d from the
penal settlement on Port Phillip Bay in 1803, was found by some of the
Wudthaurung tribe carrying a piece of a broken spear, which he had
abstracted from the grave of one of their people. So they took him to be
the dead man risen from the grave; he received the name of the deceased,
was adopted by his relations, and lived with the tribe for thirty-two
years without ever conversing with a white man; when at last he met one,
he had forgotten the English language.[167] Again, a Mr. Naseby, who
lived in the Kamilaroi country for fifty years, happened to have the
marks of cupping on his back, and the natives could not be persuaded
that he was not one of themselves come to life again with the family
scars on his body,[168] for the Australian aborigines commonly raise
scars on the bodies of young men at initiation. The late Sir George Grey
was identified by an old Australian woman as her dead son come to life
again. It may be worth while to quote his account of this unlooked-for
meeting with his long-lost mother; for it will impress on you, better
than any words of mine could do, the firmness of the faith which these
savages repose in the resurrection of the body, or at all events in the
reincarnation of the soul. Grey writes as follows:--

[Sidenote: Experience of Sir George Grey.]

"After we had tethered the horses, and made ourselves tolerably
comfortable, we heard loud voices from the hills above us: the effect
was fine,--for they really almost appeared to float in the air; and as
the wild cries of the women, who knew not our exact position, came by
upon the wind, I thought it was well worth a little trouble to hear
these savage sounds under such circumstances. Our guides shouted in
return, and gradually the approaching cries came nearer and nearer. I
was, however, wholly unprepared for the scene that was about to take
place. A sort of procession came up, headed by two women, down whose
cheeks tears were streaming. The eldest of these came up to me, and
looking for a moment at me, said,--'_Gwa, gwa, bundo, bal_,'--'Yes, yes,
in truth it is him'; and then throwing her arms round me, cried
bitterly, her head resting on my breast; and although I was totally
ignorant of what their meaning was, from mere motives of compassion, I
offered no resistance to her caresses, however disagreeable they might
be, for she was old, ugly, and filthily dirty; the other younger one
knelt at my feet, also crying. At last the old lad