{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_3833/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_3833","id":"gutenberg_3833","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3833","summary":null,"tags":["Australia","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Folklore -- Australia"],"text":"Produced by Col Choat.  HTML version by Al Haines.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAUSTRALIAN LEGENDARY TALES\n\nFOLK-LORE OF THE NOONGAHBURRAHS\n\nAS TOLD TO THE PICCANINNIES\n\n\nCOLLECTED BY MRS. K. LANGLOH PARKER\n\nWITH INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW LANG, M.A.\n\n\n\n\n\n  DEDICATED\n  TO\n  PETER HIPPI\n  KING OF THE NOONGAHBURRAHS\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  PREFACE\n  INTRODUCTION, BY ANDREW LANG, M.A.\n  1  DINEWAN THE EMU, AND GOOMBLEGUBBON THE BUSTARD\n  2  THE GALAH, AND OOLAH THE LIZARD\n  3  BAHLOO THE MOON, AND THE DAENS\n  4  THE ORIGIN OF THE NARRAN LAKE\n  5  GOOLOO THE MAGPIE, AND THE WAHROOGAH\n  6  THE WEEOOMBEENS AND THE PIGGIEBILLAH\n  7  BOOTOOLGAH THE CRANE AND GOONUR THE KANGAROO RAT, THE FIRE MAKERS\n  8  WEEDAH THE MOCKING BIRD\n  9  THE GWINERBOOS THE REDBREASTS\n 10  MEAMEI THE SEVEN SISTERS\n 11  THE COOKOOBURRAHS AND THE GOOLAHGOOL\n 12  THE MAYAMAH\n 13  THE BUNBUNDOOLOOEYS\n 14  OONGNAIRWAH AND GUINAREY\n 15  NARAHDARN THE BAT\n 16  MULLYANGAH THE MORNING STAR\n 17  GOOMBLEGUBBON, BEEARGAII, AND OUYAN\n 18  MOOREGOO THE MOPOKE, AND BAHLOO THE MOON\n 19  OUYAN THE CURLEW\n 20  DINEWAN THE EMU, AND WAHN THE CROWS\n 21  GOOLAHWILLEEL THE TOPKNOT PIGEONS\n 22  GOONUR, THE WOMAN-DOCTOR\n 23  DEEREEREE THE WAGTAIL, AND THE RAINBOW\n 24  MOOREGOO THE MOPOKE, AND MOONINGUGGAHGUL THE MOSQUITO BIRD\n 25  BOUGOODOOGAHDAH THE RAIN BIRD\n 26  THE BORAH OF BYAMEE\n 27  BUNNYYARL THE FLIES AND WURRUNNUNNAH THE BEES\n 28  DEEGEENBOYAH THE SOLDIER-BIRD\n 29  MAYRAH, THE WIND THAT BLOWS THE WINTER AWAY\n 30  WAYAMBEH THE TURTLE\n 31  WIRREENUN THE RAINMAKER\n NATIVE TEXT OF THE FIRST TALE (APPENDIX)\n GLOSSARY\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nA neighbour of mine exclaimed, when I mentioned that I proposed making a\nsmall collection of the folk-lore legends of the tribe of blacks I knew\nso well living on this station, \"But have the blacks any legends?\"--thus\nshowing that people may live in a country and yet know little of the\naboriginal inhabitants; and though there are probably many who do know\nthese particular legends, yet I think that this is the first attempt\nthat has been made to collect the tales of any particular tribe, and\npublish them alone. At all events, I know that no attempt has been made\npreviously, as far as the folklore of the Noongahburrahs is concerned.\nTherefore, on the authority of Professor Max Muller, that folk-lore of\nany country is worth collecting, I am emboldened to offer my small\nattempt, at a collection, to the public. There are probably many who,\nknowing these legends, would not think them worth recording; but, on\nthe other hand, I hope there are many who think, as I do, that we\nshould try, while there is yet time, to gather all the information\npossible of a race fast dying out, and the origin of which is so\nobscure. I cannot affect to think that these little legends will do\nmuch to remove that obscurity, but undoubtedly a scientific and patient\nstudy of the folk-lore throughout Australia would greatly assist\nthereto. I, alas! am but an amateur, moved to my work by interest in\nthe subject, and in the blacks, of whom I have had some experience.\n\nThe time is coming when it will be impossible to make even such a\ncollection as this, for the old blacks are quickly dying out, and the\nyoung ones will probably think it beneath the dignity of their\nso-called civilisation even to remember such old-women's stories. Those\nwho have themselves attempted the study of an unknown folk-lore will be\nable to appreciate the difficulties a student has to surmount before he\ncan even induce those to talk who have the knowledge he desires. In\nthis, as in so much else, those who are ready to be garrulous know\nlittle.\n\nI have confined this little book to the legends of the Narran tribe,\nknown among themselves as Noongahburrahs. It is astonishing to find,\nwithin comparatively short distances, a diversity of language and\ncustom. You may even find the same word in different tribes bearing a\ntotally different meaning. Many words, too, have been introduced which\nthe blacks think are English, and the English think are native. Such,\nfor example, as piccaninny, and, as far as these outside blacks are\nconcerned, boomerang is regarded as English, their local word being\nburren; yet nine out of ten people whom you meet think both are local\nnative words.\n\nThough I have written my little book in the interests of folk-lore, I\nhope it will gain the attention of, and have some interest for,\nchildren--of Australian children, because they will find stories of old\nfriends among the Bush birds; and of English children, because I hope\nthat they will be glad to make new friends, and so establish a free\ntrade between the Australian and English nurseries--wingless, and\nlaughing birds, in exchange for fairy godmothers, and princes in\ndisguise.\n\nI must also acknowledge my great indebtedness to the blacks, who, when\nonce they understood what I wanted to know, were most ready to repeat\nto me the legends repeating with the utmost patience, time after time,\nnot only the legends, but the names, that I might manage to spell them\nso as to be understood when repeated. In particular I should like to\nmention my indebtedness to Peter Hippi, king of the Noongahburrahs; and\nto Hippitha, Matah, Barahgurrie, and Beemunny.\n\nI have dedicated my booklet to Peter Hippi, in grateful recognition of\nhis long and faithful service to myself and my husband, which has\nextended, with few intervals, over a period of twenty years. He, too,\nis probably the last king of the Noongabburrahs, who are fast dying\nout--, and soon their weapons, bartered by them for tobacco or whisky,\nalone will prove that they ever existed. It seemed to me a pity that\nsome attempt should not be made to collect the folk-lore of the quickly\ndisappearing tribe--a folk-lore embodying, probably, the thoughts,\nfancies, and beliefs of the genuine aboriginal race, and which, as\nsuch, deserves to be, indeed, as Max Muller says, \"might be and ought\nto be, collected in every part of the world.\"\n\nThe legends were told to me by the blacks themselves, some of whom\nremember the coming of Mitchellan, as they call Major Mitchell, the\nexplorer of these back creeks. The old blacks laugh now when they tell\nyou how frightened their mothers were of the first wheel tracks they\nsaw. They would not let the children tread on them, but carefully\nlifted them over, lest their feet should break out in sores, as they\nwere supposed to do if they trod on a snake's track. But with all their\nfear, little did they realise that the coming of Mitchellan was the\nbeginning of their end, or that fifty years afterwards, from the\nremnant of their once numerous tribe, would be collected the legends\nthey told in those days to their piccaninnies round their camp-fires,\nand those legends used to make a Christmas booklet for the children of\ntheir white supplanters.\n\nI can only hope that the white children will be as ready to listen to\nthese stories as were, and indeed are, the little piccaninnies, and\nthus the sale of this booklet be such as to enable me to add frocks and\ntobacco when I give their Christmas dinner, as is my yearly custom, to\nthe remnant of the Noongahburrahs.\n\nK. LANGLOH PARKER,\n  BANGATE, NARRAN RIVER, NEW SOUTH WALES,\n    June 24th, 1895.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nAustralia makes an appeal to the fancy which is all its own. When\nCortes entered Mexico, in the most romantic moment of history, it was\nas if men had found their way to a new planet, so strange, so long\nhidden from Europe was all that they beheld. Still they found kings,\nnobles, peasants, palaces, temples, a great organised society, fauna\nand flora not so very different from what they had left behind in\nSpain. In Australia all was novel, and, while seeming fresh, was\ninestimably old. The vegetation differs from ours; the monotonous grey\ngum-trees did not resemble our varied forests, but were antique,\nmelancholy, featureless, like their own continent of rare hills,\ninfrequent streams and interminable deserts, concealing nothing within\ntheir wastes, yet promising a secret. The birds and beasts--kangaroo,\nplatypus, emu--are ancient types, rough grotesques of Nature, sketching\nas a child draws. The natives were a race without a history, far more\nantique than Egypt, nearer the beginnings than any other people. Their\nweapons are the most primitive: those of the extinct Tasmanians were\nactually palaeolithic. The soil holds no pottery, the cave walls no\npictures drawn by men more advanced; the sea hides no ruined palaces;\nno cities are buried in the plains; there is not a trace of\ninscriptions or of agriculture. The burying places contain relics of\nmen perhaps even lower than the existing tribes; nothing attests the\npresence in any age of men more cultivated. Perhaps myriads of years\nhave gone by since the Delta, or the lands beside Euphrates and Tigris\nwere as blank of human modification as was the whole Australian\ncontinent.\n\nThe manners and rites of the natives were far the most archaic of all\nwith which we are acquainted. Temples they had none: no images of gods,\nno altars of sacrifice; scarce any memorials of the dead. Their worship\nat best was offered in hymns to some vague, half-forgotten deity or\nFirst Maker of things, a god decrepit from age or all but careless of\nhis children. Spirits were known and feared, but scarcely defined or\ndescribed. Sympathetic magic, and perhaps a little hypnotism, were all\ntheir science. Kings and nations they knew not; they were wanderers,\nhouseless and homeless. Custom was king; yet custom was tenacious,\nirresistible, and as complex in minute details as the etiquette of\nSpanish kings, or the ritual of the Flamens of Rome. The archaic\nintricacies and taboos of the customs and regulations of marriage might\npuzzle a mathematician, and may, when unravelled, explain the less\ncomplicated prohibitions of a totemism less antique. The people\nthemselves in their struggle for existence had developed great\ningenuities. They had the boomerang and the weet-weet, but not the bow;\nthe throwing stick, but not, of course, the sword; the message stick,\nbut no hieroglyphs; and their art was almost purely decorative, in\ngeometrical patterns, not representative. They deemed themselves akin\nto all nature, and called cousins with rain and smoke, with clouds and\nsky, as well as with beasts and trees. They were adroit hunters,\nskilled trackers, born sportsmen; they now ride well, and, for savages,\nplay cricket fairly. But, being invaded by the practical emigrant or\nthe careless convict, the natives were not studied when in their prime,\nand science began to examine them almost too late. We have the works of\nSir George Grey, the too brief pamphlet of Mr. Gideon Lang, the more\nlearned labours of Messrs. Fison and Howitt, and the collections of Mr.\nBrough Smyth. The mysteries (Bora) of the natives, the initiatory\nrites, a little of the magic, a great deal of the social customs are\nknown to us, and we have fragments of the myths. But, till Mrs. Langloh\nParker wrote this book, we had but few of the stories which Australian\nnatives tell by the camp-fire or in the gum-tree shade.\n\nThese, for the most part, are KINDER MARCHEN, though they include many\naetiological myths, explanatory of the markings and habits of animals,\nthe origin of constellations, and so forth. They are a savage edition\nof the METAMORPHOSES, and few unbiased students now doubt that the\nMETAMORPHOSES are a very late and very artificial version of\ntraditional tales as savage in origin as those of the Noongahburrah. I\nhave read Mrs. Parker's collection with very great interest, with\n\"human pleasure,\" merely for the story's sake. Children will find here\nthe Jungle Book, never before printed, of black little boys and girls.\nThe sympathy with, and knowledge of beast-life and bird-life are worthy\nof Mr. Kipling, and the grotesque names are just what children like.\nDinewan and Goomblegubbon should take their place with Rikki Tikki and\nMr. Kipling's other delightful creatures. But there is here no Mowgli,\nset apart in the jungle as a man. Man, bird, and beast are all blended\nin the Australian fancy as in that of Bushmen and Red Indians. All are\nof one kindred, all shade into each other; all obey the Bush Law as\nthey obey the Jungle Law in Mr. Kipling's fascinating stories. This\nconfusion, of course, is not peculiar to Australian MARCHEN; it is the\nprevalent feature of our own popular tales. But the Australians \"do it\nmore natural:\" the stories are not the heritage of a traditional and\ndead, but the flowers of a living and actual condition of the mind. The\nstories have not the ingenious dramatic turns of our own MARCHEN. Where\nthere are no distinctions of wealth and rank, there can be no\nCINDERELLA and no PUSS IN BOOTS. Many stories are rude aetiological\nmyths; they explain the habits and characteristics of the birds and\nbeasts, and account in a familiar way for the origin of death (\"Bahloo,\nthe Moon, and the Daens\"). The origin of fire is also accounted for in\nwhat may almost be called a scientific way. Once discovered, it is, of\ncourse, stolen from the original proprietors. A savage cannot believe\nthat the first owners of fire would give the secret away. The inventors\nof the myth of Prometheus were of the same mind.\n\nOn the whole the stories, perhaps, most resemble those from the Zulu in\ncharacter, though these represent a much higher grade of civilisation.\nThe struggle for food and water, desperately absorbing, is the\nperpetual theme, and no wonder, for the narrators dwell in a dry and\nthirsty land, and till not, nor sow, nor keep any domestic animals. We\nsee the cunning of the savage in the devices for hunting, especially\nfor chasing honey bees. The Rain-magic, actually practised, is of\ncurious interest. In brief, we have pictures of savage life by savages,\nromances which are truly realistic. We understand that condition which\nDr. Johnson did not think happy--the state from which we came, and to\nwhich we shall probably return. \"Equality,\" \"Liberty\", \"Community of\nGoods,\" all mean savagery, and even savages, if equal, are not really\nfree. Custom is the tyrant.\n\nThe designs are from the sketch-book of an untaught Australian native;\nthey were given to me some years ago by my brother, Dr. Lang, of\nCorowa. The artist has a good deal of spirit in his hunting scenes; his\ntrees are not ill done, his emus and kangaroos are better than his men\nand labras. Using ink, a pointed stick, and paper, the artist shows an\nunwonted freedom of execution. Nothing like this occurs in Australian\nscratches with a sharp stone on hard wood. Probably no other member of\nhis dying race ever illustrated a book.\n\nANDREW LANG.\n\n\n* * * * *\n\n\n\n\n1.  DINEWAN THE EMU, AND GOOMBLEGUBBON THE BUSTARD\n\n\nDinewan the emu, being the largest bird, was acknowledged as king by the\nother birds. The Goomblegubbons, the bustards, were jealous of the\nDinewans. Particularly was Goomblegubbon, the mother, jealous of the\nDiriewan mother. She would watch with envy the high flight of the\nDinewans, and their swift running. And she always fancied that the\nDinewan mother flaunted her superiority in her face, for whenever\nDinewan alighted near Goomblegubbon, after a long, high flight, she\nwould flap her big wings and begin booing in her pride, not the loud\nbooing of the male bird, but a little, triumphant, satisfied booing\nnoise of her own, which never failed to irritate Goomblegubbon when she\nheard it.\n\nGoomblegubbon used to wonder how she could put an end to Dinewan's\nsupremacy. She decided that she would only be able to do so by injuring\nher wings and checking her power of flight. But the question that\ntroubled her was how to effect this end. She knew she would gain\nnothing by having a quarrel with Dinewan and fighting her, for no\nGoomblegubbon would stand any chance against a Dinewan, There was\nevidently nothing to be gained by an open fight. She would have to\neffect her end by cunning.\n\nOne day, when Goomblegubbon saw in the distance Dinewan coming towards\nher, she squatted down and doubled in her wings in such a way as to\nlook as if she had none. After Dinewan had been talking to her for some\ntime, Goomblegubbon said: \"Why do you not imitate me and do without\nwings? Every bird flies. The Dinewans, to be the king of birds, should\ndo without wings. When all the birds see that I can do without wings,\nthey will think I am the cleverest bird and they will make a\nGoomblegubbon king.\"\n\n\"But you have wings,\" said Dinewan.\n\n\"No, I have no wings.\" And indeed she looked as if her words were true,\nso well were her wings hidden, as she squatted in the grass. Dinewan\nwent away after awhile, and thought much of what she had heard. She\ntalked it all over with her mate, who was as disturbed as she was. They\nmade up their minds that it would never do to let the Goomblegubbons\nreign in their stead, even if they had to lose their wings to save\ntheir kingship.\n\nAt length they decided on the sacrifice of their wings. The Dinewan\nmother showed the example by persuading her mate to cut off hers with a\ncombo or stone tomahawk, and then she did the same to his. As soon as\nthe operations were over, the Dinewan mother lost no time in letting\nGoomblegubbon know what they had done. She ran swiftly down to the\nplain on which she had left Goomblegubbon, and, finding her still\nsquatting there, she said: \"See, I have followed your example. I have\nnow no wings. They are cut off.\"\n\n\"Ha! ha! ha!\" laughed Goomblegubbon, jumping up and dancing round with\njoy at the success of her plot. As she danced round, she spread out her\nwings, flapped them, and said: \"I have taken you in, old stumpy wings.\nI have my wings yet. You are fine birds, you Dinewans, to be chosen\nkings, when you are so easily taken in. Ha! ha! ha!\" And, laughing\nderisively, Goomblegubbon flapped her wings right in front of Dinewan,\nwho rushed towards her to chastise her treachery. But Goomblegubbon\nflew away, and, alas! the now wingless Dinewan could not follow her.\n\nBrooding over her wrongs, Dinewan walked away, vowing she would be\nrevenged. But how? That was the question which she and her mate failed\nto answer for some time. At length the Dinewan mother thought of a plan\nand prepared at once to execute it. She hid all her young Dinewans but\ntwo, under a big salt bush. Then she walked off to Goomblegubbons'\nplain with the two young ones following her. As she walked off the\nmorilla ridge, where her home was, on to the plain, she saw\nGoomblegubbon out feeding with her twelve young ones.\n\nAfter exchanging a few remarks in a friendly manner with Goomblegubbon,\nshe said to her, \"Why do you not imitate me and only have two children?\nTwelve are too many to feed. If you keep so many they will never grow\nbig birds like the Dinewans. The food that would make big birds of two\nwould only starve twelve.\" Goomblegubbon said nothing, but she thought\nit might be so. It was impossible to deny that the young Dinewans were\nmuch bigger than the young Goomblegubbons, and, discontentedly,\nGoomblegubbon walked away, wondering whether the smallness of her young\nones was owing to the number of them being so much greater than that of\nthe Dinewans. It would be grand, she thought, to grow as big as the\nDinewans. But she remembered the trick she had played on Dinewan, and\nshe thought that perhaps she was being fooled in her turn. She looked\nback to where the Dinewans fed, and as she saw how much bigger the two\nyoung ones were than any of hers, once more mad envy of Dinewan\npossessed her. She determined she would not be outdone. Rather would\nshe kill all her young ones but two. She said, \"The Dinewans shall not\nbe the king birds of the plains. The Goomblegubbons shall replace them.\nThey shall grow as big as the Dinewans, and shall keep their wings and\nfly, which now the Dinewans cannot do.\" And straightway Goomblegubbon\nkilled all her young ones but two. Then back she came to where the\nDinewans were still feeding. When Dinewan saw her coming and noticed\nshe had only two young ones with her, she called out: \"Where are all\nyour young ones?\"\n\nGoomblegubbon answered, \"I have killed them, and have only two left.\nThose will have plenty to eat now, and will soon grow as big as your\nyoung ones.\"\n\n\"You cruel mother to kill your children. You greedy mother. Why, I have\ntwelve children and I find food for them all. I would not kill one for\nanything, not even if by so doing I could get back my wings. There is\nplenty for all. Look at the emu bush how it covers itself with berries\nto feed my big family. See how the grasshoppers come hopping round, so\nthat we can catch them and fatten on them.\"\n\n\"But you have only two children.\"\n\n\"I have twelve. I will go and bring them to show you.\" Dinewan ran off\nto her salt bush where she had hidden her ten young ones. Soon she was\nto be seen coming back. Running with her neck stretched forward, her\nhead thrown back with pride, and the feathers of her boobootella\nswinging as she ran, booming out the while her queer throat noise, the\nDinewan song of joy, the pretty, soft-looking little ones with their\nzebra-striped skins, running beside her whistling their baby Dinewan\nnote. When Dinewan reached the place where Goomblegubbon was, she\nstopped her booing and said in a solemn tone, \"Now you see my words are\ntrue, I have twelve young ones, as I said. You can gaze at my loved\nones and think of your poor murdered children. And while you do so I\nwill tell you the fate of your descendants for ever. By trickery and\ndeceit you lost the Dinewans their wings, and now for evermore, as long\nas a Dinewan has no wings, so long shall a Goomblegubbon lay only two\neggs and have only two young ones. We are quits now. You have your\nwings and I my children.\"\n\nAnd ever since that time a Dinewan, or emu, has had no wings, and a\nGoomblegubbon, or bustard of the plains, has laid only two eggs in a\nseason.\n\n\n\n\n2.  THE GALAH, AND OOLAH THE LIZARD\n\n\nOolah the lizard was tired of lying in the sun, doing nothing. So he\nsaid, \"I will go and play.\" He took his boomerangs out, and began to\npractise throwing them. While he was doing so a Galah came up, and\nstood near, watching the boomerangs come flying back, for the kind of\nboomerangs Oolah was throwing were the bubberahs. They are smaller than\nothers, and more curved, and when they are properly thrown they return\nto the thrower, which other boomerangs do not.