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Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), Saturday 3 September 1898, page 4
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113253162
THE BUmil|p
pty Harry StoekdaleJ
...
-&pbt'HOUGH many
SSgggk^S^. have heard of, but
Mj|i^g|L' few have seen
ymffigMmmM/- «tt&er --f these
™^^5lB/£' ties. 'Nigh up-'
?NTH// P&V on forty years
ER. most inti
m([$ mately a hard
/ . working, hard-~
^ drinking,
/V bush m an,
[who,daring
his' annual
'bursts,' used fre
quently to see the
bunyip,and
nothingcould convince him
to the contrary.
'Can't a fellow trust to the sight of His own.
eyes?' was one of his expressions; and 'I tell
yer I seen him as plain as I sees you now.'
'He were a swimming and a splashing about
the lake (Lake Alexandrina), quite close in
shore, and I had a good look at him. He
.were as big as the biggest bullock I ever han
dled; but ihe were black, and covered in long
hair, and he roared terrible, and I fell a shiver
ing, as I had no gun, nor aught to fight him
with, and he did look as if he meant atack
lingme.' What confirmed
myold friend
Mac in his honest belief was the support of the
aboriginals, who all agreed that that one 'sit
down along a lake;' and no* doubt Mac. did
hear the roaring and strange uncanny sounds,
for often, when en route with mobs of young
horses- (to be shipped in Adelaide for the In
dian market), and camped on the shores of
Lake Alexandrina, I have myself heaTd those
mysterious sounds, and wondered how theywere produced. That there is still some unex
plained mystery attached to this, and perhapsother localities, I am ready to admit; but I
other localities, I am ready to admit; but I
must, at the same time, confess that person
ally I have visited and been -familiar with
many favorable localities for the bunyip's
presence, which tradition had fixea upon as his
favorite haunts, and I have never seen aughtin any way that I could possibly construe in
to, the mysteriously missing creature. So I
liave to content
myselfwith writing about
what I have never seen, and tell only what I
have heard the natives say of this, their aqua
tic devil-devil, and Melape, the devil of the
woods.
This, the evil spirit of terra firma, is called
Muuroop in the western district, where the be
lief in Ms existence and evil doings is much
the same as it is amongst the Narrinyerri
around Lake Alexandrina. This spirit is said
to be very fond of pretending to be a log or
burnt stump of a tree, the better to catch the
unwary and unsuspecting blackfellow. A
good story is told by 'Taplin' of the belief in
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Melapi or Melape, which lie obtained from one
of the Narrinyerri tribe, called Ngunaitponi:
'My father saw Melapi once,' said tbe nar
rator. My father hr.d gone into the reeds to
snare duckg. He took with him the long rod,
with a noose at the end. He had patiently sat
at tue edge of the swamp until tlie ducks
came. At last one got within reach, so he
gently and skilfully let tbe noose fall over iis
iiead, and then suddenly dragged it out This
frightened the rest of the flock, so lie got up
and came away. He walked in a path throughthe high, thick reeds, which were far above
his head, and then came to tbe place where
?they were lower— about up to his waist. All
of a sudden he heard tbe whirr of a waddy as
it flew by Ms bead, and yet he saw notMng.Strong arms were put round him, and a greatinvisible being hugged him in bis grasp. He
had beard that Melapi sometimes thus attacks
people, and that it is wisest to resist; so, al
though he shuddered with fear, be returned
grip for grip, and wrestled with the spirit.
The reeds crashed and crackled under his feet
as he swayed about in tbe struggle. He felt
Ilk a boy in the power of the migbty one, yetbe manfully returned strain for strain. He
felt faint with horror. To get away was im
possible; to yield and be dragged off was aw
ful. He put forth, another effort. He fancied?tbe unseen one yielded a little. Encouraged,be put forth all his strength, and tried to throw
his adversary. As he did so, with straining
?muscles, and elenelied teeth, and staring eyes,
he began to see a dim outline of a form like
a man, and as he strove it became plainer and
plainer. Hegave
a
wild cry,and
as he didso Melapi burst from Ms grasp and disappeared. When my father came back to tbe camp
he was weak and tired. He told us what he
bad felt and seen, and always afterwards firm
ly believed that he had wrestled with the great
Melapi.' This story is so faithful to the superstitious belief of this great tribe in the exis
tence of the 'devil of the woods' that I have
quoted it in fuTITNo doubt the old nigger, who
was a most powerful man, and almost as hairyas an ourang-outang, had had a great gorge,
and, falling asleep, was attacked with a heavynightmare,ta king the form of Melapi, and, be
ing a man of great courage, ihe struggled, andthis and the fright would account for Ms ex
haustion on reaching the camp, also for his
staunch belief that he had really encountered
Melapi. TMs tribe call the bunyip, or evil
spirit of the water, Multye-waanki, and fromfather to son has been,handed down a tradi
tion that a piceaninni blackfellow was playingupon the shore when Multye-waanki seized it,
and carried it off to his hiding-place at thebottom of the lake's greatest depths. The
fa.ther then obtained a long and strong line,
which he secured around bis
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which he secured around bis waist, giving theother end to Ms fellow-tribesmen to hold, the
while the sorcerers performed their secret in
cantations for the dispelling of all evil spirits.
