SOME STORIES WHICH ARE TOLD TO CHILDREN
In this chapter and the next you shall hear some of the stories which
the little children of wild Australia are told about the earth, the
origin of man, the sun, the moon, and the stars, and about how sin and
death came into this world of men. These tales fall very far short of
those beautiful stories which have come down to us in the early chapters
of Genesis, but the blackfellows all believe them to be strictly true.
Often when they are seated around the camp fire on some bright star-lit
night when the light from the fire will be shining brightly on their
eager, dusky faces these old, old tales will be told again as only an
old black can tell them.
They believe the earth to be flat and to stand out of the water on four
huge lofty pillars, like very big tree trunks, and some think that above
the sky, which they believe to be a solid dome arching over the earth,
is a beautiful sky country where Baiame lives and the spirits. This
Baiame is a god who is specially concerned in the ceremonies of making
men, and is pleased when those ceremonies are properly performed. This
sky country is much more beautiful and much better watered than their
own, and there are great numbers of kangaroo and game so that
blackfellows who go there are never hungry and always have plenty of
fun.
The road to it is the milky way which is made up of the spirits of the
dead.
In many tribes the sun is regarded as a woman because among the
blackfellows it is a woman's work to make fire. Here is one of the most
remarkable of all the "sun stories" which the old blackfellows tell the
children.
In olden days before there was any sun the birds and beasts were always
quarrelling and playing tricks upon one another. A kind of crane called
the courtenie, or native companion, was at the bottom of nearly all the
mischief. In those days the emus lived in the clouds and had very long
wings. They often looked down upon the earth and were particularly
interested in the courtenies as they danced. One day an emu came down to
earth and told them how much she would like to dance too. But the
courtenies only laughed, and one of the oldest ones among them told the
emu she could never dance while she had such long wings. Then all folded
their wings and appeared to be wingless. The poor simple emu at once
allowed her wings to be cut quite short, but no sooner had she done so
than those wicked courtenies unfolded their beautiful wings and flew
away. Then the kookaburra--or laughing jackass--burst into a loud laugh
to think that the emu could be so silly. Later on the emu had a big
brood. A native companion saw her coming and at once hid all her chicks
except one. "You poor silly emu," she said, "why don't you kill all your
chicks except one? They'll wear you out with worry if you don't. Where
do you think I should be if I went about with a family like that? You'll
break down from over-work if you let them all live." So the silly emu
destroyed her brood. Then the native companion gave a peculiar cry and
out from their hiding-place came all her chicks one after the other.
When the emu saw them she flew into a great rage and attacked that
native companion and twisted her neck so badly that in future she was
only able to utter two harsh notes.
Next season the emu was sitting on her eggs when the courtenie came
along and pretended to be very friendly. This was more than that poor
tormented emu could stand and she made a rush at the courtenie. But the
courtenie leaped over the emu's back and broke all her eggs except one.
Maddened with rage the emu made for her again, but she was not nearly
agile enough, and met with no better success than before. The courtenie
took the one remaining egg and sent it flying to the sky. At once a
wonderful thing happened. The whole earth was flooded with brilliant and
beautiful light. The egg had struck a huge pile of wood which a being
named Ngoudenout, who lived in the sky, had been collecting for a very
long time and set it on fire. The birds were so frightened by the
beautiful light that they made up their quarrel there and then and have
lived happily ever after, but ever since then the courtenies have had
twisted necks and only two harsh notes, and emus have had very short
wings and have never laid more than one egg. Ngoudenout saw what a good
thing it would be for the world to have the sun, and so ever since then
he has lit the fire again every day. Of course when it is first lighted
it doesn't give very much heat, and as it dies down towards night the
world begins to get cold again. Ngoudenout spends the night collecting
more wood for next day.
There are numerous other stories about the sun, but this one is
sufficient to enable you to see the kind of beliefs the people of wild
Australia have on these matters. Now listen to one which will show you
how some of them account for the phases of the moon and for the stars.
Far away in the East is a beautiful country where numbers of moons live,
a very big mob of moons, whole tribes in fact. These moons are very
silly fellows. They will wander about at night alone, although a great
big giant lives in the sky who as soon as he sees them cuts big pieces
off and makes stars of them. Some of the moons get away before he can
cut much off, but sometimes he cuts them nearly all up and hardly any
moon is left at all.
"Why don't stars come out in the day-time?" a young child will ask and
will receive this answer:--
"The stars are all very afraid of the sun. If he finds them out in the
day-time he gets very angry and burns them all. So they never come out
till he has gone down under the earth. Sometimes, though, a little star
will come and see if he has gone, but most of them wait in their country
till he is really down."
Some of the black children in some parts of the far North call
hailstones rainbow's eggs, and worms baby rainbows, because they have
noticed sometimes after a rainbow has been seen hailstones have fallen.
After these have melted, or, as they would probably say, burrowed into
the ground, numbers of worms have appeared. This is why they call worms
baby rainbows.
The black people are nearly always very much frightened at eclipses
either of the sun or moon. They have two chief ways of accounting for
them. Some tribes will say that a hostile tribe has hidden in or near
the luminary and held bark in front of it, whilst others put the whole
trouble down to an evil spirit which has got in front. Whatever their
belief as to the cause of an eclipse may be, when one takes place they
will all throw spears at it in the hope that the hostile tribe or evil
spirit will find things too uncomfortable to remain.
There are three ways of accounting for shooting stars. Some believe them
to be the spirits of the dead. Some think that they are firesticks
thrown down by some evil spirit who has his home in the sky, whilst
others would say that a medicine man flying through the air has let his
firestick fall.