The Cookooburrahs And The Goolahgool
: Australian Legendary TalesGoogarh, 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. A
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, out gushed the water in a
swiftly running stream. Soon the little fellows quenched their thirst
and then, in their joy, bathed in the water, which grew in volume every
moment.
In the meantime, those who had gone forth to hunt were returning, and
as they came towards their camp they met a running stream of water.
"What is this?" they said, "our goolahgool must have burst," and they
tried to dam the water, but it was running too strongly for them. They
gave up the effort and hurried on towards their camp. But they found a
deep stream divided them from their camp. The three Cookooburrahs saw
them, and the eldest one said to the little fellows: "You call out and
tell them to cross down there, where it is not deep." The little ones
called out as they were told, and where they pointed Googarh and his
wives waded into the stream. Finding she was getting out of her depth,
Cookooburrah the laughing jackass cried out: "Goug gour gah gah. Goug
gour gah gah. Give ine a stick. Give me a stick."
But from the bank her sons only answered in derision: "Goug gour gah
gah. Goug gour gah gah." And the three hunters were soon engulfed in
the rushing stream, drawn down by the current and drowned.
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