Throughout the Arunta tribe the sun, which is called Alinga or Ochirka, is regarded as female and the moon as male. At Alice Springs there is a tradition that in the Alcheringa the sun came out of the earth at a spot now marked by a large stone in the country of the Quirra or bandicoot people at Ilparlinja, about thirty miles north of Alice Springs. It was in the form of a spirit woman, accompanied by two other Panunga women, who were sisters and were called Ochirka, just as the sun itself is. The descendants of these two women are both now alive, though one of them, when undergoing reincarnation, having chosen an Appungerta mother, is now an Ungalla. We have before drawn attention to the fact that the spirit individual is regarded as free to enter any woman, though as a general, but by no means invariable, rule, as shown in the present instance, a woman of the right division is selected.

The elder of the two women is represented as carrying with her an Ambilyerikira, or newly-born child. Leaving the women at Ilparlinja the sun ascended into the sky, and has continued to do so every day, though at night time it pays a visit to the old spot whence it rises in the morning. In that spot it may be actually seen at night time by very gifted persons such as clever medicine men, and the fact that it cannot be seen by ordinary persons only means that they are not gifted with sufficient power, and not that it is not there.