The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-01-09
AUSTRALIAN BUSH
HIDES MYSTERIES
WierG Legends of Early Life in
the Dreer Wastec of the
Island Continent.
ABORIGINAL
Natives Are BIoodthirsty and Cruel and
Very Superstitious-Tragedy and
Romance-Case of William
Perrot.

Chicago Tribune: Australia needs a
historian to write the story of the bush,
which is fading rapidly before the de-
%velop1nent of the commonwealth and the
all invading population. There is a mass
of story and legend, close to nature in its
crude form, waiting to be gathered and
preserved. The wild and stirring history
Of early colonial days in the most peculiar
Of the worlds continents has yet to be
told with the vivifying touch Of SYM
patlly and local color required to make
it last. The country is full of the ele-
lments requisite and the interval Of time
is not yet too wide to be bridged over.
Australia is old-old-in the second
childhood Of its hoar antiquity. But Of
the peoples that dwelt there in ancient
days, and of the catnclysms which have
made the land what it Is, no history has
been written save such as may be found
in its extinct volcanoes, it's strange mann
mails, it's weird looking gum trees, and the
legends of the blacks.
1t is a quarter of a century or over since
the old Never-Never country ceased to be
the white mans grave, and scarcely
longer since cannibals held their orgies
within forty miles Of where Brisbane gov
eminent house stands, and wild white
men still roamed the bush.
tilGSSy iIlOSllyy DIS lOIlS d ) pcIldl
settlements lasted; and afterwards occa-
sional fugttives from New Caledonia. One
Of such-an ex-chef-did for nearly a year
provide Palais Royal fare for a squatter
in the coast blocks, WI o till then had
cheerfully subsisted or salt junk and
damper, and who afterwards, SO far as
his palate went, was a spoiled man. The
tale Is also told Of how a Chtnaman
wrought succulent pies out Of a litter OF
new born puppies.
Curious, but Toothsome D~elicacies.
1t is certain, however, that for those
who look, the bush has delicacies to fur
nish forth a Roman banquet. Much can
be said Of the excellence Of iguana flesh;
also Of a sort of truffie fungus to be dug
In the scrub, and Of weird but toothsome
larvae, pouched mice, and Eggs of a mon
ster ant.
I 1.-THE Bunyip, or Debil-Debil, of the ma
tives is a whole volume with his cloud
of superstitions and his ever changing
shapes. Sometimes he Is a bird, never
seen, but uttering n doleful wall which
has the effect of clearing from the spot
all black humanity. Or he Is a fire god,
fierce and venegeful, sending madness up
on those dwelling in the scrubs-presum-
ably because in such moist regions his
powers are limited. Or he is a gigantic
kangaroo, or the monstrous snake wa-wi,
large as q gum tree, or murr1ula, proto-
type Of the dingo, or native dog. New he
Is the shapeless and Invisible spirit haut-
Ing a blacks burial place and causing the
tribe to migrate; and, again, the terrible
deity sending swift punishment on some
hapless gin or lubra "a black maiden) who
has violated the aboriginal code Of laws,
In some respects curiously mosaic. The
metamorphose Of Debtl-Debil are numer-
Gus as the avatars of Vishnu, and his
power to kill, uncircumscribed,
Held in superstitious Awe.
The advent of the white man and his
reception by the black bushman is re-
pletc with strange incidents and tragedies.
The first white man was a superhuman
creature In the eyes Of the native. They
took him to be a reincarnation Of one Of
their own chiefs, or, as they put it, zone
fellow black, gone bong, dead and
jumped up white man. This supersti-
ton has saved the life Of more than one
A Australian castaway. nu
There are spirits, too, who inhabit caves
and others that glide above, from tree to
tree. Riding through the bush on a moon
light night, with the eerie shadows, the
nsnstrous shapes Of vegetation, the un-
canny cries and creepy mutterings OF
bird, beast and reptile, any legend might
seem to have its foundation in reality.
When a black fellow wants to PREACHER
ously do away with a foe, he secretly
| SoNo otL AoSh VI 11o LUG . 1k81l liz Jul
It, invoking Debil-Debil, Who speedily
brings it about that the enemy gives up
the ghost. Another method equally ef-
icacious. is to point at the intended VIC
tim a bone prepared by a native doctor,
soaked in human blood, and dried over
The smoke Of certain wood, after which
SOON the tribe knows thai man no more.
There is no end to the superstttons con-
corning Dlsll-Debil-a European graft
upon aboriginal mythology,
Tragedies of tho Bush.
The tragedies of the Bush are as many
rs the superstttiens, Lest in the Bush
,r Found Dead in the Bush,"' is often
he beginning and the END Of the story.
Such tragedies happened again and
tgain. Many an Engiishman-a college
graduate. the scapegrace of some noble
family, sent as a last hope to the colon
es-has gone under thus "A man dead
n the bush!" The news goes. brought In
by shepherd or black boy. The nearest
magistrate is summoned. "A hasty inquest
follows, and a rude burying in q grave
beneath q gum tree. Neither prayer book
nor bible is forthcoming, and memory
tails to recall sacred words. But some
hing must be said. Once, q hutkeeper
~producedsa tatterea volume OF $"GuMfver's
rrayels"-and a paragraph grabbed there
rom concluded the ceremonial.
A typical case was that Of William STAFF
lord Perrot, who. was one time superin-
sendent on q station. and afterwards ost-
Ter in an Inn. who drank, gambled, joked
Ind adventured, and had even then a wild
.aTesr behind him. He had been ship
wrecked originally ON the South American
.oast, had lived among wandering In
lians, conveyed Ellarnas to port, worked In
I copper mine. and learned the art of
throwing them achete-it was not safe to
be with him and his Mexican knife dur.
ing a drinking bout. Perrot was unlucky.
Ind took to odd trades.
ostler Heir TO Ancient Earldorn.
One9day, a squa.tter met him waiting
1t the postoffce for the English mafl. His
etters brought him unlocked for news.
md the crown prosecutor confirmed them.
Perrot was ostler then, and had BACKED
he crown prosecutors. boots. The crown
prosecutor told him that he was unaoubt-
IDLY earl of Ststford, gave him a check for
iieloo. md he took his passage home. One
hundred pounds Is q big sum for even an
sarl.s a. silantykeeper and.a crowd OF
thirsty diggers to change into greg. But
iiilla new peer managed to- dispose Ola
4 1oodspart oft, and before the shin sailed
I6Aicb wa.s to bear him to his Kingdom. IN
sst earlsof STAFFORD had drunk himself to
fleath.
p odds against the whist PLAYER
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