Australian Legendary Tales and More Australian Legendary Tales

Oral tradition collected 1896-1898 · Mrs. K. Langloh Parker, Australian Legendary Tales (1896) and More Australian Legendary Tales (1898), with Introduction by Andrew Lang · Public domain (US; published 1896 and 1898) · uncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

gubbon the Bustard 

Dinewan the emu, being the largest bird, was acknow- 
ledged as king by the other birds. The Goomblegubbons,. 
the bustards, were jealous of the Dinewans. Particularly 
was Goomblegubbon, the mother, jealous of the Dinewan 
mother. She would watch with envy the high flight of 
the Dinewans, and their swift running. And she always 
fancied that the Dinewan mother flaunted her superiority 
in her face, for whenever Dinewan alighted near Goomble- 
gubbon, after a long, high flight, she would flap her big 
wings and begin booing in her pride, not the loud booing 
of the male bird, but a little, triumphant, satisfied booing 
noise of her own, which never failed to irritate Goomble- 
gubbon when she heard it. 

Goomblegubbon used to wonder how she could put an 
end to Dinewan's supremacy. She decided that she would 
only be able to do so by injuring her wings and checking 
her power of flight. But the question that troubled her 
was how to effect this end. She knew she would gain 
nothing by having a quarrel with Dinewan and fighting 

2 Australian Tales 

her, for no Goomblegubbon would stand any chance 
against a Dinewan. There was evidently nothing to be 
gained by an open fight. She would have to effect her 
end by cunning. 

One day, when Goomblegubbon saw in the distance 
Dinewan coming towards her, she squatted down and 
doubled in her wings in such a way as to look as if she 
had none. After Dinewan had been talking to her for 
some time, Goomblegubbon - said : "Why do you not 
imitate me and do without wings ? Every bird flies. 
The Dinewans, to be the king of birds, should do without 
wings. When all the birds see that I can do without 
wings, they will think I am the cleverest bird and they 
will make a Goomblegubbon king." 

" But you have wings," said Dinewan. 

" No, I have no wings." And indeed she looked as if 
her words were true, so well were her wings hidden, aS she 
squatted in the grass. Dinewan went away after awhile, 
and thought much of what she had heard. She talked it 
all over with her mate, who was as disturbed as she was. 
They made up their minds that it would never do to let the 
Goomblegubbons reign in their stead, even if they had to 
lose their wings to save their kingship. 

At length they decided on the sacrifice of their wings. 
Dinewan mother showed the example by persuading her 
mate to cut off hers with a combo or stone tomahawk, 
and then she did the same to his. As soon as the 
operations were over, the Dinewan mother lost no time 
in letting Goomblegubbon know what they had done. 
She ran swiftly down to the plain on which she had 
left Goomblegubbon, and, finding her still squatting there. 

Dinewan the Emu 3 

she said : " See, I have followed your example. I have 
now no wings. They are cut off." 

" Ha ! ha ! ha ! " laughed Goomblegubbon, jumping up 
and dancing round with joy at the success of her plot. 
As she danced round, she spread out her wings, flapped 
them, and said : " I have taken you in, old stumpy wings. 
I have my wings yet. You are fine birds, you Dinewans, 
to be chosen kings, when you are so easily taken in. 
Ha ! ha ! ha ! " And, laughing derisively, Goomblegubbon 
flapped her wings right in front of Dinewan, who rushed 
towards her to chastise her treachery. But Goomble- 
gubbon flew away, and, alas, the now wingless Dinewan 
■ could not follow her. 

Brooding over her wrongs, Dinewan walked away, 
vowing she would be revenged. But how? That was 
the question which she and her mate failed to answer for 
some time. At length Dinewan mother thought of a plan 
and prepared at once to execute it. She hid all her young 
Dinewans but two, under a big salt bush. Then she 
walked off to Goomblegubbons' plain with the two young 
ones following her. As she walked off the Morilla ridge, 
where her home was, on to the plain, she saw Goomble- 
gubbon cut feeding with her twelve young ones. 

After exchanging a few remarks in a friendly manner 
with Goomblegubbon, she said to her, "Why do you not 
imitate me and only have two children ? Twelve are too 
many to feed. If you keep so many they will never grow 
big birds like the Dinewans. The food that would make 
big birds of two would only starve twelve." Goomble- 
gubbon said nothing, but she thought it might be so. It 
was impossible to deny that the young Dinewans were 

4 Australian Tales 

much bigger than the young Goomblegubbons, and, dis- 
contentedly, Goomblegubbon walked away, wondering 
whether the smallness of her young ones was owing to the 
number of them being so much greater than that of the 
Dinewans. It would be grand, she thought, to grow as big 
as the Dinewans. But she remembered the trick she had 
played on Dinewan, and she thought that perhaps she was 
being fooled in her turn. She looked back to where the 
Dinewans fed, and as she saw how much bigger the two 
young ones were than any of hers, once more mad envy of 
Dinewan possessed her. She determined she would not be 
outdone. Rather would she kill all her young ones but 
two. She said, " The Dinewans shall not be the king birds 
of the plains. The Goomblegubbons shall replace them. 
They shall grow as big as the Dinewans, and shall keep 
their wings and fly, which now the Dinewans cannot do." 
And straightway Goomblegubbon killed all her young ones 
but two. Then back she came to where the Dinewans 
were still feeding. When Dinewan saw her coming and 
noticed she had only two young ones with her, she called 
out : " Where are all your young ones ? " 

Goomblegubbon answered, " I have killed them, and have 
only two left. Those will have plenty to eat now, and will 
soon grow as big as your young ones." 

" You cruel mother to. kill your children. You greedy 
mother. Why, I have twelve children and I find food for 
them all. I would not kill one for anything, not even if by 
so doing I could get back my wings. There is plenty for 
all. Look at the emu bush how it covers itself with berries 
to feed my big family. See how the grasshoppers come 
hopping round, so that we can catch them and fatten on them." 

Dinewan the Emu 5 

" But you have only two children." 

" I have twelve. I will go and bring them to show you." 
Dinewan ran off to her salt bush where she had hidden her 
ten young ones. Soon she was to be seen coming back. 
Running with her neck stretched forward, her head thrown 
back with pride, and the feathers of her boobootella swing- 
ing as she ran, booming out the while her queer throat 
noise, the Dinewan song of joy, the pretty, soft-looking 
little ones with their zebra striped skins, running beside 
her whistling their baby Dinewan note. When Dinewan 
reached the place where Goomblegubbon was, she stopped 
her booing and said in a solemn tone, " Now you see my 
words are true, I have twelve young ones, as I said. You 
can gaze at my loved ones and think of your poor murdered 
children. And while you do so I will tell j'ou the fate of 
your descendants for ever. By trickery and deceit you lost 
the Dinewans their wings, and now for evermore, as long 
as a Dinewan has no wings, so long shall a Goomblegubbon 
lay only two eggs and have only two young ones. We are 
quits now. You have your wings and I my children." 

And ever since that time a Dinewan, or emu, has had 
no wings, and a Goomblegubbon, or bustard of the plains, 
has laid only two eggs in a season.

OoLAH the lizard was tired of lying in tlie sun, doing 
nothing. So he said, " I will go and play." He tooii his 
boomerangs out, and began to practise throwing them. 
While he was doing so a Galah came up, and stood near, 
watching the boomerangs come flying back, for the kind of 
boomerangs Oolah was throwing were the bubberahs. 
They are smaller than others, and more curved, and when 
they are properly thrown they return to the thrower, which 
other boomerangs do not. 

Oolah was proud of having the gay Galah to watch his 
skill. In his pride he gave the bubberah an extra twist, 
and threw it with all his might. Whizz, whizzing through 
the air back it came, hitting, as it passed her, the Galah on 
the top of her head, taking both feathers and skin clean off. 
The Galah set up a hideous, cawing, croaking shriek, and 
flew about, stopping every few minutes to knock her head 
on the ground like a mad bird. Oolah was so frightened 
when he saw what he had done, and noticed that the blood 
was flowing from the Galah's head, that he glided away to 
hide under a bindeah bush. But the Galah saw him. She 
never stopped the hideous noise she was making for a 

The Galah, and Oolah the Lizard 7 

minute, but, still shrieking, followed Oolah. When she 
reached the bindeah bush she rushed at Oolah, seized him 
with her beak, rolled him on the bush until every bindeah 
had made a hole in his skin. Then she rubbed his skin 
with her own bleeding head. "Now then," she said, "you 
Oolah shall carry bindeahs on you always, and the stain of 
my blood." 

"And you," said Oolah, as he hissed with pain from the 
tingling of the prickles, " shall be a bald-headed bird as 
long as I am a red prickly lizard." 

So to this day, underneath the Galah's crest you can 
always find the bald patch which the bubberah of Oolah 
first made. And in the country of the Galahs are lizards 
coloured reddish brown, and covered with spikes like 
bindeah prickles.

Bahloo the moon looked down at the earth one night, 
when his light was shining quite brightly, to see if any one 
was moving. When the earth people were all asleep was 
the time he chose for playing with his three dogs. He 
called them dogs, but the earth people called them snakes, 
the death adder, the black snake, and the tiger snake. 
As he looked down on to the earth, with his three dogs 
beside him, Bahloo saw about a dozen daens, or black 
fellows, crossing a creek. He called to them saying, " Stop, 
I want you to carry my dogs across that creek." But the 
black fellows, though they liked Bahloo well, did not like his 
dogs, for sometimes when he had brought these dogs to 
play on the earth, they had bitten not only the earth 
•dogs but their masters ; and the poison left by the bites 
had killed those bitten. So the black fellows said, 
■"No, Bahloo, we are too frightened; your dogs might 
"bite us. They are not like our dogs, whose bite would 
not kill us." 

Bahloo said, " If you do what I ask you, when you die 
you shall come to life again, not die and stay always where 
you are put when you are dead. See this piece of bark. 

Bahloo the Moon, and the Daens 9 

I throw it into the water." And he threw a piece of bark 
into the creek. " See it comes to the top again and floats. 
That is what would happen to you if you would do what I 
ask you : first under when you die, then up again at once. 
If you will not take my dogs over, you foolish daens, you 
will die like this," and he threw a stone into the creek, 
which sank to the bottom. "You will be like that stone, 
never rise again, Wombah daens ! " 

But the black fellows said, "We cannot dp it, Bahloo. 
We are too frightened of your dogs." 

' ' I will come down and carry them over myself to show 
you that they are quite safe and harmless." And down he 
came, the black snake coiled round one arm, the tiger snake 
round the other, and the death adder on his shoulder, coiled 
towards his neck. He carried them over. When he had 
crossed the creek he picked up a big stone, and he threw 
it into the water, saying, " Now, you cowardly daens, you 
would not do what I, Bnhloo, asked you to do, and so 
forever you have lost the chance of rising again after 
you die. You will just stay where you are put, like that 
stone does under the water, and grow, as it does, to be 
part of the earth. If you had done what I asked you, 
you could have died as often as I die, and have come to 
life as often as I come to life. But now you will only 
be black fellows while you live, and bones when you are 
dead." 

Bahloo looked so cross, and the three snakes hissed so 
fiercely, that the black fellows were very glad to see them 
disappear from their sight behind the trees. The black 
fellows had always been frightened of Bahloo's dogs, and 
now they hated them, and they said, "If we could get 

lo Australian Tales 

them away from Bahloo we would kill them." And thence- 
forth, whenever they saw a snake alone they killed it. But 
Bahloo only sent more, for he said, " As long as there are 
black fellows there shall be snakes to remind them that they 
would not do what I asked them."

Old Byamee said to his two young wives, Birrahgnooloo and 
Cunnunbeillee, " I have stuck a white feather between the 
hind legs of a bee, and am going to let it go and then follow 
it to its nest, that I may get honey. While I go for the 
honey, go you two out and get frogs and yams, then meet 
me at Coorigel Spring, where we will camp, for sweet and 
clear is the water there." The wives, taking their goolays 
and yam sticks, went out as he told them. Having gone 
far, and dug out many yams and frogs, they were tired 
when they reached Coorigel, and, seeing the cool, fresh 
water, they longed to bathe. But first they built a bough 
shade, and there left their goolays holding their food, and 
the yams and frogs they had found. When their camp 
was ready for the coming of Byamee, who having wooed 
his wives with a nullah-nullah, kept them obedient by fear 
of the same weapon, then went the girls to the spring to 
bathe. Gladly they plunged in, having first divested them- 
selves of their goomillahs, which they were still young 
enough to wear, and which they left on the ground near 
the spring. Scarcely were they enjoying the cool rest the 
water gave their hot, tired limbs, when they were seized and 

12 Australian Tales 

swallowed by two kurreahs. Having swallowed the girls, 
the kurreahs dived into an opening in the side of the spring, 
which was the entrance to an underground watercourse 
leading to the Narran River. Through this passage they 
went, taking all the water from the spring with them into 
the Narran, whose course they also dried as they went 
along. 

Meantime Byamee, unwitting the fate of his wives, was 
honey hunting. He had followed the bee with the white 
feather on it for some distance ; then the bee flew on to 
some budtha flowers, and would move no further. Byamee 
said, "Something has happened, or the bee would not stay 
here and refuse to be moved on towards its nest. I must 
go to Coorigel Spring and see if my wives are safe. 
Something terrible has surely happened." And Byamee 
turned in haste towards the spring. When he reached there 
he saw the bough shed his wives had made, he saw the 
yams they had dug from the ground, and he saw the frogs, 
but Birrahgnooloo and Cunnunbeillee he saw not. He 
called aloud for them. But no answer. He went towards 
the spring ; on the edge of it he saw the goomillahs of his 
wives. He looked into the spring and, seeing it dry, he 
said, " It is the work of the kurreahs ; they have opened 
the underground passage and gone with my wives to the 
river, and opening the passage has dried the spring. Well 
do I know where the passage joins the Narran, and there 
will I swiftly go." Arming himself with spears and 
woggarahs he started in pursuit. He soon reached the 
deep hole where the underground channel of the Coorigel 
joined the Narran. There he saw what he had never 
seen before, namely this deep hole dry. And he said : 

Origin of the Narran Lake 13 

" They have emptied the holes as they went along, taking 
the water with them. But well know I the deep holes of 
the river. I will not follow the bend, thus trebling the 
distance 1 have to go, but I will cut across from big hole 
to big hole, and by so doing I may yet get ahead of the 
kurreahs." On swiftly sped Byamee, making short cuts 
from big hole to big hole, and his track is still marked by 
the morilla ridges that stretch down the Narran, pointing 
in towards the deep holes. Every hole as he came to it 
he found dry,. until at last he reached the end of the 
Narran ; the hole there was still quite wet and muddy, 
then he knew he was near his enemies, and soon he saw 
them. He managed to get, unseen, a Httle way ahead of 
the kurreahs. He hid himself behind a big dheal tree. 
As the kurreahs came near they separated, one turning to 
go in another direction. Quickly Byamee hurled one spear 
after another, wounding both kurreahs, who writhed with 
pain and lashed their tails furiously, making great hollows 
in the ground, which the water they had brought with them 
quickly filled. Thinking they might again escape him, 
Byamee drove them from the water with his spears, and 
then, at close quarters, he killed them with his woggarahs. 
And ever afterwards at flood time, the Narran flowed into 
this hollow which the kurreahs in their writhings had 
made. 

When Byamee saw that the kurreahs were quite dead, 
he cut them open and took out the bodies of his wives. 
They were covered with wet slime, and seemed quite 
hfeless ; but he carried them and laid them on two nests of 
red ants. Then he sat down at some little distance and 
watched them. The ants quickly covered the bodies. 

14 Australian Tales 

cleaned them rapidly of the wet slime, and soon Byamee 
noticed the muscles of the girls twitching. " Ah," he said, 
" there is life, they feel the sting of the ants." 

Almost as he spoke came a sound as of a thunder-clap, 
but the sound seemed to come from the ears of the girls. 
And as the echo was dying away, slowly the girls rose to 
their feet. For a moment they stood apart, a dazed 
expression on their faces. Then they clung together, 
shaking as if stricken with a deadly fear. But Byamee 
came to them and explained how they had been rescued 
from the kurreahs by him. He bade them to beware of 
ever bathing in the deep holes of the Narran, lest such 
holes be the haunt of kurreahs. 

Then he bade them look at the water now at Boogira, 
and he said : 

"Soon will the black swans find their way here, the 
pelicans and the ducks ; where there was dry land and 
stones in the past, in the future there will be water and 
water-fowl, from henceforth ; when the Narran runs it will 
run into this hole, and by the spreading of its waters will a 
big lake be made." And what Byamee said has come to 
pass, as the Narran Lake shows, with its large sheet of 
water, spreading for miles, the home of thousands of wild 
fowl.

Wahroogah 

Gooloo was a very old woman, and a very wicked old 
woman too, as this story will tell. During all the past 
season, when the grass was thick with seed, she had 
gathered much doonburr, which she crushed into meal as 
she wanted it for food. She used to crush it on a big flat 
stone with small flat stones — the big stone was called a 
dayoorl. Gooloo ground a great deal of the doonburr seed 
to put away for immediate use, the rest she kept whole, to 
be ground as required. 

Soon after she had finished her first grinding, a neighbour- 
ing tribe came along and camped near where she was. 
One day the men all went out hunting, leaving the women 
and the children in the camp. After the men had been 
gone a little while, Gooloo the magpie came to their camp 
to talk to the women. She said, " Why do you not go 
hunting too ? Many are the nests of the wurranunnahs 
round here, and thick is the honey in them. Many and 
ripe are the bumbles hanging now on the bumble trees ; 
red is the fruit of the grooees, and opening with ripeness 

1 6 Australian Tales 

the fruit of the guiebets. Yet you sit in the camp and 
hunger, until your husbands return with the dinewan and 
bowrah they have gone forth to slay. Go, women, and 
gather of the plenty that surrounds you. I will take care 
of your children, the little Wahroogahs." 

" Your words are wise," the women said. " It is foolish 
to sit here and hunger, when near at hand yams are thick 
in the ground, and many fruits wait but the plucking. We 
will go and fill quickly our comebees and goolays, but our 
children we will take with us." 

" Not so," said Gooloo, " foolish indeed were you to do 
that. You would tire the little feet of those that run, and 
tire yourselves with the burden of those that have to be 
carried. No, take forth your comebees and goolays empty 
that ye may bring back the more. Many are the spoils 
that wait only the hand of the gatherer. Look ye, I have 
a durrie made of fresh doonburr seed, cooking just now on 
that bark between two fires ; that shall your children eat, 
and swiftly shall I make them another. They shall eat and 
be full ere their mothers are out of sight. See, they come 
to me now, they hunger for durrie, and well will I feed 
them. Haste ye then, that ye may return in time to make 
ready the fires for cooking the meat your husbands will 
bring. Glad will your husbands be when they see that ye 
have filled your goolays and comebees with fruits, and your 
wirrees with honey. Haste ye, I say, and do well." 

Having listened to the words of Gooloo, the women 
decided to do as she said, and, leaving their children with 
her, they started forth with empty comebees, and armed 
with combos, with which to chop out the bees' nests and 
opossums, and with yam sticks to dig up yams. 

Gooloo the Magpie 17 

When the women had gone, Gooloo gathered the children 
round her and fed them with durrie, hot from the coals. 
Honey too, she gave them, and bumbles which she had 
buried to ripen. When they had eaten, she hurried them 
off to her real home, built in a hollow tree, a little distance 
away from where she had been cooking her durrie. Into- 
her house she hurriedly thrust them, followed quickly her- 
self, and made all secure. Here she fed them again, but the 
children had already satisfied their hunger, and now they 
missed their mothers and began to cry. Their crying 
reached the ears of the women as they were returning to 
their camp. Quickly they came at the sound which is not 
good in a mother's ears. As they quickened their steps 
they thought how soon the spoils that lay heavy in their 
comebees would comfort their children. And happy they, 
the mothers, would feel when they fed the Wahroogahs with 
the dainties they had gathered for them. Soon they 
reached the camp, but, alas ! where were their children ? 
And where was Gooloo the magpie ? 

" They are playing wahgoo," they said, " and have 
hidden themselves." 

The mothers hunted all round for them, and called aloud 
the names of their children and Gooloo. But no answer 
could they hear and no trace could they find. And yet 
every now and then they heard the sound of children wail- 
ing. But seek as they would they found them not. Then 
loudly wailed the mothers themselves for their lost Wah- 
roogahs, and, wailing, returned to the camp to wait the 
coming of the black fellows. Heavy were their hearts, and 
sad were their faces when their husbands returned. They 
hastened to tell the black fellows when they came, how 

B 

1 8 Australian Tales 

■Gooloo had persuaded them to go hunting, promising if they 
•did so that she would feed the hungry Wahroogahs, and care 
for them while they were away, but — and here they wailed 
again for their poor Wahroogahs. They told how they 
had listened to her words and gone ; truth had she told of 
the plenty round, their comebees and goolays were full of 
fruits and spoils they had gathered, but, alas, they came 
home with them laden only to find their children gone and 
Gooloo gone too. And no trace could they find of either, 
though at times they heard a sound as of children wailing. 

Then wroth were the men, saying : " What mothers are 
ye to leave your young to a stranger, and that stranger a 
Gooloo, ever a treacherous race ? Did we not go forth to 
gain food for you and our children ? Saw ye ever your 
husbands return from the chase empty handed ? Then 
why, when ye knew we were gone hunting, must ye too go 
forth and leave our helpless ones to a stranger ? Oh, evil, 
€vil indeed is the time that has come when a mother forgets 
her child. Stay ye in the camp while we go forth to hunt 
for our lost Wahroogahs. Heavy will be our hands on the 
women if we return without them." 

The men hunted the bush round for miles, but found no 
trace of the lost Wahroogahs, though they too heard at 
times a noise as of children's voices wailing. 

But beyond the wailing which echoed in the mothers' 
€ars for ever, no trace was found of the children. For many 
days the women sat in the camp mourning for their lost 
Wahroogahs, and beating their heads because they had 
listened to the voice of Gooloo.

Piggiebillah 

Two Weeoombeen brothers went out 'hunting. One 
brother was much younger than the other and smaller, so 
when they sighted an emu, the elder one said to the 
younger : " You stay quietly here and do not make a noise, 
or Piggiebillah, whose camp we passed just now, will hear 

you and steal the emu if I kill it. He is so strong. I'll 
go on and try to kill the emu with this stone." The little 
Weeoombeen watched his big brother sneak up to the emu, 
crawling, along almost flat, on the ground. He saw him 
get quite close to the emu, then spring up quickly and 
throw the stone with such an accurate aim as to kill the 
bird on the spot. The little brother was so rejoiced that 
he forgot his brother's caution, and he called aloud in his 

20 Australian Tales 

joy. The big Weeoombeen looked round and gave him a 
warning sign, but too late, Piggiebillah had heard the cry 
and was hastening towards them. Quickly big Weeoom- 
been left the emu and joined his little brother. 

Piggiebillah when he came up, said : " What have you 
found ? " 

" Nothing," said the big Weeoombeen, " nothing but 
some mistletoe berries." 

"It must have been something more than that, or your 
little brother would not have called out so loudly." 

Little Weeoombeen was so afraid that Piggiebillah would 
find their emu and take it, that he said : " I hit a little bird 
with a stone, and I was glad I could throw so straight." 

"It was no cry for the killing of a little bird or for the 
finding of mistletoe berries that I heard. It was for 
something much more than either, or you would not have 
called out so joyfully. If you do not tell me at once I 
will kill you both." 

The Weeoombeen brothers were frightened, for Piggie- 
billah was a great fighter and very strong, so when they 
saw he was really angry, they showed him the dead emu. 

" Just what I want for my supper," he said, and so say- 
ing, dragged it away to his own camp. The Weeoombeens 
followed him and even helped him to make a fire to cook 
the emu, hoping by so doing to get a share given to them. 
But Piggiebillah would not give them any ; he said he must 
have it all for himself. 

Angry and disappointed, the Weeoombeens marched 
straight off and told some black fellows who lived near, 
that Piggiebillah had a fine fat emu just cooked for supper. 

Up jumped the black fellows, seized their spears, bade 

The Weeoombeens 21 

the Weeoombeens quickly lead them to Piggiebillah's camp, 
promising them for so doing, a share of the emu. 

When they were within range of spear shot, the black 
fellows formed a circle, took aim, and threw their spears at 
Piggiebillah. As the spears fell thick on him, sticking out 
all over him, Piggiebillah cried aloud : " Bingehlah, Bin- 
gehlah. You can have it, you can have it." But the 
black fellows did not desist until Piggiebillah was too 
wounded even to cry out ; then they left him a mass of 
spears and turned to look for the emu. But to their 
surprise they found it not. Then for the first time they 
missed the Weeoombeens. 

Looking round they saw their tracks going to where the 
emu had evidently been ; then they saw that they had 
dragged the emu to their nyunnoo, which was a humpy 
made of grass. 

When the Weeoombeens saw the black fellows coming, 
they caught hold of the emu and dragged it to a big hole 
they knew of, with a big stone at its entrance, which stone 
only they knew the secret of moving. They moved the 
stone, got the emu and themselves into the hole, and the 
stone in place again before the black fellows reached the 
place. 

The black fellows tried to move the stone, but could 
not. Yet they knew that the Weeoombeens must have 
done so, for they had tracked them right up to it, and they 
could hear the sound of their voices on the other side of it. 
They saw there was a crevice on either side of the stone, 
between it and the ground. Through these crevices they 
drove in their spears, thinking they must surely kill the 
brothers. But the Weeoombeens too had seen these 

2 2 Australian Tales 

crevices and had anticipated the spears, so they had placed 
the dead emu before them to act as a shield. And into its 
body were driven the spears of the black fellows intended 
for the Weeoombeens. 

Having driven the spears well in, the black fellows went 
off to get help to move the stone, but when they had gone 
a little way they heard the Weeoombeens laughing. Back 
they came and speared again, and again started for help, 
only as they left to hear once more the laughter of the 
brothers. 

The Weeoombeens finding their laughter only brought 
back the black fellows to a fresh attack, determined to keep 
quiet, which, after the next spearing, they did. 

Quite sure, when they heard their spear shots followed 
bj' neither conversation nor laughter, that they had killed 
the Weeoombeens at last, the black fellows hurried away 
to bring back the strength and cunning of the camp, to 
remove the stone. 

The Weeoombeens hurriedly discussed what plan they 
had better adopt to elude the black fellows, for well they 
knew that should they ever meet any of them again they 
would be killed without mercy. And as they talked they 
satisfied their hunger by eating some of the emu flesh. 

After a while the black fellows returned, and soon was 
the stone removed from the entrance. Some of them crept 
into the hole, where, to their surprise, they found only the 
remains of the emu and no trace of the Weeoombeens. As 
those who had gone in first, crept out and told of the dis- 
appearance of the Weeoombeens, others, incredulous of such 
a story, crept in to find it confirmed. They searched 
round for tracks ; seeing that their spears were all in the 

The Weeoombeens 

2S 

emu it seemed to them probable the Weeoombeens had 
escaped alive, but if so, whither they had gone their tracks- 
would show. But search as they would no tracks could 
they find. All they could see were two little birds which 
sat on a bush near the hole, watching the black fellows all 
the time. The little birds flew round the hole sometimes, 
but never away, always returning to their bush and seeming 
to be discussing the whole affair ; but what they said the 
black fellows could not understand. But as time went on 
and no sign was ever found of the Weeoombeens, the black 
fellows became sure that the brothers had turned into the 
little white-throated birds which had sat on the bush by 
the hole, so, they supposed, to escape their vengeance.. 
And ever afterwards the little white-throats were called 
Weeoombeens. And the memory of Piggiebillah is per- 
petuated by a sort of porcupine ant eater, which bears his- 
name, and whose skin is covered Closely with miniature 
spears sticking all over it.

the Kangaroo Rat, the Fire Makers 

In the days when Bootoolgah, the crane, married Goonur, 
the kangaroo rat, there was no fire in their country. They 
had to eat their food raw or just dry it in the sun. One 
day when Bootoolgah was rubbing two pieces of wood 
together, he saw a faint spark sent forth and then a 
slight smoke. " Look," he said to Goonur, " see what 
comes when I rub these pieces of wood together — smoke ! 
Would it not be good if we could make fire for ourselves 
with which to cook our food, so as not to have to wait for 
the sun to dry it ? " 

Goonur looked, and, seeing the smoke, she said : 
" Great indeed would be the day when we could make 
fire. Split your stick, Bootoolgah, and place in the 
opening bark and grass that even one spark may 
kindle a light." And hearing wisdom in her words, 
even as she said Bootoolgah did. And lo ! after much 
rubbing, from the opening came a small flame. For as 
Goonur had said it would, the spark lit the grass, the 
bark smouldered and smoked, and so Bootoolgah the 

The Fire Makers 25 

crane, and Goonur the kangaroo rat, discovered the art 
of fire making. 

"This we will keep secret," they said, "from all the 
tribes. When we make a fire to cook our fish we will go 
into a Bingahwingul scrub. There will we make a fire 
and cook our food in secret. We will hide our fire sticks 
in the open-mouthed seeds of the Bingahwinguls ; one fire 
stick we will carry always hidden in our comebee." 

Bootoolgah and Goonur cooked the next fish they caught, 
and found it very good. When they went back to the 
camp they took some of their cooked fish with them. The 
blacks noticed it looked quite different from the usual sun- 
dried fish, so they asked : " What did you to that fish ? " 
" Let it lie in the sun," said they. 
" Not so," said the others. 

But that the fish was sundried Bootoolgah and Goonur 
persisted. Day by day passed, and after catching their 
fish, these two always disappeared, returning with their 
food looking quite different from that of the others. At 
last, being unable to extract any information from them, it 
was determined by the tribe to watch them. Boolooral, 
the night owl, and Quarrian, the parrot, were appointed to 
follow the two when they disappeared, to watch where they 
went, and find out what they did. Accordingly, after the 
next fish were caught, when Bootoolgah and Goonur 
gathered up their share and started for the bush, Boolooral 
and Quarrian followed on their tracks. They saw them 
disappear into a Bingahwingul scrub, where they lost sight 
of them. Seeing a high tree on the edge of the scrub, they 
climbed up it, and from there they saw all that was to be 
seen. They saw Bootoolgah and Goonur throw down 

26 Australian Tales 

their load of fish, open their comebee and take from it a 
stick, which stick, when they had blown upon it, they laid 
in the midst of a heap of leaves and twigs, and at once 
from this heap they saw a flame leap, which flame the fire 
makers fed with bigger sticks. Then, as the flame died 
down, they saw the two place- their fish in the ashes that 
remained from the burnt sticks. Then back to the camp 
of their tribes went Boolooral and Quarrian, back with the 
news of their discovery. Great was the talk amongst the 
blacks, and many the queries as to how to get possession 
of the comebee with the fire stick in it, when next Bootoolgah 
and Goonur came into the camp. It was at length decided 
to hold a corrobboree, and it was to be one on a scale 
not often seen, probably never before by the young of the 
tribes. The grey beards proposed to so astonish Bootoolgah 
and Goonur as to make them forget to guard their precious 
comebee. As soon as they were intent on the corrobboree 
and off guard, some one was to seize the comebee, steal the 
firestick and start fires for the good of all. Most of them 
had tasted the cooked fish brought into the camp by the 
fire makers and, having found it good, hungered for it. 
Beeargah, the hawk, was told to feign sickness, to tie up 
his head, and to lie down near wherever the two sat to watch 
the corrobboree. Lying near them, he was to watch them 
all the time, and when they were laughing and unthinking of 
anything but the spectacle before them, he was to steal the 
comebee. Having arranged their plan of action, they all 
prepared for a big corrobboree. They sent word to all 
the surrounding tribes, asking them to attend, especially 
they begged the Bralgahs to come, as they were cele- 
brated for their wonderful dancing, which was so wonder- 

The Fire Makers 

ful as to be most likely to absorb the attention of the 
fire makers. 

All the tribes agreed to come, and soon all were engaged 
in great preparations. Each determined to outdo the 
other in the quaintness and brightness of their painting for 
the corrobboree. Each tribe as they arrived gained great 
applause ; never before had the young people seen so much 
diversity in colouring and design. Beeleer, the black 

A CORROBBOREE 

cockatoo tribe, came with bright splashes of orange-red on 
their black skins. The Pelicans came as a contrast, 
almost pure white, only a touch here and there of their 
black skin showing where the white paint had rubbed off. 
The Black Divers came in their black skins, but these 
polished to shine like satin. Then came the Millears, the 
beauties of the Kangaroo Rat family, who had their home 
on the Morillas. After them came the Buckandeer or 
Native Cat tribe, painted in dull colours, but in all sorts of 
patterns. Mairas or Paddymelons came too in haste to 
take part in the great corrobboree. After them, walking 
slowly, came the Bralgahs, looking tall and dignified as 
they held up their red heads, painted so in contrast to their 

2 8 Australian Tales 

French-grey bodies, which they deemed too dull a colour, 
unbrightened, for such a gay occasion. Amongst the 
many tribes there, too numerous to mention, were the rose 
and grey painted Galahs, the green and crimson painted 
Billai : most brilliant were they with their bodies grass 
green and their sides bright crimson, so afterwards gaining 
them the name of crimson wings. The bright little 
Gidgereegahs came too. 

