Early doubts about the precision of Spencer and Gillen's English gloss were expressed by the German Lutheran pastor and missionary Carl Strehlow in his 1908 book "Die Aranda" ("The Arrernte"). He noted that his Arrente contacts explained "altjira", whose etymology was unknown, as an eternal being who had no beginning. In the Upper Arrernte language, the proper verb for 'to dream' was "altjirerama", literally 'to see God'. Strehlow theorised that the noun is the somewhat rare word "altjirrinja", which Spencer and Gillen gave a corrupted transcription and a false etymology. "The native," Strehlow concluded, "knows nothing of 'dreamtime' as a designation of a certain period of their history."