Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Dreamtime



As a child, I received a strange book about the creation of the Outback and the history of Aborigines called The Dreamtime. The book was illustrated with photographs and drawings and went back to the first sunrise, about how the animals were sad that it was so cold and willed the sun into being. But my favorite story was a disturbing little ditty about an old woman and her dingoes. The dingoes captured other Aborigines and brought them to the old woman to eat. Eventually she and her little wicked dingo friends get caught and they are killed. But they don't die. The dingoes turn into snakes and the woman turns into a bird, a bird that is almost never seen in Australia, but still exists.

What interested me the most that unlike the fairy tales I'd read, these had no moral. You kind of got what you deserved, but there wasn't much in the way of punishment or heavy-handed morality. It was the first I learned of the Outback, long before it became an overpriced chain restaurant with an appetizer that everyone loved that had more fat than four large pizzas. (Yes, I had my share of the blooming onion.) That haunted wild world with animals that talked and created the sun and killed for old women. So like and unlike everything now.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"Sampson he got his hands around the lion's jaw
And he ripped that beast till the lion was dead
And the bees made honey in the lion's head." Peter, Paul, and Mary

Cocktail Hour
Hey everyone, take a look at Heff's dinner challenge. Might have to get the bowtie pasta out after all.

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Thursday!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That story is really creepy and I come here like every day just for gratuitous pics of your feet. Well, I do read the posts also of course. Ok, I'm gonna go now.

Wil Harrison.com

the walking man said...

No need for morals to the stories. Strange how the old stories fit so well in today's world.

Anonymous said...

Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In forty five degrees

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

Charles Gramlich said...

Interesting that they don't really have a moral per se. Maybe it reflects a harsher world than any of us have known in our lives.

Lana Gramlich said...

You might enjoy some of the original Celtic myths--pre-fairy-taled. Much the same kind of "get what you deserve" idea. Much more realistic & interesting.