Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/121

 LEGENDS. 59 Encounter Bay Tribe of Narrinyeri (the Raminyerar), published in 1846. These traditions were much better remembered amongst the natives then than now, and consequently this account is very trustworthy. The above legends were collected by myself eighteen years ago. Meyer says of the Narrinyeri "They do not appear to have any story of the origin of the world; but nearly all animals they suppose anciently to have been men who performed great prodigies, and at last transformed themselves into different kinds of animals and stones! Thus the Raminjerar point out several large stones or points of rock along the beach whose sex and name they distinguish. One rock, they say, is an old man named Lime, upon which women and children are not allowed to tread; but old people venture to do so from their long acquaintance with him. They point out his head, feet, hands, and also his hut and fire. For my part, I could see no resemblance to any of these things except the hut. The occasion upon which he transformed himself was a follows: A friend of his, Palpangye, paid him a visit, and brought him some tinwarrar (a kind of fish). Lime enjoyed them very much, and regretted that there were no rivers in the neighbourhood that he might catch them himself, as they are a river fish. Palpangye went into the bush and fetched a large tree, and, thrusting it into the ground in different places, water immediately began to flow and formed the Inman and Hindmarsh rivers. Lime, out of gratitude, gave him some kanmari (small sea fish), and transformed himself into a rock, the neighbourhood of which has ever since abounded in this kind of fish. Palpangye became a bird, and is frequently near the rivers. The steep hill and large ponds at Mootabarringar were produced by the dancing of their forefathers at that place. At the present time it is customary for two hundred or three hundred natives to meet together at their dances (or corrobbories, as they are called by the whites). At sunset a fire is made to give light. The women sit apart, with skins rolled up and held between the knees, upon which they beat time. The young men are ornamented after their fashion with a tuft of emu feathers in the hair; and those who are not painted red ornament themselves with chalk by making circles round the eyes, a stroke along the nose, and dots upon the forehead and cheeks, while the rest of the body is covered with fanciful figures. One commences singing, and if all cannot join (for the songs are frequently in a different language, taken from some distant tribe) he commences another song. If the song is known to all, the women scream or yell out at the top of their voices, and the men commence a grotesque kind of dance, which to us appears sufficiently ridiculous and amusing. It is upon an occasion like this that they represent their ancestors to have been assembled at Mootabarringar. Having no fire, this dance was held in the daytime, and the weather being very hot the perspiration flowed copiously from them and formed the large ponds, and the beating of their feet upon the ground produced the irregularities of surface in the form of the hills and valleys. They sent messengers, Kuratje and Kanmari, towards the east to Kondole to invite him to the feast, as they knew that he possessed fire. Kondole, who was a large, powerful man, came, but hid his fire, on account of which alone he had been invited. The men, displeased at this, determined to obtain the fire by force, but no one ventured to approach him. At length one named Rilballe determined to wound him with a spear and then take the fire from him. He threw