The Mayamah

The blacks had all left their camp and gone away to attend a borah. Nothing was left in the camp but one very old dog, too old to travel. After the blacks had been gone about three days, one night came their enemies, the Gooeeays, intending to surprise them and kill them.

人々はみな野営地を離れ、ボーラ(少年を若者にする大きな集まり)に出かけていた。野営地に残されたのは、年を取りすぎて旅のできない一匹の老いた犬だけだった。人々が出かけて三日ほど経ったある晩、敵であるグーイーアイたちが、不意を打って皆殺しにするつもりでやって来た。

Painted in all the glory of their war-paint came the Gooeeays, their hair tied in top-knots and ornamented with feathers and kangaroos' teeth. Their waywahs of paddy, melon, and kangaroo rat skins cut in strips, round their waists, were new and strong, holding firmly some of their boomerangs and woggoorahs, which they had stuck through them.

グーイーアイたちは、戦いの彩りをすべて身にまとって来た。髪は頭のてっぺんで結い上げ、羽根とカンガルーの歯で飾ってある。腰に巻いたウェイワー——パディメロンとカンガルーネズミの皮を細く切って作った腰帯——は新しく丈夫で、そこに差し込んだブーメランとウォガラーをしっかり留めていた。

But prepared as they were for conquest, they found only a deserted camp containing naught but one old dog. They asked the old dog where the blacks were gone. But he only shook his head. Again and again they asked him, and again and again he only shook his head. At last some of the black fellows raised their spears and their moorillahs or nullah-nullahs, saying:

けれども勝ち戦の支度をして来たのに、見つけたのは人気のない野営地と、そこにいる一匹の老いた犬だけだった。人々はどこへ行ったのかと老いた犬に尋ねた。けれども犬は首を振るばかりだった。何度も何度も尋ねたが、何度も何度も首を振るばかり。とうとう何人かが槍とモリラ、すなわちヌラヌラを振り上げて言った。

"If you do not tell us where the blacks are gone, we shall kill you."

「人々がどこへ行ったか言わなければ、おまえを殺すぞ。」

Then spoke the old dog, saying only: "Gone to the borah."

そこで老いた犬は口を開き、ただこう言った。「ボーラへ行った。」

And as he spoke every one of the Gooeeays and everything they had with them was turned to stone. Even the waywahs round their waists, the top-knots on their heads, and the spears in their hands, even these turned to stone. And when the blacks returned to their camp long afterwards, when the borah was over, and the boys, who had been made young men, gone out into the bush to undergo their novitiate, each with his solitary guardian, then saw the blacks, their enemies, the Gooeeays, standing round their old camp, as if to attack it. But instead of being men of flesh, they were men of stone--they, their weapons, their waywahs, and all that belonged to them, stone.

そう言ったとたん、グーイーアイたちは一人残らず、持っていたものも何もかも、石に変わった。腰のウェイワーも、頭の結い髪も、手の槍さえも、みな石に変わった。そしてずっとのち、ボーラが終わり、若者にされた少年たちがそれぞれ一人の守り役とともに修行のために藪へ出て行ったあとで、人々が野営地へ戻って来ると、敵のグーイーアイたちが、いまにも襲いかかろうとするかのように古い野営地を取り巻いて立っているのが見えた。けれども肉の体の男たちではなく、石の男たちだった——本人も、武器も、ウェイワーも、身につけていたものも何もかも、石だった。

And at that place are to be found stones or mayamahs of great beauty, striped and marked and coloured as were the men painted.

そしてその場所には、マヤマー、すなわちたいそう美しい石が見つかる。男たちが塗っていたとおりに、縞が入り、印がつき、色が乗った石である。

And the place of the mayamah is on one of the mounts near Beemery.

そしてマヤマーの場所は、ビーメリーの近くの丘の一つにある。