Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/167

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The first collection of Australian tales made by Mrs. Parker was printed in 1896. In a notice of the book given in this Journal (vol. ix. 1896, p. 303) it was observed that the gathering was gratifying as indicating that in Australia the stream of oral tradition continues to flow, and that it will be possible to obtain records much more complete than that furnished by the inadequate printed documents. This opinion is emphasized by the additional matter now communicated.

As indicated in the earlier volume, it appears that the Australian's conception of primitive life is not very different from that of the aboriginal American's. The first inhabitants of the land are supposed to have been animal ancestors, larger and wiser than animals now existing; it is further imagined that these possessed human rather than animal shape, and that the form and habits of living beasts are accounted for by the actions of these human or semi-human predecessors, from whom they have undergone metamorphosis. The characteristics of every animal are thus explained by folk-tales, which often have an important part in the social life of the tribes. Thus the Crow owes his black color to a blow from the Crane which laid him out on burnt black grass; while the Crane's hoarseness is owing to a fish-bone, which in revenge was inserted in his throat by the Crow. The Parrot's green feathers and red marks are the results of a funeral ceremony, namely, the plastering with ashes, tying on green twigs, and inflicting gashes in honor of the deceased. The dead in this case was the Mocking-bird, a lover of the Parrot sisters slain by the Lizard, a conjuror having the power of producing a mirage. In consequence of their grief the Parrots were changed into Birds, while the Mocking-bird was translated to the sky, where he is seen as the star Canopus. That kangaroos are now able to see in the dark is owing to the manner in which the eponymic Kangaroo sent forth his dream spirit to roll away the darkness, at a time when his wife, the Emu, was seeking at night for grass to mend the nyunnoo or humpy.

Phenomena of nature, in this mythology, stand precisely on the same basis as living creatures. The Wind is an invisible companion; the cold West Wind is pegged by the Crow into a hollow log, and only allowed occasional exit, a restraint by which her primitive ferocity is much subdued; however, the log is now rotting and full of holes, and some day the West Wind is likely to escape, and rush to the semi-annual corroboree, or assembly of the winds, with disastrous results. The Sun is personified under the feminine name of Yhi; but inconsistently it is said that the Sun is a fire lighted by the sky-spirit, and which burns out to embers at night. How it gets through the sky is not related; the myth is imperfect. The spirits of conjurors or wirreenuns can take the forms of whirlwinds, and destroy whatever they overtake. The Milky Way is a road travelled by