BY E. PALMER, ESQ., M.L.A. 173 
Another tribe—the Yerunthully—speaking a different language 
from that of the Mycoolon, and whose hunting grounds—at the 
head of the river Flinders—are nearly three hundred miles 
distant from those of the latter, believe that the ascent is made 
by means of a rope, and that what we call a shooting star, is 
merely the falling of this rope, on being let go after the ascent 
has been accomplished.* When the heavens have been reached, 
the journey to Yalairy is continued along the road indicated to 
them in the path of the Milky Way, until their destination 
is reached. They believe, too, that the stars are the spirits of 
those blacks—men, women, and children—who lived long prior 
to the present generation, as well as of the animals which shared 
with them existence then. 
ASTRONOMY. 
As a consequence of this phase of the belief in the future 
existence of their spirits, the whole phenomena of the heavens, 
as well as any changes in them, are regarded with much more 
significance than they otherwise would be, and the blacks have 
learnt to associate the recurrence of these changes with the 
ripening of particular fruits, or the visitations of certain animals, 
on which their subsistence depends.t 
To recount what the Mycoolon blacks relate concerning many 
stars and groups of stars, would presuppose much greater 
* Whether the blacks connect this rope in any way with the appearance 
of the tenacious gum which exudes from some of the acacias, and which 
they eat, I am unprepared to say; but the Mycoolon blacks, amongst 
whom this gum is known as Thunga, believe that falling stars strike the 
trees from which it is derived, and that the gum subsequently exudes at 
the spots where these trees have been stricken. 
+ According to the position of the constellation “Orion” in the 
heavens the blacks of the Wide Bay District knew of the flowering of 
the Banksia marginata or honey-suckle, and accordingly gathered, 
from a long way inland, to the coast district, where this tree is found 
in abundance, to suck the copious supply of honey which its flowers 
afford. So, too, guided by the appearance or rising of certain stars, the 
aborigines flock from long distances to the Bunya Mountains there to 
fatten on the fruit of the Bunya, Auracaria Bidwilli, during many weeks. 
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