Narahdarn the Bat

Narahdarn, the bat, wanted honey. He watched until he saw a Wurranunnah, or bee, alight. He caught it, stuck a white feather between its hind legs, let it go and followed it. He knew he could see the white feather, and so follow the bee to its nest. He ordered his two wives, of the Bilber tribe, to follow him with wirrees to carry home the honey in. Night came on and Wurranunnah the bee had not reached home. Narahdarn caught him, imprisoned him under bark, and kept him safely there until next morning. When it was light enough to see, Narahdarn let the bee go again, and followed him to his nest, in a gunnyanny tree. Marking the tree with his comebo that he might know it again, he returned to hurry on his wives who were some way behind. He wanted them to come on, climb the tree, and chop out the honey. When they reached the marked tree one of the women climbed up. She called out to Narahdarn that the honey was in a split in the tree. He called back to her to put her hand in and get it out. She put her arm in, but found she could not get it out again. Narahdarn climbed up to help her, but found when he reached her that the only way to free her was to cut off her arm. This he did before she had time to realise what he was going to do, and protest. So great was the shock to her that she died instantly. Narahdarn carried down her lifeless body and commanded her sister, his other wife, to go up, chop out the arm, and get the honey. She protested, declaring the bees would have taken the honey away by now.

コウモリのナラーダーンは蜜がほしかった。じっと見張っていて、ウラヌナー、すなわち蜂が舞い降りるのを見つけた。それを捕まえ、後ろ脚のあいだに白い羽根を挟んで放し、後を追った。白い羽根なら見えるから、そうやって蜂を巣まで追えると分かっていたのである。ナラーダーンは、ビルバーの一族である二人の妻に、蜜を持ち帰るウィリーを持って後からついて来るように言いつけた。夜が来ても、蜂のウラヌナーは巣に着かなかった。ナラーダーンは蜂を捕まえ、樹皮の下に閉じ込め、あくる朝まで無事にそこに留めておいた。ものが見えるほど明るくなると、ナラーダーンはまた蜂を放し、ガニャニーの木にある巣まで後を追った。また分かるようにとコンボでその木に印をつけ、少し後ろにいる妻たちを急がせに戻った。来させて、木に登らせ、蜜を切り出させるつもりだった。印をつけた木に着くと、女の一人が登った。女はナラーダーンに、蜜は木の割れ目の中だと叫んだ。ナラーダーンは、手を突っ込んで取り出せと叫び返した。女は腕を入れたが、もう抜けなくなってしまった。ナラーダーンは助けようと登ったが、そばまで来てみると、自由にしてやるには腕を切り落とすほかないと分かった。女が何をされようとしているか悟って声を上げる間も無く、ナラーダーンはそうした。あまりの衝撃に、女はたちまち息絶えた。ナラーダーンはその亡骸を運び下ろし、その妹であるもう一人の妻に、登って腕を切り取り、蜜を取って来いと命じた。女は逆らい、蜂はもう蜜を運び去っているだろうと言い立てた。

"Not so," he said; "go at once."

「そんなことはない」とナラーダーンは言った。「すぐに行け。」

Every excuse she could think of, to save herself, she made. But her excuses were in vain, and Narahdarn only became furious with her for making them, and, brandishing his boondi, drove her up the tree. She managed to get her arm in beside her sister's, but there it stuck and she could not move it. Narahdarn, who was watching her, saw what had happened and followed her up the tree. Finding he could not pull her arm out, in spite of her cries, he chopped it off, as he had done her sister's. After one shriek, as he drove his comebo through her arm, she was silent. He said, "Come down, and I will chop out the bees' nest." But she did not answer him, and he saw that she too was dead. Then he was frightened, and climbed quickly down the gunnyanny tree; taking her body to the ground with him, he laid it beside her sister's, and quickly he hurried from the spot, taking no further thought of the honey. As he neared his camp, two little sisters of his wives ran out to meet him, thinking their sisters would be with him, and that they would give them a taste of the honey they knew they had gone out to get. But to their surprise Narahdarn came alone, and as he drew near to them they saw his arms were covered with blood. And his face had a fierce look on it, which frightened them from even asking where their sisters were. They ran and told their mother that Narahdarn had returned alone, that he looked fierce and angry, also his arms were covered with blood. Out went the mother of the Bilbers, and she said, "Where are my daughters, Narahdarn? Forth went they this morning to bring home the honey you found. You come back alone. You bring no honey. Your look is fierce, as of one who fights, and your arms are covered with blood. Tell me, I say, where are my daughters?"

