The news was passed from tribe to tribe that a good time had come and a great meeting of the tribes was about to take place. The meeting place was planned at Gugurevon, a place of trees.
The old people whispered that this was a good excuse for boron. But women should not know anything about this. Old Baiame, the great Virinun, said that he would take his two sons, Ginda-inda-mui and Buma-uma-nowi, with him to the meeting of the tribes, since the time had come for them to become young men, get married, eat emu meat and learn to be warriors.
As clan after clan arrived at Gugurevon, each of them took a place on the ridges surrounding the open plain where the corroboree was to take place. In one place there was a genus of ravens Van, in another - a genus of Du-mer pigeons, in a third - a genus of dogs Mazi, etc. Here was Bayame with his genus of black swans Bayamul, a genus of lizards Ubun with blue tongues and many others. Each clan settled in a separate camp.
When everyone gathered, there were hundreds and hundreds of them. Corrobories were numerous and varied; each clan sought to surpass the others in the whimsicality of tattoos and the novelty of songs and dances. During the day they hunted and feasted a lot, at night they danced and sang; they exchanged vows of friendship, precious bags for boomerangs, etc. Young daughters were given to old warriors, old women to young men, unborn girls were promised to old men, and babies in their arms were promised to adult men. Agreements were concluded and in all cases the vi-rinuns were consulted.
A few days later, the Virinuns told the men of the tribes that a bora would take place, but the women should under no circumstances know about it. Let all the men secretly prepare the pine forest every day under the pretext of hunting.
Now every day the men left. They cleared a large circle, built an earthen rampart around it, cleared a passage from the circle to the dense bushes, and built ramparts on both sides of the passage. Having completed the preparations, at night, as usual, they held a corroboree.
After a while, one of the old Virinuns pretended to be gloomy and left the crowd. Another followed and they began to fight. As everyone's attention focused on this struggle, a strange, buzzing and whistling sound suddenly came from the bushes. Women and children huddled together, frightened by the unexpected and unnatural sound. They knew that the sound came from spirits who had come to help initiate the boys into young men. (If you are not afraid of spirits, then the sound would remind you of the whistling of a piece of wood tied to a rope that is being rotated.) At this sound, the women said in fear: “Garraimi” (which means “demon of the forest”) - and hugged their children tighter.
The boys said, “Gyandi,” and their eyes widened in fear. "Gyandi" is the name of the same bora demon, but women should not use the same words that boys and men call the bora spirit, since everything related to the mysteries of bora is sacred to the eyes, ears and tongue of women.
The next afternoon the men disappeared into the bush. At sunset they emerged from the bushes and walked in single file along a road surrounded by ramparts. Each one held a fire stick in one hand and a green branch in the other. When they arrived at the center of the circle, it was time for the youth and women to leave the camps and enter the circle of the forest. Inside the circle
They set up new camps, dined and, as on previous evenings, held a corroboree.
On this occasion, Baiame, the greatest Virinun, once again proved his power. For several days now, the Mazi clan had behaved without any respect for the Virinuns of the tribe. Instead of treating their words and deeds with silent awe, as the Virinuns always expect, they chattered and laughed incessantly, playing and shouting, as if the tribes were not about to perform the most sacred rites. Often the Virinuns sternly ordered them to be silent, but the warnings were in vain: the Mazis continued to chat and laugh merrily.
Then the most powerful and famous of the Virinuns, Bayame, stood up, approached Mazi’s camp and angrily said to them:
“I, Baiame, revered by all clans, three times ordered you, Mazi, to stop chattering and laughing. But you didn't listen to me. My voice was joined by the voices of Virinuns of other clans, but again you did not pay attention to us. Do you think that the wizards will initiate any of your kind into youths when you do not pay attention to the words of the Virinuns? No, I'm telling you. From now on, none of Mazi’s clan will speak like people. You want to make noise and disturb people's peace, you cannot be calm and do not want to understand sacred things. So be it! You and your descendants will forever make noise. But it will not be the sound of speech or laughter. It will be barking and howling. And from now on, if anyone from the Mazi family speaks, woe to those who hear him - they will immediately turn into stones.
The Mazis opened their mouths and prepared to laugh and mockingly object to Baiame, but what Baiame had predicted for them happened: they could only bark and howl, they lost the ability to speak and laugh. When the Mazis realized their loss, longing and silent prayer appeared in their eyes, which can be read in the eyes of their descendants.
