side of a waterhole where
the same crow lived for some time in the _wingara_, and where now there
are plenty of crow spirit children. All the time, as we travelled along,
the old men were talking amongst themselves about the natural features
associated in tradition with these and other totemic ancestors of the
tribe, and pointing them out to us. On the third day we travelled, at
first for some hours, by the side of a river-bed,--perfectly dry of
course,--and passed the spot where two hawks first made fire by rubbing
sticks together, two fine gum-trees on the banks now representing the
place where they stood up. A few miles further on we came to a
water-hole by the side of which the moon-man met a bandicoot woman, and
while the two were talking together the fire made by the hawks crept
upon them and burnt the woman, who was, however, restored to life again
by the moon-man, with whom she then went up into the sky. Late in the
afternoon we skirted the eastern base of the Murchison Range, the rugged
quartzite hills in this part being associated partly with the crow
ancestor and partly with the bat. Following up a valley leading into the
hills we camped, just after sunset, by the side of a rather picturesque
water-pool amongst the ranges. A short distance before reaching this the
natives pointed out a curious red cliff, standing out amongst the low
hills which were elsewhere covered with thin scrub. This, which is
called Tjiti, represents the spot where an old woman spent a long time
digging for yams, the latter being indicated by great heaps of stones
lying all around. On the opposite side of the valley a column of stone
marks the spot where the woman went into the earth. The water-hole by
which we were camped was called Wiarminni. It was in reality a deep pool
in the bed of a creek coming down from the hills. Behind it the rocks
rose abruptly, and amongst them there was, or rather would have been if
a stream had been flowing, a succession of cascades and rocky
water-holes. Two of the latter, just above Wiarminni, are connected with
a fish totem, and represent the spot where two fish men arose in the
_alcheringa_, fought one another, left spirit children behind, and
finally went down into the ground. We were now, so to speak, in the very
midst of _mungai_ [i.e. of places associated with the totems], for the
old totemic ancestors of the tribe, who showed a most commendable
fondness for arising and walking about in the few pic