Australia Myth

Birth of the Butterflies
by David E.

Here is another creation story from Australia
Baiame and the Creation of Men and Women.

To start off with the earth was cold and dark. On the surface lay mountain and gullies, rivers and craters but most of all it was silent.

Earth stayed this way for time on end until a father spirit arose and woke the sun goddess of light and life. He told her to go forward and create life on Earth.

When on the planet she took a deep breath and made the air circulate around and around.

She started to circle the planet walking in all directions North, East, South and West. Wherever she stepped her footprints turned to plants, trees and forests.

The Sun Goddess then descended down into the caves casting her light everywhere. In the first cave she entered casting her light came insects of every colour and species, in the second cave came all reptiles of the world, all the ice in the cave melted forming seas and oceans. The third cave brought fourth all birds and animals. All the creatures set out to find homes all over the Earth.

All the creatures were very grateful to the Sun Goddess for her work. After she told them to live in harmony with each other they promised to do so.

She made different areas different temperature some cold and some hot, She also created seasons such as Summer (hot), Autumn (mild), Winter (cold)and Spring (mild).

The creatures lived on Earth for a long time they were happy and undisturbed until one day a very strange and monstrous thing happened, a thing that the Sun Goddess did not explain. a Cockatoo fell from his perch and--died.

The animals gathered near trying to wake the cockatoo

The creatures had a meeting at midday to discuss what had happened. The wise owl was completely confused, so the Hawk was called upon for his opinion. Without the slightest commotion the hawk flew above the river and dropped a pebble into the water, once it reached the bottom he said "Just as the pebble has gone into another existence so has the cockatoo."

The creatures did knot know whether to believe this explanation so they asked the crow to come forward and speak. The Crow was clever he threw a stick in the river it went under then submerged to the surface. "The mystery is solved" said the crow, "we must go to another existence then we come back again" The creatures were ready to dismiss the explanation but the crow said "Why not test this idea first, who will volunteer to go through a period of time without sight, sound and the power to feel. Three creatures volunteered, an opossum, a wombat and a snake. they wished to wait for the cold period not wanting to miss the fun of the other seasons. When winter finally came the three animals went to sleep the opossum in a log, the wombat underground and the snake also underground. The animals slept motionless for the whole winter. They couldn't see, hear, taste, smell or feel.

When spring came all the creatures gathered to welcome back the brave volunteers, the Hawk asked them some questions but they were still the same animals they were before just somewhat thinner. The Hawk finally said "we need more proof to accept the Crow's idea about death".

The creatures were somewhat baffled about this problem they did not understand it nor did they want to. After an hours discussion a caterpillar inched forward and said "perhaps the insects could solve this mystery", the other creatures were laughing on and on not believing what they heard. Finally the Hawk spoke, he said few words but they were worth a million, He said "Just as the sun goddess created us she also gave life to the insects, they have a purpose and so do we".

Like the volunteers he insects were prepared for the winter season, They hid in all places under bark in the ground and hung from trees in silk cocoons.

As the snow melted, and as grass shoots pushed up through the soil the animals awaited the return of the insects, in their new forms. A buzzing could be heard one morning then on the horizon came small specks of colour getting larger and larger they were butterflies millions and millions of butterflies.

"See us, See us" cried the butterflies "We are no longer what we were before. We are changed but we still live ".

All the creatures of Earth stood silent admiring the beauty and glory of the insects .

This is a version of the book by Steck-Vaughn World Myths. This myth comes from Oceania. This rewrite is by David Evans.