Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/528

502 east, in a heaven of beautiful appearance. He is represented as seated on a throne of transparent crystal, with beautiful pillars of crystal on each side. Grogorally is his son, who watches over the actions of mankind. He leads the souls of the dead to Boyma. The first man made by Boyma was called Moodgegally, who lives near the heaven of Boyma. He lives on the earth and has the power of visiting Boyma, whose place he reaches by a winding path, round a mountain, whence he ascends by a ladder or flight of steps. There he received laws from Boyma."

In these statements I easily recognise, although in a distorted form, the familiar features of Baiame and his son Daramulun, Bunjil and his son Binbeal, or Mungan-ngaua and his son Tundun. The first man who ascends to the sky-land is typical of the medicine-man who says that he can ascend to the sky and commune with the "great master."

Mr. Manning has built up on these facts a superstructure which represents Christian dogmas, and he has done this evidently with full faith in the truth of his deductions. The following are his own words: "They not only acknowledge a Supreme Deity but also believe in his providential supervision of all creation, aided by his son Grogorally, and by the second mediator, in the supernatural person, of their intercessor Moodgegally."

I believe that the late Archdeacon Gunther wrote an account of the belief in Baiame by the natives of Wellington Valley in New South Wales, but I have not been able to find it. However, the following occurs in a vocabulary compiled by him, "Baiamai, a great God, he lives in the east."

The Rev. William Ridley identifies Baiame with God, and says that he "sometimes appeared in human form, and will bring (them) before him for judgment, and reward the good with endless happiness." This account has, and not unnaturally, the mental colour of the writer, who in his