2 INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
larly, an expert with a sextant or portable transit instrument, 
who makes systematic observations for obtaining local time, 
does astronomical work, all of which contributes some share to 
the advancement of the science, yet can scarcely be regarded of 
the same significance as that carried out at fixed and well- 
equipped observatories for purely astronomical purposes. 
Up to the time of the first Australian settlement in New 
South Wales, the only inhabitants were the aboriginal 
tribes, and, although we now know from the researches and 
writing of our ethnologists, Mr. A. W. Howitt, Professor Spencer, 
Mr. ¥. J. Gillen, and others, that many of them have 
certain myths and superstitions with respect to the principal 
heavenly bodies, they certainly had no actual knowledge 
of astronomy. A few instances of some of these beliefs 
will amply confirm this conclusion. Most of the tribes believe 
the sky is close to the earth, and covers as a solid canopy 
the sun, moon, and stars, which are still nearer the earth. They 
think that beyond their visible horizon is the end of the world, 
beyond which is a land of plenty inhabited by the spirits of the 
dead. Many of these myths appear to be common to both 
coastal and central Australian tribes, and probably had a 
common origin; for instance, Mr. Howitt informs us that the 
Gippsland and other south-eastern tribes believe the sun is a 
woman, who having lost her child while seeking for food, marches 
daily across the sky in a fruitless effort to find him; at the end 
of the world, where the sky touches the earth, she descends to 
walk around at the back of the world, or by the sea, during the 
night to again commence her search from the east in the morn- 
ing. In Central Australia, according to Professor Spencer, the 
myth of the sun is that it is a female risen out of the earth, and, 
having ascended into the sky, descends in the west, and during 
the night returns to the east, rising again in the morning, and so 
on every day. 
The moon is believed to be a male making similar celestial 
journeys. 
A myth concerning the group of stars known as Pleiades is 
common to both coastal and central tribes; it is that they are 
a group of young women, who went up into the sky, and have 
remained there ever since. The south-eastern coastal blacks 
have a tradition that these young women are in some way con- 
nected with the first discovery of fire, and are supposed to now 
carry fire with them across the sky on their yam sticks. 
Eclipses are a cause of dread to the central blacks, and are 
attributed to a malignant personal or impersonal influence aimed 
at the obliteration of the sun’s hght. On the occasion of these 
phenomena, the medicine men of some of the central tribes 
throw charmed stones at the sun while singing magic chants, and 
as Professor Spencer humorously says, always with success. The 
