ustralia" (London, 1904), pages 476, 779 sq.) Another
Dieri legend relates how Paralina, one of the Mura-Muras or mythical
predecessors of the Dieri, perfected mankind. He was out hunting
kangaroos, when he saw four incomplete beings cowering together. So he
went up to them, smoothed their bodies, stretched out their limbs, slit
up their fingers and toes, formed their mouths, noses, and eyes, stuck
ears on them, and blew into their ears in order that they might hear.
Having perfected their organs and so produced mankind out of these
rudimentary beings, he went about making men everywhere. (A.W. Howitt
op. cit., pages 476, 780 sq.) Yet another Dieri tradition sets forth how
the Mura-Mura produced the race of man out of a species of small black
lizards, which may still be met with under dry bark. To do this he
divided the feet of the lizards into fingers and toes, and, applying
his forefinger to the middle of their faces, created a nose; likewise he
gave them human eyes, mouths and ears. He next set one of them upright,
but it fell down again because of its tail; so he cut off its tail and
the lizard then walked on its hind legs. That is the origin of mankind.
(S. Gason, "The Manners and Customs of the Dieyerie tribe of Australian
Aborigines", "Native Tribes of South Australia" (Adelaide, 1879),
page 260. This writer fell into the mistake of regarding the Mura-Mura
(Mooramoora) as a Good-Spirit instead of as one of the mythical but more
or less human predecessors of the Dieri in the country. See A.W. Howitt,
"Native Tribes of South-East Australia", pages 475 sqq.)

The Arunta tribe of Central Australia similarly tell how in the
beginning mankind was developed out of various rudimentary forms of
animal life. They say that in those days two beings called Ungambikula,
that is, "out of nothing," or "self-existing," dwelt in the western sky.
From their lofty abode they could see, far away to the east, a number
of inapertwa creatures, that is, rudimentary human beings or incomplete
men, whom it was their mission to make into real men and women. For at
that time there were no real men and women; the rudimentary creatures
(inapertwa) were of various shapes and dwelt in groups along the shore
of the salt water which covered the country. These embryos, as we may
call them, had no distinct limbs or organs of sight, hearing, and smell;
they did not eat food, and they presented the appearance of human beings
all doubled up into a round