\n\nOolah was proud of having the gay Galah to watch his skill. In his\npride he gave the bubberah an extra twist, and threw it with all his\nmight. Whizz, whizzing through the air, back it came, hitting, as it\npassed her, the Galah on the top of her head, taking both feathers and\nskin clean off. The Galah set up a hideous, cawing, croaking shriek,\nand flew about, stopping every few minutes to knock her head on the\nground like a mad bird. Oolah was so frightened when he saw what he had\ndone, and noticed that the blood was flowing from the Galah's head,\nthat he glided away to hide under a bindeah bush. But the Galah saw\nhim. She never stopped the hideous noise she was making for a minute,\nbut, still shrieking, followed Oolah. When she reached the bindeah bush\nshe rushed at Oolah, seized him with her beak, rolled him on the bush\nuntil every bindeah had made a hole in his skin. Then she rubbed his\nskin with her own bleeding head. \"Now then,\" she said, \"you Oolah shall\ncarry bindeahs on you always, and the stain of my blood.\"\n\n\"And you,\" said Oolah, as he hissed with pain from the tingling of the\nprickles, \"shall be a bald-headed bird as long as I am a red prickly\nlizard.\"\n\nSo to this day, underneath the Galah's crest you can always find the\nbald patch which the bubberah of Oolah first made. And in the country\nof the Galahs are lizards coloured reddish brown, and covered with\nspikes like bindeah prickles.\n\n\n\n\n3.  BAHLOO THE MOON AND THE DAENS\n\n\nBahloo the moon looked down at the earth one night, when his light was\nshining quite brightly, to see if any one was moving. When the earth\npeople were all asleep was the time he chose for playing with his three\ndogs. He called them dogs, but the earth people called them snakes, the\ndeath adder, the black snake, and the tiger snake. As he looked down on\nto the earth, with his three dogs beside him, Bahloo saw about a dozen\ndaens, or black fellows, crossing a Creek. He called to them saying,\n\"Stop, I want you to carry my dogs across that creek.\" But the black\nfellows, though they liked Bahloo well, did not like his dogs, for\nsometimes when he had brought these dogs to play on the earth, they had\nbitten not only the earth dogs but their masters; and the poison left\nby the bites had killed those bitten. So the black fellows said, \"No,\nBahloo, we are too frightened; your dogs might bite us. They are not\nlike our dogs, whose bite would not kill us.\"\n\nBahloo said, \"If you do what I ask you, when you die you shall come to\nlife again, not die and stay always where you are put when you are\ndead. See this piece of bark. I throw it into the water.\" And he threw\na piece of bark into the creek. \"See it comes to the top again and\nfloats. That is what would happen to you if you would do what I ask\nyou: first under when you die, then up again at once. If you will not\ntake my dogs over, you foolish daens, you will die like this,\" and he\nthrew a stone into the creek, which sank to the bottom. \"You will be\nlike that stone, never rise again, Wombah daens!\"\n\nBut the black fellows said, \"We cannot do it, Bahloo. We are too\nfrightened of your dogs.\"\n\n\"I will come down and carry them over myself to show you that they are\nquite safe and harmless.\" And down he came, the black snake coiled\nround one arm, the tiger snake round the other, and the death adder on\nhis shoulder, coiled towards his neck. He carried them over. When he\nhad crossed the creek he picked up a big stone, and he threw it into\nthe water, saying, \"Now, you cowardly daens, you would not do what I,\nBahloo, asked you to do, and so forever you have lost the chance of\nrising again after you die. You will just stay where you are put, like\nthat stone does under the water, and grow, as it does, to be part of\nthe earth. If you had done what I asked you, you could have died as\noften as I die, and have come to life as often as I come to life. But\nnow you will only be black fellows while you live, and bones when you\nare dead.\"\n\nBahloo looked so cross, and the three snakes hissed so fiercely, that\nthe black fellows were very glad to see them disappear from their sight\nbehind the trees. The black fellows had always been frightened of\nBahloo's dogs, and now they hated them, and they said, \"If we could get\nthem away from Bahloo we would kill them.\" And thenceforth, whenever\nthey saw a snake alone they killed it. But Babloo only sent more, for\nhe said, \"As long as there are black fellows there shall be snakes to\nremind them that they would not do what I asked them.\"\n\n\n\n\n4.  THE ORIGIN OF THE NARRAN LAKE\n\n\nOld Byamee said to his two young wives, Birrahgnooloo and\nCunnunbeillee, \"I have stuck a white feather between the hind legs of a\nbee, and am going to let it go and then follow it to its nest, that I\nmay get honey. While I go for the honey, go you two out and get frogs\nand yams, then meet me at Coorigel Spring, where we will camp, for\nsweet and clear is the water there.\" The wives, taking their goolays\nand yam sticks, went out as he told them. Having gone far, and dug out\nmany yams and frogs, they were tired when they reached Coorigel, and,\nseeing the cool, fresh water, they longed to bathe. But first they\nbuilt a bough shade, and there left their goolays holding their food,\nand the yams and frogs they had found. When their camp was ready for\nthe coming of Byamee, who having wooed his wives with a nullah-nullah,\nkept them obedient by fear of the same weapon, then went the girls to\nthe spring to bathe. Gladly they plunged in, having first divested them\nselves of their goomillahs, which they were still young enough to wear,\nand which they left on the ground near the spring. Scarcely were they\nenjoying the cool rest the water gave their hot, tired limbs, when they\nwere seized and swallowed by two kurreahs. Having swallowed the girls,\nthe kurreahs dived into an opening in the side of the spring, which was\nthe entrance to an underground watercourse leading to the Narran River.\nThrough this passage they went, taking all the water from the spring\nwith them into the Narran, whose course they also dried as they went\nalong.\n\nMeantime Byamee, unwitting the fate of his wives, was honey hunting. He\nhad followed the bee with the white feather on it for some distance;\nthen the bee flew on to some budtha flowers, and would move no further.\nByamee said, \"Something has happened, or the bee would not stay here\nand refuse to be moved on towards its nest. I must go to Coorigel\nSpring and see if my wives are safe. Something terrible has surely\nhappened.\" And Byamee turned in haste towards the spring. When he\nreached there he saw the bough shed his wives had made, he saw the yams\nthey had dug from the ground, and he saw the frogs, but Birrahgnooloo\nand Cunnunbeillee he saw not. He called aloud for them. But no answer.\nHe went towards the spring; on the edge of it he saw the goomillahs of\nhis wives. He looked into the spring and, seeing it dry, he said, \"It\nis the work of the kurreahs; they have opened the underground passage\nand gone with my wives to the river, and opening the passage has dried\nthe spring. Well do I know where the passage joins the Narran, and\nthere will I swiftly go.\" Arming himself with spears and woggarahs he\nstarted in pursuit. He soon reached the deep hole where the underground\nchannel of the Coorigel joined the Narran. There he saw what he had\nnever seen before, namely, this deep hole dry. And he said: \"They have\nemptied the holes as they went along, taking the water with them. But\nwell know I the deep holes of the river. I will not follow the bend,\nthus trebling the distance I have to go, but I will cut across from big\nhole to big hole, and by so doing I may yet get ahead of the kurreahs.\"\nOn swiftly sped Byamee, making short cuts from big hole to big hole,\nand his track is still marked by the morilla ridges that stretch down\nthe Narran, pointing in towards the deep holes. Every hole as he came\nto it he found dry, until at last he reached the end of the Narran; the\nhole there was still quite wet and muddy, then he knew he was near his\nenemies, and soon he saw them. He managed to get, unseen, a little way\nahead of the kurreahs. He hid himself behind a big dheal tree. As the\nkurreahs came near they separated, one turning to go in another\ndirection. Quickly Byamee hurled one spear after another, wounding both\nkurreahs, who writhed with pain and lashed their tails furiously,\nmaking great hollows in the ground, which the water they had brought\nwith them quickly filled. Thinking they might again escape him, Byamee\ndrove them from the water with his spears, and then, at close quarters,\nhe killed them with his woggarahs. And ever afterwards at flood time,\nthe Narran flowed into this hollow which the kurreahs in their\nwrithings had made.\n\nWhen Byamee saw that the kurreahs were quite dead, he cut them open and\ntook out the bodies of his wives. They were covered with wet slime, and\nseemed quite lifeless; but he carried them and laid them on two nests\nof red ants. Then he sat down at some little distance and watched them.\nThe ants quickly covered the bodies, cleaned them rapidly of the wet\nslime, and soon Byamee noticed the muscles of the girls twitching.\n\"Ah,\" he said, \"there is life, they feel the sting of the ants.\"\n\nAlmost as he spoke came a sound as of a thunder-clap, but the sound\nseemed to come from the ears of the girls. And as the echo was dying\naway, slowly the girls rose to their feet. For a moment they stood\napart, a dazed expression on their faces. Then they clung together,\nshaking as if stricken with a deadly fear. But Byamee came to them and\nexplained how they had been rescued from the kurreahs by him. He bade\nthem to beware of ever bathing in the deep holes of the Narran, lest\nsuch holes be the haunt of kurreahs.\n\nThen he bade them look at the water now at Boogira, and he said:\n\n\"Soon will the black swans find their way here, the pelicans and the\nducks; where there was dry land and stones in the past, in the future\nthere will be water and water-fowl, from henceforth; when the Narran\nruns it will run into this hole, and by the spreading of its waters\nwill a big lake be made.\" And what Byamee said has come to pass, as the\nNarran Lake shows, with its large sheet of water, spreading for miles,\nthe home of thousands of wild fowl.\n\n\n\n\n5.  GOOLOO THE MAGPIE, AND THE WAHROOGAH\n\n\nGooloo was a very old woman, and a very wicked old woman too, as this\nstory will tell. During all the past season, when the grass was thick\nwith seed, she had gathered much doonburr, which she crushed into meal\nas she wanted it for food. She used to crush it on a big flat stone\nwith small flat stones--the big stone was called a dayoorl. Gooloo\nground a great deal of the doonburr seed to put away for immediate use,\nthe rest she kept whole, to be ground as required.\n\nSoon after she had finished her first grinding, a neighbouring tribe\ncame along and camped near where she was. One day the men all went out\nhunting, leaving the women and the children in the camp. After the men\nhad been gone a little while, Gooloo the magpie came to their camp to\ntalk to the women. She said, \"Why do you not go hunting too? Many are\nthe nests of the wurranunnahs round here, and thick is the honey in\nthem. Many and ripe are the bumbles hanging now on the humble trees;\nred is the fruit of the grooees, and opening with ripeness the fruit of\nthe guiebets. Yet you sit in the camp and hunger, until your husbands\nreturn with the dinewan and bowrah they have gone forth to slay. Go,\nwomen, and gather of the plenty that surrounds you. I will take care of\nyour children, the little Wahroogabs.\"\n\n\"Your words are wise,\" the women said. \"It is foolish to sit here and\nhunger, when near at hand yams are thick in the ground, and many fruits\nwait but the plucking. We will go and fill quickly our comebees and\ngoolays, but our children we will take with us.\"\n\n\"Not so,\" said Gooloo, \"foolish indeed were you to do that. You would\ntire the little feet of those that run, and tire yourselves with the\nburden of those that have to be carried. No, take forth your comebees\nand goolays empty, that ye may bring back the more. Many are the spoils\nthat wait only the hand of the gatherer. Look ye, I have a durrie made\nof fresh doonburr seed, cooking just now on that bark between two\nfires; that shall your children eat, and swiftly shall I make them\nanother. They shall eat and be full ere their mothers are out of sight.\nSee, they come to me now, they hunger for durrie, and well will I feed\nthem. Haste ye then, that ye may return in time to make ready the fires\nfor cooking the meat your husbands will bring. Glad will your husbands\nbe when they see that ye have filled your goolays and comebees with\nfruits, and your wirrees with honey. Haste ye, I say, and do well.\"\n\nHaving listened to the words of Gooloo, the women decided to do as she\nsaid, and, leaving their children with her, they started forth with\nempty comebees, and armed with combos, with which to chop out the bees'\nnests and opossums, and with yam sticks to dig up yams.\n\nWhen the women had gone, Gooloo gathered the children round her and fed\nthem with durrie, hot from the coals. Honey, too, she gave them, and\nbumbles which she had buried to ripen. When they had eaten, she hurried\nthem off to her real home, built in a hollow tree, a little distance\naway from where she had been cooking her durrie. Into her house she\nhurriedly thrust them, followed quickly herself, and made all secure.\nHere she fed them again, but the children had already satisfied their\nhunger, and now they missed their mothers and began to cry. Their\ncrying reached the ears of the women as they were returning to their\ncamp. Quickly they came at the sound which is not good in a mother's\nears. As they quickened their steps they thought how soon the spoils\nthat lay heavy in their comebees would comfort their children. And\nhappy they, the mothers, would feel when they fed the Wahroogahs with\nthe dainties they had gathered for them. Soon they reached the camp,\nbut, alas! where were their children? And where was Gooloo the magpie?\n\n\"They are playing wahgoo,\" they said, \"and have hidden themselves.\"\n\nThe mothers hunted all round for them, and called aloud the names of\ntheir children and Gooloo. But no answer could they hear and no trace\ncould they find. And yet every now and then they heard the sound of\nchildren wailing. But seek as they would they found them not. Then\nloudly wailed the mothers themselves for their lost Wahroogahs, and,\nwailing, returned to the camp to wait the coming of the black fellows.\nHeavy were their hearts, and sad were their faces when their husbands\nreturned. They hastened to tell the black fellows when they came, how\nGooloo had persuaded them to go hunting, promising if they did so that\nshe would feed the hungry Wahroogahs, and care for them while they were\naway, but--and here they wailed again for their poor Wahroogahs. They\ntold how they had listened to her words and gone; truth had she told of\nthe plenty round, their comebees and goolays were full of fruits and\nspoils they had gathered, but, alas! they came home with them laden\nonly to find their children gone and Gooloo gone too. And no trace\ncould they find of either, though at times they heard a sound as of\nchildren wailing.\n\nThen wroth were the men, saying: \"What mothers are ye to leave your\nyoung to a stranger, and that stranger a Gooloo, ever a treacherous\nrace? Did we not go forth to gain food for you and our children? Saw ye\never your husbands return from the chase empty handed? Then why, when\nye knew we were gone hunting, must ye too go forth and leave our\nhelpless ones to a stranger? Oh, evil, evil indeed is the time that has\ncome when a mother forgets her child. Stay ye in the camp while we go\nforth to hunt for our lost Wahroogahs. Heavy will be our hands on the\nwomen if we return without them.\"\n\nThe men hunted the bush round for miles, but found no trace of the lost\nWahroogahs, though they too heard at times a noise as of children's\nvoices wailing.\n\nBut beyond the wailing which echoed in the mothers' ears for ever, no\ntrace was found of the children. For many days the women sat in the\ncamp mourning for their lost Wahroogahs, and beating their heads\nbecause they had listened to the voice of Gooloo.\n\n\n\n\n6.  THE WEEOONIBEENS AND THE PIGGIEBILLAH\n\n\nTwo Weeoombeen brothers went out hunting. One brother was much younger\nthan the other and smaller, so when they sighted an emu, the elder one\nsaid to the younger: \"You stay quietly here and do not make a noise, or\nPiggiebillah, whose camp we passed just now, will hear you and steal\nthe emu if I kill it. He is so strong. I'll go on and try to kill the\nemu with this stone.\" The little Weeoombeen watched his big brother\nsneak up to the emu, crawling along, almost flat, on the ground. He saw\nhim get quite close to the emu, then spring up quickly and throw the\nstone with such an accurate aim as to kill the bird on the spot. The\nlittle brother was so rejoiced that he forgot his brother's caution,\nand he called aloud in his joy. The big Weeoombeen looked round and\ngave him a warning sign, but too late, Piggiebillah had heard the cry\nand was hastening towards them. Quickly big Weeoombeen left the emu and\njoined his little brother.\n\nPiggiebillah, when he came up, said: \"What have you found?\"\n\n\"Nothing,\" said the big Weeoombeen, \"nothing but some mistletoe\nberries.\"\n\n\"It must have been something more than that, or your little brother\nwould not have called out so loudly.\"\n\nLittle Weeoombeen was so afraid that Piggiebillah would find their emu\nand take it, that he said: \"I hit a little bird with a stone, and I was\nglad I could throw so straight.\"\n\n\"It was no cry for the killing of a little bird or for the finding of\nmistletoe berries that I heard. It was for something much more than\neither, or you would not have called out so joyfully. If you do not\ntell me at once I will kill you both.\"\n\nThe Weeoombeen brothers were frightened, for Piggiebillah was a great\nfighter and very strong, so when they saw he was really angry, they\nshowed him the dead emu.\n\n\"Just what I want for my supper,\" he said, and so saying, dragged it\naway to his own camp. The Weeoombeens followed him and even helped him\nto make a fire to cook the emu, hoping by so doing to get a share given\nto them. But Piggiebillah would not give them any; he said he must have\nit all for himself.\n\nAngry and disappointed, the Weeoombeens marched straight off and told\nsome black fellows who lived near, that Piggiebillah had a fine fat emu\njust cooked for supper.\n\nUp jumped the black fellows, seized their spears, bade the Weeoombeens\nquickly lead them to Piggiebillah's camp, promising them for so doing a\nshare of the emu.\n\nWhen they were within range of spear shot, the black fellows formed a\ncircle, took aim, and threw their spears at Piggiebillah. As the spears\nfell thick on him, sticking out all over him, Piggiebillah cried aloud:\n\"Bingehlah, Bingeblah. You can have it, you can have it.\" But the black\nfellows did not desist until Piggiebillah was too wounded even to cry\nout; then they left him a mass of spears and turned to look for the\nemu. But to their surprise they found it not. Then for the first time\nthey missed the Weeoombeens.\n\nLooking round they saw their tracks going to where the emu had\nevidently been; then they saw that they had dragged the emu to their\nnyunnoo, which was a humpy made of grass.\n\nWhen the Weeoombeens saw the black fellows coming, they caught hold of\nthe emu and dragged it to a big hole they knew of, with a big stone at\nits entrance, which stone only they knew the secret of moving. They\nmoved the stone, got the emu and themselves into the hole, and the\nstone in place again before the black fellows reached the place.\n\nThe black fellows tried to move the stone, but could not. Yet they knew\nthat the Weeoombeens must have done so, for they had tracked them right\nup to it, and they could hear the sound of their voices on the other\nside of it. They saw there was a crevice on either side of the stone,\nbetween it and the ground. Through these crevices they, drove in their\nspears, thinking they must surely kill the brothers. But the\nWeeoombeens too had seen these crevices and had anticipated the spears,\nso they had placed the dead emu before them to act as a shield. And\ninto its body were driven the spears of the black fellows extended for\nthe Weeoombeens.\n\nHaving driven the spears well in, the black fellows went off to get\nhelp to move the stone, but when they had gone a little way they heard\nthe Weeoombeens laughing. Back they came and speared again, and again\nstarted for help, only as they left to hear once more the laughter of\nthe brothers.\n\nThe Weeoombeens finding their laughter only brought back the black\nfellows to a fresh attack, determined to keep quiet, which, after the\nnext spearing, they did.\n\nQuite sure, when they heard their spear shots followed by neither\nconversation nor laughter, that they had killed the Weeoombeens at\nlast, the black fellows hurried away to bring back the strength and\ncunning of the camp, to remove the stone.\n\nThe Weeoombeens hurriedly discussed what plan they had better adopt to\nelude the black fellows, for well they knew that should they ever meet\nany of them again they would be killed without mercy. And as they\ntalked they satisfied their hunger by eating some of the emu flesh.\n\nAfter a while the black fellows returned, and soon was the stone\nremoved from the entrance. Some of them crept into the hole, where, to\ntheir surprise, they found only the remains of the emu and no trace of\nthe Weeoombeens. As those who had gone in first crept out and told of\nthe disappearance of the Weeoombeens, others, incredulous of such a\nstory, crept in to find it confirmed. They searched round for tracks;\nseeing that their spears were all in the emu it seemed to them probable\nthe Weeoombeens had escaped alive, but if so, whither they had gone\ntheir tracks would show. But search as they would no tracks could they\nfind. All they could see were two little birds which sat on a bush near\nthe hole, watching the black fellows all the time. The little birds\nflew round the hole sometimes, but never away, always returning to\ntheir bush and seeming to be discussing the whole affair; but what they\nsaid the black fellows could not understand. But as time went on and no\nsign was ever found of the Weeoombeens, the black fellows became sure\nthat the brothers had turned into the little white-throated birds which\nhad sat on the bush by the hole, so, they supposed, to escape their\nvengeance. And ever afterwards the little white-throats were called\nWeeoombeens. And the memory of Piggiebillah is perpetuated by a sort of\nporcupine ant-eater, which bears his name, and whose skin is covered\nclosely with miniature spears sticking all over it.\n\n\n\n\n7.  BOOTOOLGAH THE CRANE AND GOONUR THE KANGAROO RAT, THE FIRE MAKERS\n\n\nIn the days when Bootoolgah, the crane, married Goonur, the kangaroo\nrat, there was no fire in their country. They had to eat their food raw\nor just dry it in the sun. One day when Bootoolgah was rubbing two\npieces of wood together, he saw a faint spark sent forth and then a\nslight smoke. \"Look,\" he said to Goonur, \"see what comes when I rub\nthese pieces of wood together--smoke! Would it not be good if we could\nmake fire for ourselves with which to cook our food, so as not to have\nto wait for the sun to dry it?