Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/504

478 to this legend; but returning to life, they called to their father, with the voice of thunder, that they had died in a strange land. The Yuri-ulu are the stars Castor and Pollux.

Other legends of these tribes relate to the wanderings of the Mura-muras over a large part of Australia north and south of Lake Eyre, either in connection with certain of their food ceremonies, or for other purposes, or to explain the origin of things which to the aborigines seem to require explanation.

The wanderings of the Mura-mura Makatakaba, are told by a Wonkanguru legend. He was nearly blind, but recovered his sight by seeing a distant fire which his daughters had observed when out with their mother gathering seeds for food. Leaving them behind, he went forth on his wanderings, singing a song into which he wove all that he saw. At length he reached a great water, on the shores of which he gathered glowing coals from a fire which had sprung up by itself. Thence he wandered back southwards, still making his song, until he reached the Macumba country, where, being ridiculed by the people, he destroyed them by a fire which he lighted with the coals carried in his bag. Meanwhile his wife and daughters were carried away by a whirlwind, farther and farther to the north, until they were finally overwhelmed with sand. The account of his wanderings suggests that the great water which he met with was the Gulf of Carpentaria, which lies about 700 miles to the north-east of the Wonkanguru country.

One of the most remarkable of these legends is that of the Pirha-malkara. It is one of those about which songs are sung at the ceremonies of circumcision, and it relates to the wanderings of the Mankara-waka and the Mankara-pirna, two parties of young women, the younger and the elder. The legend is divided into two parts: the first belongs to the Urabunna, Tirari, Dieri, and other tribes, and the second to the Wonkanguru.