Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/403

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Once upon a time an eagle built a nest and put some eggs in it. Two white birds [bower-birds?] saw how busy the eagle was, and they thought they would play a trick on her; so one of the birds lay down in the nest under the eggs and ate them, whilst the other watched to see what the eagle would do. The eagle was very angry. Then she laid some more eggs, which the white bird ate again. Then the eagle looked around and saw them, and overcame and killed them. (The birds are all supposed to be men.)

There were two eagle-hawks going along when they came across a blackfellows' camp. Now the blackfellows had been fishing and had caught a lot of fish, which they were eating raw. The eagle-hawks said, "Why do you eat your fish raw? Why don't you cook them in the fire as we do?" The blackfellows said, "What is fire?" for they did not then know how to make it. They gave the eagle-hawks some fish, which they took away with them. By-and-by they sent a lubra (gin) to see what the eagles were doing. So the lubra crept along and watched. Byand-by the eagle-hawks saw and called her; so she went along, and they gave her some cooked fish which they had taken out of the fire. The first time she ate it she was very sick. The eagle-hawks gave her some more, and she was sick. The third time she ate it she was all right. Then the eagle-hawks showed her how they made a fire by rubbing two sticks together. The lubra went back to the camp and told the blackfellows, and they made her show them how to produce fire by rubbing a stick quickly in her hands on another piece of wood. By-and-by she made a fire and cooked fish for the blackfellows, who were very sick the first and second time they ate of it, the third time