Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/316

 238 THE PORT LINCOLN TRIBE. thirst for revenge has quite as great a share in these foul accusations as superstition. Ignorant of the Supreme disposer of life and death, too little reflective to ascribe their bereavements to a blind fatality, yet susceptible of intense feeling, and superstitious withal, it is, perhaps, not so very wonderful that they should seek the cause of their sorrows within the compass of human agency. Many other superstitions are entertained by the natives, which though not of an equally dangerous tendency, still ascribe undue and mischievous power to man. Thus it is maintained that remote tribes of blacks, especially the Kukatas to the northwest, have the power of producing excessive rain, as well as insufferable heat and drought, and also of causing plagues that kill other tribes by wholesale. To avert heavy rains they employ sometimes a long string of seemingly extempore imprecations, beginning every sentence with the interjection "Sú," expressive of anger, pronouncing the first words rapidly, and chanting

and many others, the meaning of which is unknown. The appearance of a comet or any natural phenomenon in the heavens is regarded as the sure harbinger of death, and fills them with awe and terror. In 1843, when the great comet appeared, some acknowledged to have been so frightened that they crept into caves among the rocks.

The Aborigines have a great number of fabulous traditions handed down to them by their forefathers, all of which are characterised by a high degree of improbability and monstrosity, as will be sufficiently apparent from a few that I shall mention:—

I.—Pulyállana was in days of yore a great man, who conferred on succeeding generations the benefit of having given names to many localities in the southern and western parts of this district, which they retain to this day. He had, however, the misfortune to lose both his wives, who absconded from him—an