AUSTRALIAN GROUP RELATIONS. 823 



be the diviue mouthpiece. In the course of time the office of lawgiver 

 became sepvwnted from that of the priesthood, but at the time pictured 

 by iEschylus the two offices were still united. In savage tribes, such 

 as those of Australia, it cannot be said that there are either priesthood 

 or lawgivers, in the modern sense of the words ; but it is possible to 

 see what I may call the germ of these offices, prepared under favoring 

 conditions to develop into active existence. 



As I have said, there is no priesthood in the Australian tribes ; but 

 in their wizards I can recognize those who, if I may use the expression, 

 already stand at the threshhold of the temple, prepared to advance and 

 take their place at the altar when the edifice shall be completed. 



These men profess to be in communication with the ancestral spirits 

 and with the great Supreme Being, the founder of their race, whose 

 sacred ceremonies of initiation they conduct and of whose laws — the 

 ancestral customs — they are, the depositaries. Were I to find an explan- 

 ation given by an Australian tribe to account for the change in descent 

 in their class system, I doubt not I should find it attributed to a com- 

 mand from their Great Spirit, through the mouth of the tribal wizard. 

 This, indeed, is almost implied by the statements which I have heard 

 made by old men at initiation ceremonies, that all the institutions of 

 the tribe were in the first instance established by him whom thej- 

 speak of and reverence as the All-father of the tribe.* 



It seems to me that the important bearing of this primitive belief is 

 only now beginning to be appreciated. When its influence upon the 

 development of early society, and upon the beliefs of the early world, 

 is fully recognized, it will be found that its effects have not been con- 

 fined to the development of the ancestral worship of our Aryan fore- 

 fathers. 



IX. — CONCLUSION. 



The subject which I have dealt with in, I fear, but an imperfect 

 manner, is one of the most difficult of those which are met with in 

 studying savage society in Australia. In the Australian terms of re- 



* I find that the great Supreme Being, who, as the Australians believe, lives in a 

 land beyond the vaulted sky, is known under many different names in the various 

 tribes, perhaps under as many names as there are tribes. These names, being con- 

 nected with the initiation ceremonies, are often too sacred to be uttered by the tribes- 

 men save during the celebration of those "mysteries" from which the uninitiated 

 are excluded. For instance, the Woiworuug tribe of the Yarra River district called 

 the "Great Spirit" Bunjil; the Wiradjeri tribe of the Lower Murrumbidgee call him 

 Baiame, and the Murring of the mountains and of the coast call him Daramiilun. 

 But these names are not for common utterance. They are generally reserved for the 

 secret ceremonies of initiation, and all these tribes usually and in preference speak 

 of the Great Being by words meaning in their several languages " our father." The 

 Kurnai of Gippslaud know him only by this name (Mungan ngaura) and utter it, 

 when compelled to do so, with reverential awe. I have seen Australian blacks, when 

 referring to their Supreme Being, do so by gesture, thus avoiding the utterance of 

 his name. 



