When the two Mea-mei were raised to heaven, Varrunna could not return them and began to wander alone.
He was already far from Nerangledul, from where he had come. He passed Yaraanba, Narine, reached Nindigu-li, where there are small sandy ridges and where the long-toothed monsters Ir-munen left Nundu.
He positioned himself near the water and saw a strange creature approaching him with the body and head of a dog, the legs of a woman and a short tail. It jumped one and a half meters, making a buzzing and whistling sound with its lips.
“Who is that coming to the water?” - thought Varrunna and, when the creature approached him, he decided: “This must be Ir-munen, one of the puppies of the dog that Baiame left in Nundu, which I heard about.” He asked the monster:
-Where is your old master? “He wanted to know from this strange creature where Baiame was now.”
In response, Irmunen made an incoherent whistling sound with his lips, which Varrunna had already heard.
- Did he leave you? - Varrunna asked again.
The incoherent whistling sound of “ferr, ferr” followed again.
“Is it true that he’s gone forever?”
“Ferr, ferr,” came the answer. Varrunna stood up and drove the monster away, saying:
- Enough, go away. You didn't say anything about Byam and I don't need you anymore.
At the word “Bayame,” the monster rushed away, exclaiming: “Ferr, ferr!”
It quickly disappeared into the sandy ridges where Varrunna had heard that these strange creatures lived in huge caves and where they kept captured travelers. They were afraid of nothing except the name of Baiame. Varrunna did not risk another meeting with the monsters and hurried to Danger.
He traveled for many days until he came to Duguber, located by the sea. Seeing water in front of him and feeling thirsty, he took a small wooden biiga cup to scoop up water and drink.
- Ha! - he exclaimed, swallowing a sip and feeling a strange taste - Ha! Buda! Buda! Salt! Salt! - he said and spat out the water.
Mistaking the frost for salt, he cleaned it off with his hand, scooped up some water again and tasted it.
- Ha! Ha! Buda! Buda! I am thirsty, I must go back to the ponds I passed by and drink there.
Before leaving, he looked at the sea again and said:
- What kind of spill is this? There are no trees or myrrh bushes visible, and the water tastes salty. It's not like a flood. The water looks like the Gunaulla sky with white clouds on it. But when the clouds move, the sky remains calm, but here everything moves and shimmers, although people have never tasted such water.
Surprised, he went back to the ponds and drank. Then he killed two possums and skinned them to make water bags - galli-mea.
At night, when he settled down to rest far from the sea, the wind rose and he heard the sound of the roaring sea, but what kind of noise it was, Varrunna did not know.
In the morning he went to take another look at the strange spill, thinking to see the far shore. Noticing a tall tree several tens of meters from the shore, he climbed onto it and tried to make out trees or land on the horizon. But all he saw was water, this time dark and seemingly angry. “There’s a storm hiding in there. “This is probably the camp of Dulumea’s thunder and roaring winds,” he decided, listening to the furious noise. “That’s what I heard last night.”
Watching the waves roll over one another and crash onto the shore with an angry roar, he thought: “There must be Wanda demons in the water, and they are trying to grab me. I’ll climb a high mountain, it’ll be better to see from there.” But in vain Varrunna climbed the mountain - he saw only water everywhere.
Descending from the mountain to the ponds where possum skins were drying, he made water bags from them. After waiting until the water became as calm as it was when he first saw it, he filled bags with it and took with him several shells. He wanted to go straight back to his tribe, tell what he had seen, and give the people a taste of the waters so they would believe him. On his way back, he met a very old Daen and thought that he might know something about the strange water and its roaring voices. Old Virinun listened to Varrunna's story, tasted the water, spat it out and sat in silence for some time. Then he said:
“My father’s fathers told their children the truth that there is more water beyond the mountains than any man has ever seen. She is full of dangers for man, pursuing him to the very edge and roaring with anger when she cannot capture him for the numerous monsters living in her, which are larger and more dangerous than Kurrna. Have you seen them?
“I saw nothing but water,” said Varrunna. “There was only salt water everywhere.” And the roar that I heard was obviously emitted by these monsters. They demanded that the water bring me to them, and screamed in rage when I left. I will hasten to my tribe and tell you what I have seen and heard.
Before leaving, Warrunna left the old Virinun some buda - salt water, so that his tribe could taste it, and one of the shells picked up on the shore.
These shells subsequently became the cause of many battles - one tribe tried to take them from another. The oldest Wirinun of the tribe always wore one of these to big corroboree events. Then one Virinun, who owned the shell, hid it for safety in the magic tree of Mingga. He died leaving her there, and there are still battles over her to this day. Some tribes try to kidnap her, while others fight to protect her...
At times on the way home Warrunna had to stop and change the salt water bags as the old ones began to leak. At last he came to Nerangledul and brought back enough water for the elders of his tribe to taste. None of them knew where Warrunna had been, and they could not understand what kind of water stretched beyond all their hunting grounds.
Every stranger who came to the camp was brought to Varrunna, and he told what made him return from his journey. Warrunna did not live long after his return, and what he saw became the legend of his tribe. He violated the law of Baiame by leaving his land, and therefore could not live long after returning. However, he became so famous for his travels that when he died, a huge meteor flashed across the sky, followed by a terrible thunderclap, which announced to the tribes for many kilometers around that the great spirit had left the earth.
The story of Warrunna's travels and the strange water was passed down from generation to generation, and at large corrobories the shells he brought were shown.
When the white Wanda devils (as the Daen call the first white men) appeared in the country, the truth of the old legend was proved by several dark-skinned youths who went from Gandablui to Mu-lubinba with cattle. Here they saw far-reaching water with white clouds on it. They heard her dull roar. They were afraid, but one young man, braver than the others, said:
- Let's try it. If it is salty, then it is like the water that Warrunna saw, as the old people say.
They tasted the water and it turned out to be salty.
“So what they told us is true.” We'll say we've seen it and tried it. Let's take some wa-a shells with us to wear at the corroboree. “And they took the shells with them to prove the veracity of their words.”
One of these young men, the one who first tried salt water, is now an old man. It was he who told the story of Warrunna's journey to the sea.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru