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Bahloo the Moon and the Daens
 
 

Bahloo the moon looked down at the earth one night, when his light was shining quite brightly, to see if any one was moving. When the earth people were all asleep was the time that Bahloo chose for playing with his three dogs.

Bahloo called them dogs, but the earth people called them snakes, the death adder, the black snake, and the tiger snake. As Bahloo looked down on to the earth, with his three dogs beside him, Bahloo saw about a dozen Daens, or black fellows, crossing a Creek.

 
 

Bahloo called to the Daens saying, "Stop, I want you to carry my dogs across that creek." The Daens liked Bahloo well, but the Daens did not like his dogs, because sometimes when Bahloo had brought his dogs to play on the earth, they had bitten not only the earth dogs, but also their masters; and the poison left by the bites had killed those bitten.

The Daens said, "No, Bahloo, we are too frightened; your dogs might bite us. They are not like our dogs, whose bite would not kill us."

 
  Bahloo said, "If you do what I ask you, when you die you shall come to life again, not die and stay always where you are put when you are dead. See this piece of bark. I will throw it into the water."

Bahloo threw a piece of bark into the creek. "See how the piece of bark comes to the top again and floats. That is what would happen to you if you would do what I ask you: first under when you die, then up again at once. If you will not take my dogs over, you foolish Daens, you will die like this." Bahloo threw a stone into the creek, which sank to the bottom. "You will be like that stone, and never rise again, Wombah Daens!"

 
 

The Daens said, "We cannot carry your dogs across the creek Bahloo. We are too frightened of your dogs."

"I will come down and carry my dogs across the creek myself to show you that they are quite safe and harmless." Bahloo came down, the black snake coiled round one arm, the tiger snake round the other arm, and the death adder on his shoulder, coiled towards his neck. Bahloo carried his dogs across the creek.

 
 

When Bahloo had crossed the creek, Bahloo picked up a big stone, and he threw it into the water, saying, "Now, you cowardly Daens, you would not do what I, Bahloo, asked you to do, and so forever you have lost the chance of rising again after you die. You will just stay where you are put, like that stone does under the water, and grow, as it does, to be part of the earth. If you had done what I had asked you to do, you could have died as often as I die, and have come to life as often as I come to life. Now you will only be Daens while you live, and bones when you are dead."

Bahloo looked so cross, and the three snakes hissed so fiercely, that the Daens were very glad to see them disappear from their sight behind the trees. The Daens had always been frightened of Bahloo's dogs, and now they hated Bahloo's dogs, and they said, "If we could get Bahloo's dogs away from Bahloo we would kill them."

 
  Henceforth, whenever the Daens saw a snake alone they killed it, but Bahloo only sent more snakes, and Bahloo said, "As long as there are Daens there shall be snakes to remind the Daens that they would not do what I asked them."
 

Collected in 1897 by Mrs. K. Langloh Parker.