Part 16 (1/2)

This extraordinary portrait was finally daubed and decorated with brilliant pig splashes of yellow, red, and blue I also used a kind of vivid red dye obtained from the sap of a certain creeper which was bruised between heavy stones I spent perhaps a week or a fortnight on this drawing (I could not give all day to it, of course); and the only persons who knew of its existence were reat portrait, I went away, and waited i blacks were again before reat British Queen to show theht, they trooped after reat picture on the rocks It is no exaggeration to say that the crowd of cannibals stood and squatted in front of my handiwork simply speechless with amazement Eventually they burst out into cries of wonderuttural sounds with their lips, and shs in token of their appreciation I pointed out every detail--the ireat Queen, and the various e back fro ”God save the Queen,” the beautiful national hymn of Great Britain, which I had learned froirls, and which, you will reeneral effect not ht have been created with regard to reat ruler; it more than re-established me inthereater number of persons than was represented in the whole tribe before me Furthermore, I assured thee (judged by their standard), the house of Queen Victoria was big enough to hold a whole nation of blacks

In order to give you soe, Isatisfied hat I had done to vindicate the great Sovereign whose special aive yet another demonstration which should impress even those ere inclined to cavil--if any such existed I pointed out that whilst the Queen, great and powerful and beloved ruler though she was, could not lead her warriors into battle in person, yet she was represented in war time by her eldest son, as a most redoubtable warrior and spear-thrower, and acted on behalf of his illustrious mother on all occasions when she could not appear But as mention of the Prince of Wales called for a demonstration of _his_ personality also, I determined to make another experiment in portraiture,--this ti co in plastic clay, that put this idea into , which, propped up in the ground, served as thebranches for the arure with blocks of clay; and at length, after, perhaps, three or four weeks' industrious hness which ht The body and limbs were of abnormal developust , but hardly edifying This statue I ”unveiled” at another of ed by its effect, it was even a greater success than the colossal portrait of the Queen A side the Prince of Wales's statue, but, unfortunately, he went to pieces in a day or then the fierce sun beat down upon the clay, and cracked it This gradual disintegration of the great ruler's deputy vastly amused the blacks, and I eventually had to hasten the Prince's end, lest their nity

You will hardly be surprised when I tell you that the blacks looked to e, wonder-worker, and arbitrator Often they would pick up one ofit, they would ask for one like it

Take, for example, the reed flutes which, when played by me, were such a source of joy to the blacks and their children Well, I was soon called upon toreeds; but these instruments only had two holes in them at first, as the blacks could not play thereat drawback to these flutes was that the reed dried very quickly and became useless for musical purposes; so I was kept pretty busy, more especially as I did not want to create jealousy by refusing soh the immediate country in which I established etation, the adjoining ranges were in striking contrast to it; ed and slaty and painfully difficult to traverse on foot There were, however, uiled the ti

Once I ca and thick that it only broke under considerable pressure froer The spider itself was fully two inches or three inches long, and had for, too, I found extre Of course, the inland blacks have a very differentfrom that adopted by the coast tribes Often the inland people would build a fire on the banks of the lagoon, and throw so into the water to attract the fish to the surface When the fish rose they would prohed asThe blacks themselves never inquired how the fish cah for the The usual fish-hooks were of bone; and although I experiold and copper I found the run, reverted to articles of native manufacture In a certain lis, I discovered some extraordinary caves ater- holes, in which blind fish existed They certainly had indications of eyes, but these were hidden beneath a kind of per In any case they would have had no use for eyes, because the water-holes were situated in the most profound darkness In other caves I discovered quantities of extraordinary aniin

If I have omitted to mention Bruno in connection with every incident related in these pages, it must not be supposed that my faithful companion did not play an important part in my daily life

He was alithold, and the natives around me were by no means so keen to possess hione by

All kinds of extraordinary incidents befell me whilst on the ”walk-about” Many a tie One most complete deception befellover a stretch of low, sandy country Suddenly I fancied I descried the boundless ocean in the distance, and with my usual impetuosity rushed frantically forward in the firm belief that at last we had reached the coast Yae, but I would not stay to listen, and ust and returned to s me to another and perhaps still more extraordinary illusion One day whilst Yaions of sand-hills and spinifex which are the despair of the Australian explorer, I suddenly saw in the distance what I was certain was _a flock of sheep_ There they were apparently--scores of the calmly in a depression in a fertile patch where most probably water existed

