CEREMONIES ON MEETING IN THE BUSH.

If natives meet in the bush the foregoing ceremonies are in part observed: both parties at their first meeting sit down at a distance from one another, preserving a profound silence and keeping their eyes fixed on the ground; after a time one of them commences a chant about himself and from what great family he has sprung; they then approach one another, and if there is a death to communicate the men press breast to breast, and knee to knee, remaining for some time with averted faces, lost in melancholy thoughts; when they separate the women approach and kneel, scratching their faces and crying in the way I have above described. Should no relative have died upon either side the men, after rising up, approach one another and enter into conversation; whilst the elder married females, if they like a stranger, embrace him affectionately and give him a loud-sounding kiss upon each cheek; on several occasions I have had to submit myself, with as good a grace as I could, to this salutation.

In these casual meetings of natives it occasionally happens that several women kneel together, crying and embracing the knees of some old savage, who stands erect in the midst of the group, with a proud and lordly air, whilst they cower to the earth around him; sometimes they have children slung at their backs, and these little things may be seen unconsciously playing with their mothers' hair whilst this mournful scene is enacting.

PUNCTILIOS OF FORM.

Some old women are scrupulously punctilious about the performance of all these matters of etiquette, attaching a degree of importance to them which, in the eyes of civilized man, approaches the ludicrous; but they look upon them in a very different light. I have seen a number of these sticklers for form kneeling round a little boy not more than six or seven years old, lamenting most bitterly, the little fellow meanwhile preserving in his countenance and bearing all the gravity and dignity which a man could have exhibited.

CHAPTER 14. FOOD AND HUNTING.

ERRORS REGARDING SCARCITY OF FOOD OF NATIVES.

The mistake very commonly made with regard to the natives of Australia is to imagine that they have small means of subsistence, or are at times greatly pressed for want of food: I could produce many almost humorous instances of the errors which travellers have fallen into upon this point. They lament in their journals that the unfortunate Aborigines should be reduced by famine to the miserable necessity of subsisting on certain sorts of food which they have found near their huts; whereas in many instances the articles thus quoted by them are those which the natives most prize, and are really neither deficient in flavour nor nutritious qualities. I will give one remarkable example of an error of this kind into which a traveller of great ability has fallen; but this will only render palpable the ignorance that has prevailed with regard to the habits and customs of this people when in their wild state, for those who frequent European towns and the outskirts of population are soon compelled by the force of circumstances to depart, in a great measure, from their original habits.

Captain Sturt, to whom I allude, says in his travels (volume 1 page 118):

Among other things we found a number of bark troughs filled with the gum of the mimosa, and vast quantities of gum made into cakes upon the ground. From this it would appear that these unfortunate creatures were reduced to the last extremity, and, being unable to procure any other nourishment, had been obliged to collect this mucilaginous food.

...

The gum of the mimosa, thus referred to, is a favourite article of food amongst the natives, and when it is in season they assemble in large numbers upon plains of the character previously described by Captain Sturt in order to enjoy this luxury. The profusion in which this gum is found enables large bodies to meet together, which, from their subsistence being derived from wild animals and vegetables of spontaneous growth, they can only do when some particular article is in full season, or when a whale is thrown ashore. In order more fully to show how little the habits of this people have been understood I may state with regard to this very gum, called by the natives kwon-nat, that about the time the above account was published by Captain Sturt an expedition was sent out from King George's Sound in Western Australia in order to discover what was the nature of the article of food so loudly praised by them, and which they stated was to be found in certain districts in great profusion; the belief at that time being, from the accounts given of it, that it could be only a new and valuable species of grain. The exploring party did not attain their object, and to this day many of the settlers believe the kwon-nat to be a kind of corn.

FOOD PLENTIFUL. VARIETIES OF IT IN DIFFERENT LATITUDES.

Generally speaking the natives live well; in some districts there may at particular seasons of the year be a deficiency of food, but if such is the case these tracts are at those times deserted. It is however utterly impossible for a traveller or even for a strange native to judge whether a district affords an abundance of food or the contrary; for in traversing extensive parts of Australia I have found the sorts of food vary from latitude to latitude, so that the vegetable productions used by the Aborigines in one are totally different to those in another; if therefore a stranger has no one to point out to him the vegetable productions, the soil beneath his feet may teem with food whilst he starves. The same rule holds good with regard to animal productions; for example in the southern parts of the continent the Xanthorrhoea affords an inexhaustible supply of fragrant grubs, which an epicure would delight in when once he has so far conquered his prejudices as to taste them; whilst in proceeding to the northward these trees decline in health and growth, until about the parallel of Gantheaume Bay they totally disappear, and even a native finds himself cut off from his ordinary supplies of insects; the same circumstances taking place with regard to the roots and other kinds of food at the same time, the traveller necessarily finds himself reduced to cruel extremities. A native from the plains, taken into an elevated mountainous district near his own country for the first time, is equally at fault.

VARIED WITH THE SEASONS.

But in his own district a native is very differently situated; he knows exactly what it produces, the proper time at which the several articles are in season, and the readiest means of procuring them. According to these circumstances he regulates his visits to the different portions of his hunting ground; and I can only state that I have always found the greatest abundance in their huts.

CAUSES OF OCCASIONAL WANT.

There are however two periods of the year when they are at times subjected to the pangs of hunger: these are in the hottest time of summer and in the height of the rainy season. At the former period the heat renders them so excessively indolent that until forced by want they will not move, and at the latter they suffer so severely from the cold and rain that I have known them remain for two successive days at their huts without quitting the fire; and even when they do quit it they always carry a fire-stick with them, which greatly embarrasses their movements. In all ordinary seasons however they can obtain in two or three hours a sufficient supply of food for the day, but their usual custom is to roam indolently from spot to spot, lazily collecting it as they wander along.

LIST OF EDIBLE ARTICLES.

That an accurate idea may be formed of the quantity and kinds of food which they obtain, I have given below a list of those in use amongst the aborigines of South-western Australia which I have seen them collect and eat; and I will, in the order in which they stand on this list, show the mode of obtaining them, and the way in which they are cooked.

Different articles of food eaten by the natives of Western Australia:

Six sorts of kangaroo. Twenty-nine sorts of fish. One kind of whale. Two species of seal. Wild dogs. Three kinds of turtle. Emus, wild turkeys, and birds of every kind. Two species of opossum. Eleven kinds of frogs. Four kinds of freshwater shellfish. All saltwater shellfish, except oysters. Four kinds of grubs. Eggs of every species of bird or lizard. Five animals, something smaller in size than rabbits. Eight sorts of snakes. Seven sorts of iguana. Nine species of mice and small rats. Twenty-nine sorts of roots. Seven kinds of fungus. Four sorts of gum. Two sorts of manna. Two species of by-yu, or the nut of the Zamia palm. Two species of mesembryanthemum. Two kinds of nut. Four sorts of fruit. The flower of several species of Banksia. One kind of earth, which they pound and mix with the root of the mene. The seeds of several species of leguminous plants.

It will be necessary however before commencing this sketch to give an outline of the weapons and implements with which the different animals are caught and killed, and the vegetable productions procured.

EQUIPMENT FOR A HUNT. IMPLEMENTS FOR DESTROYING ANIMALS.

The natives nearly always carry the whole of their worldly property about with them, and the Australian hunter is thus equipped: round his middle is wound, in many folds, a cord spun from the fur of the opossum, which forms a warm, soft and elastic belt of an inch in thickness, in which are stuck his hatchet, his kiley or boomerang, and a short heavy stick to throw at the smaller animals. His hatchet is so ingeniously placed that the head of it rests exactly on the centre of his back, whilst its thin short handle descends along the backbone. In his hand he carries his throwing-stick and several spears, headed in two or three different manners so that they are equally adapted to war or the chase. A warm kangaroo skin cloak completes his equipment in the southern portions of the continent; but I have never seen a native with a cloak anywhere to the north of 29 degrees south latitude.

DESCRIPTION AND USE OF THE WEAPONS.

These weapons, although apparently so simple, are admirably adapted for the purposes they are intended to serve. The spear when projected from the throwing-stick forms as effectual a weapon as the bow and arrow, whilst at the same time it is much less liable to be injured, and it possesses over the bow and arrow the advantage of being useful to poke out kangaroo-rats and opossums from hollow trees, to knock off gum from high branches, to pull down the cones from the Banksia trees, and for many other purposes.

The hatchet is used to cut up the larger kinds of game and to make holes in the trees the owner is about to climb. The kiley is thrown into flights of wild-fowl and cockatoos, and with the dow-uk, a short heavy stick, they knock over the smaller kinds of game much in the same manner that poachers do hares and rabbits in England.

CONTENTS OF THE WOMEN'S BAG OR WALLET.

Thus equipped the father of the family stalks forth, and at a respectful distance behind him follow the women; a long thick stick, the point of which has been hardened in the fire, is in each of their hands, a child or two fixed in their bags or upon their shoulders, and in the deep recesses of these mysterious bags they carry moreover sundry articles which constitute the wealth of the Australian savage. These are however worthy of a particular enumeration, as this will make plain the domestic economy of one of these barbarian housewives.

The contents of a native woman's bag are: A flat stone to pound roots with; earth to mix with the pounded roots; quartz, for the purpose of making spears and knives; stones for hatchets; prepared cakes of gum, to make and mend weapons and implements; kangaroo sinews to make spears and to sew with; needles made of the shin-bones of kangaroos, with which they sew their cloaks, bags, etc.; opossum hair to be spun into waist belts; shavings of kangaroo skins to polish spears, etc.; the shell of a species of mussel to cut hair, etc., with; native knives; a native hatchet; pipe-clay; red ochre, or burnt clay; yellow ochre, a piece of paperbark to carry water in; waistbands and spare ornaments; pieces of quartz which the native doctors have extracted from their patients, and thus cured them from diseases; these they preserve as carefully as Europeans do relics. Banksia cones (small ones) or pieces of a dry white species of fungus to kindle fire with rapidly and to convey it from place to place; grease, if they can procure it from a whale, or from any other source; the spare weapons of their husbands, or the pieces of wood from which these are to be manufactured; the roots, etc., which they have collected during the day. Skins not yet prepared for cloaks are generally carried between the bag and the back, so as to form a sort of cushion for the bag to rest on.

In general each woman carries a lighted fire-stick, or brand, under her cloak and in her hand.

DIFFERENT METHODS OF CATCHING KANGAROOS.

Imagining several parties of this kind, headed by one of the young men, to be moving through the woods, let us follow them and watch their mode of procuring and cooking their different varieties of food.

MANNER OF HUNTING A KANGAROO SINGLY.

The moment an Australian savage commences his day's hunting his whole manner and appearance undergo a wondrous change: his eyes, before heavy and listless, brighten up, and are never for a moment fixed on one object; his gait and movements, which were indolent and slow, become quick and restless yet noiseless; he moves along with a rapid stealthy pace, his glance roving from side to side in a vigilant uneasy manner, arising from his eagerness to detect signs of game and his fears of hidden foes. The earth, the water, the trees, the skies, each are in turn subjected to a rigid scrutiny, and from the most insignificant circumstances he deduces omens. His head is held erect and his progress is uncertain, in a moment his pace is checked, he stands in precisely the position of motion as if suddenly transfixed, nothing about him stirs but his eyes, they glance uneasily from side to side whilst the head and every muscle seem immoveable; but the white eyeballs may be seen in rapid motion, whilst all his faculties are concentrated, and his whole soul is absorbed in the senses of sight and hearing. His wives, who are at some distance behind him, the moment they see him assume this attitude fall to the ground as if they had been shot; their children cower by them, and their little faces express an earnestness and anxiousness which is far beyond their years; at length a suppressed whistle is given by one of the women, which denotes that she sees a kangaroo near her husband. All is again silence and quietude; and an unpractised European would ride within a few yards of the group and not perceive a living thing.

Looking about a hundred yards to the right of the native, you will see a kangaroo erect upon its hind legs and supported by its tail; it is reared to its utmost height, so that its head is between five and six feet above the ground—its short fore-paws hang by its side, its ears are pointed, it is listening as carefully as the native, and you see a little head peering out from its pouch to enquire what has alarmed its mother; but the native moves not, you cannot tell whether it is a human being or the charred trunk of a burnt tree which is before you, and for several minutes the whole group preserve their relative position; at length the kangaroo becomes reassured, drops upon its fore-paws, gives an awkward leap or two, and goes on feeding, the little inhabitant of its pouch stretching its head farther out, tasting the grass its mother is eating, and evidently debating whether or not it is safe to venture out of its resting place and gamble about amongst the green dewy herbage.

Meantime the native moves not until the kangaroo, having two or three times resumed the attitude of listening, and having like a monkey scratched its side with its fore-paw, at length once more abandons itself in perfect security to its feed, and playfully smells and rubs its little one. Now the watchful savage, keeping his body unmoved, fixes the spear first in the throwing-stick, and then raises his arms in the attitude of throwing, from which they are never again moved until the kangaroo dies or runs away; his spear being properly secured, he advances slowly and stealthily towards his prey, no part moving but his legs; whenever the kangaroo looks round he stands motionless in the position he is in when it first raises its head, until the animal, again assured of its safety, gives a skip or two and goes on feeding; again the native advances, and this scene is repeated many times until the whistling spear penetrates the devoted animal; then the wood rings with shouts; women and children all join pell-mell in the chase; the kangaroo, weak from the loss of blood, and embarrassed by the long spear which catches in the brushwood as it flies, at length turns on its pursuers, and to secure its rear places its back against a tree, preparing at the same time to rend open the breast and entrails of its pursuer by seizing him in its fore-paws and kicking with its hind legs and claws; but the wily native keeps clear of so murderous an embrace, and from the distance of a few yards throws spears into its breast until the exhausted animal falls and is then soon despatched; when, with the assistance of his wives, he takes its forelegs over his left, and the hind legs over his right shoulder, and totters with his burden to some convenient resting place, where they can enjoy their meal.

HUNTING IN PARTIES IN THE BUSH.

The chase of the kangaroo conducted by a number of natives is a much more lively and noisy affair, but it is not to my taste nearly so interesting. When a single native hunts you see the whole energy and perseverance of which a savage is capable called forth, and his graceful movements, cautious advance, the air of quietude and repose which pervade his frame when his prey is alarmed, all involuntarily call forth your admiration and compel you to murmur to yourself, "how beautiful, how very beautiful." But where a party hunt there is more bustle and animation in the scene; and this kind of hunting is called "Yowart-a-kaipoon," or kangaroo-surrounding. The animals which are to be killed by a party who proceed for this purpose are either surprised in a thick bushy place, where they have retired to lie down in the heat of the day, or else in an open plain; in the former case they are tracked to their retreat, and the party then encircling it first ascertain that they have not quitted it; as each native takes up his position he gives a low whistle, and when the blockade is completed they fire the bushes; the frighted animals now fly from the flames in the direction of the open plains, but no sooner do they reach the outskirts of the wood than the bushes are fired in the direction in which they are running, and they are driven back by loud calls and terrific cries, which augment their terror, and they run wildly about; until, becoming maddened by fear, they make a rush through the midst of their enemies, who allow but few of their victims to escape.

IN THE PLAINS.

When kangaroos are surrounded upon a plain the point generally chosen is an open bottom surrounded by wood; each native has his position assigned him by some of the elder ones, and a great deal of art and caution are sometimes required to gain it; for this end they avail themselves of every inequality of the ground, of every bush, of every shrub, and as there are so many witnesses of their skill and cunning they put forth all their art to approach as near the kangaroos as possible without disturbing them, and thus the circle narrows in around the unconscious animals, till at last some one of them becomes alarmed and bounds away, but ere it has proceeded many yards its flight is arrested by a savage with fearful yells; terrified it sits down with its frightened comrades to look for a means of escape, but armed natives brandishing their spears and raising loud cries come running in upon them from every side; and ere the animals have recovered the first moments of terror and surprise a slaughter has already commenced, which seldom terminates before the greater number of them have fallen.

These great public hunts or battues are conducted under certain rules. The proprietor of the land must have invited the other natives, and must be present himself, for should these regulations be violated a very bloody fight is certain to take place. The first spear which strikes a kangaroo determines whose property the dead animal is to be; it being no matter how slight the wound may have been; even if a boy threw the spear the rule holds good, and if the animal killed is one which by their laws a boy is not allowed to eat, then his right passes on to his father or eldest male relation. The cries of the hunters, as they ring through the ancient woods, are very expressive and beautiful, each different intonation belonging to a particular period of the hunt. And what renders them peculiarly effective is that, instead of beginning as we always do with a soft aspiration, as in Hollo, Ho, etc., their cries always commence with a harsh sound, as kau; and this circumstance enables them to talk at a great distance so as to be perfectly intelligible to one another. Sometimes in deep wooded valleys I have heard gentle fairy-like sounds coming down from the heights, and rendered so soft and sweet by distance that one might readily have fancied them to be supernatural, yet the natives with me readily understood them, and shouted back their reply: this harsh commencement of their shout gives one also a terrible start when surprised in a murderous attack.

HUNTING KANGAROO BY THE TRACKS.

Four other modes of taking kangaroos are practised by the natives: these are, catching them in nets, in pitfalls, lying in wait near their watering places until they come to drink, and constantly following their tracks until the animals are so wearied out that they will allow the huntsman to approach near enough to spear them. Of these four modes the last two are the most interesting, and the former is thus practised: in a dry district, where numerous animals congregate from a great distance to drink at a solitary water, the huntsman constructs a rude shelter in which for hours he remains concealed and motionless until the thirsty animals approach; kangaroos, cockatoos, pigeons, and all other beings that run and fly are in this case indiscriminately sacrificed, and the patient endurance of the hunter is generally richly rewarded by the booty he obtains.

But the mode of tracking a kangaroo until it is wearied out is the one which beyond all others excites the admiration of the natives; this calls out every qualification prized by savages: skill in tracking, endurance of hunger and thirst, unwearied bodily exertion, and lasting perseverance. To perform this feat a native starts upon the tracks of a kangaroo, which he follows until he sights it, when it flies timidly before him; again he pursues the track, and again the animal bounds from him; and this is repeated until nightfall, when the native lights his fire and sleeps upon the track; with the first light of day the hunt is resumed, and towards the close of the second day, or in the course of the third, the kangaroo falls a victim to its pursuer. None but a skilful huntsman in the pride of youth and strength can perform this feat, and one who has frequently practised it always enjoys great renown amongst his fellows.

COOKING A KANGAROO.

Before they commence cooking the kangaroo an incision is made round the base of the tail to the bone, and another incision skin deep round the tip. The skin is then pulled away from the other part with all the sinews of the tail attached to it, and these are drawn carefully out and at once rolled round the dowuk, so as to keep them stretched: their future use is either to sew cloaks and bags, or to make spears.

Two modes of cooking the kangaroo are common; the first is to make an oven by digging a hole in the sand, in which a fire is lighted; when the sand is well heated and a large heap of ashes is collected the hole is scraped out and the kangaroo is placed in it, skin and all; it is then covered over with ashes, and a slow fire is kept up above it; when sufficiently baked it is taken out and laid upon its back; the first incision is made directly down from between the forearms to the bottom of the abdomen, the intestines are then removed, and the whole of the juice or gravy is left in the body of the animal. This is carefully taken out and the body is then cut up and eaten.

The other mode is simply to kill the kangaroo and then to broil the different portions of it on the fire: certain parts are considered great delicacies, and these the young men are forbidden to eat; such are the blood, the entrails, and the marrow. The blood is always carefully collected in one of the intestines so as to form a long sausage and is afterwards eaten by the most influential man present.

METHODS OF TAKING AND COOKING FISH.

It will be seen from the foregoing list that the smaller sorts of fish eaten by the natives are very numerous: there are however several kinds which from superstitious prejudices they will not touch; amongst these are the Bamba, or stingray. I should here observe that these prejudices are local, and I have seen them reject at one portion of the continent articles of food which at a distant part they will eat readily.

Three modes of taking fish are commonly practised: spearing them; catching them by means of a weir; and taking them in a net. A party of natives spearing fish in one of their large shallow estuaries is an extremely picturesque sight; they follow all the tortuous windings of the fish they are pursuing, as it darts about in the water, with great rapidity; and, the object of their pursuit being concealed from a distant spectator, they appear to be running about in the sea and dashing up the foam for no conceivable cause or reason. Notwithstanding the speed they are running with and the smallness of the object, in striking they rarely miss their aim. In deep rivers or in the sea the mode of spearing fish varies according to the circumstances of the case; sometimes it is done by diving, sometimes by sitting on a rock or tree and watching them as they pass underneath; but in all cases astonishment is excited to see the celerity and accuracy with which the eye and hand act in the nicest unison.

Weirs are only constructed across places which are left nearly dry at low-water, or when the floods subside; and the way in which fish are taken in the net offers nothing remarkable.

METHODS OF COOKING FISH.

If the fish are not cooked by being merely thrown on the fire and broiled they dress them in a manner worthy of being adopted by the most civilized nations; this is called "Yudarn dookoon," or "tying-up cooking." A piece of thick and tender paperbark is selected and torn into an oblong form; the fish is laid in this, and the bark wrapped round it as paper is folded round a cutlet; strings formed of grass are then wound tightly about the bark and fish, which is then slowly baked in heated sand covered with hot ashes; when it is completed the bark is opened and serves as a dish: it is of course full of juice and gravy, not a drop of which has escaped. Several of the smaller sorts of freshwater fish, in size and taste resembling white-bait, are really delicious when cooked in this manner; they occasionally also dress pieces of kangaroo and other meats in the same way.

FEASTING ON A STRANDED WHALE.

A whale is the greatest delicacy that a native can partake of, and, whilst standing beside the giant frame of one of these monsters of the deep, he can only be compared to a mouse standing before a huge plum-cake; in either case the mass of the food compared to that of the consumer is enormous. It is impossible for civilized man to enter into the feelings of the savage under these circumstances, for he has never been similarly situated. He never has had such a quantity of food that he doats on placed at once before him; hence when a native proprietor of an estate in Australia finds a whale thrown ashore upon his property his whole feelings undergo a sudden revulsion. Instead of being churlishly afraid of the slightest aggression on his property his heart expands with benevolence, and he longs to see his friends about him; so he falls to work with his wives and kindles large fires to give notice of the joyful event.

This duty being performed, he rubs himself all over with the blubber, then anoints his favourite wives, and thus prepared cuts his way through the blubber into the flesh or beef, the grain of which is about as firm as a goose-quill, of this he selects the nicest morsels, and either broils them on the fire or cooks them as kabobs by cutting them into small pieces and spitting them on a pointed stick.

By and bye other natives come gaily trooping in from all quarters: by night they dance and sing, and by day they eat and sleep, and for days this revelry continues unchecked, until they at last fairly eat their way into the whale, and you see them climbing in and about the stinking carcase, choosing tit-bits. In general the natives are very particular about not eating meat that is fly-blown or tainted, but when a whale is in question this nicety of appetite vanishes. I attribute this to their disliking in the first instance to leave the carcase, and then gradually getting accustomed to its smell; but whatever may be the reason they remain by the carcase for many days, rubbed from head to foot with stinking blubber, gorged to repletion with putrid meat, out of temper from indigestion, and therefore engaged in constant frays, suffering from a cutaneous disorder by high feeding, and altogether a disgusting spectacle. There is no sight in the world more revolting than to see a young and gracefully formed native girl stepping out of the carcase of a putrid whale. When they at last quit their feast they carry off as much as they can stagger under, to eat upon the way, and to take as a rarity to their distant friends.

MODE OF KILLING SEALS AND WILD DOGS.

Killing seals is, from the habits of these animals, necessarily an exciting species of hunting in the southern and western portions of the continent. It is only enjoyed by the natives when they can surprise a seal upon the beach or in the surf, or when they swim off to some of the small rocky islands which are connected with the main by reefs, and are at no great distance from it; they are themselves fond of this sport, and the clambering about the wild rocks of their native shore, at one time leaping from rock to rock, spearing fish that lie in the quiet pools, in the next moment dashing into the boisterous surf to spear a large fish, to battle with a seal, or to turn a turtle, cannot but be an exhilarating occupation; and when to this we add that their steps are followed by a wife and children, as dear to them as ours are to us, who are witnesses of their agility and prowess, and who, when the game is killed, will help to light the fire in which it is to be cooked, and drag it to the resting-place, where the father romps with the little ones until the meal is prepared, and that all this takes place in a climate so mild and genial that a house is not necessary, we shall perhaps the less wonder that it should be so difficult to induce a savage to embrace the customs of civilized life.

There is nothing peculiar in their mode of killing wild dogs; puppies are of course the greatest delicacy, and are often feasted on; they sometimes however save these in order to keep them in a domesticated state, and in this case one of the elder females of the family suckles them at her own breast and soon grows almost as fond of them as of children. A dog is baked whole in the same manner as a kangaroo; it is laid on its back in the hole in the heated sand, and its nose, fore-paws and hind-paws are left sticking out of the ashes which are scraped over it, so that it bears rather a ludicrous appearance.

MODE OF KILLING TURTLE AND COCKATOOS.

The green turtle are surprised by the natives on the beach when they come to lay their eggs, and are very rarely taken much to the south of Shark Bay, but freshwater turtle are extremely abundant, and are in high season about December and January. At this time the natives assemble near the freshwater lakes and lagoons in large numbers; these natural reservoirs are then shrunk to their lowest limits from evaporation and other causes, and are thickly overgrown with reeds and rushes. Among these the natives wade with stealthy pace, so stealthy that they even creep upon wild-fowl and spear them. The habits of the turtle are to swim lazily along near the surface of the water, about half immersed, biting and smelling at the various aquatic plants which they pass, and turning their long ungainly necks in all directions. When alarmed by the approach of a native the turtle instantly sinks to the bottom like a stone, and its pursuer, putting out his foot, the toes of which he uses to seize anything, just as we do our fingers, gropes about with it in the weeds, until he feels the turtle, and then, holding it to the ground, plunges his hands and arms in and seizes his prey. I have known two or three of them to catch fourteen turtle, none of which weighed less than one, and many of them as much as two or three pounds, in the course of a very short time.

These freshwater turtle are cooked by being baked, shell and all, in the hot ashes; when they are done a single pull removes the bottom shell, and the whole animal remains in the upper one, which serves as a dish. They are generally very fat, and are really delicate and delicious eating; the natives are extremely fond of them, and the turtle season is looked forward to by them as a very important period of the year.

BIRDS.

Birds form a very considerable article of food for the natives, and their modes of killing them are so various that it would be impossible to enumerate them all. Emus are killed in precisely the same manner as kangaroos, but as they are more prized by the natives a greater degree of excitement prevails when an emu is slain; shout succeeds shout, and the distant natives take up the cry until it is sometimes re-echoed for miles: yet the feast which follows the death is a very exclusive one; the flesh is by far too delicious to be made a common article of food, hence heavy penalties are pronounced against young men and unauthorized persons who venture to touch it, and these are invariably rigidly enforced.

KILLING COCKATOOS.

Perhaps as fine a sight as can be seen in the whole circle of native sports is the killing cockatoos with the kiley, or boomerang. A native perceives a large flight of cockatoos in a forest which encircles a lagoon; the expanse of water affords an open clear space above it, unencumbered with trees, but which raise their gigantic forms all around, more vigorous in their growth from the damp soil in which they flourish; and in their leafy summits sit a countless number of cockatoos, screaming and flying from tree to tree, as they make their arrangements for a night's sound sleep. The native throws aside his cloak so that he may not even have this slight covering to impede his motions, draws his kiley from his belt, and with a noiseless, elastic step approaches the lagoon, creeping from tree to tree, from bush to bush, and disturbing the birds as little as possible; their sentinels however take the alarm, the cockatoos farthest from the water fly to the trees near its edge, and thus they keep concentrating their forces as the native advances; they are aware that danger is at hand but are ignorant of its nature. At length the pursuer almost reaches the edge of the water, and the scared cockatoos, with wild cries, spring into the air; at the same instant the native raises his right hand high over his shoulder, and, bounding forward with his utmost speed for a few paces to give impetus to his blow, the kiley quits his hand as if it would strike the water, but when it has almost touched the unruffled surface of the lake it spins upwards with inconceivable velocity, and with the strangest contortions. In vain the terrified cockatoos strive to avoid it; it sweeps wildly and uncertainly through the air, and so eccentric are its motions that it requires but a slight stretch of the imagination to fancy it endowed with life, and with fell swoops is in rapid pursuit of the devoted birds, some of whom are almost certain to be brought screaming to the earth.

But the wily savage has not yet done with them. He avails himself of the extraordinary attachment which these birds have for one another, and, fastening a wounded one to a tree, so that its cries may induce its companions to return, he watches his opportunity by throwing his kiley or spear to add another bird or two to the booty he has already obtained.

MODE OF KILLING WILD-FOWL.

The various kinds of wild-fowl with which the rivers and lagoons of Australia abound afford a never-failing supply of food to the natives, and many are the arts to which they have recourse to entrap these wary birds. During the period of the moulting season they catch many black swans. Some of the young men lie for hours in ambush on the banks until the unconscious swans have ventured so far into shallow water that they can run round them and cut off their retreat. When this auspicious moment arrives, with loud shouts the men dash in, and whilst one party intercepts the birds, so that they cannot get into the deeps, a second soon runs them down. In the same manner they take the young cygnets; and these I believe to be as good eating and as delicate an article of food as any country can produce.

It is also an interesting sight to see the natives creep after wild-fowl, and under cover of the reeds and bushes get so near that they can either spear them or catch them with a noose. A reedy lagoon lies at your feet, almost surrounded by rocky cliffs and dusky woods; there are some small open spaces of water, but generally it is so thickly overgrown with high reeds that it looks rather like a swampy wood than a lake; in the distance you see curling up a thin cloud of blue smoke, which indicates that a native encampment is at hand. The forms of many wild-fowl are seen swimming about among the reeds, for a moment caught sight of, and in the next lost in the dusky green of the vegetation. Every now and then a small party of them rise up, and after winging their way two or three times round the lagoon, at the same time giving a series of their quack, quack, which are loudly responded to from the recesses of the reeds, they again settle down in another part of it.

This circumstance and a few other signs induce a sportsman to suspect that there is some mischief afloat, and his doubts are soon set at rest: upon some bough of a tree, which stretches far out over the water and thus affords its occupant a view of all that is passing in the lake below, he sees extended the form of an aged native, his white locks fluttering in the breeze; he is too old to take a part in the sport that is going on, but watches every movement with the most intense interest, and by well-known signs directs the movements of the hunters, who may now be seen creeping noiselessly through the water, and at times they appear so black and still that even a practised huntsman doubts for a moment whether it is a man or the stump of a tree which he looks on. The natives are sometimes very successful in this kind of hunting: I have known a single man spear or noose ten wild-fowl, of different sorts, in an hour and a half or two hours' time.

One very dexterous feat which the natives perform is to kill a bird as it flies from the nest. This is executed by two men, one of whom, placing himself under the nest, throws a spear through its centre, so as to hit the bird in the breast, which, frightened and slightly wounded, flies out, and is then struck to the ground by the dow-uk, which the other native hurls at it as it quits the tree. They are such good shots with these short, heavy sticks that pigeons, quails, and even the smallest birds, are usually knocked over with them; and I have often seen them kill a pigeon with a spear, at the distance of about thirty paces.

MODES OF COOKING BIRDS.

Birds are generally cooked by plucking them and throwing them on the fire, certain portions of the entrails being considered a great delicacy: but when they wish to dress a bird very nicely they first of all draw it and cook the entrails separately; a triangle is then formed round the bird by three red-hot pieces of stick, against which ashes are placed. Hot coals are also stuffed into the inside of the bird, and it is thus rapidly cooked and left full of gravy. Wild-fowl dressed in this way on a clean piece of bark form as good a dish as I have ever eaten.

OPOSSUM HUNTING.

Opossum hunting is pursued either by day or during a moonlight night. A stranger cannot but be favourably impressed with regard to the quickness of a native in discovering whether or not an opossum has ascended a tree. The savage carelessly walks up to some massive trunk which he thinks bears a suspicious appearance, his hands are placed thoughtlessly behind his back, whilst his dark eye glances over the bark; suddenly it is for one moment stationary, and he looks eagerly at the tree, for he has detected the holes made by the nails of an opossum in its ascent; he now seeks for one of these foot-marks, which has a little sand attached to it, and gently blows the sand, but it sticks together, and does not easily move away, this is a proof that the animal has climbed the tree the same morning, for otherwise the sand would have been dried up by the heat of the sun, and, not being held together by dampness, would have been readily swept away before his breath. Having by this examination of signs, which an unskilled European in vain strains his eyes to detect, convinced himself that the opossum is in some hole of the tree, the native pulls his hatchet from his girdle and, cutting a small notch in the bark about four feet from the ground, he places the great toe of his right foot in it, throws his right arm round the tree, and with his left hand sticks the point handle of the hatchet into the bark as high up as he can reach, and thus forms a stay to drag himself up with; having made good this step he cuts another for his left foot, and thus proceeds until he has ascended to the hole where the opossum is hid, which is then compelled by smoke, or by being poked out, to quit its hiding-place, when, the native catching hold of its tail, dashes it down on the ground and quietly descends after it. As the opossum gives a very severe and painful bite the natives are careful to lay hold of it in such a manner as to run the least possible danger of being seized by its teeth.

Opossum hunting by moonlight, excepting in the beauty of the spectacle, offers no feature different from what I have above described; the dusky forms of the natives moving about in the gloomy woods and gazing up into the trees to detect an animal feeding, whilst in the distance natives with firesticks come creeping after them, is a picturesque sight, and it is also pretty to see the dark body of the native against the moonlight as he climbs the tree, forcing the poor opossum to retreat to the very end of some branch, whence he is shaken off or knocked down with a stick. The natives themselves like these moonlight expeditions and speak with enthusiasm of them. They are particularly fond of spearing fish at certain seasons of the year, in which case they go along the shoal water with a light, and proceed exactly in the manner still practised in Scotland and Ireland.

CATCHING FROGS. METHOD OF TAKING SHELLFISH.

The season of the year in which the natives catch the greatest quantity of frogs and freshwater shellfish is when the swamps are nearly dried up; these animals then bury themselves in holes in the mud, and the native women with their long sticks and long thin arms, which they plunge up to the shoulder in the slime, manage to drag them out; at all seasons however they catch some of these animals, but in summer a whole troop of native women may be seen paddling about in a swamp, slapping themselves to kill the mosquitoes and sandflies, and every now and then plunging their arms down into the mud, and dragging forth their prey. I have often seen them with ten or twelve pounds weight of frogs in their bag.

Frogs are cooked on a slow fire of wood ashes. They are then held in one hand by the hind legs, and a dexterous pinch with the finger and thumb of the other at once removes the lower portion of the intestines. The remainder of the animal is then taken at a mouthful and fairly eaten from the head to the toes.

The freshwater shellfish vary in size from that of a prawn to a large crayfish; the smallest are the best, and when nicely roasted there is no difference in taste between them and a shrimp. It is worthy of remark that the natives in the south-western part of Australia will not touch freshwater mussels, which are very abundant in the rivers, whilst in the north-western part of the continent they form a staple article of food.

GRUBS AND WALLABIES.

Grubs are principally procured by the natives from the Xanthorrhoea or grass-tree, but they are also found in wattle-trees, and in dead timber; those found in the grass-tree have a fragrant aromatic flavour and taste very like a nice nut. Their presence in a tree is thus ascertained: if the top of the tree is observed to be dead the native gives it a few sharp kicks with his foot, when, if it contains any barde or grubs, it begins to give, and if this takes place he pushes the tree over, and, gradually breaking it to pieces with his hammer, he extracts the grubs, of which sometimes more than a hundred are found in a single tree.

Until the top of the tree is dead it is not a proper receptacle for these animals. The natives are therefore in the habit of breaking off the tops of the grass-trees on their land at a particular season of the year in order that they may have an abundance of this highly-prized article of food. If two or more men have a right to hunt over the same portion of ground, and one of them breaks off the tops of certain trees, by their laws the grubs in these are his property and no one else has a right to touch the tree. No mistake on this point can occur, for if the top of the tree dies naturally it still remains in its original position, whereas a native who thus prepares the tree knocks it off altogether; an instance occurred at King George's Sound of a native travelling between thirty and forty miles to lay a complaint before the Resident that another had been guilty of this unpardonable breach of honesty, and, notwithstanding it had been clearly brought home to him, still stoutly refused to make any amends.

When there is a grub in a wattle-tree its diseased state, which produces excrescences, soon betrays this circumstance to the watchful eyes of a native, and an animal much larger than those found in the grass-tree is soon extracted; they seldom however find more than one or two of these in the same tree.

Grubs are either eaten raw or roasted; they are best roasted tied up in a piece of bark in the manner in which I have before stated that they cook their fish. If the natives are taunted with eating such a disgusting species of food as these grubs appear to Europeans they invariably retort by accusing us of eating raw oysters, which they regard with perfect horror.

HUNTING THE SMALLER ANIMALS.

The smaller species of animals are either caught by surprising them in their seats or by burning the bush. A native hunting for food has his eyes in constant motion and nothing escapes them; he sees a kangaroo-rat Sitting in a bush, and he walks towards it as if about to pass it carelessly, but suddenly, when on one side of it, he stamps on the bush with all his force, and crushes the little animal to death; should it be rapid enough in its movements to avoid this blow he hurls his dow-uk at it as it scampers off, and should he not hit it he runs after and tracks it to some dead hollow tree, lying on the ground, in which it has taken shelter, and with the aid of his spear, which is about ten feet long, he draws it out.

Another very ingenious mode of taking wallaby and the smaller kind of kangaroos is to select a thick bushy place where there are plenty of these animals; the bushes are then broken down in a circle round the spot where they intend to hunt, so as to form a space of broken scrub about ten feet wide all round a thick bush, they thus not only destroy the runs of the animals but form with the fallen bushes a place which so embarrasses and entangles them that they find great difficulty in passing it; indeed when these preparations have been made the natives fire the bush and the frightened animals, finding their runs stopped up, rush into the fallen branches, where every jump which they make upon their hind legs only involves them in greater difficulties, so that they fall an easy prey to their pursuers.

Some of the smaller animals such as the dal-gyte, an animal about the size of a weasel, burrow in the earth; these the natives surprise when they are feeding or dig them from their burrows. They are all cooked by having their fur singed off and being roasted on the fire; to the taste of a native the skinning a small animal would be an abomination, and I must really confess that a kangaroo-rat, nicely singed and cooked by them, is not a bad dish for a hungry traveller.

Although the natives could in many districts procure native salt, and most certainly from its abundance cannot be unacquainted with it, they never use it until they have seen Europeans do so, and even then do not at first like it. They also dislike mustard, sauces, etc., when they first eat them, and indeed nothing can be more ludicrous than their grimaces are the first time mustard is given to them upon a piece of meat.

ROOTS EATEN BY NATIVES. EDIBLE ROOTS AND SEEDS.

The roots eaten by the natives belong to the following genera:

Dioscorea, two species. Haemadorum, several species, as the Mene, Ngool-ya, Mudja, etc. etc. Geranium, several species. Boerhaavia, two species. Typha, two species. Orchis, several species.

RULES FOR GATHERING ROOTS AND PLANTS.

Some of these are in season in every period of the year and the natives regulate their visits to the different districts accordingly. Those plants which grow in a stiff soil cannot be dug up by their implements without great difficulty in the heat of the dry season, but those which grow in a loose sandy soil can be obtained at all times. The natives have however a law that no plant bearing seeds is to be dug up after it has flowered; they then call them (for example) the mother of Bohn, the mother of Mudja, etc.; and so strict are they in their observance of this rule that I have never seen a native violate it unless requested by an European, and even then they betray a great dislike to do so.

The abundance of these roots varies, of course, with the nature of the soil, etc., but when there is a scarcity of any one of them this is amply provided for by the abundance of others. In the Province of Victoria, as already stated, I have seen tracts of land, several square miles in extent, so thickly studded with holes where the natives had been digging up yams (Dioscorea) that it was difficult to walk across it. Again, in the sandy desert country which surrounds for many miles the town of Perth, in Western Australia, the different species of Haemadorum are very plentiful.

GATHERING AND COOKING ROOTS. MODE OF COOKING AND PREPARING THEM.

It is generally considered the province of women to dig roots, and for this purpose they carry a long pointed stick which is held in the right hand and driven firmly into the ground, where it is shaken so as to loosen the earth, which is scooped up and thrown out with the fingers of the left hand, and in this manner they dig with great rapidity. But the labour in proportion to the amount obtained is great. To get a yam about half an inch in circumference and a foot in length they have to dig a hole above a foot square and two feet in depth; a considerable portion of the time of the women and children is therefore passed in this employment. If the men are absent upon any expedition the females are left in charge of one who is old or sick; and in traversing the bush you often stumble on a large party of them, scattered about in the forest, digging roots, and collecting the different species of fungus.

The roots are eaten raw or roasted in the fire; in either case they are, most of them, very good. Some have the taste of a mild onion, and others have almost the taste and appearance of a small English potato, but of these only a single root is attached to each plant: the mene has rather an acid taste and when eaten alone is said, by the natives, to cause dysentery; they never use it in the southern districts without pounding it between two stones and sprinkling over it a few pinches of an earth which they consider extremely good and nutritious; they then pound the mould and root together into a paste, and swallow it as a bonne bouche, the noxious qualities of the plant being destroyed by the earth.

Many other roots are pounded between flat stones into a paste and are then made into a cake and baked. The two roots which taste the best, when cooked in this way, are the jee-ta and yunjid.

The former of these resembles in appearance and taste the unripe seeds of Indian corn; it is in season in June and is really very palatable. The latter is the root of a species of flag, and consists of a case enclosing a multitude of tender filaments, with nodules of farinaceous matter adhering to them. These are collected into a mass by pounding the root, and the cake formed from the paste is very nice. The natives must be admitted to bestow a sort of cultivation upon this root, as they frequently burn the leaves of the plant in the dry seasons in order to improve it.

EDIBLE FUNGI AND GUMS.

The different kinds of fungus are very good. In certain seasons of the year they are abundant and the natives eat them greedily.

Kwon-nat is the kind of gum which most abounds and is considered the nicest article of food. It is a species of gum-tragacynth. In the summer months the acacias growing in swampy plains are literally loaded with this gum, and the natives assemble in numbers to partake of this favourite esculent. As but few places afford a sufficient supply of food to support a large assemblage of persons these Kwon-nat grounds are generally the spots at which their annual barter meetings are held, and during these fun, frolic, and quarrelling of every description prevail.

POISONOUS NUTS.

No article of food used by the natives is more deserving of notice than the by-yu. This name is applied to the pulp of the nut of a species of palm which, in its natural state, acts as a most violent emetic and cathartic; the natives themselves consider it as a rank poison: they however are acquainted with a very artificial method of preparing it, by which it is completely deprived of its noxious qualities and then becomes an agreeable and nutritious article of food. Europeans who are not acquainted with this mode of preparing the nut, the stones of which they find lying about the fireplaces of the natives, are frequently tempted to eat it in its natural state, but they invariably pay a severe penalty for the mistake. The following extract, from Captain Cook's * first voyage, gives one instance of this:

(*Footnote. Volume 2 page 624.)

