tioned, but always with respect. His voice, the thunder, is listened to with pleasure. . . . The missionaries and Government protectors have given them a dread of Pirnmeheal," who, as far as he is revealed to us here, rather answers to the Zulu "lord" in heaven than to a purely mythical deity. Devils or evil malignant spirits, such as Muuruup, the Australians possess in legions, but these, though practically malignant, play little part in myth. The Australians have been somewhat childishly represented as believing in a Trinity, Brewin, Bullumdut, and Baukan. Brewin is really a baddish spirit, a familiar of sorcerers. Bullumdut and Baukan "are not so bad as Brewin." Mr. Howitt asked some natives who had come under the influence of missionaries what they thought of Brewin. At first they said they "thought he must be Jesus Christ," but being told to reconsider their verdict, replied, "We think he must be the devil." As Brewin is a name imposed on highly esteemed sorcerers,[1] it may be argued by some inquirers that Brewin is merely the ghost of an ancestral medicine-man; but there are not data enough to settle the question. "Birds and beasts," says Mr. Brough Smyth, "are the gods of the Australians." We have seen the bird-gods in myths; the native bear is an object of considerable reverence in practice. Like the North-American Indians, they have a myth which sets forth how the bear "did not die" when attacked, a curious example of a similar fancy in widely-severed races.[2] Why should the bear
- ↑ Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 292.
- ↑ Brough Smyth, i. 449; Schoolcraft, Algic Researches.
