tually grown up in regard to the mythical ancestor of the
Wollunqua clan in the Warramunga tribe. The Wollunqua is a purely
fabulous water-snake, of gigantic dimensions, which is supposed to haunt
the waters of a certain lonely pool called Thapauerlu, in the Murchison
Range of mountains. Unlike the ancestors of the other totemic clans,
this mythical serpent is never reborn in human form; he always lives in
his solitary pool among the barren hills; but the natives think that he
has it in his power to come forth and do them an injury, and accordingly
they pray to him to remain quiet and not to harm them. Indeed so afraid
of him are they that speaking of the creature among themselves they
avoid using his proper name of Wollunqua and call him by a different
name, lest hearing himself called by his true name he should rush forth
and devour them. More than that they even endeavour to propitiate him by
the performance of certain rites, which, however childish and absurd
they may seem to us, are very solemn affairs for these simple folk. The
rites were witnessed by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, whose description I
will summarise. It offers an interesting and instructive example of a
ritual observed by primitive savages, who are clearly standing on, if
they have not already crossed, the threshold of religion.

[Sidenote: Wanderings of the Wollunqua. Dramatic ceremonies in honour of
the Wollunqua.]

Like all other totemic ancestors the Wollunqua is said to have arisen at
a particular spot, to have wandered about the country, and finally to
have gone down into the ground. Starting from the deep rocky pool in the
Murchison Range he travelled at first underground, coming up, however,
at various points where he performed ceremonies and left many spirit
children, who issued from his body and remained behind, forming local
totemic centres when he had passed on. It is these spirit children who
have formed the Wollunqua clan ever since, undergoing an endless series
of reincarnations. Now the ceremonies which the clan perform in honour
of their mythical ancestor the Wollunqua all refer to his wanderings
about the country. Thus there is a particular water-hole called
Pitingari where the great old water-snake is said to have emerged from
the ground and looked about him. Here, accordingly, two men performed a
ceremony. Each of them was decorated with a broad band of red down,
which curved round both the front and the back of the performer and