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diff --git a/3819.txt b/3819.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b6ff79 --- /dev/null +++ b/3819.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6395 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Euahlayi Tribe, by K. Langloh Parker + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Euahlayi Tribe + A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia + +Author: K. Langloh Parker + +Posting Date: June 20, 2009 [EBook #3819] +Release Date: March, 2003 +First Posted: September 24, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EUAHLAYI TRIBE *** + + + + +Produced by Col Choat. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +The Euahlayi Tribe + +A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia + + +by + +K. Langloh Parker + + + + + +CONTENTS + + + INTRODUCTION + I. INTRODUCTORY + II. THE ALL FATHER, BYAMEE + III. RELATIONSHIPS AND TOTEMS + IV. THE MEDICINE MEN + V. MORE ABOUT THE MEDICINE MEN AND LEECHCRAFT + VI. OUR WITCH WOMAN + VII. BIRTH--BETROTHAL--AN ABORIGINAL GIRL FROM INFANCY TO WOMANHOOD + VIII. THE TRAINING OF A BOY UP TO BOORAH PRELIMINARIES + IX. THE BOORAH AND OTHER MEETINGS + X. CHIEFLY AS TO FUNERALS AND MOURNING + XI. SOMETHING ABOUT STARS AND LEGENDS + XII. THE TRAPPING OF GAME + XIII. FORAGING AND COOKING + XIV. COSTUMES AND WEAPONS + XV. THE AMUSEMENTS OF BLACKS + XVI. BUSH BOGIES AND FINIS + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +By one of the Euahlayi Tribe (Omitted from etext) + + A NATIVE CARRYING A MESSAGE-STICK + TWO NATIVES READY FOR A CORROBOREE + THE FUNERAL OF A NATIVE. A BARK COFFIN + A NATIVE SINGING TO HIS OWN ACCOMPANIMENT + A NATIVE GRINDING GRASS SEED ON A DAYOORL-STONE + A NATIVE WITH SHIELD AND WADDY IN FRONT OF HIS CAMP + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +No introduction to Mrs. Langloh Parker's book can be more than that +superfluous 'bush' which, according to the proverb, good wine does not +need. Our knowledge of the life, manners, and customary laws of many +Australian tribes has, in recent years, been vastly increased by the +admirable works of Mr. Howitt, and of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. But +Mrs. Parker treats of a tribe which, hitherto, has hardly been +mentioned by anthropologists, and she has had unexampled opportunities +of study. It is hardly possible for a scientific male observer to be +intimately familiar with the women and children of a savage tribe. Mrs. +Parker, on the other hand, has had, as regards the women and children +of the Euahlayi, all the advantages of the squire's wife in a rural +neighbourhood, supposing the squire's wife to be an intelligent and +sympathetic lady, with a strong taste for the study of folklore and +rustic custom. Among the Zulus, we know, it is the elder women who tell +the popular tales, so carefully translated and edited by Bishop +Colenso. Mrs. Parker has already published two volumes of Euahlayi +tales, though I do not know that I have ever seen them cited, except by +myself, in anthropological discussion. As they contain many beautiful +and romantic touches, and references to the Euahlayi 'All Father,' or +paternal 'super man,' Byamee, they may possibly have been regarded as +dubious materials, dressed up for the European market. Mrs. Parker's +new volume, I hope, will prove that she is a close scientific observer, +who must be reckoned with by students. She has not scurried through the +region occupied by her tribe, but has had them constantly under her +eyes for a number of years. + +My own slight share in the book as it stands ought to be mentioned. +After reading the original MS., I catechised Mrs. Parker as to her +amount of knowledge of the native language; her methods of obtaining +information; and the chances that missionary influence had affected the +Euahlayi legends and beliefs. I wrote out her answers, and she read and +revised what I had written. I also collected many scattered notices of +Byamee into the chapter on that being, which Mrs. Parker has read and +approved. I introduced a reference to Mr. Howitt's theory of the 'All +Father,' and I added some references to other authorities on the +Australian tribes. Except for this, and for a very few purely verbal +changes in matter of style, Mrs. Parker's original manuscript is +untouched by me. It seems necessary to mention these details, as I +have, in other works, expressed my own opinions on Australian religion +and customary law. [MAKING OF RELIGION, second edition; MYTH, RITUAL, AND +RELIGION, second edition.] These opinions I have not, so to speak, edited +into the work of Mrs. Parker. The author herself has remarked that, +beginning as a disciple of Mr. Herbert Spencer in regard to the +religious ideas of the Australians--according to that writer, mere +dread of casual 'spirits'--she was obliged to alter her attitude, in +consequence of all that she learned at first hand. She also explains +that her tribe are not 'wild blacks,' though, in the absence of +missionary influences, they retain their ancient beliefs, at least the +old people do; and, in a decadent form, preserve their tribal +initiations, or Boorah. How she tested and controlled the evidence of +her informants she has herself stated, and I venture to think that she +could hardly have made a better use of her opportunities. + +In one point there is perhaps, almost unavoidably, a lacuna or gap in +her information. The Euahlayi, she says, certainly do not possess the +Dieri and Urabunna custom of Pirrauru or Piraungaru, by which married, +and unmarried men, of the classes men and women which may intermarry, +are solemnly allotted to each other as more or less permanent paramours. +[See Mr. Howitt's NATIVE TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, and my +SECRET OF THE TOTEM, chapter iii.] That custom, for some unknown reason, +is confined to certain tribes possessing the two social divisions with the +untranslated names MATTERI and KIRARU. These tribes range from Lake Eyre +southward, perhaps, as far as the sea. Their peculiar custom is unknown to +the Euahlayi, but Mrs. Parker does not inform us concerning any recognised +licence which may, as is usual, accompany their Boorah assemblies, or +their 'harvest home' of gathered grass seed, which she describes. + +Any reader of Mrs. Parker's book who has not followed recent +anthropological discussions, may need to be apprised of the nature of +these controversies, and of the probable light thrown on them by the +full description of the Euahlayi tribe. The two chief points in dispute +are (1) the nature and origin of the marriage laws of the Australians; +and (2) the nature and origin of such among their ideas and practices +as may be styled 'religious.' As far as what we commonly call material +civilisation is concerned, the natives of the Australian continent are +probably the most backward of mankind, having no agriculture, no +domestic animals, and no knowledge of metal-working. Their weapons and +implements are of wood, stone, and bone, and they have not even the +rudest kind of pottery. But though the natives are all, in their +natural state, on or about this common low level, their customary laws, +ceremonials, and beliefs are rich in variety. + +As regards marriage rules they are in several apparently ascending +grades of progress. First we have tribes in which each person is born +into one or other of two social divisions usually called 'phratries.' +Say that the names of the phratries mean Eagle Hawk and Crow. Each +born Crow must marry an Eagle Hawk; each born Eagle Hawk must marry a +Crow. The names are derived through the mothers. One obvious result is +that no two persons, brother and sister maternal, can intermarry; but +the rule also excludes from intermarriage great numbers of persons in +no way akin to each other by blood, who merely share the common phratry +name, Crow or Eagle Hawk. + +In each phratry are smaller sets of persons, each set distinguished by +the name of some animal or other natural object, their 'totem.' The +same totem is never found in both phratries. Thus a person marrying out +of his or her phratry, as all must do, necessarily marries out of his +or her totem. + +The same arrangements exist among tribes which derive phratry and totem +names through the father. + +This derivation of names and descent through the father is regarded by +almost all students, and by Mr. J. G. Frazer, in one passage of his +latest study of the subject, as a great step in progress. ['The Beginnings +of Religion and Totemism among the Australian Aborigines,' FORTNIGHTLY +REVIEW, September 1905, p. 452.] The obvious result of paternal descent is +to make totem communities or kins local. In any district most of the +people will be of the same paternal totem name--say, Grub, Iguana, Emu, +or what not. Just so, in Glencoe of old, most of the people were MacIans; +in Appin most were Stewarts; in South Argyll Campbells, and so on. + +The totem kins are thus, with paternal descent, united both by supposed +blood ties in the totem kin, and by associations of locality. This is +certainly a step in social progress. + +But while Mr. Frazer, with almost all inquirers, acknowledges this, ten +pages later in his essay he no longer considers the descent of the +totem in the paternal line as necessarily 'a step in progress' from +descent in the maternal line. 'The common assumption that inheritance +of the totem through the mother always preceded inheritance of it through +the father need not hold good,'[IBID. p. 462.] he remarks. + +Thus it appears that a tribe has not necessarily made 'a great step in +progress,' because it reckons descent of the totem on the male side. If +this be so, we cannot so easily decide as to which tribe is socially +advanced and which is not. + +In any case, however, there is a test of social advance. There is an +acknowledged advance when a tribe is divided into, not two, but four or +eight divisions, which may not intermarry. [IBID. p. 454] The Euahlayi have +four such divisions. In each of their intermarrying phratries are two +'Matrimonial Classes,' each with its name, and these are so constituted +that a member of the elder generation can never marry a member of the +succeeding generation. This rule prevents, of course, marriage between +parent and child, but such marriages never do occur in the pristine +tribes of the Darling river which have no such classes. The four-class +arrangement excludes from intermarriage all persons, whether parents +and children or not, who bear the same class name, say Hippai. + +Among the central and northern tribes, from the Arunta of the +Macdonnell hills to the Gulf of Carpentaria, the eight-class rule +exists, and it is, confessedly, the most advanced of all. + +In this respect, then, the Arunta of the centre of Australia are +certainly more advanced than the Euahlayi. The Arunta have eight, not +four, intermarrying classes. In the matter of rites and ceremonies, +too, they are, in the opinion of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, more +advanced than, say, the Euahlayi. They practise universal 'subincision' +of the males, and circumcision, in place of the more primitive knocking +out of the front teeth. Their ceremonies are very prolonged: in Messrs. +Spencer and Gillen's experience, rites lasted for four months during a +great tribal gathering. That the Arunta could provide supplies for so +prolonged and large an assembly, argues high organisation, or a region +well found in natural edible objects. Yet the region is arid and barren, +so the organisation is very high. For all these reasons, even if we do not +regard paternal descent of the totem as a step in progress from maternal +descent, the Arunta seem greatly advanced in social conditions. + +Yet they are said to lack entirely that belief in a moral and kindly +'All Father,' such as Byamee, which Mrs. Parker describes as potent +among the less advanced Euahlayi, and which Mr. Howitt has found among +non-coastal tribes of the south-east, with female descent of the totem, +but without matrimonial classes--that is, among the most primitive tribes +of all. + +Here occurs a remarkable difficulty. Mr. Howitt asserts, with Mr. +Frazer's concurrence, that (in Mr. Frazer's words) 'the same regions in +which the germs of religion begin to appear have also made some +progress towards a higher form of social and family life.'['The Beginnings +of Religion and Totemism among the Australian Aborigines,' Fortnightly +Review, September 1905, p. 452.] But the social advance from maternal to +paternal descent of the totem, we have seen, is not necessarily an advance +at all, in Mr. Frazer's opinion. [IBID. p. 462.] The Arunta, for example, +he thinks, never recognised female descent of the totem. They have never +recognised, indeed, he thinks, any hereditary descent of the totem, +though in all other respects, as in hereditary magistracies, and +inheritance of the right to practise the father's totemic ritual, they +do reckon in the male line. By such advantage, however it was acquired, +they are more progressive than, say, the Euahlayi. But, progressive as +they are, they have not, like the more pristine tribes of the south-east, +developed 'the germs of religion,' the belief in a benevolent or ruling +'All Father.' Unlike the tribes of the south-east, they have co-operative +totemic magic. Each totem community does magic for its totem, as part of +the food supply of the united tribe. But the tribe, though so SOLIDAIRE, +and with its eight classes and hereditary magistracies so advanced, has +developed no germs of religion at all. Arunta progress has thus been +singularly unequal. + +The germs of religion are spoken of as the results of social advance, +but, while so prominent in social advance, the Arunta have no trace of +religion. The tribes northward from them to the sea are also very +advanced socially, but (with one known exception not alluded to by Mr. +Frazer) have no 'All Father,' no germ of religion. + +From this fact, if correctly reported, it is obvious that social +progress is not the cause, nor the necessary concomitant, of advance in +religious ideas. + +Again, the influence of the sea, in causing a 'heavier rainfall, a more +abundant vegetation, and a more plentiful supply of food,' with an +easier and more reflective life than that of 'the arid wilderness of +the interior,' cannot be, as is alleged, the cause of the germs of +religion. [IBID. p. 463.] If this were the case, the coastal tribes of the +Gulf of Carpentaria and of the north generally would have developed the +All Father belief. Yet, in spite of their coastal environment, and richer +existence, and social advance, the northern coastal tribes are not +credited with the belief in the All Father. Meanwhile tribes with no +matrimonial classes, and with female descent of the totem--tribes +dwelling from five to seven hundred miles away from the southern sea--do +possess the All Father belief as far north as Central Queensland, no +less than did the almost or quite extinct tribes of the south coast, +who had made what is (or is not) 'the great step in progress' of +paternal descent of the totem. + +Again, arid and barren as is the central region tenanted by the Arunta, +it seems to permit or encourage philosophic reflection, for their +theory of evolution is remarkably coherent and ingenious. The theory of +evolution implies as much reflection as that of creation! Their magic +for the behoof of edible objects is attributed to the suddenness of +their first rains,[IBID. p. 465.] and the consequent outburst of life, +which the natives attribute to their own magical success. But +rainmaking magic, as Mrs. Langloh Parker shows, is practised with +sometimes amazing success among the Euahlayi, who work no magic at all +for their totems. Their magic, if it brings rain, benefits their totems +at large, but for each totem in particular, no Euahlayi totem kin does +magic. + +Again, agricultural magic has been, and indeed is, practised in Europe, +in conditions of climate unlike those of the Arunta; and totemic magic +is freely practised in North America, in climatic conditions dissimilar +from those of Central Australia. + +For all these reasons I must confess that I do not follow the logic of +the philosophy which makes social advance the cause of the belief in +the All Father, and coastal rains the cause of social advance. The +Arunta have the social advance, the eight classes, the relatively high +organisation; but they have neither the climatic conditions supposed to +produce the advance, nor the religion which the advance is supposed to +produce. The northern coastal tribes, again, have the desired climatic +conditions, and the social advance, but they have not the germs of +religion found in many far inland southern tribes, like the Euahlayi, +whose social progress is extremely moderate. We thus find, from the +northern coast to the centre, one supposed result of coastal +conditions, namely, social progress, but not the other supposed result +of coastal conditions, namely, the All Father belief. I do not say that +it does not exist, for it is a secret belief, but it is not reported by +Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. On the other hand, among tribes of the +south-east very far from the coast, we find the lowest grades of social +progress, but we also find the All Father belief. I am ready, of +course, to believe that good conditions of life beget progress, social +and religious, as a general rule. But other causes exist; speculation +anywhere may take crudely scientific rather than crudely religious +lines. Especially the belief in ancestral spirits may check or nullify +the belief in a remote All Father. We see this among the Zulus, where +spirits entirely dominate religion, and the All Father is, at most, the +shadow of a name, Unkulunkulu. We may detect the same influence among +the northern tribes of Australia, where ancestral spirits dominate +thought and society, though they receive no sacrifice or prayer. +Meanwhile, if we accept Mrs. Parker's evidence, among the Euahlayi +ancestral spirits are of no account in religion, while the All Father +is obeyed, and, on some occasions, is addressed in prayer; and may even +cause rain, if property approached by a human spirit which has just +entered his mansions. Clearly, climatic causes and natural environment +are not the only factors in producing and directing the speculative +ideas of men in early society. + +We must also remember that the neighbours of the Arunta, northwards, +who share certain peculiar Arunta ideas, possess, beyond all doubt, +either the earliest germs of belief in the All Father, or that belief +in a decadent condition of survival. This is quite certain; for, +whereas the Arunta laugh at all inquiries as to what went before the +'Alcheringa,' or mythic age of evolution, the Kaitish, according to +Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, aver that an anthropomorphic being, who +dwells above the sky, and is named Atnatu, first created himself, and +then 'made the Alcheringa,'--the mythic age of primal evolution. Of +mankind, some, in Kaitish opinion, were evolved; of others Atnatu is +the father. He expelled men to earth from his heaven for neglect of his +ceremonies, but he provided them with weapons and all that they +possess. He is not TROS FERRO SUR LA MORALE: he has made no MORAL laws, +but his ritual laws, as to circumcision and the whirling of the +bull-roarer, must be observed as strictly as the ritual laws of Byamee +of the Euahlayi. In this sense of obedience due to a heavenly father +who begat men, or some of them, punished them, and started them on +their terrene career, laying down ceremonial rules, we have certainly +'the germs of religion' in a central tribe cognate to the Arunta. + +Mr. Frazer detects only two traces of religion in the centre, omitting +the Kaitish Atnatu, ['The Beginnings of Religion and Totemism among the +Australian Aborigines,' FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW, September 1905, p. 452, +Note 1.] but I am unable to see how the religious aspect of Atnatu, +non-moral as it is, can be overlooked. He is the father of part of the +tribe, and all are bound to, observe his ceremonial rules. He accounts for +the beginning of the beginning; he is the cause of the Alcheringa; men owe +duties to him. We do not know whether he was once as potent in their +hearts, and as moral as Byamee, but has DOGRINGOLO under Arunta +philosophic influences; or whether Byamee is a more highly evolved form of +Atnatu. But it is quite certain that the Kaitish, in a region as far +almost from the north sea as that of the Arunta, and further from southern +coastal influences than the Arunta, have a modified belief in the All +Father. How are we to account for this on the philosophic hypothesis of +Oceanus as the father of all the gods; of coastal influences producing a +richer life, and causing both social and religious progress? + +Another difficulty is that while the Arunta, with no religion, and the +Kaitish, with the Atnatu belief, are socially advanced in organisation +(whether we reckon male descent of the totem 'a great step in +progress,' or an accident), they are yet supposed by Mr. Frazer to be, +in one respect, the least advanced, the most primitive, of known human +beings. The reason is this: the Arunta do not recognise the processes +of sexual union as the cause of the production of children. Sexual +acts, they say, merely prepare women for the reception of original +ancestral spirits, which enter into them, and are reincarnated and +brought to the birth. + +If the women cannot accept the spirits without being 'prepared' by +sexual union, then sexual union plays a physical part in the generation +of a spirit incarnated, a fact which all believers in the human soul +are as ready as the Arunta to admit. If the Arunta recognise the +prior necessity of 'preparation,' then they are not so ignorant as +they are thought to be; and their view is produced, not so much by +stark ignorance, as by their philosophy of the eternal reincarnation of +primal human spirits. The Arunta philosophers, in fact, seem to +concentrate their speculation on a point which puzzled Mr. Shandy. How +does the animating principle, or soul, regarded as immaterial, clothe +itself in flesh? Material acts cannot effect the incarnation of a +spirit. Therefore, the spirit enters women from without, and is not the +direct result of human action. + +The south-eastern tribes, with female descent of the totem, and with no +belief in the universal and constant reincarnation of ancestral +spirits, take the 'schylean view, according to Mr. Howitt, that the +male is the sole originating cause of children, while the female is +only the recipient and 'nurse.' These tribes, socially less advanced +than the Arunta, have not the Arunta nescience of the facts of +procreation, a nescience which I regard as merely the consequence and +corollary of the Arunta philosophy of reincarnation. Each Arunta child, +by that philosophy, has been in being since the Alcheringa: his mother +of the moment only reproduces him, after 'preparation.' He is not a new +thing; he is as old as the development of organic forms. This is the +Arunta belief, and I must reckon it as not more primitive than the +peculiar philosophy of reincarnation of ancestral spirits. Certainly +such an elaborate philosophy manifestly cannot be primitive. It is, +however, the philosophy of the tribes from the Urabunna, on Lake Eyre +(with female descent of the totem), to the most northerly tribes, with +male descent. + +But among none of these tribes has the philosophy that extraordinary +effect on totemic institutions which, by a peculiar and isolated +addition, it possesses among the septs of the Arunta nation, and in a +limited way among the Kaitish. + +Among all tribes except these the child inherits its totem: from the +mother, among the Urabunna; from the father in the northern peoples. +But, among the Arunta and Kaitish, the totem is not inherited from +either parent. According to the belief of these tribes, in every +district there is a place where the first human ancestors--in each case +all of one totem, whichsoever that totem, in each case, might happen to +be--died, 'went under the earth.' Rocks or trees arose to mark such +spots. These places are haunted by the spirits of the dead ancestors; +here they are all Grubs, there all Eagle Hawks, or all Iguanas, or all +Emus, or all Cats. Or as in these sites the ancestors left each his own +sacred stone, CHURINGA NANJA, with archaic patterns inscribed on it, +patterns now fancifully interpreted as totemic inscriptions. Such +stones are especially haunted by the ancestral souls, all desiring +reincarnation. + +When a woman becomes aware of the life of the child she bears, among +the Arunta and Kaitish, she supposes that a local spirit of the local +totem has entered her, and her child's totem is therefore the totem of +that locality, whatever other totems she and her husbands may own. The +stone amulet of the ancestral spirit, WHO IS THE CHILD, is sought; if +it cannot be found at the spot, a wooden CHURINGA is made to represent +it, and it is kept carefully in a sacred storehouse. + +Even in the centre and north, where the belief in reincarnation +prevails, this odd manner of acquiring totems is only practised by the +Arunta tribes and the Kaitish, and only among them are the inscribed +stones known to exist as favoured haunts of ancestral spirits desiring +incarnation. The other northern tribes believe in reincarnation, but +not in the haunted sacred stones, which they do not, north of the +Worgaia, possess; nor do they derive totems from locality, but, as +usual, by inheritance. + +It thus appears that these Arunta sacred stones are an inseparable +accident of the Arunta method of acquiring the totem. How they and the +faith in them cause that method is not obvious, but the two things--the +haunted sacred stone, and the local source of totems--are +inseparable--that is, the former never is found apart from the latter. +Now such stones, with the sense and usage attached to them, cannot well +be primitive. They are the result of the peculiar and strictly isolated +Arunta custom and belief, which gives to each man and woman one of +these stones, the property of himself or herself, since the mythical +age, through all reincarnations. + +One cannot see how such an unique custom and belief, associated with +objects of art, can be reckoned primitive. Yet, where such stones do +not exist, the usage of acquiring totems by locality does not exist; +even where the belief in reincarnation and in local centres haunted by +totemic spirits is found in North Australia. [For an hypothesis of the +origin of the CHURINGA NANJA belief, see my SECRET OF THE TOTEM, +chapter iv.] + +On these grounds it appears that the hereditary totem is the earlier, +and that the Arunta usage is the result of the special and inseparable +superstition about the sacred stones. It may be a relatively recent +complication of and addition to the theory of reincarnation. Meanwhile, +the belief and usage produce an unique effect. The Arunta and Kaitish, +we saw, are so advanced socially that they possess not two, or four, +but eight matrimonial classes. The tribe is divided into two sets of +four classes each, and no person in A division (nameless) of four +classes may marry another person of any one of these four, but must +marry a person of a given class among the four in B division +(nameless). The succession to the class is hereditary in the mate line. +But any person among the Arunta, contrary to universal custom +elsewhere, may marry another person of his or her own totem, if that +person be in the right class of the opposite division. Nowhere else can +a person of division A and totem Grub find a Grub to marry in the +opposite division B. But this is possible among the Arunta and Kaitish, +because their totems are acquired by pure accident, are not hereditary, +and all totems exist, or may exist, in division A and also in division B. + +Mr. Frazer argues that the Arunta is the earlier state of affairs. He +supposes that men acquired their totems, at first, by local accident, +before they had laid any restrictions on marriage. Later, they divided +their tribe, first into two, then into four, then into eight classes; +and every one had to marry out of his class, or set of classes. All +other known tribes introduced these restrictions after totems had been +made hereditary. On passing the restrictive marriage law, they merely +drafted people of one set of hereditary totems into one division, all +the other totem kins into the other division. But the Arunta had not +made totems hereditary, but accidental, so all the children of one +crowd of mothers were placed in division A, all other children in +division B. The mothers in each division would have children of all the +totems, and thus the same totems now appeared in both of the exogamous +divisions. If a man married into his lawful opposite class, the fact +that the woman was of the same totem made no difference. + +I have offered quite an opposite explanation. Arunta totems were, +originally, hereditary among the Arunta, as everywhere else, and no +totem occurred in both exogamous divisions. The same totems, later, got +into both divisions as the result of the later and isolated belief in +reincarnation PLUS the sacred haunted stones. That superstition has +left the Kaitish PRACTICE of marriage still almost untouched. A Kaitish +MAY, like an Arunta, marry a woman of his own totem, but he scarcely +ever does so. The old prohibition, extinct in law, persists in custom; +unless we say that the Kaitish are now merely imitating the usual +practice of the rest of the totemic races of the world. + +Moreover, even among the Arunta, certain totems greatly preponderate in +each of the two exogamous intermarrying divisions of the tribe. This +must be because the present practice has not yet quite upset the +ancient usage, by which no totem ever occurred in both divisions. There +is even an Arunta myth asserting that this was so, but it is, of +course, of no historical value as evidence. Here it is proper to give +Mr. Frazer's contrary theory in his own words:-- + +'This [Arunta] mode of determining the totem has all the appearance of +extreme antiquity. For it ignores altogether the intercourse of the +sexes as the cause of offspring, and further, it ignores the tie of +blood on the maternal as well as the paternal side, substituting for it +a purely local bond, since the members of a totem stock are merely +those who gave the first sign of life in the womb at one or other of +certain definite spots. This form of totemism, which may be called +conceptional or local to distinguish it from hereditary totemism, may +with great probability be regarded as the most primitive known to exist +at the present day, since it seems to date from a time when blood +relationship was not yet recognised, and when even the idea of +paternity had not yet presented itself to the savage mind. Moreover, it +is hardly possible that this peculiar form of local totemism, with its +implied ignorance of such a thing as paternity at all, could be derived +from hereditary totemism, whereas it is easy to understand how +hereditary totemism, either in the paternal or in the maternal line, +could be derived from it. Indeed, among the Umbaia and Gnanji tribes we +can see at the present day how the change from local to hereditary +totemism has been effected. These tribes, like the Arunta and Kaitish, +believe that conception is caused by the entrance into a woman of a +spirit who has lived in its disembodied state, along with other spirits +of the same totem, at any one of a number of totem centres scattered +over the country; but, unlike the Arunta and Kaitish, they almost +always assign the father's totem to the child, even though the infant +may have given the first sign of life at a place haunted by spirits of +a different totem. For example, the wife of a snake man may first feel +her womb quickened at a tree haunted by spirits of goshawk people; yet +the child will not be a goshawk but a snake, like its father. The +theory by which the Umbaia and Gnanji reconcile these apparently +inconsistent beliefs is that a spirit of the husband's totem follows +the wife and enters into her wherever an opportunity offers, whereas +spirits of other totems would not think of doing so. In the example +supposed, a snake spirit is thought to have followed up the wife of the +snake man and entered into her at the tree haunted by goshawk spirits, +while the goshawk spirits would refuse to trespass, so to say, on a +snake preserve by quartering themselves in the wife of a snake man. +This theory clearly marks a transition from local to hereditary +totemism in the paternal line. And precisely the same theory could, +MUTATIS MUTANDIS, be employed to effect a change from local to +hereditary totemism in the maternal line; it would only be necessary to +suppose that a pregnant woman is always followed by a spirit of her own +totem, which sooner or later effects a lodgement in her body. For +example, a pregnant woman of the bee totem would always be followed by +a bee spirit, which would enter into her wherever and whenever she felt +her womb quickened, and so the child would be born of her own bee +totem. Thus the local form of totemism, which obtains among the Arunta +and Kaitish tribes, is older than the hereditary form, which is the +ordinary type of totemism in Australia and elsewhere, first, because it +rests on far more archaic conceptions of society and of life; and, +secondly, because both the hereditary kinds of totemism, the paternal +and the maternal, can be derived from it, whereas it can hardly be +derived from either of them.' + +This argument appears to take for granted that the conception of primal +ancestral spirits, perpetually reincarnated, is primitive. But, in +fact, we seem to know it, among Australian tribes, only in these which +have advanced to the possession of eight classes, and have made 'the +great step in progress' (if it is a great step), of descent of the +totem in the paternal line. The Urabunna, with female descent of the +totem, have, it is true, the belief in reincarnation. But they +intermarry with the Arunta, borrow their sacred stones, and practise +the same advanced rites and ceremonies. The idea may thus have been +borrowed. On the other hand, the more pristine tribes of the +south-east, with two or four exogamous divisions, and with female +descent of the totem, have no known trace of the doctrine of +reincarnation (except as displayed by the Euahlayi), and have no doubt +that the father is the cause of procreation, save in the case of the +Euahlayi, who believe that the Moon and the Crow 'make' the new +children. + +It would thus appear that the central and northern belief in perpetual +reincarnation of primal spirits is not primitive, yet the Arunta method +of acquiring totems does not exist save by grace of this belief, PLUS +the isolated belief in primal sacred stones. + +I am obliged to differ from Mr. Frazer when he says that 'it is easy to +see how hereditary totemism, either in the paternal or in the maternal +line, would be derived from' the Arunta belief and practice, whereas +'it is hardly possible that this peculiar form of local totemism +[Arunta], with its implied ignorance of such a thing as paternity at +all, could be derived from hereditary totemism.' + +I do not know whether the other northern tribes share the Arunta +nescience of procreation, or not. Whether they do or do not, it was as +easy for them to e plain all difficulties by a reconciling myth--a +spirit of the husband's totem follows his wife--as for a white savant to +frame an hypothesis. The Urabunna, with female descent of the totem, +have quite another myth--to reconcile everything. + +Nothing can be more easy. Supposing the Arunta to have begun, as in my +theory, with hereditary totemism, the rise of their isolated belief in +spirit-haunted sacred stones, encroached on and destroyed the +hereditary character of their totemism. The belief in CHURINGA NANJA is +an isolated freak, but it has done its work, while leaving traces of an +earlier state of things, as we have shown, both among the Kaitish and +Arunta. + +If I am right in differing from such a master of many legions as the +learned author of THE GOLDEN BOUGH, the irreligion of the Arunta and +northern tribes (if these be really without religion) is the result of +their form of speculation, wholly occupied by the idea of +reincarnation, while the Arunta form of totemism is the consequence of +an isolated fantasy about their peculiar sacred stones. Meanwhile the +Euahlayi, as Mrs. Parker proves, entertain, in a limited way, not +elsewhere recorded in Australia, the belief in the reincarnation of the +souls of uninitiated young people. They also, like the Arunta, +recognise haunted trees and rocks, but the haunting spirits do not +desire reincarnation, and are not ancestral. Spirits of the dead go to +one or other abode of souls, to Baiame, or far from his presence to a +place of pain. So limited is human fancy, that here, as in Beckford's +picture of hell in VATHEK, each spirit eternally presses his hand +against his side. Were this a Christian doctrine, the Euahlayi would be +said to have borrowed it, but few will accuse them of plagiarising from +Beckford. These myths, like all myths, are not consistent. Baiame may +change a soul into a bird. + +We may ask whether, with their limited belief in reincarnation, and +with their haunted Minggah trees and rocks, the Euahlayi have set up a +creed which might possibly develop into the northern faith, or whether +they once held the northern faith, and have almost emerged from it. +Without further information about intermediate tribes and their ideas +on these matters, the question cannot be answered. We are also without +data as to whether the nearly extinct southern coastal tribes evolved +the All Father belief, and transmitted it to the Euahlayi, to some +Queensland tribe, with their Mulkari, and even to the Kaitish, or +whether the faith has been independently developed among the tribes +with no matrimonial classes and the others. Conjecture is at present +useless. + +In one respect a discovery of Mrs. Parker's is unfavourable to my +theories. In THE SECRET OF THE TOTEM have shown that, when the names of +the phratry divisions of the tribes can be interpreted, they prove to +be names of animals, and I have shown how this may have come to be the +case. But among the Euahlayi the phratry names mean 'light blood' and +'dark blood.' This, PRIMA FACIE, seems to favour the theory of the Rev. +Mr. Mathews, in his EAGLE HAWK AND CROW, that two peoples, lighter and +darker, after an age of war, made CONNUBIUM and marriage treaty, whence +came the phratries. The same author might urge, if he pleased, that +Eagle Hawk (about the colour of the peregrine) was chosen to represent +'light,' and Crow to represent 'dark'; while the phratry animals, White +and Black Cockatoo, were selected, elsewhere, to represent the same +contrast. But we need more information as to the meanings of other +phratry names which have defied translation. + +In many other things, as in the account of the YUNBEAI of the Euahlayi, +their mode of removing the tabu on the totem in food, their magic, +their 'multiplex totems,' their methods of hunting, their initiatory +ceremonies, their highly moral lullabies, and the whole of their kindly +life, Mrs. Parker's book appears to deserve a welcome from the few who +care to study the ways of early men, 'the pit whence we were dug.' The +Euahlayi are a sympathetic people, and have found a sympathetic +chronicler. + +A. LANG. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +The following pages are intended as a contribution to the study of the +manners, customs, beliefs, and legends of the Aborigines of Australia. +The area of my observation is mainly limited to the region occupied by +the Euahlayi tribe of north-western New South Wales, who for twenty +years were my neighbours on the Narran River. I have been acquainted +since childhood with the natives, first in southern South Australia; +next on my father's station on the Darling River, where I was saved by +a native girl, when my sisters were drowned while bathing. I was +intimate with the dispositions of the blacks, and was on friendly terms +with them, before I began a regular attempt to inquire into their +folk-lore and customary laws, at my husband's station on the Narran, +due north of the Barwon River, the great affluent of the Murray River. + +My tribe is a neighbour of that mentioned by Mr. Howitt as the +'Wollaroi,' 'Yualloroi,' or 'Yualaroi.' [Howitt, NATIVE TRIBES OF +SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 57, 467, 694, 769.] I spell the tribal name +'Euahlayi'; the accent is on the second syllable--'You-ahl-ayi'; and +the name is derived from the tribal word for the negative: EUAHL, or +YOUAL, 'No,' as in the case of the Kamilaroi (Kamil, 'No'), and many +other tribes. + +Mr. Howitt regards these tribes as on the limits of what he calls the +'Four Sub-Class' system. The people, that is to say, have not only the +division into two 'phratries,' or 'exogamous moieties,' intermarrying, +but also the four 'Matrimonial Classes' further regulating marriage. +These classes bear the Kamilaroi names, of unknown meaning, Ipai, Kumbo, +Murri, and Kubbi; but the names of the two main divisions, or phratries, +are not those of the Kamilaroi--DILBI and KUPATHIN. + +The Euahlayi language, or dialect, is not identical with that of the +great Kamilaroi tribe to their south-east, but is clearly allied with +it, many names of animals being the same in both tongues. A few names +of animals are shared with the Wir djuri speech, as MULLIAN, Eagle +Hawk; Pelican, GOOLAYYAHLEE (Wir djuri, GULAIGULI). The term for the +being called 'The All Father' by Mr. Howitt is also the term used by +the Wir djuri and Kamilaroi, 'Baiame' or 'Byamee.' The Euahlayi, +however, possess myths, beliefs, and usages not recorded as extant +among the Kamilaroi, but rather forming a link with the ideas of +peoples dwelling much further west, such as the tribes, on Lake Eyre, +and the southernmost Arunta of the centre. Thus, there is a limited and +modified shape of the central and northern belief in reincarnation, and +there is a great development of what are called by Mr. Howitt +'sub-totems,' which have been found most in a region of Northern +Victoria, to the south of the Euahlayi. There is a belief in +spirit--haunted trees, as among the Arunta, and there is a form of the +Arunta myth of the 'Dream Time,' the age of pristine evolution. + +The Euahlayi thus present a mixture of ideas and usages which appears +to be somewhat peculiar and deserving of closer study than it has +received. Mr. Howitt himself refers to the tribe very seldom. It will +be asked, 'How far have the Euahlayi been brought under the influence +of missionaries, and of European ideas in general?' + +The nearest missionary settlement was founded after we settled among +the Euahlayi, and was distant about one hundred miles, at Brewarrina. +None of my native informants had been at any time, to my knowledge, +under the influence of missionaries. They all wore shirts, and almost +all of them trousers, on occasion; and all, except the old men, my +chief sources, were employed by white settlers. We conversed in a kind +of LINGUA FRANCA. An informant, say Peter, would try to express himself +in English, when he thought that I was not successful in following him +in his own tongue. With Paddy, who had no English but a curse, I used +two native women, one old, one younger, as interpreters, checking each +other alternately. The younger natives themselves had lost the sense of +some of the native words used by their elders, but the middle-aged +interpreters were usually adequate. Occasionally there were disputes on +linguistic points, when Paddy, a man already grey in 1845, would march +off the scene, and need to be reconciled. They were on very good terms +with me. They would exchange gifts with me: I might receive a carved +weapon, and one of them some tobacco. The giving was not all on my +side, by any means. + +My anthropological reading was scanty, but I was well acquainted with +and believed in Mr. Herbert Spencer's 'Ghost theory' of the origin of +religion in the worship of ancestral spirits. What I learned from the +natives surprised me, and shook my faith in Mr. Spencer's theory, with +which it seemed incompatible. + +In hearing the old blacks tell their legends you notice a great +difference between them as raconteurs--some tell the bare plot or +feature of the legend, others give descriptive touches all through. If +they are strangers to their audience, they get it over as quickly as +possible in a half-contemptuous way, as if saying, 'What do you want to +know such rubbish for?' But if they know you well, and know you really +are interested, then they tell you the stories as they would tell them +to one another, giving them a new life and adding considerably to their +poetical expression. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ALL FATHER, BYAMEE + + +As throughout the chapters on the customary laws, mysteries, and +legends of the Euahlayi, there occur frequent mentions of a superhuman +though anthropomorphic being named Byamee (in Kamilaroi and Wir djuri +'Baiame'), it is necessary to give a preliminary account of the beliefs +entertained concerning him. The name Byamee (usually spelled Baiame) +occurs in Euahlayi, Kamilaroi, and Wir djuri; 'the Wir djuri language +is spoken over a greater extent of territory than any other tongue in +New South Wales.'[R. H. Mathews, J. A. I., vol. xxxiv. p. 284.] The word +occurs in the Rev. Mr. Ridley's GURRE KAMILAROI, an illustrated manual of +Biblical instruction for the education of the Kamilaroi: Mr. Ridley +translated our 'God' by 'Baiame.' He supposed that native term, which he +found and did not introduce, to be a derivative from the verb BAIA, or +BIAI, 'to make.' Literally, however, at least in Euahlayi, the word BYAMEE +means 'great one.' In its sense as the name of the All Father it is not +supposed to be used by women or by the uninitiated. If it is necessary to +speak to them of Byamee, he is called Boyjerh, which means Father, just as +in the Theddora tribe the women speak of Darramulun as PAPANG, 'Father.' +[Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 493.] Among the +Euahlayi both women and the uninitiated use byamee, the adjective for +'great,' in ordinary talk, though the more usual adjective answering to +'great' is BOOROOL, which occurs in Kamilaroi as well as in Euahlayi. The +verb baia or biai, to make or shape, whence Mr. Ridley derived Baiame, is +not known to me in Euahlayi. Wir djuri has BAI, a footmark, and Byamee +left footmarks on the rocks, but that is probably a chance coincidence. + +I was first told of Byamee, in whispers, by a very old native, Yudtha +Dulleebah (Bald Head), said to have been already grey haired when Sir +Thomas Mitchell discovered the Narran in 1846. My informant said that +he was instructed as to Byamee in his first Boorah, or initiation. If +he was early grey, say at thirty, in 1846, that takes his initiation +back to 1830, when, as a matter of fact, we have contemporary evidence +to the belief in Byamee, who is not of missionary importation, though +after 1856 Christian ideas may, through Mr. Ridley's book, have been +attached to his name by educated Kamilaroi. But he was a worshipful +being, revealed in the mysteries, long before missionaries came, as all +my informants aver. + +There has, indeed, been much dispute as to whether the Aborigines of +Australia have any idea, or germ of an idea, of a God; anything more +than vague beliefs about unattached spirits, mainly mischievous, who +might be propitiated or scared away. Mr. Huxley maintained this view, +as did Mr. Herbert Spencer. [ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS, p. 674.] Both of +these authors, who have great influence on popular opinion, omitted to +notice the contradictory statement of Waitz, published in 1872. He +credited the natives, in some regions, with belief in, and dances +performed in honour of, a 'Good Being,' and denied that the belief and +rites were the result of European influence. [Waitz, ANTHROPOLOGIE DER +NATUR--V(tm)LKER, vol. vi. pp. 796-798. Leipzig, 1872.] Mr. Tylor, +admitting to some extent that the belief now exists, attributed it in part +to the influence of missionaries and of white settlers. [Journal, +Anthropological Institute, vol. xxi. p. 292 ET SEQ.] 'Baiame,' he held, +was a word of missionary manufacture, introduced about 1830-1840. This +opinion was controverted by Mr. Lang,[MAGIC AND RELIGION, p. 25 SQ. MYTH, +RITUAL, AND RELIGION, vol. ii. chap. xii., 1899.] and by Mr. N. W. Thomas. +Mr. Thomas [MAN, 1905, No. 28.] has produced the evidence of Henderson, +writing in 1829-1830, for the belief in 'Piame' or Byamee, or +Baiame. [OBSERVATIONS AN THE COLONIES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VAN DIEMAN'S +LAND, p. 147.] + +In 1904 Mr. Howitt gave a great mass of evidence for the belief in what +he calls an 'All Father': in many dialects styled by various names +meaning 'Our Father,' dwelling in or above the sky, and often receiving +the souls of blacks who have been 'good.' These ideas are not derived, +Mr. Howitt holds, from Europeans, or developed out of ancestor-worship, +which does not exist in the tribes. The belief is concealed from women, +but communicated to lads at their initiation. [Howitt, NATIVE TRIBES OF +SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 488-508.] The belief, in favourable +circumstances, might develop, Mr. Howitt thinks, into what he speaks of as +a 'religion,' a 'recognised religion.' Without asking how 'a recognised +religion' is to be defined, I shall merely tell what I have gathered as to +the belief in Byamee among the Euahlayi. + +It may seem strange that I should know anything about a belief +carefully kept from women, but I have even been privileged to hear +'Byamee's Song,' which only the fully initiated may sing; an old black, +as will later appear, did chant this old lay, now no longer understood, +to myself and my husband. Moreover, the women of the Euahlayi have some +knowledge of, and some means of, mystic access to Byamee, though they +call him by another name. + +Byamee, in the first place, is to the Euahlayi what the 'Alcheringa' or +'Dream time' is to the Arunta. Asked for the reason why of anything, +the Arunta answer, 'It was so in the Alcheringa.' Our tribe have a +subsidiary myth corresponding to that of the Alcheringa. There was an +age, in their opinion, when only birds and beasts were on earth; but a +colossal man and two women came from the remote north-east, changed +birds and beasts into men and women, made other folk of clay or stone, +taught them everything, and left laws for their guidance, then +returned whence they came. This is a kind of 'Alcheringa' myth, but +whether this colossal man was Byamee or not, our tribe give, as the +final answer to any question about the origin of customs, 'Because +Byamee say so.' Byamee declared his will, and that was and is enough +for his children. At the Boorah, or initiatory ceremonies, he is +proclaimed as 'Father of All, whose laws the tribes are now obeying.' +Byamee, at least in one myth (told also by the Wir djuri), is the +original source of all totems, and of the law that people of the same +totem may not intermarry, 'however far apart their hunting-grounds.' I +heard first in a legend, then received confirmation from all old +blacks, that Byamee had a totem name for every part of his body, even +to a different one for each finger and toe. And when he was passing on +to fresh fields, he gave each kinship of the tribe he was leaving one +of his totems. The usual version is, that to such as were metamorphosed +from birds and animals he gave as totem the animal or whatever it was +from which they were evolved. But no one dreams of claiming Byamee as a +relation belonging to one clan; he is one apart and yet the father of +all, even as Birrahgnooloo is mother of all and not related to any one +clan; Cunnumbeillee, his other wife, had only one totem. + +Certainly woman is given a high place in their sacred lore. The chief +wife of Byamee, Birrahgnooloo, is claimed as the mother of all, for +she, like him, had a totem for each part of her body; no one totem can +claim her, but all do. + +Mother of all, though mother of none in particular, she was not to be +vulgarised by ordinary domestic relations, For those purposes +Cunnumbeillee was at hand, as a bearer of children and a caterer. Yet +it was Birrahgnooloo whom Byamee best loved and made his companion, +giving her power and position which no other held. She too, like him, +is partially crystallised in the sky-camp, where they are together; the +upper parts of their bodies are as on earth; to her, those who want +floods go, and when willing to grant their requests, she bids +Cunnumbeillee start the flood-ball of flood rolling down the mountains. +Cunnumbeillee, as has been said, had but one totem which her children +derived from her. + +Byamee is the originator of things less archaic and important than +totemism. There is a large stone fish-trap at Brewarrina, on the Barwan +River. It is said to have been made by Byamee and his gigantic sons, +just as later Greece attributed the walls of Tiryns to the Cyclops, or +as Glasgow Cathedral has been explained in legend as the work of the +Picts. Byamee also established the rule that there should be a common +camping-ground for the various tribes, where, during the fishing +festival, peace should be strictly kept, all meeting to enjoy the fish, +and do their share towards preserving the fisheries. + +Byamee still exists. I have been told by an old native, as will be +shown later, that prayers for the souls of the dead used to be +addressed to Byamee at funerals; certainly not a practice derived from +Protestant missionaries. + +Byamee is supposed to listen to the cry of an orphan for rain. Such an +one has but to run out when the clouds are overhead, and, looking at +the sky, call aloud + +'Gullee boorboor. Gullee boorboor.' + +'Water come down. Water come down.' + +Or should it be raining too much, the last possible child of a woman +can stop it by burning Midjeer wood. + +Bootha told me after one rain that she had sent one of her tutelary +spirits to tell Boyjerh--Byamee is called by women and children +Boyjerh--that the country wanted rain. In answer he had taken up a +handful of crystal pebbles and thrown them from the sky down into the +water in a stone basin on the top of the sacred mountain; as the +pebbles fell in, the water splashed up into the clouds above, whence it +descended as the desired rain. + +It is told to me, that at some initiatory rites the oldest medicine +man, or Wirreenun, present addresses a prayer to Byamee, asking him to +give them long life, as they have kept his law. + +The tribesmen do not profess to pray, or to have prayed, to Byamee on +any occasions except at funerals, and at the conclusion of the Boorah. + +As for Byamee's relation to ethics, it will be stated in the chapter on +the tribal ceremonies, while the stories as to the rewards and +punishments of the future life will be given in their place. Baiame's +troubles with a kind of disobedient deputy, Darramulun, will also be +narrated: the myth is current, too, among the Wir djuri tribe. + +Other particulars about Byamee will occur in the course of later +chapters: here I have tried to give a general summary of the native +beliefs. The reader may interpret them in his own fashion, and may +decide as to whether the beliefs do or do not indicate a kind of +'religion,' whether 'a recognised religion' or not. There is +necessarily, of course, an absence of temples and of priests, and I +have found no trace or vestige of sacrifice. What may be said on the +affirmative side as to the religious aspect of the belief, the reader +can supply from the summary of facts. Other potent beings occur in +native myth, as we shall show, but there appears to exist between them +and mankind no relation of affection, reverence, or duty, as in the +case of Byamee. + +Here it seems necessary to advert to a remark of Mr. Howitt's which +appears to be erroneous. He says 'that part of Australia which I have +indicated as the habitat of that belief' (namely, in an All Father),' +is also the area where there has been the advance from group marriage +to individual marriage; from descent in the female line to that in the +male line; where the primitive organisation under the class system has +been more or less replaced by an organisation based on locality; in +fact, where these advances have been made to which I have more than +once drawn attention.'[Howitt, NATIVE TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, +p. 500.] + +Mr. Howitt forgets that he himself attributes the early system of +descent through women, and also the belief in an All Father (Nurelli), +to the Wiimbaio tribe [IBID. p. 489] to the Wotjobaluk tribe,[NATIVE +TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 120, 490.] to the Kamilaroi, to the +Ta-Ta-thi,[IBID. p. 494] while female descent and the belief in Baiame +mark the Euahlayi and Wir djuri. [JOURNAL, ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, +XXV., p. 297.] + +These tribes cover an enormous area of country, and, though they have +not advanced to male kinship, they all possess the belief in an All +Father. That belief does not appear to be in any way associated with +advance in social organisation, for Messrs. Spencer and Gillen cannot +find a trace of it in more than one of the central and northern tribes, +which have male kinship, and a kind of local self-government. On the +other hand, it does occur among southern tribes, like the Kurnai, which +have advanced almost altogether out of totemism. + +In short, we have tribes with female descent, such as the Dieri and +Urabunna, to whom all knowledge of an All Father is denied. We have +many large and important tribes with female descent who certainly +believe in an All Father. We have tribes of the highest social +advancement who are said to show no vestige of the belief, and we have +tribes also socially advanced who hold the belief with great vigour. In +these circumstances, authenticated by Mr. Howitt himself, it is +impossible to accept the theory that belief in an All Father is only +reached in the course of such advance to a higher social organisation +as is made by tribes who reckon descent in the male line. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +RELATIONSHIPS AND TOTEMS + + +Some savants question the intellectual ability of the blacks because +they have not elaborate systems of numeration and notation, which in +their life were quite unneeded. Such as were needed were supplied. They +are often incorporate in one word-noun and qualifying numerical +adjective, as for example-- + +Gundooee A SOLITARY EMU + +Booloowah TWO EMUS + +Oogle oogle FOUR EMUS + +Gayyahnai FIVE OR SIX EMUS + +Gonurrun FOURTEEN OR FIFTEEN EMUS. + +I fancy the brains that could have elaborated their marriage rules were +capable of workaday arithmetic if necessary, and few indeed of us know +our family trees as the blacks know theirs. + +Even the smallest black child who can talk seems full of knowledge as +to all his relations, animate and inanimate, the marriage taboos, and +the rest of their complicated system. + +The first division among this tribe is a blood distinction (I +phratries'):-- + +Gwaigulleeah LIGHT BLOODED + +Gwaimudthen DARK BLOODED. + +This distinction is not confined to the human beings of the tribe, who +must be of one or the other, but there are the Gwaigulleeah and +Gwaimudthen divisions in all things. The first and chief division in +our tribe, as regards customary marriage law, is the partition of all +tribes-folk into these 'phratries,' or 'exogamous moieties.' While in +most Australian tribes the meanings of the names of phratries are lost, +where the meanings are known they are usually names of animals--Eagle, +Hawk, and Crow, White Cockatoo and Black Cockatoo, and so forth. Among +the great Kamilaroi tribe, akin in speech to the Euahlayi, the names of +phratries, DILBI and KUPATHIN, are of unknown significance. The +Euahlayi names, we have seen, are Gwaigulleeah, Light blooded, and +Gwaimudthen, Dark blooded. + +The origin of this division is said to be the fact that the original +ancestors were, on the one side, a red race coming from the west, the +Gwaigulleeah; on the other, a dark race coming from the east. + +A Gwaigulleeah may under no circumstances marry a Gwaigulleeah; he or +she must mate with a Gwaimudthen. This rule has no exception. A child +belongs to the same phratry as its mother. + +The next name of connection is local, based on belonging to one country +or hunting-ground; this name a child takes from its mother wherever it +may happen to be born. Any one who is called a Noongahburrah belongs to +the Noongah-Kurrajong country; Ghurreeburrah to the orchid country; +Mirriehburrah, poligonum country; Bibbilah, Bibbil country, and so on. +This division, not of blood relationship, carries no independent +marriage restriction, but keeps up a feeling equivalent to Scotch, +Irish, or English, and is counted by the blacks as 'relationship,' but +not sufficiently so to bar marriage. + +The next division is the name in common for all daughters, or all sons +of one family of sisters. The daughters take the name from their +maternal grandmother, the sons from their maternal great-uncle. + +Of these divisions, called I Matrimonial Classes, there are four for +each sex, bearing the same names as among the Kamilaroi. The names +are-- + + Masculine Kumbo BROTHER AND SISTER + Feminine, Bootha + + Masculine Murree BROTHER AND SISTER + Feminine, Matha + + Masculine Hippi BROTHER AND SISTER + Feminine, Hippitha + + Masculine Kubbee BROTHER AND SISTER + Feminine, Kubbootha + + +The children of Bootha will be + + Masculine Hippi BROTHER AND SISTER + Feminine, Hippitha + + +The children of Matha will be + + Masculine Kubbee BROTHER AND SISTER + Feminine, Kubbootha + + +The children of Hippatha will be + + Masculine Kumbo BROTHER AND SISTER + Feminine, Bootha + + +The children of Kubbootha will be + + Masculine Murree BROTHER AND SISTER + Feminine, Matha + + +Thus, you see, they take, if girls, their grandmother's and her +sisters' 'class' names in common; if boys, the 'class' name of their +grandmother's brothers. + +Bootha can only marry Murree, + +Matha can only marry Kumbo, + +Hippitha can only marry Kubbee, + +Kubbootha can only marry Hippi. + + +Both men and women are often addressed by these names when spoken to. + +A PROPOS of names, a child is never called at night by the same name as +in the daytime, lest the 'devils' hear it and entice him away. + +Names are made for the newly born according to circumstances; a girl +born under a Dheal tree, for example, was called Dheala. Any incident +happening at the time of birth may gain a child a name, such as a +particular lizard passing. Two of my black maids were called after +lizards in that way: Barahgurree and Bogginbinnia. + +Nimmaylee is a porcupine with the spines coming; such an one having +been brought to the camp just as a girl was born, she became Nimmaylee. + +The mothers, with native politeness, ask you to give their children +English names, but much mote often use in familiar conversation either +the Kumbo Bootha names, or others derived from place of birth, from +some circumstance connected with it, a child's mispronunciation of a +word, some peculiarity noticed in the child, or still more often they +call each other by the name proclaiming the degree of relationship. + +For example, a girl calls the daughters of her mother and of her aunts +alike sisters. + + Boahdee SISTER + Wambaneah FULL BROTHER + Dayadee HALF BROTHER + Gurrooghee UNCLE + Wulgundee UNCLE'S WIFE + Kummean SISTER'S SISTER + Numbardee MOTHER + Numbardee MOTHER'S SISTER + Beealahdee FATHER + Beealahdee MOTHER'S SISTERS' HUSBANDS + Gnahgnahdee GRANDMOTHER ON FATHER'S SIDE + Bargie GRANDMOTHER ON MOTHER'S SIDE + Dadadee GRANDFATHER ON MOTHER'S SIAE + Gurroomi A SON-IN-LAW, OR ONE WHO COULD BE A SON-IN-LAW + Goonooahdee A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, OR ONE WHO COULD BE A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW + Gooleerh HUSBAND OR WIFE, OR ONE WHO MIGHT BE SO. + + +So relationships are always kept in their memories by being daily used +as names. There are other general names, too, such as-- + + Mullayerh A TEMPORARY MATE OR COMPANION + Moothie A FRIEND OF CHILDHOOD IN AFTER LIFE + Doore-oothai A LOVER + Dillahga AN ELDERLY MAN OF THE SAME TOTEM + Tuckandee A YOUNG MAN OF THE SAME TOTEM, RECKONED AS A SORT OF + BROTHER. + + +Another list of names used ordinarily is-- + + Boothan LAST POSSIBLE CHILD OF A WOMAN + Mahmee OLD WOMAN + Beewun MOTHERLESS GIRL + Gowun FATHERLESS GIRL + Yumbui FATHERLESS BOY + Moogul ONLY CHILD. + + +Those of the same totem are reckoned as brothers and sisters, so cannot +intermarry. 'Boyjerh' relations, as those on the father's side are +called, are not so important as on the mother's side, but are still +recognised. + +Now for the great Dhe, or totem system, by some called Mah, but Dhe, is +the more correct. + +Dinewan, or emu, is a totem, and has amongst its multiplex totems' or +'sub-totems'-- + + Goodoo OR CODFISH + Gumbarl SILVER BREAM + Inga CRAYFISH + Boomool SHRIMPS + Gowargay WATER EMU SPIRIT + Moograbah BIG BLACK-AND-WHITE MAGPIE + Booloorl LITTLE NIGHT OWL + Byahmul BLACK SWAN + Eerin A LITTLE NIGHT OWL + Beerwon A BIRD LIKE A SWALLOW + Dulloorah THE MANNA-BRINGING BIRDS + Bunnyal FLIES + Dheal SACRED FIRE + Gidya AN ACACIA + Yaraan AN EUCALYPTUS + Deenyi IRONBARK + Guatha QUANDONG + Goodooroo RIVER BOX + Mirieh POLIGONUM + Yarragerh THE NORTH-EAST WIND + Guie TREE--OWENIA ACIDULA + Niune WILD MELON + Binnamayah BIG SALTBUSH. + + +Bohrah, the kangaroo, is another totem, and is considered somewhat akin +to Dinewan. For example, in a quarrel between, say, the Bohrah totem +and the Beewee, the Dinewan would take the part of the former rather +than the latter. + +Amongst the multiplex totems of Bohrah are-- + + Goolahwilleel TOPKNOT PIGEONS + Boogoodoogadah THE RAIN-BIRD + Gilah FINK-BREASTED PARROT + Quarrian YELLOW AND RED BREASTED GREY PARROT + Buln Buln GREEN PARROT + Gidgerregah SMALL GREEN PARROT + Cocklerina A ROSE AND YELLOW CRESTED WHILE COCKATOO + Youayah FROGS + Guiggahboorool BIGGEST ANT-BEDS + Dunnia WATTLE TREE + Mulga AN ACACIA + Gnoel SANDALWOOD + Brigalow AN ACACIA + Yarragerh NORTH-EAST WIND, SAME AS DINEWAN'S. + + +All clouds, lightning, thunder, and rain that is not blown up by the +wind of another totem, belong to Bohrah. + +Beewee, brown and yellow Iguana, numerically a very powerful totem, has +for multiplex totems-- + + Gai-gai CATFISH + Curreequinquin BUTCHER-BIRD + Gougourgahgah LAUGHING-JACKASS + Deenbi DIVERS + Birroo Birroo SAND BUILDERS + Deegeenboyah SOLDIER-BIRD + Weedah BOWER-BIRD + Mooregoo Mooregoo BLACK IBIS + Booloon WHITE CRANE + Noodulnoodul WHISTLING DUCKS + Goborrai STARS + Gulghureer PINK LIZARD + Goori PINE + Talingerh NATIVE FUCHSIA + Guiebet NATIVE PASSION FRUIT + Boonburr POISON TREE + Gungooday STOCKMAN'S WOOD + Guddeeboondoo BITTER BARK + Boorgoolbean or + Mooloowerh A SHRUB WITH CREAMY BLOSSOMS + Yarragerh SPRING WIND + Muddernwurderh WEST WIND. + + +Those with whom the Beewee shares the winds he counts as relations. It +is the Beewees of the Gwaimudthen, or dark blood, who own Yarragerh +(spring wind); the light-blooded own Mudderwurderh (west wind). + +Another totem is Gouyou, or Bandicoot. The animal has disappeared from +the Narran district, but the totem tribe is still strong, though not so +numerous as either the Beewees or Dinewans. + +Multiplex totems of Gouyou-- + + Wayarnberh TURTLE + Mungghee MUSSELS + Piggiebillah PORCUPINE + Dayahminnah SMALL CARPET SNAKE + Mungun LARGE CARPET SNAKE + Douyouie ANTS + Moondoo WASPS + Murgahmuggui SPIDER + Bayarh GREEN-HEAD ANTS + Mubboo BEEFWOOD + Coolabah EUCALYPTUS, FLOODED BOX + Bingahwingul NEEDLEBUSH + Mayarnah STONES + Gheeger Gheeger COLD WEST WIND + Gibbon YAM + Boondoon KINGFISHER + Durnerh brown PIGEON + Guineeboo REDBREASTS + Munggheewurraywurraymul SEAGULLS + Guiggah ordinary ANT-BEDS. + + +Next we take Doolungaiyah, or Bilber, commonly known as Bilby, a large +species of rat the size of a small rabbit, like which it burrows; +almost died out now. The totem clan are very few here too, so it is +difficult to learn much as to their multiplex totems, amongst which, +however, are-- + + Ooboon BLUE-TONGUED LIZARD + Goomblegubbon PLAINS TURKEY OR BUSTARD + Boothagullagulla BIRD LIKE SEAGULL + Tekel Barain LARGE WHITE AMARYLLIS. + +Douyou, black snake, totem claims-- + + Noongah KURRAJONG--STERCULIA + Carbeen AN EUCALYPTUS + Booroorerh BULRUSHES + Gargooloo YAMS + Yhi THE SUN (FEMININE) + Gunyahmoo THE EAST WIND + Kurreah CROCODILE + Wa-ah SHELLS + Douyougurrah EARTH-WORMS + Deereeree WILLY WAGTAIL + Burrengeen JEEWEE + Bouyoudoorunnillee GREY CRANES + Ouyan CURLEW + Bouyougah CENTIPEDES + Bubburr BIG SNAKE + Woggoon SCRUB TURKEY + Beeargah CRANE + Waggestmul KIND OF RAT + Wi SMALL FISH + Millan SMALL WATER-YAM--SOURTOP + + +Moodai, or opossum, another totem, claims-- + + Bibbil POPULAR-LEAVED GUM + Bumble CAPPARIS MITCHELLIANNI + Birah WHITEWOOD + Beebuyer YELLOW FLOWERING BROOM + Illay HOP BUSH + Mirrie WILD CURRANT BUSH + Mooregoo SWAMP OAK--BELAH + Mungoongarlee LARGEST IGUANA + Mouyi WHITE COCKATOO + Beeleer BLACK COCKATOO + Wungghee WHITE NIGHT OWL + Mooregoo MOPOKE + Narahdarn BAT + Bahloo MOON + Euloowirrie RAINBOW + Bibbee WOODPECKER + Billai CRIMSON WING PARROT + Durrahgeegin GREEN FROG. + + +Maira, a paddy melon, claims as multiplex totems-- + + Wahn THE CROW + Mullyan THE EAGLE-HAWK + Gooboothoo DOVES + Goolayyalilee PELICAN + Oonaywah BLACK DIVER + Gunundar WHILE DIVER + Birriebungar SMALL DIVER + Mounin MOSQUITO + Mouninguggahgui MOSQUITO BIRD + Bullah Bullah BUTTERFLIES + Tucki A KIND OF BREAM + Beewerh BONY BREAM + Gulbarlee SHINGLEBACK LIZARD + Budtha ROSEWOOD + Goodoogah YALLI + Wayarah WILD GRAPES + Garwah RIVERS + Gooroongoodilbaydilbay SOUTH WIND. + + +It is said a Maira will never be drowned, for the rivers are a +sub-totem of theirs; but I notice they nevertheless learn to swim. + +Yubbah, carpet snake, as a kin has almost disappeared, only a few +members remaining to claim + + Mungahran HAWK. + + +Burrahwahn, a big sandhill rat, now extinct here, claims-- + + Mien DINGO + Dalleerin A LIZARD + Gaengaen WILD LIME + Willerhderh, or + Douran Douran NORTH WIND + Bralgah NATIVE COMPANION. + + +Buckandee, native cat kin, claim-- + + Buggila LEOPARD WOOD + Bean MYALL + Bunbundoolooey A LITTLE BROWN BIRD + Dunnee Bunbun A VERY LARGE GREEN PARROT + Dooroongul HAIRY CATERPILLAR. + + +Amongst other totems were once the Bralgah, Native Companion, and +Dibbee, a sort of sandpiper, but their kins are quite extinct as far as +our blacks are concerned; the birds themselves are still plentiful. The +Bralgah birds have a Boorah ground at the back of our old +horse-paddock, a smooth, well-beaten circle, where they dance the +grotesque dances peculiar to them, which are really most amusing to +watch, somewhat like a set of kitchen lancers into which some dignified +dames have got by mistake, and a curious mixture is the dance of +dignity and romping. + +The totem kins numerically strongest with us were the Dinewans, +Beewees, Bohrahs, and Gouyous. Further back in the country, they tell +me, the crow, the eaglehawk, and the bees were original totems, not +multiplex ones, as with us. + +It may be as well for those interested in the marriage law puzzles to +state that Dinewans, Bohrahs, Douyous, and Doolungayers are always + + Kumbo Hippi + Bootha Hippitha. + + +That Moodai, Gouyou, Beewee, Maira, Yubbah are always + + Murree Kubbee + Matha Kubbootha. + +Our blacks may and do eat their hereditary totems, if so desirous, with +no ill effects to themselves, either real or imaginary; their totem +names they take from their mothers. They may, in fact, in any way use +their totems, but never abuse them. A Beewee, for example, may kill, or +see another kill, and eat or use a Beewee, or one of its multiplex +totems, and show no sign of sorrow or anger, but should any one speak +evil of the Beewee, or of any of its multiplex totems, there will be a +quarrel. + +There will likewise be a quarrel if any one dares to mimic a totem, +either by drawing one, except at Boorahs, or imitating it in any way. + +There are members of the tribes, principally wizards, or men intended +to be such, who are given an individual totem called Yunbeai. This they +must never eat or they will die. Any injury to his yunbeai hurts the +man himself In danger he has the power to assume the shape of his +yunbeai, which of course is a great assistance to him, especially in +legendary lore; but, on the other hand, a yunbeai is almost a Heel of +Achilles to a wirreenun (see the chapter on Medicine and Magic). + +Women are given a yunbeai too, sometimes. One girl had a yunbeai given +her as a child, and she was to be brought up as a witch, but she caught +rheumatic fever which left her with St. Vitus's dance. The yunbeai +during one of her bad attacks jumped out of her, and she lost her +chance of witchery. One old fellow told me once that when he was going +to a public-house he took a miniature form of his yunbeai, which was +the Kurrea--crocodile--out of himself and put it safety in a bottle of +water, in case by any chance he got drunk, and an enemy, knowing his +yunbeai, coaxed it away. I wanted to see that yunbeai in a bottle, but +never succeeded. + +The differences between the hereditary totem or Dhe, inherited from the +mother, and the individual totem or yunbeai, acquired by chance, are +these: Food restrictions do not affect the totem, but marriage +restrictions do; the yunbeai has no marriage restrictions; a man having +an opossum for yunbeai may marry a woman having the same either as her +yunbeai or hereditary totem, other things being in order, but under no +circumstances must a yunbeai be eaten by its possessor. + +The yunbeai is a sort of alter ego; a man's spirit is in his yunbeai, +and his yunbeai's spirit in him. + +A Minggah, or spirit-haunted tree of an individual, usually chosen from +amongst a man's multiplex totems, is another source of danger to him, +as also a help. + +As Mr. Canton says: 'What singular threads of superstition bind the +ends of the earth together! In an old German story a pair of lovers +about to part chose each a tree, and by the tree of the absent one was +the one left to know of his wellbeing or the reverse. In time his tree +died, and she, hearing no news of him, pined away, her tree withering +with her, and both dying at the same time. + +Well, that is just what a wirreenun would believe about his Minggah. +These Minggah and Goomarh spirit trees and stones always make me think, +perhaps irrelevantly, of one of the restored sayings of the Lord, which +ends 'Raise the stone, and there thou shalt find Me; cleave the wood, +and I am there.' + +Blacks were early scientists in some of their ideas, being before +Darwin with the evolution theory, only theirs was a kind of evolution +aided by Byamee. I dare say, though, the missing link is somewhere in +the legends. I rather think the Central Australians have the key to it. +One old man here was quite an Ibsen with his ghastly version of +heredity. + +He said, when I asked him what harm it would do for, say, a Beewee +totem man to come from the Gulf country, where his tribe had never had +any communication with ours, and marry a girl here,--that all Beewees +were originally changed from the Beewee form into human shape. The +Beewee of the Gulf, originally, like the Beewee here, had the same +animal shape, and should two of this same blood mate the offspring +would throw back, as they say of horses, to the original strain, and +partake of iguana (Beewee) attributes either in nature or form. + +From the statements just given, it will be seen that the Euahlayi are +in the Kamilaroi stage of social organisation. They reckon descent in +the female line: they have 'phratries' and four matrimonial classes, +with totems within the phratries. In their system of 'multiplex-totems' +or 'sub-totems' they resemble the Wotjobaluk tribe. [Howitt, NATIVE TRIBES +OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 121, 125, 453, 455.] The essence of the +'sub-totem' system is the division of all things into the categories +provided by the social system of the human society. The arrangement is a +very early attempt at a scientific system of classification. + +Perhaps the most peculiar feature in the organisation of the Euahlayi +is the existence of Matrimonial Classes, which are named as in the +Kamilaroi tongue, while the phratry names are not those of the Kamilaroi, +and alone among phratry names in Australia which can be translated, are +not names of animals. The phratries have thus no presiding animals, and in +the phratries there are no totem kins of the phratriac names. The cause of +these peculiarities is matter of conjecture. + +A peculiarity in the totemic system of the Euahlayi--the right of each +individual to kill and eat his own totem--has been mentioned, and may +be associated here with other taboos on food. + +The wunnarl, or food taboo, was taken off a different kind of food for +boys at each Boorah, until at last they could eat what they pleased +except their yunbeai, or individual familiar: their Dhe, or family +totem, was never wunnarl or taboo to them. + +A child may not perhaps know that it has had a yunbeai given to it, and +may eat of it in ignorance, when immediately they say that child +sickens. + +Should a boy or a girl eat plains turkey or bustard eggs while they +were yet wunnarl, or taboo, he or she would lose his or her sight. +Should they eat the eggs or flesh of kangaroo or piggiebillah, their +skins would break out in sores and their limbs wither. + +Even honey is wunnarl at times to all but the very old or very young. +Fish is wunnarl for about four years after his Boorah to a boy, and +about four months after she is wirreebeeun, or young woman, to a girl. + +When the wunnarl was taken off a particular kind of meat, a wizard +poured some of the melted fat and inside blood of that animal or bird, +as the case might be, over the boy, and rubbed it into him. The boy, +shaking and shivering, made a spluttering noise with his lips; after +that he could eat of the hitherto forbidden food. + +This did not necessarily refer to his totem, but any food wunnarl to +him, though it is possible that there may have been a time in tribal +history, now forgotten, when totems were wunnarl, and these ceremonies +may be all that is left to point to that time. + +When a boy, after his first Boorah, killed his first emu, whether it +was his Dhe, or totem, or not, his father made him lie on the bird +before it was cooked. Afterwards a wirreenun (wizard) and the father +rubbed the fat on the boy's joints, and put apiece of the flesh in his +mouth. 