The appearance of the aborigines in the different parts of the
continent—My pack-horse in danger—Tracks of the _boongary_
(tree-kangaroo)—Bower-birds—The blacks in rainy weather—Making
fire in the scrubs—A messenger from the civilised world—The
relations of the various tribes—Tattooing.
The natural conditions varying in different parts of Australia, a fact
not to be wondered at in so large a continent, the natives also vary in
physical and mental development. Mr. B. Smyth is of opinion that the
natives in the different parts of the country are as unlike each other
in physical structure and colour of skin as the inhabitants of England,
Germany, France, and Italy. The following description applies mainly to
the natives on the Herbert river.
The southern part of Australia is, both as regards natural condition and
climate, so unlike the tropical north that the mode of life of the
natives is materially modified. Thus in the south-eastern part the
natives live mainly on animal food, while in the tropical north they
subsist chiefly on vegetables. This has no slight influence on their
physical development. Those that live near bodies of water, and have an
opportunity of securing fish in addition to game and other animal food,
are more vigorous physically than those who have to be satisfied with
snakes, lizards, and indigestible vegetables—the latter affording but
little nourishment. I found the strongest and healthiest blacks in the
interior of Queensland, on Diamantina river, where even the women are
tall and muscular. According to trustworthy reports the same is true of
the natives on Boulya and Georgina rivers, farther west. In the coast
districts of Queensland they seem to me to be smaller of stature and to
have more slender limbs. It is, however, asserted by other writers that
the most powerful natives are to be found on the coast.
[Illustration:
ͨPAULI.K.A.
A WOMAN FROM MARYBOROUGH, CENTRAL QUEENSLAND.
]
Farther south in Australia the climate is cool, and hence the natives
have to protect themselves with blankets made of opossum skin, things
not needed in the northern part of the continent, where they roam about
naked both winter and summer. Upon the whole the struggle for existence
is more severe in the south, but as a compensation the natives there
attain a higher intellectual development.
The natives in one part of Australia have words for numbers up to four
or five, while in other parts they have no terms beyond three. The
natives along Herbert river have very crude and confused religious
notions, but it is claimed that even an idea of the Trinity, strikingly
like that of the Christian religion, has been discovered among tribes in
the south-eastern part of the continent; idolatry exists nowhere in
Australia. The blacks in the north-western part of the continent are
praised for their honesty and industry, and are employed by the
colonists in all kinds of work at the stations. In the rest of Australia
the natives are treacherous and indolent.
According to the investigations of Dr. Topinard there are two different
types of men among the natives of Australia. Those of the lower type are
small and black, have curly hair, weak muscles, and prominent
cheek-bones. The higher type, on the other hand, are taller, have smooth
hair, and a less dolichocephalous form of head. This also agrees with
the reports of travellers; at all events, there is no doubt that the
tribes of Northern Queensland are inferior to those found in the
southern part of the continent, and a theory has been presented that the
higher race living mainly in the southern part of Australia has been a
race of conquerors who have subjugated the weaker and driven them to the
north.
In New South Wales the average size of the tribes is tolerably high, and
equals that of Europeans (5 ft. 2 in. to 5 ft. 6 in.) At Murrumbidgee
the natives are of medium height. Round Lake Torrens they attain,
according to Stuart, a height of only 3 ft. 8 in., while the average
height in the interior is 5 ft. 11 in. During my sojourn on the
Diamantina river I heard of a black at Mullagan (twenty-five miles west
of Georgina) who was about 7 ft. high. He was well known at the stations
out there, and died just before my arrival. In the coast districts along
the eastern side of Queensland they are small, while along Herbert river
their size was surprisingly irregular; few of them could be called
corpulent, a large number were in good condition and well formed though
their necks were somewhat short, while others were lean and slender.
The most characteristic feature of an Australian’s face is the low
receding forehead and the prominence of the part immediately above the
eyes. The latter might indicate keen perception, and in this they are
not lacking. Their eyes are expressive, dark brown, frequently with a
tinge of deep blue. The white of the eye is of a dirty yellow colour and
very much bloodshot, which gives them a savage look. The nose is flat
and triangular, and narrow at the top, thus bringing the eyes near
together. The partition between the two nostrils is very large and
conspicuous. Many of the natives pierce it and put a yellow stick into
it as an ornament. My men, who of course had neither pockets nor
pipe-cases, frequently put their pipes into these holes in their noses
as a convenient place to keep them, and fancied that their noses looked
all the better for it. Now and then I met men whose noses were almost
Roman, and there were all the transitional forms between these and the
flat triangular noses. I have also heard of high aquiline noses among
the natives of New South Wales. I think it probable that the large noses
sometimes found in Northern Queensland may be attributed to a mixture
with Papuans, whose noses are known to be their pride. The irregular
size of their bodies is evidence in the same direction.
The Australian aborigines have high cheek-bones and large, open,
ugly-looking mouths. But the blacks on Herbert river usually keep their
mouths shut, which improves their looks, and they are, upon the whole, a
better looking race than the natives in the south. Their lips are a
reddish-blue, and they have small receding chins. Their muscular
development is usually slight and their legs and arms are particularly
slender; still I have seen many exceptions to this rule. The women are
always knock-kneed, and this is often the case with the men, although
with them it is not nearly so marked, their legs being almost straight.
They are seldom bow-legged to any great extent. The feet, which as a
rule are large, leave footprints that are either straight or show the
toes slightly turned outward. They have great skill in seizing spears
and similar objects with their toes, and in this way they avoid stooping
to pick up things.
[Illustration:
ͨPAULI.K.A.
A YOUNG GIRL FROM MARYBOROUGH, CENTRAL QUEENSLAND.
]
Though the natives are slender, they have a remarkable control over
their bodies. They bear themselves as if conscious that they are the
lords of creation, and one might envy them the dignity and ease of their
movements. The women carry themselves in a dignified manner, and do not
look so savage as the men.
The hair and beard, which are as black as pitch, are slightly curly, but
not woolly, like those of the African negro. I seldom saw straight hair
on the blacks near Herbert river (I should say not over five per cent
had straight hair), but it is quite common in the rest of Australia,
especially in the interior. Men and women wear hair of the same length.
I only once saw a man with his hair standing out in all directions, like
that of the Papuans. There is generally little hair on the rest of the
body. Some of the old men near Herbert river had a heavy growth of hair
on their breasts and partly on their backs and arms, a fact I have never
observed among the women. The natives along Herbert river had but little
beard, and they constantly pulled out what little they had. In the rest
of Australia men are frequently met with who have fine beards, but they
do not themselves regard the beard as an ornament. In New South Wales
even women are found with a heavy growth of beard. The hair and beard of
the Australian are not coarse, and would be bright and beautiful if he
were more cleanly. On Balonne river in Queensland there is a family (not
a tribe) of persons who are perfectly hairless. Old individuals
sometimes have snow-white hair, but, so far as I know, albinos have
never been discovered in Australia.
The natives of Australia are called blacks, but as a rule they are
chocolate brown; this colour is particularly conspicuous when they are
under water while bathing. Their complexion manifestly changes with
their emotions; they turn pale from fear—that is to say, the skin
assumes a grayish colour. I have even seen young persons, whose skin is
thin and transparent, blush. Infants are a light yellow or brown, but at
the age of two years they have already assumed the hue of their parents.
[Illustration:
AN OLD MAN FROM HERBERT RIVER.
]
The race must be characterised as ugly-looking, though the expression of
the countenance is not, as a rule, disagreeable, especially when their
attention is awakened. Occasionally handsome individuals may be found,
particularly among the men, who as a rule are better shaped than the
women. The latter have more slender limbs; the abdomen is prominent, and
they have hanging breasts, mainly the result of hard work, unhealthy
vegetable food, and early marriage. I have on two occasions seen what
might be called beauties among the women of Western Queensland. Their
hands were small, their feet neat and well shaped, with so high an
instep that one asked oneself involuntarily where in the world they had
acquired this aristocratic mark of beauty. Their figure was above
criticism, and their skin, as is usually the case among the young women,
was as soft as velvet. When these black daughters of Eve smiled and
showed their beautiful white teeth, and when their eyes peeped
coquettishly from beneath the curly hair which hung in quite the modern
fashion down over their foreheads, it is not difficult to understand
that even here women are not quite deprived of that influence ascribed
by Goethe to the fair sex generally. On the Herbert river I never saw a
beautiful girl, but about seventy miles west from there, on the
table-land, I met a young woman who had a good figure and a remarkably
symmetrical face, beautiful eyes, and a well-shaped nose, the lower part
of which was narrower than is usual, and consequently the triangular
form was less conspicuous. I must confess, however, that I have never
seen uglier specimens of human beings than the old women are as they sit
crouching round the fire scratching their lean limbs. They have hardly
any muscles left. Their abdomen is large, the skin wrinkled, the hair
gray and thin, and the face most repulsive, especially as the eyes are
hardly visible. The women fade early, and on account of the hard life
they live do not attain the age of the men, the latter living a little
more than fifty years. It has been thought that the men in some parts of
the interior of Queensland attain an age of even seventy to eighty
years, but in the northernmost part of the country few are said to live
more than forty years. On Herbert river the women are more numerous than
the men; this is also the case among the tribes south-west of the
Carpentarian Gulf and elsewhere. But according to accurate observations
the opposite is the case in a large part of Australia. The women bear
their first children at the age of eighteen to twenty years, sometimes
later, and seldom have more than three or four. Twins are very rare.
[Illustration:
A GROUP OF NATIVES FROM HERBERT RIVER.
]
The birth of a child does not seem to give the mother much trouble. She
goes a short distance from the camp, together with an old woman, and
when the interesting event has taken place and the child has been washed
in the brook, she returns as if nothing had happened, and no one takes
the slightest notice of the occurrence. For a long time afterwards she
must keep away from her husband. A woman is proud of being with child,
and I am able to state as a curiosity that the tribes around the
Carpentarian Gulf think they are able to predict the sex of the babe a
few months before birth by counting the number of rings on the _papillæ
mammæ_ of the mother.
On account of the unhealthy food of the blacks the children are weaned
late, and it even happens that a child is nursed at its mother’s breast
with the next older brother or sister.
Instances of death from childbearing are very rare. The advent of a baby
is not always regarded with favour, and infanticide is therefore common
in Australia, especially when there is a scarcity of food, as under such
circumstances they even eat the child. In their nomadic life children
are a burden to them, and the men particularly do not like to see the
women, who work hard and procure much food, troubled with many children.
In some parts of Australia the _papillæ mammæ_ are cut off to hinder the
women from nursing children.
[Illustration:
A YOUNG BOY FROM HERBERT RIVER, SHOWING ORNAMENTAL SCARS.
]
The strong smell of the blacks is quite different from that of an
unclean white man. Nor can it be doubted that the blacks have a peculiar
smell which disturbs cattle, dogs, and horses when they approach the
natives, even if the latter are not seen; this, no doubt, has frequently
saved the lives of travellers. This strong odour, moreover, is mixed
with the smell of dirt, smoke, paint, and other things with which they
constantly smear themselves.
The voice of the Australian is melodious, though sometimes hoarse, and
gives evidence of musical propensity. Both men and women have a high
tone of voice; bass and falsetto voices are rare.
The natives are as fond of decorating their bodies as a sailor is, but
they do it clumsily with a sharp stone or a clam-shell, with which
primitive instruments they cut parallel lines across the breast and
stomach. To keep the wounds from healing they put charcoal or ashes in
them for a month or two until they swell up into rough ridges. Sometimes
they gain the same result by letting ants walk about in the wounds. The
shoulders are cut in the same manner, with lines running down three or
four inches, making them look as if they had epaulets. In course of time
these peculiar lines, which in young men are conspicuous and as thick as
one’s little finger, become indistinct, so that on old men they are
scarcely visible. They always indicate a certain rank, determined by
age. Young boys below a certain age are not decorated, but in course of
time they get a few lines across the breast and stomach. Gradually the
number of lines is increased, and at last when the lad is full grown,
crescents are cut round the papillæ of the breast, the horns of the
crescent turning outward, thus: ·) (·. This external evidence that the
boy is of age is given to him with certain ceremonies, and the strips of
skin, which gradually fall off from the wounds as they heal, are
gathered in a little basket, which he subsequently carries for some time
about his neck until he finally throws its contents out in the
woods—gives it to the “devil” as it is called. This is the only trace of
a cult that I observed among the blacks of Herbert river, and they
doubtless regard it as a sort of sacrifice to avert the wrath of evil
spirits. From this time the young man is permitted to eat whatever he
pleases, but previously he has been obliged to abstain from certain
things, such as eels, large lizards, etc. The transition from boyhood to
manhood is not here, as it is in many other parts of Australia, marked
by the extraction of one of the front teeth.[9]
Footnote 9:
A gentleman well known to me told me the following about the
Rockhampton blacks: I one day made two or three of those buzzing
things, formed by cutting notches in a thin piece of wood with a hole
at one end, through which a piece of string is tied; this instrument
is whirled quickly round and round one’s head, producing a great
noise. I gave these to some black children near my station to play
with; directly the noise began the women covered their heads at the
command of their men; some of the blacks bolted into the scrub, while
two ran up and seized the things from the boys, whom they sent off to
the camp. They then told me that in old times these boys would have
been killed for seeing those things, which were used only at their
“Bora” (transition from boyhood to manhood) ceremonies. I told them
that such pieces of wood were common playthings in my country,
nevertheless they burnt them in the scrub shortly after.
