Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/511

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MYTHS.
427

Bund-jel was the conqueror. The two women became his wives, and he had many children.

After this, Ballen-ballen (the Jay), who at that time was a man, had a great many bags full of wind, and being angry, he one day opened the bags, and made such a great wind that Bund-jel and nearly all his family were carried up into the heavens.

The First Women.

Pal-ly-yan, who is described sometimes as a brother of Pund-jel, and sometimes as a son, has the control of the waters, great and small. He is supreme over rivers, creeks, and lagoons; and the sea obeys him likewise. All creatures that live in the deeps or shallows he can control. There is nothing in the deep waters of the rivers that can perplex him; and his chief pleasure is to paddle in the shallow waters, and to dive to great depths in the deep waters. One day he was playing in a deep, deep water-hole. He thumped and threshed the waters with his hands, in the same manner as the women beat the skins when men dance the corrobboree. The water became thick; it became very thick; it became as mud; and Pal-ly-yan could no longer see through it as before. But something he saw at length. And dividing the thick waters with a bough, so as to get a glimpse of things underneath, he beheld what appeared to be hands, such as Pund-jel had given to the men he had created. Pal-ly-yan took a strong twig, bent it into the form of a hook, and again divided the waters, and there appeared two heads (such as Pund-jel had given to the men), then bodies (similar to those made by Pund-jel), and finally two creatures like Mon-mon-deek (young women). Pal-ly-yan named one Kun-ner-warra, and the other Ku-ur-rook, and he brought them to Pund-jel, his brother, to show them to him. Pund-jel gave to each man whom he had created a woman. Pund-jel put into the hands of the men spears. To each man he gave a spear; and Pal-ly-yan gave to each woman and put into her hands a Kan-nan (digging-stick). Pal-ly-yan spake to the men and women, and told them to live together. He ordered that the men should use their spears for killing the kangaroo, and he told the women to use the Kan-nan to dig roots.

Pund-jel and Pal-ly-yan remained with the blacks for three days. They showed the men how they should spear the kangaroo and the emu, and they told the women where they could find roots.

On the third day, Pund-jel, Pal-ly-yan, and the four blacks sat down. A whirlwind (Pit-ker-ring or Wee-oong-koork) came, on the third day, when they had all sat down. On the third day, when they had all sat down, there came a storm (Koor-reen), a great storm (Borrn-geen-borrn-geen), and the whirlwind and the storm and the great storm carried Pund-jel and Pal-ly-yan upwards—far away—and the blacks saw Pund-jel and Pal-ly-yan no more.

The Dispersion of Mankind.

There was a time when men and women were numerous. In some parts of the earth they were very numerous, and they were wicked; and Pund-jel