# The Aborigines of Victoria/Volume 1/Chapter 7

A Native Encampment, and the Daily Life of the Natives.
It is necessary for a tribe to move very frequently from place to place, always keeping within the boundaries of the country which it calls its own—now to the spot where eels can be taken in the creeks; often to the feeding-grounds of the kangaroo; sometimes to the thicker forests to get wood suitable for making weapons; to the sea-coast continually for fish of various kinds; and, at the right season, to the lands where are found the native bread, the yam, and the acacia gum. Constantly under the pressure of want, and yet, by travelling, easily able to supply their wants, their lives lack neither excitement nor pleasure. When the head of a tribe, advised by the council of old men, has fixed upon a camping ground at some distance away, notice is given to all the families at early morning. Such things as they require on their journey they carry with them, but property of another kind is secreted in their miams or in the hollows of trees, or under stones, or in some thick patch of scrub. In leaving it they know well that they will find it when they return. Laden with their bags and rugs, and implements and weapons, they wend their way through the forest in small parties: the males generally with the males, the females with the females; and the constant chatter and noise, and sometimes the loud calls of the men, serve to amuse and cheer the tribe on its journey. Picking up what pleases them, observing and noting what they subsequently may require, hunting an opossum, gathering buds or flowers or grubs, or lazily polishing and improving some favorite weapon when there is a halt—men, women, and children find the ramble pleasant enough.
​The women gather sticks for the fires, and get water; and each and all find employment of some kind.
The proper arrangement of the miams is well understood. The Aborigines do not herd together promiscuously. There is order and method. If the whole of the tribe be present, the dwellings of those comprising the little village are divided into groups, each group being composed of six or more miams. Each miam is five or six yards distant from its neighbours, and the groups are at least twenty yards apart.
Mr. Thomas says that he was often struck with astonishment when, on approaching a large encampment occupied by several tribes, he observed how carefully they had grouped the miams. Most often he could see at once, from the position of any one group, from what part the natives had come. The groups were arranged indeed as if they had been set by compass. At a great encampment formed on a hill about three miles north-east of Melbourne there were assembled, more than thirty years ago, eight tribes—in all about eight hundred blacks—and they arranged their camps according to the following plan:—
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1. Loddon. 2. Campaspe. 3. Mouut Macedon. 4. Goulburn. 5. Yarra. 6. Bar-ra-bool. 7. Western Port. 8. Bun-yong (or Bun-ung-on) and Leigh.
At an ordinary encampment the miams are arranged in such a way as to admit of each having a separate fire, and the fires are so placed that the embers cannot ignite the leaves or branches or bark of the miams. Accidental fires are of rare occurrence; but sometimes in a sudden squall the lighted sticks are blown about, and cause the destruction of the frail dwellings.
In arranging the miams, care is taken to separate the young unmarried men from the unmarried females and the families, and it is not permitted to the young men to mix with the females. They are strict in preserving order amongst the young of both sexes, but it happens frequently that all their precautions are evaded. The young people find means of communicating with each other, and arrange for meetings, notwithstanding that their parents may have forbidden them to meet or to speak to each other. These stolen interviews are often the cause of quarrels.
When several tribes meet there are sometimes as many as one hundred and fifty or two hundred miams in a camp; and though each man has to supply his wants from the forest, where all is common property, there is seldom a dispute, and rarely is an angry word used.
As soon as the fires are kindled, all the game that has been collected during the day is produced and roasted; and a strong odour of singed wool and burning ​meat begins to prevail. If the tribe has travelled far—say fifteen or sixteen miles—and the men are very hungry, the cooking process is conducted hurriedly; and the women and children are prompt in delivering the roots, tubers, and fruits they have gathered on their journey.
As a rule, they are lazy travellers. They have no motive to induce them to hasten their movements. It is generally late in the morning before they start on their journey, and there are many interruptions by the way. If they are wandering through a tract where there is much game, the women and children are left to the guidance of only two or three of the men, the rest rambling from spot to spot, holding their weapons ready for slaughter, and hunting keenly in every likely place. At such times, though the native mind is probably not much impressed with the aspects of the landscape, the effect on a stranger who comes suddenly in sight of the hunters is strong. To see them stalking through the forest with their spears in their hands, now in the deep shades and sunless depths of some cleft in the mountains, where their forms are only occasionally visible, as they pass through the thick undergrowth of shrubs, or beneath the broad green shelter of the tree-ferns—or, again, as they ascend some steep slope, with their faces towards the sun; their dark figures bronzed by the strong light as they move in the sheen of the low fern, whose leaves, reflecting the rays of the sun, make the bank a bath of molten silver, in which they seem to wade—to see them thus, or when stepping from the gloom of the forest into the lights which fall through the scanty foliage of some of the gums, is a picture which cannot be easily described, nor, once seen, forgotten.
When the miams are built, the fires lighted, the roasting and eating quite done, and their family affairs settled to their satisfaction, the men, women, and children give themselves up to amusements, or employ themselves in light labors. The old men hold grave converse, the warriors and younger men attend to the repairs of their weapons and implements, the women chatter together, the lads romp on the grass or amidst the fern, or practise themselves in useful exercises, and the girls and very young children gather such food as they can find on the ground or in the dead timber.
The forest that an hour before was silent, or echoed only the infrequent notes of the bell-bird, or rung with the weird "ha! ha!" and "hoo! hoo!" of the laughing jackass, is now peopled with happy families. Its aspect is changed. Great trunks have had the bark stripped off, branches have been broken, notches appear where the hunter has climbed, and the smoke of the fires rising slowly through the branches of the tall trees tells the wanderer afar off that the tribe is encamped.
Each little miam is built partly of bark and partly of boughs, or wholly of bark or wholly of boughs, according to the state of weather or the whim of the builder.
​The government of Aboriginal tribes is not a democracy. There are the doctors or sorcerers, who, under some circumstances, have supreme power; there are the warriors, who in time of trouble are absolute masters; there are the dreamers, who direct and control the movements of the tribe until their divinations are fulfilled or forgotten; there are the old men—councillors—without whose advice even the warriors are slow to move; and, finally, there are the old ​women, who noisily intimate their designs, and endeavour by clamor and threats to influence the leaders of their tribe. The young men, and those amongst the elders who have not distinguished themselves, and the women and the children, are led by the principal man of the tribe; but he acts only in such manner as the old men and the sorcerers and the dreamers have agreed to approve. Though each of the principal men and priests seeks for his food, and ​ministers to his own wants (with such help as he gets from his wives), and has no one whom he can call servant, yet he enjoys the pleasures belonging to the exercise of power. If a doctor, he orders, and he is obeyed; if a dreamer, he dreams, and the interpretation of his dream is received as truth; if a warrior, the fighting-men obey him; if an old man, all pay respect to him. The women ​have rights as well as duties; and the government of a tribe might well serve as a model to peoples claiming to be civilized but more inclined to vices than the Australians.
Each miam is placed under the control of the head of a family; whose duty it is to keep order and settle any differences that may arise between the members of the household or with those of any neighbouring miam. If any man is jealous, and charges another with having paid unnecessary attentions to his wife or his daughters, the head-man investigates the matter. Those who are implicated become much excited, and not unfrequeutly come to blows, and a fight follows. Under such circumstances, the head-man has to act judicially and executively. He determines who is in fault, and he chastises him. The quarrel, however noisy and violent, calls forth no interference from the inhabitants of the neighbouring miams. They stare at the men and women who are quarrelling, and they whisper and talk; but even when two or three are fighting, and with dangerous weapons, they never attempt to interrupt the proceedings. The business of controlling the fight, it is well understood, belongs to the head-man, and whatever he does is right. He stands by with his Leonile and Mulga, ready to ward or to strike, and he seldom fails to preserve that just mean between too slight pnnishment and revengeful injury which is not enough considered amongst Europeans when disputes and crimes have to be dealt with.
​It is difficult to convey an accurate notion of the domestic affairs of the Australian black. I have endeavoured to give a description of an encampment, but necessarily there are many details connected with the arrangements of each hut, the duties devolving on the male parent, the work that the women have to perform, and the education of the young savages, which must be dealt with elsewhere.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer, a Missionary in Gippsland, writes thus in a letter to me:—
"The life of an Aboriginal was one of trouble. He lived in dread of his enemies. Sometimes he was not able to keep a fire in his camp lest it should light some secret foe to his place of shelter. At other times he himself would have some wrong to redress, and would then act on the offensive, and strive to kill some one for some fancied injury. Sometimes their camps were surprised while the men were away hunting. The hunters would return to find most of the women who happened to be at home murdered, and some of the younger ones taken away to be wives for their enemies. Thus they had often real grievances to avenge, but their complaints were more often fancied. Should a member of their tribe die suddenly, or even by gradual decay, they would charge some one with the crime, and would seek to have the death avenged. On these occasions they generally went away from their camp fully armed and liberally daubed with red-ochre or pipeclay, and if they chanced to fall upon some unfortunate member of the tribe amongst whom the obnoxious person was supposed to dwell, they would at once despatch him, and have a cannibal feast, usually satisfying themselves by eating his skin. In their domestic life everything was as simple as possible. They had no cooking utensils: all they required was fire to roast with. They would have a wooden vessel to hold water for drinking, but as they never washed their faces, they did not require an extra basin for that purpose. They had also a large grass bag for holding food, &c. The man had a small grass bag in which to keep his private effects. A look into such a bag would be interesting to a lover of the curious. First, there would be several pieces of round stones, which he would tell you are ​Boolk. He would look very serious if you touched these, and he would not fail to inform you that you might die at once if you touched them. They are his instruments of sorcery. With them he makes any of his enemies sick. There is also something very carefully wrapped up with bark and well painted with red-ochre. He might hesitate to tell you what this is: it is the fat of some one whom he has killed. There are also several knick-knacks in his bag which show that he has an eye to business. A glance into the large grass bag of his wife proves that she attends to the provisions. There are a few roots—some Katwort (fruit of the pig-face), the leg of a native bear {Koola or Goola), and the head of a kangaroo. There are also a few opossum skins, for she is busy making a rug (Marook), a few shells which are used in marking the skins, and the end of the tail of an opossum, to which are attached the sinews of the tail. These are used for sewing the rug. Perhaps mixed up with these may be seen the hands of some defunct member of the tribe—that of some friend of the woman's, or perhaps one belonging to a former husband. This she keeps as the only remembrance of one she once loved—and, though years may have passed, even now, when she has nothing else to do, she will sit and moan over this relic of humauity. Sometimes a mother will carry about with her the remains of a beloved child, whose death she mourns. What cares she that it is in a state of decay! She cannot forget the love she bore it, and being without hope of seeing it in a future state, she clings to its decaying body—until at length, becoming too loathsome even for her, she is obliged to put it out of sight. As to their dead—whether infants or adults—they usually keep them long after the proper time. It is a pity that men in a savage state should take delight in doing that which is nasty. But such is the fact. It is a very common custom for the tribe, or that portion of it who are related to one who has died, to rub themselves with the moisture that comes from the dead friend. They rub themselves with it until the whole of them have the same smell as the corpse. The writer will never forget his attending the funeral of a young man who had been kept much too long. As he stood on the grave, trying to improve the occasion, he was disgusted with the sickly smell which all had; and even for days after, when he came near one of the blacks, he was assailed with the same disagreeable odour." There is a very amusing and truthful description of a native family given by Grey. Speaking of the people of Western Australia, he says:—
"The natives nearly always carry the whole of their worldly property about with them, and the Australian hunter is thus equipped:—Round his middle is ​wound, in many folds, a cord spun from the fur of the opossum, which forms a warm, soft, and elastic belt of an inch in thickness, in which are stuck his hatchet, his kiley or boomerang, and a short heavy stick to throw at the smaller animals. His hatchet is so ingeniously placed that the head of it rests exactly on the centre of his back, whilst its thin short handle descends along the back-bone. In his hand he carries his throwing-stick and several spears, headed in two or three different manners, so that they are equally adapted to war or the chase. A warm kangaroo-skin cloak completes his equipment in the southern portions of the continent; but I have never seen a native with a cloak anywhere to the north of 29° S. lat. These weapons, apparently so simple, are admirably adapted for the purposes they are intended to serve—the spear, when projected from the throwing-stick, forms as effectual a weapon as the bow and arrow, whilst at the same time it is much less liable to be injured, and it possesses over the bow and arrow the advantage of being useful to poke out kangaroo rats and opossums from hollow trees, to knock off gum from high branches, to pull down cones from the Banksia trees, and for many other purposes. The hatchet is used to cut up the larger kinds of game, and to make holes in the trees the owner is about to climb. The kiley is thrown into flights of wild-fowl and cockatoos, and with the Dow-uk, a short heavy stick, they knock over the smaller kinds of game much in the same manner that poachers do hares and rabbits in England. Thus equipped, the father of the family stalks forth, and at a respectful distance behind him follow the women; a long stick, the point of which has been hardened in the fire, is in each of their hands, a child or two fixed in their bags or upon their shoulders, and in the deep recesses of these mysterious bags they carry, moreover, sundry articles which constitute the wealth of the Australian savage—these are, however, worthy of a particular enumeration, as this will make plain the domestic economy of one of these barbarian housewives. The contents of a native woman's bag are:—A flat stone to pound roots with; earth to mix with the pounded roots; quartz for the purpose of making spears and knives; stones for hatchets; prepared cakes of gum to make and mend weapons and implements; kangaroo sinews to make spears and to sew with; needles made of the shin-bones of kangaroos, with which they sew their cloaks, bags, &c.; opossum hair to be spun into waist-belts; shavings of kangaroo skins to polish spears, &c.; the shell of a species of mussel to cut hair, &c., with; native knives; a native hatchet; pipeclay; red-ochre, or burnt clay; yellow-ochre; a piece of paper-bark to carry water in; waist-bands and spare ornaments; pieces of quartz which the native doctors have extracted from their patients, and thus cured them of diseases: these they preserve as carefully as Europeans do relics. Banksia cones (small ones), or pieces of a dry white species of fungus, to kindle fire with rapidly, and to convey it from place to place; grease, if they can procure it from a whale, or from any other source; the spare weapons of their husbands, or the pieces of wood from which these are to be manufactured; the roots, &c., which they have collected during the day. Skins not yet prepared for cloaks are generally carried between the bag and the back, so as to form a sort of cushion for the bag to rest on. In ​general, each woman carries a lighted fire-stick or brand under her cloak and in her hand."
When a tribe is encamped, it is not permitted to any other tribe to approach the camp without warning. Bent on revenge, or with an intent to murder, or for the purpose of stealing a young woman, a warrior will sometimes invade a camp in the night and seek to effect his purpose, but such enterprizes are not of very common occurrence. Whether for friendly intercourse or for war, the tribe which seeks a meeting must give notice of its coming in due form. A messenger (We-ar-garr), whose duty it is to proceed to the camp and state the intentions of the visitors, or to invite them to come to the camp of his tribe, is formally appointed by the principal man of the tribe, assisted by the old men in council. The young men are not allowed, under any circumstances, to take part in such deliberations as may be preliminary to so important a matter as a visit to or the reception of another tribe. On very solemn occasions two ambassadors or messengers are appointed; ordinarily, only one. The messenger has to carry a token, by virtue of which he passes safely through the lands of the several tribes. The token is a piece of wood, eight or ten inches in length, sometimes round and sometimes flat, and seldom more than one inch in thick- ness. On it are inscribed hieroglyphics which can be read and interpreted, and which notify all persons of the nature of the mission. If the mission is a friendly one, the stick is streaked mostly with red-ochre (Werrup); but if unfriendly, or for the purpose of demanding satisfaction for injuries done, or for war, then it is mostly streaked with white-ochre (Ngarrimbul). The principal man, in putting this stick into the hands of the messenger, and having named the tribe for which the invitation is intended, says, "You hold this now" (Koong-ak kinee Mirrambinerr). "Look out and find plenty of blackfellows" (Yane-wat benjer oonee kolen). "You tell all blackfellows to come here" (Toombooni boole-anin kolen-yan-an niool or Tom-buk U-mar-ko Koolin Ner-lin-go).
The messenger, on approaching the camp of the tribe to which he has to deliver his message, does not at once break in upon their privacy. He sits down at a considerable distance from the camp, but usually within sight of it, and makes a very small fire of bark and twigs for the purpose of indicating his presence by the smoke. After the lapse of a quarter of an hour, one of the aged blacks approaches him, carrying in his hand a fire-stick, or a piece of thick bark ignited at one end. The messenger presents his token to the old man, who scans it and orders his conduct accordingly. Some hours after, if the messenger has announced visitors, the members of his tribe arrive, and, if they are friendly, there is a corrobboree at night. If the purpose is war, the messenger has to hold a debate with the old men of the tribe, which sometimes lasts far into the night.
However unpleasant the tidings may be, the persons of the messengers are held sacred, and they are always patiently heard and hospitably treated. If the message is of such a kind as to require an answer, the answer is given, and the bearer is conducted safely to the boundaries of the district he has invaded.
​The visitors usually so time their steps as to arrive at the camp some two or three hours before sunset. When the principal man gives warning, they all sit down, and they remain quiet for the space of half an hour or more. The influential Aborigines from each tribe then approach and confer respecting the business to be transacted. If it is a friendly visit, or for the purpose of procuring wives, or for arranging plans of any kind likely to be mutually beneficial, they enter the camp, and everywhere are heard kindly greetings, lamentations for those departed since they last met, and enquiries respecting relatives and others. The visitors immediately after form an encampment at some little distance from their friends.
When, in accordance with some arrangements suggested by the old men of the tribes, and approved by the warriors, a strange tribe is invited to come into a district which they have not previously visited, there are some practices to be observed, the omission of which might lead to quarrels. The strangers are preceded and introduced by members of some tribe having relations both with the strangers and with the tribe that is about to receive them. The duty of those who have to introduce the strangers is something like that which devolves on a master of ceremonies. Both parties must be consulted by them, and their wishes ascertained, before any attempt is made to bring the tribes together. The responsibility of the introduction, to a great extent, rests on the members of the intermediate tribe. If all difficulties be removed, the strange tribe is permitted to approach the camp—the metropolis of what to them is a new country.
The strangers carry lighted bark or burning sticks in their hands, for the purpose, they say, of clearing and purifying the air. Their entertainers make them welcome, first to the forest lands of which they are the owners; then to the trees, from which they cut boughs and present them to their visitors; then to the shrubs, of which they gather bundles and offer to them; and then to the grass and the herbs, which are freely spread before them; and the boughs and the branches and the leaves and the grass are symbols of friendship which are well understood by all—the givers and the receivers.
To each family is appropriated a separate seat, which is usually a dead prostrate tree. At one end sits the head of the family, with his sons next to him in the order of their birth; at the other, his principal wife, with the other wives and the female children. Two fires are made, one at each end of the log, and at these the males and the females warm themselves and cook their food without interference with each other.
During the first day the visitors are not permitted to minister to their own wants in any way. A male amongst the entertainers fills a Tarnuk with water, and carries it to the head of the family, and, looking at him fixedly, stirs the water with a reed or a twig, and takes a deep draught of it, thus satisfying him that it is good, and then leaves it for the use of him and his sons. A female does the same office for the strange wives and the female children.
Food, consisting of all the varieties which the country affords, is laid before the guests. They carry to them the kangaroo, the opossum, the bandicoot, and the bear, birds of several kinds, fish and eels, and the native bread and gum. ​During the performance of all these duties silence prevails. There is no loud talk or cries or shouts such as are heard ordinarily in camp. The very aged guests, male and female, occasionally weep copiously, and exhibit by their tears and their gestures gratitude for the attentions shown them; but the younger members of the strange tribe simply stare and wonder.
