BUSH BOGIES AND FINIS
Weeweemul is a big spirit that flies in the air; he takes the bodies of
dead people away and eats them. That is why the dead are so closely
watched before burial.
Gwaibooyanbooyan is the hairless red devil of the scrubs, who kills and
eats any one he meets, unless they are quick enough to get away before
he sees them, as one woman of this tribe is said to have done on the
Eurahbah ridge. It would really seem as if there were a debbil debbil
on that ridge; every boundary rider who lives there takes to drink. I
think the red spirit must be rum.
Marahgoo are man-shaped devils, to be recognised by the white swansdown
cap they wear, and the red rugs they carry. Red is a great devil's
colour amongst blacks some will never wear it on that account.
These Marahgoo always have with them a mysterious drink, which they
offer to any one they meet. It is like drinking dirt, and makes the
drinker dream dreams and see visions, in which he is taken down to the
underground spirit-world of the Marahgoo, where anything he wishes for
appears at once. The entrance to this world is said to be near a
never-drying waterhole, in a huge scrub, near Pilliga. If a man drinks
the draught, unless he is made Marahgoo, he dies.
Each totem is warned by its bird sub-totems of the coming of Marahgoo,
and after such a warning tribes take care, if wise, to stay in camp; or
should a man go out, he will smear his face with black, and put rings
of black round his wrists and ankles, and probably have a little charm
song sung over him.
Birrahmulgerhyerh are blacks with devils in them, who, armed with bags
full of poison-sticks, or bones--called gooweera--are invisible to all
but wirreenuns or wizards. Others are warned of their coming by hearing
the rattle of the gooweeras knocking together. When the Birrahmulgerhyerh
are about, all are warned not to carry firesticks, which at other times
after dark they are never without in order to scare off spirits, but now
such a light would show the Birrahmulgerhyerh where to point their
gooweeras. They are said only to point these poison-sticks at
law-breakers, and even then only against persons in a strange country.
Their own land is down Brewarrina way, but there they make no punitive
expeditions, travelling up the Narran and elsewhere for that purpose.
The Euloowayi, or long-nailed devils, are spirits which live where the
sun sets. Just as the afterglow dies in the sky, they come out
victim-hunting. These Euloowayi demand a tribute of young black men
from the camp, to recoup their own ranks.
When this tribute has to be paid, the old men get some ten or so young
ones, and march them off to a Minggah at about ten or fifteen miles
from the camp. There they make them climb into the Ming-ah, to sit
there all day. They must not move, not even so much as wink an eyelid.
At night time they are allowed to come down, and are given some meat,
which they must eat raw.
The old men from the camp go back leaving their victims with the
Euloowayi, who keep the boys up the tree for some days, bringing them
raw meat at night. At last they say:
'Come and try if your nails are long and strong enough. See who can
best tear this bark off with them.'
They all try, and if all are equally good, the old Euloowayi say:
'You are right. How do you feel?'
'Strong,' they answer.
They are kept on the tree about a month, then taken into the bush to
hunt human beings, to deceive whom they take new forms at times. A
couple of blacks may be hunting--one will be after honey, another after
opossums. The one after opossums will go to a tree, see an opossum,
chop into the tree, seize the opossum by the tail as usual. He cannot
move him. He'll seize him by the hind legs, still he cannot move him.
Then he will hear a voice say, 'Leave him alone, you can't move him.'
The hunter will look down, see nothing but a rainbow at the foot of the
tree. Wonderingly he'll come down, and immediately the Euloowayi, who
have been in the form of the opossum in the tree and the rainbow on the
ground, seize him, tear him open with their long nails, take out all
his fat, stuff him up again with grass and leaves, and send him back to
the camp. When he reaches there, he starts scolding every one. Probably
they guess by his violent words and actions that he is a victim of the
Euloowayi. If so, they are careful not to answer him; were they to do
so he would drop dead. Any way, he will die that night. When the
magpies and butcher-birds sing much it is a sign the Euloowayi are
about.
Gineet Gineet, so called from his cry, is the bogy that black children
dread. He is a black man who goes about with a goolay or net across his
shoulders, into which he pops any children he can steal.
Several waterholes are taboo as bathing-places. They are said to be
haunted by Kurreah, which swallow their victims whole, or by Gowargay,
the featherless emu, who sucks down in a whirlpool any one who dares to
bathe in his holes.
Nahgul is the rejected Gayandil who was found by Byamee too destructive
to act as president of the Boorahs.
He principally haunts Boorah grounds. He still has a Boorah gubberrah,
a sacred stone, inside him, hence his strength.
He sets string traps for men, touching which they feel ill, and
suddenly drop down never to rise again. The wirreenuns know then that
Nahgul is about. They find out where he is. Circling, at a good
distance, the spot he is on, they corroboree round it. Hearing them,
Nahgul comes out. They close in and seize him, kill him, drink his
blood, and eat him; by so doing gaining immense additional strength.
Marmbeyah are tree spirits, somewhat akin to the Nats of Burmah. One, a
huge, fat spirit--if you can imagine a fat spirit--carried a green
boondee, or waddy, with which he tapped people on the backs of their
necks: result, heat apoplexy. A few years ago, an old black fellow laid
wait for him and 'flattened him out,' since which there has been no
heat apoplexy. We think it is because the bad times have made people
too poor to overheat themselves with bad spirits of a liquid kind. The
blacks differ, and certainly there were some cases of even total
abstainers falling victims to the heat wave.
Hatefully frequent devil visitors are those who animate the boolees, or
whirlwinds. If these whirl near the house they smother everything with
debris and dust.
The Black-but-Comelys say, as they clear the dirt away: 'I wish whoever
in this house those boolees are after would go out when they come, not
let 'em hunt after 'em here and make this mess.'
The Wurrawilberos chiefly animate these. But sometimes the wirreenuns
use whirlwinds as mediums of transit for their Mullee Mullees, or dream
spirits, sent in pursuit of some enemy, to capture a woman, or
incarnate child spirit; women dread boolees, more even than men, on
this account. Great wirreenuns are said to get rid of evil spirits by
eating the form in which they appear. I'm sure we all swallowed a good
share of the dust devils, but still they came; evidently we were not
wizards or witches.
The plain of Weawarra is haunted. Once long ago there was a fight
there. Two young warriors but lately married were slain. As their
bodies were never recovered, they were supposed to have been stolen and
eaten by the enemy. Their young widows spent days searching for them,
after the tribe had given up hope of finding them. At last the
widows--who had refused to marry again, declaring their husbands yet
lived, and that one day they would find them--disappeared.
Time passed; they did not return, so were supposed to be dead too. Then
arose the rumour that their ghosts had been seen, and to this day it is
said the plain of Weawarra is haunted by them.
Should men camp there at night, these women spirits silently steal into
the camp. The men, thinking they are women from some tribe they do not
know, speak to them; but silently there they sit, making no answer, and
vanish again before the dawn of day, to renew their search night after
night.
The high ridges above Warrangilla are haunted by two women, who
tradition says were buried alive. Their spirits have never rested, but
come out at all times from the huge fissure in the ridges where their
bodies were put. Their anguished cries as the stones and earth fell on
them are still to be heard echoing through the scrub there; and
sometimes it is said one, keener sighted than his fellows, sees their
spirit forms flitting through the Budtha bushes, and hears again their
tragic cries, as they disappear once more into the fathomless fissure.
There is a tradition--common, I believe, to many black tribes, even
outside Australia--that, long before the coming of the white people
into this country, two beautiful white girls lived with the blacks.
They had long hair to their waists. They were called Bungebah, and were
killed as devils by an alien tribe somewhere between Noorahwahgean and
Gooroolay. Where their blood was spilled two red-leaved trees have
grown, and that place is still haunted by their spirits.
Amid the Cookeran Lake still wanders the woman who arrived late at the
big Boorah, having lost her children one by one on the track, arriving
at last with only her dead baby in the net at her back. As she died she
cursed the tribes who had deserted her, and turned them into trees.
Some of the blacks were in groups a little way off; those, too, she
cursed, and they were changed into forests of Belah, which look dark
and funereal as you drive through them; and the murmuring sound, as the
wind wails through their tops, has a very sad sound. She wanders
through these forests and round the lake, the dead baby still in the
goolay on her back, and sometimes her voice is heard mingling with the
voices of the forest; and as the shadows fall, she may be seen flitting
past, they say.
Noorahgogo is a very handsome bronze and peacock-blue beetle, said to
embody a spirit which always answers the cry of a Noongahburrah in the
bush. The bright orange-red fungi on the fallen trees are devils'
bread, and should a child touch any he will be spirited away.
Very mournful are the bush nights if you happen to be alone on your
verandah. Away on the flat sound the cries of curlews; past flies a
night heron; then the discordant voice of a plover is heard. In all
these birds are embodied the spirits of men of the past; each has its
legend.
Perhaps some passing swans will cry 'Biboh, biboh,' reminding in vain
the camp wizards that they too were once men, and long to be again.
Poor enchanted swans! to whose enchantment we owe the lovely flannel
flowers of New South Wales, and the red epacris bells.
