, little fishes.

[* Blair's Sermons, vol i Sermon I]

If this idea of the immortality of the soul should excite a smile, is it
more extraordinary than the belief which obtains among some of us, that
at the last day the various disjointed bones of men shall find out each
its proper owner, and be re-united? The savage here treads close upon the
footsteps of the Christian.

The natives who inhabit the harbour to the northward, called by us Port
Stephens, believed that five white men who were cast away among them (as
has been before shown) had formerly been their countrymen, and took one
of them to the grave where, he told him, the body he at that time
occupied had been interred. If this account, given us by men who may well
be supposed to deal in the marvellous, can be depended upon, how much
more ignorant are the natives of Port Stephens, who live only thirty
leagues to the northward of us, than the natives of and about Port
Jackson!

The young people who resided in our houses were very desirous of going to
church on Sundays, but knew not for what purpose we attended. I have
often seen them take a book, and with much success imitate the clergyman
in his manner (for better and readier mimics can no where be found),
laughing and enjoying the applause which they received.

I remember to have seen in a newspaper or pamphlet an account of a native
throwing himself in the way of a man who was about to shoot a crow; and
the person who wrote the account drew an inference, that the bird was an
object of worship: but I can with confidence affirm, that so far from
dreading to see a crow killed, they are very fond of eating it, and take
the following particular method to ensnare that bird: a native will
stretch himself on a rock as if asleep in the sun, holding a piece of
fish in his open hand; the bird, be it hawk or crow, seeing the prey, and
not observing any motion in the native, pounces on the fish, and, in the
instant of seizing it, is caught by the native, who soon throws him on
the fire and makes a meal of him.

That they have ideas of a distinction between _good_ and _bad_ is evident
from their having terms in their language significant of these qualities.
Thus, the sting-ray was (wee-re) bad; it was a fish of which they never
ate. The patta-go-rang or kangaroo was (bood-yer-re) good, and they ate
it whenever they were fortunate enough to kill one of these animals.

To exalt these people at all above the brute creati