Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/91

Rh The fine old chief of the Spring Creek tribe, Weeratt Kuyuut—'Eel spear,' occasionally called Morpor, after his tribe and country, and believed to have been upwards of eighty years of age—was both a messenger and a teacher. As a messenger he generally travelled by himself. In his younger days he was a great warrior, and in more mature years was considered such an honourable, impartial man, that he was selected on all occasions as a referee in the settlement of disputes. When a great battle was to be fought, he was sent for by the contending chiefs, who placed him in a safe position to see fair play. In reward for his services he returned home laden with presents of opossum rugs, weapons, and ornaments. As a teacher he taught the young people the names of the favourite planets and constellations, as indications of the seasons. For example, when Canopus is a very little above the horizon in the east at daybreak, the season for emu eggs has come; when the Pleiades are visible in the east an hour before sunrise, the time for visiting friends and neighbouring tribes is at hand; if some distant locality requires to be visited at night, it can be reached by following a particular star. He taught them also the names of localities, mountain ranges, and lakes, and the directions of the neighbouring tribes. As Weeratt Kuyuut had the reputation of being an expert warrior, besides being well known as a messenger, he travelled unmolested all over the country between the Grampian ranges and the sea, and between the rivers Leigh and Wannon; and was received and treated everywhere with kindness and hospitality. In his travels towards Geelong—which at that time was the name of the bay and not of the land—he heard of Buckley as a chief who had 'died and jumped up whitefellow,' and who on that account was treated with marked consideration and respect. There is little doubt that Buckley owed his life to this idea, which was very likely encouraged by him to enable him to retain his influence over the tribes with which he mingled. Among the associated tribes a public executioner was employed to put criminals to death when ordered by the chiefs to do so. The natives have a vivid recollection of a bloodthirsty savage named Pundeet Puulotong, 'dragger out of kidney fat,' who acted in that capacity, and who was so fond of doing cruel deeds that he solicited the office himself. He killed his victims with a club called yuul marrang, 'wild hand,' made of quandong wood, and kept for the purpose. Pundeet Puulotong was a great fighting man. On killing one of a neighbouring tribe, he would show himself to the relatives of his victim, and challenge