Distribution of Aboriginal tribes of Cape York and Torres Strait.
Mode of warfare illustrated.
Their social condition.
Treatment of the women.
Prevalence of infanticide.
Education of a child.
Mode of scarifying the body.
Initiation to manhood.
Their canoes, weapons, and huts.
Dress of the women.
Food of the natives.
Mode of fishing.
Capture of the turtle and dugong described.
Yams and mode of culture.
Edible roots, fruits, etc.
No recognised chieftainship.
Laws regarding property in land.
Belief in transmigration of souls.
Their traditions.
Diseases and modes of treatment.
Burial Ceremonies.
DISTRIBUTION OF TRIBES OF CAPE YORK AND TORRES STRAIT.
There are at least five distinct tribes of natives inhabiting the
neighbourhood of Cape York. The Gudang people possess the immediate
vicinity of the Cape: the Yagulles* stretch along the coast to the
southward and eastward beyond Escape River: the Katchialaigas and
Induyamos (or Yarudolaigas as the latter are sometimes called) inhabit
the country behind Cape York, but I am not acquainted with the precise
localities: lastly, the Gomokudins are located on the South-West shores
of Endeavour Strait, and extend a short distance down the Gulf of
Carpentaria. These all belong to the Australian race as unquestionably as
the aborigines of Western or South Australia, or the South-East coast of
New South Wales; they exhibit precisely the same physical characteristics
which have been elsewhere so often described as to render further
repetition unnecessary.
(*Footnote. This is the tribe concerned in the murder of the unfortunate
Kennedy. The circumstances were related by some of the Yagulles to an old
woman at Cape York of the name of Baki, who, when questioned upon the
subject through Giaom, partially corroborated the statement of
Jackey-Jackey. She further stated that a few years ago a Yagulle woman
and child had been shot by some white men in a small vessel near Albany
Island, and that the tribe were anxious to revenge their death. Whether
this was a story got up as a palliative for the murder, or not, I cannot
say.)
On the other hand, the tribes inhabiting the islands of Torres Strait
differ from those of the mainland in belonging (with the exception of the
first) to the Papuan or frizzled-haired race. Besides, probably, a few
others of which I cannot speak with certainty, these tribes are
distributed in the following manner. The Kowraregas inhabit the Prince of
Wales group: the Muralegas and Italegas divide between them Banks Island:
the Badulegas possess Mulgrave Island, and the Gumulegas the islands
between the last and New Guinea: the Kulkalegas have Mount Ernest and the
Three Sisters: The Massilegas* reside on the York Isles and others
adjacent: and the Miriam** tribe hold the north-easternmost islands of
Torres Strait, including Murray and Darnley Islands.
(*Footnote. I do not know what name is given to the tribe or tribes
inhabiting the space between the Miriam and the Kulkalaig. Dzum (a
Darnley islander) told me of a tribe called Gamle inhabiting Owrid, Uta,
Zogarid, Sirreb, Mekek, and Wurber; at all events the natives of Massid
belong to a distinct tribe, judging from their language, and are known as
the Massilegas by the Kowraregas. They occasionally (as in 1848) come
down to Cape York on a visit to the Australians there, often extending
their voyage far to the southward, visiting the various sandy islets in
search of turtle and remaining away for a month or more.)
(**Footnote. Is so named from a place in Murray Island. The possessions
of this tribe are Mer, Dowar, Wayer, Errub, Ugar, Zapker, and Edugor,
all, except the two last, permanently inhabited.
The junction between the two races, or the Papuan from the north and the
Australian from the south, is effected at Cape York by the Kowraregas,
whom I believe to be a Papuanized colony of Australians, as will
elsewhere be shown. In fact, one might hesitate whether to consider the
Kowraregas* as Papuans or Australians, so complete is the fusion of the
two races. Still the natives of the Prince of Wales Islands rank
themselves with the islanders and exhibit a degree of conscious
superiority over their neighbours on the mainland and with some show of
reason; although themselves inferior to all the other islanders, they
have at least made with them the great advance in civilisation of having
learned to cultivate the ground, a process which is practised by none of
the Australian aborigines.
(*Footnote. Dr. Latham informs me that the Kowrarega language is
undeniably Australian, and has clearly shown such to be the case: and
although the Miriam language does not show any obvious affinity with the
continental Australian dialects, yet the number of words common to it and
the Kowrarega, I find by comparison of my vocabularies to be very
considerable, and possibly, were we at all acquainted with the grammar of
the former, other and stronger affinities would appear.)
THE KOWRAREGAS.
The Kowraregas speak of New Guinea under the name of Muggi (little)
Dowdai, while to New Holland they apply the term of Kei (large) Dowdai.
Their knowledge of the former island has been acquired indirectly through
the medium of intervening tribes. The New Guinea people are said to live
chiefly on pigs and sago; from them are obtained the cassowary feathers
used in their dances, and stone-headed clubs. They trade with the
Gumulegas, who exchange commodities with the Badulegas, from whom the
Kowrarega people receive them. These last barter away to their northern
neighbours spears, throwing-sticks, and mother-of-pearl shells for bows,
arrows, bamboo pipes, and knives, and small shell ornaments called
dibi-dibi. They have friendly relations with the other islanders of
Torres Strait, but are at enmity with all the mainland tribes except the
Gudang.
MODE OF WARFARE ILLUSTRATED.
Occasionally hostilities, frequently caused by the most trivial
circumstances, arise between two neighbouring tribes, when incursions are
made into each other's territories, and reprisals follow. Although timely
notice is usually given prior to an aggression being made by one tribe
upon another, yet the most profound secrecy is afterwards practised by
the invaders. As an illustration of their mode of warfare, in which
treachery is considered meritorious in proportion to its success, and no
prisoners are made, except occasionally, when a woman is carried
off--consisting chiefly in a sudden and unexpected attack, a short
encounter, the flight of one party and the triumphant rejoicings of the
other on their return--I may state the following on the authority of
Giaom.
About the end of 1848, an old Kowrarega man went by himself in a small
canoe to the neighbourhood of Cape Cornwall, while the men of the tribe
were absent turtling at the eastern end of Endeavour Strait. He was
watched by a party of Gomokudin blacks or Yigeiles, who, guided by his
fire, surprised and speared him. Immediately returning to the mainland,
the perpetrators of this savage deed made a great fire by way of
exultation. Meanwhile the turtling party returned, and when it became
known that the old man had been missing for several days, they were
induced by his two sons to search for him, and found the body horribly
mutilated, with many spears stuck into it to show who had been the
murderers. This explained the fire, so another was lit in reply to the
challenge, and at night a party of Kowraregas in six canoes, containing
all the men and lads of the tribe, crossed over to the main. They came
upon a small camp of Yigeiles who had not been at all concerned in the
murder, and enticed one of them to come out of the thicket where he had
concealed himself by the offer of a fillet of cassowary feathers for
information regarding the real murderers. As soon as the man stepped out,
he was shot down with an arrow, his head cut off, and pursuit made after
the rest. Towards morning their second camping-place was discovered and
surrounded, when three men, one woman, and a girl were butchered. The
heads of the victims were cut off with the hupi, or bamboo knife, and
secured by the sringi, or cane loop, both of which are carried slung on
the back by the Torres Strait islanders and the New Guinea men of the
adjacent shores, when on a marauding excursion;* these Papuans preserve
the skulls of their enemies as trophies, while the Australian tribes
merely mutilate the bodies of the slain, and leave them where they fall.
(*Footnote. See Jukes' Voyage of the Fly Volume 1 page 277.)
CANNIBALISM.
The Kowraregas returned to their island with much exultation, announcing
their approach by great shouting and blowing on conchs. The heads were
placed on an oven and partially cooked, when the eyes were scooped out
and eaten with portions of flesh cut from the cheek;* only those,
however, who had been present at the murder were allowed to partake of
this; the morsel was supposed to make them more brave. A dance was then
commenced, during which the heads were kicked along the ground, and the
savage excitement of the dancers almost amounted to frenzy. The skulls
were ultimately hung up on two cross sticks near the camp, and allowed to
remain there undisturbed.
(*Footnote. The eyes and cheeks of the survivors from the wreck of a
Charles Eaton (in August 1834) were eaten by their murderers--a party
consisting of different tribes from the eastern part of Torres Strait.
See Nautical Magazine 1837 page 799.)
In the beginning of 1849 a party of Badulegas who had spent two months on
a friendly visit to the natives of Muralug treacherously killed an old
Italega woman, married to one of their hosts. Two of her brothers from
Banks Island were staying with her at the time, and one was killed, but
the other managed to escape. The heads were carried off to Badu as
trophies. This treacherous violation of the laws of hospitality was in
revenge for some petty injury which one of the Badu men received from an
Ita black several years before.
SIGNALS BY SMOKE.
When a large fire is made by one tribe it is often intended as a signal
of defiance to some neighbouring one--an invitation to fight--and may be
continued daily for weeks before hostilities commence; it is answered by
a similar one. Many other signals by smoke are in use: for example, the
presence of an enemy upon the coast--a wish to communicate with another
party at a distance--or the want of assistance--may be denoted by making
a small fire, which, as soon as it has given out a little column of
smoke, is suddenly extinguished by heaping sand upon it. If not answered
immediately it is repeated; if still unanswered, a large fire is got up
and allowed to burn until an answer is returned.
POLYGAMY.
Polygamy is practised both on the mainland and throughout the islands of
Torres Strait. Five is the greatest number of wives which I was credibly
informed had been possessed by one man--but this was an extraordinary
instance, one, two, or three, being the usual complement, leaving of
course many men who are never provided with wives. The possession of
several wives ensures to the husband a certain amount of influence in his
tribe as the owner of so much valuable property, also from the nature and
extent of his connections by marriage. In most cases females are
betrothed in infancy, according to the will of the father, and without
regard to disparity of age, thus the future husband may be and often is
an old man with several wives. When the man thinks proper he takes his
wife to live with him without any further ceremony, but before this she
has probably had promiscuous intercourse with the young men, such, if
conducted with a moderate degree of secrecy, not being considered as an
offence, although if continued after marriage it would be visited by the
husband (if powerful enough) upon both the offending parties with the
severest punishment.
Occasionally there are instances of strong mutual attachment and
courtship, when, if the damsel is not betrothed, a small present made to
the father is sufficient to procure his consent; at the Prince of Wales
Islands a knife or glass bottle are considered as a sufficient price for
the hand of a lady fair, and are the articles mostly used for that
purpose.
According to Giaom puberty in girls takes place from the tenth to the
twelfth year, but few become mothers at a very early age. When
parturition is about to take place the woman retires to a little distance
in the bush, and is attended by an experienced matron. Delivery is
usually very easy, and the mother is almost always able on the following
day to attend to her usual occupations. The infant is laid upon a small
soft mat which the mother has taken care to prepare beforehand, and which
is used for no other purpose.
CONDITION OF THE WOMEN.
The life of a married woman among the Kowrarega and Gudang blacks is a
hard one. She has to procure nearly all the food for herself and husband,
except during the turtling season, and on other occasions when the men
are astir. If she fails to return with a sufficiency of food, she is
probably severely beaten--indeed the most savage acts of cruelty are
often inflicted upon the women for the most trivial offence.
THEIR TREATMENT BY THE MEN.
Considering the degraded position assigned by the Australian savages to
their women, it is not surprising that the Prince of Wales Islanders
should, by imitating their neighbours in this respect, afford a strong
contrast to the inhabitants of Darnley and other islands of the
North-East part of Torres Strait, who always appeared to me to treat
their females with much consideration and kindness. Several instances of
this kind of barbarity came under my own notice. Piaquai
(before-mentioned) when spoken to about his wife whom he had killed a
fortnight before in a fit of passion, seemed much amused at the idea of
having got rid of her unborn child at the same time. One morning at Cape
York, Paida did not keep his appointment with me as usual; on making
inquiry, I found that he had been squabbling with one of his wives a few
minutes before, about some trifle, and had speared her through the hip
and groin. On expressing my disapproval of what he had done, adding that
white men never acted in that manner, he turned it off by jocularly
observing that although _I_ had only one wife, HE had two, and could
easily spare one of them. As a further proof of the low condition of the
women, I may state that it is upon them that the only restrictions in
eating particular sorts of food are imposed. Many kinds of fish,
including some of the best, are forbidden on the pretence of their
causing disease in women, although not injurious to the men. The
hawksbill turtle and its eggs are forbidden to women suckling, and no
female, until beyond child bearing, is permitted to eat of the Torres
Strait pigeon.
Among other pieces of etiquette to be practised after marriage among both
the Kowraregas and Gudangs, a man must carefully avoid speaking to or
even mentioning the name of his mother-in-law, and his wife acts
similarly with regard to her father-in-law. Thus the mother of a person
called Nuki--which means water--is obliged to call water by another name;
in like manner as the names of the dead are never mentioned without great
reluctance so, after the death of a man named Us, or quartz, that stone
had its name changed into nattam ure, or the thing which is a namesake,
although the original will gradually return to common use.
The population of Muralug is kept always about the same numerical
standard by the small number of births, and the occasional practice of
infanticide. Few women rear more than three children, and besides, most
of those born before marriage are doomed to be killed immediately after
birth, unless the father--which is seldom the case--is desirous of saving
the child--if not, he gives the order marama teio (throw it into the
hole) and it is buried alive accordingly. Even of other infants some,
especially females, are made away with in a similar manner when the
mother is disinclined to support it.
NAMING OF CHILDREN.
An infant is named immediately after birth: and, on Muralug, these names
for the last few years have been chosen by a very old man named Guigwi.
Many of these names have a meaning attached to them: thus, two people are
named respectively Wapada and Passei, signifying particular trees, one
woman is called Kuki, or the rainy season, and her son Ras, or the
driving cloud. Most people have several names, for instance, old Guigwi
was also called Salgai, or the firesticks, and Mrs. Thomson was addressed
as Kesagu, or Taomai, by her (adopted) relatives, but as Giaom by all
others. Children are usually suckled for about two years, but are soon
able, in a great measure, to procure their own food, especially
shellfish, and when strong enough to use the stick employed in digging up
roots, they are supposed to be able to shift for themselves.
COMPRESSION OF THE SKULL.
A peculiar form of head, which both the Kowrarega and Gudang blacks
consider as the beau ideal of beauty, is produced by artificial
compression during infancy. Pressure is made by the mother with her
hands--as I have seen practised on more than one occasion at Cape
York--one being applied to the forehead and the other to the occiput,
both of which are thereby flattened, while the skull is rendered
proportionally broader and longer than it would naturally have been.*
(*Footnote. Precisely the same form of skull as that alluded to in volume
1: hence it is not unreasonable to suppose that the latter might have
been artificially produced.)
When the child is about a fortnight old the perforation in the septum of
the nose is made by drilling it with a sharp-pointed piece of
tortoise-shell, but the raised artificial scars, regarded as personal
ornaments by the Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, are not made
until long afterwards. According to Giaom, who states that among the
Kowraregas this scarification is purely voluntary, the patient is laid
upon the ground and held there, while the incisions are made with a piece
of glass by some old man famous for his skill in performing the
operation. The chewed leaf of a certain plant (which, however, I could
not identify) is introduced into the wound to prevent the edges from
uniting, and a daub of wet clay is then placed over all, and kept there
until the necessary effect has been produced. The principal
scarifications among women at Cape York and Muralug are in the form of
long lines across the hips. Among the men, however, there is considerable
variety.