Great was the gathering that Bootoolgah, the crane, and 
Goonur, the kangaroo rat, found assembled as they hurried 
on to the scene. Bootoolgah had warned Goonur that they 
must only be spectators, and take no active part in the 
corrobboree, as they had to guard their comebee. Obedient 
to his advice, Goonur seated herself beside him and slung 
the comebee over her arm. Bootoolgah warned her to be 
careful and not forget she had it. But as the corrobboree 
went on, so absorbed did she become that she forgot the 
comebee, which slipped from her arm. Happily, Bootoolgah 
saw it do so, replaced it, and bade her take heed, so 
baulking Beeargah, who had been about to seize it, for his 
vigilance was unceasing, and, deeming him sick almost unto 
death, the two whom he was watching took no heed of him. 
Back he crouched, moaning as he turned, but keeping ever 
an eye on Goonur. And soon was he rewarded. Now 
came the turn of the Bralgahs to dance, and every eye but 
that of the watchful one was fixed on them as slowly they 
came into the ring. First they advanced, bowed and 
retired, then they repeated what they had done before, and 
again, each time getting faster and faster in their move- 
ments, changing their bows into pirouettes, craning their 
long necks and making such antics as they went through 

The Fire Makers 29 

the figures of their dance, and replacing their dignity with 
such grotesqueness, as to make their large audience shake 
with laughter, they themselves keeping throughout all their 
grotesque measures a solemn air, which only seemed to 
heighten the effect of their antics. 

And now came the chance of Beeargah the hawk. In 
the excitement of the moment Goonur forgot the comebee, as 
did Bootoolgah. They joined in the mirthful applause of 
the crowd, and Goonur threw herself back helpless with 
laughter. As she did so the comebee slipped from her 
arm. Then up jumped the sick man from behind her, 
seized the comebee with his combo, cut it open, snatched 
forth the firestick, set fire to the heap of grass ready near 
where he had lain, and all before the two realised their loss. 
When they discovered the precious comebee was gone, up 
jumped Bootoolgar and Goonur. After Beeargah ran 
Bootoolgah, but Beeargah had a start and was fleeter of 
foot, so distanced his pursuer quickly. As he ran he fired 
the grass with the stick he still held. Bootoolgar, finding 
he could not catch Beeargah, and seeing fires everywhere, 
retired from the pursuit, feeling it was useless now to try 
and guard their secret, for it had now become the common 
property of all the tribes there assembled.

Weedah was playing a great trick on the black fellows who 
lived near him. He had built himself a number of grass 
nyunnoos, more than twenty. He made fires before each, 
to make it look as if some one lived in the nyunnoos. First 
he would go into one nyunnoo, or humpy, and cry like a 
baby, then to another and laugh like a child, then in turn 
as he went the round of the humpies he would sing Hke a 
maiden, corrobboree like a man, call out in a quavering 
voice like an old man, and in a shrill voice like an old 
woman ; in fact, imitate any sort of voice he had ever 
heard, and imitate them so quickly in succession that any 
one passing would think there was a great crowd of blacks 
in that camp. His object was to entice as many strange 
black fellows into his camp as he could, one at a time ; then 
he would kill them and gradually gain the whole country 
round for his own. His chance was when he managed to 
get a single black fellow into his camp, which he very often 
did, then by his cunning he always gained his end and the 
black fellow's death. This was how he attained that end. 
A black fellow, probably separated from his fellows in the 
excitement of the chase, would be returning home alone ; 

Weedah the Mocking Bird 31 

passing within ear shot of Weedah's camp he would hear 
the various voices and wonder what tribe could be there. 
Curiosity would induce him to come near. He would 
probably peer into the camp, and, only seeing Weedah 
standing alone, would advance towards him. Weedah 
would be standing at a little distance from a big glowing 
fire, where he would wait until the strange black fellow 
came quite close to him. Then he would ask him what he 
wanted. The stranger would say he had heard many 
voices and had wondered what tribe it could be, so had 
come near to find out. Weedah would say, " But only I 
am here. How could you have heard voices ? See ; look 
round ; I am alone." Bewildered, the stranger would look 
round and say in a puzzled tone of voice : " Where are 
they all gone ? As I came I heard babies crying, men calling, 
and women laughing; many voices I heard but you only I 
see." 

"And only I am here. The wind must have stirred the 
branches of the balah trees, and you must have thought it 
was the wailing of children, the laughing of the gouggour- 
gahgah you heard, and thought it the laughter of women, 
and mine must have been the voice as of men that you 
heard. Alone in the bush, as the shadows fall, a man breeds 
strange fancies. See by the light of this fire, where are 
your fancies now ? No women laugh, no babies cry, only 
I, Weedah, talk." As Weedah was talking he kept edging 
the stranger towards the fire ; when they were quite close 
to it, he turned swiftly, seized him , and threw him right into 
the middle of the blaze. This scene was repeated time 
after time, until at last the ranks of the black fellows living 
round the camp of Weedah, began to get thin. 

3 2 Australian Tales 

Mullyan, the eagle hawk, determined to fathom the 
mystery, for as yet the black fellows had no clue as to how 
or where their friends had disappeared. Mullyan, when 
Beeargah, his cousin, returned to his camp no more, made 
up his mind to get on his track and follow it, until at length 
he solved the mystery. After following the track of Beear- 
gah, as he had chased the kangaroo to where he had slain 
it, on he followed his homeward trail. Over stony ground 
he tracked him, and through sand, across plains, and through 
scrub. At last in a scrub and still on the track of Beeargah, 
he heard the sounds of many voices, babies crying, women 
singing, men talking. Peering through the bush, finding 
the track took him nearer the spot whence came the sounds, 
he saw the grass humpies. "Who can these be?" he 
thought. The track led him right into the camp, where 
alone Weedah was to be seen. Mullyan advanced towards 
him and asked where were the people whose voices he had 
heard as he came through the bush. 

Weedah said : " How can I tell you ? I know of no 
people ; I live alone." 

" But," said Mullyan the eagle hawk, " I heard babies 
crying, women laughing, and men talking, not one but 
many." 

" And I alone am here. Ask of your ears what trick they 
played you, or perhaps your eyes fail you now. Can you 
see any but me ? Look for yourself." 

" And if, as indeed it seems, you only are here, what did 
you with Beeargah my cousin, and where are my friends ? 
Many are their trails that I see coming into this camp, but 
none going out. And if you alone live here you alone can 
answer me." 

Weedah the Mocking Bird 33 

" What know I of you or your friends ? Nothing. Ask 
of the winds that blow. Ask of Bahloo the moon, who- 
looks down on the earth by night. Ask of Yhi the sun, 
that looks down by day. But ask not Weedah, who dwell& 
alone, and knows naught of your friends." But as Weedah 
was talking he was carefully edging Mullyan towards the 
fire. 

Mullyan, the eagle hawk, too, was cunning, and not 
easy to trap. He saw a blazing fire in front of him, he 
saw the track of his friend behind him, he saw Weedah 
was edging him towards the fire, and it came to him in a 
moment the thought that if the fire could speak, well could 
it tell where were his friends. But the time was not yet 
come to show that he had fathomed the mystery. So he 
affected to fall into the trap. But when they reached the 
fire, before Weedah had time to act his usual part, with a 
mighty grip Mullyan the eagle hawk seized him, saying,, 
" Even as you served Beeargah the hawk, my cousin, and 
my friends, so now serve I you," And right into the middle 
of the blazing fire he threw him. Then he turned home- 
wards in haste, to tell the black fellows that he had solved 
the fate of their friends, which had so long been a mystery. 
When he was some distance from the Weedah's camp, he 
heard the sound of a thunder clap. But it was not thunder 
it was the bursting of the back of Weedah's head, which 
had burst with a bang as of a thunder clap. And as it 
burst, out from his remains had risen a bird, Weedah, the 
mocking bird ; which bird to this day has a hole at the 
back of his head, just in the same place as Weedah the 
black fellow's head had burst, and whence the bird came 
forth. 

c 

Australian Tales 

To this day the Weedah makes grass playgrounds, 
through which he runs, imitating, as he plays, in quick 
succession, any voices he has ever heard, from the crying 
of a child to the laughing of a woman ; from the mewing of 
a cat to the barking of a dog, and hence his name Weedah, 
the mocking bird. 

The Gwlneeboos the Redbreasts 

GwiNEEBOO and Goomai, the water rat, were down at the 
creek one day, getting mussels for food, when, to their 
astonishment, a kangaroo hopped right into the water 
beside them. Well they knew that he must be escaping 
from hunters, who were probably pressing him close. So 
Gwineeboo quickly seized her yam stick, and knocked the 
kangaroo on the head : he was caught fast in the weeds in 
the creek, so could not escape. When the two old women 
had killed the kangaroo they hid its body under the weeds 
in the creek, fearing to take it out and cook it straight 
away, lest the hunters should come up and claim it. The 
little son of Gwineeboo watched them from the bank. 
After having hidden the kangaroo, the women picked up 
their mussels and started for their camp, when up came the 
hunters, Quarrian and Gidgereegah, who had tracked the 
kangaroo right to the creek. 

Seeing the women they said : " Did you see a kan- 
garoo ? 

The women answered : " No. We saw no kangaroo." 
" That is strange, for we have tracked it right up to 
here." 

36 Australian Tales 

" We have seen no kangaroo. See, we have been dig- 
ging out mussels for food. Come to our camp, and we will 
give you some when they are cooked." 

The young men, puzzled in their minds, followed the 
women to their camp, and when the mussels were cooked 
the hunters joined the old women at their dinner. The 
little boy would not eat the mussels ; he kept crying to his 
mother, " Gwineeboo, Gwineeboo. I want kangaroo. I 
want kangaroo. Gwineeboo. Gwineeboo.'' 

" There," said Quarrian. " Your little boy has seen the 
kangaroo, and wants some ; it must be here somewhere." 

" Oh, no. He cries for anything he thinks of, some 
days for kangaroo ; he is only a little boy, and does not 
know what he wants," said old Gwineeboo. But still the 
child kept saying, "Gwineeboo. Gwineeboo. I want 
kangaroo. I want kangaroo." Goomai was so angry with 
little Gwineeboo for keeping on asking for kangaroo, and 
thereby making the young men suspicious, that she hit him 
so hard on the mouth to keep him quiet, that the blood 
came, and trickled down his breast, staining it red. When 
she saw this, old Gwineeboo grew angry in her turn, and 
hit old Goomai, who returned the blow, and so a fight 
began, more words than blows, so the noise was great, the 
women fighting, little Gwineeboo crying, not quite knowing 
whether he was crying because Goomai had hit him, 
because his mother was fighting, or because he still wanted 
kangaroo. 

Quarrian said to Gidgereegah. " They have the kan- 
garoo somewhere hidden ; let us slip away now in the con- 
fusion. We will only hide, then come back in a little 
while, and surprise them."

They went quietly away, and as soon as the two women 
noticed they had gone, they ceased fighting, and determined 
to cook the kangaroo. They watched the two young men 
out of sight, and waited some time so as to be sure that 
they were safe. Then down they hurried to get the kan- 
garoo. They dragged it out, and were just making a big 
fire on which to cook it, when up came Quarrian and 
Gidgereegah, saying : 

" Ah ! we thought so. You had our kangaroo all the 
time ; little Gwineeboo was right." 

"But we killed it," said the women. 

" But we hunted it here," said the men, and so saying 
caught hold of the kangaroo and dragged it away to some 
distance, where they made a fire and cooked it. Goomai, 
Gwineeboo, and her little boy went over to Quarrian and 
Gidgereegah, and begged for some of the meat, but the 
young men would give them none, though Htttle Gwineeboo 
cried piteously for some. But no ; they said they would 
rather throw what they did not want to the hawks than 
give it to the women or child. At last, seeing that there 
was no hope of their getting any, the women went away. 
They built a big dardurr for themselves, shutting themselves 
and the httle boy up in it. Then they began singing a 
song which was to invoke a storm to destroy their enemies, 
for so now they considered Quarrian and Gidgereegah. 
For some time they chanted : 

" Moogaray, Moogaray, May, May, 
Eehu, Eehu, Doongarah. " 

First they would begin very slowly and softly, gradually 
getting quicker and louder, until at length they almost 

38 Australian Tales 

shrieked it out. The words they said meant, " Come 
hailstones ; come wind ; come rain ; come lightning." 

While they were chanting, little Gwineeboo kept crying, 
and would not be comforted. Soon came a few big drops 
of rain, then a big wind, and as that lulled, more rain. 
Then came thunder and lightning, the air grew bitterly 
cold, and there came a pitiless hailstorm, hailstones bigger 

than a duck's egg fell, cutting the leaves from the trees 
and bruising their bark. Gidgereegah and Quarrian came 
running over to the dardurr and begged the women to let 
them in. 

"No," shrieked Gwineeboo above the storm, "there 
was no kangaroo meat for us : there is no dardurr shelter 
for you. Ask shelter of the hawks whom ye fed." The 
men begged to be let in, said they would hunt again and 
get kangaroo for the women, not one but many. " No," 
again shrieked the women. " You would not even listen (o 
the crying of a little ehild ; it is better such as you should 
perish." And fiercer raged the storm and louder sang the 
women : 

" Moogaray, Moogaray, May, May, 
Eehu, Eehu, Doongarah." 

So long and so fierce was the storm that the young n:en 

The Gwineeboos the Redbreasts 39 

must have perished had they not been changed into birds. 
First they were changed into birds and afterwards into 
stars in the sky, where they now are, Gidgereegah and 
Quarrian with the kangaroo between them, still bearing the 
names that they bore on the earth.

WuRRUNNAH had had a long day's hunting, and he came 
back to the camp tired and hungry. He asked his old 
mother for durrie, but she said there was none left. Then 
he asked some of the other blacks to give him some 
doonburr seeds that he might make durrie for himself. 
But no one would give him anything. He flew into a rage 
and he said, " I will go to a far country and live with 
strangers ; my own people would starve me." And while 
he was yet hot and angry, he went. Gathering up his 
weapons, he strode forth to find a new people in a new 
country. After he had gone some distance, he saw, a long 
way off, an old man chopping out bees' nests. The old 
man turned his face towards Wurrunnah, and watched him 
■coming, but when Wurrunnah came close to him he saw 
that the old man had no eyes, though he had seemed to be 
-watching him long before he could have heard him. It 
frightened Wurrunnah to see a stranger having no eyes, 
yet turning his face towards him as if seeing him all the 
time. But he determined not to show his feai", but go 
straight on towards him, which he did. When he came up 
to him, the stranger told him that his name was Mooroo- 

Meamei the Seven Sisters 41 

numildah, and that his tribe were so called because they 
had no eyes, but saw through their noses. Wurrunnah 
thought it very strange and still felt rather frightened, 
though Mooroonumildah seemed hospitable and kind, for he 
gave Wurrunnah, whom he said looked hungry, a bark 
wirree filled with honey, told him where his camp was, and 
gave him leave to go there and stay with him. Wurrunnah 
took the honey and turned as if to go to the camp, but when 
he got out of sight he thought it wiser to turn in another 
direction. He journeyed on for some time, until he came 
to a large lagoon, where he decided to camp. He took a 
long drink of water, and then lay down to sleep. When 
he woke in the morning, he looked towards the lagoon, but 
saw only a big plain. He thought he must be dreaming; 
he rubbed his eyes and looked again. 

" This is a strange country," he said. " First I meet a 
man who has no eyes and yet can see. Then at night I 
see a large lagoon full of water, I wake in the morning and 
see none. The water was surely there, for I drank some, 
and yet now there is no water." As he was wondering 
how the water could have disappeared so quickly, he saw 
a big storm coming up ; he hurried to get into the thick 
bush for shelter. When he had gone a little way into the 
bush, he saw a quantity of cut bark lying on the ground. 

" Now I am right," he said. " I shall get some poles 
and with them and this bark make a dardurr in which to 
shelter myself from the storm I see coming." 

He quickly cut the poles he wanted, stuck them up as a 
framework for his dardurr. Then he went to lift up the 
bark. As he lifted up a sheet of it he saw a strange 
looking object of no tribe that he had ever seen before. 

42 Australian Tales 

This strange object cried out : " I am Bulgahnunnoo," 
in such a terrifying tone that Wurrunnah dropped the bark,, 
picked up his weapons and ran away as hard as he could, 
quite forgetting the storm. His one idea was to get as far 
as he could from Bulgahnunnoo. 

On he ran until he came to a big river, which hemmed 
him in on three sides. The river was too big to cross, so 
he had to turn back, yet he did not retrace his steps but 

turned in another direction. As he turned to leave the 
river he saw a flock of emus coming to water. The first 
half of the flock were covered with feathers, but the last 
half had the form of emus, but no feathers. 

Wurrunnah decided to spear one for food. For that 
purpose he climbed up a tree, so that they should not see 
him ; he got his spear readj to kill one of the featherless 
birds. As they passed by, he picked out the one he meant 
to have, threw his spear and killed it, then climbed down 
to go and get it. 

As he was running up to the dead emu, he saw that they 
were not emus at all but black fellows of a strange tribe. 
They were all standing round their dead friend making 

Meamei the Seven Sisters 43 

savage signs, as to what they would do by way of vengeance. 
Wurrunnah saw that little would avail him the excuse that 
he had killed the black fellow in mistake for an emu ; his 
only hope lay in flight. Once more he took to his heels, 
hardly daring to look round for fear he would see an enemy 
behind him. On he sped, until at last he reached a camp, 
which he was almost into before he sjiw it ; he had only 
been thinking of danger behind him, unheeding what was 
before him. 

However, he had nothing to fear in the camp he reached 
so suddenly, for in it were only seven young girls. They 
did not look very terrifying, in fact, seemed more startled 
than he was. They were quite friendly towards him when 
they found that he was alone and hungry. They gave him 
food and allowed him to camp there that night. He asked 
them where the rest of their tribe were, and what their 
name was. They answered that their name was Meamei, 
and that their tribe were in a far country. They had 
only come to this country to see what it was hke ; they 
would stay for a while and then return whence they had 
come. 

The next day Wurrunnah made a fresh start, and Jeft the 
camp of the Meamei, as if he were leaving for good. But 
he determined to hide near and watch what they did, and 
if he could get a chance he would steal a wife from amongst 
them. He was tired of travelling alone. He saw the 
seven sisters all start out with their yam sticks in hand. 
He followed at a distance, taking care not to be seen. He 
saw them stop by the nests of some flying ants. With 
their yam sticks they dug all round these ant holes. When 
they had successfully unearthed the ants they .sat down, 

44 Australian Tales 

throwing their yam sticks on one side, to enjoy a feast, 
for these ants were esteemed by them a great delicacy. 

While the sisters were busy at their feast, Wurrunnah 
sneaked up to their yam sticks and stole two of them ; 
then, taking the sticks with him, sneaked back to his hiding- 
place. When at length the Meamei had satisfied their 
appetites, they picked up their sticks and turned towards 
their camp again. But only five could find their sticks ; 
so those five started off, leaving the other two to find theirs, 
supposing they must be somewhere near, and, finding them, 
they would soon catch them up. The two girls hunted all 
round the ants' nests, but could find no sticks. At last, 
when their backs were turned towards him, Wurrunnah 
crept out and stuck the lost yam sticks near together in 
the ground ; then he slipt back into his hiding-place. 
When the two girls turned round, there in front of them 
they saw their sticks. With a cry of joyful surprise they 
ran to them and caught hold of them to pull them out of 
the ground, in which they were firmly stuck. As they 
were doing so, out from his hiding-place jumped Wurrunnah. 
He seized both girls round their waists, holding them 
tightly, They struggled and screamed, but to no purpose. 
There were none near to hear them, and the more they 
struggled the tighter Wurrunnah held them. Finding their 
screams and struggles in vain they quietened at length, and 
then Wurrunnah told them not to be afraid, he would take 
care of them. He was lonely, he said, and wanted two 
wives. They must come quietly with him, and he would 
be good to them. But they must do as he told them. If 
they were not quiet, he would swiftly quieten them with his 
moorillah. But if they would come quietly with him he 

Meamei the Seven Sisters 45 

would be good to them. Seeing that resistance was useless, 
the two young girls complied with his wish, and travelled 
quietly on with him. They told him that some day their 
tribe would come and steal them back again ; to avoid 
which he travelled quickly on and on still further, hoping 
to elude all pursuit. Some weeks passed, and, out- 
wardly, the two Meamei seemed settled down to their new 
life, and quite content in it, though when they were alone 
together they often talked of their sisters, and wondered 
what they had done when they realised their loss. They 
wondered if the five were still hunting for them, or 
whether they had gone back to their tribe to get assist- 
ance. That they might be in time forgotten and left with 
Wurrunnah for ever, they never once for a moment thought. 
One day when they were camped Wurrunnah said : " This 
fire will not burn well. Go you two and get some bark 
from those two pine trees over there." 

" No," they said, " we must not cut pine bark. If we 
did, you would never more see us." 

" Go ! I tell you, cut pine bark. I want it. See you 
not the fire burns but slowly ? " 

" If we go, Wurrunnah, we shall never return. You 
will see us no more in this country. We know it." 

" Go, women, stay not to talk. Did ye ever see talk 
make a fire burn ? Then why stand ye there talking ? 
Go ; do as I bid you. Talk not so fooHshly ; if you ran 
away soon should I catch you, and, catching you, would 
beat you hard. Go ! talk no more." 

The Meamei went, taking with them their combos with 
which to cut the bark. They went each to a different tree, 
and each, with a strong hit, drove her combo into the bark. 

4-6 Australian Tales 

As she did so, each felt the tree that her combo had struck 
rising higher out of the ground and bearing her upward with 
it. Higher and higher grew the pine trees, and still on 
them, higher and higher from the earth, went the two girls. 
Hearing no chopping after the first hits, Wurrunnah came 
towards the pines to see what was keeping the girls so 
long. As he came near them he saw that the pine trees 
were growing taller even as he looked at them, and clinging 
to the trunks of the trees high in the air he saw his two 
wives. He called to them to come down, but they made 
no answer. Time after time he called to them as higher 
and higher they went, but still they made no answer. 
Steadily taller grew the two pines, until at last their tops 
touched the sky. As they did so, from the sky the five 
Meamei looked out, called to their two sisters on the pine 
trees, bidding them not to be afraid but to come to them. 
Quickly the two girls climbed up when they heard the 
voices of their sisters. When they reached the tops of the 
pines the five sisters in the sky stretched forth their hands, 
and drew them in to live with them there in the sky for 
ever. 

And there, if you look, you may see the seven sisters 
together. You perhaps know them as the Pleiades, but the 
black fellows call them the Meamei.

Goolahgool 

GooGARH, the iguana, was married to Moodai, the opossum 
and Cookooburrah, the laughing jackass. Cookooburrah 
was the mother of three sons, one grown up and hving 
away from her, the other two only little boys. They 
had their camps near a goolahgool, whence they obtained 
water. A goolahgool is a water-holding tree, of the iron 
bark or box species. It is a tree with a split in the fork 
of it, and hollow below the fork. After heavy rain, this 
hollow trunk would be full of water, which water would 
have run into it through the split in the fork. A goolah- 
gool would hold water for a long time. The blacks knew 
a goolahgool, amongst other trees, by the mark which the 
overflow of water made down the trunk of the tree, 
discolouring the bark. 

One day, Googarh, the iguana, and his two wives went 
out hunting, leaving the two little Cookooburrahs at the 
camp. They had taken out water for themselves in their 
opossum skin water bags, but they had left none for the 
children, who were too small to get any from the goolah- 

48 Australian Tales 

gool for themselves, so nearly perished from thirst. Their 
tongues were swollen in their mouths, and they were quite 
speechless, when they saw a man coming towards them. 
When he came near, they saw it was Cookooburrah,- their 
big brother. They could not speak to him and answer, 
when he asked where his mother was. Then he asked 
them what was the matter. All they could do was to 
point towards the tree. He looked at it, and saw it was 
a goolahgool, so he said : " Did your mother leave you no 
water ? " They shook their heads. He said : " Then 
you are perishing for want of a drink, my brothers ? " 
They nodded. " Go," he said, " a little way off, and 
you shall see how I will punish them for leaving my 
little brothers to perish of thirst." He went towards the 
tree, climbed up it, and split it right down. As he did so, 
out gushed the water in a swiftly running stream. Soon 
the little fellows quenched their thirst and then, in their 
joy, bathed in the water, which grew in volume every 
moment. 

In the meantime, those who had gone forth to hunt 
were returning, and as they came towards their camp 
they met a running stream of water. " What is this ? " 
they said, "our goolahgool must have burst," and they 
tried to dam the water, but it was running too strongly 
for them. They gave up the effort and hurried on towards 
their camp. But they found a deep stream divided them 
from their camp. The three Cookooburrahs saw them, and 
the eldest one said to the little fellows : " You call out and 
tell them to cross down there, where it is not deep." 
The. little ones called out as they were told, and where 
they pointed Googarh and his wives waded into the stream. 

The Cookooburrahs 49 

Finding she was getting out of her depth, Cookooburrah 
the laughing jackass cried out : " Goug gour gah gah. 
Goug gour gah gah. Give me a stick. Give me a stick." 
But from the bank her sons only answered in derision : 
"Goug gour gah gah. Goug gour gah gah." And the 
three hunters were soon engulfed in the rushing stream^ 
drawn down by the current and drowned.

The blacks had all left their camp and gone away to attend 
a borah. Nothing was left in the camp but one very old 
dog, too old to travel. After the blacks had been gone 
about three days, one night came their enemies, the Goo- 
eeays, intending to suprise them and kill them. 

Painted in all the glory of their war-paint came the 
Gooeeays, their hair tied in top-knots and ornamented with 
feathers and kangaroos' teeth. Their waywahs of paddy, 
melon, and kangaroo rat skins cut in strips, round their 
waists, were new and strong, holding firmly some of their 
boomerangs and woggoorahs, which they had stuck through 
them. 

But prepared as they were for conquest, they found only 
a deserted camp containing naught but one old dog. They 
asked the old dog where the blacks were gone. But he 
only shook his head. Again and again they asked him, 
and again and again he only shook his head. At last 
some of the black fellows raised their spears and their 
moorillahs or nullah-nullahs, saying : 

" If you do not tell us where the blacks are gone, we 
shall kill you."

Then spoke the old dog, saying only : " Gone to the 
borah." 

And as he spoke every one of the Gooeeays and every- 
thing they had with them was turned to stone. Even the 
waywahs round their waists, the top-knots on their heads, 
and the spears in their hands, even these turned to stone. 
And when the blacks returned to their camp long after- 
wards, when the borah was over, and the boys, who had 
been made young men, gone .out into the bush to undergo 
their novitiate, each with his solitary guardian, then saw 
the blacks, their enemies, the Gooeeays, standing round 
their old camp, as if to attack it. But instead of being 
men of flesh, they were men of stone — they, their weapons, 
their waywahs, and all that belonged to them, stone. 

And at that place are to be found stones or mayamahs 
of great beauty, striped and marked and coloured as were 
the men painted. 

And the place of the mayamah is on one of the mounts 
near Beemery.

The mother Bunbundoolooey put her child, a little boy 
Bunbundoolooey, who could only just crawl, into her 
goolay. Goolay is a sort of small netted hammock, slung 
by black women on their backs, in which they carry 
their babies and goods in general. Bunbundoolooey, the 
pigeon, put her goolay across her back, and started out 
hunting. 

When she had gone some distance she came to a clump 
of bunnia or wattle trees. At the foot of one of these she 
saw some large euloomarah or grubs, which were good to 
eat. She picked some up, and dug with her yam stick 
round the roots of the tree to get more. She went from 
tree to tree, getting grubs at every one. That she might 
gather them all, she put down her goolay, and hunted 
further round. 

Soon, in the excitement of her search, she forgot the 
goolay, with the child in it, and wandered away. Further 
and further she went from the Dunnia clump, never once 
thinking of her poor birrahlee, or baby. On and still on 
she went, until at length she reached a far country. 

The birrahlee woke up, and crawled out of the goolay. 

The Bunbundoolooeys 53 

First he only crawled about, but soon he grew stronger, 
and raised himself, and stood by a tree. Then day by day 
he grew stronger and walked alone, and stronger still he 
grew, and could run. Then he grew on into a big boy, 
and then into a man, and his mother he never saw while 
he was growing from birrahlee to man. 

But in the far country at length one day Bunbundoo- 
looey, the mother, remembered the birrahlee she had left. 

" Oh," she cried, " I forgot my birrahlee. I left my 
birrahlee where the Dunnias grow in a far country. I 
must go to my birrahlee. My poor birrahlee ! I forgot it. 
Mad must I have been when I forgot him. My birrahlee ! 
My birrahlee ! " 

And away went the mother as fast as she could travel 
back to the Dunnia clump in the far country. When she 
reached the spot she saw the tracks of her birrahlee, first 
crawling, then standing, then walking, and then running. 
Bigger and bigger were the tracks she followed, until she 
saw they were the tracks of a man. She followed them 
until she reached a camp. No one was in the camp, but a 
fire was there, so she waited, and while waiting looked 
round. She saw her son had made himself many weapons, 
and many opossum rugs, which he had painted gaily 
inside. 

Then at last she saw a man coming towards the camp, 
and she knew he was her birrahlee, grown into a man. 
As he drew near she ran out to meet him, saying : 

" Bunbundoolooey, I am your mother. The mother who 
forgot you as a birrahlee, and left you. But now I have 
come to find you, my son. Long was the journey, my son, 
and your mother was weary, but now that she sees once 

54 Australian Tales 

more her birrahlee, who has grown into a man, she is no 
longer weary, but glad is her heart, and loud could she 
sing in her joy. Ah, Bunbundoolooey, my son ! Bunbun- 
doolooey, my son ! " 

And she ran forward with her arms out, as if to embrace 
him. 

But stern was the face of Bunbundoolooey, the son, and 
no answer did he make with his tongue. But he stooped 
to the ground and picked therefrom a big stone. This 
swiftly he threw at his mother, hitting her with such force 
that she fell dead to the earth. 

Then on strode Bunbundoolooey to his camp.

OoNGNAiRWAH, the divcr, and Guinarey, the eagle hawk, 
told all the pelicans, black swans, cranes, and many 
others, that they would take their net to the creek and 
catch fish, if some of them would go and beat the fish 
down towards the net. 

Gladly went the pelicans, black swans, and the rest to 
the creek. In they jumped, and splashed the water about 
to scare the fish down towards where Oongnairwah and 
Guinarey were stationed with their net. Presently little 
Deereeree, the wagtail, and Burreenjin, the peewee, who 
were on the bank sitting on a stump, called out, " Look 
out, we saw the back of an alligator in the water." The 
diver and eagle hawk called back, " Go away, then. The 
wind blows from you towards him. Go back or he will 
smell you." 

But Deereeree and Burreenjin were watching the fishing 
and did not heed what was said to them. Soon the 
alligator smelt them, and he lashed out with his tail, 
splashing the water so high, and lashing so furiously, that 
all the fishermen were drowned, even Deereeree and 

56 Australian Tales 

Burreenjin on the bank — not one escaped. And red was 
the bank of the creek, and red the stump whereon 
Deereeree and Burreenjin had sat, with the blood of the 
slain. And the place is called Goomade and is red for 
ever.

Narahdarn, the bat, wanted honey. He watched until he 
saw a Wurranunnah, or, bee alight. He caught it, stuck a 
white feather between its hind legs, let it go and followed 
it. He knew he could see the white feather, and so follow 
the bee to its nest. He ordered his two wives, of the 
Bilber tribe, to follow him with wirrees to carry home the 
honey in. Night came on and Wurranunnah the bee had 
not reached home. Narahdarn caught him, imprisoned him 
under bark, and kept him safely there until next morning. 
When it was light enough to see, Narahdarn let the bee go 
again, and followed him to his nest, in a gunnyanny tree. 
Marking the tree with his comebo that he might know it 
again, he returned to hurry on his wives who were some 
way behind. He wanted them to come on, climb the tree, 
and chop out the honey. When they reached the marked 
tree one of the women climbed up. She called out to 
Narahdarn that the honey was in a split in the tree. He 
called back to her to put her hand in and get it out. She 
put her arm in, but found she could not get it out again. 
-Narahdarn climbed up to help her, but found when he 
reached her that the only way to free her was to cut off her 

58 Australian Tales 

arm. This he did before she had time to realise what he 
was going to do, and protest. So great was the shock to 
her that she died instantly. Narahdarn carried down her 
lifeless body and commanded her sister, his other wife, to 
go up, chop out the arm, and get the honey. She 
protested, declaring the bees would have taken the honey 
away by now. 

"Not so," he said; " go at once." 

Every excuse she could think of, to save herself, she 
made. But her excuses were in vain, and Narahdarn only 
became furious with her for making them, and, brandishing 
his boondi, drove her up the tree. She managed to get 
her arm in beside her sister's, but there it stuck and she 
could not move it. Narahdarn, who was watching her, saw 
what had happened and followed her up the tree. Finding 
he could not pull her arm out, in spite of her cries, he 
chopped it off, as he had done her sister's. After one 
shriek, as he drove his comebo through her arm, she was 
silent. He said, " Come down, and I will chop out the 
bees' nest." But she did not answer him, and he saw that 
she too was dead. Then he was frightened, and climbed 
quickly down the gunnyanny tree ; taking her body to the 
ground with him, he laid it beside her sister's, and 
quickly he hurried from the spot, taking no further thought 
of the honey. As he neared his camp, two little sisters of 
his wives ran out to meet him, thinking their sisters would 
be with him, and that they would give them a taste of the 
honey they knew they had gone out to get. But to their 
surprise Narahdarn came alone, and as he drew near to 
them they saw his arms were covered with blood. And 
his face had a fierce look on it, which frightened them from 

Narahdarn the Bat 59 

even asking where their sisters were. They ran and told 
their mother that Narahdarn had returned alone, that he 
looked fierce and angry, also his arms were covered with 
blood. Out went the mother of the Bilbers, and she said, 
" Where are my daughters, Narahdarn ? Forth went they 
this morning to bring home the honey you found. You come 
back alone. You bring no honey. Your look is fierce, as 
of one who fights, and your arms are covered with blood. 
Tell me, I say, where are my daughters ? " 

"Ask me not, Bilber. Ask Wurranunnah the bee, he 
may know. Narahdarn the bat knows nothing." And he 
wrapt himself in a silence which no questioning could 
pierce. Leaving him there, before his camp, the mother of 
the Bilbers returned to her dardurr and told her tribe that 
her daughters were gone, and Narahdarn, their husband, 
would tell her nothing of them. But she felt sure he 
knew their fatr, and certain she was that he had some 
tale to tell, for his arms were covered with blood. 

