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He said, after the old fellows had gone, a spirit came to him, and without undoing his fastenings by which he was bound, turned him over, then went away. Scarcely had the spirit departed when a big star fell straight from the sky alongside the boy; he gazed fixedly at it, and saw emerge from it, first the two hind legs, then the whole of a Beewee or iguana.
The two ice-maidens were miserable on earth with him, and eventually escaped by the aid of one of their 'multiplex totems, the pine-tree. Wurrunnah had told them to get him pine bark. Now the Meamei Pleiades belong to the Beewee totem, so does the pine-tree.
For example, in a quarrel between, say, the Bohrah totem and the Beewee, the Dinewan would take the part of the former rather than the latter. Amongst the multiplex totems of Bohrah are All clouds, lightning, thunder, and rain that is not blown up by the wind of another totem, belong to Bohrah. Beewee, brown and yellow Iguana, numerically a very powerful totem, has for multiplex totems
That Moodai, Gouyou, Beewee, Maira, Yubbah are always Murree Kubbee Matha Kubbootha. Our blacks may and do eat their hereditary totems, if so desirous, with no ill effects to themselves, either real or imaginary; their totem names they take from their mothers. They may, in fact, in any way use their totems, but never abuse them.
And if you abused these dust-storms to a Beewee black, you would insult him: it is not dust, it is the pollen off the pines, and so a multiplex totem to him! The winds belong to various totems, and the rains are claimed by the totem whose wind it was that blew it up. If a storm comes up without wind it belongs to Bohrah, the kangaroo.
Well, by sweeping round the grave they would see what track was on the swept place next morning, and according to that they would know to what totem the murderer belonged. If the track should be an iguana's, then one of the Beewee, or iguana totem, was guilty; if an emu, then one of the Dinewan, or emu totem, and so on. Old Hippi joined me a little further on.
The boy's totem was a Beewee, so he knew it would not hurt him. It ran close up to him, climbed on him, ran down his whole length, then went away. Next came a snake straight towards his nose, hissing all the time. He was frightened now, for the snake is the hereditary enemy of the iguana. The boy struggled to free himself, but ineffectually. He tried to call out but found himself dumb.
A Beewee, for example, may kill, or see another kill, and eat or use a Beewee, or one of its multiplex totems, and show no sign of sorrow or anger, but should any one speak evil of the Beewee, or of any of its multiplex totems, there will be a quarrel. There will likewise be a quarrel if any one dares to mimic a totem, either by drawing one, except at Boorahs, or imitating it in any way.
He said, when I asked him what harm it would do for, say, a Beewee totem man to come from the Gulf country, where his tribe had never had any communication with ours, and marry a girl here, that all Beewees were originally changed from the Beewee form into human shape. From the statements just given, it will be seen that the Euahlayi are in the Kamilaroi stage of social organisation.
Those with whom the Beewee shares the winds he counts as relations. Another totem is Gouyou, or Bandicoot. The animal has disappeared from the Narran district, but the totem tribe is still strong, though not so numerous as either the Beewees or Dinewans. Multiplex totems of Gouyou
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