Atondido Stories
sister's, but there it stuck and she could not move it. Narahdarn,
who was watching her, saw what had happened and followed
her up the tree. Finding he could not pull her arm out, in spite of
her cries, he chopped it off, as he had done her sister's. After one
shriek, as he drove his comebo through her arm, she was silent.
He said, "Come down, and I will chop out the bees' nest." But
she did not answer him, and he saw that she too was dead. Then
he was frightened, and climbed quickly down the gunnyanny
tree; taking her body to the ground with him, he laid it beside
her sister's, and quickly he hurried from the spot, taking no fur-
ther thought of the honey. As he neared his camp, two little sis-
ters of his wives ran out to meet him, thinking their sisters
would be with him, and that they would give them a taste of the
honey they knew they had gone out to get. But to their surprise
Narahdarn came alone, and as he drew near to them they saw
his arms were covered with blood. And his face had a fierce look
on it, which frightened them from even asking where their sis-
ters were. They ran and told their mother that Narahdarn had
returned alone, that he looked fierce and angry, also his arms
were covered with blood. Out went the mother of the Bilbers,
and she said, "Where are my daughters, Narahdarn? Forth went
they this morning to bring home the honey you found. You come
back alone. You bring no honey. Your look is fierce, as of one
who fights, and your arms are covered with blood. Tell me, I say,
where are my daughters?"
"Ask me not, Bilber. Ask Wurranunnah the bee, he may
know. Narahdarn the bat knows nothing." And he wrapped
himself in a silence which no questioning could pierce. Leaving
him there, before his camp, the mother of the Bilbers returned to
her dardurr and told her tribe that her daughters were gone, and
Narahdarn, their husband, would tell her nothing of them. But
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