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YARAANDOO The Southern Cross
(Original Text)
The group of boys played wahgoo,
where all but one hid amongst the rocks challenging the remaining boy
to find them. They played until it was time to return to camp, but after
the last game the youngest of the group failed to return.
The boys searched everywhere, calling his name as they went, but the youngster
couldn't be found.
They dared not return to their camp without him, so they continued their
search until well after sunset, still calling his name.
The eldest boy asked who had seen where the child had hidden himself,
but could only find out the direction in which he went, which was to the
south of where they were.
By then it was quite dark, so the eldest boy suggested that they rest
for the night, then search towards the south at first light. He had assumed
that the child had lost his direction and had continued to travel that
way.
"I think we should go and tell the elders," suggested the eldest
boy's cousin, "they will know what to do."
"We can't go home without my little brother," the eldest boy
said quietly. "I wasn't supposed to bring him with me."
He paused for a moment and gazed at them, then continued as if justifying
his actions. "If I hadn't brought him, I couldn't have come."
"True," his cousin agreed, nodding his head meaningfully, "and
he wouldn't have wandered off, would he?"
The other boys remained silent and began to gather wood to build a fire
before settling down to await the dawn.
During the night, storm clouds rapidly developed in which lightning flashed,
the storm causing a huge willy-willy, or whirlwind, that became so large
as it gathered speed that it lifted the boys and sucked them up into the
night.
Higher and higher they spun until the land below was little more than
a distant, twirling blur.
Suddenly, the storm abated as quickly as it began, leaving them suspended
high above the earth. There they remained, shining as brightly as the
other stars. They are called Yaraandoo, or The Southern Cross. The eldest
boy and his cousin are the Mooyi, or Pointers, directing the searchers
who would come to find them to track south and rescue their younger sibling.
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