in animal disguise. Thus Greek legends of bestial amours of a God are
probably, in origin, not primitive, but scandals produced in the effort
to reconcile contradictory myths. The result is a worse scandal, an
accretion of more low myths about a conception of the primal Being which
was, relatively, lofty and pure.

Again, as aristocracies arose, the chief families desired to be sons of
the Father in a special sense: not as common men are. Her Majesty's
lineage may thus be traced to Woden! Now each such descent required a
separate divine amour, and a new scandalous story of Zeus or Apollo,
though Zeus may originally have been as celibate as the Australian Baiame
or Noorele are, in some legends. Once more, syncretism came in as a
mythopoeic influence. Say that several Australian nations, becoming more
polite, amalgamated into a settled people. Then we should have several
Gods, the chief Beings of various tribes, say Noorele, Bunjil, Mungan-
ngaur, Baiame, Daramulun, Mangarrah, Mulkari, Pinmeheal. The most
imposing God of the dominant tribe might be elevated to the sovereignty
of Zeus. But, in the new administration, places must be found for the
other old tribal Gods. They are, therefore, set over various
departments: Love, War, Agriculture, Medicine, Poetry, Commerce, while
one or more of the sons take the places of Apollo and Hermes. There
appears to be a very early example of syncretism in Australia. Daramulun
(Papang, Our Father) is "Master of All," on the coast, near Shoalhaven
River. Baiame is "Master of All," far north, on the Barwan. But the
locally intermediate tribe of the Wiraijuri, or Wiradthuri, have adopted
Baiame, and reduced Daramulun to an exploded bugbear, a merely nominal
superintendent of the Mysteries; and the southern Coast Murring have
rejected Baiame altogether, or never knew him, while making Daramulun
supreme.