ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA. 283 



killing all the people who were under it. The fire con- 

 tinued to burn the trunk and every branch, until the whole 

 was consumed. The top of the tree formed Morton Plain, 

 with the charred remains of the people, turned to stone, 

 still to be seen there. A hollow was burnt in the ground 

 where the tree stood, making a large lagoon. 



On the Darling River, New South Wales, from Bourke 

 down to Loath, I gathered the following star names from 

 old natives. There are longer stories connected with each 

 but I had not time to record them fully. The larger of the 

 two stars in the extremity of the tail of the Scorpion is a 

 crow and belongs to the phratry Kilpungurra. a Aquilae 

 was a great hunter, named Wukkarno, who was a Miikun- 

 gurra. He kept several dogs, and his boomerang is now 

 the Northern Grown. The planet Venus was a man named 

 Mirnkabuli, who lived in a gurli, or hut, made of grass, 

 and subsisted upon mussels and crayfish. 



The Pleiades were a lot of young women who went out 

 on a plain searching for yams and a whirlwind came along 

 and carried them up into the sky, depositing them where 

 they are now seen, a Scorpii is an eagiehawk and belongs 

 to the Miikungurra phratry. The planet Jupiter was a 

 great Kilpungurra man of the olden days, called Wurnda- 

 wurnda-yarroa, who lived on roasted yams, and got his 

 reddish colour by being so much about the fire cooking his 

 food. 



A great warrior of ancient times, named That-tyu-kul, 

 was camped at Swan Hill on the Murray River. One day 

 his two sons were out playing about the camp, getting 

 wattle-gum on the bank of the river. They saw a mon- 

 strous cod fish, Ban'-dyal, in a big waterhole, and ran home 

 and told their father. He got his canoe and hastened to 

 the spot, armed with all his spears. Upon sighting the fish 

 he heaved a spear which stuck into its back between the 