\"\n\nGoonur looked, and, seeing the smoke, she said: \"Great indeed would be\nthe day when we could make fire. Split your stick, Bootoolgah, and\nplace in the opening bark and grass that even one spark may kindle a\nlight.\" And hearing wisdom in her words, even as she said Bootoolgah\ndid. And lo! after much rubbing, from the opening came a small flame.\nFor as Goonur had said it would, the spark lit the grass, the bark\nsmouldered and smoked, and so Bootoolgah the crane, and Goonur the\nkangaroo rat, discovered the art of fire making.\n\n\"This we will keep secret,\" they said, \"from all the tribes. When we\nmake a fire to cook our fish we will go into a Bingahwingul scrub.\nThere we will make a fire and cook our food in secret. We will hide our\nfiresticks in the openmouthed seeds of the Bingahwinguls; one firestick\nwe will carry always hidden in our comebee.\"\n\nBootoolgah and Goonur cooked the next fish they caught, and found it\nvery good. When they went back to the camp they took some of their\ncooked fish with them. The blacks noticed it looked quite different\nfrom the usual sun-dried fish, so they asked: \"What did you to that\nfish?\"\n\n\"Let it lie in the sun,\" said they.\n\n\"Not so,\" said the others.\n\nBut that the fish was sun-dried Bootoolgah and Goonur persisted. Day by\nday passed, and after catching their fish, these two always\ndisappeared, returning with their food looking quite different from\nthat of the others. At last, being unable to extract any information\nfrom them, it was determined by the tribe to watch them. Boolooral, the\nnight owl, and Quarrian, the parrot, were appointed to follow the two\nwhen they disappeared, to watch where they went, and find out what they\ndid. Accordingly, after the next fish were caught, when Bootoolgah and\nGoonur gathered up their share and started for the bush, Boolooral and\nQuarrian followed on their tracks. They saw them disappear into a\nBingahwingul scrub, where they lost sight of them. Seeing a high tree\non the edge of the scrub, they climbed up it, and from there they saw\nall that was to be seen. They saw Bootoolgah and Goonur throw down\ntheir load of fish, open their comebee and take from it a stick, which\nstick, when they had blown upon it, they laid in the midst of a heap of\nleaves and twigs, and at once from this heap they saw a flame leap,\nwhich flame the fire makers fed with bigger sticks. Then, as the flame\ndied down, they saw the two place their fish in the ashes that remained\nfrom the burnt sticks. Then back to the camp of their tribes went\nBoolooral and Quarrian, back with the news of their discovery. Great\nwas the talk amongst the blacks, and many the queries as to how to get\npossession of the comebee with the fire stick in it, when next\nBootoolgah and Goonur came into the camp. It was at length decided to\nhold a corrobboree, and it was to be one on a scale not often seen,\nprobably never before by the young of the tribes. The grey beards\nproposed to so astonish Bootoolgah and Goonur as to make them forget to\nguard their precious comebee. As soon as they were intent on the\ncorrobboree and off guard, some one was to seize the comebee, steal the\nfirestick and start fires for the good of all. Most of them had tasted\nthe cooked fish brought into the camp by the fire makers and, having\nfound it good, hungered for it. Beeargah, the hawk, was told to feign\nsickness, to tie up his head, and to lie down near wherever the two sat\nto watch the corrobboree. Lying near them, he was to watch them all the\ntime, and when they were laughing and unthinking of anything but the\nspectacle before them, he was to steal the comebee. Having arranged\ntheir plan of action, they all prepared for a big corrobboree. They\nsent word to all the surrounding tribes, asking them to attend,\nespecially they begged the Bralgahs to come, as they were celebrated\nfor their wonderful dancing, which was so wonderful as to be most\nlikely to absorb the attention of the firemakers.\n\nAll the tribes agreed to come, and soon all were engaged in great\npreparations. Each determined to outdo the other in the quaintness and\nbrightness of their painting for the corrobboree. Each tribe as they\narrived gained great applause; never before had the young people seen\nso much diversity in colouring and design. Beeleer, the Black Cockatoo\ntribe, came with bright splashes of orange-red on their black skins.\nThe Pelicans came as a contrast, almost pure white, only a touch here\nand there of their black skin showing where the white paint had rubbed\noff. The Black Divers came in their black skins, but these polished to\nshine like satin. Then came the Millears, the beauties of the Kangaroo\nRat family, who had their home on the morillas. After them came the\nBuckandeer or Native Cat tribe, painted in dull colours, but in all\nsorts of patterns. Mairas or Paddymelons came too in haste to take part\nin the great corrobboree. After them, walking slowly, came the\nBralgahs, looking tall and dignified as they held up their red heads,\npainted so in contrast to their French-grey bodies, which they deemed\ntoo dull a colour, unbrightened, for such a gay occasion. Amongst the\nmany tribes there, too numerous to mention, were the rose and grey\npainted Galabs, the green and crimson painted Billai; most brilliant\nwere they with their bodies grass green and their sides bright crimson,\nso afterwards gaining them the name of crimson wings. The bright little\nGidgereegahs came too.\n\nGreat was the gathering that Bootoolgah, the crane, and Goonur, the\nkangaroo rat, found assembled as they hurried on to the scene.\nBootoolgah had warned Goonur that they must only be spectators, and\ntake no active part in the corrobboree, as they had to guard their\ncombee. Obedient to his advice, Goonur seated herself beside him and\nslung the comebee over her arm. Bootoolgah warned her to be careful and\nnot forget she had it. But as the corrobboree went on, so absorbed did\nshe become that she forgot the comebee, which slipped from her arm.\nHappily, Bootoolgah saw it do so, replaced it, and bade her take heed,\nso baulking Beeargah, who had been about to seize it, for his vigilance\nwas unceasing, and, deeming him sick almost unto death, the two whom\nlie was watching took no heed of him. Back he crouched, moaning as he\nturned, but keeping ever an eye on Goonur. And soon was he rewarded.\nNow came the turn of the Bralgahs to dance, and every eye but that of\nthe watchful one was fixed on them as slowly they came into the ring.\nFirst they advanced, bowed and retired, then they repeated what they\nhad done before, and again, each time getting faster and faster in\ntheir movements, changing their bows into pirouettes, craning their\nlong necks and making such antics as they went through the figures of\ntheir dance, and replacing their dignity with such grotesqueness, as to\nmake their large audience shake with laughter, they themselves keeping\nthroughout all their grotesque measures a solemn air, which only seemed\nto heighten the effect of their antics.\n\nAnd now came the chance of Beeargah the hawk. In the excitement of the\nmoment Goonur forgot the comebee, as did Bootoolgah. They joined in the\nmirthful applause of the crowd, and Goonur threw herself back helpless\nwith laughter. As she did so the comebee slipped from her arm. Then up\njumped the sick man from behind her, seized the comebee with his combo,\ncut it open, snatched forth the firestick, set fire to the heap of\ngrass ready near where he had lain, and all before the two realised\ntheir loss. When they discovered the precious comebee was gone, up\njumped Bootoolgah and Goonur. After Beeargah ran Bootoolgah, but\nBeeargah had a start and was fleeter of foot, so distanced his pursuer\nquickly. As he ran he fired the grass with the stick he still held.\nBootoolgah, finding he could not catch Beeargah, and seeing fires\neverywhere, retired from the pursuit, feeling it was useless now to try\nand guard their secret, for it had now become the common property of\nall the tribes there assembled.\n\n\n\n\n8.  WEEDAH THE MOCKING BIRD\n\n\nWeedah was playing a great trick on the black fellows who lived near\nhim. He had built himself a number of grass nyunnoos, more than twenty.\nHe made fires before each, to make it look as if some one lived in the\nnyunnoos. First he would go into one nyunnoo, or humpy, and cry like a\nbaby, then to another and laugh like a child, then in turn, as he went\nthe round of the humpies he would sing like a maiden, corrobboree like\na man, call out in a quavering voice like an old man, and in a shrill\nvoice like an old woman; in fact, imitate any sort of voice he had ever\nheard, and imitate them so quickly in succession that any one passing\nwould think there was a great crowd of blacks in that camp. His object\nwas to entice as many strange black fellows into his camp as he could,\none at a time; then he would kill them and gradually gain the whole\ncountry round for his own. His chance was when he managed to get a\nsingle black fellow into his camp, which he very often did, then by his\ncunning he always gained his end and the black fellow's death. This was\nhow he attained that end. A black fellow, probably separated from his\nfellows in the excitement of the chase, would be returning home alone\npassing within earshot of Weedah's camp he would hear the various\nvoices and wonder what tribe could be there. Curiosity would induce him\nto come near. He would probably peer into the camp, and, only seeing\nWeedah standing alone, would advance towards him. Weedah would be\nstanding at a little distance from a big glowing fire, where he would\nwait until the strange black fellow came quite close to him. Then he\nwould ask him what he wanted. The stranger would say he had heard many\nvoices and had wondered what tribe it could be, so had come near to\nfind out. Weedah would say, \"But only I am here. How could you have\nheard voices? See; look round; I am alone.\" Bewildered, the stranger\nwould look round and say in a puzzled tone of voice: \"Where are they\nall gone? As I came I heard babies crying, men calling, and women\nlaughing; many voices I heard but you only I see.\"\n\n\"And only I am here. The wind must have stirred the branches of the\nbalah trees, and you must have thought it was the wailing of children,\nthe laughing of the gouggourgahgah you heard, and thought it the\nlaughter of women and mine must have been the voice as of men that you\nheard. Alone in the bush, as the shadows fall, a man breeds strange\nfancies. See by the light of this fire, where are your fancies now? No\nwomen laugh, no babies cry, only I, Weedah, talk.\" As Weedah was\ntalking he kept edging the stranger towards the fire; when they were\nquite close to it, he turned swiftly, seized him, and threw him right\ninto the middle of the blaze. This scene was repeated time after time,\nuntil at last the ranks of the black fellows living round the camp of\nWeedah began to get thin.\n\nMullyan, the eagle hawk, determined to fathom the mystery, for as yet\nthe black fellows had no clue as to how or where their friends had\ndisappeared. Mullyan, when Beeargah, his cousin, returned to his camp\nno more, made up his mind to get on his track and follow it, until at\nlength he solved the mystery. After following the track of Beeargah, as\nhe had chased the kangaroo to where he had slain it, on he followed his\nhomeward trail. Over stony ground he tracked him, and through sand,\nacross plains, and through scrub. At last in a scrub and still on the\ntrack of Beeargah, he heard the sounds of many voices, babies crying,\nwomen singing, men talking. Peering through the bush, finding the track\ntook him nearer the spot whence came the sounds, he saw the grass\nhumpies. \"Who can these be?\" he thought. The track led him right into\nthe camp, where alone Weedah was to be seen. Mullyan advanced towards\nhim and asked where were the people whose voices he had heard as he\ncame through the bush.\n\nWeedah said: \"How can I tell you? I know of no people; I live alone.\"\n\n\"But,\" said Mullyan, the eagle hawk, \"I heard babies crying, women\nlaughing, and men talking, not one but many.\"\n\n\"And I alone am here. Ask of your cars what trick they played you, or\nperhaps your eyes fail you now. Can you see any but me? Look for\nyourself.\"\n\n\"And if, as indeed it seems, you only are here, what did you with\nBeeargah my cousin, and where are my friends? Many are their trails\nthat I see coming into this camp, but none going out. And if you alone\nlive here you alone can answer me.\"\n\n\"What know I of you or your friends? Nothing. Ask of the winds that\nblow. Ask of Bahloo the moon, who looks down on the earth by night. Ask\nof Yhi the sun, that looks down by day. But ask not Weedah, who dwells\nalone, and knows naught of your friends.\" But as Weedah was talking he\nwas carefully edging Mullyan towards the fire.\n\nMullyan, the eagle hawk, too, was cunning, and not easy to trap. He saw\na blazing fire in front of him, lie saw the track of his friend behind\nhim, he saw Weedah was edging him towards the fire, and it came to him\nin a moment the thought that if the fire could speak, well could it\ntell where were his friends. But the time was not yet come to show that\nhe had fathomed the mystery. So he affected to fall into the trap. But\nwhen they reached the fire, before Weedah had time to act his usual\npart, with a mighty grip Mullyan the eagle hawk seized him, saying,\n\n\"Even as you served Beeargah the hawk, my cousin, and my friends, so now\nserve I you.\" And right into the middle of the blazing fire he threw\nhim. Then he turned homewards in haste, to tell the black fellows that\nhe had solved the fate of their friends, which had so long been a\nmystery. When he was some distance from the Weedah's camp, he heard the\nsound of a thunder clap. But it was not thunder it was the bursting of\nthe back of Weedah's head, which had burst with a bang as of a thunder\nclap. And as it burst, out from his remains had risen a bird, Weedah,\nthe mocking bird; which bird to this day has a hole at the back of his\nhead, just in the same place as Weedah the black fellow's head had\nburst, and whence the bird came forth.\n\nTo this day the Weedah makes grass playgrounds, through which he runs,\nimitating, as he plays, in quick succession, any voices he has ever\nheard, from the crying of a child to the laughing of a woman; from the\nmewing of a cat to the barking of a dog, and hence his name Weedah, the\nmocking bird.\n\n\n\n\n9.  THE GWINEEBOOS THE REDBREASTS\n\n\nGwineeboo and Goomai, the water rat, were down at the creek one day,\ngetting mussels for food, when, to their astonishment, a kangaroo\nhopped right into the water beside them. Well they knew that he must be\nescaping from hunters, who were probably pressing him close. So\nGwineeboo quickly seized her yam stick, and knocked the kangaroo on the\nhead; he was caught fast in the weeds in the creek, so could not\nescape. When the two old women had killed the kangaroo they hid its\nbody under the weeds in the creek, fearing to take it out and cook it\nstraight away, lest the hunters should come up and claim it. The little\nson of Gwineeboo watched them from the bank. After having hidden the\nkangaroo, the women picked up their mussels and started for their camp,\nwhen up came the hunters, Quarrian and Gidgereegah, who had tracked the\nkangaroo right to the creek.\n\nSeeing the women they said: \"Did you see a kangaroo?\"\n\nThe women answered: \"No. We saw no kangaroo.\"\n\n\"That is strange, for we have tracked it right up to here.\"\n\n\"We have seen no kangaroo. See, we have been digging out mussels for\nfood. Come to our camp, and we will give you some when they are\ncooked.\"\n\nThe young men, puzzled in their minds, followed the women to their\ncamp, and when the mussels were cooked the hunters joined the old women\nat their dinner. The little boy would not eat the mussels; he kept\ncrying to his mother, \"Gwineeboo, Gwineeboo. I want kangaroo. I want\nkangaroo. Gwineeboo. Gwineeboo.\"\n\n\"There,\" said Quarrian. \"Your little boy has seen the kangaroo, and\nwants some; it must be here somewhere.\"\n\n\"Oh, no. He cries for anything he thinks of, some days for kangaroo; he\nis only a little boy, and does not know what he wants,\" said old\nGwineeboo. But still the child kept saying, \"Gwineeboo. Gwinceboo. I\nwant kangaroo. I want kangaroo.\" Goomai was so angry with little\nGwineeboo for keeping on asking for kangaroo, and thereby making the\nyoung men suspicious, that she hit him so hard on the mouth to keep him\nquiet, that the blood came, and trickled down his breast, staining it\nred. When she saw this, old Gwineeboo grew angry in her turn, and hit\nold Goomai, who returned the blow, and so a fight began, more words\nthan blows, so the noise was great, the women fighting, little\nGwineeboo crying, not quite knowing whether he was crying because\nGoomai had hit him, because his mother was fighting, or because he\nstill wanted kangaroo.\n\nQuarrian said to Gidgereegah. \"They have the kangaroo somewhere hidden;\nlet us slip away now in the confusion. We will only hide, then come\nback in a little while, and surprise them.\"\n\nThey went quietly away, and as soon as the two women noticed they had\ngone, they ceased fighting, and determined to cook the kangaroo. They\nwatched the two young men out of sight, and waited some time so as to\nbe sure that they were safe. Then down they hurried to get the\nkangaroo. They dragged it out, and were just making a big fire on which\nto cook it, when up came Quarrian and Gidgereegah, saying:\n\n\"Ah! we thought so. You had our kangaroo all the time; little Gwinceboo\nwas right.\"\n\n\"But we killed it,\" said the women.\n\n\"But we hunted it here,\" said the men, and so saying caught hold of the\nkangaroo and dragged it away to some distance, where they made a fire\nand cooked it. Goomai, Gwineeboo, and her little boy went over to\nQuarrian and Gidgereegah, and begged for some of the meat, but the\nyoung men would give them none, though little Gwineeboo cried piteously\nfor some. But no; they said they would rather throw what they did not\nwant to the hawks than give it to the women or child. At last, seeing\nthat there was no hope of their getting any, the women went away. They\nbuilt a big dardurr for themselves, shutting themselves and the little\nboy up in it. Then they began singing a song which was to invoke a\nstorm to destroy their enemies, for so now they considered Quarrian and\nGidgereegah. For some time they chanted:\n\n  \"Moogaray, Moogaray, May, May,\n  Eehu, Eehu, Doongarah.\"\n\nFirst they would begin very slowly and softly, gradually getting\nquicker and louder, until at length they almost shrieked it out. The\nwords they said meant, \"Come hailstones; come wind; come rain; come\nlightning.\"\n\nWhile they were chanting, little Gwineeboo kept crying, and would not\nbe comforted. Soon came a few big drops of rain, then a big wind, and\nas that lulled, more rain. Then came thunder and lightning, the air\ngrew bitterly cold, and there came a pitiless hailstorm, hailstones\nbigger than a duck's egg fell, cutting the leaves from the trees and\nbruising their bark. Gidgereegah and Quarrian came running over to the\ndardurr and begged the women to let them in.\n\n\"No,\" shrieked Gwineeboo above the storm, \"there was no kangaroo meat\nfor us: there is no dardurr shelter for you. Ask shelter of the hawks\nwhom ye fed.\" The men begged to be let in, said they would hunt again\nand get kangaroo for the women, not one but many. \"No,\" again shrieked\nthe women. \"You would not even listen to the crying of a little child;\nit is better such as you should perish.\" And fiercer raged the storm\nand louder sang the women:\n\n  \"Moogaray, Moogaray, May, May,\n  Eehu, Eehu, Doongarah.\"\n\nSo long and so fierce was the storm that the young men must have\nperished had they not been changed into birds. First they were changed\ninto birds and afterwards into stars in the sky, where they now are,\nGidgereegah and Ouarrian with the kangaroo between them, still bearing\nthe names that they bore on the earth.\n\n\n\n\n10.  MEAMEI THE SEVEN SISTERS\n\n\nWurrunnah had had a long day's hunting, and he came back to the camp\ntired and hungry. He asked his old mother for durrie, but she said\nthere was none left. Then he asked some of the other blacks to give him\nsome doonburr seeds that he might make durrie for himself, But no one\nwould give him anything. He flew into a rage and he said, \"I will go to\na far country and live with strangers; my own people would starve me.\"\nAnd while he was yet hot and angry, he went. Gathering up his weapons,\nhe strode forth to find a new people in a new country. After he had\ngone some distance, he saw, a long way off, an old man chopping out\nbees' nests. The old man turned his face towards Wurrunnah, and watched\nhim coming, but when Wurrunnah came close to him he saw that the old\nman had no eyes, though he had seemed to be watching him long before he\ncould have heard him. It frightened Wurrunnah to see a stranger having\nno eyes, yet turning his face towards him as if seeing him all the\ntime. But he determined not to show his fear, but go straight on\ntowards him, which he did. When he came up to him, the stranger told\nhim that his name was Mooroonumildah, and that his tribe were so-called\nbecause they had no eyes, but saw through their noses. Wurrunnah\nthought it very strange and still felt rather frightened, though\nMooroonumildah seemed hospitable and kind, for, he gave Wurrunnah, whom\nhe said looked hungry, a bark wirree filled with honey, told him where\nhis camp was, and gave him leave to go there and stay with him.\nWurrunnah took the honey and turned as if to go to the camp, but when\nhe got out of sight he thought it wiser to turn in another direction.\nHe journeyed on for some time, until he came to a large lagoon, where\nhe decided to camp. He took a long drink of water, and then lay down to\nsleep. When he woke in the morning, he looked towards the lagoon, but\nsaw only a big plain. He thought he must be dreaming; he rubbed his\neyes and looked again.\n\n\"This is a strange country,\" he said. \"First I meet a man who has no\neyes and yet can see. Then at night I see a large lagoon full of water,\nI wake in the morning and see none. The water was surely there, for I\ndrank some, and yet now there is no water.\" As he was wondering how the\nwater could have disappeared so quickly, he saw a big storm coming up;\nhe hurried to get into the thick bush for shelter. When he had gone a\nlittle way into the bush, he saw a quantity of cut bark lying on the\nground.\n\n\"Now I am right,\" he said. \"I shall get some poles and with them and\nthis bark make a dardurr in which to shelter myself from the storm I\nsee coming.\"\n\nHe quickly cut the poles he wanted, stuck them up as a framework for\nhis dardurr. Then he went to lift up the bark. As he lifted up a sheet\nof it he saw a strange-looking object of no tribe that he had ever seen\nbefore.\n\nThis strange object cried out: \"I am Bulgahnunnoo,\" in such a\nterrifying tone that Wurrunnah dropped the bark, picked up his weapons\nand ran away as hard as he could, quite forgetting the storm. His one\nidea was to get as far as he could from Bulgahnunnoo.