Dingo: The Dog Who Conquered a Continent Read Free

places.
    â€˜I’ll take the canoe out by myself. I’ll paddle down the coast to the clan who lives beyond the giant-headland-near-the-sky. I’ll come back with the most beautiful wife in the world. Two big, fat wives!’
    â€˜Loa.’ She looked at him indulgently, as if he’d boasted he could climb up the pig-tusk path across the ocean to the moon.
    He wondered if he had ever really known her. She was the most familiar thing in his life — and suddenly the strangest.
    And even if he did bring back a wife, Leki would be gone with Bu.
    She stood there on the beach, exotic in her golden-grass headdress. No matter how long he looked, he knew he would never find anyone as beautiful as her.
    He tore his gaze away and ran back towards the camp.

CHAPTER 5
The Dog
    The dog’s legs ached from the cords. She wanted to run, to whimper.
    She couldn’t do either. The cords held her jaws shut too.
    The world smelled of death and pig blood. It would smell of dog blood soon too.
    An old man limped over to the rubbish dogs. He grabbed her uncle by the cords that held his paws. The dog remembered her uncle bringing her monkey meat when she was a puppy; and sitting guarding the litter while the others hunted.
    The old man slashed Uncle’s throat. Suddenly Uncle was meat, not her uncle at all.
    She wanted to howl, to whine. All she could do was shut her eyes or watch.
    She watched. Perhaps, just perhaps, there was a chance to get away.
    She wriggled her paws again. The cords still held them tight. She moved her jaws from side to side, but even that didn’t lessen the bonds.
    Only she and her brother were left now. She growled as the old man approached them. He grabbed herbrother this time. The old man dragged him to the killing ground, then threw his body in the pit.
    The old man made a noise. He sounded happy.
    The dog stared at the lounging humans, at the heap of pig entrails, flies buzzing around them, at the waves lapping on the beach. She watched for any chance to struggle, to bite and run …
    She was next.

CHAPTER 6
Loa
    The men dozed in the shade around the cooking pit; the boys were off somewhere. None of the women had come back.
    No one noticed Loa grab his fishing spear. He jogged down to the lagoon where the canoes lay high on the sand, away from the reach of the tide. He tied his spear into the smallest craft. Canoes sank down almost to the level of the water when there was a pile of fish in them. You had to tie your spear on so it didn’t float away.
    The canoe needed two paddlers, but he could manage it alone. He was Loa, pig killer! He untied a bundle of dried pig bladders from one end of the canoe and filled them with fresh water from the stream, then fastened them carefully in the canoe too. His new knife hung on the cords around his waist.
    What else did he need? Food?
    He hadn’t eaten all day; no one ate before a feast. But he’d be at the next clan’s camp by nightfall. There’d be food there.
    He hesitated. He’d never been to the giant-headland-near-the-sky, though his grandfather had found a wifethere. You could only see the headland on clear days. What if it took more than an afternoon to paddle there or find the camp?
    Of course he could find the clan! He only had to look for the smoke of their campfire. And if the journey took longer than he thought he could come ashore tonight to make a sleeping platform out of reach of crocodiles and rats. He could eat shellfish and long fat mangrove worms in the trees. The world was full of food.
    Maybe he could spear a big fish as a present for the headland camp. A shark, perhaps …
    He bit his lip. He’d be alone on the water, with no one to look out for sharks. A shark could snap you right out of a canoe. A crocodile could too.
    He needed a rubbish dog. Crocs and sharks liked rubbish dog more than man. Fishermen always took a rubbish dog on long voyages, so they could throw the dog out to any