OLD MAN MOON A Kokoberra Story By Johnny Ma thabvlang 6th July 1975
Old moon was asleep and was dreaming with a full belly. He burped as he was dreaming. She was sure he had killed her two children. Two uncles came with two brothers of the children and asked, “where is the ol’ man”. They were told, “over there in the middle of the big grass!”. They decided to burn the grass and Moon found himself trapped in the middle of a big grass fire. Moon ran around with his load and found a small waterhole and jumped in. The old man’s back was sticking out of the water and it got burnt along with all his spears and all of the wallabies and kangaroos and emu that he had speared that day.
ne day the moon was at a waterhole
All this time the smart sparrow hawk was flying overhead away from the grass fire. Moon heard Woodpecker calling, “Chok! Chok, Chok! You go into the sky and become the moon now!”
bogeying for mussel shell. He found two children (Mussels) and tramping with his feet he drowned them.
Later Moon looked down from the sky and saw Woodpecker working on a tree, Chok! Chok! “Oh, you there chopping sugarbag little bird”, called Moon.
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He got some kominchevl, sand paper leaves and scratched them white clean and bruised them all over. He warmed them in the fire burning all their hair off. He broke their arms, legs and hips as is done when cooking wallabies. Moon made a kub murri, covered them up and cooked them well. When they were cooked Moon ate the two mussel boys “fingers and all” and took away the kub murri place, “paper bark and all,” so no one would know what he had done. By ‘n by the mother of the two children became worried for her boys. She went looking with her husband following her sons foot tracks to the waterhole.
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When we see the moon in the sky, we remember that Moon lost a part of his back where the fire burnt him when his back was sticking out of the water in the grassfire.
