Go back to: Stories View other available stories. Version 1 Yuwaalaraay only. Version 2 Yuwaalaraay and English.

About the Garrbaali story The Yuwaalaraay version of this story is adapted from tape 3997B where Arthur Dodd tells the story to Corinne Williams. Below is the English version which Arthur Dodd first gives. There are some differences between this and the translation of the Yuwaalaraay version he gives. The Shingleback is a slow moving and very scaly lizard, similar in shape and movement to a blue-tongue. In Yuwaalaraay 'having sinews' (dhunbil-iyaay) is a way of saying 'strong' and 'lacking sinews' (dhunbil-dhalibaa) means 'weak'. Shingleback and Emu, Arthur Dodd (in English) "All right", this shingleback, said, "all right", so they both went down to this waterhole, and this old emu, he dived in, was swimming around, and came out. [its only a bit of a yarn, you know.] He came out and sat down on the bank, and telling the old shingleback, "Come on, you go in now, you have a swim." and the old shingleback pulled his sinews off. This shingleback, he used to run like anything, and the old emu, he was harmless, he couldnít get about. So this emu coaxed him down to this waterhole, telling the shingleback to dive down, and when he dived down he come up again quick, you know, because this old shingleback he pulled his sinews off and left them on the bank. Old emu, he couldnít get about, he [shingleback] kept ducking his head down and up, didnít want the emu to get away with his sinews. The emu wanted the sinews so he said: "Dive again, yaluu, yaluu wunga-ya." See heís telling him to go down again. Anyhow he dived down and as soon as he did the old emu, he got his sinews and stuck them on himself, and away he went, running like anything, like the wind. Then the shingleback, he came out, thatís why he canít get about, he is settled.