Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/558

474 be heard talking together, but they cannot talk plainly. Next you hear the Mrarts marching past the camp after each other, and a voice calls out, 'Do not make a bright fire, or we shall go back.' Questions are now put to them, which they answer, and the replies are always found to be true.

When the Mrarts go away, which they do when no more questions are put, saying 'Now we are going back,' the blackfellows go out and find the Birra-ark, sleeping on the ground where the Mrarts had been talking; but sometimes he is found left in the top of a tree; in one case on the top of a tree-stem where the head had been broken off high up; and in all such cases it is in some tree very difficult to climb, and up which there are no marks of any one having climbed. The blackfellows have had sometimes the greatest difficulty in getting the Birra-ark down again from the places where the Mrarts have left him.

A Murla-mullung is a doctor; a blackfellow becomes a Murla-mullung by being visited in the night by some departed relative—as a father, uncle, or brother. The vision shows him the causes of disease, such as Toondung, the inner bark of a variety of ironbark, which is supposed to get into the chest; Bulk, an egg-shaped quartz pebble; Groggin, quartz fragments, to which may be added Bottle, that is broken glass; Murrawun, the magical throwing-stick, made of ironbark wood.

For these and other ailments various charms and their appropriate tunes are taught, and the sleeper on awakening is a Murla-mullung. He can now charm out the Toondung by singing the appropriate remedy over the patient; and, placing his hand on the chest under the 'possum rug, draws out the offending Toondung in the shape of some of the inner bark of the ironbark called Yowut; it is said always to have blood on it. In the same way other cures are performed. If, for instance, the patient has had some quartz fragments or broken glass placed in his legs or arms by the enchantment of some enemy, the Murla-mullung straightens out the limb, smooths it down with his hands, and then, after singing his chant, sucks the quartz or glass out of the place, and removing it from his mouth, shows it to the patient, who is then cured.

As an example of what the Murla-mullung does, the following may serve:—One of the blackfellows had some magical substance called Kru-gullung in a bag; it was obtained from some Melbourne blacks. In the bag he kept a waddy, and by this means the strength of the Kru-gullung was supposed to pass into the waddy. One day, being drunk, he fancied to beat his gin, and running after her, brandishing the waddy, he struck himself such a blow on the side of the head that he inflicted a deep cut. The Kru-gullung passed out of the waddy into his head, and the wound defied the skill of the English doctors at Sale. A Murla-mullung at Bairnsdale, however, cured it. He sang his song and sucked the wound, and extracted the Kru-gullung, which resembled a glass marble.

Women may become Murla-mullungs as well as men; but if a Murla-mullung is stung by a bulldog-ant, or by a nettle, he feels his power gone from him, and can cure no more till again visited by the spirit of a deceased relative in his sleep.