UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
THE
ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
NOTES RELATING TO THE HABITS
^atiui^jj 4 oilm |);irtj) 4 glujitniliii itnd 3;^afim;iniit»
COUPILED FBOU VARIOUS BOUBCES FOB
THE GOVERNMENT OF VICTORIA
E. BEOUCIH S3ITTH,
F.L.S., F.G.S., ASSOC. INST. C.E., MEM. GEO. SOC. OP PRAKCE, HON. CORK. MEM. SOC. OF ARTS AXD
SCIENCES OP UIKECHT, BOSTON SOC. OP NAT. HIST., ISIS SOC. OF DKESDEX,
ETC., ETC., ETC.
VOL.
Be iautfioviti):
JOHN FERRES, GOVERNMEXT PRINTER.
PUBLISHED ALSO BT GEORGE ROBERTSOJI, LITTLE COLLINS STREET, UELBOUBirE.
LONDON :
TEUBXEE AND CO., 57 AND 59 LUDOATE HILL ; AND GEORGE ROBERTSON,
17 WARWICK SQUARE.
AST'S.
VbSlo
V. I
Melbourne, 13th November 1876.
Sir,
I have the honor to lay before you the work I have compiled
on the Habits of the Aboriginal Natives of Victoria.
It is not altogether confined to this colony. There is much
in it that treats of the customs observed in other parts of Australia,
and some information respecting the race that formerly inhabited
Tasmania.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
E. BROUGH SMYTH.
The Honorable John A. MacPherson, M.P.,
Chief Secretary, &c., &c.
47TG14
LIB SETS
PREFACE.
Thk character of the following work requires that I should mention the
circumstances under which I undertook the compilation of it.
When, sixteen years ago, I was appointed Secretary of the Board for
the Protection of the Aborigines, it seemed to me to be my duty to collect
information respecting the customs of the people who had formerly owned
the soil of Australia, and to make accurate drawings of their weapons and
ornaments. I did not know then that I was commencing a work which
would engage all my leisure for many years, and entail upon me a large
amount of labor in correspondence alone. I had no idea, indeed, in the
beginning, that the work would be a large one ; but even if it had been
possible to have foreseen that, and to have anticipated the difficulties
I have had to contend with in tracing various customs from one point
to another, and in verifying by a number of examples statements that,
unsupjiorted, appeared at the first view highly improbable — still I should,
on account of the interest of the questions that presented themselves, and
from a sense of duty, have labored earnestly in performing the task.
For the proper and efficient treatment of such subjects as I have attempted
to deal with, the mind should be wholly devoted to the consideration of
them — unembarrassed by other onerous duties — or fi-ee, at least, from the
anxieties that are inseparable from an official position in a new country.
And this compilation should be judged rather as a series of sketches, written
in such intervals of time as were available, than as a scientific work pre-
tending to completeness.
All that I have done in connection with it is founded on information
furnished by gentlemen who have had frequent and favorable opportunities
of observing the habits of the natives. WTieu I commenced to figure and
describe the native weapons, I asked the late Mr. William Thomas, who had
held the office of Protector or Guardian of Aborigines for nearly twenty-
VI PEEFACE.
five years, to write down under separate heads all that was known to
him respecting the Aborigines ; and thus have been preserved numerous
interesting facts that would otherwise have been lost. Tlie Rev. Jolin
Bulmer, Superintendent of the Aboriginal Station at Lake Tyers in Gipps-
land, has contributed many valuable papers, and has constantly assisted me,
and has made special enquiries into various questions, whenever he has been
asked, with a kindness and alacrity which deserve my warmest thanks. Mr.
John Green, for many years Superintendent of the Station at Coranderrk,
has also furnished a number of papers, and obtained many facts of singular
value. He has always responded to every application made to him. The
late Dr. Gummow, who was resident on the Lower Murray for some time,
favored me with much help, and undertook investigations that few but himself
could have made with success.
Mr. Alfred W. Howitt, F.G.S., "Warden and Police Magistrate at Bairns-
dale in Gijipsland, has not only undertaken the compilation of several
jiapers, but has been in constant correspondence with me in reference to
the habits of the natives, and has always taken the warmest interest in this
work from the very first. His notes on the Aborigines of Cooper's Creek,
and his paper on the System of Consanguinity and Kinship of the Brabrolong
tribe — which is but a fragment of a more extensive work that, jointly with the
Rev. Lorimer Fison, he was to have prepared — are contributions to science
that will necessarily be highly valued by ethnologists.
Mr. Philip Chauncy's notes and anecdotes relate to many important
subjects ; and as this gentleman has had jierhaps as large an experience of
the native character as any one now living, his remarks are entitled to great
weight. He has written a thoughtful and valuable paper ; and I esteem
myself singularly fortunate in having perhaps by my efforts to preserve
some remnants of the history of the Australians secured his co-operation.
Mr. Albert A. C. Le Souef has recorded some of the many curious facts
observed by him during the long period he has resided amongst the natives ;
and he has likewise furnished information respecting the weapons in use
in various parts of the continent.
From the late Mr. John Moore Davis, who was well acquainted with the
habits of the Aborigines of the southern parts of Australia, I received a
paper containing accounts of events that transpired in the early times of
the settlements. Mr. Davis was remarkably well informed on all the
PREFACE. VU
subjects referred to in his paper, and he voluntarily gave up much of his
time in preparing his sketches for this work.
The Rev. William Ridley, M.A., of Sydney, whose name is foremost
amongst those connected with Australian philological researches, has, with
extreme kindness, contributed a paper in which he relates a few of the most
remarkable traditions that have come under his observation — selecting, as he
informs me in a letter, those that seem most emphatically to silence the
long-current assumption that the Aborigines of Australia are a race destitute
of all ideas concerning the unseen world and of all imagination and hope. No
one who has perused the published works of the learned author of the paper
which appears in this compilation will need to be reminded that he is the
highest authority in Australia on all matters that relate to the Aboriginal
natives.
I have received ready assistance also from the Rev. F. A. Hagenauer,
the Superintendent of the Aboriginal Station at Lake Wellington in Gipps-
land ; the Rev. A. Hartmann, the Rev. F. W. Spieseke, and the Rev. Horatio
Ellermann, of Lake Hindmarsh ; the Rev. Amos Brazier and Mr. Joseph
Shaw, of Lake Condah ; Mr. H. B. Lane, of Warrnambool ; Mr. Goodall,
the Superintendent of the Aboriginal Station at Framlingham ; Mr. Charles
Gray, of Nareeb Nareeb ; Mr. J. A. Panton, Police Magistrate and Warden
at Geelong ; the late Mr. W. H. Wright, Sheriff; the late Mr. A. F. A.
Greeves and Mr. M. Hervey ; Mr. N. Munro ; the Rev. H. P. Kane ; Mr.
A. Sullivan, of BuUoo Downs ; Mr. Alfred Telo, Mr. Sydenham Bowden ; Mr.
F. M. Kraus6, Mr. Reginald A. F. Murray, and Mr. Norman Taylor, Geolo-
gical Surveyors in Victoria ; the Honorable Frederick Barlee, M.P., Colonial
Secretary in West Australia ; Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, Geological Surveyor ;
Mr. George Bridgman, of Gooneenberry, Mackay, Queensland ; the Rev. S.
McFarlane, New Guinea Mission, of Somerset, Cape York ; Capt. Cadell ;
Mr. W. E. Stanbridge, Daylesford ; Mr. F. M. Hughan ; Mr. John W. Amos,
Surveyor; Mr. J. Cosmo Newbery, B.Sc; Mr. Suetonius H. Officer, Murray
Downs ; Mr. Ronald Gunn, F.R.S., Launceston ; Mr. Hugh M. Hull, Clerk of
the House of Assembly, Hobart Town ; Mr. J. W. Agnew, Hon. Sec. of the
Royal Society of Tasmania; Miss E. M. a'Beckett, who was so good as to
make a drawing of a characteristic Tasmanian plant ; and others whose
names are mentioned in the work.
In conclusion, I have to refer to the great help and encouragement I
have received from Professor McCoy, of the Melbourne University, who has
VUl PEEFACE.
taken much trouble with the papers that have been sent to him from time
to time, and has constantly assisted me with his advice. It is impossible
for me to say how deeply I am indebted to him.
The Honorable John Madden, LL.D., M.P., Minister of Justice, has very
kindly lent aid whenever I have had to make demands on his time.
Baron von Mueller, C.M.G., the Government Botanist, has furnished in-
formation respecting the vegetation of the colony, and has made suggestions,
also, in relation to other researches.
My obligations to Professor Halford, of the Melbourne University, are
very great. His notes containing the results of his examination of the
skulls of the natives are especially interesting.
Mr. G. H. F. Ulrich, F.G.S., was good enough to examine the stone
implements, and I was glad to avail myself of his assistance, because of
his accurate knowledge and large experience as a mineralogist.
Lastly, my thanks are especially due to Mr. John Ferres, the Govern-
ment Printer, whose high attainments are already everywhere acknowledged ;
to Major Richard Shepherd, for the care and skill bestowed by him in pre-
paring the greater number of the drawings ; and to Mr. F. Grosse, the
engraver, for the like attention given to the drawings and the wood-cuts.
Melbourne, 13th November 1876.
CONTENTS.-YOL. I.
Letteb to the Honobable the Chief Seobetxbt.
Pbefacb ...........v
List op Illustrations .-.-..... xiii
Intboduction .---.-.---- xvii
Physical Chabacter. — Height, weight, and size. — Color. — Hair. — Odour. — Senses. —
Physical powers. — Use of feet and toes. — Portraits of natives — Victoria and Queens-
land — Tasmanian — Malayo-Polynesians — Chinese. — Natives of Australia generally. —
Half-castes ....--..-.1
Mental Character. — Capacity and faculties. — Thomas Bungeleen. — Bennilong. — Treat-
ment of whites. — Fidelity. — Courage. — Modes of expressing defiance and contempt.
— Modesty. — Affections ---------22
Numbers and Distribution op the Aborigines. — Estimate made by Sir Thomas
Mitchell — By Mr. E. S. Parker — By Mr. Wm. Thomas. — Numbers in the Counties of
Bourke, Evelyn, and Mornington. — Character of the country inhabited by the natives.
— Available area. — The tribes of the river-basins. — New estimate of the numbers. —
Natives seen by Landsborough. — Difficulty of estimating the numbers seen in the
bush. — Map showing the areas occupied by tribes. — Names of " petty nations" and
tribes. — Number and distribution of natives in 1863 and subsequently. — Number
now living. — Number collected at the several Aboriginal stations - - - 31
Birth and Education op Children. — Birth. — Behaviour towards the mother. — Treatment
of the infant. — Mode of carrying children. — Nurture. — Procuring food.— Swimming.
— Education. — Sports. — Toys. — Natives aflfectionate and gentle in their treatment
of children. — No artificial means used to alter the form of the body of a child. —
Infanticide. — Naming children. — Coming of age of yoimg men and young women
— Ceremonies in various parts of Australia — Tib-but — Murrum Tur-uk-ur-uk —
Jerryale. — Upper Yarra natives. — Lake Tyers. — The Narrinyeri. — Port Lincoln. —
New South Wales. — Macleay and Nambucca. — Circumcision - - - - 46
Marriage. — Obtaining wives. — Betrothals. — Early marriages.— Elopements — The ordeal.
— Condition of a young unmarried man. — Fights. — Maiming the bride. — How matches
are made. — Barter. — Meeting of the young man and the young women. — Promiscuous
Intercourse not common. — Exogamy. — Classes in Victoria — In South Australia. —
Children take the family name of the mother. — A man may not marry a woman of
his own class. — Classes at Port Lincoln — In West Australia — In New South Wales
— At Port Essington. — Investigations of Fison and Howitt. — Morgan's theories
respecting laws of marriage and systems of consanguinity — Bridgman's statements
as to the system in Queensland — Stewart's account of that in force at Mount
Gambler — Effect of the prohibitions. — Latham's remarks on these laws. — Streze-
lecki's theory respecting curtailment of power of continuing the species under
certain circumstances — Its fallacy exposed. — Statements of Hartmann, Green, and
Hagenauer. — A man may not see or speak to his mother-in-law. — Behayiour towards
widows. — Marriages of black men with white women - • . - - 76
V^ b
^ CONTEXTS.
FAOI
Death, and Bukial of the Dead. — Carrying the remains of a dead child. — Various
modes of disposing of the dead. — A dying native. — Behaviour of the natives. —
Death. — Preparation of the body for interment. — Inquest. — Belief in sorcery. —
Interment. — Mourning. — The grave. — The widow watching the grave. — Death of a
black after sunset. — Revenge. — Burning the bodies of the dead. — Placing bodies in
the hollows of trees. — Practices of the Goulburn tribes. — Modes of disposing of the
g.j dead on the Lower Murray — Stanbridge's account. — Burial ceremonies of the
Narrinyeri — Of the Encounter Bay tribe — Of the Port Lincoln tribe — Of the West
Australian blacks— Of the Cooper's Creek tribes — Of the Fraser Island (Queensland)
tribes. — Modes of burial of other uncivilized races - - - - - 98
A Natite Encampment and the Daily Life op the Natives. — Travelling. — Cutting
bark. — Erection of miams. — Arrangement of camps. — Cooking and eating. —
Government of a camp. — Duties of the head of a family. — Domestic affairs. —
Punishment of offences. — Messengers. — Visitors. — Welcoming friends. — Great
gathering of natives at the Merri Creek. — Respect paid to aged persons. — Kul-ler-
kul-lup and Billibillari. — Influence of old men in the camp. — Principal woman of
the Colac tribe. — Good haters. — Their affection for their friends. — Bun-ger ring. —
King-er-ra^noul. — King Benbow. — Life during the four seasons. — Natives not always
improvident. — Property in land. — Personal rights. — Dogs. — Climbing trees. —
Signalling. — Swearing amity. — Fights. — Conveying a challenge. — Dances. — Games
and amusements. — An encampment at night. — Traffic amongst the tribes - - 123
Food. — Hunting the kangaroo. — The opossum. — The wombat. — The native bear. — The
bandicoot. — The porcupine. — The native dog. — The native cat. — Squirrels. — Bats. —
Smaller marsupials. — The emu. — The turkey. — The native companion. — Ducks and
other wild-fowl. — Parrots. — Snaring small birds. — Catching crows. — The turtle. —
Reptiles. — Catching fish. — Shell-fish. — Bees. — Pupse of ants. — Grubs. — Eggs. —
Vegetable food. — Vegetables that are commonly eaten in various parts of Australia.
— Drinks. — Manna. — List of vegetables usually eaten by the natives of Victoria. —
Seeds and grinding seeds.— Compungya. — Berries. — Nuts. — Nardoo. — Geebung. —
Five-corners. — Nonda. — Bunya-bunya. — Water-yielding trees. — Narcotics. — Food of
the natives of Cooper's Creek. — Vegetable food of the natives of the North-East. —
Forbidden food. — Mirrn-yongs. — Shell-mounds. — Stone-shelters. — Cannibalism. —
The habits of animals as related by the natives - - - - - 183
Diseases. — Ophthalmia. — Small-pox. — Diseases affecting the natives prior to the advent
of the whites. — Native doctors and their methods of treating diseases. — Reports of
Thomas and Goodwin on the diseases of the natives . . . - . 253
Dress and Personal Ornaments. — Dress and ornaments of the natives of the Yarra —
Of Gippsland — Of the Lower Murray — Of the natives of North-East Australia —
Of the Dieyerie tribe .-...--.. 270
Obnamektation. — Character of the ornamentation of shields and other weapons in
Victoria and other parts of AustraHa. — Pictures on bark. — Design for a tomb-stone.
— Ornamentation of opossum rugs. — Pictures in caves. — Pictures on rocks. — Depuch
Island. — Colors used. — Raised cicatrices. — Comparison of designs of Australians with
those of the natives of New Guinea, Fiji, and New Zealand • . . . 283
Offensive We.vpons. — Clubs — Kud-jee-run — Kul-luk — Warra-warra — Leon-ile — Kon-
nung — Bittergan. — Spears — Mongile — Nandum — Tir-rer— Koanie ^ Gow-dalie —
Worme-goram — Ugie-koanie — Koy-yun. — Spears with stone heads. — Womerah or
Gur-reek used for throwing spears. — Throw-sticks — Wonguim — Barn-geet — Li-lil —
Quirriang-au-wun. — Various weapons compared. — Boomerangs which return and
those which do not return. — Characteristics of the boomerang which returns to the
thrower— Its axes. — Errors made in experimenting with throw-sticks. — Egyptian
boomerang. — The hunga munga. — The trombash. — The es-sellem. — New boomerang.
— Ferguson on the cateia. — Ornamented boomerangs - . . . . 299
CONTENTS. XI
PAOE
Defeksive Weapons. — Shields — Mulga — Gee-am — Goolmarry. — Shields in use at Rock-
ingham Bay ---------- 330
Weapoks axd Implements op the West Austealians. — ^Kylie. — The gid-jee and other
spears. — The meero. — The woonda or wooden shield. — The kadjo or stone hammer. —
The stone chisel.— The meat-cutter. — The scoop or spade. — Other implements - 335
Implejibnts and Manttfaotcbes. — Bags and baskets. — Wooden vessels for holding water.
— Skins. — Skull drinking cup. — Bark vessels. — Shells. — Tool for scraping. — Tool
for carving. — Awls and nails. — The kan-nan. — The nerum. — The weet-weet. —
Corrobboree-sticks. — Message-sticks ------- 342
Stone Implements. — Hatchets. — Kocks used. — Quarries. — Palasolithic and Neolithic
periods. — Old axes and chips and flakes found in the soil — Axes not found in the
alluvia. — Figures and descriptions of stone tomahawks. — Axe found on Pitcairn's
Island. — Uses of the tomahawk. — Chisels and knives. — New Zealand axe. — Chips
for spears — For scarring the flesh — For skins and for scraping, &c. — Stones for
pounding and grinding seeds. — Sharpening-stones. — Stones used in fishing. — Stones
used in basket-making. — Sacred stones ...... 357
Nets and Fish-hooks. — Large net. — Hand-net, — Fibres used in making nets. — ^Fish-hooks 388
Methods of Peoducikg Fike. — Twirling the upright stick. — Rubbing across a crack with
the wooden knife. — Methods of producing fire in various parts of the world. — Holy
fires of the Germanic races. — Witchcraft. — Fire produced accidentally. — Volcanoes - 393
Canoes. — Bark canoes of the Victorian natives. — How propelled. — Cutting bark for canoes.
— Trees yielding bark suitable for making canoes. — Numbers carried in canoes of
various sizes. — Natives fishing from canoes. — Statements relating to the canoes in
use in various parts of Australia ...-.-- 407
Myths. — Pundjel.— The first men. — The first women. — The dispersionof mankind.— Death.
— The man with a tail. — Origin of the sea. — How water was first obtained — The
Bun. — The moon. — The sun, the moon, and the stars. — Native names of and tales
respecting the sun, the moon, and the stars. — The bun-yip. — Myndie. — Kur-bo-roo. —
Mirram and Warreen. — Boor-a meel. — The emu and the crow. — The eagle, the
mopoke, and the crow. — Mornmoot-buUarto mommoot. — Loo-errn. — Wiwon-
der-rer. — Buk-ker-til-lible. — The River Murray. — Nrung-a-narguna. — Kootchee. —
Fire — How Fire was first obtained. — Priests and sorcerers. — Marm-bu-la. — Bowkan,
Brewin, and Bullundoot. — Aboriginal legend of a deluge. — The Port Albert frog. —
How the blackf ellows lost and regained fire. — The native dog. — The history of
Bolgan ----- 423
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS -VOL. I.
A CoKEOBBOREE (Frontispiece).
PIOS
Natives of Gippsland .......--9
Natives of different parts of Victoria ....-- 9
A full-blooded black (male) 10
A full-blooded black (female) - - - - -"- - 10
Natives of Queensland - - - - - - - - -II
Native of Tasmania --------- 12
Maories -----------13
Native of Cook or Hervey's Group ------- 14
Native of China .---..-.--15
Diagram — Marriages in New Norcia ------- 88
Native dogs ..-.-.---. 150
Climbing a tree at Twofold Bay - - - - - - - 151
Climbing a tree in Queensland -------- 152
Per-bo-re-gan - - - - - - - - - 176
Turkey snare - - - - - - - - - -192
Nardoo plant ---------- 217
Fruit of Bunya-bunya - - - - - - - - -218
A weir -.---_--.- 234
Miuri-guile - - - - - - - - - -271
Til-bur-nin 272
Mar-rung-nul -..---.--- 276
Moolong-nyeerd --------- 276
Ni-yeerd 277
Necklace of teeth --------- 278
Necklace of reeds -..--.--- 278
Necklace with pendant .-.-..-- 279
Ngungy-ngungy ----..----279
Carre-la - 279
Oogee ----------- 280
Patterns adopted in ornamenting weapons, &c. - . - - . 284-285
Representation of the human figure ....-.- 285
Copy of a picture on bark ---..... 287
A tomb-board -------..- 288
Figure of a reptile ---.--... 288
Marks on figures in caves -------- 290
Figures of animals on rocks on Depuch Island ----- 293
Patterns adopted in scarring the body ------- 295
Forms of ornamentation in New Guinea ------ 296
Forms of ornamentation in New Zealand ------ 297
Forms of ornamentation iu Fiji -.-.-.. 297
XIV ILLUSTRATIONS.
VAOB
Marks on Fijian pottery ........ 298
KTid-jer-oong .......... 299
Curved sticks or clubs, Tliebes ....... 299
Various forms of clubs .-...-... 300
Kul-luk .......... 301
Worra-worra .......... 301
Lcon-ile .......... 302
Waddy, Cooper's Creek - - - - . - - -■- 302
Kon-nung .......... 302
Meero, Queensland ......... 302
Bittcrgan, Queensland ........ 303
Sword, Rockingham Bay ......... 303
MongUe, barbed with chips of basalt ...... 304
Mongile, with barbs of wood ........ 804
Barbed spear .......... 304
"Various forms of the Nandum ........ 305
Keed-spear .......... 305
Fishing spears .......... 306
Ujie-koanie .......... 307
Tir-rer ........... 307
Koy.yun .......... 307
Barbed spear, Central Australia ........ 308
Stone-headed spear, North Australia ...... 308
Paddle-shaped club. North Australia ....... 308
Stone-headed spear ......... 309
Various forms of the Kur-ruk or Throwing-stick ..... 309
Figure showing how the Kur-ruk is used ...... 310
Wonguim • . . - . . - . - . -311
Barn-geet .......... 313
Li-lil . .... ......314
Quirriang.an-wun ......... 315
Group of leaf.shaped missiles ........ 315
Diagrams showing the form of the Boomerang ..... 317-318
Ilunga Munga .......... 324
Trombash .......... 324
Es.sellem .......... 324
Boomerang .......... 324
Belgic Briton .......... 328
Ornamented Boomerang, Queensland ...... 329
Mulga ........... 330
Various forms of the Mulga ........ 331
Various forms of the Drunmung ....... 331
Other forms of the Mulga ........ 332
Various forms of the Gee-am or Kerreem ...... 333
Goolmarry, Queensland ........ 334
Wooden shield, Rockingham Bay ....... 334
Various forms of the Kylie, West Australia ..... 335
Gid-jee, West Australia ......... 336
Light spear, West Australia ........ 336
Barbed spear. West Australia ........ 337
Spear with two prongs and barbed, West Australia .... 337
Spear with four prongs, North-West Australia --.-.. 338
Various forms of the Meero, West Australia ..... 339
Woonda, West Australia ......... 339
Kad-jo, West Australia ........ 340
Dhabba, West Australia ......... 340
Meat-cutter, West Australia - - - - . - - 341
ILLUSTEATIONS. ^^
PAOB
Waal-bee, West Australia ...----- 341
Bag or basket ..------- 343
Large bag ..-------- 344
Bee-lang ..-------- S'**
Flat basket, Western District ..------ 345
Bin-nuk 345
Small basket, Queensland .....--- 346
Wicker-work bottle, Queensland ------- 346
Tarnuk buUito, Tarnuk, and No-been-tarno ------ 347
Leange-walert .-------- 349
Various forms of bone awls -...---- 350
Spine of the porcupine ..--.--- 350
Kan-nan ----------- 351
Nerum -..------- 361
Weet-weet .-.------- 352
Message-stick, Queensland .-.----- 354
Message-sticks, West Australia -------- 355
Koorn-goon ---------- 356
Section of stone hatchet - - - -- - - - " 363
Hatchet with handle, Yarra Yarra ------- 365
Hatchet with handle. Lake Tyers ------- 366
Hatchet with handle, Lake Tyera ------- 366
Hatchet with handle --------- 367
Hatchet with handle, Queensland ------- 367
Hatchet with handle, Munara District ------- 368
Large stone axe, Daylesford -------- 368
Large stone axe, Lake Condah -------- 368
Various forms of stone hatchets ------- 369
Various forms of stone hatchets -------- 370
Fragments of stone axes - - - - - - - " 371
Stone axe, Winchelsea --------- 372
Stone axe, Cargo River -------- 372
Large stone axe. New South Wales ------- 373
Stone axe, Pitcairn's Island -------- 377
Stone chisel or gouge. Grey Ranges - - - - - - -379
Stone knife, Cooper's Creek .-----•- 380
Stone knife 380
Chips for spears --------- 380
Chips for cutting scars - - - - - - - " -381
Chips for skinning opossums - - - - - - - 381
Fragment of a tomahawk - ------381
Fragments of tomahawks, &c. ------- 382
Chip of chert - . - - 382
Stones for grinding seeds and fruits ------- 383
Sharpening-stone ---------- 383
Sharpening-stones --------- 384
Stone used in fishing, &c. ...----- 385
Hand-net 389
Fishing-net, Yarra Yarra -------- 390
Mesh of fishing-net, Queensland - - - - . - 390
Fish-hook, Gippsland - - - - - - - - -391
Instrument for catching fish, Geelong - - - - - - 391
Instrument for catching fish, Queensland ------ 391
Fish-hook, Rockingham Bay ------- 391
Fish-hook, New Zealand --------- 392
Producing fire by twirling the upright stick ----- 393
Fire-sticks ---------- 393
XVI ILLUSTRATIONS.
FAOB
Producing Are with the wooden knife ---... 395
Producing fire ..--...... 395
Producing fire with the bow, America - - - - - - 401
Procuring barls for a canoe -...-... 407
Bark canoes (two forms) -.-..... 408
Stripping bark for a canoe ...--... 409
Diagram showing the form of the canoe - - - - - - 410
Trees from which bark is taken -------- 410
Trees stripped .-----.-. 412
Canoes, Lake Tyers --------- 413
Bun-yip ..--.--..- 435
Bun-yip -.------... 437
Myndie -.-.- -..- 445
Map showing some of the areas formerly occupied by the Tribes of Victoria - End of vol.
\
INTRODUCTION.
Throug hout A astralia the natives exhibit a general conformity to one pattern,
as regards features, color, and mental character. A man from Southern
Gippsland would be recognised as an Australian by the inhabitants of Port
Essington, and a native of King George's Sound would be surely known if
taken to York Peninsula. The race^JyiiEever, is not pure in all parts. The
people of the islands of Torres Straits and the natives of New Guinea visit the
mainland, and Australians cross the straits to New Guinea. They_inlermaxr£j^
and the half-breeds mix necessarily with their southern neighbours, and this
may account for the appearance, as low down as the latitude of Wide Bay, of
men with thrum-like hair.
Cape York is distant no more than ninety miles from the shores of New
Guinea, the straits are studded with islands, and the coral reefs offer so much
protection that the sea is usually as calm as the waters of a pond. The natives
easily traverse this smooth sea in their large canoes ; and there is consequently
regular traffic between the peoples of the mainland and the smaller and greater
islands.
The inftision of Papuan blood may not have entirely changed the character
of any tribe, but it is there ; and it is apparent where the Papuans have never
been. This affects the people of the north-eastern coast. On the north the
Australians mix occasionally with the Chinese.
There have been found on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria " earthen
jars, bamboos, lattice work, remains of hats made of palm leaves, pieces of blue
cotton, boats' rudders, a wooden anchor, and other articles."* On the north-
west they have been visited jieriodically, for how many years no one can tell, by
the Malays. The Malays go tliither during the season of the trepang fishery,
and Capt. King found on the beach of Vausittart Bay a broken earthen pot
belonging to them.f
Stokes, too, mentions his finding a broken jar on Turtle Island, which it
was supposed had been left by some of the Macassar people, who are occasion-
ally blown in upon that part of the coast. J
Such influences as these have been at work probably for ages, and yet the
effects are scarcely perceptible, either in the appearance of the natives them-
selves or in their arms or in their works of art — save perhaps over a limited
• Australian Discoven/ and Colonization, p. 336. f King, vol. i., p. 320.
% Discoveries in Australia, vol. ii., p. 180.
C
/
XVIU INTRODUCTION.
iirca on tlie north-east coast, where the Australians build and sail canoes alto-
gether different from those known elsewhere.
The Australian type is well marked. Tlie Australian differs from the
Papuan in form and iu color— from the Tasmauian less perhaps iu the features
of the face than in the form of the body, in color, and in the hair. Still less
does the Australian show any resemblance to the Polynesian, the Malayan, or
the Chinese. He is darker, aud his eyes are horizontal. If he has not a better
head, he has probably, from what is known of him, a brain of a different
quality. In his myths, his tales, and his superstitions, he differs from the
Polynesians, the Malays, and the Chinese. If he is not a poet, he has in him
the elements of poetry ; and in many of his legends there is much that is not
unlike the earlier forms of poetic conceptions that distinguish the Aryan race
from other races that were subject to the same local influences but derived
from them no such inspirations as the ancient Sanscrit peoples embodied in
their traditions.
^,,er^Tlie natives of Australia dislike labor ; and tlieir muscles and their hands
are those of sportsmen or hunters. It would be impossible to find in a tribe of
Australians such hands as are seen amongst the working classes in Europe.
An English ploughman might perhaps insert two of his fingers in the hole of
an Australian's shield, but he could do no more.
\y ^^ The Australian can endure fatigue, but he is not one to bear burdens, to dig
laboriously, or to suffer restraint. He likes to exert himself when exertion is
pleasurable, but not for ulterior purposes will he slave, as the white man
slaves, nor would he work as the negro works, under the lash.
He is courageous when opposed to a mortal enemy, and timid in the dark-
ness of night when he believes that wicked spirits are abroad ; he is cruel to
his foes, and kind to his friends ; he will look upon infanticide without
repugnance, but he is affectionate iu the treatment of the children that are
permitted to live ; he will half-murder a girl in order to possess her as a wife,
but he will protect her and love her when she resigns herself to his will. He
is a murderer when his tribe requires a murder to be done ; but in a fight he is
generous, and takes no unfair advantage. He is affectionate towards his
relatives, and respectful and dutiful in his behaviour to the aged. He is
hospitable. He has many very good qualities and many very bad ones ; and
in the contrarieties of his mental constitution there is much to remind us of the
peculiarities of the people of our own race.
As may be supposed, there were no insane persons and no idiots amongst
the Australians, and suicide was unknown when they were living in tlieir wild
state.
As soon as the white man established himself on the rich pastoral lands of
Victoria, aud the natives were driven first from one spot aud then from
another, in order that the cattle and sheep of the invaders might feed peaceably
and grow fat, tribes that jjerliaps had never met before were comi^elled to
mingle. Tlie ancient land marks were obliterated, the ancient boundaries had
ceased to have any meaning, and the people, confused and half-stupefied liy the
new aud extraordinary character of the circiunstances so suddenly forced upon
INTRODUCTION. XIX
them, almost forgot the duties their tribal laws imposed upon them when they
were brought face to face with strange blacks. They speared the cattle of the
settler, stole his stores, murdered his shepherds at lonely out-stations, and,
unable to combine and ofler determined resistance to the invaders, they were
undoubtedly in many cases the more savage and cruel when they succeeded in
getting the whites into their power. These offences compelled the settlers to
make reprisals — to take measures in short to retain possession of the country ;
and many of the stories told of the olden time are not much to the credit of
the Europeans. Neither the rifle nor the pistol, however, was so effectual in
destroying the natives as the diseases and vices introduced by the pioneers.
Arms were used, and perhaps very often in righteous self-defence ; but it was
the kindness of the civilized immigrant that swept off the native population.
His spirituous liquors, and his attentions to the black man's wives, soon made
havoc amongst the savages.
-^^ Very different estimates have been made of the numbers of natives who
were living in that part of Australia now known as Victoria when the first
white settlers arrived. Sir Thomas Mitchell saw very few natives, and in the
parts he explored — amounting in the aggregate to about one-seventh of the
continent — he believed there were no more than 6,000 Aboriginals. This
estimate is too low. Mr. E. S. Parker thought there were 7,.500 in Victoria,
Mr. Wm. Thomas 6,000, Mr. Robinson 6,000, and my own estimate, from facts
I have collected, is 3,000. The mean of the whole, includmg Sir Thomas
Mitchell's low estimate, is 4,500.
It must not be forgotten that long prior to the explorations of Sir Thomas
Mitchell the native population had suffered severely from a horrible disease
which, there is every reason to believe, was introduced by the whites. Small-
pox had destroyed large numbers ; and it is not probable, even after the lapse
of forty years, when Sir Thomas explored the Darling and the tributaries of
the Murray, that the several tribes had recovered the losses they had sustained
by the terrible affliction that first made itself manifest at Point Maskeleyne.
In Gippsland there were certainly more than one thousand natives ; now
the number is about two hundred. The two Melbourne tribes numbered in
1838 two hundred and ninety-two, and at the present time there are perhaps
not twenty left. Tlie Geelong tribe, when the first settler built his hut on the
banks of the River Barwon, was composed of one hundred and seventy-three
persons at least ; in 1853, about twenty years after, only thirty-four remained ;
and I believe there is now not more than one alive. The "petty nation'" — the
Jajo-\\'urrong, consisting of seven tribes — that once occupied the basin of the
Loddon and the country towards the west, has been disj)ersed, and there are
very few of tliat sept to lie found anywliere. The Goulburn tribes, that of
Omeo, and many of those that formerly inhabited the banks of the River
Murray, have disappeared. There are remnants of nearly all the tribes, how-
ever, in various parts of tlie colony, or persons who by birth ai'e nearlv or
remotely connected with the extinct tribes ; and because of the exertions of the
noblemen and gentlemen who have at various times held the higli office of Her
Majesty's Secretary of State for the Ct)louies, much has been done to ameliorate
XX INTRODUCTION.
tlie condition of tlie natives that survived the first contact with the vices and
contaminations of the whites.
And the Government of Victoria has done much to benefit them. The
Parliament of Victoria has been liberal in its grants of money, and stations
have been formed, schools established, and lands reserved for the use and for
the improvement of the blacks. Missionaries — able, earnest, and thoughtful
men — have given their time, their energies, and their abilities to work they
believe will have fruitful results. Some of the gentlemen in Victoria — clergy-
men — who have education and abilities that would place them in the first rank
in their profession, have voluntarily sacrificed all hopes of preferment, and have
devoted their lives to the task of ameliorating the condition of our native
population, kno\\-ing that, whatever measure of success may follow on their
labors, no reward will be theirs, and perhaps not even a grateful memory of
their services wQl survive.
The natives of Victoria were under the protection of guardians during the
period extending from the 1st July 1851 to the 18th June 1800, and the
aggregate sum expended under that system was £14,181 8s. The results were
not such as to satisfy the colonists. Tlie blacks wandered from place to place,
and everywhere readily obtained the means of purchasing intoxicating liquors.
There were few children, and the condition of the people generally was
deplorable. In 1858 a select committee of the Legislative Council was
appointed, on the motion of the Honorable T. McCombie, to enquire into their
state, and to suggest means for alleviating their wants ; and a report containing
many very interesting statements from colonists in all parts of Victoria was
printed in February 1859. On the 18th June 1860 a Board was appointed for
the Protection of the Aborigines, and on the 11th November 1869 an Act was
passed providing for their protection and management.
The moneys expended under this system amount altogether to more than
£100,000.
Savages and barbarians are kind to their offspring. When a child is born
in Australia, and it is determined by the parents that it shall not be destroyed,
every care is taken of it, and the mother also receives for a brief jjeriod all
those attentions which are proper under the circumstances.
The mother usually carries her infant in her opossum rug, which is so folded
as to form a sort of bag at her back ; and this is not at all an inconvenient
position for the infant, as it enjoys all the comforts which the young of the
kangaroo is entitled to when in the marsupiima. In the northern parts of
Australia — in Arnhem Land — where the natives do not make rugs, the infant's
legs are placed over the shoulders of the mother ; she holds the legs in her
hands when necessary, and the little creature grasps with its small hands her
abundant hair.
It is worthy of remark that the practice of placing infants born near the
sea-shore in hot sand, from which all sticks, stones, and rough materials have
been removed, is known not only in Australia, but also in New Guinea; and
adults, on the northern coast, sometimes scoop holes in the sand, cover them-
selves, and sleep there.
INTRODUCTION. -"^^i
The Australian mother has no great reason to rejoice when a babe is born.
As soon as she can move about^ — perhaps after the lapse of twenty-four hours or
more — she is obliged to resume her duties in the camp. She is the servant of
her husband; and sometimes she is compelled to carry, as well as her baby,
heavy loads, and to march with the tribe as it seeks fresh hunting-grounds or
repairs to old-established cooking-places.
The Australian child is precocious. It begins to look about for food almost
as soon as the young of the kangaroo. A child has a little stick placed in its
hands, and it follows the example of older children, and digs out small roots
and the larvas of insects.
Its education begins at an early age. Like the natives of Africa, of Fiji, of
Borneo, and other parts where civilization, as regards some of the tribes, is yet
unknown, games of skill, so contrived as to exercise the children in useful arts,
are played. The males amongst the Australians are taught to throw the spear
and to use the shield ; and the females are instructed in the art of weaving cord
and making baskets.
Tliat the children are sometimes neglected is true, but as a rule they are
kindly treated.
The parents do not use any of those contrivances for producing distortion
which are common in other countries.
When, for reasons that are satisfactory to themselves, they decide to kill a
newly-born infant, they are often unnecessarily cruel ; and though infanticide
amongst savages is probably a custom which has its origin in the peculiarity of
the conditions under which they exist, and not in its nature a crime as it is in
civilized communities, yet the details wliicli are given by various observers
make one forget this, and regard their deeds with the same abhorrence as those
so constantly presented to notice in the daily records of the life of races that
possess all the advantages of culture and refinement.
Young mothers kill the first-born child because it is a burden, because it is
weakly, perhaps because it is deformed. She has to find food, to build her
husband's miam, to fetch water, and to be ready at all times to obey the
commands of her protector ; and the temptation to follow the custom of her
tribe would not always be overcome by the maternal instinct.
In the laws known to her, infanticide is a necessary practice, and one which,
if cUsregarded, would, under certain circumstances, be disapproved of; and the
disapproval would be marked by punishment, not so degrading perhaps, but
nearly as severe as that inflicted by the lower class of whites when their wives
displease them. Instead of the hob-nailed shoe, the Australian uses a weapon
of war — a waddy.
It is curious to find that the ancient custom of naming a child from some
slight circumstance that occurs at its birth is common throughout Australia.
Like the nomadic Arabs and the Kaffirs of Africa, they look for a sign ; and the
appearance at the time of birth of a kangaroo, or an emu, or the event
happening near some particular s])ot, or under the shelter of a tree, decides by
what name the infant shall be called. This name is not the one by which a man
will be known in after-life. Another is given on his initiation to rank in the
XXll INTRODUCTION.
£ribe ; and if his career should be marked by any striking event, lie will then
receive a fitting designation, and his old name will be perhaps forgotten. Or,
if he has had conferred on him, on arriving at manhood, a name similar iu
sound to that of any one who dies, it is changed by his tribe.
There is no kind of formality used when a child is named. Up to the age
of two or three years it is called "child," or "girl,'' and tlieu, when it can walk,
the name that has lived iu the memory of the father or motlier, or the people of
the tribe, is given to it.
The Rev. Mr. Taplin refers to a curious custom. It appears that in some
families it is usual for the father or mother to bear the name of a child,
and in such cases the termination ami for father, or annike for mother, is
added.
Nick-names are given ; and the natives are often peculiarly happy in choosing
designations that aptly describe eccentricities, peculiarities of face, or ways of
walking or speaking.
As soon as the whites settled in Victoria, the Aborigines gave nick-names
to the invaders, and some of these have been preserved.*
It is said that in Gippsland the word Bungil is one of respect, and is
ecpiivalent to " Mister." It is borne only by the old men.
The ceremonies attending the coming of age of young men and young
women are in Victoria simple, and easy to be borne, compai'ed to those which
young persons have to submit to in other parts of the continent. The mysteries
of Tib-but and Mur-riun Tur-uk ur-uk one can regard as merely painless follies,
after perusing Mr. Schiirmann's descriptions of the rites as practised by the
Parnkalla — where a youth of the age of fourteen or fifteen enters the first
degree, and is enrolled amongst tlie Warrara; after the lapse of one or two
years the second, when he is circumcised, and becomes a Pardnapa; and the
last when his skin is scarred, and he is named afresh, and made a Wihjcdkiwje.
Mr. Samuel Gasou's accounts of the tortures that have to be endured l)y the
rising generation at Cooper's Creek would lead the reader to suppose that the
Aboriginal race in that area must soon become extinct. They are horrible ; and
greatly contrast the comparatively harmless exercises of the natives of Gipps-
land when a youth is made Jerryale.
The interesting descrijitions given of these ceremonies, as practised in the
central jjarts of Australia, near the mouth of the Murray, in various parts of
New South Wales, near Sydney, and on the Macleay and Nambucca Rivers, are
exceedingly valuable. The practices are different not merely in details, but in
essentials.
Women are not allowed to witness the savage scenes attendant on these
ceremonies; and if one intruded on the occasion of initiating youths to man-
hood, she would jirobably be killed at once. They are forbidden to see or hear
anything connected with the events, and indeed it would be impossible for the
men to continue the tortures if women were present. Warriors slied tears, and
evince pity at certain stages ; and women would, by their weeping and wailing,
* See Vocabulary compiled by C. J. Tyers, Esq., in 1842.
INTRODUCTION. XXlll
utterly unnerve the candidates, and discompose the principal actors in the per-
formance. .'
In Africa, where similar customs are observed, the fetich-man blows a kind
of whistle made of hollowed mangrove wood, and the sound is probably a signal
to those not privileged to keep away ; just as the Witarna is used for this pur-
pose in Australia.
The practice of mutilating the body prevails in all parts of Australia. In
New South Wales, the women, at an early age, are subjected to an uncommon
mutilation of the two first joints of the little finger of the left hand. Tlie
operation is performed when they are very young, and is done nnder an idea
that these joints of the little finger are in the way when they wind their fishing
lines over the hand. This amputation is termed Mal-gun*
Knocking out the teeth, boring the septum of the nose, cutting and scarring
the skin, and circumcision, division, perforation, and depUation are practised-
some in one part and some in another — throughout the continent. In aU these
strange customs, as used by them, the natives do but follow the habits of savages
and barbarians in other parts of the world ; and one is made to believe and to
repeat that man, spring from what race he may, wUl, under the same set of
circumstances, and under like conditions of food and climate, originate and adopt
similar practices. The mutilation known as Mal-gun is not confined, it is
believed, to New South Wales. Knocking out the teeth is an ancient custom,
and has spread widely. Dampier observed it amongst the natives of the
north-west coast, and it is perhaps the most common of all tlieir superstitious
observances.
Circumcision and other similar mutilations are, it has been suggested, of
modern date, and may have been derived from intercourse with the Malay
trepang-fishers. The custom, as observed by the most ancient amongst the
peoples of the earth, is, and was some thousands of years ago, a religious rite,
and diff'ers altogether from the practice of the blacks, who in this merely
endeavour to test the powers of endurance of a candidate for admission to a
certain rank in the tribe. In considering the eff'ect, however, of this and other
practices that are mentioned, one may believe that they are really indigenous,
and that they have originated either in consequence of a peculiarity of climate
or from the necessity of limiting the population.
It is iiudoubtedly true that some customs that could have originated in no
other manner than in the pressing necessities of their mode of existence are
exactly similar to many that have been regarded heretofore as peculiar to ancient
forms of civilization, and it is unwise and unphilosophical to decide hastily that
even such a rite as that of circimicision is not born of the circumstances of the
people.
The savage, in many things, is — as it were by nature — cruel. Wliat, for
instance, could be more dreadful than to seize an unsuspecting youth, drag him
from the camp, and subject him to hunger and cold for days and nights, knock
out a tooth with a piece of wood, scar his skin, and compel htm to submit to
♦ The English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut .-Col. Collins, 1804.
XXIV INTRODUCTION.
other frightful mutilations? Some, among the weaker, die in consequence of
their sufferings under such ordeals, and others have implanted in them the seeds
of diseases which ultimately prove fatal.
When a young man has undergone all the ceremonies which are necessary to
his attaining the rank of a warrior, he may look out for a wife. K he is the
child of a distinguished man, perhaps because of the influence of his father, a
girl may have been promised to him, and his wedding may cause but little
trouble; but, as a rule, he must steal a girl, or elope with one, or exchange some
girl over whom he has control as brother, uncle, or relative in some other
^ degree, for a girl of a neighbouring tribe. Exogamy, it is perhaps true to say,
is universal. A tribe is in fact but an enlargement of a family circle, and none
within it can intermarry. A man must get a wife from a neighbouring tribe
either by consent, or by barter, or by theft.
If a man steals a girl, there is sure to be a quarrel of some sort. It may be
settled amicably, or the culprit may be required to stand in front of those he
has wronged by the abduction, and allow them to hurl their spears or boomerangs
at him. A trial by combat may result in various ways. The lover may prove
victorious and win his bride, or he may be woimded and beaten and lose her; or,
as not seldom happens, either in the ordeal, when spears are throwTi, or when
two are fighting with club and shield, the old men may interfere, if enough has
been done to satisfy justice, and declare a verdict. On some occasions, but
seldom, a general fight occurs, and one or two may be killed.
From the evidence that has been gathered, it would seem that very often
love — in our sense of the word — prompts the young people to seek each other's
society, and it is certainly true that the husband and wife, in some cases, evince
the strongest affection towards one another; but marriage — if the word can be
properly used in reference to such unions — is usually a matter in which love
has no part. The bride is dragged from her home — she is unwilling to leave it ;
and if fears are entertained that she will endeavour to escape, a spear is thrust
through her foot or her leg. A kind husband will, however, ultimately evoke
affection, and fidelity and true love are not rare in Australian families. A
widow will die of grief on the grave of her husband, and a widower will mourn
and refuse to be comforted until death also claims him. Such inst.ances cannot
be otherwise than few. A widow, under ordinary circumstances, has by law
another husband as soon as the first dies; and a widower deprived only of one
wife may have already too many — perhaps three, or the deprivation may allow
of his taking another — and he may rejoice instead of giving way to grief.
All arrangements connected with marriage cause trouble in the tribes.
Even before a child is born a promise may be given that if it be a girl it shall
be the wife of some warrior ; and nearly all the girls are betrothed at a very
early age. And any young warrior who casts kind looks towards a dark
beauty, or any young woman who favorably regards a painted youth as he
returns from an expedition, is sure to give rise to jealous suspicions.
Women are regarded almost as so much property which may be exchanged
for better goods, or given away as friendly presents, or abandoned when not
wanted. A child may be betrothed to a man, and that man may die, but his
INTRODUCTION. XXV
heir succeeds, and tlie girl goes with the other possessions of the deceased.
Contrary to received opinions, it is shown in this work that the children of the
native women are often numerous, some having as many as thirteen, and twins
are not rare. It is also proved that the Australians are really human heings,
and not creatures of another species, as so many have represented them in their
works. Numerous cases are mentioned which fairly dispose of the theory so
long maintained that they are — regarding man merely as an animal — difl'erent
from Europeans.
The customs of the natives of Australia are so like, in many respects, those
of other existing savage or barbarous races and those of the people of ancient
times, that one feels more and more the necessity of a classification, in which
would appear every known custom and the place where it is practised, exactly
after the manner that the geologist elaborates his system of the classification of
rocks.
In Australia, the mother-in-law may not look upon her son-in-law, and
the son-in-law hides himself if his path be crossed by his mother-in-law. The
Kaffir places his shield before his eyes and shuns the mother of his wife, and
the same strange fear of meeting or seeing a mother-in-law has been observed
in South America and amongst savages in other parts of the globe. What may
have given rise to this rule can only be guessed, but that it is recognised and
obeyed under circumstances which must necessarily prove most embarrassing
is beyond doubt.
Marriages between black men and white women are, as may be supposed,
not common. Invaders invariably regard the women of the country invaded
more or less favorably, and they are chosen as wives or concubines ; but the
men who lose their country lose also their influence, and it is not often that
they can obtain wives from the stronger race. But sometimes, under favorable
conditions, an Australian black marries a white woman. Nothing is known to
the writer of the results of such unions.
The restrictions on marriage, as they exist in Australia, certainly invite
enquiry; and a complete knowledge of these, and the exact meaning of such
native words as are usually but not accurately translated as mother, father,
sister, brother, step-mother, stejj-father, aunt, uncle, &c,, would be of the highest
value, and enable the ethnologist to unravel many intricate and complex lines
in relationships amongst savages. A man knows that his mother's sister is not
his mother, and that his father's brother is not his father; the exact relationship
is known to him; and it is highly probable that, in addition to the nomenclature
which points to a time when the intercourse between the sexes was difl'erent
from what it is now, there are also terms which express correctly the relation-
ship that exists. If such terms do not exist, it is plain that the growth of the
language has not kept pace with the requirements of their condition as it
advanced from a lower to a higher state. It is not disputed that the terms as
translated very nearly express the meanings commonly assigned to them, nor
that the enquiries into this branch of ethnology are of the greatest importance,
nor is it doubted that the results will ultimately far more than repay the labors
that have been bestowed on such investigations; but when a son teUs you that
d
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
he "calls" his father's hrother "father," he asserts merely that he follows a
custom; and the system which gave rise to the custom being no longer in
existence, it may surely be supposed that he could indicate distinctions and
find words to express his meaning. It is highly desirable to ascertain the
ideas that are in the mind of the savage as well as the words in common use
when he speaks of his aunt, his uncle, or his cousin. The facts, as regards the
nomenclature in Australia, disclose, according to the Rev. Lorimer Fison, tlie
characteristic peculiarities of the Tamilian system, which would support the
theory of the migration southward of the progenitors of the native race that
occupies Australia, if we did not find the same system amongst the Indians of
Kortli America. The theory of migration rests on other grounds; and the like-
ness in the nomenclature as applied to people akin only shows how from the
communal marriage system have arisen gradually other systems under which
in-and-in marriages were, if not interdicted, made less numerous, and those
between brother and sister absolutely prohibited. The enquiries instituted by
the Rev. L. Fisou, the Rev. W. Ridley, and others, and the careful summary of
the facts collected by them which is contained in Mr. Lewis Morgan's works,
show clearly how the tribes are governed in intermarriage by a kind of sexual
classification. But all the facts are not known. The statements made in his
letter to me by Mr. Bridgman, of Queensland, and the peculiar arrangement
Tinder one and the same division, as ascertained by Mr. Stewart, of Mount
Gambler, of things animate and inanimate, show that much is yet to be learnt
respecting the principles which guide the natives in placing in classes all that
comes within their knowledge. The two classes of the tribes near Mackay
in Queensland are Youngaroo and Wootaroo, and these are again subdivided,
and marriages are regulated in accordance therewith. But the blacks say
alligators are Youngaroo and kangaroos are Wootaroo, and that the sun is
Youngaroo and the moon is Wootaroo. Strange to say, this, or something as
nearly like this as possible, is found at Mount Gambler. There the pelican,
the dog, the blackwood-tree, and fire and frost are Boort-parangal, and belong
to the division Kumite-gor {gor = female) ; and tea-tree scrub, the duck, the
wallaby, the owl, and the cray-fish are Boort-werio, and belong to the division
Krokee. A Kumite may marry any Krokee-gor, and a Krokee may marry a
Kumite-gor. And Mr. Stewart says a man will not, unless under severe
pressure, kill or use as food any of the animals of the division in which he
is placed. A Kumite is deeply grieved when hunger compels him to eat
anything that bears his name, but he may satisfy his himger with anything
that is Krokee. These divisions and subdivisions have an important influence
in all arrangements between natives, not only as regards marriage, but also
in revenging injuries, in imputing witchcraft, and in the fights that so con-
stantly occur.
The funeral ceremonies of the natives of Australia are perhaps in some
respects unlike those of the savages of other parts of the world, but the modes
of disposing of the bodies of the dead are similar. The common practice is to
inter the corpse; but some are placed in the hollows of trees, some in the beds
of running streams, some in caves, some on artificial platforms made of
INTEODUCTIOX. XXVU
branches of trees, some in trenches lined and covered with flat stones, and some
are burnt.
TVTien death is imminent, it is usual to remove the dying man to a spot at
some little distance from his miam, and his relatives and friends prepare all
that is needful for his interment even before dissolution. Much attention is
shown to him, and when finally he breathes his last breath, arrangements are
made for the disposal of the body. The facts which are given in this volume
show that savages are not indifferent to the solemn events which amongst
civilized peoples give occasion for pageantry. The natives are serious and
decorous around the graves of their warriors; and the mourners cut themselves
and lament after the manner of the ancients.
The body is not placed at fall length in the grave. The grave is usually
four or five feet in lengtli; and the corpse is bent and doubled so as to admit of
its being laid in a small space. A warrior is usually wrapped in his opossum
rug, tied tightly, and buried with his weapons and aU his worldly possessions.
Amongst the southern tribes of Victoria the body was not touched by hands.
It was so moved and carried as to prevent the contact of the living with the
corpse, and the utmost care was ta£en in interring it to protect every part of it
with a covering. Amongst the people of the west and elsewhere no such feeling
seems to have prevailed ; the body was sewn up, it was greased and rubbed
with red-ochre, and handled apparently without repugnance.
Sometimes a long speech is delivered over the grave by some man of con-
sideration in the tribe. Mr. Bridgman, of Mackay in Queensland, states in a
letter to me that on one occasion he heard a funeral oration delivered over the
grave of a man who had been a great warrior which lasted more than an hour.
The corpse was borne on the shoulders of two men, who stood at the edge of the
grave. During the discourse he observed that the orator spoke to the deceased
as if he were still living and could hear his words. Burial in the district in
which Mr. Bridgman lives is only a formal ceremony, and not an absolute
disposal of the remains. After lying in the ground for three months or more,
the body is disinterred, the bones are cleaned, and packed in a roll of pliable
bark, the outside of which is painted and ornamented with strings of beads and
the like. This, which is called Ngobera, is kept in the camp with the living.
If a stranger who has known the deceased comes to the camp, the Ngobera is
brought out towards evening, and he and some of the near relations of the dead
person sit down by it, and wail and cut themselves for half an hour. Then it is
handed to the stranger, who takes it with him and sleeps by the side of it,
returning it in the morning to its proper custodian. Women and children who
die, Mr. Bridgman says, are usually burnt.
It is the firm belief of the natives that no man dies but by witchcraft. Some
sorcerer in a neighbouring tribe has compassed his death, they say, and they
seek to discover in what direction their warriors shall go to avenge the murder.
Usually they scrape up the earth around the dead body in order to find the
track of some worm or insect, sometimes they watch the movements of a lizard,
and again they will wait until cracks appear in the damp clay that covers the
grave. Sooner or later the wise man of the tribe determines in what direction
XXVIU INTRODUCTION.
the warriors must travel to fiud the sorcerer, and they go at once, and kill one
or more, in expiation of the crime which has caused the death of their friend.
It is curious to note the general similarity in the modes adopted by the cunning
men to cause injury to neighbouring tribes when a death occurs, and also the
differences in the modes. For instance, the Western Port tribe in Victoria, and
the tribes near Perth in Western Australia, watch the movements of a living
insect that may accidentally be turned up in digging the earth ; the Melbourne
tribe look for the track of a worm or the like ; the Yarra blacks watch the
direction which a lizard takes ; at Cooper's Creek the corpse is questioned ; the
tribes at the mouth of the Murray and at Encounter Bay rely on the dreams
of a wise man who sleeps with his head on the corpse ; and on one part of the
Murray they watch the drying of the damp clay that covers the grave, and see
in the line of the principal fissure where they are to look for the wicked sorcerer
who has done to death, by his charms, their late comjtanion.
The natives believe that the spirits or ghosts of the dead remain for at least
a little time near the, spots that they loved when living, and it is to satisfy and
appease the shades and ghosts that, when a warrior dies, they murder some
of the people of a neighbouring tribe. K blood were not shed, the ghost of
the departed would haunt them, and perhaps injure them. They believe that
the ghosts depart and find rest in regions either towards the setting sun, or in
the east, where he rises. Stanbridge says that the heaven of the Murray people
is towards the setting sun ; Wilhelmi says tliat the head of the corpse was
placed at the west end of the grave, because the people of Port Lincoln believe
that the departed spirits reside in an island situated eastward ; Oxley found on
the Darling a body laid with the head to the eastward ; and Grey says that
the face in West Australia is turned towards the east. The Goulburn blacks
placed a fighting-stick at the east end of the grave. Buckley states that in his
first wanderings he found a spear sticking in the centre of a mound of earth.
It was the grave of one recently interred. He carried away the spear, and when
the natives found him and saw the spear of their dead friend, tliey called him
Murran-giirk — which was the name of the dead man. They believed that he
had come to life again, and that ho had taken the form of Buckley.
All the methods employed by the Australian savages in disposing of their
dead are curious and full of interest. Though they have no such monuments
as that erected by Artemisia in Caria, they have advanced beyond the state in
which it is lawful for a sister to marry a brother ; and they have sought to
express by many ingenious devices their respect and afiection for their deceased
relatives and friends. On the swampy reed beds of the Aire River, in the Cape
Otway district, are found even now the remains of the rude platforms on which
the natives placed their dead ; in the mirrn-yong heaps of the western plains
are found interred tlie bones of departed warriors ; and under the umbrageous
pines of the north-west are seen here and there the mounds which they had
raised over the relics that perhaps had been carried with them, and mourned
over for many a day. These are respected by the old people, and they grow
sorrowful as they approach them. Though the natives generally buried the
body very near the spot where the death occurred, they had in some parts
INTEODUCTION. XXlX
appointed burial-grounds, where the surface was cleared of grass, and cut in the
form of a spear-shield. Some seen by the first explorers occupied a considerable
space, and were intersected by neatly-made walks, running in graceful curves ;
others consisted of well-constructed huts, thatched and secured with a net ; and
a few buried their dead in graves not unlike those in a modern cemetery.
The bodies of young children and persons killed by accident were usually
placed in a hollow tree. The si)ace was cleared of rotten wood and well swept,
the bottom was lined with leaves, and the whole was covered with a piece of
bark. And sometimes a rude coffin was made by stripping a sapling of its
bark.
The manner in which bodies were burnt is fully described in this work. It
will be observed that the pile is lighted, not by a priest, but by one of the
women.
The Narrinyeri dry the bodies of the dead, and during the process they
paint them with grease and red-ochre. They preserve the hair, which is spun
into a cord, and the cord is wound round the head of some fighting-man. It
gives him, they say, clearness of sight and renders him more active.
When the body is dry, it is wrapped in rugs or mats, and carried from place
to place for several months, and is then placed on a platform of sticks. The
skull, it is said, is used as a drinking vessel.
The natives in some parts of Queensland, when they burn the bodies, keep
and carry about with them the ashes of their dead.
There is evidently a strong belief generally in the virtues communicated by
rubbing the body with the fat of a dead man, or with portions of his singed
beard, or by eating pieces of his fat or skin. It is thought that his strength
and courage will be acquired by those who perform these ceremonies.
The blacks exliibit the greatest sorrow when one of their number is sick and
near death. It is impossible for any one to stand by and see a native breathe
his last without feeling the deepest compassion for those who surround the death
bed. Both men and women exhibit acute anguish ; they mourn the departed,
and with such gestures and accents as betray the misery that is in their hearts.
Some tear the flesh from the fingers until blood comes, others cut their cheeks
with shells and chips, and many burn themselves with fire-sticks, all the while
scattering hot ashes on their heads and on their bodies until the mutilations
are dreadful to behold. And the grief of the friends of the departed is naturally
increased when they know that his death was not due to natural causes, but to
the vile arts of some sorcerer dwelling amongst wild blackfellows.
A sudden death is often the cause of fighting amongst men of the bereaved
tribe. They will exhibit their grief by spearing each other ; and men have been
kQled at such times. One case of this kind occurred on the River Darling. A
man died suddenly of heart disease, and the men commenced to quarrel over his
grave. The cause of the quarrel was not ascertained, but the residts were fatal.
One young man was killed, and he was buried in the very grave around which
all had assembled for the purpose of paying resjiect to their dead relative.
The Murray blacks, ftlr. Bulmer informs me, never keep the dead long. They
are generally buried on the day of their death, or, at latest, the next day. In
INTRODUCTION.
this respect the Gippsland blacks differ from the people of the Murray. They
will keep a body eight or ten days, or even longer. They will keep it until all
their friends can be got together, so that the last duties may be performed with
some pomp and ceremony. The Gippsland blacks differ from the Murray blacks
in another matter. The blacks of the Murray never keep anything belonging
to the dead — always burying the property of the dead man iu the grave which
they have dug for his body ; the Gipjisland people keep the relics of the de-
parted. They will cut off the hands to keep as a remembrance, and these they
will attach to the string that is tied round the neck. It is said also that they
will sometimes keep the head ; but this custom is not common.
When mourning for the dead, the women plaster their bodies and the men
smear their faces with pipeclay. White is not always used. Black, and in
some places red, indicate mourning. Ordinarily, a woman laments the death of
her husband, and uses the clay appropriate to her condition for about six
months ; after tlie lapse of that time she may marry again. A widow on the
Murray is called Mam-ban-ya-purno, and in Gippsland, Wow-a-lak.
On the Lower Murray and elsewhere the widows plaster their heads with a
white paste made of powdered gypsum ; and the white caps seen by Mitchell
were discarded emblems of mourning.
When any one dies, his miam or wurley is pulled down, and the materials
are often burnt. No one will inhabit a place where a death has occurred.
I have mentioned, in the chapter devoted to a description of the modes of
burial common amongst the Australians, some few instances wherein their
practices agree with those of other savages, but mauy more might be given ;
and here — as in their language, their modes of ornamenting their weapons, the
treatment of their infants, their marriage customs, and their myths — there is so
much which is undoubtedly truly indigenous, and arising wholly out of their
condition and the physical forces by which they are moved, that is yet like what
is seen iu other parts of the world, that oue has cause to regret again and again
that no one has, up to the present time, placed the facts in order, and set down
after a system and under proper heads all that is known of savages — in what
respects they agree, in what they differ, and to what extent they resemble in
their customs the people amongst whom civilization was born and nurtured,
and to whom we owe the advancement which modern society so jjroudly regards
as the results of its own efforts. Such a work — and it would not necessarily be
at first a very large one — would do much to help towards a better under-
standing of man's actual duties and responsibilities ; aud let us hope it will
be undertaken by some one who has the ability to construct a system and to
use the details in subordination to it.
The encampments of the natives, and indeed all their movements, are ordered
by the old men. They do not wander about aimlessly : there is order and
method in what they do ; and when several tribes meet, the sites for the miams
are selected in accordance with rules, the arrangement generally being such as
to show exactly from what direction each tribe has come.
In some parts of the continent their dwellings are large and well built;
etout poles are used in their construction, and they are thatched with grass.
INTEODUCTION. XXXI
Tlie people are governed by the heads of families, who settle quarrels and
preserve order. The unmarried men have a place set apart for them, and they
are not permitted to associate with the females.
They receive messengers and visitors at their encampments ; and plenty of
employment is found for all in hunting or fishing, or gathering roots and seeds,
in cooking, in eating, and in fighting. They have many amusements — and a
corrobboree is to them what a great ball is to the whites in a European city.
The dancers have to paint themselves, and the women have to be in readiness
to sing and to beat time. There are endless sources of enjoyment when a large
meeting takes place ; but on the whole the life of a savage is one of trouble.
He is either very hungry or has eaten too much. He is often very cold, or
suffering from the heat. He is never sure of his life. He may be speared
by an enemy lurking in the bush — the Nerum may be in the hands of a foe
at night ; a sorcerer may have taken some of his hair, or a distant doctor may
be arranging measures for securing his kidney-fat — and there are noises at
night that terrify him. His wives, too, give him trouble, and his children need
guidance.
He is, however, often a cheerfid, merry fellow, willing to be amused, and
finding amusement in childish entertainments.
I have given an account of his mode of life during the four seasons, of his
methods of climbing trees, his manner of signalling by the smoke of fires ; his
fights, his dances, and of other matters that are of importance to him in his life
in the forest ; but his history is yet to be written. I am compelled by circum-
stances to present fragments only of a work that was intended to include all
that relates to the habits of the natives.
The section of this work which treats of the several kinds of food upon which
the natives had to depend for subsistence before the country was occupied by
the whites has been prepared with great care. Many correspondents have
rendered much assistance ; and the facts that have been gathered together will
be useful to settlers in all parts of Australia, and will, it is hoped, also prove
interesting to the naturalist.
An attempt has been made to give as complete an account as possible of all
the animals and plants that are eaten by the blacks ; and there are now put in
a small compass, in addition to what is new, many facts that the reader could
not find without a laborious search, scattered as they are through books of
travels, pamphlets, and scientific papers — some of which are now rare.
It was at first intended to restrict the descriptions to the products of Vic-
toria ; but as the southernmost part of Australia is deficient in many vegetables
in the treatment of which the natives display remarkable skdl, and as they
practise in other parts of the continent methods of capturing animals that are
here altogether unknown, it was decided to enlarge the section. Indeed it would
have been unjust to the natives not to have mentioned some of the facts referred
to by Grey, by the Jardines, by Thozet, and others. The extraordinary perse-
verance and skUl exhibited by the blacks in hunting and fishing, their ready
adaptation of the simplest means to accomplish any given purpose, and their
power to combine when they find it necessary to construct such a work of art
xxxu INTRODUCTION.
as that described by Mr. Gideon S. Lang, must surely result in a change in the
ojiinion that is generally entertained of their character and mental faculties.
In hunting the kangaroo the native employs various methods. He tracks
him day after day and night after night until he secures him, or, hidden by an
artificial screen of boughs, he spears him as he comes to drink at a water-hole ;
or he digs a pit for him, or catches him with other animals by setting fire to the
bush in various places until the scared creatures are surrounded by a circle of
flames, when they are easily speared or knocked on the head with a club.
Fastening the skin and feathers of a hawk to the end of a long stick, and
uttering the cry of the hawk, he startles the wallaby, which at once takes refuge
in the nearest bush, and is there speared. By the appearance of a hair or two,
or a few grains of sand, or the faint scratch of a claw, on the bark of a tree, he
knows whether or not the opossum is in his hole, and, if there, he rapidly climbs
the tree and catches him. He works harder than a navvy when he is employed
in digging out the wombat. In netting and noosing ducks, in swimming to a
flock, either under water, breathing through a reed, or with his head covered
with aquatic jjlauts, he displays as much cunning as a North American Indian.
Holding a few boughs in front of him, and carrying a long stick with a butter-
fly and a noose at the end, he walks up to a turkey and snares him.
The native makes a bower, and, using one bird as a decoy, he snares numbers
of small birds during the course of a day. Holding a piece of fish in his hand,
and lying as if asleep, he entices the hawk or the crow, and by a quick move-
ment catches it. One black will approach a tree, on a limb of which a bird is
sitting, and by singing and by strange motions of his hands and contortions of
his body (always keeping his eyes fixed on the bird) so completely engage its
attention that another black will be able to ascend the tree and knock the bird
down with a stick.
He is active in the water. He will attack the green-turtle in the sea, and,
avoiding the sharp edges of the shell, turn it on its back and drag it to his
canoe. Like the people of the coasts of China and the Mozambique, he uses
the fisher-fish — the Echcneis — in taking the hawk's-bill turtle, thus verifying
the observation of Columbus. He catches and cooks poisonous snakes as well
as the harmless frog. He has at least five diflerent modes of procuring fish ;
and his hooks and nets are better than could be made by any European who did
not practise the making of hooks and nets as a trade. His fishing-lines, made
of any raw material within his reach, are strong and good and lasting.
He goes out in his canoe in the night and uses torches to attract the fish,
exactly after the manner of the poachers of the North Tyne in England,
who in their trows, and with lights burning and provided with leisters or
spears, robbed that river of its salmon.* He uses the bident in the shallow
weedy waters of the Murray, and follows the fish by the same signs as those
that guided the ancient Egyptian when he pushed his papyrus punt through
the broad leaves of the lotus in the lagoons and ponds that were filled by the
■waters of the Nile.
* Rambles on the Border, 1835.
INTEODrCTIOX. XXXlU
He builds, in the great rivers, weirs having crooked but continuous passages,
and so contrived as to enable him to take the fish by hand. He kills seals, and
catches the dugong : and when the whalers visited the southern shores of the
continent, he was cunning enough to make signals so as to set many boats in
pursuit of any whale that came near the shore, thus rendering the chances of its
being stranded almost certain.
He followed the bee to its nest and took its honey, and found a plan of free-
ing the puppe of ants from sand and dust so as to make of them a palatable
meal. Tlie grubs that are found in the wattle, the honeysuckle, and the gum,
the worms that crawl in the earth, and the moths that crowd the granitic rocks
of the mountains — each in turn were made to contribute to his support.
His vegetable food was various. The natives of Victoria had to depend
mostly on the yam, quandang, currant, raspberry, cherry, the fruits of the
mesembryanthemum, the seed of the flax, the sow-thistle, the roots of the flag,
water-grass, geranium, and male fern, the pith of the dwarf fern-tree, the native
truffle, the leaves of the clover sorrel, the gums of the wattle, &c. He gathered
manna, and made sweet drinks of the flowers of the honeysuckle. In the north-
western parts of Victoria, he gathered the seeds of the nardoo, and other seeds,
and pounded them, and ate the flour either in the form of paste or cakes.
The kumpung, a bulrush almost identical with one found in Switzerland — a
species of typha — is eaten during the summer either raw or roasted, and the
fibres are used for making twine. In other parts of Australia there are the
nuts of palms and the fruit of the Bunya-huwja ; and in the more northern
districts of the continent, many nuts, seeds, piths, and roots, some of which,
though poisonous when gathered, are so treated as to yield excellent fecula and
pastes.
The natives, belying the low opinion that has been formed of their intellects,
show in many ways that they were not without foresight. They could see the
necessity for making provision for the future. It has been showTi that they could
construct permanent works of art. Grey tells us how he came upon a store of
hj-yu nuts (fruits of the zamia) in West Australia ; and Coxen relates the
methods the natives employ in preparing and securing in bags, grass seeds,
gums, and other food, in the north-eastern parts of the continent. It was their
custom to burn off the old grass and leaves and fallen branches in the forest, so
as to allow of a free growth of young grass for the mammals that feed on grass ;
they protected the young of animals in some parts so as to secure a natural
increase; and if they did not actually resort to cultivation (in the ordinary
sense), they were at least careful to see that harm was not done to vegetables
that yielded food.
That there was a common property in at least some things, is beyond doubt.
Many tribes, in other respects having nothing in common, resorted to the Bunya-
bunya forest when the fruit was ripe ; and the raspberry grounds mentioned
by Gideon Lang were also freely given up to neighbouring tribes when the food
they yielded was abundant. 'WTien a wliale was stranded, notice was given, by
sending up columns of smoke, that a feast was ready, and hundreds of natives
— by right — assembled to share in the bounty of the seas.
e
^^^^i^ INTEODUCTION.
They respected each other's rights. The person who first struck a kangaroo
— whether boy or man, and whether the animal was killed or not by the stroke —
was held to have captured him, and, when taken, the animal was his property.
And then he had to divide the kangaroo into portions if any of those with whom
he had covenanted, as regards kangaroo flesh, were present ; and the division
was always fairly made.
The account given by Thozet of the plants eaten by the natives of North-
Eastern Australia is full of interest for the naturalist ; and Mr. Gason's lists of
the animals and plants which afford food to the natives of Cooper's Creek,
though not likely to raise this people in the estimation of Europeans, contain-
ing as they do the names of many creatures which are abhorred in civilized
communities, are still curious, and certainly worthy of attention.
^^ Victoria, like other parts of Australia, presents diverse physical features ;
in one area the larger animals are numerous, in others rare. In some parts the
natives had to depend for their means of subsistence mainly on fish ; in other
parts mainly on the kangaroo ; in well-timbered tracts opossums were nu-
merous, and on the plains they caught the emu, the turkey, and the native
companion. In and on the margins of the forests they took the bear, and in
the volcanic tracts wombats multiplied. Many of these animals, the larger
weighing as much as 150 lbs., were not very difficult to capture ; and the black,
with his family, lived in comfort as long as the flesh of these was procurable.
It is not at all probable that the natives penetrated the tracts covered with
scrubs or thick timber. The dense forests of South-Western Gippsland and
Cape Otway were not often entered, if at all ; and the blacks who fished on the
shores at the mouth of the Parker had probably no communication with their
near neighboiirs, the natives of the Gellibrand; and it is almost certain that the
Cape Otway blacks never travelled through the forest to Colac. The road is
now open and easily trodden ; but before the advent of the whites, before the
scrub was cut and the huge trees hewn, before it was known what was beyond
the coast, it was a tract having an aspect that would naturally deter the native
from encroaching on it, even if his duty, directed by superstitition, required that
he should traverse it.
There is nothing in the records relating to Victoria respecting the use of
any earth for the purpose of appeasing hunger; but Grey mentions that one
kind of earth, pounded and mixed with the root of the Meiie (a species of Hcema-
dorum) is eaten by the natives of West Australia.
The only plants that are known to be used as narcotics are pitcherie, small
dry twigs, which the natives chew ; and the leaves of a species of Eugenia, which
the i^eople of the north-east smoke when they cannot get tobacco.
Excepting the abstinence from food, which perhaps was common during the
period of initiating youths to the privileges of manhood, it is almost certain that
voluntary fasting was unknown to the natives of Australia. The priests and
sorcerers appear to have been able to exercise their arts without having recourse
to any such painful ordeals. On the contrary, they reserved for themselves
the best of the food, the wild-fowl, and the sweetest and most tender parts of
the larger animals ; and, on account of the influence they possessed, they were
INTRODrCTION. XXXV
able to prevent the young and strong men from enjoying the fruits of their own
exertions. Unlike the Cherokees, the Flatheads of Oregon, and the medicine-
men of the Rio de la Plata, they dreamed their dreams after fully satisfying
their appetites, and no doubt would have regarded a suggestion to refrain for
even a short time from eating and drinking as an impertinence to be resented
by the use of the strongest "charms" in their possession.
As much information as could be obtained is given relative to forbidden
food. The laws administered by the old men were numerous. Women might
not eat of the ilesh of certain animals, and certain kinds of food were prohibited
to young men. These customs — the origin of which is unknown, and the
reasons for following them not to be discovered — are, however, not confined to
the savages of Australia. They are known in Africa ; but the old men of the
tribes in Australia seem to have enlarged, for their own advantage, a system
that probably originally grew out of the superstitition that evil would befall
him who should eat the flesh of the animal that is the totem of his tribe. The
most obvious effect of the operation of these curious laws was certainly not
injurious to the interests of the people. It enabled the old men who were not
equal to the fatigues incident to the hunting of the larger game to remain in
comfort in their camps, where they employed their time in all those arts which
they had jierfected by experience. They made nets, spears, shields, and boome-
rangs ; and taught the boys the use of weapons and implements. They main-
tained order when the warriors were absent, and they took care to require that
all the observances proper to the occasion of the arrival of a messenger or a
visitor were duly maintained.
If, on the other hand, the old men had had to depend on their own unas-
sisted exertions for a supjily of animal food, they would have had no leisure for
such pursuits ; the character of the weapons and tools would have deteriorated,
and the knowledge of some arts would have been lost.
The custom of youths arranging, and maintaining through life, a kind of
joint ownership in certain sorts of food, so that, for instance, when a kangaroo
was killed, each, according to right, would receive a particular portion, is, it is
believed, peculiar to the Australian people. How it originated, or for what pur-
pose it was continued, will probably never be known. Indeed the natives can
give no information respecting their customs and laws.
Their aversion to the fat of swine is well known, and it can scarcely have
arisen from the circumstance that swine are unclean feeders, and liable to cer-
tain disorders. It rests probably on the influence exercised over their minds by
the strange superstitions that seem inseparable from the savage state. Their
refusal to eat pork is perhaps due to the fear that they might in doing so violate
a law. It is not lawful for a young man to eat the fat of the emu until a certain
ceremony has been performed ; and when they see the f:it of an animal strange
to them, it may be supposed that they view it with doubt and fear.
The laws relating to food made by the natives stand in curious contrast to
those mentioned in Deuteronomy (chap. xiv.). The blacks interdict to women
and young men such of the food as they consider good ; and there are no prohi-
bitions against eating creatures that are generally regarded by civilized races
XXXVl INTRODUCTION.
as unfit for food. Aud yet the fact that there are such laws amongst the
Australian peojile and other savage peoples gives a glimpse into the history
of the past which is of singular interest.
The natives inhabiting the sea-coast and the banks of the larger rivers had
often to depend for subsistence on shell-fish, and consequently both on the coast
and inland tliere are large heaps of shells, mixed in some places with the bones
of animals, and concealing stone tomahawks aud bone-awls. The large heaps
on the banks of the Murray and the Darling are composed of the shells of the
freshwater unio. In lat. 29° 43' 3" S., Sir Thomas Mitchell found on the banks
of the Gwydir numerous fires of the natives aud heaps of mussel-shells, mixed
with the bones of the pelican and the kangaroo ; and the like occur in various
other parts of the area drained by the Murray and its affluents.
On the coast of Victoria there appear in various parts, what at first sight
one would suppose to be raised beaches, and if only a slight examination be
made of these, their true character is not discovered. But instead of lying in
regular aud connected layers, they occur in heaps, beyond high-water mark, and
they are always opposite to rocks laid bare at low water. Moreover, they are
found to consist mainly of one kind of shell — namely, the mussel {Mi/tilxs I)uiv-
kcri), with a small proportion of the mutton-fish {Ha/iotis nicosa), the limpet
{Pattella traTnoserica), the periwinkle {Lunella undulata), and the cockle {Car-
dixm tenuicostatum). Tliese accumulations resemble in many respects the
"kjok-ken-moddings" of Denmark. With the shells are stones bearing dis-
tinctly the appearance of having been subjected to the action of fire, and there
are also numerous pieces of charcoal imbedded in the mounds. Tliey are visible
all along the coast where it is low, but never in any other position than that
described ; and when opened up are seen to be formed of heaps not regularly
superimposed one on the other. Those that have been frequented most recently
exhibit clearly the mode of accumulation, and one can trace the old heaps up-
wards to the last, which is generally found on the highest part of the mound.
The area covered by some of the largest of the mounds exceeds an acre in
extent ; and the shape of the heaps of shells composing them, which are sepa-
rated by layers of sand, indicates their origin. The enormous period of time
during which the natives have assembled on the shores to gather and cook the
shell-fish accounts for the great number and extent of the mounds.
Tlie mirrn-yong heaps in the inland parts of Victoria, composed of earth,
charcoal ashes, and the bones of animals — the cooking places of the tribes — are
also large and numerous.
On the wide open plains, where there is little or no timber, the natives set
up stones, principally it is believed for shelter ; but they would be used too, in
all probability, when it became necessary to conceal from the women their
manner of performing certain ceremonies. In what light we are to regard the
regularly-built stone monuments which Sir George Grey discovered in North-
West Australia is a matter for speculation. His descriptions aud drawings
would lead one to sujjpose that, if they were the work of the natives, they had
borrowed something from the Malays, who it is known have long had inter-
course with the Aborigines of that part of Australia.
INTRODUCTION. XXXVll
The methods of cooking the animals they caught do not tend to raise the
character of the natives. Neitlier as regards fish, flesh, or fowl were they as
careful as they might have been, nor as clean. They were indeed, to
speak the truth, dirty in their habits. They ate portions of animals that
well-bred people universally reject ; and they cooked some that Europeans
would eat raw, and ate raw very many that would be palatable only when
well cooked. Like the Romans, they were fond of moths {zeuzera) ; but
they consumed also earth-worms and other small creatures whose names are
not usually mentioned. Their ovens for cooking large animals, or a number
of small animals, were formed of stones. The stones were heated and placed
iu a hole in the ground, grass was thrown on them, and the animal to be
cooked was laid on the grass, and covered with grass, and other stones
heated in the fire were piled on the top. The whole was covered with earth
and left until the process was complete. Sometimes they made holes iu the
oven with sticks and poured in water so as to steam or parboil the animal,
but in general it was left to the operation of the heated stones. A bird
was sometimes covered with clay and broiled in the embers of the fire, and
this method, if certain precautions be taken, is excellent, and the gourmet
would delight in the result.
Sir George Grey describes also a manner of cooking fish and the flesh
of the kangaroo which he thinks is worthy of being adopted by the most
civilized nations. It is called Yudarn dukoon, and the fish and other meats so
cooked are said to be, and indeed must be, delicious.
Other writers have a high opinion of some of the native methods of cooking.
The natives of the Macleay River, it is said, always clean and gut their fish,
aud cook them carefully on hot embers.
They are not able to boil anything. They have no pottery, and they have
not even attempted to form any vessels that could be placed on tlie fire, which
they might have done by covering their closely-woven baskets with clay.
Mr. Tylor states, on the authority of Mr. T. Baines, that in North Australia
the natives immerse heated stones in water, poured into holes in the ground,
and boil fish, the tortoise, and the smaller alligators ; and that they may,
therefore, in these times at least, be counted as " stone-boilers." With this
practice the natives of the south were not acquainted, if recorded observations
are to be trusted.
Iu broiling or roasting or in stewing in ovens the native was not, accord-
ing to our notions, a good cook, and not being a good cook, any advance iu
civilization was nearly impossible. The proper nourishment of tlie body is of
more importance than many other things recommended as indispensable to the
improvement of savage and other peoples.
It cannot be denied that cannibalism prevailed at one time throughout tlie
whole of Australia. The natives killed aud ate little children, aud the bodies of
warriors slain in battle were eaten. They did not feast upon human flesh, how-
ever, like the natives of Fiji. They appear to have eaten portions of the bodies
of the slain in obedience to customs arising out of their superstitions, and very
rarely to have sacrificed a humau life merely that they might cook aud eat the
XXXVIU INTRODUCTION.
flesh. This, however, was done under some circumstances. When tribes
assembled to eat the fruit of the Bunya^bumja, they were not permitted to take
any game, and at lengtli the craving for flesh was so intense that they were
impelled to kill one of their number in order that their appetites might be
satisfied.
It is creditable to them that they are ashamed of the practice. Tliey
usually deny that they ever ate human flesh, but as constantly allege that
" wild blacks " are guilty of the crime. It is sad to relate that there are
only too many well-authenticated instances of cannibalism ; and the fact is
apparent, too, that not seldom the natives destroyed the victim under circum-
stances of peculiar atrocity. It was not always done that they might comply
with a custom, or that by eating portions of a body they might thereby acquire
the courage and strength of the deceased. They undoubtedly on some occasions
indulged in the horrible practice because they rejoiced in the savage banquet.
Unlike many other ofiences with which they are justly charged, but which
because of their ignorance or because of the pressure of their necessities cannot
be called crimes, this one in general they knew to be wrong. Their behaviour,
when questioned on the subject, shows that they erred knowingly and wilfully.
That they were not so bad as the men of Fiji and New Zealand is undoubtedly
true, aud so much perhaps may be said in their favor.
The Rev. John Bulmer, the Rev. A. Hartmann, the Rev. F. A. Hagenauer,
and Mr. John Green, furnished, at my request, some years ago, statements as
made by the blacks relative to the habits of some of the native animals, and
their accounts are on the whole accurate. The blacks do not like to be ques-
tioned respecting matters in which they take no interest; they are also suspi-
cious, and it is often impossible to obtain from them such information as they
undoubtedly possess. The statements are, however, not without interest,
though they are less valuable than might have been anticipated.
The diseases to which the natives were subject prior to the arrival of the
whites were ophthalmia, caused by the heat and the flies — and Dampier rightly
called them " the poor winking people of New Holland," when he saw them in
the height of summer, on the north-west coast, maintaining an unequal fight
with these pests; colds, owing to their careless mode of living and their habit
of sleeping near a fire without a covering ; hydatids in the liver and lungs, due
probably to the imperfect cooking of their food; and eczematous diseases,
caused by their living, in some places, principally on fish, and generally by their
want of cleanliness. Tlie latter diseases are in some cases of a very severe
character, and the depilous people of parts of the interior have probably sufi'ered
from them. The late Mr. Thomas says that dogs, cats, and opossums that were
kept as pets by any people having the more severe forms of skin disease were
also afi"ected and lost their hair.
The small-pox, supposed to have been introduced by the whites in 1 788, was
the cause of numerous deaths amongst the natives, and the pictures I have
given in illustration of the ravages committed by this scourge are painful to
contemplate. The blacks could not bury their dead, the father was separated
from his family, and children fled from their parents. Tribes, it is believed,
IXTEODUCTION. XXXLX
were so reduced in numbers that they sought companionship with others
with whom they had formerly been at enmity, and dread and suffering were
amongst them everywhere.
There is a kind of sickness that affects the natives who live amongst the
whites, or on the stations where they are required to labor, which appears to be
peculiar to them. They mope, they sit stupidly over a fire, and at length the
lungs or some other j^arts of the body are attacked, and they die. The Right
Reverend Dr. Rosendo Salvado and others have noticed this melancholy and the
sickness that follows. It does not usually yield to treatment by European
doctors. But medical officers find miich difficulty in managing the blacks when
they are sick. They are impatient of control; they follow the habits they have
acquired amongst their own people, and even with the utmost care many die
that, if they had followed advice and taken the medicines prescribed for them,
would have lived.
The native doctors are, I think, everywhere much trusted by the blacks.
They like their modes of cure, and they believe in them. A man with failing
sight ^qll gladly subject himself to treatment by a native doctor, who, after
some incantations and mummeries, will pretend to extract straws or pieces of
wood from the eyes; and after these things are done the patient is supposed
to recover, unless some stronger magician in another tribe has interfered
injuriously with the doctor's operations. Their vapour baths and their decoc-
tions are more in accordance with our notions of treating diseases ; and these,
we may suppose, did not arise otit of their superstitions, but were the residts of
experience.
It will be observed that in some cases females are employed as doctors, and
that their power to heal is believed in.
The natives rapidly recover from wounds. Such injuries as would be fatal
in the case of Europeans are accounted as nothing amongst the blacks. A
spear through the body, a broken skull, or ghastly wounds inflicted by the
boomerang, are quickly cured. And they are very patient. A man pierced by
a barbed spear will carry the barbs in his body until suppttration ensues and
such a destruction of the tissues as to admit of the wood being pulled out.
This is scarcely consistent with the theory of a low vitality. In his native
state the black is probably as healthy and has a body in all its parts as capable
of repairing injuries unassisted as the animals that live with him in the forests.
Under circumstances different from those natural to him — in the artificial life
which the whites have forced upon him — he is not always very strong nor very
healthy. Tlie process of selection which nature has employed in fitting him for
the haunts he loves is one which renders him a ready victim to the diseases
that are the results of the kind of civilization now existing; diseases which
would be unknown were civilization based on natural laws, and not crippled by
old superstitions nor held in bondage by vicious inventions.
The dresses and personal ornaments of the natives of Australia, as may be
supposed, are simple. The climate does not require any thick close clothing;
and the habits of the people forbid the use of many personal decorations within
their reach. The oposstmi cloak, the strips of skin worn around the loins, and
xl " INTEODIJCTION.
the apron of emu feathers, are their clothiDg. All else that they use is put on
rather for ornament than because it is necessary. Their cloaks, their aprons,
their necklaces, their nose-bones, the hunger-belt they tie round their bodies,
the extraordinary head-dress of feathers worn by the natives of the north —
resembling the masks of the Ahts of Vancouver's Island, the Momo of New
Caledonia, and the circlets of feathers with which the men of Guiana deck
their heads — and the manner in which they paint themselves, are shown in the
descriptions and figures in tliis work.*
Tlie cloaks are made of the skins of the opossum. These skins they neatly
sew together, using for thread the sinews of the tail of the kangaroo. The rug
is ornamented with various devices, and whether the outside or the inside is
presented, it is a work that every one likes to look at, because it is strong and
durable and honestly made, and never in the lines drawn on it exhibiting the
uupleasing forms that are invariably chosen by our own people when they
attempt decoration.
The apron of feathers used by maidens, and the skirt, kilt, or fillibeg, made
of strips of skin, with which the men clothe themselves, resemble in form the
African apron of thongs, the grass dresses of Fiji and New Caledonia, and the
feather aprons of tropical America.
The fillet worn round the head reminds one of a similar ornament used by
the people who dwelt on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, of that of
the Persians, of the band tied over the hair that the Greeks and Romans
affected, and the modern fashion of tying the hair with a ribbon.
They bored the septum of the nose, in this repeating the custom of the
Sachet Indians of De Fuca's Straits and the pre-Columbian inhabitants of
North America.
Their necklaces, simple as they are, have their representations now in the
rich and costly adornments which the females of Europe delight in placing on
their necks.
The hunger-belt of the Australians is like that of the Moors of Africa and
the Red Indians of America. The specimens in my collection are beautifully
wrought.
Their practice of distinguishing by an article of dress, such as the apron
of emu feathers, the females who were not yet matrons, finds even now its
equivalents in many modes of attire amongst civilized peoples ; and indeed it
is difficult to name any of their customs that are not apparently the germs
of varying phases of fashion that exist at the present day, the origin of
which, unless we seek it in the habits of savages, is hidden from us. The
wearing of armlets and anklets, the ear-rings which no woman dislikes and
many men are glad to exhibit, the tattooing that the sailor more especially
rejoices in, and even the crown that sovereigns are compelled to assume, are all
* The head-dress of feathers ( Oogee), obtained by Mr. J. A. Panton from North-Eastem
Australia, is somewhat like that described by Jukes in the narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Fli/.
When visiting Darnley Island or Erroob, Duppa, a native, appeared with a fillet crossing over his
head from which proceeded a semicircle of large white feathers, vandyked at the edges, and
radiating round his head like a glory.
INTEODTJCTION.
Xli
derived from the simple decorations of savage peoples. This reflection may
appear to some humiliating, but in truth it is ennobling. It shows that man
advances, improves, and invents ; and such steps, though the dates of them
cannot be recorded, as surely mark the stages of his progress as the discovery
of the art of printing, the use of steam in locomotion, the application of
electricity to the working of telegraphs, and the contrivances by which secrets
are won from nature in analyses, in light-painting, and in the wonderful
apparatus which enable us to pierce the further heavens and tell of their
mysteries.
Nearly all their work is good and strong and lasting, and often much inge-
nuity is shown in arranging the knitted work of their head-bands and sashes.
It is not a custom of the natives to use flowers for the purpose of personal
decoration, though it is said that girls when dancing have been seen so adorned.
Neither do they make necklaces of shells like those of the natives of Tasmania;
but fragments of shells are sometimes fastened to the pendant of the necklace
of reeds. They do not pierce the ears. They tie bunches of leaves round the
ankles or round the legs above the knee when performing in the corrobboree,
and these make a strange noise as they move rapidly to and fro. It is believed
that the people of New Guinea adopt the same method when they dress them-
selves for their dances.
The colors used by the natives for painting themselves are red, yellow,
white, and black, Blue is not used for painting the body, and indeed it is
questionable whether that color was known to them prior to the advent of
Europeans. The so-called blue that is seen in the cave paintings is probably
a mixture of black and white. White paint is nearly always adopted for the
corrobboree dance, and is also generally the color of mourning. The brighter
colors have quite a metallic lustre when carefully applied ; and on important
occasions the men take great pains in painting their bodies. Tliey apply white
in streaks and daubs in such a manner as to appear at night by the light of the
corrobboree fire like a crowd of skeletons. The natives travelled long distances
to procure red-ochre and other paints ; and some" tribes could get their favorite
color only by barter. Whether because it was difficult to obtain, or because it
was not generally approved of, it is certain that yellow-ochre was not as much
used in the south as in the north. A great many weapons from the north are
daubed with a yellow pigment; and I have not seen one so colored amongst
those made by the natives of Victoria.
The men and women did not always paint themselves in such manner as
whim or fancy dictated. It appears that on occasions of mourning they
adopted certain styles of coloring, according as they were near or distant
relatives of the deceased ; and perhaps, even when they appeared in their most
grotesque adornments, they acted as directed by custom or superstition, and
presented to their tribe pictures which were understood by them. It is
altogether a mistake to suppose that savages act as a rule on impulse, without
guide, and without control.
In ornamenting the skin they had to conform to rules. They raised
cicatrices after a pattern common to the tribe. One form, at any rate, had to
/
Xlii INTEODIJCTION.
appear, whatever latitude might be pennitted in regard to others. None of the
people of Australia practise the art of tattooing as it is known in the Tonga
Islands, in Samoa, or in New Zealand. Their elevated scars are like the large
punctures or ridges, some in straight and others in curved Hues, which Capt.
Cook observed on the bodies of the natives of Tasmania, and which are seen
also among the men of New Guinea, where are used red-ochre to paint the
body, and a piece of bone in the septum of the nose. This method of
ornamentation has no doubt been gradually improved by the brown race until
it reached its liigliest development in the Marquesas. The women of Brumer
Island ornament the skin with zigzag markings, but they are also frequently
elaborately tattooed, and there, perhaps, may be found the art in a transition
state. The figure of a native of Queensland, in this work, shows a very curious
set of scars, and it is wonderful how he could have endured the pain of the
operations necessary to this kind of embellishment.
Tlie natives of Australia embellish their weapons with incised lines, using
the baud, tlie herring-bone, the chevron, St. Andrew's cross, and detached
circles. Many of these are so combined as to form geometrical patterns that
have an excellent eifect. Tliey do not use coils or scrolls ; and there are rarely
seen, except in their pictures, figures of animals or vegetables. It is true that
they represent in rude lines forms of animals, such as the iguana, on their
shields ; but these, like the lines on the same weapons showing rivers and
lakes — the boundaries of their lands — are intended to convey to others the
name or place of their tribe.
They roughly carve their weapons with the stone tomahawk and stone chisel,
but the ornamentation is effected by a very neat tool, formed of one side of the
I Tinder-jaw and tooth of the opossum. This, when fixed to a wooden handle, is
a most useful cutting instrument.
The patterns carved on the shields and clubs figured in this work have been
faithfully copied. All the lines are repeated, and thus there are preserved
2^ lasting records of the native art of this people. I cannot discover, except as
regards the devices on the shields, that there is any dilference in the modes of
ornamentation amongst the natives of Victoria. They used the same figures,
but it is almost certain that particular forms were preferred to others in some
localities.
Their shields, their clubs, their throwing-sticks, and their cloaks, are often
profusely ornamented. In the south their spears are not ornamented, while in
the north they are marked much after the pattern used by the natives of the
South Sea Islands in embellishing their arrows. The natives of West Australia
appear to have but one rather remarkable pattern for their shields, and they do
not in any way ornament the throwing-stick. Some of their spears, however,
are ornamented, the colors used being black and white.
Implements made of bone are not, as far as I know, decorated in any way.
Neither the ancient nor modern bone tools or ornaments in my possession are
marked at all.
The boomerang is not ornamented any^'here, I believe, except on the north-
east coast and in the east.
INTRODUCTION. ' xliii
A remarkable form of sliield is in use on the north-east coast. The style of
ornamentation differs from all others on the continent, and there is a boss in
the centre. Tlie people who carve this weapon use colors, also, in combinations
that are not generally seen elsewhere.
The geometrical figures carved by the natives of Australia much resemble
those of the Fijians. I have given some examples, and others might be given,
showing almost line for line (though the patterns are complicated) an exact
resemblance between the modes of ornamentation adopted on the north-east
coast and by the natives of Levuka. But the Fijians use also forms that are
unknown to the Australians.
On the other hand, the natives of New Zealand in all their forms of
decoration greatly contrast those of Australia. There the broken loop-coil and
peculiar shell-like patterns prevail, and the lines are not tangential, as those
carved by the Australians almost invariablj' are.
The reader need not be reminded of the similarity that exists in all
the forms adopted by the savages of Australia and those that are seen on the
ancient urns dug out of the earth in Britain, and how often they are repeated
in the architecture of the races from which we have derived civilization.
Kearly as much will be taught by a careful study of all the forms of art-
decoration used by the peoples of the past and those now in use by savages
as perhaps by investigating the structure of the languages of those now
living. It is a work that will undoubtedly be undertaken at some future
time, and the results will be of the highest value to mankind. All the short
steps which were taken in the march towards a higher state of existence
cannot be measured, but some can be scanned by the light which existing
practices throw on those of the past ; and there is neither reason for doubt
nor hesitation as regards the exceeding value of rigid research in a field
that is almost untrodden. Savages, when they attempt ornamentation, appear
to have the greatest difliculty in emancipating themselves from the control
which geometrical figures exercise on the mind. They cannot, without an
efi"ort, make a large circle or a large curve. A snake drawn by an Australian
is angular ; and the neck of the emu is angular. Perhaps it is correct to say
that wherever curved lines prevail in the decorations of a race there is an
approach to a state, as regards art, somewhat higher than that of the savage.
It may be that of barbarism ; but still the use of the curve indicates a higher
culture than that known to races who have exclusively geometrical patterns.
It was only in the so-called bronze age in Scandinavia that the continuous
loop-coil was so prominent in the decorations of the people of that part of
Europe, and though such forms are used also by tribes that are unacqainted
with the use of metals, such exceptions would perhaps be as instructive in
unfolding the history of the past as the occurrence in AtTstralia of animals
and plants whose congeners are found in Europe in Secondary and Tertiary
formations. -
Without culture, without refinement, the Australian is an artist. He paints
in caves, in places where he has access to caves; and, where there are none, he
bends a sheet of bark, smokes the inner surface until it is blackened, and then
xliv INTRODUCTION.
depicts with the nail of his thumb or a bone-awl, pictures of birds, and beasts,
men, and scenes in his life.
He decorates the smooth rocks that front the sea, and finds in the repre-
sentations that have been made by others and in his own efforts the same kind
of delight that fills the mind of the civilized man when he sita before his easel.
Throngliout Australia the practice of painting pictures in caves and on
rocks, of inscribing strange devices on the barked trunks of trees, and of cutting
away the grass so as to make figures on the ground, is common; and it is but
just to repeat the observation of one well acquainted with their works, and say
that nowhere is any trace of indecency to be seen.
The figures that are given in this work sufficiently answer the oft-repeated
statement that the blacks of Australia are unable to understand a picture when
they see it. They are fond of pictures; and one thing that has astonished
Europeans is the care they take, when partially civilised, to decorate their huts
with wood engravings and colored pictures. There is probably not a little
child at any of the Aboriginal settlements that would not at once recognise
a ])liotographic portrait of any well-known person who regularly visited the
station.
'^ It is of great importance to ascertain with certainty the steps that have led
to improvements in their arms and arts, and it is to be deplored that little
information is available on a subject so interesting. There is some reason to
believe that inventions have crept down gradually from the north. The longi-
tudinal lines on some of the weapons of the West Australians are similar to a
style of ornamentation common on the north and north-east coast. The Port
Lincoln blacks are not equal to the natives of the Murray in fashioning their
weapons, and there is little doubt that the natives living on the shores of Lake
Eyre are far behind the men of the Murray and the Darling in many devices.
They wind long strings round the body instead of the woven sash; and it is said
the boomerang is in some parts of that district unknown. Tlie bone fish-hook
it is believed was used by only a few of the tribes of Victoria; and it is by no
means certain that message-sticks were in common use amongst the people of
the southern parts of Australia. Their shields, their spears, their nets, their
hooks, indeed all they possess, appear to have been derived from the north; and
some things — as, for instance, the closely wrought wicker bottle or basket made
by the natives of Rockingham Bay — have not yet come very far southward.
Tliat they were gradually, very slowly — before the coming of the whites —
adopting new contrivances leading to some improvement in their condition is
I think certain, but their wandering habits as hunters and fishers, and the
bonds formed of their superstitions, forbade the possibility of any rapid changes
in their mode of life. It is only amongst the foremost nations of the earth that
inventions and improvements advance by leaps and bounds.
The offensive weapons of the natives are neither few nor simple. Some of
them are but little known; and probably but for the descriptions given in this
volimie all knowledge of such of those as are very uncommon would have been
lost. A mere catalogue of the weapons I have collected would occupy much
space.
INTEODUCTION. xlv
Probably tbe first weapon used by the blacks was the Worra^Korra or NuUa-
nulla. A young tree was pulled up and rudely fashioned into a club, the root
forming the knob. The end was sharpened, and it could be used as well for
striking an enemy as for digging up roots, and for making holes so as to enable
the native to catch animals that burrow. It would be used also as a missile,
and the kangaroo, the opossum, and the native dog and birds would be killed
with the instrument. By-and-by other forms grew out of this very simple
weapon. With the axe and the cutting tools made of teeth or chips of
basalt they carved clubs out of solid wood, nearly always selecting, however,
a tree or a branch that was somewhat like in form to the weapon that was
desired.
The Kud-jee-run, the ordinary club or waddy of the natives of the Yarra, the
Koom-bah-mallee and Moonoe of the Murray tribes, and the Mattina and the
Meero of the north-east coast, are all weapons of the same kind; they are clubs,
however much they differ in form and in the way in which they are ornamented.
They are sharpened at the lower end, and each can be used as a missile. The
double pointed NuUa-nulla of the north-east coast is employed, however, most
commonly in the same way as the Kon-nung of the Victorian natives. It is
either thrown at the enemy or used to pierce him in close combat. The Kon-nung
is not a club, but a fighting-stick. It is sharpened at both ends, and, whether
used as a missile or a dagger, is a dangerous weapon.
Tlie Kul-luk of the Gippsland natives, the Bittergan of the north-east coast,
and the large sword made by the people of Rockingham Bay, were no doubt in
their earlier forms like clubs, but they are to be classed rather with the Li-lil
and the Quirriang-an-wun than with the Kud-jee-run. The Li-lil is not so oftea
used as a missUe as to strike at and cut the enemy, and may indeed be properly
called a wooden sword. It is made of very hard wood, and it has a fine sharp
edge. It is a better instrument than any of the wooden swords made by the
natives of the north. This, like all the rest, was sometimes used as a missile,
and also in defence to guard blows aimed by the enemy.
Many of the clubs of the Australian natives are neatly made, and curiously
ornamented, and as specimens of art are scarcely inferior to those of the Fijians.
The Fijians usually ornament that jiart which is grasped by the hand. The
heads generally are smooth — though some, those belonging to the chiefs, are
elaborately carved. The head of one in my collection, of a globular form, is
spiked, and the spikes curiously arranged in lines, reminding one of the flower
of the dahlia.
Though the woods used by the natives for their clubs are heavy and hard,
their weapons are smaller and lighter than those of the Fijians. The larger
Fijian clubs in my collection vary in length from thirty-six to forty inches, and
they weigh from eighty-four to one hundred and eighty ounces. The larger
Australian clubs weigh no more than forty ounces, and some less than twelve.
But the large wooden club or sword used at Port Darwin weighs seventy-two
ounces.
The natives of the south and west of Australia use generally lighter weapons
than the men of the north.
Xlvi INTRODUCTION.
Many of the spears made by the natives of Victoria are ruder in form,
thougli perhaps not less effective in war or in the chase than those seen in
the northern and nortli-westeru parts of the continent.
Tlie duuble-barbed spear {Mongilc) made by inserting pieces of quartz,
quartz ite, or black basalt in grooves cut in the wood ; the double-barbed spear,
formed by cutting barbs out of the solid wood ; the Nandinn, having barbs (also
cut out of the solid wood) on one side only; the reed spear (Tir-rer), with a
piece of hard heavy wood for a point ; the barbed spear (Ko-anie) ; the bident
( Gom-dalUi) ; tlie trident ( Wormcf/oram) ; the simple wooden spear ( Ujle-ho-anie),
having both ends sharpened, and one brought to a tine i)oint ; the eel-spear ; and
the Koy-yun (one of the favorite spears of the southern blacks) — are all occasion-
ally used — and some exclusively — as weapons of war. Some are described as
spears for fishing, but not one of them would not be used if a fight occurred ;
and it is as difficidt to distinguish their weapons from their imi)lements as to
determine sometimes whether a club can be more properly called an offensive or
a defensive weapon. A man will throw his sjiears and use his club as a defence,
or throw his club, and use some other weapon to ward off boomerangs or other
missiles.
The stone-headed spears of the north will, perhaps, be more interesting to
scientific men than the wooden spears. The heads are as a rule not ground, but
made by striking off flakes, and some in my collection are marvellous results of
this art. Perfect in form, and thoroughly adapted to the purpose for which they
are designed, they shame the more elaborate efforts of civilized men, who with
all their appliances could not excel, and probably could not equal, the works of
the untutored savages of the north. It is believed that stone-headed spears are
common only in the north, but the system of exchange so general amongst the
tribes may have brought these stone-headed weapons to the knowledge of the
southern black. Mr. Officer says that the natives of the Murray claim to be
acquainted with this kind of spear ; but I have not found it anywhere in
Victoria — nor have any of my correspondents, as far as I am informed — nor has
Mr. Officer, as he tells me, seen a stone in his district which in any respect
resembles the stone spear-heads of the north. As soon as one is acquainted
with these stone-heads, as soon as the sight is accustomed to them, it is easy
enough to distinguish them, and to decide whether or not they are the work
of the natives. Their character is distinctly marked.
Tlie rocks used for making spear-heads are black basalt and fine granular
quartz ite. I have not seen any made of quartz, which may be easily accounted
for. The quartzite of which the spear-heads are made is almost like jasper ;
it is tough, and when properly fractured gives a fine even edge, which quartz
does not, and it is not brittle. The natives had their choice of rocks in the north,
and invariably they chose the best for their purposes. K they had not had
quartzite, they would, like many of the tribes of West Australia, have used
quartz.
The lever used to propel the spear — the Kur-ruk, Gur-reek, Murri-wun,
Meera, or Womerah, of the east, west, and south, the Rogorouk or Wondouk
of the north — is the same in principle in all parts of Australia. In its rudest
INTRODUCTION, xlvii
form it is a stick with a tooth or a piece of hard wood fastened with giim
at one end. In its best form the projection for the reception of the hoUow at
the ends of the spear is carved out of the solid wood. In the southern parts of
Australia the woomerah used by the natives is about twenty-seven inches in
length, but in the north they employ for propelling the long stone-headed spears
an instrument about forty-four inches in length.
This, like the boomerang, is peculiar to Australia, and yet, the Ounep (a
cord with a loop) of New Caledonia, used for propelling the spear, is almost
identical in principle. The Ounep answers precisely to the amentum of the
ancients.
The Kur-ruk enables the black to throw a spear to a great distance and
with precision. He can kill a kangaroo at a distance of eighty yards.
The throwing-sticks of the northern, eastern, and southern natives are long
and narrow, and are ofteu much ornamented. Those of the western tribes are
broad canoe-shaped weapons, not marked in any way, but highly polished.
The Aboriginal is careful of his spears and equally regardful of the Kur-ruk.
His spears are to him what the fowling-piece or the rifle is to the sportsman or
the soldier amongst our own people. He procures game with his spear, and it is
the weapon on which he relies when overtaken by an enemy. He polishes and
sharpens his spears from time to time, and if the wooden "tooth" of the Kur-ruk
be broken, he mends it by inserting perhaps the tooth of an enemy slain in
battle in the place where the wooden " tooth " was. This is easily done when
he has ready at hand the strong sinews, got from the tail of the kangaroo, and
such an adhesive gum as that yielded by the grass-tree. When hunting he will
carry several spears, and also when hiding in rushes or scrub in the hope of
intercepting some enemy.
He carries his spears, when in ambush, not in his hands but between his
toes. He carries or drags them after him, and with lightning speed he throws
them either by hand alone or with his Kur-ruk. When an enemy is struck with
the jagged spear in the chest or abdomen, he is disabled, but his life is not
despaired of by his friends. They drag the spear forwards through his body,
the sufferer or his friends plug the holes with grass, and very often in an
incredibly short space of time the warrior again appears, ready to battle with
his foes.
The spears used for taking fish remind one, as already stated, of those in
use now and in ancient times. The bideut is the same as that employed by the
Egyptians ; and the account given by Dr. Gummow of the manner of fishino-
in the extensive flooded grounds that border the Murray is exactly like that of
Wilkinson, and brings one again to the consideration of the similarities that
exist between the customs of the savages of the South and those of races now
scarcely otherwise known but by their monuments and their traditions.
The jday boomerang i^Wonguim) ; the war boomerang {Darn^eet); and the
wooden swords {Li-lil and Quirriang-an-wun) of the natives of the northern
parts of Victoria are of uncommon interest ; and it is believed that the facts
now given will do away with much misappreheusiou that exists in the minds of
many scientific men in Europe respecting the form and character of this class
xlviii INTRODUCTION.
of missiles. A number of weapons have been sent to Europe from time to
time, and experiments have been made with them, and quite erroneous con-
clusions have beeu formed respecting tliem. Because a war boomerang will not
return to the feet of the thrower, and because the play boomerang has been
thrown both by blacks and whites with indiiferent success, it has been assumed
that this missile is uncertain in its flight, and its return to the feet of the
thrower an accident.
Those who have seen a wonguim thrown by a native accustomed to its use
need not be told that the statements published from time to time in the scientific
journals in Europe are founded on imperfect information, or dictated in an un-
philosophical spirit by a too great desire to i)rove that the Dravidian races of the
Indian Peninsula and the ancient Egyptians belong to the Australoid stock, and
that the boomerang was known to the Egj-ptiaus. All the facts that have been
gathered up to the present time support Professor Huxley's theory of the
origination of the Australian race, or at any rate tend to sujiport it, and it is a
pity that any mischievous error should be allowed to obscure what little has
been revealed by the researches of Professor Huxley, the late Dr. Bleek, the
Eev. William Ridley, the Rev. Lorimer Fis(m, and others.
There is nothing to show that anything like the wonguim was known to any
other people anywhere at any time, and it is at least doubtful whether any
weapon resembling the barngeet was known to the Egyptians.
The Wonguim and Barngeet are altogether different from the Saparu, or
sickle-shaped sword, which is represented on Babylonian and Assyrian cylinders
as the weapon of Merodach or Bel.
All the mistaken notions respecting the Australian wonguim could have been
at once disposed of if those who have been experimenting had referred to the
Btatements made, nearly a quarter of a century ago, by one of the ablest and
most conscientious observers of his time — the late Sir Thomas Mitchell. Speak-
ing of the weapons of Australia, he says " The boomerang is one of the most
remarkable of these missiles. Its flight through the air from the hand of an
Australian native seems in strict obedience to his will. In its return after a
very varied course to the foot of the thrower, this weapon seems so extraordinary,
that a vice-president of the Royal Society, about twelve years ago, observed to
me ' that its path through the air was enough to puzzle a mathematician.' "
Sir Thomas's remarks are strictly accurate ; and any one may satisfy himself
of the capabilities of the instrument who will take the trouble to make and
experiment with the toy which is described in that part of this work which
treats of the boomerang. It is almost useless for an adult European to seek
to acquire the art of throwing the wonguim of the natives. Some of the
wonguims one may throw very well, but others — and such are often the best
— it is imijossible to throw with success. The want of success, however, does
not justify any one in stating therefore that the flight is uncertain. It would
be just as reasonable for one who knows nothing of music to find fault with
a flute or a violin.
Nothing is known of the origin of the wonguim. The Barngeet was probably
in use for a long period 2U'ior to the discovery of the weapon which returns to
INTRODUCTION.
xlix
the thrower, and it is reasonable to believe that in making the Barngeet the
right curves had accidentally been given to one of them. But even with a
model in his hands it is almost impossible to guess how the Australian black
was able to detect the slight peculiarities of form on which its flight depends,
and to imitate them. There must have been many failures. It is not easy to
throw a good weapon ; and the first imperfect boomerangs must have caused as
much trouble to the natives and raised in their minds the same doubts as the
wonguims and the barngeets that have been the subjects of experiment by some
of the savans in England.
Tlie boomerang is not known in all parts of Australia. It is so stated by
more than one. Mr. John Jardine, the police magistrate at Somerset, says that
the boomerang is not known at Cape York. A correspondent at Cooktown
(lat. 15° S.) makes the same statement; and another correspondent says, "I
have doubts as to the boomerang being known, except by report, to the Narrinyeri
(tribes of the lakes at the mouth of the Murray) as early as 1847. They
certainly did not use it commonly at that time." And the wonguim, I believe,
is not known by some tribes of the north who use the ornamented barngeet.
The facts indeed, as far as they are known, lead to the inference that the
wonguim was first made by the people of the eastern coast ; but the thinnest
and finest of these leaf-like missiles are found in Western Australia. How did
they get there? And why are they not used in York Peninsula? Is the
boomerang of the West Australians, unlike in form that of the eastern and
southern parts of the continent, an invention of that people ? It is almost
certain that the wonguim was not brought with them by the natives that first
crossed the straits ; and it had not become known to all the tribes when the first
white settlers came to occupy the country. It is not a weapon that, its uses once
discovered, would be discarded by any natives. This is a subject of the highest
interest ; and though perhaps it is now too late for any investigations to lead
to such results as would have accrued if the matter had been taken in hand
when the country was first colonized, it is possible yet to procure information
from the natives of the north and the interior, and to ascertain, perhaps, how
the knowledge of the wonguim was spread, and whether or not it had its origin
amongst the tribes of the east coast. The wonguim has not been found in New
Guinea, and the Tasmanians knew nothing of it.
Though the native would use anything that he might hold in his hand or
that was withiu his grasp to ward ofl' blows, or to protect himself against the
boomerang or the spear, he had also very excellent defensive weapons. The
shields of the natives of the east, south-east, and south are of two kinds. The
Miilga — the wooden shield — is a defence when attack is made by the Kud-jce-
run or Leon-ile, and though the general character of the weapon in all parts of
Victoria is maintained, there are differences of form which show that the shield
was being very gradually improved. The rather rude shields with a flat surface
commonly in use, and designed only for warding off blows aimed by an enemy
who was armed with the club, began to give place to shields with an angular
face, which could be employed as well against the club as the spear. Numerous
figures are given showing the forms of these weapons and the manner in which
9
1 INTEODUCTION.
they are ornamented. Many are liea\'y, weighing as much as fifty-six onnces ;
and the wives of the natives must have been sorely burdened in travelling from
camp to camp when their warriors owned several of these weapons.
Tlie aperture for the hand iu all the specimens in my collectiou varies in
length from three to three and a half inches, and when covered with the skin of
the opossum the space is not more than sufficient to allow of a lady grasping
the handle of the shield. The natives have long narrow hands, and all who
examine their weapons and implements are astonished when they see the small
spaces that are cut out for the hand. Some of the club-shields are very elegant
in form, and are superior, I think, to the African shields, which in many
respects they resemble.
The Gee-am, or Ker-reem, a thin, light, and broad canoe-shaped shield, is used
as a defence against spears, and would be nearly useless in protecting a man
against an enemy armed with a club. The specimens figured in this work fairly
represent the character of these weapons. Care has been taken to give drawings
of old weapons only — weapons made before the natives had become accustomed
to use the knives and tools introduced by the wliites.
The Ker-reem reminds one of the wicker shield ( Gerrhum) of the Persians,
the Gerrha of the Assyrians, and the yippoy of the ancient Greeks — the square
shield made of osier and covered with the hide of an ox.* Tlie weight of the
Ker-reem is usually not more than twenty-seven ounces. These shields are hard
and strong and durable.
In some the place for the hand is cut out of the solid wood ; but generally
two holes are made, and a piece of the bough of a tree is bent, and the ends are
inserted in the holes. Those with solid handles are old weapons, and are now
very rare.
The Goolmarry of the natives of Mackay in Queensland, and the very
remarkable shield with a boss, and ornamented with zigzag lines, from Rocking-
ham Bay, are different altogether in form, and in some respects in ornamenta^
tion, from the shields used by the natives of the Namoi and the Peel, where
weapons like those of the Murray and the Glenelg are common. I have in my
collection a beautiful spear-shield from the Namoi, having a handle cut out of
the solid wood, which in form and in ornamentation is exactly like the shields
used by the natives of the Yarra.
The woods available for making shields are in the south very different from
those of the north. A species of ficus which grows in the north yields a soft
and light wood, which is admirably suited to the requirements of the native ;
and with this he has constructed a weapon which differs essentially from the
heavy wooden club-shield and the lighter spear-shield of the men of the Murray
and the Yarra.
The weapons and implements of the West Australian natives differ in some
respects from those of the natives of the eastern and southern parts of the
continent.
* A wicker shield, usually covered with tappa, is found in use among some of the natives of
the islands of the Solomon Group.
INTRODUCTION. li
The K)/l'te or boomerang is a thin and paper-like missile, with very sharp
edges, and capable of inflicting deadly wounds. Its form, too, is peculiar, pre-
senting, as it does in looking at it as it lies flat, two angles. Whereas the
boomerangs of the natives of Victoria weigh in some cases as much as tea
ounces, the West Australian kylies are seldom more than four ounces in weight.
Light as they are, it is very difficult for a European to throw them with preci-
sion. It is easier to manage one of tlie heavy weapons of the Victorian natives
than this slight instrument ; and yet in the hands of an expert its flight is
extraordinary, and when properly tlirown it returns invariably to the feet of the
thrower, or very near to his feet. They are made of the wood of a species of
acacia; and the colors of those in my collection are singularly beautiful — the
rich reddish-brown streaked with dark-brown being usually bordered by a light-
cream color.
There are at least flve kinds of spears in use in West Australia, the most
common being the Gid-jee, a wooden spear having a row of sharp chips on one
side, which is thrown with the Meero; the light spear of very hard wood, sharp-
ened at both ends ; the double-barbed spear {Pillara), thrown with the Meero;
the single-barbed spear, and the barbed four-pronged spear. The spears are
very light ; some weigh no more than six ounces and a half. They are gene-
rally coated with a gum or resin, and the gum of the grass-tree is used for
fastening the stone chips to the wood. One kind of spear is ornamented.
The Meeros or Womera/ts are of two kinds : one is a shield-shaped weapon,
thin and light but very strong, and the other is a long narrow throwing-stick.
One of the latter in my collection is about forty-two inches in length, and is
used for propelling the long stone-headed spears that are in use on the north-
west coast.
It is commonly stated that the long spears are always thrown by hand ; but
this is a mistake. All the very long spears from the north-west coast that I
have seen are hollowed at the end for the reception of the " tooth " of the
throwing-stick.
The shield of the West Australians — and it appears they have only one — is
curiously marked, and diff"ers from the shields of the natives of the east. It is
usually colored red and white. It closely resembles the shields brought from
Central Africa.
Tlie stone hammer or stone axe (Kacl-jo) is also diff'erent from those common
in the south and east. It is said that they are often formed of two pieces of
stone. The wooden handle is sharpened at the end, and is used to assist in
climbing trees. The specimens sent to me are very rough. The stones are not
ground or polished, but formed by striking ofi' chips. They are composed of
fine-grained granite, which, unlike greenstones, diorites, and metamorphic rocks,
cannot easily be shaped by grinding.
The stone chisel {Dhabba) is like tluit made by the natives of the Grey
Ranges ; but the wooden handle is marked by incised lines, whether for orna^
ment or to aftord a better grip of the tool is not known. It is used in fight-
ing, and also for cutting and shaping boomerangs, shields, clubs, and other
weapons. The stone is quartz, obtained probably from veins in granite.
y
lii INTRODUCTION.
The meat-cutter or native kuife is usually figured and described as a saw ;
and it much resembles a saw. Fragments of quartz are fastened to a piece of
hard wood with the gum of the xanthorrhoea, very much in the same way as in
making a sjjear, and a rough sort of kuife is the result. It is used for cutting
flesh.
Tliese weapons and tools, and the native scoop or spade {Waal-hee), the
waddy, the large war-club, and such implements as bone-needles or awls, com-
plete the list of the instruments commonly in use on the west coast.
Nearly all the information respecting tlie "West Australian weapons and
implements has been communicated by the Honorable F. Burlee, M.P., the
Colonial Secretary of West Australia, and by Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, who
made a geological survey of a portion of the territory. Mr. Brown increased
my collection by a valuable donation of spears, throwing-sticks, tomahawks,
&c., and but for his assistance I should have been unable to give a description
of many very interesting weapons.
Much ingenuity is displayed by the natives in plaiting and weaving grasses,
flags, and sedges, and various vegetable fibres, into twine, bags, and nets. The
leaves of the reed {Phragmites communis), a sedge-like plant {Xerotes longi-
folia), difi"erent species of Car ex, and the common grass (Poa Austral is), are
plaited by the women. The leaves are usually split with the nail, a number of
the strips are put together, without being twisted, and another strip is wrapped
round the bundle thus formed. The strips are neatly interlaced ; and some-
times a pattern is formed by varying the size of the strips or by using leaves of
different colors.
Many of the bags are made of a fibre obtained from the bark of the stringy-
bark tree {EucaJgptus obliqua). The fibre is twisted, and the twine is very
strong and durable. The fur of the opossum or the native cat is sometimes
used for making twine. None of the baskets made in Victoria are so closely
woven as to hold water, and it is doubtful whether there are any such in
Australia. Tlie wicker bottle or basket from Rockingham Bay, figured and
described by Mr. John McDonnell, may perhaps hold water. Indeed it is more
like a water vessel than anytliing else.
It is a very amusing sight to see a group of native women employed in
basket-making. Each has a heavy stone to keep the work in its place, and the
plaiting is done by the hands, the band being looped over the large toe of the
right foot. They chatter and sing continually as the business goes on, and they
seem to enjoy the labor, and to pursue it as mechanically as an old woman
knitting a stocking.
When the whites came the native women made variously-colored twine from
the old shawls and other garments that were given to them, and with this they
netted bags, both for their own use and for sale. Some of these are very
pretty.
The vessels used for holding water are usually of wood. A gnarl of a giim-
tree is cut off, and hollowed by fire and with the chisel or tomahawk. Some
are large and hea\'y, and must have remained at the camp where they were
made. Others are small, and could be carried with ease.
INTRODUCTION. liii
The water vessels in some districts are made of bark, in other parts they nse
the skin of an auimal ; and it is asserted that the natives of Encounter Bay
fashion water vessels out of the heads of their deceased relatives. I have never
seen any of these hideous drinking cups, and I cannot learn that they were ever
in use amongst the tribes of Victoria.
Shells, as might be supposed, are occasionally made to serve for holding
water.
Amongst the cutting instruments are the mussel-shell (U-born), wherewith
they scraped and prepared skins for rugs, bags, and water vessels ; and the
Leange-rcalert, formed of the lower-jaw of tlie opossum, an excellent tool for
carving designs on wood and for cutting and shajnng the boomerang and other
weapons.
The bone and wooden awls and nails {^[In-der-min), still in use where
European nails and needles are not to be had, are very ancient implements.
The bone-awls are found in the long disused mirrn-yongs and shell-mounds with
stone tomahawks and chips of basalt. They are not ornamented in any way.
The long stick {Kon-nunc/) carried by the women is a strong and rather heavy
implement, having its point hardened by fire. It is employed in digging roots,
in propelling the bark canoe, and for fighting.
The Nerum ought properly to be classed with the offensive weapons of the
natives. The fibula of the kangaroo is sharpened at one end, and to the other
is attached an elastic rope of some vegetable fibre. There is a loop at the end,
through which the bone can be thrust. This instrument was in former times
used ordinarily for strangling an enemy, but it was perhaps, when the owner
was not looking for some victim, employed as a rope for keeping together spears
and the like. I have seen only one specimen of the Nerum. Something very
like it is described by Mr. J. Moore Davis.
Tlie Weet-weet is a toy. It is formed of a piece of hard wood, the head being
a double cone, and is generally used in sport, but a skilful native can throw it
in such a manner as to seriously injure or kill an opponent— time and place
being suitable. This small instrument can be thrown by the hand alone to an
incredible distance. It is a wonderful projectile. Its weight is less than two
ounces, but when the proper impulse is given by the hand of the native, it has
great velocity, and force enough to wound at a distance of two hundi-ed and
twenty yards.
The corrobboree-stick (Koorn^goon) is merely a piece of wood, sharpened at
each end. Woods that, when dry, are sonorous, are selected for this implement.
They are beaten together, in time, during the corrobboree dance.
The message-sticks of the Australians are highly interesting. Two are
figured — one from the east coast and one from the west. The natives appear
to have had for a long period a method of communicating intelligence by a kind
of picture-writing. Their sticks are certainly a better means of transmitting news
than the quipu of the Peruvians, which was only a cord on which variously-
colored threads were attached as a fringe. The Australians, according to the
statements made by my correspondents and confirmed by the evidence I have
produced, could really send messages, describe the events of a journey, and
liv INTRODUCTION.
ftirnish details of a kind likely to be useful to their friends. It is not without
interest and importance that one of their message-sticks should have been
produced in a court of justice in Queensland, and interpreted by a native
trooper.
All the wonderful stories told of the Australians in the various works on
ethnology, now becoming pojnilar, are finally disposed of by the evidence of
competent observers. The natives not only understand a drawing or a picture
when they see it, but they themselves are tolerably good artists (probably much
better artists than those who have represented them as little superior to
monkeys or dogs), and they have invented, and probably have had in use for
ages, picture-writing not inferior — indeed, as approaching a symbolical character,
superior — to that of the birch-bark letter-writing of the Indians of America.
There are, amongst some tribes, conventionalized forms, evidently ; and it is of
the utmost importance to ascertain to what extent these are used, and by what
t tribes they are understood. This subject and many others equally interesting
were being investigated at the time when the results of my investigations had
to be given prematurely to the public.
The information supplied by the Honorable F. Barlee, M.P., the Colonial
Secretary in "West Australia ; Mr. Bartley, of Brisbane in Queensland ; the
Eev. Mr. Buhner, of Lake Tyers in Gippsland ; and Mr. J. Moore Davis — is
conclusive as to the practice of sending messages by the means above described ;
and this alone must serve to raise the blacks of Australia to a much higher
position amongst the races of the world than that hitlierto ascribed to them.
The boomerang, the womerah, the weet-weet, and message-sticks like theirs
are not found amongst savages in other parts of the world ; and they indicate
a gradual advancement in knowledge and invention, which, in the long course
of ages, if their country had not been invaded by the whites, might perhaps
have resulted in civilization. Their supply of food, however, was always un-
certain, and mainly dependent on their exertions as hunters and fishers ; and
only in those districts where the cultivation of indigenous or accidentally-
imported roots and plants was practicable could they have emerged from their
\condition as savages.
^ The stone implements of the natives of Australia — the tomahawks, knives,
adzes, the chips for cutting and scraping, the sharpening-stones, the stones for
.pounding roots and grinding seeds, those used in fishing and in making baskets,
Vnd the sacred stones carried by the old men, are all described with as much
care as it was possible for me to employ.
'^The ordinary tomahawk of the natives of Victoria consists of a stone, in
shape resembling many of the axe-heads found in Europe, Asia, and America,
and a wooden handle bent over the stone and firmly tied with twine. Gum is
used to keep the wood in its place and to perfect the union. When complete,
it is a strong and useful implement ; and a native with one of these can very
quickly cut off a large limb from a tree, or make holes for his feet when he is
climbing. There are found also in the mirrn-yong heaps and in the soil very
large tomahawks of different forms which, it is said by the natives, were em-
ployed in splitting trees. One in the possession of Mr. Stanbridge is nearly
INTRODUCTION. 1t
fourteen inches in length and five inches in breadth. It was found in a field
near Daylesford, and may have been used, Mr. Stanbridge thinks, as a mattock
for dig'gino:.
I have never seen any of these large implements in tlie hands of the natives
of Victoria, but the blacks of the Munara district and those of some parts of
the interior use very heavy tomahawks.
The natives of the northern tributaries of the River Darling do not in all
cases attach handles to the stone-heads. Many use them in tlie same manner
as the Tasmanians used their rough stone tools. The stone is held in the palm
of the hand, and tlie top is grasped with the fingers and thumb.
The people of West Australia, as already stated, make their tomahawks of
a fine-grained granite, and the cutting edge is formed by striking off flakes.
They are not ground, and some it is said ai-e formed of two pieces of stone.
The mode in which they are fashioned is clearly shown in the figures.
The natives of the east used also for chisels and knives pieces of quartzite
fashioned in the same manner ; and the spear-heads of the north are made by
striking ofl' flakes.
If therefore all the stone implements and weapons of tlie Australians be
examined, one set might be put apart and classed as the equivalents of those of
the Pala3olithic period of Europe, and another set as the equivalents of those of
the Neolithic period. A man of one tribe will have in his belt a tomahawk
ground and highly polished over the whole of its surface, and not far distant
from his country the jieople will use for tomahawks stones made by strikino- off
flakes. The figures given in this work sufficiently establish this fact, and
would seem to press strongly against the theories of Sir John Lubbock, and to
favor the views expressed by the Duke of Argyll.
But it would be uuphilosophical not to use great care in applying such facts
as those I have mentioned to the consideration of a question of so much mo-
ment. The classification made by Sir John Lubbock is confined by him to
Europe, and it is based not alone in all cases on the forms of the stone imple-
ments, but also on the character of other remains that are found with them.
It is beyond question that the Tasmanians used very rough stone implements,
which were made by chipping, that their weaj)ons and tools were few in number,
and inferior to those of the natives of Australia, and that their condition alto-
gether was lower than that of the Australians, amongst whom as a rule ground
and polished stone axes are the implements commonly employed for cuttino-
wood. It rests with Sir John Lubbock to consider these facts in connection
with the classification he has employed. It is obvious that if all the natives of
Australia and Tasmania had perished before the whites had had an o^jportunity
of observing their customs, and if the only knowledge obtainable respectino-
them was that to be got from their implements of stone, some very curious
results would have followed on applying Sir J. Lubbock's classification to them.
The Tasmanian stone implements would have been regarded as of Palieolithic
age, and some of the Australian specimens as of Neolithic age — that is to say
if the evidence derivable from these was alone admissible ; but as regards the
stone implements of Europe, Sir John Lubbock adduces much more, and not
ivi INTRODUCTION.
the least important is that which relates to the conditions under which the
European stone implements are found. In the Palseolithic period, "man shared
the possession of Europe with the manimotli, the cave-hear, the woolly-haired
rhinoceros, and other extinct animals ;" and with the remains of these are found
chipped axes and other implements that appear to be characteristic of that
period. Tiie geologist does not necessarily suggest contemporaneity when he
describes in different parts of the globe the Eocene, Miocene, aad Pliocene
deposits ; and it is in a similar manner and with the like results that the
archajologist should work. To bring iato complete harmony the several stages
of growth, whether ancient or modern, which have their records in the rocks or
in the works of man, one must forget Time, and, in the first attempts at classi-
fication, viewing the whole earth, look for resemblances and difiierences in the
things themselves, rather than seek to ascertain which of them were formed
contemporaneously.
A careful consideration of the condition of savages in all parts of the globe
tends rather to support the conclusions of Sir J. Lubbock, and to suggest their
extension beyond the limits he has marked out than to invalidate them. He
made undoubtedly a step of the highest importance in the advancement of a
science tliat ])ut yesterday — as it were — had no existence when he suggested the
division above referred to; and a patient study of the evidence he has collected
shows unmistakably that his method is but the beginning of a classification
that will have results of the highest importance to mankind.
It is proper to call attention to the fact that no works of art have been
found in the recent drifts of Victoria, and these drifts have been largely and
widely explored by gold-miners. Was Australia unpeopled during the ages
that preceded the formation of the gravels that form low terraces in every
valley, and the beds of soft volcanic ash that yet cover grass-grown surfaces ?
If peopled, why do we not find some evidence — a broken stone tomahawk or a
stone spear-head — in some of the most recent accumulations ? Their stone im-
plements are not found in caves or in the mud of lagoons with the bones of the
gigantic marsupials, or any of the now extinct predaceans that have their living
representatives in the island of Tasmania. The bones of the Tasmanian devil
(^Sarcophilus i/rsinus), the great kangaroo {Macropus Titan), the Thjlacoleo,
the Nototherium, and the Diprotodon, and those of a reptile {Megalania prisca)
allied to the lace lizards of Australia, are found abundantly in mud flats in
various parts of Australia ; but nothing has been discovered to show that tlie
continent was inhabited by man when these now well-preserved relics were
clothed with flesh, and the animals were feeding on the plains and in the
streams which were as well fitted then as now, as shown by the fruits and
seeds that have been discovered, to afi"ord the means of support to a savage
people.
What was the condition of Australia when the flint implement makers of
the drift period were living? Probably an unpeopled tract, where the then
nearly extinct volcanoes shed at times over the landscape a feeble light, and
the lion gnawing the bones of a kangaroo was watched with jackall-like eyes by
the native dog, ready to eat up such scraps as his powerfiil enemy might leave
INTRODUCTION. Ivii
when liis hunger was appeased. It is almost certain that during the period
of the large carnivorous marsupials man was not there to contest with the lion
the right to the proceeds of the chase.
Chips for cutting and scraping, fragments of tomahawks, and pieces of black
basalt, are found on the low Silurian ranges near the rivers and creeks in all
parts of Victoria ; and wherever the soil is dug or ploughed over any consider-
able area, old tomahawks are turned up, thus showing the immense period of
time that the land has been occupied by the native race.
The same fact is also strongly impressed on the mind when their quarries
are examined. One quarry of diorite, near Mount William, in the parish of
Lancefield, is of great extent, and the quantities of stone taken away by the
natives must have been very great. Another near Kilmore occupies a large
area ; and there are besides numerous spots where black basalt was quarried.
The nets made by the natives of Australia are similar to those used in
Europe. The twine is made strong or slight in accordance with their needs.
Sometimes they use kangaroo-grass, and sometimes a fibre obtained from the
bark of a tree. In the southern parts of Australia the fibre of the stringybark
is usually employed.
Tlie large net made of kangaroo-grass is provided with stone sinkers and
bark floats. The hand net is stretched on a bow.
Some of the nets are very well made ; and strangers are incredulous when
told tliat they are the work of the natives.
Their fish-hooks, of shell or bone or wood, are all skilfully contrived.
It has been stated that the natives were unacquainted with fish-hooks prior
to the arrival of the whites ; but this is in all probability a mistake. Cook says
"their fish-hooks are very neatly made, and some are exceedingly small," and
P^ron figures two shell fish-hooks exactly like the shell fish-hook from Rocking-
ham Bay and the ancient bone fish-hook from Gippsland.
The very simple contrivance of wood or bone, described by Mr. J. A. Panton
as having been used by the natives of Geelong to take fish, is, it is believed,
unknown elsewhere. Something, however, somewhat similar, but barbed, is
found in Queensland.
The barbed fish-hooks, made of shell and wood, employed by the natives of
New Zealand and the South Seas, are of complex structure, but it is doubtful
whether they are better adapted for the intended purpose than the simple shell-
hooks of Australia.
The ordinary method of producing fire in Australia is by twirling with the
palms of the hands an upright stick. One end is inserted in a hole in a flat
piece of soft wood ; and, if the operator is skilful, he quickly raises a smoke, and
in a few moments a fire. Another, and perhaps a better method — but one
practised in Australia, as far as I know, by the natives of the Murray only — is
to cut a groove in a log, if there is not a crack that answers the purpose, to fill
this with well-powdered dry leaves or dry grass, and rub a wooden knife across
the groove. Fire is got very rapidly by this method.
The natives did not necessarily use the fire-sticks very frequently. The
women carry fire when the tribe is travelling — a piece of decayed wood, a cone
h
Iviii INTRODUCTION,
of the Banksia, or a stick, is nearly always kept burning, and a fire for cooking
is made quickly when needed.
The Australian method of producing fire, hy twirling the upright stick, is
perhaps the most ancieut known amongst all the races of men. The Brahmins
use it in their religious ceremonies, and it is certainly older than their religion ;
the Greeks had tlie p>/reia and the trupanon; the Aztecs and Peruvians their
fire-sticks ; and the superstitious peojile of the north of Europe go back to the
practices of their forefathers, and use will-Jire when they believe that their cattle
have been injured by witchcraft. And it is as widely known as it is ancient. It
is practised in Africa, in America, in Tahiti, in Borneo, in New Zealand, in Java,
and in Japan. Amongst savages the fire so obtained is not generally looked
upon as in any way peculiar, but in the oldest forms of religion it is regarded
as sacred ; and the Brahmin using the Arani in a Hindu temple to-day is
acting in obedience to a belief as to the manner in which fire was first procured
from heaven that is not very different from that entertained by the natives of
Victoria. We may well wonder how instruments so simple as those described
came to be used for the purpose of procuring fire.
Perhaps the rubbing together of the branches of trees in a gale, which the
Eev. Richard Taylor states has caused trees to take fire in New Zealand, may
have suggested the use of wood ; but it is more probable, I think, that in
rubbing sticks together the black discovered that tliey rapidly heated, and,
persevering, at last made them smoke, and finally adding dry grass or bark,
produced a flame.
The natives of those parts of Australia which are not visited by the Malays
or Papuans have so simple a method of constructing a canoe that the invention
cannot have been derived from foreigners. It is, I think, undoubtedly their
own ; and though I have said that it is simple, a European, without instruction
from a native, would probably fail in an attempt to make a bark canoe. Mr.
Hamilton Hume attempted it on one occasion and failed.
When the natives have to cross a river, they strip a sheet of bark from a
tree ; if necessary, it is heated in the ashes of a fire, and moulded to a proper
form. The ends are stopped with walls of clay, and it is then ready for use.
This, however, is a temporary expedient. A better canoe is made by selecting
bark which is thin enough and flexible enough to admit of the ends being tied
with a rope of vegetable fibre, stretchers are placed in it and sometimes wooden
ribs, and ties are used to keep it in shape.
When the women are fishing they place stones in the canoe, and keep a fire
burning, so that they can cook the fish as soon as caught. They propel the
canoe either by the long stick {Kownung or Jen-dook), or by a scoop-shaped
paddle of bark.
The smallest bark canoes used in Victoria are not more than seven feet six
inches in length, and the largest about eighteen feet. The former will carry two
persons, and the latter six or more.
The barks of the mountain ash, the stringybark, the red-gum, the blue-gum,
the white-gum of the valleys, the Snowy River mahogany, and that of other
varieties of eucalypts, are used for making canoes.
INTRODUCTION.
lix
Tlie natives as a rule did not venture far from the sea-coast, even wlien pro-
vided with the better kinds of canoes.
At Twofold Bay and Jervis Bay, in New South Wales, they were, however,
adventurous, and caught and brought to hind very large fish. Tlie men of that
part of the coast seem to have taken readily to seafearing. Mr. Boyd, a settler
at Twofold Bay, employed the natives many years ago as part of the crew of his
yacht ; and at one time they were constantly engaged in the boats of the whaling
station, where their excellent siglit rendered them extremely useful in seeing
and harpooning the fish.*
Tlie natives used the bark of trees for canoes because of the labor and diffi-
culty of carving good canoes out of solid wood. If they had been mariuers, they
would have used the splendid trees that grow in many places very close to the
water's edge in fashioning durable vessels. There are perhaps no trees in the
world better suited for canoes than some of those growing iu the Australian
forests, but the woods generally are hard and difficult to work, and it is abso-
lutely necessary, in order to get good sound wood, that they be felled at the
right season. It is the belief of many that the Australian woods will not float
in water, and that is the reason that the natives use bark. But iron ships
float, and a canoe made of iron])ark wood not only floats, but is buoyant.
Even the large thick heavy wooden tarnuk, made of the gnarl of a gum-tree,
is buoyant. The story generally believed, that Australian woods are unfit for
canoes because they are not buoyant is like that told of the Fellows of the
Eoyal Society of England. One at least did not believe that a vessel of water
was not made heavier when a fish was put into it. He made an experiment,
and convinced his colleagues that his heterodoxy was orthodoxy. And so, when
the native woods are tested, they are found to be admirably adapted to single-
trunk canoe building.
The means of transport by water on the north-east coast, and at Cape York,
have been improved by the natives so far as to permit of their being properly
called navigators. Some of their canoes formed of the trunk of the cotton-tree
{Cochlospermum) are hollowed out. They are more than fifty feet in length, and
each is capable of conveying twelve or fifteen natives. They are provided with
outrigger poles, and are propelled by short paddles or sails of palm-leaf matting.
The canoes of the north-eastern natives differ altogether from the rafts or
canoes seen by Dampier on the north-west coast, and the bark canoes found in
the lakes of the interior by Oxley some sixty years ago, and by Mitchell nearly
forty years ago. The bark canoe, it may safely be assumed, is Australian — as
much as the boomerang or the weet-weet : but the hollowed log canoes of the
north-east are imitations of the proas of the Malays and the Papuaus.
A very interesting controversy arose about fourteen years ago respecting
the canoes in use in Australia; and the letters of the late Mr. Beete
Jukes, Mr. Brierly, and Sir D. Cooper, addressed to the editor of the
Athe7iceum, contain so much that is interesting, both in consequence of the
errors made originally and the rectification of the errors, that I have quoted
• Stokes, vol. II., p. 417.
IX INTRODrCTION.
the letters. Tliey are very valuable ; and the editor, it may be supposed, will
not object to a piece of history so important to Australians being transferred
to these pages.
The superstitions and tales and legends of the Australian natives, the
folk-lore of this people, have never until within the last few years engaged
attention. A long time ago — long before it was anticipated that any such
researches would have valuable results — I sought to gather together all the
tales and legends of the natives of Victoria, and not without a certain measure
of success ; but it is believed the old people could have related many that are
not recorded or mentioned in this volume. The Rev. Mr. Buhner, the late Mr.
Thomas, the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer, Mr. John Green, and Mr. Alfred W. Howitt,
have furnished those which now appear ; and scientific men who study com-
parative mythology will regard their contributions with the greatest interest.
To the Rev. Mr. Hartmann I am indebted for a portion of an old native story,
that of Duan (the squirrel) and Weenbulain (the spider). It is very valuable.
It is a tale widely known and therefore ancient. A new story in these times
is not often carried far, and is likely to be soon forgotten, and this it may
be supposed had its origin with others, certainly ancient, which give an account
of the performances of various beasts and birds when they were in the estima^-
tion of the savages the equals or the superiors of men.
Birds and beasts are the gods of the Australians.*
The eagle, the crow, the mopoke, and the crane figiire prominently in all
their tales. The native cat is now the moon ; and the kangaroo, the opossum,
the emu, the crow, and many others who distinguished themselves on earth, are
set in the sky and appear as bright stars.
Fire was stolen. And this and all the legends of the natives remind one
of the folk-lore of the Aryan or Indo-European race. The fables of the Austra-
lians and their references to the contests between the eagle and other birds are
exactly like those known to the Saxons in every part of Europe. The eagle,
the owl, the wren, the robin redbreast, the woodpecker, and the stork play
nearly the same parts in European tales as the eagle, the crow, the mopoke,
and the little bird with a red mark over his tail in Australian legends.
* " Let us uot think too meanh' of the intelligence of our simple ancestors because they could
regard brutes as gods. It was an error not peculiar to them, but common to all infant races of
men. The early traditions of every people point back to a period when man had not yet risen to
a clear conception of his own pre-eminence in the scale of created life. The power of discerning
dlfEerences comes later into play than that of perceiving resemblances, and the primeval man, living
in the closest communion with nature, must have begun with a strong feeling of his likeness to the
brutes who shared with him so many wants, passions, pleasures, and pains. Hence the attribution
of human voice and reason to birds and beasts in fable and story, and the doctrine of the trans-
migration of souls. To this feeling of fellowship there would afterwards be superadded a sense of
a mysterious something inherent in the nature of brutes, which was lacking in that of man. He
found himself so vastly surpassed by them in strength, agility, and keenness of sense ; they evinced
Buch a marvellous foreknowledge of coming atmospheric changes which he could not surmise ;
they went so straight to their mark, guided by an instinct to him incomprehensible, that he might
well come to look upon them with awe as beings superior to himself, and surmise in their wondrous
manifestations the workings of something divine."— Cun'osid'es of Indo-European Tradition and
Folk-Lore, by Walter K. KeUy, 1863.
INTRODUCTION. Ixi
There is much playfulness and sagacity apparent in the stories of the
Aborigines. The injuries done to the bear are repaired after a curious fashion ;
and the wombat revenges the blow given him by the kangaroo in a manner
that accounts sufficiently for the appearance he now presents.
Many of their tales recall to recollection the fables of Ovid, and others are,
in character, not unlike some of those in the Pansiya panas jataka of the
Buddhists.*
The account that is given of the manner in wliich Pund-jel made the first
men somewhat resembles the work attributed to Tiki in the mythology of the
New Zealanders.
The myths and tales now presented do no more than serve to show how
much is yet to be done in Australia in this most interesting field of enquiry.
There is not a tribe of natives anywhere that does not include in it old men and
old women who are the depositaries of its superstitious ; and from them could
be obtained stories as valuable probably as any that are given in this volume.
The late Dr. Bleek labored in South Africa with marked success in gather-
ing portions of the great store of Busliman traditionary lore, which but for
him would in all probability have remained unknown; and here in Australia
there is a larger field, and the results it is certain would amply repay the
labors of any who could devote time to setting down, if possible in the native
tongue, with an exact translation between the lines, all that the natives have to
tell respecting the beings that, in their belief, formerly peopled the earth.
Unthinking persons treat all their tales with contempt ; but it is to their
myths one has to look in any attempt to discover to what stock the Australian
belongs. To study the miud of the savage is not a worthless employment
either ; and his legends and tales and superstitions reveal the workings of his
undisciplined intellect, show his perception, and enable one to observe to what
extent his power of reasoning is developed.
The information I have collected illustrative of the languages of the colony
of Victoria will no doubt be welcomed by philologists. Many of the papers
have been written by gentlemen who were well aware of the importance of the
work they were engaged upon, and they have carefully and conscientiously
dealt with the several questions which I put to them.
There are in aU twenty-three papers, and the names of the contributors
comprise many of those in the colony who are most competent to deal with so
difficult a subject as the native language. The vocabularies compiled by Mr.
Bunce, Mr. Parker, the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer, and Mr. Green ; the examples of
the conjugation of verbs, the declension of nouns and pronouns, the explana-
tions of tlie grammatical structure of the tongues spoken in Victoria, and the
stories and sentences in the native language, written down exactly as spoken,
and with interlinear translations, by Mr. Bulmer, Mr. Hagenauer, Mr. Hart-
maun, Mr. Spieseke, and Mr. Howitt ; the native names of trees, shrubs, and
plants; and the native names of the hills, rivers, creeks, and other natural
features — will, it is hoped, be accepted as important and valuable contributions,
• Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society — 1847.
Ixii IXTRODTJCTIOX.
and such as are likely to assist towards a better compreliension of the
peculiarities of the Australian languages.
The difficulties that beset the enquirer in attempting to unravel the intrica-
cies of the dialects are great and very numerous. Changes have been effected
in consequence of words being, for various reasons, from time to time tabooed,
and thcrcal'ter falling into disuse. Ellipses are numerous, and are so used as
to disguise the dialects ; the sounds of words are altered for euphony as they
take new terminations ; many of the consonants are interchangeable, and the
substitution of b and d for their cognates p and t alone is often embarrassing.
These difficulties and the general absence of relative pronouns, the absence of
gender (with certain remarkable and unexplained exceptions), and the use of
the dual, render the study of the native tongues impossible to any but those
who live with the blacks, hear their speech day after day, and keep continually
on the alert to detect the meaning of obscure sentences.
Many of the words are onomatopoeic in their origin, and a few examples are
given in the text. They are made from sound ; and if all the words thus formed
could be collected, we should have a large number of root-words that would
assist not only in elucidating the languages of Australia, but would be of essen-
tial service in the study of all the languages of the world. Still greater would
be the jirofit if words formed from the sensations produced by taste, sight, smell,
and touch could be eliminated. That words bearing relation to the senses, and
naturally giving expression to them, have been made in the same manner
(though necessarily not so easily discoverable) as those that are imitative of
sounds, is, I think, beyond doubt. The words used by savages must, except in
comparatively rare instances, have arisen out of their necessities ; they are not
the result of art or of accident ; nor can they have been chosen arbitrarily.
One of the most thoughtful of modern writers has said that " the com-
monest words we iise to indicate ideas are essentially metajjhorical, bringing
home into the world of mind images derived from material force, and carrying
forth again into the outward world conceptions born of that mental power
which alone is capable of conceiving ;" * and this being true of the languages
of races of the highest culture, it is easy to understand how other, not always
unlike, directing and impulsive powers may have given a distinctive character
to the dialects of the Australian natives, without, however, introducing material
changes of structure.
The reduplications in the dialects of Victoria are very numerous. Such
words as Boorp-boorp, BuIlen-buUen, Dong-donr/, Bulk-bulk, Kalk-kalk, Mung-
mung, Ghur-ghur, WoUer-KoUer,Boolng-boohi(/, and Knen-knen, occnv frequently
in all the vocabularies, the number per cent, being probably not less than four.
If words that are not literally reduplications, the sounds being changed for
euphony, are included, the percentage would be much higher, probably six ;
and the language is, so to speak, double in another way. The Rev. Mr. Bulmer
has shown that the natives have two words for the same thing, and if one be like
in sound to the name of any one who dies, it is dropped. It becomes thamhora,
* The Reign of Law, by the Duke of Argyll (sixth edition, 1871), p. 41.
INTEODUCTION.
Ixiii
as the tlacks of the Murray say ; it recalls the memory of the dead, and must
be no more used. The illusion of those who believe that the languages of
savages is simple would be rudely dispelled if they addressed themselves to an
examination of the dialects of any part of Australia. They are highly inflected,
complex, and many of the sentences are so constructed as to make a translation
impossible. It is as difficult to give the meaning in English of some of their
]ihrases as it would be to translate into Greek or Latin the pigeon patois of
Hong Kong.
, Examples are given of the gesture-language in use amongst the natives of
Cooper's Creek. It appears to be well understood, and of great use to them.
It is referred to by Mr. Samuel Gason, who had on some occasions to have
recourse to it.
It was believed for a length of tune that there were several distinct lan-
guages in Australia — languages, that is to say, not belonging even to the same
class. The works of Threlkeld, Grey, Teichelmann, Schiirmann, Moore, and
Moorhouse, and the investigations made by Bulmer, Hartmann, and Hagenauer,
establish the fact of the unity of the tongues throughout the continent. The
Australian languages, like those of the Indo-European race, are derived from a
common source. Tlie comparative tables in this work — imperfect as they are —
confirm the conclusions of the more advanced among philologists ; and it may
be safely assumed that further researches will more distinctly prove the truth
of the theory propounded by the gentlemen whose published works I have
referred to.*
Large tracts, with well-marked natural boimdaries, are peopled by " nations,"
each composed of many separate tribes, differing amongst themselves but little
in speech, in laws, and in modes of warfare ; and it is believed that the lan-
guages or dialects of the " nations " stand in a much closer relationship to the
mother tongue than the Italian, French, and Spanish stand to the Latin. Mes-
sengers {Gualla Kattoiv) find no difficulty in acquiring a complete knowledge of
the languages and dialects of the neighbouring tribes ; and men belonging to
tribes far remote from each other are able to make themselves mutually
understood after they have been together for a few hours.
The reasons for the belief in the unity of the Australian languages are as
follows : —
1. Numerous words are nearly the same in sound, and have the same
meaning in various localities throughout the entire continent.
Amongst these are the words for eye, tongue, hand, teeth, blood,
sun, and moon.
2. The words in use throughout the continent are of the same character
and have a similar sound.
* " I haTe no hesitation in affirming that as far as any tribes hare been met and conversed with
by the colonists, namely, from one hundred miles east of King George's Sound up to two hundred
miles north of Fremantlc, comprising a space of above six hundred miles of coast, the language is
radically and essentially the same. And there is much reason to suppose that this remark would
not be confined to these limits only, but might be applied, in a great degree, to the pure and uncor-
Tupted language of the whole island." — Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in common use
Ixiv-
INTRODUCTION.
3. Tlie similarity in the personal pronouns.
4. The absence (generally) of gender.
5. Tlie low level of the numerals, and the recurrence at many points far
remote from one another of the same or nearly the same word for
" two."
6. Tlie use of the dual.
7. Tlie use of suffixes.
8. The languages or dialects of a district as small as Victoria present,
in some cases and in some respects, differences as great as those
observed when the languages spoken at the extreme points of the
continent are compared.
To these might be added the fact that reduplication is universal throughout
the continent ; but as this is a characteristic of the languages of savages gene-
rally, it has not much value. That they have usually two words for the same
thing is, however, of a higher value ; but it is not kuo\\Ti whether this system
is maintained in all jDarts of Australia.
If these facts stood alone, uncorroborated by other circumstances, there
might still be room for doubt, as, for instance, if the ])liysical aspect and con-
stitution of the natives presented remarkable differences, and if their arms and
modes of life were diverse ; but they are not. They are one people — oneness
having more force in regard to them and their language than it has when applied
to the Aryan family of nations, whose languages are traceable to that of the
tribes who dwelt on the table-land lying between the mountains of Armenia
and Hindoo-Kush.
The vocabularies for Victoria seem to establish the fact that in this area at
any rate there is one language with many cUalects, or several languages so
similar in words and grammatical structure as to satisfy the enquirer that they
have had a common origin. Is it possible to gather from the character of the
dialects any hint as to the manner in whicli the most southern part of the
continent was peopled? After a careful study of the tables, I am inclined to
believe that the tribes followed the course of the great rivers and the margin of
the coast from the north towards the south. The language of the people of
Yelta, on the Lower Murray, is that of the Cornu tribe, who inhabit the tract
north of the River Darling, and differs in some respects from the language
spoken by the people of the Up2)er Murray and those living on the banks of
the streams which have their sources in the western slopes of the Cordillera.
The tribes who tirst touched the north banks of the Murray and crossed the
stream appear to have followed the rivers (its affluents), such as the Wimmera,
the Avoca, the Loddon, the Campaspe, the Goulburn, and the Ovens, to their
sources; and it is probable that these tribes came, not across the Cordillera, but
amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia, by George Fletcher Moore, Advocate-General of
Western Australia, 1842.
" It may indeed be asserted that the dialects of all New Holland, so far at least as they hare
been collected, from New South Wales to Swan River, constitute only one language." — Vvcabularij of
the Parntialla Language spoken by the Natives inhabiting the Western Shores of Spencefs Gulf,
by C. W. Schiirmann, 1844.
INTRODUCTION. l^V
southwards, all the way from the western shores of York Peninsula. The tribes
of the Murray have several different dialects ; the people of the Wimmera
district speak a language that is almost the same in all parts ; the dialects of
the tribes of the western plains and the coast seem to change much as they
are followed eastwards ; the Yarra tribes and the "Western Port tribes are allied
to the tribes of the great western plains ; and Gijipsland appears to have been
peopled either from a stream coming southwards along the coast, or from the
headwaters of the Murray. Their affinities are rather with the tribe of the
Kiewa than with the tribes of the western plains.
It is indeed but reasonable to suppose that the lakes of Gippsland were
peopled by a tribe that travelled southward by way of Twofold Bay ; but some
families may have entered it by crossing the Alps, so as to reach the head waters
of the Tambo ; or the men of the Goulburn may have penetrated the country
near the point where the Thomson has its sources. The natives of Gippsland
are different from the people of the west, both in dialect and in physical
character ; but both the dialect and the physical character have undergone
alterations, undoubtedly, in consequence of the isolation of the tribes of tliis
tract and the conformation of the country.
Here in Victoria, as in Europe and Asia, we see the effects produced by the
aspects of nature, by climate, and by the iufrequency of intercourse with larger
populations. The people inhabiting Gippsland, cut off in the winter season
certainly from intercourse with neighbouring tribes, and dwelling in the summer
mouths on the lofty heights that overlook the lakes, were stout and brave
fighting-men, exhibiting certain slight diflerences in physiognomy and structure
that set them apart from the tribes of the west, and caused them to be regarded
as enemies more than ordinarily dangerous.
The origin of the Australian race is still hidden from lis. We cannot yet
penetrate the thick darkness of pre-historic times. It may be that the con-
tinent was peopled from Timor. The physical geography of the area, it might
be said, suggests this ; and some strength is lent to the supposition from the
occurrence of Australian words in the languages of Ombay, Timbora, and
Mangarei. But there was one stream from the north-east.
The Rev. Mr. RicUey seems to think that Australia was peopled by a race
that came by way of Torres Straits, and that the native names for New Guinea
and Australia favor this supposition. Kai Dowdai, the name applied to
Australia, he believes means "Little Country;" and Mu(/(/i Do?vdai, or New
Guinea, means " Great Country." " To those," he says, " who live near Cape
York, and pass to and fro across the strait, without any means of knowing the
real extent of Australia or New Guinea, the low narrow point of land which
terminates in Cape York must appear very small compared with the great
mountain ranges of New Guinea. Regarding dowdai as a variation of towrai,
a country, I think it probable that ' Little Country' was the name given by the
Aborigines to Australia. It may be that those of the race of Murri who first
came into this laud, passing from island to island, until they reached the low
narrow jjoint which forms the north-eastern extremity of this island-continent,
gave the name Kai Towrai (Little Country) to the newly-discovered land ; and
i
Ixvi
INTRODUCTION.
as they passed onward to the south and west, and found out somewhat of the
vast extent of the country, the necessities and jealousies of the numerous
families that followed them forbade their return. The current of migration
was ever onward towards the south and west ; and therefore the north-eastern
comer of Australia was always the dwelling-place of a people ignorant of
the vast expanse beyond them, and willing to call it still Kai Dowdai, the
little country." *
This suggestion, though perhaps based on a misconception of the use or
meaning of the words Kai Dorvdai and Muggi Boivdai, is well worthy of care-
ful consideration. By what route soever the first men came to the continent,
it is almost certain that the settlement was at first partial and gradual.
There could have been no great wave of migration ; and it is perhaps doubtful
whether, if a canoe full of natives from some distant island had been stranded
anywhere on the shores of Australia, they would have found subsistence. Yet
savages have so much skill in hunting and fishing that they would easily
support themselves where men accustomed only to the usages of civilized life
would perish.
With the scanty vocabularies at present available, and lacking many
important facts connected with the habits of the people of the north, their
weapons, and their various modes of ornamenting these and the implements
they use, it is not practicable to do more than offer mere conjectures as to the
course taken by the natives who first set foot on the soil of Australia. It is
probable that there were two streams from the Peninsula — one following the
eastern coast southwards, and one taking a course along the western coast.
The first, pressed onwards by tribes still migrating southward, may have
advanced as far as Gippsland ; and the second probably divided near the
south-eastern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria — one section taking a course
along the coast westward and southward to West Australia, and thence towards
King George's Sound ; and the other following the course of the rivers that
flow southward to Cooper's Creek and the Darling. If there is any truth in
these conjectures, many facts that are at present inexplicable have some light
thrown upon them.
Eyre states that in his opinion it is not improbable that Australia was first
peopled on its north-western coast, between the parallels of 12° and 16° south
latitude ; and that it may be surmised that three grand divisions had branched
out from the parent tribe, and that from the offsets of these the whole continent
had been overspread. The first division, he suggests, may have proceeded round
the north-western, western, and south-western coast, as far as the commence-
ment of the Great Australian Bight. The second or central one appears to have
crossed the continent inland, to the southern coast, striking it about the parallel
of 134° east longitude. The third division seems to have followed along the
bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria to its most south-easterly bight, and then to
have turned off by the first practicable line in a direction towards Fort Bourke,
upon the Darling. From these three divisions, Mr. Eyre supposes, various
* Kamilaroi, Dlppil, and Turrubul, by the Rev. William Ridley, M.A., 1866.
IXTEODUCTION. Ixvii
offsets and ramifications would have been made from time to time as they
advanced, so as to overspread and people by degrees the whole country round
tlieir respective lines of march ; each offset appearing to retain fewer or more
of the original habits, customs, &c., of the parent tribe in proportion to the
distance traversed, or its isolated position, with regard to communication with
the tribes occupying the main line of route of its original division ; modified
also, perhaps, in some degree by the local circumstances of the country through
which it may have spread.
I have already mentioned that the natives north of the Darling speak a
dialect like that of the people of the Lower Murray (in Victoria) ; the weapons
of the natives of West Australia resemble those of the north-west. They have, as
far as I can learn, but one shield, altogether unlike the shields of the south, and
resembling somewhat that in use in Queensland ; and their spears are like those
of the people of the north coast. The natives of Perth ornament the wooden
part of their adzes exactly in the same manner — ^with the like remarkable
longitudinal grooves — as the people of Queensland.
The area within which the custom of circumcision prevails, and perhaps also
the area withiu which the boomerang is not used, point also to such divisions
of the streams of immigration as are siaggested.
There is an impression in the minds of many, to which color is given by
curious coincidences, that the languages of Australia — or rather the mother
of the languages of Australia — may be supposed to have affinity with the
languages of the Aryan family. Without raising in this place the more
important question as to whether the Australians are the representatives, in
the savage state, of a section of the ancient stock which gave civilization to
Europe, one may glance at some of the facts which have been adduced. That
these facts have any philological or ethnological value is questionable, but they
are, to say the least, interesting. The words Nau-Kai, a canoe ; Marat, spirit ;
Joen, a man; Cobra, the head; Tiora, land; Mora>/, great; Gnara, a knot; Kir-
adjee, a doctor; Urt/, ear; Yain, chin; Oura, our; Yai, yes; Yair, air; Keh-le-de,
brightness ; Kerreem, a shield ; Urdin, straight ; Manya, the hand ; Yarra,
flowing; Ma/i, to strike; Pilar, a spear; Kalama, a reed; Pidna, the foot; Yun,
soon; Kurrin, enquiriag; Poke, a small hole; Wirangi, bad; 2Iultufvarri?i, many
or much ; Trippin, drenching ; Tkrokkun, putting ; El, will ; Trentin, tearing ;
Grawun, burying in the earth; and Kinha, laugh — are similar to words with
similar meanings in the languages of the Aryan family. It would be as wrong
to dismiss these without remark as to lay stress upon them. A greater number
of words showing the like resemblances might easily be given; and it is for the
more learned amongst philologists to separate those exliibiting perhaps mere
accidental coincidences of sound from those that may have been introduced by
traders from the Malay Peninsula and the islands of the Pacific.
There has been compiled for this work, from information supplied by the
Local Guardians of Aborigines, the Surveyor-General of the colony, and others,
a list of the native names of the hills, streams, and other natural features of the
colony. It is not only interesting to preserve the local names as used by the
blacks, but information is often conveyed by them which hereafter may be
Ixviii INTfiODUCTION.
useful. There are necessarily repetitions in the lists, which in the whole com-
prise more than two thousand words, but these could not well be avoided
without doing injustice to the contributors, and without undertaking the
responsibility of deciding, perhaps erroneously, in cases where there are dis-
crepancies.
Any one who will take the trouble to examine a map of Australia will see
that the greater number of the natural features, as well as the counties, towns,
and settlements, have received names that sufficiently indicate the class of
persons who gave them; and it is really not easy to say whether those who
sought to gain the favor of persons in power, or the bushraen who used such
appellations as best conveyed their meaning to the minds of their associates,
have made the worst choice. There is time yet to remedy the injustice that
has been done to the interests of the colonists, and that can be effected by
erasing from the map at least all those names which are similar in sound to
those associated in the mind with the natural scenery and the cities and towns
of Europe. Several names — supposed to be native names — have been mutilated
or so altered as to be no longer of any significance; and if the information I
have gathered helps in any way towards an amendment in these and a change
in others, it will be a source of satisfaction to many.
The records which I have preserved of the native names of a number of the
trees and shrubs of the colony furnish a large number of euphonious words,
from which it would be easy to select those most appropriate to any given
locality. From the manner in which the lists have been prepared, it is
practicable to identity nearly all the plants. The naturalist will recognise the
utility of a work of this kind ; and any one who lives in the country and takes
any interest in the indigenous vegetation will not be slow to avail himself of
the help which he will derive from the pages that refer to this subject.
The names were written down exactly as the blacks jironounced them; and
the botanical names were added by the Government Botanist. The portfolios
in which the plants were placed when they were collected, the labels pasted on
each cover, and the specimens, are all in excellent order and well preserved.
Hereafter this collection will be highly valued. All those who are living
in parts of the country that are frequented by the natives could with ease
make similar collections ; and it is certain that the Government Botanist would
gladly examine the plants and furnish information respecting them.
Much light might be thrown on the principles which guided the natives in
naming localities if the native words for the trees, shrubs, &c., and for the
natural features of the country, were written down ; and it is in the power of
every educated person who comes into contact with the blacks to aid in this
work. In a very short time the older blacks who possess the requisite know-
ledge will have died, and it will be impossible to obtain any such records
for other parts of Australia as those I have preserved for some portions of
Victoria.
All the vocabularies and all the lists under the head of Language, except
one, relate to Victoria. One is a short vocabulary, compiled by Mr. Henry
Withers, of Wagga Wagga, in Kew South Wales, and it is inserted both
to
INTRODUCTION. Ixix
because it serves for comparison and because the information Mr. Withers
collected and forwarded to me in manuscript should not be lost.
Wagga Wagga is situate on the river Murrumbidgee, and lies about eighty
miles north of Barnawartha. Many of the words collected by Mr. Withers
coincide with words of similar meaning in use on the Upper Murray, but are
unlike those of the Lower Murray. Man at Wagga Wagga is Gooen; at Tan-
ganibalanga, Gerree. Hand at Wagga Wagga is Murra; at Tangambalanga
and Barnawartha, Murrah. Foot, Wagga Wagga, Geenong (Jcenoncj ?) ; Barna-
wartha, Jennong. Ear, Wagga Wagga, Woother; Barnawartha, Mutha. Eye,
Wagga Wagga, Mill; Barnawartha, Mill. Teeth, Wagga Wagga, Erong ;
Barnawartha (moiith), Erang. Hair, Wagga Wagga, Oiirang ; Barnawartha,
Iluran. Blood, Wagga Wagga, Goohun; Tangambalanga, Koroo. Bone, Wagga
Wagga, Thiihbul; Barnawartha, Tkubal. Night, Wagga Wagga, Booroonthim;
Barnawartha, Burandong. Sun, Wagga AVagga, Eri; Barnawartha (day)
Erah. Fire, Wagga Wagga, Wing; Barnawartha, Wanga. The native word
set down in many vocabularies for "day" is really the word for "sun," and
the word for " sun," in like manner, is often that which means " day " or
" light " or " heat." There is seldom any mistake made in obtaining the right
word for " night," that is to say for " darkness." I believe the natives have
really no words exactly equivalent to "day" and "night."
The natives of Tasmania were darker, shorter, more stoutly built, and
generally less pleasing in aspect than the people of the continent. Their hair
was woolly and crisp, and some bore a likeness to the African negro. Their
aspect was diflerent from that of the Australians. In their form, their color,
and their hair they were rather Papuan than Australian. Many words ia
their language, however, coincide with words in the dialects of King George's
Sound, the Gulf of St. Vincent, and the south-eastern parts of the continent ;
and it might be assumed, therefore, that the connection between the inhabi-
tants of the island and the continent was clearly established. But we must
not overlook the Papuan affinities of the Tasmanian dialects. Many words are
the same as those in the languages spoken in New Caledonia, in Mallicollo,
and in other islands of the Melanesian division.
In all respects their condition was lower than that of the Australians, yet
they were not altogether unlike in their habits to some tribes of the interior.
They knew nothing of the boomerang, the throwing-stick, the shield, or the
Weet-n-eet. Their weapons were rude wooden spears, and sticks used as clubs
or as missiles. Their stone implements were chipped fragments of cherty
rock, which were not groitnd or polished, nor were they fitted with wooden
handles.
Like the natives of Cooper's Creek, they threw stones at their enemies.
In all their customs there was much to remind one of the practices of the
Australians. Tliere were some ceremonies attendant on the initiation of young
males into the rights and privileges of manhood ; there were some restrictions
on marriage ; they mourned their dead, and disposed of the bodies by interring
them, placing them in trees, or burning them ; and they had dances like the
corrobborees of the natives of the continent. Their suiierstitions too, and one
Ixx
INTEODUCTION.
or two of their myths, bear a resemblance to those of the Australians. Some
kinds of food were prohibited ; they had a strong objection to eating fat ; they
carried about with them the bones of deceased relatives ; and they believed in
and practised sorcery.
Their ornaments and their utensils, though few in number, were not in-
ferior to those of the people of the mainland.
They were not altogether destitute of the power of invention. They produced
fire by twirling the upright stick ; and they constructed rude vessels, in which
they could cross rivers and arms of the sea.
Whether Australia was once peopled by a race of which the Tasmanians
were a remnant will probably never be known. Their stone implements, the
only material evidences we could have of their presence, are of such a character
as to be easily overlooked if found. They would be regarded, probably by even
the skilful, as mere accidental fragments of rock. Tliey differ but slightly
from the implements of the West Australians ; and these no one would
recognise as the work of men's hands.
Mr. R. H. Davies thinks that there can be no doubt as to the origin of the
Tasmanians. He believes that they were scions of the continental tribes ; and
he points to their habits and their weapons as proofs. He considers that the
chain of islands extending across the extremity of Bass's Straits forms a com-
paratively easy means of communication. From the circumstance, however, of
the name for water amongst the western tribes being similar to that used by
the natives near Cape Leeuwin, it is, in his opinion, extremely probable that
the latter furnished the first inhabitants for the western portion of Van Die-
men's Land. And this, he adds, is rendered the more likely from the peculiar
form of the south-western coast of New Holland, as a canoe driven to sea from
the vicinity of King George's Sound would, from the prevailing winds and
currents, be apt to reach the western part of Van Diemen's Land.
There is another theory propounded by one of the most distinguished of
living philologists : —
Speaking of the vocabulary of the Louisiade, as compiled by Macgillivray,
and its collation with lists of words from the Solomon Isles, Mallicollo, Tanna,
Erromanga, and Aunatom, and Cook and La Billardiere's vocabularies of New
Caledonia, Dr. Latham says that the latter, as far as the very scanty data go,
supply the closest resemblance to the Louisiade dialects from the two New
Caledonian vocabularies ; and he adds, " New Caledonia was noticed in the
Appendix to the Voyage of the Fhj as apparently having closer philological
affinities with Van Diemen's Land than that country had with Australia ; an
apparent fact which induced me to write as follows : — ' A proposition concern-
ing the Tasmanian language exhibits an impression rather than a deliberate
opinion. Should it, however, be confirmed by future researches, it will at
once explain the points of physical contrast between the Tasmanian tribes and
those of Australia that have so often been insisted on. It is this — that the
affinities of language between the Tasmanian and the New Caledonian are
stronger than those between the Australian and Tasmanian. This indicates
that the stream of population for Van Diemen's Land ran round Australia
INTEODUCTION. Ixxi
rather than across it.' Be this as it may, the remark, with our present scanty
materials, is at best but a suggestion — a suggestion, however, which would
account for the physical appearance of the Tasmanian being more New Cale-
donian than Australian."
That the island was first peopled by some members of the dark-skinned
populations of the north is beyond doubt ; but what was the line of migration
can, perhaps, be gathered only from the character of the language, and we
may be misled by the only vocabularies now extant. They were written down
long subsequent to the colonization of the land by the whites, and it may be
supposed after the blacks had had communication with natives of other parts
of Australasia and the South Seas.
We cannot say how it was peopled nor when it was peopled.
If Dr. Latham's theory be accepted, it may have maintained a population
long anterior to the peopling of the continent.
There was probably several times, but certainly once in the later Tertiary
period, a land connection with Australia.
Tlie formations on the chain of islands, and the fossil and living faiina
and flora of the island and the continent, furnish evidences of the changes
which have occurred.
The Thjlacynus and Sarcophilus ursinus both live abundantly in Tasmania,
but neither of them has been discovered on the continent ; where, however,
their remains have been identified by Professor McCoy with certainty in the
cavern deposits and Pleistocene clays mingled with those of the extinct Dipro-
todon, Thylacoleo, &c.
In the Pleistocene period, animals abounding in Tasmania with very re-
stricted powers of locomotion or swimming were as common in Victoria as in
Tasmania; but at the present day neither the Sarcophilus nor Thylaeynus is
found on the continent in the living state. Tlie wombat of Tasmania is totally
different from the living wombat of Victoria, and the Pleistocene wombats are
different from both. The commonest Pleistocene kangaroos are entirely extinct
species. It would seem that the smaller carnivorous mammals referred to
became extinct on the continent long before the modern period ; — the Dasyurus
maculatus (a third abundant large marsupial carnivore) occurring very rarely
on the continent, but abounding in Tasmania in the living condition with the
other two at the present time. At the same (Pleistocene) period the great
plant-eating Diprotodon and Nototherium lived in numbers on the continent,
but apparently never reached Tasmania.
Some parrots, honey-eaters, owls, and several other birds with considerable
powers of flight are restricted to Tasmania, and a large number of the insects
found in the island are different from those of Victoria, while perhaps three-
fourths of the living fauna seem to be identical.
Dr. Hooker tells us that the primary feature of the Tasmanian flora is its
identity in all its main characters with the Victorian ; and that in one part of
Victoria — Wilson's Promontory — the vegetation is peculiarly Tasmanian. He
refers also to the fact, clearly established on geological data, of Tasmania
having once formed a continuous southward extension of Victoria, and that
Ixxii INTEODUCTION.
as Britain was peopled with continental plants before the formation of the
channel, so Tasmania and Victoria possessed their present flora before they
were separated by Bass's Straits.
Was Tasmania peopled when there was a land connection between the
island-continent and Tasmania? Not probably prior to that period. During
the Pleistocene period, when the land connection existed, the forests and plains
of the continent supported huge mammals, which seem to have disappeared
some time anterior to the peopling of the southern parts of it. As already
stated, no remains of native art have been found associated with the almost
unaltered bones of these now extinct creatures ; but if the continent had been
inhabited by a race in a condition as low as that of the Tasmanians, they could
have left no such traces of their wanderings as would be easily discoverable.
It is difficult to believe that the Tasmanians were scions of the continental
tribes. Tlieir physical character stands out prominently as an objection to the
theory. If Tasmania was peopled from Australia, it was at a time when
Australia supported a race that in feature, character, and language was Tas-
maniau ; and we must, therefore, regard the race that now inhabits the
continent as intrusive. "What may be urged against this suggestion I know
not. There is one error, however, to guard against — that is, to suppose that
any land has necessarily been peopled by the route which appears to be the
most obvious, the least difficult, and the shortest. And this brings us to the
consideration of Dr. Latham's speculations, which have a greater value than
perhaps he himself attaches to them.
The length of time during which the Tasmanians were entirely cut off from
anything like communication with the people of the mainland is marked
amongst them by no such improvements in arts and arms as have dis-
tinguished the Aborigines of Australia and New Caledonia. The former were
apparently stationary, the latter to some extent progressive.
JpitgHital ^Itaractir.
-•^O""
Yery diiferent accounts have been given by voyagers ami explorers relative
to the color and form of the natives of Australia. Some have represented
them as coal-black, like the negro, with bottle-noses, spare limbs, and ferocious
countenances : others as models of symmetry, having a complexion scarcely so
dark as to conceal a blush ; and the greater number regard them simply as
" blacks," with such conformations generally as belong to the African.
They diifer in appearance in difl'erent parts of the continent, and this may
account, in a measure, for the difierent statements made by observers. They
differ from one another in stature, bulk, and color probably as much and no
more than the inhabitants of Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy differ
from one another. Those that have abundance of food are tall and stout, and
exhibit well-developed figures ; and such as maintain a precarious existence in
the arid tracts which the larger animals do not frequent are small, meagre, thin-
limbed, and most unpleasing in aspect.
I sought information, during the year 1870, relative to the height, weight,
and chest-measurement of the Aboriginal natives of Victoria, and I have com-
piled the following tables from the figures supplied by the Managers of the
several Stations in the colony : —
Height, Weight, &c., of Aboriginal Natives at Coranderrk, Upper Yarra,
from information furnished by Mr. John Green : —
Name.
Age.
Height.
Girth.
Weitht.
Name.
Age.
Height.
Girth.
Weight,
Men.
years.
ft.
in.
ft. In.
lbs.
Boys.
yeare.
ft.
in.
ft.
in.
lbs.
Tommy Baufield
26
5
H
3 9
214
Samson -
15
5
41
2
9
115
Wellington
34
5
7
3 2^
150
Martin -
16
5
5
2
8
115
Peter Hunter -
30
5
3'
3
145
M. Bell -
16
5
2
2
9
115
McEea -
16
5
^
3
1
145
Redman
40
5
6
3 4
134
Willie Hobson
9
4
ij
2
1
59
Dick
36
5
H
3 4^
150
Tommy Arnot -
28
5
55
2 llj
126
Women.
Donald
23
5
9
2 11'
125
Eliza
37
5
3
135
Maggie -
33
5
2
9
98
Johnny Philips -
25
6
5J
2 IIJ
127
Sally -
50
4
10
3
2i
139
Avoca
36
5
6
3
130
Borat
36
4
9
2
10
108
Harry
40
5
5
3 1
127
Norah -
30
5
2
2
10
124
Jemmy Barker -
36
5
9
3 3
134
narriclt
36
5
2
3
132
Simon
40
6
lOJ
3 4
148
Annie
—
5
1
2
lOi
110
THE ABORIGINES OP VICTORIA:
Height, Weight, &c., of Aboriginal Natives at Lake Hiudmarsh from infor-
mation furnished by the Rev. A. Hartmann : —
Name.
Age.
Height.
Weight.
Name.
Age.
Height.
Weight.
Blacks. — Men.
ycara.
ft. In.
lbs.
Blacks. — Women.
years.
(t. In.
Iba.
Phillip -
37
6 8
138
Diana ...
25
4 lOf
94
Thomas - - -
27
5 6i
134
Betsy
21
5 1
105
David - - -
Coyle
Henry ...
Women.
34
24
24
6 3
5 7
5 5-
112
124
122
Half-castes.
Man.
Jackson . . -
25
5 81
ISO
Elizabeth
19
5 OJ
103
Women.
Ida - - -
16
4 llj
108
Rebecca - - -
24
S 6
143
Susan . - -
27
4 Hi
129
Topsy
22
5 2
104
Height, Weight, &c., of Aboriginal Natives at Lake Oondah from infor-
mation furnished by Mr. Joseph Shaw : —
Name.
Age.
Height.
Weight.
Name.
Age.
Height.
Weight.
Blacks. — Men.
years.
ft.
Id.
lbs.
Blacks. — Women.
years.
ft. In.
lbs.
Billy King
38
5
8
164
Susanna - - .
32
5 1
112
John Green
33
5
6
138
Mary Robinson -
28
5
100
Billy Govatt -
32
5
5
138
Mary Gorrie
35
4 10
78
John Sutton -
34
5
6J
133 j
Old Kitty -
62
4 11
104
Jemmy Robinson
3.5
5
1
118
Old Fat Corner -
60
5
115
Billy Wilson -
37
5
4
134
Jemmy Field -
56
5
3
120
Half-castes.
Billy Gorrie -
40
5
8
148
Man.
Timothy
30
5
2
114
Johnnie Dutton -
23
6
170
Old Jack
Women.
Mrs. Wilson
Lucy Sutton -
60
30
32
5
5
5
3
1
120
100
100
Women.
Hannah King
Ellen Mullet
26
22
5 5
5 2J
193
120
Heiglit, Weight, &c., of Aboriginal Natives at Lake Wellington, in Gipps-
land, from information furnished by the Eev. F. A. Hagenauer : —
Name.
Age.
Height.
Weight.
Name.
Age.
Height.
Weight.
Blacks. — Men.
years.
ft. in.
lbs.
Blacks. — Women.
years.
ft. in.
lbs.
Charles Foster
28
6 1
166
Jenny . . -
25
5 1
131
Nathaniel Pepper -
31
5 6J
128
Louise ...
19
5 4
142
Bobby Brown ••
26
5 4|
157
Caroline . - -
17
5 2i
148
James Clark -
28
5 4
140
Ada Clark -
16
4 11
102
Harry Stephen
16
5 5
138
Bessy ...
20
4 llj
133
Ngarry ...
53
5 6
130
Rhoda
21
5
112
Donald ...
20
5 8}
145
PHYSICAL CHAEACTEE.
Heiglit, Weight, &c., of Aboriginal Natives at Lake Tyers, in Gippsland,
from information furnished by the Eev. John Bulmer : —
Blacks. — Men.
Tommy Johnson (young man)
Benjamin Jennings (young man) -
William McDougall (young man) -
Toby (young man) - - - -
Charley Buchanan . - - -
McLeod ------
Charley Anderson - - - -
William Planner - - . -
Dick Cooper - - - - -
King Charley - - - - -
Billy the Bull - - - -
Dan (old man) . . - -
Billy Jumbuck (old man)
Jackey Jackey - . - .
Charley Blair (young man) -
Age.
Height.
Weight.
years.
about 17
about 30
about 28
28
36
35
19
35
30
35
30
50
50
48
28
ft.
5
5
6
6
5
6
5
5
6
5
5
5
5
6
5
in.
6i
6-
2
6i
3i
3
74
3
8i
H
8i
5
5
7i
7
lbs.
134
148
141
125
119
130
143
133
145
144
178
130
130
159
120
It appears, from these tables, that the average heiglit of forty-nine adult
male blacks is 5 ft. 5| in. — the greatest height being 6 ft. 1 in., and the least
5 ft. 1 in.; and that the average weight is 137§ lbs. nearly — the greatest weight
being 214 lbs., and the least 112 lbs.
Tlie average height of twenty-five adult Ijlack females is 5 ft. — the greatest
being 5 ft. 4 in., and the least 4 ft. 9 in. The average weight of the women is
114^ lbs. (nearly) — the greatest being 148 lbs., and the least 78 lbs.
The half-castes aj^pear to great advantage, as compared with the natives of
pure blood. Though the records relate only to a small number, they are never-
theless highly suggestive. The average height of the half-caste men is 5 ft.
10^ in., and the average weight 160 lbs. ; and the average height of the women
is 5 ft. 3| in., and the average weight 140 lbs.
These results are in accordance with what one sees in a large mixed assem-
blage of blacks and half-castes. The latter are invariably larger, better formed,
and more fully developed than the blacks ; and some of the boys — showing but
little of the blood of the mother — are better formed and more pleasing in
appearance tlian many children born of white parents. When they grow up,
however, they usually become coarse and heavy.
It will be noted also, on examining the tables, that the height and weiglit
of the men and women in Gippsland are greater than the averages ; that the
height and weight of the men at Coranderrk are considerably above the
averages ; and that the women at that station, though of average stature, are
much heavier than the women of the western parts of the colony. The natives
at Coranderrk, however, having been brought from all parts of Victoria, are not
representative of any particular tribes, as are those at Lake Hindmarsli, Lake
Condah, and Gippsland.
4 THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
Dr. Strutt gives the following Measurements of Natives of the River Murray
at Echuca : —
Name.
Weight.
Height.
Measures round
the chest.
Daniel - . . - -
Johnny Johnny ...
Billy
Jack .....
Larry - - - . .
Billy Toole ....
Murray - - - . .
King John ....
Flora
stone lbs.
10
10
8
9 4
10 10
10
10
11 12
9
ft. in.
5 75
5 5
5 45
5 4
5 8'
5 4J
5 6i
5 9|
4 10 J
ft. in.
2 10
2 10
2 8
2 8'
3 OJ
3 n.J
2 114
3 1
3 2
He adds that "No other woman could be persuaded to be weighed or
measured ;" and that "they are a well-proportioned race."*
It is impracticable to obtain complete measurements of tlie bodies of the
natives of Victoria. They are now clothed — and having regard to the circum-
stances under which they are living, it has been deemed unadvisable, eveu in
the interests of science, to prosecute investigations which might raise in their
minds feelings of disgust. I have therefore no very valuable information to
give in regard to this part of the subject. Some measurements have been made
from photographs of wild blacks with the following results : —
Man.
Man.
Man.
Woman.
Woman.
Ground to calf of leg (thickest part)
8i
9
10
10
10
Ground to centre of cap of knee
14
13|
13i
14
14
Ground to fork ....---
m
22
*
22-
23
Ground to umbilicus . - - -
31
31
30J
30
*
Ground to chin ......
43
41
*
42J
42'
Ground to tips of fingers (the hand being
*
*
*
17
is
placed against the thigh)
~
Lcngtli of arm from point of shoulder to
llj
11
lOi
95
9
elbow.
Length of arm from elbow to tips of fingers
14J
14
13
14
14
In the spaces marked * measurements were not possibie.
The body in each case is supposed to be divided into fifty parts, measuring
from the ground to the vertex, and the i^roportions are represented by the
figures.
Though the utmost care was taken in ascertaining the proportions of the
several i)arts of the frame, and though the photographs were excellent, and the
positions well chosen, these measurements cannot be regarded as strictly
accurate.
* Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council, 1858-9.
PHTSICAL CHAEACTEE.
Measurements made in the same manner of two Europeans, one an adult
male and the other a young man, give the figures following, namely : —
Ground to calf of leg (thickest part) ------
Ground to centre of cap of knee ------
Ground to fork ----------
Ground to umbilicus ---------
Ground to chin ----------
Ground to tips of fingers (the hand being placed against the thigh)
Length of arm from point of shoulder to elbow - - - -
Length of arm from elbow to tips of fingers - - - -
Yonng Man.
10
144
25}
30i
43|
19
10
13
Tliese measurements, few as they are, seem to show that the arms and legs of
tlie male blacks are longer than those of Europeans. Collins relates that
Capt. Paterson found up the Hawkesbury natives who appeared to him to have
longer legs and arms than those of the natives of Port Jackson and the coast,
due, it was suggested, to their being obliged from infancy, in order to gain a
living, to climb trees, hanging by their arms and resting on their feet at the
utmost stretch of the body.*
Mr. William Skene gives the following measurements of three blacks living
at Portland Bay, who, he thinks, are rather under the sizes of some tribesj : —
Jemmy.
Tommy.
Billy.
Age
25 to 30 years
50 years (about)
25 years (about)
Height
6 ft. TJin.
5 ft. 6 in.
5 ft. 3 in.
Round the shoulders . - .
44 in.
41 in.
*
From shoulder to palm of band -
33 in.
31 in.
29Jin.
I*g
32 in.
2SJin.
29 in.
Girth of thigh (above trousers) -
19 in.
19 in.
20 in.
Girth of waist - . - -
32 in.
SOJin.
33J in.
Color, Hair, etc.
The color of the natives of Victoria is a chocolate-brown, in some nearly
answering to No. 41 of M. Broca's color-types, in others more nearly approach-
ing No. 42 ; the eyes are very dark-brown (almost black), corresponding nearly
to No. 1 in M. Broca's types ; the " white of the eye " is in all cases yellowish,
the tint being deeper in some than in others ; the hair of the head is so deep a
brown as to appear in many lights jet-black, and jet-black in some it is. The
beard is black. The hair of the head is usually abundant, and waved or in
large curls. The beard is full, and generally crisp. The brown color of the hair
of the head is most often seen in that of the women and girls. The hair growing
on the back of the boys and girls is very fine and soft, and in color brown (not
very dark).
* The English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut-Col. Collins, 1804.
t Report of the Select Commitlee of the Legislative Council, 1S58-9, p. 227.
6 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Mr. Cosmo Newbery, B.Sc, has made a number of careful microscopic
examinations of seven samples of hair from the following individuals, namely: —
Half-caste woman, "Ralla" (head); half-caste man, "Parker" (head); black
man, "Wonga" (head); black woman, "Maria" (head); black girl (head);
boy, aged seven years (back) ; girl, aged seven years (back) ; and he reports
that, after having compared them with a number of samples taken from Euro-
peans, he has failed to detect any special characters.
The bodies of some of the men and boys are said to be entirely covered or
almost entirely covered with short soft hair.
Dr. Strutt, speaking of the natives of Echuca, says that the complexion is
" a dark chocolate-brown, approaching to black ; hair, black, rather coarse and
curling, not woolly ; black eyes ; thick nose, rather rounded ; lips rather thick,
but not projecting." *
The late Dr. Ludwig Becker, an artist and a man of science, thus writes : —
"The prevailing complexion is a chocolate-brown. Hair, jet-black, and when
combed and oiled, falls in beautiful ringlets down the cheeks and neck. Beard,
black, strong, curly ; eyes, deep-brown, black, the white of a light-yellowish
hue."
The hair of the head, in both men and women, is coarser and stronger than
the hair of Europeans, and it is usually far more abundant.
I have never seen in any native of Victoria that peculiar bluish or leaden
tint which in some lights appears so distinctly in the complexion of the Maori
of New Zealand and the lighter-colored races of Polynesia. The eye and the
skin of the Australian exhibit invariably warm tints, however deep may be the
color.
Some children of full-blooded blacks are nearly of the same color as Euro-
pean children when born, and all of them are generally ligh(>red.t As regards
form, they do not differ very much from children of other races. But when they
arrive at the age of two, four, six, or eight years, they are generally very dark,
and in form differ much from Europeans. The head is generally well shaped
and well placed, the eyes are large, and the body is well formed, though the
limbs are long, and in some individuals thin, and the face is not agreeable.
The under-jaw is large, and the lips are heavy and hanging. Some children
are prognathous to such a degree as to present a profile anything but pleasing.
The cheeks of both males and females are hairy in the places where the beard
grows in man ; and the neck and in some the back are covered with short hair,
always thickest in those parts which in most Europeans are shown obscurely
by streaks of hair coming down the neck from the head, and following the
line of the vertebrae. The arms and hands exhibit a thin covering of coarse
hair.
Little boys of five and six years of age show sometimes as much hair on the
cheeks as a European of seventeen or eighteen, but the hair is not crisp and
curly as the hair of a beard generally is, but straight and clinging closely to the
* Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council, 1858-9.
t Mr. John Green says, "The baby is like a white when newly born, and pale ; but in the course
of a few hours it becomes dark ; and in two weeks or so becomes as black as its parents."
PHTSICAL CHAEACTEE. 7
face. It is of the same character as the hair on the arms or hands, but thicker
and closer.* I am not acc[uainted with a single case of albinism amongst the
natives of Australia.
Odour.
There is little doubt that there is a peculiar odour attached to the persons
of the natives even when they are clean in their habits. Some have a most
offensive odour, due to their want of cleanliness and to their sleeping in their
clothes. It is a different odour from that of Europeans of filthy habits, and as
strong, or perhaps stronger. Dr. Strutt says that several of the natives have
no peculiar odour when well washed and clean ; others, however, in hot weather
have a very perceptible odour.
The late Dr. Ludwig Becker noticed a peculiar odour, not depending on
want of cleanliness, and resembling that of the negro, but not so strong. It
appeared to him "as if phosphorus was set free during the process of per-
spiration. It is very likely this odour which enables the horses to discover
the proximity of Aborigines, and thus saving many times the members of
exploring expeditions from being surprised. Leichhardt, Gregory, and others
describe sufficiently the mode in which the horse shows its uneasiness. "f
Cattle and dogs, as well as horses, exhibit alarm when they are approached
by a black for the first time, and when his vicinity could be known only from
the odour.
Senses.
The sight and hearing of the natives are excellent, but it is questionable
whether as regards touch, taste, and smell they are the equals of Europeans.
Short-sight is not known amongst the people of Victoria.
Many of the natives are skUful trackers, and their services are frequently
required by the jjolice, who speak highly of their quickness and intelligence.
The native trackers have on many occasions rendered important services to the
Government, and when any one is lost in the bush the whites rely with the
utmost confidence on the sagacity and skiU of the " black-tracker."
Capt. Grey relates how his watch was recovered by a native. It had fallen
from his pocket when galloping through the bush. " The ground we had passed
over," says Grey, " was badly suited for the purpose of tracking, and the scrub
was thick ; nevertheless, to my delight and surprise, within the period of half
an hour my watch was restored to my pocket. This feat of Kaiber's surpassed
anything of the sort I had previously seen performed by the natives."t
" Tlieir sight," says Collins, " is peculiarly fine ; indeed their existence very
often depends upon the accuracy of it ; for a short-sighted man (a misfortune
* "Boys — full-blooded — begin to show a beard at the age of fifteen ; and have a strong beard
when nineteen, llalf-castcs show a beard at seventeen, and have not a strong beard until they are
about twenty-four years old. There are several full-blooded children on the Coranderrk Station from
six to ten years of age with hair on their backs one iucli long and more, and as close as it can sit.
There is also a third-caste white boy, about twelve years of age, with the same kind of hair on the
back."-i»/S., Mr. John Green.
t Report of the Select Committee oj the Legislative Council, 1858-9.
t Norlh-West and Western Australia, vol. I., p. 315.
8 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
unknown among them, and not yet introduced Ly fashion, nor relieved by the
use of a glass) woidd never be able to defend himself from their spears, which
are thrown with amazing force and velocity." *
Physical Powers.
Many of the natives have great strength in the arms and shoulders, and
the manner in which they throw the spear, the boomerang, and the 7wit-woit
shows that they can exert their strength to the best advantage. But their
hands are small, and, as a rule, they are not capable of performing such heavy
labors as a white man. They are soon fatigued; and the mind, in sympathy
with the body, disinclines them to continuous labor of any kind.
In their natural state they were accustomed to the use of their weapons
only ; hunting and fighting were their emi^loyments. Tlie women carried the
burdens, and did the most of the work that was to be done.
They are good walkers, they can run very fast, and jump to an amazing
height ; but when they have to travel day after day, they soon show tliat in
endurance they are not the equals of Europeans. This, at any rate, is the
impression left on the minds of many who have had to travel on foot with the
natives. No doubt a strong and healthy native would exhiliit superiority to
any untrained European, both as regards speed and endurance; but a strong
white man, accustomed to walk fast and far, would soon outstrip the native.
Tliey ride well and sit often gracefully, and manage a horse with temper
and judgment ; but it has been remarked by those accustomed to ride with
the natives that they will never put a horse at a fence. Whether they are
deficient in courage or whether it is because they find no pleasure in the
exercise is not known.
UsmG THE Feet and Toes.
The natives use their toes in dragging their spears, when they wish to
conceal their weapons, and they use them also in ascending trees, in such a
manner as to suggest that the joints of the great toe are more pliable and the
muscles more under the command of the will than is the case with Europeans.
The women also make use of the great toe of the right foot when they are
twining rushes for their baskets, and it is believed there is some reason to
suj^pose that the great toe is opposable.!
They use their feet, too, in many ways. A man will draw up his foot and
use it as a rest when he is shaping a piece of wood with his hatchet.
* English Colony in New South Wales, 1804, p. 359.
f " Tliey are very expert at stealing with their toes, and while engaged in talking with any one,
will, without moving, pick up the smallest thing from the ground. By means of their toes, they
will also carry as many as si.x long spears through the grass without allowing any part of them to
he seen. Some time after this I had an opportunity of testing the nimbleness of their toes. It was
with a Murray black. I told him what I wanted to see, and he was very willing to display his
cleverness. I put a si.xpence on the ground and placed him by my side. Watching his operations,
I saw him pick up the thin coin with his great and first toe, just as we should witli thumb and
forefinger; bend his leg up behind him, deposit the money in his hand, and tlien pass it into mine,
without moving his body in the very slightest degree from the vertical."— /'/int/ers Land and Slurt
Land, by VV. R. H. Jessop, M.A., vol. ii., p. 283.
" ' iSii
:in*
o
3
S3
PHYSICAL CHARACTER. «
Races.
Two natives of Gippsland — Boom-biil-wa and Quar-tan-grook, his wife
(Fig. 1), are characteristic types of the natives of the eastern parts of Victoria.
Boom-bul-wa was rather above tlie average heiglit, and was a strong well-made
man. Both the man and woman were full-blooded blacks.
The portraits shown in Fig. 2 are those of natives of different parts of
the colony. The woman in monrning, and the woman and child, are natives of
the Western district (Hopkins River) ; the girl with the raised scars on her
breast and shoulders, the boy to the left of the central figure, and the man and
woman immediately below, belong to the river Yarra Yarra. The last-named —
c
10
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Wouga, the iirincipal man of the Yarra tribe, and liis wife — are two well-
known natives. Wonga has a niikl disposition, and is always gentle and
coui'teous. He is a good speaker, and has much influence with his people.
The man to the riglit of the central figure is Nathaniel, generally regarded as
highly intelligent. He was educated at the Lake Hiudmarsh Station. Tlie
man holding a spear is Whyate, a black from the western coast. He is of a
type that is by no means common. The central figure shows a native in
ordinary attire.
Tlie likeness in profile (Fig. 3) is that of a full-blooded black of the
ordinary type. The form and expression
are strongly characteristic of the natives of
the south. The portrait of a woman (Fig. 4)
shows the more marked features tliat are
commonly found amongst the females of
the Yarra. These portraits exhibit with suf-
ficient distinctness the general character of
the features of the natives of Victoria. The
eyebrows are broad and prominent, over-
hanging deep-set and not very small eyes ;
the head narrows rapidly towards the ver-
tex; the mouth is large, and arched, as if
the corners were purposely drawn down ;
the lips are full. The under-jaw of the
males is, in many instances, massive and
'''°- ^- square ; in others, owing to the size and
shape of the mouth and teeth, it is retreating. Tlie nose is depressed at the
upper part, and wide at the base, and in some the wings are elevated; the
space between the nose and the mouth is great, and the alveolar process is
much developed. The cheek-bones are high. The
teeth are large and regular, and when set, meet
closely, the cusps being usually worn off, owing
to their modes of cookery and feeding. In many
the neck is short and pretty thick, but thin necks
are not uncommon.
When in repose, the expression of the coun-
tenance is not pleasing. It is rather sullen than
melancholy. But when anything occurs to arouse
the curiosity of the native, his face lights up at
FIG. ♦. once, and the sour, morose expression gives place
to one that is far from disagreeable. He can indicate by his features discontent,
dislike, hatred, aflection, satisfaction, curiosity, and appreciation of humour,
with unmistakable effect. In like manner he can show by his gait and his
.gestures fear, respect, obedience, courage, defiance, and contempt. Tliose who
have lived long amongst tlie natives and are acquainted witli their habits are
not readier tiian those who see them for the first time in comprehending wliat
is expressed by their attitudes.
PHYSICAL CHAEACTER.
11
The natives of Brisbane (Queensland) differ a good deal in appearance. Tlie
accompanying drawings (Figs. 5 and 6) represent the ordinary Australian type.
That of the man was selected because of the extraordinary character of the
scars on his back.
FIG. 5. FIG. 6.
I have seen some blacks fi-om the north, and I never could detect any
very striking difference in their aspect. Generally, they looked like Victorian
blacks ; but amongst the large number of photographs I have received of
natives of the north-east coast, it is easy to put aside many that certainly
bear no very close resemblance to the ordinary Australian native. Tlie hair
of some is frizzled, and the beard is scanty, appearing only as a small mous-
tache, and a slight frizzled tuft on the chin. The eyebrows do not project
very much, the nose is nearly straight, and not very broad at the base, and the
brow is rounder and smoother than that commonly seen. The hair of some of
the girls falls in long, very small ringlets; but the faces of nearly aU the females
are of the usual Australian type. The marked differences of feature appear only
amongst the males.
It was intended that portraits showing the types of natives of all the islands
adjacent to Australia, and those of the negro, and the natives of India, should
have been given here, in order that the reader might have compared them with
those of the Australians; but owing to the haste with which this volume has been
completed, this part of my design is unfulfilled. A few portraits accompany
those of the Australians ; and as these, as well as the latter, have been carefully
drawn from excellent photographs, it is hojied that these fresh materials for a
proper study of the races they represent will be appreciated by ethnologists.
The Australian natives have been harshly dealt with in nearly all the works
that treat of ethnology. In many their faces are made to appear as like those
of baboons as possible ; and though it must be confessed that, as a rule, neither
the men nor the women have pleasing countenances, they are as thoroughly
human in their features and expression as the natives of Great Britain.
12
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
At first they appear to resemble each other very much ; and a stranger, even
after seeing them frequently, is often unable to distinguish one man from another.
of Victoria. William
Lanny, whose portrait
is given here (Fig. 7),
and who is described
as the last of the Tas-
mauians, is not unlike
many natives that are
seen in the eastern
parts of Australia. The
eyebrows do not pro-
ject much, the head is
round, the hair is friz-
zled, and, but for the
full beard, he might be
mistaken for a native
of the north-eastern
coast.
Though unlike the
Australian natives in
many respects, the
Tasmanians still ex-
hibit in their coimte-
nances a resemblance
to them ; and years
ago, when it would
have been possible to
have made a selection
from a large number,
it is probable that
some individuals could
have been found not
differing at all in fea-
tures from the rather
li"rhter-colored natives
At the time the photograph from which the wood-cut is drawn was taken,
William Lanny was 26 years of age. He was a native of the Coal River tribe.
There are marked cUfferences of form in the head and features of the two
races in New Zealand — the Maori, and the Pokcrekahu or black Kinnara.*
Hale, the ethnologist who accompanied the United States Exploring Expedition
in 1838-42, seemed, however, to disbelieve in this distinction, regarding the
yellow Polynesians and the so-called Papuans as the same ; the one class being
idle and luxurious, and the other workers, half-starved and ill-clad. Tliat there
is a striking difference in ajipearance is admitted ; and though it is true that
in many of the islands in the South Seas different modes of life largely affect
the appearance of the natives — the chiefs being tall, well-made men, of a
light comjilexion, and the workers smaller, thinner, and dark in color — it is
conclusively proved by the Rev. Richard Taylor that the Melanesian preceded
the Maori in the occupation of New Zealand.
The accomjianying portraits of New Zealanders have been selected with the
view of affording some information on this point. Fig. 8 represents a native
chief, Tomati Haiiimaua Wharehinaki, whose family name was, he said, Tapuika,
and that of the land he once owned, Maketu. When I saw him, in November
1870, he was about fifty-seven years of age. He is, I believe, now dead. His
head was small, his forehead narrow, his eyebrows rather ijrominent, but, on
looking at the full face, not coarse ; his skin light-brown, and his eyes a not very
dark-brown. His hair was soft, dry, and black in color. He was very talkative,
and used odd little gestures to eke out his meaning. Though he had been an
actor in a theatre, and had lived long with Englishmen, he spoke the English
language with difficulty. Many words he could not pronounce at all ; and
though belonging to tlie better class of his i^eople, he appeared to me to be far
* Te Ika A Maui, p. 13.
PHYSICAL CHABACTER.
13
inferior to the Australian in the power of acquiring language, and in intelligence
generally. In talking to a clever Australian native one feels tliat one is
speaking to a person who has all the faculties (though undeveloped) of a
European, and he is generally rpiiet and dignified in his manner ; but the
■---/.N
Polynesian, the Malay, and some others, have always seemed to me to belong
to races having little or nothing in common with the Em'opean.
Tomati Hapimaua's skin showed in some lights the peculiar leaden-blue
tint so characteristic of the Malayo-Polynesiaus.
Tlie portrait of a man with a feather in his hair (Fig. 9) was sent to me as
a specunen of the ludo-European type of the Maori ; Fig. 10, as one exhibiting
Mongolian features ; and Fig. 11, as a man of the Papuan type.
14
THE ABORIGINES OP TICTOEIA:
The Mougoliau features are better shown in the photographs of the women,
some of whom are much like the Chinese females. The eyes are slightly
oblique, but the cheek-bones are not high ; and in some examples the face is
oval aud the contour almost beautiful.
The portrait (Fig. 12) is that of a son of a chief of the Island of Mauti or
MaiUvC — one of the Cook or Hervey's Group. In
appearance generally he resembles the Maori of
New Zealand, but he is not tattooed. His face,
when animated, exhibited a culture, intelligence,
aud refinement not usually seen, I believe, amongst
the Maories. This young man, who wrote his name
Tomanu, came on a visit to Melbourne. He could
sjieak but little English — only a few words — but
he had evideutly been well educated by the Mission-
aries. The skin of his face was rough and coarse,
his complexion a deep yellowish-olive, his eyes
horizontal aud dark-brown, the " whites " pretty
clear ; his hair black, with here and there a white
hair ; he had rather scanty indications of a beard,
no. 12. and a retreating forehead, but a not unshapely head.
His neck was strong, and he was a tall, large, rather hea\7- man. He may be
regarded as a fine specimen of the Malayo-Polynesian. It is said that in the
islands where he lives the lower classes are very dark, and inferior in stature
and in appearance to the chiefs. He spoke with a slight lisp.
He gave me a few words of his native tongue. They are as follow : —
Head . . - - -
Eyes
Nose
Month
Teeth
Chin
Beard
Tongue
Mo7vh-ke.
Watta.
Put-i-u.
Vah-vak.
Ne-o.
Tangla.
Oo-roo-roo.
LiUah.
Dimang.
Vak-veer.
Mong-ah Mong-ah.
Mikeak.
Hand -----
Feet -----
Fingers - - - -
Nails of Fingers - - -
I could not ascertain whether or not the numerals in his language went
beyond five. He gave me the following only : —
One ------ Kotti.
Two ------ Karoo-ah.
Three ------ Kaderooh.
Four ------ Ka^ah.
Five ------ Kcrimang.
One of the words for head in the language of the New Zealanders is Mahawe;
the word for eye in the dialect of De Peyster's Islands, the Marquesas, and
PIIYSICAL CHAEACTEE.
15
Cocos Islands, is viata ; that for nose in tlie Marquesas and in the Kanaka
dialect of the Sandwich Islands is iku ; and at Satawal it is 2^olti. llouth in
the Marquesas is fa fa, and tooth is niho ; and in the Kanaka of the Sandwich
Island the tongue is lelo, and the foot is vae.
In the dialects of Polynesia and Micronesia there are some words that have
the same sound as words in the language of the Australians ; but the meanings
attached to them are not always the same. Such coincidences would point to
conclusions of great uuportance if supported hy other circumstances.
Bather a favorable specimen of the Chinese, who are numerous in Victoria,
is represented in Fig. 13. His head greatly contrasts
that of the Australian. The smooth rounded contours
and the arched brow are characteristic of the race.
Many of them have well-developed foreheads, but the
oblique eyes, the laterally projecting cheek-bones, and
the form and small size of the nose, make no very
pleasing picture in the sight of a Eurojiean. Very few
have beards, and some show only a few scattered hairs
on the upper lip and chin.
The Chinese in Melbourne — I speak only of the
laboring classes — are fond of gambling and indulge
in opium smoking; but they are otherwise sober in
their habits and very industrious. They will carry
Fi°-". very heavy burdens all through the hottest day of
summer without appearing to be fatigued. They are good traders and most
excellent gardeners. Many are married to European women, and their children
exhibit, I think, invariably a stronger likeness to the father than to the mother.
It is not known from what part of China this person whose portrait is given
here came.
Tlie descriptions of the natives of Australia, as given by various observers,
are instructive.
Mr. Stanbridge thus describes them : — " Unlike the Aborigines of Tasmania,
whose color is black, with black woolly hair, those of Victoria have com-
plexions of various shades of dark olive-brown, and in some instances so light
that a tinge of red is perceptible in the cheeks of the young, with slightly curly
black hair; but there are isolated cases of woolly hair amongst the men and
dark-brown hair amongst the women. This ditlerence in the color of the skin
appears distinctly marked in the half-breeds, the Australian being invariably
of a brown or gipsy tinge, while the only Tasmanian kuo^-n to the writer was
of a black or negro hue. They are straiglit-limbed, square-shouldered, slightly
but compactly made; occasionally an individual of herculean j^rojiortions is met
with. Tliere are none amongst them who are deformed, except those who have
become so by accident. The men vary in stature from five to, in a few cases,
upwards of six feet. Tliey have thick beards, high cheek-bones, rather large
black eyes, protruding eyebrows, which make the forehead appear to recede
more than it really does, as high foreheads are not imcommon amongst thom;
thickish noses, which are sometimes straight and sometimes curved upwards;
16 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
very large months and teeth; the size of the latter and the sqnareness of the
jaw are probably cansed by coutinnally tearing food with the teeth, as young
children have not that sqnareness of jaw, neither have boys who have lived
almost entirely with white people. Their mode of whistling, which consists in
drawing the lower lip with the finger and thumb tightly on one side, has its
influence, no doubt, on the size of the lips. The men of the Coorong, who
subsist almost wholly upon fish, have much smaller mouths and thinner lips;
their eyebrows also are not so heavy. In aiipearance they much resemble the
New Zealanders."*
Dr. Strutt says of the natives of the River Murray: — " The face is generally
round, rather broad, chin round and well formed, moutli large. "t
Mr. Taplin writes thus :— " There is a remarkable difference in color and cast
of features Some natives have light complexions, straight
hair, and a Malay countenance; while others liave curly hair, are very black,
and have the features of the Papuan or Melanesian. It is therefore probable
that there are two races of Aborigines ; and, most likely, while some tribes are
purely of one race or the other, there are tribes consisting of a mixture of both
races."|:
Mr. Carl Wilhelmi observes that the " striking peculiarities in the aj^pear-
ance of their body are their miserably thin arms and legs, wide mouths, hollow,
deep-sunken eyes, and flat noses; if the latter are not naturally so formed, they
make them so by forcing a bone, a piece of wood, or anything else, through
the sides of the nose, which causes them to stretch. They generally have a
well-arched front, broad shoulders, and a particularly high chest. The men
possess a great deal of natural grace in the carriage of their body ; their gait
is easy and erect, their gestures are natural under all circumstances — in
their dances, their fights, and while speaking; and tliey certainly surpass the
European in ease and rapidity of their movements. With respect to the women
we cannot speak so favorably by a great deal; their bodies are generally dis-
figured by exceedingly thin arms and legs, large bellies, and low hanging
breasts, a condition sufficiently accounted for by their early marriages, their
insufficient nourishment, their carrying of heavy bm-dens, and the length of
time they suckle their children, for it is by no means uncommon for children to
take the breast for three or four years, or even longer."§ Mr. Wilhelmi adds,
tliat there are considerable varieties not only of countenances and forms of body,
but also of colors and skins. The skin of the tribes of the north is dark and
dry in appearance, and that of the people of the south approaches a copper-
color.
The Rev. Mr. Schiirmanu believes that the best fed and most robust natives
are of the lighter colors.
Capt. Grey, wi-iting of the natives of North- Western Australia, says : —
" Tliey closely resemble the other Australian tribes, with which I have since
become pretty intimately acquainted; whilst in their form and appearance there
* Tribes in the Central part of Victoria, by W. E. Stanbridge, F.E.S.
f The Ueport of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council of Victoria.
J The Narrinyeri, p. &i. § Natives of the Port Lincoln District, South Australia.
PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 1 7
is a striking difForence. Tliey are in general very tall and roLust, and exhibit
in their legs and arms a fine, full development of muscle, which is unknown to
the southern races A remarkable circumstance is the presence
amongst them of a race, to appearance totally different, and almost wliite, who
seem to exercise no small influence over the rest I saw but
three men of this fair race myself, and thought they closely resembled Malays;
some of my men observed a fourth." Grey, quoting Usberne, refers to the
appearance of the people of lioebuck Bay: — "They were about five feet six
inches to five feet nine in height, broad shoulders, with large heads and over-
hanging brows Their legs were long and very slight.
Tliere was an exception in the youngest, who appeared of an
entirely different race ; his skin was a copper-color, whilst the others were
black; his head was not so large and more rounded; the overhanging brow
was lost ; the shoulders more of a European turn, and the body and legs much
better proportioned ; in fact, he might be considered a well-made man at our
standard of figure." *
Capt. Stokes gives the following account of the people of the north-west
coast : — " The natives seen upon this coast during oiir cruise, within the limits of
Eoebuck Bay to the south and Port George the Fourth to the north, an extent
of more than two hundred miles, with the exception that I shall presently
notice, agreed in having a common character of form, feature, hair, and
physiognomy, which I may thus describe. The average height of the males
may be taken to be from five feet five inches to five feet nine inches, though,
upon one occasion, I saw one who exceeded this height by an inch. They are
almost black ; in fact, for ordinary description, that word, unqualified by the
adverb, serves the purpose best. Their limbs are spare and light, but tlie
muscle is finely developed in the superior joint of the arm, which is probably
owing to their constant use of it in throwing the spear Their hair
is always dark, sometimes straight and sometimes curled, and not uufrequently
tied lip behind ; but we saw no instance of a negro or woolly head among them.
They wear the beard upon the chin, but not upon the upper lip, and allow it to
grow to such a length as enables them to champ and chew it when excited by
rage, an action which they accompany with spitting it out against the object of
their indignation or contempt. They have very overhanging brows and retreat-
ing foreheads, large noses, full lips, and wide mouths."!
The natives of King George's Sound are thus described by Pcron : — " Ces
hommes sont grands, maigres et tr^s-agiles ; ils ont les cheveux longs, les
sourcils noirs, le nez court, ^pat6 et renfoncd i\ sa naissance, les yeux caves,
la bouche graude, les l^vres saillantes, les dents tri^s belles et tr6s blanches.
L'interieur de leur bouche paroissoit noir comme I'ext^rieur de leur corps. Les
trois plus ag^s d'entre eux qui pouvoient avoir de quarante h cinquante ans,
portoient une grande barbe noire ; ils avoient les deuts comme limees, et la
cloison des nariues percte ; leur cheveux ^toient tailles en rond et naturellement
boucl(5s. Les deux autres que nous jugeames etre ag6s de seize t\ dix-lmit ans,
* A'orth-WesI and Western Australia, \o\. T., ]ip. 253-5.
f Discoveries in Australia, by Capt. Stokes, R.N., vol. I., pp. 88-9.
18 TEE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
n'offroient aucune espfece de tatouage ; leur longue chevelure ^toit rdanie en ua
chignon poudr6, d'une terre rouge dont les vieux avoient le corps frott^." *
Collins observed in New South Wales natives as black as the African negro,
others of a copper or Malay color. Black hair was general, but some had hair
of a reddish cast.f
]\[;ij()r Mitchell saw in some places "fine-looking men." Some of the men
of the Bungau tribe had straight brown hair, others Asiatic features, mucli
resembling Hindoos, with a sort of woolly hair. The natives of the Darling,
however, were not pleasing. " Tlie expression of their countenances," he says,
" was sometimes so hideous, that after such interviews I have found comfort in
contemplating the honest faces of the horses and sheep ; and even in the scowl
of the patient ox I have imagined an expression of dignity, when he may have
pricked up his ears, and turned his horns towards these wild specimens of the
' lords of the creation.' " |
Lieut.-Col. Mundy found some well-made men amongst the natives of New
South Wales. One man — the chief of a tribe, the only old man belonging to
it — is thus described : — " He was of much suj)erior stature to the others, full
six feet two inches in height, and weighing fifteen stone. Although apparently
approaching threescore years, and somewhat too far gone to flesh, the strength
of ' the old Bull,' for that was his name, must still have been prodigious. His
proportions were remarkably fine ; the development of the pectoral muscles and
the dejith of chest were greater than I had ever seen in individuals of the many
naked nations through which I have travelled. A spear laid across the toj) of
his breast as he stood up, remained there as on a shelf. Although ugly, accord-
ing to Eurojiean appreciation, the countenance of the Australian is not always
uupleasing. Some of the young men I thought rather well-looking, having
large and long eyes with thick lashes, and a pleasant, frank smile. Their hair
I take to be naturally fine and long, but from dirt, neglect, and grease, every
man's head is like a huge black mop. Their beards are unusually black and
bushy The gait of the Australian is peculiarly manly and
graceful ; his head thrown back, his step firm ; in form and carriage at least he
looks creation's lord —
' erect and tall,
Godlike erect, in native honor clad.'
In the action and ' station ' of the black there is none of the slouch, the stoop,
the tottering shamble, incident all upon the straps, the braces, the high heels,
and pinched toes of the patrician, and the clouted soles of the clodpole white
man."§
Many of the natives of the eastern seaboard, like those of the Murray in
Victoria, are remarkably stout and strong. Mr. Hodgkinson found a fine
specimen on the Bellingen, in Queensland : — " One man in particular had
been pre-eminently remarkable (in outrages on whites) from his talluess and
herculean jiroportions ; the sawyers up the Nambucca had distinguished him
* Voyage de Dicouvertes aux Terret Australes, 1800-4.
t English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut.-Col. Collins, 1804.
t Interior of Eastern Australia, by Major (Sir Thomas) Mitchell, 1838.
§ Our Antipodes, by Lieut.-Col. Mundy, 1857, p. 46.
PHYSICAL CHABACTEE. 19
by the name of ' CoLbaun (big) Bellingen Jack.' I never saw a finer specimen
of the Australian Aborigines than this fellow ; the symmetry of his limbs was
faultless, and he would have made a splendid living model for the students of
the Royal Academy. The haughty and dignified air of his strongly-marked
and not unhandsome countenance, the boldly-developed muscles, the broad
shoulders, and especially the great depth of his chest, reminded me of some
antique torso."*
Jardine gives no very flattering account of the natives of Cape York.
"The only distinction," he says, "that I can perceive, is that they appear to
be in a lower state of degradation, mentally and physically, than any of the
Australian tribes which I have seen. Tall, well-made men are occasionally
seen, but these almost invariably show decided traces of a Papuan or New
Guinea origin, being easily distinguished by the ' thrum ' like appearance of the
hair, which is of a somewhat reddish tinge, occasioned, no doubt, by constant
exposure to the sun and weather. The color of their skin is also much lighter,
in some individuals approaching almost to a copper-color. The true Australian
Aborigines are perfectly black, with, generally, woolly heads of haii' ; I have,
however, observed some with straight hair and features prominent, and of a
strong Jewish cast."t
Macgillivray says that the Australians of Cape York difi'er in no respect
from those of other parts of the continent ; but they do not, it appears, strike
out the upper incisors, nor do they practise circiuncision or any similar rite.
Amongst the Aborigines of Port Essington he observed no striking peculiarity.
Tlie septum of the nose is invariably perforated, and the right central incisor —
rarely the left — is knocked out during childhood. Both sexes are more or less
ornamented with large raised cicatrices, on the shoulders and across the chest,
on the abdomen and buttocks, and outside of the thighs. They wear no cloth-
ing ; and their ornaments consist chiefly of wristlets, made of the fibres of a
plant, and armlets of the same, wound round with cordage. Tliey have neck-
laces formed of fragments of reed strung on a thread, or of cordage, passing
under the arms and crossed over the back. Girdles of finely-twisted human
hair are occasionally worn by both sexes. The men sometimes add a tassel of
the hair of the opossum or fiying squirrel suspended in front. A piece of stick
or bone, thrust into the perforation in the nose, completes the costume. They
paint themselves with red, yellow, white, and black, in difi"erent styles, appro-
priate to dancing, fighting, or mourning.
Speaking of the Papuans, which Macgillivray states includes, in his work,
merely the woolly or frizzled haired inhabitants of the Louisiade, south-cast coast
of New Guinea, and the islands of Torres Strait, he says : — " They appear to me
to be resolvable into several indistinct types, with intermediate gradations ; thus
occasionally we met with strongly-marked negro characteristics, but still more
frequently with the Jewish cast of features, while every now and then a face
presented itself which struck me as being perfectly Malayan. In general the
head is narrow in front, and wide and very high behind, the face broad from
• From Port Macrjiiaric to Moreton Bai/, 1S45.
f Overland Expedition from Rochhampton to Cape York, 1867, p. 82.
20 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
the great projection and licight of the cheek-bones and depression at the
temples ; the chin narrow in front, slightly receding, with prominent angles to
the jaw; the nose more or less flattened and widened at the wings, witli dilated
nostrils, a broad, slightly arched and gradually rounded bridge, pulled down at
the tip by the use of the nose-stick ; and the mouth rather wide, with thickened
lips, and incisors flattened on top as if ground down. Although the hair of the
head is almost invariably woolly, and, if not cropped close or shaved, frizzled
out into a mop, instances were met with in which it had no woolly tendency,
but was cither in short curls, or long and soft, without conveying any harsh
feeling to the touch. In color, too, it varied, although usually black, and when
long, pale or reddish at the tips [caused perhaps by the use of lime-water] ; yet
some people of both sexes were observed having it naturally of a bright-red
color, but still woolly. Tlie beard and moustache, when present, which is
seldom the case, are always scanty, and there is verj' little scattered hair upon
the body. The color of the skin varies from a light to a dark copper-color, the
former being the prevaiHug hue ; individuals of a light-yell owisli brown hue are
often met with, but this color of the skin is not accompanied by distinctive
features. The average stature of these Papuans is less than our own, being
only about five feet four inches." *
In what manner the natives of Australia impressed the earlier voyagers is
told by Dampier : — " Tlaey have great bottle-noses, pretty full lips, and wide
mouths. Tlie two fore teeth of their upper-jaw are wanting in all of them, men
and women, old and young ; whether they draw them out I know not ; neither
have they any beards. They are long-visaged, and of a very unpleasing aspect,
having no one graceful feature in their faces. Tlieir hair is black, short, and
curled, like that of the negroes, and not long and lank like the common
Indians. The color of their skins, both of their faces and the rest of their
body, is coal-black, like that of the negroes of Guinea." t
The French who accompanied La Perouse said, after visiting the coast of New
South Wales, that in their whole voyage they nowhere found so poor a country
nor such miserable ^leople ; and yet how rich is the country ! and how interesting
are the natives that once peopled it ! Until the white man invaded their shores
they were happy.
Half-castes.
Many of the half-castes in Victoria present peculiarities that are of great
interest. The complexion of the females is generally a pale-brown (usually
called oUve), and they do not often show much red on the cheeks, though there
are marked exceptions to this. The boys, on the other hand, have, as a rule,
bright, clear complexions, with red cheeks ; and some could not be distinguished
from children of European parents. There are ordinarily patches of light-
brown hair mixed with the dark-brown hair of their heads ; but I have never
seen any peculiarities of color in the eye. Amongst Europeans we see occasion-
ally persons having differently colored eyes — the iris of one eye being brown,
* Narrative of the Voyage o/H.M.S. Batllesnahe, by John MacgiUivray, F.R.G.S., 1852.
■f Dampier's Voyages, vol. I., p. 464.
PHTSICAIi CHAEACTEE. 21
with the "white" qiiite clear, and that of the other deep brown-black, with the
" white " flecked and streaked with bluish and brownish colors.
Tlie young half-castes jjartake in their form, features, and color more of the
character of the male parent than that of the Aboriginal female. It is rare to
see one that strikingly resembles the black mother. The nose is usually broad,
tlie wings of the nose are in some elevated, the mouth is large, and the lips are
thick, but seldom is any one feature very strongly or coarsely marked.
A few show finely-cut features, the delicate outlines of which greatly con-
trast those seen amongst the natives of pure blood. Their cheek-bones do not_,
pr(jject ; the superciliary ridges are not prominent ; the eyes are large, liquid,
and have a soft expression ; and their aspect, though somewhat foreign, is not
so much so as to excite comment. They are very like the people of Southern
Europe, and many would be passed by without remark in a crowd of English
children.
"When the half-castes attain maturity they exliibit, however, the admixture
of Aboriginal blood more strongly. They become fleshy and coarse, their
countenances are heavy — and some are almost repulsive.
Both the males and the females deteriorate after they have passed the age
of twelve or foivrteen years.
The children of a half-caste female and a white man are not to be dis-
tinguished from children of European parents. What peculiarities they may
display when they arrive at maturity is not known.
Some half-castes very quickly adopt European customs, and others prefer
the society of the blacks — depending on the manner in which they have been
situated in their youth. A half-caste young woman from the north was living
for some time in a gentleman's family in Melbourne. She was educated, had
been taught music, and appeared to be more than usually intelligent.
Itwhl ^huwtitw
-oo->-
It is not easy to convey correct ideas regarding the mental capacity and facul-
ties of the Aborigines by any general statements. They difler from one another
almost as much as uneducated Europeans differ from one another ; but while in
the latter the capabilities of improvement are very great, in the Australian
black they are limited. With keen senses, quick perceptions, and a precocity
that is surprising, he stops short just at the point wliere an advance would lead
to a complete change in the character of his mind.
The adult wild native when brought into contact with the whites learns the
English language quickly and easily, and all the words that at all resemble
those of his own tongue are pronounced distinctly. Those which are harsh, or
in which sibilants occur, he softens, and he keeps closely to the grammar of
his own language.
Black children brought up in the schools learn very quickly, and in percep-
tion, memory, and the power to discriminate they are, to say the least, equal to
European children. A Missionary, the Rev. F. A. Hagenauer, a gentleman of
great ability, who has the control of the Aboriginal Station at Lake Wellington,
reports that the examinations made by the Government School Inspectors show
that the Aboriginal jjupils taught by him are quite equal to the whites. In his
last report he states that the whole of the fifth class in his school had passed
the standard examination (that appointed for jiupils in State schools), and that
they had received certificates. Whether they will continiie to advance as they
approach maturity is another question. If they do not, under the guidance of
a gentleman of education who has devoted himself to the work of ameliorating
the condition of the natives from a sense of duty, it may fairly be assumed
that the prevalent opinion regarding the mental constitution of the Australians
is correct.
The following account of a native youth, as given in the reports of the
Board for the Protection of the Aborigines in Victoria, is similar in many
respects to those recorded in other cases where attempts have been made to
educate and civilize the natives : —
" Thomas Bungeleen presents all the marks of the pure Australian, and in
mental capacity, disposition, and character, is jirobably a fair type of the race.
Before the Board undertook the care of him, some attempts had been made to
teach him drawing, and he had been occasionally employed in copying letters
and in other clerical duties ; but aU the gentlemen who had kindly taken an
MENTAL CHAEACTEE. 23
interest in his welfare, and endeavoured to teach him, concurred in stating that
his want of application rendered any great improvement quite hopeless ; he was
found to be averse to labor, and all those inducements which operate on the
European were wanting in him. He was brought before the Board and examined
as to his qualifications ; it appeared that he had obtained some little instruction ;
he could read with facility, write clearly, and seemed to possess some knowledge
of arithmetic ; he exhibited a quiet unembarrassed manner, and replied to every
question calmly but promptly. Here, in the case of this young Aboriginal, an
opportunity seemed to be presented to the Board of proving to the world that
the Aborigines of Australia are degraded rather by their habits than in conse-
quence of the want of mental capacity, and though the boy showed only an
average ability, it was thought that, by careful education and instruction, he
would probably become a good citizen, and of the highest usefulness as an agent
in dealing with the Aboriginal race. With this view they sought admission for
him at the Grammar School, St. Kilda road ; admission was refused, and perhaps
the interests of the school were best served by the refusal ; but comment on this
fact would not probably tend to place in the most favorable light the peculiar
advantages which we derive from civilization. The Board then proposed to have
him educated at the Scotch College ; but this was abandoned, on the recommen-
dation of Dr. Cairns, who suggested that he should be placed under the care of
Mr. Robert Doig, a schoolmaster at Fitzroy square, who kindly took charge of
him at once. After a short experience, it was found that ordinary means of
coercion were quite iueflectual to compel habits of obedience and industry, and
with great regret the Board had to abandon their scheme of educating Bungeleen
in the manner first proposed. After being some time under the charge of Mr.
Thomas, who has at all times exerted himself in a most praiseworthy manner
in the boy's behalf, he was transferred to the S.S. Victoria, where, under the eye
of Captain Norman, it is hoped he may be taught the duties of a seaman. The
difficulty of educating and imjjarting instruction to an Aboriginal who, whatever
be his natural good qualities, is yet not without many of the characteristics of
the savage, is very great. Precisely those persons who, by education and char-
acter, are best fitted to teach and control him, are those who would be the least
likely to imdertake such a charge ; and the discipline of an ordinary school
would scarcely improve him, even if he could be made to attend it regularly.
Bimgeleen's mind, under proper treatment, may be so far improved as to admit
of his receiving a higher education, and if he acquire habits of obedience and
industry, improvement is certain. Nearly all the Aborigines are, however, prone
to amusements, and they dislike work and restraint of every kind : of a happy,
playful, kindly nature, it is questionable whether any of them are capable of
sustained labor, such as is requisite to obtain knowledge to fit them for the
business of civilized life."
In a subsequent report, that for 1862, the Board write as follows : — " Tliis
Aboriginal boy, of whose future career great hopes were at one time enter-
tained, has been for some time in the C.S.S. Victoria, under the care of
Captain Norman. He has made the voyage to Carpentaria, and has lived
continually in the ship since he first joined, with the exception of one or two
24 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOKIA:
brief visits to Melbourne. Tlie Board regret to state that his conduct is most
unsatisfactory. He is wholly deficient in the qualities which belong to a sailor,
and equally iinfitted for employment on shore. When, in consequence of gross
misconduct, it is necessary to inflict punishment. Captain Norman states that
he exhibits the mental jieculiarities of some varieties of tlie African race — stolid
indifference. He 'sulks'; and however severe the punishment might be, it would
produce no effect. This characteristic, if joined to other qualities, would not be
a mark of inferiority ; but he lacks the amour propre, that personal pride and
desire to be thought well of, without which mental progress is impossible.
Thomas Bungeleen's misconduct on shore compelled the Guardian to make
complaints, which were duly brought under the notice of Captain Norman. As
it will be necessary to remove him from the Victoria, the grave consideration
of the Board will be given to his future treatment. His case will not be
considered hopeless until every available means to improve him shall have
failed."
In the report for 1864 it is stated that — "Tliomas Bungeleen is now under
the care of the Secretary of the Central Board, and he is usefully employed
in the office. He writes very well ; he is generally attentive to the instructions
given to him, and is making fair progress in learning. He has some know-
ledge of arithmetic, and he is gradually gaining a knowledge of the use of
mathematical instruments : already he can plot from a simple field-book,
and can draw plans tolerably well. He appears to like the work he has to do.
Credit is due to Cajjtain Norman, of the C.S.S. Victoria, for much of this.
On board the Victoria he was veiy troublesome ; but the discipline of the ship
certainly has been beneficial to him. His temper is still peculiar, but less
violent than it was when he was younger; and some hope is now entertained
that he will lead a steady, reputable life. Every care will be taken to teach
him useful knowledge, and to qualify him for a higher position than has yet
been attained by any native of Australia."
He died in 1805 : — " Thomas Bungeleen, an Aboriginal, who for some months
was employed in the office in Melbourne, and gave evidence of some talent, is
dead. A hope was entertained at one time that he would become a iiseful
member of society ; but, whether owing to defects in his early education or a
natural propensity to evil, he became nearly as troublesome in the office as
he M^as when on board the Victoria. He died of gastric fever at the house of
Mr. Hinkins, Moonee Ponds, on tlie 3rd January 1865."
"Governor Phillip," says Bennett, "who had never relaxed in his efforts to
benefit the Aborigines, took with him to England two promising young men of
that unfortunate race : one of them was Bennilong, who had become much
attached to him ; the other was his companion, Yemmerawannie. Tliey had
acquired, from residing with the Governor, a knowledge of the usages of civilized
life, and both were persons of more than ordinary sharpness and address. Tlie
latter died in England, but the former returned to the colony. He was, while
in England, presented to George the Tliird, and introduced to most of the leading
men of that day. He adopted the observances of society with remarkable readi-
ness, and behaved on all occasions, while among strangers, with propriety and
MENTAL CHABACTEE. 25
ease ; yet soon after his return he threw off his fine clothes, and the restraints of
civilized life, as alike inconvenient and distasteful, and, in spite of all persuasions
to the contrary, reverted to his old habits and his old haunts."*
The Australian native is kind to little children, affectionate and faithful to
a chosen companion ; he shows exceeding great respect to aged persons, and
willingly ministers to their wants ; he has great love very often for a favorite
wife ; he exhibits, at times, great courage ; he is hospitable, and he can be
generous under very trying circumstances. But he is also cruel, treacherous,
mean, and cowardly. At one time he shows himself superior to the whites — at
another he is as cunning as a fox and as ferocious as a tiger. Some tribes and
families seem almost destitute of the better qualities, and others display on
nearly all occasions, honesty, truthfulness, courage, and generosity.
The conduct of the natives of Victoria when Buckley was first discovered by
them, and during the period of more than thirty years that he dwelt amongst
them ; the extraordinary kindness shown to the shipwrecked seaman Murrell,
who lived with the wild blacks of Queensland for more than seventeen years ;
their behaviour to Thomas Pamphlet, when he was entirely at their mercy ; the
generous treatment of King by the blacks at Cooper's Creek ; and the many
instances of loyalty and integrity that are recorded of natives who have been
well treated by settlers and explorers — are sufficient to satisfy the mind that all
the higher instincts on which civilized men pride themselves are not absent in
the bosom of the savage.
Though the natives at Cooper's Creek had no doubt been frightened by the
explosion of the firearms, which the explorers discharged from time to time over
their heads, to prevent them from carrying away the stores that were left, they
were kind and compassionate to King. He says in his narrative : — "The same
day one of the women, to whom I had given part of a crow, came and gave me
a ball of nardoo, saying that she would give more only she had such a sore arm
that she was iinable to jjound. She showed me a sore on her arm, and the
thought struck me that I would boil some water in the billy, and wash her arm
with a sjjonge. During the operation the whole tribe sat round, and were mut-
tering one to another. Her husband sat down by her side, and she was crying
all the time. After I had washed it, I touched it with some nitrate of silver,
when she began to yell, and tslu oS crying out, Mo/tow.' Mokow! — (Fire! Firel)t
From this time she and her husband used to give me a small quantity of nardoo
both night and morning, and whenever the tribe were about goiug on a fishing
excursion, he used to give me notice to go with them. They also used to assist
me in making a gourley, or breakwind, whenever they shifted camp. 1 generally
shot a crow or a hawk, and gave it to them in return for these little services.
Every four or five days the tribe would surround me and ask whether I intended
going up or down the creek ; at last I made them understand that if they went
up I should go up the creek, and if they weut down I should also go down, and
from this time they seemed to look upon me as one of themselves, and supplied
me with fish and nardoo regularly."
* Australian Discovenj and Colonization, 1S65, p, 170.
t "i'ire," in Mr. Gasou's vocabulary, is thuoroo. The word moohoo means "bone."
E
26 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Yet the people of this district are thus described by Mr. Gasou : — " A more
treacherous race I do not believe exists. They imbibe treachery in infancy, and
practise it until death, and have no sense of \vrong in it. Gratitude is to them
an unknown quality. No matter how kind or generous you are to them, you
cannot assure yourself of their affection. Even amongst themselves, for a mere
trifle, they would take the life of their dearest friend, and consequently are in
constant dread of each other, while their enmity to the white man is only kept
in abeyance by fear. They will smile and laugh in your face, and the next
moment, if opportunity offers, kill you without remorse. Kindness they construe
into fear ; and had it not been for the determination and firmness of the early
settlers, they would never have been allowed to occujjy the country. The tribe
is numerous, and if they knew (and it is feared they will eventually learn) their
own power, the present white inhabitants could not keep them down, or for one
day retain their possessions. They seem to take a deliglit in lying, especially
if they think it will please you. Should you ask them any question, be
jirepared for a falsehood, as a matter of course. They not only lie to the
white man, but to each other, and do not appear to see any wrong in it.
Notwithstanding, however, what has been said of their treachery, and how-
ever paradoxical it may appear, they possess, in an eminent degree, the three
great virtues — hospitality, reverence to old age, and love for their children and
parents."
A correspondent has furnished me with a very interesting account of the
behaviour of a native who accompanied a trooper and another person with
despatches addressed to Burke, the leader of the expedition of wliich King was
a member. When the two whites and the black were starving and reduced to
the miserable extremity of feeding on one small snake a day, with the usual
meal of nardoo, which did not satisfy their cravings, and when either of the
white men, according to their own account, would not have shrunk from a crime
in order to procure food, so weak were they from famine, the native displayed a
resignation truly astonishing, and calmly took only such portions of the snakes
as his white companions gave him, though it was the black that caught the
snakes and cooked them. My con-espondent thus concludes : — " The fidelity of
the poor fellow was touching in the extreme. In tlie earlier jjortion of the
period, when they were fruitlessly watching for ' something to turn up,' a band
of natives, of which tlieir companion's tribe was an offshoot, came across them,
and their native friend stood by them, exhausting all his diplomatic powei's to
cause his dusky brethren to render the powerless trio assistance ; and, to their
credit be it said, that, although from the curious manner in which they gazed
at the white skins there was sufficient proof that they had never seen a white
man before, still they freely divided wild-fowl, &c., amongst them. Most
tempting ofi'ers at last were made to the native to accompany them on their
departure. He remained faithful to the end, when to remain with his comrades
existed only the prospect of starvation, whilst to have gone with his countrymen
he might have eventually had an opj)ortunity of joining his Darling River tribe
in safety. M states that when utter ruin stared tliem in their faces, he
was struck with admiration when the poor creature offered, in his feeble
MENTAL CHAEACTEE. 27
condition, to find his way back to the Darling — an exhibition of courage whicli
made the white men ashamed of themselves. The poor fellow traversed hundreds
of miles, and arrived at Meniudie — not figuratively, but literally — with the skin
off his feet. But language is totally inadequate to describe the toilsome,
chivalrous, and perilous journey undertaken by the native to relieve his white
friends — an act that shows even amongst ' the poor, half-witted natives of
Victoria' (as some are pleased to term tliem) there are those to be found who
in the hour of danger can put the most civilized persons to the blush by their
courage and devotedness."
Mr. A. Porteous, a Local Guardian of Aborigines, makes mention of a native
who was faithful, courageous, and honest. He says : — " The Aborigine who died
on the 6th instant (May 1872) did an act, over thirty years ago, that might
justly be recorded to his honor. At that early period the Aborigines knew
nothing of civilization or the law of honor, but those not having the law are
sometimes a law unto themselves. In the year 1838 the Mount Emu tribe
was very numerous and warlike, and was a terror to many of their neighboi;rs
and also to the white man ; every hut had two or three stand of arms.
At one of the Mount Emu out-station huts the hutkeeper absconded (while
the tribe was camped close to the hut), leaving the hut, with all it con-
tained, in their hands. In the hut was a quantity of flour, sugar, tea, and
meat, two or three stand of arms, bedding and clothing, belonging to two
shei^herds who were out with their sheep. A number of the tribe wanted to
take everything that was in the hut and be off' with it. When Billy heard
what was proposed, he sprang into the hut and got a gun, and stood in the
door, and told his companions that if any of tliem attempted to take any-
thing he would shoot them, and ordered one of them to go to the home-
station and tell the manager to send a white man to take charge of the hut ;
and Billy kept jjossession until the white man came. During the last thirty-
one years that I have known Billy his life has been in accordance with this
act, sterlingly upright and full of kindness ; and I much regret to have to
record his death."
Major Mitchell had a good opinion of some of the natives he met with in his
several expeditions. He says, " My experience enables me to speak in the most
favorable terms of the Aborigines, whose degraded position in the midst of the
white population affords no just criterion of their merits. The quickness of
a])prehension of those in the interior was very extraordinary, for nothing in all
the complicated adaptations we carried with us either surprised or puzzled
them. They are never awkward ; on the contrary, in manners and intelligence,
they appear superior to any class of white rustics that I have seen. Their jiowers
of mimicry seem extraordinary, and their shrewdness shines even through the
medium of imperfect language, and renders them, in general, very agreeable
companions."
At Fort Bourke, a strange black who saw Mr. Larmer (one of Major Mit-
chell's party) fishing, gave him a fish ; and a black who was shot at and hit by
the overseer in self-defence, ran off yelling, but on Major Mitchell's running
after him with a green branch in his hand, the poor fellow threw away his
28 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
weapons and sat down. He was relieved by Major Mitchell, and showed great
fortitude. He was quite a wild black.
Of their intelligence Mnjor Mitchell gives an example: — "An opossum in a
tree had baffled all the endeavours of himself (a friend of the king's) and some
young men to get at it, when they 'cooyed' for the king. He came, climbed the
tree in an instant, and after a cursory examination, dropped some small sticks
down the hollow of the trunk, and listening, pointed, as by instinct, to a part of
the trunk, much lower down, where, by making a small incision, the others
immediately got the animal out."
Their modes of expressing defiance and contempt are well described by the
same eminent explorer. One native and a boy refused to move so as to allow
the sheep to be driven back, and when the shepherd held out a green bough to
them, they also each took a bough, spat upon it, and thrust it into the fire. Ou
Major Mitchell advancing to the native with a green bough in his hand, the
black was not daunted ; he shook a twig at him in quite a new style, waving it
over his head, and moving it in such a manner as to indicate that they should
go back. The black and the boy then threw up dust at them in a clever way
with their toes. The man's expressions of hostility and defiance were unmis-
takable, and they could not conciliate him. He brought up his tribe subse-
quently, and Major Mitchell gives a vivid picture of the strange antics of these
untamed natives. They approached the party of white men, holding in their
hands boughs, but using them apparently as if they wished the party to go
away. They waved the branches defiantly and spat at the men. They after-
wards sang a war-song, jumping, shouting, spitting, and throwing up dust. They
retired, dancing in a circle, and jumping, crouching, and springing, spear in
hand. The same tribe was seen again the next day. With them was an old
man of an odd and striking appearance, supposed to be a coradjc or priest.
They commenced a jirocessional chant, slowly waving their green boughs, and
approaching the forge of the blacksmith. None except the old man and several
other ancients wore any kind of dress, and the dress itself consisted of a small
cloak of skins fastened over the left shoulder. As they chanted their mournful
hj'mn, the old man occasionally turned his back towards Major Mitchell and his
party, touched his eyebrows, nose, and breast as if crossing himself, then lifted
his arm towards the sky, and then laid his hand on his breast, all the time
chanting with an air of remarkable solemnity. They proved to be thievish,
endeavouring to steal all they could from the forge ; and when the blacksmith
gave one a push, the thief commenced again the chanting and spitting, throwing
dust in the air, and making a motion as if he would use his spear. Major Mitchell
says that he never saw such unfavorable specimens of the natives as these —
" implacably hostile, shamelessly dishonest." The more they saw of the invaders'
superior weapons, the more they showed their hatred and tokens of defiance.*
CoUins's statements respecting the natives are accurate. "They are," he
remarks in one part of his work, "revengeful, jealous, courageous, and cunning.
Their stealing on each other in the night for the purjiose of murder must not be
imputed to them as a want of bravery, but as the effect of the diabolical spirit
* Interior of Eastern Australia, vol. I. and ii.
MENTAL CHAEACTEE. 29
of revenge, ■which is thus sought, to make surer of its object, than it could have
done if only opposed man to man in the field."
He adds that the natives of New South Wales are splendid mimics. They
were fond of attending church and noting the observances therein. After ^oinw
away, they would take a book, and with much success imitate the clergyman in
his manner, laughing and enjoying the applause which they received.
Collins gives a very flattering picture of the women : — " The features of many
of these people were far from unpleasing, particularly of the women ; in general,
the black bushy beards of the men, and the bone or reed which they thrust through
the cartilage of the nose, tended to give them a disgusting appearance ; but in
the women, that feminine delicacy which is to be found among white people was
to be traced even upon their sable cheeks ; and though entire strangers to the
comforts and conveniencies of clothing, yet they sought with a native modesty
to conceal by attitude what the want of covering would otherwise have revealed ;
bringing to the recollection of those who observed them
' The bending statue which enchants the world,'
though it must be owned that the resemblance consisted solely in the position." *
In other parts of this work reference is made to the remarkable affection
which men sometimes display towards children, and it is seen also in their
behavioiir to their relatives and friends.
'•Another very common error," says Mr. Bunce, " is that there exists no settled
love or lasting affection between the sexes ; not only does the strongest feeling
of affection exist between the male and female, but it is often exhibited between
individuals of the same sex, as could be amply testified by witnessing the parting
scene at an Aboriginal camp, when one of its members is about taking a long
and dangerous journey. It is scarcely possible to conceive a more painful or
affecting scene than is exhibited on such an occasion. The moment the time
has arrived for the party to take leave, he rises and approaches his eldest male
relative, with one hand extended and the other covering his eyes, the old man
approaching in the same manner ; on meeting, each clasps firmly the other's
hand, when they elevate their arms to an angle a little above the hair of their
heads ; in this way they remain for the space of three minutes, and during the
whole time genuine tears may be seen oozing through their fingers ; at the
expiry of the time mentioned they again lower their arms, and finish with three
sharp jerks of the hand, and walk off in different directions, stiU continuing to
hold down their heads, and avoiding the sight of each other again. Tliis very
affecting ceremony is only observed between relatives and those who are closely
attached, but with others the three jerks of the hand only are given." f
The mental peculiarities of the natives can be best ascertained from their
habits, their customs, and their arts ; and the detailed accounts in this work
exhibit them prominently.
The Aborigines are at one time impulsive, at another phlegmatic ; they can
exert themselves vigorously when hunting or fishing or fighting or dancing,
* English Colony in New South Wales, pp. 355, 357, 358.
t Language of the Aborigines of the Colony of Victoria, by Daniel Bonce, 1851.
30 THE ABORIGINES OF YICTORIA.
or at any time when there is a prospect of an immediate reward ; but prolonged
labor with the object of securing ultimate gain is distasteful to them.
They are industrious and painstaking in fashioning things that they know
are of value to them and to the use of which they have been accustomed ; but
they are slow in adoi^tiug the mechanical contrivances of the whites.
They love ease even more than pleasure. The natives hunt in order to pro-
cure food, not for the delights of the chase. Without being quarrelsome, they
are always ready to fight — and, perhaps without ^premeditation, they are often
cruel to the stricken foe.
Tliey are superstitious, they are credulous, and they willingly surrender their
reason and ignore their instincts when influenced by their doctors and dreamers.
They believe in the existence of evil spirits, and are afraid to leave their camps
in the night ; but when they are impelled to avenge an injury, neither the dread
of evil spirits nor the fear of darkness will hinder them.
As there are very few instances of bodily deformity amongst the natives* — so
equally rare are any mental i^eculiarities that might be traced to aberration of
intellect. Indeed it is perhaps strictly true to say that insanity is unknown
amongst the natives who have not mixed with Europeans. Dissipation, and
drinking the poisonous liquors that are vended in the low public-houses in the
bush, have no doubt produced their usual effects in some cases ; but the wild
black is always sane.
There are, it is believed, no idiots amongst them ; and deafness and dumbness
are exceedingly rare.f
* Collins states that few deformities of person were noticed amongst the natives of New South
Wales : once or twice the prints of inverted feet were seen ou the sand. Round shoulders or hump-
backs were never observed in any one instance. I cannot remember ever having seen a native with
any deformity.
t Mr. Gason says that during nine years' acquaintance with the Dieyerie and neighbouring tribes
he encountered only one woman and one man deaf and dumb. He conversed with them by using
native signs.
Uiimkrf) and Sifitribuiioit of Ihc gibori^incH in Uictoria.
^^O-'-
The numbers that at the first coming of the white man occupied the area now
known as Victoria cannot be ascertained nor even estimated with precision, but
enough is known of Victoria and of other parts of Australia, some but lately
explored, to admit of a rougli estimate being made.
The late Sir Thomas Mitchell, whose accurate observations are justly valued
by men of science, and whose works even now are the best to which reference
can be made as regards Eastern Australia, formed a very low estimate of the
numbers of the Aborigines : — " The native population is very thinly spread over
the regions I have explored, amounting to nearly a seventh part of Australia.
I cannot estimate the number at more than 6,000 ; but, on the contrary, I
believe it to be considerably less. They may increase rapidly if wild cattle
become numerous, and, as an instance, I may refer to the number and good
appearance of the Cudjallagong tribe, near Macquarie Range, where they occa-
sionally fell in with a herd of wild cattle." *
If the reader will cast his eye over the map of the vast extent of country
explored by Sir Thomas Mitchell, this estimate will probably strike him with
astonishment. That there should be more than forty-five thousand acres of laud
reipiired for the support of one Aboriginal appears to be incredible ; but when
the character of the country is carefully examined, the vicissitudes of climate
to which it is subject duly noted, and its natural productions observed — and
when it is considered further that the number of the Aboriginal inhabitants must
of necessity be governed by the conditions of adverse seasons, rather than by
those of ordinary or favorable years — and that, as will be seen when the laws of
this people are considered, there was no possibility of any singularly rich or pro-
ductive area in which food was plentiful adding to the resources of any tribes
inhabiting adjacent less highly-favored lands — the sparseness of the population
will cease to excite astonishment, and more importance will be attached to the
low estimate — certainly, as regards Victoria, the very low estimate — made by
Sir Thomas Mitchell.
The late Mr. E."S. Parker, who was for many years a Protector of Aborigines,
stated, when delivering a lecture in Melbourne in 1854, that he estimated the
number of the Aboriginal population at the foundation of the colony at 7,500.
He said: — "In the year 1843 I endeavoured to take a nominal census of the
Aboriginal population in the district extending from the Goidburn on the east to
the Upper "Wimmera on the west, and from the Great Dividing Range between
* Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, vol. u., p. 345.
32 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
the coast rivers ami the interior waters on the south and the Mallee country on
the north. I found then and registered by name, in their respective families and
tribes, about 1,100 individuals."*
The late Mr. William Tliomas, who for more than a quarter of a century
acted as Protector or Guardian of the Aborigines, and had in the discharge of his
duty visited nearly every part of Victoria, undertook at my request, some years
ago, to make a careful estimate of the number of the Aborigines at the time
when they possessed the land ; and he arrived at the conclusion that the total
number could not be less than 6,000. From his statement it appears that " the
Aboriginal population in 1835-6 of the counties of Bourke, Evelyn, and Moru-
ington was 350." But he adds that one-half at least of one of the tribes
inhabiting these counties had perished in 1834 in a war with the Gippsland and
Omeo blacks, and that previous to the war the total number was certainly not
less than 500.t Further, the three counties he selected were in his opinion but
sparsely peopled as compared with some other parts of Victoria, that these
lands are not the best suited for the support of an Aboriginal population, and
that the rivers which their boundaries embrace are not stocked with fish as
are the Murray and its aiHuents.J Now the sum of the areas of these tliree
counties is nearly 3,000,000 acres, which gives 6,000 acres for each Aboriginal ;
and the population of the colony would have been, if the whole of it had been
peopled in the same proportion, 9,200 nearly. In estimating the numbers in this
manner it is necessary to take note of the geographical features of the colony.
Though the counties named by Mr. Thomas are not the richest in Victoria,
yet the greater part of the country they include is available for the uses of a
savage people. Though the lands near the ranges are thickly timbered, and
the eastern parts of Evelyn are covered in places with dense scrub, an immense
area was in former times lightly timbered. Fine open forests of gum and she-oak
covered a great part of Bourke ; in the county of Evelyn there is a fine river,
with numerous perennial streams falling into it ; and in Mornington there are
* The Aborigines of Australia : A Lecture; by E. S. Parker, 1854, pp. 13-14.
1 1 give this statement as it waa given to me. The native warfare generally does not result in
the destruction of great numbers of the belligerents. One or two may fall in battle, never to rise
again ; but not seldom is a war concluded without actual loss of life. Mr. Thomas, in stating that
150 persons had perished in this war, merely repeated a story he had heard. During a protracted
war — if the enemy followed the ordinary practices of the Australian savages — it is possible that a
number of women and children might be carried away, and some warriors killed, not in open war-
fare, but treacherously by night — either strangled by the noose, or knocked on the head with the
club ; but a war resulting in the death of 150 persons is not certainly common amongst the blacks.
Mr. Thomas, in a note dated the 17th February 1864, states that, according to his observations,
the Aborigines invariably adopted natural boundaries for their territories, as rivers, creeks, and
mountains. The Wawoorong or Yarra tribe claimed the lands included within the basin of the
River Yarra ; all waters flowing into it were theirs, and the boundaries were the dividing ranges on
the north, east, and south. The Boonoorong or Coast tribe claimed in the same way all the country
lying to the south of the southern rim of the Yarra basin, eastwards from the Tarwin Kiver to
Tort Phillip Bay, and southwards to the sea. In 1838 there were 205 members of the Wawoorong
tribe, and 87 of the Boonoorong tribe.
t The Murray cod-perch {Oliyorus Macquariensis), alarge fish, often three feet in length, is found
only in the River Murriiy and its tributaries. Black-fish, trout, eels, &c., are found in the rivers
which flow from the southern and south-eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range towards the sea.
NUMBERS AND DISTEIBUTION. 33
many creeks and very large swamps. Moreover, the county of Mornington has
an extensive and varied coast-line where fish and molluscs are plentiful and
easily procurable. These things must he borne in mind when the physical
character of the colony is attentively viewed and its capability for the support
of a wandering people more carefully shown. It is necessary to describe first
tliose parts of the colony which could not of themselves support througliout
the year any tribe or family of Aborigines, and some of which, if the blacks
resorted to them at all, would be used by them as occasional hunting grounds
only. Other parts, it is well known, would never be penetrated by them. The
thick scrub, the want of water, and the fear of these untravelled wilds, would
keep them as effectual barriers, separating tribes from tribes.
In the north-western parts of Victoria there is a vast tract of sands and
clay-pans of Recent and Tertiary age, which is covered with Eucalyptus dwmosa
and E. oleosa, the nature of which none but those who have endeavoured to
penetrate it can have an accurate idea. Its area is not less than 14,000 square
miles. The Richardson River, the Yarriambiack Creek, and the River Wimmera
flow northwards through it towards the River Murray ;' but the waters of those
streams are lost in the sands. The lakes are large and the swamps are numerous
in the southern and central parts ; but the tract is hot in summer and cold in
winter, and much of it cannot be regarded but as "back-country" for the tribes
bordering on it, to be used only at certain times during each season, when the pro-
ductions which it affords might tempt the Aboriginals to penetrate several parts
of it. This great, dense eucalyptus thicket is somewhat in the form of a triangle
as it appears on the map of Victoria. Its base extends from the confluence of
the River Lindsay and the River Murray on the north to Mount Arapiles on the
south ; and its southern boundary reaches from Mount Arapiles in a north-
easterly direction and in a broken line with numerous outlying patches of dense
scrub to Inglewood ; and other unconnected belts of Mallee are found between
Inglewood and the junction of the River Murray with the River Loddon. Dense
scrub again is found southwards covering the plains.
Tlie mountain ranges, also, are not fitted to maintain an uncivilized people
during all seasons of the year. The climate of the higher parts of the Cordillera,
however agreeable in summer, is bitterly cold in winter. The flanks of the
mountains which extend from Forest Hill to the Pyrenees are clothed with
dense forests, and in places there are masses of scrub, some of which even yet
have never been penetrated by man. These thickets cannot be passed by the
colonists without great labor and much expense. They have to cut a track
with the axe ; water and provisions must be carried to the working party ; and
if the party is not strong in numbers, the attempt is relinquished. Aboriginals
could never have searched but the margins of these areas. The mountain
fastnesses, in winter covered with snow, and at times, in all seasons, shrouded
in thick mists, were regarded with awe by the natives. Like the dark forests
west of Mount Blackwood, they were held to be the abodes of evil spirits or
of creatures — scarcely less to be dreaded — having the forms of men and the
habits of beasts. It is certain that the blacks in the proper season occasionally
visited the glens and ravines on both sides of the chain, but they did not live
F
84 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
there. They visited them for the purpose of obtaining woods suitable for
making weapons, feathers for ornament, birds and beasts for food, and for the
tree-fern, the heart of which is good to eat, and for other vegetable productions.
The wide, treeless, basaltic plains which stretch from the River Wauuou ou
the west to the River Moorabool ou the east, and from Mount Cole on the north
to the southern shores of Lake Korangamite on the south — an area of 8,000
square miles — were occupied by numerous small tribes. The banks of all the
lakes, rivers, and creeks were frequented by them ; and the ancient mirrn-yong
heaps and the low walls of stone erected for shelter or other purposes are still
to be seen in many parts. The plains were the resort of the emu, the wild
turkey, and the native companion, and the lakes and swamps were covered with
wild-fowl.
The southern parts of the counties of Heytesbury and Polwarth, now known
as the Cape Otway Forest, were for the most part i)robably unknown to the
tribes who called the Colac and Korangamite country theirs. The labor
attendant on a march through this densely-wooded district would not have been
undertaken but in the pursuit of enemies ; and it would never have been chosen
by any savage people as a permanent abode. The rains of winter and the thick
foo^s of autumn and spring would have been fatal to the younger members of the
tribes. Whether or not any families inhabited the river basins entirely separated
from the tribes who had homes on the lauds lying to the north and on the coast
is not known. Tliat the Coast tribes could and did penetrate many parts of this
area is not denied, but it is scarcely probable that any tribe would live in the
denser parts from year to year.
It is proj^er then, iu estimating the area available to this people for perma^
nent settlement, to eliminate those tracts which could not of themselves support
throughout the year a single tribe, also those thickly-wooded and scrubby
mountain ranges which the means at the command of the natives would not
allow them to penetrate, and the result is that no more than 30,000,000 acres
can be considered as open to them for ordinary uses. When, further, we regard
their laws, which for1)id unnecessary encroachment on the lands held by their
neighbours (and all the lands peculiarly their own were set out and known by
landmarks), and note the localities rich in stone fit for making hatchets
(common to numerous widely-separated tribes), and the debatable grounds
which year after year would be the scene of conflicts, we must again make a
large deduction from the above estimate.
All that is known of the original condition of the natives of Victoria points to
this : that the rivers were their homes. The River Murray from Albury to the
River Liudsay was well peopled ; the Rivers Mitta Mitta, Ovens, Goulburn, Cam-
paspe, Loddon, Avoca, Avon, Richardson, Glenelg, and Wimmera gave refuge
to many tribes ; in the lake country and on the coast and in Gippsland the tribes
were numerous and strong ; but as regards the rest of the land included within
the boundaries of Victoria, it was either unknown or but frequented for short
periods in certain seasons.
It would appear therefore that Sir Thomas Mitchell's estimate of the
number of Aborigines, based on calculations made after traversing a country
NtniBEES AND DISTEIBUTION. 35
a great part of which consisted of wide arid plains, where no savage trihes could
find, in certain seasons, either food or water, is too low ; and that applyino- the
figures based on the native population of three counties in Victoria to the whole
area of the colony, Mr. Thomas's estimate is too high. Between the numbers —
1,220 and 6,000 — there is much left for conjecture ; but if we correct Mr.
Thomas's estimate, so far as to make his figures applicable to the area in
Victoria available for a savage people, and subtract from the area of the counties
he has cited those areas within them which are covered by dense forests and
scrub, we find that the total number would not exceed 3,000 — that is to say,
about 18,000 acres of all kinds of country to each Aboriginal.*
It is impossible to give figures which will satisfy the enquirer ; but, in
attempting to arrive at the truth, he is enlightened and helped by the preceding
descriptions.
In his journey towards the Grampians — previous to the occupation of that
part of Victoria by the whites — Sir Thomas Mitchell saw very few Aborigines.
Mr. Landsborough, also, in travelling southwards from Carpentaria, met with
very few natives, the largest number he counted being thirty ; and he believes
that the country is nowhere thickly peopled ; and the statements of travellers
generally confirm this imj^ression. Those w4io are of a different opinion must
not be blamed. It is only the experienced bushman who is able to estimate the
numbers of a tribe in the bush. A few — fifty or sixty — moving backwards and
forwards in the bush, changing their weapons, now holding their arms aloft,
and anon appearing without any in their hands (all the time dragging them
between their toes), uttering wild shouts, and answered by their wives at a
distance, give to a stranger the impression of a multitude of people. Tlie
inexperienced man supposes that he has seen two hundred warriors.!
* It appears from a statement in a pamphlet published by Ifr. W. Westgarth in 1846, that Mr.
G. A. Robinson, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Port Phillip, had made an estimate of the
number of the Aborigin.il inhabitants within the area of land now known as Victoria. His estimate
was 5,000 — one Aboriginal to each sixteen square miles. This closely approximates to the number
given by Jlr. Thomas. The mean of the three estimates — that made by Mr. Thomas, that made by
Mr. Robinson, and that made by me — is 4,600, nearly.
Grey found it impossible to give an estimate of the number of Aborigines — not, it is presumed,
because of the great multitude of them, but because of the paucity of them. He says: — "Several
writers have given calculations as to the number of native inhabitants to each square mile in
Australia. Now, although I have done my utmost to draw up tables which might even convey an
approximate result, I have found the number of inhabitants to a square mile to vary so much, from
district to district, from season to season — and to depend upon so great a variety of local circum-
stances — that I am unable to give any computation which I believe would even nearly approach the
truth J and as I feel no confidence in the results which I have obtained, after a great deal of labor,
I cannot be expected to attach much importance to those which, to my own knowledge, have, in
several instances, been arrived at by others from mere guess-work." — Journal of Two Expeditions
of Discovery, vol. ii., p. 246.
f It is very difficult for a stranger to distinguish one Aboriginal from another. The face of one
man appears to be the same as the face of another man — to the eye of one inexperienced. A Chinaman
just arrived in Victoria will tell yoii that he sees no differences in the faces of the Europeans he
meets. An Englishman, at the first sight of the people, cannot tell one Chinaman from another. It
is long before one can really know a blackfellow. Tliey seem to be all alike ; and though they are
alike to us, we are not alike to thera. The Australian Aboriginal knows a friend at once. I have had
many proofs of this instinct ; and I have many times been stopped and spoken to by Aboriginals
whose names or faces I could not— until after much exertion of memory— call to mind.
36 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOKIA:
On some occasions all the trilics inhabiting a large area assemhle at one
spot, and a stranger seeing jierhaps four hundred or five hundred natives might
suppose that they were usually present at the place, and that other adjacent
localities were peopled in like manner.
Again, it is known that a tribe will follow white men many scores of
miles. They appear at times painted in such colors, and in such places, as
to lead to the belief that they are not the same men who were seen many days
previously.
I have prepared a map showing some of the areas formerly occupied by
the tribes of Victoria, and though necessarily imperfect and incomplete, it is
interesting.
For Gippsland, my authorities are the Eev. John Bulmer and the Rev. F. A.
Hagenauer.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer gives the following account of the lands formerly held
by the people : —
1. Boul-boul. — Their lands extended from the entrance to the Gippsland
Lakes to the island of Rotomah. Tliey confined themselves to the
peninsula — hence their name, Boul-boul, which means a peninsula
or island. Their food was chiefly fish and Ngurang, a kind of root.
The country is swampy.
2. Tirthung or Nicholson River tribe ; and the
3. Bra-bri-wooloug, or Mitchell River tribe, occupied all that country lying
between the Mitchell and the Tambo.
4. Tirtalowa Kani held the area between the Tambo and the Snowy
River.
5. Tlie Lake Tyers tribe occupied that tract lying between the entrance to
the Lakes and Boggy Creek.
6. The Krowithun Koolo claimed the country east of the Snowy River to
the River Genoa, near Twofold Bay.
7. Bidwell. — The Bidwell people lived in the back-country from the Snowy
River to the Great Dividing Range. All the tribes on the Gipps-
land side of the Great Dividing Range are known as Karnathan
Kani, or Lowlanders ; the word Karnang meaning at the foot of a
hill, or in a low place. The tribes on the other side are styled
Brajerak, which means men who are to be feared. The word is
formed from Bra, a man, and jer-ah, to fear. Mr. Bulmer supposes
that the blacks meant to imply that the people beyond the great
range were strangers, and not safe to deal with. He adds that
it is very difficult to form an estimate of the total number of
Aborigines in Gippsland, but he thinks that, from present ai^pear-
ances, they never could have numbered more than 1,000, or at most
1,500.
The area of Gippsland is, roughly, 10,000,000 acres ; and assuming that there
were as many as 1,500, the nimiber of acres to each black would be 6,666.
NUMBEES AND DISTEIBUTION. 37
Mr. Hagenatier mentions the following tribes, namely : —
1. Tarrawarracka, inhabiting Port Albert and Tarraville.
2. Wolloom ba Belloom-belloom, on the La Trobe, at Eosedale and at
Lake Eeeves.
3. Moonoba Ngatpan, on the Rivers Macalister and Thomson.
4. Worreeke ba Koonangyang, on the Elvers Mitchell, Nicholson, and
Tambo.
5. Dooveraak ba Daan, on the Elvers Buchan and Snowy.
Mr. Hagenauer says that the rivers and lakes frequented by them were the
following : —
Rivers.
1. La Trobe -
-
- Durtyowan.
2. Tliomson -
-
- Carran-carran.
3. Macalister -
-
- Woouindook.
4. Avon
-
- Dooyadang.
6. Perry
-
- Goonbeella.
6. Flooding (Crec
;k) -
- Wayiiut.
7. Crooked -
-
- Naylong.
8. Merriman's (C
reek) -
- Durtin.
Lakes.
1. Wellington
-
- Murla.
2. Victoria
-
- Toonallook.
3. King
-
- Ngarran.
4. Bunga
-
- Woonduck.
5. Eeeves
-
- "NValmnnyeera.
6. Jones' Bay
-
- Nepoa Daduck (tail of the lake)
The name of the tribe that inhabited the high plains of Omeo was, accord-
ing to information furnished to the Select Committee of the Legislative Council
by the late Mr. Alfred Currie Wills, formerly Police Magistrate and Warden
at Omeo, Gundanora. He stated that in May 1835 there were about 500 or
600 men, women, and children resident during a few mouths of each year at
their head-quarters on the elevated plain of Omeo. In 1842 they frequently
assembled there in large numbers, and often killed many cattle belonging to
squatters, whose stockmen, it is said, retaliated by firing on them. Their
hunting and fishing grounds extended northward to the Cobboras Hills, south-
ward and eastward to the Eiver Tambo, and westward to the Bogong Eange, vid
the Gibbo and Mitta Mitta rivers.
I have not been able to ascertain what tribes commonly frequented the Indi
or Limestone Eiver.
The Talangatta Creek, a tributary of the Eiver Mitta Mitta, was, according
to Mr. James Wilson, the hunting ground of the Giuniug-matong tribe ; and
Mr. Thomas Mitchell states the Pallanganmiddah held a portion of the lower
Kiewa.
Mr. Henry B. Lane, Police Magistrate and Warden, says that the Worad-
jerg tribe held the country lying between Howlong (twenty miles below Albury)
38 THE ABOKIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
and Dora Dotca, some thirty or forty miles above it. The tribe named Thar-a-
mirttong lived on tlie banks of the River Kiewa.
In a rejiort dated the 30th October 1862, the same gentleman states that
" the forty blacks to whom rations, &c., are distributed at Taugamballanga are
the sole remnants of three or four ouce powerful tribes, each of which, even
within the memory of old settlers, numbered from 200 to 300 souls. These
tribes inhabited the tract of country now very nearly described on the elec-
toral maj) as comjirising the Murray District of the Eastern Province, and
containing an area of about 2,000 square miles. Now a great portion of this
country is still as free for the blacks to roam over as it was twenty years ago,
being occupied only by pastoral stations, generally distant from each other
fifteen or twenty miles. It is a mountainous and well-wooded district, the
climate of which is decidedly more healthy and salubrious than that of the
arid jilains in the western portion of the colony. There are several fine rivers
intersecting it, well stocked with fish ; and game (such as usually affords food
for the blacks) is probably still as abundant as heretofore, particularly towards
that little known but singularly picturesque and beautiful part of the colony
bounded by the Upper Murray or Hume River."
Echuca is the name given by Mr. Strutt as that of the tribe occupying the
country near the junction of the Goulburn and Campaspe with the Murray.
Mr. Henry L. Lewis, of Moira, states that the tribe in his immediate neigh-
bourhood is named Panggarang ; and that on the banks of the Murray and the
Goulburn, Owanguttha. He says, also, tliat there is a small tribe on the
Murray, at and below Moama, named Woollathara.
Below the Woollathara country, the boundaries of the lands of the tribes
on the southern banks of the River Murray are well marked. The late Dr.
Gummow, in reply to enquiries, was kind enough to send me a map, prejDared
mainly by Mr. Peter Beveridge, but partly by Dr. Gummow, showing the areas
occupied by the Murray tribes from near Echuca to the junction of the River
Darling with the Murray. They are as follows : —
1. Barraba-barraba. 5. Waiky-waiky.
2. Wamba-wamba. 6. Litchy-litchy.
3. Boora-boora. 7. Yairy-yairy.
4. Watty-watty. 8. Darty-darty.
Each name is the negative of the language spoken by the resjiective
tribes.
Mr. Beveridge has written the following note on the maji : — " It will be
seen that the territory of the two tribes nearest Echuca does not extend far
back from the Murray River. The reason for this contraction south-westerly
was because of the dire feuds that always existed between the Murray tribes
and those inhabiting the Rivers Campaspe and Loddon. Below Swan HUl the
Murray tribes, as a rule, used to meet and mingle with those inhabiting the
Avoca, Avon, and Wimmera Rivers during the winter months in each year.
The desert scrubs between the two lower tribes and the Tattiara country tribes
are so extensive that they were precluded from ever meeting."
NUMBERS AND DISTEIBUTION. 39
Dr. Gummow, in a letter to me dated the 9th April 1872, says that he has
tested Mr. Beveridge's boundaries and names of tribes by the Aborigines them-
selves, and, with one slight difference, all agree.
Dr. Gummow added the area occuj^ied by the Yamba-yamba or Wamba-
wamba tribe.
The Yaako-yaako tribe hold the country around Lake Victoria and the
Rufus.*
I am indebted to the Rev. Mr. Hartmann, of the Lake Hindmarsh Station,
for the divisions of the Wimmera district. The names of the tribes as given
by him are as follows : —
1. Lail-buil - - - - Between Pine Plains and the River
Murray.
2. Jakelbalak - . _ Between Pine Plains and Lake Alba^
cutya.
3. Kromelak - - - Lake Albacutya.
4. Wanmung Wanmungkur - Lake Hindmarsh.
5. Kapuu-kapunbara - - River Wimmera, towards Lake Hind-
marsh.
6. Duwinbarap - - - West of River Wimmera.
7. Jackalbarap _ - - West of Duwinbarap.
8. Jarambiuk _ _ - Yarriambiack Creek (so called).
9. Whitewurudiuk - - East of Yarriambiack Creek.
10. Kerabialbarap - - - South of Mount Arapiles.
11. Murra-murra-barap - - Grampians.
Mr. Hartmaun states that the native tribes of the Wimmera proper have
not a common name for all, although they may be considered as being one and
the same tribe.
Tlie boundaries of the areas occupied by the tribes in the Western district,
and the names of the tribes, have been communicated by Mr. H. B. Lane.
He obtained the information, he states, from Mr. GoodaU, the Superintendent
of the Aboriginal Station at Framlingham.
