myth for banded nardoo

The old man by the swamp takes care of a turtle who knows the secret of the origin of plants. The scientists and storytellers, the people who have learned the knowledge of plants come to ask the man questions for the turtle. 

Some say he is a scam artist. But people keep coming back. I can’t tell you why they keep coming back. Even though they never get the answer they always leave with something. Whether it’s some strange words from the old man or a bit of moss from the back of the turtle, or a twig or a bone.

There was once a young man who came to the old man to learn about the origin of plants and the old man told him that he would know the origin of plants if he could balance on water while touching the ground he would know. “You have three days to solve this riddle” the old man instructed and pointed toward a pond where the young man was to set up camp.
When the young man came to the old pond where there were fossils, and old strange flowers and water lilies the young man was not familiar with.There were even bones from humans at the shore, as if many people had come here with similar questions and had not come back with their bones intact. 

He made a boat and dangled down some stones. He touched the ground and held up his hands to the sun, he walked until he was standing in the water all to find the secrets the first plants had. He even sang a song about it. But no answer came to him from the dirt or the sun or wind about the origin. 

When the last day came the young man woke to see the turtle at the edge of the pond. The turtle inched in, bit-by-bit, over the muck and trampled reeds and all he could see was its back peeking up from the surface from the water. But as he looked, he began to see that the back of the turtle looked exactly like the smooth lumps in green and purple designs from the surface of the water.

They peaked up all over the lake, bobbing up and down. Some cicadas droned overhead in the trees. 

The answer, of course, is right here. Bobbing before your eyes this very moment.

But when the young man told the old man what he had found, the old man laughed at him and the young man left. And though his bones were still intact, he forever doubted the simplicity of what he had learned.