Western Arnhem Land

(map)

Malamuju-jalkjalk, a rainmaker, lived on a hill not far from Nimbawah. Although food was plentiful, he was miserable. His two wives were jealous of each other, and if he showed the least favoritism towards one, the other would harangue him mercilessly.

One day Malamuju-jalkjalk resolved to put an end to this unpleasantness. He went into the forest and performed a rain-making ceremony. The resulting downpour caused a flood which forced Malamuju-jalkjalk and his wives to take shelter high on a cliff, in a cave which could be reached only by climing a dead tree. When his wives had fallen asleep, he sang the floodwaters down, climbed down to the ground, and removed the dead tree. The quarrelsome women, stranded, became a rough, stony hill. Malamuju-jalkjalk turned himself into a tall rock near Nimbawah.

Charles P. Mountford, Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, 1: Art, Myth and Symbolism (Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 1956), 236.