The chief of her tribe listened -to her. When she had 
finished and begun to wail for her daughters, whom she 
thought she would see no more, he said, " Mother of the 
Bilbers, your daughters shall be avenged if aught has 
happened to them at the hands of Narahdarn. Fresh are 
his tracks, and the young men of your tribe shall follow 
whence they have come, and finding what Narahdarn has 
done, swiftly shall they return. Then shall we hold a 
corrobboree, and if your daughters fell at his hand 
Narahdarn shall be punished." 

The mother of the Bilbers said : " Well have you 
spoken, oh my relation. Now speed ye the young men lest 
the rain fall or the dust blow and the tracks be lost." 

6o 

Australian Tales 

Then forth went the fleetest footed and the keenest eyed of 
the young men of the tribe. Ere long, back they came to 
the camp with the news of the fate of the Bilbers. 

That night was the corrobboree held. The women sat 
round in a half-circle, and chanted a monotonous chant, 
keeping time by hitting, some of them, two boomerangs 
together, and others beating their rolled up opossum rugs. 

Big fires were lit on the edge of the scrub, throwing 
light on the dancers as they came dancing out from their 
camps, painted in all manner of designs, waywahs round 
their waists, tufts of feathers in their hair, and carrying in 
their hands painted wands. Heading the procession as the 
men filed out from the scrub into a cleared space in front 
of the women, came Narahdarn. The light of the fires lit 
up the tree tops, the dark balahs showed out in fantastic 
shapes, and weird indeed was the scene as slowly the men 
danced round ; louder clicked the boomerangs and louder 
grew the chanting of the women ; higher were the fires 
piled, until the flames shot their coloured tongues round the 

Narahdarn the Bat 6i 

trunks of the trees and high into the air. One fire was 
bigger than all, and towards it the dancers edged Narahdarn ; 
then the voice of the mother of the Bilbers shrieked in the 
chanting, high above that of the other women. As Narah- 
darn turned from the fire to dance back he found a wall of 
men confronting him. These quickly seized him and hurled 
him into the madly-leaping fire before him, where he 
perished in the flames. And so were the Bilbers avenged.

MuLLYAN, the eagle hawk, built himself a home high in a 
yaraan tree. There he lived apart from his tribe, with 
Moodai the opossum, his wife, and Moodai the opossum, 
his mother-in-law. With them too was Buttergah, a 
daughter of the Buggoo or flying squirrel tribe. Buttergah 
was a friend of Moodai, the wife of Mullyan, and a distant 
cousin to the Moodai tribe. 

Mullyan the eagle hawk was a cannibal. That was 
the reason of his living apart from the other blacks. In 
order to satisfy his cannibal cravings, he used to sally forth 
with a big spear, a spear about four times as big as an 
ordinary spear. If he found a black fellow hunting alone, 
he would kill him and take his body up to the house in the 
tree. There the Moodai and Buttergah would cook it, and 
all of them would eat the flesh ; for the women as well as 
Mullyan were cannibals. This went on for some time, 
until at last so many black fellows were slain that their 
friends determined to find out what became of them, and 
they tracked the last one they missed. They tracked him 
to where he had evidently been slain ; they took up the 
tracks of his slayer, and followed them right to the foot of 

Mullyangah the Morning Star 63 

the yaraan tree, in which was built the home of Mullyan. 
They tried to climb the tree, but it was high and straight, 
and they gave up the attempt after many efforts. In their 
despair at tlieir failure they thought of the Bibbees, a tribe 
noted for its climbing powers. They summoned two young 
Bibbees to their aid. One came, bringing with him his 
friend Murrawondah of the cHmbing rat tribe. 

Having heard what the blacks wanted them to do, these 
famous climbers went to the yaraan tree and made a start 
at once. There was only light enough that first night for 
them to see to reach a fork in the tree about half-way up. 
There they camped, watched Mullyan away in the morning, 
and then climbed on. At last they reached the home of 
Mullyan. They watched their chance and then sneaked 
into his humpy. 

When they were safely inside, they hastened to secrete a 
smouldering stick in one end of the humpy, taking care they 
were not seen . by any of the women. Then they went 
quietly down again, no one the wiser of their coming or 
going. During the day the women heard sometimes a 
crackling noise, as of burning, but looking round they saw 
nothing, and as their own fire was safe, they took no notice, 
thinking it might have been caused by some grass having 
fallen into their fire. 

After their descent from having hidden the smouldering 
fire stick, Bibbee and Murrawondah found the blacks and 
told them what they had done. Hearing that the plan was 
to burn out Mullyan, and fearing that the tree might fall, 
they all moved to some little distance, there to watch and 
wait for the end. Great was their joy at the thought that 
at last their enemy was circumvented. And proud were 

64 Australian Tales 

Bibbee and Murrawondah as the black fellows praised their 
prowess. 

After dinner-time Mullyan came back. When he reached 
the entrance to his house he put down his big spear out- 
side. Then he went in and threw himself down to rest, 
for long had he walked, and little had he gained. In a few 
minutes he heard his big spear fall down. He jumped up 
and stuck it in its place again. He had no sooner thrown 
himself down, than again he heard it fall. Once more he 
rose and replaced it. As he reached his resting-place again, 
out burst a flame of fire from the end of his humpy. He 
called out to the three women, who were cooking, and they 
rushed to help him extinguish the flames. But in spite of 
their efforts the fire only blazed the brighter. Mullyan's 
arm was burnt off. The Moodai had their feet burnt, and 
Buttergah was badly burnt too. Seeing they were helpless 
against the fire, they turned to leave the humpy to its fate, 
and make good their own escape. But they had left it too 
late. As they turned to descend the tree, the roof of the 
humpy fell on them. And all that remained when the fire 
ceased, were the charred bones of the dwellers in the 
yaraan tree. That was all that the blacks found of their 
enemies ; but their legend says that Mullyan the eagle 
hawk lives in the sky as Mullyangah the morning star, 
on one side of which is a little star, which is his one arm; 
on the other a larger star, which is Moodai the opossum, 
his wife.

GooMBLEGUBBON the bustard, his two wives, Beeargah the 
hawk, and Ouyan the curlew, with the two children of 
Beeargah, had their camps right away in the bush ; their 
only water supply was a small dungle, or gilguy hole. 
The wives and children camped in one camp, and Goomble- 
gubbon a short distance off in another. One day the 
wives asked their husband to lend them the dayoorl stone, 
that they might grind some doonburr to make durrie. But 
he would not lend it to them, though they asked him 
several times. They knew he did not want to use it 
himself, for they saw his durrie on a piece of bark,, 
between two fires, already cooking. They determined to 
be revenged, so said : 

"We will make some water bags of the opossum skins ; 
we will fill them with water, then some day when Goomble- 
gubbon is out hunting we will empty the dungle of water, 
take the children, and run away ! When he returns he will 
find his wives and children gone and the dungle empty ; then 
he will be sorry that he would not lend us the dayoorl." 

The wives soon caught some opossums, killed and 
skinned them, plucked all the hair from the skins, saving 

66 Australian Tales 

it to roll into string to make goomillahs, cleaned the 
skins of all flesh, sewed them up with the sinews, leaving 
only the neck opening. When finished, they blew into 
them, filled them with air, tied them up and left them to 
dry for a few days. When they were dry and ready to be 
used, they chose a day when Goomblegubbon was away, 
filled the water bags, emptied the dungle, and started 
towards the river. 

Having travelled for some time, they at length reached the 
river. They saw two black fellows on the other side, who, 
when they saw the runaway wives and the two children, 
swam over to them and asked whence they had come and 
whither they were going. 

" We are running away from our husband Goomblegubbon, 
who would lend us no dayoorl to grind our doonburr on, and 
we ran away lest we and our children should starve, for we 
could not live on meat alone. But whither we are _^oing 
we know not, except that it must be far away, lest Goomble- 
gubbon follow and kill us." 

The black fellows said they wanted wives, and would each 
take one, and both care for the children. The women agreed. 
The black fellows swam back across the river, each taking a 
child first, and then a woman, for as they came from the 
back country, where no creeks were, the women could not 
swim. 

Goomblegubbon came back from hunting, and, seeing no 
wives, called aloud for them, but heard no answer. Then 
he went to their camp, but found them not. Then turning 
towards the dungle he saw that it was empty. Then he saw 
the tracks of his wives and children going towards the river. 
Great was his anger, and vowing he would kill them when 

Goomblegubbon and Beeargah 67 

he found them, he picked up his spears and followed their 
tracks, until he too reached the river. There on the other 
side he saw a camp, and in it he could see strange black 
fellows, his wives, and his children. He called aloud for 
them to cross him over, for he too could not swim. But 
the sun went down and still they did not answer. He 
camped where he was that night, and in the morning he 
saw the camp opposite had been deserted and set fire to ; 
the country all round was burnt so that not even the tracks 
of the black fellows and his wives could be found, even 
had he been able to cross the river. And never again did 
he see or hear of his wives or his children.

the Moon 

Mooregoo the Mopoke had been camped away by himself 
for a long time. While alone he had made a great number 
of boomerangs, nullah-nullahs, spears, neilahmans, and 
opossum rugs. Well had he carved the weapons with the 
teeth of opossums, and brightly had he painted the inside 
of the rugs with coloured designs, and strongly had he sewn 
them with the sinews of opossums, threaded in the needle 
made of the little bone taken from the leg of an emu. As 
Mooregoo looked at his work he was proud of all he had 
done. 

One night Bahloo the moon came to his camp, and said : 
" Lend me one of your opossum rugs." 

" No. I lend not my rugs." 

" Then give me one." 

" No I give not my rugs." 

Looking round, Bahloo saw the beautifully carved 
weapons, so he said, " Then give me, Mooregoo, some of 
your weapons." 

" No, 1 give, never, what I have made, to another." 

Mooregoo the Mopoke 69 

Again Bahloo said, " The night is cold. Lend me a 
rug." 

" I have spoken," said Mooregoo. " I never lend my 
rugs." 

Bahloo said no more, but went away, cut some bark and 
made a dardurr for himself. When it was finished and he 
safely housed in it, down came the rain in torrents. And 
it rained without ceasing until the whole country was 
flooded. Mooregoo was drowned. His weapons floated 
about and drifted apart, and his rugs rotted in the water.

Beeargah the hawk, mother of Ouyan the curlew, said 
one day to her son: "Go, Ou3'an, out, take your spears 
and kill an emu. The women and I are hungry. You 
are a man, go out and kill, that we may eat. You must 
not stay always in the camp like an old woman ; you must 
go and hunt as other men do, lest the women laugh at 
you." 

Ouyan took his spears and went out hunting, but though 
he went far, he could not get an emu, yet he dare not 
return to the camp and face the jeers of the women. Well 
could they jeer, and angry could his mother grow when she. 
was hungry. Sooner than return empty-handed he would 
cut some flesh off his own legs. And this he decided ta 
do. He made a cut in his leg with his comebo and as he 
made it, cried aloud : " Yuckay ! Yuckay," in pain. But 
he cut on, saying : " Sharper would cut the tongues of 
the women, and deeper would be the wounds they would 
make if I returned without food for them." And crying : 
" Yuckay, yuckay, ' at each stroke of his comebo, he at 
length cut off a piece of flesh, and started towards the 
camp with it. 

Ouyan the Curlew 71 

As he neared the camp his mother cried out : " What 
have you brought us Ouyan ? " We starve for meat, come 
quickly." 

He came and laid the flesh at her feet, saying : " Far 
did I go, and little did I see, but there is enough for all 
to-night ; to-morrow will I go forth again." 

The women cooked the flesh, and ate it hungrily. After- 
wards they felt quite ill, but thought it must be because 
they had eaten too hungrily. The next day they hurried 
Ouyan forth again. And again he returned bringing his 
own flesh back. Again the women ate hungrily of it, and 
again they felt quite ill. 

Then, too, Beeargah noticed for the first time that the 
flesh Ouyan brought looked different from emu flesh. She 
asked him what flesh it was. He replied : " What should 
it be but the flesh of emu ? " 

But Beeargah was not satisfied, and she said to the two 
women who lived with her : " Go yoii, to-morrow, follow 
Ouyan, and see whence he gets this flesh." 

The next day, the two women followed Ouyan when he 
went forth to hunt. They followed at a good distance, that 
he might not notice that they were following. Soon they 
heard him crying as if in pain : " Yuckay, yuckay, yuckay 
nurroo gay gay." When they came near they saw he was 
cutting the flesh off his own limbs. Before he discovered 
that they were watching him, back they went to the old 
woman, and told her what they had seen. 

Soon Ouyan came back, bringing, as usual, the flesh with 
him. When he had thrown it down at his mother's feet, 
he went away, and lay down as if tired from the chase. 
His mother went up to him, and before he had time to 

72 Australian Tales 

cover his mutilated limbs, she saw that indeed the story of 
the women was true. Angry was she that he had so 
deceived her ; and she called loudly for the other two 
women, who came running to her. 

" You are right," she said. " Too lazy to hunt for emu, 
he cut oiif his own flesh, not caring that when we unwit- 
tingly ate thereof we should sicken. Let us beat him who 
did us this wrong." 

The three women seized poor Ouyan and beat him^ 
though he cried aloud in agony when the blows fell on his 
bleeding legs. 

When the women had satisfied their vengeance, Beeargah 
said : " You Ouyan shall have no more flesh on your legs, 
and red shall they be for ever ; red, and long and fleshless." 
Saying which she went, and with her the other women. 
Ouyan crawled away and hid himself, and never again did 
his mother see him. But night after night was to be heard 
a wailing cry of, " Bou you gwai gwai. Bou you gwai 
gwai," which meant, " My poor red legs. My poor red 
legs." 

But though Ouyan the man was never seen again, a bird 
"with long thin legs, very red in colour under the feathers, 
was seen often, and heard to cry ever at night, even as 
Ouyan the man had cried : " Bou you gwai gwai. Bou 
you gwai gwai.'' And this bird bears always the name of 
Ouyan.

the Crows 

Dinewan and his two wives, the Wahn, were camping 
out. Seeing some clouds gathering, they made a bark 
humpy. It came on to rain, and they all took shelter 
under it. Dinewan, when his wives were not looking, 
gave a kick against a piece of bark at one side of the 
humpy, knocked it down, then told his wives to go and 
put it up again. While they were outside putting it up, 
he gave a kick, and knocked down a piece on the other 
side ; so no sooner were they in again than out they had to 
go. This he did time after time, until at last they sus- 
pected him, and decided that one of them would watch. 
The one who was watching saw Dinewan laugh to himself 
and go and knock down the bark they had just put up, chuck- 
ling at the thought of his wives having to go out in the 
wet and cold, to put it up, while he had his supper dry 
and comfortably inside. The one who saw him told the 
other, and they decided to teach him a lesson. So in they 
came, each with a piece of bark filled with hot coals. They 
went straight up to Dinewan, who was lying down laughing. 

74 Australian Tales 

" Now," they said, "you shall feel as hot as we did cold." 
And they threw the coals over him. Dinewan jumped up, 
crying aloud with the pain, for he was badly burnt. He 
rolled himself over, and ran into the rain ; and his wives 
stayed inside, and laughed aloud at him.

Young Goolahwilleel used to go out hunting every day. 
His mother and sisters always expected that he would 
bring home kangaroo and emu for them. But each day 
he came home without any meat at all. They asked him 
what he did in the bush, as he evidently did not hunt. He 
said that he did hunt. 

"Then why," said they, "do yoU bring us nothing 
home ? " 

" I cannot catch and kill what I follow," he said. "You 
hear me cry out when I find kangaroo or emu ; is it not 
so?" 

" Yes ; each day we hear you call when you find some- 
thing, and each day we get ready the fire, expecting you 
to bring home the spoils of the chase, but you bring 
nothing." 

"To-morrow," he said, "you shall not be disappointed. 
I will bring you a kangaroo." 

Every day, instead of hunting, Goolahwilleel had been 
gathering wattle-gum, and with this he had been modelling 
a kangaroo — a perfect model of one, tail, ears, and all 
complete. So the next day he came towards the camp 

76 Australian Tales 

carrying this kangaroo made of gum. Seeing him coming, 
and also seeing that he was carrying the promised kangaroo, 
his mother and sisters said: "Ah, Goolahwilleel, spoke 
truly. He has kept his word, and now brings us a 
kangaroo. Pile up the fire. To-night we shall eat meat." 

About a hundred yards away from the camp Goolahwilleel 
put down his model, and came on without it. His mother 
called out : " Where is the kangaroo you brought home ? " 

" Oh, over there." And he pointed towards where he 
had left it. 

The sisters ran to get it, but came back saying: "Where 
is it ? We cannot see it." 

"Over there," he said, pointing again. 

" But there is only a great figure of gum there." 

" Well, did I say it was anything else ? Did I not say 
it was gum." 

" No, you did not. You said it was a kangaroo." 

" And so it is a kangaroo. A beautiful kangaroo that I 
made all by myself." And he smiled quite proudly to think 
what a fine kangaroo he had made. 

But his mother and sisters did not smile. They seized 
him, and gave him a good beating for deceiving them. 
They told him he should never go out alone again, for he 
only played instead of hunting, though he knew they 
starved for meat. They would always in the future go 
with him. 

And so for ever the Goolahwilleels went in flocks, never 
more singly, in search of food.

GooNUR was a clever old woman-doctor, who lived with her 
son, Goonur, and his two wives. The wives were Guddah 
the red lizard, and Beereeun the small, prickly lizard. One 
day the two wives had done something to anger Goonur, 
their husband, and he gave them both a great beating. 
After their beating they went away by themselves. They 
said to each other that they could stand their present life 
no longer, and yet there was no escape unless they killed 
their husband. They decided they would do that. But 
how ? That was the question. It must be by cunning. 

At last they decided on a plan. They dug a big hole 
in the sand near the creek, filled it with water, and covered 
the hole over with boughs, leaves, and grass. 

"Now we will go," they said, "and tell our husband 
that we have found a big bandicoot's nest." 

Back they went to the camp, and told Goonur that they 
had seen a big nest of bandicoots near the creek ; that if 
he sneaked up he would be able to surprise them and get 
the lot. 

Off went Goonur in great haste. He sneaked up to 
within a couple of feet of the nest, then gave a spring on 

7 8 Australian Tales 

to the top of it. And only when he felt the bough top give 
in with him, and he sank down into water, did he realise 
that he had been tricked. Too late then to save himself, 
for he was drowning and could not escape. His wives 
had watched the success of their stratagem from a distance. 
When they were certain that they had effectually disposed 
of their hated husband, they went back to the camp. 
Goonur, the mother, soon missed her son, made inquiries 
of his wives, but gained no information from them. Two 
or three days passed, and yet Goonur, the son, returned 
not. Seriously alarmed at his long absence without having 
given her notice of his intention, the mother determined to 
follow his track. She took up his trail where she had last 
seen him leave the camp. This she followed until she 
reached the so-called bandicoot's nest. Here his tracks 
disappeared, and nowhere could she find a sign of his 
having returned from this place. She felt in the hole with 
her yam stick, and soon felt that there was something large 
there in the water. She cut a forked stick and tried to 
raise the body and get it out, for she felt sure it must be 
her son. But she could not raise it ; stick after stick 
broke in the effort. At last she cut a midjee stick and 
tried with that, and then she was successful. When she 
brought out the body she found it was indeed her son. 
She dragged the body to an ant bed, and watched intently 
to see if the stings of the ants brought any sign of returning 
life. Soon her hope was realised, and after a violent 
twitching of the muscles her son regained consciousness. 
As soon as he was able to do so, he told her of the trick 
his wives had played on him. 

Goonur, the mother, was furious. " No more shall they 

Goonur, the Woman-Doctor 79 

have you as husband. You shall live hidden in my dardurr. 
When we get near the camp you can get into this long, 
big comebee, and I will take you in. When you want to 
go hunting I will take you from the camp in this comebee, 
and when we are out of sight you can get out and hunt as 
of old." 

And thus they managed for some time to keep his return 
a secret ; and httle the wives knew that their husband was 
alive and in his mother's camp. But as day after day 
Goonur, the mother, returned from hunting loaded with 
spoils, they began to think she must have help from some 
one ; for surely, they said, no old woman could be so 
successful in hunting. There was a mystery they were 
sure, and they were determined to find it out. 

" See," they said, " she goes out alone. She is old, and 
yet she brings hpme more than we two do together, and we 
are young. To-day she brought opossums, piggiebillahs, 
honey yams, quatha, and many things. We got little, yet 
we went far. We will watch her." 

The next time old Goonur went out, carrying her big 
comebee, the wives watched her. 

"Look," they said, "how slowly she goes. She, could 
not chmb trees for opossums — she is too old and weak ; 
look how she staggers." 

They went cautiously after her, and saw when she was 
some distance from the camp that she put down her come- 
bee. And out of it, to their amazement, stepped Goonur, 
their husband. 

"Ah," they said, "this is her secret. She must have 
found him, and, as she is a great doctor, she was able to 
bring him to life again. We must wait until she leaves 

8o Australian Tales 

him, and then go to him, and beg to know where he has 
been, and pretend joy that he is back, or else surely now 
he is alive again he will sometime kill us." 

Accordingly, when Goonur was alone the two wives ran 
to him, and said : 

" Why, Goonur, our husband, did you leave us ? Whfere 
have you been all the time that we, your wives, have 
mourned for you ? Long has the time been without you, 
and we, your wives, have been sad that you came no more 
to our dardurr.'' 

Goonur, the husband, affected to believe their sorrow 
was genuine, and that they did not know when they 
directed him to the bandicoot's nest that it was a trap. 
Which trap, but for his mother, might have been his 
grave. 

They all went hunting together, and when they had 
killed enough for food they returned to the camp. As 
they came near to the camp, Goonur, the mother, saw 
them coming, and cried out : 

" Would you again be tricked by your wives ? Did I 
save you from death only that you might again be killed ? 
I spared them, but I would I had slain them, if again they 
are to have a chance of killing you, my son. Many are the 
wiles of women, and another time I might not be able to 
save you. Let them live if you will it so, my son, but not 
with you. They tried to lure you to death ; you are no 
longer theirs, mine only now, for did I not bring you back 
from the dead ? 

But Goonur the husband said, " In truth did you save 
me, my mother, and these my wives rejoice that you did. 
They too, as I was, were deceived by the bandicoot's 

Goonur, the Woman-Doctor 8i 

nest, the work of an enemy yet to be found. See, my 
mother, do not the looks of love in their eyes, and words 
of love on their lips vouch for their truth ? We will be as 
we have been, my mother, and live again in peace." 

And thus craftily did Goonur the husband deceive his 
wives and make them believe he trusted them wholly, 
while in reality his mind was even then plotting vengeance. 
In a few days he had his plans ready. Having cut and 
pointed sharply two stakes, he stuck them firmly in the 
creek, then he placed two logs on the bank, in front of the 
sticks, which were underneath the water, and invisible. 
Having made his preparations, he invited his wives to 
come for a bathe. He said when they reached the creek : 

" See those two logs on the bank, you jump in each 
from one and see which can dive the furthest. I will go 
first to see you as j'ou come up." And in he jumped, 
carefully avoiding the pointed stakes. " Right," he called, 
" All is clear here, jump in." 

Then the two wives ran down the bank each to a log and 
jumped from it. Well had Goonur calculated the distance, for 
both jumped right on to the stakes placed in the water to 
catch them, and which stuck firmly into them, holding them 
under the water. 

" Well am I avenged," said Goonur. " No more will 
my wives lay traps to catch me." And he walked off 
to the camp. 

His mother asked him where his wives were. " They 
left me," he said, " to get bees' nests." 

But as day by day passed and the wives returned not, 
the old woman began to suspect that her son knew more than 
he said. She asked him no more, but quietly watched her 

F 

8 2 Australian Tales 

opportunity, when her son was away hunting, and then 
followed the tracks of the wives. She tracked them to the 
creek, and as she saw no tracks of their return, she went 
into the creek, felt about, and there found the two bodies 
fast on the stakes. She managed to get them off and out 
of the creek, then she determined to try and restore them 
to life, for she was angry that her son had not told her 
what he had done, but had deceived her as well as his 
wives. She rubbed the women with some of her medicines, 
dressed the wounds made by the stakes, and then dragged 
them both on to ants' nests and watched their bodies as 
the ants crawled over them, biting them. She had not 
long to wait ; soon they began to move and come to life 
again. 

As soon as they were restored Goonur took them back 
to the camp and said to Goonur her son, " Now once 
did I use my knowledge to restore life to you, and again 
have I used it to restore life to your wives. You are all 
mine now, and I desire that you live in peace and never 
more deceive me, or never again shall I use my skill for 
you." 

And they lived for a long while together, and when the 
Mother Doctor died there was a beautiful, dazzlingly bright 
falling star, followed by a sound as of a sharp clap of 
thunder, and all the tribes round when they saw and 
heard this said, " A great doctor must have died, for that is 
the sign." And when the wives died, they were taken up 
to the sky, where they are now known as Gwaibillah, the 
red star, so called from its bright red colour, owing, the 
legend says, to the red marks left by the stakes on the 
bodies of the two women, and which nothing could efface.

Rainbow 

Deereeree was a widow and lived in a camp alone with 
her four little girls. One day Bibbee came and made a 
camp not far from hers. Deereeree was frightened of him, 
too frightened to go to sleep. All night she used to watch 
his camp, and if she heard a sound she would cry aloud : 
" Deereeree, wyah, wyah, Deereeree." Sometimes she 
would be calling out nearly all night. 

In the morning, Bibbee would come over to her camp 
and ask her what was the matter that she had called out 
so in the night. She told him that she thought she heard 
some one walking about and was afraid, for she was alone 
with her four little girls. 

He told her she ought not to be afraid with all her 
children round her. But night after night she sat up 
crying: "Wyah, wyah, Deereeree, Deereeree." 

At last Bibbee said : " If you are so frightened, marry 
me and live in my camp. I will take care of you." But 
Deereeree said she did not want to marry. So night after 
night was to be heard her plaintive cry of "Wyah, wyah. 

84 Australian Tales 

Deereeree, Deereeree." And again and again Bibbee pressed 
her to share his camp and marry him. But she always 
refused. The more she refused the more he wished to 
marry her. And he used to wonder how he could induce 
her to change her mind. 

At last he thought of a plan of surprising her into giving 
her consent. He set to work and made a beautiful and 
many coloured arch, which, when it was made, he called 
Euloowirree, and he placed it right across the sky, reaching 
from one side of the earth to the other. When the r.ainbow 
was firmly placed in the sky and showing out in all its 
brilliancy of many colours, as a roadway from the earth to the 
stars, Bibbee went into his camp to wait. When Deereeree 
looked up at the sky and saw the wonderful rainbow, she 
thought something dreadful must be going to happen. She 
was terribly frightened, and called aloud : " Wyah, wyah." 
In her fear she gathered her children together, and fled 
with them to Bibbee's camp for protection. 

Bibbee proudly told her that he had made the rainbow, 
just to show how strong he was and how safe she would be 
if she married him. But if she would not, she would see 
what terrible things he would make to come on the earth, 
not just a harmless and beautiful roadway across the heavens, 
but things that would burst from the earth and destroy it. 

So by working on her mixed feelings of fear of his 
prowess, and admiration of his skill, Bibbee gained his 
desire and Deereeree married him. And when long after- 
wards they died, Deereeree was changed into the little 
willy wagtail who may be heard through the stillness 
of the summer nights, crying her plaintive wail of 
" Deereeree, wyah, wyah, Deereeree." 

Deereeree the Wagtail 85 

And Bibbee was changed into the woodpecker, or climbing 
tree bird, who is always running up trees as if he wanted 
to be building other ways to the sky than the famous road- 
way of his Euloowirree, the building of which had won him 
his wife.

guggahgul the Mosquito Bird 

An old man lived with his two wives, the Mooninguggahgul 
sisters, and his two sons. The old man spent all his time 
making boomerangs, until at last he had four nets full of 
these weapons. The two boys used to go out hunting 
opossums and iguanas, which they would cook in the bush, 
and eat, without thinking of bringing any home to their 
parents. The old man asked them one day to bring him 
home some fat to rub his boomerangs with. This the boys 
did, but they brought only the fat, having eaten the rest of 
the iguanas from which they had taken the fat. The old 
man was very angry that his sons were so greedy, but he 
said nothing, though he determined to punish them, for he 
thought " when they were young, and could not hunt, I 
hunted for them and fed them well ; now that they can hunt 
and I am old and cannot so well, they give me nothing." 
Thinking of his treatment at the hands of his sons, he 
greased all his boomerangs, and when he had finished 
them he said to the boys : " You take these boome- 
rangs down on to the plain and try them ; see if I have 

Mooregoo the Mopoke 87 

made them well. Then come back and tell me. I will 
stay here.'' 

The boys took the boomerangs. They threw them one 
after another ; but to their surprise not one of the 
boomerangs they threw touched the ground, but, instead, 
went whirling up out of sight. When they had finished 
throwing the boomerangs, all of which acted in the same 
way, whirling up through space, they prepared to start 
home again. But as they looked round they saw a huge 
whirlwind coming towards them. They were frightened 
and called out I'Wurrawilberoo," for they knew there was 
a devil in the whirlwind. They laid hold of trees near at 
hand that it might not catch them. But the whirlwind 
spread out first one arm and rooted up one tree, then 
another arm, and rooted up another. The boys ran in fear 
from tree to tree, but each tree that they went to was torn 
up by the whirlwind. At last they ran to two mubboo or 
beef-wood trees, and clung tightly to them. After them 
rushed the whirlwind, sweeping all before it, and when it 
reached the mubboo trees, to which the boys were clinging, 
it tore them from their roots and bore them upward swiftly, 
giving the boys no time to leave go, so they were borne 
upward clinging to the mubboo trees. On the whirlwind 
bore them until they reached the sky, where it placed the 
two trees with the boys still clinging to them. And there 
they still are, near the Milky Way, and known as Wurra- 
wilberoo. The boomerangs are scattered all along the 
Milky Way, for the whirlwind had gathered them all 
together in its rush through space. Having placed them 
all in the sky, down came the whirlwind, retaking its 
natural shape, which was that of the old man, for so had 

88 Australian Tales 

he wreaked his vengeance on his sons for neglecting their 
parents. 

As time went on, the mothers wondered why their sons 
did not return. It struck them as strange that the old man 
expressed no surprise at the absence of the boys, and they 
suspected that he knew more than he cared to say. For 
he only sat in the camp smiling while his wives discussed 
what could have happened to them, and he let the women 
go out and search alone. The mothers tracked their sons 
to the plain. There they saw that a big whirlwind had 
lately been, for trees were uprooted and strewn in every 
direction. They tracked their sons from tree to tree until 
at last they came to the place where the mubboos had 
stood. They saw the tracks of their sons beside the places 
whence the trees had been uprooted, but of the trees and 
their sons they saw no further trace. Then they knew 
that they had all been borne up together by the whirlwind, 
and taken whither they knew not. Sadly they returned to 
their camp. When night came they heard cries which they 
recognised as made by the voices of their sons, though they 
sounded as if coming from the sky. As the cries sounded 
again the mothers looked up whence they came, and there 
they saw the mubboo trees with their sons beside them. 
Then well they knew that they would see no more their 
sons on earth, and great was their grief, and wroth were 
they with their husband, for well they knew now that he must 
have been the devil in the whirlwind, who had so punished 
the boys. They vowed to avenge the loss of their boys. 

The next day they went out and gathered a lot of 
pine gum, and brought it back to the camp. When they 
reached the camp the old man called to one of his wives to 

Mooregoo the Mopoke 89 

come and tease his hair, as his head ached, and that alone 
would reheve the pain. One of the women went over to 
him, took his head on her lap, and teased his hair until at 
last the old man was soothed and sleepy. In the meantime 
the other wife was melting the gum. The one with the 
old man gave her a secret sign to come near ; then she asked 
the old man to lie on his back, that she might tease his 
front hair better. As he did so, she signed to the other 
woman, who quickly came, gave her some of the melted 
gum, which they both then poured hot into his eyes, filling 
them with it. In agony the old man jumped up and ran 
about, calling out, " Mooregoo, mooregoo," as he ran. Out 
of the camp he ran and far away, still crying out in his 
agony, as he went. And never again did his wives see him 
though every night they heard his cry of " Mooregoo, 
mooregoo." But though they never saw their husband, 
they saw a night hawk, the Mopoke, and as that cried 
always, " Mooregoo, mooregoo," as their husband had cried 
in his agony, they knew that he must have turned into 
the bird. 

After a time the women were changed into Mooningug- 
gahgul, or mosquito birds. These birds are marked on the 
wings just like a mosquito, and every summer night you 
can hear them cry out incessantly, " Mooninguggahgul," 
which cry is the call for the mosquitoes to answer by 
coming out and buzzing in chorus. And as quickly the 
mosquitoes come out in answer to the summons, the 
Mooninguggahgul bid them fly everywhere and bite all they 
can.

