THE ALL FATHER, BYAMEE
As throughout the chapters on the customary laws, mysteries, and
legends of the Euahlayi, there occur frequent mentions of a superhuman
though anthropomorphic being named Byamee (in Kamilaroi and Wir djuri
'Baiame'), it is necessary to give a preliminary account of the beliefs
entertained concerning him. The name Byamee (usually spelled Baiame)
occurs in Euahlayi, Kamilaroi, and Wir djuri; 'the Wir djuri language
is spoken over a greater extent of territory than any other tongue in
New South Wales.'[R. H. Mathews, J. A. I., vol. xxxiv. p. 284.] The word
occurs in the Rev. Mr. Ridley's GURRE KAMILAROI, an illustrated manual of
Biblical instruction for the education of the Kamilaroi: Mr. Ridley
translated our 'God' by 'Baiame.' He supposed that native term, which he
found and did not introduce, to be a derivative from the verb BAIA, or
BIAI, 'to make.' Literally, however, at least in Euahlayi, the word BYAMEE
means 'great one.' In its sense as the name of the All Father it is not
supposed to be used by women or by the uninitiated. If it is necessary to
speak to them of Byamee, he is called Boyjerh, which means Father, just as
in the Theddora tribe the women speak of Darramulun as PAPANG, 'Father.'
[Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 493.] Among the
Euahlayi both women and the uninitiated use byamee, the adjective for
'great,' in ordinary talk, though the more usual adjective answering to
'great' is BOOROOL, which occurs in Kamilaroi as well as in Euahlayi. The
verb baia or biai, to make or shape, whence Mr. Ridley derived Baiame, is
not known to me in Euahlayi. Wir djuri has BAI, a footmark, and Byamee
left footmarks on the rocks, but that is probably a chance coincidence.
I was first told of Byamee, in whispers, by a very old native, Yudtha
Dulleebah (Bald Head), said to have been already grey haired when Sir
Thomas Mitchell discovered the Narran in 1846. My informant said that
he was instructed as to Byamee in his first Boorah, or initiation. If
he was early grey, say at thirty, in 1846, that takes his initiation
back to 1830, when, as a matter of fact, we have contemporary evidence
to the belief in Byamee, who is not of missionary importation, though
after 1856 Christian ideas may, through Mr. Ridley's book, have been
attached to his name by educated Kamilaroi. But he was a worshipful
being, revealed in the mysteries, long before missionaries came, as all
my informants aver.
There has, indeed, been much dispute as to whether the Aborigines of
Australia have any idea, or germ of an idea, of a God; anything more
than vague beliefs about unattached spirits, mainly mischievous, who
might be propitiated or scared away. Mr. Huxley maintained this view,
as did Mr. Herbert Spencer. [ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS, p. 674.] Both of
these authors, who have great influence on popular opinion, omitted to
notice the contradictory statement of Waitz, published in 1872. He
credited the natives, in some regions, with belief in, and dances
performed in honour of, a 'Good Being,' and denied that the belief and
rites were the result of European influence. [Waitz, ANTHROPOLOGIE DER
NATUR--V(tm)LKER, vol. vi. pp. 796-798. Leipzig, 1872.] Mr. Tylor,
admitting to some extent that the belief now exists, attributed it in part
to the influence of missionaries and of white settlers. [Journal,
Anthropological Institute, vol. xxi. p. 292 ET SEQ.] 'Baiame,' he held,
was a word of missionary manufacture, introduced about 1830-1840. This
opinion was controverted by Mr. Lang,[MAGIC AND RELIGION, p. 25 SQ. MYTH,
RITUAL, AND RELIGION, vol. ii. chap. xii., 1899.] and by Mr. N. W. Thomas.
Mr. Thomas [MAN, 1905, No. 28.] has produced the evidence of Henderson,
writing in 1829-1830, for the belief in 'Piame' or Byamee, or
Baiame. [OBSERVATIONS AN THE COLONIES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VAN DIEMAN'S
LAND, p. 147.]
