How The Tortoise Got His Shell
  

  
In the painting can be seen:

Top Left: Wayamba who stole the beautiful woman from the Oolah tribe.
Bottom Left: The Oolah tribesmen looking for their beautiful woman who was stolen.  
Top Right: Wayamba coming out with shield as the Oolahs came after him.  
Bottom Right: The spears bounce off Wayamba. However, he is hit around the legs with nulla‑nulla's.  
Bottom Right Middle: the River Wayamba jumped into. 

The Story

The myth goes that originally the first tortoise was a man named Wayamba who was disgruntled with the wife he was made to marry. One day he decided to leave his wife and visited another nearby tribe called the Oolahs (or The Spring Legend Tribe).

Wayamba sat for many hours on the outside of the Oolahs tribe observing. Suddenly he saw a truly beautiful woman who coincidentally left the tribe to wander outside her village.

Wayamba stalked the beautiful woman and grabbed her from behind putting his hand on her mouth and grounding her. He looked into her eyes and said to her if you yell I'll beat you with my waddy (large hunting stick)." She said, "Why would I scream, I have never seen any man as handsome as you."

They agreed to both go back to his tribe telling his elders he was brave and stole the beautiful woman. However the elders were not happy, especially when he already had a wife they chose for him.

Next morning the Oolah tribe realised what happened and visited Wayamba's village. His elder, mad about his kidnapping told the Oolah's where to find the woman. They found her, grabbed her, and looked for Wayamba. They found him with a huge shield covering both the front and back of his body, as he knew they would come looking for him. They threw all their spears at him, but all bounced off the shield. They were furious, and eventually overwhelmed Wayambe hitting his legs with a nulla-nulla (another large hunting stick) hurting him. The only way he could escape was to run into the river.

He was never seen again, but after the Oolahs had taken the young woman away, a funny creature climbed out of the river. It had an oval shell, which covered its body, and its head and limbs projected beyond it. It waddled along the bank and disappeared in the distance, moving on the ground like a flat stone. It was Wayamba the Tortoise, who from then on always carried his armour with him to protect him from his enemies.

Price:  $3,900.00 AUD