Kulin it is Altair. Yet Dawson, in speaking of the south-western tribes, gives among the stars "Fomalhaut, Bunjil."[1]
The Wotjobaluk also spoke of Bunjil as Mami-ngorak, that is, "our father," and said that he is in some place beyond the Wurra-wurra, or sky. This place is said to be also beyond the Wurk-kerim, or dark place, which the medicine-men told them "is like a mountain." My informants, who did not belong to the medicine-man calling, said further that the Bangal (medicine-men) told them that they were met at the Wurk-kerim by another being called Gargomitch, who leaving them there went to where Mami-ngorak is and brought back to them his answer to their inquiries.
I feel that it is well that I should guard myself against any misconception as to the real meaning of the expression "our father." Taking the Kurnai case as an example, the term used is Mungan, that being the relation of a man and of all his brothers to his child. It is a group relationship, and further it includes all those who were made Jeraeil at the same ceremonies. As to this, I was Jeraeil with the before-mentioned Tulaba, he being therefore my Bramung, or younger brother. Consequently I was also in the relation of Mungan to his son. It happened that I did not see the latter for some ten or fifteen years, and when we met, he came forward, with his eyes cast down toward the ground, and with his hand raised to his mouth, and said in a low tone, with great reverence, "Mungan! Mungan!" There was, however, more in this than a mere salutation to one of his kindred. As one of the leaders in the Jeraeil, at which he was present, I was, so to say, in the position of one of the Gweraeil-kurnai, or Great Men, whom, independently of any group relationship, he would have addressed as he did me, by saying with reverence "Mungan! Mungan!" that is, Father! Father!
Now this is precisely the position in which the tribes-people stand to Bunjil, Daramulun, Baiame, and Mungan-
- ↑ Op. cit. p. 100. In Mrs. James Smith's work, The Buandik Tribe (Adelaide, 1880), the vocabulary, p. 128, gives this, "Boongil—the planets observable." It is evident that she refers to Bunjil as one of the stars.