BouGooDOOGAHDAH was an old woman who lived alone 
with her four hundred dingoes. From living so long with 
these dogs she had grown not to care for her fellow crea- 
tures except as food. She and the dogs lived on human 
flesh, and it was her cunning which gained such food for 
them all. She would sally forth from her camp with her 
two little dogs ; she would be sure to meet some black 
fellows, probably twenty or thirty, going down to the creek. 
She would say, " I can tell you where there are lots of 
paddy melons." They would ask where, and she would 
answer, " Over there, on the point of that moorillah or 
ridge. If you will go there and have your nullahs 
ready, I will go with my two dogs and round them up 
towards you." 

The black fellowsi invariably stationed themselves where she 
had told them, and off went Bougoodoogahdah and her two 
dogs. But not to round up the paddy melons. She went 
quickly towards her camp, calling softly, " Birree gougou," 
which meant " Sool 'em, sool 'em," and was the signal for 
the dogs to come out. Quickly they came and surrounded 
the black fellows, took them by surprise, flew at them, bit 

Bougoodoogahdah the Rain Bird 91 

and worried them to death. Then they and Bougoodoo- 
gahdah dragged the bodies to their camp. There they 
were cooked and were food for the old woman and the dogs 
for some time. As soon as the supply was finished the 
same plan to obtain more was repeated. 

The black fellows missed so many of their friends that they 
determined to find out what had become of them. They began 
to suspect the old woman who lived alone and hunted over 
the moorillahs with her two little dogs. They proposed 
that the next party that went to the creek should divide 
and some stay behind in hiding and watch what went on. 
Those watching saw the old woman advance towards their 
friends, talk to them for a while, and then go off with her 
two dogs. They saw their friends station themselves at 
the point of the moorillah or ridge, holding their nullahs in 
readiness, as if waiting for something to come. Presently 
they heard a low cry from the old woman of " Birree 
goiigou," which cry was quickly followed by dingoes 
coming out of the bush in every direction, in hundreds, 
surrounding the black fellows at the point. 

The dingoes closed in, quickly hemming the black fellows 
in all round ; then they made a simultaneous rush at them, 
tore them with their teeth, and killed them. 

The black fellows watching, saw that when the dogs had 
killed their friends they were joined by the old woman, who 
helped them to drag off the bodies to their camp. 

Having seen all this, back went the watchers to their tribe 
and told what they had seen. All the tribes round mustered 
up and decided to execute a swift vengeance. In order to 
do so, out they sallied well armed. A detachment went on 
to entrap the dogs and Bougoodoogahdah. Then just when 

92 Australian Tales 

the usual massacre of the blacks was to begin and the dogs 
were closing in round them for the purpose, out rushed over 
two hundred black fellows, and so effectual was their attack 
that every dog was killed, as well as Bougoodoogahdah and 
her two little dogs. 

The old woman lay where she had been slain, but as the 
blacks went away they heard her cry " Bougoodoogahdah." 
So back they went and broke her bones, first they broke her 
legs and then left her. But again as they went they heard 
her cry " Bougoodoogahdah." Then back again they came, 
and again, until at last every bone in her body was broken, 
but still she cried " Bougoodoogahdah." So one man 
waited beside her to see whence came the sound, for surely, 
they thought, she must be dead. He saw her heart move 
and cry again " Bougoodoogahdah " and as it cried, out 
came a little bird from it. This little bird runs on the 
moorillahs and calls at night " Bougoodoogahdah." All 
day it stays in one place, and only at night comes out. 
It is a little greyish bird, something like a weedah. The 
blacks call it a rain-maker, for if any one steals its eggs it 
cries out incessantly " Bougoodoogahdah " until in answer 
to its call the rain falls. And when the country is 
stricken with a drought, the blacks look for one of 
these little birds, and finding it, chase it, until it cries 
aloud " Bougoodoogahdah, Bougoodoogahdah " and when 
they hear its cry in the daytime they know the rain will 
soon fall. 

As the little bird flew from the heart of the woman, all 
the dead dingoes were changed into snakes, many different 
kinds, all poisonous. The two little dogs were changed 
into dayah minyah, a very small kind of carpet snake, non- 

Bougoodoogahdah the Rain Bird 93 

poisonous, for these two little dogs had never bitten the 
blacks as the other dogs had done. At the points of the 
moorillahs where Bougoodoogahdah and her dingoes used 
to slay the blacks, are heaps of white stones, which are 
supposed to be the fossilised bones of the massacred men.

Word had been passed from tribe to tribe, telling, how 
that the season was good, there must be a great gathering 
of the tribes. And the place fixed for the gathering was 
Googoorewon. The old men whispered that it should be 
the occasion for a borah, but this the women must not 
know. Old Byamee, who was a great Wirreenun, said he 
would take his two sons, Ghindahindahmoee and Booma- 
hoomahnowee, to the gathering of the tribes, for the time 
had come when they should be made young men, that they 
might be free to marry wives, eat emu flesh, and learn to be 
warriors. 

As tribe after tribe arrived at Googoorewon, each took 
up a position at one of the various points of the ridges, 
surrounding the clear open space where the corrobborees 
were to be. The Wahn, crows, had one point ; the 
Dummerh, pigeons, another ; the Mahthi, dogs, another, 
and so on ; Byamee and his tribe, Byahmul the black swans 
tribe, Oooboon, the blue tongued lizard, and many other 
chiefs and their tribes, each had their camp on a different 
point. When all had arrived there were hundreds and 
hundreds assembled, and many and varied were the nightly 

The Borah of Byamee 95 

corrobborees, each tribe trying to excel the other in the 
fancifulness of their painted get-up and the novelty of their 
newest song and dance. By day there was much hunting 
and feasting, by night much dancing and singing ; pledges 
of friendship exchanged, a dillibag for a boomerang, and so 
on ; young daughters given to old warriors, old women 
given to young men, unborn girls promised to old men, 
babies in arms promised to grown men ; many and diverse 
were the compacts entered into, and always were the 
Wirreenun, or doctors of the tribes consulted. 

After some days the Wirreenun told the men of the 
tribes that they were going to hold a borah. But on 
no account must the innerh, or women, know. Day by day 
they must all go forth as if to hunt and then prepare in 
secret the borah ground. Out went the men each day. 
They cleared a very large circle quite clear, then they built 
an earthen dam round this circle, and cleared a pathway 
leading into the thick bush from the circle, and built a dam 
on either side of this pathway. 

When all these preparations were finished, they had, as 
usual, a corrobboree at night. After this had been going on 
for some time, one of the old Wirreenun walked right away 
from the crowd as if he were sulky. He went to his camp, 
to where he was followed by another Wirreenun, and pre- 
sently the two old fellows began fighting. Suddenly, when 
the attention of the blacks was fixed on this fight, there came 
a strange, whizzing, whirring noise from the scrub round. The 
women and children shrank together, for the sudden, uncanny, 
noise frightened them. And they knew that it was made 
by the spirits who were coming to assist at the initiation of 
the boys into young manhood. The noise really sounded, 

Australian Tales 

if you had not the dread of spirits in your mind, just as if 
some one had a circular piece of wood at the end of a 
string and were whirling it round and round. 

As the noise went on, the women said, in an awestricken 
tone, " Gurraymy," that is " borah devil," and clutched 
their children tighter to them. The boys said " Gayandy," 
and their eyes extended with fear. " Gayandy " meant 
borah devil too, but the women must not even use the same 
word as the boys and men to express the borah spirit, for 
all concerning the mysteries of borah are sacred from the 
ears, eyes, or tongues of women. 

The next day a shift was made of the camps. They 
were moved to inside the big ring that the black fellows 
had made. This move was attended with a certain amount 
of ceremony. In the afternoon, before the move had taken 
place, all the black fellows left their camps and went away 
into the scrub. Then just about sundown they were all to 
be seen walking in single file out of the scrub, along the 
path which they had previouly banked on each side. Every 
man had a fire stick in one hand and a green switch in the 
other. When these men reached the middle of the enclosed 
ring was the time for the young people and women to 
leave the old camps, and move into the borah ring. Inside 
this ring they made their camps, had their suppers and 
corrobbc«-eed, as on previous evenings, up to a certain stage. 
Before, on this occasion, that stage arrived, Byamee, who 
was greatest of the Wirreenun present, had shown his power 
in a remarkable way. For some days the Mahthi had been 
behaving with a great want of respect for the wise men of 
the tribes. Instead of treating their sayings and doings 
with the silent awe the Wirreenun expect, they had kept 

The Borah of Byamee 97 

up an incessant chatter and laughter amongst themselves^ 
playing and shouting as if the tribes were not contemplat- 
ing the solemnisation of their most sacred rites. Frequently 
the Wirreenun sternly bade them be silent. But admoni- 
tions wei"e useless, gaily chattered and laughed the Mahthi. 
At length Byamee, mightiest and most famous of the- 
Wirreenun, rose, strode over to the camp of Mahthi, and said 
fiercely to them : " I, Byamee, whom all the tribes hold in 
honour, have thrice bade you Mahthi cease your chatter 
and laughter. But you heeded me not. To my voice 
were added the voices of the Wirreenun of other tribes. 
But you heeded not. Think you the Wirreenun will make 
any of your tribe young men when you heed not their 
words ? No, I tell you. From this day forth no Mahthi 
shall speak again as men speak. You wish to make noise, 
to be a noisy tribe and a disturber of men ; a tribe who- 
cannot keep quiet when strangers are in the camp ; a tribe 
who understand not sacred things. So be it. ' You shall, 
and your descendants, for ever make a noise, but it shall 
not be the noise of speech, or the noise of laughter. It 
shall be the noise of barking and the noise of howling. 
And from this day if ever a Mahthi speaks, woe to those 
who hear him, for even as they hear shall they be turned 
to stone." 

And as the Mahthi opened their mouths, and tried to 
laugh and speak derisive words, they found, even as Byamee 
said, so were they. They could but bark and howl ; the 
powers of speech and laughter had they lost. And as they 
realised their loss, into their eyes came a look of yearning 
and dumb entreaty, which will be seen in the eyes of their 
descendants for ever. A feeling of wonder and awe fell 

G 

98 Australian Tales 

on the various camps as they watched Byamee march back 
■to his tribe. 

When Byamee was seated again in his camp, he 
asked the women why they were not grinding doonburr. 
And the women said : " Gone are our dayoorls, and we 
know not where." 

" You lie," said Byamee. " You have lent them to the 
Dummerh, who came so often to borrow, though I bade you 
not lend." 

" No, Byamee, we lent them not." 

" Go to the camp of the Dummerh, and ask for your 
dayoorl." 

The women, with the fear of the fate of the Mahthi did 
they disobey, went, though well they, knew they had not 
lent the dayoorl. As they went th^y asked at each camp 
if the tribe there would lend thern^ dayoorl, but at each 
camp they were given the same answer, namely, that the 
dayoorls were gone and none knew where. The Dummerh 
had asked to borrow them, and in each instance been 
refused, yet had the sfones gone. 

As the women went on they heard a strange noise, as 
of the cry of spirits, a sound like a smothered " Oom, oom, 
oom, oom." The cry sounded high in the air through the 
tops of trees, then low on the ground through the grasses, 
until it seemed as if the spirits were everywhere. The 
women clutched tighter their fire sticks, and said : " Let 
us go back. The Wondah are about." And swiftly they 
sped towards their camp, hearing ever in the air the " Oom, 
oom, oom " of the spirits. 

They told Byamee that all the tribes had lost their dayoorls, 
and that the spirits were about, and even as they spoke came 

The Borah of Byamee 99 

the sound of " Oom, oom, oom, oom," at the back of their 
own camp. 

The women crouched together, but Byamee flashed a 
fire stick whence came the sound, and as the light flashed 
on the place he saw no one, but stranger than all, he 
saw two dayoorls moving along, and yet could see no 
one moving them, and as the dayoorls moved swiftly away, 
louder and louder rose the sound of "Oom, oom, oom, oom," 
until the air seemed full of invisible spirits. Then Byamee 
knew that indeed the Wondah were about, and he too 
clutched his fire stick and went back into his camp. 

In the morning it was seen that not only were all the 
dayoorls gone, but the camp of the Dummerh was empty and 
they too had gone. When no one would lend the Dummerh 
dayoorls, they had said, " Then we can grind no doonburr 
unless the Wondah bring us stones." And scarcely were 
the words said before they saw a dayoorl moving towards 
them. At first they thought it was their own skill which 
enabled them only to express a wish to have it realised. 
But as dayoorl after dayoorl glided into their camp, and, 
passing through there, moved on, and as they moved was 
the sound of " Oom, oom, oom, oom," to be heard every- 
where they knew it was the Wondah at work. And it was 
borne in upon them that where the dayoorl went they must 
go, or they would anger the spirits who had brought them 
through their camp. 

They gathered up their belongings and followed in the 
track of the dayoorls, which had cut a pathway from Goo- 
goorewon to Girrahween, down which in high floods is 
now a water-course. From Girrahween, on the dayoorls 
went to Dirangibirrah, and after them the Dummerh. 

loo Australian Tales 

Dirangibirrah is between Brewarrina and Widda Murtee, 
and there the dayoorls piled themselves up into a mountain, 
and there for the future had the blacks to go when they 
wanted good dayoorls. And the Dummerh were changed 
into pigeons, with a cry like the spirits of " Oom, oom, 
oom." 

Another strange thing happened at this big borah. A 
tribe, called Ooboon, were camped at some distance from the 
other tribes. When any stranger went to their camp, it 
was noticed that the chief of the Ooboon would come out 
and flash a light on him, which killed him instantly. And 
no one knew what this light was, that carried death in its 
gleam. At last, Wahn the crow, said " I will take my 
biggest booreen and go and see what this means. You 
others, do not follow me too closely, for though I have 
planned how to save myself from the deadly gleam, I might 
not be able to save you." 

Wahn walked into the camp of the Ooboon, and as their 
chief turned to flash the light on him, he put up his booreen 
and completely shaded himself from it, and called aloud in 
a deep voice "Wah, wah, wah, wah," which so startled 
Ooboon that he dropt his light, and said " What is the 
matter ? You startled me. I did not know who you were 
and might have hurt you, though, I had no wish to, for the 
Wahn are my friends," 

" I cannot stop now," said the Wahn, " I must go back 
to m3' camp, I have forgotten something I wanted to show 
you. I'll be back soon." And so saying, swiftly ran Wahn 
back to where he had left his boondee, then back he came 
almost before Ooboon realised that he had gone. Back he 
came, and stealing up behind Ooboon dealt him a blow with 

The Borah of Byamee loi 

his boondee that avenged amply the victims of the deadly 
light, by stretching the chief of the Ooboon a corpse on the 
ground at his feet. Then crying triumphantly, "Wah, 
wah, wah," back to his camp went Wahn and told what he 
had done. 

This night, when the borah corrobboree began, all the 
women relations of the boys to be made young men, corrob- 
boreed all night. Towards the end of the night all the 
young women were ordered into bough humpies, which had 
been previously made all round the edge of the embankment 
surrounding the ring. The old women stayed on. 

The men who were to have charge of the boys to be 
made young men, were told now to be ready to seize hold 
each of his special charge, to carry him off down the beaten 
track to the scrub. When every man had, at a signal, 
taken his charge on his shoulder, they all started dancing 
round the ring. Then the old women were told to come 
and say good-bye to the boys, after which they were 
ordered to join the young women in the humpies. About 
five men watched them into the humpies, then pulled the 
boughs down on the top of them that they might see nothing 
further. 

When the women were safely imprisoned beneath the 
boughs, the men carrying the boys swiftly disappeared 
down the track into the scrub. When they were out of 
sight the five black fellows came and pulled the boughs 
away and released the women, who went now to their 
camps. But however curious these women were as to what 
rites attended the boys' initiation into manhood, they knew 
no questions would elicit any information. In some months' 
time they might see their boys return minus, perhaps, a 

I02 Australian Tales 

front tooth, and with some extra scarifications on their 
bodies, but beyond that, and a knowledge of the fact that 
they had not been allowed to look on the face of woman 
since their disappearance into the scrub, they were never 
enlightened. 

The next day the tribes made ready to travel to the place 
of the little borah, which would be held in about four days' 
time, at about ten or twelve miles distance from the scene 
of the big borah. 

At the place of the little borah a ring of grass is made 
instead of one of earth. The tribes all travel together there, 
camp, and have a corrobboree. The young women are sent 
to bed early, and the old women stay until the time when 
the boys bade farewell to them at the big borah, at which 
hour the boys are brought into the little borah and allowed 
to say a last good-bye to the old women. Then they are 
taken away by the men who have charge of them together. 
They stay together for a short time, then probably separate,, 
each man with his one boy going in a different direction. 
The man keeps strict charge of the boy for at least six 
months, during which time he may not even look at his own 
mother. At the end of about six months he may come 
back to his tribe, but the effect of his isolation is that he is 
too wild and frightened to speak even to his mother, from 
whom he runs away if she approaches him, until by degrees 
the strangeness wears off. 

But at this borah of Byamee the tribes were not destined 
to meet the boys at the little borah. Just as they were 
gathering up their goods for a start, into the camp staggered 
Millindooloonubbah, the widow, crying, " You all left me, 
widow that I was, with my large family of Qhildren, to travel 

The Borah of Byamee 105 

alone. How could the little feet of my children keep up tO' 
you ? Can my back bear more than one goolay ? Have I 
more than two arms and one back ? Then how could I 
come swiftly with so many children ? Yet none of you 
stayed to help me. And as you went from each water hole 
you drank all the water. When, tired and thirsty, I reached 
a water hole and my children cried for a drink, what did I 
find to give them ? Mud, only mud. Then thirsty and 
worn, my children crying and their mother helpless ta 
comfort them ; on we came to the next hole. What did 
we see, as we strained our eyes to find water ? Mud,, 
only mud. As we reached hole after hole and found only 
mud, one by one my children laid down and died ; died 
for want of a drink, which Millindooloonubbah their mother 
could not give them." 

As she spoke, swiftly went a woman to her with a wirree 
of water. " Too late, too late," she said. "Why should 
a mother live when her children are dead ? " And she lay 
back with a groan. But as she felt the water cool her 
parched lips and soften her swollen tongue, she made a 
final effort, rose to her feet, and waving her hands round 
the camps of the tribes, cried aloud : "You were in such 
haste to get here. You shall stay here. Googoolguyyah. 
Googoolguyj'ah. Turn into trees. Turn into trees." Then 
back she fell, dead. And as she fell, the tribes that were 
standing round the edge of the ring, preparatory to gather- 
ing their goods and going, and that her hand pointed to as 
it waved round, turned into trees. There they now stand. 
The tribes in the background were changed each according 
to the name they were known by, into that bird or beast of 
the same name. The barking Mahthi into dogs ; the 

I04 Australian Tales 

Byahmul into black swans ; the Wahns into crows, and 
so on. And there at the place of the big borah, you can 
see the trees standing tall and gaunt, sad-looking in their 
sombre hues, waving with a sad wailing their branches 
towards the; lake which covers now the place where the 
borah was held. And it bears the name of Googoorewon, 
the place of trees, and round the edge of it is still to be 
seen the remains of the borah ring of earth. And it is 
known as a great place of meeting for the birds that bear 
the names of the tribes of old. The Byahmuls sail proudly 
about ; the pelicans, their water rivals in point of size and 
beautj' ; the ducks, and many others too numerous to 
mention. The Ooboon, or blue-tongued lizards, glide in 
and out through the grass. Now and then is heard the 
" Oom, oom, oom," of the dummerh, and occasionally a cry 
from the bird Millindooloonubbah of " Googoolguyyah, 
googoolguyyah." And in answer comes the wailing of the 
gloomy-looking balah trees, and then a rustling shirr 
through the bibbil branches, until at last every tree gives 
forth its voice and makes sad the margin of the lake with 
■echoes of the past. 

But the men and boys who were at the place of the little 
borah escaped the metamorphosis. They waited long for 
the arrival of the tribes who never came. 

"At last," Byamee said: " Surely mighty enemies have 
slain our friends, and not one escapes to tell us of their fate. 
Even now these enemies may be upon our track ; let us go 
into a far country." 

And swiftly they went to Noondoo. Hurrying along 
with them, a dog of Byamee's, which would fain have Iain 
by the roadside rather than have travelled so swiftly, but 

The Borah of Byamee 105 

Byamee would not leave her and hurried her on. When 
they reached the springs of Noondoo, the dog sneaked away 
into a thick scrub, and there were born her litter of pups. 
But such pups as surely man never looked at before. The 
bodies of dogs, and the heads of pigs, and the fierceness 
and strength of devils. And gone is the life of a man who 
meets in a scrub of Noondoo an earmoonan, for surely will 
it slay him. Not even did Byamee ever dare to go near 
the breed of his old dog. And Byamee, the mighty 
Wirreenun, lives for ever. But no man must look upon 
his face, lest surely will he die. So alone in a thick scrub, 
on one of the Noondoo ridges, lives this old man, Byamee, 
the mightiest of Wirreenun.

nunnah the Bees 

The Bunnyyarl and Wurrunnunnah were relations, and 
lived in one camp. The Wurrunnunnah were very hard- 
working, always trying to gather food in a time of 
plenty, to lay in a store for a time of famine. The 
Bunnyyarl used to give no heed to the future, but used 
to waste their time playing round any rubbish, and 
never thinking even of laying up any provisions. One 
day the Wurrunnunnah said, " Come out with us and 
gather honey from flowers. Soon will the winter winds 
blow the flowers away, and there will be no more honey 
to gather." 

" No," said the Bunnyyarl, " we have something to look 
to here." And off they went, turning over some rubbish 
and wasting their time, knowing whatever the Wurrun- 
nunnah brought they would share with them. The 
Wurrunnunnah went alone and left the Bunnyyarl to their 
rubbish. The Wurrunnunnah gathered the flowers and 
stored the honey, and never more went back to live 

Bunnyyarl the Flies 107 

with the Bunnyyarls, for they were tired of doing all 
the work. 

As time went on the Wurrunnunnah were changed into 
little wild bees, and the lazy Bunnyyarls were changed 
into flies.

Deegeenboyah was an old man, and getting past hunting 
much for himself; and he found it hard to keep his two 
wives and his two daughters supplied with food. He camped 
with his family away from the other tribes, but he used to 
join the men of the Mullyan tribe when they were going 
out hunting, and so get a more certain supply of food than 
if he had gone by himself. One day when the Mullyan 
went out, he was too late to accompany them. He hid in 
the scrub and waited for their return, at some little 
distance from their camp. When they were coming back 
he heard them singing the Song of the Setting Emu, a 
song which whoever finds the first emu's nest of the 
season always sings before getting back to the camp. 
Deegeenboyah jumped up as he heard the song, and started 
towards the camp of the Mullyan singing the same song, as if 
he too had found a nest. On they all went towards the 
camp sing joyously : 

" Nurdoo, nurbber me derreen derreenbah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. 
Garmbay booan yunnahdeh beahwah ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. 
Gubbondee, dee, ee, ee, ee. 
Neah nean gulbeejah, ah, ah, ah, ah." 

Deegeenboyah the Soldier-bird 109 

Which song roughly translated means : 

" I saw it first amongst the young trees, 
The white mark on its forehead, 
The white mark that before I had only seen as the 

emus moved together in the day-time. 
Never did I see one camp before, only moving, moving 

always. 
Now that we have found the nest 
We must look out the ants do not get to the eggs. 
If they crawl over them the eggs are spoilt." 

As the last echo of the song died away, those in the 
camp took up the refrain and sang it back to the hunters to 
let them know that they understood that they had found 
the first emu's nest of the season. 

When the hunters reached the camp, up came Deegeen- 
boyah too. The MuUyans turned to him, and said : 

" Did you find an emu's nest too ? " 

" Yes," said Deegeenboyah, " I did. I think you must 
have found the same, though after me, as I saw not your 
tracks. But I am older and stiff" in my limbs, so came not 
back so quickly. Tell me, where is your nest ? " 

" In the clump of the Goolahbahs, on the edge of the 
plain," said the unsuspecting Mullyan. 

" Ah, I thought so. That is mine. But what matter .? 
We can share — there will be plenty for all. We must get 
the net and go and camp near the nest to-night, and to-morrow 
trap the emu." 

The Mullyan got their emu trapping net, one made of 
thin rope about as thick as a thin clothes line, about five 
feet high, and between two and three hundred yards long. 
And off they set, accompanied by Deegeenboyah, tq camp near 
where the emu was setting. When they had choSen a place 
to camp, they had their supper and a little corrobboree, 

\ 

no Australian Tales 

illustrative of slaying emu, etc. The next morning at day- 
light they erected their net into a sort of triangular shaped 
yard, one side open. Black fellows were stationed at each 
end of the net, and at stated distances along it. The net 
was upheld by upright poles. When the net was fixed, 
some oir the blacks made a wide circle round the emu's 
nest, leaving open the side towards the net. They closed 
in gradually until they frightened the emu off the nest. 
The emu seeing black fellows on every side but one, ran 
in that direction. The blacks followed closely, and the 
bird was soon yarded. Madly the frightened bird rushed 
against the net. Up ran a black fellow, seized the bird 
and wrung its neck. Then some of them went back to the 
nest to get the eggs, which they baked in the ashes of 
their fire and ate. They made a hole to cook the emu in. 
They plucked the emu. When they had plenty of coals, 
they put a thick layer at the bottom of the hole, some 
twigs of leaves on top of the coals, some feathers on the top 
of them. Then they laid the emu in, more feathers on the 
top of it, leaves again on top of them, and over them a 
thick layer of coals, and lastly they covered all with earth. 

It would be several hours in cooking, so Deegeenboyah 
said, " I will stay and cook the emu, you young fellows take 
moonoons — emu spears — and try and get some more emu." 

The MuUyan thought there was sense in this pro- 
posal, so they took a couple of long spears, with a jagged 
nick at one end, to hold the emu when they speared it ; 
they stuck a few emu feathers on the end of each spear 
and went off. They soon saw a flock of emu coming past 
where the^ were waiting to water. Two of the party 
armed wit ,i the moonoon climbed a tree, broke some boughs

III 

and put these thickly beneath them, so as to screen them 
from the emu. Then as the emu came near to the men 
they dangled down their spears, letting the emu feathers on 
the ends wave to and fro. The emu, seeing the feathers, 
were curious as to how they got there, came over, craning 
their necks and sniffing right underneath the spears. The 
black fellows tightly grasped the moonoons and drove them 
with force into the two emu they had picked. One emu 
dropped dead at once. The other ran with the spear in it 
for a short distance, but the black fellow was quickly after 
it, and soon caught and killed it outright. Then carrying 
the dead birds, back they went to where Deegeenboyah was 
cooking the other emu. They cooked the two they had 
brought, and then all started for the camp in great spirits at 
their successful chase. They began throwing their 
mooroolahs as they went along, and playing with their 
bubberahs, or returning boomerangs. Old Deegeenboyah 
said, " Here, give me the emus to carry, and then you will 
be free to have a really good game with your mooroolahs 
and bubberahs, and see who is the best man." 

They gave him the emus, and on they went, some 
throwing mooroolahs, and some showing their skill with 
bubberahs. Presently Deegeenboyah sat down. They 
thought he was just resting for a few minutes, so ran on 
laughing and playing, each good throw eliciting another 
effort, for none liked owning themselves beaten while they 
had a mooroolah left. As they got further away they 
noticed Deegeenboyah was still sitting down, so they called 
out to him to know what was the matter. " All right," he 
said, " only having a rest ; shall come on in a minute." 
So on they went. When they were quite out of sight 

y 

112 Australian Tales 

Deegeenboyah jumped up quickly, took up the emus and 
made for an opening in the ground at a little distance. 
This opening was the door of the underground home of the 
Murgah Muggui spider — the opening was a neat covering, 
like a sort of trap door. Down through this he went, 
taking the emus with him, knowing there was another exit 
at some distance, out of which he could come up quite near 
his home, for it was the way he often took after hunting. 

The Mullyans went home and waited, but no sign of 
Deegeenboyah. Then back on their tracks they went and 
called aloud, but got no answer, and saw no sign. At last 
MuUyangah the chief of the Mullyans, said he would find 
him. Arming himself with his boondees and spears, he 
went back to where he had last seen Deegeenboyah sitting. 
He saw where his tracks turned off and where they 
disappeared, but could not account for their disappearance, 
as he did not notice the neat little trap-door of the Murgah 
Muggui. But he hunted round, determined to scour the 
bush until he found him. At last he saw a camp. He 
went up to it and saw only two little girls playing about, 
whom he knew were the daughters of Deegeenboyah. 

" Where is your father .' " he asked them. 

" Out hunting," they said. 

" Which way does he come home ? " 

" Our father comes home out of this ; " and they showed 
him the spiders' trap-door. 

" Where are your mothers ? " 

" Our mothers are out getting honey and yams." And 
off ran the little girls to a leaning tree on which they 
played, rur.j-.ing up its bent trunk. 

Mullyargah went and stood where the trunk was highest 

Deegeenboyah the Soldier-bird 113 

from the ground and said : " Now, little girls, run up to 
here and jump, and I will catch you. Jump one at a 
time." 

Off jumped one of the girls towards his outstretched 
arms, which, as she came towards him he dropped, and,, 
stepping aside, let her come with her full force to the 
ground, where she lay dead. Then he called to the 
horror-stricken child on the tree : " Come, jump. Your 
sister came too quickly. Wait till I call, then jump." 

« No, I am afraid." 

" Come on, I will be ready this time. Now come." 

" I am afraid." 

" Come on ; I am strong." And he smiled quite kindly 
up at the child, who, hesitating no longer, jumped towards 
his arms, only to meet her sister's fate. 

"Now," said Mullyangah, "here come the two wives. 
I must silence them, or when they see their children their 
cries will warn their husband if he is within earshot." So 
he sneaked behind a tree, and as the two wives passed he 
struck them dead with his spears. Then he went to the 
trapdoor that the children had shown him, and sat down to- 
wait for the coming of Deegeenboyah. He had not long to 
wait. The trap-door was pushed up and out came a 
cooked emu, which he caught hold of and laid on one side.. 
Deegeenboyah thought it was the girls taking it, as they 
had often watched for his coming and done before, so he 
pushed up another, which Mullyangah took, then a third, 
and lastly came up himself, to find Mullyangah confronting 
him, spear and boondee in hand. He started back, but 
the trap-door was shut behind him, and Mullyangah barred 
his escape in front. 

H 

Australian Tales 

"Ah," said Mullyangah, "you stole our food and now 
you shall die. I've killed your children." 

Deegeenboyah looked wildly round, and, seeing the .dead 
bodies of his girls beneath the leaning tree, he groaned 
aloud. 

" And," went on Mullyangah, " I've killed your wives." 

Deegeenboyah raised his. head and looked again wildly 
round, and there, on their homeward path, he saw his dead 
wives. Then he called aloud, "Here Mullyangah are your 
emus ; take them and spare me. I shall steal no more, for 
I myself want little, but my children and my wives 
hungered. I but stole for them. Spare me, I pray you. 
I am old ; I shall not live long. Spare me." 

" Not so," said Mullyangah, " no man lives to steal twice 
from a MuUyan ; " and, so saying, he speared Deegeenboyah 
where he stood. Then he lifted up the emus, and, carrying 
them with him, went swiftly back to his camp. 

And merry was the supper that night when the Mullyans 
ate the emus, and Mullyangah told the story of his search 
and slaughter. And proud were the Mullyans of the 
prowess and cunning of their chief.

Winter Away 

At the beginning of winter, the iguanas hide themselves in 
their homes in the sand ; the black eagle hawks go into 
their nests ; the garbarlee or shingle-backs hide themselves 
in little logs, just big enough to hold them ; the iguanas . 
dig a long way into the sand and cover up the passage 
behind them, as they go along. They all stay in their 
winter homes until Mayrah blows the winter away. Mayrah 
first blows up a thunderstorm. When the iguanas hear the 
thunder, they know the spring is not far off, so they begin 
making a passage to go out again, but they do not leave 
their winter home until the Curreequinquin, or butcher birds 
sing all day almost without ceasing " Goore, goore, goore, 
goore." Then they know that Mayrah has really blown the 
winter away, for the birds are beginning to pair and build 
their nests. So they open their eyes and come out on the 
green earth again. And when the black fellows hear the 
curreequinquins singing " Goore, goore," they know that 
they can go out and find iguanas again, and find them fatter 
than when they went away with the coming of winter. 

1 1 6 Australian Tales 

Then too, will they find piggiebillahs hurrying along to get 
away from their young ones, which they have buried in the 
sand and left to shift for themselves, for no longer can 
they carry them, as the spines of the young ones begin to 
prick them in their pouch. So they leave them and hurry 
away, that they may not hear their cry. They know they 
shall meet them again later on, when they are grown big. 
Then as Mayrah softly blows, the flowers one by one open, 
and the bees come out again to gather honey. Every bird 
wears his gayest plumage and sings his sweetest song to 
attract a mate, and in pairs they go to build their nests. 
And still Mayrah softly blows until the land is one of 
plenty ; then Yhi the sun chases her back whence she came, 
and the flowers droop and the birds sing only in the early 
morning. For Yhi rules in the land until the storms are 
over and have cooled him, and winter takes his place to be 
blown away again by Mayrah the loved of all, and the 
bringer of plenty.

