my informants aver.

There has, indeed, been much dispute as to whether the Aborigines of
Australia have any idea, or germ of an idea, of a God; anything more
than vague beliefs about unattached spirits, mainly mischievous, who
might be propitiated or scared away. Mr. Huxley maintained this view,
as did Mr. Herbert Spencer.[ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS, p. 674.] Both of
these authors, who have great influence on popular opinion, omitted to
notice the contradictory statement of Waitz, published in 1872. He
credited the natives, in some regions, with belief in, and dances
performed in honour of, a 'Good Being,' and denied that the belief and
rites were the result of European influence.[Waitz, ANTHROPOLOGIE DER
NATUR--V(tm)LKER, vol. vi. pp. 796-798. Leipzig, 1872.] Mr. Tylor,
admitting to some extent that the belief now exists, attributed it in part
to the influence of missionaries and of white settlers.[Journal,
Anthropological Institute, vol. xxi. p. 292 ET SEQ.] 'Baiame,' he held,
was a word of missionary manufacture, introduced about 1830-1840. This
opinion was controverted by Mr. Lang,[MAGIC AND RELIGION, p. 25 SQ. MYTH,
RITUAL, AND RELIGION, vol. ii. chap. xii., 1899.] and by Mr. N. W. Thomas.
Mr. Thomas[MAN, 1905, No. 28.] has produced the evidence of Henderson,
writing in 1829-1830, for the belief in 'Piame' or Byamee, or
Baiame.[OBSERVATIONS AN THE COLONIES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VAN DIEMAN'S
LAND, p. 147.]

In 1904 Mr. Howitt gave a great mass of evidence for the belief in what
he calls an 'All Father': in many dialects styled by various names
meaning 'Our Father,' dwelling in or above the sky, and often receiving
the souls of blacks who have been 'good.' These ideas are not derived,
Mr. Howitt holds, from Europeans, or developed out of ancestor-worship,
which does not exist in the tribes. The belief is concealed from women,