37 • 



Prince Regent Rivers respectively, went through the same 

 rites after death as the Wororra, except that they finally 

 placed the men's bones in an ant hill. 



Religious Beliefs of the Wororra. 



The Wororra believe in an invisible, benevolent, and 

 creating god. 



The Human Pictures. — I asked my companions at the 

 Arnu cave for the significance of its human paintings. 

 These were of the design that occurs throughout Kim- 

 berley — a face with no mouth, the hair represented as a 

 halo with dotted rays at intervals, no beard, and vertical 

 lines on the breast. The cave at Arnu has three of these 

 figures, each painted in a horizontal position. 



Wonjuna. — I was told that these were pictures of the 

 Won j una, who was also named Ingoori (I think this is 

 probably a descriptive name, "W T onjuna" being the proper 

 name.) Wonjuna lives in the water. He makes the rain, and 

 the vertical lines on his breast represent the falling drops. He 

 is good. 



.To Mouth. — When I asked why he had no mouth, my 

 two companions looked puzzled, and at last one said slowly, 

 "I amunt kahri. I wiuk kahri" ("He has no mouth; he has 

 no teeth"). More they could not say. 



Wororra Original Inhabitants. — When I asked who 

 painted these pictures I was told that they had been there 

 for many years, before the present men were born. They do not 

 know who painted them ; but they maintain that the Wororra 

 have always occupied their present land, and have not been 

 preceded by any other people. 



Around the lower part of one of the drawings were a 

 great many paintings of little faces. These were pic- 

 tures of "cherenji," little men who live with Wonjuna in 

 the water. Now cherenji is a peculiar lizard-like fish that 

 lives in the north-western tidal waters. W It rarely swims, but 

 jumps from stone to stone, and root to root, among the man- 

 groves. Its curious look and habits have doubtless given rise 

 to a legend associating it with Wonjuna. 



Wonjuna is a local deity. He lives in all the waters 

 from the Glenelg to Port George IV., but he does not live 

 at Naiangunnin. The god there is Wallangunda or Ngajaia, 

 and his portrait has been painted in the cave there by a man 

 now living among the Wororra. 



Mount Trevor or Nyungamdawrt. — Wonjuna has an 

 interesting connection with the hill named on the Western 



<i> A species of Periophthalmus. 