Mr. Goodall furnishes the follo^^ing valuable and interesting list : —
1. Burhwundeirtch-Kurndeitt- East of Muston's Creek.
2. Ynarreeb-ynarreeb - - From Mount Sturgeon to Lake Boloke.
3. Moporh (a country of water- West of the Hopkins River.
holes)
♦ Mr. Eyre, in a report dated 28tli May 1842, stated that when he visited Lake Victoria there
were assembled there five different parties of natives within a distance of three miles. One encamp-
ment, on the west side of Lake Victoria, was formetl of tlie tribes from a considerable distance
below the junction of the Rufus and the Murray, and consisted of probably 100 natives. The second
encampment, at the junction of the Rufus and Lake Victoria, comprised the Lake tribe and those
from the Murray or other sides of the Rufus, and numbered about 300. Three other parties from
the eastward, inhabiting the country about the Darling and the Rufus, were not less tlian 200 in
number. Of these — 600 in all — 200 were full-grown men. This far exceeded, Mr. Eyre says, any
muster that he had previously thought it possible the natives could make. For sixty miles before
reaching Lake Victoria he had not seen a single native. The people were living on fish they caught
in the lake, of which they had abundance.
t Kurndeit signifies a country or tribe, and may be added to any of the names.
40
THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
4. Kolore - - - -
5. Coonawanne - - -
6. Warrnambool (or Pertobe)
7. Tooram - - - -
8. KeilamLeitch - - -
9. Leelioorah _ _ -
10. Korotch or Koroche -
11. Mumkelunk - - -
12. Weereitch-weereitch -
13. Terrin Challum
14. Purteet Chowel
15. Terrumbehal - - -
IC. Wemipurrong
17. MoocheiTak - - -
18. Punnoinjon _ _ .
19. NeitcbeyoDg - - -
20. Yourwychall - - -
21. Narragoort
22. Mulluno-kill
West of Muston's Creek, including Moiint
Eouse.
West of Emu Creek, including Mount
Shadwell.
East of Merri Rivulet to Lake Terang.
West of Curdie's Creek.
East of Lake Terang.
Mount Leura, Lakes BuUeen-Merri and
Gnotuk.
East of the Eiver Moyne.
Between the liiver Moyne and the Eiver
Shaw.
East of Eiver Eumeralla.
East of Salt Creek, including Mount Fyana.
South-east of Lake Boloke, including
Mount Hamilton.
Between the Eiver Hopkins and Fiery
Creek.
East of Fiery Creek.
South-west of the Pjnrenees.
East of the Serra Eange.
East of Mount William.
Between the Eiver Wannon and the
Grange Burn.
- East of Curdie's Creek.
- - South of Lake Purrumbete, including
Mount Porndon.
23. Barrath - - - - Sherbrooke Creek, including Brown's
Hill.
The areas marked out by Mr. Charles Gray, of Nareeb Nareeb, agree very
closely with those laid down by Mr. Goodall.
The areas occupied by many of the tribes are small, but each seems to have
had a fair projjortion of water-frontage.
It would be difficult to subdivide the tract more justly than was done by the
Aborigines.
The late Mr. E. S. Parker has given the following information respecting
the divisions of a portion of Victoria : —
" I found on my first investigations into the character and position of these
people that the country was occupied by a number of petty nations, easily dis-
tinguished from each other by their having a distinct dialect or language, as well
as by other peculiarities. Each occupied its own portion of country, and so, as
far as I could learn, never intruded on each other's territory, except when
engaged in hostilities, or invited by regularly-appointed messengers. Thus,
for the sake of example, the country on the northern and eastern shores of
Port Phillip Bay and to the northward and westward wp to Mount Macedon
was inhabited by the Wawurrong; the country around Geelong and to the
NUMBERS AKD DISTEIBUTION. 41
northward of that place by the Witowurroug ; * the Upper Goulhurn by the
Taoungurong ; the Lower Goulburn and parts of the Murray by the Panonrano- ;
the plains and tributaries of the Loddou by the Jajowurrong ; the Pyrenees
and country to the westward by the Knindowurrong ; the terminations wurro or
mirrong referring evidently to diversity of speech, as wiirro, Kurrong, in several
dialects, mean the mouth, and, by a metonymy, speech or language. The petty
nations have been erroneously designated tribes, as the ' Port Phillip tribe ' ' the
Goulburn tribe,' ' the Loddon tribe,' and so on. But the term tribe is more
correctly applicable to an association of families and individuals, nearly or
remotely related to each other, and owning some individual as their head or
chief. And this distinction exists most clearly among the Aborio-ines. Each
of the nations or languages I have instanced, as well as others I have thouo-ht
it too tedious to enumerate, is divided into several tribes, sometimes as many
as ten or twelve, each of which has a distinctive appellation, known by such
terminations as btiUuk, people ; goondeet, men ; lar, or, in other dialects, willam
or illam, house or dwelling-place. Thus we have on the Goulburn the Yowang-
illani, ' the dwellers on the mountain ; ' the Yerra-willam, ' the dwellers on the
river ; ' and on the Loddon, the Kalkalgoondeet, ' the men of the forest ; ' and
from Pilawin, the native name of the Pyrenees, and Borumbeet, the well-known
lake, we have P ilawin-bulluk and Borumbeet-bulluk. The terms MaUegoondeet
and Millegoondeet are very precise in their application, as indicating the men
of the Mallee country, or the inhabitants of the banks of the Murray, which is
known for a very considerable portion of its stream by the native name of MiUe.
One tribe in my own neighbourhood, and a rather numerous one, is designated
the Worng-arra-gerrar, literally the 'leaves of the stringybark.' Each of these
tribes had its own district of country — its extent at least, and in some instances
its distinct boundaries, being well known to the neighbouring tribes. The sub-
division of the territory even went further than that ; each family had its own
locality. And to this day the older men can clearly point out the land which
their fathers left them, and which they once called their own." f
Mr. Joseph Parker states that the Ja-jow-er-ong was divided into seven
tribes, as follows : —
1. Leark-a-bulluk. 4. Wong-hurra-ghee-rar-goondeetch.
2. PU-a-uhin-goondeetch. 5. Gal-gal-bulluk.
3. Kalk-kalk-goondeetch. 6. Tow-nim-burr-lar-goondeetch.
7. Way-re-rong-goondeetch.
* Dr. Thompson informed the Honorable A. F. A. Greeves that when Geelong was his sheep-
run, with two hundred miles of water frontage, he ascertained from W. Buckley and others, to whom
he had miide sjifts of blankets, &c., that the Geelong tribe of Aboriginals numbered one hundred
and seventy-three souls (men, women, and children). In 1853 they numbered thirty-four souls
only, including but one person under ten years of age. They died chiefly of pulmonary affections,
and of diseases brought on by over-indulgence in intoxicating liquors.
There were other causes at work, however, that are not mentioned by Dr. Thompson. When
the colony was first settled, the diminution in the numbers of the natives was very rapid. Quarrels
occurred between the whites and the blacks, and how many of the latter were slain will never be
known.
t The Aborigines of Australia ; A lecture ; by Edward Stone Parker, \S54, pp. 11-12.
O
42 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
The above claimed as their territory the countrj' extending from Ballan on
the south to the junction of the Serpentine and the Loddon on the north, and
from the eastern slopes of Mount Macedon on the east to the Pyrenees on the
west.
The names of some tribes are inserted in the map on the authority of the
Local Guardians of Aborigines, whose papers, under the head of " Language,"
may be consulted in reference to tlie division of the territory in former times.
The map, though compiled with all possible care from the records in my
possession, is not as complete as I had intended to make it ; but it is probable
tliat settlers throughout the country will add to it, and amend it ; and the
publication of it may eventually lead to the preparation of a larger and better
one.
Though I have specially marked only those names of the " petty nations "
mentioned by the late Mr. Parker, it is possible that some names printed as
the appellations of tribes are really those of " nations." I have had to depend
entirely on the information afforded by my correspondents, and though they
have, I am quite sure, used all available means to arrive at the truth, there is
so much difficulty in ascertaining the facts, that it is necessary to make allusion
to the possibility of error.
Mr. Charles Gray, of Nareeb, who was good enough to prepare a map of
his district, thus writes in a letter, dated January 1872 : — " I have endeavoured
to procure for you the information required, but the result of my enquiry is not
at all satisfactory. In fact, my informants (born and reared near this) can
only speak positively as to the boundaries of the lands occupied by their
own tribe. This I have little doubt will be found the case in almost every
instance. In former times, when no native dared cross the boundary of the
area occupied by his own tribe, there was no opportunity of learning tlie
boundaries of the lands of others. And I imagine that it is only from a mem-
ber of a tribe that has occu})ied a certain area that the boundaries thereof could
be learned."
I have already stated that the map furnished by Mr. Gray agrees as far as
it goes very closely with the large map furnished by Mr. Goodall.
My compilation, it may be assumed, is nearly accurate in cases where boun-
daries are given, and one has only to lament that it is not complete for the
whole colony.
The extreme difficulty of ascertaining even approximately the niimber of
natives that are in the colony at the present time should teach caution in
dealino- with the estimates made when there was no machinery for collecting
statistics. The Board for the Protection of the Aborigines has had the
assistance, during the past sixteen years, of the Honorary Local Guardians
in all parts of Victoria, and also the benefit of the labors of its salaried
officers, and yet, even now, no more than a mere estimate of the numbers can
be given.
Even an estimate is valuable, and it is much to be desired that the author-
ities in the other colonies of Australia should ascertain the number of natives
now living within their territories.
NrMBERS ANB DISTEIBUTION.
43
In the third report of the Board, the number and distribution of the natives
of Victoria were — on 25th September 18G3 — as follows : —
Blstrlctg.
Southern
South-Western
North-Western
Northern
South-Eastern
North-Eastern
Wawoorong or Yarra tribe
Boonoorong or Coast tribe
Geelong and Colac tribes
Camperdown
Warmambool
Belfast and Port Fairy -
Portland - . -
Casterton . - - - -
Balmoral - - . . -
Hamilton - - - . -
Mortlake . - - . -
Mount Emu and Ballarat
Wickliffe, Mount Rouse, and Hexham
Bacchus Marsh - . . -
Franklinford - - . -
Yaako-yaako tribe . . -
Yarre-yarre tribe . - - -
Kamink tribe , . - -
Kulkyne, Lower Murray
Swan Hill, Lower Murray
Boort, Lower Loddon ...
Gunbower - • - - -
Cobram . . . . -
Horsham and vicinity - - -
Glenelg and Mount Talbot -
Richardson and Morton Plains
Lake Hindmarsh and vicinity
Campaspe and Echuca . - .
Gonlburn .....
Port Albert .,----
La Trobe and Uosedale - - . .
Macalister, MafEra, Upper Mitchell,
Oraeo, &c.
Nicholson, Tambo, Bruthen, and Lake
Tyers
Buchan, Snowy River, &c. ...
Tangamballanga -
Barnawartha -
Authority.
Green
Thomas -
Green
Green
Musgrove
Green
Green
Green
Green
Learmonth
Green . - -
Porteous - . .
Gray . . .
Maclean and Young-
Stanbridge
Goodwin . . -
G oodwin - . .
Goodwin - - .
Green . . .
Green . - .
Green . . .
Houston - - .
Green . . .
Speiseke . . -
Speiseke . . -
Speiseke - . .
Speiseke - - .
Strutt - . .
Green - . .
Hagenauer
Hagenauer
Hagenauer
Hagenauer
Hagenauer
- Green
Green
Total Number
of Jlcn, Worntn,
iind Children.
22
II
28
40
SI
17
100
45
53
58
43
69
70
33
38
66
39
27
60
171
65
72
38
31
45
62
112
74
95
17
51
62
66
35
45
27
33
645
768
169
221
1.908
Note.
The principle adopted last year has been adhered to in compiling the above return, namely, to
obtain from one person, where possible, returns for a whole district, using the other returns only as
a check. The above figures must be taken as approximations only. It would be very difficult and
expensive to take a census yearly, and no good purpose would be served if it were done.
There is apparently a reduction in the total numbers amounting to 257, which is accounted for
44 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
tlius :— The Taa-Tatty and Lutchye-lutchye tribes, numbering 180, improperly included in Mr.
Goodwin's return last year, are omitted in this ; and, at Swan Hill, Mr. Green could find only 171
blacks, less by 44 than last year's return. The reduction, therefore, in the total sum is only 33.
Comparing the tables, district by district, it will be seen that the Southern is I less than last
year. In the South-Western there is an increase of 71, which is thus accounted for : Frauklinford,
numbering 2S, was omitted last year ; and in other cases, more recently, careful returns made by
the Honorary Correspondents have been substituted for those obtained by Mr. Green during his
hasty visit to the Western district. The difference in the numbers for the North-Westem district
has been already explained ; and those observed in the Northern, South-Eastern, and North-
Eastern districts do not call for remark.
The figures in the table are sufficient to show that the Aborigines are not decreasing so rapidly
as is generally supposed. If, instead of looking at the totals, which are liable to error for reasons
already explained, we compare the returns made by Honorary Correspondents, who have a complete
knowledge of the blacks under their charge, and who keep accurate accounts of the births and
deaths, we shall see that in no case is the diminution very startling, having regard to the habits and
present condition of this people.
It is to be regretted that it has been necessary to use last year's returns for some localities ; but
it is almost unreasonable to e.xpeot the Honorary Correspondents to make elaborate returns every
year.
The Central Board are now in possession of the names and other particulars of 1,788 Aborigines ;
those respecting whom such information is wanting amount to 120, and they are located principally
at Wickliffe, Mount Rouse, Hexham, Bacchus Marsh, and Warrnambool.
As the above return is imperfect, the Central Board would be glad if Honorary Correspondents
and others possessing information would communicate with the Secretary. There is reason to
believe that some Aborigines in the central part of Victoria are not included.
On the 31st May 1869, a very careful return was prepared by IVIr. John
Green, and the estimated total number was 1,834.
In the seventh report of the Board — under date I'st August 1871 — the
following statement is made : — "Tliere is no reason to believe that there has
been any great decrease in the number of Aborigines during the last few years.
It is wrong to suppose because tribes are broken up and dispersed that all the
members of these tribes have perished. Tribal relations and family ties are
much interfered with by the whites, who now occupy the whole colony, and
gladly avail themselves of the services of the blacks. Men of the Lower
Murray take service in Gippsland, and men and women of the Gippsland tribes
are found in the Western district. At Coranderrk, there are men, women, and
cliildren all living amicably with members of the Yarra and Goulburn tribes,
who have been gathered from the Upper and Lower Murray, from Gippsland,
and from the north and south-western parts of the colony.
" During the past seventeen mouths, the births and deaths reported by the
Superintendents of the principal stations are as follows : —
Coranderrk - - - - -
Lake Wellington - - - -
Lake Condah _ - - -
Lake Tj^ers - - - - -
Lake Hindmarsh- - - -
Framlingham _ . - _
" It is not easy accurately to ascertain the numbers of the Aborigines, but the
Board does not hesitate to declare that the oft-repeated statement that the race
is rapidly disappearing is by no means in accordance with fact."
irths.
Deaths.
9
7
5
3
2
2
3
6
3
7
—
1
NUMBERS AND DISTRIBUTION. 45
The difficulty of fonning an estimate of the numbers increases year by year.
There are several natives employed occasionally, and some continuously, on
sheep stations and farms, and the natives of Victoria now travel a good deal,
and many cross the border.
The number of natives under the direct control of the Board, and living
continuously at the stations formed for the support and education of the
Aborigines is, at the present time (1876), as follows : —
Coranderrk - - - - - - - 137
Lake Hindmarsh __--_- 67
Lake Condali ------- 89
Framlingham ------- 63
Lake Wellington 81
Lake Tyers 63
500
An epidemic of measles carried off a large number of natives both in
Victoria and in the Colony of South Australia during the early part of the
year 1876.
Now that the natives are no longer able to follow their old pursuits, now
that they are cut off from those enjoyments which in their natural state kept
them in health, now that they are held in restraint either at the stations estab-
lished by the Government or where living in the neighbourhood of places peojiled
by whites, it is probable that the numbers will decrease, and that, as a, race,
they will ultimately be extinguished in Victoria. Nothing that can be provided
for their sustenance and comfort can compensate for the loss they experience in
being deprived of their lands, the society of their friends, and the delights of
the chase.
girth and d:(Iuca!ion of ^luhlrDu.
-•-c.:)—
It may be imagined that the exigencies of savage life require that all the
members of a tribe shall at all times be ready to move fi'om one place to
another — now for food, now for shelter, now to make war, now to avoid it. Tlie
sick man must rouse himself in times of trouble, even if his sickness be mortal ;
and as regards the females, they must obediently serve their masters in every
season and under all circumstances. Certain events in their lives, however,
claim the kindness even of their savage husbands, and the sympathy of their
mothers and sisters. An Aboriginal woman, when she is about to give birth to
a babe, if not treated in the same manner and with as much care as a civilized
woman, is not neglected. The little attention she needs is given ; the few
comforts demanded are ordinarily provided ; the help of some aged woman is
not withheld. *
TVTien the time of her trouble draws nigh, some one of the old women is
selected to attend her, and the two withdraw from the main camp and shelter
* " When a woman is near her confinement, she removes from the encampment, with some of the
women to assist her. As soon as the child is born, the information is conveyed to the father, who
immediately goes to see the child and to attend upon the mother, by carrying firewood, water, &c.
If there are unmarried men and boys in the camp, as there generally are, the woman and her friends
are obliged to remain at a distance in their own encampment. This appears to be part of the same
superstition which obliges a woman to separate herself from the camp at the time of her monthly
illness, when, if a young man or a boy should appro.ich, she calls out, and he immediately makes a
circuit to avoid her. If she is neglectful upon this point, she exposes herself to scolding, and some-
times to severe beating by her husband or nearest relation, because the boys are told, from their
infancy, that if they see the woman they will early become grey-headed, and their strength will fail
prematurely.
" If the child is permitted to live (I say permitted, because they are frequently put to death), it is
brought up with great care, more than generally falls to the lot of children of the poorer class of
Europeans. Should it cry, it is passed from one person to another, and caressed and soothed, and
the father will frequently nurse it for several hours together.
" Children that are weak, or deformed, or illegitimate, and the child of any woman who has already
two children alive, are put to death. No mother will venture to bring up more than two children,
because she considers that the attention which she would have to devote to them would interfere
with what she regards as the duty to her husband, in searching for roots, &c. If the father dies
before a child is born, the child is put to death by the mother, for the Father who provides for us all
is unknown to them. This crime of infanticide is increased by the whites, for nearly all the children
of European fathers used to be put to death. It is remarkable that when the children are first born
they are nearly as white as Europeans, so that the ntitives sometimes find it difficult to say whether
they are of pure blood or not. In such doubtful cases the form of the nose decides.
"When the child commences to walk, the father gives it a n.ame, which is frequently derived from
some circumstance which occurred at the time of the child's birth ; or, as each tribe has a kind of
BIETH XSD EDUCATION OF CHILDEBN. 47
themselves in a little rudely-constructed miam. The old woman takes the
child as soon as it is born, and puts it into a net or rug lined with dry grass,
and rubs it with the dry grass, and makes it presentable as far as possible with
that simple treatment. The father, on a given signal, approaches, and provides
his wife with firewood, water, and sufficient food. The new-born babe has some
sort of care bestowed on it. The umbilical cord is cut ; it is powdered with a
dried fungus ; and after a time it is laid on its back and a dry stick is placed
over its chest to prevent any misbehaviour. There it lies for two or three days,
with what nourishment is not known ; but generally it is not suffered to draw
the natural sustenance from its mother untU this weary time has passed.
As soon as the infant is given to the mother there is general hilarity in the
camp. The father occasionally nurses the babe, and shows a proper amount of
pride as he exhibits it now to one and now to another. The young girls eagerly
contend for the honor of holding the charge ; and for a short time the mother
is a happy woman, and has a sort of pre-eminence which is gratifying to her ;
but the necessity for a sudden movement ; the whisper of a war ; the birth of
one or more children — making other mothers happy — is enough to put an end
to her brief period of enjoyment. All the cares of maternity fall heavily and
suddenly upon her ; and if she is a young mother and this her first-born, and
the necessity arises for the tribe to travel, she contemplates with horror the
pains and anxieties of a prolonged journey, during which she wQl have to carry
and nourish her babe, as well as bear the burdens and perform the duties which
her husband may impose on her.
Mr. John Green says that the new-born babe was put into an opossum rug,
and it would appear that it thereafter became the charge of the mother, who,
patron or protector in the objects of nature — as Thunder, the protector of the Kaminjcrar; a
kind of ant, the protector of the Kargarinjerar ; the pelican, a kind of snake, &c., &c., of other
tribes — the father often confers the name of this protector (as the pouch of tlie pelican), or a part
of it, upon the child. Grown-up persons frequently exchange names, probably as a mark of friend-
ship.
"Children are suckled by their mothers for a considerable time ; sometimes to the age of fire or
six years ; and it is no uncommon thing to see a boy, playing with his companions, suddenly leave
off and run to his mother to refresh himself with a draught of milk. When weaned, he accompanies
his father upon short excursions (unless he should be delicate and unable to be.ir the fatigue), upon
which occasion the father takes every opportunity to instruct his son. For instance, if they arrive
at a place concerning which they have any tradition, it is told to the child, if old enough to undcr-
stiind it. Or he shows him how to procure this or that animal, or other article of food, in the easiest
way. Until his fourteenth or fifteenth year he is mostly engaged in catching fish and birds, because
alrcadj', for some years, he has been obliged to seek for food on his own account. Thus he early
becomes in a great measure independent, and there is nobody who can control liim, the authority of
his parents depending only upon the superstitions which they have instilled into him from infancy ;
and the prohibitions respecting certain kinds of food — for different kinds of food are allotted to
persons of different ages — are enforced by their superstitions. The roes of fishes are appropriated
to the old men, and it is believed that if women or young men or children eat of them they will
become prematurely old. Other kind of meat they consider diminishes the strength of the muscles,
&c., &c. At certain seasons of the year, when a particular kind of fish is abundant, the men
fro(inently declare it to be rambe (holy) ; after which, all that are caught must be brought to the
men, by whom they are cooked ; and the women and children are not allowed even to approach the
fires until the cooking is over and the fish are cold, when they may approach and eat of what the men
choose to give them, after having previously regaled themselves." — H. E. A. Meyer. Manners and
Customs of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia. 1846.
48 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Avithout assistance, tended it, and likewise gave attention to her ordinary duties.
The mother would not he ahseut from the trihe usually more than a day or two.
After that lapse of time she would return with her bahe and follow her ordinary
occupations.*
In some parts, when a birth happened near the sea-shore, it was the custom
to warm the sand on the sheltered side of a sandhill by making a small fire on
it ; and when the babe was born a hole was scraped, and it was placed in it and
covered up to the neck with the warm saud.f After the lapse of a few hours it
was given to the mother, and her attention to it alone was deemed sufficient.
Until the child is able to walk pretty well it is carried in the opossum rug
which is worn by the mother. The rug is so folded as to make a sort of bag at
the back, in which the infant sits or lies contentedly. Whenever it needs
refreshment, it extends its arms over the shoulder of the mother, seizes the teat,
and without difficulty obtains what it needs. f
The infants are suckled for long periods ; indeed a child will not relinquish
this easy mode of procuring a repast until the mother forcibly compels it to get
a living for itself. And while very small — but yet able to move about only on
hands and knees — it has a little stick put into its hands, and, following the
example of elder children, it digs for roots, for the larviB of ants, for such
living things as it can find in decayed wood, and sometimes for the native
bread {Mi/litta Australis) M'here it is plentiful, and when the elder children are
willing to help the little one. Tlie infant soon learns to kill small lizards, and
these, and the more easily procured kinds of food that the bush affords, serve to
strengthen and fatten it.§
* " From the nature of the food used by the natives, it is necessary that a child should hare
good strong teeth before it can be even partially weaned. The native women, therefore, suckle
their children until they are past the age of two or three years, and it is by no means imcommon to
see a fine healthy child leave off playing and run up to its mother tg take the breast.
"The native women suffer much leas pain during the period of labor than Europeans; directly
the cliild is born it is wrapped in opossum skinp, and strings made of the fur of this animal are tied
like bracelets round the infant's wrists and ankles, with the intention of rendering it, by some
supernatural means, a stronger and a finer child. They are always much prouder of a male than of
a female child." — Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery. Grey, vol. ii., p. 250.
t This custom prevails amongst the tribes of the west coast of New Guinea ; and Capt. Cadell
informs me that a black of Arnhem Land, when " on the track " by himself, and when it would be
dangerous to light a fire, thus makes his bed at night. He scoops a hole in the sand, and buries him-
self all hut his face, where he sleeps comfortably, free from mosquito bites.
{ The womeu of the Moghrcbin Arabs carried their children at their backs, suspended in a
shawl so folded as to form a bag; and in Ethiopia they were carried in baskets, supported at the
mother's back by a band passing over the forehead. A wood-cut in Wilkinson's Ancient Egi/pliana
shows how mothers carried their children in Thebes. — See vol. ii., p. 330.
§ " There is a small cichoraceous plant named Tdo by the natives, which grows with a yellow
flower in the gra.ssy places near the river [Darling], and on the root of this chiefly the children subsist.
As soon almost as they can walk, a little wooden shovel is put into their hands, and they learn thus
early to pick about the ground for these roots and a few others, or dig out the larvae of ant-hills."
" The gins never carry a child in arms as our females do, but always in a skin on the back.
The infant is merely seized by an arm and thrown with little care over the shoulders, when it soon
finds the way to its warm berth in the skin, holding by the back of the mother's head while it slides
down into it. These women usually carry, besides their children thus mounted, bags containing all
things that they and the men possess; the contents consisting of nets for the hair or for catching
BIETH AND EDUCATION OP CniLDREN. 49
Mirr-fiyong^ a kind of wliite radish bearing a yellow flower, is dug up and
eaten by the children and adults in all places where it grows.
The children are made to swim in the waters of the rivers and creeks at
a very early age. Both girls and boys of tender years are thrown into the
water in sport, and they so soon acquire the art of swimming rapidly and well
that it is only when the first experiments are made that the parents trouble
themselves with them. A young girl will spring from the bank into a deep
water-hole, and dive and rise again to get breath in such a way, sometimes,
when she is pursued either earnestly or in sport, as to baffle even young active
men. The natives swim differently from Europeans, back foremost and nearly
upright, as if treading the water.*
The toy weapons which are made for the use and amusement of the children,
the care that is taken in teaching the boys to throw the spear, to use the stone
tomahawk, the shield, and the club ; the instruction that is given them in
climbing trees, using the net, and in digging for the wombat — make them even
when young quite accomplished bushmen.f They are obliged to be observant
of small things, which in their mode of life have a significance and a value
unknown to civilized men. They are trained to follow the tracks of animals,
and to recognise by the faintest indications the near j^resence of birds and
reptiles. Botany, zoology, and topography are taught in the open air, and the
ducks; whet-stones; yellow, white, and red ochre; pins for dressing and drj'ing opossum skins or for
net-making; small boomerangs and shovels for the children's amusement; and often many other
things apparently of little use to them." — T. L. Mitchell, vol. i., pp. 332-3.
"Tile young natives of the interior usually carry a small wooden shovel, with one end of which
they dig up dififerent roots and with the other break into the large ant-hills fur tlie larvse, which
they eat; the work necessary to obtain a mouthful even of such indifferent food being thus resilly
more than would be sufficient for the cultivation of the earth according to the more provident
arrangements of civilized men. Yet, in a land affording such meagre support, the Australian savage
is not a cannibal, while the New Zealauder, who inhabits a much more productive region, notoriously
feasts on human flesh." — T. L. Mitchell, vol. ii., p. 344.
» T. L. Mitchell, vol. i., p. 270.
f In Southern Africa, Mr. Baines found, amongst the Ovambos, a child's toy made of the fruit
of the baobab; Dr. Livingstone says that amongst the Makololo there are games practised by the
children which are mostly imitations of the serious work performed by their parents; the children of
the Wanyamuezi tribe have mock hunts, and play with the bow and arrow; the children of the
Shooas have skipping ropes; the New Zealand infants and youths spin tops, fly kites, throw small
spears, and dive and swim; the Mincopies make small toy bows and arrows for their .voung, teach
them to use tliem, and exercise them also in diving and swimming; and the Fijians have such
children's games as are common in Europe, and another game very similar to one known to the
Australians: — "The players have a reed about four feet in length, at one end of which is an oval
piece of hard and heavy wood some six inches iu length. This instrument is held between the thumb
and middle finger, the end of the forefinger being aii])lied to its extremity. With a peculiar under-
hand jerk the player drives it horizontally, so that it glides over the ground for a considerable
distance, the player who sends the missile farthest being the winner. Iu order that this favorite
game may be constantly plaj-ed, each village has attached to it a long strip of smooth sward, which
is kept sedulously trimmed, so that the missile may skim along with as little resistance as possible."
—The Natural History of Man, by J. G. Wood, vol. ii., p. 283.
The Fijian children have many other games.
In Borneo the youths are proficient in games known to European children, and amongst all the
Favage nations there are proofs that the education of the young — with a view to the proper perform-
ance of such cxerci-ses as they conceive most conducive to profit and happiness — is not neglected by
the parents.
H
50 THE ABOBIGIXES OF VICTOEIA:
pupils are apt. How few amongst educated Europeans could compete with
these children of Nature in the arts which they have cultivated !
A correspondent, who some twenty years ago had a station near Yering, on
the River Yarra, and who subsequently had much experience of the native
character in the southern and western parts of Victoria, had once, he informs
me, in the early days of the settlement of the colony, some opportunities of
observing the methods of tuition pursued by the natives. On one occasion he
saw an old woman attended by a great number of girls, who appeared to be
under her care, and engaged in useful employments. The old woman gathered
materials with her own hands and built for herself a miam, and then with great
care, and with many words of instruction, caused each girl to build a small miam
after the pattern of the large one. She showed the girls where and how to
collect gum, and where to put it ; she caused them to gather rushes, and, with
the proper form of rounded stone in their hands, instructed them in the art of
weaving the rushes into baskets ; she made them jrall the right kind of grasses
for making other kinds of baskets and rough nets, and she showed them how the
fibres were prepared, and how nets and twiue were made ; she took from her
bag the woolly hair of an opossum, and taught them how, by twisting it under
the hand over the inner smooth part of the thigh, it could be made into a kind
of yarn or thread ; and in many ways and on many subjects she imparted
instruction. She was undoubtedly a sclioolmistress — a governess ; but how long
she kept her pupils at work, or under what conditions they were entrusted to
her care, were subjects on which my correspondent could obtain no informa-
tion.
On another occasion the same gentleman saw an old man accompanied by a
number of boys — some of tender years and others nearly full grown — who
appeared to be receiving instruction in the several arts by which a savage gains
a living in the forest. The old man, whether merely to afford the boys amuse-
ment or to teach them the projjer method of throwing the spear, engaged in the
following pastime. A piece of bark was cut from a tree and formed into a disc
somewhat larger than a dinner-plate, and this was put into the hands of one of
the elder boys. Having selected an open space of tolerably smooth sward, the
game commenced. The boys were placed in a row, and each was provided with a
light spear ; the elder boy, who held the disc, stood at some distance in front of
the row, and at a given signal he hurled the bark disc — not as a cricketer usually
throws a ball, but downwards from the shoulder, and with a peculiar jerk— so
as to give the disc a ricochet-like movement as it bounded rather than rolled
along the grass. Each little boy in turn threw his spear. Few hit the disc,
but those that struck it or came very near it were complimented by the old man
and by their fellows. The attitude of the boys, their eagerness, the attention of
the old man, the triumph exhibited in his countenance when better play than
usual was made, and the modest demeanour of the most successful spearman,
formed a picture which was very pleasing. Other exercises followed this per-
formance, and their aged instructor seemed to delight in the work which he had
taken in hand. Obedience, steadiness, fair-play, and self-command were incul-
cated by the practices which were witnessed.
BIETH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDREN, 51
All those who have had opportunities of observing the habits of the Abori-
gines in their natural state bear witness to the fact that parents are kind and
indulgent to their children ; and the men and women of a tribe who are not
related to the infants are always forbearing and gentle in their treatment of
them. They neglect them very often, however, and accidents happen to them
in consequence of such neglect. Tlie infants crawl near the camp-fires, and get
burnt ; they fall asleep under a tree, and get stung by insects ; they labor
amongst the branches of a fallen tree, and injure themselves ; and they are some-
times bitten by the dogs when they endeavour to take away food from them ;
but deliberate cruelty is very different from neglect, which may arise, and most
often does arise, from the indolence of the parents. That there are instances,
occasionally, of culpable negligence should not warrant us in stating that the
affection of the Australian parents for their children is less than that of the best
educated amongst Europeans.*
The Australians do not as a rule attempt to alter or improve the appearance
of the children by compressing the head or flattening the nose. Such practices
may be followed in some parts, but in Victoria nothing is known of them. The
infants are allowed to grow up as Nature intended that they should grow.
The flattening of the head and the squeezing of the nose as practised
amongst the Tahitans, the distortions brought about by the cradle used by the
tribes inhabiting the Columbia River, the Chinese mode of shortening and
thickening the foot, and the European custom of compressing the ribs of females
by a cruel framework of whalebone, are all unknown to the Australians.
In the treatment of their children generally they are undoubtedly superior
in some respects to the more civilized races.
The concurrent testimony of many writers who have had abundant oppor-
tunities of observing the habits of the Aborigines leaves no room for doubt that
the practice of infanticide is almost universal amongst the tribes in the savage
and half-civilized state.
Mr. Charles "Wilhelmi says that "if, as it but seldom occurs, children are
born in a family quick, one after another, the youngest is generally' destroyed in
some out-of-the-way place, by some woman, accompanied, for this purpose, by
the mother herself From the excess of male adults alive, it may fairly be pre-
sumed that a by far greater number of girls tlian of boys are done away with in
this manner. As an apology for this barbarous custom, the women plead that
they cannot suckle and carry two children together. The men clear themselves
of all guilt, saying that they are never present when these deeds are committed,
and that, therefore, all blame rests with the women."
*That the Aborigines are affectionate is well known ; but it is not well known that they are
generally yery judicious in the treatment of infants and young children. If clothing is necessary,
tlie children are properly clothed ; if any sort of covering is unnecessary, there is none given to
them. European mothers in this colony very frequently put extraordinary garments on their chil-
dren of a showy but unsubstantial sort. The legs, (highs, and neck, and often part of the chest,
are left bare ; the poor infants are taken in this wretched condition from a warm nursery, and made
to wander at a slow pace in the depth of winter through what are called " gardens." The nurse-
girls sit with them for hours in such places on the damp grass ; and is it strange that we have,
therefore, as common diseases, catarrh, diphtheria, &c. ?
52 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Mr. Peter Beveridge, writing of the habits of the Lower Murray Aborigines,
confirms this statement. "Infanticide," he writes, "is often practised, and
meals are too often made by mothers of their own offspring. Tliis practice is
attributable to laziness principally ; for if a mother has two children, one two
years old, and the other just born, she is sure to destroy the youngest."
Mr. W. E. Stanbridge, already well known as an accurate observer of the
customs of the natives, is also compelled to speak of this unnatural practice.
He describes them as cannibals of the lowest description. "New-bom babes
are killed by their parents, and eaten by them and their children. When such
revolting occurrences take place, the previously-born child is unable to walk, and
the opinion is that, by its eating as much as possible of the roasted infant, it
will possess the strength of both."
The Rev. F. A. Hagenauer knows of only one case of an attempt to kill a
new-born babe. It was buried alive in the sand, but was rescued by a relative.
This child, now sixteen years of age, is living at Lake Wellington. Mr. Hagen-
auer says that it was a common practice of the Gippsland Aborigines in former
days to bury new-born babes alive in the sand.
Mr. Gason, -wTiting of the Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's Creek), says: — "Tlie
children are never beaten, and should any woman violate this law, she
is in turn beaten by her husband. Notwithstanding this tenderness for their
remaining ofi'spring, about thirty per cent, are murdered by their mothers at
their birth, simply for the reasons — firstly, that many of them marrying very
young, their first-born is considered immature, and not worth preserving ; and,
secondly, because they do not wish to be at the trouble of rearing them, espe-
cially if weakly. Indeed, all sickly or deformed children are made away with, in
fear of their becoming a burden to the tribe. The children so destroyed are
generally smothered in sand, or have their brains dashed out by some weapon :
the men never interfering, or any of either sex regarding infanticide as a crime.
Hardly an old woman, if questioned, but will admit of having disposed in this
manner of from two to four of her ofi'spring."
The Rev. Geo. Taplin says that "infanticide is not prevalent amongst the
Narrinyeri (Lower Murray and Lakes) at the present time. Tliirteen years ago
one-third of the infants which were born were put to death. Every child which
was born before the one which preceded it could walk was destroj'ed, because
the mother was regarded as incapable of carrying two. AU deformed children
were killed as soon as born. Of twins, one, and often both, were put to death.
About one-half of the half-caste infants fell victims to the jealousy of the hus-
bands of the mothers. Many illegitimate children — that is, children bom before
their mothers were given in marriage — were murdered." *
* Mr. Taplin adds to this statement the following : — " This terrible crime of infanticide is
covered up and concealed from the observation of the whites with extreme care. The busli life
which they lead affords every facility for so doing. I was myself for some time ia ignorance that it
existed to such an extent as it does. Only very intimate acquaintance with the natives led me to
discover its prevalence. I remember two instances of it. In one, the mother hated the child,
because she had been given in marriage to its father against her will ; therefore, with the assistance
of another female, she murdered it in the most brutal manner. The other was an illegitimate child
of a girl called Pompanyeripooritye. I was informed of the birth, and got the nearest relatives to
BIETH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDEEN. 53
"Should a child be born," says Grey, "with any natural deformity, it is
frequently killed by its parents soon afterwards. In the only instances of this
kind which have come within my own knowledge, the child has been drowned."
On the evidence of Protectors and others, collected by a Colonial Magistrate,
it is stated that children are often held over a fire by the mother, and stifled ;
that children dying a natural death are immediately eaten ; and that in one case
a mother and her children were discovered enjoying, as a sweet repast, one of
the same family.*
Mr. Westgarth considers that the practice of infanticide is well authenticated.!
It is not necessary to inform the reader that infanticide is a crime which is
not restricted to the Aborigines of Australia. In other countries where there are
savage peoples the infants are killed and eaten. Whether this revolting practice
has its origin in the superstitious belief that the elder child will be stronger and
braver if fed upon the roasted flesh of the infant, or whether it is in some cases
forced upon the parents by the want of animal food, or is simply a means of
getting rid of an encumbrance, which to retain would embarrass the tribe and
retard its movements, cannot be ascertained. On such subjects the Aborigines
are usually reticent, or, if obliged to speak, do not always tell the tnith. All the
motives may, in some cases, operate in deciding the fate of a new-born child.
Is it possible that this custom is only common where the tribes have been
brought into contact with the whites? Is it the half-castes only that are
destroyed? One would willingly believe that it was only when demoralized by
intercourse with the lower classes of whites that this crime was committed ; but
the facts I have cited, and the proportions of the sexes amongst the tribes in the
interior, would seem to show that it is not due to intermixture with the Euro-
peans, but is and has always been a recognised and ajiproved custom. Though
no less revolting because a custom, it ceases to be a crime if we make the
members of the tribes themselves the judges.
It is not a rite — it is not a sacrifice. It is most probably a means of limiting
the population : and, if this be the explanation, who can say that the murder of
infants under peculiar conditions may not result in averting great calamities,
and indeed be the prevention of other even more horrible offences ? | Australia,
as will be clearly shown in this work, is divided into districts beyond which
members of tribes may not, except under certain circumstances, travel ; a tribe
promise that the child's life should be spared. But an old savage named Katyirene, a relative of the
reputed father, was offended at this forbearance ; so he set the wurley on fire in which the mother
and infant were lying, and very nearly accomplished the destruction of both. I soon after found
that the child was suffering and pining from some internal injury, and in about forty-eight hours it
died. I have no doubt that foul play was the cause of its death, for it was a fine healthy child w hen
it was newlj- born." — The Narrinyeri, by the Rev. Geo. Taplin, 1874.
♦ Remarks on the probable Origin and Antiquity of the Natives of New South Wales, by a
Colonial Magistrate, 1846, p. 19.
t A Iteport on the Condition, Capabilities, and Prospects of the Australian Aborigines, by W.
Westg.arth, 1846.
J "Then, again, their customs with respect to marriage probably originated in a strong necessity
for repressing the numbers of the population. History teaches that in countries where polygamy is
encouraged population seldom increases. The Australian Aborigines not only prsictiscd polygamy,
and surrounded marriage with all possible difficulties, but their customs were such as were calculated
S* THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
cannot demand nor purchase food from a neighhouring tribe ; the men cannot
cultivate the soil ; and the soil of their territory can maintain but a certain
number of human beings ; and if a rule has been established in consonance with
a law of Nature, are we right in rashly and rudely condemning as criminals those
who practise obedience to the obligations which the rule enforces ? Surely
enough is known of the many crimes which our own social laws render inevitable
to cause us to regard even infanticide amongst this people rather in the light of
a custom which they are compelled to observe than as a crime — a crime which
amongst civUized nations is justly considered heinous. No one would attempt
to extenuate the practice — the Aborigines themselves are ashamed of it — but it
is surely right to tell the truth about it.
It is only after they have been taught the truths of religion, and made
acquainted with the solemn obligations which rest on the parents, and when
they are provided with necessary food, that we can visit on them punishments
for such offences.*
Ignorant persons might regard what has been stated by authors respecting
the customs of the natives of Australia as an apology for infanticide. They
have, however, but made known the facts, and their statements are in themselves
only a defence of the Aborigines against the injustice of imputing to them as a
crime a practice perhaps necessary to their existence. Infanticide — the whites
affect to believe — is a monstrous thing amongst savage and barbarous nations ;
but every newspaper one reads gives accounts of cases of infanticide, as practised
by our own people, far more horrible than any known to the Australians or
to render the offspring of those ivho were married as few as possible. When a female infant was
born, if her life was preserved (which was very frequently not the case, for infanticide was general),
she was promised as a wife to one of the men of the tribe — very often to an old man who was
already the possessor of two or three gins. Most of the young and many of the middle-aged men
were consequently doomed to remain bachelors, unless they could steal or otherwise procure a wife
from another tribe, a thing which was generally an exceedingly difficult matter to accomplish, seeing
that unmarried females were almost equally scarce in all the tribes. Either a desire to avoid the
charge of too numerous a progeny, or the impossibility of procuring a supply of food suitable for
very young children, or perhaps both these causes combined, prolonged the time during which
Aboriginal mothers suckled their children to the unusual period of three, four, and sometimes even
five years. Other children were often born during this period— for gestation did not in their case
interfere with lactation — but these were almost invariably sacrificed. Custom in this case appears
to have sanctioned what necessity demanded. The natural food which the mother could provide was
barely enough for the unweaned child already dependent upon it, and there was no artificial means
of supplementing it so as to render it sufficient for two." — The History of Australian Discover;/ and
Colonization, by Samuel Bennett, pp. 253— t.
* When twins are born, the Kaffirs destroy one of the children, because they believe the parents
would not be prosperous if the two were allowed to live; the Apingi believe that the mother would
die if one of the twins was not murdered ; in New Zealand, sickly and deformed children are killed j
the natives of Savage Island formerly destroyed all illegitimate children ; and the Khonds of India,
under the guidance of their priests, mercilessly slay children — male and female — if the omens be
unpropitious.
The cruel practices of many tribes in Africa, the atrocities perpetrated by the inhabitants of
Polynesia, and the still more dreadful human sacrifices of the priest-ridden peoples of India, have no
parallels in Australia. Parenticide, the wholesale murder of wives or young girls when a head-man
or chief dies, the offering of innocent children to heathen gods, or neglect of the aged, cannot be
imputed to the Australian savage. The Australians are children — erring children — but they err
because of ignorance or from necessity. They are not naturally cruel to their offspring.
BIETH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDEEN. 55
Polynesians. Baby fanning, the strangling of infants, the cruel destruction by
mothers of their progeny by hiding them under fences, by laying them on cold
door-steps, or throwing them into pits, are practices employed by those who
enjoy the results of many centuries of civilization. At the moment I write the
daily press is teeming with accounts of awful crimes of this description ; and it
is painful to read the leading articles in which the crime of infanticide is
discussed. The white mother kills her infant in the vain hope of preserving her
social position — high or low — of concealing the error or crime which preceded
tiie birth ; the black woman simply, I believe, because she is not capable of
supporting her offspring, or in order to render impossible an increase of popula-
tion which the food-resources of the tribe would be unable to meet. Amongst
the whites this awful crime is often committed in obedience to laws made by
man — amongst the natives of Australia the practice is followed in obedience
to laws which necessity compels them to keep.*
Naming Children.
The first name given to a child is dependent on some accident at its birth —
on the sudden appearance of a kangaroo or other animal, on the birth taking
place at a well-marked locality, or under a tree of a particular species. f And
it is named also from any peculiarities that it may present.
The late Mr. Thomas says that one man in the Melbourne district was
named Ber-uke (kangaroo-rat), in consequence oL a kangaroo-rat running
through the miam at his birth. Poleeorong (cherry-tree) was so called because
he was born under the shelter of a native cherry-tree. Weing-parn (fire and
water) was so denominated in consequence of the miam catching fire and the
fire being put out by water at the time of his birth. Wonga, the head-man of
the Yarra tribe, was born at Wotiga (Arthur's Seat), and thus has the name.
*A thousand cases of infanticide, recorded in the newspapers here and in European countries,
far more disgusting in the details than any known to have disgraced the Aborigines of Australia,
could be cited.
The author of Sybil tells us that " Infanticide is practised as extensirely and as legally in
England as it is on the banks of the Ganges."
f "One remarkable custom prevalent equally amongst the most ancient nations of whom any
records are preserved, and the modern Australians, is that of naming children from some circum-
stance connected with their birth or early infancy. Thus in Genesis, ch. xxs., ver. 11. — 'And
Leah said, A troop cometh, and she called his name Gad ;' &c., &c., &c.
" Burckhardt observed the same custom among the Bedouins, and s.ays, 'A name is given to the
infant immediately on liis birth ; the name is derived from some trifling accident, or from some
object which had struck the fancy of the mother or any of the women present at the child's
birth.' " — lYorth- West and Wexlern Australia, by George Grey, vol. ii., p. 343.
The child of a Kaffir is sometimes called by the name of the day on which it is born. If a wild
beast, such as a lion or a jackal, were heard to roar at the time the child was born, the circumstance
would be accepted as an omen, and the child called by the name of the beast or by a word which
represents its cry.
"Mr. Shooter mentions some rather curious examples of these names. If the animal which was
heard at the time of the child's birth were the hyena, which is called impisi by the natives, the name
of the child might be either U'mpisi or U-hu-hu, the second being an imitative sound representing
the laugh-like cry of the hyena. . . . The name of Panda, the king of the Zulu tribes, is in
reality U-mpande, a name derived from impande, a kind of root." — The Natural History of Man,
by J. G. Wood, vol. i., p. 8S.
The Kaffir, like the Australian, has a strong objection to tell his real name to strangers.
56 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
In the "Western district natives get their names in the same way. One,
Tahchet Mahrung, from the pine-tree {Mahrimg); another Yarette or Jurh (tlie
Mallee-tree) ; and a third Wimgawette, like the name of a ijUice on Pine Plains.
A boy was named Brairnunnin (to cut or pierce as with a spear), and a girl
Nepurnin (to bury or hide).
Mr. Stanbridge says it was the custom to give names of natural objects to
both males and females.
Elsewhere such a name as Colabatyin (turkey), or Bulltkinna (sheep), or
Bonyea (a part of the body) was given to a male.
Sometimes they have nick-names, as Yanguia (left-handed), Murra Muthi
(bad-handed), or Kato wirto (little man).
The Eev. Mr. Taplin, writing of the Narrinyeri, says that it is unlucky to
name a child until it can walk, and that the name is generally significant
of the place of birth. One born at a place called liilgc was called Rilgewal.
But the name thus given is not permanent. Other names are taken subse-
quently — as, for instance, on arriving at manhood ; and if the name chosen
happen to be one similar to that of a member of the tribe who dies, it is
again changed. And he says, " It is also very common for a mother or father
to bear the name of a child. Tliis is eifected by adding the termination ami
for father, or annike for mother, to the name of the child. For instance,
Koolmatinge ami is the father of Koolmatiwjeri, and Koolmatinye annike is the
mother of Koolmatinycri^^
Mr. Howitt gives an account, as related by Toolabar, a well-known native,
of the manner of naming children in Gippsland : —
" A child is not named until it is about three years old. Till then it is
called 'Leet' or 'Tally Leet' or Quenjung — child or girl (or sister). Billy says
he should say — (pointing to my little girl, aged three) — ' Come here ' ' Leet
bittel,' i.e., ' my child.' When a child is about three or upwards the friends
may think it well to name it, or the father may think so. Some name is given
it which has belonged to a deceased relative. Tlie father, for instance, asks his
murnmung or ' Barbuck ' — or'Waintwin' or 'Waintjin,' 'Cookum' or 'Nallung'
— for a name. Toolabar says that in a year or two he will give the name of
his brother Barney to Kangaroo Jack. Barney died about ten years ago.
Kangaroo Jack's father was the brother of Billy Toolabar's present wife Mary —
therefore he is considered ' Billy's wife's brotlier.' Toolabar was named in the
way I have stated by his mother after his ' Brebba Muugan,' who was killed
by the Brar-jer-ack blacks (Maneroo) many years before. This relationship
stands thus : —
Grandfather, Grand Uncle, Grand Aunt,
Bungil Tay-a-bung Bunga Wuntwun A Sister
Bcmbinkel A blackfellow
I (name forgotten),
the Brebba Mungan
Toolabar who named Toolabar.
In this case it will be seen that Bembinkel and the sponsor for Toolabar are
considered ' brothers,' therefore he is Toolabar's ' Mimgan,' or father. Billy
BIETn AND EDUCATION OP CHILDEEN. 57
then tells me that he was called ' Burrumbulk ' (the teal), who he says was a
'Barbuck' (mother's brother), also killed long ago by Brar-jer-acks. (This
looks like a confusion of the same persons. He is not very clear about it.)
When he was made a 'young man,' he was called Toolabar by his ' Barbuck,'
Bungil Laen-buke. The former Toolabar was also a ' Barbuck ' of Billy
Toolabar, or, rather, a ' Brebba Barbuck,' i.e., probably his mother's cousin,
or the wife of his father's sister's husband. It was this wise. Billy had been
out from the camp for some time, and the elders had said among themselves,
'It is time that Burrumbulk' (his then name) 'had a name.' Bungil Laen-
buke called him 'Toolabar.' When he returned some one called out (I think
Bungil Laen-buke), 'Here, Toolabar!' Burrumbulk took no notice of it. He
was called again. At last he said, 'What are you calling Toolabar?' 'Oh,
that is your name.' 'My name! All right.' Thus he was named. He was
caught, as a young lad (I don't know if before or after the naming ' Toolabar'),
by the Macleods of Buchan, and thus got his name 'Billy Macleod.' He has
been also nick-named 'Turn-jill,' the Jabberer — incessant talker. He may, as
he gets older, be called some other name. I told him to-day he should be called
'Bungil Eune,' or 'BungQ Yangoura,' i.e., Mr. Stringybark, as his occupation
each winter is stripping bark. He said, ' By-and-by might get name.' The
prefix to the names of 'Bungil,' Billy says, may be translated 'Mr.' ; at any
rate he can give no other meaning. It is only borne by the old men. There are
no ceremonies about giving names. At present the customs are much relaxed.
Tliis autiimn, at hop-picking, a number of blacks were here, and one gin had
a baby. All hands had a word in the name which was given it when a week
old. But it was to be a whitefellow name, Edward. The following are some
of the names : —
Bungil Btlr-le-jdru - - Platypus.
Bungil Tiimboon - - Gippsland perch.
Bungil Laen-biike - - Lake Bunga, near entrance to Lakes.
Bungil Woor-een - - Tlie sun.
Bungil Bal-look - - Blue-gum.
Bungil Tay-a-bun - - A sooty water-hen on the Lakes ; a coot.
Bungil Wr^ggal-luck - From wreggil, long, thin, straggling, and
gallagh, a tree.
Bungil BrAm-ar-rimg - Newland's Backwater, on the Lakes.
Bungil D6w-ung-un - The crooked elbow of a big tree, from
which bark for a canoe can be stripped.
Bungil Baru - - - The wild dog.
Bungil Neer-wun - - A mosquito.
Bungil Gnar-rung - - A maggot.
Bungil Bottle - - A name given lately to a drunken blackfellow.
Among the above the names will mostly explain themselves. The first one,
Buugil Bar-le-jaru, ' Mr. Platypus,' used to spear many of those creatures.
Bungil Laen-buke frequented Lake Bunga. Buugil Dow-ung-un, because he
made his canoes from the elbows of trees ; and Bungil Bottle, ' IMr. Bottle,' in
derision of the bearer's drunken habits. Old Mr. Burgess, who looked after the
I
58 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
hop grounds at Coranderrk, is known to the blacks as 'Bungil Hop.' Toolabar
named him, and he has no other name with the Aborigines. Other names are : —
Windi-gaerwut - - A creek.
■W6rk-'mickanby - - Wonga pigeon.
Woorail by - - - Lyrebird l
T. 1 T>„i;„„v, > iiorne by one person.
Broo-urn by - - - Pelican j •' ^
Torngatty (a woman) - Heavy body. (I have softened the translation
of this name.)
Many of the names have now no meaning, having been handed down perhaps
for centuries ; though I have little doubt they all originally referred to some
person's peculiarities, or some circumstance attending the birth of the child
or its after-life. Of women's names I may add — B6-al-mar-ung, B61-gan, of
which I do not know the meaning. Toolabar would not tell me his first wife's
name, he said 'Annie' (his daughter) 'would not like it;' nor would he tell
me his present wife's name. They seem to have no scruple about their
European names ; and I now notice that I only know the above native female
names. The male names I have given, and others I cannot at the moment recall."
Coming of Age of Yotoig Men and Young Women.
