Putting Myth Into Practice

"Thus we are told that one of the customs most rigidly observed and enforced amongst the Austrlian aborigines is never to mention the name of of a deceased person, whether male or female; to name aloud one who has departed this life would be a gross violation of their most sacred prejudices, and they carefully abstain from it."-Frazer, page 303 Names of the dead tabooed.

The reason I chose the above quote and indeed the myth of the Rainbow Serpent is due to the intensive mythological atmosphere I experienced in Kakadu near Arnhem Land. When I was in Australia with the Aboriginal community we visited, the rule Frazer descirbed above applied to my group as well. Before meeting with the tribe, my fellows and I were told that a death had occured recently. Therefore, the name of both the deceased and the entire tribe was forbidden to leave our lips. The manditory waiting period is around 6 months, most tribes go much longer before the name of the person or their own community is allowed to be spoken aloud. To my ears at the time, it was a strange rule, but a rule nonetheless. Besides, it was a small price to pay for the numberous myths we were told by one of the community. And as Dr. Sexson said, it makes a world of difference to hear a myth spoken aloud, it becomes something tangible, something very alive and present. To the tribe, these myths were just as much a part of life as the kangaroo tails they ate(this is not their sole source of food, but it is mighty tasty).

I speak with complete honesty when I say that Kakadu National Park is one of those rare places on our planet where myth tags along as you walk near the billabong, it speaks to you on the wind at dusk, it instructs you when viewing a rock painting. And sometimes, on those ocassional nights or sunsets, the aboriginal myths almost seemed speak of their own volition.

Here I will include the internet copy of the Rainbow Serpent Myth, it varies from the one I told in class, but what can you do?

In the Dreamtime all the earth lay sleeping. Nothing grew. Nothing moved. Everything was quiet and still. The animals, birds, and reptiles lay sleeping under the earth’s crust. Then one day the Rainbow Serpent awoke from her slumber and pushed her way through the earth’s crust, moving the stones that lay in her way.

When she emerged, she looked about her and then traveled over the land, going in all directions. She traveled far and wide, and when she grew tired she curled herself into a heap and slept. Upon the earth she left her winding tracks and the imprint of her sleeping body. When she had traveled all the earth, she returned to the place where she had first appeared and called to the frogs, “Come out!”

The frogs were very slow to come from below the earth’s crust, for their bellies were heavy with water which they had stored in their sleep. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their stomachs, and when the frogs laughed, the water ran all over the earth to fill the tracks of the Rainbow Serpent’s wanderings – and that is how the lakes and rivers were formed.

Then the grass began to grow, and trees sprang up, and so life began on earth. All the animals, birds, and reptiles awoke and followed the Rainbow Serpent, the Mother of Life, across the land. They were happy on earth, and each lived and hunted for food with his own tribe. The kangaroo, wallaby, and emu tribes lived on the plains, the reptile tribes lived among the rocks and stones, and the bird tribes flew through the air and lived in the trees.

The Rainbow Serpent made laws that all were asked to obey, but some grew quarrelsome and were troublemakers. The Rainbow Serpent scolded them, saying, “Those who keep my laws I shall reward well, I shall give to them a human form. They and their children and their children’s children shall roam this earth forever. This shall be their land. Those who break my laws I shall punish. They shall be turned to stone, never to walk the earth again.”

So the law breakers were turned to stones, and became mountains and hills, to stand forever and watch over the tribes hunting for food at their feet. But those who kept her laws she turned into human form, and gave each of them his own totem of the animal, bird, or reptile whence they came. So the tribes knew themselves by their own totems: the kangaroo, the emu, the carpet snake, and many, many more. And in order that none should starve, she ruled that no man should eat of his own totem, but only of other totems. In this way there was food for all.

So the tribes lived together in the land given to them by the Mother of Life, the Rainbow Serpent, and they knew that the land would always be theirs, and that no one should ever take it from them.