Bougoodoogahdah the Rain Bird

Bougoodoogahdah was all old woman who lived alone with her four hundred dingoes. From living so long with these dogs she had grown not to care for her fellow creatures except as food. She and the dogs lived on human flesh, and it was her cunning which gained such food for them all. She would sally forth from her camp with her two little dogs; she would be sure to meet some black fellows, probably twenty or thirty, going down to the creek. She would say, "I can tell you where there are lots of paddy melons." They would ask where, and she would answer, "Over there, on the point of that moorillah or ridge. If you will go there and have your nullahs ready, I will go with my two dogs and round them up towards you."

ブーグードゥーガーダーは、四百匹のディンゴとともに一人で暮らす老女だった。あまりに長く犬たちと暮らしたので、同じ人間を食べ物としてしか見なくなっていた。老女と犬たちは人の肉を食べて生きており、その食べ物をみなのために手に入れるのは老女の狡知だった。老女は二匹の小さな犬を連れて野営地から出て行く。すると必ず、小川へ下りて行く二十人も三十人もの人々に出会う。そこでこう言う。「パディメロンがたくさんいるところを教えてやろう。」どこかと尋ねられると、こう答える。「あそこの、あのモリラ、すなわち尾根の先だよ。行ってヌラを構えておいで。わたしは二匹の犬と行って、あんたたちの方へ追い立ててやろう。」

The black fellows invariably stationed themselves where she had told them, and off went Bougoodoogahdah and her two dogs. But not to round up the paddy melons. She went quickly towards her camp, calling softly, "Birree, gougou," which meant "Sool 'em, sool 'em," and was the signal for the dogs to come out. Quickly they came and surrounded the black fellows, took them by surprise, flew at them, bit and worried them to death. Then they and Bougoodoogahdah dragged the bodies to their camp. There they were cooked and were food for the old woman and the dogs for some time. As soon as the supply was finished the same plan to obtain more was repeated.

人々は決まって言われた場所に構え、ブーグードゥーガーダーと二匹の犬は出て行った。けれどもパディメロンを追い立てにではない。老女は足早に自分の野営地へ向かい、静かに「ビリー、グーグー」と呼んだ。これは「かかれ、かかれ」という意味で、犬たちに出て来いという合図だった。犬たちは素早く来て人々を取り囲み、不意を打って飛びかかり、噛みつき、食い殺した。それから犬たちとブーグードゥーガーダーは、亡骸を自分たちの野営地へ引きずって行った。そこでそれを焼き、老女と犬たちのしばらくのあいだの食べ物にした。それが尽きるとすぐ、また同じ手立てを繰り返してもっと手に入れるのだった。

The black fellows missed so many of their friends that they determined to find out what had become of them. They began to suspect the old woman who lived alone and hunted over the moorillahs with her two little dogs. They proposed that the next party that went to the creek should divide and some stay behind in hiding and watch what went on. Those watching saw the old woman advance towards their friends, talk to them for a while, and then go off with her two dogs. They saw their friends station themselves at the point of the moorillah or ridge, holding their nullahs in readiness, as if waiting for something to come. Presently they heard a low cry from the old woman of "Birree gougou," which cry was quickly followed by dingoes coming out of the bush in every direction, in hundreds, surrounding the black fellows at the point.

人々はあまりに多くの仲間が消えるので、彼らがどうなったのかを突き止めようと決めた。そして、二匹の小さな犬を連れてモリラで狩りをする、あの一人暮らしの老女を疑い始めた。次に小川へ行く一行は二手に分かれ、何人かは残って隠れ、何が起きるかを見張ろうということになった。見張っていた者たちは、老女が仲間の方へ進み出て、しばらく話し、それから二匹の犬とともに去るのを見た。仲間たちがモリラ、すなわち尾根の先に構え、何かが来るのを待つかのようにヌラを構えているのを見た。やがて老女の低い「ビリー、グーグー」という叫びが聞こえ、その声に続いてたちまち、藪のあらゆる方角から何百というディンゴが現れ、尾根の先の人々を取り囲んだ。

The dingoes closed in, quickly hemming the black fellows in all round; then they made a simultaneous rush at them, tore them with their teeth, and killed them.

ディンゴたちは輪を狭め、素早く人々をぐるりと囲い込んだ。それから一斉に襲いかかり、歯で引き裂いて殺した。

The black fellows watching, saw that when the dogs had killed their friends they were joined by the old woman, who helped them to drag off the bodies to their camp.

