A minute's exploration showed
that the cave did not extend 30 feet, and that it was dry, and resonant
with "the whispering sound of the cool colonnade," with no suggestion
of unwholesomeness or weirdness. But the blacks still pass it by. The
legend is as indestructible as the odour of attar of roses. Although the
boys persist in their account of the origin of the cave, it is known to
them as "Coo-bee co-tan-you," which signifies "that hole made by the
meteor," or, literally, "falling-star hole."
Romance, too, follows the Hinchinbrook pinnacle. Some local blacks
regard it with awe, believing that it covers a deep hole in the mountain
in which the winds and rain are pent up. When a malignant "debil-debil"
lifts the peak away the elements escape, roaring and hissing with
anger and mischief. When tired, they retire sulkily to the hole, which
the "debil-debil" blocks with the monstrous rock. Fine weather then
prevails, and the rock, which has been hidden away among the mists by
the fiend, becomes visible once more.
A SOULFUL DANCE
Of the many corrobborees that I have witnessed, the most novel in
conception was performed on Dunk Island by blacks who came from the
neighbourhood of Princess Charlotte Bay, some 200 miles to the north.
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