Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/511

VIII Kurnai, before there were men there were creatures somewhat like human beings, but without members. Muraurai, the Emu-wren, turned them into men and women by splitting their legs, separating the arms from the sides, and slitting up their fingers, and otherwise perfecting them.

A legend of the Wotjobaluk tells of the wanderings of the two Bram-bram-gal in search of Doan, the flying-squirrel, who had been killed and eaten by Wembulin, the so-called Tarantula. It tells of their adventures, and of the naming of the places where these occurred, until the younger of the brothers died. Then the elder shaped part of a tree in the form of a man, and by his magic caused it to become alive, and to call him elder brother. United once more, the two Bram-bram-gal travelled far to the west, where they lived in a cavern; but no one knows where they then went to.

The Wurunjerri legend of Lohan is, that when he was cooking eels at the Yarra River he observed a swan's feather carried by the south wind. Walking in that direction, he at length came to Westernport Bay, where the swans lived. There he remained till they migrated to the east, and he followed them. Coming to Corner Inlet, he made his home in the mountains of Wilson's Promontory, and watched over the welfare of the people who followed him.

Although the Kurnai had no legend of the migration of Lohan, they also believed that he lived in the mountains of Wilson's Promontory, with his wife Lohan-tuka. The Brataua clan, in whose country his home is, said that their old men had seen him from time to time marching over the mountains with his great jag-spear over his shoulder. They also believed that he watched over them, and that he caused their country to be deadly to strangers. It was therefore to him that they attributed the taboo which protected them against the visits of other tribes, from the eastern extremes of Gippsland to the lower Murray River.

There is a legend that the first Kurnai man marched across the country from the north-west, bearing on his head a bark canoe in which was his wife Tuk, that is the Musk-duck, he being Borun, the Pelican.