Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/815

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APPENDIX
789

cormorant, they again marched on, and came to a place where there was a great abundance of Piltai[1] growing on the sandhills, and they named the place after it, Piltakali. Another place, where they made a hut of the Kulua,[2] they called Kuluantjudu. At a place where, by reason of the great cold, they made a fire to warm themselves, they called it Makatira,[3] because when marching they carried a piece of lighted wood. They came to Kakurawonta,[4] where a hawk flew off its nest when they broke some twigs, and the girls were so startled that they all shrieked out, and each wished to be the first to find the eggs, which they shared between them. This place was named from the Kakura bush, the fruit of which they plucked as they travelled. Their next halt was at Tindi-tindi-kupa-worana,[5] where they tried to catch a Tindi-tindi and its young, but without success, and then went on to Warukati-walpu,[6] where they collected the bones of an emu which a wild dog had killed. From them they prepared some paint with which they painted their faces, breasts, and arms.

By this time the cold season had passed over, and the sun became very hot. It had not rained for a long time, and they suffered very much from the great drought. To save themselves from perishing, they dug holes at Pul-yudu,[7] throwing the earth out backwards, and so travelled underground, in the damp earth. The Pinnaru, who had marched on in advance, wondered that he had not seen any of his daughters following him, and went back to seek them, but without success. At Ningkaka,[8] where he stood on a sandhill looking round about for them, the summit of the hill was flattened and widened by his steps. Still keeping on the watch, he observed that the girls appeared at the surface at Dityina,[9] where they played about actively, and at Wonamidlanina,[10] where they threw the Wona in competition with each other. They then let the wind carry away bunches of the Mindri plant, and running after them caught them again. As the Pinnaru persisted in watching them with longing, they covered themselves for the sake of modesty with Karpana,[11] at

  1. Piltai is in Dieri Wirha, the Acacia salicina, the leaves of which are burned by the blacks and the ashes mixed with Pitcheri.
  2. The Kulua is the Needle-bush, Hakea Leucoptera.
  3. Makatira is a fire-stick; in the Dieri, Turumanya, i.e. "make a fire," from Turu, fire.
  4. Kakura is a bush which bears edible fruit.
  5. The Tindi-tindi is probably one of the Fly-catchers, called by the whites "Wagtail." Kupa is "child," and Worana is the plural postfix.
  6. Warukati is "emu," and Walpu is "bone."
  7. Pul-yudu is a burrow made by any animal which throws the earth out behind it, such as the Madura, the kangaroo-rat.
  8. To look out.
  9. To appear shining; in Dieri, Yirdinato.
  10. The Wona is an instrument used by the women in sport and for fighting.
  11. To weave together. Kanta-karpalina is to weave grass for aprons.