Notes on Kurnai Creation stories

Transcription - Page 1

Toto-wara-wara was a great man in the
Muk-Kurnai time and he always stops at
Yiruk to take care of the Kurnai there.
When Bundawāl was a boy old Morgan
(Bunjil gwaran = thunder) and old Darby took
him there. Being a stranger from another place
he had to speak their language (Nangai) and not
his own. But he could understand it because
it was like his. He could only drink out of a bark
bowl while one of the men stirred the water
with a stick. This was to avoid the evil which
would come in him otherwise he being a stranger to
this country. He would have the Wia-wuk, that
is his lips and mouth would become very sore
as also his teeth would come out. Wia-wuk really
means "Bad-country" but it is applied to the
effects upon strangers who are not all protected by
the [people Kurnai -crossed out] Brataualung who speak the Nangai language
Totawara-wara is known to all the blacks at
Lake Tyers and the Snowy River.