[Illustration:
SMALL BASKET CARRIED ABOUT THE NECK, HERBERT RIVER.
]
In addition to these marks of dignity, a man also gets other lines,
which are intended as an ornament and are found chiefly on the arms.
They are straight, short, parallel lines made in groups across the arm,
and the wounds are permitted to heal, so that the lines do not become
too prominent. A deep cut here and there is also made on the back or on
the shoulder-blade. I never saw the face ornamented by incisions.
The men alone receive the above-described marks of dignity on their
chests, stomachs, and shoulders. It is their privilege to be decorated
with lines and marks cut in the flesh, and it is not considered proper
for women to pay much attention to ornaments. The greatest ornament that
a woman ever has is a few clumsy marks across the chest (frequently
across the breasts), arms, and back. She is very fond of the ornaments
granted her, and the sensitiveness which usually characterises the
natives is entirely wanting when they are about to be adorned in this
way. I once saw two women engaged in cutting marks on each other’s arms
with a piece of glass. These marks consisted of short parallel lines
down the arms like those worn by the men, but the operation did not seem
to give them the least pain, for they smoked their pipes the whole time.
Tattooing in the strictest sense of the word—that is, pricking the skin
with a sharp instrument—does not exist among the Australians, but only
the above-described custom of cutting wounds in the flesh.
* * * * *
On the same morning that the borboby ended I started on my new
expedition, taking this opportunity of securing companions, there being
so many blacks assembled. In addition to those who accompanied me on my
first expedition I secured three new men. We were to go to another
“land,” where yarri and boongary were abundant. Tired from the exertions
of the previous day, and consequently more lazy than usual, the blacks
repeatedly urged me to encamp, although we had travelled only a few
miles. We ascended along a mountain stream and passed on our way one of
the deserted camps of the blacks, where Pickle-bottle was determined to
stop. I called his attention to the fact that the “sun was yet large”
(still early in the day), and that neither yarri nor boongary were to be
found here; but he replied that there were plenty of them in this
locality, and that this was a good place to eat.
He, of course, sulked when I did not yield to his lazy desires, still he
continued the march, leading my pack-horse, as he was the most civilised
and was best acquainted with the country. Instead of proceeding up the
eastern mountain slope, which seemed to be most accessible, he guided us
along the foaming stream, of which the bed became more contracted and
the banks more steep as we advanced. Still I depended upon Pickle-bottle
as our guide, until the path at length became so narrow that progress
was impossible. I now understood that he wanted to force me to submit to
his will and get me to encamp in the place which he had proposed. I had
no other choice but to return by the same way as we had come, until we
could find a convenient place for the ascent. With great difficulty the
horses were turned, but being angry on account of the delay, I now led
the way myself and gave the blacks orders to follow me.
Now and then I looked back to assure myself that I had them all near me.
But to my great surprise I discovered at a turn of the way Pickle-bottle
and the pack-horse high up the slope, not far from the place where our
progress had been blocked. When he saw that I was determined to advance,
he wanted to save part of the road, and had resolved to climb with the
horse straight over the high and steep precipice. He believed, like most
of the blacks, that a horse can go wherever a man can pass. He was just
at the point of bringing the horse over the summit—its forefeet were
already planted on the top—when it lost its foothold and its balance
among the loose stones, and came rolling slowly down the steep slope
like a heavy sack of flour. Greatly excited, I expected every moment
that it would stop. But it rolled on and on until it came to the edge of
the river, where it fortunately stopped.
Pickle-bottle and the other blacks vanished. When they saw that I was
becoming angry they were afraid that I would shoot them, so they hid in
the scrubs. Calling to them in a friendly tone of voice, I at once began
to loosen the pack from the fallen horse. They cautiously peeped at me
from behind the trees to see in what mood I was, then they took courage
and came out. I now found to my great satisfaction and surprise that the
horse, barring a few unimportant scratches, was not injured and had not
broken a bone. When we had raised him on to his feet again and washed
him in the river, he shook himself, snorted, and seemed to feel as well
as ever after his unsuccessful effort to climb the mountain.
