Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/821

Rh On the following morning he considered how he might manage not to be defrauded by his companion. He went out in company with him, but always lagging behind, until at length he saw him disappear over a distant sandhill. He then hastily turned back, and making an immense number of footprints as of men, women, and children, he went to his camp. There he built up a great number of huts, as if many people had arrived and camped. Then he set to work to grind Paua, which he had gathered on his way back, but when he began to grind it the stone broke, and he sought another; but it also broke. Then he took his shoulder-blade and smoothed it into a Ngurtu; and, cutting off the point of his tongue, he used it as a Marda-kuparu to grind with. He placed the larger stone over a hole in the ground, in which he had placed a Pirha; and, dropping the seed on the stone, he ground it with the other, and let the meal fall into the bowl below.

In the evening, when the other Mura-mura returned, he observed the numerous footprints, and following them saw at his camp a great number of new huts, and was much frightened, thinking that his Tidnara must have been killed. Weary and sad, he lay down and slept, but was awakened by the noise of a great rushing wind. Again he slept, and again he was roused by it, but at length, overcome by weariness, he slept till morning.

The other Mura-mura had ground a mass of Paua, and baked a number of cakes of it. He then threw one cake after the other towards the hut of his Tidnara, so that a complete path was made. At daybreak the latter was wakened by the smell of the newly-baked cakes. He collected them one after the other until he saw where his Tidnara, whom he did not recognise, was sitting on the Ngurtu, which he had placed on the ground. He then walked round the hut till, recognising his Tidnara, he rushed to him and embraced him, shaking him in his joy, till both of them, with the Ngurtu, sank into the ground. Then they came out again, and one said to the other, "Where do you wish that I should go to?" "That way," said the other, pointing in a certain direction. He went that way, and the other sent him still farther, until, when he had gone a long distance, he said to him, "Remain." Then in the same manner the latter sent the former to a distant place.

Anti-etya lived at Kadri-pairi, but Ngardu-etya remained at Innamincka during the remainder of his life. Long after that time,