No theme in human history and human interactions is more universal than the relationship of men and women. Many Aboriginal stories seek to justify the superiority of men, while hinting at the possibility of an earlier time when women had the upper hand and implying that they might challenge male authority once again.

The Man-Eater: The Mutjinga Myth

(oral tradition recorded in twentieth century)

In the Dreamtime, in the land of the Murinbata people, a great river flowed from the hills through a wide plain to the sea. As it is today, the land then was rich with much fish and game. From the river rose at one place a series of high hills, where lived an old woman named Mutjinga, a woman of power. She it was who called the invisible spirits to her side with secret incantations that none other knew. She was a kirman, leader of the ceremonies in which the people sang and danced the exploits of the totemic beings so their spirits would be pleased and would bring food in its season and many children for the people. In those days, all the things in the world had both a physical form that could be touched, seen, and felt, and a spirit form, which was invisible. When living things died, their spirits went to a secret cave where they remained until it was time for them to be born again. Mutjinga was caretaker of this cave. Only she knew where it was. In the cave, she kept the sacred totems to which the spirits returned.

Mutjinga could speak with the spirits. Because she had this power, she could do many things which the men could not. She could send the spirits to frighten away game, to waylay people at night, or to cause a child to be born without life. The men feared the power of Mutjinga and did not consort with her. They called upon her to lead their dances and teach them songs, but none came to sit by her fire.

Mutjinga became lonely and sent for her young granddaughter to keep her company. Mutjinga and the girl gathered bulbs and nuts and caught small game, but Mutjinga found no satisfaction in this food, for she craved the flesh of men….

[The story then recounts how Mutjinga dug a hole and covered it with branches in order to trap unsuspecting hunters. Magically turning herself into a goanna (a lizard), she appeared to hunters, led them to their deaths in the hole, and then ate them. This fate befell even the younger brother of her granddaughter, despite the girl’s unsuccessful efforts to save him. He too was killed and partially eaten, while Mutjinga kept the rest of his body in a nearby stream.]

The next morning, the little girl was at her early chores when she saw two men coming up the hillside. As she watched, recognition lit her face and she turned toward Mutjinga.

“It is my father and brother who come. Please do not harm them,” she implored.

“I crave their flesh. If you trick me again I shall eat you, as well as your father and brother,” Mutjinga warned. “This time I shall wait beside you until the men appear so you cannot deceive me.”

The men approached the fire, paid their respects to the old woman, and greeted the child warmly. “Daughter, have you seen your brother who came hunting this way yesterday?” the father asked.

Mutjinga hastened to reply for the child. “No, we have not seen him,” she said. “It is too bad, for nearby are many goanna holes. There is a large goanna right there,” and she pointed to the hole where she kept the club.

“I thirst. First give me water,” said the father.

“There is cold water in the stream,” the little girl told him as she pointed down the hill.

The two men walked through the bush to the stream. As the father bent to drink, he saw the leg of his elder son, which Mutjinga had weighted down in the water with a large rock. At once he understood.

“The old woman will kill us unless we kill her first,” he said to his younger son, and the two men returned to the fire.

“The goanna went into the tall grass,” Mutjinga told them when they appeared. “Leave your spears and light a fire to burn the grass. This will drive the goanna out, and when it runs toward its hole, you can kill it with your spears.”

The men went to fire the grass. As soon as they were out of sight, the father said, “Son, climb this tree and watch the old woman closely. She works powerful magic.”

This the son did, and he saw Mutjinga speak the magic words. She repeated them twice. He watched as the woman and the girl changed into goannas. From the limb of the tree, he observed the larger goanna chase the smaller one into the bush. Soon great billows of smoke were rising from the burning grass. The small goanna scuttled from the bush, its companion nipping at its heels. They ran past the hunters and disappeared down the hole.

“Get the spears,” the father commanded and ran toward the hole. Just as the son returned, spears in hand, the ground beneath the father gave way and he plunged through. Waiting at the bottom was Mutjinga, club raised for the kill. But the son hurled his spear and Mutjinga fell bleeding to the ground.

The father seized her roughly. “Say the magic words that will release my daughter or we shall kill you,” he threatened.

Painfully Mutjinga did as she was bidden. The daughter changed into her human form and the two men and the girl climbed from the hole.

“Daughter, show us the secret cave where the spirits are hidden,” said the father, “and teach us the magic words you have learned from the old woman. We shall take the spirits to another place, and we shall have the power.”

And so it was. The father took the totems from that place and hid them in another cave. He became the kirman, the song leader, and he taught the people the sacred dances and ceremonies. To him they brought their problems and he judged between them when they quarreled. And to this day, the men have kept the power.

Source: Louis A. Allen, Time Before Morning (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1975), 145–48.