moulded the barren and featureless earth. The Rainbow Serpent came from beneath the ground and created huge ridges, mountains, and gorges as it pushed upward. The Rainbow Serpent is understood to be of immense proportions and inhabits deep permanent waterholes and is in control of life's most precious resource, water. In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent is considered to be the ultimate creator of everything in the universe. In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent is male; in others, female; in yet others, the gender is ambiguous or the Rainbow Serpent is hermaphroditic or bigender, thus an androgynous entity. Some commentators have suggested that the Rainbow Serpent is a phallic symbol, which fits its connection with fertility myths and rituals. When the Serpent is characterized as female or bisexual, it is sometimes depicted with breasts, as in the case of the Kunmanggur serpent. Other times, the Serpent has no particular gender. The serpent is sometimes ascribed with a having crest or a mane or on its head, or being bearded as well. While it is single-headed, the Yurlunggur of Arnhem land may possess a double-body. In some stories, the Serpent is associated with a bat, sometimes called a "flying fox" in Australian English, engaged in a rivalry over a woman. Some scholars have identified other creatures, such as a bird, crocodile, dingo, or lizard, as taking the role of the Serpent in stories. In all cases, these animals are also associated with water. The Rainbow Serpent has also been identified with, or considered to be related to, the bunyip, a fearful, water-hole dwelling creature in Australian mythology. Unlike many other deities, the Rainbow Serpent does not have a human form and remains in the form of animal. While each culture has a different interpretation on gender and which animal the deity is, it is nonetheless, always an animal. The sometimes unpredictable Rainbow Serpent (in contrast to the unyielding sun) replenishes the stores of water, forming gullies and deep channels as the Rainbow Serpent slithers across the landscape. In this belief system, without the Serpent, no rain would fall and the Earth would dry up. In other cultures, the serpent stops rainfall: the Numereji serpent's iwaiyu (its soul or shadow) cast upon the sky becomes the rainbow, and the serpent ascends to stop the rain, the Andrénjinyi is said to halt the rain caused by enemies. The Rainbow Serpent is sometimes associated