48 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



creep under their rugs. He is not feared much in day- 

 light, but greatly dreaded at night. 



If children are troublesome, they are quieted with 

 " Ka-ka-mooroop " (come here, devil). I used to be told 

 when I was little, and bad, of course, that the " old 

 black man" would get me. Little did I then think 

 that he would turn out to be an Australian native. 



Mooroop lives under ground, where there is nothing 

 but fire, and where bad people get no meat nor drink, 

 but where they are terribly knocked about by the evil 

 spirits. 



Throughout Victoria this being is known as Bunyip. 

 He is very voracious in his appetite for human beings. 

 Its groanings and bellowings can be heard by all 

 natives living near swamps or lagoons. One day a 

 woman fishing in a pond for eels, caught them as fast 

 as her husband could carry them to the camp. 



It turned out to be just as the husband feared, a 

 trick on the part of the Bunyip thus to entice the 

 woman to come and fish when her husband was not 

 present, and so one day Bunyip swallowed her (as was 

 supposed), for her husband never could find her. In 

 the Western Port region the Bunyip is known as Too- 

 roo-dun. 



Some writers think that these people have no know- 

 ledge of God whatever, and have no forms of native 



