# The Australian Race/Number 19

No. 19,—PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
By W. E. Knight, Esq., C. F. Armstrong, Esq., and James Gilchrist, Esq.
In the neighbourhood of Perth there are several tribes whose customs and languages are very similar. Of their vocabularies two have reached me, one from Mr. W. E. Knight, clerk of the Bench of Magistrates at Guildford, and a native of the colony, the other from Mr. C. F. Armstrong, Government Interpreter. The first mentioned of these gentlemen has also contributed a number of notes concerning these tribes, which I have condensed as follows:—
The original number of the Blacks who inhabited the neighbourhood of Perth is not known, but, as the result of drunkenness, debauchery, and diseases introduced by the Whites, the Aboriginal population has much decreased, and is fast dying out. They have now but few children amongst them, and those chiefly half-castes. Originally they were clad in rugs each made of a kangaroo skin, a form of dresswhich is almost confined to the tribes of the west coast and its vicinity. Like the rest of the race, they never lose an opportunity of smearing themselves with grease, or oil of any description. They also on occasions rub the head, face, and neck with red ochre. At other times they ornament the face and other parts with white lines or patches; and when in mourning anoint themselves with a compound of grease and charcoal. Round the waist the men invariably wear many coils of string, which is spun from the fur of the opossum, between which and their skin they carry their tomahawks. They also ornament their heads with feathers. The women carry on their backs a bag made of kangaroo skin; its place being outside of the rug of the same ​material. It is suspended by a string, which rests on the left shoulder, and nnder the right arm, a little above the hip.
Their implements are of the sort more or less general throughout Australia, with the exception, perhaps, of the tomahawk, which, before our introduction of iron ones, was made by sticking a piece of sharp flinty stone into a lump of the gum of the “blackboy” (Xanthorrhoea) made hot, and about the size of one’s fist. Behind the stone, and close to it, a short stick was also forced into the heated gum, and served as a handle. The gum was mixed with a quantity of pounded charcoal to render it hard and solid. With this instrument the Blacks cut notches in the bark, and readily ascended the highest tree.
Spears of several sorts are in use, some of them jagged with flints attached to the edges near the point with “blackboy” gum, others merely pointed, but all lighter, shorter, and much inferior in make to those in the southern and eastern portions of the continent. In Victoria, for instance, the war-spear and emu-spear was chopped out of the solid box-tree, was nine or ten feet long, fully as thick as three fingers, and beautifully straight, whilst those of the Perth tribes are little better than twigs, not much thicker than the finger, only seven feet long, and not very straight. Some of them are barbed with a bit of wood fastened on near the point with sinew and gum. But, poor as they look, they are thrown 60 or 70 yards, with the aid of the wommera, and with considerable precision. Shields are like those in Victoria, but if the weapons are inferior to those of Southern and Eastern Australia, the cookery is also more rude and dirty. Mr. Knight says that the entrails of the opossum are dragged out, and the far pulled off and inserted in their place for the purpose of soaking up the blood and gravy which exude when cooking. The animal is then thrown on to the coals, and, when well heated through, is torn to pieces and eaten, the fur from the inside being sucked with great relish. Before the cooking takes place, ​however, the thigh bones of the animal are invariably bent back and broken; frogs are treated in the same manner before cooking, this being apparently a superstitious observance which is never neglected.
Respecting marriage, Mr. Knight says that these tribes are endogamous, that polygamy is not very prevalent, that girls are promised in marriage soon after birth and become wives at about twelve years of age.
The men scar the skin by way of ornament. They also pierce the septum of the nose, but do not knock out teeth. When mourning for the dead, they scratch deeply with the finger-nails the skin of the cheek, nose, chin, and forehead. Fishing is carried on with the spear, nets being unknown, another instance of inferiority in these tribes. The men are said to be about five feet eight inches in height, on an average, and the women five inches less.
As regards burials, the nearest place is used at which a hole can be easily dug with a pointed stick and the hands. It is generally between four and five feet in depth. The limbs of the corpse are securely tied together with bands of rushes or bark, so as, if possible, to hinder it from getting out of the grave and wandering about in the shape of a ghost, of which the Australian Black, in all parts, is perpetually apprehensive. Wood and brush are then thrown into the grave, and set fire to, so as just to singe the hair off the body, after which the earth is thrown in as quickly as possible. But, though reasonable care is thus taken to hinder the spirits of the departed from visiting theit friends at night, that apprehension to which the Perth tribes are subject in common with all other races, black, white, and yellow, with which I am acquainted, is not entirely quieted, and the measures described are supplemented by making a small bundle of leaves and sticks, which one of the women carries with her for two or three months, and places every night near a fire made apart for the purpose. Bundles of this sort, it is believed, are very attractive to ghosts, and generally detain them from coming to the huts of their ​relatives. Now and then, however, there is a mauvais sujet of a ghost who will persist in rollicking about the camp and frightening its inmates in all sorts of ways. Deaths, happen how they may, are always set down as the work of some conjuror of a hostile tribe, who has managed to introduce, whilst yet alive, a Bolya, or evil spirit, into the body of the deceased, and as a consequence it often happens that the deaths of men are avenged with the spear.
In their corroborees these tribes present no noteworthy characteristics. Fire, when not otherwise obtainable, is made as usual by the friction of wood. In keeping maimed limbs and deformities out of sight much ingenuity is displayed.
In making shields, wommeras, and other things of wood, fire was a good deal used; thus a man would slightly burn some portion of the shield he was busy about, and then scrape off with his mussel shell or flint what he had partly charred. Their huts are nicely made by forcing pliant sticks into the ground, bending them to the required position, tying them there and covering them with the bark of the paper-tree. They are averse to camping long in one place, as the ground gets dirty about them.
In their quarrels the women break each other’s heads with the root-digging sticks, which they invariably carry, just as I have seen them do on the banks of the Murray, in Victoria. When men of the tribe fight amongst themselves, all look on until one is wounded. Immediately the man who threw the spear is seized and held by his friends, and one of the friends of the wounded man walks up and quietly thrusts a spear through his thigh or some other fleshy part, and the affray is at an end. However, all these customs are now dying out.
Mr. Knight remarks that they often carry water in bags made of the bark of the paper-tree; also that he has frequently seen a woman go to a pool some little distance off, fill her mouth with water, and, returning to the camp, squirt ​it into the mouth of her child. When making a damper he has seen the water applied in the same way.
Mr. James Gilchrist, who has sent me an account of the Toode-nunjer tribe, resident 53 miles north-east of Perth, which speaks a language differing but little from that of the Perth tribe, remarks that in burying their dead they tie together the thumb and fore-finger of each hand. Also that when they send a message, they likewise send a message-stick with it, remarking that as the bearer delivers the message, the stick appears to serve no purpose.
No. 19.—PERTH.
By W. E. Knight, Esq.
| Kangaroo | - | yongar. | Hand | - | murra. |
| Opossum | - | goomal. | 2 Blacks | - | goodjal youngar. |
| Tame dog | - | dooda. |
| Wild dog | - | yakkine dooda. |
| Emu | - | watcha. |
| Black duck | - | watcha. |
| Wood duck | - | |
| Pelican | - | boodalan. |
| Laughing jackass | - | |
| Native companion | - | |
| White cockatoo | - | manatch. |
| Crow | - | woodung. |
| Swan | - | marlee. |