'The boy chewed it, making a noise as he did so of fright and +disgust; finally he dropped the meat from his mouth, making a blowing +noise through his lips of 'Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!' After that he could eat the +flesh. + +A girl, too, had to be rubbed with the fat and blood of anything from +which the wunnarl was to be removed for her. No ceremony of this sort +would be gone through with the flesh, fat, or blood of any one's +yunbeai, or individual familiar animal, for under no circumstances +would any one kill or eat their yunbeai. + +Concerning the yunbeai, or animal familiar of the individual, conferred +by the medicine men, more is to be said in the ensuing chapters. The +yunbeai answers to the Manitu obtained by Red Indians during the fast +at puberty; to the 'Bush Soul' of West Africa; to the Nagual of South +American tribes; and to the Nyarong of Borneo. The yunbeai has hitherto +been scarcely remarked on among Australian tribes. Mr. Thomas declares +it to be 'almost non-existent' in Australia, mentioning as exceptions +its presence among the Euahlayi; the Wotjobaluk in Victoria; the +Yaraikkanna of Cape York; and 'probably' some of the northern tribes on +the other side of the Gulf of Carpentaria. [MAN (1904), No. 53, p. 85.] + +Perhaps attention has not been directed to the animal familiar in +Australia, or perhaps it is really an infrequent thing among the +tribes. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE MEDICINE MEN + + +I used to wonder how the wirreenuns or doctor-wizards of the tribe +attained their degrees. + +I found out that the old wizards fix upon a young boy who is to follow +their profession. They take him to a tribal burial-ground at night. +There they tie him down and leave him, after having lit some fires of +fat at short distances round him. + +During the night that boy, if he be shaky in his nerves, has rather a +bad time. + +One doctor of our tribe gave me a recital of his own early experience. + +He said, after the old fellows had gone, a spirit came to him, and +without undoing his fastenings by which he was bound, turned him over, +then went away. Scarcely had the spirit departed when a big star fell +straight from the sky alongside the boy; he gazed fixedly at it, and +saw emerge from it, first the two hind legs, then the whole of a Beewee +or iguana. The boy's totem was a Beewee, so he knew it would not hurt +him. It ran close up to him, climbed on him, ran down his whole length, +then went away. + +Next came a snake straight towards his nose, hissing all the time. He +was frightened now, for the snake is the hereditary enemy of the +iguana. The boy struggled to free himself, but ineffectually. He tried +to call out but found himself dumb. He tried to shut his eyes, or turn +them from the snake, but was powerless to do so. The snake crawled on +to him and licked him. Then it went away, leaving the boy as one +paralysed. Next came a huge figure to him, having in its hand a gunnai +or yam stick. The figure drove this into the boy's head, pulled it out +through his back, and in the hole thus made placed a 'Gubberah,' or +sacred stone, with the help of which much of the boy's magic in the +future was to be worked. + +This stone was about the size and something the shape of a small lemon, +looking like a smoothed lump of semi-transparent crystal. It is in such +stones that the wi-wirreenuns, or cleverest wizards, see visions of the +past, of what is happening in the present at a distance, and of the +future; also by directing rays from them towards their victims they are +said to cause instantaneous death. + +Next, to the doctor-boy on trial, came the spirits of the dead who +corroboreed round him, chanting songs full of sacred lore as regards +the art of healing, and instructions how, when he needed it, he could +call upon their aid. + +Then they silently and mysteriously disappeared. The next day one of +the old wizards came to release the boy; he kept him away from the camp +all day and at night took him to a weedah, or bower-bird's, playground. +There he tied him down again, and there the boy was visited again by +the spirits of the dead, and more lore was imparted to him. + +The reason given for taking him to a weedah's playground is, that +before the weedah was changed into a bird, he was a great wirreenun; +that is why, as a bird, he makes such a collection of pebbles and bones +at his playground. + +The bower-bird's playgrounds are numerous in the bush. They are made of +grass built into a tent-shaped arch open at each end, through which the +weedahs run in and out, and scattered in heaps all around are white +bones and black stones, bits of glass, and sometimes we have found +coins, rings, and brooches. + +The weedahs do not lay their eggs at their playgrounds their nests are +hard to find. A little boy always known as 'Weedah,' died lately, so +probably a new name will have to be found for the bird, or to mention +it will be taboo, at all events before the old people, who never allow +the names of the dead to be mentioned. + +For several nights the medical student was tied down in case he should +be frightened and run away, after that he was left without bonds. He +was kept away from the camp for about two months. But he was not +allowed to become a practitioner until he was some years older: first +he dealt in conjuring, later on he was permitted to show his knowledge +of pharmacy. + +His conjuring cures are divers. + +A burn he cures by sucking lumps of charcoal from it. Obstinate pains +in the chest, the wizard says, must be caused by some enemy having put +a dead person's hair', or bone in it. Looking wisdom personified in +truly professional manner, he sucks at the affected spot, and soon +produces from his mouth hair, bones, or whatever he said was there. + +If this faith-healing does not succeed, a stronger wizard than he must +have bewitched the patient; he will consult the spirits. To that end he +goes to his Minggah, a tree or stone--more often a tree, only the very +greatest wirreenuns have stones, which are called Goomah--where his own +and any spirits friendly towards him may dwell. + +He finds out there who the enemy is, and whence he obtained his poison. +If a wirreenun is too far away to consult his friendly spirits in +person, he can send his Mullee Mullee, or dream spirit, to interview +them. + +He may learn that an enemy has captured the sick person's Doowee, or +dream spirit--only wirreenuns' dream spirits are Mullee Mullee, the +others are Doowee--then he makes it his business to get that Doowee +back. + +These dream spirits are rather troublesome possessions while their +human habitations sleep they can leave them and wander at will. The +things seen in dreams are supposed to be what the Doowees see while +away from the sleeping bodies. This wandering of the Doowees is a great +chance for their enemies: capture the Doowee and the body sickens; +knock the Doowee about before it returns and the body wakes up tired +and languid. Should the Doowee not return at all, the person from whom +it wandered dies. When you wake up unaccountably tired in the morning, +be sure your Doowee has been 'on the spree,' having a free fight or +something of that sort. And though your Doowee may give you at times +lovely visions of passing paradises, on the whole you would be better +without him. + +There is on the Queensland border country a dillee bag full of +unclaimed Doowees. The wirreenun who has charge of this is one of the +most feared of wirreenuns; he is a great magician, who, with his +wonder-working glassy stones, can conjure up visions of the old fleshly +habitations of the captured Doowees. + +He has Gubberahs, or clever stones, in which are the active spirits of +evil-working devils, as well as others to work good. Should a Doowee +once get into this wirreenun's bag, which has the power of +self-movement, there is not a great chance of getting it back, though +it is sometimes said to be done by a rival combination of magic. The +worst of it is that ordinary people have no power over their Doowees; +all they can do is to guard against their escaping by trying to keep +their mouths shut while asleep. + +The wirreenuns are masters of their Mullee Mullees, sending them where +they please, to do what they are ordered, always provided they do not +meet a greater than themselves. + +All sorts of complications arise through the substitution of mad or +evil spirits for the rightful Doowee. Be sure if you think any one has +suddenly changed his character unaccountably, there has been some +hankey-pankey with that person's Doowee. One of the greatest warnings +of coming evil is to see your totem in a dream; such a sign is a herald +of misfortune to you or one of your immediate kin. Should a wirreenun, +perhaps for enmity, perhaps for the sake of ransom, decide to capture a +Doowee, he will send his Mullee Mullee out to do it, bidding the Mullee +Mullee secrete the Doowee in his--the wirreenun's--Minggah, tree or +rock. + +When he is consulted as to the return of the missing Doowee, he will +order the one who has lost it to Sleep, then the Doowee, should the +terms made suit the wirreenun, re-enters the body. Should it not do so, +the Doowee-less one is doomed to die. + +In a wirreenun's Minggah, too, are often secreted shadow spirits stolen +from their owners, who are by their loss dying a lingering death, for +no man can live without Mulloowil, his shadow. Every one has a shadow +spirit which he is very careful not to parade before his enemies, as +any injury to it affects himself. A wirreenun can gradually shrink the +shadow's size, the owner sickens and dies. 'May your shadow never be +less!' + +The shadow of a wirreenun is, like his head, always mahgarl, or taboo; +any one touching either will be made to suffer for such sacrilege. + +A man's Minggah is generally a tree from amongst his multiplex totems,' +as having greater reason to help him, being of the same family. + +In his Minggah a wirreenun will probably keep some Wundah, or white +devil spirits, with which to work evil. There, too, he often keeps his +yunbeai, or animal spirit--that is, his individual totem, not +hereditary one. All wirreenuns have a yunbeai, and sometimes a special +favourite of the wirreenuns is given a yunbeai too--or in the event of +any one being very ill, he is given a yunbeai, and the strength of that +animal goes into the patient, making him strong again, or a dying +wirreenun leaves his yunbeai to some one else. Though this spirit gives +extra strength it likewise gives an extra danger, for any injury to the +animal hurts the man too; thus even wirreenuns are exposed to danger. + +No one, as we have said, must eat the flesh of his yunbeai animal; he +may of his family totem, inherited from his mother, but of his yunbeai +or individual familiar, never. + +A wirreenun can assume the shape of his yunbeai; so if his yunbeai +were, for example, a bird, and the wirreenun were in danger of being +wounded or killed, he would change himself into that bird and fly away. + +A great wirreenun can substitute one yunbeai for another, as was done +when the opossum disappeared from our district, and the wirreenun, +whose yunbeai it was, sickened and lay ill for months. Two very +powerful wirreenuns gave him a new yunbeai, piggiebillah, the +porcupine. His recovery began at once. The porcupine had been one of +his favourite foods; from the time its spirit was put into him as his +yunbeai, he never touched it. + +A wirreenun has the power to conjure up a vision of his particular +yunbeai, which he can make visible to those whom he chooses shall see +it. + +The blacks always told me that a very old man on the Narran, dead some +years ago, would show me his yunbeai if I wished; it was Oolah, the +prickly lizard. + +One day I went to the camp, saw the old man in his usual airy costume, +only assumed as I came in sight, a tailless shirt. One of the gins said +something to him; he growled an answer; she seemed persuading him to do +something. Presently he moved away to a quite clear spot on the other +side of the fire; he muttered something in a sing-song voice, and +suddenly I saw him beating his head as if in accompaniment to his song, +and then--where it came from I can't say--there beside him was a +lizard. That fragment of a shirt was too transparent to have hidden +that lizard; he could not have had it up his sleeve, because his +sleeves were in shreds. It may have been a pet lizard that he charmed +in from the bush by his song, but I did not see it arrive. + +They told me this old man had two yunbeai, the other was a snake. He +often had them in evidence at his camp, and when he died they were seen +beside him; there they remained until he was put into his coffin, then +they disappeared and were never seen again. This man was the greatest +of our local wizards, and I think really the last of the very clever +ones. They say he was an old grey-headed man when Sir Thomas Mitchell +first explored the Narran district in 1845. We always considered him a +centenarian. + +It was through him that I heard some of the best of the old legends, +with an interpreter to make good our respective deficiencies in each +other's language. + +In the lives of blacks, or rather in their deaths, the Gooweera, or +poison sticks or bones, play a great part. + +A Gooweera is a stick about six inches long and half an inch through, +pointed at both ends. This is used for sickening' or killing men. + +A Guddeegooree is a similar stick, but much smaller, about three inches +in length, and is used against women. + +A man wishing to injure another takes one of these sticks, and warms it +at a small fire he has made; he sticks the gooweera in the ground a few +inches from the fire. While it is warming, he chants an incantation, +telling who he wants to kill, why he wants to kill him, how long he +wants the process to last, whether it is to be sudden death or a +lingering sickness. + +The chant over, and the gooweera warmed, he takes it from the fire. +Should he wish to kill his enemy quickly, he binds opossum hair cord +round the stick, only leaving one point exposed; should he only want to +make his enemy ill, he only partially binds the stick. Then he ties a +ligature tightly round his right arm, between the wrist and elbow, and +taking the gooweera, or guddeegooree, according to the sex of his +enemy, he points it at the person he wishes to injure, taking care he +is not seen doing it. + +Suddenly he feels the stick becoming heavier, he knows then it is +drawing the blood from his enemy. The poison is prevented from entering +himself by the ligature he has put round his arm. When the gooweera is +heavy enough he ceases pointing it. + +If he wants to kill the person outright, he goes away, makes a small +hole in the earth, makes a fire beside it. In this hole he puts a few +Dheal leaves--Dheal is the tree sacred to the dead; on top of the +leaves he puts the gooweera, then more leaves this done, he goes away. +The next day he comes back with his hand he hits the earth beside the +buried stick, out jumps the gooweera, his enemy is dead. He takes the +stick, which may be used many times, and goes on his way satisfied. +Should he only wish to inflict a lingering illness on his enemy, he +refrains from burying the gooweera, and in this case it is possible to +save the afflicted person. + +For instance, should any one suspect the man with the gooweera of +having caused the illness, knowing of some grudge he had against the +sick person, the one who suspects will probably intercede for mercy. +The man may deny that he knows anything about it. He may, on the other +hand, confess that he is the agent. If the intercessions prevail, he +produces the gooweera, rubs it all over with iguana fat, and gives the +intercessor what fat is left to rub over the sick person, who, on that +being done, gradually regains his normal condition after having +probably been reduced to a living skeleton from an indescribable +wasting sickness, which I suspect we spell funk. + +The best way to make a gooweera effective is to tie on the end of it +some hair from the victim's head--a lock of hair being, in this country +of upside-downs, a hate token instead of one of love. + +When the lock of hair method is chosen as a means of happy dispatch, +the process is carried out by a professional. + +The hair is taken to the Boogahroo--a bag of hair and gooweeras--which +is kept by one or two powerful wirreenuns in a certain Minggah. The +wirreenun on receiving the hair asks to whom it belongs. Should it +belong to one of a tribe he is favourably disposed towards, he takes +the gooweera or hair, puts it in the bag, but never sings the I death +song' over it, nor does he warm it. + +Should he, however, be indifferent, or ill-disposed towards the +individual or his tribe, he completes the process by going through the +form already given, or rather when there are two wirreenuns at the +Boogahroo, the receiver of the hair gives it to the other one, who +sings the death-song, warms the gooweera, and burns the hair. The +person from whose head the hair on the gooweera came, then by +sympathetic magic, at whatever distance he is, dies a sudden or +lingering death according to the incantation sung over the +poison-stick. Gooweeras need not necessarily be of wood; bone is +sometimes used, and in these latter days even iron. + +Sometimes at a large meeting of the blacks the Boogahroo wirreenuns +bring the bag and produce from it various locks of hair, which the +owners or their relations recognise, claim, and recover. They find out, +from the wirreenun, who put them there; on gaining which knowledge a +tribal feud is declared--a regular vendetta, which lasts from generation +to generation. + +If it be known that a man has stolen a lock of hair, he will be watched +and prevented from reaching the Boogahroo tree, if possible. + +These gooweeras used to be a terrible 'nuisance to us on the station. A +really good working black boy would say he must leave, he was going to +die. On inquiry we would extract the information that some one was +pointing a gooweera at him. + +Then sometimes the whole camp was upset; a strange black fellow had +arrived, and was said to have brought gooweeras. This reaching the +boss's ears, confiscation would result in order to restore peace of +mind in the camp. Before I left the station a gin brought me a gooweera +and told me to keep it; she had stolen it from her husband, who had +threatened to point it at her for talking to another man. + +Some of them, though they still had faith in the power of such charms, +had faith also in me. I used to drive devils out with patent medicines; +my tobacco and patent medicine accounts while collecting folk-lore were +enormous. + +A wirreenun, or, in fact, any one having a yunbeai, has the power to +cure any one suffering an injury from whatever that yunbeai is; as, for +example, a man whose yunbeai is a black snake can cure a man who is +bitten by a black snake, the method being to chant an incantation which +makes the yunbeai enter the stricken body and drive out the poison. +These various incantations are a large part of the wirreenun's +education; not least valuable amongst them is the chant sung over the +tracks of snakes, which renders the bites of those snakes innocuous. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MORE ABOUT THE MEDICINE MEN AND LEECHCRAFT + + +The wirreenuns sometimes hold meetings which they allow +non-professionals to attend. At these the spirits of the dead speak +through the medium of those they liked best on earth, and whose bodies +their spirits now animate. These spirits are known as Yowee, the +equivalent of our soul, which never leave the body of the living, +growing as it grows, and when it dies take judgment for it, and can at +will assume its perishable shape unless reincarnated in another form. +So you see each person has at least three spirits, and some four, as +follows: his Yowee, soul equivalent; his Doowee, a dream spirit; his +Mulloowil, a shadow spirit; and may be his Yunbeai, or animal spirit. + +Sometimes one person is so good a medium as to have the spirits of +almost any one amongst the dead people speak through him or her, in the +whistling spirit voice. + +I think it is very clever of these mediums to have decided that spirits +all have one sort of voice. + +At these meetings there would be great rivalry among the wirreenuns. +The one who could produce the most magical stones would be supposed to +be the most powerful. The strength of the stones in them, whether +swallowed or rubbed in through their heads, adds its strength to +theirs, for these stones are living spirits, as it were, breathing and +growing in their fleshly cases, the owner having the power to produce +them at any time. The manifestation of such power is sometimes, at one +of these trials of magic, a small shower of pebbles as seeming to fall +from the heads and mouths of the rivals, and should by chance any one +steal any of these as they fall, the power of the original possessor +would be lessened. The dying bequeath these stones, their most precious +possessions, to the living wirreenun most nearly related to them. + +The wirreenun's health and power not only depend upon his crystals and +yunbeai, but also on his Minggah; should an accident happen to that, +unless he has another, he will die--in any case, he will sicken. Many of +the legends deal with the magic of these spirit-animated trees. + +They are places of refuge in time of danger; no one save the wirreenun, +whose spirit-tree it was, would dare to touch a refugee at a Minggah; +and should the sanctuary be a Goomarh, or spirit-stone, not even a +wirreenun would dare to interfere, so that it is a perfectly safe +sanctuary from humanly dealt evil. But a refugee at a Minggah or +Goomarh runs a great risk of incurring the wrath of the spirits, for +Minggah are taboo to all but their own wirreenun. + +There was a Minggah, a great gaunt Coolabah, near our river garden. +Some gilahs build in it every year, but nothing would induce the most +avaricious of black bird-collectors to get the young ones from there. + +A wirreenun's boondoorr, or dillee bag, holds a queer collection: +several sizes of gooweeras, of both bone and wood, poison-stones, +bones, gubberahs (sacred stones), perhaps a dillee--the biggest, most +magical stone used for crystal-gazing, the spirit out of which is said +to go to the person of whom you want to hear, wherever he is, to see +what he is doing, and then show you the person in the crystal. A +dinahgurrerhlowah, or moolee, death-dealing stone, which is said to +knock a person insensible, or strike him dead as lightning would by an +instantaneous flash. + +To these are added in this miscellaneous collection medicinal herbs, +nose-bones to put through the cartilage of his nose when going to a +strange camp, so that he will not smell strangers easily. The blacks +say the smell of white people makes them sick; we in our arrogance had +thought it the other way on. + +Swansdown, shells, and woven strands of opossum's hair are valuable, +and guarded as such in the boondoorr, which is sometimes kept for +safety in the wirreenun's Minggah. + +Having dealt with the supernatural part of a wirreenun's training, +which argues cunning in him and credulity in others, I must get to his +more natural remedies. + +Snakebite they cure by sucking the wound and cauterising it with a +firestick. They say they suck out the young snakes which have been +injected into the bitten person. + +For headaches or pains which do not yield to the vegetable medicine, +the wirreenuns tie a piece of opossum's hair string round the sore +place, take one end in their mouths, and pull it round and round until +it draws blood along the cord. For rheumatic pains in the head or in +the small of the back and loins they often bind the places affected +with coils of opossum hair cord, as people do sometimes with red +knitting-silk. + +The blacks have many herbal medicines, infusions of various barks, +which they drink or wash themselves with, as the case may be. + +Various leaves they grind on their dayoorl-stones, rubbing themselves +with the pulp. Steam baths they make of pennyroyal, eucalyptus, pine, +and others. + +The bleeding of wounds they stanch with the down of birds. + +For irritations of the skin they heat dwarf saltbush twigs and put the +hot ends on the irritable parts. + +After setting a broken limb they put grass and bark round it, then bind +it up. + +For swollen eyes they warm the leaves of certain trees and hold them to +the affected parts, or make an infusion of Budtha leaves and bathe the +eyes in it. + +For rheumatic pains a fire is made, Budtha twigs laid on it, a little +water thrown on them; the ashes raked out, a little more water thrown +on, then the patient lies on top, his opossum rug spread over him, and +thus his body is steamed. To induce perspiration, earth or sand is also +often heated and placed in a hollowed-out space; on it the patient +lies, and is covered with more heated earth. + +Pennyroyal infused they consider a great blood purifier they also use a +heap as a pillow if suffering from insomnia. It is hard to believe a +black ever does suffer from insomnia, yet the cure argues the fact. + +Beefwood gum is supposed to strengthen children. It is also used for +reducing swollen joints. A hole is made in the ground, some coals put +in, on them some beefwood leaves, on top of them the gum; over the hole +is put enough bark to cover it with a piece cut out of it the size of +the swollen joint to be steamed, which joint is held over this hole. + +Various fats are also used as cures. Iguana fat for pains in the head +and stiffness anywhere. Porcupine and opossum fats for preserving their +hair, fish fat to gloss their skins, emu fat in cold weather to save +their skins from chapping. + +But what is supposed to strengthen them more than anything, both +mentally and physically, is a small piece of the flesh of a dead +person, or before a body is put in a bark coffin a few incisions were +made in it; when it was coffined it was stood on end, and what drained +from the incisions was caught in small wirrees and drunk by the +mourners. + +I fancy such cannibalism as has been in these tribes was not with a +view to satisfaction of appetite but to the incorporation of additional +strength. Either men or women are allowed to assist in this +particularly nauseating funeral rite, but not the young people. + +Nor must their shadows fall across any one who has partaken of this +rite; should they do so some evil will befall them. + +If the mother of a young child has not enough milk for its sustenance, +she is steamed over 'old man' saltbush, and hot twigs of it laid on her +breasts. To expedite the expulsion of the afterbirth, an old woman +presses the patient round the waist, gives her frequent drinks of cold +water, and sprinkles water over her. As soon as the afterbirth is +removed a steam is prepared. Two logs are laid horizontally, some +stones put in between them, then some fire, on top leaves of +eucalyptus, and water is then sprinkled over them. The patient stands +astride these logs, an opossum rug all over her, until she is well +steamed. After this she is able to walk about as if nothing unusual had +happened. Every night for about a month she has to lie on a steam bed +made of damped eucalyptus leaves. She is not allowed to return to the +general camp for about three months after the birth of her child. + +Though perfectly well, she is considered unclean, and not allowed to +touch anything belonging to any one. Her food is brought to her by some +old woman. Were she to touch the food or food utensils of another they +would be considered unclean and unfit for use. Her camp is gailie--that +is, only for her; and she is goorerwon as soon as her child is born--a +woman unclean and apart. Immediately a' baby is born it is washed in +cold water. + +Ghastly traditions the blacks have of the time when Dunnerh-Dunnerh, +the smallpox, decimated their ancestors. Enemies sent it in the winds, +which hung it on the trees, over the camps, whence it dropped on to its +victims. So terror-stricken were the tribes that, with few exceptions, +they did not stay to bury their dead; and because they did not do so, +flying even from the dying, a curse was laid on them that some day the +plague would return, brought back by the Wundah or white devils; and +the blacks shudder still, though it was generations before them, at the +thought that such a horror may come again. + +Poison-stones are ground up finely and placed in the food of the person +desired to be got rid of. These poison-stones are of two kinds, a +yellowish-looking stone and a black one; they cause a lingering death. +The small bones of the wrist of a dead person are also pounded up and +put into food, in honey or water, as a poison. + +One cure struck me as quaint. The patient may be lying down, when up +will come one of the tribe, most likely a wirreenun with a big piece of +bark. He strikes the ground with this all round the patient, making a +great row; this is to frighten the sickness away. + +What seems to me a somewhat peculiar ceremony is the reception a coming +baby holds before its birth. + +The baby is presumably about to be born. Its grandmother is there +naturally, but the black baby declines to appear at the request of its +grandmother, and, moreover, declines to come if even the voice of its +grandmother is heard; so grannie has to be a silent spectator while +some other woman tempts the baby into the world by descanting on the +glories of it. First, perhaps, she will say: + +'Come now, here's your auntie waiting to see you.' + +'Here's your sister.' + +'Here's your father's sister,' and so on through a whole list. Then she +will say, as the relatives and friends do not seem a draw: + +'Make haste, the bumble fruit is ripe. The guiebet flowers are +blooming. The grass is waving high. The birds are all talking. And it +is a beautiful place, hurry up and see for yourself.' + +But it generally happens that the baby is too cute to be tempted, and +an old woman has to produce what she calls a wi-mouyan--a clever +stick--which she waves over the expectant mother, crooning a charm which +brings forth the baby. + +If any one nurses a patient and the patient dies, the nurse wears an +armlet of opossum's hair called goomil, and a sort of fur boa called +gurroo. + +If blacks go visiting, when they leave they make a smoke fire and smoke +themselves, so that they may not carry home any disease. + +As a rule blacks do not have small feet, but their hands are almost +invariably small and well shaped, having tapering fingers. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OUR WITCH WOMAN + + +Our witch woman was rather a remarkable old person. When she was, I +suppose, considerably over sixty, her favourite granddaughter died. + +Old Bootha was in a terrible state of grief, and chopped herself in a +most merciless manner at the burial, especially about the head. She +would speak to no one, used to spend her time about the grave, round +which she fixed upright posts which she painted white, red, and black. +All round the grave she used to sweep continually. + +More and more she isolated herself, and at last discarded all her +clothes and roamed the bush A LA Eve before the Fall, as she had +probably done as a young girl. + +She dug herself an underground camp, roofed it over, and painted +enormous posts which she erected in front of her 'Muddy wine,' as she +called her camp. She never came near the house, though we had been +great friends before. + +She used to prowl round the outhouses and pick up all sorts of things, +rubbish for the most part, but often good utensils too; all used to be +secreted in the underground camp. She never talked to any one, but used +to mutter continually to herself and her dogs in an unknown tongue +which only her dogs seemed to understand. + +We thought she was quite mad. + +One day, while we were playing tennis, she suddenly, muttering her +strange language and dancing new corroboree steps, clad only in her +black skin, came up. Matah told her to go away, but she only +corroboreed round him and said she wanted to see me. I have the most +morbid horror of lunacy in any form. I was once induced to go over a +lunatic asylum--the horror of it haunts me still. However, I thought it +would never do to show the coward I was, so though I felt as if I had +been scooped out and filled up with ice, I went to her. She danced +round me for a little time, then sidled up to me and said: + +'Wahl you frightened, wahl me hurt you. I only womba--mad--all +yowee--spirits--in me tell me gubbah--good--I lib 'long a youee; bimeby +I come back big feller wirreenun; wahl you frightened? I not hurt you.' + +And after crooning an accompaniment to her steps off she went, a +strange enough figure, dancing and crooning as she went towards her +camp; and not until the spirits gave up possession of her did she come +near the house again. + +One day she gave us a start. We were schooling a new team of four +horses. The off-side leader had only been in once before, and was a +brumby (horse run in from a wild mob). We had to pass Bootha's camp. I +looked about as we neared it but saw nothing of her. Suddenly from the +ground, as it seemed, out dashed the weird old figure, arms full of +things, jabbering away at a great rate. Whiz came a tin plate past the +leaders' heads; the offside horse reared and plunged and took some +holding. Whiz came an old bill; then, one after another, a regular +fusilade of various utensils. + +It did not take us long to get past, but for as long as we could see +the attack was kept up. Coming back we saw nothing of Bootha, and all +the utensils had been picked up. + +I used to tell the other blacks to see that Bootha had plenty of food. +They said she was all right, the spirits were looking after her. +Lunatics, from their point of view, are only persons spirit-possessed. + +Gradually old Bootha, clothed as usual, came back about the place. + +Strange stories came through the house blacks to me of old Bootha. She +was very ill for a long time, then suddenly she recovered; not only +recovered but seemed rejuvenated. We heard of wonderful cures she made; +how she always consulted the spirits about any illness; how there were +said to be spirits in some of her dogs; how she was now a rainmaker +and, in fact, a fully fledged witch. + +I was curious to see some of these wonders, so used to get the old +woman to come up when any one was ill, consult her, and generally make +much of her. There is no doubt she could diagnose a case well enough. +Matah suffered a good deal with a constant pain in one knee, he was +quite lame from it. He showed it to Bootha one day. She sang a song to +her spirits, then said: + +'Too muchee water there; you steam him, put him on hot rag; you drink +plenty cold water, all lite dat go.' + +As it happened a medical man was passing a few days afterwards with an +insurance agent. Matah consulted him. + +'Hum! Yes, yes. Hot fomentations to the place affected, poultices, a +cooling draught. There's a stoppage of fluid at the knee-joint which +must be dispersed.' + +I thought Bootha ought to have been called in consultation. + +A girl I had staying with me was taken suddenly and, to us, +unaccountably ill. She was just able to get out of her room into the +drawing-room, where she would lie back on the cushions of a lounge +looking dreadfully limp and utterly washed out. Hearing of her illness +old Bootha came up. I thought it might amuse Adelaide to see an old +witch; she agreed, so I brought her in. + +Bootha went straight up to the sick girl, expressed a few sympathetic +sentences, then she said she would ask the spirits what had made +Adelaide ill and what would cure her. + +She moved my furniture until she left the centre of the room clear; she +squatted down, and hanging her head began muttering in an +unintelligible dialect. Presently her voice ceased and we heard from +beside her a most peculiar whistling sort of voice, to which she +responded, evidently interrogating. Again the whistling voice from +further away. Bootha then told me she had asked a dead black fellow, +Big Joe, to tell her what she wanted to know; but he could not, so now +she was going to ask her dead granddaughter. Again she said a sort of +incantation, and again, after a while, came the whistling voice +reply--this time from another direction, not quite so loud. The same +sort of thing was gone through with the same result. + +Then Bootha said she would ask Guadgee, a black girl who had been one +of my first favourites in the camp, and who had died a few years +previously. + +The whistling voice came from a third direction, though all the time I +could see Bootha's lips moving. + +Guadgee answered all she was asked. She said Adelaide was made ill +because she had offended the spirits by bathing in the creek under the +shade of a Minggah, or spirit-tree, a place tabooed to all but +wirreenuns, or such as hold communion with spirits. + +Of course, according to the blacks, to disturb a shadow is to hurt the +original. + +In this Minggah, Guadgee said, were swarms of bees invisible to all +but wirreenuns, and they are ready always to resent any insult to the +Minggah or its shadow. These spirit-bees had entered Adelaide and +secreted some wax on her liver; their bites, Guadgee said, were on her +back. + +Well, that can't be it, I said, I for you never did bathe in the shade +of a Minggah; for, going as you always do with the house-girls, you are +bound to be kept from such sacrilege; they would never dare such +desecration.' + +'Which is their Minggah? Is it a big Coolabah between the Bend and the +garden?' + +'Yes.' + +'Then I did bathe there the last time I went down. I was up too late to +go with the Black-but-Comelys, and as the sun was hot I went further +round the point and bathed in the shade. And the bee-bites must be +those horribly irritating pimples I have across my back.' + +The cause of illness settled to her satisfaction, Bootha asked how to +cure it. The patient was to drink nothing hot nor heating but as much +cold water as she liked, especially a long drink before going to bed. +Guadgee said she would come in the night when the patient was asleep +and take the wax from her liver; she would sleep well and wake better +in the morning. + +Bootha got up then, came over to the patient, took her hand, rubbed it +round the wrist several times, muttering an incantation; then saying +she would see her again next day, off she went, taking, she told us, +all the spirits away inside her, whence at desire they could be +returned to such Minggah in their own Noorunbah, or hereditary +hunting-grounds, as wirreenuns had placed them in, or to roam at their +pleasure when not required by those in authority over spirits. Our old +spiritualist denies us freedom even in the after-life she promises us. + +Adelaide slept that night, looked a better colour the next morning, and +rapidly recovered. + +We think old Bootha must be a good physician and a ventriloquist, only +I believe it is said ventriloquists cannot live long, and Bootha is now +over eighty. + +Others besides wirreenuns see spirits sometimes, but rarely, though +wirreenuns are said to have the power to conjure them up in a form +visible to ordinary eyes. + +Babies are said to see spirits when they are smiling or crowing as if +to themselves; it's to some spirit visible to them but to no one else. + +When a baby opens his hands and shuts them again quickly, smiling all +the while, that baby is with the spirits catching crabs! + +Dogs see spirits; when they bark and howl suddenly and you see nothing +about, it is because they have seen a spirit. + +One person may embody many spirits, but such an one must be careful not +to drink anything hot or heating, such would drive out the spirits at +once. The spirits would never enter a person defiled by the white man's +'grog.' + +Old Bootha had an interview with a very powerful spirit after she was +ill, who told her that the spirit of her father was now in Bahloo, the +moon; and that it was this spirit which had cured her, and if she kept +his commands she would live for ever. The commands were never to drink +'grog,' never to wear red, never to eat fish. This was told her fifteen +years ago, never once has she transgressed; her vigour for an old woman +considerably over eighty is marvellous. + +She was going away for a trip. Before going she said, as she would not +be able to know when I wanted rain for my garden, she would put two +posts in it which had in them the spirits of Kurreahs, or crocodiles. +As these spirits required water I might be certain my tanks would never +go dry while they were on guard. She asked one of my Black-but-Comelys, +a very stalwart young woman, to help her lift one of these posts into +the garden where she wanted to erect it. The girl took hold of one end, +but in a little while dropped it, said it was too heavy. Old Bootha got +furious. + +'I get the spirits to help me,' she said, and started a little +sing-song, then shouldered the post herself and carried it in. These +posts are painted red, black, and white, with a snaky pattern, the +Kurreah sign, on them. She also planted in my garden two other +witch-poles, one painted red and having a cross-bar about midway down +it from which raddled strings were attached to the top; this was to +keep away the Euloowayi, black fellows possessed of devils, who came +from behind the sunset. + +The other was a plain red-painted, tapering pine-pole which she said, +when it fell to the ground, would tell of the death of some one related +to an inmate of the house. Should it lean towards the house it foretold +misfortune; or if she were any time away, when she was returning she +would send her Mullee Mullee to sit on the top and bend it just to let +us know. This pole would also keep away the spirits of the dead from +the house during her absence. While she was away there would be no one +to come and clear the place of evil by smoking the Budtha twigs all +round it, as she always did if I were alone and, she thought, in need +of protection. + +Old Bootha has what she calls a wi-mouyan, clever-stick. It is about +six feet long, great lumps of beefwood gum making knobs on it at +intervals; between each knob it is painted. Armed with this stick, a +piece of crystal, some green twigs, and sometimes a stick with a bunch +of feathers on top, and a large flat stone, she goes out to make rain. +The crystal and stone she puts under the water in the creek, the +feathered stick she erects on the edge of the water, then goes in and +splashes about with green twigs, singing all the time. + +After a while she gets out and parades the bank with the wi-mouyan, +singing a rain-song which charms some of the water out of the creek +into the clouds, whence it falls where she directs it. Once my garden +of roses looked very wilted. I asked Bootha to make rain, but just then +she was very offended with Matah. One of her dogs had been poisoned, +she would make no rain on his country. However, at last she said she +would make some for me. I bound her down to a certain day. The day +came; a heavy storm fell just over my garden, filling the ground tank, +which was almost empty. About two inches fell. Within half a mile of +each side of the garden the dust was barely laid. + +Old Bootha's luck stuck to her that time, and I had to give her a new +dress and some 'bacca.' But during the last drought she failed +signally. Her excuse for failing was that a great wirreenun up the +creek was so angry with the white people who were driving away all emu, +kangaroo, and opossums, the black fellow's food, and yet made a fuss if +their dogs killed a sheep for them sometimes, that he put his +rain-stone in a fire, and while he did that no rain would fall. He said +if all the sheep died the white fellows would go away again, and then, +as long ago, the black fellows' country would have plenty of emu and +kangaroo. + +We saw a curious coincidence in connection with one of Bootha's +witch-poles in my garden, the pole whose falling foretold death of some +relative of some one in the house. + +One afternoon there had been drizzling rain and a grey mist +overshadowing things. Matah went out to look at the chances of a +continuance of rain, the usual drought being on. He called to me to +come and see a curious sky. Looking towards the west I saw a golden +ball of a sun piercing the grey clouds which seemed like a spangled +veil over its face; shooting from the sun was a perfect halo of golden +light, from which three shafts spread into roadways up past the grey +clouds into the vault of heaven. The effect was very striking indeed, +against the grey clouds shaded from silver to almost black. + +As we stood waiting for the sun to sink and the afterglow to paint +these clouds, as it did, from shrimp pink and heliotrope to vivid +crimson, we saw Bootha's pole fall. The air was quite still. + +'The damp has loosened its setting,' said Matah, 'but we had better +leave it alone and let the old girl fix it up again herself; it may be +taboo to ordinary mortals like us.' + +We left it. + +That evening a messenger arrived from the sheep station to say my +cook's mother had died just before sunset. The camp were firm believers +in Bootha's witch-stick after that. + +It was just as well we did not touch that stick; had we done so, Bootha +says we should have broken out in sores all over our bodies. + +They say that long ago the wirreenuns always used to have a sort of +totem wizard-stick guarding the front of their camps. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BIRTH--BETROTHAL--AN ABORIGINAL GIRL FROM INFANCY TO WOMANHOOD + + +To begin at the beginning, Bahloo, the moon, is a sort of patron of +women. He it is who creates the girl babies, assisted by Wahn, the +crow, sometimes. + +Should Wahn attempt the business on his own account the result is +direful; women of his creating are always noisy and quarrelsome. + +Bahloo's favourite spot for carrying on the girl manufacturing is +somewhere on the Culgoa. On one of the creeks there is to be seen, when +it is dry, a hole in the ground. As water runs along, the bed of this +creek, gradually a stone rises from this hole. As the water rises it +rises, always keeping its top out of the water. + +This is the Goomarh, or spirit-stone, of Bahloo. No one would dare to +touch this stone where the baby girls' spirits are launched into space. + +In the same neighbourhood is a clear water-hole, the rendezvous of the +snakes of Bahloo. Should a man go to drink there he sees no snakes, but +no sooner has he drunk some of the water than he sees hundreds; so even +water-drinkers see their snakes. + +The name of the hole is Dahn. + +Spirit-babies are usually despatched to Waddahgudjaelwon and sent by +her to hang promiscuously on trees, until some woman passes under where +they are, then they will seize a mother and be incarnated. This +resembles the Arunta belief, but with the Euahlayi the spirits are new +freshly created beings, not reincarnations of ancestral souls, as among +the Arunta. To live, a child must have an earthly father; that it has +not, is known by its being born with teeth. + +Wurrawilberoo is said to snatch up a baby spirit sometimes and whirl +along towards some woman he wishes to discredit, and through the medium +of this woman he incarnates perhaps twins, or at least one baby. No +doubt were it not for signs of teeth in a spirit-baby of immaculate +conception, many a camp scandal would be conveniently nipped in the +bud. + +Babies are sometimes sent directly to their mothers without the +Coolabah-tree or whirlwind medium. + +The bronze mistletoe branches with their orange-red flowers are said to +be the disappointed babies whose wailing in vain for mothers has +wearied the spirits who transform them into these bunches, the red +flowers being formed from their baby blood. The spirits of babies and +children who die young are reincarnated, and should their first mother +have pleased them they choose her again and are called millanboo--the +same again. + +They can instead, if they like, choose some other woman they know, +which seems very accommodating in those presiding over the +reincarnation department. + +Sometimes two baby spirits will hang on one branch and incarnate +themselves in the same woman, who as result is the mother of twins, and +the object of much opprobrium in the camp. In fact, in the old days, +one of the twins would have been killed. + +One of my Black-but-Comelys said, on hearing that a woman had twins: + +'If it had been me I would have put my fingers round the throat of one +of them and killed it.' The woman who made this speech I had always +looked upon as the gentlest and kindliest of creatures. + +The father of the twins has treated his wife with the utmost contempt +since their birth, and declines to acknowledge more than one of the +babies. + +They say the first-born of twins is always born grinning with his +tongue out, as if to say, 'There's another to come yet; nice sort of +mother I have.' + +No wonder the women cover themselves under a blanket when they see a +whirlwind coming, and avoid drooping Coolabah trees, believing that +either may make them objects of scorn as the mother of twins. + +When a baby is born, some old woman takes the Coolabah leaf out of its +mouth. Such a leaf is said always to be found there if the baby was +incarnated from a Coolabah tree; should this leaf not be removed it +will carry the baby back to spirit-land. As soon as the leaf is taken +away the baby is bathed in cold water. Hot gum leaves are pressed on +the bridge of its nose to ensure its flatness; the more bridgeless the +nose the greater the beauty. + +When a baby clutches hold of anything as if to give it to some one, the +bargie--grandmother--or some elderly woman takes what the baby offers, +and makes a muffled clicking sort of noise with her tongue rolled over +against the roof of her mouth, then croons the charm which is to make +the child a free giver: so is generosity inculcated in extreme youth. I +have often heard the grannies croon over the babies: + + Oonahgnai Birrablee, + Oonahgnoo Birrahlee, + Oonahgnoo Birrahlee, + Oonabmillangoo Birrahlee, + Gunnoognoo oonah Birrahlee. + +Which translated is: + + 'Give to me, Baby, + Give to her, Baby, + Give to him, Baby, + Give to one, Baby, + Give to all, Baby.' + +As babies are all under the patronage of the moon, the mothers are very +careful every new moon to make a white cross-like mark on the babies' +foreheads, and white dabs on cheeks and chins. + +And very careful are the mothers not to look at the full moon, nor let +their babies do so; an attack of thrush would be the result. + +Bahloo, too, has a spiteful way of punishing a woman who has the +temerity to stare at him, by sending her the dreaded twins. + +If babies do not sleep well their mothers get the red powdered stuff +like pine pollen, from the joints of the Bingahwingul, or needlebush +tree, and rub it on the babies' skulls and foreheads. + +If the babies cry too much their mothers say evil spirits are in them, +and must be smoked out. They make a smoke fire of Budtha twigs and hold +the baby in the thick of the smoke. I have seen the mother of a fretful +child of three or four years even, apply the smoke anodyne. + +Whenever the mother of a young child woke in the night, if well up in +her mother duties, she was supposed to warm her hands, and rub her +baby's joints so that the child might grow lissome and a good shape, +and she always saw that her baby's mouth was shut when the child was +asleep lest an evilly disposed person should slip in a disease or +evil-working spirit. For the same reason they will not let a baby lie +on its back unless they cover its head. + +If a gilah flies over the camp crying out as it passes, it is a sure +sign of 'debbil debbil'; the child, to escape evil consequences, must +be turned on to its left side. + +If a gooloo, or magpie, did the same, the child had to be laid flat on +her moobil--stomach: for the passing of a cawing crow, a child had to +be laid on the right side. + +As these birds are not night birds, it is evident that they are evil +spirits abroad in bird form, hence the precautions. As soon as a baby +begins to crawl, the mother finds a centipede, half cooks it, takes it +from the fire, and catching hold of her child's hands beats them with +it, crooning as she does so: + + 'Gheerlayi ghilayer, + Wahl munnoomerhdayer, + Wahl mooroonbahgoo, + Yelgayerdayer deermuldayer, + Gheerlayi ghilayer.' + +Which means: + + 'Kind be, + Do not steal, + Do not touch what to another belongs, + Leave all such alone, + Kind be.' + +The accompaniment being a muffled click of a rolled-up tongue against +the roof of a mouth. + +No child must touch the big feathers of a goomblegubbon, or bustard's +wings, nor any of its bones. At the age of about four, the mother takes +one of these wings and beats the child all over the shoulders and under +the arms with it. Again making the clicking noise, she croons: + + 'Goobean gillaygoo, + Oogowahdee goobolaygoo, + Wahl goonundoo, + Ghurranbul daygoo.' + +Which charm means: + + 'A swimmer be, + Flood to swim against, + No water, + Strong to stop you.' + And so was a child made a good swimmer. + +The wirreenuns would see that the septum of a child's nose was pierced +at the right time, and their tribal marks cut on them. The nose was +pierced at midwinter when ice was about, with which to numb the place +to be pierced; ice was held to the septum, then prod through it went a +bone needle. + +An old gin who worked about the station had a pierced nose, and often +wore a mouyerh, or bone, through it. A white laundress wore earrings. +She said one day to the old gin: + +'Why you have hole made in your nose and put that bone there? No good +that. White women don't do that.' + +The black woman looked the laundress up and down, and finally anchored +her eyes on the earrings. + +'Why you make hole in your ears? No good that. Black gin no do that, +pull 'em down your ears like dogs. Plenty good bone in your nose make +you sing good. Sposin' cuggil--bad--smell you put bone longa nose no +smell 'im. Plenty good make hole longa nose, no good make hole longa +ears, make 'em hang down all same dogs.' And off she went laughing, and +pulling down the lobes of her ears, began to imitate the barking of a +dog. + +There is often a baby betrothal called Bahnmul. + +For some reason or another it has been decided that a baby girl is to +be given to a man, perhaps because he has been kind to her mother, +perhaps she is owed to his kin by her own; any way the granny of the +baby girl puts feathers, white swansdown, on the baby's head, and takes +her over to the man when she is about a month old. Granny says to the +baby: + +'Look at him, and remember him, because you are promised to him.' + +Then she takes some feathers off the baby's head and puts them on to +his; that makes it a formal betrothal, binding to both sides. + +I have heard great camp rows because girls made a struggle for +independence, having found out they had only been promised, not +formally betrothed, to some old chap whom they did not wish to marry. +Perhaps the old fellow will already have a wife or so, a man can have +as many as he pleases. I have heard of one with three; I have known +some with two; but the generality of them seem content with one. + +Should a young girl marry a man with an old wife, the old wife rules +her to any extent, not even letting her have a say about her own +children, and no duenna could be stricter. Should the young wife in the +absence of her husband speak to a young man, she will probably get a +scolding from the old wife and a 'real hiding' from the old man, to +whom the old wife will report her conduct. Quite young men often marry +quite old women; a reason sometimes given is that these young men were +on earth before and loved these same women, but died before their +initiation, so could not marry until now in their reincarnation. + +Certainly, amongst the blacks, age is no disqualification for a woman; +she never seems to be too old to marry, and certainly with age gains +power. + +At whatever age a girl may be betrothed to a man he never claims her +while she is yet Mullerhgun, or child girl; not until she is +Wirreebeeun, or woman girl. + +A girl's initiation into womanhood is as follows. Her granny probably, +or some old woman relation, takes her from the big camp into the scrub +where they make a bough shade. As soon as this is made, the old woman +sets fire to a thick heap of Budtha leaves and makes the girl swallow +the smoke. She then bids her lie down in a scooped-out hollow she has +made in the earth, saying to her, 'You are to be made a young woman +now. No more must you run about as you please. Here must you stay with +me, doing as I say. Then in two moons' time you shall go and claim your +husband, to do for ever what he bids you. You must not sleep as you lie +there in the day time, nor must you go to sleep at night until those in +the camp are at rest. I will put food ready for you. Honey you must not +eat again for four moons. At first streak of day you must get up, and +eat the food I have placed for you. Then when you hear a bird note you +must shake yourself all over, and make a noise like this.' + +And the old woman makes a ringing noise with her lips. + +'That you must do every time you hear a fresh bird note; so too when +you hear the people in the camp begin to talk, or even if you hear them +laugh or sneeze. If you do not, then grey will your hair be while you +are yet a young woman, dull will your eyes be, and limp your body.' + +Girls have told me that they got very tired of being away with only the +old woman for so long, and were glad enough when she told them they +were to move to a new camp, nearer to the big one, which the women had +prepared for them. + +When they reached this the old woman rubbed off the mud with which she +had plastered the girl's limbs when first they went away to camp, and +which she had renewed from time to time. When this was all off she +painted the girl in different designs with red ochre and white gypsum, +principally in spots. She put on her head a gnooloogail, or forehead +band, made of Kurrajong fibre, plaited and tied with some Kurrajong +string, from over the cars to the back of the head; in this band, which +she had painted white, she stuck sprays of white flowers. Sweetly +scented Budtha and clustering Birah were the flowers most used for this +ceremony. Should neither of these be in bloom, then sprays of Collarene +or Coolibah blossom were used. When the flowers were placed in the band +the old woman scattered a handful of white swansdown over the girl's +head. Next she tied round her a girdle of opossum's sinews with strands +of woven opossum's hair hanging about a foot square in front. Round her +arms she bound goomils--opossum hair armlets--into which she placed +more sprays of flowers, matching those in the girl's hair. + +To show that the occasion was a sacred one a sprig of Dheal tree was +placed through the hole in the septum of the nose. The toilet of a +wirreebeeun was now complete. + +The old woman gave her a bunch of smoking Budtha leaves to carry, and +told her what to do. Note here the origin of bridal bouquets. + +Having received her instructions, the girl, holding the smoking twigs, +went towards the big camp. + +When the women there saw her coming they began to sing a song in, to +her, a strange language. + +On a log, with his back towards her--for he must not yet look on her +face--sat the man to whom she was betrothed. The girl went up to him. +As the women chanted louder she threw the smoking Budtha twigs away, +placed a hand on each of his shoulders and shook him. Then she turned +and ran back to her new camp, the women singing and pelting her with +dry twigs and small sticks as she went. For another moon she stayed +with her granny in this camp, then the women made her another one +nearer. + +In a few weeks they made her one on the outskirts of the main camp. +Here she stayed until they made her another in the camp, but a little +apart. In front of the opening of this dardurr they made a fire. That +night her betrothed camped on one side of this fire and she on the +other. For a moon they camped so. Then the old granny told the girl she +must camp on the same side of the fire as her betrothed, and as long as +she lived be his faithful and obedient wife, having no thought of other +men. Should he ill-treat her, her relations had the power to take her +from him. Or should he for some reason, after a while, not care for +her, he can send her back to her people; should she have a child he +leaves it with her until old enough to camp away from her, when it is +returned to him. + +The wedding presents are not given to the bride and bridegroom, but by +the latter to his mother-in-law, to whom, however, he is never allowed +to speak. Failing a mother-in-law, the presents are given to the +nearest of kin to the wife. You can hardly reckon it as purchase money, +for sometimes a man gives no presents and yet gets a wife. + +In books about blacks, you always read of the subjection of the women, +but I have seen henpecked black husbands. + +There are two codes of morals, one for men and one for women. Old +Testament morality for men, New Testament for women. The black men keep +the inner mysteries of the Boorah, or initiation ceremonies, from the +knowledge of women, but so do Masons keep their secrets. + +As to the black women carrying most of the baggage on march, naturally +so; the men want their hands free for hunting en route, or to be in +readiness for enemies in a strange country. + +Black women think a great deal of the Moonaibaraban, or as they more +often call them, Kumbuy, or sister-in-law. These are spirit-women who +come a few days after the Boorah to bring presents to the women +relations of the boys who have been initiated. The Kumbuy are never +seen, but their voices are heard--voices like dogs barking; on hearing +which the women in the camp have to answer, calling out: + +'Are you my Kumbuy?' + +An answer comes like a muffled bark, 'Bah! bah bah!' + +Then the old men--crafty old men--go out to where the 'bahing' comes +from, and bring in the gifts, which take the form of food, yams, honey, +fruit principally. + +These Kumbuy are among the few beneficent spirits they never hurt any +one, simply supply the bereaved women with comfort in the shape of +food, for the temporary loss of their male relatives. Should an +uninitiate have a wife, which of course is improper, the Kumbuy decline +to recognise her; and should she presume to answer their spirit back, +they make in token of displeasure a thudding noise as if earth were +being violently banged with a yam stick. She has encroached on the +Kumbuy preserves, for prior to his initiation a man should only have a +spirit wife, never an incarnate one. + +If you ask a black woman why the Kumbuy thud the earth in answer to an +initiate's wife, she will say: + +'Dat one jealous.' jealousy even in the spirit world of women! + +Unchaste women were punished terribly. After we went west even the +death penalty for wantonness was enforced, though at the time we did +not know it. + +Should a girl be found guilty of a frailty, it being her first fault, +her brothers and nearest male relations made a ring round her, after +having bound her hands and feet, and toss her one from the other until +she is in a dazed condition and almost frightened to death. + +The punishment over, she is unbound and given to her betrothed, or a +husband chosen for her. + +Should a woman have been discovered to be an absolute wanton, men from +any of the clans make a ring round her, she being bound, and tossed +from one to the other, and when exhausted is unbound and left by her +relations to the men to do as they please to her--the almost inevitable +result is death. With this terror before them, it is possible the old +blacks are right who say that their women were very different in their +domestic relations in olden times. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE TRAINING OF A BOY UP TO BOORAH PRELIMINARIES + + +At the boy manufactory, Boomayahmayahmul, the wood lizard, was the +principal worker, though Bahloo from time to time gave him assistance. + +The little blacks throw their mythical origin at each other tauntingly. +A little black girl, when offended with a boy friend, says: + +'Ooh, a lizard made you.' + +'Wah! wah! a crow made you,' he retorts. + +Up to a certain age boys are trained as are girls--charms sung over +them to make them generous, honest, good swimmers, and the rest; but +after that they are taken into the Weedegah, or bachelors' camp, and +developed on manly lines. + +When he is about seven years old, his mother will paint her son up +every day for about a week with red and white colourings. After that he +would go to the Weedegah Gahreemai, bachelors' camp. He would then be +allowed to go hunting with boys and men. He would see, now when he was +out with the men, how fire was made in the olden time, almost a lost +art now when wax matches are plentiful. + +No boy who had not been to a Boorah would dare to try to make fire. + +The implements for fire-making are a little log about as thick as a +man's arm, of Nummaybirah wood--a rather soft white wood--and a split +flat piece about a foot long and three inches wide. The little log was +split open at one end, a wedge put in it, and the opening filled up +with dry grass broken up. This log was laid on the ground and firmly +held there; the fire-maker squatted in front, and with the flat piece +rubbed edgeways across the opening in the log. The sawdust fell quickly +into the opening. After about a minute and a half's rubbing a smoke +started out. After rubbing on a little longer the fire-maker took a +handful of dry grass, emptied the smoking sawdust and dry grass into +it, waved it about, and in three and a half minutes from starting the +process I have seen a blaze. Sometimes it has taken longer, but just +under five minutes is the longest time I have ever seen it take. + +They use pine too, I believe, but whenever I timed them it was +Nummaybirah they were using. + +The boys pick up the woodcraft of the tribes when they begin going out +with the men. As the boys began to grow up, when a good season came +round, and game and grass were plentiful, the old men were seen to draw +apart often and talk earnestly. + +At length there came a night when was heard a whizzing, whirling boom +far in the scrub. As the first echo of it reached the camp, the women, +such as were still young enough to bear children, stopped their ears, +for should any such hear the Gurraymi, the women's name for the +Gayandi, or Boorah spirit's voice, that spirit will first make them +mad, then kill them. + +The old women began to sing a Boorah song. To deaden the sound of the +dreaded voice, opossum rugs were thrown over the children, none of whom +must hear, unless they are boys old enough to be initiated; the sound +reveals the fact to such that the hour of their initiation is at hand. + +The men all gathered together with the boys, except two old wirreenuns, +who earlier in the evening have seemingly quarrelled and gone away into +the scrub. + +The men and boys in camp march up and down to some distance from the +camp. The old women keep on singing, and one man with a spear painted +red with a waywah fastened on top, walks up and down in the middle of +the crowd of men, holding the spear, with its emblematic belt of +manhood, aloft; as he does so, calling out the names of the bends of +the creek, beginning with the one nearest to which they are camped. +When he gets to the end of the names along that creek and comes to the +name of a big river, all the men join him in giving a loud crow like + +'Wah! wah! wah!' + +Then he begins with the names along the next creek across the big +river, and so on; at the mention of each main stream the crowd again +join in the cry of + +'Wah! wah! wah!' + +All the while, closer and still closer, comes the sound of the Gayandi, +as the men call the Gurraymi, or bull roarer. + +At length the two old wirreenuns come back to the camp and the noise +ceases, to recur sometimes during the night, when I expect, did any one +search for them, the old wirreenuns would be found missing from the +camp. + +After the first whirling of the bull roarers and calling of the creek +names, the Gooyeanawannah, or messengers, prepare for a journey, and +when ready, the wirreenuns start them off in various directions to +summon neighbouring tribes from hundreds of miles round to attend the +Boorah. The messengers each carry a spear with a waywah (or belt of +manhood) on the top, seeing which no tribe, even at enmity with the +messenger, will molest him. When a messenger arrived at a strange camp, +he was not asked his business but left to choose his own time for +telling. He would squat down a little way from the strangers' camp, +food would probably be brought to him which he would cat. + +He would find out who was the chief wirreenun of the tribe, then take +him apart, give to him his Boorah message-stick as guarantee of his +good faith, and tell him where and when the Boorah was to be held. +After having given all necessary information, the Gooyeanawannah would +return to his tribe; the wirreenun to whom he had given the +Doolooboorah, or message-stick, would send it on by the messenger of +his tribe, and so with others, until all were summoned, each tribe +letting it be known that a Boorah summons had been received by sounding +the Gayandi, which would carry its own tale to those in the camp. + +Should young boys be chosen as messengers, they were held in high +honour; Woormerh they were called. + +While the messengers were away, the old men of the tribe in whose +Noorumbah, or