Daisy Bates' people

(map)

Daisy Bates studied and advocated for many aboriginal groups in Western and southern Australia. The source does not specify which group this tale is from.

Long ago, before there was a sea, Jittijitti the Wagtail lived in a well-watered land where there was plenty to eat. One day he travelled north, and he stayed away a long time. Other tribesmen came and settled in Jittijitti's land, even though they knew it was his. They built shelters and gathered their food there.

Then one day they saw Jittijitti returning. They caught and cooked fish to give to him in an attempt to appease him, but Jittijitti was angry that they came without permission, and he did not touch the food. Instead, he went to the waterhole where they had caught the fish, and with his spear he splashed water all around. This caused a flood which covered all the land and drowned all the trespassing tribesmen. Woggal the Carpet Snake, a good friend to Jittijitti, came from the ground and made depressions with his big body. These became the creeks and rivers, and they carried the floodwater to the edge of the land, where it became the sea.

Barbara Ker Wilson, Tales Told to Kabbarli: Aboriginal Legends collected by Daisy Bates (New York: Crown, 1972), 23-24.