` Here is the bridge , grandmother , ' said he . Then the witch did something that nobody in the world could have guessed that she would do . First , she took the gold and said to Ball-carrier : ` My grandson , this gold must be hidden in the earth , for if people think they can get it when they choose , they will become lazy and stupid . But if we take it and bury it in different parts of the world they will have to work for it if they want it , and then will only find a little at a time . ' And as she spoke , she pulled up one of the poles of the hut , and Ball-Carrier saw that underneath was a deep , deep hole , which seemed to have no bottom . Down this hole she poured all the gold , and when it was out of sight it ran about all over the world , where people that dig hard sometimes find it . And after that was done she put the pole back again . Next she lifted down a spade from a high shelf , where it had grown quite rusty , and dug a very small hole on the opposite side of the hut -- very small , but very deep . ` Give me the bridge , ' said she , ` for I am going to bury it here . If anyone was to get hold of it , and find that they could cross rivers and seas without any trouble , they would never discover how to cross them for themselves . I am a witch , and if I had chosen I could easily have cast my spells over the Bad One , and have made him deliver them to you the first day you came into my hut . But then you would never have fasted , and never have planned how to get what you wanted , and never have known the good spirits , and would have been fat and idle to the end of your days . And now go ; in that hut , which you can just see far away , live your father and mother , who are old people now , and need a son to hunt for them . You have done what you were set to do , and I need you no more . ' Then Ball-Carrier remembered his parents and went back to them . -LSB- From Bureau of Ethnology . ` Indian Folklore . ' -RSB- The Bunyip Long , long ago , far , far away on the other side of the world , some young men left the camp where they lived to get some food for their wives and children . The sun was hot , but they liked heat , and as they went they ran races and tried who could hurl his spear the farthest , or was cleverest in throwing a strange weapon called a boomerang , which always returns to the thrower . They did not get on very fast at this rate , but presently they reached a flat place that in time of flood was full of water , but was now , in the height of summer , only a set of pools , each surrounded with a fringe of plants , with bulrushes standing in the inside of all .
In that country the people are fond of the roots of bulrushes , which they think as good as onions , and one XXXXX the young men said that they had better collect some of the roots and carry them back to the camp .
Down as at for from if in of on over