At the very beginning, when the heavenly lord Baiame walked the earth, he created two men and one woman from the red earth of the mountains. Seeing that they were alive, he showed them the plants that they had to eat in order to live, and went on his way.
For some time they ate the plants that Baiame showed them, then a drought came, there were few plants, and one of the men killed a marsupial rat. He and the woman ate rat meat, but the second man did not eat, although he was mortally hungry and lay as if dead.
The woman said that the meat was good and persuaded him to eat. He got tired of this, he got angry and, although he was very weak, he walked off into the sunset, while the other two continued to eat greedily.
Having eaten, they saw that their companion had moved some distance away, and they followed him. They walked through dunes and pebble-covered ridges, losing sight of him at times. Approaching the edge of the valley, they saw their comrade on its other side, near the river. They shouted at him to stop, but he paid no attention to them and continued walking until he came to a large white eucalyptus tree. Here he fell dead to the ground, and next to him people saw a black creature with two huge fiery eyes. It lifted the dead man up a tree and threw him into a hollow.
Rushing through the valley, the people heard such a deafening clap of thunder that they fell to the ground, amazed. Rising, they were surprised to see that a giant eucalyptus had been torn out of the ground and was rushing through the air towards the southern sky. They noticed fiery eyes sparkling from the tree. Suddenly the silence was broken by a hoarse scream. It came from two yellow-breasted white cockatoos flying behind a disappearing tree; people called these cockatoos Muyi.
The spirit tree flew further and further, and the Muyi flew behind it, shouting loudly for it to stop so that they could get into their nest.
Finally the tree stopped near Warrambool, or the Milky Way, which leads to where the sky gods live. Gradually the tree disappeared from sight, and only four sparkling fiery eyes were seen by people. Two belonged to the death spirit Yowie, the other two were the eyes of the first person who died. Since then, the Muyi has been forever flying behind the tree, trying to reach its nest.
When all living things realized that the death of a person meant the coming of death into the world, crying began everywhere. The swamp oaks sighed incessantly, the eucalyptus trees shed bloody tears that froze with red resin.
To the tribes of this part of the country the Southern Cross is still known as Yaraan-du, the place of the white eucalyptus, and the constellation of the Hounds is called Muyi, or white cockatoos.
This is how the tribes imagine the coming of death, and the Southern Cross reminds them of this.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru