Djiti Djiti (Willy Wagtail) In Subiaco...(1933). Part 2.
Today a Willy Wagtail flew onto my balcony doing the delightful little dance that Willy Wagtails do. I have seen these beautiful native birds in the streets of Subiaco, but not on my balcony.
In the previous post some children wrote some interesting observations about Willy Wagtails they had spotted in their urban backyards and shared them on the local children's pages in newspapers including Auntie Nell at the Daily News newspaper and Aunt Kitty at the Sunday Times newspaper. In 1928 a child sent in a short story to the Western Mail newspaper about how they thought the Willy Wagtail got their name.
The Willy Wagtail or Djiti Djiti as this bird is known in Noongar language, the language of the Indigenous peoples of the south west of Western Australia. They have their own traditional stories about these birds. Some of those stories were recorded by the early anthropologist Daisy Bates and published in various Western Australian newspapers.
The article and photograph is from Trove, the database of National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended
Western Mail, 29 December 1927.
JITTI-JITTI AND WEJ.
A Bibbulmun Legend.
(By Daisy M. Bates).
In the Nyitting (cold) times of long ago, Jitti-jitti, the Wagtail was a nyungar (man) but Wej, the emu, was only a bird. That was Kuraa'-Kuraa' -a long time ago. Jitti-jitti had two good waters on his Kaleep (home ground) Koddalilling and Yoo'jung-up; and Ngow (the malleo hen) and Debburn (the squeaker crow), his two wives, were fat and strong with good meat he brought them and the good water they drank.
One day Jitti-jitti went out hunting and saw a wej (emu) not far off and he said "I will stalk (Ngardong'in) Wej and spear him and go to my Kal (fire) early."
He soon got quite close to Wej and, lifting his spear, he sent it right througth the heart of Wej.
"Koorttalluru-do," "Gone through his heart," said Jitti-jitti.
But Wej did not fall down and die at once as he should have done when the geej (spear) went through his heart.
Wej got up and ran slowly to Yoo-jungup and stopped there and vomited blood "Ngoop Kardil" (Ngoop blood, Kardil vomit). The blood turned to wilgi (red ochre) and always afterwards there was plenty of wilgi at Yoojungup for Jitti-jitti and his Kaleep-gur (home people "townies").
From Yoojungup Wej ran to Jee'-o-gudain' and kardil-ed there, leaving more wilgi. Then he went to Kambaling where he again kardil-ed.
At Kambaling he tried to lie down and rest a little; but Jitti-jitti, who was following him up, hunted him on and Wej had to keep running all the time. He ran on to Koolbing and vomited so much ngoop (blood) there that he died just before Ngang-ga, the sun "went inside" (sunset).
He had run a long long way, but always along the coast side, not along the hill side.
When Wej was dead, Jitti-jitti came up to him and turned him over to get at the maaling (fat) in his heart and kidneys for that was the kind of meat food his two wives, Ngow, the Mallahen, and Debburn, the squeaker crow, loved best. But when Jitti-jitti turned Wej over the fat and the bood ran out in such great quantity that he could not put it all in his goota (skin bag), and he had to leave a great deal behind.
Maaling and Ngoop-the fat and the blood-mixed and mixed as they spread on the ground and turned into such good grease wilgi that the Koolbing Kalleepgur (people of Koolbing) were always able to barter it at Beeda-wa (initiation) ceremonies, and Manja bo'ming ("barter fairs") with visitors from other fires (homes), and the Koolbing Kallupgur carried large cakes of the greasy wilgi when they went visiting. The Koolbing wilgi was bartered far north and east, increasing in value as it was taken further and further away from Koolbing, and every purchaser was told the Story of the Greasy Wilgi
So in time, when it reached the circumcised man-eaters on the eastern borders of the Bibbulmun country it had become full of magic, magic that could cure as well as kill, and its possessors obtained great quantities of goods weapons, hair string, pearlshell in exchange for the magic Koolbing wilgi.
The dying Wej had run far away from his Kallup, which was at Doori-iring, Ko'r'jiug, and Beeganing, east of Narrajung-up (Narrogin).
After Wej died, Doori-iring (Trayning) hill became sacred (winnaitch), and if a nyungar (man) rolled a stone down Doori-iring hill, a big Moolyin (meteor) fell from the sky and the man became sick (mindaitch), and soon died, for Doori-iring hill was "jang-ga wej boo-joor" (spirit-emu ground).
When the white people (jang'ga-spirits, "white people" ) came across the sea to Bibbulmun country, the Kallup-gur first thought that they were the spirits of their own Bibbulmun dead, men and women, returning from Kuran'nup the home of the Bibbulmun dead beyond the Western Sea. And all the Kallupgur were afraid of the returned Jangga.
But by and by as they learned more about the Jangga, and as they saw the jang'ga going into winnaitch (sacred) places without any harm befalling them, the Kallupgur began to lose the respect and fear engendered in them in connection with their own laws and legends They said "Doori-iring boya (hill, rock, stone) is not winnaitch."
They ran up the hill and picked up some boya (stones) and rolled them down the hill and laughed because the Moolyin (meteor) did not fall down.
But every Doori-iriug man who ran up the hill went away from his Kallup and the angry spirit-emu went inside him, and he ran and ran as the Wej run from Jitti-jitti, and he vomited blood like the emu, and died amongst the jang'ga (white men), far, far away from his own Kullup.
Western Mail, 8 September 1949.
