irrahgnooloo is mother of all and not related to any one
clan; Cunnumbeillee, his other wife, had only one totem.

Certainly woman is given a high place in their sacred lore. The chief
wife of Byamee, Birrahgnooloo, is claimed as the mother of all, for
she, like him, had a totem for each part of her body; no one totem can
claim her, but all do.

Mother of all, though mother of none in particular, she was not to be
vulgarised by ordinary domestic relations, For those purposes
Cunnumbeillee was at hand, as a bearer of children and a caterer. Yet
it was Birrahgnooloo whom Byamee best loved and made his companion,
giving her power and position which no other held. She too, like him,
is partially crystallised in the sky-camp, where they are together; the
upper parts of their bodies are as on earth; to her, those who want
floods go, and when willing to grant their requests, she bids
Cunnumbeillee start the flood-ball of flood rolling down the mountains.
Cunnumbeillee, as has been said, had but one totem which her children
derived from her.

Byamee is the originator of things less archaic and important than
totemism. There is a large stone fish-trap at Brewarrina, on the Barwan
River. It is said to have been made by Byamee and his gigantic sons,
just as later Greece attributed the walls of Tiryns to the Cyclops, or
as Glasgow Cathedral has been explained in legend as the work of the
Picts. Byamee also established the rule that there should be a common
camping-ground for the various tribes, where, during the fishing
festival, peace should be strictly kept, all meeting to enjoy the fish,
and do their share towards preserving the fisheries.

Byamee still exists. I have been told by an old native, as will be
shown later, that prayers for the souls of the dead used to be
addressed to Byamee at funerals; certainly not a practice derived from
Protestant missionaries.

Byamee is supposed to listen to the cry of an orphan for rain. Such an
one has but to run out when the clouds are overhead, and, looking at
the sky, call aloud

'Gullee boorboor. Gullee boorboor.'

'Water come down. Water come down.'

Or should it be raining too much, the last possible child of a woman
can stop it by burning Midjeer wood.

Bootha told me after one rain that she had sent one of her tutelary
spirits to tell Boyjerh--Byamee is called by women and children
Boyjerh--that the country wanted rain. In answer he had taken up a
handful of crystal pebb