V.] THE OCEANIC NEGROES.: AUSTRALIANS. 151 



have no beliefs on the subject of God or an after-life, and that 

 those who credit them with such notions "have been imposed 

 upon, and that, until they had learnt something of Christianity 

 from missionaries and others, the Blacks had no beliefs or practices 

 of the sort 1 ." 



That this is the only possible view seems evident from the 

 crude myths and legends associated with Pundgyl, who is known 

 in various forms to many tribes, and has been selected by the 

 missionaries from the native "theogonies" as the nearest approach 

 to a deity in their religious texts 2 . The Pundgyl (Bunjil) of the 

 Wawurongs of the Yarra River, has a wife, Boiboi, whose face he 

 has never seen, a son Bin-beal and a brother Pal-ly-yan, by whose 

 help he made most things. He is provided with a large knife, 

 and after making the earth he went all over it, cutting and slashing 

 it into rivers and creeks, mountains and valleys. Then, after 

 contact with the whites, there is a curious adaptation of Bunjil to 

 Biblical legends, as when people grow wicked he waxes angry, 

 raises storms and fierce winds which shake the big trees on the 

 hilltops. Thereupon he again goes about with his big knife, 

 cutting this way and that way, and men, women, and children are 

 all cut into very little pieces. But the pieces are alive, and wriggle 

 about like worms, when great storms come, and they are blown 

 about like snowflakes. They are wafted into the clouds, and by 

 the clouds borne hither and thither all over the earth, and thus is 

 mankind dispersed. But the good men and women are carried 

 upwards and become stars, which still shine in the heavens. 



But other myths point at an incipient state of ancestor-worship, 

 and Nurunderi, the wonderful god or eponymous 

 hero of the Narringeri tribe on the Lower Murray 

 River, is described as originally coming down the 

 Darling River, and sending back two messengers to report his 



1 I. p. 45. So also Carl Lumholtz, one of our safest guides in all that 

 concerns the mental state and usages of the natives: "At all events it is certain 

 that neither idolatry nor sacrifices are to be found in Australia. Nor have the 

 natives so far as 1 know, ever been seen to pray" (Among Cannibals, 1889, 

 p. 284). 



- Thus, Gen. 1. i, Ganbronin Pnndgyl Mannan monguit wooiivorer bar 

 beek, in a Victoria dialect (Brough Smyth, II. p. 130). 



