Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic - John Matthews - Страница 363

Among the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, Cheeroonear is a dog-faced man with arms so long that his hands trail upon the ground. From chin to belly he has a drooping dewlap of many folds. He is accompanied by a pack of dogs.

A legend from the Nullabor Plain tells how Cheeroonear turned up at a waterhole in the middle of a severe drought. He drained the very last drops of the billabong, drinking so heavily that his stomach ballooned out and he began to vomit out human bones and remains. The people gathered at the billabong were horrified to recognize the remains as those of their relatives. Cheeroonear told them that they would not live long enough to report this to others. That night the people consulted their medicine men, the Winjarning brothers. They directed them to make two lines of brushwood leading to and converging on the billabong. At dawn, Cheeroonear’s hounds approached the waterhole, they followed the line of the brushwood road, but as each leant forward to drink, one of the Winjarning brothers’ boomerangs severed its head. Finally, Cheeroonear himself came to see what was happening. As he followed the brushwood road, he too was clubbed upon the head by the waiting warriors. When he did not come home, his wife came to the billabong. Before she was chopped to pieces by the waiting warriors, her unborn child leapt from her body and slithered off into the undergrowth in the shape of a snake so that the line of Cheeroonear might continue.