Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/171

III Ngunun-ngunut, is the brother of all the men, and Yartatgurk, the Owlet-nightjar, is the sister of all the women. In this tribe the group totem is called by the terms Mir, Ngirabtil, and Yauruk, the latter word meaning flesh, frequently expanded into Yauruk-gologeitch, that is "flesh-of-all." These terms apply equally to the group and sex totems. I know of no personal totems in this tribe, probably because it had no initiation ceremonies of the Burbung type at which such names are given.

Very little came under my notice in Victorian tribes as to any objection to kill or eat the totem. This is partly due, I think, to the fact that in the Kulin tribes there was only one totem attached to the class Bunjil, and none to that of Waang. These tribes covered a great part of that State. They leave only the tribes of the Western District, with those along the course of the Murray River and in the extreme North-eastern District, unaccounted for.

As to the tribes of the south-west, they have been described at length by Mr. James Dawson, but there ppears not to be any mention in his work of the totems in connection with any subject but marriage. His acquaintance with these tribes dated back to such an early time in the settlement of Victoria that I can scarcely imagine that, if there had been any marked beliefs as to the totem names, he must have become acquainted with them. But, on the other hand, these tribes had for neighbours on the west the Buandik, whose beliefs as to the totems I shall quote shortly. On the north-west the tribes which Mr. Dawson describes were the neighbours of the Wotjo nation. It seems therefore singular that the tribes of South-west Victoria had no rules prohibiting the killing of the totems.

The Wotjobaluk would not harm his totem if he could avoid it, but at a pinch he would eat it in default of other food. In order to injure another person he would, however, kill that person's totem. To dream about his own totem means that some one has done something to it for the purpose of harming the sleeper or one of his totemites. But if he dreams it again, it means himself, and if he thereupon falls ill, he will certainly see the wraith of the person