\n\nOn he ran until he came to a big river, which hemmed him in on three\nsides. The river was too big to cross, so he had to turn back, yet he\ndid not retrace his steps but turned in another direction. As he turned\nto leave the river he saw a flock of emus coming to water. The first\nhalf of the flock were covered with feathers, but the last half had the\nform of emus, but no feathers.\n\nWurrunnah decided to spear one for food. For that purpose he climbed up\na tree, so that they should not see him; he got his spear ready to kill\none of the featherless birds. As they passed by, he picked out the one\nhe meant to have, threw his spear and killed it, then climbed down to\ngo and get it.\n\nAs he was running up to the dead emu, he saw that they were not emus at\nall but black fellows of a strange tribe. They were all standing round\ntheir dead friend making savage signs, as to what they would do by way\nof vengeance. Wurrunnah saw that little would avail him the excuse that\nhe had killed the black fellow in mistake for an emu; his only hope lay\nin flight. Once more he took to his heels, hardly daring to look round\nfor fear he would see an enemy behind him. On he sped, until at last he\nreached a camp, which he was almost into before he saw it; he had only\nbeen thinking of danger behind him, unheeding what was before him.\n\nHowever, he had nothing to fear in the camp he reached so suddenly, for\nin it were only seven young girls. They did not look very terrifying,\nin fact, seemed more startled than he was. They were quite friendly\ntowards him when they found that he was alone and hungry. They gave him\nfood and allowed him to camp there that night. He asked them where the\nrest of their tribe were, and what their name was. They answered that\ntheir name was Meamei, and that their tribe were in a far country. They\nhad only come to this country to see what it was like; they would stay\nfor a while and thence return whence they had come.\n\nThe next day Wurrunnah made a fresh start, and left the camp of the\nMeamei, as if he were leaving for good. But he determined to hide near\nand watch what they did, and if he could get a chance he would steal a\nwife from amongst them. He was tired of travelling alone. He saw the\nseven sisters all start out with their yam sticks in hand. He followed\nat a distance, taking care not to be seen. He saw them stop by the\nnests of some flying ants. With their yam sticks they dug all round\nthese ant holes. When they had successfully unearthed the ants they sat\ndown, throwing their yam sticks on one side, to enjoy a feast, for\nthese ants were esteemed by them a great delicacy.\n\nWhile the sisters were busy at their feast, Wurrunnah sneaked up to\ntheir yam sticks and stole two of them; then, taking the sticks with\nhim, sneaked back to his hiding-place. When at length the Meamei had\nsatisfied their appetites, they picked up their sticks and turned\ntowards their camp again. But only five could find their sticks; so\nthose five started off, leaving the other two to find theirs, supposing\nthey must be somewhere near, and, finding them, they would soon catch\nthem up. The two girls hunted all round the ants' nests, but could find\nno sticks. At last, when their backs were turned towards him, Wurrunnah\ncrept out and stuck the lost yam sticks near together in the ground;\nthen he slipt back into his hiding-place. When the two girls turned\nround, there in front of them they saw their sticks. With a cry of\njoyful surprise they ran to them and caught hold of them to pull them\nout of the ground, in which they were firmly stuck. As they were doing\nso, out from his hiding-place jumped Wurrunnah. He seized both girls\nround their waists, holding them tightly. They struggled and screamed,\nbut to no purpose. There were none near to hear them, and the more they\nstruggled the tighter Wurrunnah held them. Finding their screams and\nstruggles in vain they quietened at length, and then Wurrunnah told\nthem not to be afraid, he would take care of them. He was lonely, he\nsaid, and wanted two wives. They must come quietly with him, and he\nwould be good to them. But they must do as he told them. If they were\nnot quiet, he would swiftly quieten them with his moorillah. But if\nthey would come quietly with him he would be good to them. Seeing that\nresistance was useless, the two young girls complied with his wish, and\ntravelled quietly on with him. They told him that some day their tribe\nwould come and steal them back again; to avoid which he travelled\nquickly on and on still further, hoping to elude all pursuit. Some\nweeks passed, and, outwardly, the two Meamei seemed settled down to\ntheir new life, and quite content in it, though when they were alone\ntogether they often talked of their sisters, and wondered what they had\ndone when they realised their loss. They wondered if the five were\nstill hunting for them, or whether they had gone back to their tribe to\nget assistance. That they might be in time forgotten and left with\nWurrunnali for ever, they never once for a moment thought. One day when\nthey were camped Wurrunnah said: \"This fire will not burn well. Go you\ntwo and get some bark from those two pine trees over there.\"\n\n\"No,\" they said, \"we must not cut pine bark. If we did, you would never\nmore see us.\"\n\n\"Go! I tell you, cut pine bark. I want it. See you not the fire burns\nbut slowly?\"\n\n\"If we go, Wurrunnah, we shall never return. You will see us no more in\nthis country. We know it.\"\n\n\"Go, women, stay not to talk. Did ye ever see talk make a fire burn?\nThen why stand ye there talking? Go; do as I bid you. Talk not so\nfoolishly; if you ran away soon should I catch you, and, catching you,\nwould beat you hard. Go I talk no more.\"\n\nThe Meamei went, taking with them their combos with which to cut the\nbark. They went each to a different tree, and each, with a strong hit,\ndrove her combo into the bark. As she did so, each felt the tree that\nher combo had struck rising higher out of the ground and bearing her\nupward with it. Higher and higher grew the pine trees, and still on\nthem, higher and higher from the earth, went the two girls. Hearing no\nchopping after the first hits, Wurrunnah came towards the pines to see\nwhat was keeping the girls so long. As he came near them he saw that\nthe pine trees were growing taller even as he looked at them, and\nclinging to the trunks of the trees high in the air he saw his two\nwives. He called to them to come down, but they made no answer. Time\nafter time he called to them as higher and higher they went, but still\nthey made no answer. Steadily taller grew the two pines, until at last\ntheir tops touched the sky. As they did so, from the sky the five\nMeamei looked out, called to their two sisters on the pine trees,\nbidding them not to be afraid but to come to them. Quickly the two\ngirls climbed up when they heard the voices of their sisters. When they\nreached the tops of the pines the five sisters in the sky stretched\nforth their hands, and drew them in to live with them there in the sky\nfor ever.\n\nAnd there, if you look, you may see the seven sisters together. You\nperhaps know them as the Pleiades, but the black fellows call them the\nMeamei.\n\n\n\n\n11.  THE COOKOOBURRAHS AND THE GOOLAHGOOL\n\n\nGoogarh, the iguana, was married to Moodai, the opossum and\nCookooburrah, the laughing jackass. Cookooburrah was the mother of\nthree sons, one grown up and living away from her, the other two only\nlittle boys. They had their camps near a goolahgool, whence they\nobtained water. A goolahgool is a water-holding tree, of the iron bark\nor box species. It is a tree with a split in the fork of it, and hollow\nbelow the fork. After heavy rain, this hollow trunk would be full of\nwater, which water would have run into it through the split in the\nfork. A goolahgool would hold water for a long time. The blacks knew a\ngoolahgool, amongst other trees, by the mark which the overflow of\nwater made down the trunk of the tree, discolouring the bark.\n\nOne day, Googarh, the iguana, and his two wives went out hunting,\nleaving the two little Cookooburrahs at the camp. They had taken out\nwater for themselves in their opossum skin water bags, but they had\nleft none for the children, who were too small to get any from the\ngoolahgool for themselves, so nearly perished from thirst. Their\ntongues were swollen in their mouths, and they were quite speechless,\nwhen they saw a man coming towards them. When he came near, they saw it\nwas Cookooburrah, their big brother. They could not speak to him and\nanswer, when he asked where his mother was. Then he asked them what was\nthe matter. All they could do was to point towards the tree. He looked\nat it, and saw it was a goolahgool, so he said: \"Did your mother leave\nyou no water?\" They shook their heads. He said: \"Then you are perishing\nfor want of a drink, my brothers?\" They nodded. \"Go,\" he said \"a little\nway off, and you shall see how I will punish them for leaving my little\nbrothers to perish of thirst.\" He went towards the tree, climbed up it,\nand split it right down. As he did so, out gushed the water in a\nswiftly running stream. Soon the little fellows quenched their thirst\nand then, in their joy, bathed in the water, which grew in volume every\nmoment.\n\nIn the meantime, those who had gone forth to hunt were returning, and\nas they came towards their camp they met a running stream of water.\n\"What is this?\" they said, \"our goolahgool must have burst,\" and they\ntried to dam the water, but it was running too strongly for them. They\ngave up the effort and hurried on towards their camp. But they found a\ndeep stream divided them from their camp. The three Cookooburrahs saw\nthem, and the eldest one said to the little fellows: \"You call out and\ntell them to cross down there, where it is not deep.\" The little ones\ncalled out as they were told, and where they pointed Googarh and his\nwives waded into the stream. Finding she was getting out of her depth,\nCookooburrah the laughing jackass cried out: \"Goug gour gah gah. Goug\ngour gah gah. Give me a stick. Give me a stick.\"\n\nBut from the bank her sons only answered in derision: \"Goug gour gah\ngah. Goug gour gah gah.\" And the three hunters were soon engulfed in\nthe rushing stream, drawn down by the current and drowned.\n\n\n\n\n12.  THE MAYAMAH\n\n\nThe blacks had all left their camp and gone away to attend a borah.\nNothing was left in the camp but one very old dog, too old to travel.\nAfter the blacks had been gone about three days, one night came their\nenemies, the Gooeeays, intending to surprise them and kill them.\n\nPainted in all the glory of their war-paint came the Gooeeays, their\nhair tied in top-knots and ornamented with feathers and kangaroos'\nteeth. Their waywahs of paddy, melon, and kangaroo rat skins cut in\nstrips, round their waists, were new and strong, holding firmly some of\ntheir boomerangs and woggoorahs, which they had stuck through them.\n\nBut prepared as they were for conquest, they found only a deserted camp\ncontaining naught but one old dog. They asked the old dog where the\nblacks were gone. But he only shook his head. Again and again they\nasked him, and again and again he only shook his head. At last some of\nthe black fellows raised their spears and their moorillahs or\nnullah-nullahs, saying:\n\n\"If you do not tell us where the blacks are gone, we shall kill you.\"\n\nThen spoke the old dog, saying only: \"Gone to the borah.\"\n\nAnd as he spoke every one of the Gooeeays and everything they had with\nthem was turned to stone. Even the waywahs round their waists, the\ntop-knots on their heads, and the spears in their hands, even these\nturned to stone. And when the blacks returned to their camp long\nafterwards, when the borah was over, and the boys, who had been made\nyoung men, gone out into the bush to undergo their novitiate, each with\nhis solitary guardian, then saw the blacks, their enemies, the\nGooeeays, standing round their old camp, as if to attack it. But\ninstead of being men of flesh, they were men of stone--they, their\nweapons, their waywahs, and all that belonged to them, stone.\n\nAnd at that place are to be found stones or mayamahs of great beauty,\nstriped and marked and coloured as were the men painted.\n\nAnd the place of the mayamah is on one of the mounts near Beemery.\n\n\n\n\n13.  THE BUNBUNDOOLOOEYS\n\n\nThe mother Bunbundoolooey put her child, a little boy Bunbundoolooey,\nwho could only just crawl, into her goolay. Goolay is a sort of small\nnetted hammock, slung by black women on their backs, in which they\ncarry their babies and goods in general. Bunbundoolooey, the pigeon,\nput her goolay across her back, and started out hunting.\n\nWhen she had gone some distance she came to a clump of bunnia or wattle\ntrees. At the foot of one of these she saw some large euloomarah or\ngrubs, which were good to cat. She picked some up, and dug with her yam\nstick round the roots of the tree to get more. She went from tree to\ntree, getting grubs at every one. That she might gather them all, she\nput down her goolay, and hunted further round.\n\nSoon in the excitement of her search, she forgot the goolay with the\nchild in it, and wandered away. Further and further she went from the\nDunnia clump, never once thinking of her poor birrahlee, or baby. On\nand still on she went, until at length she reached a far country.\n\nThe birrablee woke up, and crawled out of the goolay. First he only\ncrawled about, but soon he grew stronger, and raised himself, and stood\nby a tree. Then day by day he grew stronger and walked alone, and\nstronger still he grew, and could run. Then he grew on into a big boy,\nand then into a man, and his mother he never saw while he was growing\nfrom birrahlee to man.\n\nBut in the far country at length one day Bunbundoolooey, the mother,\nremembered the birrablee she had left.\n\n\"Oh,\" she cried, \"I forgot my birrahlee. I left my birrablee where the\nDunnias grow in a far country. I must go to my birrahlee. My poor\nbirrahlee! I forgot it. Mad must I have been when I forgot him. My\nbirrahlee! My birrahlee!\"\n\nAnd away went the mother as fast as she could travel back to the Dunnia\nclump in the far country. When she reached the spot she saw the tracks\nof her birrablee, first crawling, then standing, then walking, and then\nrunning. Bigger and bigger were the tracks she followed, until she saw\nthey were the tracks of a man. She followed them until she reached a\ncamp. No one was in the camp, but a fire was there, so she waited, and\nwhile waiting looked round. She saw her son had made himself many\nweapons, and many opossum rugs, which he had painted gaily inside.\n\nThen at last she saw a man coming towards the camp, and she knew he was\nher birrahlee, grown into a man. As he drew near she ran out to meet\nhim, saying:\n\n\"Bunbundoolooey, I am your mother. The mother who forgot you as a\nbirrahlee, and left you. But now I have come to find you, my son. Long\nwas the journey, my son, and your mother was weary, but now that she\nsees once more her birrahlee, who has grown into a man, she is no\nlonger weary, but glad is her heart, and loud could she sing in her\njoy. Ah, Bunbundoolooey, my son! Bunbundoolooey, my son!\"\n\nAnd she ran forward with her arms out, as if to embrace him.\n\nBut stern was the face of Bunbundoolooey, the son, and no answer did he\nmake with his tongue. But he stooped to the ground and picked therefrom\na big stone. This swiftly he threw at his mother, hitting her with such\nforce that she fell dead to the earth.\n\nThen on strode Bunbundoolooey to his camp.\n\n\n\n\n14.  OONGNAIRWAH AND GUINAREY\n\n\nOongnairwah, the diver, and Guinarey, the eagle hawk, told all the\npelicans, black swans, cranes, and many others, that they would take\ntheir net to the creek and catch fish, if some of them would go and\nbeat the fish down towards the net.\n\nGladly went the pelicans, black swans, and the rest to the creek. In\nthey jumped, and splashed the water about to scare the fish down\ntowards where Oongnairwah and Guinarey were stationed with their net.\nPresently little Deereeree, the wagtail, and Burreenjin, the peewee,\nwho were on the bank sitting on a stump, called out, \"Look out, we saw\nthe back of an alligator in the water.\" The diver and eagle hawk called\nback, \"Go away, then. The wind blows from you towards him. Go back or\nhe will smell you.\"\n\nBut Deereeree and Burreenjin were watching the fishing and did not heed\nwhat was said to them. Soon the alligator smelt them, and he lashed out\nwith his tail, splashing the water so high, and lashing so furiously,\nthat all the fishermen were drowned, even Deereeree and Burreenjin on\nthe bank--not one escaped, And red was the bank of the creek, and red\nthe stump whereon Deereeree and Burreenjin had sat, with the blood of\nthe slain. And the place is called Goomade and is red for ever.\n\n\n\n\n15.  NARAHDARN THE BAT\n\n\nNarahdarn, the bat, wanted honey. He watched until he saw a\nWurranunnah, or bee, alight. He caught it, stuck a white feather\nbetween its hind legs, let it go and followed it. He knew he could see\nthe white feather, and so follow the bee to its nest. He ordered his\ntwo wives, of the Bilber tribe, to follow him with wirrees to carry\nhome the honey in. Night came on and Wurranunnah the bee had not\nreached home. Narahdarn caught him, imprisoned him under bark, and kept\nhim safely there until next morning. When it was light enough to see,\nNarahdarn let the bee go again, and followed him to his nest, in a\ngunnyanny tree. Marking the tree with his comebo that he might know it\nagain, he returned to hurry on his wives who were some way behind. He\nwanted them to come on, climb the tree, and chop out the honey. When\nthey reached the marked tree one of the women climbed up. She called\nout to Narahdarn that the honey was in a split in the tree. He called\nback to her to put her hand in and get it out. She put her arm in, but\nfound she could not get it out again. Narahdarn climbed up to help her,\nbut found when he reached her that the only way to free her was to cut\noff her arm. This he did before she had time to realise what he was\ngoing to do, and protest. So great was the shock to her that she died\ninstantly. Narahdarn carried down her lifeless body and commanded her\nsister, his other wife, to go up, chop out the arm, and get the honey.\nShe protested, declaring the bees would have taken the honey away by\nnow.\n\n\"Not so,\" he said; \"go at once.\"\n\nEvery excuse she could think of, to save herself, she made. But her\nexcuses were in vain, and Narahdarn only became furious with her for\nmaking them, and, brandishing his boondi, drove her up the tree. She\nmanaged to get her arm in beside her sister's, but there it stuck and\nshe could not move it. Narahdarn, who was watching her, saw what had\nhappened and followed her up the tree. Finding he could not pull her\narm out, in spite of her cries, he chopped it off, as he had done her\nsister's. After one shriek, as he drove his comebo through her arm, she\nwas silent. He said, \"Come down, and I will chop out the bees' nest.\"\nBut she did not answer him, and he saw that she too was dead. Then he\nwas frightened, and climbed quickly down the gunnyanny tree; taking her\nbody to the ground with him, he laid it beside her sister's, and\nquickly he hurried from the spot, taking no further thought of the\nhoney. As he neared his camp, two little sisters of his wives ran out\nto meet him, thinking their sisters would be with him, and that they\nwould give them a taste of the honey they knew they had gone out to\nget. But to their surprise Narahdarn came alone, and as he drew near to\nthem they saw his arms were covered with blood. And his face had a\nfierce look on it, which frightened them from even asking where their\nsisters were. They ran and told their mother that Narahdarn had\nreturned alone, that he looked fierce and angry, also his arms were\ncovered with blood. Out went the mother of the Bilbers, and she said,\n\"Where are my daughters, Narahdarn? Forth went they this morning to\nbring home the honey you found. You come back alone. You bring no\nhoney. Your look is fierce, as of one who fights, and your arms are\ncovered with blood. Tell me, I say, where are my daughters?\"\n\n\"Ask me not, Bilber. Ask Wurranunnah the bee, he may know. Narahdarn\nthe bat knows nothing.\" And he wrapped himself in a silence which no\nquestioning could pierce. Leaving him there, before his camp, the\nmother of the Bilbers returned to her dardurr and told her tribe that\nher daughters were gone, and Narahdarn, their husband, would tell her\nnothing of them. But she felt sure he knew their fate, and certain she\nwas that he had some tale to tell, for his arms were covered with\nblood.\n\nThe chief of her tribe listened to her. When she had finished and begun\nto wail for her daughters, whom she thought she would see no more, he\nsaid, \"Mother of the Bilbers, your daughters shall be avenged if aught\nhas happened to them at the hands of Narahdarn. Fresh are his tracks,\nand the young men of your tribe shall follow whence they have come, and\nfinding what Narahdarn has done, swiftly shall they return. Then shall\nwe hold a corrobboree, and if your daughters fell at his hand Narahdarn\nshall be punished.\"\n\nThe mother of the Bilbers said: \"Well have you spoken, oh my relation.\nNow speed ye the young men lest the rain fall or the dust blow and the\ntracks be lost.\" Then forth went the fleetest footed and the keenest\neyed of the young men of the tribe. Ere long, back they came to the\ncamp with the news of the fate of the Bilbers.\n\nThat night was the corrobboree held. The women sat round in a\nhalf-circle, and chanted a monotonous chant, keeping time by hitting,\nsome of them, two boomerangs together, and others beating their rolled\nup opossum rugs.\n\nBig fires were lit on the edge of the scrub, throwing light on the\ndancers as they came dancing out from their camps, painted in all\nmanner of designs, waywahs round their waists, tufts of feathers in\ntheir hair, and carrying in their hands painted wands. Heading the\nprocession as the men filed out from the scrub into a cleared space in\nfront of the women, came Narahdarn. The light of the fires lit up the\ntree tops, the dark balahs showed out in fantastic shapes, and weird\nindeed was the scene as slowly the men danced round; louder clicked the\nboomerangs and louder grew the chanting of the women; higher were the\nfires piled, until the flames shot their coloured tongues round the\ntrunks of the trees and high into the air. One fire was bigger than\nall, and towards it the dancers edged Narahdarn; then the voice of the\nmother of the Bilbers shrieked in the chanting, high above that of the\nother women. As Narahdarn turned from the fire to dance back he found a\nwall of men confronting him. These quickly seized him and hurled him\ninto the madly-leaping fire before him, where he perished in the\nflames. And so were the Bilbers avenged.\n\n\n\n\n16.  MULLYANGAH THE MORNING STAR\n\n\nMullyan, the eagle hawk, built himself a home high in a yaraan tree.