[41] Supra, [ii. 114 sq.]
[42] Tuckey, op. cit. p. 377. Cf. Monrad, Skildring af Guinea-Kysten, p. 27, n. *
[43] Mariner, Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 149, 107.
[44] Batchelor, Ainu of Japan, p. 243 sq.
In Australia, especially in New South Wales and Victoria but also in other parts of the continent, many of the native tribes have the notion of an “All-father,” called Baiame, Daramulun, Mungan-ngalla, Bunjil, Nurelli, Nurundere, or by some other name.[45] He is represented as an anthropomorphic, supernatural being and as the father of the race or the maker of everything, who at one time dwelt on the earth but afterwards ascended to a land beyond the sky, where he still remains. He is of a kindly disposition, and requires no worship; in a very few cases only we meet with some faint traces of a cult offered him.[46] He is frequently believed to have instituted the initiation ceremonies,[47] and to have given the people their laws.[48] Thus Nurundere is said to have taught the Narrinyeri all the rites and ceremonies whether connected with life or death; on inquiry why they adhere to any custom, the reply is that Nurundere commanded it.[49] At the boorah, or initiation, of the Euahlayi tribe, Byamee is proclaimed as “Father of All, whose laws the tribes are now obeying”; and in one of their myths he is described as the original source of all the totems and of the law that persons of the same totem may not intermarry.[50] Bunjil taught the Kulin the arts of life, and told them to divide themselves into two intermarrying classes so as to prevent marriages between kindred.[51] Daramulun instructed the Yuin what to do and gave them laws which the old people have handed down from father to son to the present time.[52] And in several instances the Australian “All-father” is represented as a guardian of morality who punishes the wicked and rewards the good. Bunjil “very frequently sent his sons to destroy bad men and bad women … who had killed and eaten blacks.”[53] Daramulun, or Tharamulun, who from his residence in the sky watches the actions of men, “is very angry when they do things that they ought not to do, as when they eat forbidden food.”[54] The natives of the Herbert River, in Queensland, believe that anybody who takes a wife from the prohibited sub-class, or who does not wear the morning necklace for the prescribed period, or who eats forbidden food, will sooner or later die in consequence, since his behaviour is offensive to Kohin, a supernatural being who is supposed to have his dwelling in the Milky Way but to roam about at night on earth as a gigantic warrior killing those whom he meets.[55] Most commonly, however, the retribution is said to come after death. The tribes about Maryborough, in Queensland, maintain that the ghosts of those who are good or those who have a high degree of excellence in any particular line—fishing, hunting, fighting, dancing, and so forth—are directed by Birral to an island in the Far North, where he resides.[56] Among the Cape River tribes, “when a Blackfellow dies whose actions during life have been what they hold to be good, he is said to ascend to Boorala (i.e., to the Creator, literally ‘good’), where he lives much as he did on earth, less the usual terrestrial discomforts”; whereas to the man who has led a bad life death is thought to be simple annihilation.[57] The Kulin said that when they die they will be subjected to a sort of trial by Binbeal, “the good being rewarded in a better land, the bad driven away, but where they seemed to have no idea.”[58] According to another account, again, Binbeal, after he has subjected the spirits of the deceased to an ordeal of fire to try whether they are good or bad, liberates the good at once, whereas the bad are confined and punished.[59] The Illawarra, who lived from thirty to a hundred miles south of Sidney, believed that when people die they are brought up to a large tree where Mirirul, the supreme ruler, examines and judges them. The good he takes up to the sky, the bad he sends to another place to be punished. The women said to their children when they were naughty, “Mirirul will not allow it.”[60] Among the Wathiwathi, in New South Wales, the belief prevails that if the spirit of a bad man escapes the traps which are set for it on its course in the sky, it is sure to fall into the hell of fire. The good spirit, on the other hand, is received by two old women who take care of it till it becomes accustomed to its new abode; and after a time the great God, Tha-tha-puli, comes with a host of spirits to see the newcomer and try his strength.