Balayang
Balayang the bat is the brother of Bunjil the eaglehawk in Kulin tradition, but he lived apart from him among the swamps and rivers. When Bunjil asked him to come and live in his country, Balayang answered that Bunjil's country was too dry and that Bunjil should rather come to him; the offended Bunjil sent his two helpers, Djurt-djurt the nankeen kestrel and Thara the quail hawk, who set fire to Balayang's country so that the bat and his family were scorched and turned permanently black. His blackness aligned him with the crow moiety, opposite Bunjil's eaglehawk moiety, and another tradition credits him with finding or creating the first women in the thickened water and sending them to Bunjil - in the version William Thomas recorded, under the name Pal-ly-an. Among Kulin peoples the bat remained a being of special significance to men.
Domains
- bats
- waters
Powers
- to bring the first women out of the water
Relations
- enemy: Djurt-djurtWhen Balayang refused to leave his well-watered country for Bunjil's, Bunjil sent Djurt-djurt the nankeen kestrel, who set fire to Balayang's country and scorched him and his family black.A.W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London: Macmillan, 1904), pp. 128-130 (secondary)
- enemy: TharaThara the quail hawk joined Djurt-djurt in burning Balayang's country, the fire that turned the bat permanently black.Aldo Massola, Bunjil's Cave: Myths, Legends and Superstitions of the Aborigines of South-East Australia (Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1968) (secondary)
Sources
- Balayang the bat is Bunjil's brother who lived apart by the waters, is credited with bringing the first women to light, and was scorched black when Bunjil's two hawks fired his country, which is why he belongs to the crow moiety.: A.W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London: Macmillan, 1904), pp. 128-130 (secondary); Mudrooroo, Aboriginal Mythology: An A-Z (London: Thorsons, 1994), p. 10 (secondary); Aldo Massola, Bunjil's Cave: Myths, Legends and Superstitions of the Aborigines of South-East Australia (Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1968) (secondary)