When night falls, the strangers find that miams have been prepared for them. Each family has one, and one is set apart for the young unmarried men. Silence prevails throughout the night, and it would be a breach of etiquette to indulge in the usual squabbles which serve under ordinary circumstances to relieve the tedium of the night in an encampment.
The duties performed and the ceremonies used in receiving and attending to the wants of a strange tribe have meanings quite intelligible to the Aborigines. When they welcome the strangers to the forest lands they signify that as long as they are friendly, and under such restrictions as their laws impose, they and their children may come there again without fear of molestation; the presents of boughs and leaves and grass are meant to show that these are theirs when they like to use them; and the water stirred with a reed is understood as a token that they may thereafter drink of it, and that no hostile spear will be raised against them.
The Aborigines have many rather peculiar ways of welcoming their friends when they arrive at an encampment after a long absence. The women usually cry with joy, and the men make a howling noise until the visitors actually appear. Strangers and visitors have various means of making known their approach to a camp. Sometimes they raise a singular cry. When the cry is heard by those in the camp, they know that a stranger or a visitor is approaching, and at once they begin to shout, and the shouting and noise are continued until the face of the visitor is seen and recognised. Strangers do not walk straight into a camp; some ceremony is observed. They sit down at a great distance from the place where the tribe is stationed, and remain there quietly until they are noticed. Sometimes they sit a long time before any one goes to them. If one from the tribe goes to the strangers and welcomes them, they then approach, and all kinds of civilities are paid to them by the men and women. Buckley says that when he first encountered a tribe of Aborigines the natives invariably struck their breasts and his also, making a noise between singing and crying—a sort of whine.
Sir Thomas Mitchell observed that when strange blacks met, the men did not at once begin to converse with each other; but there did not appear to be any such restraint on the women, who entered freely into conversation without check or rebuke. Piper—Sir Thomas's black follower—on one occasion encountered a strange native, and in vain was he entreated to ask a question of the unknown traveller; both stood facing each other for a quarter of an hour. They stood about eight yards apart, neither looking at the other, and only gradually and slowly did they at last enter into conversation. The female native was in the beginning the intermediate channel of communication.
The mode of receiving a stranger in the Cooper's Creek district is thus described by Mr. Gason:—"A native of influence, on arriving at one of the ​camps of his own tribe, is usually received in the following manner:—On ap- proaching the camp, the inmates close in with raised arms, as in defence; upon this, the person of note rushes at them, making a faint blow as if to strike them, they warding it off with their shields; immediately after, they embrace him and lead him into the camp, where the women shortly bring him food. Should any female relatives to him be present, they cry with joy. If he visits a neighbouring tribe, he is received in the same manner as by his own. A native of no influence or note, on returning after considerable absence, takes his seat near the camp without passing any remark. After remaining a few minutes as if dumb, the old men close round him, ask where he came from, and what befel him, when he tells them plenty of news, not forgetting to embellish. Then two old men stand up, one retailing it, and the other repeating the sentences in an excited manner. Upon this, as on all other occasions, the new-comer is hospitably received, plenty to eat being furnished him."
The practice of these ceremonies, as here narrated, will cause surprise in the minds of those who have been accustomed to regard the Australian blacks as little above the beasts that perish.
The account given by the late Mr. Thomas of a great gathering of Aborigines at the Merri Creek, near its junction with the River Yarra Yarra, when a very old man appeared as a guest, is somewhat curious. More than one hundred and fifty Aborigines came from the country which lies to the north-west of Gippsland and north-east of the Delatite River, and assembled at the camp of the Yarra tribe, and they brought with them an aged head-man named Kul-ler-kul-lup. He was supposed to be more than eighty years of age. He was at least six feet in height, fat, and with a fine upright carriage. His forehead was corrugated; the fine horizontal wrinkles looked scarcely natural; it seemed as if a native artist had been at work on his countenance; and his cheeks too were finely and strangely wrinkled. His friends—indeed, all who saw him—paid respect to him. They embarrassed and encumbered him with their attentions. He could not stir without an effort being made by some one to divine his wishes. At sunrise, the adult Aborigines—strangers and guests—sat before him in semicircular rows, patiently waiting for the sound of his voice, or the indication by gesture of his inclinations. None presumed to speak but in a low whisper in his pre- sence. The old man, touched by so much fealty and respect, occasionally harangned the people—telling them, probably, something of their past history, and warning them, not unlikely, of the evils which would soon surround them. Whenever Mr. Thomas approached for the purpose of gathering some hints of the character of his discourse, the old man paused, and did not resume his argument until the white listener had departed. Mr. Thomas endeavoured through the chief-man—Billi-billari—of the Yarra tribe, to gain some informa- tion touching the nature and substance of these long speeches, but though he succeeded in gaining a seat amongst the adult Aborigines, Kul-ler-kul-lup would not deliver a speech in his presence. Whatever the old man suggested as proper to be done was done; what he disliked was looked upon with disgust ​by all the men of all the assembled tribes; what he liked best was by all regarded as good. And he did not approve of the attempts of the white man to hear his discourses, and care was taken accordingly to prevent him from learning anything relating to them. But when Kul-ler-kul-lup and his people went away, Mr. Thomas ascertained from Billi-billari that the old man had come from a tribe inhabiting the Australian Alps (probably the north-western slopes), which was not in any way connected with any of the Gippsland tribes, and which had never had intercourse with any Gippsland people. He said that Kul-ler-kul-lup had informed them that there was a race living in the Alps who inhabited only the rocky parts, and had their homes in caves; that this people rarely left their haunts but when severely pressed by hunger, and mostly clung closely to their cave-dwellings; that to this people the Australians were indebted for corrobborees; that corrobborees were conveyed by dreams to Kul-ler-kul-lup' s people and other Australians; and that the men of the caves and rocks were altogether superior to the ordinary Aboriginal.
It is probable that Billi-billari gave a truthful account of Kul-ler-kul-lup's statements. It is more than probable that the Australians have always had a belief in the existence of races both superior and inferior to their own; and it is certain that the accidental intrusion of members of distant and strange tribes, acquainted with modes of fighting and decoration somewhat different from their own, must always have been regarded as proofs of the existence of peoples different from them. If easily taken and killed, such intruders would be regarded as inferior; if superior in skill, and greater in daring, and able to put to flight the warriors, then the visitors would be regarded as superiors. In the latter case, the adoption of any other hypothesis would have cast a slur on the fighting-men.
The Aborigines everywhere, and on all occasions, pay great respect to old persons. If a number of strangers are going to a camp, the oldest man walks first, and the younger men follow. Amongst the Murray blacks it is considered a very great fault to say anything disrespectful to an old person. It is deemed a serious thing to say, Kur-o-pi ther-a-ka wirto (you grey-haired old man!). It is only when a young man is very much enraged that he will venture to use such words; and if used, the consequences are sometimes serious.
"Respect for old age," says Sir Thomas Mitchell, "is universal amongst the Aborigines. Old men, and even old women, exercise great authority among assembled tribes, and 'rule the big war' with their voices when both spears and boomerangs are at hand."
In the country occupied by the Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's Creek) the old men direct the movements of the people. "Should any matter of moment have to be considered—such as removing the camps, making of rain, marrying, circumcision, or what not—one of the old men moots the subject late at night, before the camp retires to rest. At dawn of the succeeding day, each question, as proposed by the old man, is answered at once, or, should they wait until he has finished, three or four speak together; with this exception, there being no ​interruptions, and stillness prevailing in the camp. At first they speak slowly and quietly, each sentence in its delivery occupying three or four minutes, but generally become excited before the conclusion of their speeches."
On all occasions, when I have seen a number of blacks gathered together, they have shown the utmost affection to the aged persons amongst them. It has always been regarded by the principal men as a privilege to introduce to me the very old men and old women, and I have observed with pleasure the tokens of respect and regard exhibited whenever the old people spoke. When in the Western district many years ago, the natives brought to me, carrying her as carefully as a mother would carry her child, the principal woman of the Colac tribe. She was very feeble, and probably very old—how old it would be impossible to guess. They evidently looked upon her as one deserving of all care and affection, and seemed very proud of her.
It is pleasant, too, to note how quiet the people are when an old and respected black is speaking to them. They never interrupt him. He begins very slowly, uttering a few words at a time, and the sounds are soft and pleasing. He makes a long pause, and drops his voice as he concludes a sentence. Then, as he warms to his work, his eyelids quiver, he speaks more rapidly, always pausing at the conclusion of a sentence, and soon his sentences become longer, his voice a little louder, and he emphasizes a word now and again in a very impressive manner. He ends abruptly, and sits down. When, however, a man who is not much esteemed essays a speech, he is interrupted by both men and women. All of them talk together, and, though he may raise his voice, he is soon silenced by the clamor of the throng. In many things the blacks are very like the whites.
The natives are "good haters," and they have, as good haters should have, the greatest love for their friends and relatives. They testify the liveliest joy when a companion after a long absence returns to the camp. When a young man—a warrior—departs on an expedition as a messenger, tears are shed by the old people, and the leave-taking is quite a solemnity. When a near relation, or a dear friend, or any distinguished fighting-man is removed by death, they testify their sorrow in the same way as the people of the Eastern nations of antiquity did when overwhelmed with a great affliction or compelled by custom to appear to be in deep grief.
Men show strong affection towards each other; they love their wives; women are faithful, and die on the graves of their husbands; and indeed it would not be without labor to find amongst civilized races more touching instances of affection than those that can be related of the Aborigines of Australia.
The late Mr. Thomas has given an account in his writings, prepared at my request, of the behaviour of the natives of Victoria under very painful circumstances:—
Bun-ger-ring, an old Mount Macedon black, of a great family, of whose exploits he would often speak, had four wives. One day he came to the ​encampment accompanied by the youngest of his wives, and both Bun-ger-ring and this woman were sick and feeble. They had caught cold, and were suffering from low fever. Mr. Thomas got medical aid, and the young woman recovered, but old Bun-ger-ring died. At the funeral the young widow was inconsolable. She burnt and mutilated herself very much. She mourned Bun-ger-ring's death for many days, refused food, and sat daily and nightly moaning plaintively. She stated boldly that she would starve herself to death and follow Bun-ger-ring; and sixteen days after his death she too was buried. The wife of Ning-er-ra-noul, of the Western Port tribe, sickened and died when her husband was taken away from her. She survived him but a few days. King Benbow, well known in Melbourne in 1848, whose wife was with him always, and was always clinging fondly to him, literally died on his grave, from which she could not be got away. Native men have shown the same great grief when their wives have been removed by death. A great man of the Yarra tribe, whose wife died at the foot of Mount Disappointment, was so much afflicted that he too died two days after, and was buried in the same grave with her.
As an instance of the strong affection which men show towards each other, when trouble and affliction overtake them, and when they have jointly to share the burden, Mr. Thomas has recorded the case of two Portland Bay blacks, who were imprisoned in the gaol in Melbourne many years ago. Up to the time of their imprisonment they kept together, and clung to each other as newly-caught wild animals are seen to keep together when caged. During the period they were in gaol one of them fell sick, and was separated from his companion, and finally he died. When Mr. Thomas communicated the tidings to the friend of the deceased, he, though apparently in good health, felt the stroke so keenly that he too sickened and died almost immediately. His body, cold and stiff, was found in his cell the morning after he had received the tidings.
A number of cases of the like kind could be given: but enough has been adduced to show that the Australian—in his domestic relations; in his dealings with friends; in his intercourse with strangers; in his ceremonious reception of ambassadors; in his sorrows; in his lamentations for relatives departed; in his strong affections, as well as in his hatreds—is altogether like ourselves, when we are on our best behaviour, and not grimacing and attitudinizing, and making a pretence of sorrow when there is no grief, and simulating joy when there is no real cause for rejoicing. The Aboriginal is indeed usually very sorry when he exhibits any tokens of sorrow; and he is glad, beyond anything he can himself exhibit of gladness, when there is occasion for the expression of such a feeling. In this he is childish; but it must be remembered that he has not had eighteen hundred years of civilization, and is still in the state he was created.
Life during the Four Seasons.
The tract of land owned by each tribe was well known to every member; as well known and as accurately defined as if the metes and bounds of it had been set out by a surveyor. In most cases the area was very large, and presented different aspects during the several seasons of the year. In the months of June, ​July, and August—the winter season of the year—the flats near the rivers and creeks were often flooded; and the low lands generally were wet and cold, and unsuitable for camping ground; and necessarily the natives moved to the best sheltered spots on the uplands, where they were able to catch native bears, wallabies, and wombats—and on these and on the pupæ of the ant, and on the grubs that are found in the trees, they chiefly supported themselves. In wet and very cold weather they were often miserable. When the rain fell heavily—perhaps for many days—the men kept sulkily to their willams, and no inducement would lead them to hunt game in the forests. The aspect of a camp at such times was dismal in the extreme. The fires were maintained, it is true; but the dripping trees, the wet grass, the rain pouring heavily on the bark of the miams, and penetrating them; the absence of children before the openings of the dwellings, and the forlorn appearance of the dogs moving occasionally from miam to miam, in search of better accommodation—made a picture only to be equalled by those that are familiar to the English people in the quarters of the cities and in the districts inhabited by the poorest and most neglected of the inhabitants. In the wet season the natives were undoubtedly unhappy—often starved—and never in a condition to indulge in mirth or amusements.
In the spring—during the months of September, October, and November—when the acacias blossom, and the watercourses in many places are resplendent with the rich yellow flowers of these trees; when the birds mate; when the coldness of winter is almost past, and only rarely, in exceptional periods, snow is seen or hail falls; when the first hot breath of the north wind makes itself felt in the spring—the natives moved slowly towards the lower lands. There they were able to snare ducks, to catch other kinds of wild-fowl, and, as the season advanced, to procure eggs from the nests of all kinds of birds. This was a time of rejoicing. They spent many hours in pleasant ramblings and in fishing and hunting when the moon was shining; and as the earth renewed her strength, and nature sprinkled the sward with flowers, and filled the heath-clad downs and the scrub-covered hill-sides with rich colors of flowering shrubs, the natives, too, awakening from the torpor that the coldness of winter had induced, put forth their strength, and, active and lively, hunted regularly and feasted heartily on the good things that were easily procurable by their skill. They never killed any creature that was not in good condition if they could help it, and any that was poor or lean was thrown aside. They cooked only the best of the birds and beasts, as a rule; but when pressed by hunger, everything that was taken was eaten, unless it was something forbidden by the laws, and these no one dared violate.
During the summer season—in the months of December, January, and February—when the temperature is very high, and the hot winds so scorching as sometimes to kill even indigenous trees; when the ground is baked into a hard crust, and cracked and fissured in all places where a thin soil covers granite or basalt, and when the earth is dusty even to the very edge of the fast disappearing swamps; when the snakes are active, and bask in broad day in any ungrassed patch of ground; when the small lizards dart to and fro, and the large iguanas slowly ascend their favorite trees for shelter or food; when the native bear goes ​to sleep at mid-day in the open forest, or dozes stupidly on the branch of a tree; when the air is filled with the hum and whirr of innumerable insects; when the fading flowers of the trees and shrubs begin to give place to the succeeding fruits; when the grass is no longer green, and the streams even in the mountainous districts flow somewhat feebly—the natives resorted to the large rivers, and amused themselves and fed themselves by catching fish. They also hunted the kangaroo, and killed opossums and porcupines. Their vegetable food, in the Yarra district, was chiefly the heart of the fern-tree; but roots and bulbs and fruits were gathered by the women and children in all places where these had matured.
In the summer time there was no lack of amusements. Hunting, fishing, fighting, and dancing—pursued in the day or night, as best suited their inclinations—were to them as exhilirating as any of the practices of civilized peoples, and many of them, perhaps it may be said, as innocent.
The warmth of this season caused them to be careless, to a certain degree, of their willams; and they often camped in small parties, in places remote from their accustomed haunts, where they never thought of providing shelter, unless when overtaken by a storm.
When the hot winds ceased to blow—when the shelter of a bark willam was welcome, and the aspect of nature was no longer encouraging for such pursuits as they followed in the summer—the natives moved to the higher grounds belonging to them. The rains had wetted the green slopes formerly so delightful; cold blasts came from the south-west; and the autumn, bringing to them no rich harvests, no stores of corn, suggested only the discomforts of the approaching winter.
Their food at this season consisted of kangaroo, opossum, porcupine, and other animals, eels and various kinds of fish, and, of vegetables, the bulbous roots of plants growing in the marshes, fern-trees, and the gum of the wattle.
They were always mindful of the seasons in selecting the localities in which to spend their time, taking into account not only the natural features of the ground, but the facilities for obtaining food. They constructed tolerably good bark willams in the winter, while in the summer they were content with such shelter as a few broken branches afforded. They were rarely without good fires.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, in Gippsland, in a letter to me, gives the following interesting account of the movements of the natives in the south-eastern part of Victoria during the several seasons. He says:—
"In summer time their days were spent chiefly in fishing for eels and fat mullet (Pert-piang). They camped at the entrance to the Lakes, where they are plentiful at this season. They would find also in the gullies near the entrance plenty of Koonyang (kangaroo apples), and these, with the fish, would form their chief diet. Excepting when they desired a change of food, a day would be spent in going back into the bush for wallaby. The entrance to Reeves River has always been a very favorite camping ground, as food in the ​summer is very plentiful. In a wild state, a black did very little more, I think, than attend to the wants of his stomach. In summer his nights would be spent in getting eels or other fish, as at night they can he more easily taken. He would go into the shallow water with a torch and a spear; the fish would be attracted by the light, and they would fall an easy prey to the spear. The natives are very skilful with the spear, seldom missing their stroke, but they use great caution in striking at the fish. The day was spent by the men in idleness, and in sleeping and eating. The women made bags of grass for themselves or their husbands, and sometimes, if a man could rouse himself, he would get up from his rug and employ himself in making a spear or some other instrument of use, and towards evening the torches would have to be made for the night's fishing. In winter the greater part of the time was occupied in hunting native bears, kangaroo, etc. The long nights would be passed, if in good humour, in joking; their great delight would be to hit off the peculiarities of some absent member of the tribe, or of some dead black who was no relation of any black present. If not in a good humour, they would find some grievance to redress; or perhaps some refractory young man would rush into a camp to seize one of the young women, in order to give the parents a hint that that particular female ought to be given to him. This would cause a general fight, and the young man would get a good thrashing, and then, perhaps, the tribe, smitten with remorse for their conduct, would make atonement by giving up the lady to him. In spring their time was devoted to fishing, as the fish then begin to be plentiful. The autumn was spent in visiting other tribes and getting up new corrobborees. Their food during this season was various, chiefly opossums, bears, kangaroo, &c.
"As to their shelter—in summer, in their temporary camps, a few boughs would suffice, as the nights were warm, and indeed, as they occupied themselves at night in fishing, they did not require much shelter. In case of wet they made a grass camp. In winter the camp was more substantial, as they remained longer in one locality at that season. It was thatched with grass or made of sheets of bark. In spring, as well as in summer, they lived much on vegetables and fruits.
"In summer they fished mostly on the coast, or at the mouths of the rivers which run into the sea, as at this season the fish were either going to or returning from the sea. In winter they would more likely procure fish in the rivers with grass nets, and often with hooks of bone with a line made of the bark of the Yowan or lightwood. I believe they found the bone-hook as good for fishing as the hooks supplied by Europeans, though no doubt it would be very troublesome to make it, as it had to be scraped out with flint and shells. The time when they had most wild-fowl was and still is in the spring, when the birds are moulting. At this season they kill swans in large numbers. The wild-fowls they get principally are swans and ducks.
