GREAT MEETINGS. 75 



The fine old chief of the Spring Creek tribe, Weeratt Kuynut — ' Eel spear,' 

 occasionally called Morpor, after his tribe and country, and believed to have been 

 upwards of eighty years of age — was both a messenger and a teacher. As a 

 messenger he generally travelled by himself. In his younger days he was a great 

 warrior, and in more mature years was considered such an honourable, impartial 

 man, that he was selected on all occasions as a referee in the settlement of disputes. 

 When a great battle was to be fought, he was sent for by the contending chiefs, 

 who placed him in a safe position to see fair play. In reward for his services he 

 retm-ned home laden with presents of opossum rugs, weapons, and ornaments. 



As a teacher he taught the young people the names of the favourite planets 

 and constellations, as indications of the seasons. For example, when Canopus is 

 a very little above the horizon in the east at daybreak, the season for emu eggs 

 has come ; when the Pleiades are visible in the east an hour before sunrise, the 

 time for visiting friends and neighbouring tribes is at hand ; if some distant 

 locality requires to be visited at night, it can be reached by following a particular 

 star. He taught them also the names of localities, mountain ranges, and lakes, 

 and the directions of the neighbouring tribes. 



As Weeratt Kuyuut had the reputation of being an expert warrior, besides 

 being well known as a messenger, he travelled unmolested all over the country 

 between the Grampian ranges and the sea, and between the rivers Leigh and 

 Wannon ; and was received and treated everywhere with kindness and hospitality. 



In his travels towards Geelong — which at that time was the name of the bay 

 and not of the land — he heard of Buckley as a chief who had ' died and jumped 

 up whitefellow,' and who on that account was treated with marked consideration 

 and respect. There is little doubt that Buckley owed his life to this idea, which 

 was very likely encouraged by him to enable him to retain his influence over the 

 tribes with which he mingled. 



Among the associated tribes a public executioner was employed to put 

 criminals to death when ordered by the chiefs to do so. The natives have a 

 vivid recollection of a bloodthirsty savage named Pundeet Puulotong, ' dragger 

 out of kidney fat,' who acted in that capacity, and who was so fond of doing 

 cruel deeds that he solicited the oSice himself. He killed his victims with a club 

 called yuul marrang, ' wild hand/ made of quandong wood, and kept for the 

 purpose. 



Pundeet Puulotong was a great fighting man. On killing one of a neigh- 

 bouring tribe, he would show himself to the relatives of his victim, and challenge 



