[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

95

b Stories explaining the arrival of sections in the Rawlinsan Ranges and

Warburtan Ranges

The following Ngaanyatjarra story depicts the origin of sections in the Warburton-
Rawlinson area. The stick insect is Wan" Kawalpa. The text below is reproduced from Glass
Hackett 1970 but does not contain the transcript and the Ngaanyatjarra text itself, which
are in the original.

A TRADITIONAL STORY OF THE STICK INSECT
by Thomas Murray
recorded by Glass Hackett

There was a man and his wife. They lived there and the rain pelted down and pelted down
and stopped. And leaving his wife, the man followed a kangaroo around and around. And
following it around, he was not killing it. And the kangaroo was slowing down and sitting
around. And the man was working sorcery on the kangaroo, and making it alive as he was
following it. And it was getting up, And he came, followed and saw it had fallen down. He
came. and while it was lying there he came to kill it, but worked sorcery on it, revived it, and
followed it again. He followed it and it again fell. Again when it had lain down, he worked
sorcery on it and revived it. And the kangaroo revived, and getting up went on. He followed
it there in the northern country. He followed the unsuspecting animal, worked sorcery on it,
revived it and followed it for a long, long way. He followed it far, then having killed it, cooked
it and lay down Next day he got up and was coming along slowly. He came to his wife but
saw only the shelter there. He came and saw these many tracks all around. These ones sat
here, called her, lay down and getting up went this way. And standing there with meat on his
head, he thought, “What shall I do about this” Having stood and thought, he lefi it. He went
around, having put the meat down, behold he left it. He stood there, thought and thought and
said, “I will follow”. He followed and saw that these had gone a long way. He climbed up
and standing there he listened. He came and listened from the mulga tree. He lefi this and
came and listened at the big corkwood tree. Standing there he listened and listened. The cold
wind was taking them. And they were blowing in his direction. He kept listening. And the
cold wind brought all the Southerners from the south. It brought them all and put them in the
water-hole Pita-pita; a big salty water-hole in the ground And there he beheld them all go in
and his wife went in last. And he, shouting his complaint, ran around and sat down there. He
told two children, one left-handed and the other right-handed, to stay there. And having lefi
them, he went for a large amount of grass. He went for the spiny leaves of a tree he had seen
a long distance away. He came a long way, got it having pulled it up, and came along. He
pulled some up, then looked in vain for more; this was only a little bit. And he put it down
and lefi it. He came along, passed on, and saw a large amount. And pulling it up he there-upon
put it on his head, and having got it came along. He emerged and saw the same two children