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[Page 152]
140
TRADITIONS
Thereupon, to prevent future aggressions, the several tribes received distinctive marks on their breasts and arms, and their boundaries were fixed by rocks, trees, rivers, and mountains.
The "Colonial Magistrate," above quoted, gives the following legend concerning the beginning of the Human Race:- "The natives of Western Australia say that when men first began to exist, there were two beings, male and female,- Wallinyup (the father), and Dovanyup (the mother) ; that they had a son name Bindinwor, who received a deadly wound, which they carefully endeavoured to heal, but without success ; where up it was declared that Wallinyup should also die, as his son had died. If Bindinwor's wound could have been healed, the natives think death could have had no power over them. Bindinwor, though deprived of life and buried, did not remain in the grave, but rose and went to the west, across the sea, to the unknown land of spirits, whither his father and mother followed him, and there they have ever since remained."
Bony, the Murri from the Balonne, who gave me the table of numbers up to twenty, declared this as his believe:- "Murruba murri (good men), when they die go up to guna-gulla (sky), to be with Baiame. Kagil murri (bad men) never come up any more. He is murruba who speaks gīrū (truth) and is kind to his fellow-men. He is kagil who tells gūnial (lies) and kills men by striking them secretly. It is no harm to kill a man in fair fight."
Billy, a very old blackfellow of Burburgate, whose proper names are Murri Bundar, with the surname IJumera Gunaga, spoke Guïnberai (or Koinberi). He told me he received his surname from the place where his father was buried ; and that it was a general custom for a Murri to get a name from the place where his father was buried. His father was Ippai Mute, and lived near Wunduba, on Liverpool Plains. In his tribe Murri Duli Wagūra was a chief man. He took the lead in fights, and laid down the law to the tribe. But Billy could not tell how he got his authority. When Billy was a little boy, a Burburgate blackfellow, Charley, was killed by one of the Wee Waa tribe. On this, Gūη-guēlĕ (Charcoal), whose inherited names were Murri Gānūr (red kangaroo), called on the Burburgate black to go and punish the tribe guilty of the murder. Natty (as the whites call him), now an old man, whose proper names are Murri Ganur Yawīrawiri, was one of the leaders in the fight. They met about fifteen miles above Narrabri. After a great talk they fought till many were killed on both sides. They combatants were painted red and yellow. Their weapons were spears, boomerangs, buni and Berambū, (different clubs) – and shields.
This old man, Billy, told me, as a great favour, what other blacks had withheld, as a mystery too sacred to be disclosed to a white man, that "dhūrumbulum," a stick or