In an instant the old desire to return to civilisation, which I had thought buried long ago, reasserted itself, and I dashed forward at full speed yelling back to Yamba, ”Sheep, sheep--where sheep are, ot near enough for the creatures to notice ust and disappointh into the air, and _a flock of ee birds had had their heads down feeding, and not unnaturally, in the distance, I had mistaken theed droughts are of very common occurrence in Central Australia, and are ines--particularly those of the reht I myself experienced whilst in my mountain hooon in front of ht practically inexhaustible, dried up, with theresults Just think--never a drop of rain falling for over three long years, with a scorching sun darting down its rays al this terrible period the only moisture the parched earth received was in the forht Even these, however, only benefited the vegetation where any continued to exist, and did not contribute in the slightest degree to the natural water supply so necessary for the sustenance of human and aniaroos and snakes; emus and cockatoos; lizards and rats--all lay about either dead or dying; and in the case of anier to fear their natural eneradually smaller, I felt that unless I took some steps to ensure a more permanent supply, my people h, they looked tofor them, and provide soht which even they had ever experienced Al the drying up of all the better-knoater-holes all round the country, and I was at length obliged to invite all and sundry to use s beca that I decided to sink a well

Choosing a likely spot near the foot of a precipitous hill, I set to ith only Ya the best results, I erected a crude kind of windlass, and fitted it with a green- hide rope and a bucketimplements consisted solely of a home-made wooden spade and a stone pick Ya the bucket and disposing of the gravel which I sent to the surface, with the dexterity of a practised navvy What with the heat, the scarcity of water, and the fact that not one of the natives could be relied upon to do an hour's work, it was a terribly slow and wearying business; but Yaedly day after day

At the end of a week I had sunk a narrow shaft to a depth of twelve or fourteen feet, and then to my infinite satisfaction saw every indication that water was to be found a little lower down In the course of the folloeek I hit upon a spring, and then I felt amply rewarded for all the trouble I had taken Even when the lagoon was perfectly dry, and only its parched sandy bed to be seen, the supply from our little well continued undi the whole of the drought I even ventured to provide the distressed birds and ani their insupportable thirst A few yards froh, which I kept filled ater; and each day it was visited by the most extraordinary flocks of birds of every size and variety of plu-birds

Huge snakes, ten and fifteen feet long, bustled the kangaroos away froh; and occasionally the croould be so excessive that some of the poor creatures would have to wait hours before their thirst was satisfied,--and even die on the outer fringe of the waiting throng I re and unprecedented one, for there was I doingaway the birds and ani skins full of water to those who had fallen down from exhaustion, and were in a fair way to die As a rule, the creatures took no notice whatever of me, but seemed to realise in some instinctive way that I was their benefactor Of course I had to cover over the top of the well itself, otherwise it would have been sier animals and birds

But, itthat walked and flew and craater ater was so precious? A ht will furnish the answer If I suffered all the animals, birds, and reptiles to die, I myself would be without food, and then my last state would be considerably worse than the first

I think the snakes were the rateful creatures of all Sometih itself, and so prevent the birds fro of this kind had happened, because of the frightful screeching and general uproar set up by the indignant birds--that is to say, such as had the power to screech left I would hurry to the spot and drag out the cause of the trouble with a forked stick I never killed hih of his kind dead on every side The very trees and grass died; and in this originated another almost equally terrible peril--the bush fires, of whichabout snakes, one day I had a narrow escape frorateful reptiles A nuh, and I was in the very act of angrily re round, instinctively leaping sideways as I did so, and there, rearing itself high in the air, was an enor Yamba, without a moment's hesitation, aimed a treht was productive of all kinds of curious and rereat flocks to the drinking-trough, and soone that they fell dead only a few yards froe birds, and s, and even articles of clothing When this terrible visitation was at its height Yaravely one night she said, ”You have often told me of the Great Spirit whorant all prayers Can you not appeal to Him now to send us water?” It was a little bit aard for me, but as I had often chatted to my wife about the Deity, and told her of His ooodness to estion Accordingly she and I knelt down together one night in our dwelling, and offered up an earnest prayer to God that He would send water to the afflicted country Next ht Incredible though it ht had been mere dry watercourses for an untold nu with the much-needed water, and ere saved all further anxiety, at any rate for the time There may be, however, some scientific explanation of this extraordinary occurrence

No sooner had we recovered froe than the rain came--such rain! and the tremendous tropical downpour lasted for several weeks The country soon reverted to so like its noruished, and evenabout bush fires, we often saw the madly and sublimely in the mountains They would burn for weeks at a stretch, and devastate hundreds of miles of country For ourselves, ays prepared for such e bare a certain stretch of country in a perfect circle around us Often ere almost choked by the intense heat which the wind occasionally wafted to us, and which, co sun and scarcity of water, rendered life positively intolerable

I noish to say a feords about Bruno--a few last sorroords--because at this period he was growing feeble, and, indeed, had never been the sa use of his sagacity to impress the blacks My usual custom was to hide some article (such as my tomahawk), near the house in Bruno's presence, and then start off on a traone a few miles I would suddenly call a halt, and pretend toThen I would order Bruno to go back and fetch it, with acious brute always understood what I wanted him to do, and in the course of perhaps an hour or two he would co adulation of my black companions with the utot as required of him e encountered a new tribe of blacks He would always look to me for his cue, and when he saw h his little repertoire, barking and tuy

His quaint little ways had so endeared hi to hi, sandy desert, both he and I suffered terribly from the hot, loose sand which poured between our toes and caused us great suffering