The characteristic mode of dressing the hair among the Torres Strait
Islanders is to have it twisted up into long pipe-like ringlets, and wigs
in imitation of this are also worn. Sometimes the head is shaved, leaving
a transverse crest--a practice seldom seen among the men but not uncommon
among women and children, from Darnley Island down to Cape York. At the
last place and Muralug the hair is almost always kept short--still
caprice and fashion have their sway, for at Cape York I have at times for
a week together seen all the men and lads with the hair twisted into
little strands well daubed over with red ochre and turtle fat.
RAISED CICATRICES ON THE BODY.
The Torres Strait Islanders are distinguished by a large complicated oval
scar, only slightly raised, and of neat construction. This, which I have
been told has some connection with a turtle, occupies the right shoulder,
and is occasionally repeated on the left. At Cape York, however, the
cicatrices were so varied, that I could not connect any particular style
with an individual tribe--at the same time something like uniformity was
noticed among the Katchialaigas, nearly all of whom had, in addition to
the horned breast-mark, two or three long transverse scars on the chest,
which the other tribes did not possess. In the remaining people the
variety of marking was such that it appeared fair to consider it as being
regulated more by individual caprice than by any fixed custom. Many had a
simple two-horned mark on each breast, and we sometimes saw among them a
clumsy imitation of the elaborate shoulder mark of the islanders.
INITIATION TO RIGHTS OF MANHOOD.
The custom of undergoing a certain mysterious ceremony prior to being
admitted to the privileges of manhood, supposed to be an institution
peculiar to the Australians, is found among the Kowraregas, but whether
it extends throughout Torres Strait is uncertain. This initiation is not
at Cape York and Muralug accompanied by the performance either of
circumcision or the knocking out of a tooth, as in many parts of
Australia. The boys, usually three or four in number, are chased about in
the bush during the day by some of the men decked out with feathers and
other ornaments, and at night retire to the men's camp, for, during the
whole time of their novitiate--or about a month--they must on no account
be seen by a woman; in fact, as Giaom informed me, a woman coming upon
these kernele--as they are called--no matter how accidentally, would be
immediately put to death. When all is over the lads return to their
parents, decorated with a profusion of ornaments which are worn until
they drop off, and wearing in front a small triangular piece of shell as
a distinguishing mark.
CANOES OF TORRES STRAIT.
The same kind of canoe which is found throughout Torres Strait has been
seen to extend from Cape York along the eastern coast as far south as
Fitzroy Island,* a distance of 500 miles. It essentially consists of a
hollowed-out log, a central platform, and an outrigger on each side. The
largest canoes which I have seen are those of the Murray and Darnley
Islanders, occasionally as much as sixty feet long; those of the
Australians are small, varying at Cape York between fifteen and thirty
feet in length. Even the Kowraregas have much finer canoes than their
neighbours on the mainland; one which I measured alongside the ship was
forty-five feet long and three and a half in greatest width, and could
carry with ease twenty-five people.
(*Footnote. At the latter place we found a small canoe with two
outriggers concealed on shore among some bushes. The bark canoes of
Rockingham Bay have already been described. About Whitsunday Passage the
canoes, also of bark, are larger and of neater construction: one which I
examined at the Cumberland Isles was made of three pieces of bark neatly
sewn together; it was six feet long and two and a half feet wide, sharp
at each end, with a wooden thwart near the stem and stern, and a cord
amidships to keep the sides from stretching. In the creeks and bays of
the now settled districts of New South Wales another kind of canoe was
once in general use. At Broken Bay, in August 1847, a singular couple of
aborigines whom I met upon a fishing excursion had a small canoe formed
of a single sheet of bark tied up at each end; on the floor of this they
were squatted, with the gunwale not more than six inches above the
water's edge. Yet this frail bark contained a fire, numbers of spears,
fishing lines and other gear. The woman was a character well known in
Sydney--Old Gooseberry--said to be old enough to have remembered Cook's
first visit to these shores.)
MODE OF CONSTRUCTING AND MANAGING THEM.
The construction of a canoe in the neighbourhood of Cape York is still
looked upon as a great undertaking, although the labour has been much
lessened by the introduction of iron axes, which have completely
superseded those of stone formerly in use. A tree of sufficient size free
from limbs--usually a species of Bombax (silk-cotton tree) or
Erythrina--is selected in the scrub, cut down, hollowed out where it
falls, and dragged to the beach by means of long climbers used as ropes.
The remaining requisites are now added; two stout poles, fourteen to
twenty feet in length, are laid across the gunwale, and secured there
from six to ten feet apart, and the projecting ends are secured by
lashing and wooden pegs to a long float of light wood on each side,
pointed, and slightly turned up at the ends. A platform or stage of small
sticks laid across occupies the centre of the canoe, extending on each
side, several feet beyond the gunwale, and having on the outside a sort
of double fence of upright sticks used for stowing away weapons and other
gear. The paddles are five feet long, with a narrow rounded blade, and
are very clumsily made. The cable is made of twisted climbers--often the
Flagellaria indica--and a large stone serves for an anchor.
When desirous of making sail, the first process is to set up in the bow
two poles as masts, and on the weather side a longer and stouter one is
laid across the gunwale, and projects outwards and backwards as an
outrigger. These are further supported by stays and guys, and, together
with another long pole forked at the end, serve as a frame to support the
pressure of the sails, which are usually two in number, made of matting
of pandanus leaves, and average four and a half feet in width and twelve
in height. The sails have a slender pole on each side to which the
matting is secured by small pegs; when set, they are put up on end side
by side, travelling along the backstay by means of a cane grommet. When
blowing fresh it is usual to keep a man standing on the temporary
outrigger to counteract by his weight the inclination of the canoe to
leeward. From the whole sail being placed in the bow these canoes make
much leeway, but when going free may attain a maximum speed of seven or
eight knots an hour. Except in smooth water they are very wet, and the
bailer (a melon shell) is in constant requisition.
BOWS, ARROWS, SPEARS, THROWING-STICKS AND CLUBS.
The inhabitants of the mainland and Prince of Wales Islands use the spear
and throwing-stick, but throughout the remainder of Torres Strait bows
and arrows are the chief weapons. The bows, which are large and powerful,
are made of split bamboo, and the arrows of a cane procured from New
Guinea, afterwards headed with hard wood variously pointed and sometimes
barbed. The Kowraregas obtain bows and arrows from their northern
neighbours, and occasionally use them in warfare, but prefer the spears
which are made by the blacks of the mainland. We saw three kinds of spear
at Cape York; one is merely a sharpened stick used for striking fish, the
two others, tipped and barbed with bone, are used in war. The principal
spear (kalak or alka) measures about nine feet in length, two-thirds of
which are made of she-oak or casuarina, hard and heavy, and the remaining
third of a soft and very light wood; one end has a small hollow to
receive the knob of the throwing-stick, and to the other the leg-bone of
a kangaroo six inches long, sharpened at each end, is secured in such a
manner as to furnish a sharp point to the spear and a long barb besides.
Another spear, occasionally used in fighting, has three or four heads of
wood each of which is tipped and barbed with a smaller bone than is used
for the kalak.
The throwing-stick in use at Cape York extends down the North-East coast
at least as far as Lizard Island; it differs from those in use in other
parts of Australia in having the projecting knob for fitting into the end
of the spear parallel with the plane of the stick and not at rightangles.
It is made of casuarina wood, and is generally three feet in length, an
inch and a quarter broad, and half an inch thick. At the end a double
slip of melon shell, three and a half inches long, crossing diagonally,
serves as a handle, and when used, the end rests against the palm of the
right hand, the three last fingers grasp the stick, and the forefinger
and thumb loosely retain the spear. With the aid of the powerful leverage
of the throwing-stick a spear can be thrown to a distance varying
according to its weight from 30 to 80 yards, and with considerable
precision; still, if observed coming, it may easily be avoided.
The only other weapon which I have seen in Torres Strait is a peculiar
kind of club procured from New Guinea, consisting of a quoit-like disk of
hard stone (quartz, basalt, or serpentine) with a sharp edge, and a hole
in the centre to receive one end of a long wooden handle.
The huts which the Kowraregas and Cape York people put up when the rains
commence are usually dome-shaped, four to six feet high, constructed of
an arched framework of flexible sticks, one end of each of which is stuck
firmly in the ground, and over this sheets of tea-tree (Melaleuca)
bark--and sometimes an additional thatch of grass--are placed until it is
rendered perfectly watertight.
PETTICOATS AND FISHING GEAR.
Not only at Cape York but throughout Torres Strait the males use no
clothing or covering of any kind. At Cape York and the Prince of Wales
Islands grown up females usually wear a covering in front, consisting of
a tuft of long grass, or flag (Philydrum lanuginosum) or split pandanus
leaves, either hanging loosely or passed between the legs and tied to
another behind; over this a short petticoat of fine shreds of pandanus
leaf, the ends worked into a waistband, is sometimes put on, especially
by the young girls, and when about to engage in dancing. This petticoat,
varying only in the materials from which it is made, is in general use
among the females of all the Torres Strait tribes except the Kowrarega,
and much labour is often expended upon its construction. The large mats
used as sails, also for sleeping under in wet weather, are made by the
women from the fallen leaves of the pandanus--the common basket from the
rush-like leaves of Xerotes banksii ? --and the water basket from the
sheath of the leaf of the Seaforthia palm.
The food of these blacks varies with the season of the year, and the
supply is irregular and often precarious. Shellfish and fish are alone
obtainable all the year round--collecting the former is exclusively a
female occupation, but fishing is chiefly practised by the men. Fish are
either killed with a plain pointed spear, often merely a stick sharpened
at the end, or are taken in deep water with the hook and line. Their
hooks are made of a strip of tortoise-shell so much curved as to form
three-fourths of a circle, but from their shape and the absence of a barb
they cannot be so effective as those of European make: indeed these last
were at Cape York preferred by the natives themselves. The line is neatly
made from the tough fibres of the rattan, which are first scraped to the
requisite degree of fineness with a sharp-edged Cyrena shell, then
twisted and laid up in three strands.
Turtle forms an important article of food, and four different kinds are
distinguished at Cape York and the Prince of Wales Islands. Three of
these can be identified as the Green, the Hawksbill, and the Loggerhead
species, and the fourth is a small one which I never saw. This last, I
was informed by Giaom, is fished for in the following extraordinary
manner.
MODE OF CATCHING TURTLE.
A live sucking-fish (Echeneis remora) having previously been secured by a
line passed round the tail, is thrown into the water in certain places
known to be suitable for the purpose; the fish while swimming about makes
fast by its sucker to any turtle of this small kind which it may chance
to encounter, and both are hauled in together!
The green turtle is of such consequence to the natives that they have
distinguished by a special name taken from the animal itself (sulangi
from sulur) the season of the year when it is most plentiful; this, at
Cape York, usually extends from about the middle of October until the end
of November, but the limits are not constant. During the season they are
to be seen floating about on the surface of the water, often in pairs,
male and female together. A few are caught at night on the sandy beaches,
but the greater number are captured in the water. The canoes engaged in
turtling, besides going about in the day, are often sent out on calm
moonlight nights. When a turtle is perceived, it is approached from
behind as noiselessly as possible--when within reach, a man in the bow
carrying the end of a small rope jumps out, and, getting upon the
animal's back, with a hand on each shoulder, generally contrives to turn
it before it has got far and secure it with the rope. This operation
requires considerable strength and courage, in addition to the remarkable
dexterity in diving and swimming possessed by all the blacks of the
north-east coast and Torres Strait.
LOOKOUT STATIONS FOR TURTLE.
There are some favourite lookout stations for turtle where the tide runs
strongly off a high rocky point. At many such places, distinguished by
large cairns* of stones, bones of turtle, dugongs, etc., watch is kept
during the season, and, when a turtle is perceived drifting past with the
tide, the canoe is manned and sent in chase.
(*Footnote. One of these on Albany Rock is a pile of stones, five feet
high and seven wide, mixed up with turtle and human bones, and, when I
last saw it, it was covered with long trailing shoots of Flagellaria
indica placed there by a turtling party to ensure success, as I was told,
but how, was not explained. The human bones were the remains of a man
killed there many years ago by a party of Kowraregas who took his head
away with them. The mounds described and figured in Jukes' Voyage of the
Fly (Volume 1 pages 137 and 138) and considered by us at the time to be
graves, are merely the usual cairns at a lookout place for turtle.)
With their usual improvidence, the Australians, when they take a turtle,
feast upon it until all has been consumed and the cravings of hunger
induce them to look out for another; but the Torres Strait Islanders are
accustomed to dry the flesh to supply them with food during their
voyages. The meat is cut into thin slices, boiled in a melon shell, stuck
upon skewers, and dried in the sun. Prepared in this manner it will keep
for several weeks, but requires a second cooking before being used, on
account of its hardness and toughness. The fat which rises to the surface
during the boiling is skimmed off and kept in joints of bamboo and turtle
bladders, being much prized as food; I have even seen the natives drink
it off in its hot fluid state with as much gusto as ever alderman enjoyed
his elaborately prepared turtle soup.
HAWKSBILL TURTLE.
The hawksbill turtle (Caretta imbricata) that chiefly producing the
tortoise-shell of commerce, resorts to the shores in the neighbourhood of
Cape York later in the season than the green species, and is
comparatively scarce. It is only taken at night when depositing its eggs
in the sand, as the sharpness of the margin of its shell renders it
dangerous to attempt to turn it in the water--indeed even the green
turtle, with a comparatively rounded margin to the carapace,
occasionally, in struggling to escape, inflicts deep cuts on the inner
side of the leg of its captor, of which I myself have seen an instance.
Of the tortoise-shell collected at Cape York and the Prince of Wales
Islands a small portion is converted into fishhooks, the rest is bartered
either to Europeans or to the Island blacks, who fashion it into various
ornaments.
CAPTURE OF THE DUGONG.
Another favourite article of food is the dugong (Halicore australis) of
which a few are killed every year. Although it extends along the east
coast of Australia from Moreton Bay to Cape York, it appears to be
nowhere very common. About Cape York and Endeavour Strait, the dugong is
most frequently seen during the rainy season, at which time it is said by
the natives to bring forth its young. When one is observed feeding close
inshore* chase is made after it in a canoe. One of the men standing up in
the bow is provided with a peculiar instrument used solely for the
capture of the animal in question. It consists of a slender peg of bone,
four inches long, barbed all round, and loosely slipped into the heavy,
rounded, and flattened head of a pole, fifteen to sixteen feet in length;
a long rope an inch in thickness, made of the twisted stems of some
creeping plant, is made fast to the peg at one end, while the other is
secured to the canoe. When within distance, the bowman leaps out, strikes
the dugong, and returns to the canoe with the shaft in his hand. On being
struck, the animal dives, carrying out the line, but generally rises to
the surface and dies in a few minutes, not requiring a second wound, a
circumstance surprising in the case of a cetaceous animal, six or eight
feet in length, and of proportionate bulk. The carcass is towed on shore
and rolled up the beach, when preparations are made for a grand feast.
The flesh is cut through to the ribs in thin strips, each with its share
of skin and blubber, then the tail is removed and sliced with a sharp
shell as we would a round of beef. The blubber is esteemed the most
delicate part; but even the skin is eaten, although it requires much
cooking in the oven.
(*Footnote. A slender, branchless, cylindrical, articulated seaweed, of a
very pale green colour, was pointed out to me by a native as being the
favourite food of the dugong.)
COOKING IN THE OVEN.
This oven is of simple construction--a number of stones, the size of the
fist, are laid on the ground, and a fire is continued above them until
they are sufficiently hot, the meat is then laid upon the bottom layer
with some of the heated stones above it, a rim of tea-tree bark banked up
with sand or earth is put up all round, with a quantity of bark, leaves,
or grass on top, to retain the steam, and the process of baking goes on.
This is the favourite mode of cooking turtle and dugong throughout Torres
Strait, and on the east coast of the mainland I have seen similar
fireplaces as far south as Sandy Cape.
CULTURE OF THE YAM.
A great variety of yam-like tubers are cultivated in Torres Strait.
Although on Murray and Darnley and other thickly peopled and fertile
islands a considerable extent of land in small patches has been brought
under cultivation, at the Prince of Wales Islands the cleared spots are
few in number, and of small extent--nor does the latter group naturally
produce either the coconut or bamboo, or is the culture of the banana
attempted. On the mainland again I never saw the slightest attempt at
gardening.
The principal yam, or that known by the names of kutai and ketai, is the
most important article of vegetable food, as it lasts nearly throughout
the dry season. Forming a yam garden is a very simple operation. No
fencing is required--the patch of ground is strewed with branches and
wood, which when thoroughly dry are set on fire to clear the surface--the
ground is loosely turned up with a sharpened stick, and the cut pieces of
yam are planted at irregular intervals, each with a small pole for the
plant to climb up. These operations are completed just before the
commencement of the wet season, or in the month of October.
When the rains set in the biyu becomes the principal support of the Cape
York and Muralug people. This is a grey slimy paste procured from a
species of mangrove (Candelia ?) the sprouts of which, three or four
inches long, are first made to undergo a process of baking and
steaming--a large heap being laid upon heated stones, and covered over
with bark, wet leaves, and sand--after which they are beaten between two
stones, and the pulp is scraped out fit for use. It does not seem to be a
favourite food, and is probably eaten from sheer necessity. Mixed up with
the biyu to render it more palatable they sometimes add large quantities
of a leguminous seed, the size of a chestnut, which has previously been
soaked for a night in water, and the husk removed, or the tuber of a wild
yam (Dioscorea bulbifera) cut into small pieces, and well steeped in
water to remove its bitter taste.
Among the edible fruits of Cape York I may mention the leara, a species
of Anacardium or cashew nut (the lurgala of Port Essington) which, after
being well roasted to destroy its acridity has somewhat the taste of a
filbert--the elari (a species of Wallrothia) the size of an apricot, soft
and mealy, with a nearly insipid but slightly mawkish taste--wobar, the
small, red, mealy fruit of Mimusops kaukii--and the apiga (a species of
Eugenia) a red, apple-like fruit, the pericarp of which has a pleasantly
acid taste. The fruit of two species of pandanus yields a sweet mucilage
when sucked, and imparts it to water in which it has been soaked, after
which it is broken up between two stones, and the kernels are extracted
and eaten.
NO RECOGNISED CHIEFTAINSHIP.
Throughout Australia and Torres Strait, the existence of chieftainship,
either hereditary or acquired, has in no instance of which I am aware
been clearly proved: yet in each community there are certain individuals
who exercise an influence over the others which Europeans are apt to
mistake for real authority. These so-called chiefs, are generally elderly
men, who from prowess in war, force of character, or acknowledged
sagacity, are allowed to take the lead in everything relating to the
tribe. In Torres Strait such people are generally the owners of large
canoes, and several wives; and in the northern islands, of groves of
coconut-trees, yam grounds, and other wealth. Among the Kowraregas, there
are, according to Giaom, three principal people, Manu, Piaquai, and Baki,
all old men, but among the Gudangs, a young man of twenty-five of the
name of Tumagugo appeared to have the greatest influence, and next to him
Paida, not more than six or eight years older.
LAWS REGARDING PROPERTY IN LAND.
It seems curious to find at Cape York and the Prince of Wales Islands a
recognised division and ownership of land, seeing that none of it by
cultivation has been rendered fit for the permanent support of man.
According to Giaom, there are laws regulating the ownership of every inch
of ground on Muralug and the neighbouring possessions of the Kowraregas,
and I am led to believe such is likewise the case at Cape York. Among
these laws are the following: A person has a claim upon the ground where
both himself and his parents were born, although situated in different
localities. On the death of parents their land is divided among the
children, when both sexes share alike, with this exception, that the
youngest of the family receives the largest share. Marriage does not
affect the permanency of the right of a woman to any landed property
which may have come into her possession. Lastly, an old man occasionally
so disposes of his property that a favourite child may obtain a larger
proportion than he could afterwards claim as his inheritance.
Neither at Cape York, nor in any of the Islands of Torres Strait, so far
as I am aware, do the aborigines appear to have formed an idea of the
existence of a Supreme Being; the absence of this belief may appear
questionable, but my informant, Giaom, spoke quite decidedly on this
point, having frequently made it the subject of conversation with the
Kowrarega blacks.
TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS.
The singular belief in the transmigration of souls, which is general
among the whole of the Australian tribes, so far as known, also extends
to the islands of Torres Strait. The people holding it imagine that,
immediately after death, they are changed into white people or Europeans,
and as such pass the second and final period of their existence; nor is
it any part of this creed that future rewards and punishments are
awarded. It may readily be imagined that when ignorant and superstitious
savage tribes, such as those under consideration, were first visited by
Europeans, it was natural for them to look with wonder upon beings so
strangely different from themselves, and so infinitely superior in the
powers conferred by civilisation, and to associate so much that was
wonderful with the idea of supernatural agency. At Darnley Island, the
Prince of Wales Islands, and Cape York, the word used at each place to
signify a white man, also means a ghost.* The Cape York people even went
so far as to recognise in several of our officers and others in the ship,
the ghosts of departed friends to whom they might have borne some fancied
resemblance, and, in consequence, under the new names of Tamu, Tarka,
etc. they were claimed as relations, and entitled to all the privileges
of such.
(*Footnote. Frequently when the children were teasing Giaom, they would
be gravely reproved by some elderly person telling them to leave her, as
"poor thing! she is nothing, only a ghost!" (igur! uri longa, mata
markai.))
SUPERSTITIONS.
Among many superstitions held by the Prince of Wales islanders, they are
much afraid of shooting-stars, believing them to be ghosts which in
breaking up produce young ones of their own kind. After sneezing, they
make violent gestures with the hands and arms; if a joint cracks, they
imagine that someone is speaking of them or wishing them well in the
direction in which the arm is pointing.
The only tradition which I heard of occurs among the Kowraregas, and is
worth mentioning for its singularity. The first man created was a great
giant named Adi, who, while fishing off Hammond Island, was caught by the
rising tide and drowned, Hammond Rock springing up immediately after to
mark the spot. His wives, who were watching him at the time, resolved to
drown themselves, and were changed into some dry rocks upon an adjacent
reef named after them Ipile, or the wives.
DISEASES AND MODE OF TREATMENT.
According to Giaom ague is prevalent in Muralug during the rainy season,
but is not much dreaded, as it is supposed to remove former complaints,
such as the sores prevalent among children. At Cape York I have seen
people affected with this complaint, but to what extent it occurs in that
neighbourhood I cannot state. One day some people from the ship saw our
friend Tumagugo under treatment for ague. He was laid upon the ground
while several men in succession took his head between their knees and
kneaded it with their hands. After this they placed him close to a fire
and sprinkled water over him until a copious perspiration broke out,
denoting the third and last stage of the attack. Boils on various parts
of the body, even on the head, are prevalent, especially during the rainy
season, when the food is of a poorer description than at other times.
Children are most subject to them, and I have more than once seen them so
covered with offensive sores as to be rendered most disgusting objects.
In old people callosities frequently form on the hip and elbows, the
effect, probably, of sleeping on the ground. Scarification of the
affected part is a common mode of treating local inflammatory complaints.
Ligatures are also used, as for example, one across the forehead to
remove headache. A singular mode of treating various complaints consists
in attaching one end of a string to the patient, while the other is held
in the mouth of a second person, who scarifies his own gums at the same
time until they bleed, which is supposed to indicate that the bad blood
has passed from the sick to the sound person.
FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
With regard to the curious burial ceremonies of the Kowraregas, I regret
that I cannot be so explicit as might otherwise have been the case, as
Giaom's information on this subject, and on this only, was not written
down at the time. When the head of a family dies at Muralug, the body is
laid out upon a framework of sticks raised a foot from the ground, and is
there allowed to rot. A small hut is raised close by, and the nearest
relative of the deceased lives there, supplied with food by his friends,
until the head of the corpse becomes nearly detached by the process of
putrefaction, when it is removed and handed over to the custody of the
eldest wife. She carries it about with her in a bag during her widowhood,
accompanying the party of the tribe to which she belongs from place to
place. The body, or rather the headless skeleton, is then interred in a
shallow grave over which a mound is raised ornamented by wooden posts at
the corners painted red, with sometimes shells, and other decorations
attached to them, precisely such a one as that figured in the Voyage of
the Fly, volume 1 page 149. On the occasion of our visiting the grave in
question (at Port Lihou, on Muralug) Giaom told me that we were closely
watched by a party of natives who were greatly pleased that we did not
attempt to deface the tomb; had we done so--and the temptation was great
to some of us, for several fine nautilus shells were hanging up, and some
good dugong skulls were lying upon the top--one or more of the party
would probably have been speared.