There are also souls who are of a character opposite to that of the rest, or of Europeans - I was told they were from Africa - who, upon entering into the other life, love to be chastised, even treated harshly, hoping that good will result from it; and if not punished, they are displeased. There are likewise some who treat them harshly, whom they call devils, one of whom was shown to me. His body was dirty or yellowish, and gnarled. The bad treatments they undergo are of different kinds. The kind shown to me was one in which an eagle had alighted on their head and taken away their brain, which was done with a pain matching the fantasies - for these produce dreadful ones. Another is by different kinds of sharp punishments, which they love. Yet because of the painful sensations, they finally begin to shun these, and at the same time the spirits who are tormenting them, whom they call devils. Thus they shed the fantasies, and believe that they are being brought into heaven, which, as they now say, no one can enter but by punishments and afflictions. This is what that people believes and stores deeply in its conscience, for which reason they are treated accordingly, and thereby obtain the reward of coming into joyful states, which they call Paradisal. And they see pleasure gardens, and very many lovely things, after coming to hate the gang tormenting them. For a long time they spoke with me, and their speaking was accompanied with a kind of clicking sound, like that of a rag [being shaken], by which they can be recognized. These and the things previously told to me [lead to the conclusion] that a greater proportion [of people] from Africa, than from other regions of the earth, are introduced into heaven; for their conscience in these matters is somewhat in the way of truth. 1748, the 7th day of January. They wish me to write that they are entirely in the way of truth, because they know this from their paradisal [states]. mThey say that they do not love their own race only, but all however many there are in heaven, so that they have an ingrained universal love. They detest blackness of the body, for they know that their souls are shining white, but their bodies black, which they loathe. Later, they do not have that clicking speech, but a thinking like angelic thought, and they are overhead, as they now are.n