the ghosts said, "We must now go home (Mellagan), or the west wind might blow us into the sea." In the morning the Birraark was found lying on the ground outside the camp, and round him were the footprints of the Mrarts.
A third account of one of these séances I give in the words of my informant, "I was once at Yunthur at the Lakes, and the Dinna-Birraark[1] Brewin was there with his wife. In the night she woke up, and shouted out that he was gone up to the Mrarts. We all got ready, and soon some one shouted out, 'Where are you?' He replied, 'Here I am, I am coming down.' He said that he had heard the Mrarts having a great Gunyeru and making a great noise, and he had gone up to them. Then the Mrarts came down with him, and conversed with us as to where the other mobs of the Kurnai were, and whether any Brajerak were coming after us. When the Mrarts went away, we found Brewin lying, as if asleep, where we had heard them speaking to us. The Mrarts talked in very curious voices."
Another case was when, on a certain night, the people were in their camps, and strict silence was maintained by the direction of the Birraark. The fires were let go down, and then the Birraark uttered a loud coo-ee at intervals. At length a shrill whistle was heard, then the shrill whistlings of the Mrarts, first on one side and then on the other. Shortly after the sound as of persons jumping down to the ground, in succession. This was the Mrarts, and a voice was then heard in the gloom, asking in a strange muffled tone, "What is wanted?" Questions were asked by the Birraark, and replies given. At the termination of the séance, the voice said, "We are going." Finally, after all was over, the Birraark was found in the top of an almost inaccessible tree, apparently asleep, where he said the Mrarts had left him when they went away. At this séance the questions related to the movements of absent friends, and of their enemies the Brajerak.
Besides learning news about absent friends and possible enemies from the ghosts, the Birraarks were material benefactors to their tribesmen, as, for instance, when the Mrarts
- ↑ Dinna-Birraark is the old Birraark—that being his name.
