How The Butterfly Got His Wings
 

  
In the painting can be seen:

Middle: The beautiful butterfly.
Middle Bottom: The cocoon nest made by the spider for the caterpillar.
Top Left: The Willie Wagtail bird talking to the caterpillar, trying to trick him into eating leaves.
Top Right: The caterpillar helping the Spirit Man Birrabe to carry the paint.
Bottom Right: The many flowers that were painted by Birrabe with the help of the caterpillar.

 
The Story

One day when the land had just been made, and after the Spirit Yindingie, the maker of the land, sea and animals had gone back to the sky, a caterpillar came upon a small Spirit resting in the shade of a bush. This latter Spirit whose name was Birrabe attended to all the plants, trees and grasses painting them in splendid colours.

When the caterpillar came across Birrabe he asked whether he could help him by carrying his paints, to which he agreed.

One afternoon when Birrabe flew away to paint the clouds in the sky at sunset, a mischievous bird called Willie Wagtail said to the caterpillar, "How would you like to fly?" to which the caterpillar said, "Yes". To do this the Willie Wagtail explained to the caterpillar he had to eat as many leaves as possible, in fact a whole paddock. By telling the caterpillar to do this, the bird thought the caterpillar would grow big and juicy so that soon he could gobble him up.

Seeing this happening. A spider nearby told the caterpillar of the Willie Wagtail's plan. The spider then suggested he make a cocoon for the caterpillar as he was becoming very weary eating all the leaves over the past days at night whilst at the same time carrying the paints of Birrabe during the day.

Now, Mellong, who was the punisher of wrong doers, decided to give the caterpillar a reward for doing such a good job painting the flowers. Whilst the caterpillar was asleep, Mellong fitted him with beautiful wings and when he awoke he was so pleased he flew off in search of his Spirit friend. Meanwhile Willie Wagtail come to see if the caterpillar was fat enough to eat. He found there was nothing left but a bush cocoon with no leaves, and no caterpillar.

'If you are looking for the caterpillar' said the spider "He is over there." He pointed to a beautiful butterfly with colours all over his wings flying from flower to flower. After the spider explained how the caterpillar gained his beautiful wings, Willie Wagtail also made a nest of twigs similar to the cocoon. Still today the Willie Wagtail builds nests of twigs to hopefully one day have beautiful wings like the butterfly.  

Price:  $3,450.00 AUD