Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the End of the World. Mudrooroo

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СКАЧАТЬ her basket filled with abalone and four crayfish which occupied all of Mangana’s attention. His daughter might have the body of a good provider, but she failed to live up to it. Mangana slavered for the succulent crayfish. His eyes flickered from them to Wooreddy’s motions in heaping up the coals of the fire. His eyes lingered on the dark-greenish body of a giant cray as Wooreddy gently and lovingly (at least so it seemed to Mangana) placed it on the coals. He watched as the dark shell began to turn a lightish ochre-red. He openly sighed as Wooreddy with two forked sticks lifted it off the fire, placed it on a piece of bark and put it in front of him. It was delicious, and the first bite freed his attention. He smiled as Wooreddy gave the next one to his wife, and the third to be divided between his children. The younger man felt the eyes on him and would have blushed if he could. On Bruny Island the custom was that first (or, in this case, secondly) the husband took what he wanted and left the remainder for his wife and children. He, without thinking, had done what he had done from the time he had been married and then a father. Ayah! Indeed he had been caught like the crayfish he was eating and put in the basket of this foreign woman without even realising it. He consoled himself with the thought that it must be the times.

      III

      Bruny Island had become a cemetery. When Wooreddy had left he had known that his community was dying. Now he found it all but gone. Only Mangana, he and a few females remained alive. The ownership of the island would pass to him, but this was meaningless. Bruny Island belonged to the ghosts. The land rang with their axes, marking it anew just as Great Ancestor had done in the distant past. He heard the crash of falling trees as he watched num boats towing to the shore one of the huge animals cursed by Ria Warrawah. Like all good animals, they had never got over their capture and often tried to return to the land. Ria Warrawah to prevent their escape had slashed off their legs, but this did not stop them from flinging themselves onto the beach. Huge and legless, they would lie helpless on the land, baking under the sun or wheezing under the clouds. They suffered, but never did they try to return to the hated ocean. These large animals, because they belonged to the land, could be eaten along with crayfish, penguins, seals and shellfish. The blubber provided the best oil for smearing the body and catamarans. After one came ashore and was eaten, the giant cradle of bones was flung back into the sea, not as an offering, but in contempt and defiance – to show Ria Warrawah that land animals would never belong to him.

      Although Wooreddy went to the whaling station to get some of the flesh which the ghosts flung away, he took care that his woman did not go with him. Trugernanna and the other island women went there for both food and excitement. They often spent days at the station and when they finally came back to the camp, they carried with them ghost food. Mangana liked this food and had even begun to smoke the strange herb, tobacco, which his daughter had shown him how to use. He wore over his body a large soft skin which had been given to Trugernanna. He wore this as a sigh of surrender and urged Wooreddy to do the same. The num were provoked by a naked body so much so that they often killed it. Num skins protected a person and if one continued to go naked one courted death. With such a choice before him, Wooreddy took to wearing a blanket.

      The ghosts had twisted and upturned everything, Wooreddy thought one day as he went a step further and accepted a num skin from a ghost he found with his wife. This did not upset him much as the woman had so increased her demands on him that he had found himself a typical Bruny Islander saddled with a foreign wife. He still consoled himself with the thought that it was the times, and the num skin did hide his manhood scars. Not so very long ago, Wooreddy had prided himself on showing the serried rows of arc-shaped scars which showed the degrees of initiation he had passed. Now they had lost all meaning, just as all else had lost meaning. Such alienation brought lassitude and the sudden panic fear that his soul was under attack. To counter this, he pushed his way into the depths of a thicket and made a circular clearing while muttering powerful protection spells. Then he built a small fire in a pit in the centre of the circle, heated a piece of shell in the smoke and opened a number of his scars with it. Blood drops fell towards the flames. Anxiously he watched each drop hiss into steam before touching any of the burning brands. This was good: his spells potent and protection assured. Lighting a firestick in order to preserve the strong life of this fire, he took it back and thrust it into the main campfire. His wife was still absent at the whaling station.

      Lunna finally returned from the embraces of the num. She carried a bag in which twists of cloth held flour, tea and sugar. Already she had learnt to boil the dark leaves in a shell-like container which did not catch fire and to make ‘damper’ by mixing the white powder with water and spreading it on hot coals. Wooreddy found that he liked the tea especially when some of the white sand-like grains were added, but the damper stuck in his throat. He preferred seafood, when he could get it, for sometimes when he ordered his wife to go and get some she appeared not to hear. Her large dark eyes would cling to whatever she was doing and she would ignore him. Once when he asked her she continued eating a piece of damper and he took up his spear and felt the tip. It was blunt. He went to the shelter for a sharp piece of stone, then remembered the hatchet and got that instead.

      After sharpening his spear, he waddled off to the hunt without a word to his wife. She watched his bottom wobbling off into the bush and smiled. It was one of the things that had attracted her to him. It added a touch of humour which helped to soften his stiff formality of manner. They had had a good relationship, but not as deep as it could have been. Perhaps it was because he belonged to a nation noted for their stiffness. She sighed and began thinking of the num.

      Wooreddy, not thinking of his wife or his problems, began prowling towards a clearing which had been maintained for a long time and was still not overgrown. With his senses straining for the slightest movement or sound, he achieved a state of blissful concentration which smothered all disagreeable thought. In the clearing three large grey kangaroos hunched, nibbling at the tufts of grass. He crouched behind the trunk of a tree, thanking Great Ancestor that the wind blew in his face, though as a good hunter he had allowed for this. Wooreddy inched forward. One of the animals lifted a delicate face to peer his way. He stopped and after a few moments the animal bent its back to eat the grass. The stalking continued until Wooreddy judged himself close enough to risk a spear throw. Slowly he lifted his leg to take the shaft from between his big toe. Ever so slowly his arm rose as his leg descended at an angle to support his throw. With a lightning-fast stroke, which contrasted with his previous slowness, his spear flashed toward the prey. The force of the blow sent it sprawling onto its side. It leapt up and tried to bound away. It managed only a stagger. The long spear aborted its bound. The kangaroo recovered enough to hop away. Wooreddy trotted after the animal.

      In the sudden joy at his success, he had forgotten his club, but no matter. He ran on in his curious duck-like gait which appeared clumsy but was effective. He quickly came upon the animal. It turned to face its pursuer with its back protected by the trunk of a thick tree. Wooreddy picked up a piece of wood as he circled the animal. At bay, it was dangerous. One sudden upward rip of a hind leg could disembowel him. If only he had a companion such as Mangana! Alone, he devised a tactic and ran straight at the kangaroo. At the very last moment he bounded to the left. Animals were like human beings and usually favoured the right side – but not always. He breathed a sigh of relief as the animal brought up its right leg. A fatal move: before the animal could recover he had bashed the thick stick down upon its nose, then belted it on one side of the neck. Wooreddy flung the carcass across his shoulder and took it back to camp. He would feed his sons real food, and not that white junk their mother too often served up.

      IV

      The island and the people continued to suffer. The darkness of the night-hidden land allied itself with the hidden, green, deep fears of the ocean. Wooreddy could feel it lapping about his middle and touching him with chilly fingers, cold as the white wetness he had once felt in the inland mountains. What had that been called? turrana. Now always he could taste salt on his lips and deep down his throat. The sea had invaded his body! Th is knowledge hit him one day as he was about to step on a snake which had no right to be on the snake-free island. His foot hit the ground a metre from the coiled black body in a rush СКАЧАТЬ