LEAVING BRISBANE.--THE REGIONS AROUND THE CITY.--QUEENSLAND SCRUB
AND FOREST LAND.--FRUITS AND GARDEN PRODUCE.--TROUBLES OF THE
EARLY SETTLERS.--IPSWICH AND ITS COAL-MINES.--WINE-MAKING
IN AUSTRALIA.--CHARACTER OF AUSTRALIAN WINES.--THE LABOR
QUESTION.--POLYNESIAN AND CHINESE LABORERS.--POPULATION OF
QUEENSLAND.--NATIVES AND ABORIGINES.--PECULIARITIES OF THE BLACK
RACE.--CATTLE-TRACKERS AND THEIR ABILITIES.--HOW THE ABORIGINALS
LIVE.--THEIR HOMES, WEAPONS, AND MODE OF LIFE.--AUSTRALIAN MYTHS AND
SUPERSTITIONS.--CURIOUS THEORIES OF RESURRECTION.--SMOKE AND FIRE
SIGNALS.--HOW A WANDERING WHITE MAN SAVED HIS LIFE.--RELIGIOUS
IDEAS.--HOW THE EEL MADE THE FROG LAUGH.--THE BUN-YIP AND HIS WONDERFUL
ATTRIBUTES.
[Illustration: A RELIC OF OLD COLONIAL TIMES.]
The sights of Brisbane were soon exhausted, and our friends arranged to
make a journey to the interior, in spite of the efforts of hospitable
residents to detain them for several days in the capital. The trio
agreed that nowhere else in the world was there a more hospitable
population than in Australia, and in no other country was the stranger
made more heartily welcome. They had already recorded this impression,
and it was renewed at every place they visited during their journey
through the continent. Frank thought that the name of Australia Felix,
which was originally applied to the Port Phillip district, should be
given to the entire country, in view of the general amiability of the
inhabitants and their courtesy to strangers.
Doctor Bronson and his nephews desired to make a study of "bush life,"
and an excellent opportunity was offered in an invitation to spend as
long a time as they chose at an interior station in Queensland. Rising
at an early hour one day, they took the train of the Southern & Western
Railway at 5.40 A.M., and rode straight through to Roma, three hundred
and seventeen miles, which they reached at ten o'clock at night. The
railway continues to Morven, one hundred and ten miles distant, and from
that point it will be extended in the near future--at least such is the
promise--two or three hundred miles farther. The original scheme was to
carry it to Point Parker, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, a distance of one
thousand miles from Brisbane; but in consequence of the great expense of
the undertaking, the completion of the line has been indefinitely
postponed.
The railways of Queensland are on the special narrow-gauge principle,
the rails being only three feet six inches apart. The gauge of New South
Wales is four feet eight and a half inches, and that of Victoria five
feet three inches. In South Australia the Port, North, and Southern
lines, are of five feet three inches gauge, and other lines are three
feet six inches or like the Queensland railways. For sparsely settled
regions the narrow gauge has been found serviceable and economical, and
thus far there has been no occasion for express trains at a high rate of
speed. As on many of the smaller lines of the United States and other
countries, the so-called "express" trains stop at all stations, and are
not famous for their rapid progress.
The country through which our friends travelled was not unlike that
between Newcastle and Brisbane, as already described. For some distance
the railway lay along the valley of the Brisbane River, which contains
some excellent farming country, with fine stretches of woodland and
occasional swamps. The dividing range of mountains filled the western
horizon, and the labored puffing of the locomotive at frequent intervals
told that the grade was an ascending one. In the immediate vicinity of
Brisbane the land is of poor quality, except in the neighborhood of the
streams, and in the early days of the colony a great many settlers were
ruined by attempting to establish farms where the soil was not suitable.
But in spite of these early discouragements the capabilities of the
region have been developed by the perseverance of the settlers; at
present the visitor to the district around Brisbane will see prosperous
farms, vineyards, orchards, and gardens, though he will still find a
great deal of land that is practically unoccupied.
[Illustration: AMONG THE FOOT-HILLS.]
