Religion—Massacre of the crew of the “Maria”—Traditions—Cave Figures
—Superstitions—Sorcery—Diseases—Poison Revenge—Native Songs—Wit and
Humour—Fidelity—Amusements—Corroborees—Weapons—Manufactures—The
Bogan Tribes—Native Fruits—Dwellings.
They are a people free from idolatry. One would suppose they would be
open to receive the Gospel, but it is not so. They are superstitious,
but not over-religious and do not seem to have such a deep sense of sin
as idolatrous nations who make expiation, and seek to be reconciled
to the Superior Being. This is a singular feature in their character.
The North-American Indians are not idolatrous, but have a belief in a
Superior Being.
Many writers, amongst these Mr. Bennett, represent them as having no
knowledge of a Supreme Being. “They have no knowledge whatever of the
existence of a God,” but from my travelling with them I have always
considered that they have a belief in a Supreme Being.
I find from the narrative of the Rev. Geo. Taplin, missionary to the
aborigines, there is reason to think likewise, although he seems rather
doubtful. In religious matters they are superstitious and reserved,
therefore it is only by such intercourse with them as Mr. Taplin’s that
we are likely to reach correct notions.
He says the Narrinyeri tribes call the Supreme Being by two names,
Nurundere and Martummere: “He made all things on earth, and has
given to men the weapons of war and hunting. He instituted all rites
and ceremonies practised by them connected with life and death. The
ceremony of roasting a kangaroo, accompanied by shouting a chorus, and
brandishing spears, was instituted by Him.”
Of Nurundere they have many traditions: “He pursued an immense fish
in Lake Alexandrina, and having caught it, he tore it into pieces and
scattered them; out of these pieces other fish came into being and had
their origin. He threw some flat stones into the lake and they became
tinuwarre fishes.”
Wyungare, the remarkable hunter, had no father, but only a mother;
he was a red man from his infancy. Of Nepelle they have traditions.
They were both great hunters. Nepelle sought to revenge himself on
Wyungare for having taken his two wives; the latter tried to escape,
and fleeing, flung a spear into the heavens with a line attached, and
it having stuck there, he hauled himself up; and afterwards, the two
women. Three stars are pointed out as Wyungare and his wives.
The natives told the writer that the milky-way was the smoke of a great
chief on the Murrumbidgee, who was roasting mussels there. Thus it is
evident they have many traditions of unseen Gods and great chieftains,
while the belief of some of these natives is that the milky-way is the
canoe of Nepelle floating in the heavens.
Of the flood they seem to have some tradition. They believe that
Nurundere’s two wives ran away from him; he pursued them, and met them
at Encounter Bay, and there called upon the water to arise and drown
them. A terrible flood gathered and swept over the hills, overtaking
the fugitives, and his wives were drowned, while he was saved by
pulling to high land in his canoe.
Nurundere also lost two of his children but recovered them after a
conflict with a blackfellow, whom he killed.
The natives always mention his name with reverence.
The reverend writer’s opinion is that Nurundere is some deified chief.
The natives regard thunder as his voice in anger, and the rainbow as
the production of his power. It is evident that they look to some
creative power; although, in this instance, the more intelligent blacks
told the missionary that Nurundere was a chieftain who led the tribes
down the Darling to the country they now inhabit, where he appears to
have met another tribe and had with them a battle, in which he and his
tribes were victorious.
A writer in 1842 says that, about 200 miles from Sydney, they assembled
for a corroboree for rain, and described God as a great blackfellow,
high up in the clouds, having arms nine miles long, eyes the size of a
house, ever in motion. He never sleeps, flashes lightning, and dries up
the waterholes as punishment. They have their songs and festivals for
dry weather when on journeys, thus indicating a higher state of things.
Every tribe has its ngaitye or tutelary genius or tribal symbol, in the
shape of a bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect, or substance.
I hereunto add the names of tribes in Victoria:—
Tribe. Locality. Ngaitye.
Welinyeri Murray River Black duck and black snake with
red belly.
Lathinyeri do. Black swan, teal, and black snake
with grey belly.
Wunyakulde do. Black duck.
Piltinyeri Lake Alexandrina Leeches, catfish (native pomery.)
The Narrinyeri have for their neighbours the Wakanuwan and the Merkani
tribes; the latter are cannibals, who steal fat people particularly.
If a man has a fat wife, he is particular not to leave her exposed,
lest she should be seized; the consequence is that the other tribes
confederate against cannibal tribes, and battles are frequent; some 500
to 800 men are mustered on each side.
Two stray bullocks having wandered amongst the Lake tribes, they took
them for demons, in which they believed, and decamped in great terror;
they named them Wundawityeri, as beings with spears upon their heads.
There is a very tragic history of these tribes: that the survivors
of the “Maria,” wrecked on the coast, supposed to be twenty-five in
number, men, women, and children, were induced to place themselves
under their guidance to lead them to a whaling station at Encounter
Bay. The native guides took advantage of their being separated in
crossing the Coorong, quietly placed a man behind each of the whites,
and at a signal clubbed them. The poor wanderers had marched 80 miles
from the wreck, when they were thus treacherously murdered. A party
of police were despatched; they found the camp, in which were large
quantities of clothing and other articles. The officers seized two of
the most desperate men, and then hanged them up by the neck to a tree,
and shot two others. The natives gazed for a minute at the suspended
bodies, and then fled. They never cut down the bodies, which remained
hanging until they dropped from the trees.
In some instances, the native secures his ngaitye in the person of a
snake, he pulls out its teeth or sews up its mouth, and puts it in a
basket. These snakes have suddenly given birth to thirty young ones,
when it becomes necessary to destroy them. It seems that their belief
in Ngaitye is also peculiar to the natives of the Taowinyeri. One saw
his God in the shark, the eel, the owl, the lizard, fish, and creeping
things. How deluded and debased is man without Divine revelation, yet
we are told by philosophers and their followers that all men have to do
is to study nature, and there read the character of the Deity. But have
they ever done so through ages? Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, have all
changed the glory of God into four-footed beasts and creeping things;
even leeks and onions have been worshipped. Why should the aborigines
be an exception? Divine revelation alone teaches man the true character
of the Divine Being, “for man by wisdom cannot find out God.”
With regard to the advantages of civilization, they do not believe
the same to be the result of a superior intellect, or of religion,
but of a resurrection from the dead. “Blackfellow by-and-by jump up
whitefellow,” is the common mode of expressing their belief.
The Rev. A. Meyer, in his pamphlet, gives some interesting particulars
of these people. He says they do not appear to have any story as to the
origin of the world, and they believe in the transmigration of souls.
Men have been transformed into animals, even into stones; to the latter
they give the names of men and women, and point out their head, feet,
hands, and their waist and face. In one of their dances, one that had
been speared and wounded ran into the sea, and was transformed into a
whale, and ever afterwards blew the water out of the wound in his neck.
Others became fish, others became opossums; and thus they account for
the creation of animals and fish, &c., &c.
Of the diversity of dialects, they have a tradition that when an old
woman named Wurruri died, the various nations assembled, and one tribe
ate her flesh and others ate her intestines, and they all thus acquired
different dialects. Certainly nothing here indicates the dispersion of
Babel.
On Nurundere’s removal, he left his son behind. On discovering this, he
threw his spear to him with a line attached. The son thus succeeded in
reaching his father, and this line is the way the dead reach Nurundere,
who provides men with wives, and converts old men into young ones;
therefore they have no fear of the future. Some of the legends are very
obscene.
They have curious legends about animals. They conceive the turtle and
the snake exchanged the venomous fangs. A battle took place between
the pelican and the magpie about fish; in the struggle the magpie was
rolled in the ashes and the pelican became besmeared with scales of
the fish, and so had white breasts. They believe in two Wood Demons;
the one assumes any shape, sometimes an old man, then a bird, to lure
individuals into his reach that he may destroy them.
The noise on the Lake of Alexandrina is very remarkable, and the cause
was long undiscovered. Of course it is attributed by the blacks to a
water spirit. It is heard with a booming sound, resembling distant
cannon or an explosive blast, at other times like the falling of a
heavy body in the water. This now is known to be caused by a bird.
The cave figures are very remarkable, and seem to puzzle every writer
on their origin or use. It is very probable they were connected in some
way with religious observances, which the natives are very unwilling to
divulge.
These figures and others cut in rocks are found in several parts of
Australia, thus doing away with the supposition that they may have been
the production of strangers who have landed on portions of the shore,
as figures have been found on the eastern shores by Sir George Grey,
and also near Sydney, not only on rocks but on trees. How many of these
have been engraven on hard rocks with the want of suitable implements
it is difficult to divine.
Sir George Grey’s description of some of these is remarkable, a rough
sketch of one of which I subjoin, being a figure painted on the roof
of caves. This figure is painted on a black ground so as to produce
a stronger effect, and covered with the most vivid red and white;
its head encircled with bright red rays inside a broad stripe of
brilliant red, crossed by lines of white, and then crossed again with
narrow stripes of deeper red; the face painted white, the eyes black,
surmounted by red and yellow lines; the body and hands outlined with
red, the body being curiously painted with red stripes and bars. The
dimensions were—head and face, 2 feet; width of face, 17 inches; length
from bottom of face to navel, 2 feet 6 inches.
There were other paintings in the cave vividly coloured—one with four
heads, joined together with a necklace, but having no mouths, and
good-looking, executed on a white ground. Length, 3 feet 6 inches;
breadth across two upper parts, 2 feet 6 inches; lower heads, 3 feet 1½
inch.
There were several other paintings of singular character—one being
a disc representing a kangaroo as an offering to number one; also
spears thrown at some unknown object; the impress of a hand; an arm in
the black wall, so as to appear extended round some one in the cave,
inviting him to some more concealed mysteries.
In another cave, approached by steps, until they reached a central
elevated stone slab, supporting a slab to uphold the roof, was a seat
at the extremity. The principal figure was that of a man 10 feet 6
inches in length, clothed from the chin downwards in a red garment
reaching to the feet, the hands and feet being painted of a deeper red;
the face and head were enveloped in a succession of circular bandages
or rollers.
These were vividly coloured yellow and white; the eyes were alone
represented on the face, no nose nor mouth. On the bandages were a
rolled series of lines, painted in red, regularly done, as if to
indicate some meaning. Its feet reached just in front of the natural
seat, while its head and face stared grimly down on the floor of the
cavern. There were numerous figures of kangaroos, emus, turtles,
snakes, &c., on the sides of the cave.
From the appearance of grease on the roof just over the seat, Sir
Geo. Grey conjectures that at certain times some doctor or chief man
sits there, and that the cave is resorted to in cases of disease or
witchcraft; footsteps were seen about the place. The figures are
remarkable; the rays of the sun, as we may suppose, emanating from the
head, would lead to the belief of the worship of Baal, the God of Fire;
while some of the names of the tribes partly support this idea, such as
Binbal, Pundyil, &c., &c., &c.
The other figures are clothed from head to foot. This is singular,
as the natives have no such garments, their opossum cloak having no
sleeves, and not reaching to the feet as here described.
That these caves may be places of worship, like the caves in India, is
not improbable, especially when we see the offering of the kangaroo,
and the seat for some presiding person, priest, or doctor. The whole
no doubt is mysterious, but we hardly think that these people could be
entirely destitute of some form of religion, when we take these cave
figures into consideration, with the ceremony of initiating young men
to manhood, the exclusion of women, prohibition of certain food, their
belief in spirits and a future condition, the deification of their
chiefs into stars, the deification of heroes, and even of the lowest
reptiles and animals.
One figure, representing a whale, was carved near Dawes Battery,
Sydney, besides many figures carved on rocks and cut on trees—a kind
of picture-painting. On another rock there was a figure of a man 10
feet high, wearing a light red robe, close at the neck, reaching to his
feet. He had a pair of eyes, and his face was surrounded by a circle of
yellow, and an outward circle of white edged with red.