In 1904 Mr. Howitt gave a great mass of evidence for the belief in what
he calls an 'All Father': in many dialects styled by various names
meaning 'Our Father,' dwelling in or above the sky, and often receiving
the souls of blacks who have been 'good.' These ideas are not derived,
Mr. Howitt holds, from Europeans, or developed out of ancestor-worship,
which does not exist in the tribes. The belief is concealed from women,
but communicated to lads at their initiation. [Howitt, NATIVE TRIBES OF
SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 488-508.] The belief, in favourable
circumstances, might develop, Mr. Howitt thinks, into what he speaks of as
a 'religion,' a 'recognised religion.' Without asking how 'a recognised
religion' is to be defined, I shall merely tell what I have gathered as to
the belief in Byamee among the Euahlayi.
It may seem strange that I should know anything about a belief
carefully kept from women, but I have even been privileged to hear
'Byamee's Song,' which only the fully initiated may sing; an old black,
as will later appear, did chant this old lay, now no longer understood,
to myself and my husband. Moreover, the women of the Euahlayi have some
knowledge of, and some means of, mystic access to Byamee, though they
call him by another name.
Byamee, in the first place, is to the Euahlayi what the 'Alcheringa' or
'Dream time' is to the Arunta. Asked for the reason why of anything,
the Arunta answer, 'It was so in the Alcheringa.' Our tribe have a
subsidiary myth corresponding to that of the Alcheringa. There was an
age, in their opinion, when only birds and beasts were on earth; but a
colossal man and two women came from the remote north-east, changed
birds and beasts into men and women, made other folk of clay or stone,
taught them everything, and left laws for their guidance, then
returned whence they came. This is a kind of 'Alcheringa' myth, but
whether this colossal man was Byamee or not, our tribe give, as the
final answer to any question about the origin of customs, 'Because
Byamee say so.' Byamee declared his will, and that was and is enough
for his children. At the Boorah, or initiatory ceremonies, he is
proclaimed as 'Father of All, whose laws the tribes are now obeying.'
Byamee, at least in one myth (told also by the Wir djuri), is the
original source of all totems, and of the law that people of the same
totem may not intermarry, 'however far apart their hunting-grounds.' I
heard first in a legend, then received confirmation from all old
blacks, that Byamee had a totem name for every part of his body, even
to a different one for each finger and toe. And when he was passing on
to fresh fields, he gave each kinship of the tribe he was leaving one
of his totems. The usual version is, that to such as were metamorphosed
from birds and animals he gave as totem the animal or whatever it was
from which they were evolved. But no one dreams of claiming Byamee as a
relation belonging to one clan; he is one apart and yet the father of
all, even as Birrahgnooloo is mother of all and not related to any one
clan; Cunnumbeillee, his other wife, had only one totem.
Certainly woman is given a high place in their sacred lore. The chief
wife of Byamee, Birrahgnooloo, is claimed as the mother of all, for
she, like him, had a totem for each part of her body; no one totem can
claim her, but all do.
Mother of all, though mother of none in particular, she was not to be
vulgarised by ordinary domestic relations, For those purposes
Cunnumbeillee was at hand, as a bearer of children and a caterer. Yet
it was Birrahgnooloo whom Byamee best loved and made his companion,
giving her power and position which no other held. She too, like him,
is partially crystallised in the sky-camp, where they are together; the
upper parts of their bodies are as on earth; to her, those who want
floods go, and when willing to grant their requests, she bids
Cunnumbeillee start the flood-ball of flood rolling down the mountains.
Cunnumbeillee, as has been said, had but one totem which her children
derived from her.
Byamee is the originator of things less archaic and important than
totemism. There is a large stone fish-trap at Brewarrina, on the Barwan
River. It is said to have been made by Byamee and his gigantic sons,
just as later Greece attributed the walls of Tiryns to the Cyclops, or
as Glasgow Cathedral has been explained in legend as the work of the
Picts. Byamee also established the rule that there should be a common
camping-ground for the various tribes, where, during the fishing
festival, peace should be strictly kept, all meeting to enjoy the fish,
and do their share towards preserving the fisheries.