But in spite of their sadness the bush nights are lovely, when the
landscapes are glorified by the magic of the moon. Even the gum leaves
are transmuted into silver as the moonlight laves them, making the
blacks say the leaves laugh, and the shimmer is like a smile.
No wonder trees have such a place in the old religions of the world,
and wirreenuns, even as do Buddhists, love to linger beneath their
branches--the one holding converse with his spirit friends, the other
cultivating the perfect peace.
There would not be much perfect peace about a wirreenun's communing
with the spirits if it happened to be in mosquito time. The blacks say
a little grey-speckled bird rules the mosquitoes, and calls them from
their swamp-homes to attack us. In the mythological days this bird--a
woman--was badly treated by a man who translated her sons to the sky;
having revenged herself on him, she vowed vengeance on all men, and in
the form of the mosquito bird wreaks that vengeance. Her mosquito
slaves have just the same spots on their wings as she has.
I dare say little with an air of finality about black people; I have
lived too much with them for that. To be positive, you should never
spend more than six months in their neighbourhood; in fact, if you want
to keep your anthropological ideas quite firm, it is safer to let the
blacks remain in inland Australia while you stay a few thousand miles
away. Otherwise, your preconceived notions are almost sure to totter to
their foundations; and nothing is more annoying than to have
elaborately built-up, delightfully logical theories, played ninepins
with by an old greybeard of a black, who apparently objects to his
beliefs being classified, docketed, and pigeon-holed, until he has had
his say.
After all, when we consider their marriage restrictions, their totems,
and the rest, what becomes of the freedom of the savage? As with us, as
Montague says, 'Our laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived
from Nature, proceed from custom.'
I have often thought the failure of the generality of missionaries lay
in the fact that they began at the wrong end. Not recognising the
tyranny of custom, though themselves victims to it, they ignore, as a
rule, the religion into which the black is born, and by which he lived,
in much closer obedience to its laws than we of this latter-day
Christendom. It seems to me, if we cannot respect the religion of
others we deny our own. If we are powerless to see the theism behind
the overlying animism, we argue a strange ignorance of what crept over
other faiths, in the way of legends and superstitions quite foreign to
the simplicity of the beginnings.
To be a success, a missionary, I think, should--as many do,
happily--before he goes out to teach, acquaint himself with the making
of the world's religions, and particularly with the one he is going to
supplant. He will probably find that elimination of some savageries is
all that is required, leaving enough good to form a workable religion
understanded of his congregation.
If he ignores their faith, thrusting his own, with its mysteries which
puzzle even theologians, upon them, they will be but as whited
sepulchres, or, at best, parrots.
GLOSSARY
Bahloo, moon (masculine).
Bibbil, poplar-leaved box-tree. An Eucalyptus.
Byamee, their god; culture hero 'Great One.'
Boorak, initiation ceremony.
Boonal, a sort of flail.
Boobeen, wooden cornet.
Bootha, woman's name; divisional family name.
Boahdee, sister.
Beealahdee, father and mother's sisters' husbands.
Bargie, grandmother on mother's side.
Boothan, last possible child of a woman.
Beewun, motherless girl,
Boomerang, weapon.
Bubberah, a 'come-back' boomerang.
Billah, spear.
Belah, swamp oak.
Booreen, shield.
Birah, whitewood tree.
Boodthul, toy waddy.
Boondee, heavy-headed club.
Binguie, Coolamon; canoe-shaped wooden vessel.
Beewee, brown and yellow iguana.
Bunbul, little boorah ring.
Boormool, shrimps.
Boolooral, a night owl.
Byahmul, a black swan.
Beerwon, bird like a swallow.
Bunnyal, flies.
Binnantayah, big saltbush.
Bohrah, kangaroo.
Boogodoogadah, rainbird.
Buln Buln, green parrot.
Boogahroo, a tree where poison-sticks are kept.
Boondurr, wizard's bag of charms.
Budtha, shrub EREMOPHILA.
Bumble, shrub CAPPARIS MITCHELLIENSIS.
Brambahl, skipping.
Boogalah, ball.
Bayarrh, green-head ants.
Bingahwingul, shrub needlebush.
Boondoon, kingfisher.
Bilber, sandhill rat.
Boothagullagulla, bird like seagull.
Booroorerh, bulrushes.
Burrengeen, peewee; white and black bird.
Bouyoudoorimmillee, grey cranes.
Bouyougah, centipede.
Bubburr, large brown and yellow snake.
Beeargah, crane.
Buggiloo, girl's name; little yam.
Boolee, whirlwind.
Boogurr, things belonging to a dead person.
Bullimah, sky-camp; heaven.
Bulleerul, breath.
Boorboor, come down.
