Cowles' Lecture

Information gained from Prof. Anthony Cowles during and after his Boston lecture.

The Father of All Bats

A bat cult once existed among the Aboriginals of Australia. It was known in many diferent parts of the continent, and the god of the cult was always referred to as the Father of All Bats. Adherents believed that by making human sacrifices to their god they themselves would become worthy enough that the Father of all Bats would appear to them. Once he was enticed to appear, he would conquer all men. Sacrifices were run through a gauntlet of worshipers who struck the victims with clubs embedded with the sharp teeth of bats. The teeth were coated with a substance derived from rabid bats. The poison was quick-acting, but victims apparently went mad before they died. Leaders of the cult reputedly could take the forms of bat-winged snakes, enabling them to steal sacrifices from across the land. Cowles believes that this cult became dormant or extinct hundreds of years ago. Its former existence is the reason that he became interested in Jackson Elias' books about present-day cults.

The Camp of the Gods

An Aboriginal song cycle mentions a place where enormous beings gathered, somewhere in the west of Australia. The songs say that these gods, who were not at all like men, built great sleeping walls and dug great caves. But living winds blew down the gods and overthrew them, destroying their camp. When this happened, the way was open for the Father of All Bats, who came into the land, and grew strong.

The Photographs and Diary

Cowles shows the investigators a set of four over-exposed photographs, taken in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia in 1921. They show an archaeological site, with enormous blocks of stone, pitted and eroded but clearly dressed and formed for architectural purposes. Dim carvings seem to decorate some. Billows of sand are everywhere.

Cowles says that the discoverer, one Arthur MacWhirr of Port Hedland, also kept a diary in which he records several attacks on the party by Aboriginals. MacWhirr reportedly records deaths to victims from hundreds of small punctures, reminiscent of the earlier bat-cult. Cowles did not bring the book with him; It remains at his Sydney residence.

The photgraphs and diary were sent to Cowles by his friend Robert B. F. Mackenzie, a resident of Port Hedland and executor of the MacWhirr estate.

Sand Bat and Rainbow Snake

Cowles tells a tale that he collected from near the Arafura Sea in northern Australia, In it Sand Bat has a battle of wits with Rainbow Snake. Cowles is intrigued that the story should so carefully characterise and set in opposition Sand Bat and Rainbow Snake.

This story, Rainbow Snake Saves The People, can be found here.

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