Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/118

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56
ADVENTURES OF NURUNDERE.

on the Peninsula is still pointed out as the remains of the hut of Wyungare.

Once upon a time, it is said, that Nurundere and Nepelle together pursued an enormous fish in Lake Alexandrina, near Tipping.[1] Nepelle caught it, then Nurundere tore it in pieces, and threw the fragments into the water, and each piece became a fish, and thus ponde, tarke, tukkeri, and pommere, different kinds of fish, had their origin. But another sort of fish, tinuwarre (called bream by the whites), was produced in a different manner. Nurundere went to Tulurrug, and there finding some flat stones, he threw them into the Lake, and they became tinuwarre.

Wyungare was a personage who had no father but only a mother. He resided at Rauwoke with his parent, and was narumbe from his infancy, that is, he was made a red man, or kaingani, and was a mighty hunter of kangaroos. Once he was amongst the reeds at Oulawar, drinking water by drawing it up with a reed from the Lake, and Nepelle’s two wives passing by saw him, admired his handsome form, and fell in love with him. So they seized the first opportunity to visit his hut, and finding that he was asleep, they made a noise with their feet outside, like two emus running past, and awoke the hunter, who jumped up and ran out expecting to see some game. The two women met him with a shout of laughter, and throwing their arms round him, begged him to take them for his wives, to which he willingly consented. Of course Nepelle was very angry with all parties concerned at being treated so scandalously, and sought them at the hut of Wyungare,[2]† but they

were all absent, so he put fire in the hut, and told it to wait until Wyungare and the two women slept, and then to get up and burn them. In the evening they returned from hunting,

  1. I have since heard a version of this legend in which it is said that Nurundere and his sons drove this great fish down the Darling and Murray to a place called Piltangk in Lake Alexandrina, and there obtained assistance from Nepelle to catch it.
  2. The hut of Wyungare is still pointed out by the natives, in the shape of a mound of limestone, at a place called Pulluwewal, near Point Macleay.