about their respective Mura[1] or sacred songs, and the Mankara-waka-ya-pirna said theirs was the Pirha, while the other girls said 
FIG. 58.—DUNTYI (CROTALARIA SP.). that theirs was the Wapiya. Then, being still separated by the creek, they gave a representation of their respective songs, the Mankara-pirna singing their Pirha song, while the other girls beat time with two boomerangs. Then the Wapiya girls asked how they intended to cross the creek, and the others said, "We will dance straight across." This they did, and landed on the opposite bank, where they abandoned their language and took that of the Wapiya girls, their future fellow-travellers, namely the Wonkamala.
Then the whole group of girls, dancing together, wandered farther to the north. Their way led them to Paridikadi,[2] where they were bitten by ants, and then to Lakuramantyi,[3] finally to Wilpukudiangu,[4] where they thought they saw some Duntyi[5] at a distance. Hastening forward to tear it up, they found, on coming nearer, that the supposed bush was a very old, bald-headed man, whose long, straggling beard, blown by the wind, gave him the appearance of a bush of Duntyi. Laughing at his appearance, and at their mistake, they went on, and in the well-wooded Ngamara[6] they found much gum, which they gathered in their Pirhas, and mixing water with it, drank it, enjoying its sweet flavour. Having filled their bags with this
- ↑ Mura is something hallowed or sacred, as for instance a tree under which, according to some legend, a Mura-mura slept.
- ↑ Ant-path, from Paridan, ant, and Kadi, a way or path.
- ↑ The actual meaning of this is not known to me; all that can be said is that in some way it is connected with the male member of the dog.
- ↑ Wilpu-kudiangu is to twist a thread or cord.
- ↑ Duntyi is a plant which has a silvery appearance—Crotalaria sp.
- ↑ Ngamara is probably the equivalent of the Dieri word Buka-ngandri, which may be rendered as "bread-mother," in other words, a thick forest.