"I believe in their wild state the Aboriginals had more system, or worked more by a plan, than at present. As they had only themselves to rely upon, ​they took care to keep themselves supplied with food each day. Had a stranger come suddenly upon their camps, when the natives were in a wild state, at any time during the day, he would have found them almost totally deserted. Had he inspected them, he would have found them inhabited by a few old people and children. But towards evening he would have observed blacks coming from all quarters, some laden with game, some with fish, and a few with a stick of firewood on their shoulders. Each had been away seeking food and necessaries for the supply of the camp. In times of peace, when they had no fear of enemies lurking about, they would move from place to place without caution. The men would go in a mob to have a grand battue among the kangaroos, which would be done by a number of men driving the animals into some corner where they could spear them as the creatures tried to pass them. The women would also go away in large numbers in canoes to fish; but they would take care to return to the camp before the arrival of their husbands, in order to have the fires lighted and some of the produce of their day's labor roasted for the hunters. The appetite of their husbands would probably not be so keen as that of the hunters who are proverbially named when hunger is mentioned; for, if successful in their day's sport, they would have made an astonishing meal long before reaching home. It is the custom of the blacks, when they catch a kangaroo, to roast and eat part of it on the spot. And here a remark may be made respecting the much talked of enormous eating of the blacks. This is accounted for by the way in which they live. As hunters, they would, at most, have a very precarious living, for sometimes they would be unsuccessful in their hunting, and their fishing would also fail. At such times they would have to allay hunger by eating some of the various vegetable productions which are common. The blacks are capable of enduring long fasts, and when they get food in abundance, they are very liable to exceed the usual limits; but let an Aboriginal be fed regularly every day, and it soon becomes apparent that he eats just as much as is sufficient for him. In fact his appetite is not at all out of the common."
​"A huntsman's life," says Wilhelmi, "under any circumstances is a migratory one, but it becomes the more so in this country, where Nature's products are obtainable only according to the season, and in districts far off one from the other. On this account the Port Lincoln blacks are obliged at times to resort to the sea-coast for catching fish; at others, to rove over hill and dale in pursuit of game and roots; and during the unproductive months they are forced, for the smaller kinds of game, to roam through the whole country, some parts of which are covered with an almost impenetrable small scrub, and other parts complete deserts, all the time having to contend against a dreadful heat, rendered almost insupportable by the reflection of the rays of the sun and of the surrounding burning scrub, and being, in addition to all this, deprived of a sufficiency of water. . . . . . . The habit of constantly changing their places of rest is so great that they cannot overcome it, even if staying where all their wants can be abundantly supplied. A certain longing to revisit this or that spot, for which they have taken a particular fancy, seizes them, and neither promises nor persuasion can induce them to resist it for any time; only in time and by degrees is this feeling likely to give way. As they travel greater distances during the summer months than daring winter, they then also more frequently change their places of rest."
Property in Land.
Though the land occupied by each tribe was the common property of the tribe, insomuch as they could hunt over it, kill the wild animals on it, and gather the fruits and roots and tubers growing within its area, there were some obscure personal rights of property. Members of the tribe, it is said, had lands which they called their own; the right to such lands descended from generation to generation; and these rights were respected by all, and jealously guarded by the proprietors.
Grey says that "landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several families, but to a single male; and the limits of his property are so accurately defined, that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out the various objects which mark his boundary."
And Dr. Lang, in a letter to Dr. Hodgkin, quoted by Grey, states that "particular districts are not merely the property of particular tribes; particular sections, or portions of these districts, are universally recognised by the natives as the property of individual members of these tribes; and when the owner of such a section, or portion of territory (as I ascertained was the case at King George's Island), has determined on burning off the grass on his land—which is done for the double purpose of enabling the natives to take the older animals more easily, and to provide a new crop of sweeter grass for the rising generation of the forest—not only all the other individuals of his own tribe, but whole tribes from other districts, are invited to the hunting party, and the feast and ​dance, or corrobboree that ensue; the wild animals on the ground being all considered the property of the owner of the land."
Mr. Gideon Lang asserts that the natives have also individual property in various trees. On one occasion, when exploring, and suffering severely from the want of food, and particularly the craving from the want of vegetables, his black guide pointed to a bee passing over them, loaded, and evidently in straight flight for the hive. Mr. Lang told the native to follow it, and he did so; but when they reached the tree, the black had scarcely got off his horse when he remounted, as if to go on again. Mr. Lang asked the reason for his action, when he pointed to a mark on the tree, evidently made by a stone tomahawk, and said that it belonged to "N'other one blackfellow," and that he could not touch it—and at this time he was almost on the point of starvation, as well as the others of the party.
Reference is made in the same place to the statement of Sir George Grey, that if two or more men have a right to hunt over the same portion of ground, and one of them breaks off the tops of certain trees, by their laws the grubs in these trees are his property, and no one has a right to touch the tree; but Sir George here refers to the grass-trees, which, unless the top is broken or it naturally decays, is not a proper receptacle for the grubs which supply the natives with food. The man who took the trouble to break the tops of the grass-trees was surely entitled to gather the grubs; but he acquired no right to the trees, and they could not, by his simply breaking the tops, become his property, as a huge gum-tree might, or a parcel of land.
The natives of the Darling had a mode of asserting their rights to the land they inhabited which seemed to surprise Major Mitchell. The "Spitting Tribe" caused the explorers to pour out the water from their buckets into a hole which they dug in the ground; and when a river chief had a tomahawk presented to him, he pointed to the stream, and signified that the white men were at liberty to take water from it.
This, however, was no more than the assertion by the principal man of tribal rights, and did not indicate any individual property in the waters or soil.
Eyre affirms that every male has a piece of land which he can call his own, that he knows its boundaries and can point them out; that the father divides his lands amongst his sons, and that there is almost hereditary succession; that a female never inherits, and that primogeniture has no peculiar rights or advantages; and Grey adds that, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, a boy can point out the portion of land which he eventually is to inherit, and that if the male children of a family become extinct, the male children of the daughters inherit their grandfather's land.
Lieut.-Col. Collins says, "Their spears and shields, their clubs and lines, &c., are their own property; they are manufactured by themselves, and are the whole ​of their personal estate. But, strange as it may appear, they have also their real estates. Ben-nil-long gave repeated assurances that the island Me-mel (known at the settlement by the name of Goat Island), close by Sydney Cove, was his own property; that it had been his father's, and that he should give it to By-gone, his particular friend and companion. To this little spot he appeared much attached. He likewise spoke of other persons who possessed this kind of hereditary property, which they retained undisturbed."
In Fraser's Island (Great Sandy Island) it is said that there are parts of the land which the natives look upon as individually theirs, and on the death of the father it descends to the sons. On the death of a mother, her property descends to her brother.
This is strong evidence in favor of there being individual property in land amongst the Australians; but is it satisfactory? What rights, exclusive of those of other members of the tribe, were enjoyed by the proprietor? What, in short, were his advantages? This personal property would naturally suggest the existence in each tribe of chieftainship; but nothing of the kind is known in Australia. The council of old men rule the affairs of the tribe. The principal man or principal men cannot act without their advice and approval. If they did act without authority, they might incur punishment. How could the sons of a daughter inherit? The people are not endogamous. A girl, it is true, is betrothed at an early age to a man not of her own class or to a man of another tribe with whom intermarriage is lawful; but girls and women are exchanged, and are not seldom stolen by men of neighbouring tribes; and, moreover, an old man has usually not one wife but several; and how would the succession be settled?
It is not at all clear from the statements here quoted that there was anywhere, in the ordinary sense of the word, individual property in land. How, indeed, could it consist with the maintenance of tribal rights, the rules of hospitality, and the preservation of the common interests of the people?
The Rev. John Bulmer informs me that the fact that an Aboriginal is born in a certain locality constitutes a right to that part, and it would be considered a breach of privilege for any one to hunt over it without his permission. Should another black have been born in the same place, he, with the former, would have a joint right to the land. Otherwise, no native seems to have made a claim to any particular portion of the territory of his tribe. Mr. Bulmer says he has found this birthright common to the Murray tribes, and he suspects it is common to most of the tribes of Australia. In old times a fight would ensue if any one wilfully trespassed on the land thus acquired as a birthright.
This is intelligible, and seems to accord with other customs of the natives.
In any large area occupied by a tribe, where there was not much forest laud, and where kangaroos were not numerous, it is highly probable that the several families composing the tribe would withdraw from their companions for short periods, at certain seasons, and betake themselves to separate portions of ​the area (always keeping within the boundaries of the district lawfully owned by the tribe), and it is more than probable—it is almost certain—that each head of a family would betake himself, if practicable, to that portion which his father had frequented. In this manner—and where certain privileges were acquired in consequence of a native having been born in a locality that could be appropriated—individuals would claim a property in the land. There is nothing to be discovered in the records relating to the Aborigines of Victoria which would show such a proprietorship as would justify the statements made by Mr. Eyre. But he wrote of another part of the continent; and it is scarcely to be believed that so accurate an observer—so conscientious and careful a historian—would be misled on such a point.
This is a subject of great interest, and to the ethnologist of the highest importance; and it is not to be dismissed by a reference to any authority, however high. One has to consider, in connection with it, the laws that govern the tribes, the habits of the people, and the accidents, amongst men in the savage state, which would necessarily interfere with, and, in fact, render impossible anything in the nature of hereditary succession. And there are other difficulties.
If, when any man was called to account for a crime, he kept himself within the boundaries of his own land—how could he be brought to punishment? Not, if he were contumacious, without violating his rights as the proprietor of the sod. And in times of drought, if a water-hole was within his boundaries, would the tribe be prevented from resorting to it? Certainly not. What rights, what privileges could individual proprietorship confer in a community of savages?
Dogs.
Native dogs are found at every encampment. They are in all conditions—some very old, some mature and strong, and some in the stage of puppyhood. Not less than twenty, perhaps forty, may be seen at any time when a number of natives encamp for the night. Before European dogs were introduced, the blacks took the puppies of the wild dog, and brought them up, and trained them to hunt. They are very kind to their dogs, and indeed nothing more offends a black than to speak harshly to his dogs, or to depreciate them; and if any one gave a black man's dog a blow, he would incur bitter enmity. Mr. Gason has seen a woman crying over a dog that had been bitten by a snake; and he is of opinion that they take as much care of their dogs as if they belonged to the human species. Their dogs are not only affectionate and faithful companions, but they are of the greatest use to the natives. They assist them in finding opossums, snakes, rats, and lizards. They are, however, not generally well fed. The black eats the meat, and the dog gets the bones. A great many ribs, some belonging to the dead, and some to the living, may be seen whenever a black's camp is approached.
The native's affectionate care of the dog is not confined to gentle treatment and kind words. The black woman is often its nurse. Sir Thomas Mitchell ​says that "the women not unfrequently suckle the young pups, and so bring them up; but these are always miserably thin, so that we knew a native's dog from a wild one by the starved appearance of the follower of man."
The kindness they show to the domesticated animal does not prevent them from hunting and killing the wild dog. When they catch one, he is killed and thrown ou the fire, his hair is singed off, his entrails are taken out, and he is roasted in au oven constructed of heated stones. The carcass is covered with bark or grass, and earth; and in the course of two hours or more he is well cooked aud fit to be eaten.
Buckley says that the howling of the numerous wild dogs affected his spirits considerably. I can well believe this. When on the Powlett River, some years ago, my hospitable entertainer, the superintendent of the station known as the Wild Cattle Run, killed a calf, in order to provide a sumptuous supper, and the scent of the blood, or the knowledge conveyed to them somehow that a beast had been slain, brought the wild dogs from the forest, and about midnight they came close to the hut and howled most dismally. Ever and anon a savage sound came from them too, as if they knew that blood was near. They did not leave until they had aroused every sleeper.
In the Cape Otway forest, and in the forests at the sources of the Goulburn, they are large and fierce. They generally follow any animal that they mean to kill in a long line, one after the other, several paces apart, the largest and strongest dogs keeping the lead. When snow lies on the eastern mountains, and food is scarce, they will not hesitate to track a traveller.
Their depredations on the flocks of the settlers were at one time of serious importance; and, in consequence, it became necessary to use poison. Great numbers were killed; and then another evil—a serious increase of grass-eating marsupials—followed. Their natural enemy, the dingo, being in any district exterminated or greatly reduced in numbers, they increased in proportion, and soon measures had to be taken to kill the large mobs of kangaroos that consumed the grass.
In one district, a correspondent informs me, the dingoes have become so cunning as to refuse the poisoned baits set for them. It is certain that some sheep-dogs are so well acquainted with the fact that poisoned meats are laid for dogs that they will not eat meat they chance to see when travelling.
The Australian dingo is not wanting in courage. When fairly pinned in a corner, he will attack a man, and exhibit the fierceness of a watch-dog. A rather small dingo was exhibited some years ago at a great dog-show in Melbourne. He attracted much attention, and while I was present he got loose. He was not in the least afraid. He looked carefully at the great number of dogs chained to pillars and posts, and selecting one, a bull-dog, as an antagonist, he walked slowly towards him, erecting his bristles and snarling, and would have attacked him had not a keeper appeared and secured him.
​The dingo (Canis dingo) is called by many names in various parts of Australia; and of these, perhaps, the most common are the following:—
| Yarra | Year-angin or Wer-ren-wil-lum. |
| Gippsland | Ngurran. |
| Western part of Victoria | Purnung (male, pip kuru; female, Nrung-yrreh). |
| King George's Sound | Toort. |
| Raffles Bay | Alee. |
| Karaula | Myeye. |
| Wellington Valley | Mirree. |
| Regent's Lake (Lachlan) | Mérry. |
| Moreton Bay | Mèhee |
| Wollondilly River | Merrigang or Warrigal. (Wuragul or Waragul means wild or savage, in the dialect of the Yarra and Western Port natives.) |
The dingo is not unlike a sheep-dog, but he resembles also the fox, and at times when he is enraged he has a wolf-like aspect. He is about two feet in height, and his length is about two feet six inches. His head is rather like that of a fox; his ears are erect and not long, and he has whiskers on the muzzle. He stands firmly on his legs, and shows a good deal of strength in his well-constructed body—a body not likely to be overloaded with fat even when well fed. His color varies from a yellowish-tawny to a reddish-brown, growing lighter towards the belly; and the tip of his brush is generally white. He cannot bark like other dogs, but howls, and utters a kind of screech if much irritated. He has a habit, too, of turning his head over his shoulder when he regards an enemy, that reminds one of the fox. He affords good sport to a pack of hounds.
The natives speared the wild dog, or took the pups from their lair and ate them. I cannot learn that they set traps for this animal.
It was believed by some for a length of time that the wild dog was of recent introduction to Australia; but this is not so. In sinking a well through volcanic ash, near Tower Hill (Western district of Victoria), the workman came upon dry grass, like hay, at a depth of sixty-three feet. Underneath this ancient grass-clad surface they sank a depth of sixty feet through a blue and yellow clay, and there they found the skull and bones of a dingo. And at Lake Timboon, also in the Western district, the bones of the wild dog are found with those of the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus ursinus), now extinct on the mainland, and only found living in Tasmania; the bones and teeth of the gigantic extinct kangaroos (Macropus Titan and M. Atlas), as well as bones and teeth of the genera Nototherium and Diprotodon. lu fact it is now beyond doubt that the dingo was alive and well when the now extinct marsupial lion (Thylacoleo) roamed through the forests of Australia; when the huge Dromornis fed peacefully ​on the plains; and when the volcanoes, now cold and smokeless, sent forth clouds of ashes and pillars of fire.
FIG. 14.
The native dog is not a decayed European species, but one entirely and exclusively Australian. Fig. 14 shows him as he usually appears.
Climbing Trees.
The natives are compelled by their necessities to ascend trees very frequently, either for the purpose of catching animals, or for honey, or for bark for their canoes or willams; and they are very expert and nimble in climbing to a great height, whether the tree be straight or crooked, or of large or small dimensions. The clumsy attitudes of a European who attempts to climb a pole or a tree would excite the merriment of the Australian natives. They not only do their business well, but, as a rule, do it gracefully.
The common method of climbing trees is well known. The native takes his tomahawk and cuts a notch in the bark of the tree about three and a half or four and a half feet from the ground. He puts the great toe of one foot into this, and, raising himself as high as he can, and grasping the tree with one arm, he cuts another notch a stage higher, and thus ascends. He works very rapidly; and it is rare indeed that a black misses his hold and falls to the ground. In the basin of the River Yarra, and in the Western Port district, ​and in many other parts of the colony, there are large numbers of old trees to be seen with notches in the bark, which the blacks have climbed for the purpose of catching opossums, or for getting bark. In West Australia the end of the wooden handle of the tomahawk is sharpened, and the native sticks the end into the bark after making a notch, and drags himself up.
This method of climbing by cutting notches is practised probably in all parts of the continent. Collins gives an account of it in his work on New South Wales (1804). He says:—"It has been remarked that these natives had longer arms and legs than those who lived about Sydney. This might proceed from their being compelled to climb the trees after honey and the small animals which resort to them, such as the flying squirrel and opossum, which they effect by cutting with their stone hatchets notches in the bark of the tree of a sufficient depth and size to receive the ball of the great toe. The first notch being cut, the toe is placed in it, and while the left arm embraces the tree, a second is cut at a convenient distance, to receive the other foot. By this method they ascend with astonishing quickness, always clinging with the left hand, and cutting with the right, resting the whole weight of the body on the ball of either foot. One of the gum-trees was observed by a party on an excursion, which was judged to be about one hundred and thirty feet in height, and which had been notched by the natives at least eighty feet."
Mr. Le Souef says that the blacks at Twofold Bay often climb trees in the following manner. They make a rope of the fibre of some vegetable, and attach wooden handles to it, and ascend with ease even very tall smooth trunks.—(Fig. 15.)
FIG. 15.
The natives of Tasmania also climbed trees by the aid of a rope in the same way.
​Sometimes a tree is climbed with the help of a rope made of the fibre of stringybark. The rope is passed round the trunk of the tree and the body of the climber, and is so adjusted as to fit into the small of the man's back. His tomahawk is kept in his waist-belt. The rope is held by the hands; the body is pressed against the tree, and by quickly jerking the rope upwards a tall trunk is very easily climbed. Mr. Howitt obtained information respecting this method from two natives of Gippsland, who, when they saw the sketch he had made, expressed themselves as highly delighted. They suggested an alteration, and when that was effected, they exclaimed, "Ko-ki! berry good! that fellow all right now!"
In Queensland the native makes use of the strong creepers or climbing plants, instead of a rope, and ascends a tree with great ease.
FIG. 16
Fig. 16, showing a native of Queensland in the act of ascending a tree, is from a photograph.
Signals.
The natives have an easy method of telegraphing news to their distant friends. When Sir Thomas Mitchell was travelling through Eastern Australia, he often saw columns of smoke ascending through the trees in the forests, and he soon learnt that the natives used the smoke of fires for the purpose of making known his movements to their friends. Near Mount Frazer he observed a dense column of smoke, and subsequently other smokes arose, extending in a telegraphic line far to the south along the base of the mountains, and thus communicating to the natives who might be upon his route homewards the tidings of his return.
