Garkain
Ringkasan
Garkain adalah sosok manusia-roh bersayap kulit dalam mitologi Australian Aboriginal di Arnhem Land yang membekap mangsanya.
Garkain is a winged spirit-man in Arnhem Land Australian Aboriginal lore who smothers victims with folds of skin.
Kisah dan tradisi
Dalam mitologi Australian Aboriginal di kawasan Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Garkain digambarkan sebagai sosok manusia-roh yang mendiami hutan lebat Magurlipun di dekat muara Liverpool River. Tubuhnya seukuran manusia biasa dan memiliki kemampuan berjalan maupun terbang, tetapi tidak dapat berbicara serta tidak mengetahui cara membuat api. Jika ada pengelana yang memasuki wilayahnya, Garkain akan membunuh mereka dengan cara membekap menggunakan lipatan kulit longgar di lengan dan kakinya. Ia merupakan pemburu nokturnal yang tidur di siang hari di bawah tumpukan dedaunan hutan. Pada 1957, antropolog Charles P. Mountford menyumbangkan lukisan kulit kayu eukaliptus bergambar Garkain (1948 atau 1949) dari komunitas Aborigin Gunbalanya di Arnhem Land barat kepada Art Gallery of South Australia di Adelaide. Lukisan itu memperlihatkan lipatan kulit makhluk tersebut, dan kakinya digambarkan sebagai jejak kaki, seperti lazim pada penggambaran makhluk roh dan manusia. Mountford mencatat kemiripan antara Garkain dan Warraguk, dan mengamati bahwa secara keseluruhan Garkain tidak seditakuti makhluk roh lain di daerah itu seperti Namarakain dan Nabudi.
In the Australian Aboriginal traditions of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Garkain is known as a spirit-man haunting the dense jungle of Magurlipun near the Liverpool River's mouth. Sized like an ordinary man, he can both walk and take flight, yet lacks speech and fire-making skills. Should an intruder venture into his territory, Garkain suffocates them beneath the loose folds of skin along his limbs. Operating as a nocturnal hunter, he spends the daylight hours resting under piles of jungle leaves. The anthropologist Charles P. Mountford presented the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide, in 1957, with a bark painting of Garkain made on eucalyptus (1948 or 1949) in the Gunbalanya community of western Arnhem Land. It shows the creature's flaps of skin and draws his feet as footprints, as is usual in depictions of spirit and human beings. Mountford noted similarities between Garkain and Warraguk, and observed that overall Garkain was not as feared as other local spirit beings such as the Namarakain and the Nabudi.
Fakta utama
- Budaya / Culture
- Tradisi Aborigin Australia
- Kawasan / Region
- Oseania
- Klasifikasi / Classification
- Spirit
- Habitat
- Forest
Tahukah kamu? / Did you know?
Garkain membunuh korbannya dengan cara membekap mereka memakai lipatan kulit longgar di lengan dan kakinya.
Garkain slays unwary travelers by smothering them beneath the loose folds of skin spanning his limbs.