Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/430

 410 and to his wife he said, "Take care of the children, so that no one may do them any harm." Then he stood up with his bag over his shoulder, a fire-stick on one arm and a small boomerang in his hand. With his first step he began to sing his wapaia and to travel singing into distant parts.

His wapaia song commenced thus: "Dama-inda ngurpa, dama-inda ngurpalina," which means "leaving those belonging to me, I am going forth into the far-away;" and as he travelled along he put all that he saw—birds, snakes, kangaroo tracks, trees, bushes, and whatever else he came across—into his song.

After travelling for a month he came to a great sandhill, from the top of which he saw a vast water. He went down the hill and waded into the water, seeing his own image reflected in it. He came back to land by a narrow passage which was being covered by the waters driven by a fierce wind. Then he climbed the highest hill near, and saw from it a great fire surrounding him. He sought to find out who had lighted the fire, but could see no traces of men, and thought it must have sprung up of itself. Even now, men say, this fire is always in that part, which is called the Wiluma country, and the people in it are the Yero-wiraye, or "fire-people."

Having gathered some hot coals from the fire, the Mura-mura went on his wanderings to the south, making his song, which is sung by the Urabunna.

While he was travelling thus, his wife and daughters were out one day gathering nardoo, and the mother was mending the katu or breakwind, to make it stronger before winnowing the seed, when one of her children came to her, and said, "See, mother, the great whirlwind coming up. Quick! make the katu strong, so that the wind cannot blow it away." So the mother used all her strength to make the katu fast, and when the whirlwind struck it they all three cowered behind it for shelter. But the wind blew stronger and stronger till at last it carried off the youngest girl. Then the other child was carried off, and finally the mother was lifted up by the furious blast.

Each night as the whirlwind swept along, carrying the woman and her two children, it rested, and wherever it did so a water hole was formed, not in a channel or hollow, but on the open dry tableland. Each morning it carried them further and further till it buried them at last in the distant northern sands.