hereditary hunting lands, the Boorah was to be held, +prepared the sacred grounds. + +They cleared a big circle, round which they put a bank of earth, and +from the circle was cleared a path leading to a thick scrub; along this +path were low earthen embankments, and the trees on both sides had the +bark stripped off, and carved on them the various totems and multiplex +totems of the tribes. Such carvings were also put on the trees round +the Bunbul, or little Boorah ring, where the branches were also in some +instances lopped, and the trunks carved and painted to represent +figures of men, amongst whom were supposed to be the sons of Byamee's +wives. Two of these sons had been made young men at the first Boorah +Byamee instituted in this district, the ground of which is pointed out +to this day. + +In the middle of the Bunbul a large heap of wood was placed ready for +the Yungawee, or sacred fire. + +When the preliminary preparations were over, the camps were moved to +just outside the Boorah, or big Boorah ring. By that time the other +tribes began to arrive. First came from each tribe the boys to be +initiated and the Munthdeeguns, or men in charge of them. The men were +painted, and had leafy twigs tied round their wrists and ankles, as had +the boys also, and all carried in their hands small branches of green. +Those especially in charge of boys held, too, a painted spear with a +waywah on top of it. + +As they approached the place of gathering the head man, with the +painted spear, began calling out all the names of the places along the +creeks from whence he came; at the name of each big watercourse they +all cried together + +'Wah! Wah! wah!' + +They were met at some distance from the camp by the men who had +summoned them, and who had made a round brush yard where they were to +meet them. Here the older women were singing Boorah songs. Some held +their breasts as a sign they had sons among the initiates; others put +their hands on their shoulders, which showed they had brothers going to +be made young men. All the women had leafy twigs tied round their +wrists and ankles as the men had. The newcomers and the men who met +them walked round the yard at a measured beat, lifting one leg and +throwing up one arm each time the cry of 'Wah! wah! wah!' was given, +for here too the enumeration of geographical names went on. + +When the Boorah song was over, the men marched out of the yard; closely +behind them the two oldest men with the tufted spears; the Boorah boys +closely after them. The women followed, carrying bunches of leafy twigs +with which they pelted the boys until they reached the camp. + +Matah and I had been watching the whole performance, and followed in +the wake of the women. + +The whole scene impressed us as picturesque--the painted figures of the +men and boys, with the peculiarly native stealthy tread, threading +their way through the grey Coolabah trees; the decorated women throwing +their leafy missiles with accurate aim into the ranks of the boys, who +did not dare to look at their assailants. A Boorah boy must give no +evidence of curiosity; the NIL ADMIRARI attitude then begun clings to a +black man through life. The women of the tribe express voluble +surprise, but a black man never except by the dilation of his eyes. + +Every night after this a corroboree was held. The fully initiated of +each tribe, as they arrived, help in the preparation of the inner +sacred ground, while the younger men collected game and other food. + +The old men cut out of the ground along the narrow path leading to the +Bunbul, and round it, huge earthen animals, their various totems, such +as crocodiles, kangaroos, emus and others, all of a colossal size. +These they plastered over with mud and painted in different colours and +designs. On the right of the Bunbul they made an earthen figure of +Byamee--this figure was reclining holding in each hand a Boondee. On +the other side was the huge figure of a woman--this represented +Birrahgnooloo, the favourite wife of Byamee; she held two spears. There +was a third figure not so large as the other two but like them, apart +from the figures near the path and the Bunbul; this was Baillahburrah, +according to some, Dillalee according to others, the supernatural son +of Byamee--or as some say, brother--not born of woman, having lived +before the human race existed, before Byamee travelled as Creator and +culture hero through Australia. + +Of the Gayandi, the Boorah spirit, sometimes called +Wallahgooroonboooan, there was no figure, because he was always present +at Boorahs, though invisible. His voice only gave evidence of his +presence. + +The wirreenuns said it was he who had placed in the forks of trees +round the big ring heaps of dry wood, which they said, when the +ceremonies began, he would light, making a dazzling illumination of the +scene. + +In the middle of the Boorah ring was placed a mudgee, a painted stick +or spear, with a bunch of hawk's feathers on the top. Every night was +heard at intervals the Gayandi, and immediately the younger women and +children stopped their ears, while the old women shrieked their +BRUMBOORAH. + +As each fresh batch of blacks arrived the volume of sound was +increased, for the old men with their Gayandi would go into the scrub +and whirl them. These bull roarers sound curiously uncanny--I did not +wonder the uninitiated accepted the spirit theory as to their origin. + +The bush of Australia is a good background for superstition; there is +such a non-natural air about its Nature, as if it has been sketched in +roughly by a Beardsley-like artist. + +The function of the Gayandi is to inspire awe, and it fulfils it. +Byamee himself made the first. It was some time before he got quite the +effect he wanted. At first he desired to give the Boorah spirit a form +as well as a voice, to inspire awe; he also wished it to knock out the +front tooth of an initiate. + +He made a stone figure in the image of man, having a voice. This +spirit, known variously as Gayandi, or Darramulun, went to the Boorah, +but when he was to knock out the front tooth, he began to eat the boys' +faces. He was too strong; he would not do to preside over, Boorahs. +Byamee transformed him into a large piggiebillah-like animal, though +instead of being covered with spines, thick hair grew over him; he has +since been known as Nahgul. He went away into the bush, where he has +been a dreaded devil ever since; for if he touches a man's shadow even, +that man will itch all over and nothing can cure him of it. He haunts +Boorah grounds. + +Next Byamee made a stone bull roarer sort of thing, but this was too +heavy to make the noise he wanted. One day he was chopping a big +Coolabah tree close to Weetalibah water-hole, which tree, much to the +horror of our blacks, was burnt down a few years ago by travellers. + +As Byamee chopped, out flew a big chip. He heard the whizzing sound it +made, gave another chop, out flew another; again the whizzing sound. + +'That is what I want,' he said I'll make a Gayandi of wood.' + +He cut a piece of mubboo, or beefwood, and shaped it; he tied a piece +of string to a hole in one end; he hung it up in the big Coolabah tree. +Then he went and cut one out of Noongah or Kurrajong, tied a string on +to that and put it beside the other on the tree, and left them swinging +there. + +One day he came back and was camping near; his wives, came along to the +big tree. There the Gayandi swung, making a whirring noise. + +'What's that?' said the women. 'We'll have a look what it is.' Seeing +Byamee they said, 'We heard voices in that big tree over there.' + +'Whereabouts?' he said. + +'In that Coolabah tree. Such strange voices, such as we never heard.' + +'You two go' he said, 'to our camp and make a fire. I'll go and see +what it is.' + +When the women were out of sight he went to the tree and took the +pieces of wood down. He was satisfied now they would answer his +purpose. He carefully hid them until he made a Boorah. And since then +such pieces of wood have been the medium for the Gayandi's voice, and +are kept carefully hidden away from all but the eyes of wirreenuns. + +At length all the expected tribes had arrived, preparations were +finished, and a signal was given for a move to be made that the real +ceremonies might begin. + +The fully initiated men went away after their midday meal, and about +sundown came in single file along the banked-in path each carrying a +firestick in one hand, a green switch in the other. When they reached +the mudgee in the middle of the big ring and corroboreed for a little +round it, the old women answered with a Boorah song, and all moved to +the edge of the ring. At this stage men often tried to steal each +other's boys, and great wrestling matches came off. One man would try +to pull up the mudgee, out would rush one of another clan to wrestle +with him. First the boys would wrestle, then the elder men, each +determined his clan should prove victorious at this great Boorah +wrestling. + +The skill of the eeramooun, or uninitiated boys, would be tried in sham +fights too. They were given bark shields, and their attackers had bark +boomerangs; great was the applause when the boys ably defended +themselves. Previously they have been tried with boomerang and boodthul +throwing, and other arts of sport and warfare, boys of each tribe +trying to excel those of the others. If a boy comes well out of these +trials the men say he is worthy to be a yelgidyi, or fully initiated +young man. + +When the wrestling and sham fights are over, corroborees begin. All +night they are kept up, and sometimes there are day performances too. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BOORAH AND OTHER MEETINGS + + +At last would come the night when everything was ready. Sports and +corroborees would be held as usual, until, at a given signal, the +younger women were ordered into bough sheds which were round the ring. + +The old women stayed on singing. + +The boys, who are painted red, are beckoned into the middle of the +ring, where their respective Munthdeeguns daub them with white. That +done, each man seizing his charge, hoists him on to his shoulder, and +dances round the ring with him. Then the old women are told to bid the +boys good-bye. + +Forward they come, singing each her own brumboorah, for every oldest +woman relation of each of the boys makes a song for him. They +corroboree a few steps behind the men, chanting a farewell, then +corroboree back a few steps, then hasten to join the younger women in +the bough sheds, which are now pulled down on top of them by the men, +that they may see nothing further. Then the Munthdeeguns disappear down +the track into the scrub. + +When they are out of sight the women are released, that they may get +ready to travel to where the Durrawunga, or Little Boorah, will be held +in about four days' time, at about ten miles distance. + +As the Munthdeeguns passed their totem-marked trees, or images, which +would be those of the boys in their charge--for each guardian was a +relation of the same totem as his charge--they would perform some +magical feat, such as producing gubberahs, charcoal, gypsum, and so on, +uttering as they did so a little chant about that totem. + +The boy's eyes are closed all this time and his head bent down. + +Boys at a Boorah always remind me of WILHELM MEISLER'S TRAVELS, where, +at the school to which Wilhelm takes Felix, he learns, on inquiry as to +the three attitudes assumed by the pupils, that these gestures +inculcate veneration, which also seems to be the keynote of the +eeramooun's instruction. The Boorah over, he too, 'Stands erect and +bold, yet not selfishly isolated; only in an union with his equals (his +fellow initiates) does he present a front towards the world.' + +And only when the fear, the abasement, is gone does the true reverence +come, which makes the most primitive creed a living religion. + +As the Munthdeeguns pass the sacred fire they throw in a weapon each. +This done they place their charges in slightly scooped-out places, +already prepared in the inner ring. + +Then they bid them, on pain of death, not to look up whatever happens. + +Soon a great whirring is heard, telling that Gayandi, the Boorah +spirit, is near. + +Yudtha Dulleebah, one of the oldest black men in the district, said at +this stage once two boys did look up. + +The wirreenuns saw them, though the boys did not know it and went on +looking. These boys saw the men advance each to the fire where they had +thrown their weapons; chanting in a strange tongue, they corroboreed +round the fire for some time. + +Then the wirreenuns snatched up the coals left from the weapons and +rubbed them into their limbs, trampling as they did so on the edge of +the fire, which did not seem to burn them, rubbing and chanting until +the sacred coals were supposed to be absorbed by them, from which they +would derive new powers. + +This over, the boys were all ordered to get up, and march round, hands +on thighs and heads abased, while they learnt a Boorah song, giving new +words for common things, which acted as pass-words hereafter for the +initiated. Into a slow chant these words were strung, as the men and +boys passed round the ring, two of the oldest men standing beating time +with painted spears with tufted tops. + +The two boys who had transgressed before looked up again, curious as to +their surroundings. Suddenly the men with the spears roared at the boys +to lower their heads. + +The boys laughed. Their fates were sealed. Out flashed the sacred +gubberahs of these two old men. + +'Dead is he,' they cried, 'who laughs in the Bunbul where yungawee +burns more fiercely than Yirangal, the sun, where near lies the image +of Byamee: Byamee, father of all, whose laws the tribes are now +obeying.' Then the men chanted to the gubberahs and held them between +the fires and the boys, the light of the flames seemed to play on them +and stretch its beams to the boys, who began to tremble. As louder grew +the chant an answer came from the scrub, the voice of Gayandi; shaking +with fear the boys fell to the ground, to all appearance lifeless. Then +the old men went forward, each with a stone knife in hand. Stooping +over the two boys they opened veins in each, out flowed the blood, and +the other men all raised a death cry. The boys were lifeless. The old +wirreenuns, dipping their stone knives in the blood, touched with them +the lips of all present. Then the bodies were put on the edge of the +sacred fire and the other initiates taken a little further into the +scrub. There they were tried in many ways. + +With the Boorah spirits whistling and whizzing all round them, spears +were pointed at them. Their skins were scratched with stone knives and +mussel shells. Hideously painted, fiendish-looking creatures suddenly +rushed upon them. Should they show fear and quail at the Little Boorah +they would be returned to their mothers as cowards unfit for +initiation, and sooner or later sympathetic magic would do its work, a +poison-stick or bone would end them. Or if one of the initiates was +considered stupid and generally incapable, having been brought to the +Boorah for that purpose, he was now, after having been made to suffer +all sorts of indignities, such as eating filth and so on, bound to the +earth, strapped down, killed, and his body burnt. + +When the trials were over and the old wirreenuns said to the boys who +had not quailed, 'You are brave; you shall be boorahbayyi first and +afterwards yelgidyi, and carry the marks that all may know.' + +Then they made on the shoulder of each boy a round hole with a pointed +stone; this hole they licked to feel no splinter of stone remained, +then filled it with powdered charcoal. + +After this, leaving the boys there, the men went back to the Bunbul +ring. The bodies of the Boorah victims were cooked. Each man who had +been to five Boorahs ate a piece of this flesh, no others were allowed +even to see this done. Then the bones and what was left of the bodies +were put into the middle of the fire, and all traces of the victims so +destroyed. + +The men then sang a song, saying that so must always be served those +who scoffed at sacred things; that the strength they had wasted should +go into other men who would use it better; while the spirits of the +victims should wander about until reincarnated if the Boorah spirit +gave them another chance. Perhaps he would only let them be +reincarnated in animals. + +After another dance and chant round the yungawee, the men went and +brought the boys back again. They came with their hands on their +thighs, and their heads abased; each was taken to his allotted place +near the outer edge of the ring. There each Munthdeegun told his boy he +could sleep that night; he would go to sleep the boy he had been, to +wake in the morning a new man; his courage had now been tried, and in +the morning a new name and a sacred stone would be given to him. The +Gayandi would settle their names that night and tell the wirreenuns. + +The next morning the boys were awakened by the Munthdeegun chanting and +dancing before them. They stopped in front of the first boy, called him +to rise by a new name; as he did so all the men clapped their thighs +and shouted + +'Wah! wah! wah!' + +Then an old wirreenun gave him a small white gubberah, which he was +bidden to keep concealed for ever from the uninitiated and the women, +and he must be ready to produce it whenever called upon to do so. The +result of failure would be fatal to him. With the loss of the stone his +life spirit would be weakened, and the strength of the Boorah spirit, +with which he was now endowed, be used against him instead of for him, +as would be the case as long as he kept the stone. + +These stones seem somewhat in the way of 'Baetyli' of pagan antiquity, +which were of round form; they were supposed to be animated, by means +of magical incantations, with a portion of the Deity; they were +consulted on occasions of great and pressing emergency as a kind of +divine oracle, and were suspended either round the neck or some other +part of the body. + +As each boy received his stone another loud chorus of 'Wah! wah! wah!' +went up from that crowd, making the scrub ring with the sound. + +Some of those, of whose tribe it was the custom--it is not invariably +so--now had a front tooth knocked off; this done a wirreenun chanted to +the boy, who had been blindfolded and almost deafened by the whirring +of Gayandi. + +One chant was as follows:-- + + Now you can meet the Boorah spirit, + Now will he harm you not. + He will know his spirit is in you. + For this is the sign, + A front tooth gone. + That is his sign, + He will know you by it. + +Some of the wirreenuns buried these teeth by the Boorah fire, others +carefully wrapped them up to keep as charms, or to send to other +tribes, each according to the individual custom of his tribe. + +This all over, once more there was a marching and chanting round the +fire, then the boys were taken away and given food for the first time +since they left their mothers. + +No wonder that the 'supernatural' was mixed up with their impressions +of the Boorah: fasting nourishes hallucinations. While the boys were +eating, they could hear in the distance other chants, and knew that +ceremonies were going on to which they were not yet to be admitted, +there being degrees of initiation. + +On the fourth day the men took them about ten miles, and camped with +them where they could hear faintly in the distance the noise of the +main camp; so they knew they were near the place chosen for the +Durramunga, or Little Boorah. + +Just before dawn next morning each Munthdeegun took his Boorahbayyi, or +partially initiated one, to the Durramunga. There was a Boorah ring, +but instead of earth grass was heaped all round it. No young women were +visible, only the old women, who sang and corroboreed towards the boys. +Slowly they came forward, peered at their shoulders, and seeing there +the marks, embraced them, shrieking out cries of joy that their boys +had borne the tests. They danced round them, then at a sign from the +old men embraced them again; and while, the women sang their brumboorah +and danced, the boys were taken away by their guardians. + +For two moons they remained away, learning much as to sacred things. +They were told that the oldest wirreenuns could see in their sacred +crystals pictures of the past, pictures of what was happening at a +distance in the present, and pictures of the future; some of which last +filled their minds with dread, for they said as time went on the +colours of the blacks, as seen in these magical stones, seemed to grow +paler and paler, until at last only the white faces of the Wundah, or +spirits of the dead, and white devils were seen, as if it should mean +that some day no more blacks should be on this earth. + +The reason of this must surely be that the tribes fell away from the +Boorah rites, and in his wrath Byamee stirred from his crystal seat in +Bullimah. He had said that as long as the blacks kept his sacred laws, +so long should he stay in his crystal seat, and the blacks live on +earth; but if they failed to keep up the Boorah rites as he had taught +them, then he would move and their end would come, and only Wundah, or +white devils, be in their country. + +It is said that this prophetic vision was the reason that so many of +the first-born half-caste babies were killed, the old wirreenuns seeing +in them the beginning of the end. + +At the end of two moons they make back towards the place where the +Boorah had begun, and where preparations were now being made to receive +them. + +They camped in the scrub near the old camp of the tribe who had started +the Boorah. + +That night in the camp the Gayandi was heard again, another ceremony +was at hand. + +The next day the women at the big camp made a big fire, a little +distance away. When this fire was nearly burnt out they covered it +thickly with Budtha, Dheal, and Coolabah leaves to make a great smoke. +On the top of these leaves, which were piled about two feet high, logs +were placed; this fire was round a Dheal tree. + +When the thick smoke was seen curling up in a column, the Boorahbayyi +were brought out of the scrub by the Munthdeegun, while in the distance +sounded the whizzing voice of the Boorah spirit. As it ceased, when the +women's chanting rose above it, the painted boys came into the open. On +they came, heads down and hands on thighs, looking neither to the right +nor to the left, but walking straight ahead until they stood on the +logs on the fire. They leaned over and placed a hand each on the tree +in the centre, there they stood while the smoke curled all round them. +The women past child-bearing were singing all the time, while the men +danced outside the leaf-smoke, clicking boomerangs as they did so. + +For some time this went on, then the men took the boys back into the +scrub. + +In about four moons' time another leaf-smoke was made ready, and the +Boorahbayyi were again brought out and smoked. This time while chanting +a song the old women brought a big net and put it right over the boys. +Then they stepped back and danced round to the clicking of boomerangs +by the men. The boys were again taken away. + +But after this they were allowed to camp nearer the general camp, +though they held no intercourse with the people of it. I have often met +these Boorah boys in the bush, and on sighting me they have fled as if +I were a devil in petticoats. + +In about another moon's time, the boys were painted principally white, +a waywah put on them, a yunbean--a piece of beefwood gum with two +kangaroo teeth stuck in it, and a hole through it--was tied to their +front lock of hair. A number of these yunbean were tied to forehead +bands, which they wore too. Armlets of opossum's hair string were put +on their arms, and feathers stuck in them. Feathers were also stuck +upright in the forehead bands. + +Some of the old men added to their own decorations by putting on +wongins, from which were hanging those most precious possessions to +inland blacks--seaside shells. Some had fresh beads of gum fastened on +to their hair, hanging round their heads in dozens. + +The women, too, had coiffured themselves with fresh gum beads; the +mothers of the Boorahbayyi were painted, too, in corroboree style. They +had made a smoke fire, but the logs instead of being put on it, were +placed at a little distance; on these the painted boys sat, the smoke +enveloping them. + +After they had been seated there some time, their mothers came up +behind them, and put their hands on their sons' shoulders. Then they +rubbed all the paint off the boys' bodies; the boys never once looking +at them. When the paint was all off, the women sang and danced, until +the men in charge took the boys away again. + +After this, supervision was relaxed except at night. During the +day-time the boys might wander at will, so as they kept clear of the +general camp. They might not receive food from nor speak to a woman for +twelve months, as if they were monks of Byamee in training. + +At his second Boorah a young man was allowed to see the sacred fire +ceremony, throwing in of weapons, walking on burning coals, and the +rest. He saw the huge earthen figures of Byamee, Birrahgnooloo, and +Baillahburrah, or Dillalee, and was told all about them; that Byamee +having initiated the Boorah, only such as have been through its rites +can go to his sky-camp. + +Three sins are unforgiveable, and commit a spirit of a guilty one to +continual movement in the lower world of the Eleanbah Wundah, where, +but for big fires kept up, would be darkness. + +There the guilty one had to keep his right hand at his side, never +moving it, but he himself perpetually moving. Those who know the blacks +and their love of a 'dolce far niente,' will understand what a +veritable hell this perpetual movement would make. + +The three deadly sins were unprovoked murder, lying to the elders of +the tribe, or stealing a woman within the forbidden degrees--that is, +of the same hereditary totem, i.e. of the same blood, or of the +prohibited family name clan. + +But by a curious train of reasoning two wrongs make a right. Should by +any chance a man succeed in getting a wife he had no right to, having +lived with her, he could keep her, if he came unhurt from the trial he +had to stand; he only having a shield to defend himself with, the men +of the stolen woman's kin threw weapons at him. Only the men of her kin +are assailants, not as in a murder trial, when the men of all kins can +throw at the guilty man. Should he defend himself successfully, he can +keep the woman on the understanding that a woman of his family is given +to a man of hers, to square things. A man who stands his trial is +called a Booreenbayyi. + +Kindliness towards the old and sick is strictly inculcated as a command +of Byamee, to whom all breaches of his laws are reported by the +all-seeing spirit at a man's death, and he is judged accordingly. Sir +Thomas Mitchell, writing in 1837 his experiences of the blacks during +his explorations, notices as very striking their care and affection for +the aged of their race. + +At his second Boorah a man is allowed to see the carvings on the trees +and to hear the legends of them. Also to hear the Boorah song of +Byamee, which Byamee himself sang; and to hear the prayer of the oldest +wirreenun to Byamee, asking him to let the blacks live long, for they +have been faithful to his charge as shown by the observance of the +Boorah ceremony. + +The old wirreenun says words to this effect several times imploringly, +his head turned to the east; facing this direction the dead are mostly +buried. + +Though we say that actually these people have but two attempts at +prayers, one at the grave and one at the inner Boorah ring, I think +perhaps we are wrong. These two seem the only ones directly addressed +to Byamee. But perhaps it is his indirect aid which is otherwise +invoked. Daily set prayers seem to them a foolishness and an insult, +rather than otherwise, to Byamee. He knows; why weary him by +repetition, disturbing the rest he enjoys after his earth labours? But +a prayer need not necessarily be addressed to the highest god. I think +if we really understood and appreciated the mental attitude of the +blacks, we should find more in their so-called incantations of the +nature of invocations. When a man invokes aid on the eve of a battle, +or in his hour of danger and need; when a woman croons over her baby an +incantation to keep him honest and true, and that he shall be spared in +danger, surely these croonings are of the nature of prayers born of the +same elementary frame of mind as our more elaborate litany. I fancy +inherent devotional impulses are common to all races irrespective of +country or colour. + +When the prayer was over the old men chanted Byamee's song, which only +the fully initiated may sing, and which an old black fellow chanted for +us as the greatest thing he could do. + +There seemed very little in this song, for no, one can translate it, +the meaning having been lost in the 'dark backward,' if it was ever +known to the Euahlayi. + + 'Byamee guadoun. + Byamee guadoun. + Byamee guadoun. + Mungerh wirree. + Mungerh wirree. + Mungerh wirree. + Birree gunyah, birrie gunyah. + Dilbay gooran mulah bungarn. + Oodoo doo gilah. + Googoo wurra wurra. + Bulloo than nulgah delah boombee nulgah. + Delah boombee. Nulgah delah boombee boombee. + Buddereebah . . . . . . Eumoolan. + Dooar wullah doo. Boombee nulgah delah.' + +The old fellow said wherever Byamee had travelled this song was known, +but no one now knew the meaning of the whole, not even the oldest +wirreenuns. + +Another stone was given to a Boorahbayyi when he first heard this song. + +The wirreenuns, they say, swallow their stones to keep them safe. + +At each Boorah a taboo is taken off food. After a third Boorah a man +could eat fish, after a fourth honey, after a fifth what he liked. He +was then, too, shown and taught the meanings of the tribal +message-sticks, and the big Boorah one of Byamee. As few men now have +ever been to five Boorahs, few know anything about these last. At each +Boorah a stone was given to a man, and when he had the five he could +marry. + +After each Boorah all the figures and embankments are destroyed. + +After the fifth Boorah the mystery of the Gayandi was revealed and the +bull roarers shown--oval pieces of wood pointed at both ends, fastened +to a string and swung round; but though this was shown, the wirreenuns +told them that the spirit's voice was really in this wood animating it. +After a man has been to one Boorah he can have war weapons and is a +warrior, but not until he has been to five can he join or be one of the +dorrunmai--sort of chiefs--who hold councils of war, but have few +privileges beyond being accepted authorities as to war and hunting. +With the wirreenuns rests the real power, by reason of their skill in +magic. + +Besides Boorahs are minor corroboree meetings where marriages are +arranged; meetings where the illegality of marriages is gone into, and, +if necessary, exchanges effected or arranged; meetings where the +wirreenuns of the Boogahroo produce the bags of hair, etc., and +vendettas are sworn; meetings of Boodther, or giving, where each person +receives and gives presents. A person who went to a Boodther without a +goolay full of presents would be thought a very poor thing indeed. + +Of course every meeting has a corroboree as part of it. + +Every totem even has its own special corroboree and time for having it, +as the Beewees, or iguanas, when the pine pollen is failing and the red +dust-storms come. And if you abused these dust-storms to a Beewee +black, you would insult him: it is not dust, it is the pollen off the +pines, and so a multiplex totem to him! + +The winds belong to various totems, and the rains are claimed by the +totem whose wind it was that blew it up. + +If a storm comes up without wind it belongs to Bohrah, the kangaroo. + +The big mountainous clouds when they come from the south-west are said +to be Mullyan, the eagle-hawk, who makes the south-west wind claimed by +Maira, paddy melon totem, one of whose multiplex totems Mullyan is. + +The crow keeps the cold west wind in a hollow log, as she was too fond +of blowing up hurricanes; she escapes sometimes, but the crow hunts her +back. But they say the log is rotting and she will get away yet, when +there will be great wreckage and quite a change in climates. [Here we see +the usual antagonism of crow and eagle-hawk.--A. L.] + +Away to the north-west a tribe of blacks have almost a monopoly in +wind-making, holding great corroborees to sing these hurricanes up. One +of this tribe came to the station once and wanted to marry a girl +there. She would not consent, and told him to go home. He went, +threatening to send a storm to wreck the station. The storm came; the +house escaped, but stable, store, and cellar were unroofed. I told my +Black-but-Comelys to kindly avoid such vehemently revengeful lovers for +the future. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CHIEFLY AS TO FUNERALS AND MOURNING + + +I was awakened one morning on the station by distant wailing. + +A wailing that came in waves of sound, beginning slowly and lowly, to +gain gradually in volume until it reached the full height or limit of +the human voice, when gradually, as it had risen, it fell again. No +shrieking, just a wailing inexpressibly saddening to hear. + +I lay for some minutes not realising what the sound was, yet penetrated +by its sorrow. Then came consciousness. It was from the blacks' camp, +and must mean death. Beemunny, the oldest woman of the camp, who for +weeks had been ill, must now be dead. + +Poor old Beemunny, who was blind and used to get her +great-granddaughter, little Buggaloo, to lead her up to the tree +outside my window, under whose shade she had spent so many hours, +telling me legends of the golden age when man, birds, beasts, trees, +and elements spoke a common language. But the day before I had been to +the camp to hear how she was. The old women were sitting round her; one +of the younger ones told me her end had nearly come. + +The Boolees, or whirlwinds, with the Mullee Mullees of her enemies in, +had been playing round and through the camp for days, they said, +watching to seize her fleeting spirit--a sure sign the end was near. +That night surely would come Yowee, the skeleton spirit, with the big +head and fiery eyes, whose coming meant death. + +Last night more than one of the blacks had dreamt of an emu, which +meant misfortune to one of that totem, which was Beemunny's. + +As Yellen spoke in a hushed sad voice, suddenly, though no breath of +wind was stirring, sprang up on the edge of the camp a boolee, rearing +its head as if it were a living thing. Round it whirled, snatching the +dead leaves of the Coolabahs, swirling them with the dust it gathered +into a spiral column, which sped, as if indeed a spirit animated it, +straight to the camp of the dying woman. Round and round it eddied, a +dust-devil dancing a dance of death. + +The watchers drew nearer to Beemunny, who was past heeding even the +spirits of evil. + +The women in other camps clutched their children to them, but spoke no +word. All was silent but the swirling leaves as the column gathered +them. Finding the deathbed guarded, the boolee turned sharply from the +camp and sped away down the road, dissolving on the poligonum flat in +the distance. + +Yellen gave a sigh of relief. + +But now her fears were verified; Beemunny was dead. + +Poor old Beemunny! How the vanities of youth cling to one; how we are +'all sisters under the skin.' + +She was ever so old, she was blind, her face was scarred with wrinkles, +yet one of her beauties remained, and she absolutely joyed in its +possession: it was her hair. Her hair was thick and fuzzy, when combed +would stand nearly straight out, which is quite unusual with the native +women's hair in that part. Beemunny one day asked one of the younger +women if I had ever heard what a lot of lovers she had had in her +youth, what fights there had been over her, and all because of her +beautiful hair. + +Poor old Beemunny! Something in my own woman nature went out to her in +sympathy. She was old, she was ugly, her husband was dead, as were all +men to her. + +Poor old Beemunny! Having once learnt her vanity, I never passed her +without saying 'Gubbah Tekkul!' 