All about history book of myths and legends. ( PDFDrive )

investigate. The Rainbow Snake heard her coming and was

at last roused from his sleep. He reared up and attacked the

two women who had invaded his land, and he swallowed

both the sisters and their children.

THE SISTERS RETURN

The Rainbow Snake made a lot of noise doing this; his

commotion roused all the other snakes, who asked him

what was going on. At first he lied, saying that he had

caught and eaten a kangaroo, but they did not believe

him. He finally admitted to eating the sisters. Immediately,

a mighty wind blew and a monsoon lashed its way across

the landscape. The rain and wind were so powerful that the

Rainbow Snake was forced to vomit up the sisters and their

children onto an ant hill, where they were returned to life.

A widespread Aboriginal myth from Australia

describes a pair of ancestral sisters, often

known as the Wawilak or Wagilag Sisters,

who travel across Arnhem Land. They have

a traumatic encounter with the Rainbow

and female entities, which culminates in the

snake swallowing the women. The sisters

survive, however, and finally escape the snake’s

stomach to coexist with their arch rival,

reinforcing the idea that both male and female

forces are needed for creation to be balanced.

The Primal Sisters

The sisters

The Rainbow Snake encircles the two women, along with

their children, in the centrepiece of this painting depicting

the myth about the primal sisters.

Ant hill

When the Rainbow Snake vomited the sisters onto the ant

hill, the painful and repeated bites of the ants brought the

women and their children quickly back to life.

AUSTRALIA

THE MYTH

One day, two women walked out of the ocean

and stepped onto the shore of Arnhem Land,

in Australia’s Northern Territory. They were

sisters and the elder one was carrying a baby,

while the other one was pregnant. The sisters

walked inland looking for animals to eat. Both

carried spears and were proficient in their use.

The sisters were creators, and as they travelled,

they gave names and shapes to the landscapes

through which they walked – essentially bringing

them into existence. They made steady progress until

the pregnant sister began to feel apprehensive about her

impending delivery. So the sisters set up camp and lit a fire

by a water hole at a place called Mirrirmina.

THE RAINBOW SNAKE’S CREATURES

The elder sister went to hunt for food, while the younger

sister lay still and eventually gave birth. But something

strange happened when the elder sister came back and

began to prepare a meal. All the animals that she had caught

and killed leapt out of the cooking pot, ran of, and jumped

into the water hole. The sisters did not know that the pool

was home to the Rainbow Snake. He owned all the animals

in the area, and would not let

the sisters eat them. After

this had happened a few

times, the elder sister

went to the pool to

Snake, seen as a conflict between the male

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