Varrunna hunted for a long time, returned to the camp tired and hungry and asked his mother for darri - cakes made from grass seeds, but she replied that there were none left. Then he asked the Daen for dunbar grains to bake himself some flatbread, but no one gave him anything.
Angry, Varrunna said: “I will go to a distant country and live with strangers; my people will starve me to death.” And he left, hot and angry. Taking up arms, he went to look for a new people in a new country.
After some time, he noticed an old man cutting down bee nests. The old man turned his head towards Warrunna and watched him approach. When Warrunna approached the old man, he was surprised to notice that he had no eyes, although, apparently, he had been watching him long before he could hear his steps.
Varrunna was frightened by the stranger, who had no eyes, but turned his face towards him, as if he had seen him all this time. But he decided not to show that he was scared and walked straight up to him. The stranger said that his name was Murunu-mil-da and that his tribe was so called because they had no eyes, but saw with their noses.
Varrunna found this very strange and continued to be afraid, although Murunu-mil-da seemed hospitable and kind - he gave him a bowl of virri bark filled with honey, told him where his camp was, and allowed Varrunna to live with him.
Varrunna took the honey and pretended to go to the camp, but, out of sight, he considered it best to turn in a different direction. After a while he came to a large lagoon, where he decided to stop, got drunk and went to bed. Waking up in the morning and looking around, instead of a lagoon, he saw only a large plain. Varrunna thought he was dreaming, rubbed his eyes and looked around again.
- Amazing country! - he exclaimed. - First I meet a man without eyes who sees everything. Then at night I see a large lagoon full of water, I wake up in the morning and don't see it. And there was probably water here, because I drank it.
While he was wondering how the water could disappear so quickly, he saw that a storm was approaching and hastened to take refuge in the dense bush. Here he noticed cut bark lying on the ground.
“Now everything is in order,” he said. “I will get the poles and, using them and the bark, make a dardur to shelter from the storm.”
Having quickly cut down the poles and stuck them into the ground as a base for the hut, Warrunna went to get some bark. Picking up a piece of bark, he saw that it was not bark, but a strange creature that he had never met before.
- I am Balga-nannu! - this creature screamed in such a terrible voice that Varrunna threw the bark, grabbed his weapon and ran away, forgetting about the approaching storm. His only desire was to hide as far as possible from Balga-nannu - a creature with a back made of bark.
He ran to a large river that surrounded him on three sides. The river was too wide to cross, so he had to turn in a different direction.
Looking back, he saw a flock of emus going to a watering hole. Half of the emu was covered with feathers, the other was without feathers. Warrunna decided to kill one of the emus and eat it. To do this, he climbed a tree so that they would not notice him, and prepared a spear. As the emus passed by, he chose one, killed it with a spear, and climbed down from the tree to retrieve it.
Running up to the dead emu, he saw that they were not emus at all, but the Daens of a strange tribe. They surrounded their slain comrade and exchanged fierce signs indicating that they would avenge him. Warrunna realized that it would be of little help to him to say that he had killed the dark-skinned man by mistake, mistaking him for an emu. His salvation was in flight.
He ran again, afraid to look back and see his enemies behind him. Finally he stopped and only then noticed that he found himself in some kind of camp. He thought only about the danger behind him, forgetting about what awaited him ahead.
However, he had nothing to fear in the camp where he found himself so suddenly - there were only seven young girls there. They looked even more scared than he was. When they saw that he was alone and hungry, they treated him friendly, gave him something to eat and allowed him to stay the night.
He asked where the rest of their tribesmen were and what their names were. They replied that their name was Mea-mei and that their tribe was in a distant country. They came here to see what kind of country this is, they will stay here for a while, and then they will return to where they came from.
The next day, Warrunna left the Mea-mei camp, pretending to leave completely. But he decided to hide nearby, see what they would do, and, if the opportunity presented itself, kidnap one of the girls to be his wife. He was tired of traveling alone.
He saw the seven sisters walking with sticks for digging yams in their hands. He followed them, trying not to let them see him. The girls stopped at the nests of flying ants. They pulled them out of their nests and, throwing the sticks aside, ate the ants with pleasure - for the sisters it was a great delicacy.
While the sisters were busy feasting, Varrunna crept up to their sticks, stole two of them and hid again.
Having eaten, Mea-mei decided to return to the camp and began to pick up digging sticks. But only five of them found their sticks and left, and two had to stay and continue the search. They thought that the sticks were somewhere nearby and, having found them, they would catch up with their sisters.
Two girls looked for sticks around the anthill, but could not find them. When they turned their backs to Warrunna, he stuck the sticks into the ground and hid himself again. Turning around, the girls saw sticks in front of them. With a cry of joyful surprise, they ran up and grabbed them to pull them out of the ground. At this time, Varrunna jumped out of his hiding place. He grabbed the girls by the waist and held them tightly. They resisted and screamed, but in vain. There was no one around to hear them, and the more they resisted, the tighter Varrunna held them. Realizing that they could not escape, they became silent, and Varrunna told them not to be afraid and that he would take care of them. He is lonely and wants to have two wives. They should go quietly with him, and he would be kind to them. But they must do what he tells them. If they don't calm down, he will quickly calm them down with his nullah-nullah club, and if they are reasonable, he will treat them well.
Seeing that it was useless to resist, both young girls obeyed him and went with Varrunna. They said that one day their tribe would come and kidnap them. To avoid persecution, Warrunna walked further and further.
Several weeks passed, and both Mea-mei seemed to get used to their new life and were happy with it; but when they were alone, they often talked about their sisters and wondered what they did when they realized their loss. They would like to know if the five sisters are still searching for them, or if they have gone to their tribe's camp to ask for help. They did not allow the thought that THEY had been forgotten and that they were forever destined to remain with Varrunna.
One day, when they had set up camp, Varrunna said:
- This fire will not warm us. Bring some bark from those two pine trees.
“No,” the sisters objected, “we can’t cut down the pine bark.” If we do this, you won't see us again.
- Go! I told you to chop some pine bark, I want it. Can't you see THAT FIRE burns weakly?
“If we go, Warrunna, we will never return.” You won't see us in this country anymore, we know that.
- Go, women, don't talk. Have you ever seen a conversation start a fire? Why are you standing and talking? Go, do what I tell you, and don't say anything stupid. If you run away, I will catch you and beat you.
The Mea-Mei took Kambu stone axes and went to cut the bark. They approached the trees and with a strong blow drove their axes into the bark. As they did this, they felt the trees suddenly begin to grow, lifting them with them. The pines grew higher and higher, and the girls climbed higher and higher with them.
No longer hearing the blows of the ax, Varrunna went to the pine trees to find out why the girls were not cutting. As he came closer, he saw the pine trees growing before his eyes, and high in the air he noticed his wives clinging to the trunks.
He shouted for them to come down, but they did not answer him. He called them, but the women rose higher and higher with the trees and continued to remain silent. Both pine trees grew until their tops touched the sky.
At this time, the five other Mea-mei sisters looked out from the sky and began to call the girls from the pine trees, begging them not to be afraid and to come to them.
Hearing the voices of their sisters, both girls quickly climbed up. When they reached the tops of the pine trees, five sisters from heaven extended their hands to them and pulled them into heaven to live there with them forever.
If you look at the sky, you can still see seven sisters together. You may know them as the Pleiades, but the Daen call them Mea-mei.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru