Part 4 (2/2)

The words of the songs were usually co solely by his profession, and even sold his effusions to other tribes As there was no written language the purchaser would simply be coached orally by the vendor poet; and as the blacks were gifted with most s throughout vast stretches of country These nificent stature, and possessed great personal strength They were able to walk extraordinary distances, and their carriage was the raceful I have ever seen Many of theh, well ether a very different race from the inhabitants of Central Australia One of their favourite tests of strength was to take a short stick of very hard wood and bend it in their hands, using the thue to say, I failed to bend the stick more than a quarter of an inch The woraceful in their bearing and gait as the men Poor creatures! they did all the hard work of the ca

Occasionally, however, the , and they would also organise _battues_ when a big supply of food anted These great hunting-parties, by the ere arranged on an iely in them The usual routine was to set fire to the bush, and then as the terrified animals and reptiles rushed out in thousands into the open, each party of blacks speared every living thing that came its ithin a certain sphere The roar of the fast-spreading fire, the thousands of kangaroos, opossuuanas, and birds that dashed hither and thither, to the acco shouts from the men and shrill screeches fro hither and thither like eerie witches amidst the dense pall of black smoke--all these made up a picture which is indelibly iles are to be seen flying over the black man's camp, but on the occasion of a bush fire they follow its train, well knowing that they will obtain prey in abundance With regard to the fishi+ng parties, these went out either early in the , when it was quite dark On the latter occasions, the h in the air with one hand, while they waded out into the water with their spears poised, in readiness to i fish they came across

When the spear fish would be hurled on to the beach to the patient wo nets of grass slung over their backs Sometimes a hundredblazing torches, and the effect as the fishered and splashed this way and that, with shouts of triuined than described In the daytime a rather different oon would be staked out at loater in the shape of an inverted V, an opening being left for the fish to pass through

The high tide brought the fish in vast shoals, and then the opening would be closed When the tide receded, the staked enclosure beca fish, big and little The natives then waded into the inclosure, and leisurely despatched the fish with their spears

Nothing wasthan to watch one of these children of the bush stalking a kangaroo The , and he would stealthily follow the kangaroo's track for miles (the tracks were absolutely invisible to the uninitiated) Should at length the kangaroo sniff a tainted wind, or be startled by an incautious id as a bronze figure, and he could remain in this position for hours Finally, ithin thirty or forty yards of the ani these people I never knew a man to miss his aim

Two distinct kinds of spears were used by the natives, one for hunting and the other for war purposes The forht to ten feet, whilst the latter varied froth; the blade in each case, however, consisting either of bone or stone, with a shaft of soht hard wood Metals were, of course, perfectly unknown as workable materials The war-spear was not hurled javelin-fashi+on like the hunting-spear, but propelled by , perhaps twenty-four inches long, with a hook at one end to fix on the shaft of the spear In ca spears andtheir weapons They hacked a tree down and split it into long sections by et suitable wood for their spear-shafts

To catch erass at a spot overlooking the water-hole frequented by these birds, and they were then speared as they caest eh, whilst the biggest kangaroo I came across was even taller than this Snakes were always killed with sticks, whilst birds were brought doith the wonderful boo

As a rule, only sufficient food was obtained to last fro _battues_ I have described there would be food in abundance for a week orand one long continuous _corroboree_, until supplies gave out

The sport which I ht to have ht a harpoon with me in the boat, and thisI had The natives would occasionally put their hands on my tomahawk or harpoon, and never ceased to wonder why the , accompanied by Yamba (she was ever with me), the blacks invariably came down in crowds to watch the operation froong, when I had so reat store of dried provisions against the time when I should be ready to start for civilisation in hs, in which I conductedonly a few yards away It was built quite in European fashi+on, with a sloping roof

The interior was perhaps twenty feet square and ten feet high, with a s When we had captured a dugong the blacks would co our craft ashore, delighted at the prospect of a great feast

The only part of the dugong I preserved was the belly, which I cut up into strips and dried

