One day in the far past, a wurraywurraymul, or sea- gull, was flying over the Western plains carrying a mussel. Wahn the crow saw her, and, wondering what she carried, pursued her. In her fear at being overtaken she dropped the mussel.
Seeing it drop, Wahn stopped his pursuit and swooped down to see what this strange thing was. Standing beside it, with his head on one side, he peered at it. Then he gave it a peck. He rather liked the taste of it; he pecked again and again, until the fish in one side of the shell was finished. He did not notice that there was a fish in the other side too, so he took up the empty shell, as he thought, and threw it into the creek. There this mussel lived and had many children, all of them being as she was, one fish enclosed between two shells, not as the one wurraywurraymul had brought, which had two fish, one on each shell.
Not knowing that he had thrown a mother musselinto the creek, Wahn determined to pursue the wurraywurraymul and get more, or find out whence she had brought the one he had thought so good, that he might get some. Away he flew in the direction she had gone. He overtook her some miles up the creek beside a big water-hole. Before she saw him coming, he had swooped down upon her, crying, "Give me some more of that fish in two shells you brought.""I have no more. Let me go. "
"Tell me, then, where you got it, that I may get more for myself. ""They do not belong to your country. They live in one far away which I passed in my flight from the big salt water. Let me go. " And she struggled to free herself, crying the strange, sad cry of her tribe.
But Wahn the crow held her tightly. "If you promise to go straight back to that country and bring some more, I shall release you. That you must promise; and also that, when I have finished those, you shall bring more, that I may never be without them again. If you do not promise, I"ll kill you now.""Let me go, and I shall do as you ask. I promise my tribe shall help me to bring mussels to your creeks. ""Go, then, " said Wahn, "swiftly back, and bring tome on the banks of the creek the fish that hides itself between two shells. " And he let her go, turning her head towards the south.
Drawn by John Rowell
"They alighted a little higher up. "
Away she flew. Days passed, and months, and yet thewurraywurraymul did not return, and Wahn was angry with himself for not having killed her rather than let her so deceive him.
He went one day to the creek for a drink, and, stooping, he saw before him a shell such as he had thrown into the water. Thinking it was the same, he took no notice, but going on along the creek he saw another and yet another. He cracked one by holding it in his beak and knocking it against the root of a tree on the bank. Then he ate the fish and, looking round for more, he found the mud along the margin of the creek was thick with them. Then, not knowing that the mussel- shell he had thrown away held a fish, he thought the sea- gull must have returned unseen by him, disappearing secretly lest he should hurt her.
Later he found that was not so, for one day he saw a flock of her tribe flying over where he was. They alighted a little higher up, where he saw some of them stick the mussels they were carrying in the mud just under the water. Having done so, on they flew a little farther to stick others, and so on up the creek. Having finished their work, they turned and flew back towards the sea- coast. Wahn noticed that the mussels came out of the water, and, opening their shells, stretched out betweenthem, and uttered a low, muffled, mew-like sound. Making their way along the mud, they cried as they went for the sea-gull to take them back to their own country. But their cries were unheeded, for far away were the sea- gulls.
At last they reached the mussels that had been born in the creek. These, being stronger and more numerous than the newcomers, soon altered their habits of life, teaching them to live as they did, with only one fish in the two joined-together shells; and so have all mussels been ever since. For though from time to time, on the rare visits of the sea-gulls to the back creeks, fresh mussels are brought, yet these, too, soon do as the others.
The blacks cook mussels in the hot ashes of their fires, and eat them with relish, saying, "If it had not been for Wahn, we should not have had this good food, for he it was who caused it to be given to us by the wurraywurraymul, the mussel- bringer. "From More Australian Legendary Tales, by Kate LanGloh ParKer.
About the Author.-Mrs. K. LanGloh ParKer passed many years on a station in the Murrumbidgee region of New South Wales. She was interested in the folk stories told by the older blacks in the neighbourhood, and wrote them down. Afterwards she brought out a book called Australian Legendary Tales, published by David Nutt, of London, and illustrated with the pen-and-ink drawings of an aboriginal artist. This succeeded so well that she wrote another book, called More Australian Legendary Tales, and it is from this that the story of the mussels has been taken.
About the Story.- "Wurraywurraymul"-notice how the "wurray" is repeated. Children and savages are fond of this repetition-gee-gee, mamma, Yarra Yarra, Buln Buln, Bett-Bett. Think of others. What was "the big salt water?" Has a mussel-shell a fish inside it? Of what does the mussel make his shell? "Mungghee" is a tribal word for mussel.
