The Moon was aberrant before her motions were regulated by Nooralie. Nooralie had much to remember and to consider before he could decide what should be the times of the appearance of the Moon, and how she should appear, but at length he addressed her in these words:—
Puk-a
Die
Mal-imba
you
Penah-pethanba,
bone whiten,
Penah
bone
Bulga
powder
Bulga.
powder.
Puk-a Mal-imba Penah-pethanba, Penah Bulga Bulga.
Die you {bone whiten,} bone powder powder.
In other words: "Die! your bones whiten—and your bones go to powder."
The Moon obeyed Nooralie. She dies at regular periods—and re-appears—and does her duty to the Aborigines as Nooralie in times long past commanded her to do.[1]
The progenitors of the existing tribes—whether birds or beasts or men—were set in the sky, and made to shine as stars if the deeds they had done were mighty, and such as to deserve commemoration.[2] The Eagle (Quarnamero) is now the planet Mars, and justly so, because he was warlike, and much given to fighting. The Crow (Wāgara) is a star, and smaller stars are set about him, and those represent his wives.
The Moon, before he was set in the sky—(our Satellite is always regarded and spoken of as a male by the Aborigines of Victoria)—was very wicked, and
- ↑ "Their traditions suppose that man and all other beings were created by the Moon, at the bidding of the Moora-moora. Finding the Emu pleasant to the sight, and judging it to be eatable (but unable, owing to its swiftness, to catch it during the cold that then prevailed), the Moora-moora was appealed to to cast some heat on the earth so as to enable them to run down the desired bird. The Moora-moora complying with their request, bade them perform certain ceremonies (yet observed, but not proper to be described), and then created the sun."—The Dieyerie Tribe (Cooper's Creek), by Samuel Gason. It is more reasonable to suppose that it was light and not heat that the blacks prayed for.
- ↑ Nearly all animals they suppose anciently to have been men who performed great prodigies, and at last transformed themselves into different kinds of animals and stones. Thus the Kaminjerar point out several large stones or points of rock along the beach whose sex and name they distinguish. One rock, they say, is an old man named Lime, upon which women and children are not allowed to tread; but old people venture to do so from their long acquaintance with him. They point out his head, feet, hands, and also his hut and fire. For my part, I could see no resemblance to any of these things except the hut. The occasion upon which he transformed himself was as follows:—A friend of his Palpangye paid him a visit and brought him some tinwarrar (kind of fish). Lime enjoyed them very much, and regretted that there were no rivers in the neighbourhood, that he might catch them himself, as they are a river fish. Palpangye went into the bush and fetched a large tree, and thrusting it into the ground in different places, water immediately began to flow, and formed the Inman and Hindmarsh Rivers. Lime, out of gratitude, gave him some kanmari (small sea fish), and transformed himself into rock, the neighbourhood of which has ever since abounded in this kind of fish. Palpangye became a bird, and is frequently near the rivers.—Aborigines of Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia. H. E. A. Meyer, 1846.
