spirit in How did the Natives of Australia become Acquainted with the Demigods and Daemonia, and with the Superstitions of the Ancient Races?

Record context

Record ID

2113

Source

Internet Archive

Publication

How did the Natives of Australia become Acquainted with the Demigods and Daemonia, and with the Superstitions of the Ancient Races?; W. Augustus Miles

Published

1854

Narrative type

Spirit-Person Narratives

Public-text label

spirit

Archive period

Gold Rush Colonial

Location

Australia (Australia): B

Source voice

Source Grounded Section Record

Publicness

Public Text Item

Source-grounded excerpt

d shews that Ophic worship prevailed in the wilds of America as well as in the wildernesses of Australia. For an account of this serpent mound in Western America, see "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." The natives on the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers be- lieve in a spirit of the waters, named " Biam." (See Eyre, vol. ii. p. 362.) Like all their spirits, he is supposed to be a black man. He is believed to be deformed at the extremities, and is always sitting cross-legged on the ground, or ferrying about in his canoe. He is a spirit of such dreaded and malignant power that there are certain sorcerers particularly.

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