OoLAH, the lizard, was out getting yams on a Mirrieh flat. 
She had three of her children with her. Suddenly she 
thought she heard some one moving behind the big Mirrieh 
bushes. She listened. All of a sudden out jumped Wayam- 
beh from behind a bush and seized Oolah, telling her not 
to make a noise and he would not hurt her, but that he 
meant to take her off to his camp to be his wife. He would 
take her three children too and look after them. Resistance 
was useless, for Oolah had only her yam stick, while 
Wayambeh had his spears and boondees. Wayambeh took 
the woman and her children to his camp. His tribe when 
they saw him bring home a woman of the Oolah tribe, 
asked him if her tribe had given her to him. He said, "No, 
I have stolen her." 

"Well," they said, "her tribe will soon be after her ; you 
must protect yourself; we shall not fight for you. You had 
no right to steal her without telling us. We had a young 
woman of our own tribe for you, yet you go and steal an 
Oolah and bring her to the camp of the Wayambeh. On 
your own head be the consequences." 

In a short time the Oolahs were seen coming across the 

1 1 8 Australian Tales 

plain which faced the camp of the Wayambeh. And they 
came not in friendship or to parley, for no women were 
with them, and they carried no boughs of peace in their 
hands, but were painted as for war, and were armed with 
fighting weapons. 

When the Wayambeh saw the approach of the Oolah, 
their chief said : " Now, Wayambeh, you had better go out 
on to the plain and do your own fighting ; we shall not help 
you." 

Wayambeh chose the two biggest boreens that he had ; 
one he slung on him, covering the front of his body, and 
one the back ; then, seizing his weapons, he strode out to 
meet his enemies. 

When he was well out on to the plain, though still some 
distance from the Oolah, he called out, "Come on." 

The answer was a shower of spears and boomerangs. 
As they came whizzing through the air Wayambeh drew 
his arms inside the boreens, and ducked hfe head down 
between them, so escaped. 

As the weapons fell harmless to the ground, glancing off 
his boreen, out again he stretched his arms and held up 
again his head, shouting, " Come on, try again, I'm ready." 

The answer was another shower of weapons, which he 
met in the same way. At last the Oolahs closed in round 
him, forcing him to retreat towards the creek. 

Shower after shower of weapons they slung at him, and 
were getting at such close quarters that his only chance 
was to. dive into the creek. He turned towards the creek, 
tore the front boreen off him, flung down his weapons and 
plunged in. 

The Oolah waited, spears poised in hand, ready to aim 

Wayambeh the Turtle 119 

directly his head appeared above water, but they waited in 
vain. Wayambeh, the black fellow, they never saw again, 
but in the waterhole wherein he had dived they saw a 
strange creature, which bore on its back a fixed structure 
like a boreen, and which, when they went to try and catch 
it, drew in its head and limbs, so they said, " It is Wayam- 
beh." And this was the beginning of Wayambeh, or turtle, 
in the creeks.

The country was stricken with a drought. The rivers were 
all dry except the deepest holes in them. The grass was 
dead, and even the trees were dying. The bark dardurr 
of the blacks were all fallen to the ground and lay 
there rotting, so long was it since they had been used, 
for only in wet weather did the blacks use the bark 
<3ardurr; at other times they used only whatdooral, or 
bough shades. 

The young men of the Noongahburrah murmured among 
themselves, at first secretly, at last openly, saying : " Did 
not our fathers always say that the Wirreenun could make, 
as we wanted it, the rain to fall ? Yet look at our country 
— the grass blown away, no doonburr seed to grind, the 
kangaroo are dying, and the emu, the duck, and the swan 
have flown to far countries. We shall have no food soon ; 
then shall we die, and the Noongahburrah be no more seen 
on the Narrin. Then why, if he is able, does not Wirreenun 
make rain ? " 

Soon these murmurs reached the ears of the old Wirreenun. 
He said nothing, but the young fellows noticed that for 
two or three days in succession he went to the waterhole 

Wirreenun the Rainmaker 121 

in the creek and placed in it a willgoo willgoo — a long 
stick, ornamented at the top with white cockatoo feathers — 
and beside the stick he placed two big gubberah, that is, 
two big, clear pebbles which at other times he always 
secreted about him, in the folds of his waywah, or in the 
band or net on his head. Especially was he careful to 
hide these stones from the women. 

At the end of the third day Wirreenun said to the young 
men : " Go you, take your comeboos.and cut bark sufficient 
to make dardurr for all the tribe." 

The young men did as they were bade. When they had 
the bark cut and brought in Wirreenun said : "Go you 
now and raise with ant-bed a high place, and put thereon 
logs and wood for a fire, build the ant-bed about a foot 
from the ground. Then put you a floor of ant-bed a foot 
high wherever you are going to build a dardurr." 

And they did what he told them. When the dardurr 
were finished, having high floors of ant-bed and water-tight 
roofs of bark, Wirreenun commanded the whole camp to 
come with him to the waterhole ; men, women, and children ; 
all were to come. They all followed him down to the 
creek, to the waterhole where he had placed the willgoo 
willgoo and gubberah. Wirreenun jumped into the water 
and bade the tribe follow him, which they did. There in 
the water they all splashed and played about. After a 
little time Wirreenun went up first behind one black fellow 
and then behind another, until at length he had been round 
them all, and taken from the back of each one's head 
lumps of charcoal. When he went up to qach he appeared 
to suck the back or top of their heads, and to draw out 
lumps of charcoal, which, as he sucked them out, he spat 

12 2 Australian Tales 

into the water. When he had gone the round of all, he 
went out of the water. But just as he got out a young 
man caught him up in his arms and threw him back into 
the water. This happened several times, until Wirreenun 
was shivering. That was the signal for all to leave the 
creek. Wirreenun sent all the young people into a big 
bough shed, and bade them all go to Aleep. He and two 
old men and two old women stayed outside. They loaded 
themselves with all their belongings piled up on their backs, 
dayoorl stones and all, as if ready for a flitting. These old 
people walked impatiently around the bough shed as if 
waiting a signal to start somewhere. Soon a big black 
cloud appeared on the horizon, first a single cloud, which, 
however, was soon followed by others rising all round. 
They rose quickly until they all met just overhead, forming 
a big black mass of clouds. As soon as this big, heavy, 
rainladen looking cloud was stationary overhead, the old 
people went into the bough shed and bade the young 
people wake up and come out and look at the sky. 
When they were all roused Wirreenun told them to lose no 
time, but to gather together all their possessions and hasten 
to gain the shelter of the bark dardurr. Scarcely were they 
all in the dardurrs and their spears well hidden when there 
sounded a terrific clap of thunder, which was quickly 
followed by a regular cannonade, lightning flashes shooting 
across the sky, followed by instantaneous claps of deafening 
thunder. A sudden flash of lightning, which lit a pathway 
from heaven to earth, was followed by such a terrific clash 
that the blacks thought their very camps were struck.. 
But it was a tree a little distance off. The blacks huddled 
together in their dardurrs, frightened to move, the children 

Wirreenun the Rainmaker 123 

crying with fear, and the dogs crouching towards theip 
owners. 

"We shall be killed," shrieked the women. The men 
said nothing but looked as frightened. 

Only Wirreenun was fearless. " I will go out," he said, 
" and stop the storm from hurting us. The lightning shall 
come no nearer." 

So out in front of the dardurrs strode Wirreenun, and 
naked he stood there facing the storm, singing aloud, as the 
thunder roared and the lightning flashed, the chant which 
was to keep it away from the camp : 

" Gurreemooray, mooray, 
Durreemooray, mooray, mooray," &c. 

Soon came a lull in the cannonade, a slight breeze stirred 
the trees for a few moments, then an oppressive silence, and 
then the rain in real earnest began, and settled down to a 
steady downpour, which lasted for some days. 

When the old people had been patrolling the bough shed 
as the clouds rose overhead, Wirreenun had gone to the 
waterhole and taken out the willgoo willgoo and the stones, 
for he saw by the cloud that their work was done. 

When the rain was over and the country all green again, 
the blacks had a great corrobboree and sang of the skill of 
Wirreenun, rainmaker to the Noongahburrah. 

Wirreenun sat calm and heedless of their praise, as he 
had been of their murmurs. But he determined to show 
them that his powers were great, so he summoned the rain- 
maker of a neighbouring tribe, and after some consultation 
with him, he ordered the tribes to go to the Googoorewon, 
which was then a dry plain, with the solemn, gaunt trees all 
round it, which had once been black fellows. 

124 Australian Tales 

When they were all camped round the edges of this 
plain, Wirreenun and his fellow rainmaker made a great rain 
to fall just over the plain and fill it with water. 

When the plain was changed into a lake, Wirreenun said 
to the young men of his tribe : " Now take your nets and 
fish." 

" What good ? " said they. " The lake is filled from the 
rain, not the flood water of rivers, filled but yesterday, how 
then shall there be fish ? " 

"Go," said .Wirreenun. "Go as I bid you; fish. If 
your nets catch nothing then shall Wirreenun speak no 
more to the men of his tribe, he will seek only honey and 
yams with the women." 

More to please the man who had changed their country 
from a desert to a hunter's paradise, they did as he bade 
them, took their nets and went into the lake. And the 
first time they drew their nets, they were heavy with goodoo, 
murree, tucki, and bunmillah. And so many did they 
catch that all the tribes, and their dogs had plenty. 

Then the elders of the camp said now that there was 
plenty everywhere, they would have a borah that the boys 
should be made young men. On one of the ridges away 
from the camp, that the women should not know, would 
they prepare a ground. 

And so was the big borah of the Googoorewon held, the 
borah which was famous as following on the triumph of 
Wirreenun the rainmaker.

The crane was a great fisherman. He used to hunt out 
the fish, with his feet, from underneath the logs in the 
creek, and so catch numbers. 

One day when he had a great many on the bank of the 
creek, a crow, who was white at that time, came up. He 
asked the crane to give him some fish. 

** Wait a while," said the crane, " until they are 
cooked.'* 

But the crow was hungry and impatient, and would not 
cease bothering the crane, who kept saying, "Wait. 
Wait." 

Presently the crane turned his back. The crow 
sneaked up and was just going to steal a fish. The crane 
turned round, saw him, seized a fish, and hit the crow 
right across the eyes with it. The crow felt blinded for 
a few minutes. He fell on the burnt black grass round 
the fire, and rolled over and over in his pain. When he 
got up to go away his eyes were white, and the rest of him 
black, as crows have been ever since. 

The crow was determined to pay out the crane for 
having given him white eyes and a black skin. 

A 

2 More Australian Tales 

So he watched his chance, and one day when he saw 
the crane fast asleep, he crept quietly up to him holding a 
fish-bone. This he stuck right across the root of the 
crane's tongue. 

Then he went off as quietly as he had come ; careful, 
for once, to make no noise. 

The crane woke up at last, and when he opened his 
mouth to yawn he felt like choking. He tried to get the 
obstruction out of his throat. In the effort he made a 
queer scraping noise, which was all he could give utterance 
to. The bone stuck fast. 

And to this day the only noise a crane can make is, 
** gah-rah-gah, gah-rah-gah ! " This noise gives the name 
by which he is known to the blacks.

Beereeun the lizard wanted to marry Bulla! Bullai the 
green parrot sisters. But they did not want to marry him. 
They liked Weedah the mocking-bird better. Their mother 
said they must marry Beereeun, for she had pledged them 
to him at their births, and Beereeun was a great wirreenun 
and would harm them if they did not keep her pledge. 

When Weedah came back from hunting they told him 
what their mother had said, how they had been pledged to 
Beereeun, who now claimed them. 

"To-morrow," said Weedah, "old Beereeun goes to 
meet a tribe coming from the Springs country. While he 
is away we will go towards the Big River, and burn the 
track behind us. I will go out as if to hunt as usual in 
the morning. I will hide myself in the thick Gidya scrub. 
You two must follow later and meet me there. We will 
then cross the big plain where the grass is now thick and 
dry. Bring with you a firestick ; we will throw it back 
into the plain, then no one can follow our tracks. On we 
will go to the Big River ; there I have a friend who has a 
goombeelgah, or canoe, then shall we be safe from pursuit, 
for he will put us over the river. And we can travel on 

4 More Australian Tales 

and on even to the country of the short-armed people if so 
we choose/' 

The next morning ere Gougourgahgah had ceased his 
laughter, Weedah had started. 

Some hours later, in the Gidya scrub, the Bullai Bulla! 
sisters joined him. 

Having crossed the big plain they threw back a firestick, 
where the grass was thick and dry. The fire sped quickly 
through it, crackling and throwing up tongues of flame. 

Through another scrub went the three, then across 
another plain, through another scrub and on to a plain 
again. 

The day was hot ; Yhi the sun was high in the sky. 
They became thirsty, but saw no water, and had brought 
none in their haste. 

"We want water," the Bullai Bullai cried. 

" Why did you not bring some ? " said Weedah. 

"We thought you had plenty, or would travel as the 
creeks run, or at least know of a goolahgool, or water- 
holding tree." 

" We shall soon reach water. Look even now ahead, 
there is water." 

The Bullai Bullai looked eagerly towards where he pointed, 
and there in truth, on the far side of the plain, they saw a sheet 
of water. They quickened their steps, but the further they 
went, the further off seemed the water, but on they went 
ever hoping to reach it. Across the plain they went, only 
to find on the other side a belt of timber, the water had 
gone. 

The weary girls would have lain down, but Weedah 
said that they would surely reach water on the other side 

Beereeun the Mirage Maker 5 

of the wood. Again they struggled on through the scrub 
to another plain. 

*' There it is ! I told you so ! There is the water." 

And looking ahead they again saw a sheet of water. 

Again their hopes were raised, and though the sun beat 
fiercely on them they marched, only to be again disap- 
pointed. 

*'Let us go back," they said. "This is the country of 
evil spirits. We see water, and when we come where we 
have seen it there is but dry earth. Let us go back." 

" Back to Beereeun, who would kill you ? " 

" Better to die from the blow of a boondee in your own 
country than of thirst in a land of devils. We will go 
back." 

** Not so. Not with a boondee would he kill you, but 
with a gooweera, or poison stick. Slow would be your 
deaths, and you would be always in pain until your shadow 
was wasted away. But why talk of returning ? Did we 
not set fire to the big plain ? Could you cross that ? 
Waste not your breaths, but follow me. See, there again 
is water ! " 

But the Bullai BuUai had lost hope. No longer would 
they even look up, though time after time Weedah called 
out, " Water ahead of us ! Water ahead of us ! " only to 
again, and again, disappoint them. 

At last the Bullai Bullai became so angry with him that 
they seized him and beat him. But even as they beat him 
he cried all the time, '* Water is there ! Water is there ! " 
Then he implored them to let him go, and he would drag 
up the roots from some water-trees and drain the water 
from these for them. 

6 More Australian Tales 

'* Yonder I see a coolabah ; from its roots I can drain 
enough to quench your thirst. Or here beside us is a 
bingahwingul ; full of water are its roots. Let me go ; I 
will drain them for you." 

But the Bullai Bullai had no faith in his promises, and 
they but beat him the harder until they were exhausted. 
When they ceased to beat him and let him go, Weedah 
went on a little way, then lay down, feeling bruised all 
over, and thankful that the night had come and the fierce 
sun no longer scorched them. 

One Bullai Bullai said to her sister : " Could we not 
sing the song our Bargie used to sing, and make the rain 
fall ? " 

" Let us try if we can make a sound with our dry 
throats," said the other. 

** We will sing to our cousin Dooloomai the Thunder ; 
he will hear us, and break a rain cloud for us." 

So they sat down, rocking their bodies to and fro, and, 
beating their knees, sang : 

" Moogary, Moogaray, May May, 
Eehu, Eehu, Doongairah." 

Over and over again they sang these words as they had 
heard their Bargie, or grandmother, do. Then for them- 
selves they added : 

" Eehu oonah wambaneah Dooloomai 
Bullul goonung inderh gingnee 
Eehu oonah wambaneah Dooloomai." 

Which meant : 

•' Give us rain, Thunder, our cousin, 
Thirsting for water are we. 
Give us rain, Thunder, our cousin." 

Beereeun the Mirage Maker 7 

As long as their poor parched throats could make a 
sound they sang this. Then they lay down to die, weary 
and hopeless. One said faintly : " The rain will be too 
late, but surely it is coming, for strong is the smell of the 
Gidya." 

'* Strong indeed," said the other. But even this sure sign 
to their tribe that rain is near roused them not ; it would 
come, they thought, too late for them. But even then away 
in the north a thundercloud was gathering. It rolled across 
the sky quickly, pealing out thunder calls as it came to tell of 
its coming. It stopped right over the plain in front of the 
BuUai BuUaL One more peal of thunder, which opened 
the cloud, then splashing down came the first big drops of 
rain. Slowly and few they came until just at the last, 
when a quick, heavy shower fell, emptying the thunder- 
cloud, and filling the gilguy holes on the plain. 

The cool splashing of the rain on their hot, tired limbs 
gave new life to the Bullai Bullai and Weedah. They all 
ran to the gilguy holes. Stooping their heads, they drank 
and quenched their thirst. 

" I told you the water was here," said Weedah. "You 
see I was right." 

" No water was here when you said so. If our cousin 
Dooloomai had not heard our song for his help we should 
have died, and you too." 

And they were angry. But Weedah dug them some 
roots, and when they ate they forgot their anger. When 
their meal was over they lay down to sleep. 

The next morning on they went again. That day they 
again saw across the plains the same strange semblance 
of water which had lured them on before. They knew 

8 More Australian Tales 

not what it could be, only they knew that it was not 
water. 

Just at dusk they came to the Big River. There they 
saw Goolayyahlee the pelican, with his canoe. Weedah 
asked him to put them over on to the other side. He said 
he would do so one at a time, as the canoe was small. 
First he said he would take Weedah, that he might get 
ready a camp of the long grass in the bend of the river. 
He took Weedah over. Then back he came and, fastening 
his canoe, he went up to the BuUai Bullai, who were sitting 
beside the remains of his old fire. 

"Now," said Goolayyahlee, '*you two will go with me 
to my camp, which is down in that bend. Weedah cannot 
get over again. You shall live with me. I shall catch fish 
to feed you. I have some even now in my camp cooking. 
There, too, have I wirrees of honey, and durrie but ready 
for the baking. Weedah has nothing to give you but the 
grass nyunnoos he but now is making." 

'*Take us to Weedah," they said. 

'* Not so," said Goolayyahlee, and he stepped forward as 
if to seize them. 

The Bullai Bullai stooped, filled their hands with the 
white ashes of the burnt-out fire, which they flung at him. 

Handful after handful they threw at him, until he stood 
before them white, all but his hands, which he spread out 
and shook, thus freeing them from the cloud of ashes 
enveloping him and obscuring his sight. 

Having thus checked him, the Bullai Bullai ran to the 
bank of the river, meaning to get the canoe and cross over 
to Weedah. 

But in the canoe, to their horror, was Beereeun ! — Beer- 

Beereeun the Mirage Maker 9 

eeun, to escape whom they had sped across plain and 
through scrub. 

Yet here he was, while between them and Weedah lay 
the wide river. 

They had not known it, but Beereeun had been near 
them all the while. He it was who had made the mirage 
on each plain, thinking he would lure them on by this 
semblance of water until they perished of thirst. From 
that Dooloomai, their cousin, had saved them. But now 
the chance of Beereeun had come. 

The BuUai Bullai looked across the wide river and saw 
the nyunnoos Weedah had made. They saw him running 
in and out of them as if he were playing a game, not 
thinking of them at all. Strange nyunnoos they were too 
having both ends open. 

Seeing where they were looking, Beereeun said : " Wee- 
dah is womba, deaf. I stole his doowee while he slept and 
put in its place a mad spirit. He knows naught of you 
now. He cares naught for you. It is so with those who 
look too long at the Eer-dheer, or mirage. He will trouble 
me no more, nor you. Why look at him ? " 

But the Bullai Bullai could not take their eyes from 
Weedah, so strangely he went on, unceasingly running in 
at one end of the grass nyunnoos, through it and out of the 
other. 

" He is womba," they said, but yet they could not under- 
stand it. They looked towards him and called to him, though 
he heeded them not. 

" I will send him far from you," said Beereeun getting 
angry. He seized a spear, stood up in the canoe, and 
sent it swiftly through the air into Weedah, who gave a 

lo More Australian Tales 

great cry, screamed " Water is there ! Water is there ! " and 
fell back dead. 

** Take us over ! Take us over ! " cried the Bullai BuUai. 
**We must go to him, we might yet save him." 

"He is all right. He is in the sky. He is not there," 
said Beereeun. '* If you want him you must follow him 
to the sky. Look, you can see him there now." And he 
pointed to a star which the Bullai Bullai had never seen 
before, 

'* There he is, Womba." 

Across to the grass nyunnoos the Bullai Bullai looked, 
but no Weedah was there. Then they sat down and wailed 
a death song, for they knew well they should see Weedah no 
more. They plastered their heads with white ashes and 
water ; they tied on their bodies green twigs ; then, cutting 
themselves till the blood ran, they lit some smoke branches 
and smoked themselves, as widows. 

Beereeun spoke to Goolayyahlee the pelican, saying : 
" There is no brother of the dead man to marry these 
women. In this country they have no relation. You shall 
take one, and I the other. To-night when they sleep we 
will each seize one." 

" That which you say shall be," said Goolayyahlee the 
pelican. 

But the sisters heard what they said, though they 
gave no sign and mourned the dead Wedeah without 
ceasing. And with their death song they mingled a cry to 
all of their tribe who were dead to help them, and save 
them from these men who would seize them while 
they were still mourning, before they had swallowed the 
smoke-water, or their tribe had heard the voice of their 

Beereeun the Mirage Maker ii 

dead. As the night wore on, the wailing of the women 
ceased. 

The men thought that they were at length asleep, and 
crept up to their camp. But lo ! it was empty 1 Gone 
were the Bullai Bullai ! 

The men heaped fuel on their fire to light up the darkness, 
but yet saw no sign of the Bullai Bullai. 

They heard a sound, a sound of mocking laughter. They 
looked round, but saw nothing. 

Again they heard a sound of laughter. Whence came 
it ? Again it echoed through the air. 

It was from the sky. They looked up. It was the new 
star Womba, mocking them. Womba who once was 
Weedah, who laughed aloud to see that the Bullai Bullai 
had escaped their enemies, for even now they were stealing 
along the sky towards him, which the men on earth saw. 

"We have lost them," said Goolayyahlee. "I shall 
camp alone," and he turned to go to his dardurr. 

"They shall not escape me," said Beereeun. "I shall 
make a roadway to the skies and follow them. Thence 
shall I bring them back, or wreak my vengeance on 
them." 

He went to the canoe where were his spears ; having 
grasped them, he took too the spears of Goolayyahlee, which 
lay by the smouldering fire. 

He chose a barbed one. With all his force he threw it 
up to the sky. The barb caught there, the spear hung 
down. Beereeun threw another which caught on to the 
first, and yet another, and so on, each catching the one 
before it, until he could touch the lowest from the earth. 
This he clutched hold of, and climbed up, up, up, until he 

12 More Australian Tales 

reached the sky. Then he started in pursuit of the Bullai 
Bullai, and he is still pursuing them. 

Since then the tribe of Beereeun have always been able 
to swarm up sheer heights. Since then too, his tribe, the 
little lizards of the plains, make, just like he did, the mirages 
to lure on thirsty travellers, only to send them mad before 
they die of thirst. Since then Goolayyahlee the pelican 
has been white, for ever did the ashes thrown by the Bullai 
Bullai cling to him, except where he had shaken them off 
from his hands, where are a few black feathers. The tribe 
of Bullai Bullai are coloured like the green of the leaves 
the sisters strung on themselves, in which to mourn 
Weedah, with here and there a dash of whitish yellow and 
red, caused by the ashes and the blood of their mourning. 
And Womba the star, the mad star, still shines ; Canopus 
we call it. And Weedah the mocking-bird still builds 
grass nyunnoos, open at both ends, in and out of which he 
runs, as if they were but his playground. 

And the fire that Weedah and the Bullai Bullai made 
spread from one end of the country to the other, over ridges 
and across plains, burning the trees so that their trunks 
have been black ever since. Deenyi, the iron-barks, 
smouldered the longest of all, and their trunks were so 
seared that the seams are deeply marked in their thick black 
bark still, making them show out grimly distinct on the 
ridges, to remind the Daens of Beereeun the mirage maker 
for ever.

the Emu 

Bohrah the kangaroo lived in a grass nyunnoo with his 
wife Dinewan the emu. He was a great wirreenun. 

One evening when Bohrah was lying down trying to 
sleep, Dinewan kept making holes in the roof of the 
nyunnoo. 

'* What are you doing that for ? " asked Bohrah. 

" Just for nothing," said Dinewan. 

" Then get some grass and mend it up." 

"There is no grass here." 

'* Then we will travel until we find some, for you won't 
let me sleep." 

Off they went. It grew darker and darker every minute. 
Dinewan could not see where she was treading. She trod 
on bindeahs, which stuck into her feet and hurt her. 

Limping along and feeling sore from the prickles, she 
said : "If you are such a great wirreenun as you say, 
surely you could make the dark roll away ! Hunt it right 
away to another country. Let me see where to walk. My 
feet are very sore. If you could hunt the dark away, then 

14 More Australian Tales 

you would be a great wirreenun. Oh my poor sore feet !" 
So crying she rubbed them against each other, which only 
made the bindeahs stick further in, raising rough lumps on 
her feet. Which lumps have been on the feet of her kind 
ever since, and their legs have been bare and hard up to 
the knee joint. 

Now Bohrah the kangaroo was really a great wirreenun. 

While it was still quite dark he said : "We will sleep 
here, and I will hunt the dark away while we rest." 

They laid down. 

As soon as Bohrah was asleep, he sent his MuUee Mullee, 
or dream spirit, out from his body to gather up the darkness 
and roll it away to the westward. Having done so back 
came the Mullee Mullee to the body of Bohrah, who now 
woke up and saw what his spirit had done. He turned to 
Dine wan, whom he saw had slept with one eye and one ear 
open that she might see what he would do, and said : 

** My Mullee Mullee has rolled the night from us. The 
darkness is no more. It is rolled away for ever from me. 
I and my people, from this out, shall be able to see to 
travel and feed at night as if it were day; for us there is no 
more darkness. You must feed in the daytime ; I can as I 
please at night. You kept one eye and one ear open, you 
shall always sleep so. First one side of your head shall go 
to sleep and then the other, but never from henceforth both 
at once." And since that time so it has been even as 
Bohrah the kangaroo wirreenun said it should be.

West Wind 

DuRROON the night heron lived near a creek in which 
was an immense hollow log; this he used both as a fish and 
a man trap. He was by choice a bunna, or cannibal. The 
immense log was hollow and was under the water. In the 
middle of it Durroon had cut an opening. 

When a Daen came to his camp Durroon used to ask 
him to go fishing with him, saying he wanted a mullayerh, 
or mate, as he was like a gundooee, one emu living alone. 
He wanted some one to go to one end of the log and drive 
the fish to the other, where he could catch them. 

Seeing sense in this the Daen would agree, and off they 
would go, Durroon armed with his spear, to spear the fish 
when they came to his end of the log, so he said. But as soon 
as he had sent his mullayerh off to the far end, he would 
go along the log to the opening in the middle. 

Unsuspecting treachery the Daen would come through 
the hollow log, driving the fish ahead of him. Directly 
he was under the opening Durroon would drive his 
spear swiftly into him, killing him on the spot. Then 

1 6 More Australian Tales 

Durroon would drag his victim out, and, dismembering 
him, cook him. 

In this way many men disappeared mysteriously until at 
length a clever crow wirreenun determined to solve the 
riddle of their disappearance. 

Wahn the crow went to Durroon's camp. Durroon asked 
him to go fishing with him, but first offered him some good 
fat goodoo, or cod, he already had cooked. 

Wahn agreed, and when they had finished their meal 
Durroon proposed they should go fishing, but Wahn said : 
" I ate too much goodoo. It was very fat. I ate a great 
deal and must have a sleep first before I start." 

" All right. Plenty of time," Said Durroon, feeling sure 
of his man-flesh supper. 

Wahn went to sleep that he might send his Mullee Mullee, 
or dream spirit, to find out what was the trap Durroon had 
in the creek. The Mullee Mullee soon found out all about 
the opening in the top of the log, having done which back 
he came. Then Wahn, having learnt all, woke up, and 
said he was ready, so off they started. Durroon showed 
Wahn where to enter the hollow log, at the far end. 

Now Wahn was a great wirreenun whom Durroon had 
no power to hurt, so he fearlessly went in. Durroon waited 
until he appeared under the opening, then down went the 
spear, evoking yells of " Wah ! Wah ! Wah ! " from Wahn, 
who nevertheless went on and came out at the other end 
with the spear. 

"What made you do that ?" he said, puUing out the spear 
from where it had stuck in him. 

" I did not mean to spear you," said Durroon. *^ I thought 
it was a big goodoo." 

Gheeger Gheeger 17 

'* Well, come on, I have had enough fishing," said Wahn. 
" You might make a mistake again." 

On came Durroon, thinking Wahn really believed it was 
an accident, but no sooner had he caught up Wahn than 
he found himself speared in his turn, and fatally, as Wahn 
struck to slay. 

About this time, Gheeger Gheeger the cold west wind 
had been blowing such hurricanes that the trees had been 
blown in all directions, and the crows' humpies scattered 
everywhere. **Now," thought Wahn, *'I will catch Gheeger 
Gheeger and shut her up in this immense hollow log, but 
first I must dry the water off it." 

This he set to work to do, and soon, one day when 
Gheeger Gheeger was tired out, after having blown down 
miles of trees, and cut the tribes with her cold blasts, 
Wahn sneaked upon her and drove her into the hollow log, 
which he blocked up at both ends and also at the hole in 
the middle. 

Gheeger Gheeger roared and howled, but to no purpose. 

"You only go about destroying things; you shall stay 
where you are," said Wahn. 

Gheeger Gheeger promised to be more gentle in future if 
only he would let her out sometimes. For a long time 
Wahn would not trust her and kept her closely imprisoned, 
but after a while he let her come out occasionally, after she 
promised to blow no more gales. Sometimes she breaks 
her word and blows destructively as of old, but Wahn 
quickly captures her again, and hurries her back to her log 
prison. 

There are holes now in this log and the breath of 
Gheeger Gheeger comes through, so unless Wahn finds a 

B 

1 8 More Australian Tales 

new prison for her, one day she will burst forth, and then 
there will be such a gale as never blew across the western 
plains before. Gheeger Gheeger will blast with her breath 
everything that stands in her way as she rushes to meet 
her loved Yarrageh, the spring wind which blows from the 
east Kumbooran, and which had of old been wont to meet 
Gheeger Gheeger as she blew from Dinjerrah the west, 
tempering, where they met, her cold with his own balmy 
warmth. 

Twice a year the winds all met, holding great corroborees 
and wild revellings. Dourandowran came with his scorching 
breath from Gurburreh, the north, to meet his loved 
Gunyahmoo, the south-east wind which came from BuUime- 
deehmundi, to fan him with her softer, cooler breezes 
until his heat lessened, and he scorched those in his path 
no longer. Then from Nurroobooan, the south, blew 
Nooroonooroobin to meet Mundehwuddah, the north-west 
wind. 

After the big corroboree the winds parted, each to return 
to his own country, hoping to meet again in another few 
months to again corroboree. 

Hence the unrest of Gheeger Gheeger in the hollow log, 
and her much wailing that she could not break forth from 
her prison and rush to mingle her icy breath with the balmy 
one of Yarrageh.

BiLBER, the soft-furred sandhill rat, was once a man, and 
lived in a camp with Mayrah the wind for a mate. Mayrah 
was a strange mullayerh for a man, he was invisible. He 
could hold conversations with Bilber, but much as he 
desired it, Bilber could never see him. One day he said to 
Mayrah ; " Why do you not become like me that I might 
see you ? " 

** I can see you," said Mayrah. 

** Yes, I know that you can, but I cannot see you, only 
hear you. I know you are there because you eat the food 
before you. You catch opossums, and get honey, but 
though I go with you, following your voice, yet I can 
never see you, and I long to see some one again." 

" But I can see you, so I am all right." 

** But I cannot see you, and I long to see some one 
again. I must travel away somewhere and join others of 
my tribe. If I could only see you I would not wish for a 
better mullayerh." 

" Well, I am off hunting now. Are you coming ? " 

" No, I will stay in the camp to-day." 

Mayrah the wind went off, and when evening was at 

20 More Australian Tales 

hand he was not yet back. Suddenly Bilber heard a 
roaring in the distance such as he had never heard before. 
Then he saw, where the sound seemed to be, a column of 
dust and leaves spouting up. ** What sort of a storm is 
this? " he asked himself. ** I never saw anything like it 
before. I will go up to that sand-ridge behind our camp 
and make a hole in the soft ground, into which I will get, 
so that this storm cannot take me away in its fury." 

Off went Bilber hard as he could to the soft sandhill, the 
storm roaring behind him. There he made a hole and 
buried himself in it until the wind storm had passed. 

Up came the wind, tearing on to the ridge, whirling 
round the camp, sending the bark and boughs flying about 
On, on he went round Bilber's hole, but that he could not 
shift, so howling with impotent rage as he went, he passed 
on until his voice was heard only in the distance, and at 
length not at all. 

After a time Bilber came out. He had been so safe 
and warm in his hole in the sand that he lived there ever 
afterwards, and there he took his wife, when he found one, 
to live. And to this day the Bilber tribe live in burrows 
in the sand. They still hear the voice of the old Bilber's 
mate, but never see his face, nor do they hear him speak 
any longer their language as of old, for so angry was he at 
Bilber's desire to see his face or leave him, that he only 
howls and roars as he rushes past their camps. And never 
since have any of the tribes seen where he camps, nor does 
an}' one know except the six winds that blow, and they tell 
the secret to none.

