(Story of) Crow. He was staying there at whatchamacallit, at the place Wumilij. As for them, two adult women, they were eating them (shellfish). They were in the father's sister relationship to him. They were staying there.

Note: The word for 'shellfish' is not even mentioned; the use of WARA object in the verb 'they ate it', without explicit mention of the noun, normally suggests either the noun lha:du 'mud-whelk shell' or wulburu 'round yam species (Dioscorea)'. Here the coastal location is sufficient to point to mud-whelk shells (which are still commonly gathered by women). However, some ellipsis of this type is perhaps to be expected in recounting a very well known myth like this one.The kinship relationship specified means that the two women are a generation older than Crow and in the same clan.

As for him (Crow), he sat there making a whatchamacallit (type of spear). He was making that what-the-heck-do-they-call-it? He was sitting (there). They (the two women) were out gathering and eating them (turret-shells).

Note: wa:n^g jagu (second line of this segment, preceding page) is an intensive form of wa:n^g 'whatchamacallit' and indicates real self-annoyance; it contains yagu 'but' in a phonologically tightly knit unit with wa:n^g.

They came back, then they defecated into a hole (which they had dug out). They were out looking for them (shells), while Crow was sitting over that way (some distance away).

They were defecating into the hole some more. Now they were coming along not far away from him. They shouted out to him (Crow), "(Hey!) There is a bandicoot here! Spear it for us (to save us)!"

Note: Bandicoots are small terrestrial burrowing animals. The two women had filled up the pit with a certain substance (see below) and covered it with grass, so that a bulge was visible; the women were pointing to it and telling Crow that this was the outside of a bandicoot burrow. Bandicoots are not dangerous; the idea was. to hunt it for its meat.

* Benefactive form with root =ra-

(Crow said,) "What is it? Is it a coolamon (paperbark container)?" (The two women said,) "No!" "Is it some string?" "No! Bandicoot! Come and spear it for us!" "You mean it's a bandicoot?" "Yes!"

Note: Obviously Crow is slow to understand, as well as rather gullible. This type of exchange is ironically repeated later in the myth.

Then he rushed over from there with his wooden-pronged spear. He ran along. Then he was at that place. (They said,) "Look! Here it is (just as we said)!" (He said,) "I will spear it. All right?"

Note: wingil is an old-fashioned spear with a couple of wooden prongs or barbs at the business end; it has evolved now into a spear type with iron prongs. The particle yigaj in this segment is used to indicate confirmation of the presence of an object which has been suspected or claimed to be present but has not yet been definitely observed.

He was about to spear it, but they said, "Don't! Put your legs and feet together and stomp on it!"

* See note to 5.14, above. In the present form the prefix is phonologically distorted (as often with -gi=wa-) from n^gunu- (1Sg/2Sg_a or 1ExPl/2Sg_a) to nu-

Then he jumped onto and stomped on the burrow (of the bandicoot). He went right down into it, down there.

Then the excrement all came flying up, splattering against all of them. They (the two women) abandoned him (Crow) there.

Note: The two women had laid a trap for Crow. They had dug a pit to use as a toilet and has used it over a period of time, then they had covered it with grass to make it look like the burrow (nest) of a bandicoot. In order to make sure that Crow actually jumped into it they had (see 11.7) insisted that he not merely spear the bandicoot but rather that he stomp on it.

As for them (the two women), they came along this way and sat. They sat for a long time. (One said to the other,) "Come! Let's go and get this crooked branch here!"

Note: miljir can refer to the part of a tree where the trunk starts to branch out or to any other large, sharply bent piece of wood. It functions here as a long pole with a "hock" on the end.

They broke off the crooked branch (from a tree) and went along there (where Grow was). They worked the hook of the crooked branch into his hair and twisted it around. (Crow's hair was covered with sticky excrement.) They jerked him out of the hole (by pulling on the crooked branch) by the hair. Then they dumped him unceremoniously outside the hole.

Then they just left him there. Meat ants were eating him here, and here on the back. He is now black-backed. He missed it. End.

Note: Meat ants are social ants who build large mounds and who will devour a carcass in large numbers.The significance of 'he missed it_p' in the last line is not fully clear; apparently 'back' is the implied direct object and the sense is then something like 'he lost his (original) back'.For general comments on this myth see comments to text 13.

* Reduplication of /-janda=duma-/ 'to have black back, to be black in the back', with Epenthetic -n^gu- inserted