\nThere he lived apart from his tribe, with Moodai the opossum, his wife,\nand Moodai the opossum, his mother-in-law. With them too was Buttergah,\na daughter of the Buggoo or flying squirrel tribe. Buttergah was a\nfriend of Moodai, the wife of Mullyan, and a distant cousin to the\nMoodai tribe.\n\nMullyan the eagle hawk was a cannibal. That was the reason of his\nliving apart from the other blacks. In order to satisfy his cannibal\ncravings, he used to sally forth with a big spear, a spear about four\ntimes as big as an ordinary spear. If he found a black fellow hunting\nalone, he would kill him and take his body up to the house in the tree.\nThere the Moodai and Buttergab would cook it, and all of them would eat\nthe flesh; for the women as well as Mullyan were cannibals. This went\non for some time, until at last so many black fellows were slain that\ntheir friends determined to find out what became of them, and they\ntracked the last one they missed. They tracked him to where he had\nevidently been slain; they took up the tracks of his slayer, and\nfollowed them right to the foot of the yaraan tree, in which was built\nthe home of Mullyan. They tried to climb the tree, but it was high and\nstraight, and they gave up the attempt after many efforts. In their\ndespair at their failure they thought of the Bibbees, a tribe noted for\nits climbing powers. They summoned two young Bibbees to their aid. One\ncame, bringing with him his friend Murrawondah of the climbing rat\ntribe.\n\nHaving heard what the blacks wanted them to do, these famous climbers\nwent to the yaraan tree and made a start at once. There was only light\nenough that first night for them to see to reach a fork in the tree\nabout half-way up. There they camped, watched Mullyan away in the\nmorning, and then climbed on. At last they reached the home of Mullyan.\nThey watched their chance and then sneaked into his humpy.\n\nWhen they were safely inside, they hastened to secrete a smouldering\nstick in one end of the humpy, taking care they were not seen by any of\nthe women. Then they went quietly down again, no one the wiser of their\ncoming or going. During the day the women heard sometimes a crackling\nnoise, as of burning, but looking round they saw nothing, and as their\nown fire was safe, they took no notice, thinking it might have been\ncaused by some grass having fallen into their fire.\n\nAfter their descent from having hidden the smouldering fire stick,\nBibbee and Murrawondah found the blacks and told them what they had\ndone. Hearing that the plan was to burn out Mullyan, and fearing that\nthe tree might fall, they all moved to some little distance, there to\nwatch and wait for the end. Great was their joy at the thought that at\nlast their enemy was circumvented. And proud were Bibbee and\nMurrawondah as the black fellows praised their prowess.\n\nAfter dinner-time Mullyan came back. When he reached the entrance to\nhis house he put down his big spear outside. Then he went in and threw\nhimself down to rest, for long had he walked and little had he gained.\nIn a few minutes he heard his big spear fall down. He jumped up and\nstuck it in its place again. He had no sooner thrown himself down, than\nagain he heard it fall. Once more he rose and replaced it. As he\nreached his resting-place again, out burst a flame of fire from the end\nof his humpy. He called out to the three women, who were cooking, and\nthey rushed to help him extinguish the flames. But in spite of their\nefforts the fire only blazed the brighter. Mullyan's arm was burnt off.\nThe Moodai had their feet burnt, and Buttergah was badly burnt too.\nSeeing they were helpless against the fire, they turned to leave the\nhumpy to its fate, and make good their own escape. But they had left it\ntoo late. As they turned to descend the tree, the roof of the humpy\nfell on them. And all that remained when the fire ceased, were the\ncharred bones of the dwellers in the yaraan tree. That was all that the\nblacks found of their enemies; but their legend says that Mullyan the\neagle hawk lives in the sky as Mullyangah the morning star, on one side\nof which is a little star, which is his one arm; on the other a larger\nstar, which is Moodai the opossum, his wife.\n\n\n\n\n17.  GOOMBLEGUBBON, BEEARGAH, AND OUYAN\n\n\nGoomblegubbon the bustard, his two wives, Beeargah the hawk, and Ouyan\nthe curlew, with the two children of Beeargah, had their camps right\naway in the bush; their only water supply was a small dungle, or gilguy\nhole. The wives and children camped in one camp, and Goomblegubbon a\nshort distance off in another. One day the wives asked their husband to\nlend them the dayoorl stone, that they might grind some doonburr to\nmake durrie. But he would not lend it to them, though they asked him\nseveral times. They knew he did not want to use it himself, for they\nsaw his durrie on a piece of bark, between two fires, already cooking.\nThey determined to be revenged, so said:\n\n\"We will make some water bags of the opossum skins; we will fill them\nwith water, then some day when Goomblegubbon is out hunting we will\nempty the dungle of water, take the children, and run away! When he\nreturns he will find his wives and children gone and the dungle empty;\nthen he will be sorry that he would not lend us the dayoorl.\"\n\nThe wives soon caught some opossums, killed and skinned them, plucked\nall the hair from the skins, saving it to roll into string to make\ngoomillahs, cleaned the skins of all flesh, sewed them up with the\nsinews, leaving only the neck opening. When finished, they blew into\nthem, filled them with air, tied them up and left them to dry for a few\ndays. When they were dry and ready to be used, they chose a day when\nGoomblegubbon was away, filled the water bags, emptied the dungle, and\nstarted towards the river.\n\nHaving travelled for some time, they at length reached the river. They\nsaw two black fellows on the other side, who, when they saw the runaway\nwives and the two children, swam over to them and asked whence they had\ncome and whither they were going.\n\n\"We are running away from our husband Goomblegubbon, who would lend us\nno dayoorl to grind our doonburr on, and we ran away lest we and our\nchildren should starve, for we could not live on meat alone. But\nwhither we are going we know not, except that it must be far away, lest\nGoomblegubbon follow and kill us.\"\n\nThe black fellows said they wanted wives, and would each take one, and\nboth care for the children. The women agreed. The black fellows swam\nback across the river, each taking a child first, and then a woman, for\nas they came from the back country, where no creeks were, the women\ncould not swim.\n\nGoomblegubbon came back from hunting, and, seeing no wives, called\naloud for them, but heard no answer. Then he went to their camp, and\nfound them not. Then turning towards the dungle he saw that it was\nempty. Then he saw the tracks of his wives and children going towards\nthe river. Great was his anger, and vowing he would kill them when he\nfound them, he picked up his spears and followed their tracks, until he\ntoo reached the river. There on the other side he saw a camp, and in it\nhe could see strange black fellows, his wives, and his children. He\ncalled aloud for them to cross him over, for he too could not swim. But\nthe sun went down and still they did not answer. He camped where he was\nthat night, and in the morning he saw the camp opposite had been\ndeserted and set fire to; the country all round was burnt so that not\neven the tracks of the black fellows and his wives could be found, even\nhad he been able to cross the river. And never again did he see or hear\nof his wives or his children.\n\n\n\n\n18.  MOOREGOO THE MOPOKE, AND BAHLOO THE MOON\n\n\nMooregoo the Mopoke had been camped away by himself for a long time.\nWhile alone he had made a great number of boomerangs, nullah-nullahs,\nspears, neilahmans, and opossum rugs. Well had he carved the weapons\nwith the teeth of opossums, and brightly had he painted the inside of\nthe rugs with coloured designs, and strongly had he sewn them with the\nsinews of opossums, threaded in the needle made of the little bone\ntaken from the leg of an emu. As Mooregoo looked at his work he was\nproud of all he had done.\n\nOne night Babloo the moon came to his camp, and said: \"Lend me one of\nyour opossum rugs.\"\n\n\"No. I lend not my rugs.\"\n\n\"Then give me one.\"\n\n\"No. I give not my rugs.\"\n\nLooking round, Bahloo saw the beautifully carved weapons, so he said,\n\"Then give me, Mooregoo, some of your weapons.\"\n\n\"No, I give, never, what I have made, to another.\"\n\nAgain Bahloo said, \"The night is cold. Lend me a rug.\"\n\n\"I have spoken,\" said Mooregoo. \"I never lend my rugs.\"\n\nBarloo said no more, but went away, cut some bark and made a dardurr\nfor himself. When it was finished and he safely housed in it, down came\nthe rain in torrents. And it rained without ceasing until the whole\ncountry was flooded. Mooregoo was drowned. His weapons floated about\nand drifted apart, and his rugs rotted in the water.\n\n\n\n\n19.  OUYAN THE CURLEW\n\n\nBleargah the hawk, mother of Ouyan the curlew, said one day to her son:\n\"Go, Ouyan, out, take your spears and kill an emu. The women and I are\nhungry. You are a man, go out and kill, that we may eat. You must not\nstay always in the camp like an old woman; you must go and hunt as\nother men do, lest the women laugh at you.\"\n\nOuyan took his spears and went out hunting, but though he went far, he\ncould not get an emu, yet he dare not return to the camp and face the\njeers of the women. Well could they jeer, and angry could his mother\ngrow when she was hungry. Sooner than return empty-handed he would cut\nsome flesh off his own legs. And this he decided to do. He made a cut\nin his leg with his comebo and as he made it, cried aloud: \"Yuckay!\nYuckay,\" in pain. But he cut on, saying: \"Sharper would cut the tongues\nof the women, and deeper would be the wounds they would make, if I\nreturned without food for them.\" And crying: \"Yuckay, yuckay,\" at each\nstroke of his comebo, he at length cut off a piece of flesh, and\nstarted towards the camp with it.\n\nAs he neared the camp his mother cried out: \"What have you brought us,\nOuyan? We starve for meat, come quickly.\"\n\nHe came and laid the flesh at her feet, saying: \"Far did I go, and\nlittle did I see, but there is enough for all to-night; to-morrow will\nI go forth again.\"\n\nThe women cooked the flesh, and ate it hungrily. Afterwards they felt\nquite ill, but thought it must be because they had eaten too hungrily.\nThe next day they hurried Ouyan forth again. And again he returned\nbringing his own flesh back. Again the women ate hungrily of it, and\nagain they felt quite ill.\n\nThen, too, Beeargah noticed for the first time that the flesh Ouyan\nbrought looked different from emu flesh. She asked him what flesh it\nwas. He replied: \"What should it be but the flesh of emu?\"\n\nBut Beeargah was not satisfied, and she said to the two women who lived\nwith her: \"Go you, to-morrow, follow Ouyan, and see whence he gets this\nflesh.\"\n\nThe next day, the two woman followed Ouyan when he went forth to hunt.\nThey followed at a good distance, that he might not notice that they\nwere following. Soon they heard him crying as if in pain: \"Yuckay,\nyuckay, yuckay nurroo gay gay.\" When they came near they saw he was\ncutting the flesh off his own limbs. Before he discovered that they\nwere watching him, back they went to the old woman, and told her what\nthey had seen.\n\nSoon Ouyan came back, bringing, as usual, the flesh with him. When he\nhad thrown it down at his mother's feet, he went away, and lay down as\nif tired from the chase. His mother went up to him, and before he had\ntime to cover his mutilated limbs, she saw that indeed the story of the\nwomen was true. Angry was she that he had so deceived her: and she\ncalled loudly for the other two women, who came running to her.\n\n\"You are right,\" she said. \"Too lazy to hunt for emu, he cut off his\nown flesh, not caring that when we unwittingly ate thereof we should\nsicken. Let us beat him who did us this wrong.\"\n\nThe three women seized poor Ouyan and beat him, though he cried aloud\nin agony when the blows fell on his bleeding legs.\n\nWhen the women had satisfied their vengeance, Beeargah said: \"You Ouyan\nshall have no more flesh on your legs, and red shall they be for ever;\nred, and long and fleshless.\" Saying which she went, and with her the\nother women. Ouyan crawled away and hid himself, and never again did\nhis mother see him. But night after night was to be heard a wailing cry\nof, \"Bou you gwai gwai. Bou you gwai gwai,\" which meant, \"My poor red\nlegs. My poor red legs.\"\n\nBut though Ouyan the man was never seen again, a bird with long thin\nlegs, very red in colour under the feathers, was seen often, and heard\nto cry ever at night, even as Ouyan the man had cried: \"Bou you gwai\ngwai. Bou you gwai gwai.\" And this bird bears always the name of Ouyan.\n\n\n\n\n20.  DINEWAN THE EMU, AND WAHN THE CROWS\n\n\nDinewan and his two wives, the Wahn, were camping out. Seeing some\nclouds gathering, they made a bark humpy. It came on to rain, and they\nall took shelter under it. Dinewan, when his wives were not looking,\ngave a kick against a piece of bark at one side of the humpy, knocked\nit down, then told his wives to go and put it up again. When they were\noutside putting it up, he gave a kick, and knocked down a piece on the\nother side; so no sooner were they in again than out they had to go.\nThis he did time after time, until at last they su spected him, and\ndecided that one of them would watch. The one who was watching saw\nDinewan laugh to himself and go and knock down the bark they had just\nput up, chuckling at the thought of his wives having to go out in the\nwet and cold to put it up, while he had his supper dry and comfortably\ninside. The one who saw him told the other, and they decided to teach\nhim a lesson. So in they came, each with a piece of bark filled with\nhot coals. They went straight up to Dinewan, who was lying down\nlaughing.\n\n\"Now,\" they said, \"you shall feel as hot we did cold.\" And they threw\nthe coals over him. Dinewan jumped up, crying aloud with the pain, for\nhe was badly burnt. He rolled himself over, and ran into the rain; and\nhis wives stayed inside, and laughed aloud at him.\n\n\n\n\n21.  GOOLAHWILLEEL THE TOPKNOT PIGEONS\n\n\nYoung Goolahwilleeel used to go out hunting every day. His mother and\nsisters always expected that he would bring home kangaroo and emu for\nthem. But each day he came home without any meat at all. They asked him\nwhat he did in the bush, as he evidently did not hunt. He said that he\ndid hunt.\n\n\"Then why,\" said they, \"do you bring us nothing home?\"\n\n\"I cannot catch and kill what I follow,\" he said. \"You hear me cry out\nwhen I find kangaroo or emu; is it not so?\"\n\n\"Yes; each day we hear you call when you find something, and each day\nwe get ready the fire, expecting you to bring home the spoils of the\nchase, but you bring nothing.\"\n\n\"To-morrow,\" he said, \"you shall not be disappointed. I will bring you\na kangaroo.\"\n\nEvery day, instead of hunting, Goolahwilleel had been gathering\nwattle-gum, and with this he had been modelling a kangaroo--a perfect\nmodel of one, tail, ears, and all complete. So the next day he came\ntowards the camp carrying this kangaroo made of gum. Seeing him coming,\nand also seeing that he was carrying the promised kangaroo, his mother\nand sisters said: \"Ah, Goolahwilleel spoke truly. He has kept his word,\nand now brings us a kangaroo. Pile up the fire. To-night we shall eat\nmeat.\"\n\nAbout a hundred yards away from the camp Goolahwilleel put down his\nmodel, and came on without it. His mother called out: \"Where is the\nkangaroo you brought home?\"\n\n\"Oh, over there.\" And he pointed towards where he had left it.\n\nThe sisters ran to get it, but came back saying: \"Where is it? We\ncannot see it.\"\n\n\"Over there,\" he said, pointing again.\n\n\"But there is only a great figure of gum there.\"\n\n\"Well, did I say it was anything else? Did I not say it was gum?\"\n\n\"No, you did not. You said it was a kangaroo.\"\n\n\"And so it is a kangaroo. A beautiful kangaroo that I made all by\nmyself.\" And he smiled quite proudly to think what a fine kangaroo he\nhad made.\n\nBut his mother and sisters did not smile. They seized him and gave him\na good beating for deceiving them. They told him he should never go out\nalone again, for he only played instead of hunting, though he knew they\nstarved for meat. They would always in the future go with him.\n\nAnd so for ever the Goolahwilleels went in flocks, never more singly,\nin search of food.\n\n\n\n\n22.  GOONUR, THE WOMAN-DOCTOR\n\n\nGoonur was a clever old woman-doctor, who lived with her son, Goonur,\nand his two wives. The wives were Guddah the red lizard, and Beereeun\nthe small, prickly lizard. One day the two wives had done something to\nanger Goonur, their husband, and he gave them both a great beating.\nAfter their beating they went away by themselves. They said to each\nother that they could stand their present life no longer, and yet there\nwas no escape unless they killed their husband. They decided they would\ndo that. But how? That was the question. It must be by cunning.\n\nAt last they decided on a plan. They dug a big hole in the sand near\nthe creek, filled it with water, and covered the hole over with boughs,\nleaves, and grass.\n\n\"Now we will go,\" they said, \"and tell our husband that we have found a\nbig bandicoot's nest.\"\n\nBack they went to the camp, and told Goonur that they had seen a big\nnest of bandicoots near the creek; that if he sneaked up he would be\nable to surprise them and get the lot.\n\nOff went Goonur in great haste. He sneaked up to within a couple of\nfeet of the nest, then gave a spring on to the top of it. And only when\nhe felt the bough top give in with him, and he sank down into water,\ndid he realise that he had been tricked. Too late then to save himself,\nfor he was drowning and could not escape. His wives had watched the\nsuccess of their stratagem from a distance. When they were certain that\nthey had effectually disposed of their hated husband, they went back to\nthe camp. Goonur, the mother, soon missed her son, made inquiries of\nhis wives, but gained no information from them. Two or three days\npassed, and yet Goonur, the son, returned not. Seriously alarmed at his\nlong absence without having given her notice of his intention, the\nmother determined to follow his track. She took up his trail where she\nhad last seen him leave the camp. This she followed until she reached\nthe so-called bandicoot's nest. Here his tracks disappeared, and\nnowhere could she find a sign of his having returned from this place.\nShe felt in the hole with her yarn stick, and soon felt that there was\nsomething large there in the water. She cut a forked stick and tried to\nraise the body and get it out, for she felt sure it must be her son.\nBut she could not raise it; stick after stick broke in the effort. At\nlast she cut a midjee stick and tried with that, and then she was\nsuccessful. When she brought out the body she found it was indeed her\nson. She dragged the body to an ant bed, and watched intently to see if\nthe stings of the ants brought any sign of returning life. Soon her\nhope was realised, and after a violent twitching of the muscles her son\nregained consciousness. As soon as he was able to do so, he told her of\nthe trick his wives had played on him.\n\nGoonur, the mother, was furious. \"No more shall they have you as\nhusband. You shall live hidden in my dardurr. When we get near the camp\nyou can get into this long, big comebee, and I will take you in. When\nyou want to go hunting I will take you from the camp in this comebee,\nand when we are out of sight you can get out and hunt as of old.\"\n\nAnd thus they managed for some time to keep his return a secret; and\nlittle the wives knew that their husband was alive and in his mother's\ncamp. But as day after day Goonur, the mother, returned from hunting\nloaded with spoils, they began to think she must have help from some\none; for surely, they said, no old woman could be so successful in\nhunting. There was a mystery they were sure, and they were determined\nto find it out.\n\n\"See,\" they said, \"she goes out alone. She is old, and yet she brings\nhome more than we two do together, and we are young. To-day she brought\nopossums, piggiebillahs, honey yams, quatha, and many things. We got\nlittle, yet we went far. We will watch her.\"\n\nThe next time old Goonur went out, carrying her big comebee, the wives\nwatched her.\n\n\"Look,\" they said, \"how slowly she goes. She could not climb trees for\nopossums--she is too old and weak; look how she staggers.\"\n\nThey went cautiously after her, and saw when she was some distance from\nthe camp that she put down her comebee. And out of it, to their\namazement, stepped Goonur, their husband.\n\n\"Ah,\" they said, \"this is her secret. She must have found him, and, as\nshe is a great doctor, she was able to bring him to life again. We must\nwait until she leaves him, and then go to him, and beg to know where he\nhas been, and pretend joy that he is back, or else surely now he is\nalive again he will sometime kill us.\"\n\nAccordingly, when Goonur was alone the two wives ran to him, and said:\n\n\"Why, Goonur, our husband, did you leave us? Where have you been all\nthe time that we, your wives, have mourned for you? Long has the time\nbeen without you, and we, your wives, have been sad that you came no\nmore to our dardurr.\"\n\nGoonur, the husband, affected to believe their sorrow was genuine, and\nthat they did not know when they directed him to the bandicoot's nest\nthat it was a trap. Which trap, but for his mother, might have been his\ngrave.\n\nThey all went hunting together, and when they had killed enough for\nfood they returned to the camp. As they came near to the camp, Goonur,\nthe mother, saw them coming, and cried out:\n\n\"Would you again be tricked by your wives? Did I save you from death\nonly that you might again be killed? I spared them, but I would I had\nslain them, if again they are to have a chance of killing you, my son.\nMany are the wiles of women, and another time I might not be able to\nsave you. Let them live if you will it so, my son, but not with you.\nThey tried to lure you to death; you are no longer theirs, mine only\nnow, for did I not bring you back from the dead?\"\n\nBut Goonur the husband said, \"In truth did you save me, my mother, and\nthese my wives rejoice that you did. They too, as I was, were deceived\nby the bandicoot's nest, the work of an enemy yet to be found. See, my\nmother, do not the looks of love in their eyes, and words of love on\ntheir lips vouch for their truth? We will be as we have been, my\nmother, and live again in peace.\"\n\nAnd thus craftily did Goonur the husband deceive his wives and make\nthem believe he trusted them wholly, while in reality his mind was even\nthen plotting vengeance. In a few days he had his plans ready. Having\ncut and pointed sharply two stakes, he stuck them firmly in the creek,\nthen he placed two logs on the bank, in front of the sticks, which were\nunderneath the water, and invisible. Having made his preparations, he\ninvited his wives to come for a bathe. He said when they reached the\ncreek:\n\n\"See those two logs on the bank, you jump in each from one and see\nwhich can dive the furthest. I will go first to see you as you come\nup.