There were many such paintings, and in an isolated rock was the profile
of a man cut in _solid_ stone, of a character more European than
Native, executed in a style beyond what any savage would be thought
capable of.
Both Flinders and King, along the coast, discovered drawings of
porpoises, turtles, fish, &c., and a human head, done in charcoal or
burnt stick and something like white paint, upon the face of the rock.
These paintings are on the coast or near it, and may be the work
probably of some persons who had visited the coast, and not of the
aboriginals themselves, as the Malays frequently visited the coast.
The red hand seen in the caves is another singular device, which
is also met with amongst the North American Indians. But what are
most remarkable are the stone circles at Mount Elephant, Victoria,
resembling the stone monuments at Stonehenge in England.
The stones in these structures are of ponderous masses, raised upright,
seemingly pointing to a fact that the same people were spread far and
wide, of which we know nothing at present.
With regard to superstition, Sir G. Grey’s party had reached a stream
of fresh water, where there was abundance of mussels, but Kaiber would
not touch any of them, and was in great terror on seeing the whites
devour them. A storm of thunder set in, which made the party rather
chilly and miserable. He chanted a glowing song by way of reproach.
Oh! wherefore would you eat the mussels?
Now the boyl-yas storm and thunder make;
Oh! wherefore would you eat the mussels?
If boys eat proscribed food they believe they will have sore legs, or
turn grey, or suffer under some other infliction.
The Ngia-Ngiampe, a chief, carries on trade between the tribes in the
exchange of baskets, rugs, clubs, &c.
The umbilical cord is preserved, and this is supposed to confer some
peculiar virtue on the Ngia-Ngiampe. Those possessing these charms
never speak to each other, and employ a third person to carry on the
traffic, so that there is no danger of collusion in their dealings.
Sorcery is practised extensively, as in the Pacific Islands. Through
fear of disease they collect and destroy all the refuse in their
vicinity; but should the disease-maker find a bone of some bird or
animal he proceeds with this to inflict disease.
So with the Tahitians—the disease-maker picks up the parings of nails,
hair, saliva, and other secretions of the body as vehicles which
the Demon introduces into his victim, or they often exchange their
ngadhungi and each destroys it.
When the ngaitye of a tribe is killed, if a hostile kuldukke of another
tribe gets a bone, he ties it in the corner of a wallaby’s skin and
flings at the people, and they are made sick. They state that they
could or did kill a magpie by sorcery. One day two children were at
play—one chopped off the joint of the other child’s finger; the father
swallowed it with the view that no sorcery man should get it.
Next is the avenger. The man seeking revenge disguises himself, marking
his face over with streaks, and then with a heavy club prowls about the
hunting ground. If he sees his victim alone, he rushes on him and kills
him, breaking his bones.
The perpetrator is called malpuri (murderer), and is subject to be put
to death by the relatives of the victim, as the avenger of blood.
This belief in sorcery makes them careless of illness. From a belief in
its curative properties, some of the tribes take the kidney fat from
the enemies they slay.
They have no idea of poisonous plants, and consider all deaths as the
results of sorcery.
The diseases they suffer from are chiefly of a scrofulous nature,
dysentery, and brain fever. They have likewise skin diseases, fistulas,
itch, &c. Sulphur is one of their specifics; the wattle-bark and gum
are also much used. They likewise suffer from influenza. There is
no doubt that they were visited with small-pox before the Europeans
arrived, of which numbers died, and many more bore the marks.
Their doctors use incantations and apply pressure to the affected
parts. They also employ the vapour bath, obtained by putting wet
water-weeds on heated stones and covering the patient with rugs.
The poison revenge is a dreadful visitation. A spear-head is plunged
into a putrid corpse, and with feathers so dipped in the fat a wound is
inflicted on an enemy, who dies in dreadful agony, similar in effect to
blood-poisoning from dead animals amongst ourselves. To possess this
poison is the old natives’ object; they therefore often oppose the
burial of the dead.
They appear to have a talent for extempore productions. When Sir G.
Grey’s party was in a hopeless condition for want of water and food,
the native Kaiber sat shouting to himself native songs.
Thither, mother, Oh! I return again,
Thither, Oh! I return again.
Whither does that lone ship wander?
My young son I shall never see again.
Whither does that lone ship wander?
Very pathetic. Their feelings are very strong, as may be seen by
Warrup’s account of the discovery of Smith’s remains, one of Sir George
Grey’s companions, which were found stretched on a high rock, where he
lay down and died.
Away, away, we go—
I, Mr. Roe, and Kinchela—
Along the shore, away! Along the shore, away!
We see a paper, the paper of Morlimer and Spofforth.
Away we go, we see no fresh water,
Along the shore,
Away, away, away, we go along the shore!
Away, away, away, a long distance we go!
I see Mr. Smith’s footsteps ascending a sandhill,
Onward I go, regarding his footsteps.
I see Mr. Smith dead, we commence digging the earth;
Two sleeps had he been dead;
Greatly did I weep, and much I grieved,
In his blanket folding him,
We scrape away the earth.
We scrape the earth into the grave,
We scrape the earth into the grave,
A little wood we place in it, much earth we heap upon it,
Much earth we throw upon it, no dogs can dig there.
The sun had just inclined to the westward,
As we laid him in the ground.—_Grey._
The following is a specimen of their extempore composition on sight of
a railway train:—
“You see the smoke in Kapunda,
The steam puffs regularly,
Showing quickly it looks like frost,
It runs like running water,
It blows like a spouting whale.”
A settler who frequently employed aboriginal labour, having heard
some complaint of their ill-treating a white man, ordered the tribe
instantly to decamp. He was somewhat surprised at one of their number
appearing before him quite naked, ornamented with pipeclay, and
carrying two nullas. The black asked the gentleman to fight, offering
one of the nullas. The gentleman, however, determined to choose his own
weapon, and produced his gun, which he loaded with ball in presence of
the champion, and, pointing to the dial of his watch, said, “If you are
not out of this stockyard in ten minutes, I will shoot you.” The black
champion watched the hands of the watch, and when the time had nearly
expired, he gracefully said, “Good evening, massa,” and disappeared.
As an instance of their fidelity, a squatter in the north, whose house
was surrounded by blacks threatening assault, had a domesticated
native, who had got mixed up with the savage tribe. He watched his
opportunity and seized a horse, and, with a piece of stringy-bark for
a bridle, galloped several miles to a police station, giving the
alarm. The police immediately mounted horse, galloped furiously to the
station, took a circuit round the house, and then followed on the trail
of the blacks, whom they overtook encamped; they fired into them, and
killed and wounded several. The sergeant, a white, however remained
at the station, leaving these desperadoes to do their bloody deeds of
carnage; probably he felt he could not restrain them. The fidelity of
the black, however, saved the lives of the station-holders.
A black in Port Macquarie stole on Mr. ——, while lying on the grass. He
had pipeclayed himself, and then stealing along, made a noise like the
burring of a quail. Mr. ——, in fright, leaped on his horse and fled;
this amused the black very much.
Mr. James R—— had a lad as coachman, who drove well, was a perfect
dandy, kept his horses in fine order, used much oil for his hair, and
prided himself on his coach and appearance, but withal went back to the
bush. A gentleman at Molesmane had a lad for several years. He could
read and write, cast up accounts, and do anything on a farm. At the age
for the ceremony of knocking out teeth he went back to the wild state.
An aboriginal and woman had a dairy station at Monaro, were married at
church, and conducted their station like any Europeans.
Their power of ridicule is very great. Sir George Grey’s party having
reached a friendly tribe, who supplied them with frogs and turtles, one
of them, named Imbat, enjoyed himself at the expense of Sir George Grey.
“What for do you, who have plenty to eat and much money, walk so far
away in the bush? You are thin, your shanks are long, your belly small,
you had plenty to eat at home, why did you not stop there?”
Sir G. Grey replied, being somewhat mortified, “You comprehend nothing;
you know nothing.”
“I know nothing? I know how to keep myself fat. The young women look at
me and say, ‘Imbat is very handsome, he is fat.’ They look at you, and
say, ‘He is not good, long legs:’ What do you know, where is your fat,
what for do you know so much, if you can’t keep fat? I know how to keep
at home, and not walk too far in the bush; where is your fat?” “You
know how to talk;—long tongue,” was my reply, upon which, forgetting
his anger, he burst into a roar of laughter, and saying, “I know how to
make you fat,” began stuffing me with frogs and by-yu nuts.
There was something more practical here than irony. The value of
religion under the trying circumstances of a forlorn hope in this
expedition is acknowledged by Sir G. Grey:—“I feel assured that but
for the support I derived from prayer and frequent perusals and
meditation of the Scriptures, I should never have been able to have
borne myself in such a manner as to have maintained discipline and
confidence among the rest of the party, nor in my sufferings did I ever
lose the consolation derived from the firm reliance upon the goodness
of Providence. It is only those who go forth into perils and dangers,
where human foresight and strength can little avail, find themselves
day after day protected by an unseen influence, and ever and anon
snatched from the jaws of destruction by a power which is not of this
world, who can at all estimate the knowledge of one’s weakness and
littleness, and the firm reliance and trust upon the goodness of the
Creator which the human heart is capable of feeling.”
When seeking to determine what they were to do to extricate themselves
from their difficulties, he says, “He then strengthened his mind by
reading a few chapters in the Bible, and walked on.”
Those who have read of Sir J. Franklin’s early explorations down the
Copper-mine River, and his return with his party, will see how this
party, in the midst of ice and snow and starvation, were supported
by religion, the Bible being the staff of their strength, and that
they were the objects of God’s care, buoyed them up under unheard-of
difficulties appalling to human nature. “What is man alone in creation
without God?”
They are very expert in throwing the spear, at which they constantly
practise. They have a game at ball, which gives occasion for much
wrestling and activity; besides this, they have wrestling matches for
bunches of feathers.
There are many kinds of corroborees. All have the song and the dance;
both are at times very libidinous, especially the dance of the women.
The war dances are conducted by some hundreds of men in a measured
tramp, and in a very excited state of mind. They make up their song
out of some incident or circumstance they may have seen. The effect
is very imposing: the men in a state of nudity; their bodies striped
in white, and their heads fancifully adorned; the fires lighting up
the night and casting their glare around the forest; the stately trees
spreading their shadows; the women seated and drumming rude music from
tight-rolled skins. The activity of the dancers and the strange noises,
sounds, and imitating calls altogether present a wild, unearthly, and
apparently demoniacal scene. A resident on the Macleay River gives
the following sketch of this ceremony:—“From the repugnance which the
blacks at the Macleay displayed on my looking at their performance, and
their angry refusal to allow me to see the main part of the ceremony,
I am unable to give a regular account of it, having only been able to
obtain occasional glimpses. After many preliminary grotesque mummeries
had been performed, the doctors or priests of the tribe took each a
boy, and held him for some time with his head downwards near the fire.
Afterwards, with great solemnity, they were invested with the opossum
belt; and at considerable intervals, between each presentation, they
were given the nulla-nulla, the boomerang, the spear, &c. Whilst these
arms were being conferred upon them the other natives performed a sham
fight, and pretended to hunt the pademelon, spear fish, and imitate
various other occupations, in which the weapons, lately presented
to the youth, would be of service. As their ceremonies occupied a
fortnight or more before they were concluded, many other ridiculous
scenes were undoubtedly enacted, and during all this time the women did
not dare to approach the performers. Each man was also provided with
a singular instrument, formed with a piece of hollowed wood fastened
to a long piece of flax string; by whirling this rapidly round their
heads a loud shrill noise was produced, and the blacks seemed to attach
a great degree of mystic importance to the sound of this instrument,
for they told me that if a woman heard it she would die. The conclusion
of this ceremony was a grand dance of a peculiar character, in which
the boys join, and which the women are allowed to see. This dance is
performed with much more solemnity than the ordinary corroborees. The
Yarra-hapinni tribe, which I saw execute this dance near the Clybucca
Creek, were so elaborately painted with white for the occasion that
even their very toes and fingers were carefully and regularly coloured
with concentric rings, whilst their hair was drawn up in a close knot,
and stuck all over with the snowy down of the white cockatoo, which
gave them the appearance of being decorated with white wings. In this
dance the performers arranged themselves in the form of a semicircle,
and grasping the ends of their boomerangs, which are also painted with
great minuteness and regularity, they swayed their bodies rapidly from
right to left, displaying a degree of flexibility in their limbs which
might have created the envy of many a pantomimic artist. Each movement
of their bodies to and fro was accompanied by a loud hiss, whilst a
number of other natives, similarly painted, beat time with sticks, and
kept up an incessant and obstreperous song. Every now and then the
dancers would stop and rush, crowding together into a circle, raising
their weapons with outstretched arms, and joining with frantic energy
in the song. They would then be more composed, and walk backwards and
forwards in couples, holding each other by the hand, until again roused
by an elderly native to resume the dance. It was not until midnight
that the noise ceased, which, every evening whilst the ceremonies
lasted, might be heard at a distance of two or three miles.”
