il at last
their tops touched the sky. As they did so, from the sky the five
Meamei looked out, called to their two sisters on the pine trees,
bidding them not to be afraid but to come to them. Quickly the two
girls climbed up when they heard the voices of their sisters. When they
reached the tops of the pines the five sisters in the sky stretched
forth their hands, and drew them in to live with them there in the sky
for ever.

And there, if you look, you may see the seven sisters together. You
perhaps know them as the Pleiades, but the black fellows call them the
Meamei.

11. THE COOKOOBURRAHS AND THE GOOLAHGOOL

Googarh, the iguana, was married to Moodai, the opossum and
Cookooburrah, the laughing jackass. Cookooburrah was the mother of
three sons, one grown up and living away from her, the other two only
little boys. They had their camps near a goolahgool, whence they
obtained water. A goolahgool is a water-holding tree, of the iron bark
or box species. It is a tree with a split in the fork of it, and hollow
below the fork. After heavy rain, this hollow trunk would be full of
water, which water would have run into it through the split in the
fork. A goolahgool would hold water for a long time. The blacks knew a
goolahgool, amongst other trees, by the mark which the overflow of
water made down the trunk of the tree, discolouring the bark.

One day, Googarh, the iguana, and his two wives went out hunting,
leaving the two little Cookooburrahs at the camp. They had taken out
water for themselves in their opossum skin water bags, but they had
left none for the children, who were too small to get any from the
goolahgool for themselves, so nearly perished from thirst. Their
tongues were swollen in their mouths, and they were quite speechless,
when they saw a man coming towards them. When he came near, they saw it
was Cookooburrah, their big brother. They could not speak to him and
answer, when he asked where his mother was. Then he asked them what was
the matter. All they could do was to point towards the tree. He looked
at it, and saw it was a goolahgool, so he said: "Did your mother leave
you no water?" They shook their heads. He said: "Then you are perishing
for want of a drink, my brothers?" They nodded. "Go," he said "a little
way off, and you shall see how I will punish them for leaving my little
brothers to perish of thirst." He went towards the tree, climbed up it,
and split it right down. As he did so