[595] _Nor. Tr._, p. xi. Compare also pp. 145, 606. Spencer and Gillen's statement is corroborated by various other independent authors, some of them being even critically disposed. The reincarnation of ancestors is asserted by the missionaries Teichelmann and Schürmann, in reference to the Adelaide tribe (compare below, p. 217, note 4). Mr. Thomas has shown (_Man_, 1904, § 68, pp. 99, 100) that the belief in reincarnation is implied in the Rev. L. Schultze's statement. Mrs. Parker quotes also beliefs containing the idea of reincarnation (_loc. cit._, pp. 50, 56, 73, 89; quoted by Mr. E. S. Hartland, _loc. cit._, i. p. 243). Mr. R. H. Mathews also emphatically affirms the existence of a belief in reincarnation amongst the Central and even all the other Australian tribes (_Trans. R.S.N.S.W._, 1906, xi. pp. 110 _sqq._). He says: "In all aboriginal tribes there is a deeply-seated belief in the reincarnation of their ancestors." And he gives illustrations of this belief among the Arunta. Mr. Mathews also draws attention to a series of analogous statements from older authors (Taplin, _loc. cit._, p. 88, Schürmann, _loc. cit._, p. 235). Prof. B. Spencer has ascertained the existence of ideas about reincarnation in his recent investigations among the natives of the extreme North Roper River to Port Darwin. _Athenæum_, Nov. 4, 1911, p. 562. On the other hand, the belief in reincarnation is expressly and explicitly denied by Strehlow and Leonhardi: "Den Glauben an eine immer wiederkehrende Reincarnation dieses altjirangamitjina (= alcheringa of Spencer and Gillen), den Spencer and Gillen gefunden haben wollen, hat Herr Strehlow nicht feststellen können."[596] In another passage of the same work the expression of Spencer and Gillen, "in every tribe without exception there exists a firm belief in the reincarnation of ancestors," is simply designated as misleading ("irreführend") by the editor (Frhr. v. Leonhardi).[597] [596] Bn. Leonhardi in Strehlow, i. Introduction (third page; there is no pagination). [597] Strehlow, ii. p. 57, end of the long footnote.