Cisafim is a small island off the coast of South Australia not far from the Land of Serendip that was visited by Gulliver all those years ago.  It was once well known to the early, European settlers of Nunjikompita, who fished around its shores and hunted fur seals and whales.  The place has been lost from all memory except for a few old timers that crack a wry smile whenever the name is mentioned.  It was from such a one that I was able to recover this story on a visit to Nunjikompita.

You see, after Peter Nuyts discovered Cisafim in the chain of small islands that now carry his name into obscurity, a few people set out to settle there.  They were all young and single lads and lasses, with a lust for life and new discoveries.  An island to themselves was even a dream to be grasped back in thoses days and, although the place was small, it held a special charm that encouraged adventure.  The landing expedition was soon established, the whale boats were loaded, supplies were stowed and the adventure began.  Except for a few sheep and a good milking goat, they took few possessions with them planning to live off the land, like real pioneers.

It took a few months to set up the first camp.  Everyone was busy cutting poles from the scant scrub that grew there and a tent city was build.  Now to call it a city is being very kind, for it was mainly a place of wood and canvas, with open air kitchens and a large community hearth- a set up that is still followed in church camps today.  Then, as now, young folks gathered around the fire at night, huddling close under blankets and singing choruses and folk songs, as they peered wistfully into the red embers of the fire or gazed in awe at the sweep of the Milky Way averhead.  

One night, as they sat huddled inhaling the smoke of burning mallee, a sound like a throat being cleared, cut across the crackle of the fire.  As they turned all that they could see was a single emu standing near, head bowed and one claw raised scratching its ear.  It peered at them, as emus are prone to doing, and made a deep rumbling noise from within itself.

"Oomp, ooomp", it sounded again, and then spoke.  "Hallo, hallo," it said, "what have we got here?"

The people were stunned.  They sat with their mouths gaping and dropped their blankets.

"Well, do you speak or just bleat like that horned, hairy think that you peg out to eat my grass and tick bushes?"

"No!  We speak", said the most courageous ones, blurting it out in unison so that the emu heard not one intelligible word.  For what seemed like an eternity to the emu, the people sat and stared in silence.  Finally, the bravest of them spoke.

"We are the new settlers of Cisafim and this is our home.  We did not think that it was inhabited," said Brave One, who was emerging as the leader of the settlers and always spoke first.

"Then welcome," said the emu, adding, "if you want to stay here you will have to follow our rules, oomp.  You are welcome, of course, and we love strangers, but you will have to become like us first, oomp."

"Like you? asked Brave One, carefully, but the emu ignored her and strutted closer into the light of the camp fire.

"How, oomp, did you know that this place was called Cisafim?" the emu asked.  "Ooomp, that's our name for it and I didn't think that outsiders knew about it.  Ooomp, oomp. Where did you hear the name?"

"Its on the charts", replied Brave One.

"Ooop! What charts would they be?" asked the emu, and so the exchange of oomps and words continued until all present knew that the emu had revealed the name to Peter Nuyts who placed it on his charts and so it became known to the settlers.  Of course emus were not seafaring folks and did not know about charts.  Ompa, for that was the emu's name, was amazed..  Cisifim was properly pronounced as "cisoomphim" but the new rendering please the old bird.  So much so, that his mood changed as he listened to the settlers answer his questions.  As the night rolled on, a few other birds crept closer to the camp.  They were smaller than Ompa and a few had faint stripes across their backs.  They were introduced as Ompa's chicks.  There was no Mrs Ompa in sight.

"Where's Mrs Ompa?' asked the youngest of the settlers, forgetting his manners.

"She is not here, oomp, ran off after laying this lot as egglings," explained Ompa, pointing to the chicks.  And so the habits of emus were revealed.  The female ones do not stay around long after laying a clutch of eggs and the male ones hatch them.  They claim that as their special, paternal right, as from the beginning, it was declared that she-mus must not sit on eggs or raise the chicks.  A faithful she-mu never disobeys an emu.  "And that," exclaimed Ompa emphatically, "is how Cisafim got its name!  You see, it's short for 'celibacy in singleness and faithfullness in marriage'".

But 'celibacy in singleness' is a tautology", remarked Brave One.

"No it ain't," said Ompa.

"yes it is,' all the settlers chorused.  "Being celibate means being single.  So 'celibacy in singleness' says nothing but single."