Boyjerh, father, or relation of father.
Brigalow, an acacia.
Birroo Birroo, bird; sand-builders.
Booloon, white crane.
Boonburr, poison tree.
Boorgoolbean, a shrub with creamy flowers.
Birrahlee, baby.
Bahnmul, betrothal of babies.
Boomayahmayahmul, a wood lizard.
Brewarrina, name of place; place of Myall trees.
Boorool, big, great, many.
Birrahgnooloo, woman's name meaning hatchet-faced.
Booloowah two emus.
Bibbilah, belonging to the Bibbil country.
Barahgurree, girl's name; a kind of lizard.
Bogginbinnia, girl's name; a kind of lizard.
Billai, crimson-wing parrot.
Birriebunger, small diver-bird
Burrahwahn, a rat now extinct.
Bralgah, bird; native companion.
Bean, Myall tree; a weeping acacia.
Beebuyer, yellow flowering broom, shrub.
Beeleer, black cockatoo.
Bibbee, woodpecker,
Bullah Bullah, butterfly.
Beeweerh, bony bream.
Buggila, leopard wood.
Bunbundoolooey, a little brown bird.
Brumboorah, boorah song.
Boorahbayyi, boy undergoing initiation.
Boodther, a meeting where presents are exchanged.
Berai Berai, the boys; Orion's sword and belt.
Beereeun, lizard.
Birrahmulgerhyerh, devils with poison-sticks.
Byjerh, expression of surprise.
Buckandee, native cat.
Coolabah, flooded box; Eucalyptus.
Curreequinquin, butcher-bird; piping shrike.
Cumbee, stone tomahawk.
Cocklerina, a rose and yellow crested cockatoo. (Major Mitchell.)
Carbeen, an Eucalyptus.
Collarene, Coolabah blossom.
C-ngil, ugly, nasty, bad.
Cunnumbeillee, woman's name meaning pigweed root.
Dhe, hereditary totem.
Dheal, sacred tree.
Dayoorl, grinding-stone.
Doonburr, grass seed.
Dheelgoolee, a bird-trapping place.
Dardurr, a camp shelter of bark.
Dheala, girl's name.
Dayadee, half-brother.
Dadadee, grandfather on mother's side.
Doore-oothai, a lover.
Dillahga, an elderly man of same totem as person speaking of or to him.
Dooloomai, thunder.
Dillee, treasure bag.
Deenyi, ironbark.
Doowee, any one's dream-spirit.
Dinahgurrerhlowah, death-dealing stone.
Dumerh Dumerh, smallpox.
Dumerh, brown pigeon.
Doolungaiyah, sandhill rat, bilber.
Douyougurrah, earthworms.
Deereeree, willy wagtail.
Durrooee, spirit-bird.
Dinewan, emu.
Dunnia, wattle tree.
Deenbi, diver.
Deegeenboyah, soldier-bird.
Dayahminyah, small carpet snake.
Douyouie, ants.
Dulibah, bald.
Dulleerin, a lizard.
Douran Douran, north wind.
Dunnee Bunbun, a very large green parrot.
Dibbee, sort of sandpiper.
Durrahgeegin, green frog.
Dooroongul, hairy caterpillar.
Durramunga, little boorah.
Doolooboorah, boorah message-stick.
Dulloorah, tree manna-bringing birds.
Eerin, little night owl.
Euloowayi, long-nailed devils.
Euahlayi, name of the Narran tribe.
Euloowirree, rainbow.
Eeramooun, uninitiated boy.
Eleanbah wundah, spirits of the lower world.
{One page missing from the scanned edition}
Hippi, man's divisional family name
Hippitha, woman's divisional family name.
Inga, crayfish.
Innerah, a woman with a camp of her own.
Illay, hop bush.
Kumbo, man's divisional family name
Kubbee, man's divisional family name
Kubbootha, woman's divisional family name.
Kummean, father's sister.
Kurreah, crocodile.
Kumbuy, sister-in-law.
Kamilaroi, name of a tribe.
Kurrajong, tree; a sterculia.
Moodai, an opossum.
Minggah, spirit tree.
Murrahgul, a bird string trap.
Murree, man's divisional family name.
Matha, woman's divisional family name
Mullayerh, a temporary companion.
Moothie, a friend of childhood in afterlife.
Mirroon, emu net.
Mubboo, beefwood tree.
Myall, a drooping acacia; violet-scented wood.
Moornin, emu spears.
Muggil, stone knife.
Moorooleh, plain waddy.
Moogul, only child.
Mah, hand or totem.
Moograbah, big black and white magpie.
Mirrieh, poligonum.
Mullee Mullee, dream spirit of a wizard.