The third sort, which, like the second, is found only in the Northern parts, seldom grows more than ten feet high, with small pinnated leaves, resembling those of some kind of fern; it bears no cabbage, but a plentiful crop of nuts, about the size of a large chestnut, but rounder. As the hulls of these were found scattered round the places where the Indians had made their fires it was taken for granted that they were fit to eat; however those who made the experiment paid dear for their knowledge to the contrary, for they operated both as an emetic and cathartic, with great violence: still however it was not doubted but they were eaten by the Indians, and, in order to determine this more clearly, they were carried to the hogs, who might be supposed to have a constitution as strong as the Indians, although the ship's people had not. The hogs ate them indeed, and for some time apparently without suffering any inconvenience, but in about a week they were so much disordered that two of them died; the rest were recovered with great difficulty. It is probable however that the poisonous quality of these nuts may lie in the juice, like that of the cassada of the West Indies, and that the pulp, when dried, may be not only wholesome but nutritious.

...

MODE OF RENDERING THEM INNOXIOUS.

The native women collect the nuts from the palms in the month of March, and, having placed them in some shallow pool of water, they leave them to soak for several days. When they have ascertained that the by-yu has been immersed in water for a sufficient time they dig, in a dry sandy place, holes which they call mor-dak; these holes are about the depth that a person's arms can reach, and one foot in diameter; they line them with rushes and fill them up with the nuts, over which they sprinkle a little sand, and then cover the holes nicely over with the tops of the grass-tree; in about a fortnight the pulp which encases the nut becomes quite dry, and it is then fit to eat, but if eaten before that it produces the effects already described. The natives eat this pulp both raw and roasted; in the latter state they taste quite as well as a chestnut. The process which these nuts undergo in the hands of the natives has no effect upon the kernel, which still acts both as a strong emetic and cathartic.

I have taken some trouble to ascertain if any traditional notion exists amongst the natives which would in any way account for their having first obtained a knowledge of the means by which they could render the deleterious pulp of the Zamia nut a useful article of food; but in this, as in all other similar instances, they are very unwilling to confess their ignorance of a thing, and rather than do so will often invent a tradition. Hence many intelligent persons have raised most absurd theories and have committed lamentable errors.

ROVING HABITS DEPENDANT ON FOOD.

The other kinds of food which I have mentioned on the list scarcely require a particular description. They are collected by the people as they rove from spot to spot, and are rather used as adjuncts to help out a meal than as staple articles of provision; several of them are however much liked by the natives, and they always regulate the visits to their hunting grounds so as to be at any part which plentifully produces a certain sort of food at the time this article is in full season: this roving habit produces a similar character in the kangaroos, emus, and other sorts of game which are never driven more from one part than from another. In fact they are kept in a constant state of movement from place to place; but directly a European settles down in the country his constant residence in one spot soon sends the animals away from it, and although he may in no other way interfere with the natives the mere circumstance of his residing there does the man on whose land he settles the injury of depriving him of his ordinary means of subsistence.

EDIBLE PRODUCTIONS VARY IN DIPFERENT DISTRICTS. COMMON RIGHTS IN CERTAIN FOOD.

If the land of any native is deficient in any particular article of food, such as, by-yu, mun-gyte (Banksia flowers) etc., he makes a point of visiting some neighbour whose property is productive in this particular article at the period in which it is in perfection; and there are even some tracts of land which abound in gum, kwon-nat, etc., which numerous families appear to have an acknowledged right to visit at the period of the year when this article is in season, although they are not allowed to come there at any other time. This is a curious point and might throw some further light upon the subject of their families or lines of descent.

It must be borne in mind that the articles of food I have enumerated in this chapter belong only to a particular district of about two hundred miles in extent, for every degree of latitude some articles would disappear from the list, whilst other new ones would enter into it. For instance on the north-west coast they eat a species of oyster (unio) the almonds of the pandanus, wild grapes, guavas, the excellent fruit of a species of capparis, and many other articles which are not known upon the south-west coast; but these are procured and cooked in the same manner as the articles which I have already enumerated. My object being merely to give such an outline as would enable the reader to understand well the mode of life of an Australian savage, I did not think such particular details necessary as I should have been led into, had I enumerated all the sorts of food which I have seen eaten by the natives in Australia.

CHAPTER 15. SONGS AND POETRY.

GENERAL PRACTICE OF SINGING. TRADITIONAL SONGS.

Like all other savage races the natives of Western Australia are very fond of singing and dancing: to a sulky old native his song is what a quid of tobacco is to a sailor; is he angry, he sings; is he glad, he sings; is he hungry, he sings; if he is full, provided he is not so full as to be in a state of stupor, he sings more lustily than ever; and it is the peculiar character of their songs which renders them under all circumstances so solacing to them. The songs are short, containing generally only one or two ideas, and are constantly repeated over and over again in a manner doubtless grating to the untutored ear of a European, but to one skilled in Australian music lulling and harmonious in the extreme, and producing much the same effect as the singing of a nurse does upon a child.

SONG OF AN OLD MAN IN WRATH. SCENE PRODUCED BY IT.

Nothing can give a better idea of the character of these people than their songs. In England an elderly gentleman, who has been at all put out of his way by encroachments and trespasses upon his property, sits over his fire in the evening, sipping his port and brooding over vengeance by means of the law; but the law is tortuous, expensive, and uncertain; his revenge is very distant from him; under these circumstances the more the elderly gentleman talks the more irate he becomes. Very different is the conduct of the elderly Australian gentleman. He comes to his hut at night in a towering passion; tucks his legs under him, and seats himself upon his heels before the fire; he calls to his wife for pieces of quartz and some dried kangaroo sinews, then forthwith begins sharpening and polishing his spears, and whilst thus occupied, sings to himself:

I'll spear his liver, I'll spear his lights, I'll spear his heart, I'll spear his thigh, etc. etc. etc.

After a while he pauses and examines the point he has been working at; it is very sharp, and he gives a grunt of satisfaction. His wives now chime in:

The wooden-headed, Bandy-legged, Thin-thighed fellows— The bone-rumped, Long-shinned, Thin-thighed fellows.

The old gentleman looks rather more murderous but withal more pleasant, and as he begins to sharpen his second spear he chants out:

I'll spear their liver, I'll spear their bowels, I'll spear their hearts, I'll spear their loins.

As he warms on the subject he ships his spear in the throwing-stick, quivers it in the air, and imitates rapidly the adventures of the fight of the coming day: then the recollections of the deeds of his youth rush through his mind; he changes his measure to a sort of recitative, and commences an account of some celebrated fray of bygone times; the children and young men crowd round from the neighbouring huts, the old gentleman becomes more and more vociferous, first he sticks his spear point under his arm and lies on his side to imitate a man dying, yet chanting away furiously all the time, then he grows still more animated, occasionally adjusting his spear with his throwing-stick and quivering it with a peculiar grace. The young women now come timidly up to see what is going on; little flirtations take place in the background, whereat the very elderly gentlemen with very young wives, whose dignity would be compromised by appearing to take an interest in passing events, and who have therefore remained seated in their own huts, wax jealous, and despatch their mothers and aged wives to look after the younger ladies. These venerable females have a dread of evil spirits, and consequently will not move from the fire without carrying a fire-stick in their hands; the bush is now dotted about with these little moving points of fire, all making for a common centre, at which are congregated old and young; jest follows jest, one peal of laughter rings close upon the heels of another, the elderly gentleman is loudly applauded by the bystanders, and, having fairly sung the wrath out of himself, he assists in getting up the dances and songs with which their evening terminates.

INFLUENCE OF THEIR SONGS.

Is a native afraid, he sings himself full of courage; in fact under all circumstances he finds aid and comfort from a song. Their songs are therefore naturally varied in their form; but they are all concise and convey in the simplest manner the most moving ideas: by a song or wild chant composed under the excitement of the moment the women irritate the men to acts of vengeance; and four or five mischievously inclined old women can soon stir up forty or fifty men to any deed of blood by means of their chants, which are accompanied by tears and groans, until the men are worked into a perfect state of frenzy.

NATIVE POETS.

A true poet in Australia is highly appreciated. Simple as their songs appear, there are in them many niceties which a European cannot detect; it is probable that what is most highly estimated by this people is that the cadence of the song, and the wild air to which it is chanted, should express well to their ideas the feelings and passions intended to predominate in the mind at the moment in which it is sung: hence we find that the compositions of some of these poets pass from family to family, and from district to district, until they have very probably traversed the whole continent; the natives themselves having at last no idea of the point where they originated, or of the meaning of the words which they sing, successive changes of dialect having so altered the song that probably not one of the original words remains; but they sing sounds analogous to these, to the proper air. And this is not confined to Western Australia, for Mr. Threlkeld, in his Australian Grammar,* says:

There are poets among them who compose songs which are sung and danced to by their own tribe in the first place, after which other tribes learn the song and dance, which itinerates from tribe to tribe throughout the country, until, from change of dialect, the very words are not understood by the blacks.