Byamee still exists. I have been told by an old native, as will be
shown later, that prayers for the souls of the dead used to be
addressed to Byamee at funerals; certainly not a practice derived from
Protestant missionaries.
Byamee is supposed to listen to the cry of an orphan for rain. Such an
one has but to run out when the clouds are overhead, and, looking at
the sky, call aloud
'Gullee boorboor. Gullee boorboor.'
'Water come down. Water come down.'
Or should it be raining too much, the last possible child of a woman
can stop it by burning Midjeer wood.
Bootha told me after one rain that she had sent one of her tutelary
spirits to tell Boyjerh--Byamee is called by women and children
Boyjerh--that the country wanted rain. In answer he had taken up a
handful of crystal pebbles and thrown them from the sky down into the
water in a stone basin on the top of the sacred mountain; as the
pebbles fell in, the water splashed up into the clouds above, whence it
descended as the desired rain.
It is told to me, that at some initiatory rites the oldest medicine
man, or Wirreenun, present addresses a prayer to Byamee, asking him to
give them long life, as they have kept his law.
The tribesmen do not profess to pray, or to have prayed, to Byamee on
any occasions except at funerals, and at the conclusion of the Boorah.
As for Byamee's relation to ethics, it will be stated in the chapter on
the tribal ceremonies, while the stories as to the rewards and
punishments of the future life will be given in their place. Baiame's
troubles with a kind of disobedient deputy, Darramulun, will also be
narrated: the myth is current, too, among the Wir djuri tribe.
Other particulars about Byamee will occur in the course of later
chapters: here I have tried to give a general summary of the native
beliefs. The reader may interpret them in his own fashion, and may
decide as to whether the beliefs do or do not indicate a kind of
'religion,' whether 'a recognised religion' or not. There is
necessarily, of course, an absence of temples and of priests, and I
have found no trace or vestige of sacrifice. What may be said on the
affirmative side as to the religious aspect of the belief, the reader
can supply from the summary of facts. Other potent beings occur in
native myth, as we shall show, but there appears to exist between them
and mankind no relation of affection, reverence, or duty, as in the
case of Byamee.
Here it seems necessary to advert to a remark of Mr. Howitt's which
appears to be erroneous. He says 'that part of Australia which I have
indicated as the habitat of that belief' (namely, in an All Father),'
is also the area where there has been the advance from group marriage
to individual marriage; from descent in the female line to that in the
male line; where the primitive organisation under the class system has
been more or less replaced by an organisation based on locality; in
fact, where these advances have been made to which I have more than
once drawn attention.'[Howitt, NATIVE TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA,
p. 500.]
Mr. Howitt forgets that he himself attributes the early system of
descent through women, and also the belief in an All Father (Nurelli),
to the Wiimbaio tribe [IBID. p. 489] to the Wotjobaluk tribe,[NATIVE
TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, pp. 120, 490.] to the Kamilaroi, to the
Ta-Ta-thi,[IBID. p. 494] while female descent and the belief in Baiame
mark the Euahlayi and Wir djuri. [JOURNAL, ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE,
XXV., p. 297.]
These tribes cover an enormous area of country, and, though they have
not advanced to male kinship, they all possess the belief in an All
Father. That belief does not appear to be in any way associated with
advance in social organisation, for Messrs. Spencer and Gillen cannot
find a trace of it in more than one of the central and northern tribes,
which have male kinship, and a kind of local self-government. On the
other hand, it does occur among southern tribes, like the Kurnai, which
have advanced almost altogether out of totemism.
In short, we have tribes with female descent, such as the Dieri and
Urabunna, to whom all knowledge of an All Father is denied. We have
many large and important tribes with female descent who certainly
believe in an All Father. We have tribes of the highest social
advancement who are said to show no vestige of the belief, and we have
tribes also socially advanced who hold the belief with great vigour. In
these circumstances, authenticated by Mr. Howitt himself, it is
impossible to accept the theory that belief in an All Father is only
reached in the course of such advance to a higher social organisation
as is made by tribes who reckon descent in the male line.