Mullowil, shadow spirit.
Moolee, death-dealing stone.
Moondoo, wasps.
Murgahmuggui, spider.
Mayamah, stones.
Munggheewurraywurraymul, seagulls.
Matah, corruption of master.
Mooroobeaigunnil, spirits on the sacred mountain.
Midjeer, an acacia.
Mulga, an acacia.
Mooregoo Mooregoo, black ibis.
Mooloowerh, a shrub with cream coloured flowers.
Muddurwerderh, west wind.
Mungghee, mussels.
Millanboo, the first again.
Moobil, stomach.
Mouyerh, bone through nose.
Moonaibaraban, spirit sister-in-law.
Mayamerh, Gayandi's camp.
Mullyan, eagle-hawk.
Mirriehburrah, belonging to poligonum country.
Millan, small water yam.
Mooregoo, swamp oak; belah,
Mouyi, white cockatoo.
Maira, a paddy melon.
Mouninguggahgul, mosquito bird.
Maira, wild currant bush.
Mungoongarlee, Largest iguana.
Mooregoo, mopoke.
Mounin, mosquito.
Mungahran, hawk.
Mien, dingo.
Munthdeegun, man in charge of initiate at boorah.
Meamei, the girls; Pleiades.
Mayrah, wind.
Marahgoo, man-shaped devil.
Marmbeyah, tree spirits.
Moorilla, pebbly ridge.
Mahmee, old woman.
Nimmaylee, girl's name; young porcupine.
Nurragah, an exclamation of pity.
Noongah, Kurrajong.
Numbardee, mother and mother's sisters.
Niune, wild melon.
Noongahburrah, belonging to the country of the Noongah.
Noorumbah, hereditary bunting ground.
Noodul Noodul, whistling duck.
Nummaybirrah, wild grape; Namoi.
Narahdarn, bat.
Noorunglely, a setting emu.
Nahgul, a devil haunting boorah grounds.
Oganahbayah, a small eagle-hawk.
Ooboon, blue-tongued lizard.
Oobi Oobi, sacred mountain.
Oonahgnai, give to me.
Oonahgnoo, give to her or him.
Oonahmillangoo, give to one.
Oogowahdee goobelaygoo, flood to swim against.
Oogle oogle, four emus.
Oonaywah, black diver.
Ouyan, curlew.
Piggiebillah, porcupine.
Quarrian, yellow and red breasted grey parrot.
Tuckandee, a young man of the same totem reckoned a kind of brother.
Tekel barain, large white amaryllis.
Tekkul, hair.
Talingerh, native fuchsia.
Tucki, a kind of bream.
Wirreenun, medicine man, wizard.
Wunnarl, food taboo.
Wirreebeeun, young woman.
Wirree, canoe-shaped bark vessel for drinking from, or holding things in.
Wambaneah, full brother.
Wulgundee, uncle's wife.
Woormerh, a boorah boy messenger.
Waywah, man's belt.
Wongin, a string breastplate.
Wogarrah, hatchet-shaped weapon,
Wi, clever.
Weedah, bower-bird.
Wundah, white devil.
Wi-mouyan, magic stick.
Wungoolay, a game with discs and spears.
Widyu Widyu, toy-spear.
Wahl, no.
Wa-ah, shells.
Woggoon, scrub turkey.
Wimberoo, game with leaf and fire.
Woolbooldarn, game; riding on bent branch.
Whagoo, game; hide-and-seek.
Wahn, crow.
Wurrawilberoo, the whirlwind devils.
Waddahgudjaelwon, a birth-presiding spirit.
Wahl nunnoomahdayer, do not steal
Wahl goonundoo, no water.
Weedegah, bachelor's camp.
Wir djuri, name of a tribe.
Waggestmul, kind of rat.
Wungghee, white night owl.
Willerhderh, north wind.
Wi, small fish.
Wayarah, wild grapes.
Womba, mad, deaf.
Weeweemul, a body-snatching spirit.
Wayambah, turtle.
Yhi, the sun (feminine).
Yarragerh, spring wind, north-east.
Yunbeai, individual totem.
Yarmmara, barley grass.
Yubbil, large bark vessel.
Yungawee, sacred fire.
Yumbean, kangaroo teeth fixed in grim, ornaments.
Yumbui, fatherless boy.
Yaraan, an Eucalyptus.
Yowee, a soul equivalent.
Yahweerh, sham fight.
Youayah, frogs.
Yelgayerdayer deermuldayer, leave all such alone.
Yudthar, feather.
Yubbah, carpet snake.
Yelgidyi, fully initiated young man.
Yowee bulleerul, spirit breath.