Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/280

 202 THE ENCOUNTER BAY TRIBE. Pungngane seeing his brother and wives in the sky, followed, with his mother, where they have remained ever since. To Pungngane and Waijungngari the natives attribute the abundance of kangaroo and the fish called ponde. Pungngane caught a ponde, and dividing it into small pieces, and throwing them into the sea, each became a ponde. Waijungngari multiplied kangaroos in the same manner. They have many similar histories of the stars. The milky-way, they say, is a row of huts, amongst which they point out the heaps of ashes and the smoke ascending. 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 as follows: —A friend of his, Palpangye, paid him a visit and brought him some tinwarrar (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 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