\" And in he jumped, carefully avoiding the pointed stakes. \"Right,\"\nhe called. \"All is clear here, jump in.\"\n\nThen the two wives ran down the bank each to a log and jumped from it.\nWell had Goonur calculated the distance, for both jumped right on to\nthe stakes placed in the water to catch them, and which stuck firmly\ninto them, holding them under the water.\n\n\"Well am I avenged,\" said Goonur. \"No more will my wives lay traps to\ncatch me.\" And he walked off to the camp.\n\nHis mother asked him where his wives were. \"They left me,\" he said, \"to\nget bees' nests.\"\n\nBut as day by day passed and the wives returned not, the old woman\nbegan to suspect that her son knew more than he said. She asked him no\nmore, but quietly watched her opportunity, when her son was away\nhunting, and then followed the tracks of the wives. She tracked them to\nthe creek, and as she saw no tracks of their return, she went into the\ncreek, felt about, and there found the two bodies fast on the stakes.\nShe managed to get them off and out of the creek, then she determined\nto try and restore them to life, for she was angry that her son had not\ntold her what he had done, but had deceived her as well as his wives.\nShe rubbed the women with some of her medicines, dressed the wounds\nmade by the stakes, and then dragged them both on to ants' nests and\nwatched their bodies as the ants crawled over them, biting them. She\nhad not long to wait; soon they began to move and come to life again.\n\nAs soon as they were restored Goonur took them back to the camp and\nsaid to Goonur her son, \"Now once did I use my knowledge to restore\nlife to you, and again have I used it to restore life to your wives.\nYou are all mine now, and I desire that you live in peace and never\nmore deceive me, or never again shall I use my skill for you:\"\n\nAnd they lived for a long while together, and when the Mother Doctor\ndied there was a beautiful, dazzlingly bright falling star, followed by\na sound as of a sharp clap of thunder, and all the tribes round when\nthey saw and heard this said, \"A great doctor must have died, for that\nis the sign.\" And when the wives died, they were taken up to the sky,\nwhere they are now known as Gwaibillah, the red star, so called from\nits bright red colour, owing, the legend says, to the red marks left by\nthe stakes on the bodies of the two women, and which nothing could\nefface.\n\n\n\n\n23.  DEEREEREE THE WAGTAIL, AND THE RAINBOW\n\n\nDeereeree was a widow and lived in a camp alone with her four little\ngirls. One day Bibbee came and made a camp not far from hers. Deereeree\nwas frightened of him, too frightened to go to sleep. All night she\nused to watch his camp, and if she heard a sound she would cry aloud:\n\"Deerceree, wyah, wyah, Deereeree,\" Sometimes she would be calling out\nnearly all night.\n\nIn the morning, Bibbee would come over to her camp and ask her what was\nthe matter that she had called out so in the night. She told him that\nshe thought she heard some one walking about and was afraid, for she\nwas alone with her four little girls.\n\nHe told her she ought not to be afraid with all her children round her.\nBut night after night she sat up crying: \"Wyah, wyah, Deereeree,\nDeereeree.\"\n\nAt last Bibbee said! \"If you are so frightened, marry me and live in my\ncamp. I will take care of you.\" But Deereeree said she did not want to\nmarry. So night after night was to be heard her plaintive cry of \"Wyah,\nwyah, Deereeree, Deereeree.\" And again and again Bibbee pressed her to\nshare his camp and marry him. But she always refused. The more she\nrefused the more he wished to marry her. And he used to wonder how he\ncould induce her to change her mind.\n\nAt last he thought of a plan of surprising her into giving her consent.\nHe set to work and made a beautiful and many coloured arch, which, when\nit was made, he called Euloowirree, and he placed it right across the\nsky, reaching from one side of the earth to the other. When the rainbow\nwas firmly placed in the sky, and showing out in all its brilliancy, of\nmany colours, as a roadway from the earth to the stars, Bibbee went\ninto his camp to wait. When Deereeree looked up at the sky and saw the\nwonderful rainbow, she thought something dreadful must be going to\nhappen. She was terribly frightened, and called aloud: \"Wyah, wyah.\" In\nher fear she gathered her children together, and fled with them to\nBibbee's camp for protection.\n\nBibbee proudly told her that he had made the rainbow, just to show how\nstrong he was and how safe she would be if she married him. But if she\nwould not, she would see what terrible things he would make to come on\nthe earth, not just a harmless and beautiful roadway across the\nheavens, but things that would burst from the earth and destroy it.\n\nSo by working on her mixed feelings of fear of his prowess, and\nadmiration of his skill, Bibbee gained his desire, and Deereeree\nmarried him. And when long afterwards they died, Deereeree was changed\ninto the little willy wagtail who may be heard through the stillness of\nthe summer nights, crying her plaintive wail of \"Deereeree, wyah, wyah,\nDeereeree.\"\n\nAnd Bibbee was changed into the woodpecker, or climbing tree bird, who\nis always running up trees as if he wanted to be building other ways to\nthe than the famous roadway of his Euloowirree, the building of which\nhad won him his wife.\n\n\n\n\n24.  MOOREGOO THE MOPOKE, AND MOONINGUGGAHGUL THE MOSQUITO BIRD\n\n\nAn old man lived with his two wives, the Mooninguggahgul sisters, and\nhis two sons. The old man spent all his time making boomerangs, until\nat last he had four nets full of these weapons. The two boys used to go\nout hunting opossums and iguanas, which they would cook in the bush,\nand eat, without thinking of bringing any home to their parents. The\nold man asked them one day to bring him home some fat to rub his\nboomerangs with. This the boys did, but they brought only the fat,\nhaving eaten the rest of the iguanas from which they had taken the fat.\nThe old man was very angry that his sons were so greedy, but he said\nnothing, though he determined to punish them, for he thought \"when they\nwere young, and could not hunt, I hunted for them and fed them well;\nnow that they can hunt and I am old and cannot so well, they give me\nnothing.\" Thinking of his treatment at the hands of his sons, he\ngreased all his boomerangs, and when he had finished them he said to\nthe boys: \"You take these boomerangs down on to the plain and try them;\nsee if I have made them well. Then come back and tell me. I will stay\nhere.\"\n\nThe boys took the boomerangs. They threw them one after another; but to\ntheir surprise not one of the boomerangs they threw touched the ground,\nbut, instead, went whirling up out of sight. When they had finished\nthrowing the boomerangs, all of which acted in the same way, whirling\nup through space, they prepared to start home again. But as they looked\nround they saw a huge whirlwind coming towards them. They were\nfrightened and called out \"Wurrawilberoo,\" for they knew there was a\ndevil in the whirlwind. They laid hold of trees near at hand that it\nmight not catch them. But the whirlwind spread out first one arm and\nrooted up one tree, then another arm, and rooted up another. The boys\nran in fear from tree to tree, but each tree that they went to was torn\nup by the whirlwind. At last they ran to two mubboo or beef-wood trees,\nand clung tightly to them. After them rushed the whirlwind, sweeping\nall before it, and when it reached the mubboo trees, to which the boys\nwere clinging, it tore them from their roots and bore them upward\nswiftly, giving the boys no time to leave go, so they were borne upward\nclinging to the mubboo trees. On the whirlwind bore them until they\nreached the sky, where it placed the two trees with the boys still\nclinging to them. And there they still are, near the Milky Way, and\nknown as Wurrawilberoo. The boomerangs are scattered all along the\nMilky Way, for the whirlwind had gathered them all together in its rush\nthrough space. Having placed them all in the sky, down came the\nwhirlwind, retaking its natural shape, which was that of the old man,\nfor so had he wreaked his vengeance on his sons for neglecting their\nparents.\n\nAs time went on, the mothers wondered why their sons did not return. It\nstruck them as strange that the old man expressed no surprise at the\nabsence of the boys, and they suspected that he knew more than he cared\nto say. For he only sat in the camp smiling while his wives discussed\nwhat could have happened to them, and he let the women go out and\nsearch alone. The mothers tracked their sons to the plain. There they\nsaw that a big whirlwind had lately been, for trees were uprooted and\nstrewn in every direction. They tracked their sons from tree to tree\nuntil at last they came to the place where the mubboos had stood. They\nsaw the tracks of their sons beside the places whence the trees had\nbeen uprooted, but of the trees and their sons they saw no further\ntrace. Then they knew that they had all been borne up together by the\nwhirlwind, and taken whither they knew not. Sadly they returned to\ntheir camp. When night came they heard cries which they recognised as\nmade by the voices of their sons, though they sounded as if coming from\nthe sky. As the cries sounded again the mothers looked up whence they\ncame, and there they saw the mubboo trees with their sons beside them.\nThen well they knew that they would see no more their sons on earth,\nand great was their grief, and wroth were they with their husband, for\nwell they knew now that he must have been the devil in the whirlwind,\nwho had so punished the boys. They vowed to avenge the loss of their\nboys.\n\nThe next day they went out and gathered a lot of pine gum, and brought\nit back to the camp. When they reached the camp the old man called to\none of his wives to come and tease his hair, as his head ached, and\nthat alone would relieve the pain. One of the women went over to him,\ntook his head on her lap, and teased his hair until at last the old man\nwas soothed and sleepy. In the meantime the other wife was melting the\ngum. The one with the old man gave her a secret sign to come near; then\nshe asked the old man to lie on his back, that she might tease his\nfront hair better. As he did so, she signed to the other woman, who\nquickly came, gave her some of the melted gum, which they both then\npoured hot into his eyes, filling them with it. In agony the old man\njumped up and ran about, calling out, \"Mooregoo, mooregoo,\" as he ran.\nOut of the camp he ran and far away, still crying out in his agony, as\nhe went. And never again did his wives see him though every night they\nheard his cry of \"Mooregoo, mooregoo.\" But though they never saw their\nhusband, they saw a night hawk, the Mopoke, and as that cried always,\n\"Mooregoo, moregoo,\" as their husband had cried in his agony, they knew\nthat he must have turned into the bird.\n\nAfter a time the women were changed into Mooninguggahgul, or mosquito\nbirds. These birds arc marked on the wings just like a mosquito, and\nevery summer night you can hear them cry out incessantly,\n\"Mooninguggahgul,\" which cry is the call for the mosquitoes to answer\nby coming out and buzzing in chorus. And as quickly the mosquitoes come\nout in answer to the summons, the Mooninguggahgul bid them fly\neverywhere and bite all they can.\n\n\n\n\n25.  BOUGOODOOGAHDAH THE RAIN BIRD\n\n\nBougoodoogahdah was all old woman who lived alone with her four hundred\ndingoes. From living so long with these dogs she had grown not to care\nfor her fellow creatures except as food. She and the dogs lived on\nhuman flesh, and it was her cunning which gained such food for them\nall. She would sally forth from her camp with her two little dogs; she\nwould be sure to meet some black fellows, probably twenty or thirty,\ngoing down to the creek. She would say, \"I can tell you where there are\nlots of paddy melons.\" They would ask where, and she would answer,\n\"Over there, on the point of that moorillah or ridge. If you will go\nthere and have your nullahs ready, I will go with my two dogs and round\nthem up towards you.\"\n\nThe black fellows invariably stationed themselves where she had told\nthem, and off went Bougoodoogahdah and her two dogs. But not to round\nup the paddy melons. She went quickly towards her camp, calling softly,\n\"Birree, gougou,\" which meant \"Sool 'em, sool 'em,\" and was the signal\nfor the dogs to come out. Quickly they came and surrounded the black\nfellows, took them by surprise, flew at them, bit and worried them to\ndeath. Then they and Bougoodoogahdah dragged the bodies to their camp.\nThere they were cooked and were food for the old woman and the dogs for\nsome time. As soon as the supply was finished the same plan to obtain\nmore was repeated.\n\nThe black fellows missed so many of their friends that they determined\nto find out what had become of them. They began to suspect the old\nwoman who lived alone and hunted over the moorillahs with her two\nlittle dogs. They proposed that the next party that went to the creek\nshould divide and some stay behind in hiding and watch what went on.\nThose watching saw the old woman advance towards their friends, talk to\nthem for a while, and then go off with her two dogs. They saw their\nfriends station themselves at the point of the moorillah or ridge,\nholding their nullahs in readiness, as if waiting for something to\ncome. Presently they heard a low cry from the old woman of \"Birree\ngougou,\" which cry was quickly followed by dingoes coming out of the\nbush in every direction, in hundreds, surrounding the black fellows at\nthe point.\n\nThe dingoes closed in, quickly hemming the black fellows in all round;\nthen they made a simultaneous rush at them, tore them with their teeth,\nand killed them.\n\nThe black fellows watching, saw that when the dogs had killed their\nfriends they were joined by the old woman, who helped them to drag off\nthe bodies to their camp.\n\nHaving seen all this, back went the watchers to their tribe and told\nwhat they had seen. All the tribes round mustered up and decided to\nexecute a swift vengeance. In order to do so, out they sallied well\narmed. A detachment went on to entrap the dogs and Bougoodoogahdah.\nThen just when the usual massacre of the blacks was to begin and the\ndogs were closing in round them for the purpose, out rushed over two\nhundred black fellows, and so effectual was their attack that every dog\nwas killed, as well as Bougoodoogahdah and her two little dogs.\n\nThe old woman lay where she had been slain, but as the blacks went away\nthey heard her cry \"Bougoodoogahdah.\" So back they went and broke her\nbones, first they broke her legs and then left her. But again as they\nwent they heard her cry \"Bougoodoogahdah.\" Then back again they came,\nand again, until at last every bone in her body was broken, but still\nshe cried \"Bougoodoogahdah.\" So one man waited beside her to see whence\ncame the sound, for surely, they thought, she must be dead. He saw her\nheart move and cry again \"Bougoodoogahdah\" and as it cried, out came a\nlittle bird from it. This little bird runs on the moorillahs and calls\nat night \"Bougoodoogahdah.\" All day it stays in one place, and only at\nnight comes out. It is a little greyish bird, something like a weedah.\nThe blacks call it a rain-maker, for if any one steals its eggs it\ncries out incessantly \"Bougoodoogahdah\" until in answer to its call the\nrain falls. And when the country is stricken with a drought, the blacks\nlook for one of these little birds, and finding it, chase it, until it\ncries aloud \"Bougoodoogahdah, Bougoodoogahdah\" and when they hear its\ncry in the daytime they know the rain will soon fall.\n\nAs the little bird flew from the heart of the woman, all the dead\ndingoes were changed into snakes, many different kinds, all poisonous.\nThe two little dogs were changed into dayall minyah, a very small kind\nof carpet snake, non-poisonous, for these two little dogs had never\nbitten the blacks as the other dogs had done. At the points of the\nMoorillahs where Bougoodoogahdah and her dingoes used to slay the\nblacks, are heaps of white stones, which are supposed to be the\nfossilised bones of the massacred men.\n\n\n\n\n26.  THE BORAH OF BYAMEE\n\n\nWord had been passed from tribe to tribe, telling, how that the season\nwas good, there must be a great gathering of the tribes. And the place\nfixed for the gathering was Googoorewon. The old men whispered that it\nshould be the occasion for a borah, but this the women must not know.\nOld Byamee, who was a great Wirreenun, said he would take his two sons,\nGhindahindahmoee and Boomahoomahnowee, to the gathering of the tribes,\nfor the time had come when they should be made young men, that they\nmight be free to marry wives, eat emu flesh, and learn to be warriors.\n\nAs tribe after tribe arrived at Googoorewon, each took up a position at\none of the various points of the ridges, surrounding the clear open\nspace where the corrobborees were to be. The Wahn, crows, had one\npoint; the Dummerh, pigeons, another; the Mahthi, dogs, another, and so\non; Byamee and his tribe, Byahmul the black swans tribe, Oooboon, the\nblue tongued lizard, and many other chiefs and their tribes, each had\ntheir camp on a different point. When all had arrived there were\nhundreds and hundreds assembled, and many and varied were the nightly\ncorrobborees, each tribe trying to excel the other in the fancifulness\nof their painted get-up, and the novelty of their newest song and\ndance. By day there was much hunting and feasting, by night much\ndancing and singing; pledges of friendship exchanged, a dillibag for a\nboomerang, and so on; young daughters given to old warriors, old women\ngiven to young men, unborn girls promised to old men, babies in arms\npromised to grown men; many and diverse were the compacts entered into,\nand always were the Wirreenun, or doctors of the tribes consulted.\n\nAfter some days the Wirreenun told the men of the tribes that they were\ngoing to hold a borah. But on no account must the innerh, or women,\nknow. Day by day they must all go forth as if to hunt and then prepare\nin secret the borah ground. Out went the man each day. They cleared a\nvery large circle quite clear, then they built an earthen dam round\nthis circle, and cleared a pathway leading into the thick bush from the\ncircle, and built a dam on either side of this pathway.\n\nWhen all these preparations were finished, they had, as usual, a\ncorrobboree at night. After this had been going on for some time, one\nof the old Wirreenun walked right away from the crowd as if he were\nsulky. He went to his camp, to where he was followed by another\nWirreenun, and presently the two old fellows began fighting. Suddenly,\nwhen the attention of the blacks was fixed on this fight, there came a\nstrange, whizzing, whirring noise from the scrub round. The women and\nchildren shrank together, for the sudden, uncanny noise frightened\nthem. And they knew that it was made by the spirits who were coming to\nassist at the initiation of the boys into young manhood. The noise\nreally sounded, if you had not the dread of spirits in your mind, just\nas if some one had a circular piece of wood at the end of a string and\nwere whirling it round and round.\n\nAs the noise went on, the women said, in an awestricken tone,\n\"Gurraymy,\" that is \"borah devil,\" and clutched their children tighter\nto them. The boys said \"Gayandy,\" and their eyes extended with fear.\n\"Gayandy\" meant borah devil too, but the women must not even use the\nsame word as the boys and men to express the borah spirit, for all\nconcerning the mysteries of borah are sacred from the ears, eyes, or\ntongues of women.\n\nThe next day a shift was made of the camps. They were moved to inside\nthe big ring that the black fellows had made. This move was attended\nwith a certain amount of ceremony. In the afternoon, before the move\nhad taken place, all the black fellows left their camps and went away\ninto the scrub. Then just about sundown they were all to be seen\nwalking in single file out of the scrub, along the path which they had\npreviously banked on each side. Every man had a fire stick in one hand\nand a green switch in the other. When these men reached the middle of\nthe enclosed ring was the time for the young people and women to leave\nthe old camps, and move into the borah ring. Inside this ring they made\ntheir camps, had their suppers and corrobboreed, as on previous\nevenings, up to a certain stage. Before, on this occasion, that stage\narrived, Byamee, who was greatest of the Wirreenun present, had shown\nhis power in a remarkable way. For some days the Mahthi had been\nbehaving with a great want of respect for the wise men of the tribes.\nInstead of treating their sayings and doings with the silent awe the\nWirreenun expect, they had kept up an incessant chatter and laughter\namongst themselves, playing and shouting as if the tribes were not\ncontemplating the solemnisation of their most sacred rites. Frequently\nthe Wirreenun sternly bade them be silent. But admonitions were\nuseless, gaily chattered and laughed the Mahthi. At length Byamee,\nmightiest and most famous of the Wirreenun, rose, strode over to the\ncamp of Mahthi, and said fiercely to them: \"I, Byamee, whom all the\ntribes hold in honour, have thrice bade you Mahthi cease your chatter\nand laughter. But you heeded me not. To my voice were added the voices\nof the Wirreenun of other tribes. But you heeded not. Think you the\nWirreenun will make any of your tribe young men when you heed not their\nwords? No, I tell you. From this day forth no Mahthi shall speak again\nas men speak. You wish to make noise, to be a noisy tribe and a\ndisturber of men; a tribe who cannot keep quiet when strangers are in\nthe camp; a tribe who understand not sacred things. So be it. You\nshall, and your descendants, for ever make a noise, but it shall not be\nthe noise of speech, or the noise of laughter. It shall be the noise of\nbarking and the noise of howling. And from this day if ever a Mahthi\nspeaks, woe to those who hear him, for even as they hear shall they be\nturned to stone.\"\n\nAnd as the Mahthi opened their mouths, and tried to laugh and speak\nderisive words, they found, even as Byamee said, so were they. They\ncould but bark and howl; the powers of speech and laughter had they\nlost. And as they realised their loss, into their eyes came a look of\nyearning and dumb entreaty which will be seen in the eyes of their\ndescendants for ever. A feeling of wonder and awe fell on the various\ncamps as they watched Byamce march back to his tribe.\n\nWhen Byamee was seated again in his camp, he asked the women why they\nwere not grinding doonburr. And the women said: \"Gone are our dayoorls,\nand we know not where.\"\n\n\"You lie,\" said Byamee. \"You have lent them to the Dummerh, who came so\noften to borrow, though I bade you not lend.\"\n\n\"No, Byamee, we lent them not.