ngaua, who are all spoken of as "father"; while the last has no other name than "Father of all of us." It is necessary to guard carefully against such a feeling toward Mungan-ngaua as is embodied in our expression "Our Father in heaven." Mungan-ngaua is the Headman in the sky-country, the analogue of the Headman of the tribe on the earth.[1]
In the Wotjobaluk tribe, which had not any initiation ceremonies of the Bora type, the medicine-men evidently kept to themselves certain beliefs as to Mami-ngorak, just as the initiated men keep the beliefs as to Mungan-ngaua, Daramulun, or Baiame from the uninitiated.
All that I know of the beliefs of the Mukjarawaint is that Bunjil was once a man who was the father of all the people, and that he was good and did no harm to any one. I may mention here as in one sense belonging to this part of my subject, that one of the Mukjarawaint said that at one time there was a figure of Bunjil and his dog painted in a small cave behind a large rock in the Black Range near Stawell, but I have not seen it, nor have I heard of any one having seen it.
The following are the beliefs of the Kulin as they appear in their legends, and from the statements of surviving Wurunjerri to me. Bunjil, as represented by them, seems to be an old man, the benign Ngurungaeta or Headman of the tribe, with his two wives, who were Ganawarra (Black Swan), and his son Binbeal, the rainbow, whose wife was the second rainbow which is sometimes visible. Bunjil taught the Kulin the arts of life, and one legend states that in that time the Kulin married without any regard for kinship. Two medicine-men (Wirrarap) went up to him in the Tharangalk-bek, and he said in reply to their request that the Kulin should divide themselves into two parts—"Bunjil on this side and Waang on that side, and Bunjil should marry Waang, and Waang marry Bunjil."
Another legend relates that he finally went up to the sky-land with all his people (the legend says his "sons") in
- ↑ But Mungan-ngaua is also spoken of at the ceremonies as Kurnai-talung or Kurnai-ma-ngittel, that is, "my man."