The spear is the chief weapon, and is thrown by help of a
throwing-stick (woomera), by which an increased leverage is obtained.
Some of them are barbed, and deadly in their effect. The shafts of some
are of heavy wood, others of reed.
The shields with which they defend themselves are of either bark
or wood, and the dexterity with which they ward off the spears is
astonishing. I have seen in a case of punishment, when the criminal
had to stand all alone and to defend himself from the shower of spears
cast at him, that he stood perfectly self-possessed. On these occasions
perhaps a hundred or more natives are assembled. The criminal stands at
a certain distance until a given number of spears have been cast at him.
The boomerang is another weapon of very singular formation. It is a
crooked blade, very like the blade of a steamer’s screw, and much on
that principle. It is cast by the hand, and gyrates through the air,
and can be so thrown as to return to the feet of the thrower; or in a
longer flight, dancing along the ground. It is particularly hard to
guard against, from the curvature of its motion. It is used for killing
birds on the wing, and can be thrown to a distance of 150 yards. The
late Sir Thomas Mitchell fashioned a propeller for a steam-boat on this
principle.
Their manufactures are few. Their canoes are miserable vessels, made
out of a sheet of bark tied up at the ends. But having no great lakes
to cross, like in America, nor any very dangerous rivers, they answer
the purpose of ferrying two or three persons over at a time, if great
care be exercised.
The late Admiral King describes the natives as having canoes 18 feet
long, capable of containing eight persons in some instances, made out
of trees; while the natives on the coast capture dugong, from which the
celebrated oil is procured. Some of these fish weigh from 12 lbs. to 14
lbs.; they live on marine plants.
There is certainly some indication here of a higher order of natives
than those generally dispersed to the south. Probably they were at one
time higher in civilization than at present.
They make baskets and mats from the bark of the mallee tree, and the
latter also from sea-weed, which sometimes serves the purpose of a bed.
But their cloaks, made of opossum skins, prepared and sewn together
with sinews, form comfortable, and warm garments. They likewise dress
other skins—of the kangaroo and native cat, sewing them together with
the sinews of the kangaroo’s tail. Their stone axes are merely stones
ground down to an edge and fastened to a handle by gum and thread, and
require the exercise of much patience in cutting through wood, &c.
The name given to the river Bogan is probably a corruption of Bungan.
One of the early explorers maintains that the name of the Bogan was
Bungan-Gallo. The course of the river is less circuitous than that of
the Macquarie, and the rate of the current averages about 4 miles per
hour.