With a feeling of surprise and fear, those around him looked at Baiame returning to his family. When he sat down in his camp, he asked the women why they did not grind the Dunbar grain.
The women replied:
“Our deyurls have disappeared, and we don’t know where they are.”
“You are lying,” Baiame objected. “Despite my prohibition, you lent them to the Du-mer family, who often beg.”
- No, Baiame, we didn’t lend them.
- Go to the Du-mer camp and ask your deyurls.
Frightened by the same punishment that befell Mazi, the women were afraid to disobey and went, although they knew well that they did not lend their deyurls.
They asked each clan to lend them deyurls, but everywhere they were told that the deyurls had disappeared and no one knew where. The Du-mer asked for a millstone, but they were refused, and yet the deyurls disappeared.
As the women walked around the camp, they heard a strange sound, reminiscent of the cry of spirits and similar to a muffled: “Mind, mind, mind, mind.”
This sound was heard either high in the air or in the grass - it seemed as if spirits were making noise everywhere.
The women clutched their fire sticks tighter and said:
- Let's go back, Wanda's spirits are everywhere.
They hurried back, all the time hearing the cry of the spirits: “Mind, mind, mind.”
They told Bayama that all the clans had lost the deyurls and that they were surrounded by spirits, and as they spoke, a sound was heard from behind their camp: “Um, um, um, um.”
The women huddled close to each other, but Baiame waved his fire wand in the direction from which the sound came, and when the beam illuminated the place, nothing was visible there except two moving deyurls. They moved of their own accord, and as they quickly rushed away, the sound of “Um, um, um, um” became louder and louder until the air seemed to be full of invisible spirits.
Then Baiame realized that the spirits of Wanda were around, and returned to his camp.
In the morning it became known that not only all the deyurls had disappeared, but also the Du-mers had left the camp. When no one wanted to lend them the millstones, Du-mer said:
“If the Wand spirits don’t bring us stones, we won’t be able to grind grain.”
They had barely uttered these words when they saw the deyurl moving towards them. At first they thought that thanks to their art their wish would immediately come true. But as deyurl after deyurl slid into their camp and moved on and the sound was heard everywhere: “Um, um, um, um,” they realized that this was the work of the spirits of Vand. The Du-mer decided that they must go where the deyurls were going, otherwise they would anger the spirits that were moving the deyurls through their camp.
The Du-mer collected their property and followed the deyurls, who had paved the road from Gugurevon to the place of flowers Girrawin; During floods, the river bed runs along this road.
The Deyurls headed towards Dirangibirra and were followed by the Du-mer.
Dirangibirra is located between Brewarrina and Wied der Murti, and here the deyurls lay piled on top of each other. Subsequently, those who wanted to get good millstones had to come here. The doomers were turned into doves that scream like spirits: “Um, um, um.”
And another strange event happened on this great forest. The Ubun clan was located in a camp at some distance from the other clans. It was noticed that when someone unfamiliar approached their camp, the Ubunov leader came out and directed a beam of light at him, which killed him on the spot. No one knew what kind of light this was, bringing death with it. Finally Wang-raven said:
“I’ll take the biggest Borin shield and see what it all means.” You don’t get too close there: although I figured out how to save myself from the death ray, I can’t save you.
When Van came to the Ubun camp and their leader directed a ray of light at him, he raised his borin, shielded himself with it and loudly shouted in a low voice: “Wa, wa, wa, wa!” This frightened Ubun so much that he threw down his weapon and said:
- What's the matter? You scared me. I didn’t know who you were, and I could have hurt you, although I didn’t want to, because the Vanirs are my friends.
“I cannot stay,” answered Van, “and must return to the camp.” I forgot there what I wanted to show you. I'll be back soon.
Van ran to where he had left his bundi club and quickly returned. Sneaking up behind Ubun, Van hit him with a club, laying the leader dead at his feet, thereby avenging all the victims of the deadly light.
Joyfully shouting: “Wa, wa, wa!” — Van returned to his camp and told about what he had done.
When the corroboree began, all the women, relatives of the boys who were being initiated into youth, danced all night. At the end of the night, all the young women were ordered to retreat to the bough huts that had been built in advance on the edge of the rampart surrounding the circle. The old women remained.
All the men who took care of the boys undergoing initiation prepared to grab their charges and carry them along a constructed path into the bush. At the signal, everyone took their ward on their shoulder and began to dance in a circle.
