Observations placeholder
A P Elkin - Aboriginal men of high degree - Goanna totem
Identifier
003495
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Aboriginal men of high degree – A P Elkin
Another Bandjelang elder, W. P., from Woodenbong near the Queensland border, said that a postulant for this higher degree goes into the bush and camps near a spring, where he fasts for several weeks.
There he feels and hears the "clever things" coming on him during the night. These things are the ropes. For crystals (nyurum), however, he goes to the mountains, and while camped there he hears something come up to him, which could be his protector his individual totem. So he picks it up.
A practicing Bandjelang clever man, A. C., from Tabulam, 65 kilometers south of Woodenbong, whom I met in 1946, confirmed this. In his making he went to the mountains for revelations. He fasted for two or three months. His father took him there but after a while left him by himself. His teacher was Biruganba, the sky cult-hero, while two of Biruganba's sisters (the Koinganbi) showed him everything. He saw a carpet snake coiled up on the water in a cave and went to touch it for medicine (magic power), but the snake took him under the water and then up to the top of the mountain.
A. C. had a goanna for his assistant-totem, which he kept inside himself. He also had a rope (nandiri) and crystal. His powers included the ability to fly at night to distant places