We continued the journey, and Pickle-bottle was henceforth less
obstinate. “No tobacco to-day, Pickle-bottle,” I said to him, a threat
which made him very thoughtful. He now easily found the right ascent,
and for an hour or two we followed the paths of the blacks up the
ridges. The scrubs were very dense on all sides, and the mountains came
closer and closer together, until suddenly the landscape expanded into a
broad, high valley with grassy plains in the bottom surrounded by
scrub-clad hills. Here we encamped on the bank of the river. There was
plenty of grass for the horses, for the soil was fertile and the ground
had never been used for pasture.
This camp was made the starting-point of many excursions into the
surrounding scrubs. One day the blacks showed me traces of boongary on
the trunk of a tree. I was now certain of the existence of the animal,
and resolved not to give up till I had a specimen in my possession. I
did not realise how many annoyances were in store for me, and that I was
to wander about for three months before I should succeed in securing it.
The traces were old, but still so distinct as to be unmistakable.
On one of these excursions on the top of the mountain I heard in the
dense scrubs the loud and unceasing voice of a bird. I carefully
approached it as it sat on the ground, and shot it. It was one of the
bower-birds already mentioned (_Scenopæus dentirostris_), with a gray
and very modest plumage, and of the size of a thrush.
As I picked up the bird my attention was drawn to a fresh covering of
green leaves on the black soil. This was the bird’s place of amusement,
which beneath the dense scrubs formed a square about one yard each way,
the ground having been cleared of leaves and rubbish. On this neatly
cleared spot the bird had laid large fresh leaves, one by the side of
the other, with considerable regularity, and close by he sat singing,
apparently extremely happy over his work. As soon as the leaves decay
they are replaced by new ones. On this excursion I saw three such places
of amusement, all near one another, and all had fresh leaves from the
same kind of trees, while a large heap of dry withered leaves was lying
close by. It seems that the bird scrapes away the mould every time it
changes the leaves, so as to have a dark background, against which the
green leaves make a better appearance. Can any one doubt that this bird
has the sense of beauty?
The bird was quite common. Later on I frequently found it on the summit
of the Coast Mountains in the large scrubs, which it never abandons. The
natives call _gramma_—that is, the thief—because it steals the leaves
which it uses to play with.
During the summer there is much rain in the mountains. You are never
sure of dry weather, and nearly every night it pours. One day we were
overtaken by a heavy shower. The mountain brook grew fast into a
torrent, down which we waded to get home, preferring this road to the
scrubs, which in rain are impassable and dripping wet and dark.
The natives, who under such circumstances are much more susceptible than
Europeans, do not like this sort of weather. When it rained I could
never persuade them to accompany me, and they have such a dread of rain
that in the wet season they prefer to starve for several days rather
than leave their huts in quest of food. They shrugged their shoulders,
and shivering with cold, hastened down the brook so fast that I could
scarcely keep up with them. On the way we found a place where the
mountain formed a shelter, and here the blacks soon discovered with
their keen sight that a fire could be built, and so they halted. I could
not understand where they would find dry faggots, as everything was
dripping wet. It did not take long, however, before the shivering
fellows found handfuls of dry rubbish from hollow trees and bundles of
leaves from the lawyer-palm. A little fire was soon blazing, and the
natives crept round it like kittens, wafting the smoke on to themselves
with their hands in order to get warm more quickly.
[Illustration:
MAKING FIRE.
]
When my men had to make a fire, I usually gave them matches, which they
were so delighted to use that they always asked for them to light their
pipes with, even when a large fire was burning. They called them
_mardshe_, after the English “matches,” a word which I gradually taught
them. As a rule, they produce fire with two pieces of light wood from
eight to fifteen inches long, either cork-tree (_Erythrina vespertilio_)
or black fig. One piece, which is half of a split branch, is laid on the
ground with the flat side up, the other, a round straight stick, is
placed perpendicularly on the former, and is twirled rapidly between the
hands, so that it is bored into the lower piece, the wood of which is
usually of a softer kind. After a few seconds they begin to smoke, and
soon there fall out of the bore-hole red-hot sparks which kindle the dry
leaves laid around. The man assists by blowing at the sparks. Twigs and
branches, which are now quickly collected, are not broken in the manner
usual with us—across the knees—but always across their hard skull, the
bone of which is so thick that they can easily break branches one and a
half to two inches in diameter. The natives usually carry with them the
two pieces of wood for kindling fire as long as they are serviceable. I
tried to use them, but succeeded only in producing smoke.
