Myth and Science: A Goanna Story
To celebrate 2011 The International Year of Forests I produced Bushraps a booklet with 20 raps about the unique flora and fauna in Australian forests. I am interested in teaching science through storytelling and music, so I have tried to be true to the science of the material while making the raps fun to perform.
In storytelling there is a genre of stories called pourquoi, which are etiological narratives. Many Aboriginal Dreaming stories are pourquoi tales. However, sometimes scientific discovery casts a different light on the mythology of the tales. This happened to me in my research on Lace Monitors, commonly referred to as a 'goanna' because Europeans who, first seeing them in Australia, thought they were like the South American iguanas. ‘Goanna’ is derived from ‘iguana’. The Aboriginal people, depending on their language group, have many different names for these reptiles, and different stories about them. One well known creation myth is about how the black snake became poisonous. It informed my understanding of the difference between goannas and snakes.
How the Black Snake Became Poisonous
In the time of the Dreaming, Mungoongarli the goanna was much bigger than he is today. He carried a poisonous sac and attacked people travelling on their own, killing them and eating them. Everyone was so frightened they all moved about in a group. But sometimes this wasn’t possible, and that was when Mungoongarli would strike. The animals were also scared. If Mungoongarli ate all the people, then they would be the next to be killed.
Kangaroo called a meeting to ask if someone could think up a plan to kill Mungoongarli. Ouyouboolooey, the small black snake volunteered to do battle with Mungoongarli. All the animals laughed at him because he was so thin and small. But Ouyouboolooey was determined to prove them wrong and went to meet Mungoongarli.
He stayed by Mungoongarli’s camp and pretended to be asleep when the goanna got up the next morning and captured and killed a solitary traveller. Ouyouboolooey watched as Mungoongarli dropped his poison sac on the ground next to his waddy, the big stick he had beaten the man with. Mungoongarli devoured his victim and while he did, quick as a lightning flash, Ouyouboolooey grabbed the poison sac and swallowed it, then slithered off back to the other animals.
There was a resounding cheer when he opened his mouth to show the captured poison sac. But when kangaroo suggested he spit it out into the river, Ouyouboolooey refused, saying that no one would ever laugh at him again, because now he had the poison and one bite from him would kill them. As for Mungoongarli, he shrunk down to the size he is today and only the smallest of animals fear him.
Source: Retold from Aboriginal Fables and Legendary Tales by A.W. Reed, Sydney 1965
I have always maintained a healthy respect for, and distance from, Australian reptiles. Venomous snakes? Make that a good distance! But I love to see a land mullet sleeping in the shade, a carpet snake basking in the sun or a blue tongue catching flies. However, I’m not a goanna lover. Is it because they are scavenging, thieving predators, or that they look and move like crocodiles? Besides these ‘character flaws,’ I now know that they are also venomous!
All these years I believed that snakes are poisonous (well in Australia most are) and lizards aren’t. But in late 2005, researchers at the University of Melbourne discovered that being bitten on the finger by a Perentie (Varanus giganteus), Spotted Tree Monitor (Varanus timorensis) or a Lace Monitor, (Varanus varius), all produced similar results in humans: rapid swelling within minutes, localised disruption of blood clotting, shooting pain up to the elbow, with some symptoms lasting for several hours. Previously it was believed these symptoms were caused by an infection from bacteria present in the reptile’s mouth. However, these effects are symptomatic of envenomation rather than bacterial infection, and the discovery of toxin-producing oral glands in monitor lizards supports this.
Here is a scientific article about the discovery.
http://eebweb.arizona.edu/courses/Ecol437/FryEA2005_Nature_VenomEvolution.pdf
Here is an interview with Deputy Director of the Australian Venom Research Unit, Doctor Bryan Fry.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1509383.htm
So to return to the nature of scientific and mythological interpretations of events. 40-60 thousand years ago, the time that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people began living in Australia, there was not the scientific facilities to research the presence of venomous glands in reptiles. Only a bite from a reptile could show you its degree of toxicity, and the venom in a goanna is nowhere near as toxic as most of Australia's venomous snakes. There is also evidence that the giant lizard, (Varanus Priscus) up to 7 metres long and weighing up to 1,940 kilogrammes, was also present, when humans first came to Australia. So although this is a mythological story, it is possible to scientifically interpret it.
Aboriginal dreaming stories have scientific validity, especially in view of the Australian megafauna that inhabited the country at the time Aborigines first did. Now extinct, many bear resemblance to creatures in Aboriginal myths. Stories are one way of interpreting events and behaviour, and science is another, particularly when it comes to transformations and origins. If you think that Aboriginal creation myths are entirely fictitious then look at Evolution. A century ago many people did not believe in evolution; they could not fathom birds descending from dinosaurs and humans from monkeys? And now it is an accepted scientific fact...accepted by most thinking people at any rate.
Here is a performance of The Goanna Rap from Bushraps by Morgan Schatz Blackrose 2011
For more videos from Bushraps, visit my website.
