454.那些想在肉体死后受到苦待的非洲人进一步的讲述。他们走近了，想告知我他们是怎么回事。从他们控制自己嗓音的方式，我能发觉他们不想说错一句话，并且渴望更深层次的东西；因为他们在掂量自己的话。他们说，当受到苦待时，他们是黑色的，后来就脱去黑色，披上灵魂的白色，从而进入天堂。现在他们很惊讶自己曾有过那种痛苦的感觉，后来他们把这种感觉归因于幻觉；因为他们现在说他们已经没有这种感觉了，只有一种快乐的天堂般的感觉。（1748年1月7日）
454. What those Africans further report, who want to be harshly treated after the death of the body
They are drawing near, and want to inform me how things are with them. From the way they are controlling their voices, I can tell that they do not want to say anything wrong, and that they long for deeper things; for they are weighing their words.
They say that when they are being maltreated, then they are black, and afterwards, they put off the blackness, and put on the shining whiteness of the soul, and so enter into heaven. Now they are surprised they had had a painful sensation, which, upon looking back, they attribute to fantasies; for they now say they have no such sensation, but only a pleasant and paradisal one. 1748, the 7th day of January.
454. WHAT THOSE AFRICANS, WHO WANT TO BE TREATED HARSHLY AFTER THE DEATH OF THE BODY, FURTHER RELATE
They are eager and willing to instruct how things are with themselves. From the direction of the words by them, I can perceive that they want to be without anything erroneous, and that they desire things interior, for they weigh their words. They say that when they are being badly treated, they are then black, and afterwards they put off the blackness, and put on a whiteness of soul, and so enter heaven. They now wonder that they have had that painful sensation, which they afterwards attributed to phantasies, for they now say that they have no such sensation, but only something pleasant and paradisal. 1748, Jan. 7.
454. Quid Africani porro referunt, qui post corporis mortem dure tractari volunt
Instant et volunt instruere, quomodo res cum iis se habent: ex directione vocum ab iis, percipere possum, quod absque errato esse velint, et quod interiora desiderent 1
, nam verba ponderant; dicunt, quod dum male tractantur, tunc nigri sint, et postmodum exuant nigredinem, ac induant candorem animae, et sic intrant in coelum; mirantur nunc id quod sensationem dolorificam habuerint, quam 2
attribuunt phantasiis postea, nam nunc dicunt, se non talem sensationem habere, sed modo amaenam seu paradisiacam. 1748, d. 7 Jan.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has forte desiderant
2. The Manuscript has habuerint; quam