Australian Mythology: Captivating Dreamtime Stories of Indigenous Australians by Matt Clayton

Author:Matt Clayton [Clayton, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-31T06:00:00+00:00

Part III: Animal Tales

Boora the Pelican

Dreamtime animal tales usually take one of two forms: either the present shape of an animal is the result of the animal performing human behaviors, or else it is the result of actions that result in a human being turned into an animal. The story retold below is of the former variety. Boora the Pelican lives and behaves like a human being, although he has feathers like a bird. When he engages in the human tradition of painting himself with white pipe-clay before going to war, he inspires other pelicans to do the same because they think it looks particularly handsome. This results in an irrevocable change that gives pelicans the white and black feathers they have today.

A long time ago in the Dreamtime, there was no water anywhere. This was because the frog kept it all inside of him and refused to share it with anyone else. All the creatures became thirstier and thirstier, so finally they held a council to decide what to do.

After a long discussion, the animals decided that if the frog could be made to laugh, it was likely that all the water would come pouring out of him. The first creature to try was the kookaburra. The kookaburra danced and fluttered his wings and laughed and laughed, but the frog only blinked and turned his back. Then the platypus came and tried making jokes about its funny beak and funny tail, but the frog only sighed and closed its eyes.

Creature after creature attempted to make the frog laugh, but none succeeded. The frog’s mouth stayed firmly closed and the water stayed firmly inside no matter what silly things the creatures did. This went on and on until the eel went before the frog and started writhing and wriggling around. The frog watched the eel intently and smiled. The eel continued wriggling, and finally the frog could stand it no longer. He opened his mouth and laughed and laughed, and all the water that was inside him came out in a great gushing wave. Unfortunately, there was so much water inside the frog that when it came out all at once it caused a great flood, and many animals and people drowned.

Now, at this time, there was a pelican named Boora. He was quite vain and thought himself the handsomest creature in the world. In those days, all pelicans had black feathers, and Boora thought his own were the glossiest of any pelican he had ever seen. Boora also was very proud of the canoe that he owned. Of course, he didn’t need it at all for getting about since he could fly and swim just as well as any other seabird. But it was a thing that none of the other pelicans had, and this made Boora happy.

On the day after the great flood, Boora went out for a paddle in his canoe. As he floated along, he came across a small, muddy island. On the island was a big log, and on the log sat three men and a woman.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.