Tiddalik the Thirsty Frog (Campfire Story)

Long ago, in the Dreaming, there lived a frog named TIDDALIK. And TIDDALIK was thirsty. Not a little thirsty. The thirstiest frog there ever was.

One morning, he woke up and went down to the billabong, the waterhole, for a drink. He drank and drank. TIDDALIK! And when the billabong was empty, he was still thirsty. So he went to the creek, and he drank the creek dry. TIDDALIK! Then the river. Then the lakes. Then the swamps. He drank every drop of water in the whole land, until he was as round and as big as a hill, and he sat there in the sun, very full and very pleased with himself.

But for everyone else, it was terrible. The trees drooped. The grass turned brown. The animals were dying of thirst. So they all gathered together, the kangaroo and the emu, the wombat and the echidna, the koala and the platypus, and they had a meeting.

'We have to get the water back,' said the wise old wombat. 'And the only way to get it out of TIDDALIK is to make him laugh.'

So they all went to the hill where the giant frog was sitting. And they took turns.

The KOOKABURRA went first, because the KOOKABURRA has the funniest laugh in the bush. He sat on a branch right in front of Tiddalik and laughed his biggest laugh. KOOKABURRA! All the other animals started to giggle. But TIDDALIK just blinked his big eyes. Not even a smile.

The kangaroo tried next. She hopped and bounced and did a somersault and landed on her head. Everyone roared. But TIDDALIK didn't laugh.

The emu tried. She danced on her long legs, and tripped over her own feet, and fell flat on her beak. The lizard puffed out his frill and made the silliest faces. The wombat told the funniest joke he knew. Nothing. TIDDALIK sat there like a big green rock.

The animals were about to give up. And then, out of the mud at the bottom of the empty river, slithered the EEL. Nabunum, the EEL, was very, very thirsty. 'Let me try,' he croaked.

The EEL stood up on the tip of his tail, in front of TIDDALIK, and began to dance. He wiggled. EEL! He wriggled. He twisted himself into a knot. He untwisted. He tied himself into a bow. He wobbled and he jiggled and he spun around and around, faster and faster, until he looked like a big wobbly corkscrew.

TIDDALIK's mouth twitched. His eyes crinkled. His big round belly began to shake. And then he couldn't hold it in any longer.

He opened his huge mouth and laughed. 'HA! HA! HA! HA!' And out came the water. Whoooosh! It poured out of Tiddalik's mouth in a great flood, and rushed across the land, and filled up the billabongs, and the creeks, and the rivers, and the lakes.

The animals cheered and splashed and drank and drank. The trees stood up straight again. The grass turned green. And TIDDALIK, who was now just an ordinary-sized frog again, sat in the mud laughing until his sides hurt.

And they say that's why, even today, frogs hide in the mud and croak for rain. Every frog remembers TIDDALIK, and the day the water came back. And they say there's a lesson in it, too: the water belongs to everyone. Take only what you need.

Storyteller tips: let a volunteer be the Eel and do the silliest dance they can, and have the audience try not to laugh, just like Tiddalik. Afterward, talk about water in drought and on the trail: take only what you need.

Many Aboriginal stories belong to particular nations and are shared with permission. Tiddalik is a widely published public story of the Gunai (Kurnai) people. If you're in Australia, find out whose Country you're camping on.