女は、身を守るために思いつくかぎりの言い訳をした。けれども言い訳は無駄で、ナラーダーンはそれを並べる女に激昂するばかりで、ブーンディを振り回して女を木へ追い上げた。女はどうにか姉の腕のそばに自分の腕を入れたが、そこで挟まって動かせなくなった。見張っていたナラーダーンは何が起きたかを見て取り、女を追って木に登った。腕を引き抜けないと知ると、女の泣き声もかまわず、姉にしたのと同じように切り落とした。コンボを腕に振り下ろしたとき女は一声叫び、それきり黙った。ナラーダーンは言った。「下りて来い。蜂の巣はおれが切り出す。」けれども女は答えず、この女も死んだのだと分かった。そこで怖くなって、急いでガニャニーの木を下り、亡骸を地に運び下ろして姉のかたわらに横たえ、蜜のことはもう考えもせず、急いでその場を離れた。野営地に近づくと、妻たちの幼い妹が二人、駆け出して迎えに来た。姉たちも一緒だろう、蜜を取りに行ったのだから少し味見をさせてくれるだろうと思ったのである。ところが驚いたことに、ナラーダーンは一人で帰って来た。そして近づいて来ると、その腕が血にまみれているのが見えた。顔つきは険しく、姉たちはどこかと尋ねることさえ恐ろしかった。二人は走って母に、ナラーダーンが一人で帰って来たこと、険しく怒った顔をしていること、腕が血にまみれていることを告げた。ビルバーたちの母は出て行って言った。「わたしの娘たちはどこだ、ナラーダーン。今朝、おまえが見つけた蜜を持ち帰るために出て行った。おまえは一人で帰って来た。蜜も持たずに。顔つきは戦う者のように険しく、腕は血にまみれている。言え、わたしの娘たちはどこだ。」

"Ask me not, Bilber. Ask Wurranunnah the bee, he may know. Narahdarn the bat knows nothing." And he wrapped himself in a silence which no questioning could pierce. Leaving him there, before his camp, the mother of the Bilbers returned to her dardurr and told her tribe that her daughters were gone, and Narahdarn, their husband, would tell her nothing of them. But she felt sure he knew their fate, and certain she was that he had some tale to tell, for his arms were covered with blood.

「わたしに聞くな、ビルバー。蜂のウラヌナーに聞け、あれなら知っているかもしれん。コウモリのナラーダーンは何も知らぬ。」そしてナラーダーンは、どう問い詰めても破れない沈黙に身を包んだ。ビルバーたちの母は、野営地の前にナラーダーンを残してダルルへ戻り、一族に、娘たちがいなくなったこと、その夫のナラーダーンが何も語ろうとしないことを告げた。けれども母は、あの男は娘たちの行く末を知っていると感じ、何か話すべきことを抱えているに違いないと確信していた。腕が血にまみれていたからである。

The chief of her tribe listened to her. When she had finished and begun to wail for her daughters, whom she thought she would see no more, he said, "Mother of the Bilbers, your daughters shall be avenged if aught has happened to them at the hands of Narahdarn. Fresh are his tracks, and the young men of your tribe shall follow whence they have come, and finding what Narahdarn has done, swiftly shall they return. Then shall we hold a corrobboree, and if your daughters fell at his hand Narahdarn shall be punished."