At a station a few miles out from the city the train halted for several
minutes, and gave Frank and Fred an opportunity to glance at one of
these suburban farms. The house of the owner was embowered in vineyards,
and close by was a field or plantation of pineapples, which grow here in
great profusion, and are of delicious quality. Frank asked the name of a
vine that had crept over the roof of the house and almost concealed it
from sight; he learned that it was known as the passion-fruit, and was a
native plant, producing a very pleasant tart fruit, which unfortunately
was not then in season. There was a garden at one side of the house, and
in it were all the vegetables of an English garden, including several
kinds of melons, besides ginger, arrow-root, sweet-potatoes, and other
tropical and semi-tropical productions. Farther back was an extensive
field of sugar-cane, which was flanked on one side by a field of oats,
and on the other by rows upon rows of luxuriant maize, or Indian corn.
[Illustration: PICKING FIGS.]
"This is a wonderful region," said a gentleman who accompanied our
friends, as the train moved on. "Probably there is no other place in the
world where the products of the tropics and temperate zones grow so well
together, and certainly there is none where they grow any better.
Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, and other northern fruits are side by
side with the lemon, orange, citron, pomegranate, fig, and guava. It
took us a long while to find out exactly what was wanted, and during
that time living was very dear in Brisbane. Now the city has a plentiful
supply of fruit at very low prices, coming from the numerous gardens in
its vicinity. Irrigate the soil abundantly, and it will produce almost
anything in the world that you want. We send great numbers of pineapples
and bananas to Sydney and Melbourne, and also to the higher country west
of us.
"You already know," he continued, "that Australia is a land of
contradictions, when considered from the stand-point of England or the
United States. In your country the land with the heaviest timber is the
best for agriculture after the wood is cleared away, but here it is
often just the reverse. The largest trees which cost most money to
remove are quite likely found on soil that refuses to produce grass when
the land has been cleared, or if it produces grass or grain at all it is
not enough to pay the cost of clearing. It is in this particular that so
many of the earlier settlers ruined themselves, by expending time and
money in clearing up ground that afterwards proved worthless."
[Illustration: A CLEARING IN THE SCRUB.]
In the course of the conversation that followed, the gentleman spoke
frequently of "scrub" and "forest" land, as though they were distinct
from each other. Fred politely asked what was the difference between
them.
"Scrub land," replied the gentleman, "is distinct from forest land in
several features, but particularly in that of undergrowth. Scrub in
Queensland means the low land on the banks of the rivers; it is covered
with a dense growth of trees intermingled with a denser growth of vines
and creepers, which in many places render it impossible to proceed
without cutting one's way through with a tomahawk or large knife. The
vines run to the tops of the highest trees, and frequently cross from
tree to tree, so that the whole area seems bound together with festoons
of green cordage.
"There is a genuine bit of Queensland scrub," said he, pointing to what
seemed an almost solid mass of verdure several acres in extent. "It
contains cabbage and other palms, fig-trees which tower above most of
their fellows, but are overtopped by the bunya, pine, and red cedar,
though the latter are not very numerous. An agile sailor might climb
from one side to the other of that scrub without once going to the
ground; and as for a group of monkeys or squirrels, it would be no
effort at all for them to make the journey.
[Illustration: SUBURBAN RESIDENCE ON THE RIVER'S BANK.]
"Of course we're too far off to hear any sounds there, but if you could
be under the shade of those trees you would find that the scrub is full
of life. I speak only of sunrise and sunset; at noon the place is as
quiet as a cemetery, but in the morning and evening quite the reverse.
Flocks of pigeons, cockatoos, and parrots fly around and coo and
chatter; cat-birds, bell-birds, whip-birds, laughing-jackasses, and a
host of others dart about and make the air resound with their notes; and
if you watch the ground you will quite likely get a glimpse of wild
turkeys and other birds that make their home there and shun the limbs of
the trees. Keep a sharp eye out, too, as you may come across snakes, and
some of them are poisonous."
[Illustration: GATHERING THE GRAPES.]
Fred was about to ask concerning the snakes of Australia, but their
loquacious friend did not give him a chance to do so. He pointed to the
opposite side of the train, and told the youths to observe what was
there visible.
"That shows you the difference between scrub and forest," said he; "the
forest land has heavier timber, but no underbrush; you can ride on
horseback through it, while you cannot get along on foot in the scrub
without a hatchet. I'm speaking now of the vine scrub along the coast,"
he continued; "in the interior we have myall, brigelow, mallee, and
other scrubs of a totally different character. The forest land is
monotonous; you may travel hundreds of miles through it, and find every
mile so nearly like every other one that it is very hard to see any
change. An experienced bushman knows the difference, but to a novice it
is all the same."
The train ascended the slopes of the hills leading to the Dividing
Range, having left the river at Ipswich, the head of navigation, and
twenty-three miles from Brisbane. The Dividing Range presents a
precipitous front, and great engineering skill was required to carry the
road over it, the chain being passed at an elevation of two thousand six
hundred feet. The scenery, as the range is mounted, is magnificent. The
line vies with the Union Pacific Railroad in the United States in tall,
spider-like bridges spanning fearful gorges, and in tracks passing round
the precipitous spurs of the mountains. Cuttings and tunnelling are met
with from the moment the ascent commences. The steepest gradient is one
in fifty. Notwithstanding the apparent danger attending a journey on
this portion of the line, no accident involving loss of life or serious
injury to rolling stock has occurred here since the first engine ran on
it.
Ipswich is in a mining and agricultural district, several rich seams of
coal having been opened in its neighborhood, and the country around it
being well adapted to farms. At Toowoomba, one hundred miles from
Brisbane, their guide told the youths they were at the principal town of
the rich pastoral district called the Darling Downs; the region was
discovered and settled in 1827, and named after Sir Ralph Darling, who
was then governor. Agriculture and the raising of cattle and sheep are
the principal industries, and the town bears every evidence of
prosperity.
"There are many Germans settled in this neighborhood," said Mr. Watson,
the gentleman who accompanied our friends, "and they are largely
interested in grape-growing and the manufacture of wines. Many thousand
gallons of wine are made here every year; the grapes are ripe in
January, and I have seen single bunches weighing fifteen pounds and
over."
Frank asked how the wines of Queensland and Australia in general
compared with those of other countries.
"Of course our wine-making is in its infancy," was the reply; "and thus
far our products will hardly bear favorable comparison with the wines of
Europe, where the industry has been prosecuted for centuries; but we
think they are fully equal to the wines of the United States, where the
business is only a little older than it is with us. All the colonies are
giving much attention to grape-growing; the yield is very large; but in
the last few years the vines have suffered considerably from
_phylloxera_, though fortunately all parts of the colonies have not been
affected by it.
[Illustration: CELLARS TOR STORING WINE.]
"We make so much wine, and it is so cheap and good," the gentleman
continued, "that it ought to be the drink of the people, just as in
France, Spain, Italy, and the other countries of Southern Europe. Very
little wine is used by the laboring classes; some do not drink at all,
others drink occasionally, and others daily and hourly if they have the
opportunity, but nearly all prefer spirits to wine. What makes the
matter worse is that the spirits are very bad in quality, and their
consumption leads to much wretchedness and degradation, just as in
Europe and America. Some of the working people drink beer, as in
England, and in all the cities and large towns there are extensive
breweries that do a good business.
"Competent and conscientious judges say that the ordinary Australian
wines are better than the same grades sold in Paris and other French
cities. They are the pure juice of the grape, the juice being so
abundant and cheap that it does not pay to adulterate it. In Sydney,
Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane a man can buy for threepence a glass
of as fine an ordinary wine as was ever made; it is nutritious and
wholesome, but unfortunately the great majority of the laboring classes
prefer to swallow the vile decoctions that are sold under the names of
spirits. Our capabilities in wine-making are absolutely unlimited; we
are shipping some of our products to Europe, where they take the place
of the ordinary wines of France and Spain, and quite possibly you get
many casks of them in New York and other American cities, where they are
sold as Bordeaux wines."
