Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/812

786 that the Pinnaru and his party intended to throw all of them also into the pit Running together hastily, they threw their boomerangs at the old men and broke their legs, so that they could not escape. Then they threw them into the same pit which they had intended for them.

The intention of this legend appears to be to account for the taboo which exists between the boys after circumcision and the women of the tribe, and especially between them and their sisters, who are forbidden under penalty of death to see them until their wounds are healed.

The two following legends recount the wanderings of two parties of young Mura-mura women, carrying a dance and a song, which is shown in the wanderings of the Yuri-ulu to be connected with the ceremonies of circumcision.

The wanderings commence at some place far to the south-west of Lake Eyre in the country of the Kukata tribe, if not near to the coast. They extend thence to the south-west of Lake Eyre at Coward Springs, and continue round the south of the Lake to the Lower Cooper. Here there are petrifactions which mark the localities mentioned, and which are recognised as Mura-muras turned into stone. These are the girls, who, however, are yet said by the legend to wander further. They are also seen, as petrifactions, where they concealed themselves from their Mura-mura follower, and ridiculed him. Also where they threw the Wona there are stones commemorating them. The traces of this Wona game are pointed out in straight rows of petrifactions, which are held to be Mura or sacred things which no one may injure.

The first legend is composed of two parts, which are conjoined for convenience of narrative. The first part is the Pirha-malkara, or the Bowl-song, which belongs to the Urabunna, the Tirari section of the Dieri, and other neighbouring tribes, and ends at a place called Palaunkina. The second commences at Pundu-worani, and belongs to the Wonkanguru. The third part is from the death of the Mura-mura Madaputa-tupuru, and introduces another travelling group of young women, who also carry a song, that of the Wapiya, or boomerang.

This latter part was obtained from an intelligent old man of the Wonkamala tribe, to which he belonged, and was subsequently confirmed by one of the Wonkanguru, who had lived for a long time among the Wonkamala, and whose wife was of that tribe. The second part of the legend, namely that commencing at