Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/123

 LEGENDS. 61 feet, he created Kungkengguwar (Rosetta Head). From hence he threw spears in different directions, and wherever they fell small rocky islands arose. At length he found his two wives at Toppong. After beating them they again endeavoured to escape. Now tired of pursuing them, he ordered the sea to flow and drown them. They were transformed into rock, and are still to be seen at low water. Discontented and unhappy, he removed with his children to a great distance towards the West, where he still lives, a very old man, scarcely able to move. When he went away, one of his children was asleep, and, in consequence, left behind. Nurunduri, when he arrived at the place where he intended to remain, missed him, and making fast one end of a string to his maralengk, he threw the other end towards where he supposed his son to be, who, catching hold of it, helped himself along to his father. This line is still the guide by which the dead find their way to Nuurunduri. When a man dies, Nurunduri’s son, who first found the way to his father by means of the line, throws it to the dead man, who catching hold of it, is conducted in like manner. When he comes near, the old man, feeling the motion of the line, asks his son who is coming. If it is a man, the son calls all the men together, who by a great shouting, arouse the half stupefied man. When come to himself, he silently and sadly approaches Nurunduri, who points out to him where he is to reside. If he belongs to the Encounter Bay, or one of the Goolwa tribes, he is allowed to live in Nurunduri’s hut; but if of one of the more distant tribes, at a distance off. Before he goes away to the place pointed out to him Nurunduri carefully observes his eyes. If tears are flowing from one eye only, it is a sign, that he has left only one wife; if from both, two; if they cease to flow from one eye while they continue to flow from the other, he has left three wives; and according to the number he has left, Nurunduri provides him with others. Old people become young, and the infirm sound in the company of Nurunduri. This is what the poor uninstructed people believe; therefore no fears about the future, or concerning punishments and rewards, are entertained by them. Thus far Meyer’s account of the legends which he found amongst the natives. I have omitted one or two which were too indecent for general readers. It is now the opinion of intelligent natives with whom I have conversed, that Nurunduri was the great chief who led the Narrinyeri down the Darling to the country which they now inhabit. They say that there is a tradition that two young men returned back on the track of the tribe, and were never more heard of. Nurunduri is represented as having led his sons, i.e., his tribe, down the southern shore of the Lakes, and then turned up the Coorong. There he appears to have met another tribe, coming from the south-east. A battle was fought, and, of course, the Narrinyeri say that they were conquerors. But yet, afterwards, Nurunduri led his people towards Encounter Bay,