"There's a great deal in a name," said Doctor Bronson, "especially when
wines are to be considered. No doubt we have your Australian common
wines in America under the name of Bordeaux or Burgundy, just as we have
our own products. Thousands of casks of California wines are sold every
year on the Atlantic seaboard, but not under their own name. Offered as
California wines they would not find a market, but as Bordeaux wines
they have a ready sale."
"And I have been told," said Mr. Watson, "that the Californian, although
very enthusiastic about his own State, will not drink its wine. Am I
right?"
[Illustration: CHINESE LABORERS IN A VINEYARD.]
"According to my observation, you are," the Doctor replied. "I do not
think I ever saw a bottle of native wine on the table of a resident of
California. Hotel-keepers in San Francisco have told me that those who
order California wines at dinner are invariably strangers; a Californian
would almost consider himself disgraced if he should do so."
"Well, it is pretty much the same in Australia," said Mr. Watson. "We
are proud of our country and what it produces, but we prefer French
champagne to our own sparkling wines, and Spanish sherry to what comes
from our vineyards and wine cellars. And not altogether without reason,
I must confess, as we have not yet reached perfection with our fine
wines."
From wine-culture the conversation naturally turned to the labor
question, which Mr. Watson said was one of the perplexities of
Queensland. The climate is too hot to permit the white man to work in
the fields and other places where severe manual exertion is required,
with the exception of the elevated regions of the Darling Downs and some
other comparatively cool places. Consequently there has been a necessity
for imported labor, and in endeavoring to secure it Queensland has had a
great deal of trouble.
[Illustration: ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN.]
In previous chapters we have alluded to the Polynesian labor-trade, much
of which was carried on in the interest of the sugar-planters of
Queensland. There were many abuses in its early days, but at present the
trade is under so many restrictions that the laborers have little cause
for complaint. The natives are brought to the colony for three years;
the master is bound to give them food and lodging, thirty dollars a year
wages, and then pay their passage home in addition to the outward
passage which he has paid to the ship-master who brings the laborers
from their islands.
By the last census there were about six thousand Polynesians in
Queensland, ten thousand five hundred Chinese, and about two thousand
inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago. The Chinese, like the Polynesians,
are mostly employed in out-door work, though a considerable number of
them are utilized as house-servants, and in other domestic employments.
They go to Australia to earn a certain amount of money, and then return
home, just as they come to the United States. Of more than ten thousand
Chinese in Queensland, all but forty-nine were men; and no matter how
prosperous a Chinese may be in Australia, he rarely thinks of taking his
family there.
Frank asked what was the total population of the colony.
"Not far from three hundred and fifty thousand," was the reply. "There
is an excess of males in the population, as is always the case in a new
country, the proportions of men to women being about three to two. About
one-half the population were born in the Australian colonies, and of the
remainder fully three-fourths came from Great Britain. The colony
encourages immigration by means of assisted or free passage, grants of
land, and other inducements, and maintains constantly an agent in London
who forwards the interests of Queensland in every way in his power."
"How many natives are there in the colony?" queried Fred.
"I am afraid if I answered your question without an explanation," said
Mr. Watson, with a smile, "I should give you a wrong impression. By
natives I suppose you mean the aboriginal inhabitants of the country?"
"Certainly," replied Fred.
"In Australia, when we speak of natives," Mr. Watson answered, "we mean
white people who were born in the country, in contrast to those who have
migrated from England and other lands. When referring to the aborigines
we call them so, and we also call them 'blacks' or 'blackfellows.' At
the last census there were 148,162 natives, or whites, born in the
colonies, living in Queensland, and about 20,000 aborigines. The latter
number is an estimate only, as it is impossible to take the census of
the black population."
[Illustration: WEST COAST AUSTRALIANS.]
"If you want to see the difference between a native and an aboriginal,"
said the gentleman, "look where I am pointing."
The youths followed with their eyes the direction of his finger, and saw
a white man and a black one standing near each other, close to the
little station where the train was halted, some miles beyond Toowoomba.
The black man was in civilized garb and had a muscular frame, quite
like that of an able-bodied negro in the southern part of the United
States. His garments were coarse and rough, his hair was black and
bushy, and his chin was covered with a beard that seemed to more than
rival his hair in its swarthiness.
