Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/827

Rh means of great trees which grew on the eastern shores of Lake Eyre, and supported the sky.

The Dieri and the Tirari both speak of these great trees. One of them stood at the Clayton River, the middle one at the Cooper about twenty-five miles west of Killalpanina, and the third at Salt Creek.

Kadimarkaras are also spoken of as Womas, as in this legend. The Mura-mura Minkani is also said to be a Woma, and in this aspect has a remarkable similarity to the totem ancestors of the Alcheringa time of the Arunta legends.

Kakakudana lived to the west of Lake Eyre. Leaving his wife behind, he went on his wanderings alone. At Pitalina he dug after a Kadimarkara, which he killed underground, and then dragged to Woma-dirkana, where he cooked it in a Dirka, and ate it. The place where he killed the Kadimarkara is marked by springs. He cut off its head, and threw it away, which caused the hill called Woma-kata-yapu to rise up. Having eaten the flesh of the Kadimarkara, he collected the bones for his wife, and took them back to her. While she was busy pounding them in her lap, he went off again in the belief that she would follow him. Looking round when he got to Wilpandrina, he could not see her, and therefore called for her to come, but she did not hear him; and not knowing where he was, she continued to wander looking for him. Sad and wearied by searching for him, she rested at Wolkararana, and then wandered on to Wulyua-purali, where she died.

Kakakudana noticed that his body continued to swell larger and larger. He had all the inhabitants of the surrounding country brought to him, even the weak, the sick, and the women with child. When they were all gathered together at Kuda-ngampana, his enormous body burst and the people ran away affrighted. At this place, as at all other places where Kakakudana or his wife rested, there rose up a spring.