A ceremony directly connected with sun-worship belongs to the old Arunndta people and is known as “Ilpalinja.” When the weather has been and continues to be unpleasantly cold, and the mating season of birds and animals has on that account been long delayed, the men construct a large colored design upon the selected ceremonial ground. Radiating from a point upon a cleared space, many lines are drawn with red and white vegetable-down to represent the rays of the sun; and these are intersected at different distances from the central point by a number of concentric circles which represent the fathers of the tribe. The centre of the design is occupied by a stick which is supposed to incorporate some mystical and sacred sun-creature known as “Knaninja Arrerreka.” The same Ilpalinja-design is occasionally carved as the crest of the Knaninja upon a sun-tjuringa. Vide [Fig. 6].
Fig. 6. Sacred sun-design of the “Ilpalinja” ceremony (× 1/20).
A most impressive function might occasionally be witnessed on the north coast, which is associated with the setting sun; it is known to at least two tribes, the one living on the upper reaches of the Victoria River and the other on the western shores of Carpentaria Gulf, including some of the islands. It is usually performed in conjunction with demonstrations calling upon a fabulous being which lives in the sky to fecundate certain species of plants and animals necessary for their daily life. The Carpentaria tribes, moreover, keep their sacred poles, akin to the tjuringas of central Australia, not in caves but in special huts which they construct upon chosen spots absolutely taboo to the general public. These slabs of wood are up to five feet long and are covered with peculiar carvings and markings; they are of the two sexes. Ordinarily they are kept “asleep” by laying them on the floor of the hut side by side, and covering them with sand. When the hour of the ceremony arrives, they are brought out by the “Sun-Men” and stuck in the ground in the full light of the sinking sun. Just as the orb is about to touch the horizon, the tenders of the sacred implements kneel, with their faces turned towards the sun and, lifting their hands, bend their bodies to the ground much after the fashion of an Eastern salaam. We have before us a true form of worship recognizing the supreme powers of the sun, but aimed primarily at calling upon a demigod or Deity in supplication for making a needed article of diet, animal or vegetable, fruitful or prolific.
Mythologically the sun is regarded as a female having human form and a fiery exterior, who walks daily across the firmament and returns at night to rest at her sacred haunts on earth. Some of the central tribes, like the Aluridja, split the sun’s identity into an indefinite number of such women, a different one of which makes the journey every day.
The moon on the other hand is thought to be a man who originally inhabited the earth but was one day chased off it by a gigantic dog the Aluridja call “Tutrarre.” The man jumped into space and walked among the clouds until he reached the earth again. His long walk had made him so hungry and thin that he ravenously ate a great number of opossums which he found in the trees at night. In consequence he swelled out, and became fat and round. Then it was his bad fortune to fall in with the dog again, and this time his obesity prevented his escape. The dog tore him to pieces and swallowed him, bone and all. But it so happened that one of his arm-bones flew from the dog’s jaws and found its way to the sky. There it floated from east to west as a luminous sickle and gradually swelled until it was perfectly round. The dog stood looking up at the bone and howled in anger, but the moon-man reappeared in the sky and converted the dog into stone.
The Kakatu natives believe in a moon-man who lives in the sky and controls the clouds. On a certain day, very long ago, this man was seen by the ancestors of the tribe. It happened thus: Just about dusk, a cloud was observed descending from the sky which came to rest upon the summit of a hill; it was glowing red. A big man, a woman, and two girls stepped upon the earth, and the man took a fire-stick from the cloud which then became black and ascended again. It was the moon-man and his family. The party walked down on to the plain and camped, the old man making a fire with his torch whereby his feminine escort could warm themselves. The moon-man left, taking a new fire-stick with him. In a deep, green water-hole lived a monstrous snake whose colour was much like that of the slime which covered the surface of the water. A lengthy and secret interview took place between the moon-man and the snake on the bank of the lagoon, and the snake produced many tubers of water-lily, and mussels also, for the moon-man to eat. Then the two heard a rustling noise. The snake exclaimed: “What is that? Who dares approach our trysting place?” The moon-man snatched a fire-brand and held it high in the air; this made it light as day. The moon-man’s daughters could be seen creeping towards the men to hear the secret discussion! With a curse upon his mouth, the angry father hurled the fire-stick at his deceitful daughters. The stick struck the ground and sent a shower of sparks over the girls. In an instant everything became dark as night, but every now and again there came from the spot the girls had last been seen at long-drawn growls; from the same spot flashes of light shot forth and illumined the clouds. The snake and the moon-man had disappeared, but the daughters remained just where they had last been seen, for they had been turned to stone and had assumed the rigid form of a dog whose head was directed skywards as if to rebuke the moon-man for the curse he had brought upon them. For a long time the clouds remained dark; then the moon-man re-appeared among them and cast a mournful beam upon the canine image of his daughters. From then till now he has continued to appear periodically in the sky, and his repentant daughters gaze at him; but at times, when the sky is covered with heavy black clouds, the daughters become angry and growl aloud. At these times, too, bright flashes dart from their eyes across the clouds like spears of fire threatening revenge. The stone has remained to the present day, and is known by the name of “Koreno kardjo (dog) gambi” (stone).
PLATE XXXIV
The “Tjilbakuta” of the great emu ceremony, Arunndta tribe.