Beautifully Colored Rainbow Lorikeet Perched in a Eucalyptus Tree Jason Edwards—Photographic Print Buy This at Allposters.com

There was once a tribe that occupied a beautiful and fertile land where there was ample water, the hunting was good, and there were reeds and rushes and long sticks with which to make baskets and spears. Therefore, they should have been a happy and contented people. Sadly, that was not so, because each family had isolated itself from the other families and seldom spoke except to argue and bicker over the most trivial matters.

The spirits were aware of this and hoped that in time they would realise the foolishness of their ways and begin to behave as other tribes, but this never happened.

Baiame, the Great Spirit, was both disappointed and angry with the ungrateful people because he had provided all that a people should need in order to live a healthy, happy life, so he decided to punish them.

One day when the people were shouting insults at each other he sent a sprit in the form of a weedah, that is, a lorikeet , to deliver his message.

First, the bower bird circled the separate camps dotted about the land, calling the people together. They were so amazed by this bird that spoke their language in such a clear, powerful voice that they obeyed immediately.

When they were assembled the bird continued to circle the people, absorbing the colour from the land and into its own body until the once lush land was nothing more than dry, sandy desert. The people stared in disbelief at the bird, who had now become a koninderie weedah, or rainbow lorikeet.

'Oh, what are we to do now,' they wailed. 'Soon, all the animals will leave to find grass and we shall all starve.'

'Not if you behave as one people and work together instead of wasting your time in petty squabbles,' the spirit replied. He then added, 'You are being punished because you are an ungrateful people who have lost the desire for family unity, and that is against all that the Great Spirit has taught your elders. Until such time as you have regained your love for one another, as he intended, you will be doomed to roam the barren land and travel far in search of meat.'

Then the beautiful creature circled once more and disappeared.