http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/p/2005/strehlow-research/journeyhorseshoebend.pd...page 58
The only reason for this party's going
into hiding was to ensure that every member of
the Irbmangkara population had returned to the
camp before the murderous assault was undertaken.
These fifty or sixty tnengka had accordingly been split into three parties upon arrival at Urualbukara - two parties took up positions on
the hill slopes of Ilaltilalta and Lalkitnama respectively, while the third hid in the thick undergrowth that covered the river bed south of the
camps. This arrangement was intended to frustrate any attempts of escape on the part of the
victims.
The sun had sunk very low in the western sky
before the waiting warriors could be reasonably
certain that all members of the Irbmangkara
camp had returned. Keeping under the cover of
bushes and trees, the armed men crept forward
with the relentless and uncanny skill of hunters
used to stalking suspicious game animals. As
soon as the clearing around the camp had been
reached, they rushed in, like swift dingoes upon
a flock of unsuspecting emus. Spears and boomerangs flew with deadly aim. Within a matter
of minutes Ltjabakuka and his men were lying
lifeless in their blood at their brush shelters.
Then the warriors turned their murderous attention to the women and older children, and either
speared or clubbed them to death. Finally, according to the grim custom of warriors and
avengers, they broke the limbs of the infants,
leaving them to die "natural deaths". The final
number of the dead could well have reached the
high figure of from eighty to a hundred men,
women, and children. Before leaving the
stricken camp, the bodies of all clubbed victims
were prodded with spears to make certain that
there was no life left in them. For the warriors
had to be sure beyond all doubt that no eyewitnesses had survived who could later on incite
reprisals against them. Satisfied that they had
carried out their grim task with flawless precision, the warriors now left the Urualbukara
camp. But they had made one fatal mistake. Laparintja, one of Ltjabakuka's wives, though severely clubbed, had merely shammed death,
and had succeeded in stifling her urge to scream
while being prodded by a spear point. She had
in addition successfully covered her bloodstained baby son Kaltjirbuka under her own
prostrate body. As soon as the avengers had
departed, she raised herself cautiously; and,
taking her child with her, she had slowly wriggled towards the bulrush thickets that grew on
the edges of the closest pool. Once she had
reached the bulrushes, it was an easy matter for
her to make good her escape northward to
Irbmangkara, and beyond the uppermost pools
towards Arbanta, where another
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