'Beautiful hair!' at which she would +beam and toss her head. + +At sunrise came again the wailing; the singing of the Goohnai, or +dirge, wherein are enumerated all the multiplex totems of the deceased, +crooned in a wailing way, and each fresh person who comes to the camp +sings this dirge again. In olden times all would have been painted in +full war paint, weapons in hand, to see the corpse. + +I was given permission to go to the funeral, old Bootha was to take me. + +I heard that Beemunny had died early in the night. Her daughter and +nearest of kin had sat all night beside her body, with each a hand on +it to guard her from the spirits. She was now in her bark coffin, round +which were her own blankets to be buried with her. The coffin was made +of bark cut off right round a tree, split on one side from end to end; +the body was placed in this, then the bark lapped over it, the ends +were blocked up with other pieces, the whole secured by ropes. All day +until the burial some one of kin stayed beside the coffin, little fires +of Budtha kept smoking all the while. In the afternoon old Bootha came +for me, and we set out. + +First in the procession marched two old men of the tribe, behind them +some young men, then those in charge of the coffin and the two nearest +women relations, immediately behind them the old women, then the young +women. No women with babies were allowed to go, nor any children. I +came last with old Bootha. + +The procession moved along an old winding track on the top of a +moorilla, or pebbly ridge, pine-trees overarching in places carving the +sky into a dome--a natural temple through which we walked to the +burial-ground. + +Every now and then we heard a bird note, which made the women glance at +each other and say, first, 'Guadgee,' then 'Bootha,' as it came again, +and a third time 'Hippitha.' To my uneducated ear the note seemed the +same each time. I asked Bootha what it was. She told me it was the note +of a little bird, something like a wren, called Durrooee, in whose +shape the spirits of dead women revisited the earth. It seems that +Numbardee, the first woman, was, like Milton's Eve, a caterer; she +acquired art in beating the roots of plants into flat cakes much +esteemed; she was never to be met without some, carrying them always in +a bag across her shoulders. + +And Byamee was so pleased with her for always having food for the +hungry that, when at length she died, he allowed her to revisit her old +gahreemai, or camp, her spirit returning in the form of the little +honey-eater bird, Durrooee; and all women after her had a like +privilege if they had done their duty in life. These birds are sacred; +no one must harm them, nor even imitate their cry. It would be hard to +hurt them, for the spirit in them is so strong. If any one even takes +up a stick or stone to throw at them, hardly is it raised from the +ground when the would-be assailant is forcibly knocked over, though he +sees nothing but the little bird he was about to attack. Then he knows +the bird must be a spirit bird, and perhaps seeing him look at her, the +bird calls a woman's name, then he knows whose spirit it is. + +A black boy on the station was badly hurt by a fall from a tree. It had +seemed strange that such a good climber should fall. The blacks said it +was because there was a Durrooee's nest in that tree, the spirit had +knocked him down, and for a time so paralysed the man with him that he +could not move to his assistance. Needless to say, they have avoided +that tree since. + +In the distance we heard the sound of the grave being dug. None of the +same totem as the dead person must dig the grave. The coffin was put +down beside the grave, the daughter and other nearest women relations +stayed with it, the other women went away into the bush in one +direction, some of the men in another. + +Old Hippi heaped up some Budtha twigs he had gathered, I noticed as we +came along; these he set fire to, and made a dense smoke which hung low +over the open grave and spread over the old graves. + +Hippi smoked himself in this smoke. The women came back with arms full +of small branches of the sacred Dheal tree, these they laid beside the +grave, then sat down and broke them into small twigs; the old women had +twigs put through the bored hole in their noses. + +The men came back with some pine saplings; two of these they laid at +the bottom of the grave, which was about five feet deep. On these pines +they spread strips of bark, then a thick bed of Dheal twigs; then a +woman handed a bag containing the belongings of the dead woman--boogurr +they were called--to the oldest male relative, who was standing in the +grave; he placed it as a pillow at one end. Then Hippi and the +daughter's husband took each an end of the coffin and lowered it into +the grave; the daughter cried loudly as they did so. Over the coffin +they laid a rug, and on the rug they placed Beemunny's yam stick. Hippi +signalled to the daughter, who then came with the other women close to +the edge of the grave. She sat at one end, looked over into the grave, +and called out: 'My mother! Oh, my mother! Come back to me, my mother! +My mother that I have been with always, why did you leave me?' Then she +wailed the death-wait, which the other women caught up. As the wail +died away, Hippi said: + + 'She has gone from us; never as she was will she return. + Never more as she once did will she chop honey. + Never more with her gunnai dig yams. + She has gone from us; never as she was to return.' + +As he finished all the women wailed again, and loudest of all the +daughter. Then the old man in the grave said: + + 'Mussels there are in the creek and plenty, + But she who lies here will dig no more. + We shall fish as of old for cod-fish, + But she who lies here will beg no more oil, + Oil for her hair, she will want no more.' + Then again the women wailed. + +Old Hippi said, as the other man, in a sort of recitative + + 'Never again will she use a fire. + Where she goes fires are not. + For she goes to the women, the dead women, + And women can make no fires. + Fruit is there in plenty and grass seed, + But no birds nor beasts in the heaven of woman.' + +Again the women wailed, wail after wail. Then they handed the remaining +twigs of Dheal to the men, who laid them on the top of the coffin, then +bark again over the twigs, and pine saplings on them, on top some old +rugs. + +While this was being done the old, old gins danced slowly a corroboree +step round the edge of the grave, crooning a Goohnai-wurrai or dirge. + +Then the men began to throw in the earth, the oldest male relative of +the deceased standing in the grave to guard the body until the earth +covered the coffin. As thud after thud went the earth in, the daughter +shrieked and swayed over as if to fall into the grave, but her friend +drew her back. She called 'Mother! mother!' took a sharp stone which +was beside her and hit it against her head until the blood gushed out. +They took the stone from her. There she sat rocking her body to and +fro, wailing all the time, the other women wailing too, until the grave +was quite covered in. + +When it was filled in Hippi made another big smoke, thoroughly smoked +himself, calling to all the men to do the same. + +An old woman made a big smoke behind where the women were sitting; she +called them one by one and made them stand in the thick of it for a +while. + +Hippi said something to her. I caught the word 'Innerah'--they called +me Innerah, which meant literally a woman with a camp of her own. The +old woman gave the smoke fire a stir, and out at once came a thick +column of smoke circling round my guest and myself. + +They covered the grave with logs and boughs and then swept round it. + +All was over, we turned homewards. As we did so a flock of screeching +gilahs flew over, their bright rose colouring lighting up the sombre +scene where the only colour was that of the dark pines silhouetted +against a sky from which the blue had now faded. Going home Bootha told +me that the smoking process was to keep the spirits away, and to +disinfect us from any disease the dead might have; and she said had we +not been smoked the spirits might have followed us back to the house. + +They would at once change their camp; the old one would be gummarl--a +tabooed place; but before they left it they would burn smoke fires +there to scare away the spirits. + +I asked her why they swept round the grave. She said, in case the dead +person had been poisoned or killed by magic; and, indeed, so little do +they allow the possibility of death from natural causes, they even said +old Beemunny had been given poison in her honey by an old-time rejected +lover. Well, by sweeping round the grave they would see what track was +on the swept place next morning, and according to that they would know +to what totem the murderer belonged. If the track should be an +iguana's, then one of the Beewee, or iguana totem, was guilty; if an +emu, then one of the Dinewan, or emu totem, and so on. + +Old Hippi joined me a little further on. He explained that the service +was not as it would have been some years ago. That I knew, because when +I first went to the station I had seen them going to funerals all +decorated as if for corroborees. Round their waists, wrists, knees and +ankles had been twigs of Dheal, the sacred tree, and the rest of their +bodies had been painted. + +Hippi said a great deal more would have been spoken and sung at the +grave if the dead person had been a man. His spirit would have in a +short sort of prayer been commended to Byamee, who would have been +intreated to let the dead enter Bullimah (heaven), as he had kept the +Boorah laws--that is, of course, if he had been initiated: the spirits +of the uninitiated wander until they are reincarnated, and never enter +Bullimah. One curious coincidence occurred in connection with this +burial. + +Seeing the droughty desolation of the country, as we walked to the +grave, I asked old Bootha when she thought it would rain again. Coming +very close to me she half whispered: + +'In three days I think it; old woman dead tell me when she dying that +"'sposin" she can send 'em rain, she send 'im three days when her Yowee +bulleerul--spirit breath--go long Oobi Oobi.' + +Beemunny died on Wednesday night. On Saturday when we went to bed the +skies were as cloudless as they had been for weeks. In the middle of +the night we were awakened by the patter of rain-drops on the iron +roof. All night it rained, and all the next day. + +It is said that a dead person always sends rain within a week of his +death to wash out his tracks on earth. + +One little black girl told me she always felt sad when she saw +thunderclouds, because she thought some dead person had sent them. + +As a rule, there is a good deal more shedding of blood over a grave +than I saw. This blood offering is said to please the dead, being a +proof to them of the affection of the living. It is funeral etiquette +to prepare yourself with a weapon with which to shed this blood, but +likewise etiquette for a friend to intervene and stop your +self-mutilation. + +On emerging from the grave the spirit finds the spirits of his dead +relations waiting to go with him to Oobi Oobi, that is, a sacred +mountain whose top towers into the sky, nearly touching Bullimah. The +new spirit recognises his relations at once; they had, many of them, +been round the death-bed visible at the last to the dying, though not +to any of the watchers with him, though these are said sometimes to +hear the spirit voices. + +The spirit from the grave carried with him the twigs of the sacred +Dheal tree which were placed over and under his body; he follows his +spirit relations, dropping these twigs as he goes along, leaving thus a +trail that those who follow may see. At the top of Oobi Oobi he finds +the spirits called Mooroobeaigunnil, whose business it is to bridge +over the distance a spirit has to traverse between the top of the +mountain and Bullimah, the great Byamee's sky-camp. + +One of these Mooroobeaigunnil seizes him and hoists him on to his +shoulders; then comes another and hoists the first; and so on, until +the one holding the spirit can lift him into Bullimah. As the spirit is +hoisted in, one of the Mooroobeaigunnil, knocks the lowest one in the +ladder of spirits down; thud to the earth come the rest, making a sound +like a thunderclap, which the far away tribes hear, and hearing say: + +'A spirit has entered Bullimah.' + +Should a big meteor fall followed by a thunderclap, it is a sign that a +great man has died. Should a number of stars shoot off from a falling +star, it is a sign that a man has died leaving a large family. When a +star is seen falling in the day-time, it is a sign that one of the +Noongahburrah tribe dies. + +In the olden time some of the tribes would keep a body at least five +days. Then they would rub the outside black skin off, make an opening +in the side of the body, take out the internal parts, fill it up with +Dheal leaves. They would place the rubbed-off skin and internals in +bark and put it in hollow trees. They would then bury the body, which +they said would come up white. + +Sometimes they would keep their dead for weeks, that they might easily +extract the small joint bones with which to make poison. + +A baby's body they would sometimes carry for years before burying, but +it would usually have been well smoke-dried first, though not, I +believe, invariably so. + +Sometimes a body was kept so that relations from a distance might come +and see for themselves the death was not the result of foul play. + +After the body was filled up with Dheal leaves it was put into its bark +coffin and smoke fires made round it. + +As each relation arrived he was blindfolded and led up to the corpse, +which was held up standing by some of the men. When the blindfolded +relation came near, the bandage was taken off him and before him he saw +standing his relation, whom he examined to see if wounds were visible. +If signs of violence were apparent, the murderer had to be discovered +and stand his trial. He was given a shield to defend himself with. +Every man had a right to throw a weapon at him; should he manage to +defend himself successfully, as far as that crime was concerned he +would be henceforth a free man, no stigma attaching to him whatever. In +which, I fancy, the blacks show themselves a larger-minded people than +their white supplanters, who make this world no place for repentance +for wrong-doers, 'though they seek it with tears.' In the world's +opinion there is no limit to a man's sentence. We read the letter of +the Gospel, and leave the spirit of it to the blacks to apply. + +Should there be a difficulty as to discovering the criminal, all the +men of the tribes amongst whom the murderer could be stand round the +coffin. A head man says to the corpse, 'Did such and such a man harm +you?' naming, one after another, all the men. At the guilty one's name +the corpse is said to knock a sort of rap, rap, rap. + +That man has to stand his trial. + +But as a rule the blacks like to bury their dead quickly, because the +spirit haunts their neighbourhood or its late camp until the body is +buried. Mysterious lights are said to be seen at night, and there is a +general scare in camp-land until a corpse is safely buried. + +There are variations in the funeral rites of nearly every tribe. Even +in our district the dead were sometimes placed in hollow trees. I know +of skeletons in trees on the edge of the ridge on which the home +station was built. These are said to be for the most part the bodies of +worthless women or babies. + +In the coastal districts there are platforms in trees on which dead +bodies were laid. In some places corpses are tied up in a sitting +posture. The tying, they say, is to keep them secure when spirits come +about, or body-snatchers for poison bones. + +In some places the graves are covered with a sort of emu egg-shaped and +sized lumps of copi; and also, when a widow's term of mourning was +over, she would take the widow's cap--which was a sort of copi or gypsum +covering put on wet to her head--and place it on the grave of her +husband. + +On the Narran the widows plaster their heads with copi or bidyi, as +they call it, but so thinly that it cakes off. They renew it, and keep +their heads covered with it for the allotted term of mourning, then +just let it gradually all wear off. + +Those widows' caps, having the imprint of nets inside them, are very +old; for hair nets have been out of fashion for very many years in +camp-land, so such rank as antique curios. + +I don't think the small girl who thought when she grew up she'd choose +to be a widow, would have thought so if she had been born black. + +When a black woman's husband dies she has to cover herself with mud, +and sleep beside a smouldering smoke all night. Three days afterwards, +black fellows go and make a fire by the creek. They chase the widow and +her sisters, who might have been her husband's wives, down to the +creek. The widow catches hold of the smoking bush, puts it under her +arm, and jumps into the middle of the creek; as the smoking bush is +going out she drinks some of the smoky water. Then out she comes, is +smoked at the fire; she then calls to those in the camp, and looks +towards her husband's grave and calls again; his spirit answers, and +the blacks call to her that they have heard him. + +After that she is allowed to speak; she had been doomed to silence +since his death, but for lamentations. She goes to the new camp, where +another big smoke is made. She puts on her widow's cap, which, as it +wears out, has to be renewed for many months; for some months, too, she +keeps her face daubed with white. + +Every time a stranger comes to the camp the widow has to make a smoke +and smoke the camp again. The nearest of kin to her husband has a right +to claim her as wife when her mourning is over. + +Should a woman be left a widow two or three times there are sinister +whisperings about her. She is spoken of as having a 'white heart'; and +no man can live long, they say, with a woman having a 'white heart.' + +The graves in some parts of Australia are marked by carved trees; only +a few painted upright posts marked them on the Narran. + +A tabooed camp has always a marked tree--just a piece of bark cut off +and some red markings made on the wood, which indicate that the place +is gummarl. + +Any possessions of the dead not buried with them are burnt, except the +sacred stones; they are left to the wirreenun nearest of kin to the +dead person. + +Lately a case came under my notice of the taboo extended to the +possessions of dead people. + +A black man having two horses died. Neither his widow nor her mother +would use those horses, even when he had been dead over a year. They +would walk ten or twelve miles for their rations and carry them back, +rather than use those horses before the term of mourning was over. + +The widow was one of my particular friends, but she would not come to +see me because her husband had been at the house shortly before he +died. She camped nearly a mile away, and I went to see her there. After +he had been dead about a year, she came to see me; but before she did +so her mother walked all round the out-buildings, garden, yards, etc., +with a bunch of smoking Budtha, crooning little spirit songs. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SOMETHING ABOUT STARS AND LEGENDS + + +Venus in the Summer evenings is a striking object in the western sky. +Our Venus they call the Laughing Star, who is a man. He once said +something very improper, and has been laughing at his joke ever since. +As he scintillates you seem to see him grinning still at his +Rabelais-like witticism, seeing which the {aborigines} say: + +'He's a rude old man, that Laughing Star.' + +The Milky Way is a warrambool, or water overflow; the stars are the +fires, and the dusky haze the smoke from them, which spirits of the +dead have lit on their journey across the sky. In their fires they are +cooking the mussels they gather where they camp. + +There is one old man up there who was once a great rainmaker, and when +you see that he has turned round as the position of the Milky Way is +altered, you may expect rain; he never moves except to make it. + +A waving dark shadow that you will see along the same course is +Kurreah, the crocodile. + +To get to the Warrambool, the Wurrawilberoo, two dark spots in Scorpio, +have to be passed. They are devils who try to catch the spirits of the +dead; sometimes even coming to earth, when they animate whirlwinds and +strike terror into the blacks. The old men try to keep them from racing +through the camp by throwing their spears and boomerangs at them. + +The Pleiades are seven sisters, as usual, the dimmed ones having been +dulled because on earth Wurrunnah seized them and tried to melt the +crystal off them at a fire; for, beautiful as they were with their long +hair, they were ice-maidens. But he was unsuccessful beyond dulling +their brightness, for the ice as it melted put out the fire. The two +ice-maidens were miserable on earth with him, and eventually escaped by +the aid of one of their 'multiplex totems,' the pine-tree. Wurrunnah +had told them to get him pine bark. Now the Meamei--Pleiades--belong to +the Beewee totem, so does the pine-tree. They chopped the pine bark, +and as they did so the tree telescoped itself to the sky where the +five other Meamei were, whom they now joined, and with whom they have +remained ever since. But they who were polluted by their enforced +residence with the earth-man never shone again with the brightness of +their sisters. This legend was told emphasising the beauty of chastity. + +Men had desired all the sisters when once they travelled on earth, but +they kept themselves unspotted from the world, with the exception of +the two Wurrunnah captured by stratagem. + +Orion's Sword and Belt are the Berai-Berai--the boys--who best of all +loved the Meamei, for whom they used to hunt, bringing their offerings +to them; but the ice-maidens were obdurate and cold, disdaining lovers, +as might be expected from their parentage. Their father was a rocky +mountain, their mother an icy mountain stream. But when they were +translated to the sky the Berai-Berai were inconsolable. They would not +hunt, they would not eat, they pined away and died. The spirits pitied +them and placed them in the sky within sound of the singing of the +Meamei, and there they are happy. By day they hunt, and at night light +their corroboree fires, and dance to the singing in the distance. Just +to remind the earth-people of them, the Meamei drop down some ice in +the winter, and they it is who make the winter thunderstorms. + +Castor and Pollux, in some tribes, are two hunters of long ago. + +Canopus is Womba, the Mad Star, the wonderful Weedah of long ago, who, +on losing his loves, went mad, and was sent to the sky that they might +not reach him; but they followed, and are travelling after him to this +day, and after them the wizard Beereeun, their evil genius, who made +the mirage on the plains in order to deceive them, that they and Weedah +might be lured on by it and perish of thirst. + +When they escaped him Beereeun threw a barbed spear into the sky, and +hooked one spear on to another until he made a ladder up which he +climbed after them; and across the sky he is still pursuing them. + +The Clouds of Magellan are the Bralgah, or Native Companions, mother +and daughter, whom the Wurrawilberoo chased in order to kill and eat +the mother and keep the daughter, who was the great dancer of the +tribes. They almost caught her, but her tribe pursued them too quickly; +when, determined that if they lost her so should her people, they +chanted an incantation and changed her from Bralgah, the dancing-girl, +to Bralgah, the dancing-bird, then left her to wander about the plains. +They translated themselves on beefwood trees into the sky, and there +they are still. + +Gowargay, the featherless emu, is a debbil-debbil of water-holes; he +drags people who bathe in his holes down and drowns them, but goes +every night to his sky-camp, the Coalpit, a dark place by the Southern +Cross, and there he crouches. Our Corvus, the crow, is the kangaroo. + +The Southern Crown is Mullyan, the eagle-hawk. The Southern Cross was +the first Minggah, or spirit tree a huge Yaraan, which was the medium +for the translation of the first man who died on earth to the sky. The +white cockatoos which used to roost in this tree when they saw it +moving skywards followed it, and are following it still as Mouyi, the +pointers. The other Yaraan trees wailed for the sadness that death +brought into the world, weeping tears of blood. The red gum which +crystallises down their trunks is the tears. + +Some tribes say it was by a woman's fault that death came into the +world. + +This legend avers that at first the tribes were meant to live for ever. +The women were told never to go near a certain hollow tree. The bees +made a nest in this tree; the women coveted the honey, but the men +forbade them to go near it. But at last one woman determined to get +that honey; chop went her tomahawk into that hollow trunk, and out flew +a huge bat. This was the spirit of death which was now let free to roam +the world, claiming all it could touch with its wings. + +Of eclipses there are various accounts. Some say it is Yhi, the sun, +the wanton woman, who has overtaken at last her enemy the moon, who +scorned her love, and whom now she tries to kill, but the spirits +intervene, dreading a return to a dark world. Some say the enemies have +managed to get evil spirits into each other which are destroying them. +The wirreenuns chant incantations to oust these spirits of evil, and +when the eclipse is over claim a triumph of their magic. + +Another account says that Yhi, the sun, after many lovers, tried to +ensnare Bahloo, the moon; but he would have none of her, and so she +chases him across the sky, telling the spirits who stand round the sky +holding it up, that if they let him escape past them to earth, she will +throw down the spirit who sits in the sky holding the ends of the +Kurrajong ropes which they guard at the other end, and if that spirit +falls the earth will be hurled down into everlasting darkness. + +So poor Bahloo, when he wants to get to earth and go on with the +creation of baby girls, has to sneak down as an emu past the spirits, +hurrying off as soon as the sun sinks down too. + +Bahloo is a very important personage in legends. + +When the blacks see a halo round the moon they say, + +'Hullo! Going to be rain. Bahloo building a house to keep himself dry.' + +All sorts of scraps of folk-lore used to crop out from the little girls +I took from the camp into the house to domesticate. When storms were +threatening, some of the clouds have a netted sort of look, something +like a mackerel sky, only with a dusky green tinge, they would say: +'See the old man with the net on his back; he's going to drop some +hailstones.' + +Meteors always mean death; should a trail follow them, the dead person +has left a large family. + +Comets are a spirit of evil supposed to drink up the rain-clouds, so +causing a drought; their tails being huge families all thirsty, so +thirsty that they draw the river up into the clouds. + +Every natural feature in any way pronounced has a mythical reason for +its existence, every peculiarity in bird life, every peculiarity in the +trees and stones. Besides there are many mythical bogies still at +large, according to native lore, making the bush a gnome-land. + +Even the winds carry a legend in their breath. + +You hear people say they could have 'burst with rage,' but it is left +to a black's legend to tell of a whole tribe bursting with rage, and so +originating the winds. + +There was once an invisible tribe called Mayrah. These people, men and +women, though they talked and hunted with them, could never be seen by +the other tribes, to whom were only visible their accoutrements for +hunting. They would hear a woman's voice speak to them, see perhaps a +goolay in mid-air and hear from it an invisible baby's cry; they would +know then a Mayrah woman was there. Or a man would speak to them. +Looking up they would see a belt with weapons in it, a forehead band +too, perhaps, but no waist nor forehead, a water-vessel invisibly held: +a man was there, an invisible Mayrah. One of these Mayrah men chummed +with one of the Doolungaiyah tribe; he was a splendid mate, a great +hunter, and all that was desirable, but for his invisibility. The +Doolungaiyah longed to see him, and began to worry him on the subject +until at last the Mayrah became enraged, went to his tribe, and told +them of the curiosity of the other tribes as to their bodily forms. The +others became as furious as he was; they all burst with rage and rushed +away roaring in six different directions, and ever since have only +returned as formless wind to be heard but never seen. So savagely the +Mayrah howled round the Doolungaiyah's camp that he burrowed into the +sand to escape, and his tribe have burrowed ever since. + +Three of the winds are masculine and three feminine. The Crow, +according to legend, controls Gheeger Gheeger, and keeps her in a +hollow log. The Eagle-hawk owns Gooroongoodilbaydilbay, and flies with +her in the shape of high clouds. Yarragerh is a man, and he has for +wives the Budtha, Bibbil, and Bumble trees, and when he breathes on +them they burst into new shoots, buds, flowers, and fruits, telling the +world that their lover Yarragerh, the spring, has come. + +Douran Doura woos the Coolabah, and Kurrajong, who flower after the hot +north wind has kissed them. + +The women winds have no power to make trees fruitful. They can but moan +through them, or tear them in rage for the lovers they have stolen, +whom they can only meet twice a year at the great corroboree of the +winds, when they all come together, heard but never seen; for Mayrah, +the winds, are invisible, as were the Mayrah, the tribe who in bursting +gave them birth. + +Yarragerh and Douran Doura are the most honoured winds as being the +surest rain-bringers. In some of the blacks' songs Mayrah is sung of as +the mother of Yarragerh, the spring, or as a woman kissed into life by +Yarragerh putting such warmth into her that she blows the winter away. +But these are poetical licences, for Yarragerh is ordinarily a man who +woos the trees as a spring wind until the flowers are born and the +fruit formed, then back he goes to the heaven whence he came. + +Then there are the historical landmarks: Byamee's tracks in stone, and +so on, and the battle-fields, too, of old tribal fights. Just in front +of our station store was a gnarled old Coolabah tree covered with warty +excrescences, which are supposed to be seats for spirits, so showing a +spirit haunt. + +In this particular tree are the spirits of the Moungun, or armless +women, and when the wind blows you could hear them wailing. Their cruel +husband chopped their arms off because they could not get him the honey +he wanted, and their spirits have wailed ever since. + +Across the creek is another very old tree, having one hollow part in +which is said to be secreted a shell which old Wurrunnah, the traveller +of the tribes, and the first to see the sea, brought back. No one would +dare to touch the shell. The tribe of a neighbouring creek, when we +were first at the station, used to threaten to come and get it, but the +men of the local tribe used to muster to protect it from desecration +even at the expense of their lives. + +The Minggah by the garden I have told you of before. Further down the +creek are others. + +At Weetalibah was the tree from which Byamee cut the first Gayandi. +This tree was burnt by travellers a few years ago. The blacks were +furious: the sacred tree of Byamee burnt by the white devils! There are +trees, too, considered sacred, from which Byamee cut honey and marked +them for his own, just as a man even now, on finding a bee's nest and +not being able to stay and get it, marks a tree, which for any one else +to touch is theft. + +A little way from the head station was an outcrop of white stones. +These are said to be fossilised bones of Boogoodoogahdah's victims. She +was a cannibal woman who had hundreds of dogs; with them she used to +round up blacks and kill them, and she and her dogs ate them. At last +she was outwitted and killed herself, and her spirit flew out as a bird +from her heart. This bird haunts burial grounds, and if in a drought +any one can run it down and make it cry out, rain will fall. + +During a drought one of these birds came into my garden, hearing which +the blacks said rain would come soon, and it did. In another drought +when the rainmakers had failed, some of the old blacks saw a rain-bird +and hunted it, but could not get it to call out. + +Geologists say there should be diamonds along some of the old +water-courses of the Moorilla ridges. Perhaps the white stone that the +blacks talk about, which shows a light at night, and has, they say, a +devil in it, is a diamond. Ruskin rather thought there was a devil in +diamonds, making women do all sorts of evil to possess them. The blacks +told me that a Queensland tribe had a marvellous stone which at great +gatherings they show. Taking those who are privileged to see it into +the dark, there they suddenly produce it, and it glows like a star, +though when looked closely at in daylight seems only like a large drop +of rain solidified. This stone, they said, has to be well guarded, as +it has the power of self-movement, or rather, the devil in it can move +it. + +The greatest of local landmarks is at Brewarrina; this is the work of +Byamee and his giant sons, the stone fisheries made in the bed of the +Barwon. + +At Boogira, on the Narran Lake, is an imprint in stone of Byamee's hand +and foot, which shows that in those days were giants. There it was that +Byamee brought to bay the crocodiles who had swallowed his wives, from +which he recovered them and restored them to life. + +At Mildool is a scooped-out rock which Byamee made to catch and hold +water; beside it he hollowed out a smaller stone, that his dog might +have a drinking-place too. This recurrence of the mention of dogs in +the legends touching Byamee looks as if blacks at all events believed +dogs to have been in Australia as long as men. + +At Dooyanweenia are two rocks where Byamee and Birrahgnooloo rested, +and to these rocks are still sticking the hairs he pulled from his +beard, after rubbing his face with gum to make them come out easily. + +At Guddee, a spring in the Brewarrina district, every now and then come +up huge bones of animals now extinct. Legends say that these bones are +the remains of the victims of Mullyan, the eagle-hawk, whose camp was +in the tree at the foot of which was the spring. This tree was a tree +of trees; first, a widely spreading gum, then another kind, next a +pine, and lastly a midgee, in which was Mullyan's camp, out of which +the relations of his victims burnt him and his wives, and they now form +the Northern Crown constellation. The roots of this gigantic tree +travelled for miles, forming underground water-courses. At Eurahbah and +elsewhere are hollowed-out caves like stones; in these places +Birrahgnooloo slept, and near them, before the stock trampled them out, +were always to be found springs made at her instigation for her +refreshment; she is the patroness of water. + +At Toulby and elsewhere are mud springs. It is said that long ago there +were no springs there, nor in the Warrego district, and in the droughts +the water-courses all dried up and the blacks perished in hundreds. +Time, after time this happened, until at last it seemed as if the +tribes would be exterminated. The Yanta--spirits--saw what was +happening and felt grieved, so they determined to come and live on the +earth again to try and bring relief to the drought-stricken people. +Down they came and set to work to excavate springs. They scooped out +earth and dug, deeper and deeper, until at length after many of them +gave in from exhaustion, those that were left were rewarded by seeing +springs bubble up. + +The first of those that they made was at Yantabulla, which bears their +name to this day. + +The blacks were delighted at having watering-places which neither a +drought nor the fiercest sun could dry up. The Yantas were not +contented with this nor with the other springs they made. They +determined to excavate a whole plain, and turn it into a lake so deep +that the sun could never dry it, and which would be full of fish for +the tribes. + +They went to Kinggle and there began their work. On they toiled +unceasingly, but work as they would they could not complete their +scheme, for one after another wearied and died, until at last nothing +was left on the plain but the mud springs under the surface and the +graves of the Yantas on top. No blacks will cross Kinggle plains lest +some of these spirits arise through the openings of their graves. + +This legend shows what a disheartening country the West is in a +drought. When even the spirits gave in, how can ordinary men succeed? +But indeed it is not ordinary men who do, but our 'Western heroes,' as +Will Ogilvie calls them, who wear their cross of bronze on neck and +cheek in the country where 'the green fades into grey.' + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE TRAPPING OF GAME + + +Some of the blacks' methods of catching game I have seen practised, +some have long since died out of use. + +Of course the sportsmen knew the favourite watering-holes of the game. +At such a place they made a rough break at each side, leaving an +opening where the track was. Along this track they would lay a net with +one end on the edge of the water; in the water they put sticks on the +ends of which the birds rest to drink, the other ends are out in the +trap. They would make a hole low down on each side of the net, and a +man would hide in each. + +A bird's watering-place, where the blacks trap them, is called +Dheelgoolee. When the Dheelgoolee trapping begins, on the first day +those who go out hunting must bring home their game alive to give