Bralgah Numbardee was very fond of going out hunting 
with her young daughter Bralgah. Her tribe used to tell 
her she was foolish to do so. That some day the 
Wurrawilberoo would catch them. 

It was not for old Bralgah Numbardee that the Daens 
cared, but all the camp were proud of young Bralgah. 
She was the merriest girl and the best dancer of all her 
tribe, the women of whom were for the most part content 
to click the boomerangs, beat their rolled-up opossum-skin 
rugs, and sing, in voices from shrill to sweet, the corroboree 
songs, while the men danced ; but not so Bralgah. She 
must dance too, and not only the dances she saw the rest 
dance, but new ones which she taught herself, for every 
song she heard she set to steps. Sometimes, with 
laughing eyes, she would whirl round like a boolee, or 
whirlwind. Then suddenly she would change to a stately 
measure. Then for variety's sake perform a series of swift 
gyrations, as if, indeed, a whirlwind devil had her in his 

grip. 

The fame of her dancing spread abroad, and proud 
indeed was the tribe to whom she belonged, hence their 

2 2 More Australian Tales 

anxiety for her safety, and their dread that the Wurra- 
wilberoo would catch her. 

The Wurrawilberoo were two cannibals who lived in the 
scrub alone. 

But in spite of all warnings Bralgah Numbardee con- 
tinued to hunt as usual with only her daughter for com- 
panion. 

One day they went out to camp for two or three days. 
Nothing hurt them the first night, but the next day the 
Wurrawilberoo surprised and captured them. They gave 
Bralgah Numbardee a severe blow. She fell down and 
feigned death, lest they should strike her again and kill her. 
The Wurrawilberoo picked her up to carry her off to their 
camp. They did not wish to hurt young Bralgah ; they 
meant to keep her to dance for them. They told her so, 
and gave her their muggil, or stone knife to carry, telling 
her to fear nothing, and come with them. 

She went with them, but when they were not looking 
she threw the knife away. 

As soon as they reached the camp the Wurrawilberoo 
asked her for it. They wanted to cut up Bralgah Numbardee 
before cooking her. Bralgah said she put the muggil down 
where they had rested, some way back, and had for- 
gotten it. 

They said : " We will go back and get it. You stay 
here." 

They started. When they were some way off the 
mother said : ** Are they out of sight yet ? " 

" Not yet. Wait a little while." 

Bralgah watched them go right away, then told her 
mother, who immediately jumped up. Off then went both 

Bralgah the Dancing Bird 23 

mother and daughter as fast as they could to their own 
tribe, whom they told what had happened. 

When the Wurrawilberoo came back they were enraged 
to find not only the daughter but the mother gone, even she 
whom they had left, as they thought, dead. No feast, no 
dance for them that night unless they recovered their victims, 
from whose tracks they found that Bralgah had actually 
been able to run beside her daughter. 

'* She only feigned death,'* they said, " to deceive us. 
We will hasten and overtake them before they reach the 
tribe. Yea, even. if they are with the tribe we will snatch 
them away.'* 

But the Daens were looking out for them, fully armed, 
seeing which the Wurrawilberoo turned and fled, the Daens* 
after them in quick pursuit, but they failed to overtake 
them ; and, fearing to follow them too far lest a trap lay 
ready for them, they returned to the camp. But so wroth 
were they at the attempt to capture their prized Bralgah 
that a council was held, and the destruction of the Wurra- 
wilberoo determined upon. Two of the cleverest wirreenuns 
said they would send their Mullee MuUees in whirlwinds 
after the enemy to catch them. 

This they did. Whirling along went the boolees with 
the Mullee MuUees in them. Quickly they went along the 
track of the Wurrawilberoo, whom they soon headed, turn- 
ing them back towards the camp whence they had fled. 

** We will go," said one of the Wurrawilberoo to the 
other, " back to the camp, ahead of these whirlwinds. We 
will seize the girl and her mother, and fly in another 
direction. The whirlwinds will miss us in the camp and 
seize others. We will not be baulked. Young Bralgah 

24 More Australian Tales 

shall be ours to dance before us, and her mother shall 
make our supper to-night." 

On, on they fled before the whirlwinds, which gained 
both size and pace as they followed them. 

The Daens were so astonished at seeing the Wurrawil- 
beroo returning straight towards them, the whirlwinds after 
them, that they never thought of arming themselves. Into 
the midst of them rushed the Wurrawilberoo. One seized 
Bralgah the mother, the other young Bralgah, and before 
the astonished Daens realised their coming they had gone 
some distance along the edge of the plain. 

** Bring your weapons," roared the Mullee Mullees in the 
whirlwinds to the Daens as they swirled through the camp 
after the enemy. 

The Wurrawilberoo carrying young Bralgah was ahead. 
The other, finding the whirlwinds were gaining on them, 
dropped his burden, Bralgah Numbardee, and ran on. 
Just in front of them were two huge balah trees. Feeling 
that the whirlwinds, which they now knew must have 
spirits in them, were already lifting them from their feet, 
the Wurrawilberoo clung to the balah trees, the one who 
had captured young Bralgah still holding her with one arm 
while he grasped the tree with the other. 

'* Let the girl go," shouted the other to him. " Save 
yourself." 

''They shall never have her," he answered savagely. 
" If I have to lose her they shall not get her.** 

Then as the whirlwinds howled round them, tearing up 
everything in a wild fury, the balah trees now in their 
grasp creaking and groaning, Wurrawilberoo muttered a 
sort of incantation and released young Bralgah. As she 

Bralgah the Dancing Bird 25 

slipped from his grasp came a shout of joy from the Daens, 
who were just in the wake of the whirlwinds ; they had 
their spears poised, but had been frightened to throw for 
fear of injuring Bralgah. 

Now that she was free they called aloud : " Gubbah youl 
gingnee ! Gubbah youl gingnee ! " 

But their joy was short-lived. The whirlwinds wound 
round the balah trees to which the Wurrawilberoo clung, 
and dragged them from the roots before the men could 
leave go. Up, up the whirlwinds carried the trees, the 
men still clinging to them, until they reached the sky ; 
there they planted them not far from the Milky Way. 
And there they are still, two dark spots, called Wurra- 
wilberoo, for the two cannibals have lived in them ever 
since, being dreaded by all who have to pass along the 
Warrambool, or Milky Way. Where are camped many old 
Daens, cooking the grubs they have gathered for food, 
and the smoke of their fires shows the course of the 
Warrambool. But only can any one reach these fires if the 
Wurrawilberoo are away, as sometimes happens when they 
go down to the earth, and, through the medium of boolees, 
or whirlwinds, pursue their old enemies the Daens. 

When the Daens saw their enemies were gone, they 
turned to get Bralgah ; her mother was already with 
them. 

But where was young Bralgah ? She had not been 
seen to move away, yet she was gone. All round the 
plain they looked. They saw only a tall bird walking 
across it. They went to the place whence the trees had 
been wrenched. They scanned the ground for tracks, but 
saw none of Bralgah going away. Only those of the big 

26 More Australian Tales 

crane-like bird now on the plain. Wurrawilberoo must 
have seized her again and taken her after all, they said. 

As soon as the MuUee MuUees, which had animated the 
whirlwinds, returned from placing the balah trees and the 
Wurrawilberoo in the sky, the Daens asked them if they 
had left her there. 

No Bralgah they said had gone to the sky. Surely the 
Daens had seen Wurrawilberoo let her go. 

Then where was she ? 

That no one could say, and none thought of asking the 
big bird on the plain. All mourned for Bralgah as for one 
dead. Her spirit, they said, would haunt the camp because 
they could not find her body to bury it, though they knew 
she must be dead, otherwise would she not return to them ? 

They moved their camp away to the other side of the 
plain. 

After a while they noticed that a number of birds, like 
the one they had seen on the plain at the time of Bralgah's 
disappearance, came feeding round not far from, their camp, 
and after feeding for a while these birds would begin to 
corroboree ; such a strange corroboree, of which one bird 
taller than the others was seemingly a leader. 

This corroboree was so human and like no movements of 
any other birds, like indeed nothing of the sort that the 
Daens had ever seen, unless it were the dances of the lost 
Bralgah. 

Out on to a clear space the leader would lead her troupe, 
There would be much craning of necks, and bowing, 
pirouetting, stately measured changing of places ; then 
gyrating with wings extended, just as Bralgah had been 
wont to fling her arms, before she madly whirled around 

Bralgah the Dancing Bird 27 

and around as these birds did now, seeing which likeness 
the Daens called : *' Bralgah ! Bralgah ! " 

The bird seemed to understand them, for it looked 
towards them, then led its troupe into wilder, and more 
intricate, figures of the corroboree. 

As time went on the leader of the birds was seen no 
more, but so well had her troupe learned the corroborees 
that they went through the same grotesque performances as 
in her time. 

The old Daens died who remembered the dancing girl 
Bralgah, but all these dancing birds were known for ever 
by her name. 

When Bralgah Numbardee died she was taken to the 
sky, there to live for ever with her daughter Bralgah, both 
known to us as the Clouds of Magellan, to the Daens as 
the Bralgah. 

There Bralgah Numbardee learned that the Wurrawil- 
beroo by his mcantation had changed her daughter into the 
dancing bird, which shape she had to keep as long as she 
lived on earth. 

Afterwards, if ever the Daens saw a boolee speeding 
along near their camp the women would cry, " Wurrawil- 
beroo," clutch their children and bury their heads in their 
rugs ; the men would seize their weapons and hurl them aC 
the ever-feared and hated capturers of Bralgah.

For a long time there was no sun, only a moon and stars. 
That was before there were men on the earth, only birds 
and beasts, all of which were many sizes larger than they 
are now. 

One day, Dinewan, the emu, and Bralgah, the native 
companion, were on a large plain near the Murrumbidgee. 
There they were quarrelling and fighting. Bralgah, in her 
rage, rushed to the nest of Dinewan, seized from it one of 
the huge eggs in it, which she threw with all her force up 
to the sky. There it broke on a heap of firewood, which 
burst into a flame as the yellow yolk spilt all over it, which 
flame lit up the world below, to the astonishment of every- 
thing on it. They had only been used to the semi-darkn6ss, 
and were dazzled by such brightness. 

A good spirit who lived in the sky saw how bright and 
beautiful the earth looked when lit up by this blaze. He 
thought it would be a good thing to make a fire every day, 
which from that time he has done. All night he and his 
attendant spirits collect wood, and heap it up. When the 
heap is nearly big enough they send out the morning star 
to warn those on earth that the fire will soon be lit. 

How the Sun was Made 29 

They, however, found this warning was not sufficient, for 
those who slept saw it not. Then they thought they must 
have some noise made at dawn of day to herald the coming 
of the sun and waken the sleepers. But they could not 
decide upon to whom should be given this office for a long 
time. 

At last one evening they heard the laughter of Gougour- 
gahgah, the laughing jackass, ringing through the air. 
** That is the noise we want," they said. Then they told 
Gougourgahgah that as the morning star faded and the day 
dawned he was every morning to laugh his loudest, that 
his laughter might awaken all sleepers before sunrise. If 
he would not agree to do this then no more would they 
light the sun-fire, but let the earth be ever in twilight 
again. 

But Gougourgahgah saved the light for the world, and 
agreed to laugh his loudest at every dawn of day, which he 
has done ever since, making the air ring with his loud 
cackling *' gou-gour-gah-gah, gou-gour-gah-gah, gou-gour- 
gah-gah." 

When the spirits first light the fire it does not throw 
out much heat. But in the middle of the day when the 
whole heap of firewood is in a blaze, the heat is fierce. 
After that it begins to die gradually away until only the 
red coals are left at sunset, and they quickly die out, except 
a few the spirits cover up with clouds, and save to light 
the heap of wood they get ready for the next day. 

Children are not allowed to imitate the laughter of 
Gougourgahgah, lest he should hear them and cease his 
morning cry. If children do laugh as he does, an extra 
tooth grows above their eye-tooth, so that they carry a 

30 More Australian Tales 

mark of their mockery in punishment for it, for well do the 
good spirits know that if ever a time comes wherein the 
Gougourgahgahs cease laughing to herald the sun, then the 
time will have come when no more Daens are seen in the 
land, and darkness will reign once more.

Great was the talking in the camp one morning of the 

river tribe, for during the night Wimbakobolo had fled, 

taking with him Purleemil, the promised bride of Tirlta. 

The elders sat together and planned how to capture 

them. While they were talking the young men came 

and told them that the tracks of the fugitives were 

leading towards the large Boulka, or lake, where was 

camped a hunting expedition, part of a tribe from the 

back country, of whom the father of Wimbakobolo had 

been one. 

Then the elders knew the fugitives must be going to take 

refuge with this tribe. They called the fighting men 

together, and they said : ** Gather ye your weapons, we 

shall go to this tribe and demand that they give us the 

fugitives. Wimbakobolo shall we slay, Purleemil shall be 

Tirlta's to slay or keep as it pleases him." 

Soon they went forward, after having painted themselves 

in full war paint and armed themselves with many weapons. 

For two days they followed the track. On the third day 

they saw the camp fires; then they sent their messengers 

to the tribe, whose elders received them and listened to 

32 More Australian Tales 

their request that Wimbakobolo and Purleemil should be 
given up. 

** Do not send me back," cried Purleemil, " to old Tirlta. 
Two wives has he slain with his waddy ; let me not be the 
third." And she sobbed aloud. 

** Cease your crying," said Wimbakobolo. " I give you 
up to no man, rather would I slay you with my spear. 
Let Tirlta," he said, turning to the elders, '* be a man and 
fight me. I am ready but he is a coward. Men of my 
father's tribe, who have given us shelter, who when we 
were hungry gave us food, remember that in the days that 
are past my father was one of you, a great warrior who 
slew your enemies as if they were ants, so powerful was 
he. Even as he fought for 3'ou, so will his son in the days 
to come, if you give him your aid now. Long have I 
loved Purleemil, she with the starry eyes, and her heart 
has been mine ever. Can a maid at the bidding of the 
greybeards turn her heart to a wife-slayer, leaving the one 
she loves, turning from one who is young, strong, and 
straight, to a bowed cripple ? Remember my father before 
you despise the help of his son before you, and his grand- 
sons to come. We shall never go back to the tribe of 
Tirlta, rather will I spear Purleemil, my heart's beloved, as 
she stands before you, and mingle my blood with hers." 

Wimbakobolo drew himself up and looked so powerful 
and fierce a warrior as he stood, weapons in hand, before 
the elders, that they said : " Fools should we be to give up 
the son of our old leader to our enemies. He shall lead us 
as did his father before him, and his Purleemil shall be the 
mother of warriors to follow him, for strong are the clan of 
Wimbakobolo, men like mountains as their name tells." 

Sturt's Desert Pea 33 

Then an elder turned to the messengers saying : " Let 
Tirlta come alone out on to the plain, there Wimbakobolo 
will meet him, and there they can fight. If Tirlta will nor, 

then let him go back, a coward, to his country, and stay 
there. Wimbakobolo remains with us, we shall give him 
up to none." 

Back to their tribe went the messengers, but no Tirlta 
came to accept the challenge, and back to the big river went 
he with the others. 

Wimbakobolo and Purleemil lived in peace, loved of all 
the tribe they had come to, for he was a mighty hunter, and 
she a singer of sweet songs. 

After a while when the cold winds began to blow round 

34 More Australian Tales 

the Boulka, the tribe moved their camp to where, on the far 
side were more trees for shelter and firewood, for the 
winter was at hand. 

Before the winter had gone a son was born to Wimba- 
kobolo and Purleemil, and seeing what a big baby he was, 
the tribe laughingly called him "The Little Chief," and 
brought him offerings of toy boomerangs, throwing sticks 
and such things until the eyes of his mother shone with 
pride, and the father already began to make him weapons 
to be used one day against the enemies of the tribe who 
had sheltered them. 

And Purleemil sang new songs, which she said the spirits 
taught her, about her little son, whom she said was to live 
for ever, the most beautiful thing on the plains of the back 
country. 

Purleemil would sing her songs, and her baby would 
crow and laugh, and the father would say little, but bear so 
proud a look on his face as he glanced, from his carving 
of weapons with an opossum's tooth, from time to time at 
his wife and child, that all would smile to see his happy 
pride, and their hearts were glad that the elders had not 
given up Purleemil to be the bride of Tirlta, the wife- 
slayer. 

The winter passed away, and with the coming of the 
summer all made ready to return to their hunting ground 
where the fugitives had first come to them. 

But Purleemil sang no longer. The spirits she said told 
her that misfortune was at hand. 

** Let us stay in the winter camp," she said to her husband, 
" where we have been so happy. I fear we shall lose 
our Little Chief if we go. Let us stay, my husband." 

Sturt's Desert Pea 35 

" That cannot be, my wife, or the tribe would call me a 
coward, and say I feared to meet Tirlta." 

** Better be called a coward, which all know you are not, 
my husband, than lose our Little Chief. Dark would our 
lives be without him, he is the sun that brightens our days, 
without him dark as a grave would they be for ever." 

" That is true, my wife ; now he has been with us so 
long life would be dreary without him, our Little Chief. 
But why should we lose him ? Did not the spirits say he 
should live for ever on the plains, then why should you fear 
for him, my loved one ? " 

'*I cannot tell. Truly the spirits said so, and yet they say 
now, as their voices come to me on every breeze, that mis- 
fortune is at hand." 

" But not for the Little Chief, Purleemil. For the 
tribe, maybe, who sheltered us, then how could we leave 
them to face it alone? Come with me bravely, mother 
of the Little Chief, lest your son drink in fear at your 
breast." 

So Purleemil hugged her child to her, and spoke no more 
of her fear. And as the days passed merrily in the new 
camp which was the old, the fears were forgotten, and the 
spirits ceased their warnings. 

One night when the tribe were all asleep unwitting of 
danger, their enemies who had been waiting their chance 
closed in round them. Closer and closer they came, led by 
the crafty Tirlta ; too great a coward to risk an open fight, 
he stole like a dingo into the camp at night, meaning to slay 
by treachery all who had baulked him of his prey Purleemil, 
she should be slain with the rest, men, women and children, 
all were to be sacrificed to his hate. He had laid his plans 

36 More Australian Tales 

well, waiting until all fear of vengeance was over and all 
vigilance relaxed. 

Closer and closer they crept, making no sound as they 
came nearer and nearer. 

The Little Chief stirred in his sleep ; Purleemil crooned 
him to rest again with the spirit's song telling how he 
should live on the plains for ever, the brightest, most beautiful 
thing on them; soon was he soothed and the mother, nestling 
closer to the ever loved Wimbakobolo, slept again unwitting 
of danger. 

A dog at their feet growled, and Wimbakobolo stirred ; 

again the dog growled, Wimbakobolo rose to his feet, but 

even as he stood up he was felled to the ground by a deadly 

blow from Tirlta, and into the camp rushed the enemy, 

slaying the sleepers as they lay for the most part, though 

some had time to seize their weapons, but in vain, to defend 
themselves. 

Tirlta, who for days had known the camp of Purleemil, 
and claimed as his own victim her husband, having killed 
him, now with a fiendish yell transfixed the body of the 
Little Chief with a jagged spear. 

The tongue of Purleemil, the sweet singer, clove to her 
mouth as she saw her husband dead beside her, and her 
child on the spear of her enemy. Then she wrenched the 
spear from Tirlta, and the end which had passed through 
the body of her baby she turned and plunged into her own 
heart, pinning the Little Chief to her, and fell with him dead 
on to the body of her husband, and the life blood of the 
three mingled into one stream. 

Thus was accomplished the vengeance of Tirlta, which 
left not one of the tribe, who had given the fugitives shelter. 

Sturt's Desert Pea 37 

alive. Leaving the bodies to the hawks and crows, Tirita 
and his tribe went back to the Callawatta. 

The next season they determined to hunt on the 
hunting grounds of their dead enemies. But when they, 
reached them they camped some distance away from 
the scene of the slaughter, lest the spirits of the dead 
should molest them. 

At night threy saw strange lights moving on that spot, 
then they knew that the spirits were indeed abroad. 

The next morning they went for water to the Boulka, or 
lake. How it glistened in the sun ! But was it water ? 
They paused and looked. No water was that before them. 
On they went and then saw that the large lake had been 
turned to salt. Then the tribe were frightened, and turned 
back to their own hunting grounds, for no man likes to 
dare the spirits. Tirita said he would follow them, but first 
would he go to where bleached the bones of his enemies, it 
would give him joy, he said, to see them. With hatred 
still strong in his heart he went. But surely, he thought, 
must his eyes be dazzled with the glare from the salt 
lake before him, for he saw no bones in the place 
where his enemies had been, only masses of brilliant red 
flowers spreading all over the scene of the massacre, flowers 
such as he had never seen before. 

As he was gazing with a dazed expression at them, there 
stretched down from the sky a spear with a barb that caught 
him in the side and lifted him from his feet. As he hung 
in mid air he heard a voice, though he saw nothing, say: 
" Cowardly murderer of children and women, how dare you 
set foot on the spot made sacred for ever by the blood that 
you spilt, the blood of the Little Chief, his mother and 

38 More Australian Tales 

father, which flowed in one stream and blossomed as you 
see it now, for no man can kill blood, for more than the life 
of the flesh is in blood. Their blood shall live for ever, 
making beautiful with its blazing brightness the bare plains 
where are the salt lakes, the dried tears of the spirits whose 
songs Purleemil sang so sweetly, the salt tears which they 
shed when you and such as you poured out the life blood of 
their loved tribe. Here shall you sit for ever before your 
handiwork, the work of a coward." 

So saying the spirit transfixed Tirlta to the ground, 
leaving the spear still through him. 

There in the course of ages man and spear turned to 
stone as an everlasting monument of the spirit*s power, and 
there at Tirlta's feet spread the beautiful red flower, the 
glory of the Western plains where the salt lakes are — Sturt's 
Desert Pea we call it, but to the old tribes it was known as 
the Flower of Blood.

PiGGiEBiLLAH was getting old and not able to do much 
hunting for himself. Nor did he care so much for the flesh 
of emu and kangaroo as he did for the flesh of men. 

He used to entice young men to his camp by various 
devices, and then kill and eat them. 

At last the Daens found out what he was doing. They 
were very angry, and determined to punish him. "We 
will kill or cripple him," they said, **so that he, giant 
though he be, shall be powerless against our people." A 
mob of them went and surrounded his camp. 

He was lying asleep, face downwards, as he did not 
wish his doowee or dream spirit to leave him, as it might 
have done had he slept on his back, with his mouth 
exposed. 

In his sleep even he seemed to hear a rustling iA the 
leaves, but suspected no evil, saying drowsily to himself : 
" it is but the Bullah BuUah, or butterflies, fluttering round." 
Then he slept on while his enemies closed in round him. 

Raising their spears, with one accord they threw them 
at him, until his back was one mass of them sticking up all 
over it. Then the Daens rushed in, and broke his arms 

40 More Australian Tales 

and legs, with their boondees and woggarahs, crippling him 
indeed. As he made neither sound nor movement, they 
thought they had killed him, and went back, satisfied with 
their vengeance, to the camp, meaning to return for their 
weapons later. 

As soon as the Daens were gone, Piggiebillah crawled 
away on all fours to the underground home of his friend, 
Murgah Muggui the spider. Down he went in through 
the trap-door, and there he stayed until his wounds were 
healed. 

He tried to draw out the spears, but was unable to do 
so ; they stayed in his back for ever, and for ever he went 
on all fours, as his tribe have done ever since. They, too, 
as he did, get quickly underground if in danger from 

ft 

enemies. 

When the Guineeboo or redbreasts, of whose family 
Piggiebillah's wife had been one, heard what had happened 
to him, they lifted up their voices and sang the death wail 
until its melancholy sounds echoed through the bush, as 
they rose and fell in wave-like cadences. In their grief 
they cut their heads with muggil or stone knives, and 
comeboos or tomahawks, until the blood ran down staining 
their breasts red, and the breasts of the Guineeboo have 
been red ever since.

A YOUNG duck used to swim away by herself in the creek. 
Her tribe told her that MuUoka, the water devil, would catch 
her some day if she were so venturesome. But she did 
not heed them. 

One day after having swum down some distance, she 
landed on a bank where she saw some young green grass. 
She was feeding about when suddenly out rushed from a 
hidden place Biggoon, an immense water rat, and seized her. 

She struggled and struggled, but all in vain. '*I live 
alone," he said ; ** I want a wife." 

" Let me go," said the duck ; " I am not for you ; my 
tribe have a mate for me." 

" You stay quietly with me, and I will not hurt you. I 
am lonely here. If you struggle more, or try to escape, I 
will knock you on the head, or spear you with this little 
spear I always carry." 

** But my tribe will come and fight you, and perhaps kill 
me. 

*' Not they. They will think MuUoka has got you. But 
even if they do come, let them. I am ready." And again 
he showed his spear. 

42 More Australian Tales 

The duck stayed. She was frightened to go while the 
rat watched her. She pretended that she liked her new 
life, and meant to stay always ; while all the time she was 
thinking how she could escape. She knew her tribe came 
to look for her, for she heard them, but Biggoon kept her 
imprisoned in his hole in the side of the creek all day, only 
letting her out for a swim at night, when he knew her tribe 
would not come for fear of Mulloka. 

She hid her feelings so well that at last Biggoon thought 
she really was content with him, and gradually he gave up 
watching her, taking his long day sleep as of old. Then 
came her chance. 

One day, when Biggoon was sound asleep, she slunk out 
of the burrow, slid into the creek, and swam away up it, as 
quickly as she could, towards her old camp. 

Suddenly she heard a sound behind her ; she thought it 
must be Biggoon, or perhaps the dreaded Mulloka, so, stiff 
as her wings were, she raised herself on them, and flew the 
rest of the way, alighting at length very tired amongst her 
tribe. 

They all gabbled round her at once, hardly giving her 
time to answer them. When they heard where she had 
been, the old mother ducks warned all the younger ones 
only to swim up stream in the future, for Biggoon would 
surely have vowed vengeance against them all now, and 
they must not risk meeting him. 

How that little duck enjoyed her liberty and being with 
her tribe again ! How she splashed as she pleased in the 
creek in the daytime and flew about at night if she wished ! 
She felt as if she never wanted to sleep again. 

It was not long before the laying season came. The 

Gayardaree the Platypus 43 

ducks all chose their nesting places, some in hollow trees, 
and some in mirrieh bushes. When the nests were all 
nicely lined with down feathers, the ducks laid their eggs. 
Then they sat patiently on them, until at last the little flufTy, 
downy ducks came out. Then in a little time the ducks in 
the trees took the ducklings on their backs and in their 
bills, and flew into the water with them, one at a time. 
Those in the mirrieh-bushes waddled out with their young 
ones after them. 

In due course the duck who had been imprisoned by 
Biggoon hatched out her young, too. Her friends came 
swimming round the mirrieh-bush she was in, and said : 
'* Come along. Bring out your young ones, too. Teach 
them to love the water as we do." 

Out she came, only two children after her. And what 
were they ? Such a quacking gabble her friends set up, 
shrieking : " What are those ? " 

" My children," she said proudly. She would not show 
that she, too, was puzzled at her children being quite 
different from those of her tribe. Instead of down feathers 
they had a soft fur. Instead of two feet they had four. Their 
bills were those of ducks, and their feet were webbed, and on 
the hind ones were just showing the points of a spear, like 
Biggoon always carried to be in readiness for his enemies. 

** Take them away," cried the ducks, flapping their wings 
and making a great splash. " Take them away. They are 
more like Biggoon than us. Look at their hind feet ; the tip 
of his spear is sticking from them already. Take them 
away, or we shall kill them before they grow big and kill us. 
They do not belong to our tribe. Take them away. They 
have no right here." 

44 More Australian Tales 

And such a row they made that the poor little mother 
duck went off with her two little despised children, of 
whom she had been so proud, despite their peculiarities. 
She did not know where to go. If she went down the 
creek, Biggoon might catch her again, and make her 
live in the burrow, or kill her children because they had 
webbed feet, a duck's bill, and had been hatched out of eggs. 
He would say they did not belong to his tribe. No one 
would own them. There would never be any one but her- 
self to care for them ; the sooner she took them right away 
the better. 

So thinking, away up stream she went until she reached 
the mountains. There she could hide from all who 
knew her, and bring up her children. On, on she went, 
until the creek grew narrow and scrubby on its banks^ so 
changed from the broad streams which used to placidly flow 
between large unbroken plains, that she scarcely knew it. 
She lived there for a little while, then pined away and died, 
for even her children as they grew saw how different they 
were from her, and kept away by themselves, until she felt 
too lonely and miserable to live, too unhappy to find food. 
Thus pining she soon died away on the mountains, far from 
her old noorumbah, or hereditary hunting-ground. 

The children lived on and throve, laid eggs and hatched 
out more children just like themselves, until at last, pair by 
pair, they so increased that all the mountain creeks had before 
long some of them. And there they still live, the Gayardaree, 
or platypus, quite a tribe apart — for when did ever a rat 
lay eggs ? Or a duck have four feet ? 

How Mungghee, or Mussels, were

One day in the far past a Mungghee wurraywurraymul, or 
sea-gull, was flying over the Western plains carrying a 
mussel. Wahn the crow saw her, and wondering what 
she carried, pursued her. In her fear at being overtaken 
she dropped the mussel. 

Seeing it drop, Wahn stopped his pursuit and swooped 
down to see what this strange thing was. Standing beside 
it, with his head on one side, he peered at it. Then he 
gave it a peck. He rather liked the taste of it ; he pecked 
again and again, until the fish in one side of the shell was 
finished. He never noticed that there was a fish in the 
other side too, so he took up the empty shell, as he 
thought, and threw it into the creek. There this Mungghee 
throve and multiplied, all that followed her being as she 
was, one fish enclosed between two shells, not as the one 
Mungghee wurraywurraymul had brought, which had two 
fish, one on each side shell. 

Not knowing that he had thrown a Mungghee mother 
into the creek, Wahn determined to pursue Mungghee wurray- 

46 More Australian Tales 

wurraymul and get more, or find out whence she had 
brought the one he had thought so good, that he might get 
some. Away he flew in the direction she had gone. He 
overtook her some miles up the creek beside a big water- 
hole. Before she saw him coming he had swooped down 
upon her, crying, " Give me some more of that fish in two 
shells you brought." 

** I have no more. Let me go." 

" Tell me, then, where you got it, that I may get more 
for myself." 

*' They do not belong to your country. They live in 
one far away which I passed in my flight from the big salt 
water here. Let me go." And she struggled to free 
herself, crying piteously the strange, sad cry of her tribe. 

But Wahn, the crow, held her tightly. " If you promise 
to go straight back to that country and bring some more 
I will release you. That you must promise, and also that 
when I have finished those you shall bring more, that I 
may never be without them again. If you do not promise 
I will kill you now." 

" Let me go, and I will do as you ask. I promise my 
tribe shall help me to bring Mungghee to your creeks." 

" Go, then," said Wahn, '* swiftly back, and bring to me 
here on the banks of the creek the fish that hides itself 
between two shells." And he let her go, turning her head 
towards the south. 

Away she flew. Days passed, and months, and yet 
Mungghee wurraywurraymul did not return, and Wahn was 
angry with himself for not having killed her rather than let 
her so deceive him. 

He went one day to the creek for a drink, and stooping, 

Mungghee in the Creeks 47 

he saw before him a shell such as he had thrown into the 
water. Thinking it was the same he took no notice, but 
going on along the creek he saw another and yet another. 
He cracked one by holding it in his beak and knocking it 
against the root of a tree on the bank. Then he ate the 
fish, and looking round for more he found the mud along 
the margin of the creek was thick with them. Then not 
knowing that the mussel shell he had thrown away held a 
fish, he thought Mungghee wurraywurraymul must have 
returned unseen by him, disappearing secretly lest he should 
hurt her. 

Later he found that was not so, for one day he saw a 
flock of her tribe flying over where he was. They alighted 
a little higher up, where he saw some of them stick the 
Mungghee they were carrying in the mud just under the 
water. Having done so, on they flew a little farther to stick 
others, and so on up the creek. Having finished then- 
work they turned and flew back towards the sea-coast. 
Wahn noticed that the Mungghee came out of the water, 
and opening their shells, stretched out between them, and 
uttered a low, piteous, muffled, mew-like sound. Making 
their way along the mud, they cried as they went for the 
Mungghee wurraywurraymul to take them back to their own 
country. But their cries were unheeded, for far away were 
the sea-gulls. 

At last they reached the Mungghee which had been born 
in the creek. These being stronger and more numerous 
than the newcomers, soon altered their habits of life, 
teaching them to live as they did, only one fish in the two 
joined-together shells ; and so have all mussels been ever 
since. For though from time to time, on the rare visits of 

48 More Australian Tales 

the sea-gulls to the Back Creeks, fresh Mungghee are 
brought, yet these too soon do as the others. 

The Daens cook mussels in the hot ashes of their fires, 
and eat them with relish, saying, "If it had not been for 
Wahn we should not have had this good food, for he it was 
who caused it to be given to us by Mungghee wurray- 
wurraymul, the mussel-bringer."

When the two Meamei* were translated to the sky from 
Wurrunnah's camp, failing to recover them, he journeyed on 
alone. He was now a long way from the spot he had 
started from, which was near Nerangledool. He had 
passed Yaraanbah, Narine, and had reached Nindeegoolee, 
where the little sand-ridges are, to where the Earmoonan 
have gone from Noondoo. 

