to make such idols, except at the Mysteries, is forbidden ‘under pain of death.’  Those which are made are destroyed as soon as the rites are ended.[12] The future life (apparently) is then illustrated by the burial of a living elder, who rises from a grave.  This may, however, symbolise the ‘new life’ of the Mystae, ’Worse have I fled; better have I found,’ as was sung in an Athenian rite.  The whole result is, by what Mr. Howitt calls ‘a quasi-religious element,’ to ’impress upon the mind of the youth, in an indelible manner, those rules of conduct which form the moral law of the tribe.’[13]

Many other authorities could be adduced for the religious sanction of morals in Australia.  A watchful being observes and rewards the conduct or men; he is named with reverence, if named at all; his abode is the heavens; he is the Master and Lord of things; his lessons ’soften the heart,’[14]

  ’What wants this Knave
  That a God should have?’

I shall now demonstrate that the religion patronised by the Australian Supreme Being, and inculcated in his Mysteries, is actually used to counteract the immoral character which natives acquire by associating with Anglo-Saxon Christians.[15]

Mr. Howitt[16] gives an account of the Jeraeil, or Mysteries of the Kurnai.  The old men deemed that through intercourse with whites ’the lads had become selfish and no longer inclined to share that which they obtained by their own exertions, or had given them, with their friends.’  One need not say that selflessness is the very essence of goodness, and the central moral doctrine of Christianity.  So it is in the religious Mysteries of the African Yao; a selfish man, we shall see, is spoken of as ‘uninitiated.’  So it is with the Australian Kurnai, whose mysteries and ethical teaching are under the sanction of their Supreme Being.  So much for the anthropological dogma that early theology has no ethics.

The Kurnai began by kneading the stomachs of the lads about to be initiated (that is, if they have been associating with Christians), to expel selfishness and greed.  The chief rite, later, is to blindfold every lad, with a blanket closely drawn over his head, to make whirring sounds with the tundun, or Greek rhombos, then to pluck off the blankets, and bid the initiate raise their faces to the sky.  The initiator points to it, calling out, ‘Look there, look there, look there!’ They have seen in this solemn way the home of the Supreme Being, ‘Our Father,’ Mungan-ngaur (Mungan = ‘Father,’ ngaur = ’our’), whose doctrine is then unfolded by the old initiator (’headman’) ’in an impressive manner.’[17] ’Long ago there was a great Being, Mungan-ngaur, who lived on the earth.’  His son Tundun is direct ancestor of the Kurnai.  Mungan initiated the rites, and destroyed earth by water when they were impiously revealed.  ’Mungan left the earth, and ascended to the sky, where he still remains.’