Part 23 (1/2)
THE LANGUAGE TEST
Casual investigations confire of the natives of Dunk, Hinchinbrook and the intervening isles was mutually understood Certainly there are more terms in common with Dunk Island and the southern end of Hinchinbrook--40 miles away--than with Dunk Island and the adjacent mainland In pre-white folks days amicable intercourse between the natives of the islands and of the h the islanders frequently visited one another Hence no doubt their doenerally
Literally the insular was a floating population, and derived the advantage of intercoroped di differences in language, cramped, narrow, suspicious Tribes whose country came within 2 or 3 miles of the sea never intruded on the beach, and the Beachconised limits To this day Tom will not ”walk about” inland unless he is in possession of real superiority in thein force He professes fear of the pria bush”
LAST OF THE LINE
The last King of Dunk Island--known to the whites as ”Jimmy”--was a tall, lankythe do after most of his fellows had sub-race, ”Jie, self-reliant way, deemed himself a worthy foe of the best of them Often he endeavoured to persuade his companions to join him in a policy of active resentment Once, when rehts of property, he assu upon others, took up a spear, determined if possible to rouse a revolt Few in number, the whites could not permit their authority to be questioned, and a demonstration with a rifle silenced all show of opposition ”Jiusted with the docility of his fellows, departed, uttering wrath and threatenings, and was no more seen in the vicinity This incident took place nearly twenty years ago on theJimmy, the Irreconcilable,” died a natural death He does not sleep with his fathers on his native soil, but at Tam o' Shanter Point, nor are any of his acts and deeds remembered, save that which illustrates his hatred of the whites, and his bold and truculent spirit
None of those who remain is equal to the last of the royal line in stature Toby stands 5 feet 7 1/2 inches Tom, 5 feet 7 inches Brow, 5 feet 2 3/4 inches, and Willie, 5 feet 2 inches Tom's expanded chest measures 36 1/2 inches, and Toby's, 36; Brow's, 34 1/2, Willie's, 34 inches
CHAPTER III
ATTRIBUTES AND ANECDOTES
Blacks possess acquirements which white people cannot successfully i weapons and in the invention and practice of primitive for subjects to those who apply theh superficially, to the study of their habits and custoenerous or cruel, erratic, purposeless, unstable as water
The cat's cradle of childhood's days, in the hands of a black who has practised the pastins never dreamt of by the whites--fish, pal,endless Toy darts and toy booesture comprehensive and excellent The Queensland Governe of e and habits of the blacks, being i by the rapid decrease in their numbers Many have been hastened from the world by a new and seductive vice Chinese cultivators of bananas found the blacks useful, and rewarded them with the ashes fros fore, but its effects were terrible The fiery liquors of mean whites, and diseases contracted froinal lords of the soil Opiu touches when the Australian Federal Government, by an act of conscious virtue, forbade its introduction to the Co Indirectly the blacks have been saved from demoralisation which threatened to become precipitate--that is to say, in those localities where the s away of the race is, however, inevitable A few anecdotes enerally understood, and show that the Australian aboriginal, uncouth savage as he is, is not altogether devoid of sood-humour
COMMON AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
Australian blacks have been referred to as socialists, and even communists Certainly they repudiate thrift, and may therefore be said to side with some socialists, and their caness and zeal hich they enforce individual rights in property hbouring estate was first settled, in the jungle on the site selected for the house were several nificent bean-trees One was about to be felled, when an old h an interpreter that food-bearing trees were not to be cut down Eventually a bargain was struck, the whole of the trees on the spot being purchased frolad of the opportunity of establishi+ng goodwill by a friendly understanding The day following, another patriarch of the cahts in the trees, and de his claiood-fellowshi+p, his price was also paid
Again a third oldthat neither of the others had the right of disposing of his individual interests He, too, was sent away content In the course of a day or two a youngthe law of the country and the cale person or any number of persons, individually or collectively, was or were entitled to barter the rights and property of another The bean-trees especially were subject to the law of entail The old ally deprive hihts to the fruit of the trees that had been the property of his as well as their ancestors, though he, disingenuously, was quite ready for a personal consideration to forego his privileges He, too, was for peace sake made happy; and it was there and then explained by the settlers, definitely and determinedly, that no more payment for the particular trees about to be sacrificed on the altar of civilisation would be made In future the laws of the camps were to be restricted to the hundreds of other bean-trees in the jungle, each of which, if wanted, would be the subject of special negotiation
THE ”DEBIL-DEBIL”
Blacks in their atteenerally describe that personage as having hands fitted with hooks or sharp needles An intelligent boy of the Cape York Peninsula added a few thrilling details on an occasion, when, to allay his fears, his Boss had promised to shoot the ”debil-debil” should the boy be molested ”No more carn shoot that fella, Boss All asame sum-moke” The boy said that the ”debil-debil” had ar and set with spurs--and dwelt in the heart of the le
”Subpose,” said the terrified boy, ”black fella ether no ether tell 'ue-stick) alonga scrub He trow'u neera, arwonadeer (north, south, west, east) He sit down little bit Bi' out Altogether black fellafella fire He nohe altogether yan He looked out 'nother fella yamber (ca time, bin catch 'em ole man ole woman He no il-gil (lawyer vine) Olefella oor-bung-ah (big wind) first ti out all asame youn-me bin hear 'eether been see 'em like it sum-moke Heyan Debil-debil come up Me no bin see 'em Me bin hear 'em one tiave quite a different personality to the ”debil-debil!” ”Big fella All asame dead man All bone, notouches
CLOTHING SUPERFLUOUS
The parents of our domesticated blacks not only never wore clothes, but hardly knehat clothes were They needed none for warmth At anyrate, blankets or cloaks beaten out of the inner bark of a particular fig-tree (FICUS EHRETIOIDS) were the only covering they had Not every one possessed even a fig-tree blanket During inclement weather they squatted in their humpies, or braved the ele for decency's sake was superfluous Clothes are worn at the present day, partly as a concession to the fastidiousness of the whites, and largely frolaring and clashi+ng the colours the greater the joy of possession
The party go off in the shi+ht all will be discarded and ”planted,” for the favourite costueneration Having spent the whole day in blissful innocence of clothes, they return in the evening in their gaudy attire, fresh as froarden-party
BROTHER AND SISTER