Naradarn - the bat wanted honey. He began to look around and noticed the descending bee Varra-nanna. Naradarn caught her, stuck a feather between her hind legs, released her and followed her. A white feather could lead him to a bee's nest. He ordered his two wives of the Bilba sand dune rats to follow him with cups of wirri bark to bring home honey. Night fell, and Varra-nanna had not yet reached her nest. Naradarn caught her, planted her under the bark and kept her there until the morning. When it was light enough, Naradarn released the bee again and followed it to its nest in the ganyanni tree. Having marked the tree with an axe, he returned to hurry the wives who were lagging behind. He wanted them to climb the tree and get the honey.
Approaching the marked tree, one of the women climbed up. She shouted to Naradarn that the honey was in the crack of the tree. He told her to put her hand in and pull out the honey. She put her hand into the gap, but could not get it back out. Naradarn climbed a tree to help her, and then saw that the only way to free her was to cut off her hand. Before she had time to understand what he wanted to do, he cut off her hand. The blow was so strong that the woman died immediately.
Naradarn lowered her lifeless body and ordered her sister, his second wife, to climb up, pull out her stuck hand and get the honey. She objected that the bees had already carried away the honey, but he said:
- No, climb up immediately.
She said everything she could think of to save herself, but in vain. Naradarn only became angry and, threatening the bundi, forced her to climb the tree.
She managed to get her hand through next to her sister's, but her hand also got stuck in the gap. Naradarn, who was watching her, saw what happened and climbed the tree. He was unable to pull out her hand and, despite her screams, cut off her hand, like her sister. When he struck with the axe, she screamed and fell silent. Naradarn said:
“Come downstairs, I’ll cut out the bees’ nest myself.”
She didn't answer, and he saw that she was also dead.
Then he got scared and, taking her corpse, climbed down from the tree, laid it next to his sister’s corpse and quickly walked away, not thinking anymore about the honey.
As he approached the camp, two younger sisters of his wives ran out to meet him. They thought that the women had come with him and would give him a taste of the honey they had gone for. To their surprise, Naradarn was alone, and when he approached, they saw that his hands were covered in blood. His face was so fierce that they were afraid to ask him about the sisters. They ran and told their mother that Naradarn had returned alone, very angry and with blood on his hands.
Mother Bilba came out and said:
- Naradarn, where are my daughters? They went in the morning to get the honey you found. You returned alone and did not bring any honey. You look fierce, like someone who fights, and your hands are covered in blood. Tell me, where are my daughters?
- Don't ask me, Bilba. Ask the bee Varra-nanna, maybe she knows.” He fell silent and did not answer any more questions.
Leaving him in front of the camp, Bilba's mother returned to the hut and told her family that her daughters were missing, and their husband Naradarn did not want to tell anything. But she feels that he knows about their fate and can tell about it, since his hands are covered in blood.
The sage of the family listened to her. When she finished speaking and began to mourn her daughters, whom she no longer expected to see, he said:
“Mother Bilba, the daughters will be avenged if anything happens to them at the hands of Naradarn.” His traces are fresh, and the young people of your kind will follow where they lead, find out what Naradarn has done, and quickly return. Then we will hold a corroboree, and if your daughters have fallen by the hand of Naradarn, he will be punished.
Mother Bilba replied:
- You said it well, my relative. Let the young people hurry while there is no rain or dust and the tracks are clearly visible.
The most agile and vigilant young people of the family went in search and quickly returned to the camp with the news of the fate of the Bilba sisters. At night there was a corroboree. The women sat in a semicircle and sang monotonous songs or played games - hitting rolled up possum skins or hitting boomerangs on boomerangs.
Large fires lit near the bushes illuminated the dancers as they emerged from their camps, painted with various patterns, belted with wave belts, with tufts of feathers in their hair, carrying painted staffs in their hands. At the head of the men going out into the open was Naradarn. The light of the fires illuminated the treetops, the dark oaks stood out with their fantastic outlines. The mysterious slow dance of men was accompanied by the sound of boomerangs and the singing of women. The flames of the fires rose higher, and their colored tongues flickered around the tree trunks and in the air.
One fire was higher than the others, and the dancers pushed Naradarn towards it. Among the voices of the singing women, the voice of Bilb's mother sounded loudly. When Naradarn turned to dance away from the fire, he met a wall of people in front of him. They grabbed him and threw him into the fire, where he died.
Thus were the Bilbas avenged.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru