Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1840 - Page 101
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[Page 101]
name corresponding with that of Devil in English. They say that that this Devil is ugly and black, painted with red ochre. He is said to come in the night and take away the women, sometimes permitting them to return, and at other times keeping them. The Blacks were always fearful of travelling in the night, they never did so, until they were pressed hard by the parties in pursuit of them.
When a ship went [indecipherable] some of them from Hobart Town to Flinders' island, and when under full sail at sea, they begged the Captain to let go the anchor, as they firmly believed that the devil was running away with the ship. They thought they were proceeding to England, where, they said, they would be starved to death, for if use the white people had any thing to eat at home, they would never come so far as Van Diemens' Land, I may as well observe