The next three stations on their march received their names from the dances which the Pinnaru taught the girls, namely Ngapar-alyerki, from the waggling of their breasts in dancing; Wirintyangura,[1] from the great fire round which they danced; and Kinyindi, from the quivering of their thighs in dancing.
The Pinnaru beat time to the dance, and sang to it.[2] From Wirintyangura they went to other places, where they danced; and the girls being fast asleep at one place, were wakened by Madaputa-tupuru making a great noise by striking his Pirha. When the girls started up in alarm, he said, "Madagura yidli-yidli madagura,"[3] and then, "Did I not think that you would keep the Madagura from me, and eat it all up?" The girls could not say anything to this, because they had eaten the Madagura as a dainty morsel, leaving the Pinnaru, who was almost helpless by reason of his increasing weakness, to the sole care of his own daughters. With difficulty they brought their father to Kumarina,[4] where he died, from loss of blood.
The blacks say that the colour of the water of this lake is a proof of the death of the Mura-mura, and that his body is still to be seen there in the form of a great rock, while his spirit is a star, which is identified as Antares.
The Wapiya Legend of the Wonkamala Tribe
When the Mura-mura Madaputa-tupuru died, his daughters mourned for him and buried him. Then leaving the neighbourhood of Lake Kumarina, they travelled farther north, gathering the mulga apples[5] by the way, some of which they roasted, and carried the remainder with them in their bags.
After a long march they reached Ukaralya Creek,[6] on the opposite bank of which they saw the Wapiya girls.[7] They greeted each other across the Creek, and questioned each other about this and that.
"What do you eat?" said the Wapiya girls; to which the others replied, "Turutudu; and what do you eat?"[8] Then they asked
- ↑ Wirintya means "fire," and Ngura is "camp."
- ↑ The time is marked in the singing of this song by striking on the Pirha with the hand, hence the name Pirha-malkara.
- ↑ Madagura is a small marsupial, and Yidli-yidli is "fat-fat," that is, "very fat."
- ↑ Kumari is "blood."
- ↑ The Malka is the Mulga, Acacia aneura.
- ↑ Ukaralya means "girls"; in the Dieri language, Mankara.
- ↑ Wapiya is "boomerang."
- ↑ In Wonkamala this is "Munukudu takatyi ngana tadyiri?" or in the Dieri, "Munukudu ngaiani tayii?" Munukudu is a plant with grass-like foliage and bearing tubers, which are not in clusters, but under each other. The plant grows on the sandhills, under bushes.
