“Well, well now!” exclaimed Bungadoon in astonishment. “And what did you do?”

“I do!” howled Boobuk with his murderous face glaring at Bungadoon. “What would you do if you woke up and found your fat paunch being tom to pieces by bulldog ants! Why, run, of course! Jump up and yell and race for the big timber and keep yelling, you fool! Keep yelling and leaping and running and rolling in the grass to wipe the cursed things off!”

“Yes,” admitted Bungadoon thoughtfully, “I suppose I should do just that. But what a terrible thing for a woman to do—to her very own husband, too! But didn’t you run back and kill her when you found out?”

“No,” sighed Boobuk, and gazed gloomily at the fire. “I didn’t know she’d done it; it was not until a long time afterward that I found out. I thought I’d just lain down near a bulldog ants’ nest and the ants had swarmed over me while I slept.”

“But didn’t you give her the father of all hidings when you did find out?”

“No,” answered Boobuk shortly.

“Why not?”

“Because I had time to think!”

Old Bungadoon looked his surprise.

“What are you gawking at, you fat owl?” demanded Boobuk.

“What did you think?” replied Bungadoon mildly.

The warrior Boobuk again sat up, gazing fiercely at Bungadoon.

“I thought what you would have thought,” he replied sarcastically, “if you weren’t sitting on your brains. I thought this, that if that woman could throw bulldog ants all over me just because I’d given her a hiding, then what might she do to me next time?”

“Yes,” admitted Bungadoon, “there’s something in that.”

“There is,” said Boobuk feelingly, “as you’ll know if ever you wake up with your navel full of bulldog ants.”

XI

THE DEADLY BLACK SNAKE

Happy days for Red Kangaroo, proved warrior but eighteen years of age. Giluram with shining eyes brought him news that old Mullionkale the play-maker was going to sing him in corroboree.

He, Red Kangaroo, to be sung by the tribe in corroboree, his deeds handed down by the tribe to generation after generation of its warriors to come, and learnt of by other tribes far away! For a successful corroboree was handed on or traded from tribe to tribe, creeping further and further across the great continent according to the popularity of its theme, songs, and dances.

Old Mullionkale the play-maker squatted quietly by the fire, his wrinkled face a cobweb of his thoughts as he planned this corroboree, celebrating a deed worthy of the tribal play-maker’s best efforts. In the days that followed he went again and again over the ground of that now historic fight to absorb every detail of the story. Giluram acted the part of the too-bashful Red Kangaroo, and a young and a middle-aged warrior with square black beard were chosen to act as the two raiders. For the benefit of the play-maker the complete incident was rehearsed, the women strolling out of the camp on the morning’s hunt, everyone acting, even to the eager children, every little thing that each one did on that morning. The three girls who had caused the trouble were the keenest actors of all.