Of the many aboriginal tribes mentioned in the narratives of the old
explorers, not one can be said to exist, and the numerous wandering
remnants are dying off. The few gins and blackfellows that I saw at the
stations are very useful to the settlers, but in most cases the blacks
come and go when they please. Sir Thomas Mitchell mentions three great
tribes: 1. The Bultje, composed of many intelligent natives. This tribe
numbered about 120 in 1835. Their hunting grounds were around the head
waters of the Bogan. The local peculiarity of this tribe was that one,
or in some cases two, of the front teeth of the males were extracted
on their arriving at the age of fourteen. 2. The Myall tribe, who
inhabited the central parts about Cudduldry, at the great bend of the
Bogan to the northward. These natives had many curious customs. Some
of the young men were gaily dressed with feathers, and were apparently
formed into some sort of society or association, as they were all
called by one name, “Talambe,” and great interest was taken in them by
the other members of the tribe. What their chief or leader’s name was,
or what were their purposes, were never mentioned, nor by any accident
did any solution of the secret transpire. These natives did not extract
the front teeth. 3. The Bungan tribe, inhabiting the Bogan between
Cambelego and Mount Hopeless. They were less subtle and dissimulating
than the Myalls. 4 and 5. Two tribes lower down the Bogan, the haunts
of one being eastward of New Year’s Range, and those of the other to
the north of the Pink Hills. Both these tribes were described as being
inoffensive, and of a friendly disposition. They were terrified at
the sight of cattle, and still more afraid of sheep. The principal
food of these various tribes consisted of opossum, kangaroo, and emu.
Fishing, which was left entirely to the gins, was effectually yet
simply performed by a moveable dam of long, twisted dry grass, through
which water only could pass. This being pushed from one end of the
pond or water-hole to the other, all the fish were necessarily driven
before it and captured. The gins further used to gather fresh-water
mussels (which abound in the mud of these holes), by lifting the shells
out of the mud with their toes. A small plant with a yellow flower,
called Tao by the natives, was pointed out to me. It grows in the
grassy places near the river, and on its root the young children used
chiefly to subsist. About as soon as they could walk, they were taught
to pick about the ground for these roots, and to dig out the larvæ of
ant-hills. Wild honey would appear to have been also plentiful.
Adding a few notices from Mr. Eyre’s journal, and Captain Sturt’s also,
and Sir Thomas Mitchell’s exploration:—Mr. Eyre describes the food of
the natives to be often the wild fruits of the forest. Although there
is in New Holland very little of what can be called fruit, yet Mr.
Eyre speaks of a kind of plum or gooseberry which grows in the sand
near Spencer’s Gulf, which is acid and pleasant to eat, and on which
the natives live for some time. Also, a description of wild grape has
been found by the explorers. Sir Thomas Mitchell used to say all these
fruits wanted was to be “fattened.”
Their powers as mimics are described by Sturt—in one instance equal to
if not outrivalling Liston in his best days.
I have already shown the superstition of the natives, which is proved
by another remarkable case mentioned by Robert Austin:—The party shot
a red kangaroo. The native ranger became much excited, and begged he
might not be asked to eat of it, “For look,” said he, “its head is
truly that of a dog with the ears of a cow. Saw you ever a kangaroo
so fat, or meat that smelt so strange. No, sir, this creature is not
natural; it must be a magician of evil. Glad I am that one of my tribe
has killed one of this odious race. My father and mother never ate one.
Let the northern women eat if they like, but I must be a great fool to
put a strange devil down my throat, to give me the stomach-ache.”
Sir George Grey describes their huts in the rain, which gave not
only some idea of shelter, but even of comfort. They afforded a very
favorable specimen of the taste of the gins, whose business it is
generally to construct the huts. The village of bowers also occupied
more space than the encampments of the natives in general. The choice
of a shady spot seemed to have been an object, and to have been
selected with care. Here then we have, at considerable distances,
natives erecting huts and living in something like communities. Can
these be of the same origin as the general population, or has the
circumstance that fruits and food may be found sufficient for support
in these localities induced the aborigines to lead a more settled life?
Mitchell says they found a tree with a fruit resembling a small russet
apple, skin rough, the pulp a rich crimson, and covering a large stone;
an agreeable acid. So in Grey’s case, the natives seem to have stored
certain nuts. These grow in some part of the northern territory,
affording food for the natives for several months. They seem to have
some idea of measuring time, for they pointed out to Mitchell’s party
that white man (evidently Sturt’s party) had passed there, pointing to
the sun, six annual revolutions.