Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)Lang, Andrew
Religion
Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Lang, Andrew
Myth; Mythology; Religion; Rites and ceremonies
Men are his (Greek text omitted) figures kneaded
of clay, as Aristophanes says in the Birds. Pund-jel made two clay
images of men, and danced round them. "He made their hair--one had
straight, one curly hair--of bark. He danced round them. He lay on them,
and breathed his breath into their mouths, noses and navels, and danced
round them. Then they arose full-grown young men." Some blacks seeing a
brickmaker at work on a bridge over the Yarra exclaimed, "Like 'em that
Pund-jel make 'em Koolin". But other blacks prefer to believe that, as
Pindar puts the Phrygian legend, the sun saw men growing like trees.
(1) Bleek, Brief Account of Bushman Mythology, p. 6; Cape Monthly
Magazine, July, 1874, pp. 1-13; Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 210, 324.
(2) Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 210.
(3) Brough Smyth, Natives of Victoria, vol. i. p. 423.
The first man was formed out of the gum of a wattle-tree, and came out
of the knot of a wattle-tree. He then entered into a young woman (though
he was the first man) and was born.(1) The Encounter Bay people have
another myth, which might have been attributed by Dean Swift to the
Yahoos, so foul an origin does it allot to mankind.
(1) Meyer, Aborigines of Encounter Bay. See, later, "Gods of the Lowest
Races".
Australian myths of creation are by no means exclusive of a hypothesis
of evolution. Thus the Dieyrie, whose notions Mr. Gason has recorded,
hold a very mixed view. They aver that "the good spirit" Moora-Moora
made a number of small black lizards, liked them, and promised them
dominion. He divided their feet into toes and fingers, gave them noses
and lips, and set them upright. Down they fell, and Moora-Moora cut off
their tails. Then they walked erect and were men.(1) The conclusion of
the adventures of one Australian creator is melancholy. He has ceased to
dwell among mortals whom he watches and inspires. The Jay possessed many
bags full of wind; he opened them, and Pund-jel was carried up by the
blast into the heavens. But this event did not occur before Pund-jel had
taught men and women the essential arts of life. He had shown the former
how to spear kangaroos, he still exists and inspires poets. From the
cosmogonic myths of Australia (the character of some of which is in
contradiction with the higher religious belief of the people to be
later described) we may turn, without reaching a race of much higher
civilisation, to the dwellers in the Andaman Islands and their opinions
about the origin of things.
(1) Gason's Dieyries, ap. Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 20.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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