"Right," said Ompa, "and we emus love it that way, nothing but being single for the emus, oomp, oomp, and the she-mus are faithful, we see to it..  We love the single, emu life, as long as the she-mus are faithful and marriage means that they don't hang around to confuse the chicks.  A single way is a simple way, so we say.  Marriage is for mating and laying eggs.  Singleness is for raising the chicks.  Its the emu's right.  It was set down so from the beginning.  So, oomp, if you stay here, you must follow our rules.  You do lay eggs, don't you?"

"Well, no we don't actually.  Our biology and custom is a bit different to that."  

"You don't!  But you must!  There is no other, oomp, oomp, way!  None permitted.  Its scratched in stone, set and established by emu principles."

"But we are not emus?"

"Doesn't matter.  It is set in stone- one stone to rule them all and in Cisafim bind them."

"I don't think that policy will get far", said Young One, with an inkling of suspicion.  "Who set it in stone?"

"Almighty God did.  You do believe in God, don't you?  And what God sets in stone is right and proper."

Now it was getting just like a church camp, and everyone was getting into the spirit of talking about things mystrious and divine.  The mere mention of belief in God was enough to engage debate.

"Some of us do believe in God," said Brave One, "But tell me, if what God says it is right and proper is the basis of your moral argument, doesn't that mean that whatever God says is moral and binding?"

"Sure does", said Ompa.  "That's why he set it in stone."  And he looked up to the sky in wonder and held his gaze upwards for some time.  "there is God, up there," he said in a respectful whisper.  "Can you see that dark patch by that cross shaped asterism, that is God's head.  You can trace his body way back along that starry pathway.  He set himself there to remind us of what he set in stone.  That's our covenant image."

Every one looked at the sky where the broad streak of the Milky Way stood like a river of sparkling gems set in the night, and there they saw the dark image of an outstretched emu on the run!  Being accustommed to discerning asterisms, they had never noticed it before, but there, amid the Milky Way was a dark band in the shape of an emu!

"So that's the God who set things in stone?" asked Brave One after a time of sky gazing at the great emu in the sky..

"Yes!  Well, it may not be him actually but it is his image and we are all created in that image."

"What! Emus?" shouted Young One.  The other people pushed him under a blanket and hid their mirth.

Then Brave One picked up the discussion from where it had stopped before every one turned attention skywards. "If what God set in stone is right and proper, dosn't that mean that anything that God sets in stone would be right and proper, too?"

"Sure does" answered Ompa confidently, peering forward with a smug smile.

"Then that would make your god act arbitarily, won't it?  What ever God said would be right and proper by definition.  There is not much of a principle in that."

"God doesn't act arbitarily.  God says what is right and proper because is it right and proper."

"Oh, so God is not all powerful, then.  Your God has limits."

"No he doesn't!  What do you mean?  He tells us what is right and proper because it is right and proper."  The last "is" was said with such emphasis that the air turned suddenly chilly.  Young One pulled the blanket about his shoulders and looked to Brave One, anxious to hear her reply.

"Then it doesn't matter what God says, then, for being right and proper does not depend on anything God says, it exists in principle before he speaks.  Therefore your God is not absolute.  Some thing exists before him- being right and proper, for example!  That diminishes your god a bit, doesn't it?  We have got a bit of a quandry here.  If we accept your first statement, that what God says is right and proper, then we reduce God and his opinions to an arbitary status.  Then again, if we follow your second statement, that God says what is right and proper because it is right and proper, then we do not have an almghty god, for there is a moral order greater than god that determines what god says about being right and proper.  And of course, you have shown us that in your eyes God is just like an emu- a dark shadowy emu that blocks out the light, I suggest."

At that, Ompa grew into a rage an stomped his feet and kicked up the dust.  "Come, oomp, come, oomp, oomp," he called to the chicks as he turned to rush into the bush.  He tripped over his feet and fell flat to the dust.  The Settlers lifted him to his feet and helped him on his way.  He soon recovered, and every time that Ompa was seen after that night, he was heard oomping and seen stomping as he ran among the tick bushes with his chicks.  He grew quite grumpy and on occasion he even kicked down the shelters that the Settlers build and life on an island with rampant emus was not to everyone's liking.  Soon the water run out, and as there was not much of a water supply found on Cisafim, the Settlers returned to Nunjikompita.  There is one thing to remark in closing this story, the mere mention of Cisafim still brings a wry smile to the lips of those in the know.  The dark image of an emu still inhabits the rich star fields of the Milky Way, as a reminder to the folly of all those who see God created in their image.  An the island still exists out there among the archipelago where diminuitive emus live in splendid isolation beneath the divine image of themselves.

A Story as told by Young One