\"\n\n\"Go to the camp of the Dummerh, and ask for your dayoorl.\"\n\nThe women, with the fear of the fate of the Mahthi did they disobey,\nwent, though well they knew they had not lent the dayoorl. As they went\nthey asked at each camp if the tribe there would lend them a dayoorl,\nbut at each camp they were given the same answer, namely, that the\ndayoorls were gone and none knew where. The Dummerh had asked to borrow\nthem, and in each instance been refused, yet had the stones gone.\n\nAs the women went on they heard a strange noise, as of the cry of\nspirits, a sound like a smothered \"Oom, oom, oom, oom.\" The cry sounded\nhigh in the air through the tops of trees, then low on the ground\nthrough the grasses, until it seemed as if the spirits were everywhere.\nThe women clutched tighter their fire sticks, and said: \"Let us go\nback. The Wondah are about,\" And swiftly they sped towards their camp,\nhearing ever in the air the \"Oom, oom, oom\" of the spirits.\n\nThey told Byamee that all the tribes had lost their dayoorls, and that\nthe spirits were about, and even as they spoke came the sound of \"Oom,\noom, oom, oom,\" at the back of their own camp.\n\nThe women crouched together, but Byamee flashed a fire stick whence\ncame the sound, and as the light flashed on the place he saw no one,\nbut stranger than all, he saw two dayoorls moving along, and yet could\nsee no one moving them, and as the dayoorls moved swiftly away, louder\nand louder rose the sound of \"Oom, oom, oom, oom,\" until the air seemed\nfull of invisible spirits. Then Byamee knew that indeed the Wondah were\nabout, and he too clutched his fire stick and went back into his camp.\n\nIn the morning it was seen that not only were all the dayoorls gone,\nbut the camp of the Dummerh was empty and they too had gone. When no\none would lend the Dummerh dayoorls, they had said, \"Then we can grind\nno doonburr unless the Wondah bring us stones.\" And scarcely were the\nwords said before they saw a dayoorl moving towards them. At first they\nthought it was their own skill which enabled them only to express a\nwish to have it realised. But as dayoorl after dayoorl glided into\ntheir camp, and, passing through there, moved on, and as they moved was\nthe sound of \"Oom, oom, oom, oom,\" to be heard everywhere they knew it\nwas the Wondah at work. And it was borne in upon them that where the\ndayoorl went they must go, or they would anger the spirits who had\nbrought them through their camp.\n\nThey gathered up their belongings and followed in the track of the\ndayoorls, which had cut a pathway from Googoorewon to Girrahween, down\nwhich in high floods is now a water-course. From Girrahween, on the\ndayoorls went to Dirangibirrah, and after them the Dummerh.\nDirangibirrah is between Brewarrina and Widda Murtee, and there the\ndayoorls piled themselves up into a mountain, and there for the future\nhad the blacks to go when they wanted good dayoorls. And the Dummerh\nwere changed into pigeons, with a cry like the spirits of \"Oom, oom,\noom.\"\n\nAnother strange thing happened at this big borah. A tribe, called\nOoboon, were camped at some distance from the other tribes. When any\nstranger went to their camp, it was noticed that the chief of the\nOoboon would come out and flash a light on him, which killed him\ninstantly. And no one knew what this light was, that carried death in\nits gleam. At last, Wahn the crow, said \"I will take my biggest booreen\nand go and see what this means. You others, do not follow me too\nclosely, for though I have planned how to save myself from the deadly\ngleam, I might not be able to save you.\"\n\nWahn walked into the camp of the Ooboon, and as their chief turned to\nflash the light on him, he put up his booreen and completely shaded\nhimself from it, and called aloud in a deep voice \"Wah, wah, wah, wah\"\nwhich so startled Ooboon that he dropped his light, and said \"What is\nthe matter? You startled me. I did not know who you were and might have\nhurt you, though I had no wish to, for the Wahn are my friends.\"\n\n\"I cannot stop now,\" said the Wahn, \"I must go back to my camp. I have\nforgotten something I wanted to show you. I'll be back soon.\" And so\nsaying, swiftly ran Wahn back to where he had left his boondee, then\nback he came almost before Ooboon realised that he had gone. Back he\ncame, and stealing up behind Ooboon dealt him a blow with his boondee\nthat avenged amply the victims of the deadly light, by stretching the\nchief of the Ooboon a corpse on the ground at his feet. Then crying\ntriumphantly, \"Wah, wah, wah,\" back to his camp went Wahn and told what\nhe had done.\n\nThis night, when the Borah corrobboree began, all the women relations\nof the boys to be made young men, corrobboreed all night. Towards the\nend of the night all the young women were ordered into bough humpies,\nwhich had been previously made all round the edge of the embankment\nsurrounding the ring. The old women stayed on.\n\nThe men who were to have charge of the boys to be made young men, were\ntold now to be ready to seize hold each of his special charge, to carry\nhim off down the beaten track to the scrub. When every man had, at a\nsignal, taken his charge on his shoulder, they all started dancing\nround the ring. Then the old women were told to come and say good-bye\nto the boys, after which they were ordered to join the young women in\nthe humpies. About five men watched them into the humpies, then pulled\nthe boughs down on the top of them that they might see nothing further.\n\nWhen the women were safely imprisoned beneath the boughs, the men\ncarrying the boys swiftly disappeared down the track into the scrub.\nWhen they were out of sight the five black fellows came and pulled the\nboughs away and released the women, who went now to their camps. But\nhowever curious these women were as to what rites attended the boys'\ninitiation into manhood, they knew no questions would elicit any\ninformation. In some months' time they might see their boys return\nminus, perhaps, a front tooth, and with some extra scarifications on\ntheir bodies, but beyond that, and a knowledge of the fact that they\nhad not been allowed to look on the face of woman since their\ndisappearance into the scrub, they were never enlightened.\n\nThe next day the tribes made ready to travel to the place of the little\nborah, which would be held in about four days' time, at about ten or\ntwelve miles distance from the scene of the big borah.\n\nAt the place of the little borah a ring of grass is made instead of one\nof earth. The tribes all travel together there, camp, and have a\ncorrobboree. The young women are sent to bed early, and the old women\nstay until the time when the boys bade farewell to them at the big\nborah, at which hour the boys are brought into the little borah and\nallowed to say a last good-bye to the old women. Then they are taken\naway by the men who have charge of them together. They stay together\nfor a short time, then probably separate, each man with his one boy\ngoing in a different direction. The man keeps strict charge of the boy\nfor at least six months, during which time he may not even look at his\nown mother. At the end of about six months he may come back to his\ntribe, but the effect of his isolation is that he is too wild and\nfrightened to speak even to his mother, from whom he runs away if she\napproaches him, until by degrees the strangeness wears off.\n\nBut at this borah of Byamee the tribes were not destined to meet the\nboys at the little borah. Just as they were gathering up their goods\nfor a start, into the camp staggered Millindooloonubbah, the widow,\ncrying, \"You all left me, widow that I was, with my large family of\nchildren, to travel alone. How could the little feet of my children\nkeep up to you? Can my back bear more than one goolay? Have I more than\ntwo arms and one back? Then how could I come swiftly with so many\nchildren? Yet none of you stayed to help me. And as you went from each\nwater hole you drank all the water. When, tired and thirsty, I reached\na water hole and my children cried for a drink, what did I find to give\nthem? Mud, only mud. Then thirsty and worn, my children crying and\ntheir mother helpless to comfort them; on we came to the next hole.\nWhat did we see, as we strained our eyes to find water? Mud, only mud.\nAs we reached hole after hole and found only mud, one by one my\nchildren laid down and died; died for want of a drink, which\nMillindooloonubbah their mother could not give them.\"\n\nAs she spoke, swiftly went a woman to her with a wirree of water. \"Too\nlate, too late,\" she said. \"Why should a mother live when her children\nare dead?\" And she lay back with a groan. But as she felt the water\ncool her parched lips and soften her swollen tongue, she made a final\neffort, rose to her feet, and waving her hands round the camps of the\ntribes, cried aloud: \"You were in such haste to get here. You shall\nstay here. Googoolguyyah. Googoolguyyah. Turn into trees. Turn into\ntrees.\" Then back she fell, dead. And as she fell, the tribes that were\nstanding round the edge of the ring, preparatory to gathering their\ngoods and going, and that her hand pointed to as it waved round, turned\ninto trees. There they now stand. The tribes in the background were\nchanged each according to the name they were known by, into that bird\nor beast of the same name. The barking Mahthi into dogs; the Byahmul\ninto black swans: the Wahns into crows, and so on. And there at the\nplace of the big borah, you can see the trees standing tall and gaunt,\nsad-looking in their sombre hues, waving with a sad wailing their\nbranches towards the lake which covers now the place where the borah\nwas held. And it bears the name of Googoorewon, the place of trees, and\nround the edge of it is still to be seen the remains of the borah ring\nof earth. And it is known as a great place of meeting for the birds\nthat bear the names of the tribes of old. The Byahmuls sail proudly\nabout; the pelicans, their water rivals in point of size and beauty;\nthe ducks, and many others too numerous to mention. The Ooboon, or\nblue-tongued lizards, glide in and out through the grass. Now and then\nis heard the \"Oom, oom, oom,\" of the dummerh, and occasionally a cry\nfrom the bird Millindooloonubbah of \"Googoolguyyah, googoolguyyah.\" And\nin answer comes the wailing of the gloomy-looking balah trees, and then\na rustling shirr through the bibbil branches, until at last every tree\ngives forth its voice and makes sad the margin of the lake with echoes\nof the past.\n\nBut the men and boys who were at the place of the little borah escaped\nthe metamorphosis. They waited long for the arrival of the tribes who\nnever came.\n\nAt last Byamee said: \"Surely mighty enemies have slain our friends, and\nnot one escapes to tell us of their fate. Even now these enemies may be\nupon our track; let us go into a far country.\"\n\nAnd swiftly they went to Noondoo. Hurrying along with them, a dog of\nByamee's, which would fain have lain by the roadside rather than have\ntravelled so swiftly, but Byamee would not leave her and hurried her\non. When they reached the springs of Noondoo, the dog sneaked away into\na thick scrub, and there were born her litter of pups. But such pups as\nsurely man never looked at before. The bodies of dogs, and the heads of\npigs, and the fierceness and strength of devils. And gone is the life\nof a man who meets in a scrub of Noondoo an earmoonan, for surely will\nit slay him. Not even did Byamee ever dare to go near the breed of his\nold dog. And Byamee, the mighty Wirreenun, lives for ever. But no man\nmust look upon his face, lest surely will he die. So alone in a thick\nscrub, on one of the Noondoo ridges, lives this old man, Byamee, the\nmightiest of Wirreenun.\n\n\n\n\n27.  BUNNYYARL THE FLIES AND WURRUNNUNNAH THE BEES\n\n\nThe Bunnyyarl and Wurrunnunnah were relations, and lived in one camp.\nThe Wurrunnunnah were very hardworking, always trying to gather food in\na time of plenty, to lay in a store for a time of famine. The Bunnyyarl\nused to give no heed to the future, but used to waste their time\nplaying round any rubbish, and never thinking even of laying up any\nprovisions. One day the Wurrunnunnah said, \"Come out with us and gather\nhoney from flowers. Soon will the winter winds blow the flowers away,\nand there will be no more honey to gather.\"\n\n\"No,\" said the Bunnyyarl, \"we have something to look to here.\" And\noff they went, turning over some rubbish and wasting their time,\nknowing whatever the Wurrunnunnah brought they would share with them.\nThe Wurrunnunnah went alone and left the Bunnyyarl to their rubbish.\nThe Wurrunnunnah gathered the flowers and stored the honey, and never\nmore went back to live with the Bunnyyarls, for they were tired of\ndoing all the work.\n\nAs time went on the Wurrunnunnah were changed into little wild bees,\nand the lazy Bunnyyarls were changed into flies.\n\n\n\n\n28.  DEEGEENBOYAH THE SOLDIER-BIRD\n\n\nDeegeenboyah was an old man, and getting past hunting much for himself;\nand he found it hard to keep his two wives and his two daughters\nsupplied with food. He camped with his family away from the other\ntribes, but he used to join the men of the Mullyan tribe when they were\ngoing out hunting, and so get a more certain supply of food than if he\nhad gone by himself. One day when the Mullyan went out, he was too late\nto accompany them. He hid in the scrub and waited for their return, at\nsome little distance from their camp. When they were coming back he\nheard them singing the Song of the Setting Emu, a song which whoever\nfinds the first emu's nest of the season always sings before getting\nback to the camp. Deegeenboyah jumped up as he heard the song, and\nstarted towards the camp of the Mullyan singing the same song, as if he\ntoo had found a nest. On they all went towards the camp sing joyously:\n\n  Nurdoo, nurbber me derreen derreenbah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.\n  Garmbay booan yunnahdeh beahwah ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.\n  Gubbondee, dee, ee, ee, ee.\n  Neah nein gulbeejah, ah, ah, ah, ah.\"\n\nWhich song roughly translated means:\n\n  I saw it first amongst the young trees,\n  The white mark on its forehead,\n  The white mark that before I had only seen as the emus moved together\n      in the day-time.\n  Never did I see one camp before, only moving, moving always.\n  Now that we have found the nest\n  We must look out the ants do not get to the eggs.\n  If they crawl over them the eggs are spoilt.\n\nAs the last echo of the song died away, those in the camp took up the\nrefrain and sang it back to the hunters to let them know that they\nunderstood that they had found the first emu's nest of the season.\n\nWhen the hunters reached the camp, up came Deegeenboyah too. The\nMullyans turned to him, and said:\n\n\"Did you find an emu's nest too?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Deegeenboyah, \"I did. I think you must have found the same,\nthough after me, as I saw not your tracks. But I am older and stiff in\nmy limbs, so came not back so quickly. Tell me, where is your nest?\"\n\n\"In the clump of the Goolahbahs, on the edge of the plain,\" said the\nunsuspecting Mullyan.\n\n\"Ah, I thought so. That is mine. But what matter? We can share--there\nwill be plenty for all. We must get the net and go and camp near the\nnest to-night, and to-morrow trap the emu.\"\n\nThe Mullyan got their emu trapping net, one made of thin rope about as\nthick as a thin clothes line, about five feet high, and between two and\nthree hundred yards long. And off they set, accompanied by\nDeegeenboyah, to camp near where the emu was setting. When they had\nchosen a place to camp, they had their supper and a little corrobborce,\nillustrative of slaying emu, etc. The next morning at daylight they\nerected their net into a sort of triangular shaped yard, one side open.\nBlack fellows were stationed at each end of the net, and at stated\ndistances along it. The net was upheld by upright poles. When the net\nwas fixed, some of the blacks made a wide circle round the emu's nest,\nleaving open the side towards the net. They closed in gradually until\nthey frightened the emu off the nest. The emu seeing black fellows on\nevery side but one, ran in that direction. The blacks followed closely,\nand the bird was soon yarded. Madly the frightened bird rushed against\nthe net. Up ran a black fellow, seized the bird and wrung its neck.\nThen some of them went back to the nest to get the eggs, which they\nbaked in the ashes of their fire and ate. They made a hole to cook the\nemu in. They plucked the emu. When they had plenty of coals, they put a\nthick layer at the bottom of the hole, some twigs of leaves on top of\nthe coals, some feathers on the top of them. Then they laid the emu in,\nmore feathers on the top of it, leaves again on top of them, and over\nthem a thick layer of coals, and lastly they covered all with earth.\n\nIt would be several hours in cooking, so Deegeenboyah said, \"I will\nstay and cook the emu, you young fellows take moonoons--emu spears--and\ntry and get some more emu.\"\n\nThe Mullyan thought there was sense in this proposal, so they took a\ncouple of long spears, with a jagged nick at one end, to hold the emu\nwhen they speared it; they stuck a few emu feathers on the end of each\nspear and went off. They soon saw a flock of emu coming past where they\nwere waiting to water. Two of the party armed with the moonoon climbed\na tree, broke some boughs and put these thickly beneath them, so as to\nscreen them from the emu. Then as the emu came near to the men they\ndangled down their spears, letting the emu feathers on the ends wave to\nand fro. The emu, seeing the feathers, were curious as to how they got\nthere, came over, craning their necks and sniffing right underneath the\nspears. The black fellows tightly grasped the moonoons and drove them\nwith force into the two emu they had picked One emu dropped dead at\nonce. The other ran with the spear in it for a short distance, but the\nblack fellow was quickly after it, and soon caught and killed it\noutright. Then carrying the dead birds, back they went to where\nDeegeenboyah was cooking the other emu. They cooked the two they had\nbrought, and then all started for the camp in great spirits at their\nsuccessful chase. They began throwing their mooroolahs as they went\nalong, and playing with their bubberahs, or returning boomerangs. Old\nDeegeenboyah said, \"Here, give me the emus to carry, and then you will\nbe free to have a really good game with your mooroolahs and bubberahs,\nand see who is the best man.\"\n\nThey gave him the emus, and on they went, some throwing mooroolahs, and\nsome showing their skill with bubberahs. Presently Deegeenboyah sat\ndown. They thought he was just resting for a few minutes, so ran on\nlaughing and playing, each good throw eliciting another effort, for\nnone liked owning themselves beaten while they had a mooroolah left. As\nthey got further away they noticed Deegeenboyah was still sitting\ndown, so they called out to him to know what was the matter. \"All\nright,\" he said, \"only having a rest; shall come on in a minute.\" So on\nthey went. When they were quite out of sight Deegeenboyah jumped up\nquickly, took up the emus and made for an opening in the ground at a\nlittle distance. This opening was the door of the underground home of\nthe Murgah Muggui spider--the opening was a neat covering, like a sort\nof trap door. Down though this he went, taking the emus with him,\nknowing there was another exit at some distance, out of which he could\ncome up quite near his home, for it was the way he often took after\nhunting.\n\nThe Mullyans went home and waited, but no sign of Deegeenboyah. Then\nback on their tracks they went and called aloud, but got no answer, and\nsaw no sign. At last Mullyangah the chief of the Mullyans, said he\nwould find him. Arming himself with his boondees and spears, he went\nback to where he had last seen Deegeenboyah sitting. He saw where his\ntracks turned off and where they disappeared, but could not account for\ntheir disappearance, as he did not notice the neat little trap-door of\nthe Murgah Muggui. But he hunted round, determined to scour the bush\nuntil he found him. At last he saw a camp. He went up to it and saw\nonly two little girls playing about, whom he knew were the daughters of\nDeegeenboyah.\n\n\"Where is your father?\" he asked them.\n\n\"Out hunting,\" they said.\n\n\"Which way does he come home?\"\n\n\"Our father comes home out of this;\" and they showed him the spiders'\ntrap-door.\n\n\"Where are your mothers?\"\n\n\"Our mothers are out getting honey and yams.\" And off ran the little\ngirls to a leaning tree on which they played, running up its bent\ntrunk.\n\nMullyangah went and stood where the trunk was highest from the ground\nand said: \"Now, little girls, run up to here and jump, and I will catch\nyou. Jump one at a time.\"\n\nOff jumped one of the girls towards his outstretched arms, which, as\nshe came towards him he dropped, and, stepping aside, let her come with\nher full force to the ground where she lay dead. Then he called to the\nhorror-stricken child on the tree: \"Come, jump. Your sister came too\nquickly. Wait till I call, then jump.\"\n\n\"No, I am afraid.\"\n\n\"Come on, I will be ready this time. Now come.\"\n\n\"I am afraid.\"\n\n\"Come on; I am strong.\" And he smiled quite kindly up at the child,\nwho, hesitating no longer, jumped towards his arms, only to meet her\nsister's fate.\n\n\"Now,\" said Mullyangah, \"here come the two wives. I must silence them,\nor when they see their children their cries will warn their husband if\nhe is within earshot.\" So he sneaked behind a tree, and as the two\nwives passed he struck them dead with his spears. Then he went to the\ntrapdoor that the children had shown him, and sat down to wait for the\ncoming of Deegeenboyah. He had not long to wait. The trap-door was\npushed up and out came a cooked emu, which he caught hold of and laid\non one side. Deegeenboyah thought it was the girls taking it, as they\nhad often watched for his coming and done before, so he pushed up\nanother, which Mullyangah took, then a third, and lastly came up\nhimself, to find Mullyangah confronting him spear and boondee in hand.\nHe started back, but the trap-door was shut behind him, and Mullyangah\nbarred his escape in front.\n\n\"Ah,\" said Mullyangah, \"you stole our food and now you shall die. I've\nkilled your children.\"\n\nDecgeenboyah looked wildly round, and, seeing the dead bodies of his\ngirls beneath the leaning tree, he groaned aloud.\n\n\"And,\" went on Mullyangah, \"I've killed your wives.\"\n\nDeegenboyah raised his head and looked again wildly round, and there,\non their homeward path, he saw his dead wives. Then he called aloud,\n\"Here Mullyangah are your emus; take them and spare me. I shall steal\nno more, for I myself want little, but my children and my wives\nhungered. I but stole for them. Spare me, I pray you. I am old; I shall\nnot live long. Spare me.\"\n\n\"Not so,\" said Mullyangah, \"no man lives to steal twice from a Mullyan;\"\nand, so saying, he speared Deegeenboyah where he stood. Then he lifted up\nthe emus, and, carrying them with him, went swiftly back to his camp.