hole. The wives and children camped in one camp, and Goomblegubbon a
short distance off in another. One day the wives asked their husband to
lend them the dayoorl stone, that they might grind some doonburr to
make durrie. But he would not lend it to them, though they asked him
several times. They knew he did not want to use it himself, for they
saw his durrie on a piece of bark, between two fires, already cooking.
They determined to be revenged, so said:

"We will make some water bags of the opossum skins; we will fill them
with water, then some day when Goomblegubbon is out hunting we will
empty the dungle of water, take the children, and run away! When he
returns he will find his wives and children gone and the dungle empty;
then he will be sorry that he would not lend us the dayoorl."

The wives soon caught some opossums, killed and skinned them, plucked
all the hair from the skins, saving it to roll into string to make
goomillahs, cleaned the skins of all flesh, sewed them up with the
sinews, leaving only the neck opening. When finished, they blew into
them, filled them with air, tied them up and left them to dry for a few
days. When they were dry and ready to be used, they chose a day when
Goomblegubbon was away, filled the water bags, emptied the dungle, and
started towards the river.

Having travelled for some time, they at length reached the river. They
saw two black fellows on the other side, who, when they saw the runaway
wives and the two children, swam over to them and asked whence they had
come and whither they were going.

"We are running away from our husband Goomblegubbon, who would lend us
no dayoorl to grind our doonburr on, and we ran away lest we and our