"The white man is probably a sheep or cattle raiser," said Mr. Watson,
"and the black is one of his assistants."
"From that I suppose the blacks are employed about the farms and
pastoral stations," Fred remarked.
"Certainly," responded Mr. Watson. "Nearly every station in Queensland
has one or two blackfellows employed on it as stock-riders, a capacity
in which they are very useful. They are good riders, and quite equal to
your American Indians in following a trail. They will track lost cattle
and sheep when a white man would be utterly unable to do so; and we have
a police force of blacks, commanded by Europeans, who perform excellent
service in hunting down highwaymen and other rascals who have taken to
the bush."
Frank asked what was the reputation of the blacks for honesty and in
other ways.
"I'm sorry to say it is not of the best," was the reply. "Like most
savages, they show great readiness for acquiring the vices of
civilization, but great reluctance for adopting its virtues. They are
adepts at lying and stealing, though they are generally faithful to
those who employ them as long as they are employed. They are like all
other savages in their fondness for intoxicating liquors, and rarely
miss an opportunity for drinking. Most of those employed about the
cattle and sheep stations do not remain there long. As soon as they
become fairly useful they demand higher wages, and in a little while
their demands are so exorbitant that they must be sent away.
"When they are out of work they take to stealing cattle, and generally
from the station where they were formerly engaged, and with which they
are familiar. Many of them loaf around the towns, doing small jobs of
work, and generally dying of drink."
"Why don't they return to their tribes?" one of the youths inquired.
"For the very simple reason that they would be put to death by their own
people. A black who has been employed by a white man is forever after an
outcast from his own tribe; at least such is the case with nearly all
the tribes I ever heard of."
Frank asked Mr. Watson if he had been among the blacks and seen them at
home. The gentleman replied in the affirmative, and then both the
youths asked him to tell more about them and their ways of living. Mr.
Watson kindly assented, and at once began his story.
[Illustration: CIVILIZED ABORIGINES.]
"At starting let me say," he remarked, "that the aborigines of Australia
are about the lowest type of the human race that can be found, with the
possible exception of the natives of Terra del Fuego. They belong
distinctively to the black race, though their hair while curly has not
the woolly crispness of that of the African negro. In the interior, away
from settlements, they go entirely naked, and when white men first came
to Australia the natives had no knowledge of the uses of clothing.
Around the settlements they have adopted civilized customs in the matter
of dress, but only upon compulsion. I have known the blacks who were
employed at a sheep-station to go naked when away from the dwelling of
their employer, and only resume their clothing on returning to the
house."
"What kind of houses do they live in when by themselves?" Frank asked.
"They had not learned to build houses until the Europeans instructed
them," was the reply, "and the wild tribes of the interior still
continue to live as they did of yore. They occasionally build rude huts
of bark by inclining two or three strips against each other in the form
of a cone, but more frequently their only protection against the weather
is a single strip of bark, or a large bough of a tree, inclined towards
the wind, and held in place by an upright stick.
"In my younger days I owned a station in a region where the blacks were
numerous, and though they occasionally stole some of my sheep and
cattle, and committed other depredations, our relations were, on the
whole, of a friendly character. I allowed them to visit my house, but
only on condition that they were properly dressed, the dress consisting
of a skin or piece of cloth around the waist. As a single garment lasted
them a long time, it was evident that they wore it only when coming to
my house, laying it aside as soon as they were out of sight. When going
into battle they paint their bodies with red earth, to give them a
hideous appearance, and if they can obtain European paints of different
colors they are especially happy; they imagine that the more hideously
they are decorated the more likely are they to be victorious in fights
with other tribes.
[Illustration: ABORIGINAL METHOD OF MAKING FIRE.]
"Like most other savage people, they obtain fire by rubbing two sticks
together; but the operation requires so much exertion that they take
great care to preserve fire when once they have obtained it. A tribe
will wander about for days and weeks carrying fire in coals carefully
protected by strips of bark; some of the old women are designated as
fire-carriers, and are generally exempt from other work. When they build
fires at night they surround them with shields of bark, so that their
locality will not be revealed by the glare of light.
