Cirrus@Austlit

A fifth letter to the editor of the South Australian Magazine about the poem The Spirit of the Murray. In this letter 'Cuique' apologises for the gap in instalments due to ill health and writes that ill health may prevent further publication of the work although '[t]here are parts of the work descriptive of scenery and thoughts on the Murray beach, etc, nearly ready, which require compiling only, and which I hope to be able to send you, if health permit, without so long a delay as this last has been.' However the South Australian Magazine ceased after this issue.

This latest instalment of the poem '[c]ontaining the sequel of the 'Legend of Ooroondooil' is described by 'Cique' as appearing to be 'a genuine tradition of the Lower Murray or Lake tribes [and] the Encounter Bay natives'. 'Cirque' quotes from 'a note appended to these papers [by the author]' : "The foundation for this legend I obtained from two native boys ... One of them belonged to the Currency Creek, and the other to the Wationg tribe. I asked one of them 'how the Earth came to be?' [and] received from one and the other ... tales, which the boys said their mothers and the old women were accustomed to tell them."'