​When Sir Thomas reached Portland Bay he noticed that when a whale appeared in the bay the natives were accustomed to send up a column of smoke, thus giving timely intimation to all the whalers. If the whale should be perceived by one boat's crew only, it might be taken; but if pursued by several, it would probably be run ashore and become food for the blacks.
Jardine, writing of the natives of Cape York, says that "communication between the islanders and the natives of the mainland is frequent; and the rapid manner in which news is carried from tribe to tribe to great distances is astonishing. I was informed of the approach of H.M.S. Salamander on her last visit two days before her arrival here. Intelligence is conveyed by means of fires made to throw smoke up in different forms, and by messengers who perform long and rapid journeys."
Messengers in all parts of Australia appear to have used this mode of signalling. In Victoria, when travelling through the forest, they were accustomed to raise smoke by filling the hollow of a tree with green boughs and setting fire to the trunk at its base; and in this way, as they always selected an elevated position for the fire when they could, their movements were made known.
When engaged in hunting, when travelling on secret expeditions, when approaching an encampment, when threatened with danger, or when foes menaced their friends, the natives made signals by raising a smoke. And their fires were lighted in such a way as to give forth signals that would be understood by people of their own tribe and by friendly tribes. They exhibited great ability in managing their system of telegraphy; and in former times it was not seldom used to the injury of the white settlers, who, at first, had no idea that the thin column of smoke rising through the foliage of the adjacent bush, and raised perhaps by some feeble old woman, was an intimation to the warriors to advance and attack the Europeans.
Oaths.
Capt. Grey makes a remarkable statement respecting the mode in which the natives swear amity to one another, or pledge themselves to aid one another in avenging a death. He says it is exactly the form referred to in Genesis, ch. xxiv., v. 9:—"One native remains seated on the ground with his heels tucked under him, in the Eastern manner; the one who is about to narrate a death to him approaches slowly, and with averted face, and seats himself cross-legged upon the thighs of the other; they are thus placed thigh to thigh, and squeezing their bodies together they place breast to breast—both then avert their faces, their eyes frequently fill with tears—no single word is spoken; and the one who is seated uppermost places his hands under the thighs of his friend; having remained thus seated for a minute or two, he rises up and withdraws to a little distance without speaking—but an inviolable pledge to avenge the death has by this ceremony passed between them."
​I have made enquiries on this subject, and the Rev. Mr. Bulmer informs me that there is no particular mode of swearing amity known to him. The Murray blacks have a word to express a determination to prove faithful to a compact—Merra mal i-imba, which is an untranslatable term, but might have its equivalent in "Verily, I say to you." The sentence may be divided thus:—
| Merra | mal | i-imba. |
| Verily, | I | to you. |
When an Aboriginal uses this term, he is thought to be sincere. There is a similar term in use amongst the Gippsland blacks—Mack Gnata, which means "Really yes," or "Very yes." This word mack is generally used to express emphasis, as Mack lane, "Very good;" Mack thar, "A real name;" Mack Naatban, " Really no;" so that a black who wishes to inspire confidence will use such a term. In swearing amity, they would do it much in the same way as ourselves, by a hearty grip of the hand or an embrace. Mr. Bulmer believes that there is not any specified way of performing the ceremony, but that, no doubt, it would depend on the position of the persons at the time, whether reclining or otherwise, or it might be in case of sickness and probable death that such a mode as that referred to by Capt. Grey was adopted. Mr. Bulmer is inclined to think that the ceremony described by that explorer was some form of incantation, for that is exactly the way their medicine-men sometimes handle their patients.
Fights.
Those who have lived amongst the blacks cannot fail to have observed that they are always expecting a fight. Distant tribes send messages to them relating to various matters, and other messages are returned, which are not always of a satisfactory character—and anger and ill-will, at last, lead to an outbreak. Sometimes a man is sick in a tribe, and his friends at once conclude that he has been made ill by the evil practices of his enemies; suspicion is created—hints are given by wary old blackfellows who have old grudges unsatisfied, and at length some tribe is fixed upon with which it is deemed necessary to negotiate. Ambassadors are sent to the offending tribe; these return and make their report; there is much talking amongst the elders; and finally the excitement in the minds of the men and women of both tribes results in a meeting. The sick man is brought out of his miam, and the accused are required to stand beside him, and to clear themselves. They behave thus: The sick man is provided with a club and a shield; if the person who presents himself is considered innocent, he strikes the shield of the accused with his club, and the accused returns the blow lightly, and retires. If one is singled out as the guilty person, a young man is selected to fight him, and the two seldom cease fighting until blood is drawn.
Sometimes—but rarely—a fight is arranged for the purpose of testing the strength of a tribe. As a rule, fights are brought about by the misconduct of the women, the unauthorized killing of game, the sickness of some member of a tribe, the death of a prominent man, the quarrels of children of different families, or, not seldom, by trivial differences arising out of imaginary grievances.
​In such encounters the women appear to suffer most, and in a great fight one or more of them may be killed; but the warriors are not often mortally wounded during an engagement. Several of the men may be seriously hurt; and if the wounds be caused by jagged spears, they may be rendered helpless for a long time; but Nature is kind to creatures of her own rearing, and a gash that would kill a civilized European is easily repaired if inflicted on a black man, who has no mechanical contrivances, nor bitter medicines, nor spirituous liquors to vex him in his pain. After a very serious battle, some of the conquered may be murdered—and in committing these crimes there is evinced a malignity which is not to be extenuated even amongst the most savage natives.
​The natives seem to take great pleasure in these encounters. They have afforded them on such occasions the opportunity of displaying their skill as gymnasts and in the use of their various weapons, and of proving their superiority, not only to the enemy with whom they may be engaged, but to the warriors of their own tribe. Emulation leads them to attempt feats of daring, and during the excitement of a general engagement they freely risk their lives. In many cases warrior is pitted against warrior, and those thus engaged are not molested by either enemies or friends. It would appear that unfair advantage is seldom taken. They fight, too, when there is no actual ill-will between the combatants, rather for the display of skill and agility than for the purpose of shedding blood. A great battle between two tribes is not a brawl—a brutal, savage, bloodthirsty onset—but generally a well-devised set-to between the fighting-men of each side. Towards the end, when the blood is heated—when the yells and screams of the women and children are added to the hoarse shouts of the warriors, when wives rush in to protect their husbands, and mothers cling to their sons to shelter them and help them—there are many blows struck in anger, and much mischief is occasionally done; but the combats between the fighting-men are not usually attended by very serious consequences. The jumping, dancing, and spear-throwing induce a copious perspiration, and the war paint begins to take new forms, and the ornaments they have assumed get disarranged; but beyond these casualties and a few ugly knocks, they come out of the fight most often scatheless.
To a stranger—one new to the country—a great fight amongst the natives is calculated to create alarm. The decorations of the warriors (except for their paint and feathers or boughs, naked), their loud cries as they advance, the shaking of the spears, the rattling of the clubs and other weapons as they strike the shields or the trees, the wailing of the women, and the general aspect of the assembled tribes, all—even including the grouping of the dogs—showing a state of unusual excitement and turmoil, are likely enough to raise feelings of terror. And then the scenery, so little in keeping with the violent motions of the warriors and their savage yells, adds, by contrast, to the sternness of the picture. Bounding the space where the combat is going on are uumerous ancient gum-trees, whose richly-colored boles, sheltering here and there a cherry-tree clad in bright-green foliage, present in themselves exquisite pictures, and perhaps, if the season is spring, the banks of the neighbouring creek will be clothed with wattle-trees in luxuriant blossom. The sward on which the warriors are trampling is a short smooth grass, and beyond, seen through the trees, are gentle slopes, at the foot of one or more of which are the miams of the tribe, from whose fires thin blue smoke rises and seems to blend in the color of the unclouded sky.
Only amongst uncivilized peoples and in forests where the axe of the white man has not been heard can such scenes be witnessed; and though they may induce disgust and abhorrence, they are not altogether devoid of those elements which serve to elevate our species. When the fight is over, the wounded are well cared for. The animosity which influenced some of the more truculent of the warriors is forgotten or concealed, and not seldom help is given ​to the injured by both parties. Perhaps the day's work is concluded by a dance, and the reconciliation of the tribes completely effected—to be interrupted only when the winning graces and bright looks of some amongst the women enthrall a strange warrior, and lead to a new cause of quarrel.
Though there were commonly few deaths on such occasions, men and women were killed sometimes, and the wars consequently had a tendency to reduce the numbers of the tribes. When a warrior was slain, his wives were disposed of, and the youngest children of the wives, and the children born after the decease of the husband, most probably destroyed.
There have been no serious encounters—conducted strictly in accordance with the etiquette of savage life—in the Colony of Victoria for many years. After the arrival of Europeans, new implements were used, and new methods of warfare were adopted; and there are probably not very many now living who have seen a well-contested fight, after the Aboriginal fashion, in this colony. From the narrative of William Buckley one can gather, however, some accurate notion of how the fights of the natives were conducted. He seems to have given a very careful account of these, or the compiler of Buckley's Life and Adventures—Mr. John Morgan—must have had an excellent knowledge of the habits of the Australians.
One battle is thus described in Buckley's narrative:—"In a very short time the fight began, by a shower of spears from the contending parties. One of our men advanced singly, as a sort of champion; he then began to dance and sing, and beat himself about with his war implements; presently they all sat down, and he seated himself also. For a few minutes all was silent; then our champion stood up, and commenced dancing and singing again. Seven or eight of the savages—for so I must call them—our opponents, then got up also, and threw their spears at him; but, with great dexterity, he warded them off, or broke them every one, so that he did not receive a single wound. They then threw their boomerangs at him, but he warded them off also, with ease. After this, one man advanced, as a sort of champion from their party, to within three yards of him, and threw his boomerang, but the other avoided the blow by falling on his hands and knees; and, instantly jumping up again, he shook himself like a dog coming out of the water. At seeing this, the enemy shouted out in their language 'enough,' and the two men went and embraced each other. After this, the same two beat their own heads until the blood ran down in streams over their shoulders. A general fight now commenced, of which all this had been the prelude, spears and boomerangs flying in all directions. The sight was very terrific, and their yells and shouts of defiance very horrible. At length one of our tribe had a spear sent right through his body, and he fell. On this, our fellows raised a war-cry; on hearing which, the women threw off their rugs, and, each armed with a short club, flew to the assistance of their husbands and brothers; I being peremptorily ordered to stay where I was; my supposed brother's wife remaining with me. Even with this augmentation, our tribe fought to great disadvantage, the enemy being all men, and much more numerous. Soon after dark the hostile tribe left the neighbourhood; and, on ​discovering this retreat from the battle-ground, ours determined on following them immediately, leaving the women and myself where we were. On approaching the enemy's quarters, they laid themselves down in ambush until all was quiet, and, finding most of them asleep, lying about in groups, our party rushed upon them, killing three on the spot and wounding several others. The enemy fled precipitately, leaving their war implements in the hands of their assailants, and their wounded to be beaten to death by boomerangs—three loud shouts closing the victors' triumph."
An account of another fight is given by Buckley:—"In the first place, they seated themselves on their rugs, in groups of half-dozens, or thereabouts, keeping their spears and shields and waddies all ready at hand; our party being prepared also. At length the young man already mentioned advanced towards us. He had bunches of emu's feathers tied to different parts of his body by a kind of yarn they make by twisting the hair of the opossum; he was cutting the most extraordinary capers, and challenged our men to fight—an offer which was accepted practically by a boomerang being thrown at him, and which grazed his leg. A spear was then thrown, but he warded it off cleverly with his shield. He made no return to this, but kept capering and jumping about until one of our men advanced very near to him, with only a shield and a waddy, and then the two went to work in good earnest, blow following blow, until the first had his shield split, so that he had nothing to defend himself with but his waddy. His opponent took advantage of this, and struck him a tremendous blow on one side of the head, and knocked him down; but he was instantly on his legs again, the blood, however, flowing very freely over his back and shoulders. His friends then cried out enough, and threatened general hostilities if another blow was struck; and this having the desired effect, they all soon after separated quietly; thus ending an affair which at one time promised to conclude very differently."
The late Mr. Thomas, in his notes prepared for this work at my request, describes a fight which he witnessed on the 5th December 1843. The tribes from Barrabool, Bun-ung-on, and Leigh River, encamped at a spot lying to the north of Melbourne, at half-past four o'clock p.m. They advanced in close lines, ten deep, and ten in each line, and squatted on the grass; the Barrabool west of the Bun-ung-on, and a little to the north-west of these the Leigh River tribe. After sitting in silence for about half an hour, King William, the principal man of the three tribes, advanced spear in hand, and quite naked, as indeed were all the warriors. King William harangued the groups. He stated that certain blacks were charged with killing two natives and abducting their wives; that the blacks so charged and their tribe were not afraid of appearing before the Goulburn, Mount Macedon, Yarra, and Coast tribes, and they were ready to have the accusers' spears thrown at them. While King William was speaking, another black came forward and produced a number of charges, challenged his enemies, and acted generally in a rather violent manner. Whereupon two warriors arose and made speeches, and expressed their willingness to receive the spears of their opponents in the face of the assembled tribes. Then ensued a general disturbance. All the men of all the tribes were greatly agitated, and ​many seized the opportunity to re-furbish their weapons. Those accused of murder were quite naked and in mourning—that is to say, painted white—and those charged with a lesser offence, being accomplices or otherwise implicated, were also naked, but decorated with boughs (Murrum or Mooran Karrang) just above the ankles. The men with the boughs on their ankles were on this occasion stationed in front of the tribes, about ten yards from the nearest of those squatting on the ground. Their opponents advanced towards them, shook their weapons, threw dust in the air, and commenced stamping and hissing, and grinding their teeth, dancing from time to time through the ashes of a bark fire that was kept burning at the spot. Then they formed a line, and were headed by their principal men; then they arranged themselves in a moment in the shape of a crescent, and as quickly formed again a straight line, all the time hissing, grinding their teeth, stamping and grimacing, shaking their spears, and jumping to an extraordinary height. At one time they stretched themselves on the ground so as almost to touch the grass with their noses, keeping their spears parallel with their bodies, and, acting in concert, they presented a very remarkable spectacle. They ran backwards, sideways, and all ways, approaching often close to the line of the men in murrum. All these frantic gestures were used, however, merely to excite themselves and the accused. The principal men on both sides kept up their somewhat angry discourse during the whole of this procedure, and finally settled what was to be done. The word of command at length was given: each black was at his post armed with his wonguim, mulga, and leonile, either in his hand or lying on the grass at his feet; and in a moment a shower of missiles was directed towards the men in murrum. Some of the missiles hit others not implicated; their ire was aroused, and a general fight ensued. Spears were hurled, and those amongst the accused who were not struck were attacked with clubs and the leonile. (The latter, a most formidable weapon, is used to strike at the head only.) The men not engaged in the quarrel now interfered, going amongst the belligerents, with spears in their hands, not throwing them, but pretending to throw them, whereby they incurred danger in thus intermeddling, as spears were thrown by angry men at them. A blow of a waddy from a disinterested individual put an end, however, to this, and after a brief scrimmage the battle might be said to be over. At this stage the wives of the accused persons joined the mêlée; and wailing, howling, and jabbering, they commenced a fight of their own. Each woman, holding her yam-stick (Kun-ang) advanced towards her opponent and aimed a blow. This was received on the yam-stick, which in defence is held in a horizontal position, so as to protect the head. She struck perhaps two or three blows, and then held her stick downwards but ready for defence, and received the blows of her antagonist. This strange fight was continued for some time, and the awful howls and execrations were deafening. At last the men interfered. They hurled spears at the women, but so as not to touch them, yet not until a strong man went to them spear in hand in a very threatening manner did they disperse. As they departed, shrieking defiance, they beat the ground ​with their yam-sticks. Finally the head-men, after much discussion, settled the differences, and this great battle was finished.
Mr. Thomas states that of all the fights he has seen he has never known but of one death to arise from their frays. He has seen desperate wounds inflicted very often, but none but one was mortal. The one death referred to was that of Ter-run-uk, a fine young blackfellow of the Bun-ung-on tribe, who, in a fight with the Barrabool men, was struck with a wonguim, which passed through the lower part of his thigh. He was carefully attended to by Mr. Thomas, who had him removed to his own farm at Pentridge, but he died, contrary to the expectations of the large number of natives who were encamped near Melbourne at the time and witnessed the occurrence.
In the great fight above described six natives were severely wounded, one being penetrated by a double-jagged spear. It went quite through his thigh. The long part was broken off, and the remainder dragged through the wound. Ten of the women had their knuckles broken, and many of the men were injured by the wonguim.
Mr. Thomas does not say what punishment was finally inflicted on the men accused of murder. It is to be presumed that they were dealt with during the mêlée.
When the fighting is quite at an end there is, says Mr. Thomas, an end also to all animosity. The wounded are carefully attended to, sometimes by those who a short time before were bent on inflicting wounds; the injured parts are washed, and such simple remedies as are known to them are quickly applied.
The fights of the natives are conducted, in all parts of Australia, pretty much after the manner described by Buckley.
