Dreaming a procreative spirit

Spirit-children, nagarlala, sometimes referred to as rai, invisible, live in definite centres such as waterholes, springs, trees and rocks on the land and in the sea. The medicine-men are said to know, through dreams, the whereabouts of these places which are, of course, rai. The entry of a spirit child into its mother’s womb is always associated with a dream in which the father sees or ‘finds’ it. Further, according to Nyul-Nyul informants, the spirit child tells the father what its name is to be. It also tells the man that he is to be its father, and asks him where his wife is. Having given the information to the spirit child, he may then take it in his hand and put it down near his wife, or on her navel. It will enter her womb, though not necessarily at once. At the time of the quickening, the woman tells her husband that a child has entered her womb. He then remembers ‘finding’ the child in the dream.

The tribes of Dampier Land also believe in reincarnation. Some babies, at least, are believed to be the dead reincarnated. Such a spirit-child comes to the father in a dream just as the nagarlala do, explaining that it wants to be born again, this time as his child, and giving the name it previously bore. The father then washes the spirit-child and leaves it in fresh water for three days, after which he puts it near, or sends it to, his wife. It enters her just as a nagarlala would do. The washing is reserved for spirits which are being reincarnated. During the period between incarnations, the spirit sojourns at one of the spirit-centres. Some spirits, however, are not reincarnated; they are said to go to Loman, from whence there is no return.

../..

A [Ungarinyin] father always “finds” his child in a dream and in association with water, either in a water-hole or in the falling rain. Even if, in the first instance, as sometimes happens, he “finds” his child in water in waking life, he will see it in a dream later on when he is asleep in his camp. In his dream he sees the spirit-child standing at his head, and catches it in his hand, after which it enters his wife. If he be away from his camp at the time of this dream experience, he ties the spirit-child in his hair, and so brings it home to his wife. This takes place at the time of the quickening.

* * * * *

ELKIN A. P. (1933): Totemism in North-Western Australia (The Kimberley Division). Part II. Oceania, 3, 4, 438–439/460–461
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1933.tb01679.x

https://sexandprocreationweb.wordpress.com/2021/07/29/dreaming-a-procreative-spirit-nyul-nyul/