332 W. Baldwin Spencer, _An Introduction to the Study of Certain Native Tribes of the Northern Territory_ (Melbourne, 1912), p. 6: “The two fundamental beliefs of reincarnation and of children not being of necessity the result of sexual intercourse, are firmly held by the tribes in their normal wild state. There is no doubt whatever of this, and we now know that these two beliefs extend through all the tribes northwards to Katherine Creek and eastwards to the Gulf of Carpentaria.” In a letter (dated Melbourne, July 27th, 1913) Professor Baldwin Spencer writes to me that the natives on the Alligator River in the Northern Territory “have detailed traditions—as also have all the tribes—of how great ancestors wandered over the country leaving numbers of spirit children behind them who have been reincarnated time after time. They know who everyone is a reincarnation of, as the names are perpetuated.” 333 W. Baldwin Spencer, _An Introduction to the Study of Certain Native Tribes of the Northern Territory_ (Melbourne, 1912), pp. 41-45. M77 Theories as to the birth of children among the tribes of Queensland. 334 Walter E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography_, _Bulletin_ No. 5, _Superstition, Magic, and Medicine_ (Brisbane, 1903), pp. 22, § 81. 335 Walter E. Roth, _op. cit._ p. 23, § 82. 336 Walter E. Roth, _op. cit._ p. 23, § 83. Mr. Roth adds, very justly: “When it is remembered that as a rule in all these Northern tribes, a little girl may be given to and will live with her spouse as wife long before she reaches the stage of puberty—the relationship of which to fecundity is not recognised—the idea of conception not being necessarily due to sexual connection becomes partly intelligible.” 337 The Bishop of North Queensland (Dr. Frodsham) in a letter to me, dated Bishop’s Lodge, Townsville, Queensland, July 9th, 1909. The Bishop’s authority for the statement is the Rev. C. W. Morrison, M.A., acting head of the Yarrubah Mission. In the same letter Dr. Frodsham, speaking from personal observation, refers to “the belief, practically universal among the northern tribes, that copulation is not the cause of conception.” See J. G. Frazer, “Beliefs and Customs of the Australian Aborigines,” _Folk-lore_, xx. (1909) pp. 350-352; _Man_, ix. (1909) pp. 145-147; _Totemism and Exogamy_, i. 577 _sq._ M78 Theories as to the birth of children in Northern and Western Australia. Belief that conception in women is caused by the food they eat. 338 Herbert Basedow, _Anthropological Notes on the Western Coastal Tribes of the Northern Territory of South Australia_, pp. 4 _sq._ (separate reprint from the _Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia_, vol. xxxi. 1907). M79 Conception supposed to be caused by a man who is not the father.