Special enquiries have been made with much care resj^ecting the ceremonies
practised by the natives of Victoria when a young man or a young woman,
having arrived at maturity, is admitted to the privileges enjoyed by those of
mature age. The subject is beset with difficulties. The rites are always
performed in secret ; and in their savage state any native who would venture
to relate the occurrences attendant on the initiation of a young man to these
solemn mysteries would probably forfeit his life. Some amongst the Aborigines,
however, well acquainted with all such practices, have separated from their
tribes and are living with the whites ; and some tribes that have not yet
relinquished any of their customs are so far tamed as to admit a white friend
occasionally to the secret meetings at which their more awful ceremonies are
performed ; and therefore, as will be seen from the statements here given, much
has been gathered relative to these strange practices.
From my correspondents a great deal of valuable information has been
received.
Mr. Thomas has described the rites known as Tib-but and Mur-rum Tur-uk-
ur-uk. From Mr. Howitt I have received an account of the ceremony known as
Jerry ale, "the making of young men;" the Rev. George Taplin and Mr.
Wilhelmi relate, in their published papers, what has been ascertained respecting
similar ceremonies in South Australia ; and I have also gathered from several
works what I could in reference to initiation. *
* Some of the tribes in Africa practise customs, on the coming of age of young persons, which
very much resemble those observed in various parts of Australia.
Mr. W. Winwood Keade says : — " Before they are permitted to wear clothes, marry, and rank in
society as men and women, the young hare to be initiated into certain mysteries. I received some
information upon this head from Mongilomha, after he had made me promise that I would not put
it into my book : a promise which I am compelled to break by the stern duties of my vocation. He
told me that he was taken into a fetich-house, stripped, severely flogged, and plastered with
BIETH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDEEN. 59
Nothing, I believe, is known of the origin of the rites here described ; they
have been practised, undoubtedly, during a period incalculable ; but, it may be
conjectured, they were made a part of the laws of this people, for the purpose
of separating clearly those classes, inferior because of their youth and status,
from those to whom belonged the right to take part in battles, to choose wives,
to indulge in certain luxuries, and to exercise, with restrictions prescribed by the
form of tribal government, power and authority. Without some such mode of
denoting the classes to which privileges belonged, there would have been confu-
sion and constant quarrels.
It is not certain that the rites known as Mur-rum Tur-uk-ur-uh, or any rites
on a girl attaining maturity, were generally observed throughout Australia ; but
it is at least probable that in all parts some sign was given when a female
arrived at a marriageable age ; otherwise there would have been amongst all
the tribes a possibility of the frequent occurrence of crimes similar to those
which disgrace the whites ; and in the absence of any means of denoting those
who had arrived at maturity, there would have been a difficulty in bringing an
offender to i^uuishment. No account of any crime of this class has come to my
knowledge as having occurred amongst natives living in their natural wild
goat dung ; this ceremony, like those of masonry, being conducted to the sound of music. Afterwards
there came from behind a kind of screen or shrine, uncouth and terrible sounds, such as he had never
heard before. These, he was told, emanated from a spirit called Ukuk. He afterwards brought to
me the instruments with which the fetich-man makes this noise. It is a kind of whistle made of
hollowed mangrove wood, about two inches in length, and covered at one end with a scrap of bat's
wing. For a period of iive days after initiation the novice wears an apron of dry palm-leaves,
which I have frequently seen.
"The initiation of the girls is performed by elderly females, who call themselves Ngembi. They
go into the forest, clear a space, sweep the ground carefully, come back to the town and build a
sacred hut, which no male may enter. They return to the clearing in the forest, taking with them
the Igonji, or novice. It is necessary that she should have never been to that place before, and that
she fast during the whole of the ceremony, which lasts three days. All this time a fire is kept
burning in the wood. From morning to night, and from night to morning, a Ngembi sits beside it
and feeds it, singing with a cracked voice, ' The fire will never die out!' The third night is passed
in the sacred hut ; the Igonji is rubbed with black, red, and white paints, and as tlie men beat
drums outside, she cries 'Ohanda, yo! yo! yo!' which reminds one of the Evohe ! of the ancient
Bacchantes. The ceremonies which are performed in the hut and in the wood are kept secret from
the men, and I can say but little of them. Mongilomba had evidently been playing the spy, but was
very reserved on the subject. Should it be known, he said, that he had told me what he had, the
women would drag him into a fetich-house and would flog him perhaps till he was dead. It is pretty
certain, however, that these rites, like those of the Bona Dea, are essentially of a Phallic nature ;
for Mongilomba once confessed that, having peeped through the chinks of the hut, he saw a
ceremony like that which is described in Petronius Arbiter
" During the novitiate which precedes initiation, the girls are taught religious dances ; the men
are instructed in the science of fetich. It is then that they are told that there are certain kinds of
food which are forbidden to their clan. One clan may not eat crocodile, nor another hippopotamus,
nor a third buffalo. These are relics of the old animal worship. The spirit Ukuk (or Mwetyi, as
he is called in the Skekani country) is supposed to live in the bowels of the earth, and to come to
the upper world when there is any business to perform." — Savage Africa, pp. 245-8.
" On reaching puberty, young women, on a given occasion, are placed in the sort of gallery
already described as in every house, and are there surrounded completely with mats, so that neither
the sun nor any fire can be seen. In this cage they remain for several days. Water is given to
them, but no food. .... A girl is disgraced for Ufe if it is known that she has
seen fire or the sun during this initiatory ordeal." — Scenes and Studies of Savage Lift, p. 94, by
Gilbert Malcolm Sproat.
60 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
state ; and in view of the severe punishments inflicted when a girl of marriage-
able age was abducted, we may conclude that any attempt to violate a child
would have been regarded as a crime worthy of death.
The rite of circumcision is practised only by a part of the inhabitants of
Australia, probably only in the central, western, and northern areas ; but that
the custom may have been known and observed even as far south as the River
Murray, where it forms the boundary of Victoria, is possible. This custom and
others of a like character are common amongst the tribes living within the
drainage area of the great river whose sources are as far north as 24° S.
latitude.
TiB-BUT.
When a boy in Victoria attained the age of fourteen or fifteen years he had
to submit himself to his elders, and to take part in a ceremony preparatory to
his being admitted to the privileges of manhood. His coming of age was not
a pleasant event in his life. During the celebration of the rites the youth
sufi'ered severely, and he had sympathy from none. Tib-but is the name applied
in Victoria to the extraordinary practices of the natives when a youth was to be
made a man.
A married man of influence and power in the tribe performs the rites. T\Tien
the youth has been led to a suitable place, safe from intrusion, his hair — all but
a narrow strip about a quarter of an inch in breadth, extending from the nape of
the neck to the forehead — is cut oif with shaqi chips of quartz ite, and the head
made quite smooth by such kind of shaving as can be done by shaq) chips.
The head is then daubed with clay, and the narrow ridge of hair rising rebel-
liously in the middle gives the novice an appearance that is far from pleasing.
Indeed, when this part of the ceremony is finished, his aspect is hideous. To
complete the picture, he is immediately invested with a garment formed of strips
of opossum skins, strings of ojjossum fur, and the like, which serves to cover
his middle only, and his body is daubed with clay, mud, charcoal-powder, and
filth of every kind. Though this ceremony is generally performed in the
winter season, when the weather is very cold, the youth is not permitted to cover
himself with a rug. He carries a basket under his arm, containing moist clay,
charcoal-powder, and filth. In this state he wanders through the encampment
day and night, calling out in a loud voice, " Tib-bo-bo-ho-butr He gathers
filth as he goes, and places it in the basket. No one speaks to him — no one
molests him ; all seem to fear him. When he sees any one come out of a miam
he casts filth at him ; but lie may not intrude himself into any miam, nor dare
he cast filth at a woman who goes to fetch water. He, however, gives annoy-
ance, and throws filth when he can, and all the women and children — and even
the men — are afraid of him when he crosses their path. The women and chil-
dren scream when they see him, and rush to their miams for shelter. The
warning voice must, however, be constantly heard, or the rite would be incom-
plete and the proprieties would be violated.
After the lapse of some days — the length of the period of probation depend-
ing on circumstances understood only by the elders — and when his hair has
begun to show through the covering of clay, or at least to have grown a little,
niRTH AKD EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 01
he is given over to the women, who wash him, paint his face with Wack lines
(the pigment being powdered charcoal mingled with wee-nip), and dance before
him. He is now a man, and can go to any neighbouring tribe and steal a young
girl, and make her his wife.
The rites above described were witnessed by the late Mr. Thomas, and were
practised, I believe, only by the Coast tribes. In other parts of the colony the
ceremony on initiation was different.
A youth on arriving at manhood was conducted by three of the leaders of
the tribe into the recesses of the woods, where he remained two days and one
night. Being furnished -with a suitable piece of wood, he knocked out two of
the teeth of his upper front jaw, and on returning to the camp he gave the teeth
to his mother. The youth again retired to the forest, and remained absent two
nights and one day ; and his mother during his absence selected a young gum-
tree, and inserted in the bark of it in the fork of two of the topmost branches
the teeth which had been knocked out. This tree ever afterwards was in some
sense held sacred. It was made known only to certain persons of the tribe, and
the youth himself was never permitted to learn where his teeth had been jilaced.
If the youth died, the foot of the tree was stripped of its bark, and it was killed
by making a fire about it, so that it might remain stricken and sere, as a
monument of the deceased.*
MUR-RUM TUR-UK-UR-UK.
Tlie ceremonies called Mur-rum Tur-uk-ur-uk are performed when a girl
attains the age of twelve or thirteen years. At a distance of one hundred yards
from the main encampment two large fires are made of bark only, not a piece of
stick nor a twig being used for the purpose of even kindling them. Each fire
is made and maintained by an old woman, who sits by it in silence. The girl is
brought out of the miam by her female friends, and is rubbed all over with
charcoal-powder (kun-nun-der), and spotted also with white clay ; the eflect of
which is neither ludicrous nor solemn, but rather calculated to excite surprise,
even amongst those who are accustomed to see the Aborigines in their several
disguises. As soon as the painting is finished, she is made to stand on a log,
and a small branch, stripped of every leaf and bud, is placed in her right hand,
having on the tip of each bare twig a very small piece of some farinaceous food.
Young men, perhaps to the number of twenty, slowly approach her one by one ;
each throws a small bare stick at her, and bites olF the food from the tip of one
of the twigs, and spits it into the fire, and, returning from the fire, stamps,
leaps, and raves, as in a corrobboree. As soon as each of the young men has
performed this ceremony, the old women who have been attending to the fires
approach the girl, and gather carefully every twig and stick that has been
thrown at her, and, making a hole, bury them deeply in the ground. They are
careful not to leave a single stick : each must be gathered and buried. This is
done to prevent the sorcerers from taking away the girl's kidney-fat (marm-
bu-la). When the twigs and sticks have become rotten, the girl is safe from
the attacks of sorcerers and evil spirits. "When the twigs are buried, and tlie
* Wm. Blandowaki, Esq. Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Victoria, vol. I., p. 72.
62 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
hole filled, the bongh held by the girl is solemnly demanded of her by the two
old women, who burn it in the fires, which are then raked together and made
one. Tlie mother, or nearest female relative, at this stage removes the girl from
her position on the log, and leads her to her father's miam. At night a corrob-
boree is held ; the father of the girl leads the dance, and the young men who
took part in the day's ceremony form the first corrobboree. In the second all
the yonng men join. At intervals a young woman, having on the emu ajiron
(tilburnin), dances alone. The young men who threw the twigs and bit off the
food are understood to have covenanted with her not to assault her, and, farther,
to protect her Tintil she shall be given away lawfully to her betrothed : but the
agreement extends no further ; she may entertain any of them of her own free
will as a lover.
Nakra-mang.
One of my correspondents gives this account of the ceremonies practised on
the "making of young men": — Narra-mang — the name given to a custom of
the blacks of the Murrumbidgee, Murray, Ovens, and Goulburn tribes — consists
essentially in the knocking out of two of the incisor teeth of the upper-jaw. It
may perhaps be regarded as a religious ceremony, in the performance of which
many mystic rites are observed — rites that no white man is permitted to witness
unless he be one who has the confidence and regard of the old men. The opera-
tion is performed at the age of puberty, and the teeth of the males only are
knocked out. "^Tien a lad has to be initiated, he is removed to some remote
and secluded spot, and when it is night, the coradjes (priests and doctors),
painted and decorated with feathers, <S:c., begin their operations. A ring is
marked out, and in this the youths are placed, one at a time ; incantations
are uttered by the priests ; and, finally, one of them, holding in one hand
a piece of wood shaped like a punch, and in the other a tomahawk, approaches
the youth and knocks out two teeth. When this has been done, the young
man is placed in a gunyah, formed of boughs, so closely interwoven as to be
nearly imiiervious to light, and then the wild songs of the women are heard, who
approach and walk round the gunyah, each holding in her hand a lighted brand.
For the space of one moon the youths are prohibited from seeing any one
except the coradjes. If they are seen by a female, they will surely die. '\^Tien
this ordeal is passed, and not before, they are permitted to eat of the flesh of the
My-ioa (black swan), and that of the Joh-gah (musk-duck), and they may then
also eat of the emu.
Some of the chants are of this kind : —
Tn ■ ■ , iTi riic But soon will grow your beard,
Iherr-an-jee-gar jabery-mah Johans Joh-gah — &c. " ■' '
And on the magic musk-duck
'Tis now that yon are sick,
But soon will grow your bea
And on the magic musk-dut
With the men you shall feed.
Jeeetale, etc.
Mr. A. W. Howitt, of Baimsdale, in Gippsland, has sent me the following
account of the ceremony known as Jerri/ale : —
"A youth of twelve or fifteen, or a man of any age, may be made ' Jerrgafe,''
that is, as expressed by the blacks themselves in their broken English, ' made a
BIETH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDEEN. 63
youDg man.' Tlie whole ceremony appears to be typical of the severance of
the boy from his mother's influence and control, and also possibly of his future
married state. Tliere seems to be no fixed time upon which the ceremony of
Jerri/ale takes place, but it is fixed upon by the elders of the tribe or of several
tribes in concert ; for instance, the Jerryale at which my informant was made
' young man ' was attended by the blacks from Lake Tyers to the Tarra in
South Gippsland. The proceedings, as told me, are as follows : — All the youths,
candidates for Jerryale, sit down on the ground at a distance of thirty to forty
yards from the camp. The women, that is the married women, sit down at the
camp and beat rugs folded up. The youths are called Jerryale, and I shall
speak of them by that term. The Jerryale sit down in a row, and immediately
behind each Jerryale sits a young girl called Grorcun. The Grorvuns are
appointed by the elders, and, I am informed, are only 'mate-partner to help
the Jerryale,^ and not in any way as a wife — as it is also expressed, ' something
like it sister or cousin ;' the Jerryale sits cross-legged with his arms folded on
his breast, and the Growun sits behind him, close to him, in a like attitude.
"When there are more Jerryale than Gro/tun, one of the latter sits half-way
between two of the former. Thus — J for Jerryale, G for Grorcun : —
(G) (G) (G) (G)
(J) (J) (J) (J) (J)
At this time the men are arranged at a little distance in a row fronting the
Jerryale. At a signal, they run forward and halt just in front of them. They
beat up the soil or sand in front of the Jerryale with sticks, shouting 'Ai-ee-
ee-ee-ei;' at each cry they strike the ground so as to make soil fiy up towards
the Jerryale. These say nothing, but slowly incline the head — the arms being
folded first on the left breast, then on the right. The Growun exactly imitate
the gestures of the Jerryale. The men have a stalk of grass thrust through the
perforation in the cartilage of the nose instead of the bone goomhert. They are
also rubbed round the eyes with charcoal-dust. This ceremony is performed
every evening, from about four o'clock to ten o'clock, for two weeks ; and it is
moreover done at difi^erent places, thus progressing through the tribes from
one limit of the district to the other. In addition to the cry of 'Ai-ee-ee,^ the
words ' Bu^ee-bu-ee-bur-ee^ are also used, but no explanation can be given of
these terms. During the fortnight that this ceremony continues, the mothers
of the youths go down to the young men's camps (called Brew-it), which are
apart from the main camp, and beat upon folded 'possum rugs there — their sons
the meanwhile sitting silent in front of them in the manner above described.
The mothers go from camp to camp in this way. The ceremonies now change ;
the Jerryale stand in a row at the camp, naked ; behind them aU the gins
stand naked, except an apron of emu feathers round their waists, and cords
made of stringybark round their heads ; they hold upright in front of them
their yam-sticks with boughs tied on the end. The men come up with bundles
of wood-splinters a foot long in each hand, singing ' oo-oo-oo-oo-yay-yay-yay-yay^
&c., &c. When they come near, they, while chanting ' oo-yay^ throw the
splinters one by one to the gins, who gather them up, and beat the bundles on
64 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
each other in time, singing also ^ oo-oo-oo-yay-yay-yay.^ Tlien the men come
forward. Each Jcvryah has a hhickfellow to take charge of him, a kind of
sponsor, called Bullera-mreng. Two of the BuUera-wreng take hold of the
Jerryale, one by one, by the ankles, and launch him np in the air as high as
they can, calling out at the same time " nurtr * The Jerryale holds his arms,
palms forward, straight up above his head. They then lie down upon a couch
of green boughs, side by side, each one attended by his sponsor. These
BuUera-rcreng watch them, and if they are compelled from any cause to leave
the place, attend them, covering the heads of the Jerryale with a rug, and
surrounding him so that his mother may not catch a glimpse of him. Tlie
Bullera-wrevg watcli all night by the Jerryale, who has to lie extended on these
boughs for two, three, or four days. All this time the Bullera-wreng and the
mothers are chanting yay-yay-yay-oo-oo-oo, &c., &c. f On concluding this, the
old gins sing djcet-gun-cljeet-gun-cljeet-gun-eering-eering-eering, beating the
ground with bundles of small saplings. Djeet-gun is the superb warbler ; the
eering the emu rcren; the former is called the 'gins' sister,' the latter the
' blackfellows' brother.' The Bullera-Kreng paint the faces of the Jerryale
with pipeclay or viurloo, so as to resemble the duck nurt, i.e., with a white
circle round each eye, and a white band across the cheek-bones or eyebrows.
The Jerryale stand together ; the Bullera-wreng a little way in front of them.
Then the latter cry out nurra, or ready, shaking boughs and vibrating their legs.
The Jemjale run off to them, who catch them by the arms, then let them ])ass,
and they run off into the bush ; as my informant said, ' my mother see me no
more.' After a mouth spent in the forest, the Jerryale one day kill two kangaroos
and leave some of the meat on the top of a log. They then go down to the
camp of the tribe a little before noon. The Growun is on the look-out for her
Jerryale, and holds out to him a fish, too-rook, which he takes in his hand,
throws down, and runs off about a hundred yards. His mother is standing
near. The Bullera-wreng picks up the fish and follows the Jerryale, who eats
it. In the afternoon, all the Jerryale go to where the kangaroo meat was left,
the men of the tribe forming a circle round. These, when they see the kangaroo
meat on the log, cry out Wa-a-a-on, this being the cry with which they drive
that game in hunting. The Jerryale go up with their 'possum cloaks over
their heads, and eat the kangaroo flesh ; all the men look on, and, after a little,
join in the feast. This is about two or three o'clock in the afternoon, and ends
the ceremony of Jerryale^''
Mr. John Green, of Coranderrk, Upper Yarra, says respecting the initiation
of boys and girls : —
"1st. When a boy was about thirteen years old, he was taken away by the
old men of the tribe a considerable distance from the camp, where they made a
mi-mi, and remained for about one month, during which time the boy was
instructed in all the legends of the tribe. At the end of that time several of
the men took hold of the boy, and held him until two others knocked out one of
his front teeth ; this was done by first loosing the flesh from round the tooth
* Nurt is the name of a kind of duck. f This resembles the chant for the dead.
BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDEEN. Co
■with a piece of sharp boue, then one knocked it out witli a piece of wood, used
as a punch. He had now to cover his nakedness with pieces of opossum
skins ; lie then returned to the general camp, and was known as a Wamj-ijoom.
2nd. When about eighteen, he was again taken to some distance from the
camp by the old men ; this time he was painted as a warrior ; about sunrise one
of the old men struck him, and told him to take off the covering of skin, that he
was now a Geebotvak. He had now no longer to hide liis nakedness, and might
take a wife at any time. He had now to go and find something to take to the
general camp for them to eat, and on his approach to the camp all who were
there ran and liid themselves, because they were ashamed to look upon him
naked ; he then found them all, and gave them something to eat, and then they
were no more ashamed."
The initiation of girls into womanhood was as follows : — "When a girl came
to puberty, she was taken away some distance from the general mi-mi by some
of the old women. They then tied cords round several parts of her body, very
tight. These cords were left there for several days, which made the whole of
the body to swell very much, and caused great pain. She was not to remove
them until she was clean. When clean, she got the cords off, and got a covering
to her nakedness of emu feathers, and theu returned to the general mi-mi, and
was now a Ngarrindarakook — that is, marriageable, and might be married at
any time when her friends thouglit fit."
Mr. Green mentions also that at certain periods a woman has to leave the
general camp, and must not walk anywhere that a man walks, nor cross any
water, nor touch any timber, or anything that a man has to toucli, and before
returning to the camp must wash her whole body in water.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, in Gippsland, says that a young man
is not received amongst the men of the tribe or admitted to the privileges of
manhood until certain forms are observed. The forms arc different in different
tribes. Some of the Murray tribes have a custom of knocking out the front
tooth — others again pluck the hair or down from the young man's chin. Pain
is inflicted in order that the valour and constancy of the youth may be mani-
fested. Other things are done which cannot be written down. Tlie Gippsland
blacks usually preserve silence on this subject, evidently thinking that the less
said to a white man as regards this custom the better.
Amongst the Narrinyeri, the ceremonies, according to the observations of
the Eev. Mr. Tapliu, are as follows : —
"When the beard of a youth has grown a sufficient length, he is made
Narmnbe, Kaingani, or yoimg man. In order that this ceremony may be pro-
perly performed, and the youth admitted as an equal among the men of tlie
Narrinyeri, it is necessary that members of several different tribes should be
present on the occasion. A single tribe cannot make its o\vn youths Narumbe
without the assistance of other tribes. This prevents any tribe fi"om increasing
its number of men by admitting those who have not yet arrived at the proper
age, and thus prevents them from making a claim for a greater number of
women than their proper share — an important consideration wliere every tribe
has to obtain wives from those wliich are adjacent — as they never intermarry in
K
66 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
their own tribe, all the members of which are regarded as of the same family.
Generally, two youths are made Kainganis at the same time, so that they may
afterwards, during the time that tliey are Narumbe, assist each other. Tliey are
seized at night suddenly by the men, and carried oflf by force to a spot at some
little distance from the wurley, the women all the time resisting or pretending
to resist the seizure by pulling at the captives, and throwing fire-brands at their
captors. But they are soon driven off to their wurley, and compelled to stop
there, while the men proceed to strip the two youths. Their matted hair is
combed or rather torn out with the point of a spear, and their moustaches and a
great part of their beards plucked up by the roots. They are then besmeared
from the crown of their heads to their feet with a mixture of oil and red-oclire.
For three days and three nights tlie newly-made Kainganis must neither eat
nor sleep, a strict watch being kept over them to prevent cither. They are
alloM'ed to drink water, but only by sucking it up through a reed ; the luxury
of a drinking vessel is denied to them for several mouths. And when, after the
three days, the refreshment of sleep is permitted, they are not allowed a jjillow —
a couple of sticks stuck in the ground cross-wise are all that they must rest their
heads on. For six months they are obliged to walk naked, or with merely the
slightest covering round their loins. The condition oi Narumbe lasts until their
beards have been pulled out three times, and each time have grown again to
about the length of two inches, and during all that period they are forbidden to
eat any food which belongs to women, and also from partaking of twenty diiferent
kinds of game. If they eat any of these forbidden things, it is thought they will
grow ugly Everything which they possess or obtain becomes
Karumbe, or sacred from the touch of women They are not
allowed to take a wife until the time during which they are Narumbe has
expired ; but they are allowed the abominable privilege of promiscuous inter-
course with the younger portion of the other sex. Any violation of these
customs is punished by the old men with death."
Mr. Charles Wilhelmi, in his account of the manners and customs of the
natives in the Port Lincoln district, refers at some length to the secret rites,
known to the grown-up men only, into the knowledge of which the young lads
are initiated by degrees. It appears that in that part of Australia the natives
recognise three steps — each constituting an epoch in the life of a black. During
the interval between one stage and another the youth is called by the name of
the last step taken by him. At the age of fourteen or fifteen years the youths
enter the first stage. Little is known of the ceremonies attendant on this.
Tliey are performed in private, and women and children are not allowed to
witness them. The eyes of the lads are closed, certain strange words are pro-
nounced, and some native music is heard, and for a time the youths are let go.
Two or three months afterwards the novices are required to paint their faces
black, and they are not allowed to speak but in whispers — and much whispering
would bring on them the rebuke of their elders. The discipline appears to
be sternly maintained. A few years afterwards the youths advance to the
next degree — when they are called Pardnapas — and undergo the rite of circum-
cision.
BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF CHELDEEN. 67
Tlie last and most important ceremony takes place at the age of eighteen or
twenty years, after wliich the young men are called WihjaUdnyes. For the
proper performance of this, Indamjanas — sponsors — are appointed, whose duty
it is to see that all the rites are observed. The youth is seized by some of the
men and forcibly drawn to the sponsor selected for him, and he is made to sit on
the lap of this person. The chosen sponsor objects and cries out loudly, and his
words, being translated, are " nolo episcopari." The men, however, collect around
him, and urge him to accept the office of Indanyana, an honor which he pretends
is far too great for him. He accepts it with reluctance apparently, as is usual
in all such cases. After the sponsors are selected, the eyes of the Wihjalklmjes
are closed, and the women, with much trouble, are brought out of their miams.
These raise shouts, and appear to lament, and to be in deep sorrow ; but their
tears are not genuine, and the sorrow is feigned. Meanwhile the lads have
been taken by their sponsors to a spot at some little distance from the encamp-
ment. The sponsors range themselves in a circle, each having a novice in front
of him, on whose eyes he has placed his hands, keeping the lad from seeing as
well as he can. The eyes are kept closed in this manner for an hour or more,
the sponsors uttering from time to time a long-protracted melancholy mono-
tonous note, sounding somewhat like Je — e — ch. Tlie lads are then taken to a
place still farther from the encampment, where they are laid flat on the ground
and covered with rugs. After the lapse of an hour, two men bring green boughs
of trees ; and the lads, having been raised up, are made to stand together ; and
the whole body of those present form themselves into a group, in a semicircular
form, the lads being in the centre. The bearers of the green boughs now step
forward, place themselves in front of the semicircle, vehemently stamp their
right feet, and with various gestures indicating anger and wrath throw the
boughs over the heads of the young men, while, at the same time, the company
forming the semicircle make a clatter by striking their various war imple-
ments together, each uttering short strong loud sounds, the last of which is pro-
longed as each bough falls to the ground. The sound is like Je-je-je-jeh. The
boughs are then carefully spread out, and the lads are made to lie on them,
being again covered with rugs. Some of the men then prepare pieces of
quartzite for scarring the bodies, and also occupy themselves in selecting names
for the youths, which ever afterwards during life they will have to bear.
Selecting the names is a difficult task, since, whilst they must correspond
with their taste and notions of euphony, they must be quite new, and such as
have never been borne by any other native — alive or dead. These names
generally are derived from the roots of verbs, to which they attach as end-
syllables — alta, iiti, or vita — according to the last syllable of the word itself.
Whether these changes affect the meaning of the word, Mr. Wilhelmi says
he does not know, as they are made use of in connection with proper names
only.
Everything being properly prepared, several of the men open a vein in the
lower arm, and the lads, being lifted up, are made to swallow the first drops of
the blood flowing therefrom. They are then made to kneel down, and to place
their hands on the ground so as to bring the back into a horizontal position.
68 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The back of each is then covered with a thick coating of blood, which is allowed
to congeal. One man tlieu murks on the back witli his tlmmb the sjiots where
the incisions are to be made. One is made in the middle of the neck, and
others — distant from one anotlier about one-third of an inch — in rows running
from each shoulder down to the hip. Tliese incisions — about an inch in length,
and in course of tiiue forming a swelling — are called Manka, and are always
considered with great respect, never being spoken of in the presence of women
or children. The other incisions, which at an early age are made on the breast
and the arms, are merely for ornament, and have no sacred meaning. The more
or less decided character of these swellings affords a certain indication of the
probable age of a native. During manhood they are strong and well defined,
but with the advance of age they are less distinctly marked ; and at a great
age they appear as scars only.
Although each incision made with the chip of quartzite has to be repeated
several times, in order that the cut may be deep enough, and the flesh drawn
asunder, the novices, notwithstanding the great pain inflicted, do not utter a
groan or move a muscle. Mr. Wilhelmi states, however, that Mr. Schiirmann
has seen some of their friends so moved by compassion for their sufferings
as to shed tears, and to attempt — of course unsuccessfully — to put a stop to the
process.
During the operation as many men as can approach press round the lads,
and repeat rapidly in a subdued tone the following formula : —
Kannaka kanya, marra marra,
Karndo kanya, marra marra,
Pilberri kanya, marra marra.
Tliey repeat these words — as far as known, void of sense or meaning of any
kind, and si;pposed to have been uttered on like occasions by their forefathers —
with the object of deadening the pain and preventing any dangerous effects of
this dreadful laceration. When the operation is concluded, the young men are
raised up, and they are allowed to open their eyes; and the first objects they
perceive are two men, who, stamjiing their feet and biting their beards, run
towards them, hurling the Witarna* with great vehemence, with the intention
apparently of throwing it at their heads; but finally, when sufficiently near, they
cease to whirl it, and satisfy themselves with putting the cord of the instrument
round the necks of the lads one after the other.
When the lads have gone through the several degrees described by Mr.
Wilhelmi, they are permitted to wear the ornaments belonging to men. To
each is presented a belt made of human hair ; and a tight bandage round each
of their upper arms, a cord of opossum hair around the neck, the ends dropjnng
down on the back and fastened to the belt, and a bunch of green leaves above
* The Witarna is a piece of wood eighteen inches in length, four inches in breadth, and a
quarter of an inch in thickness. It is tied to a long string, and the native swings it about his head
in such a manner as to produce a low rumbling sound at intervals — ceasing and returning with each
effort of the performer. The Witarna is carefully hidden from the women and children, and when
they hear the sound of it they know that the men are engaged in some secret ceremonies, and that
they are to keep away from them.— C. Wilhelmi.
BIBTH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 69
the part virilis complete tlie costume. For further adorument each blackens
his face, arms, and breast. When the ceremonies are concluded, all the men
j)ress around the Wih/a/kit/i/es and give them advice as to their future conduct,
the drift of which, as far as Mr. Schiirmann has been able to make out, is that
they shall avoid quarrels, not indulge in loud talk, and keep away from the
women. The two last of these injunctions are strictly observed; and to this end
they separate tliemselves day and night from the otlier blacks, and speak in a
subdued tone, until after the expiration of four or five months, wiieu they are
relieved from their obligation. The final acts which precede admission to the
enjoyments and privileges of grown-up men are the tearing off from their necks
of the opossum cord, and the sprinkling of their bodies with blood.
The above description — ^given nearly in Mr. Wilhelmi's own words — is
interesting in a high degree; and no one can read it without being struck
witli the resemblance to certain observances amongst our own people and the
people of the south of Europe. The covering up of the bodies of the novices
with a rug is in itself a striking feature.
Collins states that between the ages of eight and sixteen the males and
females had to undergo the operation which they term Gna-noong — namely,
that of having the septum of the nose bored, to receive a bone or reed, which
among them is deemed a very great ornament, though the articulation is
frequently rendered very imperfect by it. Between the same years, also, the
males received the qualifications which are given to them by losing one front
tooth.
Collins had excellent opportunities of observing the ceremonies attendant on
this operation, and an artist who accompanied him on one occasion made draw-
ings illustrative of every particular circumstance that occurred. He gives a full
description of the scenes, and they are highly interesting.
On the 25th January 1795, there were several youths, well known in the
settlement, to be made men ; and a crowd of natives assembled at the head of
Farm Cove. The men from Cam-mer-ray, who were to perform the ceremony,
were painted white in various patterns, and carried their weapons with them.
After some nights passed in danciug, the real business of the meeting com-
menced. A space had been prepared by clearing it of grass, stumps, &c.; it
was an oval figure; the dimensions of it twenty-seven feet by eighteen, and was
named Yoo-lahng.
The ceremony began by the advance of the armed party from their end of
the Yoo-lahng with a song, or rather a shout, peculiar to the occasion, clattering
their spears and shields, and raising a dust with their feet that nearly obscured
the objects around them.
On reaching the children, one of the party stepi^ed from the crowd, and,
seizing his victim, returned with him to his party, who received him with a
shout louder than usual, placing him in the midst, where he seemed defended
by a grove of spears from any attempts that his friends might make to rescue
hun. In this manner the whole were taken out to the number of fifteen; these
were seated at the uj^per end of the Yoo-lahng, each holding down the head,
bis hands clasped and his legs crossed under him. In this position, awkward
70 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
and painful as it must have been, it was said they Tvere to remain all night;
and until the ceremony was concluded they were neither to look wp nor take
any refreshment whatsoever.
Tlie CarraluUs ( Coradjes) now began some of their mystical rites. One of
them suddenly fell upon the ground, and throwing himself into a variety of
attitudes, accompanied with every gesticulation that could be extorted by pain,
appeared to be at length delivered of a bone, which was to be used in the
ensuing ceremony. He was during this apparently painful process encircled
by a crowd of natives, who danced around him, singing vociferously, while one
or more beat him on the back until the bone was produced. Another went
through tlie same process. These mummeries were to show the boys that they
would suifer little pain, as the more the Carrahdis endured the less would be felt
by them. Tlie ceremonies were resumed at daylight on the following morning.
The pictures in Collins's work represent —
1st. The young men, fifteen in number, seated at the head of the Yoo-Jahng,
■with the operators running upon their hands and feet and imitating the dogs
of the country. In this manner power over the dog was given to the youth.
2nd. The young men seated as before. A stout, robust native carries on his
shoulders a pat-ta-go-rang , or kangaroo made of grass, and another bears a load
of brushwood. The other figures seated about are singing, and beating time to
the steps of the two loaded men, who appear scarcely able to move under the
burdens they carry. Halting every now and then, and limping, the men finally
deposit the loads at the feet of the young men, and the two retire from the
Yoo-lahng. The man carrying the brushwood had thrust one or two flowering
shrubs through the septum of the nose, and presented an extraordinary appearance.
By this ofiPering of the dead kangaroo was meant the power that was now given
the youths of killing that animal ; the brushwood perhaps represented its haunt.
3rd. The youths still sitting in the Yoo-lahng, the actors make for themselves
tails of grass, and imitate the motions of a herd of kangaroos, one man beating
time with a club on a shield. This was emblematical of one of their future
exercises, the hunting of the kangaroo.
4th. Tlie men, as a herd of kangaroos, pass by the boys, and each one as he
passes divests himself of his long grass tail, catches up a boy, and carries him
off on his shoulders.
5th. The boys are placed in a cluster, standing with their heads inclined on
their breasts, and their hands clasped together, and after an interval passed in
the performance of more than ordinarily mysterious rites, the boys stand in a
group, and fronting them are two men, one seated on the stump of a tree bearing
another man on his shoulders, both with their arms extended. Behind these
are a number of bodies lying with their faces toward the ground, as close to each
otlier as they can lie, and at the foot of another stump of a tree are two other
figures in the same position as the two first described. The boys and their
attendants approach the first of these figures, the latter moving from side to
side, lolling out their tongues and staring widely and horribly with their eyes.
The boys are now led over the bodies lying on the ground ; these immediately
begin to move, writhing as if in agony, and uttering a mournful, dismal sound.
BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDEEN. 71
like very distant thunder. A particular name, Boo-roo-moo-roong, was given to
this scene ; but of its import very little could be learned. To the enquiries made
respecting it no answer could be obtained but that it was very good — that the
boys would now become brave men — that they would see well and fight well.
6th. The boys seated by each other, and opposite to them, drawn up in a half-
circle, the other party, now armed with the spear and shield. In the centre is
the principal performer, holding his shield in one hand and a club in the other,
with which he gives them the time for their exercise. Striking the shield with
the club, at every third stroke the whole party poise and present their spears at
him, pointing them inwards and touching the centre of his shield.
7th. Striking out the tooth. The first subject was a boy about ten years of
age. He was seated on the shoulders of another native who sat on the grass.
The bone was now produced, which it was pretended had been taken from the
stomach of the native the preceding evening. This, made very sharp and fine at
one end, was used for lancing the gum. A throwing-stick was now to be cut
eight or ten inches from the end, and to effect this much ceremony was used.
The stick was laid upon a tree, and three attempts to hit it were made before it
was struck ; three feints were constantly made before each stroke. When the
gum was properly prepared, the operation began : the smallest end of the stick
was applied as high upon the tooth as the gum would admit of, while the
operator stood ready with a large stone, apparently to drive the tooth down the
throat of his patient. Here their attention to the number three was again
manifest ; no stroke was actually made until the operator had thrice attempted
to hit the throwing-stick. They were full ten minutes about this first opera-
tion, the tooth being very firmly fixed. It was at last forced out, and the suflerer
was taken to a little distance, where the gum was closed by his friends, who now
equipped him in the style that he was to appear in for some days.
A girdle was tied round his waist, in which was stuck a wooden sword ; a
ligature was put round his head, in which were stuck slips of the grass-gum-
tree, which, being white, had a curious and not unpleasing effect. Tlie left hand
was to be placed over the mouth, which was to be kept shut ; he was on no
account to speak, and for that day he was not to eat. The rest were treated in the
same manner. During the whole of the operation the assistants made the most
hideous noise in the ears of the patients, crying, " E-rvah-e-wah! ga-ga-ga-gaP''
The blood that issued from the lacerated gum was not wiped away, but
suffered to run down the breast and fall upon the head of the man on whose
shoulders the patient sat, and whose name was added to his. Tliis blood
remained dried upon the heads of the men and breasts of the boys for days.
The boys were also termed Ke-bar-ra, a name which has reference in its con-
struction to the singular instrument used on the occasion ; Ke-bah, in their lan-
guage, signifying a rock or stone.
8th. The boys, in the dress described, seated on a log. On a signal being
given, they all started up and rushed into the settlement, driving before them
men, women, and children, who were glad to get out of their way. They were
now received into the class of men.*
* An Account of the Eniflish Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut.-Col. Collins, 180-J, pp. 365-374.
72 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Mr. Hodgkinson, in his work on '^ Australia, from Port Macqiiarie to Moreton
Baij" relates how "young men" are made at the Macleay and Namhucca Rivers.
He says : —
"As the boys of a tribe approach tlie age of puberty, a grand ceremony, to
inaugurate them into the privileges of manhood, takes ])lace. Tliis ceremony is
entirely different at the Macleay and Nambucca Rivers to what it probably is in
other jjarts of the colony, for the natives there do not strike out the front tooth,
as elsewhere. When a tribe has determined on initiating their youths into these
rites, they send messengers to the surrounding tribes of blacks, to invite them
to be present on the occasion. These messengers, or ambassadors, appear to be
distinguished by having their head-bands colored with very pale yellow-ochre,
instead of the usual deep-red, whilst their hair is drawn up and crowned by the
high top-knots of grass, resembling nodding plumes, which ornament is, I tliink,
peculiar to the blacks north of the Hunter — at least I have never seen it farther
south, where the hair is usually matted with gum, and decorated with dogs'
tails and teeth. After all the preliminaries are settled, and the surrounding
tribes arrived, the blacks repair to the Cawarra ground. This is a circular plot
about thirty feet in diameter, carefully levelled, weeded, and smoothed down. It
is, in general, situated on the summit of some round-topped hill, and the sur-
rounding trees are minutely tattooed and carved to such a considerable altitude
that one cannot help feeling astonished at the labor bestowed upon this work.
The women are now dismissed to the distance of two miles from the Cawarra
ground ; for if one of them should happen to witness or hear any portion of the
ceremony, she would be immediately put to death. The first evening is passed
in dancing the ordinary corrobboree, during which the invited blacks sit round
their respective fires as sj^ectators, whilst the boys who are to undergo the cere-
mony squat down in a body by themselves, and keep up a bright fire for the
dancers. From the repugnance which the blacks at tlie Macleay displayed ou
my looking at their performance, and their angry refusal to allow me to see the
main part of the ceremony, I am unable to give a regular account of it, having
only been able to obtain occasional glimpses. After many preliminary grotesque
mummeries have been jierformed, the doctors, or priests of the tribe, take each
a boy, and hold him for some time with his head downwards near the fire.
Afterwards, with great solemnity, they are invested with the opossum belt ; and,
at considerable intervals between each presentation, they are given the nulla-
m:lla, the boomerang, the spear, &c. AVhilst these arms are being conferred
upon them, the other natives perform a sham fight, and pretend to hunt the
pademella, spear fish, and imitate various other occupations, in which the
weajjons, now presented to the youth, will be of service. As these ceremonies
occupied a fortnight or more before they were concluded, many other ridiculous
scenes were undoubtedly enacted, and during all this time the women did not
dare to approach the performers. Each man was also provided with a singular
instrument, formed of a piece of hollowed wood, fastened to a long piece of flax
string ; by whirling this rajudly round their heads, a loud, shrill noise was pro-
duced, and the blacks seemed to attach a great degree of mystic imijortance to
the sound of this instrument ; for they told me that if a woman heard it she
BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF CHIIDEEN. 73
would die. The conclusion of tliis ceremony was a grand dance, of a peculiar
character, in which the boys join, and which the women are allowed to see.
This dance is performed with much more solemnity thau the ordinary corrobbo-
rees. The Yarra-Hapinni tribe, which I saw execute this dance near the
Clybucca Creek, were so elaborately painted with white for the occasion, that
even their very toes and fingers were carefully and regularly colored with con-
centric rings, whilst their hair was drawn up in a close knot, and stuck all over
with the snowy down of the white cockatoo, which gave them the appearance of
being decorated with white wigs.* In this dance the performers arranged them-
selves in the form of a semicircle, and grasping the ends of their boomerangs,
which are also painted with great minuteness and regularity, they swayed their
bodies rapidly from right to left, displaying a degree of flexibility in their
limbs which might have created the envy of many a pantomimic artist. Every
movement of their bodies to and fro was accompanied by a loud hiss; whilst a
number of other natives, similarly painted, beat time with sticks, and kept up
an incessant and obstreperous song. Every now and then the dancers would
stop and rush, crowding together, into a circle, raising their weapons with
outstretched arms, and joining with frantic energy in the song. They would
then be more composed, and walk backwards and forwards in couples, holding
each other by the hand, until again roused by an elderly native to resume the
dance. It was not until midnight that the noise ceased, which, every evening,
whilst the ceremonies lasted, might be heard at a distance of two or three miles.
The tribes of natives near Sydney, where the boys are always deprived of their
front teeth, do not seem to be so averse to the whites witnessing their ceremonies,
which differ considerably from what I have just described.
" In their mode of going through the ceremony, the boys being assembled
together, and the whole tribe mustered for the occasion, a party of men, armed
and painted, advanced into the Cawarra ground, with loud shouts and clattering
of their arms, and seized, one by one, the boys who were to undergo the
operation. The latter were then placed together on the Cawarra ground, where
they were to pass the night in perfect silence. In the meantime the other
natives danced and sang furiously, whilst the doctors, or ' coradjes,' went
through a most ridiculous scene, groaning, and contorting themselves in every
position, until they at length pretended to be delivered of some bones, which
were subsequently used to cut open the gums of the boys before striking out
their teeth. Next day the boys were brought into the centre of the Cawarra
ground, whilst the other blacks performed various ridiculous antics around them,
in imitation of various animals. Sticking their boomerangs vertically in their
opossum-skin belts, so as to bear some resemblance to the tail of the native dog,
they ran on all-fours past the boys, throwing up dust, whilst the latter remained
motionless, with do'micast eyes. They next fastened to their girdles long pieces
of twisted grass, to resemble the tail of the kangaroo, and then bounded round
the boys in imitation of the movement of that animal, whilst others pretended
to spear them.
* The natives of the Port Lincoln district, when about to engage in the corrobboree, sometimes
decorate their heads with wreaths made of white birds' down.
74 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORU:
"All this time an incessant shouting, singing, and dancing had been kept
up. After this the boys were placed in a cluster together, with their heads
lowered and their hands crossed over their breasts, whilst the most ridiculous
antics were performed by the rest of the natives, who, mounted on each other's
backs, threw themselves on the ground, whilst the boys were made to walk over
their prostrate bodies, and executed a multitude of evolutions with their spears
and shields. The tinal operation was then performed : the gums being lanced
with the bones before mentioned, a stick was applied to the tooth, and a large
stone emploj'ed to strike it out. As each boy lost his front tooth, the gum was
closed up, but the blood was not allowed to be washed or wiped off. He was
then furnished with the belt of manhood, boomerangs, &c., and joined in the
corrobboree dances, which concluded the ceremony."
In the Rev. J. G. Wood's Natural History of Man (vol. ii.), several
accounts are given of the ceremonies attendant on becoming men. Mr. Wood
describes the mode of extracting the front teeth; the practices of coradjes
when they give power to the young men over the various beasts of chase ; the
marking of the body by gashes or scars ; the secret of the magic crystal ; the
ceremony of depilation ; and the rites as practised by the natives of the Port
Lincoln district. It is an interesting chapter in his work, and it appears to
have been written with care.
Circumcision,
When youths have advanced to the second degree, that is when they are
sixteen or seventeen years of age, they have, Mr. Wilhelmi says, to undergo the
operation of circumcision. Whether it is ever performed at an earlier age is
not known, but in all parts where it has been witnessed the boys were nearly
of the age mentioned. The custom, it is believed, was not followed in the
most southern parts of Australia, but it is known on the western shores of
Spencer's Gulf, on the north-west coast, at the Gulf of Carpentaria, at Cooper's
Creek, and in Central Australia. It is by no means general, and probably
originated, as suggested by Bennett, with those tribes of the north who have
intercourse with the Malays.
It is performed at that period of life when natives have to give proofs of
courage and endurance before being admitted to a certain rank in the tribe, and
it may safely be assumed, I think, that it is not connected in any way with
even a trace of religion. It is most likely of modern introduction, and has
been seized upon as a test to be applied to the neophyte, because of the pain
and alarm it occasions. It has the effect, however — as other similar rites
practised by them certainly have — of limiting the population ; and may, as
Eyre says, be a wise ordination for that purpose in a country that in many
parts is of a desert and arid character.
One of my correspondents on the Paroo, who has witnessed the operation,
states that he was called about an hour before daylight and invited to a camp
where about twenty blacks were assembled, near a tree at some distance from
the main camp. They were dressed in most gorgeous corrobboree array ; they
were continually singing, and when some were exhausted, others commenced.
BIHTH AND EDUCATION OF CHILDEEN. 'O
They had kept up the singing during the whole of the night, and all were quite
hoarse and seemed worn out. At a fire about fifty yards distant were about
half a dozen other blacks, and with them the subject to be operated on. He
was held and kept in a standing position away from the fire by a blackfellow,
and he was evidently tired and cold. He was not allowed to speak, and he had
a most melancholy expression of countenance. My correspondent was informed
that the operation had to be performed at the very moment the sun rises.
So soon as the sun appeared, the boy was seized and carried by two men to
the fire, where the larger body of men were assembled. He was then blind-
folded and laid on the grass. Two men held him. About twelve men took
part in the operation, each being provided with a small piece of sharp-edged
quartzite. It was soon over. The boy never murmured or even flinched.
Proper attentions were shown to him. Immediately after the operation several
of the blacks cried.*
Mr. Gason mentions five stages of life at each of which the council of old
men mutilate the youths. The first is MoodlaKiUpa — boring the septum of the
nose — an operation which is performed when the boys and girls are from five to
ten years of age ; the second is Ckirrinchirrie — the extraction of the teeth —
which is done when the children are between the ages of eight and twelve years ;
the third is Kurrawellie Wonkanna (circumcision), which is performed when
the hair makes its appearance on the face ; the fourth is Willyaroo (to
procure a good harvest, supply of snakes and other reptiles), when the young
man is scarred. He is cut on the neck and shoulders with a sharp-edged stone,
so that ridges may be formed. And finally, Koolpie. As soon as the hair on
the face is sufficiently grown to admit of the ends of the beard being tied, the
ceremony of the Koolpie is solemnized. This is a very dreadful operation, and
it is not at all clear that the youths willingly submit to the torture. It is
the punishment probably referred to by Mr. Jessop, " as the most heavy and
eff'ective within the province of their divorce courts. "f It is not reasonable to
suppose that it is inflicted on all the youths. Probably some are chosen and
some are left ; or it may be that its eifects are not so serious as Mr. Jessop
supposes. Tliere is another ceremony — Mindarie — when the hair of the young
men's heads is dressed. It takes place after the ordeal of Wilbjaroo. All the tribes
assemble ; dances are held ; disjrates are settled ; and there is general rejoicing.
• " The rite in South Australia (according to Mr. Teichelmann) is thus performed : — At the
age of puberty the boys selected are beaten with green boughs, sprinkled with blood drawn from
the arm of a warrior, and are then taken to a place specially appointed. The lad is laid upon the
ground by the doctor, and entirely covered with dust ; after a few minutes (when almost stifled)
he is raised up by the ears — with loud shouts, which are made to restore him from his supposed
state of enchantment. A hue is then drawn upon the earth ; on one side of which stands an old
man who represents the Star of Autumn, and on the other side one who is said to represent a fly.
The Katla, a woman's stick, is then borne round and thrust into the ground by the bearer, who lies
down himself and all the men fall upon him — thus forming a rude altar. Upou this living altar
the initiated is laid and the rite performed. He then receives the name which he inherits from his
father and mother, and has also a secret name given him, and is introduced to the rude mysteries,
which are carefully hidden from the women and children — none of whom are suflbred to be present
at the ceremony." — Remarks on the probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal Natives of Neva
South Wales, by a Colonial Magistrate, p. 16.
t Flinders Land and Sturt Land, by W. E. H. Jessop, M.A., vol. n., p. 206.
arna0^
»-co^«
There is no snch thing as marriage, in the proper sense of the word, amongst
the Australians. The acts which precede matrimony are certainly not entitled
to be regarded as rites. Men obtain wives by a convenient system of ex-
change, by conquest sometimes, and sometimes a woman is stolen. By what
mode soever a man procures a bride, it is very seldom an occasion of rejoicing
for the female.
The males engross the privilege of disposing of their female relations, and
it often happens that an old man of sixty or seventy will add to his domestic
circle a young girl of ten or twelve years of age. If the father be alive, he
alone can dispose of his daughters ; if he be dead, the eldest son can dispose of
his sisters ; and if there be no brothers, then the uncle or cousin steps in, and
exchanges the women for others who become his wives. In rare cases the old
men meet together and determine to whom a young woman shall be given.
A man having a daughter of thirteen or fourteen years of age arranges
with some elderly person for the disposal of her, and, when all are agreed, she
is brought out of the viiam-miam, and told that her husband wants her.
Perhaps she has never seen him, or has seen him but to loathe him. The father
carries a spear and waddy, or a tomahawk, and, anticipating resistance, is thus
prepared for it. The poor girl, sobbing and sighing, and muttering words of
complaint, claims pity from those who will show none. If she resists the
mandates of her father, he strikes her with his spear; if she rebels and
screams, the blows are repeated; and if she attempts to run away, a stroke
on the head from the waddy or tomahawk quiets her. The mother screams and
scolds and beats the ground with her kan-nan (fighting-stick); the men, women,
and children in the neighbouring huts come forth to see the sight; the dogs bark
and whine ; but nothing interrupts the father, who in the performance of his
duty is strict, and mindful of the necessity of not only enforcing his authority
but of showing to all that he means to enforce it. Seizing the bride by her
long hair, the stern father drags her to the home prepared for her by her new
owner. Further resistance, when she is really placed in the hands of her
husband, often subjects her to brutal treatment. If she attempts to abscond,
the bridegroom does not hesitate to strike her savagely on the head with his
waddy ; and the bridal screams and yells make the night hideous. If the girl
is energetic, and absolutely refuses the man to whom she is assigned, she
causes a disturbance that can be quelled only by the authority of the old men.
The young fellows seize their weapons, and one or two who may have had
MARRIAGE. 77
friendly feelings towards the bride begin to throw their monguims (boomerangs).
These striking his frail dwelling, rouse the husband, and he rushes forth, fully
armed, to do battle with his rivals. A general fight follows, and the old
husband often is wounded and so deeply marked as to be able, after the lapse
(if many years, to number his wives, living and dead, by his blemishes. During
the fight, and when her husband is fully occupied, the bride rushes to her
mother, and with streaming eyes and heaving breast begs vainly for protection
and help, which her mother dare not give her. As soon as the old men have
quelled the disturbance, the father again seizes her hair and drags her to the
viiam of her husband, gives her a few blows with his waddy, and there leaves
her. If she is still determined to escape, and makes the attempt, the father
will at last spear her in the leg or foot, to prevent her from running. Beaten,
frightened, and at last completely conquered, she resigns herself to her hard
fate, thinks no more of the young men who have in past times shown her
kindness, and becomes a willing and obedient drudge to her new master.*
* They are given in marriage at a very early age (ten or twelve years). The ceremony is very
simple, and %vith great propriety may be considered an exchange ; for no man can obtain a wife
unless he can promise to give his sister or other relative in exchange. The marriages are always
between persons of different tribes, and never in the same tribe. Should the father be hving, he
may give his daughter away, but generally she is the gift of the brother. The person who wishes
to obtain a wife never applies directly, but to some friend of the one who has the disposal of her ;
and should the latter also wish for a wife, the bargain is soon made. Thus the girls have no choice
in the matter, and frequently the parlies have never seen each other before. At the time ai)pointed
for the marriage the relations on both sides come and encamp about a quarter of a mile from e.ieh
other. In the night the men of one tribe arise, and each takes a fire-stick in hand. The bride is
t.aken by the hand and conducted in the midst, and appears generally to go very unwillingly ;
the brother or relation who gives her away walks silently and with downcast looks by himself. As
soon as they approach the camp of the other tribe, the women and children of the latter must quit
the hut, which upon this occasion is built larger than their huts usually are. AVhen they arrive at
the hut, one of the men invites them to take their places ; but before they sit down the bride and
bridegroom are placed next each other, and also the brother and his intended wife, if it is a double
m.arriage. The friends and relations then take their places on each side of the principal parties.
