98 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES 



CHAPTER XXI. 



METEOROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY. 



Great reliance is placed by the natives on certain signs, as indicating a change 

 in the weather; and, even when a white person might not observe symptoms of 

 an approaching storm, the natives are made aware of it by signs well known to 

 them. They notice the appeai'ance of the sun, moon, stai-s, and clouds, the 

 cries and movements of animals, &c. A bright sunrise prognosticates fine 

 weather ; a red sunrise, rain ; a red sunset, heat next day ; a halo round 

 the sun, fine weather ; a bright moon, fine weather ; the old moon in the 

 arms of the new, rain ; the new moon lying on its back, dry weather ; 

 a halo round the moon, rain ; a rainbow in the morning, fine weather ; a 

 rainbow in the evening, bad weather ; a rainbow during rain, clearing up ; 

 when mosquitoes and gnats are very troublesome, rain is expected ; when the 

 cicada sings at night, there will be a hot wind next day. The arrival of the 

 swift, which is a migratory liird, indicates bad weather. The whistle of the black 

 jay, the chirp of the little green frog, the creak of the cricket, and the cry of the 

 magpie lark indicate bad weather ; wet weather is more likely to come after full 

 moon. It is a sign of heat and fine weather when the eagle amuses itself by 

 towering to an immense height, turning its head suddenly down, and descending 

 vertically, with great force and with closed wings, till near the earth, then 

 opening them and sweeping upwards with half-closed wings to the same height. 

 This movement it repeats again and again, for a long time, without exertion and 

 with apparent pleasure. The aborigines call this movement ' warroweean,' and 

 always expect warm weather to follow it. 



They believe that, in diy weather, if any influential person take water into 

 his mouth and blow it towards the setting sun, saying, ' Come down, rain,' the 

 wind will blow and the rain will pour for three days. When they wish for rain 

 to make the grass grow at any particular place, they dig up the root of the 

 convolvulus, called ' taiTuuk,' and throw it in the direction of the place, saying, 

 ' Go and make the grass grow there !' 



Although the knowledge of the heavenly bodies possessed by the natives 