Then he dived to the bottom, and wandered
about 'until he came to the secret resting-place
of the dread Multye-waankis, whom he had
the good fortune — thanks to the incantations
of thesorcerers— to
finddeep. in the soundest
of slumbers, and there was also his child, as
yet unharmed. He seized thet»oy, and pulling
strongly on the cord as a signal to his friends
above, was drawn rapidly -and safely to the
shore, both father and son being but little the
worse for their wonderful and dangerous ex-
1
perienee.
At the head of the Herbert, m Queensland,the natives believe that a monster devil wanes
about and eats up greedily both men and wo
men, and that no weapon, however well aim
ed and strongly thrown, can hurt him. Theycall him Kvingan, and believe he is to be
found hi certaindeep pools and scrubs, and on
the sides of certain almost inaccessible moun
tains. Kvfiigan seems to be a kind of bun
yip and Muuroop or woodi devil all in one, and
no doubt, so far as the natives are concerned,is equal to the occasion.
In the western district of Victoria the na
tives have a tradition that two brothers went
out ^gathering swans* eggs, and that, after
having obtained a good haul, the younger bro
ther would return alone into:
the very depthsof an immense swamp
_
to obtain more eggs,when he was seized and7disembowelled by the
bunyip. The elder brother, after. waiting a
long time, made a fire on his; bark canoe, andset out in search of 'the missing one. He
found him by a big swan's nest, dead, and
near by him a huge biinyip.;
He tookaway.the body without interference from 'the bun
yip, which they say only eats of the '-inside ofmen or women. The'Jbody was- then burnt,
only the bones of -'arms and legs l-eing saved
as relics by near relatives. :
Amongst the early settlers the bunyip was
i recognised animal,' owing to the persistency-f the natives in their parlous accounts of it;
2onsequenHy it was much sought after, re
gardless of the; tlreaflfui character the abo
riginals had given it for voracity. Sonje descriptions represented it as having an enor
mous body, covered with hair and feathers,
with a large head and mouth. Its habits
were mysterious, always appearing suddenlyand -when least ^expected. - Its voice wasjpeculiar, as If was capble of both roaring in the
most terrible manner and of emitting a suc
cession of shrill shrieks. ;y:
All these deep pools that are supposed to be
'frequented, or to be the homes of bunyip, are
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are
never entered for either bathing or fishing.
There have been from time to time some re
markable accounts in the columns of the
press anent the bunyip. One of the most re
markable appeared in tlie 'Wagga. Express:'
'The bunyip has again been seen, twice with
in tbe last three months, in the waters of
Cowal Lake, in March last, 1873, by a party
of surveyors, whose account can be relied
upon, who were out in a boat, and saw the
animal about 150 yards off. They describe
it to have a head something resembling a
human being, or, in their own words, 'like an
old man blackfellow, with long dark colored
hair.' When seen, it appeared to be goinghi a straight direction, rising out of the water
so that they could see its shoulders, and then
diving, as If in chase of fish, and rising again
at intervals of about six or eight yards and
diving again. They tried to get closer to it,
but could not for the pace it was going; conse
quently could give no description of it lower
than the shoulders. They say the animaldid not appear to be afraid of them; but most
likely it wasso intent upon its occupation that
it never noticed them. Again, a blackfellow
and a white man, who were out in a canoe,
say they saw it about a fortnight since. They
agree in giving the same description of the
head and hair as that given by the surveyors.
The animal was swimming straight towards
them, and when it saw them dived and disap
peared.'The bunyip, or evil spijat of the deep wa
ters, must not be confounded with th% land
demon, Muuroop, who terrifies superstitious
natives at night time.
'
Tbis bad spirit comes
in various shapes and forms — as lightning,
meteors, and as a huge blackfellow, of ini*
mense power and very ugly, frequenting lone*
ly places, scrubs, and thickets of brush. He
is said to be so rapid in bis movements that
no ordinary man can hope to escape him,
either by flight or combat, and to possess an
inordinate longing for the eating of picca
ninnies (little children).
He is armed with great numbers of the
most deadly spears, which be throws with un
, erring aim, and in his wake follow myriads
of the most venomous snakes, that obey his
call. He is said to dwell in some deep andall but inaccessible caves, which no black
fellow would dream of going near.
Muuroop is said to be great friends with the
owl, a bird much disliked by natives, which
be calls Kokok-Rokok (the owl's cry). This
bird is ever on the alert to discover any wan
derer from the camp, and warn Muuroop/of
bis whereabouts, and is both hated and dread
ed by aboriginals.
A friend of mine informed me that he read
an account of the bunyip by some authority
who had actually seen the creature
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who had actually seen the strange., creature
no less than tbree different times. What
deed -of merit he had done to be so specially
favored I did not hear, but surely after the
bunyip itself the next sight w*orth seeing
would be the man himself' who had actually
thrice seen one.
A fellow-Sydneyite, the Hon. Dr. Creed, has
a Tery pleasant theory in regard tothe identi
ty of the bunyip. He argues, and with some
considerable force, that the bunyip may have
been some large aquatic animal, now extinct
in these waters, such as the great crocodile,
and quotes in support of his theory the indis
putable fact that these animals were once
quite common a great deal south of their pre
sent habitation. This is established by the
fact of fossil teeth, mineralised, having been
found on the south side of the Barwon River.
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