Whenever the Australians rest they build a fire, though it be ever so
warm, and at all times of the day, partly for comfort, partly in order
to roast the provisions which they may have found. On short expeditions
they usually make the women carry a fire-brand with them, finding this
more convenient than to use the apparatus above described. They always
have fire in front of their huts, but usually a small one, no doubt to
avoid attracting the attention of hostile tribes.
As we were encamped round the fire I, feeling icy cold in my wet
clothes, could not help envying the naked blacks who, independent of
garments, became warm and goodhumoured in a few minutes. But in a short
time they were as cold as ever, for we had to proceed on our journey in
the ceaseless rain. Now and then they exclaimed with a sigh, _Takolgŏro
ngipa!_—that is, Poor me!—and we had to halt, so that they might warm
themselves again, and soon they were once more merry and happy.
The rain had ceased when, late in the evening, we returned to our camp.
The natives were hungry, and were determined to hinder me from taking my
usual bath, striking their stomachs impatiently, and crying, _Ammeri!
ammeri!_—that is, Hungry! hungry! I threatened them with my revolver, as
I did not wish to be cheated out of my only pleasure for the day, so
they became quiet, and I took a refreshing bath in the clear water of a
mountain brook.
I always began the day before sunrise, and after making the necessary
preparations for the excursion, I rambled about with the blacks all day
long, frequently without eating. Marching through the dense scrubs is
very exhausting, the hot climate makes one weak, and it requires much
effort to maintain one’s good humour and courage and at the same time to
stimulate the indolent natives to do their work. Add to this that it is
constantly necessary to be on one’s guard against attacks, and it will
be evident that I needed a few moments’ respite; and in order to
preserve my health and vigour I availed myself of the opportunity of
taking a bath in the nearest pond or brook.
After refreshing myself in this manner I had to be cook both for myself
and my greedy companions. Fortunately I did not that evening have to
prepare the animals I had shot, for the weather was so cool after the
rain that they would keep overnight.
On the way home to Herbert Vale we passed the forests of gum-trees which
clothe the base of the mountain range. Here is the favourite resort of
the bees, and my blacks at once began to look for their hives, for honey
is a highly valued food of the natives, and is eaten in great
quantities. Strange to say, they refuse the larvæ, however hungry they
may be. The wax is used as a glue in the making of various implements,
and also serves as a pomade for dressing the hair for their dances and
festivals. The Australian bee is not so large as our house-fly, and
deposits its honey in hollow trees, the hives sometimes being high up.
While passing through the woods the blacks, whose eyes are very keen,
can discover the little bees in the clear air as the latter are flying
thirty yards high to and from the little hole which leads into their
storehouse. When the natives ramble about in the woods they continually
pay attention to the bees, and when I met blacks in the forests they
were as a rule gazing up in the trees. Although my eyesight, according
to the statement of an oculist, is twice as keen as that of a normal
eye, it was usually impossible for me to discover the bees, even after
the blacks had indicated to me where they were. The blacks also have a
great advantage over the white man, owing to the fact that the sun does
not dazzle their eyes to so great an extent. One day I discovered a
small swarm about four yards up from the ground, and thereby greatly
astonished my men. One expressed his joy by rolling in the grass, the
others shouted aloud their surprise that a white man could find honey.
It is an amusing sight to observe the natives gathering honey. One of
them will climb the tree and cut a hole large enough to put his arm
through, whereupon he takes out one piece after another of the
honeycombs, and as a rule does not neglect to put a morsel or two of the
sweet food into his mouth. He drops the pieces down to his comrades, who
stand below and catch them in their hands. At the same time the bees
swarm round him like a black cloud, but without annoying him to any
great extent, for these bees do not sting, they only bite a little.
Most of the honey is consumed on the spot, but part of it is taken to
the camp, being transported in baskets specially made for this purpose.
These baskets are of the same form as the other baskets made by the
natives, but more solid and smaller in size; they are made of bark, so
closely joined with wax that they will hold water. Sometimes the honey
is carried a short distance on a piece of bark, a border of fine chewed
grass being laid round the edges in order to keep it from running off.
