the existence of a huge seal-like animal, which lives in swamps and deep water-holes, and growls and bellows at night, and destroys, if he does not eat, all black people who venture near his haunts.
Fig. 245 is the picture of a Bun-yip as drawn by an Aboriginal of the Murray River, in 1848, in the presence of Mr. J. P. Main and Mr. John Clark, and which was given to the late Mr. A. F. A. Greeves by the artist. The wood-cut is a fac-simile of the drawing. The coating of the animal is either scales or feathers; but in truth little is known amongst the blacks respecting its form, or covering, or habits. They appear to have been in such dread of it as to have been unable to take note of its characteristics.
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| FIG. 245. |
The doctors alone, says the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer, are able to point out where the Bun-yip has his dwelling. Sometimes they indicate a deep water-hole as the place of his abode, and sometimes a swamp surrounded by scrub and reeds.
What the Myndie was to the blacks of the North-Western district, so was the Bun-yip to those dwelling on the coast and near the swamps of the Western district. Both were terrible, and both have their types in existing creatures. The python (Morelia variegata) may be said to represent the fabulous Myndie, and Koor-man (the seal) the Bun-yip.
Whether the seal which the blacks have named the Bun-yip is the eared seal (Arctocephalus lobatus) or the large spotted sea-leopard {Stenorhynchus leptonyx), or some other animal unknown as yet to naturalists, is doubtful. That the blacks in former times ate the seals which frequented the coast is certain,[1] and it is probable, therefore, that some other creature was the cause of the terror which afflicted them at nights when they heard growlings and bellowings on the margins of the swamps. Seals proceed inland often for a considerable distance; many during certain seasons may have frequented the samphire--
