and laid down and slept. They were soon awakened by the flames of the burning hut, and rushed out of it, but the fire pursued them. For miles they ran along the shore of the Lake, chased by the vengeful element, until they reached Lowanyeri, plunged themselves in the mud of the swamp there, and the fire was unable to reach them. Afraid of the implacable hatred displayed by Nepelle, Wyungare sought a means of escape. He determined to effect this by going up to Wyirrewarre to live there. So he tied a line to a spear, and hurled it at the heavens. It stuck in, and he proceeded to haul upon it for the purpose of raising himself, but found it would not hold, for it was unbarbed. Then he took a barbed spear and repeated the experiment, this time with success, for it held firmly in the sky, and by means of the line attached to it, he pulled himself up, and afterwards the two women. Three stars are still pointed out as Wyungare and his wives. He is said to sit up there and fish for men with a fishing-spear, and when people start in their sleep it is thought to be because he touches them with the point of his weapon. Before his ascent it is related that he took a gigantic kangaroo and tore it in pieces, and scattered the fragments through the scrub, and they became the comparatively small kangaroos which exist now.
To return to the adventures of Nurundere. He had four children by his two wives. Once when he dwelt at Tulurrug two of his children strayed away into the scrub to the eastward, and were lost. Soon afterwards his two wives ran away from him. He pursued them, in company with his remaining children, to Encounter Bay, and there, seeing them at a distance, he exclaimed in anger, "Let the waters arise and drown them." So the waters arose in a terrible flood, and swept over the hills with fury, and, overtaking the fugitives, they were overwhelmed and drowned. At this time Nepelle lived at Rauwoke, and the flood was so great that he was obliged to pull his canoe to the top of the hill (that is Point Macleay); from thence it was transported to Wyirrewarre; the dense part of the milky way is said to be the canoe of Nepelle floating in the heavens.
