Legend:
The Southern Cross

In the very beginning Baiame, the Sky King, came down from the sky to the land and created rivers, mountains, and forests. Out of the red ground and dust from the hot air he made two men and a woman. When he saw that they were alive he showed them what plants, roots, and grubs were good to eat and then went on his way. For some time the three people lived happily together, but after a while there came a long and severe drought. Plants withered, roots were difficult to find, and the grubs had disappeared. Being overwhelmed with hunger the woman and one of the men killed a small kangaroo to eat. The other man protested, “This is not what Baiame taught us” and ran away from the couple. Being faint with hunger, he collapsed at the foot of a white gum tree, dying. Suddenly, a dark spirit with fiery eyes picked up his body and placed it into the trunk of a hollow tree. Two white cockatoos, disturbed by the movements of the evil spirit screeched and fluttered around in circles. The tree groaned as its roots were jerked out of the ground. The tree then rose into the air followed by the cockatoos, and dwindled in the infinite space of the sky. Darkness fell, and nothing could be seen but the white specks that were the cockatoos, and the four fiery eyes which glared out of the hollow trunk. The four points of light, were the eyes of the man and the spirit and the white wings of the cockatoos became mounted into the sky. The eyes in the white gum tree became the stars of the constellation of the Southern Cross, while the white cockatoos, which followed them, are the Pointers.