Volume II Part 2 (1/2)

Having been initiated into the secrets of one set of tribes, Mr. Howitt was enabled to procure admission to those of another group of ”clans,”

the Kurnai. For twenty-five years the Jeraeil, or mystery, had been in abeyance, for they are much in contact with Europeans. The old men, however, declared that they exactly reproduced (with one confessed addition) the ancestral ceremonies. They were glad to do it, for their lads ”now paid no attention either to the words of the old men, or to those of the missionaries”.*

*J. A. I.,1885, p. 304.

This is just what usually occurs. When we meet a savage tribe we destroy the old bases of its morality and subst.i.tute nothing new of our own.

”They pay no attention to the words of the missionaries,” but loaf, drink and gamble like station hands ”knocking down a cheque ”.

Consequently a rite unknown before the arrival of Europeans is now introduced at the Jeraeil. Swift would have been delighted by this ceremony. ”It was thought that the boys, having lived so much among the whites, had become selfish and no longer willing to share that which they obtained by their own exertions, or had given to them, with their friends.” The boys were, therefore, placed in a row, and the initiator or mystagogue stooped over the first boy, and, muttering some words which I could not catch, he kneaded the lad's stomach with his hands.

This he did to each one successively, and by it the Kurnai supposed the ”greediness” (------) ”of the youth would be expelled”.*

* Op. cit., pp. 310, 311.

So far from unselfishness being a doctrine borrowed by the Kurnai from Christians, and introduced into their rites, it is (as we saw in the case of the Arunta of Central Australia) part of the traditional morality--”the good old ancestral virtues,” says Mr. Howitt--of the tribes. A special ceremony is needed before unselfishness can be inspired among blacks who have lived much among adherents of the Gospel.

Thus ”one satiric touch” seems to demonstrate that the native ethics are not of missionary origin.

After overcoming the scruples of the old men by proving that he really was initiated in the Kuringal, Mr. Howitt was admitted to the central rite of the Kurnai ”showing the Grandfather”. The essence of it is that the _mystae_ have their heads shrouded in blankets. These are s.n.a.t.c.hed off, the initiator points solemnly to the sky with his throwing stick (which propels the spears) and then points to the Tundun, or bull-roarer. This object (------) was also used in the Mysteries of ancient Greece, and is still familiar in the rites of savages in all quarters of the world.

”The ancestral beliefs” are then solemnly revealed. It seems desirable to quote freely the ”condensed” version of Mr. Howitt. ”Long ago there was a great Being called Mungan-ngaur.” Here a note adds that Mungan means ”Father,” and ”ngaur” means ”Our”.

”He has no other name among the Kurnai. In other tribes the Great Supreme Being, besides being called 'father,' has a name, for example Bunjil, Baiame, Daramulun.” ”This Being lived on the earth, and taught the Kurnai... all the arts they know. He also gave them the names they bear. Mungan-gnaur had a son” (the Sons.h.i.+p doctrine already noticed by Mr. Manning) ”named Tundun (the bull-roarer), who was married, and who is the direct ancestor--the Weintwin or father's father--of the Kurnai.

Mungan-ngaur inst.i.tuted the Jeraeil (mysteries) which was conducted by Tundun, who made the instruments” (a large and a small bull-roarer, as also in Queensland) ”which bear the name of himself and his wife.

”Some tribal traitor impiously revealed the secrets of the Jeraeil to women, and thereby brought down the anger of Mungan upon the Kurnai. He sent fire which filled the wide s.p.a.ce between earth and sky. Men went mad, and speared one another, fathers killing their children, husbands their wives, and brethren each other.” This corroborates Black Andy.

”Then the sea rushed over the land, and nearly all mankind were drowned.

Those who survived became the ancestors of the Kurnai.... Tundun and his wife became porpoises” (as Apollo in the Homeric hymn became a dolphin), ”Mungan left the earth, and ascended to the sky, where he still remains.”*

* Op. cit., pp. 313, 314.

Here the Son is credited with none of the mediatorial attributes in Mr.

Manning's version, but universal ma.s.sacre, as a consequence of revealing the esoteric doctrine, is common to both accounts.

Morals are later inculcated.

1. ”To listen to and obey the old men.

2. ”To share everything they have with their friends.

3. ”To live peaceably with their friends.

4. ”Not to interfere with girls or married women.

5. ”To obey the food restrictions until they are released from them by the old men.” [As at Eleusis.]

These doctrines, and the whole belief in Mungan-ngaur, ”the Kurnai carefully concealed from me,” says Mr. Howitt, ”until I learned them at the Jeraeil”.* Mr. Howitt now admits, in so many words, that Mungan-ngaur ”is rather the beneficent father, and the kindly though severe headman of the whole tribe.... than the malevolent wizard”.... He considers it ”perhaps indicative of great antiquity, that this identical belief forms part of the central mysteries of a tribe so isolated as the Kurnai, as well as of those of the tribes which had free communication one with another”.

As the morals sanctioned by Mungan-ngaur are simply the extant tribal morals (of which unselfishness is a part, as in Central Australia), there seems no reason to attribute them to missionaries--who are quite unheeded. This part of the evidence may close with a statement of Mr.

Howitt's: ”Beyond the vaulted sky lies the mysterious home of that great and powerful Being who is Bunjil, Baiame, or Dara-mulun in different tribal languages, but who in all is known by a name, the equivalent of the only one used by the Kurnai, which is Mungan-ngaur, Our Father”.**

* Op. cit. 321, note 3