The old women were then told to come up and say goodbye to the boys, after which they joined the young women in the huts. Five men watched as they entered the huts and placed branches on top so that the women could not see anything. When the women were safely covered by the branches, the men carrying the boys disappeared into the bushes. After this, five men removed the branches from the huts, freed the women, and they went to their camp. No matter how curious the women were to know the boys' initiation rites, they knew that no questions would be answered. In a few months, their boys will return, perhaps without a front tooth, with small scars on their bodies. They knew that the boys were not allowed to look at the woman after they disappeared into the bush. The women were not told anything else.
The next day the birth prepared to proceed to the site of the small forest, which was to take place four days later at 10 or 12 miles from the site of the great forest.
In place of the small forest, the circle was made not of earth, but of grass. All the clans went there together, settled down there and held a corroboree. The young women were sent to bed early, and the old ones remained until the time when the boys were brought from the site of the great forest and were allowed to say goodbye to the old women once again. Then they were all taken away by the men who were watching them. Everyone stayed together for a short time and then went in different directions. Each man led a boy. From this time on, for at least six months, the men strictly supervised the boys, who could not even see their mothers. After six months the boy could return to his tribe, but the isolation made him so wild that he was afraid to even talk to his mother. Gradually this strangeness passed.
It so happened that this time Baiama and the boys were not destined to arrive at the small bora. When they were preparing for the performance, the widow Millin-dulu-nubba staggered into the camp and shouted:
“You all left me, a widow, alone with a bunch of children!” How could my children's little feet keep up with you? Could my back carry more than one gulai? Do I have more than one back and two arms? But none of you stayed to help me. When you left the source, you drank all the water. When, tired and thirsty, I came to the source and my children asked for water, what did I find? Dirt, just dirt. Then the exhausted, crying children approached the next source. What did we see when we strained our eyes to find water? Dirt, just dirt. And I couldn't console them. One by one my children fell and died, dying of a thirst that their mother Millin-dulu-nubba could not quench.
As she said this, a woman quickly approached her with a virri filled with water.
- Too late, too late! - exclaimed the widow. “Why should a mother live when her children are dead?” - And she fell with a groan.
When the cold water cooled her parched lips and swollen tongue, the woman rose to her feet with the last of her strength and, stretching out her arms towards the camp, shouted loudly:
- You were in a hurry here, you will stay here. Gu-gul-gai-a, Gu-gul-gai-a! Turn into trees. Turn into trees.” And she fell dead.
The clans that stood along the edge of the circle and which her hand pointed to turned into trees. They still stand here today. The clans standing behind turned into the birds and animals that they were before: the barking Mazis - into dogs, Bayamul - into black swans, Van - into ravens.
At the site of the great forest, you can see tall and gloomy trees of a sad dark color, stretching their branches towards the lake with a sad groan. It is called Guturevon, the place of trees, and lies where the circle of pine forest was. It is known as a meeting place for birds bearing the names of genera of past times. The black swans of Bayamul swim proudly, their rivals in size and beauty are pelicans, ducks and many others - there are too many of them to list. An Ubun lizard with a blue tongue glides through the grass. From time to time you can hear the “Um, um, um” of the Doomer pigeons and the cry of the Millin-dulu-nubba bird: “Goo-gool-gay-a, gu-gool-gay-a.”
In response, the groaning of gloomy oaks and the rustling of eucalyptus branches is heard, until finally all the trees speak and the banks resound with the sad echoes of the past.
The men and boys who were at the site of the small forest did not undergo transformation. They waited a long time for the birth to arrive, which never came. Then Bayame said:
“Probably powerful enemies killed our friends and no one escaped to tell about their fate.” Now the enemies may be following our trail. Let's go to a distant country.” And they hurried to Nunda.
The dog Baiame walked with them. It was difficult for her to walk so fast, but Baiame did not want to leave her and drove her forward. When they came to Nundu's springs, the dog crawled into the bushes and gave birth to puppies. No one has ever seen such puppies. They had the bodies of a dog, the heads of the spiny anteater Piggy Bill, and the ferocity and strength of a demon.
A person who encounters Nundu ir-mu-nan, or long-toothed one, in the bushes will be killed by him. Even Baiame did not dare to go near his old dog's puppies.
The mighty Virinun Baiame lives forever. No person should see his face unless he wants to die. Alone, in dense thickets on one of the Nundu ridges, lives this old man - Baiame, the most powerful of all the Virinuns.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru