forming the fundament. Having thus produced mankind out of these beings, he went about making men everywhere.
Mandra-mankana, also called Bakuta-terkana-tarana, or Kanta-yulkana: A Dieri Legend[1]
Mandra-mankana once came to the neighbourhood of Pando.[2] Two girls who saw him jeered at him, because his back was just the same as his front. He told their mother, who was his Noa, to send her two daughters to his camp the following night. When she told them of his demand, they ridiculed him, but yet they went there, and lay down one on each side of the sleeping old man, their Ngaperi. Then they heaped up a ridge of sand on either side of him, so that he thought to have his Ngatatnura-ulu there. But these had meanwhile crept away out of the sand and lay down to sleep in the camp of their mother. When the Pinnaru woke in the night he rose upright, and saw that he was quite alone, and that the girls had cheated him. Hence his name of Bakuta-terkana-tarana. He went forth thinking of revenge. Through his songs he caused plants to grow, some with bitter and some with pleasant-tasted fruit. The two girls found these plants, and ate first of the bitter and then of the good fruit. Delighted with the latter, they sprang from one bush to the other. Thus after a time they came to a Tanyu bush laden with its red and yellow fruit, where lurked Mandra-mankana in concealment, to destroy them. As they came near to him, he threw his boomerang at one and broke her ankle, and then rushing up he killed her by a blow on her head. The other sister ran away to save herself, but he followed her, and killed her also. He then cut off the breasts of the dead girls and carried them with him as he went farther. Coming to a camp where some young boys were amusing themselves in a plain by throwing boomerangs, he hid himself behind some bushes, and watched them at their play. Then one of the boys threw his boomerang so far that it fell near the old man. The boy sought for it, and was about to take it up, when the Pinnaru seized him by the hand. He was frightened, but Mandra-mankana calmed him by giving him a lizard. He soon became friendly with the boy, and promised at his request to make a new song, and called to all the people to come and hear it. They assembled, even the sick and the women with child. The boy began to sing, and the Pinnaru came out of the bushes, painted and decked with feathers, and
- ↑ Mandra is "belly" or "body," and Manka is "hind-before." Bakuta-terkana-tarana is "the one who rises upright fruitlessly," from Baku, "fruitlessly," "without avail," also "free" or "unburdened." Terkana is "to stand," and Tarana is "to rise up," "to fly." Frequently, in combination with a verb, it forms our preposition "up," as Terkana taranato, "stand up," Nayina taranato "to look upwards."
- ↑ Pando is Lake Hope. Sometimes it is called Pando-pirna, Big Lake.
