"It is possible that some of these stories owe their origin to intercourse with the whites, though the great unwillingness which the natives always evince to adopt any customs or opinions from them, militates against such a supposition. But a being who is, beyond question, entirely the creation of Australian imagination, is one who is called in the Wellington dialect, _Wandong_; though the natives have learned from the whites to apply to him the name of devil. He is an object not of worship, but merely of superstitious dread. They describe him as going about under the form of a black man of superhuman stature and strength. He prowls at night through the woods around the encampments of the natives, seeking to entrap some unwary wanderer, whom he will seize upon; and, having dragged him to his fire, will there roast and devour him. They attribute all their afflictions to his malevolence. If they are ill, they say _Wandong_ has bitten them. No one can see this being but the _núrjargir_, or conjurors, who assert that they can kill him, but that he always returns to life. He may, however, be frightened away by throwing fire at him (though this statement seems inconsistent with that respecting his invisibility), and no native will go out at night without a firebrand to protect him from the demon. "There is some difference in the accounts given of this character. By the tribe of Hunter's River he is called _Koin_ or _Koen_. Sometimes, when the Blacks are asleep, he makes his appearance, seizes upon one of them and carries him off. The person seized endeavours in vain to cry out, being almost strangled. At daylight, however, _Koin_ disappears, and the man finds himself conveyed safely to his own fireside. From this it would appear that the demon is here a sort of personification of the nightmare,--a visitation to which the natives, from their habits of gorging themselves to the utmost when they obtain a supply of food, must be very subject. "At the _Muruya_ River the devil is called _Túlugal_. He was described to us, by a native, as a black man of great stature, grizzled with age, who has very long legs, so that he soon overtakes a man; but very short arms, which brings the contest nearer an equality. This goblin has a wife who is much like himself; but still more feared, being of a cruel disposition, with a cannibal appetite, especially for young children. It would hardly be worth while to dwell upon these superstitions, but that they seem to characterise so distinctly the people, at once timid, ferocious, and stupid, who have invented them.