{{Short description|Mythological creature}} {{Use Australian English|date=February 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}} {{Infobox mythical creature |name = Warraguk |image = Warraguk.jpg |caption = Bark painting of Warraguk |Folklore = Australian Aboriginal mythology |Grouping = Legendary creature |Country = Australia |Region = Gunbalanya, Northern Territory |Details = }}
'''Warraguk''' is a legendary creature in the mythology of the Gaagudju in the Northern Territory. Said to have first been seen by a medicine man called Mitjuombo, it was described by Walter Baldwin Spencer in the following terms:
{{blockquote|[It] is supposed to walk about in the daytime, searching for ''mormo'', or sugar bag. When at rest it lives in the bamboos and paper bark trees, on to which it hangs like a bat. Also it has flaps of skin running on each side of its body from the arms to the legs, by means, of which it flies. Its general form has certainly been suggested by that of the "flying-fox," a large bat that is very commonly met with in the jungle along the river flats in the Kakadu country.|Spencer (1914)<ref name = "nativetribes">{{cite book|last1=Spencer|first1=Walter Baldwin|title=Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia|url=https://archive.org/details/nativetribesofno0000unse/page/594/mode/2up?q=warraguk|date=1914|publisher=Macmillan and Co., Limited|location=London|pages = 436}}</ref>}}
In his second volume of ''Wanderings in Wild Australia'', Spencer would describe Warraguk as harmless, yet unhelpful to people. He included a bark painting of the creature in the book, noting how its head was in profile, emphasising the nose and jaws, yet still having both eyes visible. Its hair was tied back, forming a mop, and the flap of skin used for flying ran on either side of the body from the hands to the feet, with an additional flap extending from the neck to the thumb. Spencer further noted that the depicted Warraguk's backbone, ribs, pelvic girdle and leg bones were visible.<ref name = "wanderings">{{cite book|last1=Spencer|first1=Walter Baldwin|title=Wanderings in Wild Australia|volume=II|url=https://archive.org/details/b2993154x_0002/page/808/mode/2up?q=warraguk|date=1928|publisher=Macmillan and Co., Limited|location=London|page = 808}}</ref>
Charles P. Mountford noted similarities between Warraguk and Garkain.<ref name = "records">{{cite book|last1=Mountford|first1=Charles P.|last2=Specht|first2=R. L.|title=Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land|volume=I: Art, myth and symbolism|url=https://archive.org/details/artmythsymbolism0000moun/page/200/mode/2up?q=warraguk|date=1948|publisher=Melbourne University Press|location=Melbourne|pages = 200}}</ref>
==See also== * Drop bear, a fictitious Australian mammal
== References == {{reflist}}
Category:Australian Aboriginal legendary creatures Category:Australian Aboriginal words and phrases Category:Forest spirits