172 SUPERSTITIONS OF NORTH QUBENSLAND ABORIGINES, 
YALAIRY. 
The spirits of the dead do not for ever roam about, and hold 
this communication with the old men. After a while, they leave 
the earth, and proceed to Yalairy—another home. 
This Yalairy is supposed to be amongst the stars. They know 
not its exact situation. The conception which the blacks form 
of it seems to be a mere embodiment of their views as to what 
constitutes happiness on earth. It is a great hunting ground, 
well stocked with all the game they are familiar with on earth— 
kangaroos, wallabies, emus, &c. They have their dogs there, 
and can enjoy the shade of the forest, or the clear water of the 
running stream. Both men and women go there. Whilst there, 
they hunt, eat, and sleep; but, as this new country is superior 
to that which they have left, so is their life happier—no anxiety 
on account of hunger, no sense of insecurity from enemies is 
ever experienced. Amongst the different animals which occupy 
Yalairy, conjointly with themselves, or are met with on their 
road thither, they particularly mention two large carpet snakes, 
which they speak of as Koomera. These are of prodigious size— 
forty miles long, according to one black-fellow’s testimony. 
These snakes are the source of the only dread they associate with 
existence there. When killed and eaten, they are said to be 
renewed or to be replaced by two more.* The blacks have rather 
different ideas as to the route pursued by these spirits in gaining 
this Yalairy. The old man—Plungreen—when interrogated on 
the subject, pointed with his head towards the north, and other 
blacks, residing farther south, are said, on dying, to have gone 
up, as by a kind of ladder, by way of the Southern Cross. 
Queensland aborigines, and as illustrating a different view held as to 
the nature of the spirits themselves and the functions they subserve, I 
may mention its occurrence amongst the blacks of the Mitchell River. 
In this case the spirits inspire great dread, and their influence is espe- 
cially feared at night, when they are said to utter a shrill piercing cry, 
like that of a white owl. 
* Similar to the myth of the ancient Greeks regarding the Python. 
