The Serpent at the Upper Yule River: long before the first white man set foot on the continent, this cliff painting of the Njamal in northwest Australia was created. According to Aboriginal mythology, the Rainbow Serpent, asleep in the earth, guards over those elemental powers which confound humankind's control. Any attempt to seize these underworld elements will disturb the serpent from sleep, provoking its vengeance: a terrible deluge of destruction and death. The Aborigines tell us: "Leave the uranium in the ground!"