Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/818

792 about their respective Mura or sacred songs, and the Mankara-waka-ya-pirna said theirs was the Pirha, while the other girls said that theirs was the Wapiya. Then, being still separated by the creek, they gave a representation of their respective songs, the Mankara-pirna singing their Pirha song, while the other girls beat time with two boomerangs. Then the Wapiya girls asked how they intended to cross the creek, and the others said, "We will dance straight across." This they did, and landed on the opposite bank, where they abandoned their language and took that of the Wapiya girls, their future fellow-travellers, namely the Wonkamala.

Then the whole group of girls, dancing together, wandered farther to the north. Their way led them to Paridikadi, where they were bitten by ants, and then to Lakuramantyi, finally to Wilpukudiangu, where they thought they saw some Duntyi at a distance. Hastening forward to tear it up, they found, on coming nearer, that the supposed bush was a very old, bald-headed man, whose long, straggling beard, blown by the wind, gave him the appearance of a bush of Duntyi. Laughing at his appearance, and at their mistake, they went on, and in the well-wooded Ngamara they found much gum, which they gathered in their Pirhas, and mixing water with it, drank it, enjoying its sweet flavour. Having filled their bags with this