648
NATIVE TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA
CH.
find anything in the place. Immediately afterwards they found a lace-lizard, which they carried with them until it became stinking, and black on the under side. As they still wandered on they came to a large tract of country well covered with rushes, from which they made bags in which to carry their things. Then marching on they saw a kangaroo, at which the sharp-sighted one threw a spear, and then another, without hitting it. Then he threw all his companion's spears but one, which the latter had kept in his hand, who, then throwing it, killed the kangaroo, which they carried till they came to a place where they found water. Here they rested for a time; then lifting the kangaroo from the ground, and each holding it by one leg, they swung it round their heads, singing:—
| Mina |
|
yundru |
|
tayila |
|
nganas
|
| What |
|
thou |
|
eat |
|
wilt?
|
| Titiba-tiuba-tiuba |
|
yundru |
|
tayila |
|
nganai
|
| Tiuba[1] |
|
thou |
|
eat |
|
wilt
|
| Manakata-kaia |
|
yundru |
|
tayila |
|
nganai
|
| Manakata-kata |
|
thou |
|
eat |
|
wilt
|
Then they laid it on the ground; but no sooner had they done so than it jumped up and hopped away so swiftly that they could not overtake it. Before long, however, they killed another kangaroo. The one who had good sight sent the one-eyed one to fetch a Tula (stone-knife) so that he could flay off the skin. While he was seeking for a Tula the other began to remove the pelt. When the one-eyed man returned with the Tula the other replaced the skin over the carcase and pretended to try the Tula on it; then, saying that it was too blunt, he sent him to Antiritcha[2] to bring back a new one. During his absence he hastily skinned the kangaroo down to the hind legs, and when the other returned from Antiritcha and offered him the new Tula, he said, "Skin the kangaroo with it yourself." Beginning to do this, the one-eyed man found that the skin was
- ↑ Tiuba-tiuba and manakata-kata are both lizards.
- ↑ After careful inquiries, it seems that Antiritcha must be supposed to be a hill or mountain, on the upper waters of the Finke River, probably in the M'Donnell Ranges.
