into the madly-leaping fire before him, where he perished in the
flames. And so were the Bilbers avenged.




16. MULLYANGAH THE MORNING STAR



Mullyan, the eagle hawk, built himself a home high in a yaraan tree.
There he lived apart from his tribe, with Moodai the opossum, his wife,
and Moodai the opossum, his mother-in-law. With them too was Buttergah,
a daughter of the Buggoo or flying squirrel tribe. Buttergah was a
friend of Moodai, the wife of Mullyan, and a distant cousin to the
Moodai tribe.

Mullyan the eagle hawk was a cannibal. That was the reason of his
living apart from the other blacks. In order to satisfy his cannibal
cravings, he used to sally forth with a big spear, a spear about four
times as big as an ordinary spear. If he found a black fellow hunting
alone, he would kill him and take his body up to the house in the tree.
There the Moodai and Buttergab would cook it, and all of them would eat
the flesh; for the women as well as Mullyan were cannibals. This went
on for some time, until at last so many black fellows were slain that
their friends determined to find out what became of them, and they
tracked the last one they missed. They tracked him to where he had
evidently been slain; they took up the tracks of his slayer, and
followed them right to the foot of the yaraan tree, in which was built
the home of Mullyan. They tried to climb the tree, but it was high and