the ceremonies by which it is sought to produce a supply of food, animal and vegetable, on which the native tribes depend for their subsistence; and these legends relate how, for instance, the ceremonies for producing a crop of lizards and carpet-snakes originated.
One of the most interesting legends is that of the Mura-mura Minkani. It is a Yantruwunta legend, also held by the Yaurorka and Dieri. It tells how a Mura-mura, called Anti-etya, went away to a place now known as Farrar's Creek, where he lived in a cave in a sandhill, and became the Mura-mura Minkani. It says that while he burrowed deeper and deeper in the sandhill, presents were carried from him to Andrutampana, another Mura-mura in the north, on the understanding that after his death the sacred song of each should be combined. These songs are sung at the cave of the Mura-mura Minkani elsewhere described.
The other legends given in the Appendix show that the lives and customs of those mythical people were similar to, and indeed identical in most points with, those of the native tribes who believe in them.
As perhaps indicating a stage in culture, there is a Dieri legend, relating how the existing marriage rules, based on the totemic restrictions, were instituted, and with this it is necessary to consider what has been called the "Murdu legend" of Mr. S. Gason.[1] In the course of my inquiries as to the Dieri traditions, I became doubtful as to whether Mr. Gason's Murdu legend might be taken to actually give the belief in a "good spirit" called Mura-mura as held by the Dieri. I therefore requested Mr. Siebert to investigate this question, the result being the mass of legends which are now rescued from oblivion.
The following is Mr. Gason's legend, which was quoted by Dr. Lorimer Fison and myself in our work, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, in 1880:—
"After the creation brothers, sisters, and others of the nearest kin intermarried promiscuously, until the evil effects of the alliances becoming manifest, a council of the chiefs was assembled to consider in what way they might be
- ↑ The Dieyeri Tribe, p. 13. Cox, Adelaide, South Australia, 1874.
