were now living no seeds sent out the little plumule nor their little radicle, and no new plants grew to grace the world with fresh flowers, nor to produce the roots nor fruits for food. Again the maiden thought of bese…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3755next year no new plants came up. This was noticed and talked about by all the people. Even on the river where a few of her people were now living no seeds sent out the little plumule nor their little radicle, and no new…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3754fresh. They were composed of the clay that the tribal doctor used to make the mystic markings, and the tribal priest used for the same purpose when he wished to invoke the aid of a Great Spirit. Who had used it? Not onc…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3753ery body he came across, but they were none of them the one he sought. A last he came to two little heaps of clay. What was this? These heaps told to him a story. They were fresh. They were composed of the clay that the…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3752hen added to the cunning of the black made a vicious compound, and for many years that compound is all that has been seen of the nature of our autocthonous predecessors. Beneath it is still the gentleness and the softne…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3751of the great delay occasioned by the ancestor who refused to let it go back to where it had fallen from. The roar is the voice of the ancestor who always refuses to go back. When the calm came again it was because the s…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3750ey said, and Arrilla would return with news and the spirit he had seen and spoken with would assist them if they had to fight with any trespassing tribe or family group. Soon after Arrilla joined his people again, havin…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3749and down below his people still wondered what had caused it. They thought it was because Arrilla had met the spirit and was talking to it, and as the shade passed and the sun came out bright again and the gladness that…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3748nd be received by the King. But Arrilla told him to say that a spirit gave him all this information about the sea and the waves, and that while it was being told Arrilla was present. Both forgot their fears of the stran…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3747he sea and lived there all his life he had no story of what it is, nor how it comes to be there, nor why the waves beat on the shore. He advised the strange man to wait until he had gone back and communicated the news t…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3746tfall of someone. lie moved not a muscle. His spears were in the hand that held the shield. The noise ceased. Then the air darkened. There were no clouds, but a great deep shade spread all over the earth. Arrilla looked…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3745-one of sadness and pessimism. The council sat in the dark. Only the fighting men and the priests were in it after all. Arrilla was there. The discussion did not last long, and it all centred upon the tale that Arrilla…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3744g his forces down and get the gain he was after. So the meeting broke up. Arrilla was free. That much he had gained he knew, for he saw very plainly that though he had been always before successful in placating the King…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3743family was beginning to make them impatient. Then he pointed to the highest spot on the range. He told them that in his wanderings there he had seen a spirit. The spirit was not friendly to him, but would be good to any…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3742respond to a summons as unhurriedly as he wished. Arrilla asked to be allowed to speak, and the permission being given, he drew himself erect and waited until he saw that the expectancy of the warriors of the family was…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3741d and no one had seen her going. When daylight came the whole tribe engaged in the search, for it was believed that she could not possibly have gone far, and it was feared that she had received some hurt. She had entere…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3740another hair that took root and became a plant. The rain kept on longer than ever before and there was a great flood, but not any of these hair rushes was destroyed. To-day they grow where the ground is wettest, as well…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3739the distant crack of the broken twig, and the rustle o' disturbed dead leaves. The woman called upon the spirit, beating her breasts the while. Between her and the stealthily creeping man was a tea- tree stump. The top…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3738undoing. The smoke was observed by her husband. He had never ceased to watch and to search for her. With all his cunning he approached the little blue curling threads. The woman was by no means unmindful. Her ears were…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3737ainted flesh was not so terrible a task as that of playing the grim game of hide and seek for life, in which she was obliged now to indulge continually. Had she not been one of the women who had learned secrets that wer…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3736is coloured water for some days, and when it was removed not only was the fur dyed red, but the skin itself was changed. It was more serviceable. So ever afterwards those blacks soaked all their animal skins in a soluti…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3735hape passed over. It had long legs that hung down and clawed. The claws were not far above the black man's head. It was distinctly an animal. He could see the body and the neck, the head, the ears and the eyes, but in a…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3734the river until it joined the great sheet of water. That sheet was either the sea or a very great lake. How far from the head waters of the Murrumbidgee the sheet of water lay we cannot guess, but from the manner in whi…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3733day he bethought him of the spirits, so he kept a good lookout in order not to miss any signs of the clay with which to draw the marks of the mysticism. Also he killed a white wallaby and plucked off all its fur. When h…
