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So that, generally speaking, the death of one human being involves that of another, which is no small check to population. The Boyl-yas, or native sorcerers, are objects of mysterious dread, and are thought to have the power of becoming invisible to all eyes but those of their brethren in the same evil craft.
Time wore on; each withered beldame by turns addressed the party, while the poor creature, whose dying moments were thus disturbed, was gradually sinking. At last he ceased to live, and at that moment an old woman started up, and with grief and rage, poured forth her curses upon the Boyl-yas, and tore the hut in which Mulligo had been lying to pieces, saying, "This is now no good."
My arguments to induce him to move were all thrown away; he constantly affirmed that if he touched these shellfish through their agency the Boyl-yas* would acquire some mysterious influence over him, which would end in his death.
The native men and women, after their departure, indulged in the most unlimited abuse of boyl-yas in general, and of the Guildford boyl-yas in particular, against whom, according to the idea of the natives, they had very strong presumptive evidence from the circumstance of the cloak having been stolen by a Guildford man.
She had indeed good reason to weep, for those infamous boyl-yas, not content with eating the flesh of her son during his lifetime, and thereby causing his death, had been detected by her in the very act of sitting round his grave for the purpose of preying on his miserable remains.
Another boyl-ya has however the power of drawing them out and curing the affected person by certain processes of disenchantment. When this operation is effected the boyl-yas are drawn out in the form of pieces of quartz, which are kept and considered as great curiosities by the natives.
He hereupon, after thinking for a moment or two, got up to obey me, and walked away for this purpose; but I heard him, whilst occupied in the task, lamenting his fate most bitterly. It was true, he said, that he had not died either of hunger or thirst, but this was all owing to his courage and strong sinews, yet what would these avail against the supernatural powers of the boyl-yas.
These Boyl-yas are dreadfully revengeful; by and by we shall be very ill. I'll not talk about them. They come moving along in the sky, cannot you let them alone? I've already a terrible headache; by and by you and I will be two dead men. "'The natives cannot see them. The Boyl-yas do not bite, they feed stealthily; they do not eat the bones, but consume the flesh.
This treatment not succeeding, and the poor fellow wasting daily away, the natives became convinced that the unfriendly boyl-yas were in the habit of rendering themselves invisible, and nightly descending for the purpose of feasting on poor Mulligo's flesh whilst he slept, and being under the influence of a charm he was not aware of what was taking place; but Moondee chose to imagine that if his wife had been more vigilant the boyl-yas might have been detected, and hence intended to spear her in the leg as a punishment for her imputed neglect.
It appears that some two or three months before this period Weenat, a native of the upper part of the Swan, had stolen a cloak belonging to Miago, Mulligo's brother, and had, according to their belief, from malicious motives given this cloak to one of the native sorcerers, or boyl-yas, who by this means acquired some mysterious power over either Miago or his brother, but selected the latter for his victim, when he fell and broke his back.
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