Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/830

804 food, and of their skins he made water-bags. One day he saw a Mari in the neighbourhood of his camp; and on the following day he followed its tracks until he found it. Armed with his spear and boomerang, he was preparing to kill it, when the animal spoke to him, saying, "Wherefore dost thou come to as a stranger? Put down thy boomerang and spear." Doing this, he then wrestled with the Mari and strangled him, and then made a large water-bag of his skin. After a while he saw a still larger animal, which only showed itself occasionally. "I must have that one," he thought to himself; and filling all his water-bags, he hung them over his shoulders and carried one in each hand. The great bag which he had made of the Mari's skin he put on his head on a pad he made with his hair, which he also tied over the top. Being thus prepared, he then set out, following the tracks of the great animal farther and farther away from his home, until his water-bags were emptied one after the other. At length he saw a great animal, but it was not the one he was looking for, and he still went on into country altogether unknown to him. Then he saw many great animals, and marched through them, seeking the particular one he had been following. At length he found him, and was about to throw his boomerang at him, and pierce him with his spear. But the animal spoke to him, saying, "If thou comest to me as a friend, lay down thy Kirha and Kalti" (boomerang and spear). Much surprised, he said, "Yidni barkana nganti! Yatani-mara nganai?" He laid down his weapons, and each grappled with the other. The animal tried to seize his throat, but he threw it down and strangled it. Having done this, what was he to do? He could not cook it, because it was Mura to him. He could not carry it home, because he was worn out with his long marching. Then he decided to swallow it whole and raw, and lying down on the ground, opposite to it and face downwards, he began at the head, slowly drawing it into himself. Then he noticed, when he turned himself round, that his body was becoming longer and longer, until at length he had become an animal. When he had swallowed the whole animal, excepting the tail, this suddenly struck him in the eye and blinded him. He was bent double with pain, and did not know how to find his way back, because he could not see. Then he remembered that the wind had been blowing from the north; but, when he drew in a breath and smelled it, it was a strange wind. Then he smelled to the east, but that was also strange to him. After waiting for a time he drew a breath from the west, and recognised it as a wind blowing from his