Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/429

 Rh Mantandara, a bush, in Dieri Wirra, the leaves of which are dried in the ashes, and being rubbed up are mixed with the pitcheri for chewing.

Kumari-puntali means "blood-drinker," from kumari, blood, and puntalato, drink (Wonkanguru. In Dieri Dapana).

Taraburuna means "he with the leg," i.e. having something the matter with his tara., or thigh.

Certain bands of alternating red and yellow earth which show on the surface in serpentine curves not far south of the Queensland boundary are said to be the markings which the Mura-muras made.

Notwithstanding the burning of these Mura-muras they are spoken of as rocks "near the great lake," which may be Lake Eyre.

The wife of an almost blind Mura-mura named Makatakaba, who lived at Wityigurawimpa, went with her two daughters to collect nardoo for food. The two girls played about while their mother worked busily; and when she had gathered a quantity she dug a hole in the ground, poured the seeds in, and stirring them up let the wind blow the husks away. To prevent the good seed from being blown away she built up a breakwind of boughs. Next morning the three went out again for seed. The mother was busy as before collecting it, and the children played about, when they suddenly saw a great fire, of which they told their father when they returned to camp. When he heard of it he stood up, and lifting a child to each of his shoulders, asked them to point out the direction in which they had seen the fire. He said to the elder, "Can you see the fire?" and she answered, "Yes, father, I can see it quite plainly."

Then the old Mura-mura opened his eyes, and he who had been quite blind until then could see the smoke of the fire lying on the horizon like a great rain-cloud. His wife made him some paua from the nardoo, which he ate, and then lay down to sleep.

In the early morning he took a fire-stick, threw his bag over his shoulder, got ready to start, and said to his children, "I have a long journey before me, but you must not trouble about that;"