Bahloo the Moon

Bahloo is the moon-man of the Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay) and closely related Euahlayi (Yuwaalaraay) peoples of northern New South Wales. In the tale recorded by K. Langloh Parker, Bahloo asks men to carry his snakes across a river; when they refuse out of fear, he declares that they will die forever while he himself dies and returns each month, an aetiology of both human mortality and the lunar cycle. Contemporary Kamilaroi and Euahlayi elders interviewed by Fuller and colleagues confirm Bahloo as a male moon figure pursued across the sky by Yhi the sun-woman.

Domains

• moon
• death and rebirth

Powers

• to command and carry serpents, which are his companions
• to decree that human beings die and do not return

Relations

• subordinate to: BaiameParker's Euahlayi ethnography places Bahloo among the sky beings associated with and ranking beneath the All-Father Byamee (Baiame).K. Langloh Parker, The Euahlayi Tribe, 1905 (secondary)
• rival: Yhi the Sun-WomanYhi the sun-woman pursues Bahloo across the sky; his flight from her advances explains the moon's motion relative to the sun.R.S. Fuller et al., 'The Astronomy of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi Peoples and Their Neighbours', Australian Aboriginal Studies 2014/2 (secondary)

Sources

• Bahloo is the male moon of Kamilaroi/Euahlayi tradition, keeper of snakes and the being whose rebuff by the first men made death permanent.: K. Langloh Parker, Australian Legendary Tales, David Nutt, London, 1896 (secondary); R.S. Fuller, M.G. Anderson, R.P. Norris & M. Trudgett, 'The Astronomy of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi Peoples and Their Neighbours', Australian Aboriginal Studies 2014/2, pp. 3-27 (secondary)