Myths
Pund-jel.
Pund-jel or Bun-jil created all things, but he made no women. Pund-jel has a wife named Boi-boi, whose face he has never seen. Yet he has a son whose name is Bin-beal, and a brother named Pal-ly-yan. Though Pund-jel was the creator of all things, he had help from Bin-beal and Pal-ly-yan. Pund-jel always carries a large knife or sword (Bul-li-to kul-pen-kul-pen gye-up),[1] and when he made the earth (Beek) he went all over it, cutting it in many places, and thereby formed creeks and rivers, and mountains and valleys. All these things are believed by the Boo-noo-rong or Coast tribe.
The Aborigines of the Yarra (the Wa-woo-rong tribe) say that Bun-jil made the earth (Beek-warreen) and all things besides. He had two wives, and he gave one of them to his brother Boo-err-go-en. He had two sons, Ta-jerr and Tarrn-nin, and these he sent very frequently to destroy bad men and bad women—wicked men and women who had killed and eaten blacks.
Boo-err-go-en, the brother of Bun-jil, was very wild, and though he had had given to him one wife, he was not satisfied. Bun-jil had a sword or knife (Warra-goop), and also an instrument named Ber-rang, with which he could open any place or any thing, and in such a way as to make it impossible for any one to know how or whether or not it had been opened. No one could see the opening he made.
The Aborigines of the northern parts of Victoria say that the world was created by beings whom they call Nooralie—beings that existed a very long time ago. They name a man who is very old Nooralpily.[2] They believe that the beings who created all things had severally the form of the Crow and the Eagle. There was continual war between these two beings, but peace was made at length. They agreed that the Murray blacks should be divided into
- ↑ The word for knife is the same in Bunce's Vocabulary, but the spelling is different.
- ↑ Nooran-an-ya means "far off."
"The Murray natives believe in a Being with supreme attributes, whom they call Nourelle; that he lives in the sky, and is surrounded by children born without the intervention of a mother; that Nourelle never dies, and that blackfellows go to him, and never die again. They also believe that Nourelle created a great serpent, and gave him power over all created things."—Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales. Pamphlet by a Colonial Magistrate, 1846.