(*Footnote. Page 90.)

...

A family seldom make a distant friendly visit to other tribes, but they bring back a new song or two with them, and these, for a time, are quite as much the rage as a new fashionable song in England. Occasionally the songs also bear the name of the poet who composed them, though this is not often the case; there are however two or three poets in Australia who enjoy a great celebrity, but whether they are living, or belonged to ancient times, or whether they are merely imaginary beings I have never been able to discover.

DISREGARD OF EUROPEAN MUSIC. NATIVE OPINION OF EUROPEAN SINGING.

Their own songs are, according to their idea, the very perfection of harmony, rude and discordant as they are to our ears; perhaps no more extraordinary instance of the force of habit and diversity of taste than this could be advanced. A native sings joyously the most barbarous and savage sounds, which rend asunder the refined ears of the European, who turns away in agony from the discordant noise while the surrounding natives loudly applaud as soon as the singer has concluded. But should the astounded European endeavour to charm these wild men by one of his refined and elegant lays they would laugh at it as a combination of silly and effeminate notes, and for weeks afterwards entertain their distant friends, at their casual meetings, by mimicking the tone and attitude of the white man; an exhibition which never fails to draw down loud shouts of applause.

Some of the natives are not however insensible to the charms of our music. Warrup, a native youth who lived with me for several months as a servant, once accompanied me to an amateur theatre at Perth, and when the actors came forward and sang God save the Queen he burst into tears. He certainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and therefore must have been affected by the music alone.

ADAPTATION OF DANCES TO THEIR SONGS.

The only accompaniment to their songs used in the southern parts of the continent is the clapping of hands or the beating of a short round stick against the flat board with which they throw their spears; in this latter case the rounded stick is held in its centre, between the fingers and thumb of the right hand, and its ends are alternately struck against the flat board in such a manner as to produce a rude kind of music, in time to the air they are singing. Although this appears to be so very simple an instrument it requires some practice to beat the time accurately, and by young men who desire to have the reputation of being exquisites this is considered to be a very necessary accomplishment.

Some songs have a peculiar dance connected with them; this however is not always the case, and I have occasionally seen the same dance adapted to different songs.

Having given this general outline of their songs I will now add such a selection of them as will convey some idea of the character of their poetry, at the same time there is reason to believe that a good deal of it is traditional, and may date its origin from a very remote epoch. Some of their dances have also a very peculiar mystical character about them, and these they very unwillingly exhibit in the presence of Europeans.

The following is a very favourite song of the natives to the north of Perth; it is sung to a wild and plaintive air, and relates to some action of a native who lived in that part of the continent, of the name of Warbunga. A little boy, a descendant of his, is still living, who bears the same name.

SPECIMENS OF SONGS. EXAMPLES OF SONGS FOR VARIOUS OCCASIONS.

Kad-ju bar-dook, War-bung-a-loo, War-bung-a-loo. Kad-ju bar-dook, War-bung-a-loo, War-bung-a-loo, War-bung-a-loo.

They then commence again, constantly repeating these words in the same order.

TRANSLATION.

Thy hatchet is near thee, Oh Warbunga, Oh Warbunga. Thy hatchet is near thee, Warbunga-ho, Warbunga-ho, Warbunga-ho.

A favourite song of the natives in the district of the Murray in Western Australia is:

Kar-ro yool, i, yool-a! Kar-ro yool, i, yool-a! etc. etc. etc.

And these words they go on singing for an hour together, in the event of the absence of any of their relatives or friends upon a hunting or war excursion.

TRANSLATION.

Return hither, hither ho! Return hither, hither ho!

The following is a very good specimen of one of their comic songs. It is often sung by the natives in the vicinity of King George's Sound.

Mat-ta, mat-ta, Yungore bya, Mat-ta, mat-ta, Yungore bya, etc. etc. etc.

TRANSLATION.

Oh what legs, oh what legs, The Kangaroo-rumped fellows, Oh what legs, oh what legs, etc. etc. etc.

FUNERAL CHANT.

Nothing can awake in the breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages and the effect produced upon the bystanders by this wild music is indescribable. I will give one chant which I have heard sung upon several occasions.

The young women sing: Kar-dang. The old women sing: Mam-mul. Together: gar-ro. Me-la nad-jo Nung-a-broo. Kar-dang. Mam-mul. Together: gar-ro. Me-la nad-jo Nung-a-broo. etc. etc. etc.

TRANSLATION.

My young brother My young son (again) In future shall I never see. My young brother My young son (again) In future shall I never see.

WAR-CHANTS. INFLUENCE OF SONGS IN ROUSING THE ANGRY PASSIONS OF THE MEN.

In this chant the old and young women respectively sing "my young son," and, "my young brother:" the metre and rhyme are also very carefully preserved, and the word Kardang is evidently expressly selected for this purpose; for were they speaking in prose they would use a term denoting eldest brother, youngest brother, second brother, or some similar one; whilst I have heard the word Kardang always used in this chant whether the deceased was the first, second, or third brother.

The men have also certain war-chants or songs; these they sing as they go walking rapidly to and fro, quivering their spears in order to work themselves up into a passion. The following is a very common one:

Yu-do dan-na, Nan-do dan-na, My-eree dan-na, Goor-doo dan-na, Boon-gal-la dan-na, Gonog-o dan-na, Dow-al dan-na, Nar-ra dan-na. etc. etc. etc.

TRANSLATION.

Spear his forehead, Spear his breast, Spear his liver, Spear his heart, Spear his loins, Spear his shoulder, Spear his thigh, Spear his ribs, etc. etc. etc.

Thus rapidly enumerating all the parts in which they intend to strike their enemies.

It is very rarely that any remarkable circumstance occurs but songs are composed in order to perpetuate the remembrance of it. For example, when Miago, the first native who ever quitted Perth, was taken away in H.M. surveying vessel Beagle in 1838, the following song was composed by a native and was constantly sung by his mother (at least so she says) during his absence, and it has ever since been a great favourite:

Ship bal win-jal bat-tar-dal gool-an-een, Ship bal win-jal bat-tar-dal gool-an-een. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Whither is that lone ship wandering, Whither is that lone ship wandering, etc. etc. etc. etc.

Again, on Miago's safe return, the song given below was composed by a native after he had heard Miago recount his adventures:

Kan-de maar-o, kan-de maar-a-lo, Tsail-o mar-ra, tsail-o mar-ra-lo. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Unsteadily shifts the wind-o, unsteadily shifts the wind-o, The sails-o handle, the sails-o handle-ho.

I will now add several other songs which are composed in different dialects; these will serve both as examples of their metre and style of poetry and as specimens for the purpose of comparison with the songs of the natives of the other portions of the continent.

Number 1.

One voice: Djal-lee-lee-na.

Chorus: Mong-a-da, mong-a-da, Mong-a-da, mong-a-da, Mong-a-da, mong-a-da.

One voice: Eee-dal-lee-na.

Chorus: Wun-a-da, wun-a-da, Wun-a-da, wun-a-da, Wun-a-da, wun-a-da. etc. etc. etc.

They all join in the chorus of:

Mong-a-da, etc. etc. Wun-a-da, etc. etc.

And clap their hands in time to the air to which this chorus is sung, so that the effect produced is very good. I am unable to render this song into English.

Number 2.

Dow-al nid-ja kotiay bool-a, Woor-ar wur-rang-een, Dow-al nid-ja kotiay bool-a, Woor-ar wur-rang-een Dow-al nid-ja kotiay bool-a, Woor-ar wur-rang-een.

These lines are repeated three times more, and then follows the chorus:

Chorus: Ban-yee wur-rang-een, Koong-arree, wur-rang-een, Ban-yee wur-rang-een, Koong-arree, war-rang-een. etc. etc. etc.

Number 3.

Kat-ta ga-roo, Ngia Bur-na-ri-noo. Yar-dig-o-roo, Ngia Bur-na-ri-noo. etc. etc. etc.

Number 4.

Yerib-a-balo, may-il boyne ga-ree, Yerib-a-balo, may-il boyne ga-ree. etc. etc. etc.

Number 5.

Mar-ra boor-ba, boor-ba nung-a, Mar-ra gul-ga, gul-ga nung-a.

SONGS AND EXTEMPORANEOUS CHANTS.

These songs give however no idea of the manner in which they chant forth their feelings. When irritated by any passionate emotions they then pour out with the greatest volubility torrents of reproach, all in a measured cadence and with at least the same number of syllables in each line, but even the rhyme is generally preserved; the two following translations of chants of this sort are rendered as literally into English as the great difference between the languages permits.

CHANTS OF JEALOUSY AND REPROACH.

