Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/166

161 The travelled Ngarous were fortunate enough to carry out their concerted scheme to the very end; after a severe struggle they destroyed the abominable ogre, and left his vile old carcase to rot on the plain, which had been the scene whereon many of his most detestable atrocities had been cruelly enacted.

To do every honour to these brave slayers of the demon Ngarou, on their return from the successful exploit, nearly all the inhabitants of Ngaroudom assembled, and whilst the Ngarou people were lavishing honours and caresses on their brave saviours, as they designated them, they suddenly soared away in circling whirls, higher and higher, until they reached the very Tyrili (sky) itself, when they became fixed as the pointers to the Southern Cross.

The consternation and lamentations of the Ngarou nation were very terrible when they beheld their two noble deliverers soaring away towards Tyrili in airy circles, but when they saw them fixed as Toorts, and felt, therefore, that they had been merely translated to a higher sphere, they one and all danced with joy, saying the bleak, dark earth was not good enough for them, and that a much higher guerdon had been conferred on them for the supreme service they had rendered to the nation, than if all the Ngarous in the world had endowed them with the whole of their possessions. And now these two glorious Toorts can for ever see, from their commanding position, how truly grateful all the Ngarou people are for the mighty service they had performed ere being translated, and gratitude from their heretofore fellows is as grateful to them, as is the