A very interesting account of a series of fights amongst the tribes living on the Macleay River (lat. 31° S.) is given in Mr. Clement Hodgkinson's work, entitled Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay. He says:—
"The fights of the natives are generally conducted on the principles of retributive justice. Their mode of warfare is fair, open, and manly; for tribes on hostile terms scorn to take the least undue advantage of each other, and the instant a fight is concluded, both parties seem perfectly reconciled, and jointly assist in tending the wounded men. In this respect the quarrels of the Aborigines of New South Wales present a striking contrast to the cruel and treacherous warfare of the North American Indians and the ferocious and implacable contests which used to take place among the ci-devant man-eating New Zealanders. Acts of treachery sometimes occur between individual natives; but these acts, though they involve the tribe to which the offending party belongs in war with the other tribe, are always punished, as the offender has always to bear the brunt of the engagement, and stand for some time alone, unassisted by his companions, as a butt for the spears of the immediate relations of the man whom he has killed or wounded. It seems to be a regular principle with the Australian Aborigines that blood must be shed for blood; and, as an example will better illustrate the warfare of the natives than a general ​description, I will give a short account of a quarrel among some Macleay River tribes during my stay there. Three young men belonging to the Yarra-Bandini tribe, which was also the name of our cattle station (as that locality was the head quarters of this tribe), had descended the river in a canoe to Verge's station, which is within the limits of the boundaries of the Calliteeni or Kempsey tribe. The object they had in view was to kill a Tryal Bay native, whom the savages had nick-named Cranky Tom from his comical hilarity; for it would appear that Cranky Tom had some time before killed one of the relations of these men in a fight, and they now determined to revenge his death. Poor Tom, who was my earliest acquaintance among the Tryal Bay natives, was stopping, with his 'gin,' Dilberree, near Verge's, without any suspicion of treachery, when he was suddenly confronted by his enemies. Having endeavoured in vain to protect himself with his shield, he soon fell, pierced with wounds, and his head was then cut off by his savage enemies, one of whom, named Henry, also took possession of the woman. This act of treachery roused the indignation of two tribes, the Kempsey or Calliteeni blacks, on whose ground the outrage had been committed, and the Tryal Bay blacks, to whom the murdered man belonged. On speaking to the chief men of the Yarra-Bandini tribe about this cowardly attack, they merely told me, in reply, that Henry and the other men were 'murry stupid' to act as they did, but that Cranky Tom was a 'murry saucy fellow,' and deserved what he had got. The Yarra-Bandini tribe were encamped, in the meantime, close to our stockyards. The first of their adversaries in the field were the Kempsey blacks, who came over one afternoon, and fought the Yarra-Bandini natives at our very doors. The battle was conducted in the most fair and open manner; each party drew up in two lines, armed with spears, shields, and boomerangs, and threw spear for spear for a considerable time before any damage was done. At length, a Yarra-Bandini black was slightly wounded in the forehead; and soon after a Kempsey native, whom the sawyers named 'Major Lovatt,' was transfixed with a spear, which apparently passed through his lungs. This concluded the fight. Both the hostile parties now mingled together in the most friendly way; and the Yarra-Bandini tribe was even more anxious than the other in their endeavours to alleviate the wounds of the dying man. My partner also rendered every assistance to him, but he expired in a few minutes. By a most extraordinary revulsion of feeling, the Kempsey blacks now became furiously enraged against the Tryal Bay tribe, whose cause they had just espoused so actively. Accordingly, under the pretence that an immense flock of ducks had settled on some lagoon down the river, the Kempsey natives, who are few in number, but more conversant with the customs of the whites than the others, succeeded in persuading some cedar dealers and sawyers at that place to lend them some muskets, which they loaded with slugs, and they then proceeded down the river in a boat. The Tryal Bay blacks, who were quite taken by surprise by this unusual manœuvre, were soon worsted, and several of them were wounded by the shot, but none killed. Matters now became more complicated, for one of the Nambucca Kiver tribes, being indignant at the treatment of their neighbours at Tryal Bay, took part in the quarrel. A week ​or two afterwards, being at Yarra-Bandini, a gin, who had been sent from our station on some message, returned in a great hurry, glistening with moisture from having swam across the creek, as she had seen the Tryal Bay tribe, who were coming up to fight the natives at our place. She had scarcely bonnded away from ns to warn them of the approach of their enemies, when the latter appeared, marching in Indian file, having their bodies painted with red stripes, and their bark shields whitened with pipeclay and adorned with double red crosses. They advanced with a measured tramp, carrying their spears aloft at a uniform slope, with their shields on the left side. They had just arrived where we were standing, when the Yarra-Bandini blacks, having been warned by the gin of the approach of their enemies, dashed out of the adjoining brush, and, throwing themselves into regular rows five or six deep, commenced a furious dance in defiance of the other party, leaping up and down at a measured tread, whilst they beat time with their nulla-nullas and waddies, accompanying each jump with a short loud shout. As soon as their adversaries had arrived opposite them, each party halted, whilst the chief men on both sides advanced, and commenced a most animated dialogue, occasionally threatening each other with their spears. A very old woman, whom the Tryal Bay blacks had brought up with them, seemed to be particularly active in abusing and insulting the Yarra-Bandini natives, whom she railed at unceasingly in a loud, screaming voice. As the Australian Aborigines look upon their women as very inferior animals to themselves, I suppose the Tryal Bay tribe had brought up this scolding old lady in order to evince the greater contempt for the other tribe; much on the same principle which once induced a king of France to send a defiance to an English prince by a scullion, instead of a herald, in order to insult him the more grievously. After a long altercation, the two hostile tribes mingled together as though they were on the best terms with each other; they encamped, however, for the night at some distance apart. Next morning the fight commenced, in which, according to the usual custom, the three natives who had been the original cause of the quarrel stood prominently forward, exposed to the spears of the Tryal Bay blacks for some time, without receiving any assistance from their companions, until one of them received a spear wound on the instep and another on the knee. The fight then became general, but no further damage was done, as each party was equally adroit in warding off with their shields the missiles that were flying about. This engagement seemed to conclude the quarrel between the Yarra-Bandini and Yarra-Hapinni blacks, as the gin, Dilberree, who had been carried off, was restored to her friends. It was, however, some time before the other quarrels which had arisen from this affair were fought out; after which a general peace had to be consolidated by solemn corrobborees, danced successively on the grounds of each of the belligerent tribes. Although the Aborigines are, in general, so honorable and open in their warfare with one another, their behaviour towards the whites is very different, being often treacherous in the extreme. It frequently happens that those persons who have been most liberal and kind to the natives are chosen as their first victims; for if a white man gives a present to a native without stipulating for some service in return, the latter imputes the generosity of the ​white man to fear. Thus the sawyers at the Nambucca, who gave the blacks a large quantity of flour, tobacco, sugar, &c., in order to propitiate them, became immediately exposed to their murderous attacks, which did not cease until the natives had received a severe lesson or two, to convince them of the superiority of the arms of the white man."
The Rev. George Taplin says that on one occasion he witnessed a serious outbreak amongst the natives of the Lower Murray, when about one hundred people were engaged in earnest endeavours to knock each other's brains out. The quarrel arose in this way. He had permitted four girls, about sixteen years of age, to sleep in his kitchen, where the flour was kept; and the natives hearing of this, about a dozen of them, armed with spears and kanakis, called late one night, and demanded that one of the girls, named Pompanyeripuritye, should be given up, as they said she might have eaten of the flour from a bag from which the Narumbar had partaken; the Narumbar being the youths who were in course of being made young men, and forbidden to eat with women—lest they should grow ugly. The men took the girl away—though she was unwilling to leave Mr. Taplin's house. On the following morning a great disturbance arose. The natives had now firmly convinced themselves that the girls and the young men had eaten of flour taken from the same bag, and the youths and their friends attacked the tribe to which the girls belonged, and fired their wurleys. This led to a fight. By the time Mr. Taplin reached the spot there were men lying on the ground bleeding, and women were wailing over them. The warriors as yet unhurt were uttering hoarse shouts and yells of defiance, and flourishing their weapons when they were not striking at the heads of their opponents. Naked women were dancing about, casting dust in the air, and using obscene language to irritate their enemies and to encourage their friends. Mr. Taplin went fearlessly amongst them, during the uproar, and succeeded at length in persuading them to stop the fight and return to their camps, not, however, before he himself narrowly escaped death from a spear thrown by Dick Baalpulare. The spear passed within an inch of Mr. Taplin's head. The reverend gentleman adds that he had his revenge for this. Dick was bitten by a snake one day, and Mr. Taplin had the pleasure of curing him. A Missionary's life amongst the wild natives of Australia is not without its perils and excitements.
A fight amongst the Port Lincoln blacks is very well described by Mr. C. Wilhelmi:—
"The second fight, on account of attempted murder, took place in Port Lincoln, and the party about to be attacked were invited by heralds to attend the combat. The natives, upon their arrival, were painted with a white color, and wore little peeled sticks, which looked like plumes, in their hair. They marched in long line, three deep, making now and then a halt, and with one voice poured forth loud cries. As soon as they had completed these evolutions, the other party, who were rather surprised, set to work to answer the salutation. After having hastily painted themselves, and arranging themselves in single file, they marched in a regular quick short step towards the enemy, who had in the meantime formed a camp. After they had thus once or twice marched round ​the enemy's camp, they formed themselves into a dense mass, bowed their heads, and uttered a piercing cry. They repeated these movements two or three times, and then returned to their own camp in the same order they had observed upon leaving it. That evening, and the greater part of the night, were spent in singing and dancing; but with sunrise of the next day the fight commenced. Eight men advanced from each side, making use of mimical gestures, although the most profound silence was observed. They formed into a row, two deep, about twenty paces from each other, so that they came to stand two to two. Each warrior stretched his legs apart, and planted his feet firmly on the ground, holding a spear and sling in the right hand, and the katta, or grubbing-stick, together with other spears, in the left. They pushed forward their chests, and moved their bodies from side to side, as a sort of challenge. Each one fixed his eyes upon his especial antagonist, and seemed to have no concern about any of the others, as if he had nothing to fear at their hands. Not a sound was audible. Many spears were thrown on either side, and were avoided by moving the upper part of the body to one side, or were parried by giving the spears a blow with the katta or other spears held in the left hand. Thus the spears of the opponents failed to reach their mark. At length some of the party who sent the challenge went over into the ranks of the enemy, to show that they wished to put an end to the combat. One quarrelsome old man, who had struck the first blow, did not seem to be content to stay his arm without having spilled a drop of blood. He stood opposed to a young man of not more than twenty years of age, and he threw several spears at him after the youth had ceased fighting. The old rascal made use of the most insulting and provoking language, and was paid back, however, in his own coin. At length some of the old man's friends interposed, and sought to intimidate him; but finding they could not succeed in this, they made a point of striking up his throwing-stick as often as he placed a spear on it, thus causing the weapon to fall useless on the ground. The skilful manner in which the Aborigines avoid or parry the spears is truly astonishing. Mr. Schürmann, who was an eye-witness of the last-mentioned affair, tells us that the old man, who was renowned as a good marksman, took such good aim that it seemed almost a certainty that he would hit his adversary; nevertheless, each spear was met and glided off the young man's katta and shot over his shoulder, passing in close proximity to his ear. This can only be accomplished by a sure and a firm glance, which are amongst the Aborigines looked upon as the highest virtues of which they can boast, and of which they are the most proud. It has been said that the Aborigines of this country are possessed of a cowardly disposition, and it may be that, when opposed to the whites, who are better armed and generally mounted, they have been found wanting in courage. But it is impossible for any one who has been an eye-witness to one of their own fights to form such an opinion; on the contrary, he will be forced to confess that, when stirred up by passion, they will brave any danger. They are extremely sensitive upon this point, and look upon being called a coward as the greatest insult that can be offered. That little blood is spilled in these Aboriginal contests is to be ascribed either to their skill or to the fact that they are by no means bloodthirsty. Although, on the one side, they possess ​a fierce and hostile spirit, still, on the other, it must be observed that they are capable of the more noble feelings of pity and compassion. This is called forth by a dangerous wound. . . . ."
In a pamphlet entitled Remarks on the probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales, by a Colonial Magistrate, is a paragraph to the following effect:—"The only remarkable custom (differing from other savages) in their fighting expeditions is the adoption of the custom commanded to the Israelites on going out to war. [Deuteronomy, ch. xxiii., v. 12 to 14.] The natives believe that if the enemy discovered it they would burn it in the fire, and thus ensure their collective destruction, or that individually they would pine away and die."
In some parts of Australia the natives sent by a tribe to convey a challenge carry with them spears, decorated with the feathers of the emu; and the warriors, when they prepare for battle, use various colors for painting their bodies. The colors, it is believed, are not selected at will by any of the warriors, but are chosen, according to well-known rules, to suit the occasion. The mode of painting, and the lines and figures depicted, are, however, left to the taste of the men. That they are sufficiently hideous, when arrayed for the fight, is agreed by all who have witnessed an engagement.
It cannot be denied that the natives of Australia exhibit all the worst features of savages on some occasions. They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle, and otherwise mutilate them; and when a man is killed for having caused, as they believe, the death of a member of their tribe, they take out the kidney-fat and anoint their bodies with it. They rub themselves with the fat, it is said, that they may thereby acquire the strength and courage that formerly belonged to the slain man. They do not always wait for the death of the individual before resorting to this disgusting practice. A man, disabled by the blow of a club, is immediately seized upon, his body cut open, and his kidney-fat abstracted. Sometimes the miserable victim, on recovering consciousness, sees the conqueror anointing himself. A very strong man, of good constitution, will, in case the knife has been used skilfully, survive this operation for a day or two, enduring frightful agonies, and knowing well that a speedy death is certain. Neither doctor nor dreamer can help him, and his only consoling thought is that his death will be amply avenged. This subject is mentioned in another part of this work.—(See "Marmbul.")
Dances.
The natives of Australia have various dances—and in the performance of these exhibit a skill and dexterity that can be the result only of long practice. The young—both male and female—are encouraged to engage in these exercises; they are taught by the elders of the tribes, and they are required to observe the rules which have been in force amongst their forefathers with scrupulous care.
Little is known of their mystic dances, which some regard as connected with a form of religion, but the Ngargee, or Yain-yang (corrobboree), is familiar to all who have lived in the bush.
They have their war-dances, before and after fights; dances appropriate to the occasion of "making young men;" dances in which the women only take part; dances in which the movements of the kangaroo, the emu, the frog, the butterfly, &c., are imitated; and a canoe-dance.
The performers on all such occasions, whether during the day or in the night, are naked or nearly naked; grotesquely painted with white clay; and they carry clubs or spears, or other weapons suitable to the character of the dance. They decorate themselves, too, with boughs of trees and feathers. The women generally are the musicians, and the arrangements of the performance are governed by a leader (usually an aged man), who beats time with the corrobboree-sticks. At night a large fire is kept burning, near which the musicians sit. The dancers retire to rude bush miams to array themselves, and never appear until their decorations are completed to their satisfaction.
The late Mr. Thomas makes mention of the sacred dances, when the natives set up effigies or painted figures, but gives no description of them. Mr. Parker says he has witnessed ceremonies having resemblance to an act of worship, when the blacks have assembled to propitiate Mindi, an evil spirit, whose sole business it was to destroy. They dwelt on this—the idea of a powerful and destructive spirit—with awe and dread. Mindi, they believed, caused death; and they used certain prescribed ceremonies in order to appease his anger and to avert death and other calamities from themselves, and to excite him to exercise his power for the injury or destruction of their enemies. "Rude images," writes Mr. Parker, "consisting of one large and two small figures, cut in bark and painted, were set up in a secluded spot; the place was strictly tabooed; the men, and afterwards the women, dressed in boughs, and having each a small wand, with a tuft of feathers tied on it, were made to dance in single file, and in a very sinuous course, towards the spot, and after going round it several times, to approach the main figure, and touch it reverentially with the wand. I believe this to be a relic of the ophilatria or serpent worship of India."
​On another occasion Mr. Parker was present when the natives performed the Yepene Amydeet, or dance of the separated spirits. It was new to the Aborigines of the Loddon, and was conducted by an old man, who stated that it was practised by the people of the north-west, amongst whom he had learnt it. It was never introduced on any other occasion, and was soon after nearly forgotten. "Holding boughs in each hand, which were waved in unison alternately over each shoulder, and dancing for some time in lines and semicircles, at length they gradually gathered into a compact circular body; then slowly sinking on the ground, and burying their heads under the boughs, they represented, according to the statement of the old native, who was master of the ceremonies, the approach of death, and in the perfectly still and motionless posture they maintained for some time the state of death itself. Then the old man, breaking suddenly into a new dance, and waving furiously his boughs over the prostrate mass, gave them the word; and, suddenly springing to their feet, they joined him in his rejoicings. This was explained to me as intended to represent the revival of the soul after death."
The ordinary dance of the natives of Victoria—the Ngargee or corrobboree—has been carefully described by Mr. Thomas. A number of males, twenty or thirty, or more, if three or four tribes have assembled for this dance, are selected as the principal performers, and, as a preliminary, they retire to the bush, away from the light of the fire, and decorate themselves, each according to his taste—not, as a rule, consulting one another, and yet no two appear exactly alike, except as regards the faces, which are generally painted pretty much in the same manner. The sockets of the eyes are white, a white ring surrounds the sockets, white streaks are drawn down the nose, and parallel streaks appear on the forehead. On their bodies the lines are arranged fantastically, but always according to some plan in the mind of the performer. During the time the men are thus engaged, a native prepares a blazing fire, and others employ themselves in cutting branches and gathering sticks and leaves, making a heap, so that the fire may be quickly and conveniently fed during the ceremonies, and without occasioning unseemly interruptions. As the flames leap up and the light flashes through the trees, the dancers may be seen emerging from their retreat. They wear boughs around their legs, just above the ankles, and a sort of apron made of dressed skins. They form themselves into groups as they wait for the signal to commence their feats of jumping and dancing. The women who have to act as musicians are seated at some little distance from the fire, arranged in ​a horseshoe-shaped line. They are quite naked, and each holds on her knees an opossum rug, neatly folded up and stretched tightly, skin outwards. The leader appears in the ordinary costume of a native. He wears his opossum rug, and is not painted or otherwise decorated. He carries a corrobboree-stick in each hand. His station is between the group of women and the fire. When all things are prepared, he advances carelessly towards the women, making a droning sound as he walks, and suddenly strikes his two sticks together, which is the signal for the performers to come forward. These arrange themselves in a straight line, and then there is a pause. The leader eyes the line attentively, and, if all of them are present, he commences to beat his sticks together; the performers strike their sticks in time with the leader, and the grand dance commences. The time kept by the performers and the women who beat the opossum skins—which are the only drums they possess—and the exactness with which all the movements are conducted, are astonishing. The dancers, acting strictly in concert, put themselves into all kinds of postures, moving sideways, advancing slightly, retreating, extending their limbs, and anon standing straight in line. The leader, all this time, is not idle. He beats his sticks vigorously, and keeps up the nasal drone, raising his voice occasionally as he takes a few steps to and fro, now turning his face towards the dancers and now towards the women. As he faces the women, they raise their voices in song. After posturing for some time, and getting heated with their exertions, the chief performers become violent; they hasten their movements in obedience to the more rapid beating of the leader's sticks; they shake themselves, and jump to an incredible height, and at last, each taking a deep inspiration and inflating his lungs, utters a loud, shrill noise. The sound, so accurate is the time, appears to come from one mouth. This is the signal for retreat. Without any hint from the leader, but in this instance in obedience to their own instinct, probably feeling that they have done enough for the time, they precipitately flee to the shelter of their bushes, where they rest for a short period. When they re-appear, they arrange themselves in a curved line, and go through the same strange antics as before, with such variations as may have been agreed upon. The women remain seated in their places, beating time with their hands on their rugs, and singing occasionally as the leader turns towards them. The singing of the women adds much to the delight of the natives, and it certainly tends to soften what may be regarded as rather a harsh entertainment. The women at times raise their voices to the loudest pitch, and again sink them so low as scarcely to be heard.
The men and women who are not engaged in the ceremony form groups at some distance away, and watch the proceedings with the greatest interest. The women sit with their rugs on their knees, and the men stand or sit, their spears being stuck in the ground or lying by their sides. The spectators are invariably greatly delighted with the entertainment. The women keep beating their rugs in time to the music, and the men talk in low voices, criticising the performance, and generally praising the dancers. One tall black has imposed upon him the duty of keeping the spectators in their proper places. If any should encroach on the space appropriated to the corrobboree, this black would ​thrust them back. This man knows that he has authority, and he takes care to let all people know that he means to exercise it.
When the dancers have sufficiently exercised themselves, when they have gone through all the evolutions that are possible to them, having regard to the kind of dance in which they are engaged, they suddenly change their line; they mingle together for a moment, then form in lines four deep, the front men quickly separate, and those behind advance, and in this way they move towards the women. At this moment they appear to be a confused mass of bodies, so jumbled together as to cause alarm to white spectators, who cannot believe that in the rapid movements of their sticks they will not break each other's heads. But the whole is concerted, and is a part of the machine-like arrangement of the dance. They shout, they stamp and jump; the women beat their opossum skins louder and louder, singing to the utmost pitch of their voices; and at last the leader gives a heavy stroke with his sticks, which at that moment are held high over his head, and the dancers disappear; the women take up their rugs and repair to their miams, and the dance is done. The men are much exhausted after their exertions, and are glad to seek repose.
Mr. Thomas states that a grand corrobboree, formed of the people of four tribes, was held many years ago on the ground now occupied by the buildings of the Supreme Court in Melbourne. One of the dancers was speared while in the act of dancing, whether by accident or design is not known; and afterwards the men were careful to stick their spears in the ground or lay them by their sides during the performance of the corrobboree. They did this to show that spear-throwing was not to be permitted at such ceremonies.
