Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/30

 i8 Presidential Address.

very good man called Mangarrara lives amongst the stars at a place called Teeladla. He made all that there is upon earth except the Blackfellows. He never dies, and loves the blacks. Another good man called Nanganburra lives in the bowels of the earth at a place called Abigooga. In past ages he made one blackfellow and taught him how to make other blacks. He takes account of their good and bad deeds, and marks them down. When blacks die, if they have been good, he gives them a pass to Mangarrara, with whom they live amongst the stars ; those who have been bad are sent into a place far into the interior of the earth called Omar, where there is a large fire. Deep under this is a large lake called Burcoot, where lives always a black named Madjuit-madjuit, who regulates the tides by means of the moon and never dies." That these savages should be aware of the correlation of tides with the moon is interesting. Mr. Green said of the Dieyerie tribe north of Mount Freeling, 630 miles to the north of Adelaide, that they suppose that man and all other beings were created by the moon at the bidding of the Mooramoora, that man was first created in the form of a lizard, and prayed to Mooramoora for heat to enable him to catch the emu, when the sun was created in compliance. (This duplication of sound in names is another curious point of analogy between savao-es and children.) Mr. Valentine said of the Doora tribe at Mount Remarkable that they believe in the existence of God. Mr. Fowler said of the tribe at Yorke's Peninsula, South Australia, that they believe in a future state and that the dead go to the west, where there is abundance of fat fish. Mr. Reid said of the Milya-uppa tribe at Torrowotto that they believe in the existence of God, and that after death they will be transformed into birds. Mr. Teulon said of the Bahkunjy tribe at Bourke on the Darling River, that they believe in one God, the ample-handed maker and preserver of all things, but have neither knowledge nor desire for knowledge of him.