\n\nAnd merry was the supper that night when the Mullyans ate the emus, and\nMullyangah told the story of his search and slaughter. And proud were\nthe Mullyans of the prowess and cunning of their chief.\n\n\n\n\n29.  MAYRAH, THE WIND THAT BLOWS THE WINTER AWAY\n\n\nAt the beginning of winter, the iguanas hide themselves in their homes\nin the sand; the black eagle hawks go into their nests; the garbarlee\nor shingle-backs hide themselves in little logs, just big enough to\nhold them; the iguanas dig a long way into the sand and cover up the\npassage behind them, as they go along. They all stay in their winter\nhomes until Mayrah blows the winter away. Mayrah first blows up a\nthunderstorm. When the iguanas hear the thunder, they know the spring\nis not far off, so they begin making a passage to go out again, but\nthey do not leave their winter home until the Curreequinquin, or\nbutcher birds sing all day almost without ceasing \"Goore, goore, goore,\ngoore.\" Then they know that Mayrah has really blown the winter away,\nfor the birds are beginning to pair and build their nests. So they open\ntheir eyes and come out on the green earth again. And when the black\nfellows hear the curreequinquins singing \"Goore, goore,\" they know that\nthey can go out and find iguanas again, and find them fatter than when\nthey went away with the coming of winter. Then, too, will they find\npiggiebillahs hurrying along to get away from their young ones, which\nthey have buried in the sand and left to shift for themselves, for no\nlonger can they carry them, as the spines of the young ones begin to\nprick them in their pouch. So they leave them and hurry away, that they\nmay not hear their cry. They know they shall meet them again later on,\nwhen they are grown big. Then as Mayrah softly blows, the flowers one\nby one open, and the bees come out again to gather honey. Every bird\nwears his gayest plumage and sings his sweetest song to attract a mate,\nand in pairs they go to build their nests. And still Mayrah softly\nblows until the land is one of plenty; then Yhi the sun chases her back\nwhence she came, and the flowers droop and the birds sing only in the\nearly morning. For Yhi rules in the land until the storms are over and\nhave cooled him, and winter takes his place to be blown away again by\nMayrah the loved of all, and the bringer of plenty.\n\n\n\n\n30.  WAYARNBEH THE TURTLE\n\n\nOolah, the lizard, was out getting yams on a Mirrieh flat. She had\nthree of her children with her. Suddenly she thought she heard some one\nmoving behind the big Mirrieh bushes. She listened. All of a sudden out\njumped Wayambeh from behind a bush and seized Oolah, telling her not to\nmake a noise and he would not hurt her, but that he meant to take her\noff to his camp to be his wife. He would take her three children too\nand look after them. Resistance was useless, for Oolah had only her yam\nstick, while Wayambeh had his spears and boondees. Wayambeh took the\nwoman and her children to his camp. His tribe when they saw him bring\nhome a woman of the Oolah tribe, asked him if her tribe had given her\nto him. He said, \"No, I have stolen her.\"\n\n\"Well,\" they said, \"her tribe will soon be after her; you must protect\nyourself; we shall not fight for you. You had no right to steal her\nwithout telling us. We had a young woman of our own tribe for you, yet\nyou go and steal an Oolah and bring her to the camp of the Wayambeh. On\nyour own head be the consequences.\"\n\nIn a short time the Oolahs were seen coming across the plain which\nfaced the camp of the Wayambeh. And they came not in friendship or to\nparley, for no women were with them, and they carried no boughs of\npeace in their bands, but were painted as for war, and were armed with\nfighting weapons.\n\nWhen the Wayambeh saw the approach of the Oolah, their chief said:\n\"Now, Wayambeh, you had better go out on to the plain and do your own\nfighting; we shall not help you.\"\n\nWayambeh chose the two biggest boreens that he had; one he slung on\nhim, covering the front of his body, and one the back; then, seizing\nhis weapons, he strode out to meet his enemies.\n\nWhen he was well out on to the plain, though still some distance from\nthe Oolah, he called out, \"Come on.\"\n\nThe answer was a shower of spears and boomerangs. As they came whizzing\nthrough the air Wayambeh drew his arms inside the boreens, and ducked\nhis head down between them, so escaped.\n\nAs the weapons fell harmless to the ground, glancing off his boreen,\nout again he stretched his arms and held up again his head, shouting,\n\"Come on, try again, I'm ready.\"\n\nThe answer was another shower of weapons, which he met in the same way.\nAt last the Oolahs closed in round him, forcing him to retreat towards\nthe creek.\n\nShower after shower of weapons they slung at him, and were getting at\nsuch close quarters that his only chance was to dive into the creek. He\nturned towards the creek, tore the front boreen off him, flung down his\nweapons and plunged in.\n\nThe Oolah waited, spears poised in hand, ready to aim directly his head\nappeared above water, but they waited in vain. Wayambeh, the black\nfellow, they never saw again, but in the waterhole wherein he had dived\nthey saw a strange creature, which bore on its back a fixed structure\nlike a boreen, and which, when they went to try and catch it, drew in\nits head and limbs, so they said, \"It is Wayambeh.\" And this was the\nbeginning of Wayambeh, or turtle, in the creeks.\n\n\n\n\n31.  WIRREENUN THE RAINMAKER\n\n\nThe country was stricken with a drought. The rivers were all dry except\nthe deepest holes in them. The grass was dead, and even the trees were\ndying. The bark dardurr of the blacks were all fallen to the ground and\nlay there rotting, so long was it since they had been used, for only in\nwet weather did the blacks use the bark dardurr; at other times they\nused only whatdooral, or bough shades.\n\nThe young men of the Noongahburrah murmured among themselves, at first\nsecretly, at last openly, saying: \"Did not our fathers always say that\nthe Wirreenun could make, as we wanted it, the rain to fall? Yet look\nat our country--the grass blown away, no doonburr seed to grind, the\nkangaroo are dying, and the emu, the duck, and the swan have flown to\nfar countries. We shall have no food soon; then shall we die, and the\nNoongahburrah be no more seen on the Narrin. Then why, if he is able,\ndoes not Wirreenun inake rain?\"\n\nSoon these murmurs reached the ears of the old Wirreenun. He said\nnothing, but the young fellows noticed that for two or three days in\nsuccession he went to the waterhole in the creek and placed in it a\nwillgoo willgoo--a long stick, ornamented at the top with white cockatoo\nfeathers--and beside the stick he placed two big gubberah, that is, two\nbig, clear pebbles which at other times he always secreted about him,\nin the folds of his waywah, or in the band or net on his head.\nEspecially was he careful to hide these stones from the women.\n\nAt the end of the third day Wirreenun said to the young men: \"Go you,\ntake your comeboos and cut bark sufficient to make dardurr for all the\ntribe.\"\n\nThe young men did as they were bade. When they had the bark cut and\nbrought in Wirreenun said: \"Go you now and raise with ant-bed a high\nplace, and put thereon logs and wood for a fire, build the ant-bed\nabout a foot from the ground. Then put you a floor of ant-bed a foot\nhigh whereever you are going to build a dardurr.\"\n\nAnd they did what he told them. When the dardurr were finished, having\nhigh floors of ant-bed and water-tight roofs of bark, Wirreenun\ncommanded the whole camp to come with him to the waterhole; men, women,\nand children; all were to come. They all followed him down to the\ncreek, to the waterhole where he had placed the willgoo willgoo and\ngubberah. Wirreenun jumped into the water and bade the tribe follow\nhim, which they did. There in the water they all splashed and played\nabout. After a little time Wirreenun went up first behind one black\nfellow and then behind another, until at length he had been round them\nall, and taken from the back of each one's head lumps of charcoal. When\nhe went up to each he appeared to suck the back or top of their heads,\nand to draw out lumps of charcoal, which, as he sucked them out, he\nspat into the water. When he had gone the round of all, he went out of\nthe water. But just as he got out a young man caught him up in his arms\nand threw him back into the water. This happened several times, until\nWirreenun was shivering. That was the signal for all to leave the\ncreek. Wirreenun sent all the young people into a big bough shed, and\nbade them all go to sleep. He and two old men and two old women stayed\noutside. They loaded themselves with all their belongings piled up on\ntheir backs, dayoorl stones and all, as if ready for a flitting. These\nold people walked impatiently around the bough shed as if waiting a\nsignal to start somewhere. Soon a big black cloud appeared on the\nhorizon, first a single cloud, which, however, was soon followed by\nothers rising all round. They rose quickly until they all met just\noverhead, forming a big black mass of clouds. As soon as this big,\nheavy, rainladen looking cloud was stationary overhead, the old people\nwent into the bough shed and bade the young people wake up and come out\nand look at the sky. When they were all roused Wirreenun told them to\nlose no time, but to gather together all their possessions and hasten\nto gain the shelter of the bark dardurr. Scarcely were they all in the\ndardurrs and their spears well hidden when there sounded a terrific\nclap of thunder, which was quickly followed by a regular cannonade,\nlightning flashes shooting across the sky, followed by instantaneous\nclaps of deafening thunder. A sudden flash of lightning, which lit a\npathway, from heaven to earth, was followed by such a terrific clash\nthat the blacks thought their very camps were struck. But it was a tree\na little distance off. The blacks huddled together in their dardurrs,\nfrightened to move, the children crying with fear, and the dogs\ncrouching towards their owners.\n\n\"We shall be killed,\" shrieked the women. The men said nothing but\nlooked as frightened.\n\nOnly Wirreenun was fearless. \"I will go out,\" he said, \"and stop the\nstorm from hurting us. The lightning shall come no nearer.\"\n\nSo out in front of the dardurrs strode Wirreenun, and naked he stood\nthere facing the storm, singing aloud, as the thunder roared and the\nlightning flashed, the chant which was to keep it away from the camp\n\n  \"Gurreemooray, mooray,\n  Durreemooray, mooray, mooray,\" &c.\n\nSoon came a lull in the cannonade, a slight breeze stirred the trees\nfor a few moments, then an oppressive silence, and then the rain in\nreal earnest began, and settled down to a steady downpour, which lasted\nfor some days.\n\nWhen the old people had been patrolling the bough shed as the clouds\nrose overhead, Wirreenun had gone to the waterhole and taken out the\nwillgoo willgoo and the stones, for he saw by the cloud that their work\nwas done.\n\nWhen the rain was over and the country all green again, the blacks had\na great corrobboree and sang of the skill of Wirreenun, rainmaker to\nthe Noongahburrah.\n\nWirreenun sat calm and heedless of their praise, as he had been of\ntheir murmurs. But he determined to show them that his powers were\ngreat, so he summoned the rainmaker of a neighbouring tribe, and after\nsome consultation with him, he ordered the tribes to go to the\nGoogoorewon, which was then a dry plain, with the solemn, gaunt trees\nall round it, which had once been black fellows.\n\nWhen they were all camped round the edges of this plain, Wirreenun and\nhis fellow rainmaker made a great rain to fall just over the plain and\nfill it with water.\n\nWhen the plain was changed into a lake, Wirreenun said to the young men\nof his tribe: \"Now take your nets and fish.\"\n\n\"What good?\" said they. \"The lake is filled from the rain, not the\nflood water of rivers, filled but yesterday, how then shall there be\nfish?\"\n\n\"Go,\" said Wirreenun. \"Go as I bid you; fish. If your nets catch\nnothing then shall Wirreenun speak no more to the men of his tribe, he\nwill seek only honey and yams with the women.\"\n\nMore to please the man who had changed their country from a desert to a\nhunter's paradise, they did as he bade them, took their nets and went\ninto the lake. And the first time they drew their nets, they were heavy\nwith goodoo, murree, tucki, and bunmillah. And so many did they catch\nthat all the tribes, and their dogs, had plenty.\n\nThen the elders of the camp said now that there was plenty everywhere,\nthey would have a borah that the boys should be made young men. On one\nof the ridges away from the camp, that the women should not know, would\nthey prepare a ground.\n\nAnd so was the big borah of the Googoorewon held, the borah which was\nfamous as following on the triumph of Wirreenun the rainmaker.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\n\nEDITOR and Publisher have gratefully accepted a suggestion made by Dr.\nE. B. Tylor, that the philologist would be thankful for a specimen of\nthese tales in their native form.\n\n\n\nDINEWAN BOOLLARHNAH GOOMBLEGUBBON\n\nDinewan boorool diggayah gillunnee. Nahmerhneh boorool doorunmai.\nGoomblegubbon boolwarrunnee. Goomblegubbon numbardee boorool\nboolwarrunnee Dinewan numbardee. Baiyan noo nurruldundi gunnoonah\nburraylundi nurreebah burri bunnagullundi. Goomblegubbondoo\nwinnanullunnee dirrah dungah nah gillunnee, Dinewandoo boonoong noo\nbeonemuldundi.\n\nGoomblegubbondoo winnanullunnee gullarh naiyahneh gwallee Dinewan\ngimbelah:\n\n\"Wahl ninderh doorunmai gillaygoo. Baiyan noo winnanunnee boonoong\ngurrahgoo, wahlneh burraylaygoo. Wahl butndi naiyah boorool gillunnah\nboomahleegooneh naiyah butthdinen woggee gwallee myrenay boonoong\ngillundi.\"\n\nIllah noo nurray Dinewan nahwandi. Goomblegubbon lowannee boonooog noo\nwunnee wooee baiyan nurrunnee bonyehdool. Baiyan boollarhgneh\ngwalleelunnee. Goomblegubbondoo gooway:\n\n\"Minyah goo ninderh wahl boonoong dulleebah gillunnee? Gunnoono\ndiggayah burraylunneh. Wahl boonoong ninderh doorunmai. Myrenay\nboonoong gillunneh Gunnoogoo nunnahlah doorunmai gimbehlee.\" Dinewandoo\ngooway \"Gheerh ninderh boonoong bayyi.\"\n\n\"Wahl.\"\n\nNahnee Dinewan noonoo meer gullahgeh. Baiyan boollarhneh budtnah\nginnee. Boonoong butndi nullee gurray wahl Goomblegubbon doorunmai\ngiggee.\n\nDinewandoo gooneejayn gooway cooleer noo noo boonoong gurrahlee goo\ncomeboo goo.\n\nBaiyan noo gaiathah noonoo boonoong gurray. Baiyan, neh bunnerhgahoonee\nGoomblegubbon. Dinewan gooway Goomblegubbon:\n\n\"Boonoong nayr gurray.\" Goomblegubbon gindabnunnee, barnee, bunna\ngunnee dirrah gunnee numerhneh. Boonoong beeyonemay, baiyan noo gooway\nDinewan.\n\n\"Dungneemay ninnerhneh nayr byjundool boonoong. Mayerboo nay, nay\nboonoong, gurrah wahl dunerh. Wombah ninderh byjundool boonoong.\nDinewan bunna gunnee boomahlee-goo Goomblegubbon, baiyan Goomblegubbon\nburrunnee. Narahgahdool myrenay boonoong. Baiyan Dinewan\neelaynerhginnee nahnee illah nayahe ninnernah gullahrah gimbehlee.\nIllah lah noo noo winnanunnee. Baiyan noo doorimbai birrahleegul\nboollarhyel nuddahnooway booroolah binnamayahgahway. Baiyan neh\nmoorillah die gahraymo noo-noo, boollarh noo garwannee. Baiyan neh\nwoggee goo nahnee. Goomblegubbondoo birrahleegul oodundi gunoonoo\ngarwil. Baiyan boollarhgneh gwallannee. Dinewan gooway Goomblegubbon.\"\n\n\"Minyah goo ninderh booroolah birrahleegulgah gillunnah. Wahl ninder\nbooroolah goo garwil ooday. Tuggil ninderh boollarhyel gargillay baiyan\nboollarhgnah, booral giggee, wahl ninderh booroolah goo gooloon\nmarlday.\" Goomblegubbon buthdi ginnee nalmee.\n\n\"Gullarh nayr nay birrahleegul boorool luggeray Dinewan? Boollarhyel\nnay gillundi yahmerh boollarhgnah boorool giggee luggeray Dinewan.\"\n\nWinnanunnee noo dungeway. Baiyan noo nurray Dinewan, nurray noo\nboorool.\n\nBaiyan noo gooway:\n\n\"Boomahlee doo gunnoono boollarhyel nayr gurrahwulday. Dinewan wahl\ndoorunmai gillay woggee goo. Goomblegubbon weel gillay doorunmai.\nGoomblegubbon boorool giggee luggeray Dinewun, boonoong gunnoo goo\ngurrahwulday. Baiyan noo boomay gunnoono birrahlee gul boollarhyel noo\ngurrahway. Baiyanneh durrahwallunee nummerh nayr Dinewan doo\nduldundigoo. Dinewandoo guggay.\"\n\n\"Minyah ninnoo birrahleegul?\"\n\n\"Gunnoono nayr boomay boollarhyel gargillunnah.\"\n\n\"Wullundoo youlloo ninderh boomay! Booroolah nay birrahleegul,\ngooloonmul dunnerli nayr gunnoonoo. Booroolah gunnoonoo. Nurraleh noill\ndoowar yu booloobunnee. Nurraleh boonboon. Nummerh nayr bayah\nmuldunnerh nay birrahlee gulloo.\"\n\n\"Boollarhyel ninnoo birrahlee garlee.\"\n\n\"Booroolah boollarh nay. Nayr di gargee ninnoonderh nurranmullee goo.\"\n\nDinewan bunnagunnee binnamayahgoo nayr noo doorimbundigoo birrableegul.\nBaiyan naiyah durrabwullunee, dirralabeel ginnee noo boobootella,\ngwallandy, \"Boom, boom.\" Birrahleegul noo noo bunna gairlehwahndi,\nbeweererh nurrahwahndi, weeleer, weerleeer, Tuwerh munneh doorundi,\nbaiyanneh eelay nurrunnee. Baiyan noo gooway.\n\n\"Geeroo nayr ninnunnerh gooway. Gunnoono nayr nay birrahleegul\ngurrahwuldunnerh. Nurullah Numerh nayr ninnoo nurragah birrahleegul!\nBoomay ninderh ninnoo birrahleegul, ninderh nunnoo dung eemai! Tuggil\nnayr lahnylay nayr boonoong ninderh boomah boollarhyel birrahleegarlee\ngargillay. Gurrahwuldare ninnoo boonong nayr luggeeroo, gurrahwulday\nnay birrahleegul.\"\n\nMrs. Parker writes: \"The old black woman who first told me the tale is\naway, but I got another old woman of the pre-white era to tell it again\nto me yesterday; it is almost the same, minus one of the descriptive\ntouches immaterial to the story as such; in fact, to all intents and\npurposes, the same.\"\n\n\n\n\nGLOSSARY\n\n\n  Bahloo, moon.\n  Beeargah, hawk.\n  Beeleer, black cockatoo.\n  Beereeun, prickly lizard.\n  Bibbee, woodpecker, bird.\n  Bibbil, shiny-leaved box-tree.\n  Bilber, a large kind of rat.\n  Billai or Billay, crimson-wing parrot.\n  Bindeah, a prickle or small thorn.\n  Bingah wingul, needle bush, a tall thorny shrub.\n  Birrahgnooloo, woman's name, meaning \"face like a tomahawk handle.\"\n  Birrahlee, baby.\n  Birrableegul, children.\n  Boobootella, the big bunch of feathers at the back of an emu.\n  Boolooral, an owl.\n  Boomerang, a curved weapon used in hunting and in warfare by the\n    blacks; called Burren by the Narran blacks.\n  Bootoolgah, blue-grey crane.\n  Borah, a large gathering of blacks where the boys are initiated into\n    the mysteries which make them young men.\n  Bou-gou-doo-gahdah, the rain bird. Like the bower or mocking bird.\n  Bouyou, legs.\n  Bowrah or Bohrah, kangaroo.\n  Bralgahs, native companion, bird.\n  Bubberah, boomerang that returns.\n  Buckandee, native cat.\n  Buggoo, flying squirrel.\n  Bulgahnunnoo, bark-backed.\n  Bumble, a fruit-bearing tree, sometimes called wild orange and\n    sometimes wild pomegranate tree. Capparis.\n  Bunbundoolooey, brown flock pigeon.\n  Bunnyyarl, flies.\n  Burreenjin, magpie, lark, or peewee\n  Budtha, rosewood-tree, also girl's name.\n  Byamee, man's name, meaning \"big man.\"\n  Comebee, bag made of kangaroo skins.\n  Comeboo, stone tomahawk.\n  Cookooburrah, laughing jackass.\n  Coorigil, name of place, meaning sign of bees.\n  Corrobboree, black fellows' dance.\n  Cunnembeillee, woman's name, meaning pig-weed root.\n  Curree guin guin, butcher-bird.\n  Daen, black fellows.\n  Dardurr, bark, humpy or shed.\n  Dayah minyah, carpet snake.\n  Dayoorl, large flat stone for grinding grass seed upon.\n  Deegeenboyah, soldier-bird.\n  Decreeree, willy wagtail.\n  Dheal, the sacred tree of the Noongahburrahs, only used for putting on\n    the graves of the dead.\n  Dinewan, emu.\n  Dingo, native dog.\n  Doonburr, a grass seed.\n  Doongara, lightning.\n  Dummerh, pigeons.\n  Dungle, water hole.\n  Dunnia, wattle.\n  Durrie, bread made from grass seed.\n  Eaer moonan, long sharp teeth.\n  Euloo marah, large tree grubs. Edible.\n  Euloo wirree, rainbow.\n  Galah or Gilah, a French grey and rose-coloured cockatoo.\n  Gayandy, borah devil.\n  Gidgereegah, a species of small parrot.\n  Girrahween, place of flowers.\n  Gooeea, warriors.\n  Googarh, iguana.\n  Googoolguyyah, turn into trees.\n  Googoorewon, place of trees.\n  Goolahbah, grey-leaved box-tree.\n  Goolahgool, water-holding tree.\n  Goolahwilleel, top-knot pigeon.\n  Gooloo, magpie.\n  Goomade, red stamp.\n  Goomai, water rat.\n  Goomblegubbon, bastard or plainturkey.\n  Goomillah, young girl's dress, consisting of waist strings made of\n    opossum's sinews with strands of woven oppossum's hair, hanging about\n    a foot square in front.\n  Goonur, kangaroo rat.\n  Goug gour gahgah, laughing-jackass. Literal meaning, \"Take a stick.\"\n  Grooee, handsome foliaged tree bearing a plum-like fruit, tart and\n    bitter, but much liked by the blacks.\n  Gubberah, magical stones of Wirreenum. Clear crystallised quatty.\n  Guddah, red lizard,\n  Guiebet, a thorny creeper bearing masses of a lovely myrtle-like flower\n    and an edible fruit somewhat resembling passion fruit.\n  Guinary, light eagle hawk.\n  Guineboo, robin redbreast.\n  Gurraymy, borah devil.\n  Gwai, red.\n  Gwaibillah, star. Mars.\n  Kurreah, an alligator.\n  Mahthi, dog.\n  Maimah, stones.\n  Maira, paddy melon.\n  May or Mayr, wind.\n  Mayrah, spring wind.\n  Meainei, girls.\n  Midjee, a species of acacia.\n  Millair, species of kangaroo rat.\n  Moodai, opossum.\n  Moogaray, hailstones.\n  Mooninguggahgul, mosquito-calling bird.\n  Moonoon, emu spear.\n  Mooregoo, motoke.\n  Mooroonumildah, having no eyes.\n  Morilla or Moorillah, pebbly ridges.\n  Mubboo, beefwood-tree.\n  Mullyan, eagle hawk.\n  Mullyangah, the morning star.\n  Murgah muggui, big grey spider.\n  Murrawondah, climbing rat.\n  Narahdarn, bat.\n  Noongahburrah, tribe of blacks on the Narran.\n  Nullah nullah, a club or heavy-headed weapon.\n  Nurroo gay gay, dreadful pain.\n  Nyunnoo or Nunnoo, a grass humpy.\n  Ooboon, blue-tongued lizard.\n  Oolah, red prickly lizard.\n  Oongnairwah, black diver.\n  Ouyan, curlew.\n  Piggiebillah, ant-eater. One of the Echidna, a marsupial.\n  Quarrian, a kind of parrot.\n  Quatha, quandong; a red fruit like a round red plum.\n  U e hu, rain, only so called in song.\n  Waligoo, to hide. A game like hide-and-seek.\n  Wahroogah, children.\n  Wahn, crow.\n  Wayambeh, turtle.\n  Waywah, worn by men, consisting of a waistband made of opossum's sinews\n    with bunches of strips of paddymelon skins hanging from it.\n  Weedall, bower or mocking-bird.\n  Weeownbeen, a small bird. Something like a redbreast, only with longer\n    tail and not so red a breast.\n  Widya nurrah, a wooden battleaxe shaped weapon.\n  Willgoo willgoo, pointed stick with feathers on top.\n  Wirree, small piece of bark, canoe-shaped.\n  Wirreenun, priest or doctor.\n  Womba, mad.\n  Wondah, spirit or ghost.\n  Wurranunnah, wild bees.\n  Wurrawilberoo, whirlwind with a devil in it; also clouds of Magellan.\n  Wurranunnah, bee.\n  Wurrunnah, man's name, meaning standing.\n  Yaraan, white gum-tree.\n  Yhi, the sun.\n  Yuckay, oh, dear!","title":"Australian Legendary Tales: folk-lore of the Noongahburrahs as told to the Piccaninnies","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":33396}