He was camping by some water when he saw a strange 
creature coming towards him, having the body and head of 
a dog, feet of a woman, and a short tail. It bounded four 
or five feet in the air as it came along, making a whirring, 
whizzing noise with its lips. 

" What is this coming to water ? " said Wurrunnah to 

himself. When the creature was close, he said : " It must 

be Earmoonan, one of the pups of the dog Byamee left at 

Noondoo that I have heard of." t 

He called out to it, " Where is your old master ? " for 

he thought he would find out if the strange creature knew 

where Byamee was. For answer the Earmoonan made the 

* See "Australian Legendary Tales," p. 41, •' Meamei the Seven Sisters." 
t Ibid., p. 104, " The Borah of Byamee." 

50 More Australian Tales 

spluttering, whizzing noise with his lips Wuminnah had 
already heard. 

Wurrunnah said : " Has he gone right away from you?" 
Again came only the spluttering, whizzing noise, a sort of 
pursing of the lips together, and blowing out a sound like 
" Phur-r, phur-r." 

** Is it true that he has gone for ever ? " 

" Phur-r, phur-r," came again the answer. 

Wurrunnah stood up and motioned EarmoonSn back, 
saying: "You go away now. That will do. I want you 
here no more. You tell me nothing of Byamee." 

At the sound of the name "Byamee," EarmoonSn jumped 
away, saying as he went : " Phur-r, phur-r." 

He quickly disappeared, going back to the sand-ridges 
under which Wurrunnah had heard he and the rest of 
the strange litter lived, in huge caves, where they 
imprisoned any travellers they could round up into 
them. Nothing frightened them but mention of the name 
of Byamee. 

Wurrunnah did not mean to risk another encounter, so 
he hurried on to Dungerh. On, on he travelled for many 
days, until at last he reached Doogoonberh, which is on the 
sea. Seeing a wide expanse of water before him and 
feeling thirsty, he took his little binguie down to dip some 
out and drink. 

" Kuh ! " he said as he swallowed a mouthful before he 
realised the strange taste. " Kuh 1 Budta ! Budta ! Salt ! 
Salt ! " said he, as he spat out what he could. 

He thought it must be the white froth that was salt, so 
he cleared this off with his hand, dipped the binguie in 
again, and again tasted. " Kuh ! Kuh ! Budta ! Budta ! I 

Wurrunnah's Trip to the Sea 51 

am thirsty. I must go back to the water-holes I passed and 
get a drink there." 

Before going, he looked as far as his eye could reach 
across the sea. He said : " What sort of flood water is 
this that has a tree in it nowhere, not even a mirrieh-bush, 
and is salt, salt to taste ? It does not look like flood wafer 
at all. It looks like GoonaguUa, the sky, with white 
clouds on it. Yet when the clouds move the sky is still ; 
all this moves and is water, though surely man never tasted 
such before." 

Wonderingly, back he went to the water-holes and 
quenched his thirst. Then he killed two opossums, and 
skinned them to make water-bags, or guUeemeah. 

That night as he pamped out of sight of, and some 
distance away from, the sea he heard its booming noise, 
for the wind had risen. What the noise was he did not 
know. 

The next morning he went to see the strange water 
again, thinking he might now make out a bank on the far 
side. Seeing a high tree a few hundred yards from the 
beach, he climbed up it and looked again seawards, 
scanning the distant horizon for trees or land. He saw 
only water, a dark troubled-looking water that day. 

** There is a thunderstorm in it. This must be the 
camp of Dooloomai the Thunder, and the roaring winds," 
he said as he listened to the angry booming. " That is 
what I heard last night." Then, as he saw the tide rising 
and the waves chasing each other on to the beach, where 
they dashed with an angry roar, going back only to come 
rushing in again higher next time, he said : ** There must 
be Wundah — devils — in it, and they are trying to get me. 

52 More Australian Tales 

I will go up that high mountain ; there shall I see better." 
But in vain he climbed the mountain ; he saw only the 
strange water, as far as he could see, water, only water. 

Down the mountain he went again, back to the water- 
holes, where were hanging the opossum skins to dry. 
These he quickly made into water-bags. He waited until 
he saw the strange water still as when he first saw it, then 
he went to it and filled the bags with it. He then picked 
up a few shells to take away with him. He meant to go 
straight back to his tribe and tell them what he had seen, 
taking with him the bags of water that they might taste it 
and know his story was true. 

On his return journey he met a very old Daen. Wur- 
runnah thought he might know something of this strange 
water, and its booming voices. The old wirreenun listened 
to all Wurrunnah told him. He tasted the water, spat it 
out again, sat silent for some time, then he said : *' Surely 
have then my father's fathers spoken truly when they told 
their children, that there was beyond the mountains more 
water than the eye of man could stretch across, water 
covering a bigger plain than the eye of man has ever seen, 
water which is full of dangers for man, whom it pursues to 
its very banks, where it rages when it cannot catch him for 
the many monsters which live in it, and are bigger, they 
said, and deadlier than Kurrealis. Saw you any such ? " 

•* Nothing," said Wurrunnah, '* did I see but water, budta 
water everywhere. But the voices of these monsters was 
the noise I heard, bidding the water draw me to them, and 
howling in rage when I got free away. I shall go swiftly 
to my tribe, and tell them what I have seen and heard." 

Before going he gave the old wirreenun some of the 

Wurrunnah's Trip to the Sea 53 

salt water that his tribe might taste it. He also gave him 
a shell, one of those he had picked up on the beach. 

These shells were afterwards the cause of many fights, 
one tribe trying to get them from the other. The oldest 
wirreenun of the tribe always wore one of them at the great 
corroborees. After many generations had passed away, 
one wirreenun, in whose possession it was, put it for safety 
in his Minggah, or spirit tree. And to this day there are 
fights about it, for he died leaving it there. Some tribes 
try to steal it, but others fight to protect it. 

Every now and then on his road home Wurrunnah had 
to stay and make fresh bags to carry the salt water in, as 
the old ones started to leak, but at length he reached 
Nerangledool again, with enough for the elders of his tribe 
to taste. 

None of them knew where he had been, nor could they 
imagine what this water was which stretched farther than 
all their hunting grounds. Any stranger that came to the 
camp was brought to Wurrunnah that he might hear from 
him what had turned him back on his journey. But 
Wurrunnah did not live long to tell his story ; what he had 
seen became a tradition in his tribe. 

He had broken the law of Byamee by leaving his own 
hunting ground, so was not allowed to live long after his 
return. 

But yet so famous was he from his far journeyings that 
when he died, followed by a terrific crash, a huge meteor 
shot across the sky, thereby telling the tribes for miles 
round that a great spirit had passed from the earth. 
From generation to generation was told the story of 
Wuminnah's journey and the strange water he had seen, 

54 More Australian Talcs 

kTii Sit zbt leg corrohsoptes were seen fiioc shells he had 

brought. 

Az h:zigib *Jbt Wmadah <h' vfaitc dleir& came to live in 

the coiiT.iry, 2tz.c tiae tnaiih oif the oU tradkioQ was proved 

hy soise black bo^rs who went down from GtindaMouie with 

cattle to Mulubinba. 

There they saw the widely stietdiing water, with the 
white clouds on it. There tbej heard its bo(»iing roar. 
They were terrified, but one boy, more venturesome than 
the others, said : 

** Let us taste it. If it is salt, then in truth this is like 
the water the old men tell us Wummnah saw." They 
tasted it. It was salt. 

" It is true/' they said, " that which they told us. We 
w)]] tell them that we too have seen it, and have tasted it. 
And we will take back some of these wa-ah to wear at the 
corroborecs." So back to the tribes they took the shells 
in prove their story. 

One of those boys, the first who tasted the salt water, is 
an old man now. He it is who told me the story of 
Wurrunnah's trip to the sea.

Every day, while the little camp children were playing and 
their parents were away hunting, a strange little boy used 
to come to the camp. He was only a little boy about six 
or seven years old. 

Every afternoon, after having played for some time with 
the other children, he would run away from them, go round 
the different dardurrs, and steal food out of them all, taking 
anything eatable he could find. 

When the children saw him thus helping himself, they- 
called out : ** Don't touch our mother's things I " 

He did not heed them, but took what he wanted. The 
children used to try and get what he took back. But when 
they came near to him he shot up suddenly taller and taller, 
far out of their reach. Having thus startled them into 
leaving him alone, he would escape to his own camp, the 
whereabouts of which no one knew. At last the parents 
began to notice how much of their food was taken during 
their absence, and they said angrily to their children, " You 
eat all our food." 

"No," they said, "we do not. It is a little boy who 
comes while you are away. He comes along that track in 
the scrub." 

56 More Australian Tales 

The parents said : " To-morrow we will wait for him, 
and see if you are telling the truth, for it would be a strange 
little boy who could steal all the food we miss every day." 
Accordingly the next day the parents hid themselves in 
their humpies, instead of going out as usual. 

The children played about, watching for the little boy ; 
when they saw him coming one of them ran and told the 
parents. 

Walloobahl, after playing for a little while as usual, went 
to the first humpie and sat down, looking round for what 
he might take. After he had rested a few minutes he 
helped himself to some food, and was then moving on to 
the next humpie. But before he had time to go many 
steps, out the men and women rushed, yelling at him and 
brandishing boomerangs and boondees, which they soon 
threw at him. But to their surprise, even as their children 
had said, up he shot, growing taller and taller, while their 
weapons fell harmlessly around him. Seizing more they 
threw another shower at him, aiming higher up, but he 
grew taller and taller, still unhurt. Then dropping their 
remaining boomerangs and boondees, they caught hold of 
their spears and threw these with deadly force at him. As 
the spears pierced him, Walloobahl fell dead. 

As they saw him lying there, the Daens said : "He was 
our enemy, stealing our food. No need to bury him. We 
will only cover him with bark and change our camp." 

This they did, and long afterwards they saw creep from 
under the bark a little lizard. And they called it Walloo- 
bahl, because they said it must be the spirit of the boy they 
had killed. And ever since then the little bark lizard has 
been called Walloobahl.

At one time the Daens had no fishing nets, nor then had 
they the stone fisheries which Byamee afterwards made for 
them, the best model of which is still to be seen at 
Brewarrina. 

In order to catch fish in those days they used to make 
a wall of poligonum and grass mixed together, across the 
creek ; then go above it and drive the fish down to it, 
catching them with their hands against the break or wall. 
Or they would put these breaks across a mubboon or small 
tributary of the main creek, as a flood was going down, and, 
as the water ran out of the mubboon, fish would be caught 
in numbers in the break. 

Goolayyahlee the pelican, a great wirreenun, was the 
first seen with a net. But where he had obtained it from, 
or where he kept it, no one knew for a long while. When 
he wanted to fish he used to tell his children to go and get 
sticks for the ends of the net, that they might go fishing. 

*• But where is the net ? " 

" It will be here when you come back. You do what I 
tell you. Get the sticks.*' 

Frightened to ask more the children went to break the 

58 More Australian Tales 

sticks which Goolayyahlee said must be of Eurah, a droop- 
ing shrub growing on the banks of the creeks, or near 
swamp oak-scrub. This shrub bore masses of large cream 
bell-shaped flowers, spotted with brown, beautiful to look 
at, but sickening to smell : where no dheal grew this shrub 
was used in place of that sacred tree. 

When the children brought back the eurah sticks, there 
on the ground in front of their father was the big fishing 
net, ten or twelve feet long, and four or five feet wide. 
Beside it was a small smoke fire of budta twigs, on to 
which Goolayyahlee now threw some of the eurah leaves, 
and when the smoke was thick he held the net in it» Then, 
taking the net with them, down they ail went into the 
water, where two men with the net — through the ends of 
which were the eurah sticks — went down stream to a 
shallow place, where they stationed themselves one at each 
end of the net stretched across the creek between them. 
The others went up stream and splashed about to frighten 
the fish down to the net, in which some were soon caught. 

When they had enough they would come out, make fires 
and cook the fish. Every fishing-time the tribe puzzled 
over the question as to how and where Goolayyahlee had 
obtained this valuable net, and as to where he kept it, for 
after each fishing-time he took it away and no one saw it 
again until they went fishing ; his wife and children said 
he never took it to his humpie. 

One day the children thought that when they were sent 
for the eurah sticks, some of them would hide and watch 
where their father did get this net from. They saw him, 
when he thought they were safely out of sight, begin to 
twist his neck about and wriggle as if in great pain. They 

Goolayyahlee the Pelican 59 

thought he must be very ill and were just coming from 
their hiding place, when all of a sudden he gave a violent 
wriggle, contorting himself until his neck seemed to stretch 
to an immense length ; the children were too frightened at 
his appearance to move ; they stayed where they were, 
speechless, huddled together, their eyes fixed on their 
father, who gave another convulsive movement and then, to 
their amazement, out through his mouth he brought forth 
the fishing net. 

So that was where he kept it, inside himself. The chil- 
dren watched him drawing it out, until it all lay in a heap 
in front of him, then down he sat beside it, apparently none 
the worse, to await their return. 

The children who had been hiding ran to meet the others, 
whom they told what they had seen. They were so excited 
at their discovery that they talked much about it, and soon 
the secret hiding-place of the net was a secret no longer, 
but as yet no one knew how it was made. At last Goolay- 
yahlee grew tired of having to produce his net so often, for 
the fame of this new method of fishing had spread through- 
out the country ; even strange tribes came to see the 
wonderful net. He told the people to do as he had done, 
and make nets for themselves. Then he told them how to 
do it. They were to strip off mooroomin, or Noongah bark, 
take off the hard outside part, then chew the softer part, and 
work it into twine, with which they could make the nets 
though he only, he said, swallowed the fibre, and it worked 
itself up into a net inside him ; but that was because he was 
a great wirreenun ; others could not do so. 

After that all the tribes made fishing-nets, but only the 
tribe of Goolayyahlee could work the fibre inside them into 

6o More Australian Tales 

nets, which the pelicans do to this day, the Daens say. And 
the Daens tell you that if you watch the Goolayyahlee or 
pelicans fishing, you will see that they do not dip their beaks 
straight down, as do other fish-catching birds ; the pelicans 
put their heads sideways, and then dip their long pouched 
bills, as if they were going to draw a net. Into these 
pouches go the fish they catch, and thence down into their 
nets, which they still carry inside them, though they never 
bring them out now as in the days of Goolayyahlee, the 
great fishing wirreenun, who gave all his tribe the deep 
pouches which hang on to their long yellow bills, to use 
instead of the net which each carries inside him, though 
these are very miniature editions of the original Goolayyah- 
lee's net, but yet big enough to let the tribe still bear his 
name, which means one having a net.

and Ouyouboolooey the Black Snake 

When the animals were first on the earth they were very 
much bigger than they are now. In those days the bite of 
a snake was not poisonous, but that of an iguana was. 
Mungoongarlee, the largest kind of iguana, which even now 
in its comparatively dwarfed condition measures five feet or 
so from tongue to tail, was, by reason of his poisonous bite, 
quite a terror in the land. His favourite food was the flesh 
of black fellows, whom he used to kill in numbers. Such 
havoc had he wrought amongst them that at last all the 
other tribes held a meeting to discuss how best to check 
this wholesale slaughter. Many things were suggested, 
but nothing that seemed likely to be effective. The meeting 
was breaking up ; the tribes could think of no plan to save 
their relations, the Daens. Just as they were dispersing 
came Ouyouboolooey to the watering-place. He asked 
what the meeting was about ; Dinewan the emu told him, that 
Mungoongarlee was so merciless towards the Daens or 
black fellows, living almost entirely on their flesh, that they 
feared the race would soon be exterminated if something 
were not done to stop it. 

62 More Australian Tales 

" And/' said Bohrah the kangaroo, ''though some of us 
are as big and bigger, as strong and stronger than Mun- 
goongarlee, if we went to fight him he would kill us with 
the poison he carries in a hidden bag, and we too should 
die, even as our relations the Daens do. Most of us have 
relations amongst the Daens, and we do not wish to see 
them all killed, yet we know not how to stop the slaughter." 

'' I, too, have relations amongst them, the hippi and 
comeboo. My relations must be saved," said Ouyouboo- 
looey. 

" But how ? " said the others. " We are nearly all their 
relations." 

" Mungoongarlee himself is their and my relation," said 
Moodai the opossum. 

** But that does not stop him from slaying them, whether 
they are our relations the Murrees and Gubbees, or the 
others, he slays all alike." 

** I tell you that I shall save the Daens from Mungoon- 
garlee," said Ouyouboolooey. 

'* But how ? " said the others in chorus, 

" That I tell to none. But Yhi the sun shall not go to 
her rest to-morrow before I shall have got that poison bag 
from Mungoongarlee." 

'* Yhi the sun shall not have hidden behind that, clump 
of Yaraan trees before you lie dead from the poison 
Mungoongarlee carries, if you fight against him." 

** Did I talk of fighting ? Is there no way to gain your 
end but by fighting ? Let those who fight die. I shall 
not fight him, and I shall live. No Mungoongarlee shall 
kill me." 

So saying, away glided Ouyouboolooey through the trees 

Mungoongarlee the Iguana 63 

surrounding the water-hole where the tribes had met. 
When he was gone, the others talked of him and his boast- 
ing for awhile, then they all dispersed, having agreed to 
meet again at the same place, when Yhi the sun was sinking 
to rest the next evening. 

Ouyouboolooey went his way alone, pondering over his 
plans. Cunning he knew must be his guide to victory; 
not otherwise could he hope to gain it, for Mungoongarlee 
was bigger than he was, stronger, quicker of hearing and 
quicker to move, and above all the hidden bag of poison 
was his. The only advantage that Ouyouboolooey thought 
he had was that Mungoongarlee had been invincible so 
long that he might have grown careless and unsuspicious. 
Ouyouboolooey decided he would wait until Mungoon- 
garlee was gorged with his favourite food. He would then 
follow him until he saw him go to sleep after his feast. That 
would be the next day. 

Having thus decided, Ouyouboolooey went near Mun- 
goongarlee's camp, and lay down to sleep there. The 
next morning he watched Mungoongarlee sally out. He 
followed him at a distance, saw him surprise three Daens 
one after the other, and kill them all, then sit down and 
eat his favourite parts, taking some of the flesh afterwards 
back to his. camp with him. Ouyouboolooey followed him, 
saw him sit down and eat more, then roll over and go to 
sleep. 

" Now is my chance," thought Ouyouboolooey, as he 
crept into the camp. 

He was just going to raise his boondee to crack the 
skull of Mungoongarlee, when he thought, " But first I 
might as well find out where he keeps and how he uses 

64 More Australian Tales 

the poison. If I had it I could soon make myself feared 
of all the tribes as he is." 

Thus thinking he sat down to wait until Mungoongarlee 
awoke. He did not have to wait long. Mungoongarlee 
slept but restlessly. Feeling something was near he awoke, 
sat up and looked round. At a little distance away he 
saw Ouyouboolooey. As he was making a rush at him, 
Ouyouboolooey called out : 

" Take care ! If you kill me you will hear nothing of 
the plot the tribes have planned against you, of which I 
have come to warn you." 

'* What plot ? What can the tribes do against me ? 
Have I killed numbers of the biggest tribe to be frightened 
now of the others ? " 

'* If you knew their plot you would have no need to fear 
them ; knowing it not your life is in danger." 

" Then tell it to me." 

** So I meant to do. But you were going to kill me, 
though I had not harmed you. Why, then, should I save 
your life ? " ' 

'* If you do not tell me I shall surely kill you." 

" Then you will be killed yourself, for no one else will 
warn you." 

'* Tell me the plot, Ouyouboolooey, and your life is 
spared, and the lives of your tribe for ever." 

" How do I know that you will keep your word ? You 
will promise much, but how do I know that you will fulfil 
your promise ? " 

" Ask of me what pleases you, and I will give it to you, 
to show I mean what I say." 

'* Then while I tell you the plot that threatens you, give 

Mungoongarlee the Iguana 65 

me your hidden poison bag to hold. Then only shall I 
feel safe. Then only shall I tell you what was planned at 
the water-hole where the tribes meet to drink ; where all 
said the Daens should be saved and your end assured. 
And surely it will be so if you do not know their plans." 

'Mungoongarlee asked Ouyouboolooey to name some 
other boon, and surely he would grant it ; but his hidden 
poison bag would he give to none. 

" That is the way. You ask me to name what I want. 
I do so. You cannot grant it. So be it. Keep your 
poison bag. I will keep my plot." And he moved as if 
to go. 

** Stay ! " cried Mungoongarlee, who was determined to 
hear the plot at all risks. 

" Then let me hold the poison bag." 

Mungoongarlee tried to induce Ouyouboolooey to make 
other terms, but in vain, so he gave in. Reaching into his 
mouth he drew the hidden poison bag out ; then he tried to 
frighten Ouyouboolooey from taking it by saying : 

" The touch of it will poison one not used to handle it. 
I will put it beside me while you tell the plot against me." 

'* You will not do what I ask ; I will go." And he 
turned away. 

" Not so ; not so ! " cried Mungoongarlee. " Here, 
take it." 

Assuming as indifferent an air as he could, Ouyou- 
boolooey took the bag, and went back with it to his old 
place on the edge of the camp. 

'* Now quickly tell me the plot," said Mungoongarlee. 

'* It was this," said Ouyouboolooey, putting the poison 
bag into his own mouth. Then going on : ** It was this. 

E 

66 More Australian Tales 

One of the tribes was to get this bag from you, and so 
take away your power to harm the Daens in the future. I 
vowed to do so before Vhi the sun went to her rest 
to-night. Not by strength could I do it. Nor by strength 
did I tr}' to do it. Cunning I brought with me, and 
cunning has done it. Back I go now to tell the tribes." 

And before Mungoongarlee had time to realise how he 
bad been tricked, Ouyouboolooey was gone. 

After him went Mungoongarlee, but his meal had been 
heavy ; he only caught Ouyouboolooey up in time to* hear 
him tell the tribes that as he had said so had he done. 

" Give us then the poison bag that we may destroy it," 
they said. 

''Not so," said Ouyouboolooey. "None of you could 
get it. It is mine alone. I shall keep it." 

*' Then you shall never live in our camp." 

*' I shall come as I please to your camps." 

*' Then we shall slay you. You are not big as is 
Mungoongarlee." 

**But I have the poison bag. Whosoever interferes with 
me surely shall he die." 

And away went Ouyouboolooey with the poison bag, 
leaving Mungoongarlee to tell the tribes how he had been 
tricked. 

Ever since then the snakes have been poisonous, and 
not the iguanas, and there has been a feud between the 
snakes and the iguanas, who never meet without fighting. 
But though the snakes have the poison bag, they are 
powerless to injure the iguanas with it. For Mungoongar- 
lee was a great wirreenun, and he knew of a plant which if 
eaten after snakebite made the poison powerless to kill or 

Mungoongarlee the Iguana 67 

injure. Directly an iguana is bitten by a snake he rushes 
to this plant, and eating it, is saved from any evil con- 
sequences of the bite. This antidote has ever since been 
the secret of the iguana tribe, left in their possession by 
the Mungoongarlee who lost his poison bag by the cunning 
of Ouyouboolooey the black snake.

the Turkey 

Wayambeh the turtle was the wife of Gougourgahgah, the 
laughing jackass. They had a quarrel when the time came 
for Wayambeh to lay her eggs. She was going as her 
tribe did to the sand beside the creek, there to make a hole 
and deposit them ; but Gougourgahgah said that was a 
mad thing to do, a flood might come and wash them away. 
She should lay the eggs in a hollow tree. 

Wayambeh said : " How shall I get into a hollow tree ? 
And even if I did get there how should I get sand up to 
cover the eggs ? And how would the sun shine on the 
sand to heat it and hatch them out ? " 

" How was I born, and my mother before me ? " asked 
Gougourgahgah, answering her question with another, going 
on, " My wife can do surely as our mothers did ? " 

** I am a Wayambeh, and it is right only for me to do 
as the Wayambehs do. Does a child not take its name 
from its mother ? My children will be Wayambeh even as 
I am. I shall go to my own tribe." 

Straight went Wayambeh to the creek where her tribe 

Wayambeh the Turtle 69 

lived. Into the water she went after them. Gougourgah- 
gah followed her to the edge. Then he turned back and 
sent his servant Wonga the pigeon, and Dumerh the wife 
of Wonga, after Wayambeh. 

Wonga sent Dumerh on to tell Wayambeh to come back. 

But Wayambeh said : *' No, I will not go back. Let 
him come himself if he wants me." 

Wonga and Dumerh went back and told this to Gou- 
gourgahgah, who went as his wife had asked for him. 
But on the bank of the creek he saw the mother of 
Wayambeh, so he turned back, for the law of the tribes 
did not let him speak to his mother-in-law. He sent 
Wonga to consult her. 

'* Tell him," said Wayambeh the mother, " my daughter 
will not go back. He would have her break the laws of 
her tribe. She shall not leave her people." 

Wonga went back to tell Gougourgahgah. Just as he 
was beginning to do so, out from the grass crept behind 
him Ouyouboolooey the black snake, an old lover of 
Wayambeh, who was so enraged at this messenger wanting 
to bring his old love back to the husband she had left that 
he meant to kill him. He was in the act of making a 
spring on to Wonga to throttle him, when Gougourgahgah 
saw him. 

Gougourgahgah made one dart and was on the back of 
Ouyouboolooey. Clutching hold of him, he flew high in 
the air, up, up, as far as his flight let him go, then he 
loosened his hold of Ouyouboolooey and let him drop 
swiftly, thud to the earth, his back broken. Down after 
him flew Gougourgahgah. There in his camp he saw his 
enemy lying dead. 

70 More Australian Tales 

'* Twice have you tried to injure me, and twice have you 
failed," he said; '*once when you wanted to marry 
Wayambeh, who was promised to me, and now when you 
wanted to kill my faithful servant, sneaking as you did like 
a coward behind him. But instead of him, you yourself lie 
dead, powerless for ever to harm me. So shall I kill ever 
your treacherous tribe, against whom my people shall have 
a dullaymullaylunnah, or vengeful hatred, for ever. Ah ! 
But it is good to see you my enemy lying there." 

And Gougourgahgah laughed long and loud peals of 
laughter, until the whole creek-side echoed with his startling 
" Gou — gour — gah — gah. Gou — gour — gah — gah." 

Startling indeed was the sound to Wayambeh, for her 
husband had always looked too solemn to laugh, except 
when he had to herald the sunrise. She hurried out of the 
water, and went away along the opposite bank as fast as 
she could. She thought, as peal after peal of his strange 
loud laughter reached her, that her husband had gone mad, 
and if he caught her would kill her. So near the laughter 
sounded that she fancied he was pursuing her. She did 
not dare to look round but sped swiftly on. But instead 
of following her, Gougourgahgah was eating his enemy, and 
vowing again that so long as his tribe lived so long should 
they wage war against the tribe of Ouyouboolooey, killing 
and eating them. 

While this feast off her old lover was going on, Wayambeh 
was putting an immense distance between herself and her 
old camp. At length she was too tired to go farther. 
Where she rested was a nice sandy place beside the creek. 
Here she decided to camp. She made a hole and laid her 
eggs in it in due course. When the last was laid, and she 

Wayambeh the Turtle 71 

was carefully covering them up ready for the hatching, she 
heard a sound on the bank above her. Looking up she 
saw there a dark-feathered bird, with a red head arid neck, 
peering down at her, who, on seeing her look up, said : 
'* Why do you cover your eggs up ? " 

"That the sand and sun may hatch them." 

" But won't you sit on them yourself? " 

" No indeed I Why should I do that ? They will be 
warm where they are, and come out even as I came out, in 
the right time. If I sat on them I might break them. 
And who would get me food ? I should die and they too." 

The red-headed bird, which was Woggoon the brush 
turkey, went back to where her mate was feeding and told 
him what she had seen. She said she would like to try 
that plan, it seemed much easier than having to sit on the 
eggs week after week. 

Her mate told her not to be in a hurry to change her 
ways ; each tribe had its own custom. Then the 
Wayambeh might be only fooling her. They would wait 
and see if the eggs came out all right. But even so he 
would not have her make a nest near the creek where a 
sudden rise might wash it away. They must stick to their 
scrub. 

At length time proved that what Wayambeh had said 
was true. The little Wayambeh all came out, and were 
strong and well. Then the Woggoons decided they would 
try and hatch their eggs without sitting on them. They 
could not dig a hole to lay them in, but they scratched up a 
heap of mixed debris, earth, sand, leaves and sticks. Then 
the mother Woggoon every second day laid an egg until in 
the mound were fifteen, all apart from each other, with the 

72 More Australian Tales 

thin end downwards. Over these they put some more 
decayed leaves and rubbish, and outside all a heaped-up 
covering of more leaves and twigs. When all this was 
done the parents waited anxiously for the result. 

As time went on the mother bird grew restless. What 
if she had killed all her young just to save herself? She 
fussed round the big mound which stood some feet high. 
She put her head in to feel if it were warm ; drew it out 
quickly, delighted to find the nest was absolutely hot. 
Then she began to fear it would be too hot. Full of 
anxiety she scratched away the earth and leaves, thinking 
the covering was too much. She stopped suddenly and 
listened. Was that a baby- bird note ? She listened 
again. It was. She called to her mate. He came, and 
when she told him what she had heard, he scratched away 
until to their joy out came the finest chicks they had ever 
seen, quite independent and strong, with feet and wings 
more advanced than any seen on their chicks before. 

Proud of the success of her plan, and anxious to spread 
the good news, the mother Woggoon ran away from her 
family to tell all her tribe about them. 

The next season the other Woggoons added to the size of 
the mound, and many of the mothers laid their eggs in one 
nest, until at last the whole tribe adopted the same plan, 
thus earning for themselves the name of Mound Builders.

The Meamei, or Pleiades, once lived on this earth.* They 
were seven sisters remarkable for their beauty. They had 
long hair to their waists, and their bodies sparkled with 
icicles. Their father and mother lived among the rocks 
away on some distant mountain, staying there always, never 
wandering about as their daughters did. When the sisters 
used to go hunting, they never joined any other tribes, 
though many tried from time to time to make friends with 
them. One large family of boys in particular thought 
them so beautiful that they wished them to stay with them 
and be their wives. These boys, the Berai-Berai, used to 
follow the Meamei about, and watching where they camped, 
used to leave there offerings for them. 

The Berai-Berai had great skill in finding the nests of 
bees. First they would catch a bee, and stick some white 
down or a white feather with some gum on its back between 
its hind legs. Then they would let it go, and follow it to 
its nest. The honey they found they would put in wirrees 
and leave at the camps of the Meamei, who ate the honey, 
but listened not to the wooing. 

* Su •• Australian Legendary Tales: " Meamei, the Seven Sisters. 

74 More Australian Tales 

But one day old Wurrunnah stole two of the girls, 
capturing them by stratagem. He tried to warm the icicles 
off them, but only succeeded in putting out his fire. 

After a term of forced captivity the two stolen girls were 
translated to the sky. There they found their five sisters 
stationed. With them they have since remained ; not 
shining quite so brightly as the other five, having been 
dulled by the warmth of Wurrunnah's fires. 

When the Berai-Berai found that the Meamei had left 
this earth for ever, they were inconsolable. Maidens of 
their own tribe were offered to them, but as they could not 
have the Meamei they would have none. Refusing to be 
comforted they would not eat, and so pined away and died. 
The spirits were sorry for them, and pleased with their 
constancy, so they gave them too a place in the sky, and 
there they are still. Orion's Sword and Belt we call them, 
but to the Daens they are still known as Berai-Berai, the 
boys. 

The Daens say the Berai-Berai still hunt the bees by 
day, and at night dance corroborees which the Meamei sing 
for them. For though the Meamei stay in their own camp 
at some distance from the Berai-Berai, they are not too far 
away for their songs to be heard. The Daens say, too, that 
the Meamei will shine ever as an example to all women on 
earth. 

At one time of the year, in remembrance that they once 
lived on earth, the Meamei break off* some ice from them- 
selves and throw it down. When, on waking in the 
morning, the Daens see ice everywhere they say : " The 
Meamei have not forgotten us. They have thrown some 
of their ice down. We will show we remember them -too." 

where the Frost Comes From 75 

Then they take a piece of ice, and hold it to the septum 
of the noses of such children who have not already had 
theirs pierced. When the sept urns are numb with the cold 
they are pierced, and a straw or bone placed through them. 
" Now," say the Daens, " these children will be able to 
sing as the Meamei sing.^' 

A relation of the Meamei was looking down at the earth 
when the two sisters were being translated to the sky. 
When he saw how the old man from whom they had 
escaped ran about blustering and ordering them down 
again, he was so amused at Wurrunnah's discomfiture, 
and glad at their escape, that he burst out laughing, and 
has been laughing ever since, being still known as Daendee 
Ghindamayl^nnah, the laughing star, to the Daens, to us as 
Venus. 

Whpn thunder is heard in the winter time the Daens say : 
"There are the Meamei bathing again. That is the noise 
they make as they jump, doubled up, into the water, when 
playing Bubahlarmay, for whoever makes the loudest flop 
wins the game, which is a favourite one with the earth 
people too." When the noise of the Bubahlarmay of the 
Meamei is heard the Daens say too, ** Soon rain will fall, 
the Meamei will splash the water down. It will reach us 
in three days."