William Buckley gives an account of a corrobboree where men and women and boys and girls were engaged in dancing. He says:—
"At last all the women came out naked—having taken off their skin rugs, which they carried in their hands. I was then brought out from the hut by the two men, the women surrounding me. I expected to be thrown immediately into the flames; but the women having seated themselves by the fire, the men joined the assemblage armed with clubs more than two feet long; having painted themselves with pipeclay, which abounds on the banks of the lake. They had run streaks of it round the eyes, one down each cheek, others along the forehead down to the tip of the nose, other streaks meeting at the chin, others from the middle of the body down each leg; so that altogether they made a most horrifying appearance, standing round and about the blazing night fire. The women kept their rugs rolled tight up, after which they stretched them between the knees, each forming a sort of drum. These they beat with their hands, as if keeping time with one of the men who was seated in front of them singing. Presently the men came up in a kind of close column, they also beating time with their sticks, by knocking them one against the other, making altogether a frightful noise. The man seated in front appeared to be the leader of the orchestra, or master of the band—indeed I may say master of the ceremonies generally. He marched the whole mob, men and women, boys and girls, backwards and forwards at his pleasure, directing the singing and dancing, with the greatest decision and air of authority. This scene must have ​lasted at least three hours, when, as a wind-up, they gave three tremendous shouts, at the same time pointing to the sky with their sticks; they each shook me heartily by the hand, again beating their breasts, as a token of friendship."
"The corrobboree," says the Rev. Mr. Bulmer, a Missionary at Lake Tyers, in Gippsland, "is a simple affair. The tune is the best part of it. In fact the tune is the chief feature, the poetry being generally poor. The song which made a great stir at the last corrobboree I witnessed was composed of about five words. It was of a language I did not understand, and indeed the blacks themselves did not understand it; but that did not matter to them. All they desired was the tune and the figure of the dance. The words were as follows:—
Wilpon Tho Wilpon Me Gra!
The sound of gra was carried on to a great length, while all the men made a very graceful bend of the body, and thus it was repeated at pleasure. In the corrobboree the blacks sometimes use their legs as in a regular dance, always keeping time remarkably well. At other times they only bend their bodies in a very graceful way. When the dance consists in using the legs freely, then, as a rule, they never use any particular stick, but carry in the hand a boomerang or a tomahawk, as in a war-dance; but when they present themselves in figure only bringing the body into play, they mostly have something in the shape of a stick, which it is presumed belongs to that particular kind of dance. Sometimes the stick is held in the left hand, to support the performer while he sways his body backwards and forwards. At each forward movement he strikes the stick in his left hand either with a bough or with another stick. It is astonishing to see with what soldier-like regularity the body of each man bends to the time. On certain occasions, when the legs have been mostly exercised in the dance, some of the men would assist the women in the singing, and would use their sticks in beating time."
The corrobboree-dance appears to be of a very similar character in all parts of the island-continent. Mr. Gideon S. Lang gives a very amusing description of a grand corrobboree at which he was present, in the Maranoa district. There were about five hundred natives assembled, and the dance was performed in an open glade, about two hundred yards in length and breadth, narrowing towards the south end, and surrounded by a belt of rather thick timber. Across the south end sat the orchestra, consisting of nearly one hundred women, and led by a well-known native named Eaglehawk. "The leader," says Mr. Lang, "chanted a description of the scenes as they passed, accompanied by the women, their voices continuously repeating what seemed to be the same words, while they beat time by striking with a stick a quantity of earth, tightly rolled up in a piece of cloth or opossum rug. The moon shone brightly, lighting up the stage and the tops of the trees, but casting a deep shadow below. This shadow however, was again relieved by several large fires on each side of the stage, leaving a clear view to Eaglehawk and the orchestra, behind whom stood the ​spectators, the whites being in the centre. The first act of the corrobboree was the representation of a herd of cattle, feeding out of the forest, and camping on the plain, the black performers being painted accordingly. The imitation was most skilful, the action and attitude of every individual member of the entire herd being ludicrously exact. Some lay down and chewed the cud, others stood scratching themselves with hind feet or horns, licking themselves or their calves; several rubbing their heads against each other in bucolic friendliness. This having lasted for some time, scene the second commenced. A party of blacks was seen creeping towards the cattle, taking all the usual precautions, such as keeping to windward, in order to prevent the herd from being alarmed. They got up close to the cattle at last, and speared two head, to the intense delight of the black spectators, who applauded rapturously. The hunters next went through the various operations of skinning, cutting up, and carrying away the pieces, the whole process being carried out with the most minute exactness. Scene the third commenced with the sound of horses galloping through the timber, followed by the appearance of a party of whites on horseback, remarkably well got up. The face was painted whity-brown, with an imitation of the cabbage-tree hat; the bodies were painted, some blue and others red, to represent the shirts: below the waist was a resemblance of the moleskin trousers, the legs being covered with reeds, tied all round, to imitate the hide leggings worn in that district as a protection against the brigalow scrub. These manufactured whites at once wheeled to the right, fired, and drove the blacks before them. The latter soon rallied, however, and a desperate fight ensued, the blacks extending their flanks, and driving back the whites. The fictitious white men bit the cartridges, put on the caps, and went through all the forms of loading, firing, wheeling their horses, assisting each other, &c., with an exactness which proved personal observation. The native spectators groaned whenever a blackfellow fell, but cheered lustily when a white bit the dust; and at length, after the ground had been fought over and over again, the whites were ignominiously driven from the field, amidst the frantic delight of the natives, while Eaglehawk worked himself into such a violent state of excitement that at one time the play seemed likely to terminate in a real and deadly fight."
Major (Sir Thomas) Mitchell was entertained by the natives with a corrobboree—"their universal and highly original dance." Sir Thomas speaks in glowing terms of their movements and of the general character of the picture presented by the warriors in their forest home. "They dance to beaten time, accompanied by a song (to this end they stretch a skin very tight over the knees, and thus may be said to use the tympanum in its rudest form). . . . The surrounding darkness seems necessary to the effect of the whole, all these dances being more or less dramatic—the painted figures coming forward in mystic order from the obscurity of the background, while the singers and beaters of time are invisible—have a highly theatrical effect. Each dance seems most tastefully progressive, the movement being at first slow and introduced by two persons, displaying the most graceful motions both of arms and legs, while ​others one by one drop in, until each imperceptibly warms into the truly savage attitude of the 'corrobboree jump;' the legs striding to the utmost, the head turned over one shoulder; the eyes glaring, and fixed with savage energy in one direction; the arms raised and inclined towards the head; the hands usually grasping waddies, boomerangs, or other warlike weapons. The jump now keeps time with each beat, and at each leap the dancer takes six inches to one side, all being in a connected line led by the first dancer. The line is doubled or tripled according to space and numbers, and this gives great effect; for when the first line jumps to the left, the second jumps to the right, the third to the left again, and so on until the action requires due intensity, when all simultaneously and suddenly stop."
In describing a corrobboree performed when certain young men of the Yarra-Hapinni tribe (Macleay River) were "made young men," Mr. Hodgkinson says that the dance on such occasions is of a much more solemn character than ordinary, and that the performers paint themselves elaborately, even to the toes. They cover their heads with the snowy down of the white cockatoo, and when the light of the fires flashed upon them they appeared to be adorned with white wigs. They carried their boomerangs, which were also elaborately painted for the occasion. They seemed to have far excelled any of the natives of the south in their decorations, and not to have come short of them either in their evolutions. "They displayed," says Mr. Hodgkinson, "a degree of flexibility in their limbs which might have created the envy of many a pantomimic artist."
Amongst the Narrinyeri (Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and Coorong, and the Lower Murray River) "there are many kinds of corrobborees, but the main thing in all of them is the song and dance. Skin rugs are rolled up tightly, and beaten by the fist, as they lie in front of the beater, who squats on the ground. These are called planggi, and the drumming is called plangkumbalin. The men knock two waddies together; these are called tartengk, and this practice is called tartembarrin. By these means they beat time to the song or chant. In most ringbalin only the men dance; the women sit on the ground and sing. The songs are sometimes harmless, and the dances not indecent; but at other times the songs will consist of the vilest obscenity. I have seen dances which were the most disgusting displays of obscene gesture possible to be imagined, and although I stood in the dark alone, and nobody knew that I was there, I felt ashamed to look upon such abominations. There are also war-dances. I have felt the ground almost tremble with the measured tramp of some hundreds of excited men just before a fight. The dances of the women are very immodest and lewd. The men sit and sing, and the women dance. In Cobbin's Family Bible is a picture, at Luke vii. 32, of the dance of Egyptian women. If it had been drawn for a dance of Narrinyeri women, it could not have been more exact. The corrobboree of the natives is not necessarily a religious observance; there ​is nothing of worship connected with it. It is used as a charm to frighten away disease, and also in some ceremonies, but its real character is only that of a song and a dance."
Mr. Taplin says that it is exceedingly difficult to get a corrobboree song, which consists principally of words descriptive of incidents of travel, or hunting, or war. He gives, however, one native song in his pamphlet:—
"Puntin Narrinyerar, Puntin Narrinyerar, O, O, O. Puntin Narrinyerar, O, O, O, O, O. Yun terpulani ar Tuppun an wangamar Tyiwewar ngoppun ar O, O, O, O. Puntin Narrinyerar," &c.
It is thus translated by Mr. Taplin:—"The Narrinyeri are coming; soon they will appear, carrying kangaroos; quickly they are walking."
A lively picture of a corrobboree which was held in New South Wales some twenty-five years ago is furnished by Lieut.-Col. Mundy. The preliminaries were not different from those already described, and the various performers took their stations and acted much in the same way as in a grand dance in Victoria; but the graphic description of the behaviour of the natives in the war-dance, and when imitating the dingo, kangaroo, and emu, is worthy of quotation:—"The first performance was a war-dance, wherein a variety of complicated evolutions and savage antics were gone through, accompanied by a brandishing of clubs, spears, boomerangs, and shields. Suddenly the crowd divided into two parties, and after a chorus of deafening yells and fierce exhortations, as if for the purpose of adding to their own and each other's excitement, they rushed together in close fight. One division, shortly giving way, was driven from the field and pursued into the dark void, where roars and groans, and the sound of blows, left but little to be imagined on the score of a bloody massacre. Presently the whole corps re-appeared close to the fire, and, having deployed into two lines and 'proved distance' (as it is called in the sword exercise), the time of the music was changed, and a slow measure was commenced by the dancers, every step being enforced by a heavy stamp and a noise like a pavior's grunt. As the drum waxed faster, so did the dance, until at length the movements were as rapid as the human frame could possibly endure. At some passages they all sprang into the air a wonderful height, and, as their feet again touched the ground with the legs wide astride, the muscles of the thighs were set a quivering in a singular manner, and the straight white lines on the limbs being thus put in oscillation, each stripe for the moment became a writhing serpent, while the air was filled with loud hissings. . . . . . The most amusing part of the ceremony was imitations of the dingo, kangaroo, and emu. When all were springing together in emulation of a scared troop of their own marsupial brutes, nothing could be more laughable, nor a more ingenious piece of mimicry. As is usual in savage dances, the time was kept with an accuracy never at fault. . . . . . The men were tall and ​straight as their own spears, many of them nearly as thin, but all surprisingly active. Like most blacks, they were well chested and shouldered, but disproportionately slight below the knee."
In the narrative of their overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland (1867), the Messrs. Jardine state that at a corrobboree held near Newcastle Bay they observed that the natives used two large drums, named Waropa, or Burra-burra. These drums are obtained by barter or by war from the islanders of Torres Straits, who frequently visit the continent. "The drum," adds the Messrs. Jardine, "is neatly made of a solid piece of wood, scooped out, in shape like an elongated dice-box. One end is covered with the skin of a snake or iguana, the other being left open. When this instrument is played upon by a muscular and excited 'nigger,' a music results which seems to please him according to its intensity. Keeping time with these, and aiding with their voices, they keep up their wild dance, varying the chant with the peculiar b-r-r-r-r-r-r-o-o of the Australian savage (a sound made by blubbering his thick lips over his closed teeth), and giving to their outstretched knees the nervous tremor peculiar to the corrobboree."
I had one of these drums in my possession. It was obtained in New Guinea. It was made from a solid piece of very dark—nearly black—wood, and rather richly ornamented with carved figures and lines. It had been scooped out so as to leave only a thin shell. The part covered by skin was round, and the other end rudely carved in the form of the head of a reptile—perhaps an iguana. It was a beautiful specimen of native art. The natives of Australia, when in their natural state, are, as a rule, slow to avail themselves of new inventions, but the inhabitants of Cape York are indebted to the people of New Guinea for more important works of art than the Waropa; and, taught by experience, seem to adopt foreign customs with a facility not generally observed elsewhere. Anything originating with their own people is welcomed by the natives everywhere, but that which is foreign is usually regarded with distrust.
The dances of the females are referred to in another part of this work.
The dances described in the Rev. J. G. Wood's work are only variations of the corrobboree, but they are very interesting. In the Palti and other dances it is said that the natives use red paint as well as white in decorating their persons; and in the Pedeku dance of the Moorundi natives they paint their bodies with stripes of red-ochre only.
In the canoe-dance the bodies are painted with white and red ochre, and sticks are used to represent the paddles. The men station themselves in two lines, each with a stick across his back, which is held by the arms, and they move their feet alternately to the tune of the song composed for the ceremony. At a given signal they all bring their sticks to the front, and hold them as they ​do paddles, swaying themselves in regular time, as if they were paddling in one of their light canoes.
These dances and these modes of decoration are unknown, as far as I am aware, to the natives of Victoria.
At a grand corrobboree as many as four hundred natives assemble; and, of course, it is necessary to provide food for these, and to maintain order. These matters are attended to by the council, composed of old men, who would suffer in the estimation of the warriors if they proved unequal to their responsibilities.
I have been careful to select descriptions of dances from the writings of trustworthy travellers; and to exhibit, as far as practicable, all the peculiarities which mark these highly original and dramatic entertainments. No one person—how extensive soever his experience might be—could gather all that is remarkable in such ceremonies. He might witness dances in all parts of Australia, and yet fail to note much that is important. It is only from the observations of many witnesses that we can gather all the aspects of even common objects. The impressions made upon different minds are reflected in the extracts I have given, and the reader cannot fail to have presented to him an exact picture of the oldest form of the drama that is now extant. The natives furnish, in these exhibitions, examples of tragedy, tragi-comedy, comedy, and farce; and the skill they evince in producing their pieces—all of their own composition, and not seldom, of late years, representations of scenes they have witnessed when in contact with the whites—sufficiently prove that in mimicry and in invention they are not surpassed by any race. Their music is not good, but they have not arrived at that stage at which good music is possible.
These dances, performed nearly always at night, and not seldom when the light of the moon is sufficient to enable a European to read a book; the bright fires, when there is no moon; the weird figures; the shadows cast by the trees which encircle the space appropriated to the dancers; the sounds produced by the beating of the rugs; the singing, now shrill and piercing, now low and soft; the rattling of the sticks and weapons as the movements are hastened; the hisses and hoarse grunts of the performers, and the deep, smothered voices of the black spectators—make altogether a picture which can be witnessed only in Australia, and which leaves on the mind of the cultivated European an impression which can never be effaced.
The natives appear to have resorted to fighting and dancing at certain seasons, in order to break the dreary monotony of their lives; and in seeking such relief they but followed the practices of other races.
The grand war-dance of the New Zealanders, and the propitiatory dances to Hindoo deities as practised in India, closely resemble in the movements of the dancers, the chants, the beating of drums, and the striking together of sticks to keep time, the regulated dances of the natives of Australia.
The black drum (Waropa) of New Guinea, the tom-tom of the East Indies, and the drum of the European, are undoubtedly improvements on the tightly-folded opossum skin of the Australian; but the latter, as suggested by Sir Thomas Mitchell, gives the first hint of the ancient kettle-drum (τυμπανον).
​The old Brahmin who beats time with a piece of bamboo for a dance in front of a pagoda is but an imitator of practices followed in Australia perhaps before the Aryan race had a footing in the tract drained by the Ganges; and it is not unreasonable, but just, to suppose that the makers of the flint implements found so abundantly in all parts of the world had the same dances, similar songs, and the like dramatic exhibitions as those described in this work.
Games and Amusements.
The adult natives were seldom without employment—their wants being many—but they found time too for amusements. Some of their games were not unlike those which find favor amongst Europeans. The marn-grook, or game of ball, for instance, is thus described by the late Mr. Thomas. The men and boys joyfully assemble when this game is to be played. One makes a ball of opossum skin, or the like, of good size, somewhat elastic, but firm and strong. It is given to the foremost player or to some one of mark who is chosen to commence the game. He does not throw it as a white man might do, but drops it and at the same time kicks it with his foot, using the instep for that purpose. It is thrown high into the air, and there is a rush to secure it—such a rush as is seen commonly at foot-ball matches amongst our own people. The tallest men, and those who are able to spring to a great height, have the best chances in this game. Some of them will leap as high as five feet or more from the ground to catch the ball. The person who secures the ball kicks it again; and again a scramble ensues. This continues for hours, and the natives never seem to tire of the exercise.
I have seen the natives at Coranderrk amusing themselves in this manner very often, and their skill and activity were surprising. It is truly a native game. The ball, I believe, is often made of twine formed of the twisted hair of the opossum. It is elastic and light, and well suited to be kicked from the instep, as the natives use it.
FIG. 17.
The young amongst the males derive much pleasure from the use of an instrument named Per-bo-re-gan. A stick about eighteen inches in length is neatly pared. At one end is tied a cord made of the sinews of the tail of the kangaroo, and to this is fixed a small piece of bark or wood of the shape of a fish, about five inches in length.—(Fig. 17.) The stick is held in the right hand, and the fish-shaped piece of wood is whirled rapidly over ​the head of the player. This action produces a loud noise, and when the noise is loudest, the result of great effort, the player gives the instrument a sudden turn, causing it to make a report as loud as the crack of a stockman's whip. On a quiet night in the forest, the sound of this instrument may be heard at a distance of two miles or more. Mr. Thomas has heard the sounds at this distance when the soft wind has been blowing from the player to the place where he was stationed.
The piece of bark or wood is often ornamented with such lines as are carved on the shields and other weapons.
Tur-dur-er-rin, War-rok-min-der-neit, or Work-ern-der-eit, is the name of an athletic game in which the most skilful, or perhaps the strongest, proves the victor. When this pastime is indulged in—and it is only in fine weather that it is thought of—the old men and old women, with the children, seat themselves around some smooth expanse of grass. The young men—the competitors—break into groups, and place themselves opposite to each other. By this action they express their readiness to take part in the encounters that are to follow. After the competitors have been seated for a little time, one of the strongest amongst them rises, grasps a handful of dust or ashes, and throws it towards one opposite with whom he thinks he may measure his strength. He then sits down. This is a challenge: and usually the native towards whom the dust is thrown rises and accepts the challenge, and throws dust towards the challenger. Then all the men of the two groups rise and throw dust, or the ashes of the dead fires, around them. There is a pause, and during the time of the pause the two men who are to engage in conflict rub their hands with ashes, and each with his hands full of ashes or dust rushes violently forward, and the wrestling commences. The men place their hands on each other's shoulders; they are naked; their bodies have been well rubbed with the ashes of the dead fires, and, holding fast, moving hither and thither, thrusting and pulling, they struggle for the mastery. It is often long before one falls to the ground; but when he has fallen, the successful wrestler returns rapidly to his place, often so much exhausted by his efforts that he is unable to speak. This continues until all the wrestlers are tired. There is fair-play in all these encounters, and any departure from the recognised mode of procedure would be severely condemned by all.