Sometimes also a palm leaf is used, which is folded and tied at both
ends, so that it looks like a trough. It is the same kind of trough as
the natives use for carrying water, and can be made in a few minutes.
In almost every hive some old honey is to be found which has fermented
and become sour, because these bees, which have only rudimentary stings,
are not in possession of any poison to preserve it with. It must also be
noted as a remarkable fact that this honey yielded by the poisonless
bees never quite agreed with me; it used to give me, nay even the
natives, diarrhœa, while on the other hand I can enjoy any quantity of
European honey with perfect comfort. The old honey, which the bees do
not eat themselves, looks like soft yellow cheese, and the civilised
blacks call it old-man-sugar-bag. The blacks do not reject it, but mix
it with fresh honey and water in the troughs just described. Fresh honey
is also sometimes mixed with water.
This mixture of honey and water is not drunk, as one would suppose, but
is consumed in a peculiar manner. The blacks take a little fine grass
and chew it, thus making a tuft which they dip in the trough and from
which they suck the honey as from a sponge. While they eat they sit
crouching round the trough, and as each one tries to get as much as
possible, the contents quickly disappear. Where spoons are wanting this
would seem a natural and practical invention, and is surely calculated
to secure an equitable division of the honey, as in this way it is
difficult for any one person to get more than his share. After the meal
the tufts are placed in the basket, where they are carried as long as
they are fit for use.
The Australian wild honey, which is of a dark brown colour, is hardly
equal to the best European. Its aroma is too pungent, and its flavour is
not so delicate. In the trunks of the trees it keeps cool even when the
weather is very hot, and supplies a healthy, pleasant food; but I could
not, like the natives, make a meal of it. I soon grew tired of it,
although it now and then formed an agreeable change in my simple bill of
fare, and was to some extent a substitute for sugar. In the large scrubs
we never found honey.
When I reached Herbert Vale the mail had just arrived. It was a real
festival when the postman, twice a month, passed the station and brought
us news from the outside world. He was in the habit of spending the
night here on his way up to the table-land, where there were some
stations. Armed with a revolver or a rifle, a postman must often ride
300 miles to deliver the mail.
Sometimes in an evening the Kanaka and I would sit together at the
hearth and listen to the postman’s stories and news from the civilised
world. He was a man of varied experience, and a fine specimen of the
so-called rough men, who are not, however, always so repulsive as the
name would imply. The horse was not to be found that he could not ride;
or, as he expressed himself, “I can ride any beast that has got hair
on.” He was a reckless fellow, utterly indifferent, always cool and
self-possessed, and he shrank from nothing. He cared not what he ate so
that he got food, and whether it rained or shone was a matter of supreme
indifference to him.
Born in Victoria, he had been obliged to leave that colony on account of
some of his youthful exploits, and had come to these uncivilised regions
of the north, but ere long his admiration for the fair sex was
transferred to the sable beauties of the forest, and for this very
reason he had accepted employment in these wilds of the blacks. Upon the
whole he was a good-natured fellow, and a type of the working class
among the white men of Australia. They are reliable, correct in their
habits, and attentive to their duties, open-handed, but reckless and
unrestrained in their associations. “I care for nobody, and nobody cares
for me” is their motto.
At the station I met another “rough man,” less chivalrous than the
postman, and his revolver rested less firmly in his belt. He had
encamped close by, and expected to make money by catching living
cassowary young for the zoological gardens. He also looked for a kind of
palm, which he claimed would make splendid billiard cues. Supplied with
tobacco and coloured handkerchiefs as a means of paying the blacks, he
made a number of fruitless excursions.
I happened to tell him that I had been present at a borboby, and this
aroused his desire to witness the next one, which was to take place in a
few days. He did not want me to be the only white man who had seen such
a contest, and got the Kanaka to show him the way up there. But both
were obliged to save their lives by flight, the blacks having surrounded
them, shouting, _Talgȏro, talgȏro!_—that is, Human flesh, human flesh!
Willy, one of the blacks who sometimes came to the station, had noticed
that I had both meat and tobacco, and one day expressed a desire to
accompany me. He said, “Go with me to my land, and you shall get both
yarri and boongary.” Willy’s land is not far from Herbert Vale, and his
mountain tribe was on friendly terms with many of the blacks of Herbert
river; but still, being a border tribe, it was on an unfriendly footing
with others. As I was fairly well acquainted with Willy, and had some
confidence in him, I resolved to visit this region which he praised in
such high terms.