vault of the sky," that
"there is water all round the flat earth," that the sun is a woman,
and that the moon was once a man who lived on earth, and so on. Then,
secondly, he notes the manner in which these beliefs are translated to
and held by the people, the myth in point of fact--unfortunately, Mr.
Howitt calls it a legend--wherein it is perfectly obvious that the
Australian is interpreting the facts of nature in the only language
known to him to be applicable, namely, that of his own personality.
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen produce much the same kind of
evidence,[196] and describe a ceremony among the northern tribes
connected with the myth of the sun, which ends in a newly initiated
youth being brought up, "shown the decorations, and had everything
explained to him."[197] Among the central tribes the same authorities
describe minutely the initiation ceremonies, during which the initiate
boy "is instructed for the first time in any of the sacred matters
referring to totems, and it is by means of the performances which are
concerned with certain animals, or rather, apparently with the
animals, but in reality with Alcheringa individuals who were the
direct transformations of such animals, that the traditions dealing
with this subject, which is of the greatest importance in the eyes of
the natives, are firmly impressed upon the mind of the novice, to whom
everything which he sees and hears is new and surrounded with an air
of mystery."[198] Sir George Grey, speaking of the traditions of the
Maori which he collected, says his reader will be in "the position of
one who listens to a heathen and savage high priest, explaining to him
in his own words and in his own energetic manner, the traditions in
which he earnestly believes, and unfolding the religious opinions upon
which the faith and hopes of his race rest."[199] This "school of
mythology and history," as it is significantly termed in John White's
_Ancient History of the Maori_, was "Whare-Kura, the sacred school in
which the sons of high priests were taught our mythology and history,"
and it "stood facing the east in the precincts of the sacred place of
Mua." The school was opened by the priests in the autumn, and
continued from sunset to midnight every night for four or five months
in succession. The chief priest sat next to the door. It was his duty
to commence the proceedings by repeating a portion of history; the
other priests followed in succession, according to