AustLit

'David Unaipon’s collection of pleasantly told and readable tales is as interesting for the series of its nestled contexts as for the stories themselves. Each story is introduced with a bit of background setting their theme and perceived function. To begin a story on frogs, for instance, he relates, ‘My people delight to give a reason for everything they observe, as well as to draw a moral lesson from it all. The moral lesson we try to teach in the legend of the frogs (Lower Murray, Lake Alexandra and Narringeri tribes) is that man is incomplete apart from woman, and that if males try to live alone, they fail and succumb to every fear’ (p. 164)'  (Introduction)