Pundu-worani, was obtained from his brother and other Wonkanguru men.
The Wonkamala man came to the Dieri as the head of a party bringing the Molonga dance from the north: and subsequently he went away southwards.[1] Later on he returned northwards, but became ill, and died near Killalpanina. He was considered to be a great medicine-man, and it is said that a party from his tribe is to come down to take his bones back to his own people as powerful magic. After his death some of his party carried the Molonga dance to the south, and the others travelled round the south end of Lake Eyre to the north-west.
This is an instance of the manner in which wanderings still take place among the native tribes of the interior, by men whose mission accredits them to the tribes to which they come.
The Pirha-malkara: A Legend of the Urabunna Tribe
A number of girls, the "Mankara-waka-ya-pirna,"[2] once made a journey, accompanied by their Ngaperi, the Mura-mura Mada-puta-tupuru, who was foolish about women, and closely followed them. They started from Malku-malku, and marched from place to place, singing and dancing. The Pinnaru followed with his many dogs. Then they marched through the Midlaleri country,[3] and at the south end of Lake Eyre they found many Yelka,[4] and called the place Yelka-bakana, where many girls joined them. Then they went southwards round the Lake to the lower reaches of the Cooper, where at Ditjiminka[5] other girls joined them.
Meanwhile the Pinnaru had fallen behind in his watchful pursuit, and saw, when seeking to follow them, that there were the tracks of many strange girls, who had traversed the whole place in search of mice. He followed these from Nidli-barkuna,[6] to Palaun-kina,[7] where he found all the girls hidden from him behind bushes. To mock him each only showed her hair tied to a pointed
- ↑ See Roth, op. cit. pp. 120, 125.
- ↑ Mankara is "girl," Waka is "little," and Pirna is "big." Ya is "and." These girls are by another legend transferred to the sky as stars, the former being the Pleiades, and the latter the stars in the belt of Orion. The Pinnaru Madaputa-tupuru in the first part of this legend is also called Marukadlana, and is the principal star in Scorpio. The name means "thick smoke," in which it is said he sat by his fire.
- ↑ Midla or is "nose," "point," or "promontory," and Leri is "steep." It refers to the fact that at that place the sand-ridges are very steep. This place is in the country of the Wimberinya, a small horde of the Kukata trilje on the west side of Lake Gairdner.
- ↑ Yelka is a grass-like plant with small bulbs.
- ↑ From Ditji, the sun, and Minka, a hole into which he went at night. It is situated about twenty or thirty miles from Killalpanina, near Lake Eyre.
- ↑ Nidli is "a mouse," and Barkuna is "to dig."
- ↑ So named from the shameless behaviour of the Pinnaru towards the girls.
