Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/515

a wallaby, which had been killed on the road thither, was produced, and a fire kindled by the women. Then the men standing round, struck up a sort of chant, at the same time stamping with their feet. The wallaby was put on the fire, and as the smoke from it ascended, the hunters, at a concerted signal, rushed towards it, lifting their weapons towards heaven. I afterwards learned that this ceremony was instituted by Nurrundere."^[1]

This description exactly recalls to me the action of the men at the commencement of the Bunan ceremonies, when they point to the sky with their weapons or the boughs they hold, as indicating the great Biamban, whose name it is not lawful to mention excepting at the ceremonies, and when only initiated persons are present.

The Wiimbaio spoke of Nurelli with the greatest reverence. He was said to have made the whole country, with the rivers, trees, and animals. He gave to the blacks their laws, and finally ascended to the sky, where they pointed him out as one of the constellations.^[2] He is said to have had two wives, to have carried two spears, and his place of ascension is pointed out as at Lake Victoria.^[3]

In the tribes of South-west Victoria Nurelli is replaced by a being, who, according to Dawson,^[4] is the good spirit Pirnmeheeal, who is a gigantic man, living above the clouds; and, as he is of a kindly disposition and harms no one, he is seldom mentioned, but always with respect.

The Wotjobaluk spoke of Bunjil as a great man, who was once on the earth, but is now in the sky. His wives were two sisters Ganawarra (Black Swan). A brother of Bunjil was Djurt, who is now a star near to him. I am in doubt as to which star is Bunjil, for the one pointed out to me was Fomalhaut, but elsewhere in Victoria among the

1. Op. cit. p. 55.
2. The late Dr. M'Kinlay, who knew the Wiimbaio well, soon after their country was settled, informed me that the constellation was the Pleiades. This seems doubtful to me, as they are called by the Victorian tribes by some name indicating a group of women, for instance, Karat-goruk, from Karat a "group," and goruk the feminine postfix.
3. On the north side of the river Murray, with which it is connected by the Rufus, and about 50 miles from Wentworth.
4. Op. cit. p. 49.