The author of the didactic dialogues of Thebes, the old world expounder of some of the theories of modern psychology, if he could revisit the earth and wend his way to Central Australia, would there find some of his ideas, or rather the ghostly semblance of them, passable as religious coinage amongst the old men of the tribes. Grand old Cebes taught that man had a sort of life of apprenticeship before he entered upon this world’s stage, and could (if pure of heart) sometimes take counsel in times of perplexity by looking backward into his sinless anterior existence.
One of the virtues that the native drug Pitchurie is supposed to possess when used by the old men is the opening up of this past life, giving them the power and perquisites of seers.
To return to the old man and the camp. All the men watch him, waiting for him to speak. The boys, meanwhile, having tired of story-telling, are playing at Beringaroo over a large fire they have started. This game is performed with boat-like toys formed out of the leaf of the Aluja, warmed and pinched into shape. Flung upwards with a sharp twirl, imparted to it with the first and second fingers, concave side downwards, over the blazing fire, the plaything mounts with the draft, spinning rapidly, till it meets the cooler air, when it descends, only to mount again, still whirling in hawk-like circles. Shouts of applause reward the player whose toy keeps longest on the wing.
“Let the big fire be extinguished!” comes the word of command from the old man, uttered in a low voice. Then the speaker rises, and stretching out his arms towards the west, with the saliva caused by the chewing process running from his mouth upon his white beard and tawny chest, he commences to speak. The boys’ fire has been quickly subdued, and men, women, and children watch the figure of their “guide, philosopher, and friend.”
Slowly, at first, come the words; the old man’s voice growing louder and more excited towards the end of his speech, which is a kind of address to his patron-, or birth-star, in this case that of the Evening, or Lizard’s eye:—
“Amathooroocooroo, Star of approaching night, Kow-wah, thou risest, dilchiewurruna, from the sun’s camping-place.
“Boonkunana boolo, Thy shining head ornamented with gypsum,
“Is slowly ascending o’er Waieri, the sand-hills.
“Aumin thieamow, Remain and tell us, Purrurie, what see you, Ooyellala, beneath you?
“The red-ochre hunters, Wolkapurrie.