Robert Hamilton Mathews

“ After he had dined heartily on the choicest parts of the wallaroo, and anointed his body with the fat, he proceeded to the river, where he saw the people whom the wallaroo had said were fishing there, and enquired if they had seen anything of the padamelon and other friends who were missing. They replied,—"No! that old rogue the wallaroo must have killed and eaten them. He is no friend of ours." The willy-wagtail told them how he had killed and roasted their common enemy, and they were pleased to hear it. ”

“ After that he returned to his own people, who were all very glad to learn that he had avenged the death of their friends, and he became a chief man in the tribe, and had four young wives. All the old men assembled in council, and decided that in future no man should go alone, either hunting game, or to search for missing friends, or on a hostile expedition, but that two or more should always proceed together, a custom which has been followed to the present time.
R. H. Mathews. ↑ The wallaroo is a large mountain kangaroo, and the padamelon, or paddy-melon, is a small bush marsupial. ”