| [[wikt:#|]] | - | [[wikt:#|]]. ​Mouth - dar. Teeth - knolga. Hair of theliead - mungar. Beard - - knangar. Thunder - - muUgarra. Grass - - kilber. Tongue - dallan. Stomach - gobble. Breasts - manja. Thigh - - dowell. Foot - - jenna. Bone - - quatcha. Blood - - ngoobur. Skin - - borgat. Fat - - bwam. Bowels - Excrement - - goonna. War-spear - - gidgey. Reed-spear - - Thowing-stick - meero. Shield - dowak. Tomahawk - - kodjer. Canoe - - Sun - - ngungga. Moon - - meeka. StAr - - ngungj;al. Light - - beenar. Dark - - murraduk. Cold - - - nittin. Heat - - kallora. Day - - beeratch. Night - - murraduk. Fire - - karla. Water - gabby. Smoke - keera. Ground - boodger. Wind - - ma,rra. Rain - - gabby. God - - Ghosts - jengar. Boomerang - Hill - - kylie. - erar. Wood^ - boona. Stone - - booya. Camp Yes - - kire. No - - yooard. I - ngunger. You - Bark - . nginney. Good - Bad - - quabba. • windine. Sweet - - Food - - Hungry Thirsty - weerat. - goodwon. Frfi,t - Sleep - Drink - - nganna. • - beejar. - kooka. Walk- - koola. See - - Sit - - Yesterday - To-day To-morrow • - ngangar. yadgar. - booda. Where are the Blacks? I don't know Plenty Big - - Tittle - kattadgebut. - kenyuk. - bottene. Dead - winna. By-and-by - - booda. Come on - get-get. Milk - • Eaglehawk - Wild turkey Wife - - walljer. - bibbillyer. - korda. ​334 THE AUSTRALIAN RAGE: No. 19.— PERTH. By C. F. Aemsteong, Esq. In this vocabulary bone and toar-spear may be compared. Kangaroo - - yowart. Hand - - myrha. Opossum - - goomal. 2 Blacks - - yoongar goodjal. Tame dog - - dooda nagal. 3 Blacks - - yoongar Wild dog - - dooda mokyne. Emu ~ - - widjee. Black duck - ngwoon-nanna. Wood duck - marrag-nanna. Pelican - - nerimba. Laughing jackass (none). One - Two - Three - Four - wyreang. - gyne, doombart. • goodjal. - wyreang. - goodjal-goodjal. Native companion (none). Father - mamum. White cockatoo - manyte. Mother - nganggan. Crow - - wurdang. Sister-Elder - jindam. Swan - - gooljak. „ Younger - kowat. Egg - - - moorgoo. Brother-Elder - ngooban. Track of a foot Fish - Lobster • Crayfish - jeena yoorda. - daag-aa. - marra or marran. . goonak. „ Younger gooloon. A young man - golambiddee. An old man - mamerup goora- Mosquito - Fly - - needoo. - noordoo. An old woman - y^o gooragore. Snake - - waugal. A baby - goo-dja. The Blacks - - yoongar. A White man - djanga. A Blackf ellow - yoongar mame- Children - goolanggurra. rup. Head - - katta. A Black woman - yoonga yago. Eye - - male. Nose - - moolya. Ear - - donga. ​PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 335 No. 19.— Pebth.— By C. F. Akmstrono, Esq. — continued. Mouth - - dta or daa. Boomerang - - kylee. Teeth - m - ngalgo. HiU - - - kattaa. Hair of the head- katta mungarra. Wood- - boomoo. Beard - - - nganga. Stone - - booyee. Thunder - - mulgar. Camp - - kalla, yoorda. Grass - Tongue - djelba or jilba. - dallyne. Yes - - - gwa. Stomach . - kabool. No - - yoo-ad-da. Breasts - - bibbee. I - nganya. Thigh - - - dowal. You - - nhynnee. Foot - - - djeena or jeena. Bark - - yabbal. Bone - - • goodjee. Good - - g^abba. Blood - - - ngooboo. Bad - - windang. Skin - - - mabboo. Sweet - - moolyet-moolyet. Fat - Bowels ■■ - boyne. - goonna, boora. Food - - maryne. Excrement . - goonna. Hungry - bordenyuk.^ War-spear - - gidjee, boral, Thirsty - goardak. mungar. Eat - - ngannow. Reed-speai ► ^ - Sleep - - bidjaar. Throwing-stick Shield - . meroo. - woonda. Drink- - gabbee ngannow. Tomahawk . - gadjoo. Walk - - yennow. Canoe - - - (none). See - - nhungaa. Sun - - - nangga, batta. Sit - - - ngimow. Moon - - - mega* Yesterday - - myreook. Star - Light - — - ngangar. - beeryte. To-day - yiee. Dark - . - myart, myar- To-morrow - - beenang. duk. Where are the winjee yoongar 7 Cold - - - ngitding. Blacks? / Heat - - - moonak. I don't know - adjoo katteegeb- Day - - - beeryte. roo. Night - - - myarduk. Plenty - boola. Fire - - - kalla. Big - - - ngoomon. Water - - gabbee. Little - - newmap. Smoke Ground Wind- m - geeree. - boodjoor. - maar. Dead - By-and-by - - wanneega. - boorda. Rain - • - gabbee gwardin. Come on - yool yennow. God - • - mamnmera ngin- Milk - - bibbeegooree. naga. Eaglehawk - - waldja. Ghosts - - metagang, Wild turkey - bibbilyoor. djanga. Wife - - kardo. |