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For a long time, the Elders were
puzzled to know what had become of many of their young men
who had gone out hunting and never returned. They would track
these men to the edge of a lagoon, but there the tracks would
disappear. Eventually the tribe developed such a dread of
this place that they stopped fishing there.
One day, one of the Elders had
a strange dream that the missing men were held in a cave near
the lagoon. He decided to go to their rescue. When he reached
the lagoon he swam across to the other side looking for a
cave in the rock face. Just then two fearful creatures, Bunyee
Bunyees, broke from the water. They were about four times
the size of the largest dogs, covered with grey hair, with
stumpy tails, four legs, hooves like horses, ferocious teeth
and the tusks of a wild boar.
The creatures tried to chase
him back into the water but he ran along the bank, following
a line of footprints. Up ahead he could see the dark entrance
to a cave. He carefully stepped inside. Bones littered the
floor. He noticed a movement up ahead. Here were the missing
members of his tribe!
You too? they moaned. Soon
the Bunyee Bunyees will have the whole tribe captive here.
We will never escape. And they sank upon the ground in despair.
Wait, said the new arrival,
I told the tribe that if I didnt return from this journey
by dusk, they were to follow and listen. Then he began to
strike his yamstick hard against the roof of the cave. The
sound echoed far and wide. Just as it seemed that they would
never be rescued there came the sound of digging from above.
Anxiously the captives waited
until at last a ray of light appeared. Then a fishing net
strong enough for them to climb up was lowered down to them.
There was great rejoicing in
the camp that night. The Elders put their rain stones in the
fire and sang their drought songs until the lagoon dried up.
Strange to say, in the dried-up lagoon the bones of the Bunyee
Bunyees were never found.
Adapted from Catherine
Stow, Woggheeguy: Australian Aboriginal Legends (Adelaide:
F.W. Preece & Sons, 1930)
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