and believed in Mr. Herbert Spencer's 'Ghost theory' of the origin of
religion in the worship of ancestral spirits. What I learned from the
natives surprised me, and shook my faith in Mr. Spencer's theory, with
which it seemed incompatible.

In hearing the old blacks tell their legends you notice a great
difference between them as raconteurs--some tell the bare plot or
feature of the legend, others give descriptive touches all through. If
they are strangers to their audience, they get it over as quickly as
possible in a half-contemptuous way, as if saying, 'What do you want to
know such rubbish for?' But if they know you well, and know you really
are interested, then they tell you the stories as they would tell them
to one another, giving them a new life and adding considerably to their
poetical expression.




CHAPTER II



THE ALL FATHER, BYAMEE


As throughout the chapters on the customary laws, mysteries, and
legends of the Euahlayi, there occur frequent mentions of a superhuman
though anthropomorphic being named Byamee (in Kamilaroi and Wir djuri
'Baiame'), it is necessary to give a preliminary account of the beliefs
entertained concerning him. The name Byamee (usually spelled Baiame)