見張っていた者たちは、犬たちが仲間を殺すと、そこへ老女が加わり、亡骸を野営地へ引きずって行くのを手伝うのを見た。

Having seen all this, back went the watchers to their tribe and told what they had seen. All the tribes round mustered up and decided to execute a swift vengeance. In order to do so, out they sallied well armed. A detachment went on to entrap the dogs and Bougoodoogahdah. Then just when the usual massacre of the blacks was to begin and the dogs were closing in round them for the purpose, out rushed over two hundred black fellows, and so effectual was their attack that every dog was killed, as well as Bougoodoogahdah and her two little dogs.

これをすべて見届けて、見張りは一族のもとへ戻り、見たことを告げた。まわりの一族がみな集まり、素早く仇を討つことに決めた。そのために、よく武装して出かけた。一隊は犬たちとブーグードゥーガーダーを誘い込む役に回った。そして、いつものように人々の殺戮が始まろうとし、犬たちがそのために輪を狭めたちょうどそのとき、二百人を超える人々が飛び出した。その襲撃は見事に効いて、犬は一匹残らず殺され、ブーグードゥーガーダーと二匹の小さな犬も殺された。

The old woman lay where she had been slain, but as the blacks went away they heard her cry "Bougoodoogahdah." So back they went and broke her bones, first they broke her legs and then left her. But again as they went they heard her cry "Bougoodoogahdah." Then back again they came, and again, until at last every bone in her body was broken, but still she cried "Bougoodoogahdah." So one man waited beside her to see whence came the sound, for surely, they thought, she must be dead. He saw her heart move and cry again "Bougoodoogahdah" and as it cried, out came a little bird from it. This little bird runs on the moorillahs and calls at night "Bougoodoogahdah." All day it stays in one place, and only at night comes out. It is a little greyish bird, something like a weedah. The blacks call it a rain-maker, for if any one steals its eggs it cries out incessantly "Bougoodoogahdah" until in answer to its call the rain falls. And when the country is stricken with a drought, the blacks look for one of these little birds, and finding it, chase it, until it cries aloud "Bougoodoogahdah, Bougoodoogahdah" and when they hear its cry in the daytime they know the rain will soon fall.

老女は殺された場所に横たわっていたが、人々が去ろうとすると「ブーグードゥーガーダー」と叫ぶのが聞こえた。そこで引き返して骨を折った。まず脚を折り、それから置き去りにした。けれどもまた去ろうとすると「ブーグードゥーガーダー」と叫ぶのが聞こえた。それでまた引き返し、また引き返し、とうとう体の骨が一本残らず折れた。それでもなお「ブーグードゥーガーダー」と叫んだ。そこで一人の男がそばに残り、その音がどこから来るのかを見届けることにした。まさか生きてはいまいと思ったからである。男は、老女の心臓が動いて、また「ブーグードゥーガーダー」と叫ぶのを見た。そして叫ぶと同時に、その中から一羽の小さな鳥が出て来た。この小さな鳥はモリラを走り、夜になると「ブーグードゥーガーダー」と鳴く。昼のあいだは一か所にとどまり、夜だけ出て来る。灰色がかった小さな鳥で、ウィーダーに少し似ている。人々はこれを雨をもたらす鳥と呼ぶ。誰かがその卵を盗むと、絶え間なく「ブーグードゥーガーダー」と叫び続け、その呼び声に応えて雨が降るからである。そして国が旱に襲われると、人々はこの小さな鳥を探し、見つけると、「ブーグードゥーガーダー、ブーグードゥーガーダー」と声高に叫ぶまで追い回す。そして昼間にその叫びを聞けば、まもなく雨が降ると分かるのである。

As the little bird flew from the heart of the woman, all the dead dingoes were changed into snakes, many different kinds, all poisonous. The two little dogs were changed into dayall minyah, a very small kind of carpet snake, non-poisonous, for these two little dogs had never bitten the blacks as the other dogs had done. At the points of the Moorillahs where Bougoodoogahdah and her dingoes used to slay the blacks, are heaps of white stones, which are supposed to be the fossilised bones of the massacred men.

小さな鳥が女の心臓から飛び立ったとき、死んだディンゴはみな蛇に変えられた。さまざまな種類の、どれも毒のある蛇に。二匹の小さな犬はダヤル・ミンヤー、すなわちごく小さな種類のニシキヘビに変えられた。毒は無い。この二匹の小さな犬は、ほかの犬たちのように人を噛んだことがなかったからである。ブーグードゥーガーダーとそのディンゴたちが人々を殺していたモリラの先には、白い石が山と積まれている。それは殺された人々の石になった骨だと言われている。