- spirit in Australian Legends#3732he chief. He was determined to find his wife, and he was no less determined to punish the man. Therefore, next day he chose one of his sons to act in his place, and he set out to succeed or die. For many days he travell…
- spirits in Australian Legends#3731sh." They barred the way of the party. Try as they would, no passage through the ranks of the "little men" could be made. So then they turned and followed the flow of the river, and that way no opposition was offered. T…
- spirits in Australian Legends#3730d that when the next great man died--the chief or the doctor or the rainmaker or the clergyman-his best stone axe be buried with him. Then a sorcerer came forward and proclaimed that he would undertake to go to the rive…
- spirit in Tales of the Dandenongs Fourth Series#2343eptible impression upon the little community settled there. Both individually and collectively there was an advance. But on no one was the change so marked as on Peter Pinsent Money. Within the tolerant atmosphere by wh…
- spirit in Tales of the Dandenongs Fourth Series#2342d still her heart she suddenly sat upright, and, with a look of glad surprise and wonder in her eyes, softly murmured: “Hulloa! . . . Boy!” Those there are would say that, at the last, a dormant cell of memory was unacc…
- devil in Tales of the Dandenongs Third Series#2341uaint; and witty too! Really, you cannot help laughing in spite of yourself. And she’s as quick as a flash of lightning. So fast, indeed, that you wonder how she gets her thoughts together in such a brief space of time.…
- devil in Tales of the Dandenongs Third Series#2340And so saying she winked at him in such a confidential way—and yet with such a dare-devil look on her face; that the boy sensed a game, and was instantly ready to play it.
- devil in Tales of the Dandenongs Third Series#2339“She says the funniest things, you know! Quaint; and witty too! Really, you cannot help laughing in spite of yourself. And she’s as quick as a flash of lightning. So fast, indeed, that you wonder how she gets her though…
- spirit in Tales of the Dandenongs First Series#2338of escape from him. The impact was severe enough to leave her slightly stunned. It was, therefore, some little time before she could sit up and apprehensively look around for her assailant. To her great joy he was nowhe…
- spirit in Tales of the Dandenongs First Series#2336t “the professor” was very weak; so weak that he could scarcely offer a protest. He himself had been to blame, and he, therefore, ought to meet the costs of attention. As the doctor shook his head the patient murmured t…
- supernatural in Australian Legends#1911m beyond the edge of the sea, was just the same as the many white mornings that brought me out of my tent to look at the same sun steadily rising from beyond the horizon down on the New South Wales Coast, somewhere in t…
- supernatural in Australian Legends#1910ina compound at Wahgunyah. He was camped with two gins on a reserve near Burryjaa Station, in N.S.W., and it was with considerable surprise that the writer found him so ready to talk. Like all aborigines who tell things…
- spirits in Australian Legends#1905felt strong enough to get up. Close by were the fallen rocks. There was still no way in or out. So the first Gymea or Gigantic Lily came into being, and not long ago men dug under the boulders and found a great heap of…
- spirit in Australian Legends#1904mes, when he had donned the mystic pipe-clay bands, went right up to the spring and talked with it there. When he came back he bore with him beautiful bunches of ferns of many kinds-Hymenophyllum and Asplenium, portions…
- spirits in Australian Legends#1901by the rains that fell and the winds that blew. And the way down to the pool was always difficult. None but the priest ever descended there, and when he did he carried with him the flint rod that served as the bell in t…
- little woman in Tales of the Dandenongs Fourth Series#1470to recall how he had allowed himself to overhear her most private thoughts and desires. And the more he thought about the matter the more clearly he realised that he “hadn’t played the game!” That—in his Code of Ethics—…
- little woman in Tales of the Dandenongs Fourth Series#1469n the corner. Caught sight of your white apron. It seemed a bit homelike, an’ I thought I’d come in an’ ask if I could sleep on your verandah to-night. When I got up to your door I heard you cryin’, so I tip-toed round…
- little woman in Tales of the Dandenongs Fourth Series#1468y heard in the garden. Truth to tell, her voice was so carried out, and thus it came about that—during her prayer—into the window casement a head was quietly thrust, and a pair of keen eyes, together with an equally kee…
- spirit in Tales of the Dandenongs Third Series#1465ther! Every hour, every minute that she remains with me now will be a heartache for both of us. It is better that the parting should take place at once!” These brave words—although quietly spoken—did not hide from Fathe…
This collection contains 1,255 search-ready records. The complete record set remains discoverable through the paginated public record index.