The reader must imagine a little hut, formed of sticks fixed slanting into the ground with pieces of bark resting against them, so as to form a rude shelter from the wind; underneath this were seated round a fire five persons—an old man, and his four wives; one of these was considerably younger than the others, and being a new acquisition, all but herself were treated with cold neglect. One of her rivals had resolved not to submit patiently to this, and when she saw her husband's cloak spread to form a couch for the newcomer she commenced chanting as follows, addressing old Weer-ang her husband:

Wherefore came you, Weerang, In my beauty's pride, Stealing cautiously Like the tawny boreang,* On an unwilling bride. 'Twas thus you stole me From one who loved me tenderly: A better man he was than thee, Who having forced me thus to wed, Now so oft deserts my bed.

Yang, yang, yang, yoh—

Oh where is he who won My youthful heart, Who oft used to bless, And call me loved one: You Weerang tore apart, From his fond caress, Her, whom you now desert and shun; Out upon thee faithless one: Oh may the Boyl-yas** bite and tear, Her, whom you take your bed to share.

Yang, yang, yang, yoh—

Wherefore does she slumber Upon thy breast, Once again to-night, Whilst I must number Hours of sad unrest, And broken plight. Is it for this that I rebuke Young men, who dare at me to look? Whilst she, replete with arts and wiles, Dishonours you and still beguiles.

(*Footnote. Boreang is the word for a male native dog.)

(**Footnote. Boyl-ya is the native name for a sorcerer.)

This attack upon her character was more than the younger female could be expected to submit to, she therefore in return chanted:

Oh, you lying, artful one, Wag away your dirty tongue, I have watched your tell-tale eyes, Beaming love without disguise: I've seen young Imbat nod and wink, Oftener perhaps than you may think.

What further she might have said I know not; but a blow upon the head from her rival, which was given with the stick the women dig up the roots with, brought on a general engagement, and the dispute was finally settled by the husband beating several of his wives severely about the head with a hammer.

The ferocity of the women when they are excited exceeds that of the men; they deal dreadful blows at one another with their long sticks, and if ever the husband is about to spear or beat one of his wives the others are certain to set on her and treat her with great inhumanity.

CHANT EXCITING TO REVENGE.

The next translation is that of a chant sung by an old woman to incite the men to avenge the death of a young man who died from a natural cause, but whose death she attributed to witchcraft and sorcery; the natives, who listened to her attentively, called her chanting goranween, or abusing. She stood with her legs wide apart, waving her wanna, or long digging stick in the air, and rocking her body to and fro, whilst her kangaroo-skin cloak floated behind her in the wind. She was thus quite the beau ideal of a witch. The following is the sense of the words she used, at least as nearly as it is possible to express their force and meaning in English.

The blear-eyed sorcerers of the north, Their vile enchantments sung and wove, And in the night they issued forth, A direful people-eating drove. Feasting on our loved one, With gore-dripping teeth and tongue, The wretches sat, and gnawed, and ate, Whilst their victim soundly slept.

Yho, yang, yho yang, yang yho.

Aye—unconsciously he rested In a slumber too profound; The vile boyl-yas sat and feasted On the victim they had bound In resistless lethargy. Mooli-go, our dear young brother, Where is another like to thee? Tenderly loved by thy mother, We again shall never see Mooli-go, our dear young brother,

Yho, yang yho, ho, ho.

Men, who ever bold have been, Are your long spears sharpened well? Is the keen quartz fixed anew? Let each shaft upon them tell. Poise your meer-ros long and true: Let the kileys whiz and whirl In strange contortions through the air; Heavy dow-uks at them hurl; Shout the yell they dread to hear. Let the young men leap on high, To avoid the quivering spear; Light of limb, and quick of eye, Who sees well has nought to fear. Let them shift, and let them leap, When the quick spear whistling flies; Woe to him who cannot leap! Woe to him who has bad eyes!

FEMALE ENERGY IN CHANTING.

When one of these old hags has entered upon a chant of this kind nothing but complete exhaustion induces her to stop, and the instant she pauses another takes up the burden of her song. The effect some of them produce upon the assembled men is very great; in fact these addresses of the old women are the cause of most of the disturbances which take place. The above translations, without being exactly literal, are as near the original as I could render them. As they are entirely uttered on the spur of the moment there is generally abundant evidence of passion and feeling about them; and although I might have added a great variety, I think that the above will give the English reader as good an idea of the peculiar mode of address of this people as it is in my power to do.

CHAPTER 16. FUNERAL CEREMONIES, SUPERSTITIONS, AND REMARKABLE CUSTOMS.

DEATH AND BURIAL OF A NATIVE NEAR PERTH.

Friday June 14 1839.

Yenna came to me this afternoon to tell me that Mulligo was now so ill there was but little chance of his living for many hours longer, and further to request that I would accompany him to see the sufferer. Nearly two months had elapsed since Mulligo had severely injured his spine by a fall from a tree; and immediately after the occurrence of this accident he had completely lost the use of his lower extremities, and had day by day declined until he was now reduced to a perfect skeleton. I was therefore but little surprised at the intelligence which Yenna brought me; and as I was anxious to see the ceremonies that would accompany his last moments I at once started for the native encampment.

CONTENTION FOR MULLIGO'S WIDOWS.

Mulligo was a Ngotak and had two wives, Kokoobung and Mugarwit, both of the Ballaroke family, and neither of them deficient either in youth, or in such personal charms as find favour in the eyes of the natives. I anticipated therefore that from some quarter or the other objections would be raised to allowing Miago, the uterine brother of Mulligo (and therefore also a Ngotak) to carry off unmolested two such attractive young widows. According to native custom however they of right, upon their husband's death, became the wives of Miago.

On approaching the point where Mulligo was lying, distant about a mile from Perth, I found that my anticipations were correct. I fell in with the encampment of the friends of a native named Bennyyowlee, of the Tdondarup family. This native had signified his intention of asserting his claims to the possession of one of these young women, and even some of Miago's friends were disposed to favour him. Bennyyowlee was absent at the Canning River with a party of natives for the purpose of procuring spears, and thus preparing himself for coming events. His friends however had constructed their huts within a few hundred yards of those of Mulligo's relatives, so that in the event of the arrival of the Murraymen, who they were apprehensive would make an attempt to carry off Mulligo's wives, they might be able to assist Miago in his endeavours to prevent such an outrage, whilst at the same time their proximity to his party enabled them to see that no foul play took place.

As I passed them they endeavoured to impress upon my mind that one wife was enough for Miago, and that if he surrendered the other to Bennyyowlee they would assist him against the Murraymen. I however resolved not to interfere in the business, and thus telling them I bent my steps to the other encampment.

DYING SCENE IN HIS TENT.

On my arrival I found poor Mulligo sinking fast; his two wives and his mother were watching by his side. He just recognised me, and faintly and slowly said, "men-dyke boola nganya" (I am very ill.) The native women near him were much alarmed because he could not swallow, and to support him were slowly dropping water into his ear. His last moment was evidently near at hand, and, after having felt his pulse and paid him a few little attentions, which always gratify them much, I turned away to examine the dispositions of the encampment.

I found that Miago's hut was close to Mulligo's, and he himself was present, ready to assert his right to the wives of his dying brother should anyone appear to dispute his claims; he was evidently well supported, for the Nagarnook family mustered strong around his hut, and the two half-brothers of one of the ladies in dispute were members of it. Weyup, the half-brother of the other native girl, was also present, and therefore evidently favoured Miago's cause. They were all in anxious expectation of the return of Moorroongo, who had gone off with a party for the purpose of cutting spears, with which the friends of his stepson (Miago) might be able to act either offensively or defensively as circumstances should require. As I conceived that there was every possibility of Mulligo's having sufficient strength left to linger through the night, and as the evening was fast closing in, after a little casual conversation with the natives I returned home.

MOURNING WOMEN. THEIR SONGS AND CEREMONIES.

June 15.

Soon after daybreak I reached the entrance of Mulligo's hut: he was alive but his respiration was scarcely visible. His head rested on his mother's knees, and her withered breasts now rested on his lips as she leant crying over him; other women were seated round, their heads all verging to a common centre over the wasted frame of the dying man; they were crying bitterly and scratching their cheeks, foreheads, and noses with their nails until the blood trickled slowly from the wounds. The men in the front of the huts were busied in finishing off their spears, ready for the coming fight.

I stood for some time watching the mournful scene, but other native females soon began to arrive; they came up in small parties, generally by threes, marching slowly forward with their wan-nas (a long stick they use for digging up roots) in their hands; the eldest female walked first, and when they approached within about thirty or forty yards of the hut in which the dying man lay they raised the most piteous cries, and, hurrying their pace, moved rapidly towards the point where the other women were seated, recalling the custom alluded to by Jeremiah (9:17, 18) Call for the wailing women that they may come, and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.