Layatinah ngune/MOUNTAIN FIRE

Caster and Pollux. Photo: NASA

Two creation spirits were seen standing at the top of a mountain. They threw down fire. It fell among the people. At first, they all ran away in fright, but then some returned and made a fire with the flaming wood. The spirits are now the stars Castor and Pollux. Quoting this story and noting that ‘Mountains are, around the world, revered as places where the Sky meets the Earth, Masters student Angus Barnes in Mount Wellington and the Sense of Place speculated that the muwinina people may well have looked to The Pinnacle as the place where the two fire-makers stood, particularly when those two stars set behind The Mountain. It is not outlandish. It is a worldwide belief. Epic events, far beyond the powers, far from the reach of mere mortals, on mountains unfold, revealing themselves to all below. Mountains are also stairways to heaven.

SOURCE

Michael Roe’s book The Flow of Culture: Tasmanian Studies (1987) J. Clark.