一族の長は母の話を聞いた。母が話し終え、もう二度と会えぬと思う娘たちのために嘆き始めると、長は言った。「ビルバーたちの母よ、もしナラーダーンの手にかかって何かあったのなら、おまえの娘たちの仇は討たれよう。あの男の跡は新しい。おまえの一族の若者たちが、その跡の来た方をたどり、ナラーダーンが何をしたかを突き止めて、すぐに帰って来るだろう。そのうえでコロボリーを開き、もし娘たちがあの男の手に倒れたのなら、ナラーダーンは罰を受ける。」

The mother of the Bilbers said: "Well have you spoken, oh my relation. Now speed ye the young men lest the rain fall or the dust blow and the tracks be lost." Then forth went the fleetest footed and the keenest eyed of the young men of the tribe. Ere long, back they came to the camp with the news of the fate of the Bilbers.

ビルバーたちの母は言った。「よくぞ言ってくださった、わたしの縁者よ。さあ若者たちを急がせてください。雨が降るか砂塵が舞うかして、跡が消えてしまわぬうちに。」そこで一族の中でいちばん足が速く、いちばん目の利く若者たちが出て行った。ほどなく彼らは、ビルバーたちの行く末の知らせを持って野営地へ帰って来た。

That night was the corrobboree held. The women sat round in a half-circle, and chanted a monotonous chant, keeping time by hitting, some of them, two boomerangs together, and others beating their rolled up opossum rugs.

その夜、コロボリーが開かれた。女たちは半円に座って単調な節を唱え、ある者は二本のブーメランを打ち合わせ、ある者は巻いたフクロネズミの敷物を叩いて拍子を取った。

Big fires were lit on the edge of the scrub, throwing light on the dancers as they came dancing out from their camps, painted in all manner of designs, waywahs round their waists, tufts of feathers in their hair, and carrying in their hands painted wands. Heading the procession as the men filed out from the scrub into a cleared space in front of the women, came Narahdarn. The light of the fires lit up the tree tops, the dark balahs showed out in fantastic shapes, and weird indeed was the scene as slowly the men danced round; louder clicked the boomerangs and louder grew the chanting of the women; higher were the fires piled, until the flames shot their coloured tongues round the trunks of the trees and high into the air. One fire was bigger than all, and towards it the dancers edged Narahdarn; then the voice of the mother of the Bilbers shrieked in the chanting, high above that of the other women. As Narahdarn turned from the fire to dance back he found a wall of men confronting him. These quickly seized him and hurled him into the madly-leaping fire before him, where he perished in the flames. And so were the Bilbers avenged.

茂みの縁に大きな火が焚かれ、野営地から踊り出て来る踊り手たちを照らした。ありとあらゆる意匠に体を塗り、腰にウェイワーを巻き、髪に羽根の房を挿し、手には彩った杖を持っている。男たちが茂みから女たちの前の開けた場所へ列をなして出て来る、その先頭に立っていたのがナラーダーンだった。火の光が梢を照らし、暗いバラーの木が不思議な形に浮かび上がった。男たちがゆっくり輪になって踊るさまは、まことに異様だった。ブーメランの打ち合う音は高まり、女たちの唱える声も高まった。火はいよいよ高く積まれ、とうとう炎はその色のついた舌を木の幹のまわりに、そして空高くへと伸ばした。ひとつだけ、ほかのどれよりも大きな火があった。踊り手たちはナラーダーンをその方へにじり寄せていった。そのときビルバーたちの母の声が、ほかの女たちの声のはるか上で、唱えの中に鋭く響いた。ナラーダーンが火から向き直って踊り戻ろうとすると、目の前には男たちの壁があった。男たちは素早くナラーダーンを掴み、その前で狂おしく跳ね上がる火の中へ投げ込んだ。そしてナラーダーンは炎の中で焼け死んだ。こうしてビルバーたちの仇は討たれたのである。