1 Darwin Moodoonuthi: The cave at Wamarkuld This text, recorded in July 1982, recounts the fatal consequences of an expedition made to Bentinck Island in the early 1960s with two Europeans. It has become a modern myth, and is constantly repeated to children to demonstrate the importance of following the old law, and as a warning against further European intrusion into secret/sacred places. 1 0.00 11.3 Wamarkuld. That place was never gone to, it's a bad place. A bad pla... [A recurring them of the story is unauthorized trespassing. Grammatically, this results in a number of passivized motion verbs, such as warraajarri here, which express the ill effects of motion on a place.] Wamakurlda (place name) dathin that a NOM dulk place a NOM warra go a M jarri NEGACT birdi bad ya NOM dulk place(NOM) birdi bad ya NOM dul.. place(NOM) 2 11.3 15.8 The boss of that place never went near (it). dul land marra UTIL dangka man a NOM warra go jarri NEGACT marrwa near y MLOC marrwa near y MLOC 3 15.8 19.0 Far away he walked, (in) the far scrub. warra far a NOM warra go j ACT warra far a NOM thungku mangrove.scrub(NOM) 4 19.0 26.3 (People) from the south (stayed) far off, walked in the scrub far off. rar south umban ORIG d NOM rar south umban ORIG da NOM warra far a NOM warra far ya LOC wambal bush i LOC warra go j ACT 5 26.3 31.6 (People) from the north went through the scrub. Exceptionally, this word exhibits vowel harmony here--it is normally pronounced jirrkurumbanda. jurrkur north umban ORIG d NOM thungkuwa mangrove.scrub(NOM) ya LOC warra go j ACT 6 31.6 36.8 In the east, going east, the western mob (stayed) in the mangrove scrub. ri east ya NOM rul east ung ALL k NOM bal west umban ORIG da NOM jardi mob y NOM thungkuwa scrub(NOM) y LOC 7 36.8 39.4 The eastern mob came back through the scrub. rul east umban ORIG da NOM jardi mob ya NOM thungkuwa scrub(NOM) ya MLOC thaa return th ACT 8 39.4 44.3 (It's) deadly stuff, (they're) deadly people (there). ngulmu deadly wa NOM thung.. thing ngulmu deadly wa NOM dangka person a NOM 9 44.3 49.9 Nearby mustn't be gone to. marrwa close a NOM warra go a M nangku NEG.POT 10 49.9 54.2 (That's the way it's) always been. [Literally: 'Absolutely always (it had been) good'. (The law was observed.)] yulkaan eternal mirra INTENS yulkaan eternal da NOM mirra good a NOM