The old men and others not engaged in the sport sit by, paying marked attention to all the movements of the wrestlers, and as one after another is victorious, they raise shouts in his praise.
The young amongst the males are taught all the arts of this kind of wrestling at an early age, and they take much pleasure in the exercise. It is necessary to the safety of an Aboriginal, who has often to trust to his strength and skill in single-handed encounters with members of strange tribes, to be able to act well in such exercises. What he has learnt in peaceful wrestlings by the camp-fire is not seldom required for the preservation of his life in war, or in his various secret expeditions.
​I have referred in another place to other amusements of the natives. The throwing of the Wonguim, the Wee-weet, and the hurling of spears at a disc of bark in the game named Per-re-ber-it, served to amuse and at the same time to instruct the younger male members of a tribe. By these exercises emulation was aroused, the older persons of the tribe in such competitions had the opportunity of imparting knowledge as to the uses of the several weapons and instruments employed; and while there was amusement and laughter, there was, at the same time, in all such games, a kind of control, and an effort to preserve and maintain discipline—not without effect in the after-life of those who enjoyed these advantages of gaining instruction from the old warriors. Each movement of the young men was watched with jealous eyes by every member of the tribe who was permitted to be present at these trials of skill.
The females never play the game of Per-re-ber-it, or any other game in which weapons are used. Usually, they are never suffered, even in play, to use the spear or to handle it.
The young women, however, have games of their own, and that mostly in favor is dancing. When in their native state, the girls amused themselves with dances most commonly in the spring and autumn. Mr. Thomas observed that on many occasions when engaged in the dance the young girls had woven in their hair and on their wrists as bracelets wild flowers gathered from trees and shrubs; but whether this had been learnt from the Europeans or was an ancient native custom is not known. The girls in these dances selected a leader, and pursued the sport with a regularity and a regard to form which surprised Mr. Thomas. The old people looked on, and the parents were happy and contented when they witnessed expertness and skill in these exercises of their children.
The females have also a game of ball, but it is not played in the same manner as that of the males, above described. One throws the ball, and another catches it. The young children too, at times, find much amusement in getting together and beating the opossum rugs and chanting or singing, in imitation of the lubras who perform in the corrobboree. Their sweet voices, however, contrast remarkably with the generally harsher tones of the old women.
The old men and the old women devoted their evenings to conversation—and strange stories were told of phantoms and dim forms that had affrighted them in their journeys and when camping. The priests lost no opportunity of exercising and extending their influence, and many a night a camp was kept awake by the vagaries of some sorcerer. He would pretend to fly; he would pretend to bring wild blackfellows to the camp, who would make hideous noises ​and terrify the natives; he would pretend that some other sorcerer was intent on inflicting injuries on a member of the tribe, and with him he would wage battle; he would pretend that he had discovered signs of sickness in a warrior, and forthwith that man was doomed to torments, suggested by the priest for his cure, the infliction of which provoked yells that were heard for long distances through the forest.
Those who had returned from the hunt narrated their exploits as they sat by the camp-fires. The mode in which they had tracked and finally speared the kangaroo was set forth; what they had seen in the day's journey; how the water had fallen or increased in some well-known reach of a creek; whether roots were plentiful or not in certain areas; whether traces of strange blackfellows had been observed—these, and all the domestic affairs of the people, the birth of children, the betrothals arranged, the marriages proposed, the fights that were to be anticipated, the next movements of the party, the re-arrangement of willams consequent on new domestic ties being formed or destroyed—all these subjects kept the people in lively chatter until the embers of the fires spread over the camps the rich red lights of burning woods that no longer sent forth flame; and then all was hushed, and the warriors sank into profound sleep—sleep so profound that a blow of a club only would waken some of them.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer gives the following information respecting the games of the natives of Victoria. He says:—"The ball with which they play is named Dirlk. The material of which it is made is suggested by the name. It is part of the organs of an 'old man' kangaroo, blown out. The game is played by the ball being thrown, or kicked up with the foot. Whoever catches the ball oftenest, wins the game." He adds:—"The blacks often amuse themselves by exhibiting their skill in wrestling; and they had a game like our 'Hide and seek.' One hid himself, and gave a signal by whistling. The fun, of course, was to find out, from the direction of the sound, where the hidden person was. They used also to play at digging out a wombat. A man or a boy got into a hole, and the amusement consisted in digging him out." They would sometimes play a game called Brajerack (the wild blackfellow). One man would be the "wild black," and he would endeavour to catch the other players who were ​hidden from him. They had often sham fights with clubs and shields made of bark. "In this way," says Mr. Bulmer, "they would amuse themselves all the year round, but more especially in the summer, when food was plentiful. There is very little fun amongst the natives unless the larder is well stored."
The Murray blacks had similar games. Mr. Bulmer says he has seen their wrestling matches. One man would stand out and challenge his fellows by throwing dust in the air. He would stand thus until overthrown, and then another would take his place. The game, however, which seemed to afford the most amusement to the natives was the endeavour to snatch a bunch of emu's feathers from the hand of one who held them. All their games were of this simple description. Mr. Bulmer says that they had a sort of war-dance that was very amusing. The blacks sat in a large circle, and one of the old men stood out fully equipped for a fight, and went through the form of fighting an imaginary enemy; and the earnestness of the old man as he urged his imaginary enemy to hit him, his motions as he made-believe to receive a blow, and his rush upon the foe (whom, of course, he conquered), were highly diverting. The object of the exhibition was to instruct the youths in the arts cultivated by warriors; and no feint, or cunning stroke, or posture of defence was omitted.
Mr. Taplin says the amusements of the Narrinyeri "have always consisted in practising those arts which were necessary to get a living. They have practised spear and boomerang throwing in order to gain expertness, so as to get game with more certainty. They showed great dexterity in the use of the reed-spear, or kaike, the shaft of which is a stout reed, and the point, about a foot long, of hard and heavy wood. It is thrown with a taralye, or throwing-stick. I have known a man killed by one of these spears at ninety yards, and the weapon passed through his bark shield too. I have known one pass through a thick shield, and take a man's eye out. The principal amusement of youths formerly consisted in practising spear-throwing. The Narrinyeri have a game at ball. A number of men stand round, and one pitches the ball to another on the other side of the party, and those near try to catch it. The sport gives occasion to a great deal of wrestling and activity. Another game is a sort of wrestling match for the possession of a bunch of feathers."
Traffic amongst the Tribes.
Unlike the civilized and partially-civilized peoples of the earth, the natives of Australia have no current tokens or representatives of value, exchangeable for other commodities, whereby commerce is facilitated, and settlements of accounts are made easy. They traffic only by exchanging one article for another. They barter with their neighbours; and it would seem that, as regards the articles in which they deal, barter is as satisfactory to them as sale would be. They are astute in dealing with the whites, and it may be supposed they exercise reasonable forethought and care when bargaining with their neighbours. The natives of some parts, however, appear to be reckless traders.
​In former times, the natives of the Murray and Goulburn exchanged large bundles of spears for pieces of greenstone (Diorite), obtained from a native quarry at Mount William, near Lancefield. The stones were carried by the men in their opossum-skin cloaks. The quarry is extensive, and hundreds of tons of stone have been taken from it.
In the narrative of William Buckley's life it is stated that it was customary for one tribe having an abundance of eels to exchange these for roots with some tribe within whose grounds roots were plentiful.
Mr. Peter Beveridge says that the Lower Murray natives had one or two men in each tribe, who were termed gualla wattow (messengers or postmen), whose persons were sacred. They could travel amongst other tribes with freedom. They carried news, and conducted all negotiations connected with barter—one tribe exchanging what it possessed in abundance for such things as were most desired.
The tribes on the Lower Murray, near Lake Alexandrina, barter with those living on the coast. A curious sort of provision is made for this traffic, the object of which is to secure "perfectly trustworthy agents to transact the business of the tribes—agents who will not by collusion cheat their employers and enrich themselves. The way in which this provision is made is as follows:—When a man has a child born to him, he preserves its umbilical cord, by tying it up in the middle of a bunch of feathers. This is called kalduke. He then gives this to the father of a child or children who belongs to another tribe, and those children are thenceforth ngia-ngiampe to the child from whom the kalduke was procured, and that child is ngia-ngiampe to them. From that time none of the children to whom the kalduke was given may speak to their ngia-ngiampe, or even touch or go near him; neither must he speak to them. I know several persons who are thus estranged from each other, and have often seen them in ludicrous anxiety to escape from touching or going near their ngia-ngiampe. When two individuals who are in this position with regard to each other have arrived at adult age, they become the agents through which their respective tribes carry on barter. For instance, a Mundoo blackfellow, who had a ngia-ngiampe belonging to a tribe a little distance up the Murray, would be supplied with the particular articles—such as baskets, mats, or rugs—manufactured by the Mundoo tribes, to carry to his ngia-ngiampe, who, in exchange, would send the things made by his tribe. Thus a blackfellow—Jack Hamilton—who was speared at a fight at Teringe, once had a ngia-ngiampe in the Mundoo tribe. While he lived on the Murray he sent spears and plongges (clubs) down to his agent of the Mundoo blacks, who was also supplied with mats and nets and rugs to send up to him, for the purpose of giving them in exchange to the tribe to which he belonged. The estrangement of the ngia-ngiampes seems to answer ​two purposes. It gives security to the tribes that there will be no collusion between their agents for their own private advantage, and also compels the two always to conduct the business through third parties."
It appears that two persons may be made ngia-ngiampe to each other temporarily. The kalduke is divided between them, and as long as they keep their respective portions they are estranged from each other, and may be appointed to act as agents. This is a very convenient arrangement.
Mr. A. W. Howitt mentions the traffic that is carried on amongst the tribes of the Cooper's Creek district. They exchange shields for girdles. Near Kyejerou, Mr. Howitt saw a conch-shell, which had been brought from the north or north-east coast. It was highly valued, and must have passed from tribe to tribe for a long distance—perhaps eight hundred or one thousand miles.
Mr. J. McDouall Stuart says that he found, on the River Chambers (lat. 14° 30′ S., long. 133° 2.5′ E.), blacks in the possession of a piece of iron, which was used as a tomahawk. It had a large round eye, in which they had fixed a handle; and the edge was about the breadth of an ordinary tomahawk. When hot, it had been hammered together. It had apparently been the hinge of some large door or other large article. The natives had ground it down, and seemed to know the use of it.
At Attack Creek (lat. 18° 50′ S., long. 134° 30′ E.) he saw a black with a large sea-shell, and a spear with bamboo at one end. The sea-shell and the bamboo showed that the natives had communication with the sea-coast.
The people of the Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's Creek) are great traders. Mr. Gason says that "their whole life is spent in bartering; they rarely retain any article for long. The articles received by them in exchange one day are bartered away the next, whether at a profit or loss. Should any one of them, more shrewd than another, profit on one occasion by this traffic, he is sure immediately after to sacrifice his advantage, and the majority of their quarrels are caused by bartering or refusing to barter."
The men of this tribe, when travelling for red-ochre, barter with the people they come in contact with.
There is a considerable trade carried on between the natives of Cape York and the islanders of Torres Straits. Two gentlemen—Mr. Howe and Mr. Kennett—who had been residing for some time at Cape York, informed me that the Australians obtain bows and arrows by exchange. Some of the Australians, they thought, occasionally crossed over to New Guinea; they certainly visit many of the islands and atolls; and on one occasion Mr. Kennett himself went about half-way across. He told me that he was well-treated by the natives.
The Messrs. Jardine, in referring to this subject, say that the Goomkoding and Gudang tribes seem to hold most communication with the islanders of Torres Straits, the intermixture of races being evident. Kororega words are used by both these tribes, and the bow and arrow are sometimes seen among them, having been procured from the islands. Drums are also obtained by barter from the people of Torres Straits.
* ↑ The late Mr. Thomas believed that at one time, in some districts of the Colony of Victoria, the natives built and inhabited huts of a much more substantial character than the ordinary bark miams. His belief was based on information received from one of the earliest settlers in the Western district, who said he saw a native village on the banks of a creek, about fifty miles to the north-east of Port Fairy, composed of twenty or thirty huts, some of them capable of holding twelve people, and strongly built. Each hut was shaped somewhat like a bee-hive, was about ten feet in diameter, and more than six feet in height. There was an opening about three feet six inches in height, which was generally closed at night with a sheet of bark. There was also an aperture at the top about nine inches in diameter, through which the smoke of the fire escaped. In wet weather this aperture was covered with a sod. These buildings were firmly built, and plastered with mud, and were strong enough to bear the weight of a man. It is said that they also constructed dams in the creek for the purpose of taking fish. In Gellibrand's memoranda of a trip to Port Phillip (1836), mention is made of native huts, and at one place he says about one hundred native huts were found near water. He found also many "native wells."—Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, vol. III., p. 63-85. A squatter—who was one of the earliest settlers in the Wannon district—says that the natives had comfortable huts at the time he first occupied the country. They were dome-shaped, made of branches of trees, and covered with grass and clay. The opening, protected by a porch, was always towards the north-west, whence came only gentle breezes occasionally—never strong winds or storms. Observing this peculiarity—and having ascertained that a house presenting such a front was protected from gales—he built his own bush residence with its doors and windows towards the same quarter. Similar accounts are given by explorers who have visited other parts of Australia. Grey found on the Hutt River, in West Australia, "native villages, or, as the men termed them, towns. The huts of which they were composed differed from those in the southern districts, in being much larger, more strongly built, and very nicely plastered over the outside with clay, and clods of turf, so that, although now uninhabited, they were evidently intended for fixed places of residence. This again showed a marked difference between the habits of the natives of this part of Australia and the south-western portions of the continent; for these superior huts, well-marked roads, deeply-sunk wells, and extensive warran grounds, all spoke of a large and, comparatively speaking, resident population, and the cause of this undoubtedly must have been the great facilities for procuring food in so rich a soil."—North-West and Western Australia, by George Grey, vol. II., pp. 19-20. Similar huts were found by Grey on the road to Water Peak; and in his progress towards Hanover Bay he discovered a hut "built of a frame-work of logs of wood, and in shape like a bee-hive, about four feet high and nine feet in diameter. This hut was of a very superior description to those he found afterwards to be generally in use in South-Western Australia, and differed from them altogether, in that its low and narrow entrance rendered access impossible without stooping; and, with the exception of this aperture, the hut was entirely closed."—Ibid, vol. I., p. 72. The following is M. Péron's description of the habitations of the Aborigines, which he saw at Cape Lesueur (lat. 25° 40’ S.), Shark's Bay, in Western Australia:—"Au fond d'une petite crique qui se trouve immédiatement a l'est du Cap Lesueur, j'aperçus trois ouvertures semicirculaires assez rapprochées les unes des autres, et trop régulièrement semblables entre elles pour qu'il fût possible de les attribuer au hasard seul. Je m'avançai; un grand nombre d'empreintes de pieds humains paroissaient sur le sable; et des débris de feux recemment allumés a l'entrée de ces espèces de souterrains, ne me permettoient pas de douter qu'ils ne fussent l'ouvrage des indigènes et qu'ils ne leur servissent de retraite. Pour lever toute espèce d'incertitude, je m'engageai dans l'un de ces réduits obscurs: à peine il avoit un mètre de hauteur à son orifice; il fallut donc me courber pour y entrer, et m'y traîner pour ainsi dire, à quatre pattes. Sa profoudeur étoit d'environ 5 mètres, sur une largeur du tiers de cette dernière dimension. La partie supérieure de la voûte étoit assez unie; mais de distance en distance on avoit pratiqué dans le bas plusieurs petites cavités qui me semblèrent propres à recevoir quelques ustensiles de ménage. Le plancher inférieur de cette habitation étoit tapissé d'une couche épaisse d'herbes marines. L'éloignement où je me trouvois alors de la chaloupe, mon isolement, et surtout la nuit qui s'approchoit, ne me permirent pas de parcourir les deux autres souterrains; mais par tout ce que j'en pus voir, ils me parurent absolument semblables à celui que je viens de décrire. Quelque grossiéres que de tettes habitations puissent être, elles n'en sont pas moins les plus parfaites que nous ayons en l'occasion d'observer à la Nouvelle-Hollande; sous ce rapport, il en est de même des cabanes dout j'ai déjà parlé, mais qu'il convient de faire connoître ici dans tous leurs détails. Sur un sol de sable précédemment dépouillé de toute espèce de végétaux, s'élèvent ces cabanes de la terre d'Endracht; elles ont la forme d'une demi-sphère légèrement déprimée dans sa partie supérieure; le developpement de leurs parois décrit un tour de spire; de manière que l'entrée en est oblique et latérale, à-peu-près comme celle d'une coquille de limaçon. Leur hauteur est de 12 à 16 décimètres (4 à 5 pieds) sur un diamètre de 20 à 25 décimètres (6 à huit pieds). Elles se composent d'arbrisseaux implantés dans le sable, rapprochés entre eux, le plus ordinairement disposés sur deux ou trois rangs; et dont les rameaux, recourbés dans toutes les directions, entrecroisés dans tous les sens, forment la voûte supérieure, et comme le plancher de ces habitations. Sur cette voûte sont appliquées à l'extérieur plusieurs couches de feuillages et d'herbes sèches, recouvertes d'une grande quantité de sable. A peu de distance et vis-à-vis l'ouverture de chacune de ces espèces de fours, on voit les restes d'autant de gros feux, autour desquels gisent ça et là quelques débris d'alimens."—Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes, pendant les années 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, et 1804, par M. F. Péron, vol. II., p. 207. Ernest Giles says, "At ten miles, I came to a number of native huts; they were of large dimensions and two-storied."—Travels in Central Australia, p. 81. In another place—near Glen Osborne—Giles found several native huts in the scrub, of large dimensions, the natives having used the largest trees they could get to build them with. He supposed that the natives get water in this arid tract from the roots of the Mulga-tree. Near some of the Mulga-trees he noticed that circular pits had been dug. The trees, he says, die after being tapped.—Ibid, p. 103. In tracing the course of the Gwydir, Sir Thomas Mitchell found "huts of a native tribe tastefully distributed amongst drooping acacias and casuarinæ; some resembling bowers under yellow, fragrant mimosæ; some were isolated under the deeper shades of casuarinæ; while others were placed more socially—three or four huts together fronting to one and the same fire. Each was semicircular or circular, the roof conical, and from one side a flat roof stood forward like a portico supported by two sticks. Most of them were close to the trunk of a tree; and they were covered—not, as in other parts, by sheets of bark, but with a variety of materials such as reeds, grass, and boughs. The interior of each looked clean, and to us, passing in the rain, gave some idea not only of shelter, but even of comfort and happiness."—Vol. I., p. 76. In sight of the Nundawàr Range, the same explorer found huts substantially constructed, and well-thatched with dry grass and reeds.—Vol. I., p. 121. On the Lower Darling, he saw huts of a strong and permanent construction, each forming a semicircle, and facing inwards or to the centre, the open side of the curve being towards the east. One hut was unusually capacious and on a commodious plan, and might easily have contained twelve or fifteen persons. Sir Thomas Mitchell gives a plan of this hut in his work. In it were many small bundles of the wild flax, evidently in a state of preparation for making cord or line nets, and for other purposes. Each bundle consisted of a handful of stems twisted and doubled once, but the decayed state of these showed that the hut had been deserted.—Vol. I., p. 262. Bunce describes the formation of a camp when a tribe was overtaken in a storm:—"There were signs of rain, the sky became overcast, thunder was heard in the distance, and forked lightning played amongst the branches of the trees. The women were busy with their tomahawks in stripping large flakes or sheets of bark from the stringybark trees, and setting forks and saplings whereon to place the bark for the erection of willams, or dwellings, as a shelter. The only parties disengaged were the blackfellows, whose duties appeared to be to pray for fine weather by a continued melancholy chant. This office they continued for a short time after the rain commenced, and when all the rest of us had retired under shelter; but finding that their good divinity, in the present instance, was deaf to their appeals, they exclaimed—'Marmingatha bullarto pork-wadding; quanthueeneera?' 'Marmingatha is very sulky—and why?'; and they commenced throwing ashes in the direction in which they believed she resided, saying 'T'see Waugh,!' an exclamation of contempt and defiance—after which they returned to the willams."—Australasiatic Reminiscences, Bunce, p. 73. Sturt found, on or near the banks of the Macquarie River, a group of seventy huts, each capable of holding from twelve to fifteen persons. They appeared to be permanent habitations, and all of them fronted the same point of the compass. In another place he found in the thickest part of a brush of Melaleuca a deserted village. The spot had evidently been chosen because of the shelter afforded by the shrubs. The huts were large and long, all facing the same point of the compass, and in every way resembling the huts occupied by the natives of the Darling.—Sturt's Expedition, 1828-9. "The native camps as far north as the seventeenth parallel of south latitude are generally bark lean-tos, made of two upright forked sticks, with a sapling resting in the forks, and a sheet of bark laid against the sapling and curving over it. Further north there are what are called 'two-story' camps. These are formed of four forks, with saplings on each side, and with cross pieces laid on them. On these rests a sheet of bark bent in the centre, tent fashion. Fires are always found at each end. These camps are usually on high ground, and out of the reach of floods. The fires, it is believed, are intended to drive off the mosquitos. In some instances, where forked saplings were not obtainable, the roots of trees were utilized. They were turned end up, the stems being buried in the ground. In the dry season, a sheet of bark doubled in the middle with the ends resting on the ground is the usual covering. On the coast their camps are all made of bent and arched saplings, and filled in with boughs, forming closed chambers, either round or oblong; sometimes of considerable size, and having a hole to get in at. At other places only bough lean-tos occur."—Mr. Norman Taylor, Geological Surveyor, MS. Ordinarily their dwellings are of a very unsubstantial character. In the Port Lincoln district "their habitations are of a very simple and primitive construction. In the summer and in dry, fine weather they heap up some branches of trees in the form of a horseshoe, for protection against the winds; in the winter, and in wet weather, however, they make a kind of hut or bower with the branches of the casuarina, in the shape of a deep niche, and erect them as perpendicularly as they can, thereby to facilitate the dripping off of the rain. In those parts of the country where they have gum-trees (Eucalypti) they peel off the bark, and fix it so well together as to make the roof quite waterproof. In front of these huts they always burn a fire during the night for warming their feet; and in the cold weather every one lies between a small heap of burning coals in front and at the back, for keeping warm the upper part of the body. As the slightest motion must bring them into contact with these burning coals, it naturally occurs that they at times seriously burn themselves."—C. Wilhelmi. Collins saw on the sea-coast huts formed of pieces of bark from several trees, put together in the form of an oven, with an entrance, and large enough to hold six or eight persons. Their fire was always at the mouth of the hut, rather within than without. Those living in the bush, at some distance from the coast, contented themselves with, for each, a sheet of bark, bent in the middle and placed on its two ends on the ground.—New South Wales, Collins, p. 360. Shortly after the Europeans came to occupy Victoria the natives ceased to build huts, and they no longer assembled in villages. The inducements to plunder, their fear of the invaders, the depression caused by the appearance of a race possessing appliances so much superior to any known to them, and the impossibility of preserving inviolate the lands which their people had held for ages, caused them to wander aimlessly from place to place, and to seek shelter and find refuge in the more advantageous localities belonging to tribes to a certain extent removed at that time from the influences of the white men—localities which, before they met the whites, they would never have been permitted to enter except as guests or as conquerors.
