Wanampi (also Wanambi) is the great water-serpent of the Western Desert, an ancestral being who dwells in the deep permanent waterholes and rock crevices and is the guardian of water itself. At Uluru a wanampi is said to live at the Mutitjulu waterhole, controlling its precious supply; custom requires that a person call out to announce themselves before approaching, and drinking there is restricted. A particularly powerful wanampi is associated with the high gorges of Kata Tjuta, whence he sends the winds and rain and punishes those who violate the law, his breath felt in the gusts that funnel among the domes. Frequently identified with the rainbow-serpent complex of wider Aboriginal Australia, the desert wanampi is both a life-giving custodian of water and a dangerous power to be approached with proper respect, and is among the ancestral beings recorded at the rock by Charles Mountford.