Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/133

 THE VOCABrLAET. 4H

��CHAPTER IV.

��YOCABULAET.

��(1) MYTHOLOGY.

G a 1: 6 n ; k li r i m a ; on.* bones put through the septum of the nose for ornament.

Gorro; pummeri; y o n e i, m., varieties of grass-tree. To form the native spears, pieces of the flower-stalks of this are cemented together at the ends by a resinous substance which exudes from the root ; they are made from eight to twelve feet long ; a piece of hard w^ood forms the last joint, on which is cemented a splinter of pointed bone, a*? a barb. A deadly ■weapon this is ; thrown by means of a lever nearly four feet long, cf. ' w m m a r a ', which is held in the hand, and on it the poisoned spear.

Koin, Tippakal, Porrag are names of an imaginary male being, who has now, and has always had, the appearance of a black ; he resides in thick brushes or jungles ; he is seen occas- ionally by day, but mostly at night. In general, he precedes; the coming of the natives from distant parts, when they assemble to celebrate certain of their ceremonies, as the knocking out of tooth in the mystic ring, or wdien they are performing some dance. He appears painted with pipe-clay, and carries a fire- stick in his hand; but generally it is the doctors, a kind of magicians, who alone perceive him, and to whom he says, ' Feai^ not; come and talk.' At other times he comes when the blacks are asleep, and takes them up, as an eagle his prey, and carries: them away for a time. The shout of the surrounding party often makes him drop his burden; otherwise, he conveys them to his fire-place in the bush, where, close to the fire, he deposits his load. The person carried off tries to cry out, but cannot, feeling almost choked ; at daylight Koin disappears, and the black finds himself conveyed safely to his own fire-side.

Eoyorowen, the name of another imaginary being, whose trill in the bush frequently alarms the blacks in the night. AVhen he overtakes a native, he commands him to exchange cudgels, giving his own which is extremely large, and desiring the black to take a first blow at his head, which he holds down for that purposef ; after this he smites and kills the person with one blow, skewers him with the cudgel, carries him off, roasts, and then eats him.

f This is a coiumoa mode of duelUng among the blacks. — Ed,
 * The m, tliroughout, stands for meaning.

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