before going to bed.
Guadgee said she would come in the night when the patient was asleep
and take the wax from her liver; she would sleep well and wake better
in the morning.

Bootha got up then, came over to the patient, took her hand, rubbed it
round the wrist several times, muttering an incantation; then saying
she would see her again next day, off she went, taking, she told us,
all the spirits away inside her, whence at desire they could be
returned to such Minggah in their own Noorunbah, or hereditary
hunting-grounds, as wirreenuns had placed them in, or to roam at their
pleasure when not required by those in authority over spirits. Our old
spiritualist denies us freedom even in the after-life she promises us.

Adelaide slept that night, looked a better colour the next morning, and
rapidly recovered.

We think old Bootha must be a good physician and a ventriloquist, only
I believe it is said ventriloquists cannot live long, and Bootha is now
over eighty.

Others besides wirreenuns see spirits sometimes, but rarely, though
wirreenuns are said to have the power to conjure them up in a form
visible to ordinary eyes.

Babies are said to see spirits when they are smiling or crowing as if
to themselves; it's to some spirit visible to them but to no one else.

When a baby opens his hands and shuts them again quickly, smiling all
the while, that baby is with the spirits catching crabs!

Dogs see spirits; when they bark and howl suddenly and you see nothing
about, it is because they have seen a spirit.

One person may embody many spirits, but such an one must be careful not
to drink anything hot or heating, such would drive out the spirits at
once. The spirits would never enter a person defiled by the white man's
'grog.'

Old Bootha had an interview with a very powerful spirit after she was
ill, who told her that the spirit of her father was now in Bahloo, the
moon; and that it was this spirit which had cured her, and if she kept
his commands she would live for ever. The commands were never to drink
'grog,' never to wear red, never to eat fish. This was told her fifteen
years ago, never once has she transgressed; her vigour for an old woman
considerably over eighty is marvellous.

She was going away for a trip. Before going she said, as she would not
be able to know when I wanted rain for my garden, she would put two
posts in it which had in them the spirits of Kurreahs, or crocodiles.
As these spirits require