the +man at the Dheelgoolee luck. Then they never try to catch an emu or +kangaroo, only iguana, opossum, piggiebillah, paddy melon, or +bandicoot, all of which could be brought home alive. But after the +first day they can kill as they go along. + +All day some birds come to the Dheelgoolee-pigeons, gilahs, young +crows, and others, and the man watching catches them. When the game was +thick on the net, the men in the holes would catch hold of the ends of +the sticks in the net and quickly turn them over the lower ends, thus +entrapping all on the net. In the evening turkeys and such things as +water at night-time, amongst which are opossums and paddy melons, would +be trapped. + +Ducks were trapped, too, by making bough breaks across the shallow part +of the creek, with a net across the deep part from break to break. A +couple of the men would go up stream to hunt the ducks down, and some +would stay each side of the net armed with pieces of bark. The two +hunters up stream frightened the ducks off the water, and sent them +flying down stream to the trap. Should they seem flying too high as if +to pass, the blacks would throw the pieces of bark high in the air, +imitating, as they did so, the cry of hawks. Down the ducks would fly +turning back; some of the men would whistle like ducks, others would +throw bark again, giving the hawk's cry, which would frighten the +birds, making them double back into the net, where they were quickly +despatched by those waiting. + +Murrahgul is another trap. This is a yard made all round a waterhole +with one opening; about this opening they will fasten, from stumps or +logs, strong strings with a slipping knot. The game, emu or kangaroo, +would probably step into one of these string nooses, would try to pull +its leg out; the harder it pulled the tighter the knot. Or the blacks +might have put a sort of cross-bar overhead at the entrance, with +hanging strings having a slip knot; in would go an emu's head, the bird +would rush on and be strangled. + +Boobeen is a primitive cornet, a hollowed piece of Bibbil wood, one end +partially filled up with pine gum, and ornamented outside with +carvings. To blow through it is an art, and the result rather like a +big horn. The noise is said to be very like an emu's cry, and this emu +bugle will certainly, they say, draw towards it a gundooee, or solitary +emu. + +The blacks used on the sandhills to make a deep hole to hide themselves +in, usually only one though. From this hole they would run out a drain +for about thirty yards. The man with the Boobeen would have a little +break of bushes round him; scattered over the leaves he'd have emu +feathers, and then he would have a strong string, on the end of which +he would have a small branch with this he would place about midway emu +feathers on it; down the drain. + +When the emu answers the Boobeen's call, the bugler gets lower and +slower with his call. The emu sees the feathered thing in the drain, +comes inquisitively up and sniffs at it. The man in the hole pulls in +the string slowly; the emu follows, on, on, until heedlessly he steps +on a Murrahgul, or string trap, and is caught. The hunters would +sometimes stalk kangaroo, holding in front of them boughs of trees or +bushy young saplings, closing silently in and in, until at last the +kangaroo were so closely surrounded by men armed with boondees and +spears that there was no escape for them. + +For catching emu they had a net made of string as thick as a +clothes-line. These nets were made either of Kurrajong (Noongah) bark, +or of Burraungah grass. The Kurrajong bark is stripped off the trees, +beaten, chewed, and then teased. Then it was taken and rubbed, +principally by the women on their legs, into strands. + +The grass was used preferably to Kurrajong bark, as it was easier to +work. The process of preparation was as follows:-- + +A hole was dug in the ground, some fire put in it, a. quantity of +ordinary grass was put on the top of the coals, and on top of that a +heap of Burraungah grass, that topped with ordinary grass. + +Water was sprinkled over it all and the hole earthed up. + +When it had been in long enough the earth was cleared away, and the +grass, which was quite soft, taken out. It was then chewed and worked +like the Kurrajong bark, than which it was much more pliable. + +String was made of various thicknesses according to what it was +required for. + +Fishing nets were always smoked before being used, and all nets had +little charm songs sung over them. In netting, their only implement was +a piece of wood to wind their string on. An emu net was about five feet +high, and between two and three hundred yards long. + +When any one discovered a setting emu, they used not to disturb her at +once and get her eggs, but returned to the camp, singing as they neared +it a song known as the Noorunglely, or setting emu song; those in camp +would recognise it, and sing back the reply. The black fellows having +learnt where the nest was, would get their net and go out to camp near +it. All that evening they would have an emu-hunting corroboree. The +next morning at daylight they would erect their net into a sort of +triangular-shaped yard, one side open. Black fellows would be stationed +at each end of the net, and at stated intervals along the mirroon, as +the net was called. When the others were all ready some of the blacks +would make a wide circle round the emu, leaving open the side towards +the net; they would close in gradually until they frightened the emu +off her nest; she would run in the direction where she saw no black +fellows and where the net was; the black fellows closing in behind, +followed quickly. Poor Noorunglely floundered into the net, up rushed a +black fellow and, seizing her, wrung her neck. Having secured her, they +would next secure her eggs; that they might be a trifle stale was a +matter of indifference to them. + +Another old method was by making sort of brush yards and catching the +emus in these. + +One modern way is to run them down with kangaroo dogs, the same way +with kangaroo; but at one time still another method obtained. A black +fellow would get a long spear and fasten on the end a bunch of emu +feathers. When he sighted an emu he would climb a tree, break some +boughs to place beneath him, if the trees were thinly foliaged, to hide +him from the emu, then he would let his spear dangle down. The emu, a +most inquisitive bird, seeing the emu feathers, would investigate. +Directly the bird was underneath the tree, the black fellow would grip +his spear tightly and throw it at the emu, rarely, if ever, failing to +hit it, though the emu might run wounded for a short distance, but the +black fellow would be quickly after it to give it happy despatch. + +If the emu got a good start even, it was easily tracked by the trail of +blood. It has happened that a black fellow has not found his emu until +the next day, when it was dead and the spear still in it; but usually +very soon after the wounded birds start running the spear is shaken +out. + +Sometimes the blacks killed birds with their boomerangs, ducks in +particular. I fancy this killing of ducks by a well-thrown boomerang is +one of the feats that black fellows allow themselves to blow about. +Every man has usually one subject, a speciality he considers of his +own, and on that subject he waxes eloquent. + +Pigeons, gilahs, and plains turkeys are also killed with boomerangs. +Blacks' fishing-nets are about ten feet by five, a stick run through +each end, for choice of Eurah wood. Eurah is a pretty drooping shrub +with bell-shaped spotted flowers, having a horrible smell. The wood is +very pliable. It is sometimes used instead of the sacred Dheal at +funerals. + +Two of the fishermen take the net into the creek, one at each end; they +stand in a rather shallow place, holding the net upright in the water. +Some other blacks go up stream and splash about, frightening the fish +down towards the net. When those holding the net feel the fish in it, +they fold the two sticks together and bring the net out. + +To catch fish they also make small weirs and dams of stones, with +narrow passages of stones leading to them. The fish are swept by the +current into these yards, and there either caught by the blacks with +their hands, or speared. The most celebrated of these stone fish-traps +is at Brewarrina on the Barwon. It is said to have been made by Byamee, +the god and culture-hero of these people, and his giant sons. He it was +who established the rule that there should be a camping-ground in +common for the various tribes where, during the fishing festival, peace +should be strictly kept, all meeting to enjoy the fish, to do their +share towards preserving the fisheries. + +Each tribe has its particular yards; for another to take fish from +these is theft. Each tribe keeps its yards in repair, replacing stones +removed by floods, and so on. + +These stony fish mazes are fully two hundred yards in length, +substantially built; some huge boulders are amongst the stones which +form these most intricate labyrinthine fish yards, which as traps are +eminently successful, many thousands of Murray cod and other fish being +caught in them. + +Dingo pups, in the days when dingoes were plentiful, were a most +esteemed delicacy. To eat dog is dangerous for a woman, as causing +increased birth-pangs; that suggests dog must be rather good eating, +some epicure wirreenun scaring women off it by making that assertion. + +Ant larv', a special gift from some spirit in the stars, and frogs, are +also thought good by camp epicures. + +The blacks smear themselves over with the fat of fish or of almost any +game they catch. It is supposed to keep their limbs supple, and give +the admired ebony gloss to their skins which, by the way, are very fine +grained. After a flood, when the water is running out of the +tributaries of the creek, the blacks make a bough break beginning on +each bank and almost meeting in the middle; across the gap they place a +fishing-net which folds in like a bag, thus forming a fish-trap in +which are caught any number of fish. Crayfish and mussels they caught +by digging down their holes in the mud for them. Their mode of catching +shrimps was very (with all apologies to scientists for using the word) +primitive. Quite nude, the women sit down in the water, let the shrimps +bite them; as they nip, seize them. + +Iguanas burrow into the soft sand ridges and there remain during the +winter, only coming out after the Curreequinquins--butcher birds--one +of their sub-totems, sing their loudest to warn them that the winter is +gone, calling Dooloomai, the thunder, to their aid lest their singing +is not heard by their relations, who after the storms come out again in +as good condition as when they disappeared. + +Black men do not approve of women cooks. At least the old men, under +the iron rule of ancient custom, will not eat bread made by gins, nor +would they eat iguana, fish, piggiebillah, or anything like that if the +inside were removed by a woman, though after themselves having prepared +such things, they allow the gins to cook them--that is, if they have +not young children or are enceinte; under those conditions they are +unclean. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +FORAGING AND COOKING + + +It is very strange to me to hear the average white person speak of the +blacks collectively as having no individuality, for really they are as +diverse in characteristics as possible; no two girls I had in the house +but were totally different. + +There has been too much generalisation about the blacks. For instance, +you hear some people assert all blacks are trackers and good bushmen. +That there are some whose tracking power is marvellous is true, but +they are not the rule, and a black fellow off his own beat is often +useless as a bushman. + +So with their eyesight; what they have been trained to look out for +they see in a marvellously quick way, or so it seems to us who have not +in their lines the same aptitude. Of course, for seeing things at a +distance a black has the advantage, unless the white has had the same +open-air life. Some white bushmen are as good as any blacks. + +Nimmaylee, a little black girl who lived in the house, used to tell me +all sorts of bush wonders, as we went in the early summer mornings for +a swim in the river. She was a great water-baby, with rather a contempt +for my aquatic limitations. Then she thought it too idiotic to want to +dry yourself with a towel,--just like a mad white woman! + +White people were an immense joke to Nimmaylee. She conformed to their +rules as one playing a new game. She has a little brother as black as +herself. She has a substantial pair of legs, but his are so thin and +his little body so round that he looks like a little black spider. + +Nimmaylee is quite an authority on corroborees, knowing ever so many +different steps, from the serpentile trail of the codfish to the mimic +fight. The songs she knows too. She used, when she lived in the camp, +to marshal in a little crowd of camp children, and put them through a +varied performance for my benefit. + +These performances were of daily occurrence when the fruit was ripe, +for Nimmaylee's capacity for water-melon was practically unlimited. + +Nimmaylee was a wonderful little fisherwoman; she delighted in a +fishing expedition with me. Off we used to go with our lines, worms or +frogs for bait, or perhaps shrimps or mussels if we were after cod. If +we were successful, Nimmaylee would string the fish on a stick in a +most professional manner, and carry them with an air of pride to the +cook. She attributes her fishing successes to a charm having been sung +over her to that end as a baby. + +Accompanied by some reliable old 'gins' and ever so many piccaninnies, +I used to take long walks through the 'bush.' + +How interesting those blacks made my bush walks for me! Every ridge, +plain, and bend had its name and probably legend; each bird a past, +every excrescence of nature a reason for its being. + +Those walks certainly at least modified my conceit. I was always the +dunce of the party--the smallest child knew more of woodcraft than I +did, and had something to tell of everything. Seeing Oogahnahbayah, a +small eagle-hawk, flying over, they would say, 'He eats the emu eggs.' +He flies over where the emu is sitting on her eggs and makes a noise +hoping to frighten the bird off; having done so, he will drop a stone +on the eggs. If the emu is not startled off the nest, the hawk will fly +on, alight at some distance, and walk up like a black fellow, still +with the stone in his beak, to the nest; off the emu will go, then the +hawk bangs the eggs with the stone until he breaks them. He throws the +stone on one side, has a feed of emu eggs, and goes off, leaving poor +Moorunglely, the sitting emu, to come back and find her eggs all +destroyed. As the narrative ended, the little {aborigines} would look +quite sad, and say 'Nurragah!' 'Poor thing!' at the thought of the +domestic tragedy in bird life. + +I had to hear the stingless little native bees humming before I could +see them; and as to knowing which tree had honey in it, unless I saw +the bees, that was quite beyond me, while a mere toddler would point +triumphantly to a 'sugar-bag' tree, recognising it as such by the wax +on its fork, black before rain, yellowish afterwards. + +This honey is good strained, but as the blacks get it, it is all mixed +up with dirty wax and dead bees. + +I deplored the sacrifice of the bees one day, but was told it was all +right. Whoever had chopped the nest out would take home the waxy stick +they had used to help get the honey out; they would throw the stick in +the fire, then all the dead bees would go to a paradise in the skies, +whence next season they would send Yarragerh Mayrah, the Spring Wind, +to blow the flowers open, and then down they would come to earth again. +One year the manna just streamed down the Coolabah and Bibbil trees; it +ran down like liquid honey, crystallising where it dropped. + +The old blacks said, 'It is a drought now, but it will be worse. Byamee +has sent the manna by the little Dulloorah birds and the black ants, +because there will be no flowers for the bees to get honey from, so he +has sent this manna.' Each time he has done so, a great drought has +followed, and indeed it was followed by one of the worst droughts +Australia has ever known. Byamee, it is said, first sent them the manna +because their children were crying for honey, of which there was none +except in the trees that Byamee, when on earth, had marked for his own. +The women had murmured that they were not allowed to get this; but the +men were firm, and would neither touch it nor let them touch it, which +so pleased Byamee that he sent the manna, and said he always would when +a long drought threatened. + +A great chorus of 'My Jerhs' would tell something was sighted. + +It might be the track of a piggiebillah porcupine. This track was +followed to a hollow log; then came the difficulty, how to get it out, +for porcupines cling tightly with their sharp claws, and all a dog can +do where a piggiebillah is concerned is to bark, their spines are too +much to tackle at close quarters. But the old gins are equal to the +occasion: a tomahawk to chop the log, and a yam-stick to dislodge the +porcupine, who takes a good deal of killing before he is vanquished. + +They say a fully initiated man can sing a charm which will make a +piggiebillah relax his grip and be taken captive without any trouble. +The piggiebillahs burrow into the sand and leave their young there as +soon as the faintest feel of a spine appears. The baby piggiebillahs +look like little indiarubber toys. + +The opossums all disappeared from our district. When we were first +there they were very numerous and used to make raids at night to my +rose-bushes--great havoc the result. It is said a very great +wirreenun--wizard--willed them away so that his enemy, whose yunbeai, or +personal totem, the opossum was, should die. This design was frustrated +by counter magic; two powerful wizards appeared and, acting in concert, +put a new yunbeai into the dying man; he recovered. + +When the opossums were about the blacks used to see their scratched +tracks on the trees, and chop or burn them out. They miss the opossums +very much, for not only were they a prized food, but their skins made +rugs, their hair was woven into cords of which were made amulets worn +on the forearm or head against sickness, and with no modern instrument +can they so well carve their weapons, as with an opossum tooth. +Naturally their desire is to see Moodai, the opossum, return; to that +end a wirreenun is now singing incantations to charm him back. + +Opossum hunters had a way of bringing them home strung round their +necks; very disagreeable, I should think, but custom, that tyrant, +rules it so. The old gins dug out yams vigorously; some were eaten raw, +others were kept for cooking. + +To cook them they dug out a hole, made a fire in it, put some stones on +the fire, then, when the stones were heated and the fire burnt down, +they laid some leaves and grass on the stones, sprinkled some water, +then put on the yams, on top of them more grass, sprinkled more water, +then more grass and a. thick coating of earth, leaving the yams to +cook. + +Several other roots they cooked and ate. Raw they ate thistle tops, +pigweed, and crowfoot, with great relish. Their game they cooked as +follows. Kangaroo were first singed, cleaned out, and filled with hot +stones, then put on the top of a burnt-down fire, hot ashes heaped all +over them. The blacks like their meats with the gravy in, very +distinctly red gravy. Emu were plucked, the insides taken out, and the +birds filled up with hot stones, box leaves, and some of their own +feathers. A fire was made in a hole; when it was burnt down, leaves and +emu feathers were put in it, on top of these the bird, on top of it +leaves and feathers again, then a good layer of hot ashes, and over all +some earth. + +The piggiebillahs were first smoked so that their quills might be +easily knocked off. This done, the insides were taken out, then the +piggiebillahs were put in little holes made beside the fire, and +covered over with hot ashes, as were also opossums, ducks and other +birds, iguanas and fish. + +Ducks were plucked by our tribe, but in some places they were encased +thickly in mud, buried in the ashes to cook, and, when done, the +plaster of mud would be knocked off, and with it would come all the +feathers. + +The insides of iguanas and fish are taken out all in one piece. Each +fish carries in its inside a representation of its Minggah--spirit +tree; by drying the inside and pressing it you can plainly see the +imprint of the tree. + +When we go bathing, the blacks tell me that the holes in the creek +filled with gum leaves are codfish nests. They say too, that when they +beat the river to drive the fish out towards the net waiting for them, +that they hear the startled cod sing out. + +Mussels and crayfish are cooked in the ashes. + +The seagulls, which occasionally we used to see inland, are said to +have brought the first mussels to the back creeks. + +Emu eggs the blacks roll in hot ashes, shake, roll again; shake once +more, and then bury them in the ashes, where they are left for about an +hour until they are baked hard, when they are eaten with much relish +and apparently no hurt to digestion, though one egg is by no means +considered enough for a meal in spite of its being equal to several +eggs of our domestic hen. + +Not only are the blacks very particular in the way their game is carved +or divided, but also in the distribution of the portions allotted to +each person. The right to a particular part is an inherited one. No +polite offering of a choice to an honoured guest, no suggestion of the +leg or wing. You may loathe the leg of a bird as food, but at a black +fellow's feast, if convention ordains that as your portion, have it you +must; just as each rank in society had its invariable joint in early +mediaeval Ireland. + +The seeds of Noongah--a sterculia--and Dheal, were ground on their flat +dayoorl-stones and made into cakes, which they baked, first on pieces +of bark beside the fire to harden them, then in the ashes. These +dayoorl, or grinding-stones, are handed down from generation to +generation, being kept each in the family to whom it had first +belonged. Should a member of any other use it without permission, a +fight would ensue. Some of these stones are said to have spirits in +them; those are self-moving, and at times have the power of speech. I +have neither seen them move nor heard them speak, though I have a +couple in my possession. I suppose the statement must be taken on +faith; and as faith can move mountains, why not a dayoorl-stone? + +The so-called improvident blacks actually used to have a harvest time, +and a harvest home too. When the doonburr, or seed, was thick on the +yarmmara, or barley-grass, the tribes gathered this grass in +quantities. + +First, they made a little space clear of everything, round which they +made a brush-yard. Each fresh supply of yarmmara, as it was brought in +by the harvesters, was put in this yard. When enough was gathered, the +brush-yard was thrown on one side, and fire set to the grass, which was +in full ear though yet green. While the fire was burning, the blacks +kept turning the grass with sticks all the time to knock the seeds out. +When this was done, and the fire burnt out, they gathered up the seed +into a big opossum-skin rug, and carried it to the camp. + +There, the next day, they made a round hole like a bucket, and a square +hole close to it. These they filled with grass seed. One man trampled +on the seed in the square hole to thresh it out with his feet; another +man had a boonal, or stick, about a yard long, rounded at one end, and +nearly a foot broad; with this he worked the grass in the round hole, +and as he worked the husks flew away. + +It took all one day to do this. The next day they took the large bark +wirrees, canoe-shaped vessels, which when big like these are called +yubbil. They put some grain in these, and shook it up; one end of the +yubbils being held much higher than the other, thus all the dust and +dirt sifted to one end, whence it was blown off. When the grain was +sufficiently clean, it was put away in skin bags to be used as +required, being then ground on the large flat dayoorl-stones, with a +smaller flat stone held in both hands by the one grinding; this stone +was rubbed up and down the dayoorl, grinding the seed on it, on which, +from time to time, water was thrown to soften it. + +When ground, the grain was made into little flat cakes, and cooked as +the tree-seed cakes were. When the harvesting of the yarmmara was done, +a great hunt took place, a big feast was prepared, and a big corroboree +held night after night for some time. + +The two principal drinks were gullendoorie--that is, water sweetened +with honey; and another made of the collarene, or flowers of the +Coolabah (grey-leaved box), or Bibbil (poplar-leaved box) flowers, +soaked all night in binguies (canoe-shaped wooden vessels) of water. +Just about Christmas time the collarene is at its best; and then, in +the olden days, there were great feasts and corroborees held. + +The flat dayoorl-stones on which the seeds are ground with the smaller +stone, are like the 'saddle-stone querns' occasionally found in +ancient British sites. These primitive appliances preceded the circular +rotatory querns in evolution, and as the monuments prove were used in +ancient Egypt. I cannot say whether, amongst the Euahlayi, there was a +recognised licence as to exchange of wives on these festal occasions, +or at boorahs. If the custom existed, I was not told of it by the +blacks; but it is quite possible that, unless I made inquiries on the +subject, I would not be told. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +COSTUMES AND WEAPONS + + +I have seen a coloured king simply smirking with pride, in what he +considered modern full dress--a short shirt and an old tall hat. + +And I suppose, as far as actual clothing went, it was an advance on the +old-time costume of paint and feathers. A black woman's needle was a +little bone from the leg of an emu, pointed. Her thread was sinews of +opossums, kangaroos, and emus; that was all that was necessary for her +plain sewing, which was plain indeed. + +Her fancy work consisted of netting dillee, goolays, or miniature +hammocks to sling her baby across her back, or, failing a baby, her +mixed possessions, from food to feathers; her larder and wardrobe in +one. + +Her costume being simple in the extreme did not require much room. It +consisted of a goomillah, which was a string wound round the waist, +made of opossum sinews, and in front, hanging down for about a foot, +were twisted strands of opossum hair. A bone, or on state occasions a +green twig, stuck through the cartilage of her nose, a string net over +her hair, or perhaps only a fillet, or a kangaroo's tooth fastened to +her front lock, gum balls dried on side-locks, an opossum's hair +armlet, and perhaps a reed bead necklet and a polished black skin, +toilette complete, unless for certain ceremonies a further decoration +of flowers or down feathers was required. + +The principal article of the man's dress was called waywah. It was a +belt, about six inches wide, made of twisted sinews and hair, with four +tufts about eighteen inches long hanging back and front and at each +side from it, made of narrow strips of kangaroo or paddy melon skins. + +For warmth in winter they would wrap themselves in their opossum-skin +rugs. Sometimes both sexes adorned themselves with strings of kangaroo +teeth fixed into gum, in which a little hole was made, round their +heads and necks--yumbean they called them; or forehead bands with +hanging kangaroo teeth, which were called gnooloogail. + +Pine gum they rolled into small egg-shaped balls, warmed them and stuck +them in dozens all over their heads, where they would be left until +they wore off, hairdressings being only an occasional duty. The gum +they used for sticking the kangaroo's teeth was that of the Mubboo, or +beefwood tree. + +Sometimes wongins were worn; they consisted of cords round the neck and +under the arms, crossing the chest with a shell pendant at the centre +of the cross. A shell is still a most prized ornament. + +The corroboree dress is one of paint; the feature of it being its +design, a man can gain quite a tribal reputation for being an +originator of decorative designs. + +Their original paint colourings were white, red, and yellow; +occasionally they said they got some sort of blue by barter, but very +occasionally, as it came from very far. White was from Gidya ash, or +gypsum; red and yellow, ochre clay; but they also got both red and +yellow from burning at a certain stage certain trees, gooroolay for +red; the charcoal, instead of being black, having red and yellow +tinges. But since the white people came the blue bag has put yellow out +of fashion, and raddle is used for the red. + +Their opossum rugs used to have designs scratched on the skin sides and +also painted patterns, some say tribal marks, others just to look +pretty and distinguish each their own. + +Feathers tied into little bunches and fastened on to small wooden +skewers were stuck upright in the hair at corroborees, also swansdown +fluffed in puff balls over the heads. + +The Gooumoorh, or corroboree, is a sort of black fellow's opera; as to +the musical part, rather, as some one found an oratorio, a thing of +high notes and vain repetition. + +The stage effects of corroborees are sometimes huge sheets of bark +fastened on to poles; these sheets of bark are painted in different +designs and colours, something like Moorish embroideries. Sometimes +there is a huge imitation of an alligator made of logs plastered over +with earth and painted in stripes of different colours, a piece of wood +cut open stuck in at one end as a gaping mouth. This alligator +corroboree is generally indicative of a Boorah, or initiation ceremony, +being near at hand. Sometimes the stage effects are high painted poles +merely. + +At the back of the goomboo, or stage, are large fires; in the front, in +a semicircle, sit the women as orchestra, and the audience; a fire at +each end of the semicircle, as a sort of footlights. The music of the +orchestra is made by some beating time on rolled-up opossum rugs, and +some clicking two boomerangs together. The time is faultless. The tunes +are monotonous, but rhythmical and musical, curiously well suited to +the stage and layers. These last have a very weird look as they steal +Pout of the thick scrub, out of the darkness, quickly one after +another, dancing round the goomboo in time to the music, their +grotesquely painted figures and feather-decorated heads lit up by the +flickering lights of the fires around. + +As the dancing gets faster the singing gets louder, every muscle of the +dancers seems strained, and the wonder is the voices do not crack. Just +as you think they must, the dancing slows again; the voices die away, +to swell out once more with renewed vigour when the fires are built up +again and again; the same dance is gone through, time after time--one +night one dance, or, for that matter, many nights one dance. + +The dancers sometimes make dumb-show of hunts, fights, slaughters, the +women sometimes translating the actions in the songs; sometimes the +words seem to have nothing to do with them, and the dances only a +series of steps illustrating nothing. + +Corroborees seem to fit in with the indescribable mystery of the bush. +That the spirit of the bush is mystery makes it so difficult to +describe beyond bald realism, otherwise it seems an effort to seize the +intangible. Poor Barcroft Boake got something of the mystery into +words. + +If an Australian Wagner could be born we might hope for a musical +adaptation of corroborees. Wagner was essentially the exponent of +folk-lore music, wherein must be expressed the fundamentals of human +passion unrefined. + +The most celebrated weapon is probably the boomerang the most +celebrated kind to whites, though not most useful to blacks, is the +Bubberab, or returning boomerang. These are made chiefly of Gidya and +Myall. Here these 'Come backs' are never carved, are more curved than +the ordinary boomerang, and were greased, rubbed with charred grass, +and warmed before being used, so that the slightest warp would be +straightened. It is marvellous the accuracy with which an adept can +throw one of these weapons, locating it on the exact place to which he +wishes it to return. + +Gidya is the favourite wood for boomerangs. They are first roughly +shaped, then thrown into water and soaked for two or three days; taken +out and made into the proper shape, rubbed with charred grass, greased +well, and carved in various designs with an opossum's tooth. + +Boomerangs have many uses--in peace two clicked together as a musical +instrument, as a war weapon, and as a weapon in the chase. Its last and +rapidly approaching use will be as a curio for collectors. + +Billah, or spears, are made of Belah (swamp oak) or Gidya. These too +are cut roughly first and thrown into water, then cut a little more, +thrown into water again, and so day after day until finished. Sometimes +they are carved with a running featherstitch-like pattern from end to +end, sometimes have bingles, or barbs, cut down one or both sides; some +barbarous things with barbs pointing both ways, so that they could be +neither pushed out nor drawn through a wound; some are plain, painted +at each end or darkened with poison tips. + +Billah are war weapons; a larger kind called Moornin are used for +spearing emu. + +Woggarahs, the hatchet-shaped weapons, were made of Myall, Gidya, and +other woods, carved as were boomerangs, each carver usually having a +favourite design by which his weapons were recognised. + +Booreens, or shields, were of three kinds: a narrow kind made of +hardwood, a broad flat kind of Kurrajong, and a medium-sized one of +Birah, or whitewood, all painted in coloured designs. It is wonderful +the way a man can defend himself single-handed against a number of men, +he having only a narrow shield, the only defence he is allowed when he +has to stand his trial for a breach of the laws. + +Their tomahawks, or Cumbees, were of dark-green stone, of which there +is none in this district, so it must have been obtained by barter, as +in the first instance were the flat, light Booreens from the Queensland +side, and the grass-tree gum from the Narrabri mountains side, for +which Gidya boomerangs were given in exchange. + +The stone tomahawks have a handle put over one end of the stone, gummed +on with beefwood gum, then drawn together under the stone, crossed, and +the two ends tied together as a handle, with sinews of emus, opossums, +or kangaroos. + +Muggils, or stone knives, are just sharpened pieces of stone. + +Moorooleh are plain waddies used in war and for killing game; a smaller +kind called Boodthul are thrown for amusement. + +Boondees are heavy-headed clubs used in war. + +The black fellow won't allow his womenkind a heaven of rest, for the +spirit women are supposed to make weapons which the wirreenuns journey +towards the sunset clouds to get--the women's heaven is in the +west--giving in exchange animal food and opossum rugs, no animals being +there. + +For carrying water they used to make bags of opossum skins. To prepare +the skins they would pluck the hair off, and, after cleansing them +well, sew up the skins with sinews, leaving only the neck open. They +would fill this vessel with air and hang it out to dry. + +As, a water vessel, to mix their drinks and medicines in, they used +Binguies or Coolamons, a deep, canoe-shaped vessel cut out of solid +wood, carved sometimes and painted, a string handle to it. They used +little bark vessels to drink out of, like shallow basins, cut from +excrescences on eucalyptus trees; these were called wirree. A larger +bark vessel they used for holding water, honey, or anything liquid. + +While on the subject of personal decoration I forgot the Moobir, or +cuts on the bodies, some of which are tribal marks, some marks of +mourning, some merely of ornamentation. Both men and women are seen +with these marks in the Narran district; some huge wales on the skin +from the shoulders half-way down the back, some on the chest and the +forepart of the arms. They are cut with a stone knife, licked along by +the medicine man, filled in with charcoal, and the skin let grow over. + +Various reasons are given for these marks: some say they are to give +strength, others as a tribal sign, others just to took pretty. Some +give the final reason for everything, 'Because Byamee say so.' + +In summer the blacks are great bathers, and play all sorts of games in +the water. Their soap is clay; they rub themselves with that, the women +plastering it under their arms again and again; the little children rub +themselves all over with it, then tumble into the water to wash it off. + +In winter they forgo bathing, and rub themselves with liberal +applications of grease. + +The old blacks used to have very good teeth; they never ate without +afterwards rinsing out their mouths, and sometimes munched up charcoal +to purify them. But the younger generation have discarded the +mouth-rinsing habit, and not yet attained to a tooth-brush: result, +gradual deterioration in teeth, a deterioration probably helped by the +drinking of hot liquids. Blacks of the old time drank nothing hot. +Perhaps, too, their tough meats gave muscular strength to their jaws. + +To blacks, kissing is a 'white foolishness,' also handshaking; in olden +times even to smell a stranger was considered a risk. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE AMUSEMENTS OF BLACKS + + +A very favourite game of the old men was skipping--Brambahl, they +called it. + +They had a long rope, a man at each end to swing it. When it is in full +swing in goes the skipper. After skipping in an ordinary way for a few +rounds, he begins the variations, which consist, amongst other things, +of his taking thorns out of his feet, digging as if for larv' of ants, +digging yams, grinding grass-seed, jumping like a frog, doing a sort of +cobbler's dance, striking an attitude as if looking for something in +the distance, running out, snatching up a child, and skipping with it +in his arms, or lying flat down on the ground, measuring his full +length in that position, rising and letting the rope slip under him; +the rope going the whole time, of course, never varying in pace nor +pausing for any of the variations. + +The one who can most successfully vary the performance is victor. Old +men of over seventy seemed the best at skipping. + +There is great excitement over Bubberah, or come-back boomerang +throwing. + +Every candidate has a little fire, where, after having rubbed his +bubberah with charred grass and fat, he warms it, eyes it up and down +to see that it is true, then out he comes, weapon in hand. He looks at +the winning spot, and with a scientific flourish of his arm sends his +bubberah forth on its circular flight; you would think it was going +into the Beyond, when it curves round and comes gyrating back to the +given spot. Here again the old ones score. + +Wungoolay is another old game. + +A number of black fellows arm themselves with a number of spears, or +rather pointed sticks, between four and five feet long, called +widyu-widyu. Two men take the wungoolays, which are pieces of bark, +either squared or roughly rounded, about fifteen inches in diameter. +These men go about fifty yards from each other; first one and then +another throws the wungoolays, which roll swiftly along the ground past +the men with the spears, who are stationed midway between the other two +a few yards from the path of the wungoolays, which, as they come +rolling rapidly past, the men try to spear with their widyu-widyu; he +who hits the most, wins the game. It looks easy enough, but here again +the old men scored. + +For Gurril Boodthul, if a bush is not at hand, a bushy branch of a tree +is stuck up. The men arm themselves with small boodthuls, or miniature +waddies, then stand a few feet behind the bush, which varies from five +to eight feet or so in height at competitions. They throw their +boodthuls in turn; these have to skim through the top of the bush, +which seems to give them fresh impetus instead of slackening them. The +distance they go beyond is the test of a good thrower; over three +hundred yards is not unusual. As practice in this game is kept up, the +young men hold their own. + +There is another throwing stick somewhat larger than the gurril +boodthul, which only weighs about three ounces, and is about a foot in +length. The other stick is thrown to touch the ground, then bound on, +sometimes making one high long leap, sometimes a series of jumps, as a +flat pebble does when thrown along the water in the game children call +'ducks and drakes.' + +Yahweerh is a sort of sham trial fight. One man has a bark shield, and +he has to defend himself with it from the bark toy boomerangs the +others throw. Here again the old men win. Their games, which old and +young alike play, are distinctly childish. + +Boogalah, or ball, is one. In playing this all of one Dhe, or totem, +are partners. The ball, made of sewn-up kangaroo skin, is thrown in the +air; whoever catches it goes with his or her division--for women join +in this game--into a group in the middle, the other circling round. The +ball is thrown in the air, and if one of the circle outside the centre +ring catches it, then his side namely, all his totem--go into the +middle, the others circling round, and so on. The totem keeping it +longest wins. + +Goomboobooddoo, or wrestling, is a great Boorah-time entertainment. +Family clan against clan. Kubbee against Hippi, and so on. A Hippi, for +example, will go into a ring and plant there a mudgee, or painted stick +with a bunch of feathers at the top. In will run a Kubbee and try to +make off with the stick; Hippi will grapple with him, and a wrestling +match comes off. Into the ring will go others of each side wrestling in +their turn. The side that finally throws the most men, and gets the +mudgee, wins. Before wrestling matches, there is much greasing of +bodies to make them slippery. + +Wimberoo was a favourite fireside game. A big fire was made of leafy +branches. Each player got a dry Coolabah leaf, warmed it until it bent +a little, then placed it on two fingers and hit it with one into where +the current of air, caused by the flame, caught it and bore it aloft. +They all jerked their leaves together, and anxiously watched whose +would go the highest. Each watched his leaf descend, caught it, and +began again. So on until tired. + +Woolbooldarn is an absolutely infantile game. A low, overhanging branch +of a tree is chosen, and as many as it will bear, old and young, men +and women, straddle it; and, holding on to the higher overhanging +branches, they swing up and down with as much spring as they can get +out of the branch they are on. + +Whagoo is just like our I hide and seek.' + +Gooumoorhs, or corroborees, are of course their greatest entertainment, +their opera, ballet, and the rest; only they reverse the usual order of +things obtaining elsewhere. The women form the orchestra, the men are +the dancers, as a rule, though women do on occasions take part too. The +dancers rarely sing while performing their evolutions, though they will +end up a measure at times with a loud 'Ooh! Ooh!' or 'Wahl Wah!' + +There are two dances they think very clever: one a sort of in and out +movement with the knees, while keeping the feet close together. +Another, which they called I shivering of the chest,' a sort of drawing +in and out of their breath, causing a vibratory motion. + +Then they give a sort of Sandow performance all in time to the music. +They first start the muscles of their legs showing, then the arms, and +down the sides of the chest. I am afraid I was not educated up to be +appreciative of any of these special wonders, though Matah and others +said their muscular training was marvellous. + +From a spectacular point of view I thought much more interesting a +corroboree illustrating the coming of the first steamer up the Barwon. + +The steamer was made--for the corroboree, I mean--of logs with mud +layered over them, painted up, a hollow log for a funnel in the middle. +There was a little opening in the far side of the steamer in which a +fire was made, the smoke issuing through the hollow log in the most +realistic fashion. The blacks who first came on the stage were all +supposed to represent various birds disturbed by this strange +sight--cranes, pelicans, black swans, and ducks. The peculiarities of +each bird were well imitated; and as each section in turn was startled, +their cries were realistically given. Hearing which, on the scene came +some armed black fellows, who, seeing what the birds had seen, started +back in astonishment, seemed to have a great dumb-show palaver, then +one by one, clutching their weapons, they came forward to more closely +examine the new 'debbil debbil.' Here some one would stoke the fire, +out would belch through the funnel a big smoke and a lapping flame, +away went the blacks into the bush as if too terrified to stay. But you +can't describe a corroboree, it wants the scenic effects of the grim +bush: tapering, dark Belahs, Coolabahs contorted into quaint shapes and +excrescences by extremes of flood and drought, and their grotesqueness +lit up by the flickering fires, until the trees themselves look like +demons of the night, and the painted black fellows their attendant +spirits stealing into the firelight from what seems a vast, dark, +unknown Beyond. + +The sing-song seems to suit it, and the well-timed clicking of the +boomerangs and thudding of the rolled-up rugs. The blacks are great +patrons of art, and encourage native talent in the most praiseworthy +way; although, judging from one of their legends, you might think they +were not. + +This legend tells how Goolahwilleel had the soul of an artist, and when +his family sent him out to hunt their daily dinner, he forgot his quest +and perfected his art, which was the modelling of a kangaroo in gum. +When his work was finished, with the pride of a successful artist he +returned for applause. + +His family demanded of him meat; he showed his kangaroo. + +His masterpiece was unappreciated. Even as did Palissy's--of pottery +fame--wife, so did Goolahwilleel's family revile him. + +His freedom to wander at will, seeking inspiration and giving it form, +was taken from him. He was driven out: daily to slay, that his family +might feed, and never again was he let go alone--a crowd of relations +went with him! + +Figure to yourself what a damper to inspiration must have been that +crowd of relations; how it must have slain the artist in Goolahwilleel. + +How the old legend repeats itself, and now as then, how often the +artist is woman--slain that she by the caterer may live. Surely in the +interests of intellect was the prayer made: 'Give us our daily bread.' + +Perhaps the old legend of Goolahwilleel was originally told with a +moral, and that may be: why black artists are so well treated now. + +A maker of new songs or corroborees is always kept well supplied with +the luxuries of life; it may be that such an one is a little feared as +being supposed to have direct communication with the spirits who teach +him his art. A fine frenzy is said to seize some of their poets and +playwrights, who, for the time being, are quite under the domination of +the spirits--possessed of devils, in fact. When the period of mental +incubation is over and the song hatched out, the possessed ones return +to their normal condition, the devils are cast out, and the songs are +all that remain in evidence that the artist was ever possessed. + +Some songs do not require this process of fine frenzy they come along +in the course of barter, handed from tribe to tribe. + +Ghiribul, or riddles, play a great part in their social life, and he +who knows many is much sought after. + +Most of these ghiribul are not translatable, being little songs +describing the things to be guessed, whose peculiarities the singer +acts as he sings--a sort of one-man show, pantomime in miniature, with +a riddle running through it. + +Some which I will give indicate the nature of others. + +What is it that says to the flood-water, 'I am too strong for you; you +can not push me back'? ANS. Goodoo, the codfish. + +What is it that says, 'You cannot help yourself; you will have to go +and let me take your place; you cannot stay when I come'? ANS. The grey +hairs in a man's beard to the black ones. + +'If a man hide himself so that his wife could not see him, and he +wanted her to know where he was, yet had promised not to speak, laugh, +cry, sneeze, cough, nor move his hands nor feet, how could he do so?' +ANS. Whistle. + +'The strongest man cannot stand against me. I can knock him down, yet I +do not hurt him. He feels better for my having knocked him down. What +am I?' ANS. Sleep. + +'I am not water, yet all who are thirsty, seeing me, come toward me to +drink, though I am no liquid. What am I?' Ans. Mirage. + +'What is it that goes along the creek, across the creek, underneath it, +and along it again, and yet has left neither side?' ANS. The +yellow-flowering creeping water-weed. + +'Here I am, just in front of you. I can't move; but if you kick me, I +will knock you down, though I will not move to do it. Who says this?' +ANS. A stump that any one falls over. + +'You cannot walk without me, yet you grease your body and forget me and +let me crack, even though but for me you could neither walk nor run. +Who says that?' ANS. A black fellow's feet, which he neglects to grease +when doing the rest of his body. + +With riddles ends, I think, the list of the blacks' amusements, unless +you count fights. The blacks are a bit Celtic in that way; some are +real fire-eaters, always spoiling for a row. But in most everyday rows +the feelings are more damaged than the bodies. + +An old gin in a rage will say more in a given time, without taking +breath, than any human being I have ever seen; it is simply +physiologically marvellous. From the noise you would think murder at +least would result. You listen in dread of a tragedy; you hear the +totem and multiplex totems of her opponent being scoffed at, strung out +one after another, deadly insult after deadly insult. The insulted +returns insult for insult; result, a lively cross fire. + +It lulls down; the insults are exhausted, quietude reigns. Some one +makes a joke, all are laughing together in amity. From impending +tragedy to comedy the work of a few minutes. A mercurial race indeed, +but not a forgetful one. A black fellow never forgives a broken +promise, and he can cherish a grudge from generation to generation as +well as remember a kindness. + +Though, when high pitched in quarrels, their voices lose their natural +tones, as a rule those of the blacks are remarkably sweet and soft, +quite musical; their language noticeable for its freedom from harsh +sounds. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +BUSH BOGIES AND FINIS + + +Weeweemul is a big spirit that flies in the air; he takes the bodies of +dead people away and eats them. That is why the dead are so closely +watched before burial. + +Gwaibooyanbooyan is the hairless red devil of the scrubs, who kills and +eats any one he meets, unless they are quick enough to get away before +he sees them, as one woman of this tribe is said to have done on the +Eurahbah ridge. It would really seem as if there were a debbil debbil +on that ridge; every boundary rider who lives there takes to drink. I +think the red spirit must be rum. + +Marahgoo are man-shaped devils, to be recognised by the white swansdown +cap they wear, and the red rugs they carry. Red is a great devil's +colour amongst blacks some will never wear it on that account. + +These Marahgoo always have with them a mysterious drink, which they +offer to any one they meet. It is like drinking dirt, and makes the +drinker dream dreams and see visions, in which he is taken down to the +underground spirit-world of the Marahgoo, where anything he wishes for +appears at once. The entrance to this world is said to be near a +never-drying waterhole, in a huge scrub, near Pilliga. If a man drinks +the draught, unless he is made Marahgoo, he dies. + +Each totem is warned by its bird sub-totems of the coming of Marahgoo, +and after such a warning tribes take care, if wise, to stay in camp; or +should a man go out, he will smear his face with black, and put rings +of black round his wrists and ankles, and probably have a little charm +song sung over him. + +Birrahmulgerhyerh are blacks with devils in them, who, armed with bags +full of poison-sticks, or bones--called gooweera--are invisible to all +but wirreenuns or wizards. Others are warned of their coming by hearing +the rattle of the gooweeras knocking together. When the Birrahmulgerhyerh +are about, all are warned not to carry firesticks, which at other times +after dark they are never without in order to scare off spirits, but now +such a light would show the Birrahmulgerhyerh where to point their +gooweeras. They are said only to point these poison-sticks at +law-breakers, and even then only against persons in a strange country. +Their own land is down Brewarrina way, but there they make no punitive +expeditions, travelling up the Narran and elsewhere for that purpose. + +The Euloowayi, or long-nailed devils, are spirits which live where the +sun sets. Just as the afterglow dies in the sky, they come out +victim-hunting. These Euloowayi demand a tribute of young black men +from the camp, to recoup their own ranks. + +When this tribute has to be paid, the old men get some ten or so young +ones, and march them off to a Minggah at about ten or fifteen miles +from the camp. There they make them climb into the Ming-ah, to sit +there all day. They must not move, not even so much as wink an eyelid. +At night time they are allowed to come down, and are given some meat, +which they must eat raw. + +The old men from the camp go back leaving their victims with the +Euloowayi, who keep the boys up the tree for some days, bringing them +raw meat at night. At last they say: + +'Come and try if your nails are long and strong enough. See who can +best tear this bark off with them.' + +They all try, and if all are equally good, the old Euloowayi say: + +'You are right. How do you feel?' + +'Strong,' they answer. + +They are kept on the tree about a month, then taken into the bush to +hunt human beings, to deceive whom they take new forms at times. A +couple of blacks may be hunting--one will be after honey, another after +opossums. The one after opossums will go to a tree, see an opossum, +chop into the tree, seize the opossum by the tail as usual. He cannot +move him. He'll seize him by the hind legs, still he cannot move him. +Then he will hear a voice say, 'Leave him alone, you can't move him.' + +The hunter will look down, see nothing but a rainbow at the foot of the +tree. Wonderingly he'll come down, and immediately the Euloowayi, who +have been in the form of the opossum in the tree and the rainbow on the +ground, seize him, tear him open with their long nails, take out all +his fat, stuff him up again with grass and leaves, and send him back to +the camp. When he reaches there, he starts scolding every one. Probably +they guess by his violent words and actions that he is a victim of the +Euloowayi. If so, they are careful not to answer him; were they to do +so he would drop dead. Any way, he will die that night. When the +magpies and butcher-birds sing much it is a sign the Euloowayi are +about. + +Gineet Gineet, so called from his cry, is the bogy that black children +dread. He is a black man who goes about with a goolay or net across his +shoulders, into which he pops any children he can steal. + +Several waterholes are taboo as bathing-places. They are said to be +haunted by Kurreah, which swallow their victims whole, or by Gowargay, +the featherless emu, who sucks down in a whirlpool any one who dares to +bathe in his holes. + +Nahgul is the rejected Gayandil who was found by Byamee too destructive +to act as president of the Boorahs. + +He principally haunts Boorah grounds. He still has a Boorah gubberrah, +a sacred stone, inside him, hence his strength. + +He sets string traps for men, touching which they feel ill, and +suddenly drop down never to rise again. The wirreenuns know then that +Nahgul is about. They find out where he is. Circling, at a good +distance, the spot he is on, they corroboree round it. Hearing them, +Nahgul comes out. They close in and seize him, kill him, drink his +blood, and eat him; by so doing gaining immense additional strength. + +Marmbeyah are tree spirits, somewhat akin to the Nats of Burmah. One, a +huge, fat spirit--if you can imagine a fat spirit--carried a green +boondee, or waddy, with which he tapped people on the backs of their +necks: result, heat apoplexy. A few years ago, an old black fellow laid +wait for him and 'flattened him out,' since which there has been no +heat apoplexy. We think it is because the bad times have made people +too poor to overheat themselves with bad spirits of a liquid kind. The +blacks differ, and certainly there were some cases of even total +abstainers falling victims to the heat wave. + +Hatefully frequent devil visitors are those who animate the boolees, or +whirlwinds. If these whirl near the house they smother everything with +debris and dust. + +The Black-but-Comelys say, as they clear the dirt away: 'I wish whoever +in this house those boolees are after would go out when they come, not +let 'em hunt after 'em here and make this mess.' + +The Wurrawilberos chiefly animate these. But sometimes the wirreenuns +use whirlwinds as mediums of transit for their Mullee Mullees, or dream +spirits, sent in pursuit of some enemy, to capture a woman, or +incarnate child spirit; women dread boolees, more even than men, on +this account. Great wirreenuns are said to get rid of evil spirits by +eating the form in which they appear. I'm sure we all swallowed a good +share of the dust devils, but still they came; evidently we were not +wizards or witches. + +The plain of Weawarra is haunted. Once long ago there was a fight +there. Two young warriors but lately married were slain. As their +bodies were never recovered, they were supposed to have been stolen and +eaten by the enemy. Their young widows spent days searching for them, +after the tribe had given up hope of finding them. At last the +widows--who had refused to marry again, declaring their husbands yet +lived, and that one day they would find them--disappeared. + +Time passed; they did not return, so were supposed to be dead too. Then +arose the rumour that their ghosts had been seen, and to this day it is +said the plain of Weawarra is haunted by them. + +Should men camp there at night, these women spirits silently steal into +the camp. The men, thinking they are women from some tribe they do not +know, speak to them; but silently there they sit, making no answer, and +vanish again before the dawn of day, to renew their search night after +night. + +The high ridges above Warrangilla are haunted by two women, who +tradition says were buried alive. Their spirits have never rested, but +come out at all times from the huge fissure in the ridges where their +bodies were put. Their anguished cries as the stones and earth fell on +them are still to be heard echoing through the scrub there; and +sometimes it is said one, keener sighted than his fellows, sees their +spirit forms flitting through the Budtha bushes, and hears again their +tragic cries, as they disappear once more into the fathomless fissure. + +There is a tradition--common, I believe, to many black tribes, even +outside Australia--that, long before the coming of the white people +into this country, two beautiful white girls lived with the blacks. +They had long hair to their waists. They were called Bungebah, and were +killed as devils by an alien tribe somewhere between Noorahwahgean and +Gooroolay. Where their blood was spilled two red-leaved trees have +grown, and that place is still haunted by their spirits. + +Amid the Cookeran Lake still wanders the woman who arrived late at the +big Boorah, having lost her children one by one on the track, arriving +at last with only her dead baby in the net at her back. As she died she +cursed the tribes who had deserted her, and turned them into trees. +Some of the blacks were in groups a little way off; those, too, she +cursed, and they were changed into forests of Belah, which look dark +and funereal as you drive through them; and the murmuring sound, as the +wind wails through their tops, has a very sad sound. She wanders +through these forests and round the lake, the dead baby still in the +goolay on her back, and sometimes her voice is heard mingling with the +voices of the forest; and as the shadows fall, she may be seen flitting +past, they say. + +Noorahgogo is a very handsome bronze and peacock-blue beetle, said to +embody a spirit which always answers the cry of a Noongahburrah in the +bush. The bright orange-red fungi on the fallen trees are devils' +bread, and should a child touch any he will be spirited away. + +Very mournful are the bush nights if you happen to be alone on your +verandah. Away on the flat sound the cries of curlews; past flies a +night heron; then the discordant voice of a plover is heard. In all +these birds are embodied the spirits of men of the past; each has its +legend. + +Perhaps some passing swans will cry 'Biboh, biboh,' reminding in vain +the camp wizards that they too were once men, and long to be again. +Poor enchanted swans! to whose enchantment we owe the lovely flannel +flowers of New South Wales, and the red epacris bells. + +But in spite of their sadness the bush nights are lovely, when the +landscapes are glorified by the magic of the moon. Even the gum leaves +are transmuted into silver as the moonlight laves them, making the +blacks say the leaves laugh, and the shimmer is like a smile. + +No wonder trees have such a place in the old religions of the world, +and wirreenuns, even as do Buddhists, love to linger beneath their +branches--the one holding converse with his spirit friends, the other +cultivating the perfect peace. + +There would not be much perfect peace about a wirreenun's communing +with the spirits if it happened to be in mosquito time. The blacks say +a little grey-speckled bird rules the mosquitoes, and calls them from +their swamp-homes to attack us. In the mythological days this bird--a +woman--was badly treated by a man who translated her sons to the sky; +having revenged herself on him, she vowed vengeance on all men, and in +the form of the mosquito bird wreaks that vengeance. Her mosquito +slaves have just the same spots on their wings as she has. + +I dare say little with an air of finality about black people; I have +lived too much with them for that. To be positive, you should never +spend more than six months in their neighbourhood; in fact, if you want +to keep your anthropological ideas quite firm, it is safer to let the +blacks remain in inland Australia while you stay a few thousand miles +away. Otherwise, your preconceived notions are almost sure to totter to +their foundations; and nothing is more annoying than to have +elaborately built-up, delightfully logical theories, played ninepins +with by an old greybeard of a black, who apparently objects to his +beliefs being classified, docketed, and pigeon-holed, until he has had +his say. + +After all, when we consider their marriage restrictions, their totems, +and the rest, what becomes of the freedom of the savage? As with us, as +Montague says, 'Our laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived +from Nature, proceed from custom.' + +I have often thought the failure of the generality of missionaries lay +in the fact that they began at the wrong end. Not recognising the +tyranny of custom, though themselves victims to it, they ignore, as a +rule, the religion into which the black is born, and by which he lived, +in much closer obedience to its laws than we of this latter-day +Christendom. It seems to me, if we cannot respect the religion of +others we deny our own. If we are powerless to see the theism behind +the overlying animism, we argue a strange ignorance of what crept over +other faiths, in the way of legends and superstitions quite foreign to +the simplicity of the beginnings. + +To be a success, a missionary, I think, should--as many do, +happily--before he goes out to teach, acquaint himself with the making +of the world's religions, and particularly with the one he is going to +supplant. He will probably find that elimination of some savageries is +all that is required, leaving enough good to form a workable religion +understanded of his congregation. + +If he ignores their faith, thrusting his own, with its mysteries which +puzzle even theologians, upon them, they will be but as whited +sepulchres, or, at best, parrots. + + + + +GLOSSARY + + Bahloo, moon (masculine). + Bibbil, poplar-leaved box-tree. An Eucalyptus. + Byamee, their god; culture hero 'Great One.' + Boorak, initiation ceremony. + Boonal, a sort of flail. + Boobeen, wooden cornet. + Bootha, woman's name; divisional family name. + Boahdee, sister. + Beealahdee, father and mother's sisters' husbands. + Bargie, grandmother on mother's side. + Boothan, last possible child of a woman. + Beewun, motherless girl, + Boomerang, weapon. + Bubberah, a 'come-back' boomerang. + Billah, spear. + Belah, swamp oak. + Booreen, shield. + Birah, whitewood tree. + Boodthul, toy waddy. + Boondee, heavy-headed club. + Binguie, Coolamon; canoe-shaped wooden vessel. + Beewee, brown and yellow iguana. + Bunbul, little boorah ring. + Boormool, shrimps. + Boolooral, a night owl. + Byahmul, a black swan. + Beerwon, bird like a swallow. + Bunnyal, flies. + Binnantayah, big saltbush. + Bohrah, kangaroo. + Boogodoogadah, rainbird. + Buln Buln, green parrot. + Boogahroo, a tree where poison-sticks are kept. + Boondurr, wizard's bag of charms. + Budtha, shrub EREMOPHILA. + Bumble, shrub CAPPARIS MITCHELLIENSIS. + Brambahl, skipping. + Boogalah, ball. + Bayarrh, green-head ants. + Bingahwingul, shrub needlebush. + Boondoon, kingfisher. + Bilber, sandhill rat. + Boothagullagulla, bird like seagull. + Booroorerh, bulrushes. + Burrengeen, peewee; white and black bird. + Bouyoudoorimmillee, grey cranes. + Bouyougah, centipede. + Bubburr, large brown and yellow snake. + Beeargah, crane. + Buggiloo, girl's name; little yam. + Boolee, whirlwind. + Boogurr, things belonging to a dead person. + Bullimah, sky-camp; heaven. + Bulleerul, breath. + Boorboor, come down. + Boyjerh, father, or relation of father. + Brigalow, an acacia. + Birroo Birroo, bird; sand-builders. + Booloon, white crane. + Boonburr, poison tree. + Boorgoolbean, a shrub with creamy flowers. + Birrahlee, baby. + Bahnmul, betrothal of babies. + Boomayahmayahmul, a wood lizard. + Brewarrina, name of place; place of Myall trees. + Boorool, big, great, many. + Birrahgnooloo, woman's name meaning hatchet-faced. + Booloowah two emus. + Bibbilah, belonging to the Bibbil country. + Barahgurree, girl's name; a kind of lizard. + Bogginbinnia, girl's name; a kind of lizard. + Billai, crimson-wing parrot. + Birriebunger, small diver-bird + Burrahwahn, a rat now extinct. + Bralgah, bird; native companion. + Bean, Myall tree; a weeping acacia. + Beebuyer, yellow flowering broom, shrub. + Beeleer, black cockatoo. + Bibbee, woodpecker, + Bullah Bullah, butterfly. + Beeweerh, bony bream. + Buggila, leopard wood. + Bunbundoolooey, a little brown bird. + Brumboorah, boorah song. + Boorahbayyi, boy undergoing initiation. + Boodther, a meeting where presents are exchanged. + Berai Berai, the boys; Orion's sword and belt. + Beereeun, lizard. + Birrahmulgerhyerh, devils with poison-sticks. + Byjerh, expression of surprise. + Buckandee, native cat. + Coolabah, flooded box; Eucalyptus. + Curreequinquin, butcher-bird; piping shrike. + Cumbee, stone tomahawk. + Cocklerina, a rose and yellow crested cockatoo. (Major Mitchell.) + Carbeen, an Eucalyptus. + Collarene, Coolabah blossom. + C-ngil, ugly, nasty, bad. + Cunnumbeillee, woman's name meaning pigweed root. + Dhe, hereditary totem. + Dheal, sacred tree. + Dayoorl, grinding-stone. + Doonburr, grass seed. + Dheelgoolee, a bird-trapping place. + Dardurr, a camp shelter of bark. + Dheala, girl's name. + Dayadee, half-brother. + Dadadee, grandfather on mother's side. + Doore-oothai, a lover. + Dillahga, an elderly man of same totem as person speaking of or to him. + Dooloomai, thunder. + Dillee, treasure bag. + Deenyi, ironbark. + Doowee, any one's dream-spirit. + Dinahgurrerhlowah, death-dealing stone. + Dumerh Dumerh, smallpox. + Dumerh, brown pigeon. + Doolungaiyah, sandhill rat, bilber. + Douyougurrah, earthworms. + Deereeree, willy wagtail. + Durrooee, spirit-bird. + Dinewan, emu. + Dunnia, wattle tree. + Deenbi, diver. + Deegeenboyah, soldier-bird. + Dayahminyah, small carpet snake. + Douyouie, ants. + Dulibah, bald. + Dulleerin, a lizard. + Douran Douran, north wind. + Dunnee Bunbun, a very large green parrot. + Dibbee, sort of sandpiper. + Durrahgeegin, green frog. + Dooroongul, hairy caterpillar. + Durramunga, little boorah. + Doolooboorah, boorah message-stick. + Dulloorah, tree manna-bringing birds. + Eerin, little night owl. + Euloowayi, long-nailed devils. + Euahlayi, name of the Narran tribe. + Euloowirree, rainbow. + Eeramooun, uninitiated boy. + Eleanbah wundah, spirits of the lower world. + {One page missing from the scanned edition} + Hippi, man's divisional family name + Hippitha, woman's divisional family name. + Inga, crayfish. + Innerah, a woman with a camp of her own. + Illay, hop bush. + Kumbo, man's divisional family name + Kubbee, man's divisional family name + Kubbootha, woman's divisional family name. + Kummean, father's sister. + Kurreah, crocodile. + Kumbuy, sister-in-law. + Kamilaroi, name of a tribe. + Kurrajong, tree; a sterculia. + Moodai, an opossum. + Minggah, spirit tree. + Murrahgul, a bird string trap. + Murree, man's divisional family name. + Matha, woman's divisional family name + Mullayerh, a temporary companion. + Moothie, a friend of childhood in afterlife. + Mirroon, emu net. + Mubboo, beefwood tree. + Myall, a drooping acacia; violet-scented wood. + Moornin, emu spears. + Muggil, stone knife. + Moorooleh, plain waddy. + Moogul, only child. + Mah, hand or totem. + Moograbah, big black and white magpie. + Mirrieh, poligonum. + Mullee Mullee, dream spirit of a wizard. + Mullowil, shadow spirit. + Moolee, death-dealing stone. + Moondoo, wasps. + Murgahmuggui, spider. + Mayamah, stones. + Munggheewurraywurraymul, seagulls. + Matah, corruption of master. + Mooroobeaigunnil, spirits on the sacred mountain. + Midjeer, an acacia. + Mulga, an acacia. + Mooregoo Mooregoo, black ibis. + Mooloowerh, a shrub with cream coloured flowers. + Muddurwerderh, west wind. + Mungghee, mussels. + Millanboo, the first again. + Moobil, stomach. + Mouyerh, bone through nose. + Moonaibaraban, spirit sister-in-law. + Mayamerh, Gayandi's camp. + Mullyan, eagle-hawk. + Mirriehburrah, belonging to poligonum country. + Millan, small water yam. + Mooregoo, swamp oak; belah, + Mouyi, white cockatoo. + Maira, a paddy melon. + Mouninguggahgul, mosquito bird. + Maira, wild currant bush. + Mungoongarlee, Largest iguana. + Mooregoo, mopoke. + Mounin, mosquito. + Mungahran, hawk. + Mien, dingo. + Munthdeegun, man in charge of initiate at boorah. + Meamei, the girls; Pleiades. + Mayrah, wind. + Marahgoo, man-shaped devil. + Marmbeyah, tree spirits. + Moorilla, pebbly ridge. + Mahmee, old woman. + Nimmaylee, girl's name; young porcupine. + Nurragah, an exclamation of pity. + Noongah, Kurrajong. + Numbardee, mother and mother's sisters. + Niune, wild melon. + Noongahburrah, belonging to the country of the Noongah. + Noorumbah, hereditary bunting ground. + Noodul Noodul, whistling duck. + Nummaybirrah, wild grape; Namoi. + Narahdarn, bat. + Noorunglely, a setting emu. + Nahgul, a devil haunting boorah grounds. + Oganahbayah, a small eagle-hawk. + Ooboon, blue-tongued lizard. + Oobi Oobi, sacred mountain. + Oonahgnai, give to me. + Oonahgnoo, give to her or him. + Oonahmillangoo, give to one. + Oogowahdee goobelaygoo, flood to swim against. + Oogle oogle, four emus. + Oonaywah, black diver. + Ouyan, curlew. + Piggiebillah, porcupine. + Quarrian, yellow and red breasted grey parrot. + Tuckandee, a young man of the same totem reckoned a kind of brother. + Tekel barain, large white amaryllis. + Tekkul, hair. + Talingerh, native fuchsia. + Tucki, a kind of bream. + Wirreenun, medicine man, wizard. + Wunnarl, food taboo. + Wirreebeeun, young woman. + Wirree, canoe-shaped bark vessel for drinking from, or holding things in. + Wambaneah, full brother. + Wulgundee, uncle's wife. + Woormerh, a boorah boy messenger. + Waywah, man's belt. + Wongin, a string breastplate. + Wogarrah, hatchet-shaped weapon, + Wi, clever. + Weedah, bower-bird. + Wundah, white devil. + Wi-mouyan, magic stick. + Wungoolay, a game with discs and spears. + Widyu Widyu, toy-spear. + Wahl, no. + Wa-ah, shells. + Woggoon, scrub turkey. + Wimberoo, game with leaf and fire. + Woolbooldarn, game; riding on bent branch. + Whagoo, game; hide-and-seek. + Wahn, crow. + Wurrawilberoo, the whirlwind devils. + Waddahgudjaelwon, a birth-presiding spirit. + Wahl nunnoomahdayer, do not steal + Wahl goonundoo, no water. + Weedegah, bachelor's camp. + Wir djuri, name of a tribe. + Waggestmul, kind of rat. + Wungghee, white night owl. + Willerhderh, north wind. + Wi, small fish. + Wayarah, wild grapes. + Womba, mad, deaf. + Weeweemul, a body-snatching spirit. + Wayambah, turtle. + Yhi, the sun (feminine). + Yarragerh, spring wind, north-east. + Yunbeai, individual totem. + Yarmmara, barley grass. + Yubbil, large bark vessel. + Yungawee, sacred fire. + Yumbean, kangaroo teeth fixed in grim, ornaments. + Yumbui, fatherless boy. + Yaraan, an Eucalyptus. + Yowee, a soul equivalent. + Yahweerh, sham fight. + Youayah, frogs. + Yelgayerdayer deermuldayer, leave all such alone. + Yudthar, feather. + Yubbah, carpet snake. + Yelgidyi, fully initiated young man. + Yowee bulleerul, spirit breath. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Euahlayi Tribe, by K. 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