Yellow Snake 

BuTHA the lissome and soft-eyed was promised to Mmree, 
the swift-in-pursuit-of-game, and the time was at hand when 
he could claim her, for he was now coming back from a 
Boorah. Back from the tests of courage, back as a brave 
of his tribe, back with a right to marry. Back to dis- 
appointment ; back to despair. For first to meet him was 
Gubbee, the father of Butha. First to tell him the news of 
Botha, his promised one. Told how she had been hunting 
for honey. How she had come to the nest of a Bubburr, 
whence she had taken some eggs, bringing them even into 
the camp. How, just as those who knew of the danger 
rebuked her for touching these, gliding into their midst had 
come the mammoth snake Bubburr. 

Past them all, straight to Butha went Bubburr, coiled his 
form round hers, crushing the life from her. Then swiftly 
went he as he had come, leaving Btttha, the lissome and 
8oft-eycd, lifeless before them. 

*' Am I in time for the burial ? " said Murree. 

** Three times has Yhi slept since we buried her,"* said 
Ciubbec. 

Giant Brown and Yellow Snake 77 

" Then she is even now travelling towards Weebulloo, 
the heaven of women. I shall be swift to follow her. The 
dheal twigs are yet green on her path. I shall snatch her 
yet from Weebulloo." 

"Think you," said Gubbee scornfully, "that she who 
was murdered will follow one who has not avenged her ? " 

Then Murree paused from slaying himself as he stood, 
and he said : " There is wisdom in your words, O Gubbee, 
father of She-who-is-lost. I shall first slay Bubburr, the 
snake demon." Thus saying, Murree turned to the camp of 
his tribe. 

The days passed, and Btitha was still unavenged. But 
Murree never forgot her. Nor did he cast one glance on 
the comeliest of maidens. His heart was with Biitha in 
Weebulloo. His mind was bent on revenge. 

He went hunting with two of his tribe. At length he 
saw what he wished for ahead of him. A nest of the 
Bubburrs was there. He did not run straight to attack it, 
as his muUayerhs expected, but went back with them to 
the camp. 

*' Come," he said to his tribe, " come and let us gather 
the gum of Mubboo." 

He told them then why he spoke so, and, seeing his 
reason was good, they followed him. Having gathered the 
gum in plenty, they carried it back to their camp. 

Next day they went with Murree, and at his bidding 
broke down the branches of trees some distance from the 
nest of the Bubburrs. With these branches they made 
platforms on the boughs of some trees which he showed 
them. They went on to these platforms, and the noise 
they made was great ; hearing which out came the snakes. 

78 More Australian Tales 

the mammoth Bubburrs. Murree and the Daens had been 
careful that no shadow of theirs should fall on the ground. 
They knew well that the bite of even their shadows by a 
Bubburr would kill them. 

As the Bubburrs came nearer, and nearer, the Daens 
made ready pieces of gum, gum of the Mubboo, about the 
size of a pigeon's egg, to throw at their mouths. Snap 
went the jaws of the Bubburrs at them. Another pellet ot 
gum was thrown. Snap ! and the jaws, the jaws of death, 
were closed, held fast by the gum between . them. The 
murderous Bubburrs were mastered. Murree the avenger 
had conquered. 

Seeing the scheme had worked as they wished, the 
Daens returned to their camp. There they waited patiently, 
returning in due time to the scene of their gum throwing. 
They were laden with wood, for they expected to find their 
enemies dead, and the flesh of Bubburrs was good. Great 
was the joy of Murree when he saw the gum had stuck 
their Jaws fast, and that the Bubburrs were all dead. His 
hand was swift to raise his comeboo, and sever their heads 
from their bodies. Swift, too, were the Daens in lighting 
fires for cooking the Bubburrs. 

Scarce have Bubburrs been in the land since Butha the 
lissome and soft-eyed was avenged by the cunning of 
Murree the swift-to-hunt-game. 

Though their name carries terror yet to its hearer. 
Their size has grown with the time, and fear has stretched 
their measurements, until even the strongest and wariest 
feel a tremour when the name of the brown and yellow 
Bubburr is mentioned.

Stone » Frogs 

A FAMILY of girls once so offended an old wirreenun that 
one day, when they were out hunting in the bush, he turned 
them all into Youayah, or frogs. 

When days passed and they did not return, their mother 
and relations thought that they had been stolen by men of 
a strange tribe. Rain had come before there was any 
alarm about their absence, so all tracks were washed out, 
except the track of the Oodoolay, or round rain-making 
stone, which had been abroad, as it always was in muddy 
weather. This stone had the spirits of past rain-makers in 
it, and could move about, as its tracks proved. Also, when 
it was making itself a new camp before rain, it could be 
heard laughing with joy in anticipation of the mud to come. 
No one was ever seen to touch the Oodoolay, yet its changes 
of camp were frequent. ^ 

Though some days had passed since they were missed 
the mother of the girls still hoped to find them, thinking 
they might have seen the rain coming and built themselves 
a shelter in the bush, remaining there until it was over. 

I 

80 More Australian Tales 

She went in the direction they had gone, and called aloud 
to them. There came an answering call. On she sped to 
whence it had seemed to come, and called again. Again 
came an answer from close beside her. She looked round, 
but saw no one. Again she called. There came an 
answer from a tussock of grass at her feet. Then she 
knew she had only heard the cry of Noorahgogo, the 
orange and blue beetle, which could always answer thus a 
Noongahburrah in the bush when one of that tribe was 
alone. She gave up hope of finding her daughters, and 
being weak and hungry she looked round for food. 

Soon she saw some tracks of Youayah, or earth frogs, 
and finding where they were, she began to dig them out. 
Fine large Youayah they were, the largest she had ever 
seen. 

"What a feed I shall have," she said aloud. 

There came a startlingly melancholy cry from the frogs, 
who seemed to be gazing fixedly at her. But taking no 
notice she went on : "I think 1 shall eat them here. I am 
very hungry, and if I take them to the camp the others will 
want some." 

She stooped to pick them up, but such a crying came as 
surely never frogs made before, and so piteously they 
looked at her that she began to feel there was something 
'Strange about these frog?, and she dropped the one she held 
in her hand. 

"But 1 a^i stupid," she said, "to take notice of a frog's 
cry. I would be mad to leave such a good feed here." 
Xnd again she stooped to pick them up. 

,\nin came their croaking cries intensilied. And the 
-^ ijeemed to frame themselves into the words: "You 

The Youayah Mayamah 8i 

must not eat us. You are our mother. We are the girls 
you lost. The old wirreenun changed us into frogs because 
we but laughed at the mah of his tribe, saying the back of 
it, the back of the emu, was humped as was his. You 
cannot eat us." And loud was the croaking, and so 
frightened was the woman that she turned and sped quickly 
through the bush back to the camp with the mournful cry 
still ringing in her ears, and a vision of the piteous eyes 
ever before her. 

She went straight to the old wirreenun and said : ** Did 
you change my girls into youayah, which are crying now 
even in the bush ? " 

" I did so," said he, quite proud the woman had seen 
proof of his power. 

" Why did you so ? Why should you leave me to grow 
old with no daughter to care for me ? " 

" Did you not choose their father rather than me ? Why 
should I think of you now ? Let their father change them 
again. Surely he is more powerful than I am, since you 
chose him before me ? I am but a humped-back one, 
so your girls said, even as they said my mah was, the 
dinewan. Well you must know that to scoff at the mah of 
a man is to make war with his tribe, yet I war not ; I but 
turn your daughters into such as have voices which none 
heed ; no more can they scoff at the back of a dinewan. 
Go, woman, eat them. Youayah is food that is good." So 
he taunted the woman who once in her youth had scorned 
him. 

" How should I, a mother, eat her young ? What talk 
is that you make? But alas! surely another will find them 
and eat them. Only you can save them. Change them 

F 

82 More Australian Tales 

again, I pray you, so that none can eat them. Never again 
shall they scoff at a dinewan. Never again will I scorn 
you ; I will come to your dardurr for ever." 

** Why should I take you to my dardurr now you are 
old, when you came not young ? " And he turned away, 
going on with the carving he was making on a boomerang 
with an opossum's tooth. 

''Change, oh change them, I pray you, so that none can 
eat them. I will give you the dooree, or grunting dayoorl, 
of my father's father's fathers to be yours for ever. No 
one but its rightful owner can use it, for does it not grunt 
when a stranger touches it? This stone, which of old 
belonged to the wirreenuns of my father's tribe, I will give 
you, this stone which alone of all dayoorls has a voice." 

'* Bring me the dooree," said the wirreenun, "and I promise 
to change your girls so that they shall never be eaten." 

The woman brought the magical stone of her forefathers, 
her greatest possession, which grunted as she laid it at the 
wirreenun's feet. 

'* Now go," said the wirreenun, " into the bush, there 
you will find your daughters, and find I have kept my 
promise. Even now they are so that surely no one could 
eat them." 

Back on her tracks went the woman to where she had 
seen the Youayah. Hopefully she went expecting to see 
her daughters again. But when she reached the place there 
were the frogs still. 

" Oh, my daughters, my daughters ! Shall I never see 
you more as you once were ? " And she wailed aloud as 
if mourning the dead. But no answer came from the 
Youayah. Nor -did they look towards her. 

The Youayah Mayamah 83 

Wailing, she stooped to pick one up. 

" The wirreenun tricked me," she said ; ** surely indeed 
no one will ever eat them, for they are turned into stone." 

And so it was. Some were of plain grey stone, and 
some with a stripe of green on them, just as the frogs had 
been marked. Her daughters would be stone frogs for 
ever, as were the frogs that Birrahgnooloo and Cunnum- 
beillee had dug, and left for cooking before they took that 
fatal plunge into the Spring Cowrigul, whence the Kurreahs 
took them down the Narrin, and whither Byamee followed 
them after changing the food they had gathered into stones 
to mark the spot for ever. And there at the spring were 
the stone frogs still, as the mother knew, and now she saw 
their fellow in these the wirreenun had changed, these 
who had once been her girls but now were Youayah 
Mayamah.

After Byamee left the earth,* having gone to dwell in 
Bullimah, the far-away land of rest, beyond the top of the 
Gobi Gobi mountain, all the flowers that grew on the 
wogghees or plains, on the moorillahs or ridges, and all 
the flowers that grew on the trees withered and died. 
None grew again in their place. The earth looked bare 
and desolate with no flowers to brighten it. That there 
had ever been any became but a tradition, which the old 
people of the tribes told to the young ones. 

As the flowers were gone so were the bees. In vain 
the women took their wirrees out to fill with honey ; they 
always returned without it. In all the length of the land 
there were but three trees where the bees still lived and 
worked, and these the people did not dare to touch, for 
Byamee had put his mah or brand on them, claiming them 
thus as his own for ever. 

The children cried for honey, and the mothers murmured 
because the wirreenuns would not let them touch the trees 
of Byamee, which were sacred from all for ever. 

When the All-seeing Spirit saw that though the tribe 

* See the Borah of Byamee, " Australian Legendary Tales," p. 97. 

A Legend of the Flowers 85 

hungered for honey, yet did they not touch Byamee's trees 
he told him of their obedience. 

Byamee was pleased, and said he would send them 
something which, when, as now, the land was perished 
with a drought, should come on the Bibbil and Goolabah 
trees, giving a food as sweet to the taste of the children as 
honey. 

Soon were seen white sugary specks on the leaves of 
the Bibbil, which the Daens called Goonbean, and then 
came the clear wahlerh, or manna, running down the trees 
like honey, to pile into lumps which stiffened on the forks 
of the branches, or sometimes fell to the ground, whence 
the children gathered and ate it when they could not reach 
the branches. 

The hearts of the people were glad as they ate gratefully 
the sweet food sent them. But still the wirreenuns greatly 
longed to see the earth covered again with flowers, as before 
the going of Byamee. So great grew the longing that they 
determined to travel after him, and ask that the earth might 
again be made beautiful. TeUing the tribes nothing of 
where they were going, they sped away to the north-east. 
On and on they journeyed, until they came to the foot of 
the great Oobi Oobi mountain, which towered high above 
them until they lost sight of its top in the sky. Steep and 
unscalable looked its sides of sheer rock as they walked 
along its base. 

But at length they espied a foothold cut in a rock, 
another and yet another, and looking upward they saw a 
pathway of steps cut as far as they could see. Up this 
ladder of stone they determined to climb. 

On they went, and when the first day's climb was ended 

86 More Australian Tales 

the top of the mountain still seemed high above them, and 
even so at the end of the second and third day, for the 
route was circuitous and long ; but on the fourth day they 
reached the summit. There they saw a stone excavation 
into which bubbled up a spring of fresh water, from which 
they drank thirstily, and found it so invigorated them as to 
make them lose all feeling of weariness, which had previously 
almost prostrated them. They saw at a little distance from 
the spring circles of piled up stones. They went into one 
of these, and almost immediately they heard the sound of a 
gayandy, the medium through which Wallahgooroonbooan's 
voice was heard. Wallahgooroonbooan was the spirit 
messenger of Byamee. He asked the wirreenuns what 
they wanted there, where the sacred lore of Byamee was 
told to such as came in search of knowledge. They told 
him how dreary the earth had looked since Byamee had left 
it, how the flowers had all died, and never bloomed again. 
And -though Byamee had sent the wahlerh, or manna, to 
take the place of the long-missed honey, yet they longed to 
see again the flowers making the earth gay as once it had 
been. 

Then Wallahgooroonbooan ordered some of the attendant 
spirits of the sacred mountain to lift the wirreenuns into 
Bullimah, where fadeless flowers never ceased to bloom. 
Of these the wirreenuns might gather as many as they 
could hold in their hands. Then the spirits would lift 
them back into the sacred circle on the summit of Oobi 
Oobi, whence they must return as quickly as possible to 
their tribes. 

As the voice ceased the wirreenuns were lifted up through 
an opening in the sky, and set down in a land of beauty, 

A Legend of the Flowers 87 

flowers blooming everywhere, in such luxuriance as they had 
never seen before, massed together in lines of brilliant 
colouring, looking like hundreds of euloowirrees, rainbows, 
laid on the grass. So overcome were the wirreenuns that 
for some moments they could only cry, but the tears were 
tears of joy. 

Remembering what they had come for, they stooped and 
gathered quickly their hands full of the various blossoms. 

The spirits then lifted them down again into the stone 
circle on the top of Oobi Gobi. 

There sounded again the voice of the gayandy, and 
Wallahgooroonbooan said : '^ Tell your tribes, when you 
take them these flowers, that never again shall the earth be 
bare of them. All through the seasons a few shall be sent 
by the different winds, but Yarrageh Mayrah shall bring 
them in plenty, blossoms to every tree and shrub, blossoms 
to wave midst the grasses on wogghees and moorillahs, 
thick as the hairs on an opossum's skin. But Yarrageh 
Mayrah shall not always make them thus thick, but only at 
times ; but the earth shall never again be quite bare of 
blossoms. When they are few, and the sweet-breathed 
wind is not blowing to bring first the showers and then the 
flowers, and the bees can only make scarce enough honey 
for themselves, then the wahlerh or manna shall again drop 
from the trees, to take the place of honey until Yarrageh 
Mayrah once more blows the rain down the mountain and 
opens the blossoms for the bees ; and then there will be 
honey for all. Now make haste and take this promise, and 
the fadeless flowers which are the sign of it, to your 
people." 

The voice ceased, then the wirreenuns went back to their 

88 More Australian Tales 

tribes ; back with the blossoms from BuUimah. Down the 
stone ladder, which had been cut by the spirits for the 
coming of Byamee, they went ; across the wogghees and 
over the moorillahs back to the camp of their tribes. Their 
people flocked round them, gazing with wonder-opened eyes 
at the blossoms the wirreenuns carried. Fresh as when they 
left Bullimah were these flowers, filling the air with 
fragrance. When the tribes had gazed long at the blossoms 
and heard of the promise made to them by Byamee through 
his messenger, Wallahgooroonbooan, the wirreenuns 
scattered the flowers from Bullimah far and wide. Some 
fell on the tree tops, some on the plains and ridges, and 
where they fell their kind have grown ever since. 

The name of the spot where the wirreenuns first showed 
the flowers and scattered them is still called Ghirraween, 
the place of flowers. There, after the bees of Byamee had 
made Yarrageh blow the rain down the mountain of Oobi 
Oobi to soften the frost-hardened ground, green grasses 
shot up framing fragrant bright flowers of many hues. And 
the trees and shrubs blossomed thickly again, and the earth 
was covered with cool grass and flowers as when Byamee 
walked on it. 

It is the work of the bees of Byamee to make Yarrageh 
the east wind blow the rain down the mountain, that the 
trees may blossom and the earth bees make honey. 

Gladly does Yarrageh do the bidding of the bees, lighting 
the face of the earth with the smile of rain-water, for are 
not the Gwaimuthen his relations ? The Gwaimuthen 
whose dark blood is warm as is his. 

And the messengers who come in the drought, bringing 
manna, are the black ants, who bring the goonbean on to 

A Legend of the Flowers 89 

the leaves, and the little grey birds called DuUoorah, who 
bring the wahlerh, or liquid manna. 

And when they come the Daens say: "A time of drought 
is here, a great drought on all the land. Few are the flowers 
anywhere, and the grass-seed has gone. But goonbean and 
wahlerh will go, and the drought will go, and then the 
flowers and the bees will come again, for so it has always 
been since the wirreenuns brought the blossoms from 
BuUimah."

When Byamee ceased to sojourn on this earth, and went 
back the way he had come from BulHniah, up the circuitous 
ladder of stone steps, to the summit of Gobi Gobi, only the 
wirreenuns were allowed to hold intercourse with him, and 
that only through his messenger, Wallahgooroonbooan. 

For Byamee was now fixed to the crystal rock on which 
he sat in Bullimah, as was also Birrahgnooloo.* The tops 
of their bodies were as they had been on earth, but the 
lower parts were merged into the crystal rock. 

Wallahgooroonbooan, Baillahburrah and Cunnumbeillee 
alone were allowed to approach them, and pass on their 
commands to others. Birrahgnooloo was the flood maker. 
When the creeks were drying up and the wirreenuns 
wanted a flood to come, they would cHmb up to the top of 
Gobi Gobi, and await in one of the stone circles the cpming 
of Wallahgooroonbooan. Hearing what they wanted, he 
would go and tell Byamee. 

Byamee would tell Birrahgnooloo, who, if she were willing 
to give her aid, would send Cunnumbeillee to the wirreenuns 
bidding her say to them : " Haste ye to tell the Bungun 

* See the Origin of Narran Lake, " Australian Legendary Tales," p. ii. 

The Frog Heralds of the Flood 91 

Bungun tribe to be ready. The ball of blood will be sent 
rolling soon." 

Hearing which, the wirreenuns would go swiftly back 
down the mountain and across the wogghee below, until they 
reached the Bungun Bungun, a powerful tribe with arms 
strong for throwing and voices unwearying. 

This tribe would station themselves, at the bidding of 
the wirreenuns, along the banks on each side of the dry 
river, from its source downwards for some distance. , They 
made big fires, and put in these fires huge stones to heat. 
When these stones were heated, the Bungun Bungun placed 
some before each man, laying them on bark. Then they 
stood expectant, waiting for the blood ball to reach them. 
As soon as they saw this blood-red ball of fabulous size 
roll into the entrance to the river, every man stooped, seized 
a hot stone, and crying aloud, threw it with all his force 
against the rolling ball. In such numbers and with such 
force did they throw these stones that they smashed the 
ball. Out gushed a stream of blood flowing swiftly down 
the bed of the river. Louder and louder rose the cries of 
the Bungun Bungun, who carried stones with them, following 
the stream as it rushed past. They ran with leaps and 
bounds along the banks, throwing in stones and crying 
aloud without ceasing. Gradually the stream of blood, 
purified by the hot stones, changed into flood water, of 
which the cries of the Bungun Bungun warned the tribes 
so that they might move their camps on to the high ground 
before the water reached them. While the flood water was 
running the Bungun Bungun never ceased crying aloud. 
Even to this day, as a flood is coming, are their voices 
heard, and hearing them the Daens say : " The Bungun 

92 More Australian Tales 

Bungun, or flood-frogs, are crying out. Flood water must 
be coming." Then, " The Bungun Bungun are crying out. 
Flood water is here." 

And if the flood water comes down red and thick, the 
Daens say that the Bungun Bungun must have let it pass 
them without purifying it.

Eerin the Daen was a very light sleeper, and when at 
night an enemy tried to steal into the camp, to spear some 
one of the tribe or crack a skull with his boondee, there 
was no chance of his being able to do so if Eerin was there. 
For no sooner did the enemy get within spear-shot of the 
camp than Eerin would cry out : " Mil I Mil ! Mil I " which 
was, " Eye, Eye, Eye," meaning his tribe were to look out, 
there was danger threatening. 

And when at length Eerin died, the Daens all grieved 
much, saying that now indeed their enemies would sneak 
upon them, and they be unwarned, for none could hear as 
did Eerin the light sleeper. 

They placed the body of Eerin in a bark coffin which 
they painted all over with red ochre. Before the ochre 
dried the oldest wirreenun ran his thumb-nail from one 
end to the other, then across the coffin, leaving thus divisions 
in the ochre forming a cross. This done they corroboreed 
round the coffin, singing one of the death chants. Towards 
evening they lifted up the coffin and carried it to the grave 
they had dug. The mourners were all painted, and had 
leaves and feathers in their hair, dheal tree twigs round 

94 More Australian Tales 

their wrists, knees, ankles and waists, also through the 
holes in the cartilage of the noses. They carried bunches 
of dheal twigs too in their hands. 

When they reached the grave they laid some logs in the 
bottom, which they thickly covered with dheal twigs, on the 
top of which they put the coffin, as a wail went up from 
all assembled, the mournful death wail of the tribe which 
rose and fell in wave-like cadences. 

Then an old wirreenun stood up and spoke, telling them 
that as Eerin was now, so some day they all would be, 
and it behoved them to keep well the laws of Byamee lest, 
when their spirits reached BuUimah, they were not allowed 
to stay nor to wander at will, but were sent to the Ele^nbah 
Wondah, the abode of the wicked. 

After this address more twigs were thrown on the coffin, 
then the things belonging to the dead were placed in the 
grave, rugs, weapons and food, which would be wanted on 
the journey to the sacred mountain, Oobi Oobi. 

While this was being done the oldest male relative stood 
in the grave to guard the body from the Wondah until the 
earth covered it. He stood there while a chant somewhat 
as follows was sung : 

'• We shall follow the bee to its nest in the goolabah ; 
We shall follow it to its nest in the bibbil-tree. 
Honey too shall we find in the goori-tree, 
But Eerin the light sleeper will follow with us no longer." 

Then the mourners wailed until the wirreenuns chanted 
again : 

'• Many were the days when we took our nets to the river ; 
Many and big were the cod-fish we caught in them, 
But Eerin the light sleeper will go no more to the river ; 
No more will he rub himself with the oil of cod-fish, 
Eerin will never eat again of the cod-fish." 

Eerin, the Small Grey Owl 95 

Then, as the wirreenuns paused, the waiHng was loud 
again until they began once more the dirge : 

" We shall spear Bohrah on the moorillas, 
And Dinewan shall fall when we throw, 
But Eerin will hunt with us no longer, 
Never again will Eerin eat of our hunting. 
Hunt shall we often, and oft shall we find ; 
But the widow of Eerin will kindle no fires for his coming." 

Loud again was the wailing, then on went the voice of 
the wirreenun : 

•* Never again shall the voice of the light sleeper 
Cry ' Mil, Mil, Mil,' as an enemy nears us. 
Cracked will our skulls be and speared our bodies. 
Eerin can warn us no more with his cry. 

Only his spirit can come to us ever, an offering let us now pour 
to it." 

Then with loud wailing, seizing stone knives and comeboos, 
the mourners cut themselves, letting their blood drop into 
the grave. Never before was there such a blood offering. 
Then the earth was thrown quickly into the grave, while 
some of the mourners corroboreed round it, crooning a 
dirge. 

When the earth was filled in, all stood in a dense smoke 
that the wirreenuns had made of Budta twigs, which was 
to keep them free from the unseen spirits known to be 
hovering round. 

When the grave was filled in back to their new camp 
went the women, for the old one was now gummarl, a place 
of death, with a marked tree showing it was taboo. 

No children, or women with children who could not 
walk, were allowed to go to the funeral. 

After the women left, all the men stood round the grave, 

96 More Australian Tales 

the oldest wirreenun at the head, which faced the east. 
The men bowed their heads as if at a first Boorah, the 
wirreenun lifted his, and, looking towards where Bullimah 
was supposed to be, said : '* Byamee, let in the spirit of 
Eerin to Bullimah. Save him, we ask thee, from the 
Eleanbah wundah, abode of the wicked. Let him into 
Bullimah, there to roam as he wills, for Eerin was great 
on earth and faithful ever to your laws. Hear, then, our 
cry, O Byamee, and let Eerin enter the land of beauty, of 
plenty, of rest. For Eerin was faithful on earth, faithful to 
the laws you left us." 

Then, standing round the grave, all wailed the goohnai, 
or death dirge. 

Then the men covered the grave with boughs of dheal 
trees and swept a clear space all round it. By the tracks 
on that space in the morning they would know of what 
mah was he who had caused the death of Eerin. If on it 
was the track of an iguana then had one of the Beewee 
clan done it ; if the track of an emu, then was a dinewan 
guilty. 

The widow of Eerin had put mud over herself, daubing 
her head and face with white. She slept beside a smoulder- 
ing smoke all night. 

Three days afterwards the Daens made a fire by the 
river. They chased the widow and her sisters down to it. 
The widow caught hold of a smoking bush from the fire, 
put it under her arm, and jumped into the middle of the 
water. As the smoking bush was going out she drank a 
draught of the smoky water. Then she came out and 
stood in the smoke of the fire. When she was thoroughly 
enveloped in the smoke she called to those in the camp, 

Eerin, the Small Grey Owl 97 

and, looking towards her husband's grave, she called again. 
Those in the camp called to her that his spirit had answered; 
she might speak now. She had been obliged to keep 
silence, except for death wails, since Eerin's death. 

Back she went to the camp. A big smoke was made, 
and the whole camp smoked. Every time a stranger came 
the widow made a smoke, until the time arrived when the 
nearest of her husband's kin could claim her for his own. 

For some months after the death of Eerin, every time a 
stranger came to the camp, early the next morning he would 
sing the goohnai, or dirge ; then each man would take part 
in turn, until all were singing. Then they all moved out 
of their camps and gradually closed round into a smaller 
circle, when they would cease singing, sit down, and, 
rocking their bodies to and fro, they would cry and 
wail. 

When the time of mourning was over an enemy came 
again to attack them, but they were saved by hearing the 
old cry of " Mil ! Mil! Mil!'' 

And so it often happened. 

At last an enemy died and carried his hatred of them to 
another world, whence he returned as a spirit to attack 
them. But again they were saved by the warning cry of 
"Mil! Mil! Mil!" 

This cry they discovered was made by a little grey owl, 
with black rings round its eyes, which, having warned the 
camp, flew from it. The wundah, or evil spirit, saw it, and 
said : " Why do you warn them ? Keep quiet next time I 
go to sneak upon them. See, I have my boondee ; I will 
kill one of the tribe quickly, and you can join me in my 
feast of his flesh." 

G 

98 More Australian Tales 

The bird promised silence, and the wundah went again 
into the camp* But just as he was going to raise his 
boondee to deal a fatal blow, "Mil! Mill Mil!" was cried 
in the sleeper's ear. The owl had followed the wundah 
into the camp. 

" Why did you do that ? " the wundah angrily asked. 

**That I shall always do, even as when I was Eerin the 
man, for did not my tribe spill freely the blood offering ? 
Shall I not then save them from the wundah even as I did 
from their old enemies ? By day I shall rest, and at night 
I shall roam, hovering round their camps to guard them, by 
my cry, when danger threatens them." 

And so it has been ever since. The spirit of Eerin the 
light sleeper is in the little grey owl, which is called 
Eerin too, and ever warns its old tribe at night by crying, 
"Mil! Mil! Mil!"

The Sacred Island 

Ngroondoorie, the giver of laws, customs, and a religion to 
the Southern tribes of aboriginals in South Australia, 
became to them as a God, and his promise was ever 
believed, that, if they followed the laws he had given them, 
after death their spirits should follow his footsteps over 
the island of Nar-oong-owie, and thence be translated, as 
he was, to his home in the skies. The tradition was that 
his departure took place somewhat as follows. His two 
wives ran away from him. In going after them he crossed 
what is now called Lake Albert, went on for some distance 
over the Corrong to the sea, and along the beach past the 
present Port Victor to Cape Jarvis. When he anived 
there he saw the fugitives wading through the water, being 
when he sighted them about half-way across the channel — 
which at that time was quite a shallow one — between the 
mainland and Nar-oong-owie, as Kangaroo Island was then 
called. 

Enraged at his wives for running away from him, 
Ngroondoorie determined to punish them. He bade the 

loo More Australian Tales ^ 

water to rise up and drown them. With a terrific rush the 
water rose, and the women were carried back towards the 
mainland. They tried to swim against this tidal wave, 
but were powerless to do so, and the terror-stricken pair 
were drowned, and their bodies were turned into rocks 
which were called Rine-jool-ang, and can be seen to this 
day, and are known to the white people as the Pages or 
Two Sisters. After his wives were drowned, Ngroondoorie 
walked into the water and dived out towards the island. 
Where he emerged from the water is a black patch three 
or four yards in width. He went on to the island, and as 
the day was hot he wished for a shade to rest under. 
Seeing none, he made spring from the earth a she-oak tree 
which is said to be the largest in Australia. He lay down 
in the shade and tried to sleep, but could not, for as every 
breeze blew he heard the wailing of his drowning wives' 
voices through the tree-top. Finding he could get no rest, 
he walked to the end of the island. He threw his spear 
out into the sea, and immediately a reef of rocks came from 
the island to where the spear dropped. He then threw 
away all his other weapons and departed to his home in the 
skies, where those who have kept the laws he gave the tribes 
will some day join him. And to this day any one who tries 
to sleep under a she-oak tree will hear the wailing that 
Ngroondoorie, the greatest of all, heard as he lay beneath 
that giant tree he had made to shade him on Nar-oong-owie, 
that island which ever afterwards was held as sacred to 
him and the spirits of the dead by the Southern tribes of 
South Australia. 

Glo 

sary 

Bahloo, moon (masculine). 
Bargie, grandmother. 
Beereeun, a small grey lizard, 
Berai Berai, The Boys {Orion's 

sword and belt). 
Bibbil, shiny-leaved box-tree. 
Biggoon, water-rat. 
Bilber, a large rat. 
Bindeah, prickle or thorn. 
Bingahwingul, needle-bush, a 

flowering shrub with roots from 

which water can be drained, 
Binguie, wooden vessel for holding 

water' 
Birrahgnooloo, woman's name (= 

face like a hatchet-handle) 
Bohrah, kangaroo. 
Boolee, whirlwind, 
Boondee, club-headed weapon, 
Boorah, larger borah ring. 
Borah or Boorah, sacred tribal 

initiation rites. 

Boulka, leak. 

Bralgah, native companion, large 

crane. 
Bubahlarmay, game played by 

jumping into the water with a 

splash. 
Bubbur, giant brown and yellow 

snake. 
Budta, rosewood-tree, 
Budtah, salt, 
Bullah BuUah, butterflies. 
Bullai bullai, green parrot, 
Bullimah; Byamee's camp {native 

Elysium), 
Bullimehdeehmundi, south-east, 
Bungun Bungun,/ro^. 
Bunna, cannibal, 
Byamee, big man {Creator, CuU 

ture hero). 

Comebee, bag. 

^02 Glossary 

Comebeegeeboondamghealdah, 

grey moth. 
Comeboo, tomahawk. 
Coolah, tne with water-holding 

Corroboree, tribal dance. 

Daen, black fellow. 
Baendeeghindamaylannah, 
Venus the. laughing star. Lit., 
"A laughing man, 
DarduiT, sktlter made of bark. 
Dayoorl, magical speaking stone. 
Deenyi iron bark. 
Deereeree, Willy wagtail. 
Dheal, sacred tree. 
Dindee, pointed stick. 
Dine wan, emu. 
Dinjerrah, west. 
Dooloomai, thunder. 
Doongairah, lightning, 
Doowee, dream-spirit. 
Dourandouran, north wind. 
Diilloorah, small grey birds. 
Dullaymullaylunnah, feud, ven- 
detta. 
Dumerh, brown pigeon, 
Durrie, bread made from grass 

Durroon, the night heron. 

Eehu, rain. 
Eer-dher, mirage, 
Euahlayi, language of Nar 
blacks. 

Eidoowitree, rainbow. 
Eurah, a drooping shrub. 

Gahreemay, camp. 

Garahgah, crane. 

Gayanday, man's name far voice 

of borah spirit. . 
Gayardaree, platypus. 
Gheeger Gheeger, the cold vest 

Gidya, tree of acacia species, which 
gives forth a sickening smell in 
damp weather, or if in bloom. 

Gin:3.hv/een, place of flowers. 

Goodoo, codfish. 

Goolabah, greydeaved box-tree. 

Goolahjool, water-holding tree. 

Goo! ayah lee, pelican. 

Goolmai, death dirge. 

Goonibeelgah, bark canoe. 

Goomblegubbou, turkey or bus- 
tard of the plains, 

GoonaguUah, the sky. 

Goonbean, specks on ike leaves of 

the bibbil. 
Gooweera, small stick or bone, 
possessing magical death-dealing 

Gougoargahgah, laughing jack- 

Gubbah, good. 

Gubbee, man's clan name. 

Gubberah, sacred wonder-working 

Guineeboo, redbreast.