* ↑ The mode in which offences are dealt with by the natives is highly interesting. Mr. Samuel Gason says that the natives of Cooper's Creek do not punish their children for committing theft, but the father or mother has to fight with the person from whom the property was stolen; and upon no occasion are the children beaten. Should any native steal from another, or should one accuse another wrongfully of any offence, the injured person challenges the wrongdoer, and a fight settles the difficulty. If two or more men fight, and one of the number be accidentally killed, he who caused his death must also suffer death. But should the offender have an elder brother, then he must die in his place; if he have no elder brother, his father must be his substitute; but in case he has no male relative to suffer for him, he himself must die. He is not allowed to defend himself, nor indeed is he informed of the time when sentence will be executed. On some night appointed, an armed party surround and despatch him. Two sticks, each about six inches in length—one representing the killed and the other the person executed—are then buried, and upon no occasion is the circumstance afterwards referred to. In the year 1869 I sent a memorandum to the gentlemen in charge of Aboriginal Stations in Victoria, asking them, amongst other things, how lying and other like offences are dealt with by the natives, and I received much interesting information on the subject. The Rev. John Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, Gippsland, states that the blacks would only hurt a man for telling a lie if the lie were told to hurt another black; but they would take no notice of a simple lie. A black in giving an account of an expedition would generally speak the truth; only some would not; but the blacks have a good idea as to whom they may trust in this respect. As to their mode of punishment, they have no authorized method; if a man became obnoxious to certain members of the tribe, they would quietly steal upon him and kill him. When a black has committed himself, he will, what is called, stand out before those he has offended, so that they may have their revenge. Blacks never like a quarrel to be of long standing: they do not like to bear a grudge; nothing would make a man more miserable than to think that some of his tribe had a "down" on him. He would rather take a good thrashing than live in such a state. This is partly owing to the practice which is very common among blacks of bewitching any one who has offended them. This they would do by getting a piece of hair or somethiug belonging to the person they wish to enchant, so that when a black thinks or knows that his hair has been stolen, he is in misery until it is restored again. This is one great reason why the blacks do not like to have enemies. The Rev. Mr. Hartmann, late of Lake Hindmarsh, says that the blacks had no particular mode of punishing deception or lying. One found guilty of such offences was generally warned by the chief, and if he persisted in his evil courses, the matter was settled by a fight. The stronger the black, the more likely he would be to stand his ground. The blacks usually chose for messengers and to send on expeditions such men as they could trust, and men who could talk well. Whatever report they brought back was generally believed. Mr. Green, of Coranderrk (Yarra Yarra River), informs me that, for bringing a false report from another tribe to his own tribe, a man was for the first offence well beaten with the waddy; for the second speared in the thigh; and for the third he might be killed. For seduction and for fornication with any young woman in his own tribe, the punishment was for the man death, and for the woman a spear in the thigh. The Rev. F. A. Hagenauer writes thus:—"The Aborigines punished in their wild state all deception and lying by open fight. If children did it, their parents had to stand and fight for it. The blacks always gave quite correct reports of their expeditions, and do so to the present day."
* ↑ "While dead bodies were being thus dried, it was very trying to one's stomach to have divine worship on Sabbaths. We had to have it in our own house. The little room would be crammed with some forty or fifty blacks. They crowded the room as full as it would pack, and thronged about the open door and window. As they had been living and sleeping in the wurley with a putrefying body, the smell seemed to have been absorbed by their skins, and the odour which arose from my congregation was excessively unpleasant."—The Narrinyeri, by the Rev. Geo. Taplin, p. 56. This custom is probably restricted to certain districts. In many parts the body of the deceased is not touched with the naked hand, nor is any part allowed to come into contact with the bodies of the living.
* ↑ North-West and Western Australia, vol. II., pp. 265-6.
* ↑ The message-sticks used by the natives are described in another part of this work.
* ↑ The Dieyerie Tribe, pp. 14-15.
* ↑ Interior of Eastern Australia, vol. II., p. 339.
* ↑ Samuel Gason, p. 14.
* ↑ The vegetable productions eaten by the natives are described in another part of this work.
* ↑ The natives are not so improvident as is generally supposed. They take great care of birds' nests, and they sink wells, and protect the natural water-holes against the encroachments of animals. They cover the springs of water with stones and branches of trees; and show, by burning off the grass and in many other ways, that it is their duty to make provision for their future wants. Mr. Charles Coxen writes thus:—"Much has been said of the imprudence of these poor creatures, and I do not intend to deny the general truth of such statements, but I believe that had we been better acquainted with their habits before the colonists came among them, we should give them credit for more thoughtfulness than we now do. In corroboration of this opinion, I may inform you that, during an exploration trip into the interior, made by me in 1836, I found a considerable store of grass-seed, gum from the mimosa, and other stores, carefully packed up in large bags made from the skin of the kangaroo, and covered over with pieces of bark, so as to keep them properly dry. The weight of the bags containing the grass-seed and gum was about one hundred pounds; the seeds had been carefully dried after being collected from the small grasses of the plains. It is used as food after being ground into a kind of paste. The gum is also one of their favorite articles of consumption, and when made into a thick mucilage, and mixed with honey or sugar, is really very nice. Such instances of forethought are doubtless rare, and I believe are only to be found beyond the influence of civilization."—The Kommillaroy Tribe. A paper read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, 1866.
* ↑ Manners and Customs of the Australian Natives, &c., pp. 176-8.
* ↑ North-West and Western Australia, vol. II., pp.234-5.
* ↑ Aborigines of Australia, by Gideon S. Lang, 1865, pp. 13-14.
* ↑ Sir George Grey's account of this matter is very clear. See vol. II., p. 289.
* ↑ Eastern Australia, vol. I., p. 305.
* ↑ Eyre's Australia, vol. II., p. 297.
* ↑ An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, 1804, p. 385.
* ↑ Eastern Australia, vol. II., p. 341.
* ↑ Narrative, p. 13.
* ↑ Grey mentions having seen a dog in North-Western Australia altogether different in appearance from the dingo or Canis Australiensis. It resembled the Malay dog common to the island of Timor. Grey never saw one wild—only domesticated and in the vicinity of the natives.—North-West and Western Australia, vol. I., p. 239.
* ↑ An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut.-Col. Collins, p. 357.
* ↑ The Indians of South America climb trees with the assistance of a hoop of wild vines; and a similar method is adopted in Ceylon and in some parts of Africa.—See Tylor's Early History of Mankind, 1870, p. 173.
* ↑ Eastern Australia, by Major T. L. Mitchell, F.G.S., Vol. II., p. 241.
* ↑ Overland Expedition, p. 85.
* ↑ Fights amongst the natives were common in the early days of the settlement at Sydney. Collins relates that hostile tribes were frequently engaged in combat, often during two days and more, and that much blood was shed, but there was scarcely ever any loss of life.—P. 303. He says, also, that the women almost invariably are the cause of quarrels and fights, and sometimes, when hostile tribes meet, a woman begins the battle, scolding the enemy, and hitting the men on the head with a club.—Collins, 1804, pp. 375-6.
* ↑ "The natives pay but little regard to the wounds they receive in duels, or which are inflicted on them as punishments; their sufferings from all injuries are much less than those which Europeans would undergo in similar circumstances; this may probably arise from their abstemious mode of life, and from their never using any other beverage than water. A striking instance of their apathy with regard to wounds was shown on one occasion in a fight which took place in the village of Perth, in Western Australia. A native man received a wound in that portion of his frame which is only presented to enemies when in the act of flight, and the spear, which was barbed, remained sticking in the wound; a gentleman who was standing by watching the fray, regarded the man with looks of pity and commiseration, which the native perceiving, came up to him, holding the spear (still in the wound) in one hand, and turning round, so as to expose the injury he had received, said in the most moving terms, 'Poor fellow, sixpence give it 'um.'"—North-West and Western Australia. Grey, vol. II., pp. 244-5. A gentleman, formerly residing in Wellington Valley, in New South Wales, and holding a high position under the Government, informs me that on one occasion he saw a native pierced by a spear. It entered his chest, and the point came out under the blade-bone. When the spear was withdrawn, the man was seen by a surgeon, who declared that portions of the lungs were adhering to the spear. The sufferer plugged the holes with gum and grass, and recovered so rapidly as to be able to walk a distance of eighteen miles after the lapse of a week. Another correspondent states that a blackfellow whose abdomen was perforated by a bullet used grass and gum in the same manner, and never seemed to suffer much from the wound. Collins states that a black who had had a barbed spear driven into his loins, close by the vertebræ of the back, had recourse to the surgeons of the settlements. Their utmost skill failed to extract the weapon, and he went away trusting to nature for a recovery. He walked about for several weeks with the spear unmoved, even after suppuration had taken place. Finally the spearhead was extracted by War-re-weer, his wife, who fixed her teeth in it and drew it out. He recovered in a short time.—Collins, 1804, p. 316. "Leigh relates the case of an Australian whose temporal bone had been fractured by a blow, and the temporal artery divided, and of another whose ulna and radius had been fractured in a terrible manner; that the first took part on the following day in some public meeting, and that, though worms appeared in the arm of the second, the recovery in both took place without any operation or even dressing."—Introduction to Anthropology, by Dr. Theodor Waitz, 1863, p. 126. I have from time to time examined a large number of the skulls of natives, and I have seen on many of them indentations and marks of injuries, evidently, from the state of the bones and the sutures, inflicted long prior to death; and I have often wondered how Nature, unassisted, could repair such serious hurts. All the evidence I have collected goes to show that the native, uncontaminated by association with Europeans, is as independent of adventitious aids, in the cure of wounds and fractures, as the wild animals of the forest.
* ↑ A strong, stout stick, sharpened at one end, most often at both ends, and hardened in the fire, about seven feet in length, and used commonly for digging roots, &c.
* ↑ See statement respecting loss of life in fights, p. 32.
* ↑ Mr. Samuel Gason, writing of the Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's Creek), lat. 28° S., says, that when there is a misunderstanding between two tribes, the women of one are sent to the other as ambassadors to arrange the dispute, which they invariably succeed in doing, when women from the other return the visit to testify their approval of the treaty arrived at. The reason women are appointed in this capacity is that they are free from danger, while, should the men go, their lives would be in peril.
* ↑ "They take a man's kidneys out after death, tie them up in something, and carry them round the neck as a sort of protection and valuable charm, for either good or evil."—Life and Adventures of William Buckley, p. 77. The practice of carrying portions of the bodies of deceased relatives is elsewhere referred to. Buckley was either not acquainted with the revolting practice described in the text or suppressed the facts.
* ↑ The Aborigines of Australia, by Edward Stone Parker, 1854.
* ↑ Eyre witnessed a remarkable dance at Moorunde, in March 1844. The dancers were painted and decorated as usual, and they had tufts of feathers on their heads like cockades. Some carried in their hands such tufts tied to the ends of sticks, and others bunches of green boughs. After exercising themselves for some time, they retired, and when they re-appeared they were seen carrying a curious rude-looking figure raised up in the air. This singular object consisted of a large bundle of grass and reeds bound together, enveloped in a kangaroo skin with the flesh side outwards, and painted all over in small white circles. From the top of this projected a thin stick with a large tuft of feathers at the end to represent the head, and sticks were stuck out laterally from the sides for the arms, terminating in tufts of feathers stained red to represent the hands. From the front a small stick about six inches long was projected, ending with a thick knob formed of grass, round which a piece of old cloth was tied. This was painted white, and represented the navel. The figure was about eight feet long, and was evidently intended to symbolise a man. This figure was carried for some time in the dance. Subsequently there appeared iu its place two standards made of poles and borne by two persons. The standards again were abandoned, and the men advanced with their spears. Eyre believed that these dances and the image and the standards had some connection with their superstitions, and that the figure was regarded in the light of a charm.—Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, vol. II., pp. 236-8.
* ↑ The Aborigines of Australia, by Gideon S. Lang, Esq., 1865.
* ↑ Three Expeditions Into the Interior of Eastern Australia, by Major T. L. Mitchell, F.G.S., &c., 1838, vol. II., p. 5.
* ↑ Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, by Clement Hodgkinson, 1845.
* ↑ The Narrinyeri, by the Rev, Geo. Taplin, 1874.
* ↑ Our Antipodes, by Lieut.-Col. Mundy, pp. 45-6.
* ↑ Macgillivray gives a figure of the drum used by the people of the village of Tassai. It is a hollow cylinder of palm-wood, two feet and a half iu length and four inches iu diameter. One end is covered over with the skin of a large lizard.—Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 1852, vol. I., p. 260.
* ↑ The Tongans excel in ball play, and have a game which consists in playing with five balls, which are thrown from one hand to the other, so as to keep four balls always in the air.—The Natural History of Man, Rev. J. G. Wood, vol. II., p. 339.
* ↑ An instrument similar to this is used by the natives of the Macleay River, and is mentioned by Mr. Hodgkinson. It seems to be a modification of the Witarna.
* ↑ Bunce states that the natives often amused themselves with a puzzle. The string used in the sport was named Kudgi-kudgik, and was made of the fibre of a tree (Sida pulchella), commonly found on the banks of the mountain streams, as well as, in some places, on the banks of the Yarra. The puzzle was played between two persons, and required two pairs of hands, and much resembled the game of "cat's cradle."—Australasiatic Reminiscences, by Daniel Bunce, p. 75. The game of "cat's cradle" is played by the Dyaks of Borneo. They are acquainted with all the mysteries of the English modification of the game, and produce a number of additional changes from the string.—The Natural History of Man, Rev. J. G. Wood, vol. II., p. 490. There were probably some other games known to the natives of Victoria respecting which no account has been preserved.
* ↑ It was a firm belief of the Aborigines of the Yarra and the Coast tribes that there were tribes of Aborigines very different from themselves in the mountainous parts of the colony; and it is certain that the men of Gippsland and those living on the highlands at the sources of the River Murray, and near the Great Dividing Range, were fiercer and bolder than the men living in the lowlands. Mr. H. B. Lane says that the "Dargo tribe, as described by Mr. Thomas Mitchell, a Local Guardian, was of a fiercer disposition and of a more ferocious aspect than those belonging to the Murray, upon whom they were in the habit (but not recently) of making predatory raids." It seems, therefore, that the physical character of the country is as influential in Australia in modifying the habits of the people as in Europe and Asia; but in stating this, one must not lose sight of the fact that, whereas in Asia the hill tribes, as a rule, are the remnants of the Aboriginal inhabitants who have been driven by intruding races to remote retreats, they are in Australia members of the same great family—similar in speech, of like physique, and possessing habits and traditions identical with those of the tribes dwelling on the coast.
* ↑ Collins observed that all the natives slept soundly. In one case, of many known to Collins of the extreme soundness with which they sleep, a murderer first took a sleeping infant from the arms of the father whom he was about to deprive of existence.—An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut.-Col. Collins, 1804, p. 361.
* ↑ The Narrinyeri, by the Rev. Geo. Taplin, p. 27.
* ↑ Mr. Albert A. C. Le Souef, MS. This quarry is referred to in Mr. Ulrich's Catalogue of Rock Specimens, p. 21. Mr. Joseph Parker mentions the traffic between the Ja-jow-er-ong tribes and others in stones for tomahawks. Messengers were sent by distant tribes to procure stones for the Bur-reek (tomahawk) from the Ja-jow-er-ong people.
* ↑ A few Notes on the Dialects, Habits, Customs, and Mythology of the Lower Murray Aborigines, by Mr. Peter Beveridge.
* ↑ The Narrinyeri, by the Rev. Geo. Taplin, pp. 25-6.
* ↑ Explorations: 1861-2, pp. 64 and 75.
* ↑ Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York, 1867.