Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/117

 Hydra, 'Barrukill,' is a great hunter of kangaroo rats. On his right, and a little above him, are two stars — the rat, and his dog 'Karlok;' above these again are four stars, forming a log; underneath are four other stars, one of which is his light, and three form his arm. The dog chases the rat into the log; Barrukill takes it out, devours it, and disappears below the horizon. Hydra is of great service to the aborigines in their night journeys, enabling them to judge the time of the night and the course to be taken in travelling. A comet, 'Puurt Kuurnuuk,' believed to be a great spirit. A meteor, 'Gnummæ waar,' 'deformity.' The crepuscular arch in the west in the morning is called 'Kullat,' 'peep-of-day.' The upper crepuscular arch in the east at sunset is called  Kuurokeheear'puuron,' 'white cockatoo twilight.' The under arch, 'Kappiheear puuron,' 'black cockatoo twilight.' The natives say this arch comes from the constellation Orion. The crepuscular rays in the west after sunset are called 'rushes of the sun.' The Aurora Australis, 'Puæ buæ,' 'ashes.' For the names of the cardinal points of the compass, and of the various winds, see the vocabulary at the end of the book. The aborigines appear to be well acquainted with the effects of earthquakes. Besides one which they say rent the ground and formed 'Taap heear ' — a waterhole in Spring Creek, near Minjah House — they have a vivid recollection of another which occurred about forty years ago. Puulornpuul, who described it, was a little boy when it occurred. Three tribes were encamped on the lower Hopkins River, and were holding a korroboræ after sunset; they had their fires lighted round a waterhole, and were in the midst of their dancing, when a strange sound, 'like the galloping of horses,' approached from the north-west, accompanied with a violent shaking of the ground, which, according to Puulornpuul, 'ran about and pushed up blackfellows,' and was immediately followed by a hurricane. This may have been the same earthquake which upset one of Major Mitchell's drays while his party was encamped between the Hopkins and Geelong. Some names of places indicate the existence of heat in the ground at a former period; but no tradition exists of any of the old craters, so numerous in the Western District, ever having thrown out smoke or ashes, with the exception of 'Bo'ok,' a hill near the town of Mortlake. An intelligent aboriginal