Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/114

 CHAPTER XXI. METEOROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY. Great reliance is placed by the natives on certain signs, as indicating a change in the weather; and, even when a white person might not observe symptoms of an approaching storm, the natives are made aware of it by signs well known to them. They notice the appearance of the sun, moon, stars, and clouds, the cries and movements of animals, &c. A bright sunrise prognosticates fine weather; a red sunrise, rain; a red sunset, heat next day; a halo round the sun, fine weather; a bright moon, fine weather; the old moon in the arms of the new, rain; the new moon lying on its back, dry weather; a halo round the moon, rain; a rainbow in the morning, fine weather; a rainbow in the evening, bad weather; a rainbow during rain, clearing up; when mosquitoes and gnats are very troublesome, rain is expected; when the cicada sings at night, there will be a hot wind next day. The arrival of the swift, which is a migratory bird, indicates bad weather. The whistle of the black jay, the chirp of the little green frog, the creak of the cricket, and the cry of the magpie lark indicate bad weather; wet weather is more likely to come after full moon. It is a sign of heat and fine weather when the eagle amuses itself by towering to an immense height, turning its head suddenly down, and descending vertically, with great force and with closed wings, till near the earth, then opening them and sweeping upwards with half-closed wings to the same height. This movement it repeats again and again, for a long time, without exertion and with apparent pleasure. The aborigines call this movement 'warroweean,' and always expect warm weather to follow it. They believe that, in dry weather, if any influential person take water into his mouth and blow it towards the setting sun, saying, 'Come down, rain,' the wind will blow and the rain will pour for three days. When they wish for rain to make the grass grow at any particular place, they dig up the root of the convolvulus, called 'tarruuk,' and throw it in the direction of the place, saying, 'Go and make the grass grow there!' Although the knowledge of the heavenly bodies possessed by the natives