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Goorialla the Rainbow Serpent - Part 2

One day a big storm was coming so the people built humpies to shelter in, and they built one for Goorialla. When the storm started two young men from the tribe arrived looking for shelter. They were the Bil-Bil, also called the Rainbow Lorikeet brothers, and members of the tribe.

They went to their grandmother Star Woman’s humpy and asked if they could come inside. “No” she said “I’m sorry but I have too many dogs in here and there’s not enough room.” The brothers went to Goorialla’s humpy, but he was asleep and snoring and they could see that his huge body filled up the space.

The rain got heavier as the brothers walked around all the humpies, but no-one had any room for them. They went back to Goorialla and woke him up. “Please can we squeeze inside with you? We are wet and cold and this storm is very bad.” Goorialla moved his large curled body so that his head was near the door. “All right” he said, “come in.”

The brothers pushed the door open quickly and ran inside, straight into Goorialla’s mouth. Goorialla was very surprised. He felt the boys running around in his mouth and swung his large head from side to side on the floor. Their feet tickled his tongue, making him swallow. The boys went down into his stomach and were gone.

Goorialla was very upset. He hadn’t meant this to happen. Then he thought how worried and angry the people would be when they couldn’t find the boys. He didn’t know what to do, except go away. He slithered out of the humpy into the storm and travelled north again until he came to the mountain Bora-bunaru, where he stayed at the top.

The next morning only a light rain was falling and people came out of their humpies and moved around. They looked for the boys and saw their footprints going into Goorialla’s humpy. Looking at the footprints and tracks on the floor they guessed what had happened, and the tracks outside told them that Goorialla was gone.

When the rain stopped the people saw a rainbow in the sky, and knew it was the spirit of Goorialla. When we see a rainbow today after the rain we know we are looking at Goorialla the Rainbow Serpent.

The Rainbow Serpent or Mother of Life >>>