bunyip (1898)

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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.

bunyip (1898)

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