The Origin of Narran Lake

0:00the origin of the Naram Lake, by Kay Langlow Parker. Old Biamey said to his two young wives, Beranulu and Kanan Billy. I have stuck a white feather between the hind legs of a bee, and I'm going to let it go and then follow it to its nest that I may get honey. While I go for the honey, go you two out and get frogs and yams, then meet me at Corrigal Spring, where we will camp, for sweet and clear is the water there. The wives, taking their ghoules and yams sticks, went out as he told them. Having gone far and dug out many yams and frogs, they were tired when they reached Corrigal, and seeing the cool freshwater, they longed to bed. But first they built a bowshade, and their ghoules holding their food, and the yams and frogs they had found.

1:00When their camp was ready for the coming of Biamey, who having wooed his wives with a nola nola, kept them obedient by fear of the same weapon, then went the girls to the spring to bed. Gladly they plunged in, having first divested themselves of their gomillas, which they were still young enough to wear, and which they left on the ground near the spring. Scarcely were they enjoying the cool rest, the water gave their hot, tired limbs, when they were seized and swallowed by two Koreas. Having swallowed the girls, the Koreas, dived into an opening in the side of the spring, which was the entrance to an underground watercourse leading to the Naran River. Through this passage they went, taking all the water from the spring with them into the Naran, whose course they also derived as they went along, meantime, Biamey unwitting the fate of his wives.

2:02It was honey hunting. He had followed the bee with a white feather on it for some distance, then the bee flew on to some Buddha flowers, and would move no further. Biamey said, something has happened, or the bee would not stay here, and refused to be moved on toward its nest. I must go to Kura Jal spring and see if my wives are safe. Something terrible has surely happened. And Biamey turned in haste towards the spring. When he reached there, he saw the bow shed, his wives had made. He saw the yams they had dug from the ground, and he saw the frogs, but Bera Nulu and Conan Billy, he saw not. He called aloud for them, but no answer. He went towards the spring. Of the edge of it, he saw them gumillas of his wives. He looked into the spring and, seeing it dry, he said, it is the work of the kareas. They have opened the underground

3:07passage and gone with my wives to the river, and opening the passage has dried the spring. Well, do I know where the passage joins, they not round, and there will eyes whiffly go. Arming himself with spears and wagaras, he started in pursuit. He soon reached the deep hole where the underground channel of the Kura Jal joined the gneran. There he saw what he had never seen before, namely this deep hole dry. And he said, they have emptied the holes as they went along, taking the water with them, but well no eye the deep holes of the river. I will not follow the bend thus troubling the distance I have to go, but I will cut across from big hole to big hole, and by so doing I may yet get ahead of the kareas, on swiftly sped by me, making shortcuts from big hole to big hole, and his track is still marked by the

4:09Morella ridges that stretch down the gneran, pointing in towards the deep holes. Every hole as he came to it, he found dry, until at last he reached the end of the gneran. The hole there was still quite wet and muddy, then he knew he was near his enemies, and soon he saw them. He managed to get unseen a little way ahead of the kareas. He hit himself behind a big deal tree, as the kareas came near, they separated, one turning to go in another direction. Quickly by me hurled one spear after another, wounding both kareas, who rided with pain and lashed their tails furiously, making great hollows in the ground, which the water they had brought with them quickly filled. Thinking they might again escape him, by me drove them from the water with his spears, and then at close quarters he killed them with his walkeroths, and ever afterwards at flood time,

5:13the gneran flowed into this hollow, which the kareas in their writings had made. When by me saw that the kareas were quite dead, he cut them open, and took out the bodies of his wives. They were covered with wet slime, and seemed quite lifeless, but he carried them, and laid them on tunas of red ants. Then he sat down at some little distance and watched them. The ants quickly covered the bodies, cleaned them rapidly at the wet slime, and soon by me noticed the muscles of the girls twitching. Ah, he said, there is life, they feel the sting of the ants. Almost as he spoke, came a sound as of a thunder clap, but the sound seemed to come from the ears of the girls, and as the echo was dying away, slowly the girls rose to their feet. For a moment they stood apart, a day's expression on their faces, then they clung together, shaking as they stricken with

6:17a deadly fear. But by me came to them and explained how they had been rescued from the kareas by him. He bathed them to beware of ever bathing in the deep holes of the gneran, lest such holes be the haunt of kareas. Then he bathed them, look at the water, now at wugera, and he said, soon will the black swans find their way here, the pelicans and the ducks, where there was dry land and stones in the past, in the future there will be water and water foul. From henceforth, where the gneran runs it will run into this hole, and by the spreading of its waters will a big leg be made. And what bioming said has come to pass, as the gneran leg shows, with its large sheet of water spreading for miles, the home of thousands of wild foul. End of the origin of the gneran leg by Kay Langlow Parker.