The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

360 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[308]the constellation worshipped by one body as the giver of rain;but if it should be deferred, instead of blessings curses are apt tobe bestowed upon it.” 995 According to a writer, whose evidenceon other matters of Australian beliefs is open to grave doubt,some of the aborigines of New South Wales denied that the sunis the source of heat, because he shines also in winter whenthe weather is cold; the real cause of warm weather they heldto be the Pleiades, because as the summer heat increases, thatconstellation rises higher and higher in the sky, reaching itsgreatest elevation in the height of summer, and gradually sinkingagain in autumn as the days grow cooler, till in winter it is eitherbarely visible or lost to view altogether. 996 Another writer, whowas well acquainted with the natives of Victoria in the early daysof the colony and whose testimony can be relied upon, tells usthat an old chief of the Spring Creek tribe “taught the youngpeople the names of the favourite planets and constellations, as995 Mr. McKellar, quoted by the Rev. W. Ridley, “Report on AustralianLanguages and Traditions,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, ii. (1873)p. 279; id., Kamilaroi (Sydney, 1875), p. 138. Mr. McKellar's evidencewas given before a Select Committee of the Legislative Council of Victoria in1858; from which we may perhaps infer that his statement refers especially tothe tribes of Victoria or at all events of south-eastern Australia. It seems to bea common belief among the aborigines of central and south-eastern Australiathat the Pleiades are women who once lived on earth but afterwards wentup into the sky. See W. E. Stanbridge, in Transactions of the EthnologicalSociety of London, N.S. i. (1861) p. 302; P. Beveridge, “Of the Aboriginesinhabiting the great Lacustrine and Riverine Depression of the Lower Murray,”etc., Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, xvii.(Sydney, 1884) p. 61; Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes ofCentral Australia (London, 1899), p. 566; id., Northern Tribes of CentralAustralia (London, 1904), p. 628; A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-EastAustralia (London, 1904), pp. 429 sq. Some tribes of Victoria believed that thePleiades were originally a queen and six of her attendants, but that the Crow(Waa) fell in love with the queen and ran away with her, and that since thenthe Pleiades have been only six in number. See James Dawson, AustralianAborigines (Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881), p. 100.996 J. Manning, “Notes on the Aborigines of New Holland,” Journal and