spirits in Australian Aborigines: the languages and customs of several tribes of aborigines in the western district of Victoria, Australia

Record context

Record ID

3238

Source

Internet Archive

Publication

Australian Aborigines: the languages and customs of several tribes of aborigines in the western district of Victoria, Australia; James Dawson

Published

1881 public-domain western Victorian ethnographic source exposed through an exact Internet Archive item

Narrative type

Spirit-Person Narratives

Public-text label

spirits

Archive period

Gold Rush Colonial

Location

Western District, VIC (VIC): B

State or territory

VIC

Source voice

Source Grounded Section Record

Publicness

Public Text Item

Source-grounded excerpt

moned them, however, only in summer time, while the tribes were having their meetings and amusements. The men are not much afraid of these spirits in the daytime, but the women and children are terrified at them, and nobody runs the risk of seeing them after sunset. Sometimes, when a korrobore has ended, the doctor of the tribe calls on three or four female spirits to come down from the clouds and dance round the fire ; and, when accosted, each gives its name as that of a deceased member of the tribe. Any person may look at them, but no one except the doctor can speak to them, and nobody dares to run away. When the white men came.

The excerpt is presented as public-source context. Terminology belongs to the cited source and may be historical, contested, culturally specific, or outdated.

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