The sacred legends of these tribes which are connected with the ceremonies of initiation attribute their institution to a great supernatural being, called among the Wurunjerri, Bunjil, and not to origins such as are attributed to them by the tribes of Central Australia. This is a very marked feature, which will be enlarged upon later.
A Kurnai tale tells how the supernatural being called Bullum-baukan stole the fire of the early Kurnai. Narugul, the Crow, and Ngarang, the Swamp-hawk, having recovered it, Bullum-baukan ascended to the sky by climbing up a cord made of the sinews of the red wallaby.[1]
Another legend shows the composite nature of the actors, other than Bunjil. Karwin, the Blue Heron, who had been fishing, met two young men, and having given them some of his fish, which they ate, they went to sleep by the fire. He then by his magic caused a log of wood to rise upon end, and fall on to the young men, and kill them. Then Bunjil for this, and also because he had not given food to his wife, fought with him and speared him through the thigh so that his legs shrivelled up and became very thin, and always hang down when he flies.[2]
This composite character of the actors in the legendary tales is shown by the Kurnai tales, of which the following is an example.
There was a great flood which covered the land, and drowned the people, excepting a man and two women. Bunjil Borun, the Pelican, came by in his canoe, and took the man across to the mainland, then one woman, leaving the better-looking one to the last. She, being frightened, swam over to the land, having placed a log rolled up in her rug by the fire as if she were there asleep. Bunjil Borun discovering this, when he returned, became very much enraged and began to paint himself ready for fighting with the man whose wife had played him this trick. While he was doing this another pelican came up, and seeing a queer-looking creature, half-black and half-white, struck at it with his beak and killed Bunjil Borun.[3]
Such tales as these might be multiplied indefinitely, from