The blacks never allowed their fires to go out, and whenever they round, the wo fire-sticks, hich they can kindle a blaze in a few minutes Very rarely, indeed, did the woether, for this would entail a cruel and severe punish state for days All that the woloas to whirl it round in the air The wives bore ill-usage with the most extraordinary equanie blow They would remain meek and motionless under a shower of brutal blows from a thick stick, and would then walk quietly away and treat their bleeding wounds with a kind of earth No ht be treated by their husbands, they hated sympathy, so their women friends always left them alone It often surprised me how quickly the blacks'

most terrible wounds healed; and yet they were only treated with a kind of clay and leaves of the wild rose

I am here reminded of the native doctor This functionary was called a _rui_, and he effected most of his cures with a little shell, hich he rubbed assiduously upon the affected part Thus it will be seen that thedone first in a doard direction and then crosswise I must say, however, that the blacks were very rarely troubled with illness, their orging when a particularly a _battue_ over a tribal preserve

In an ordinary case of overfeeding, the our as often to draw blood He would also give the sufferer a kind of grass to eat, and this herb, besides clearing the system, also acted as a most marvellous appetiser The capacity of soiant I have in aroo by himself I saw hi anih for three or four stalwart men

In a case of fever the natives resorted to charms to drive away the evil spirit that was supposed to be troubling the patient The universal superstition about all maladies is that they are caused by the ”evil eye,” directed against the sufferer by some enemy Should one member of a tribe be stricken doith a disease, his friends at once come to the conclusion that he has been ”pointed at” by a e; he has, in short, been bewitched, and an expedition is proanised to seek out and punish the individual in question and all his tribe From this it is obvious that war is of pretty frequent occurrence And not only so, but every death is likewise the signal for a tribal war There is no verdict of ”Death froanised in the event of slight fevers or even serious illness--only when the patient dies A tribe I once caue of what I now feel sure must have been sht down froh nuainst any particular tribe As a rule, the body of the dead brave is placed upon a platfored below Then, as decay set in, and the body began to crumble away, the friends and chiefs would coive information as to what tribe or individual had caused the death of the deceased

Iton Yae Gulf, that I witnessed -men had died in our camp, and after the usual observations had been taken, it was decided that he had been pointed at, and his death brought about, by asome distance away An expedition of some hundreds of warriors was at once fitted out The enemy was apparently only too ready for the fray, because the armies promptlythe extraordinary e war One of the most redoubtable of our chiefs stepped forward, and explained the reason of his people's visit in co chief replied to hi on a crescendo scale for ten or fifteen minutes These two then retired, and another couple of champion abusers stepped forward to ”discuss” thewent on for a considerable ti description, and directed ans of the enemy's body (heart, liver, &c), his ancestors, ”his ox, his ass, and everything that was his” At length, when every conceivable thing had been said that it was possible to say, the warriors drew near, and at last sonal for real action, and in a few y or tactics of any kind, every le-handed

But to return to the battle I was describing After a very fewthe enemy were utterly routed, and promptly turned tail and fled fro behind them--after all the uproar and the flood of vilification--only three of their warriors, and these not dead, but only iven nor expected in these battles, the three prostrate blacks were prorace_ being given with a waddy, or knobbed stick The three bodies were then placed on litters rass, and in due time carried into our own cae as co that I _knew_ a cannibal feast was about to take place But for obvious reasons I did not protest against it, nor did I take any notice whatever The women (who do all the real work) fell on their knees, and with their fingers scraped three long trenches in the sand, each about seven feet long and three deep Into each of these ovens was placed one of the bodies of the fallen warriors, and then the trench was filled up--firstly with stones, and then with sand On top of all a huge fire was built, and reat fierceness for about two hours There was great rejoicing during this period of cooking, and apparentlythe triuiven, and the ovens laid open once more I looked in and saw that the bodies were very much burnt The skin was cracked in places and liquid fat was issuing forthBut, perhaps, the less said about this horrible spectacle the better With a yell, several warriors leaped into each trench and stuck spears through the big ”joints” And the moment the roasted carcasses were taken out of the trenches the whole tribe literally fell upon the or an ar for their portion of the fearsome dainty

Others, ere considered to have taken more than their share, were likewise fallen upon and their ”joint” subdivided and hacked to pieces with knives h, so that the condition of soy, hastly, orspectacle it is ireat _corroboree_ was held after the feast, but, with , I crept toinferno I had just been compelled to witness

But let us leave so fearful a subject and consider so