"They use columns of smoke by day, and fires by night, for conveying
intelligence. They have a very good telegraphic code by columns of
smoke, which can be made to indicate warnings, the position of game,
ships or whales in sight along the coast, and various other things. They
can make smoke signals that will be understood by their own or friendly
tribes, but be unintelligible to hostile ones. In former times they used
this smoke signal occasionally to the injury of the white settlers, who
had at first no idea that the thin column of smoke rising through the
trees was a signal for the warriors to make a simultaneous attack upon
half a dozen places at once."
Fred asked what kind of weapons they used in fighting with one another
or attacking the Europeans.
"Their principal weapon for close work," said Mr. Watson, "is the waddy,
or club. It is a heavy club made of hard-wood, and has a knob at the end
of the handle for greater security of grasp. Etiquette requires that
blows with the waddy should be aimed only at the head; to strike any
other part of the body with it would not be fair. The form of the weapon
differs with different tribes, so that it is possible sometimes to learn
to what tribe a party belongs by looking at their clubs. Some tribes
have wooden swords about three feet long, which they handle very
skilfully.
[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN WARRIORS WATCHING A BOAT.]
"They are expert in throwing spears, which they launch very accurately
for distances of thirty or forty yards. Sometimes their spears are a
single piece of hard-wood tipped with bone, iron, or sharp stone; other
spears have heads of hard-wood, while the shaft is a light reed which
grows abundantly on the banks of most of the rivers of Australia. The
spears vary from six to eleven feet in length; I have seen spears
fifteen feet long, but they were intended for fishing, and not for war,
though they were often used for fighting purposes.
[Illustration: BATTLE BETWEEN HOSTILE TRIBES OF AUSTRALIANS.]
"A black in his wild state is rarely seen without a spear in his hand,
and this reminds me of one of my early experiences. I went out in the
bush one day with some of the friendly blacks, and had walked a short
distance in front of them when one of the party stopped me. He motioned
for me to step to the rear, and then said,
"'When you walk in bush along a blackfellow, you make him blackfellow
walk first time (in front).'
"When I asked what for, he replied, 'I den know. I believe debil debil
jump up; want him blackfellow spear whitefellow.' You can be sure I took
the hint, and ever afterwards allowed the blacks to take the lead.
Several times since then friendly natives have told me that when a white
man is walking in front of them there is an almost irresistible
inclination to spear him.
"They have a superstition which they express in these words:
'Blackfellow die, jump up whitefellow;' which means that when a black
man dies he reappears as a white one. In the early days of the
settlement at Sydney, the convicts who ran away into the bush were
almost certain to be killed by the blacks if they escaped death by
starvation before the blacks found them. One convict who thus escaped
wandered about for several days, and finally became so weak that he
could hardly stand. In this dilemma he took a staff which he found
sticking in a mound of earth, and used it as a support. A few hours
afterwards he fell in with a party of natives, who treated him with the
greatest respect. They fed him bountifully, and nursed him as well as
their limited means permitted, and in course of time restored him to
health and strength. Every man indicated a desire to obey him. He
remained for years with the tribe, and as soon as he had acquired enough
of their language to communicate with them, they made him understand
that he was their chief.
[Illustration: ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS AND THEIR HUTS.]
"It turned out that the mound of earth where he found the staff was the
grave of their chief, who had recently died and been buried there. The
stick which he took from the mound was the shaft of the chief's favorite
spear, which was stuck into his grave according to their custom. When he
appeared leaning on the stick, the superstitions of the natives told
them that he was their chief returned in the shape of a white man. To
this accidental circumstance he owed his life, as the tribe was in the
habit of spearing every white man who came in their way."
Fred asked what were their burial customs, and if they had any belief in
a future existence.
"The dead are buried in the spots where they die, and these places are
never inhabited again by members of the dead man's tribe, nor are they
even visited except on rare occasions or from necessity. The names of
the dead are never pronounced, and those having the same names are
obliged to change them. My partner at the sheep-station died of fever;
he had been kind to the blacks, and was evidently liked by them, but I
could never get them to listen to any reference to him after his death,
and they did not like to look at his photograph, which hung in the
house.