[61] According to a report written by Archdeacon Günther in 1839, Baiame is supposed to like the blacks who are good; and “there is also an idea entertained by the more thoughtful that good natives will go to Baiame when they die.”[62] Later authorities state that Baiame is believed not only to reward the good after death, but also to punish the wicked—that is, persons who tell lies or kill men by striking them secretly or who are unkind towards the old and sick or, generally, who break his laws.[63] A very elaborate theory of retribution is communicated by Mr. Manning, whose notes date from 1844 or 1845. Boyma (Baiame) is said to be seated far away in the north-east on an immense throne made of transparent crystal and standing in a great lake. He has a son, Grogoragally, equal with him in omniscience, who acts as mediator for the souls to the Great God. His office is to watch over the actions of mankind and to bring to life the dead to appear before the judgment-seat of his Father, who alone pronounces the judgment of eternal happiness in heaven or eternal misery in a hell of everlasting fire. Women and boys dying before the initiation, however, do not go to heaven; the men have a vague idea that another world is reserved for them. There is also a third person, half human, half divine, called Moodgeegally, who makes Boyma’s will known to mankind and is the avowed enemy of all wicked people, transmitting their misdeeds to Grogoragally.[64]
[45] Henderson, Colonies of New South Wales, p. 147. de Strzelecki, New South Wales, p. 339. Manning, ‘Aborigines of New Holland,’ in Jour. and Proceed. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, xvi. 157 sqq. Ridley, Kámilarói, p. 135 sqq. Cameron, ‘Some Tribes of New South Wales,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xiv. 364 sq. Langloh Parker, Euahlayi Tribe, p. 4 sqq. Threlkeld, An Australian Language as spoken by the Awabakal, p. 47. Mathews, Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria, p. 138 sqq. Mathew, Eagle-hawk and Crow, p. 146 sqq. Fountain and Ward, Rambles of an Australian Naturalist, p. 296. Missions-Blatt aus der Brüdergemeine, xvi. 101, 143; Parker, Aborigines of Australia, p. 24; Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 49 (tribes in Victoria). Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 423 sqq. Taplin, ‘Narrinyeri,’ in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 55 sqq. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 489 sqq. Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 498 sq. (Kaitish). Strehlow, quoted by Thomas, ‘Religious Ideas of the Arunta,’ in Folk-Lore, xvi. 429 sq. Idem, quoted by von Leonhardi, ‘Religiöse und totemistische Vorstellungen der Aranda und Loritja in Zentralaustralien,’ in Globus, xci. 286 sq. Curr, The Australian Race, i. 253 (Larrakīa); ii. 465, 475 (some Cape River natives). Lang, Cooksland, p. 459 sq.; Idem, Queensland, p. 379 sq. Roth, Ethnol. Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines, pp. 16, 153. 158. Salvado, Mémoires historiques sur l’Australie, p. 258 (natives of West Australia).
[46] When the natives of Cooksland, in North-Eastern Australia, rob a wild bees’ hive they generally leave a little of the honey for Buddai, the supernatural ancestor of their race (Lang, Cooksland, p. 460; Idem, Queensland, p. 380). Mrs. Langloh Parker (op. cit. pp. 8, 9, 79, 89) was told that in the Euahlayi tribe prayers are addressed to Byamee at funerals for the souls of the dead, and that at some initiatory rites the oldest medicine-man present addresses a prayer to him asking him to give the people long life as they have kept his law; but they do not profess to pray or to have prayed to Byamee on any other occasions (cf. Manning, loc. cit. p. 164). The natives inhabiting the neighbourhood of Lake Boga in Victoria have to placate Pei-a-mei by dances (Missions-Blatt aus der Brüdergemeine, xvi. 143). Of the South-Eastern Australian Daramulun Mr. Howitt says (op. cit. p. 507 sq.) that, although there is no worship of him, “the dances round the figure of clay and the invocating of his name by the medicine-men certainly might have led up to it.”
[47] Manning, loc. cit. p. 165; Ridley, op. cit. pp. 141, 155; Langloh Parker, op. cit. p. 7 (Boyma, Baiame, Byamee). Howitt, op. cit. p. 495 (Daramulun). M’Kinlay, quoted ibid. p. 496. Mr. Threlkeld says (op. cit. p. 47) that Koin, an imaginary male being who has the appearance of a black, is supposed to precede the coming of the natives from distant parts when they assemble to celebrate certain of their ceremonies.
[48] Howitt, op. cit. p. 489 (Nurelli of the Wiimbaio). M’Kinlay, quoted ibid. p. 496.
[49] Taplin, in Woods, op. cit. p. 55.