Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/521

VIII mother Ngalalbal. Originally the earth was bare and "like the sky, as hard as a stone," and the land extended far out where the sea is now. There were no men or women, but only animals, birds, and reptiles. He placed trees on the earth. After Kaboka, the thrush, had caused a great flood on the earth, which covered all the coast country, there were no people left, excepting some who crawled out of the water on to Mount Dromedary. Then Daramulun went up to the sky, where he lives and watches the actions of men. It was he who first made the Kuringal and the bull-roarer, the sound of which represents his voice. He told the Yuin what to do, and he gave them the laws which the old people have handed down from father to son to this time. He gives the Gommeras their power to use the Joïas, and other magic. When a man dies and his Tulugal (spirit) goes away, it is Daramulun who meets it and takes care of it. It is a man's shadow which goes up to Daramulun.

Such are the beliefs which are taught at the Yuin Kuringal, and as the Ngarigo attended these ceremonies it is not surprising that they believed the same. The following is the statement of a very intelligent old man of that tribe which I took down as he said it: "Tharamulun once lived on the earth, where he taught the Murring what to do. He gave them the Kuringal and told them what food to eat. When he died and was put in the ground, his Bula-bong (spirit, ghost) went up to the Kulumbi (sky). Women know of his existence, but only speak of him as Pabang (father). It is only when a young man has his tooth knocked out that the name of Tharamulun is told to him. Tharamulun can see people, and is very angry when they do things that they ought not to do, as when they eat forbidden food." This account speaks of him as a man whose spirit or ghost went up to the sky, while the usual statement is that he went up in the flesh as one of the Gommeras, or medicine-men, might do.

These beliefs extend along the coast, to my knowledge at least as far as the Shoalhaven River, and, according to the old men who were with me at their Kuringal, as far as Newcastle.