Atondido Stories
When he was well out on to the plain, though still some dis-
tance from the Oolah, he called out, "Come on."
The answer was a shower of spears and boomerangs. As they
came whizzing through the air Wayambeh drew his arms inside
the boreens, and ducked his head down between them, so es-
caped.
As the weapons fell harmless to the ground, glancing off his
boreen, out again he stretched his arms and held up again his
head, shouting, "Come on, try again, I'm ready."
The answer was another shower of weapons, which he met
in the same way. At last the Oolahs closed in round him, forcing
him to retreat towards the creek.
Shower after shower of weapons they slung at him, and were
getting at such close quarters that his only chance was to dive in-
to the creek. He turned towards the creek, tore the front boreen
off him, flung down his weapons and plunged in.
The Oolah waited, spears poised in hand, ready to aim di-
rectly his head appeared above water, but they waited in vain.
Wayambeh, the black fellow, they never saw again, but in the
waterhole wherein he had dived they saw a strange creature,
which bore on its back a fixed structure like a boreen, and which,
when they went to try and catch it, drew in its head and limbs,
so they said, "It is Wayambeh." And this was the beginning of
Wayambeh, or turtle, in the creeks.
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