"They have very crude ideas on religious matters. They believe in good
and bad spirits; and some tribes have a belief in a supreme being, while
others have none. They have many myths and superstitions, and some of
these myths display a vivid imagination on the part of those who
invented them. Shall I tell you some of them?"
The youths said they would greatly like to hear some of the Australian
myths, whereupon Mr. Watson continued:
"The aboriginal theory about the creation is that Pund-jel, or Bun-jil,
created two men out of the clay of the earth, but he did not create
women. That honor was reserved for Pal-ly-yan, the son of Pund-jel, who
made a woman for each of the men. Pund-jel gave each man a spear, and
told him to kill the kangaroo with it; and to the women he gave a
digging-stick for digging roots from the ground. The men and women were
ordered to live together, and thus the world was peopled. By-and-by
people became very numerous, and then Pund-jel caused storms to arise,
and winds to blow so severely as to scatter the people over the earth,
and thus the human race was dispersed.
"The first man and woman were told not to go near a certain tree in
which a bat lived, as he was not to be disturbed. One day the woman, in
gathering firewood, went near the tree; the bat flew away, and after
that came death."
"How closely it resembles the Biblical account of the fall of man!" Fred
remarked.
"The resemblance has been noticed by writers on the subject," said Mr.
Watson, "and some believe that the tradition is not genuine. Mr. Brough
Smyth, author of an exhaustive work on the Aborigines of Victoria,
accepts it as genuine, and so do other prominent writers. I have given
some thought to the subject, and notwithstanding the similarity, I agree
with them.
"The blacks say there is a very wicked man who has a very long tail
living under the ground. He has many wives and children, and laughs at
the blacks because they have no tails. They have another tradition that
at one time there was no water anywhere on the earth, all the waters
being contained in the body of a huge frog, where men and women could
not get it. There was a grand council on the subject, and it was
ascertained that if the frog could be made to laugh, the waters would
run out of his mouth and the drought would be ended.
[Illustration: ABORIGINAL CHILDREN PLAYING IN THE WATER.]
"Several animals danced and capered before the frog to induce him to
laugh, but without success. Then the eel began to wriggle, and at that
the frog laughed outright; the waters ran from his mouth, and there was
a great flood, in which many people were drowned. The pelican took it
upon himself to save the black people. He cut an immense canoe, and went
with it among the islands which appeared here and there above the
waters, and with this canoe he saved a great many men and women."
"A distinct tradition of the flood," remarked Fred to Frank, as Mr.
Watson paused a few moments to consider what he would next say.
[Illustration: THE HAUNT OF THE BUN-YIP.]
"There is a myth about the sun that is quite interesting," Mr. Watson
continued. "They say that because the sun gives heat it needs fuel, and
when it descends below the horizon it goes down to a great depth, where
it is supplied with fuel. They have some knowledge of astronomy, and
have names for and traditions concerning the principal planets and fixed
stars. They have mythical snakes and other animals possessing
supernatural powers, and can tell you stories upon stories of the
wonderful things these creatures have done. The monster most widely
believed in is the bun-yip; he is of dreadful aspect, devours great
numbers of human beings, and altogether bears a close resemblance to the
dragons which were believed in in other parts of the world at different
times since the history of man began. He can cause death, illness,
disease, and other misfortunes, and is supposed to haunt lakes, rivers,
and water-holes all over the continent. Many natives claim to have seen
him, and a considerable number of white men confirm their accounts of
the creature."
"And do you think such an animal exists?" Frank asked, with an
expression of astonishment.
"Of course not with the attributes the blacks give him," was the reply,
"but it is quite possible that Australia possesses an amphibious animal
which we have not yet been able to examine. As described by those who
claim to have seen the bun-yip, he resembles a seal or large water-dog.
The seal abounds in Australian waters; I presume that he is the bun-yip
of the natives, and that their imaginations have supplied his wonderful
powers."