They sit in this manner, silent, for a considerable time, until most of them fall asleep. At daybreak
the brides leave the hut and go to their nearest relations, and remain with them until the evening,
when they are conducted to their husbands by their female friends, and the tribes then separate and
go to their own districts. When married very young, the girl is frequently away from her husband,
upon a visit to her relations, for several months at a time ; but should she remain, the man is under
obligation to provide her with animal food (providing vegetable food is alwiiys the duty of the
females); and if she pleases him, he shows his affection by frequently rubbing her with grease, to
improve her personal appearance, and with the idea that it will make her grow rapidly and become
fat." — Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia, by
II. E. A. Meyer.
"Their laws as affecting matrimotiy .arc very strict. The woman has no choice in the matter.
Marriages are effected by one m.an exchanging his sister or near relation for the sister of another.
Sometimes ji man who has no sister will, in desperation, steal a wife ; but this is invariably a cause
of bloodshed. Should a woman object to go with her husband, violence would be used. I have
seen a man drag away a woman by the hair of her head. Often the club is used until the poor
creature is frightened into submission. One would think such marriages would turn out unhappily.
Yet they often get much attached to each other. The honeymoon succeeds the quarrelling. The
marriage tic is not reckoned sacred for life. Should a man's wife die, he will sometimes fake back
his sister whom he had exch.anged for the deceased wife. Blacks will sometimes, for a limited
period, exchange wives. This they call Be-ama. I have known men exchange for a month." —
Mr. John Bulmer, Lake Tyers, Gippsland, MS.
78 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Female children are sometimes betrotlied when they are mere infants —
indeed it has been known that a child has been conditionally promised to a
man before birth. If it should be a female, and the man should die before the
girl attains a marriageable age, then she would become the property of his heir.
As a rule, all such obligations are respected. If a girl is betrothed, the father
or her male protector may refuse for a long time to give his consent to the
marriage, but the lover waits very patiently, in the full confidence that ultimately
he will obtain her. Serious fights and troubles ensue sometimes in settling a
marriage, and yet it does not often occur that a marriage arranged in strict
accordance with the habits of the tribe is not consummated.
A man is supposed to have settled his domestic affairs very comfortably
when he has ol)tained three or four wives ; two are far from uncommon ; but
some are obliged to be content with one.
As girls are usually given in marriage at a very early age, many have the
cares of maternity added to their other heavy duties at the age of thirteen, or
even when younger.
In their natural state the women appear to be prolific in all localities where
food is jDlentiful. One man of the Coast tribe, near Melbourne, had five wives
and eight children ; and it is recorded that the principal man of the Yarra tribe,
with three wives, had ten children. Wonga, his son, a well-behaved, intelligent
black, is now living.
"Jenny," an Aboriginal female living at Lake Hindmarsh, had ten children
— once twins ; and " Kitty," wlio is now living, has had thirteen children, of
whom the first four were black, the two following half-castes, the seventh a
black, the three succeeding half-castes, and the last three blacks.
" Mary," an Aboriginal woman at Lake Wellington, has had twelve children,
of whom seven are now living. The parents are strong and healthy.
Australian women not infrequently have twins. The Rev. Mr. Hartmann
mentions two cases — and the children were full-blooded blacks.
Mr. John Green says that a boy and a girl — twins — are now living with
their parents at the Aboriginal Station at Coranderrk ; and that a woman of the
Mount Rouse tribe had three children at a birth. They were all full-blooded
blacks.
The Rev. Mr. Hagenauer, of the Lake Wellington Station, informs me that
he knows only of one case of an Aboriginal woman having twins. One of the
twins died when about five years of age ; the other, named Caroline, is alive,
and is a strong girl of aboiit fourteen years of age.
These facts are not trivial, but few will note the importance and significance
of them.*
* One who has written well and thoughtfully on the dialects, habits, customs, and mythology of
the Lower Murray Aborigines says, "An instance of twins being born is unknown." This shows
how careful one should be in dealing with negative evidence. Though the writer lived for many
years in a district well-peopled with natives, he appears to have failed to ascertain the fact
that two and three children at a birth are not more rare amongst the Aborigines than amongst
Europeans.
Grey says that amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia he recorded four instances of
Datire women having twins j but he never heard of a greater number of children at one birth.
MAERIAGE. 79
A very fat woman presents such an attractive appearance to the eyes of the
blacks that she is always liable to be stolen. However old or ugly she may be,
she will be courted and petted and sought for by the warriors, who seldom
hesitate to risk their lives if there is a chance of obtaining so great a prize.
A man who has no female relations that can be exchanged for a young
woman of another tribe leads an uuhainjy life. Not only must he attend to his
own wants, and share the discomforts of the bachelors' quarters, but he is an
object of suspicion to the older men, who have perhaps two or three young
wives to watch. There is the fear also that he may violently seize a girl of a
neighbouring tribe, and thus provoke a war. There is the discontent and unrest
of such a life, which makes him a dull companion, a quarrelsome friend, and a
bitter enemy. Sometimes a wife is given to him by some old man who is tired
of keeping her ; but most often a warrior will steal a woman from another
tribe, if he cannot inspire an affection and lead her to elope with him. Any
such act brings about a conflict. As soon as the girl is missed, a search is
instituted, and the guilty pair are invariably tracked to their hiding-place.
When the discovery is made, the tribe to which the man belongs is informed of
it, and there is a gathering of the old men of both tribes, and much talk and
wrangling follows ; but the main questions to be decided are these : Can a girl of
the man's tribe be given in exchange for the woman that has been stolen? Is
the man's tribe willing that the thief shall stand a form of trial somewhat
resembling the ordeal of the ancient rude nations of Europe? If the first
qiiestiou is not settled satisfactorily by some generous creature offering a female
relative in exchange, the second question is debated, but always on the under-
standing that the solemn obligation cannot be avoided.
In the trial — it is not a mock trial — it must be understood that there will be
always two parties utterly at variance : the lover who has stolen the girl, and
the man who claims her. That man may be her ftither, if she be not betrothed ;
her husband, if she be married ; or her lover, if she be betrothed.
The old men of each tribe sit facing each other, at some little distance apart ;
the girl and her claimants stand between them, and the trial begins. The thief
is provided with a shield (either the Midga, or Gee-am, as may be determined by
the old men, having regard to the weapons of offence), and his assailant, standing
at a proper distance, hurls spears or other weapons at him. If the culprit
manages to ward off the weapons, he can claim the woman as his wife, and there
is an end of the business. If he is serioiisly hurt, so as to be disabled, her natural
protector claims the woman ; and if there is a suspicion in his mind that she has
favored the man who eloped with her, he will not hesitate to kill or maim her. In
some cases there is a determination to kill or maim the thief. The old men agree
that all the friends of the girl — perhaps to the number of four or five — sluill
throw a certain number of weapons at the offender ; and if they be really in
earnest, it is then hard indeed for him to escape without injury. Again, it
sometimes occurs on such occasions that in the preliminary meeting of the old
men some almost-forgotten subject of dispute is brought up ; angry words are
used ; evil passions arise ; the women clamor and shriek, ami add to the
discord ; and after the trial there is a fight.
80 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
The arrangemeuts made for the trial by combat vary very much. Sometimes
the men are armed with their most formidable weapons, and there is a battle
a routrance. There is fair-play, invariably. Armed warriors watch the
contest, and if either should seek to take an unfair advantage, he would be
punished. *
While it is true that, as a rule, the females are guarded very jealously, it
sometimes happens that there is no more than simulated anger when two young
persons elope from their tribes. A young man who has engaged the aflections
of a girl of a neighbouring tribe agrees with her to run away at the first oppor-
tunity that offers. In the stillness of the night, or just before sunrise, when the
* Mr. W. E. Stanbridge gives the following account of the ordeal : — "If the wife desert her
husband for a more favored lover, it is incumbent on ber family to chastise the guilty pair ; the
■woman is usually speared by her father or brother, and if the punishment is not attended with fatal
effects, she is returned to her lawful spouse. The man has either to submit to a certain number of
spears being thrown at him, in which case he is allowed a small shield to protect himself, or to fight
a single combat with one of her relatives, or with a selected member of the tribe. The following
will perhaps serve as an illustration of this custom : — The persons, for the object named, had retired
early in the morning to a little dell in a vast undulating grassy plain, surrounded in the distance by
conical hills, some wooded and some bare. Not many paces from the lowest part of the dell bursts
forth a limpid spring, in a deep little basin encircled with high rushes, which give it the appearance
of a huge nest, the reeds and rushes marking its course as it trickles away down a valley at right-
angles with the dell. On one side of this dell, and nearest to the spring at the foot of it, lies a
young woman, about seventeen years of age, sobbing, and partly supported by her mother, in the
midst of wailing, weeping women ; she has been twice speared in the right breast with a jagged
hand-spear by her brother, and is supposed to be dying. A few paces higher up the valley is a
group of men ; the aged men arc seated and the others surrounding the brother, who is armed with
Leeowil and Mulka, and who is about twenty-eight years old, and of a powerful frame. In the
middle of the dell, opposite the group of men, stands the other guilty one, a young man about
twenty-three years of age, a model of agility. He is armed with the same weapons as his adversary,
and awaits his impetuous onset. A little in his rear, on the other side of the dell, some young
men — his friends — stand armed and ready to assist, if injustice be attempted. Unless the fight be
with hand-spears, it is very seldom that either of the combatants is killed. The leeowil is a wooden
battle-axe, the usual implement used in hand-to-hand encounters ; the mulka is a strong piece of
wood, used as a shield."
The ordeal was not restricted to the crime of abduction.
"Any other crime maybe compounded for by the criminal appearing and submitting himself to
the ordeal of having spears thrown at him by all such persons as conceive themselves to have been
aggrieved, or by permitting spears to be thrust through certain parts of his body — such as through
the thigh, or the calf of the leg, or under the arm. The part which is to be pierced by a spear is
fixed for all common crimes, and a native who has incurred this penalty sometimes quietly holds
out his leg for the injured party to thrust his spear through. When a native, after having
absconded for fear of the consequences of some crime which he has committed, comes in to undergo
the ordeal of having spears thrown at him, a large assemblage of his fellows takes place ; their
bodies are daubed with paint, which is put on in the most fantastic forms ; their weapons are
polished, sharpened, and rendered thoroughly eflicient. At the appointed time, young and old
repair to the place of ordeal ; and the wild beauty of the scenery, the painted forms of the natives,
the savage cries and shouts of exultation which are raised, as the culprit dexterously parries, or —
by rapid leaps and contortions of his body — avoids the clouds of spears which are hurled at him, all
combine to form a singular scene, to which there is no parallel in civilized life. If the criminal is
wounded in a degree judged sufficient for the crime he has committed, his guilt is wiped away ; or,
if none of the spears thrown at him — for there is a regulated number which each may throw — take
effect, he is equally pardoned. But no sooner is this main part of the ceremony over than two or
three duels take place between some individuals who have quarrels of their own to settle. After
these combatants have thrown a few spears, some of their friends rush in and hold them in their
MAEEIAGE. 81
coldness of the morning makes lieaTy the eyes of the sleepers, the young man
steals from his miam and runs swiftly to the spot appointed for the meeting.
When they meet, tlie girl, anxious and full of fears, runs even more swiftly
than her lover to some sequestered dell, where she hopes they may remain
undiscovered until the first surprise and natural indignation are no longer
l)redominaut in the minds of their relatives. The members of the tribe to whom
the female belongs institute a search, as custom and law require ; but it is not
prosecuted energetically, nor does the absence of the girl evoke evil passions, if
by report they have learnt that a young man is missing from the camp of the
neighbouring tribe. After the lapse of a few days, the young man returns with
arms, ■when the etiquette on such occasions is to struggle violentlj' for a few minutes, as if anxious
to renew the contest, and then to submit quietly to superior force and cease the combat." — North-
West and Western Australia. Grey, vol. u., pp. 243-4.
Collins gives much information of a very interesting character respecting the ordeal laws of the
natives of New South Wales. One native, named Carradah, who had stabbed another in the night,
but not mortally, was obliged to stand for two evenings exposed to the spears not only of the man
whom he had wounded, but of several other natives. He was suffered to cover himself with a bark
shield, and he behaved with great courage and resolution. It appears that throughout he was able
to protect himself, but finally he allowed one of his adversaries to pin his arm to his side. After
that there was a general fight — men, women, and children taking part in it.
In another case, where a young man had taken the wife of a native during his absence, spears
were thrown, and the lover was wounded by the husband.
Again, a stranger— Gome-boak — a visitor to the natives of Sydney, had to stand, covered with
his shield, to receive the spears of his hosts, in order to the settlement of some affair of honor.
Further, he informs us that, in March 1795, " a young man of the name of Bing-yi-man-ne, being
detected in an amour with Maw-ber-rij, the companion of another native — Ye-ra-ni-be Go-ru-ey — the
latter fell upon him with a club ; and, being a powerful man, and of superior strength, absolutely
beat him to death. B ing-yi-vian-ne had some friends, who, on the following day, called Ye-ra-ni-he
to an account for the murder ; when, the afEair being conducted with more regard to honor than
justice, he came off with only a spear-wound in his thigh." — An Account of the English Colony in
New South Wales, by Lieut.-Col. Collins, 1804, pp. 237-259, 285, and 287.
Mr. Wilhelmi also mentions the ordeal. A murderer at Port Lincoln was tried by his tribe,
and it was ordered that the brother of the murdered man should hurl two spears at the criminal ;
and that if he should fail to hit the man, the crime should be expiated. From the violent and wild
gestures of the warriors, the running about, the jumping, the biting of the beards and the weapons,
the noise and the grimaces, it was expected that a sanguinary combat would ensue ; but nothing of
a serious character occurred. The antagonists — if antagonists they can be called — trod from their
own sides into the foreground, and the avenger threw a spear most skilfully, which was parried as
ably as it was thrown. Whereupon the combat was brought to a close.
One very remarkable case is thus described : —
"If one [a native] accidentally kills another of his people, he is punished according to the nature
of the case — generally, to submit to the ordeal of the spear, as in the affair of Woolorong (^alias
Lonsdale), in the year 1844."
"This custom was prevalent with the ancient Greeks. — Homer's Iliad, b. 21, lines 62 to 150."
"Police Report. — Melbourne, 7th April 1844. — Woolorong was suspected of murder, and
condemned to be speared at by seven of the best men of the Western Port tribe ; as he ran by
them at a certain distance, he escaped the spears thrown at him ; but a general fight took place,
and the police had some difficulty in suppressing the affray, after many were seriously wounded.
Police Keport. — Melbourne, 14th April 1844. — Yang-yang (alias Robert Cunningham), brought up
for obstructing the chief constable in his attempt to take Woolorong (alias Lonsdale), a Goulburn
black, for the murder of an Aboriginal boy in the service of Mr. Manton, at Western Port. Yang-
yang pleaded to the bench that Woolorong was about to submit to the ordeal of spearing, viz. : —
seven of the principal men of the Western Port tribe were each to throw a spear at him. If he
M
82 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
his wife to his own people ; and, except that he must bear many taunts from the
young women his sisters and cousins, and much scohling from the old women,
and grave threatenings and mutterings of wrath from the old men — his new
state provokes little comment. His young wife is treated well, and is soon
familiar with all the women of the tribe to which she has become attached.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, in Gippsland, gives the following
account of a young man's condition in savage society, and how he obtains a
wife : — An Aboriginal is not considered of much importance until he has arrived
at the age of manhood. While he is a boy he lives under strict control ; his
food is regulated by the men, not as to quantity but as to quality. There are
warded them off, he was no longer amenable. If he was killed, satisfaction was complete. He
further pleaded, that, had they not been interrupted, he would afterwards have induced Wootorung
{alias Lonsdale) to surrender himself to the chief constable, or aided to take hira. Upon this
occasion the black native police refused to act. At the intercession of Mr. Protector Thomas,
Yany-yang got off with an admonition and forty-eight hours' confinement." — Aboriginal Natives of
New South Wales, by a Colonial Magistrate, p. 24.
The late Mr. Thomas, in his notes prepared at my request, gives another account of this affair.
Various neighbouring tribes, actuated by friendly feelings, assembled to witness the judicial
proceedings taken against two of the finest natives to be seen at that time — namely, Pole-orroug
(alias, Billy Lonsdale), who stood six feet high, and was named by Sir Hicliard Bourke after the
first Police Magistrate in charge of the settlement — Capt. Lonsdale — and Warrador (alias Jack
Weatherly), a great warrior, who were charged with killing a Warralim black, aged about eighteen
years, at Torridon, on the Western Port plains, the station of Mr. Charles Manton. The young
man had been enticed or persuaded to assist in bringing down to Melbourne a mob of cattle from
beyond the Goulburn l{iver,and thereafter to enter Mr. Manton's service. The poor black had not
been on Manton's station three weeks before he was found killed, not three chains from Manton's
house. He had been carrying a bucket of milk from the milking-yard to the house when he was
struck down. There were two sandhills between the house and the milking-yard, and his body was
found in the hollow between the sandhills. This native was closely connected with one of the
principal tribes of the Goulburn River, and the death of the Warralim black was soon made known
through the press and by oral report. The men who did the murder were at once suspected by the
tribes friendly to the Warralim, and they demanded satisfaction of the tribes of the Yarra and
Western Port. After messengers had been despatched to and fro, it was finally decided that the
eight tribes should assemble, and that the two offenders should undergo the usual punishment of
having spears thrown at them by the members of each tribe to which the Warralim belonged. The
tribes assembled were those of the Yarra, the Coast, the Barrabool, the Bun-ung-on, the Leigh
Elver, the Campaspe, the Loddon, and the Goulburn. The two offenders came boldly forward, in
deep mourning [painted with white-ochre], and stood in presence of their people without any signs
of fear. They expressed their readiness to receive the spears, one by one; and nearly one hundred
were hurled at Pule-orrong in the first instance, and then the same number were thrown at Warra/lor.
The accused were not allowed to carry any offensive weapons, but they were permitted to protect
themselves with the broad shield. They shifted, twisted, and so used their shields as to astonish
the Europeans who witnessed the ordeal. Each was slightly wounded, but not hit in any part
where a wound would have proved fatal.
It is interesting to record the particulars relating to a law of this kind as it exists in Australia.
The reader may be glad to be reminded that the judicial combat, according to ancient law, was
taken advantage of by a criminal less than sixty years ago in England : —
" By the old law of England, a man charged with murder might fight with the appellant, thereby
to make proof of his guilt or innocence. In 1817, a young maid, Mary Ashford, was believed to
have been violated and murdered by Abraham Thornton, who, in an appeal, claimed his right by his
■wager of battle, which the court allowed ; but the appellant (the brother of the maid) refused the
challenge, and the accused escaped ; 16th April 1818. This law was immediately afterwards struck
off the statute-book by 59 Geo. IH. (1819)." — Uai/dn's Dictionary of Dates, pp. 39^0.
See also A Collection of Celebrated Trials, by W. 0. Woodall, vol. i.
MAEEIAGE.
83
various kinds of meat which he must not eat ; he cannot enter into any argu-
ment in camp ; his opinion on any question is never asked, and he never thinks
of giving it ; he is not expected to engage in figlits ; and he is not supposed to
fall in love with any of tlie young women. He is, in fact, a nonentity ; but when
he has gone through the initiatory process of being made a young man, he takes
his proper place amongst the members of the tribe. He carries his war imple-
ments about with him, and has his share in Aboriginal politics. He may now
look upon a woman with eyes of love, and, if he be brave enough, seek a wife
for himself. But this is a very delicate and difEcult matter. He may have a
lover, and she may have declared that she will have him only. She may have
given him a lock of her hair as a token of her affection, and in the case of an
Aboriginal this is a mark of the greatest confidence. The blacks are very super-
stitious about such matters ; they will always take care to destroy any hair they
cut off. It would frighten a black very much if he or she knew that another
black had some of his or her hair ; but the young woman will forget these fears
under such circumstances ; she feels she is safe in the hands of the man she
first falls in love with. But in spite of all the encouragement given by such
tokens, the young man will find that he has a difficult work before him, as per-
haps he may have to fight her father, or her mother, or her brothers, or her
sisters — even the cousins may claim the right to do battle with him. Hence, if
a young woman has numerous friends or relations, a young man will think twice
before he commits himself to the task of winning her ; but it must be done.
Has not his lady-love said that she will have him, and him only ? She must be
won at all risks ; so, to provoke the attack, he proposes an elopement ; the frail
one readily consents, and in the black night they take to the bush. Then fol-
lows a scene which baffles description. When the girl is found to be absent,
there is hurrying to and fro, the women tearing their hair and scraping the skin
off their cheeks with their finger-nails. Some, who are nearer relations of the
missing girl, are chopping their heads with their tomahawks, while above all the
noises made may be heard, now and then, the lamentations of the mother, whose
grief is somewhat more real than the demonstrations of those not so nearly
connected with the fugitive. "Lathi!'''' (my child) is uttered in such piteous
tones that it would make any sensitive person sympathize with her. The women
succeed in stirring up the men by their clamor ; their language has not been
select ; the runaways have not been spared whatever peculiarities each may have
presented to them in camp, and a lot of epithets are strung together and loudly
uttered. They are called " long-legged," " thin-legged," " squint-eyed," or
" big-headed." When the men are really roused, they get together a few war
implements, as, for instance, a club, a boomerang, and a shield, and they go off
in pursuit of the missing couple. They know in what direction to go, as the
young man has confided (as a great secret) the proposed route. All is soon
discovered, the pair caught, as they cannot travel without revealing a track, and
the girl is brought back to the camp to receive the punishment which is supposed
to be due to her crime. When she arrives, every female in the camp must lay a
hand upon her ; it matters not that they did the same thing when they were
young — they must express their outraged feelings ; that is the custom, and it
84 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA :
must be obeyed. Tlie poor young creature is often cruelly beaten — indeed
sometimes receives injuries from whicb she never entirely recovers. The young
man also must stand out (he has not forsaken his lady-love), and must fight all
comers. He is generally worsted. In fact he stands quietly while men and
women hit him until he falls to the ground stunned. He promises, at length,
that he will not commit the like offence again, but secretly determines that when
he gets over his wounds, and his lover is again aide to walk (for it is possible
that the blacks may have speared her through the feet), he will run away with
her again. He runs away with her accordingly when an opportunity presents
itself, and they are again brought back, and the same scene is enacted. At
length the girl is really afraid to elope, as the beatings when brought back are
fearful ; but she does not give up hope of her intended. She alters her tactics.
She is suddenly seized with a very severe sickness ; her head is affected, and
altogether she is in a bad way. Her parents get very much afraid she will die.
Then she remembers that her lover has got a lock of her hair. He is brought
to account, and confesses that he has the token. Another fight takes place, and
when the young man has been nearly half-killed, the tribe take pity on him,
and give him to wife the girl for whose sake he has borne so many honorable
scars.*
A young woman's life is similar, full of trouble until she is married. Even
then the troubles cease not if she does not get a good husband. At about the age
of thirteen or foiirteen she is marriageable ; a yam-stick is given to her for pro-
tection, and this precaution is nearly always needed, fur it would not be sufficient
for her to say " no" to an important question. She drives away any young man
who is smitten with her charms with her yam-stick. Matches are generally
made up among the young men ; the women never initiate matches, though they
have a good deal to say when it becomes known that a young woman is sought
after by some young man. The match is mostly arranged between two young
men who have sisters or some female relative over whose fate they may happen
to have control. They follow a system of barter in their matrimonial arrange-
ments. The young woman's opinion is not asked. When the young men have
settled the business, they propose a time when one of them is to take a girl for
his wife. The young man marches up to her equipped as for war, with his club
{Kallak) and club-shield ( Turn-man) in his hands, and indeed these are needed,
if he does not wish to receive a blow on his head from the yam-stick which
would perhaps prevent the further progress of his love making. After a little
fencing between the pair, the woman, if she has no serious objections to the
* A correspondent of the Rev. Lorimer Fisou's gives a very different account of the marriage
ceremony as it exists amongst the natives of Fraser Island (Great Sandy Island), Queensland. It
appears that "the uncle of the bride goes and 'plenty' talks to all blackfellows about the marriage.
Thun the bride makes a fire, and the other natives come and place white feathers on her head ; then
the bride places feathers on the head of the bridegroom j the bridegroom makes a fire, and every
one of the blacks present on the occasion brings a flre-stick, and throws it down at the bridegroom's
fire. The bride is then placed in a bark hut or mia-mia, about six yards from the bridegroom, and
they are then considered married, but do not come together until nearly two months after this."
The white favors and the kind attentions paid to the bride and bridegroom contrast strangely with
the waddy and the heavy blows that are necessary to a marriage contract amongst the blacks of the
south.
MAEEIAGE. 85
man, quietly submits, and allows herself to be taken away to the camp of her
future husband. She there begins to perform at once the duties which usually
fall to the share of the wife — namely, building a new camp — getting firewood,
&c., and on journeys acting as a carrier for all the worldly goods of her husband.
These are packed on her back, all excepting his war implements, which he him-
self deigns to carry.*
Though the marriages of Aboriginals are not solemnized by any rites which
amongst civilized peoples serve to make the contract, if not binding, at least a
solemn and serious one, it must not be supposed that, as a rule, there is anything
like promiscuous intercourse. When a man obtains a good wife, he keeps her
as a precious possession, as long as she is fit to help him, and minister to his
wants, and increase his happiness.f No other man must look with affection
towards her. If she shows favor towards another and be discovered, she may
suffer heavy punishment — be put to death even.f Promiscuous intercourse is
* Jardine, in his narrative, refers to this custom. At Camp No. 67, on the Dalhunty Creek, he
saw the gins carrying spears and shields on the march, the men carrying only a nulla or two. When
looking for game, the men, of course, carry spears and other implements.
t " Considering the industry and skill of their gins and wives [of the Darling] in making nets,
sewing cloaks, mussel-fishing, rooting, &c., and their patient submission to labor, always carrying
bags containing the whole property of the family while they follow their masters, the great value
of a gin to one of these lazy fellows may be easily imagined. Accordingly, the possession of them
appears to be associated with all their ideas of fighting; while, on the other hand, the gins have it
in their power on such occasions to evince that universal characteristic of the fair, a partiality for
the brave. Thus it is that after a battle they do not always follow the fugitives from the field, but
not unfrequently go over, as a matter of course, to the victors, even with young children on their
backs." — Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, &c., by T. L. Mitchell, F.G.S., &C.
"If a man have several girls at his disposal, he speedily obtains several wives, who, however,
very seldom agree well with each other, but are continually quarrelling, each endeavouring to be
the favorite. The man, regarding them more as slaves than in any other light, employs them in
every possible way to his own advantage. They are obUged to get him shell-fiali, roots, and eatable
plants." — Encounter Bay Tribe. Meyer.
"It is the females' province to clear away the grass within the lodge, lest it should take fire; to
collect firewood and make the fire, which is always very small, so that it may not attract the atten-
tion of an enemy. When travelling, they always carry fire, that is, a piece of lighted bark. She
fetches water, if it be near, in a bowl-shapen excrescence of some tree [Tar-nuk]; but if far away,
it is carried in a small skin taken off the animal through the opening of the neck; either the feet
and tail are left on, or the openings are secured by a sinew. She also gathers any edible roots or
succulent vegetables that grow in the neighbourhood. The fleshy roots in general use are called
Cooloor, PaliUa, and Munya; the two first species of geranium are of an acrid flavor until roasted;
the last is sweet, and frequently eaten uncooked; the roots of the bulrush and an aquatic plant are
also occasionally used for food. The succulent vegetables in general use are the youug tops of the
Munya, the Sow-thistle, and several kinds of Fig-marigold. At Mount Gambler the females collect
large quantities of the roots of the fern, which are eaten when baked, as well as the pretty green
and gold frogs, and a very fleshy mushroom which is red on the upper and green on the under side;
these are brought home strung on rushes. Our mushroom is very rarely used. In spring they
gather cakes of wattle (mimosa) gum, and use it dissolved in water. The implement with which
the roots are gathered, and which is constantly carried by the women for offensive and defensive
purposes, is a small pole, seven or eight feet long, straightened and hardened by fire, flattened and
pointed at the end." — W. E. Stanbridge.
t In a review of a work entitled Brides and Bridals, in the Alhenaum of the 16th November
1872, there occurs the following very interesting statement: — "An old Welsh law authorized the
infliction of three blows with a broom-stick on any part of the person except the head," but does not
appear to h.ave "limited the frequency or severity of the doses; and by an ancient continental rule
the wife was considered to have just cause for complaint only when knocked down with a bar of
OO THE ABORIGINES OP VICTORIA:
abhorrent to many of tliem;* and it is hard to believe that even in a lower state
the male would not have had the same feeling of affection for his mate and an
equal jealousy of love as we see amongst the Aborigines now.
Exogamy exists throughout the greater part of Australia probably, but
there is little or nothing to show whether or not it existed, or, if it was a law,
how it operated amongst the Aborigines in Victoria. Wc must seek for in-
formation amongst those whose habits have not been much affected by the
intrusion of whites.
Something, however, is known.
Mr. Bulmer says — " Tlie blacks of the Murray are divided into two classes,
the Mak-quarra or eagle, and the Kil-parra or crow. If the man be Mali-qnarra,
the woman must be Kil-parra. A Mak-quarra could not marry a I\Iak-quarra
nor a Kil-parra a Kil-parra. The children take their caste from the mother,
and not from the father. The Murray blacks never deviate from this rule. A
man would as soon marry his sister as a woman of the caste to which he
belongs. He calls a woman of the same caste Wurtoa (sister)." Thirty
years ago this custom was investigated by Grey in South Australia. " The
natives," he says, " are divided into certain great families, all the members of
which bear the same names, as a family or second name. The principal branches
of these families, so far as I have been able to ascertain, are the Ballaroke,
Tdondarup, Ngotak, Nagarnook, Nogonyuk, Mongalung, Narrangur."t The
iron. Blackstone ascribes the continuance of the practice of wife-beating among the lower classes,
long after it had gone out of fashion with the upper, to the affection of the common people for the
old common law."
Cruelty to wives — and the infliction of punishment according to law or custom must have
involved cruelty — is not therefore a practice restricted to savage nations. According to llr.
Jeaffreson — the author of the work here referred to — a slipper was held to be a proper instrument
of correction. Has this any connection with the throwing of the shoe when the bride and bride-
groom depart for the honeymoon ? Nearly all our customs are derived from remote ancestors.
* This I believe is strictly true as regards the Aborigines generally, but since it was written I
have received information from a settler well acquainted with the Aborigines of the northern and
central parts of Australia, which suggests that amongst some tribes there are women wholly given up
to common lewdness. He tells me that a woman has been known to travel alone from Cooper's
Creek eastwards for a distance of 500 miles solely for the purpose of profiting by prostitution. On
reaching a camp of blacks, she would make a small fire, so as to raise a column of smoke. This signal
would bring to her men and boys, and in return for favors conferred she would receive pieces of
tobacco, a blanket, a rug, or the like. These would again be bartered away for goods that could
be easily carried; .and after the district was exhausted, she would return to her tribe with her gains.
He says, further, that a man is considered inhospitable — a bad host — who will not lend his
lubra to a guest.
I cannot help thinking that these practices are modern — that they have been acquired since the
Aborigines have been brought in contact with the lower class of whites. They are altogether
irreconcilable with the penal laws in force in former times amongst the natives of Victoria. Yet
the practices are undoubtedly common in many parts of Australia; and it is right to use the utmost
caution in dealing with facts of this kind. Isolated cases of criminal intercourse — under strong
temptation — are altogether different from prostitution as said to be practised at this day by the
natives of Cooper's Creek and the Paroo; but these natives have other customs which are not known
to the Aborigines of the southern parts of Australia. For instance, Mr. Gason says that amongst
the Dieyerie each married woman is permitted a paramour.
See also Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, by Edward John Eyre, 1845,
Tol. II., pp. 319-20.
f Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery. Grey, vol. ii., pp. 225-6.
MAEEIAGE. . 87
several members of these families again have each a local name, which ia
understood in the district which they inhabit ; but the family names extend
from King George's Sound to Carpentaria. " The family names are perpetuated
and spread through the country by the operation of two remarkable laws : —
1st. "That children of either sex always take the family name of their
mother." (And reference is made to Genesis xx., 12 : — "And yet
indeed she is my sister ; she is the daughter of my father, but not the
daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.")
2nd. "That a man cannot marry a woman of his own family name."
In this respect — as Grey observes — their custom coincides with that of the
North American Indians.
Mr. C. Wilhelmi says that "all the Aborigines in the Port Lincoln district
are divided into two separate classes, namely, the Matteri and the Karraru.
This division seems to have been introduced since time immemorial, and with a
view to regulate their marriages, as no one is allowed to intermarry in his own
caste, but only into the other one — that is, if a man is a Matteri, he can choose
as his wife a Karraru only, and vice versa. This distinction is kept up by the
arrangement that the children belong to the caste of the mother. There are no
instances of two Karrarus or two Matteris having been married together, and
yet connections of a less virtuous character which take place between members
of the same caste do not appear to be considered incestuous. In addition to this
general rule, there are certain degrees of relationship within which intermarrying
is prohibited; yet, from the indefinite degree of their relationship by blood,
arising from the plurality of wives, and their being cast off at pleasure, &c., it
becomes very difficult to trace them exactly. Besides this, friendship among the
natives leads to the adoption of forms and names strictly in use among relatives
only ; thus it becomes totally impossible to make out what are real relations or
apimrently so."
How the knowledge of consanguinity was preserved, under such conditions
as those described by Mr. Wilhelmi, is difficult to conjecture. Marriages
between members of certain classes were prohibited, but intercourse between
males and females belonging to the same class appears to have been regarded
without disfavor. If the issue of such connections were preserved, to what
class did they belong? Tliey would not — from want of knowledge of their
origin — be in all cases destroyed. Unless it is assumed that in later times their
laws were relaxed, and that the natives are now living in a state altogether
different from that which formerly existed, there is nothing in their ancient
rigid rules regarding marriage which would serve to protect them against the
evils these rules were enacted to prevent.
Mr. Francis F. Armstrong, the Government Interpreter to the native tribes
of West Australia, informs me " that the females are betrothed or promised in
marriage when very young in a certain line of families or to a particular person
in that line, and generally are not supposed to marry or be taken out of that
line : certainly not to have their own choice. The brother of a deceased native
has a right to the widow, and may, if he is willing, take her."
88
THE ABORIGINES OF VXCTOEIA:
The following diagram, forwarded to me by Mr. Armstrong, shows in wliat
lines, and with what limitations, Aboriginal marriages may be contracted in
New Norcia: —
Mr. Samuel Bennett, in his History of Australian Discorenj and Coloniza^
tion, says, in reference to the Aborigines of the north-eastern parts of Australia,
that "their laws of pedigree and marriage prescribe a complete classification
MAEEIAGE. 89
of the people of the nature of caste. By means of family names, they are divided
into four classes. Ippai, Murri, Kubbi, and Kumbo, are the names of the men ;
and their sisters are respectively Ippata, Mata, Kapota, and Buta. In one
family all the males are called Ippai, the females Ijipata; in another all the
males are Murri, the females Mata; in a third all the males are Kubbi, the
females Kapota ; and in a fourth all the males are Kumbo, all the females Buta.
Every family in all the Kamilaroi tribes, over a large extent of country, including
Liverpool Plains, the Namoi, the Barwan, and the Bundarra, is distinguished
by one of these four sets of names. The names are hereditary ; but the rule of
descent differs from any other ever heard of. The sons of Ippai (if his wife be
Kapota) are all Murri, and his daughters Mata ; the sons of Murri are Ippai,
and tlie daughters Ippata ; the sons of Kubbi are Kumbo, the daughters Buta ;
the sons of Kumbo are Kubbi, the daughters Kapota. The law of marriage is
founded on this system of descent. They have no law against polygamy ; but
while their law is not careful about the number of a man's wives, it denounces
capital punishment against any one who marries one of the wrong sort. The
rule is this : — Ippai may marry Kapota, and any Ippata but his own sister ;
Murri may marry Buta only ; Kubbi may marry Ippata only ; Kumbo may
marry Mata only. In some respects, for instance in the larger marriage choice,
Ippai is a favored class ; but many who exercise a kind of authority are Kumbo,
and in the course of a few generations every man's descendants come into the
class of Ippa as well as into that of Kumbo."
The natives of Port Essington are divided into three distinct classes, which
do not intermarry. The first is known as Maudrojilly, the second as Mam-
burgy, the third as Maudrouilly.*
Of late years this subject has been more carefully investigated. The Bev.
Lorimer Fison has collected a great deal of useful and important information,
and has had the assistance of the Rev. W. Ridley and other gentlemen in New
South Wales. Mr. Fison, jointly with Mr. Howitt, undertook to prepare a
paper for this work on Australian Kinship. Printed circulars were forwarded
to settlers in nearly all parts of Australia ; and though only a few replies have
been received, it is possible that before my labors are completed Mr. Fison and
Mr. Howitt will be able to submit new views on this highly interesting subject.
Mr. Howitt has already arranged the system of kinship as it exists in eastern
Gippslaud, and his paper is appended.
In the proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (vol.
III.) there is a paper on Australian Kinship, written by Mr. Lewis H. Morgan,
from original memoranda of the Rev. Lorimer Fison, and many difficult ques-
tions arising out of the divisions into tribes and classes are lucidly treated.
Mr. Morgan refers more especially to the Kamilaroi people. They are divided
into six tribes, and there is a further division iuto eight classes. After review-
ing the facts and conclusions, as given in Mr. Fisou"s memoranda, Mr. Morgan
says : —
" Out of the preceding statements we have the full constitution of the
tribes, with the several classes belonging to each. The classes are in pairs of
• Stokes, vol. I., p. 393.
N
Kumbo „
Buta
Ijipai
Ippata.
Murri „
Mata
Kubbi
Kapota.
Kumbo „
Buta
Ippai
Ippata.
Murri „
Mata
Kubbi
Kapota.
Kumbo „
Buta
Ippai
Ippata.
90 THE ABOEIOrN'ES OF TICTOEIA:
brothers and sisters, and the tribes themselves are constituted in pairs, as
follows : —
Tribes. Male. Female. Male. Female.
1. Iguana (Duli)- - All are Murri and Mata, or Kubbi and Kapota.
2. Emu (Dinouu) - „
3. Kangaroo (Murriira) „
4. Bandicoot (Bilba) - „
5. Opossum (Mute) - „
6. Blacksnake (Nurai)- „
" The necessary connection of the children with a particular tribe is proven
by the law of marriage and descent. Thus Iguaua-Mata must marry Kumbo ;
her children are Kubbi and Kapota, and necessarily Iguana in tribe. Iguana-
Kapota must marry Ippai ; her children are Murri and Mata, and also Iguana
in tribe. In like manner, Emu-Buta must marry Murri; her children are
Ippai and Ippata, and Emu in tribe. Emu-Ippata must marry Kubbi ; her
children are Kumbo and Buta, and also of the Emu tribe. The same is true
with respect to marriages in the two remaining pairs of tribes. It will also be
Been that each tribe is made up, theoretically, of the descendants, in the female
line, of two supposed female ancestors. Why Mata and Kapota are found in
the Iguana, Kangaroo, and Opossum, and not iu the other tribes, and why
Buta and Ippata are found in the Emu, Bandicoot, and Blacksnake, and not in
the first three tribes, is not explained, except that it is a part of the constitu-
tion of the tribal system as it now exists among the Kamilaroi. Moreover, as
we find that the Iguana, Kangaroo, and Opossum tribes are counterparts of
each other in the classes they contain, it follows that they are subdivisions of
one original tribe. Precisely the same is true of Emu, Bandicoot, and Black-
snake, in both particulars ; thus reducing the six to two original tribes, with
marriage in the tribe interdicted. It is further shown by the fact that the first
three tribes could not intermarry, nor the last three, with each other. The
prohibition which prevented intermarriage when either three tribes was one
would follow the subdivisions, who were of the same descent, though under
different tribal names. Exactly the same thing is found among the Seneca^
Iroquois."
Further very ingenious speculations, founded on the data he has obtained,
are contained in Mr. Morgan's paper. He shows distinctly the efi"ects of this
division into classes, and how the tribal organization, permitting of marriage
into every tribe but that of the individual, was defeated by it.
Before arriving at sure conclusions respecting the laws of marriage and the
systems of consanguinity, as they exist in Australia, it will be necessary to
institute careful enquiries in all parts of the continent, and to receive no state-
ment from a black as correct until it has been verified. The natives are only
too willing, when they are questioned, to seek to please ; and if they catch a
hint of what is desired — and they are quick in apprehension — they will frame
their answers accordingly.
Mr. George Bridgman, the Superintendent of Aboriginal Stations near Mac-
kay, in Queensland, says, in a letter to me, that he has carefuUy considered the
MAEELIGB. 91
paper just referred to, and cannot reconcile the system as put forth by Mr.
Morgan with the facts as they exist within his knowledge. Tliere is an intelligent
native, from a district near Brisbane, now in employment in Mackay, who has
been living with the Kamilaroi people and many others ; and he informs Mr.
Bridgman that both in his own tribe, and every other in the districts he is
acquainted with, the system is the same, even where the class names are different.
Yet the tribes in all places know which class is referred to when its name is
mentioned, though the languages be not the same. Mr. Bridgman adds : —
"As an instance, the man I refer to has a wife from these (the Mackay) blacks.
He tells me he got one belonging to the class that corresponds with that from
which he would have got a wife in his own country — though here the class is called
"Woongoan (in the female) and in his tribe by another name. The Kamilaroi
system, this black says, is the same as that here ; and he gave me the words
Murree and Kubbee as two of their terms (as in Mr. Morgan's paper), except
that there is a final 'ee' instead of 'i.' The system, as it comes under my notice
here, is quite simple, and is as follows : — All blacks are divided into two classes,
irrespective of tribe or locality. These are Youngaroo and Wootaroo (end of
each word sounded 'rue'). The Yoiingaroo are subdivided into Gurgela and
Bembia, and the "Wootaroo into Coobaroo and "Woongo. The first divisions
have no feminine ; the subdivisions have, namely, Coobaroon and Woongoon.
Every man, woman, and child necessarily belongs to one first division and one
second. Gurgela marries Coobaroon, and Bembia, Woongoon. Children belong
to the mothers' primary division, but to the other subdivision. Thns Young-
aroo-Gurgela marries Wootaroo-Coobaroon, and their children are Wootaroo-
Woongo.
" Although on paper this looks rather complicated, it is, when understood,
very simple The blacks seem to have an idea that these classes
are a imiversal law of nature, so they divide everything into them. They tell
you that alligators are Youngaroo, and kangaroos are Wootaroo — the sun is
Youngaroo and the moon is Wootaroo ; and so on with the constellations, with
the trees, and with the plants. But even when one knows the language, it is
hard to get information from this people, because they lack the power of con-
centrating and collecting their ideas which is natural to educated people. . .
. . On the system just described hinges all their ideas of relationship. Their
terms for father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, &c., &c., are by no means
synonymous with ours, but convey different ideas. From my long connection
with the blacks, they have given me a name and a grade amongst themselves,
and there are many here who I do not suppose know my proper name. I have
several names, but the one I am usually called is Goonurra, which has no meaning
— is only a name. I am Youngaroo and Bembia, carrying out the former idea ;
and if I had children they would be Wootaroo and Coobaroo. "N^Hien a strange
girl comes here, I do not ask her name — that would be improper, according to
the blacks' ideas — nor can I ask what class she belongs to, but I say to another,
'"WTiat am I to call her?' Tlie answer maybe (if she is Coobaroon) Woolbrigan
uno nulla — 'Daughter yours she.' Mollee dumUa indu — 'Mollee, say you?'
Mollee being the term which all fathers call their daughters — daughter meaning
92 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
any young woman belonging to the class which my daughter would belong to if
I had one. I give this example as the easiest way of conveying an idea of their
system. Blacks in their native state — that is before they pick up our manners
and customs — never call each other by name. They always use a term of
relationship, but use names, in speaking of another, in the third person."
Mr. D. Stewart, of Mount Gambier, South Australia, describes, in a letter to
the Rev. L. Fison, the system observed by him amongst the tribes in his district;
and it seems to assimilate very closely to that of the natives of Mackay, in
Queensland. Mankind and things in general are included in the larger divisions,
just in the manner mentioned by Mr. Bridgmaa. There is undoubtedly a
great deal yet to be ascertained respecting the nature of the classifications just
described and the laws which govern the Australians in their relationships and
marriages.
The prohibitions, as they existed amongst the tribes, had the effect of pre-
venting, or, at any rate, greatly reducing the number of in-and-in marriages ;
but, as pointed out by Mr. Morgan, the institution of classes had an opposite
effect — actually compelling in-and-in marriages, beyond the degrees of brothers
and sisters. The restrictions, even as now stated in the systems I have referred
to, leave such small scope for sexual selection as to give rise, no doubt, not
seldom to practices like those described by Mr. Wilhelmi. Why some tribes are
exogamous and others endogamous ; how such classifications as those existing
in Australia originated ; why, when the prohibitions were openly disregarded,
the offenders were punished, and yet secret violations of the rules were passed
over without notice — are questions which cannot be answered. Further researches
in countries peopled by savages wOl enlighten us. At present too little is known
to admit of any theories being satisfactorily established. The field open to
investigators is large. Such laws, or laws somewhat similar to those in force
in Australia, are established amongst various races throughout the world.
They are thus referred to by Latham : —
" Imperfect as is our information for the early history and social condition of
the Magar, we know that a trace of a tribual division (why not say an actual
division into tribes?) is to be found. There are twelve Thums. All individuals
belonging to the same Thum are supposed to be descended from the same male
ancestor ; descent from the same great mother being by no means necessary.
So husband and wife must belong to different Thums. Within one and the
same there is no marriage. Do you wish for a wife ? K so, look to the Thum
of your neighbour ; at any rate look beyond your own. This is the first time I
have found occasion to mention the practice. It will not be the last ; on the
contrary, the principle it suggests is so common as to be almost universal. We
shall find it in Australia ; we shall find it in North and South America ; we
shall find it in Africa ; we shall find it in Europe ; we shall suspect and infer
it in many places where the actual evidence of its existence is incomplete." *
Of the many misstatements which have been made from time to time, and
perhaps not seldom thoughtlessly, not the least important is that given in the
work of Count P. E. de Strezelecki, entitled a " Phjskal Description of Nero
* Descriotive Ethnology, vol. I., p. 80.
MAEEIAGE. 93
South Wales and Van DiemerCs Land." At page 346, in stating some facts
believed by him to explain the curtailment of power of continuing or procre-
ating the species, he says that " of these, the most remarkable, and that which
most directly bears upon the question, is the result of a union between an
Aboriginal female and an European male — an intercourse frequently brought
about in tliese countries, either by local customs and notions of hospitality, or
by the natural propensity of the sexes. Whenever this takes place, the native
female is found to lose the power of conception on a renewal of intercourse with
the male of her own race, retaining that of procreating only with the white
men. Hundreds of instances of this extraordinary fact are in record in the
writer's memoranda, all tending to prove that the sterility of the female being
relative only to one and not to another male — and recurring invariably, under
the same circumstances, amongst the Hurons, Seminoles, Red Indians, Yakies
(Sinaloa), Mendoza Indians, Araucos, South Sea Islanders, and natives of New
Zealand, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land — is not accidental, but
follows laws as cogent, though as mysterious, as the rest of those connected
with generation."'
M. de Strezelecki's statement need not have been referred to here perhaps
had it not been accepted and believed by so many, and made the text of some
lay sermons intended to elevate the white man at the expense of his darker
brother. A simple denial of the truth of it would be unsatisfactory, if not
useless. The error has taken such deep root that it is necessary to confront a
theory (though unsupported by evidence) by numeroiis incontrovertible facts
collected by correspondents who have no theories to maintain, and who relate
only what they know to be true.
The Rev. Mr. Hartmanu, of the Lake Hindmarsh Station, says that a full-
blooded black woman named Kitty had two half-caste children (Esther and
Maggie) by a white man (Robertson), and subsequently had a pure Aboriginal
child (Bobby) by a black man ; and that on the River Murray a black woman
named Charlotte had " Edward," a half-caste, and subsequently " Julia " by a
full-blooded Australian named " Dick."
Mr. Green says that there is a woman now on the station named Borat (of
the Yarra tribe) who has a half-caste son sixteen years of age, named Wandon,
who is now living at Coranderrk ; and that ten years ago she had a black son to
"Andrew," of a Gippsland tribe ; six years ago she had a black daughter to the
same father; and that one year ago she had a black son to "Adam," of the
Mordialloc tribe. The child is now living at Coranderrk. Mr. Green adds
that " Eliza," of the Goulburn tribe, had a half-caste child twelve years ago
(which she killed), and since she has had four fidl-blooded black children,
namely, two sons and two daughters — and that the four are now living on the
station at Coranderrk.
The Rev. Mr. Hagenauer, of the Lake Wellington Station, states that
" Lucy," i^revious to her marriage with " Charles Rivers," her present husband,
had two half-caste children, both living ; and that after her marriage with the
full-blooded black she has had six full-blooded Aboriginal children, two of
whom are dead, and four are living, namely, " Charley," nine years old ;
94 THE ABOEIGIXES OF VICTOEIA:
" Harriet," seven years old ; " Jolinnie," five years old ; and a baby a year and
a balf old. She is again enceinte.
That " Mary," the wife of the Aboriginal " Barney," has had children as
follows : — " Toby" (dead), and " Harry," sixteen years old (living), full-blooded
Aboriginals ; " Bridget," a half-caste girl fourteen years of age, now living on
the station ; and a full-blooded Aboriginal boy who died at the age of three
years.
" Cliarlotte " had three full-blooded Aboriginal children ; and subsequently
a half-caste girl, " Louise," now seventeen years of age ; and again three full-
blooded Aboriginal children. Subsequently she had a half-caste child (now
dead), and the last child was a full-blooded black.
One properly-authenticated case of a female having borne children to a full-
blooded black after having had children to a white man would have been suiBcient
to destroy Count Strezelecki's theory, and I have given several cases. I might
give more. But I pause to ask how Count Strezelecki could have procured
"hundreds of instances" of the extraordinary "fact" on which he lays so much
stress ? It is easy to obtain positive evidence, as I have shown ; but how Count
Strezelecki got negative evidence of such a kind as to satisfy the mind of even
the most credulous observer I cannot guess. Even if a hundred well-authen-
ticated cases were cited in which black women had lost " the power of conception
on the renewal of intercourse with the male of her own race," one might reasonably
hesitate to accept the theory ; but as he gives no instances, but contents himself
with a general statement, it is not harsh but simply just to inform those who
believe the story that there is no truth in it.
There is no ground for the belief — not even the shadow of ground for the
belief — that the Aborigines of Victoria — regarding them simjjly as animals —
are in any way diiferent from any other animals which belong to the human
species. Mr. John Green says : —
"Tliere are many female half-castes who have had children to white men
as well as to blacks. There are three half-caste women at Coranderrk who
are married to black men, and all three have had two children each to their
husbands.
" There is a half-caste man and a half-caste woman married, and they have
one child. There are three half-caste women on the station who have had
children to white men, but they were not married. The children of the latter
have the complexion of Europeans, and have but little of the Aboriginal caste
in the face. Only those who are well acquainted with the peculiar features of
the Aborigines would suspect that these children had Aboriginal blood in their
* John Brisgs, a half-caste Tasmanian, who intermarried with a half-caste Australian, has had
ten children, of whom eight are now living — three boys and five girls. John Briggs was bom in one
of the Islands in Bass's Straits. His wife is the daughter of an Australian woman, who, with her
sister, was taken to Tasmania at the time that Buckley was removed from Port Phillip to that colony.
His eldest son is between seventeen and eighteen years of age, and the youngest child is two months
old. He says he was married in 1844. He is an intelligent man ; tall and well-formed, but weather-
beaten in appearance. His hair is grey ; his complexion yellow — dull yellow ; his teeth large, and
not close together ; his hair woolly, somewhat like that of a negro ; his eyes dark -brown ; his nose
MAERIAGB. 95
The case is stated simply and plainly, and in plain language, in the hope
that those whose habit has been heretofore to dogmatise on questions of so
much importance may enquire and investigate before they promulgate opinions
which are likely to retard the advance of science, embitter the relations between
races whose interests are conflicting, and offer inducements to the strong to be
cruel to the weak.
It is the tirm belief of the Aborigines that if a man to whom a female is
betrothed sees or is seen by the mother of the girl, some disaster will happen to
him, or that evil spirits will afflict him : and the mother-in-law carefully avoids
her son-in-law ; but whether in order to avert evil from him or to protect herself
has never been ascertained. The origin of this mysterious custom is not known ;
and those who allow it or conform to it can give no intelligible explanation of it.
In a state of society in which the sexes are, by reason of wars and the wandering
habits of the tribes, brought together sometimes in a way that husbands and wives
would not api^rove of — this rule is perhaps necessary as a complemeutal enlarge-
ment of their rather complex law of marriage. Girls, as has been said, are married
at an early age, and when old enough to have marriageable daughters might still
be attractive ; and if, under temptation, any Aboriginal violated tribal rites by
seeking to associate with the mother of any one of his wives, he might by such
an act — and all the horror and rage which it would evoke — render necessary tliis
as a salutary regulation. The mother naturally clings to her daughter, and
would seek her companionship, and thus be brought necessarily into close com-
munication with her son-in-law, if not prevented by this rule. No similar
binding affection leads the sister to seek her brother.
If, by accident, a mother-in-law is approached by her son-in-law, she hides
herself behind a bush, or in the grass, and the man holds up his shield and
protects himself and passes her as best he can. If the mother-in-law is near
other members of her tribe at such a time, they endeavour to conceal her, but
they are not at liberty to say that her son-in-law is approaching, nor may they
mention his name. Even at the Aboriginal Stations, where the Aboriginals are,
one may say, civilized, and to some extent weaned from their prejudices, and
where nearly all their ancient customs are in disuse or forgotten, this one
lingers ; and a woman will for some reason always avoid the sight of a certain
man of the tribe. Tliis has been mentioned to me as having given trouble and
annoyance to the Superintendent of the Station at Coranderrk, where the Abori-
ginals are living in a state rather above than below that of the lowest class of
whites.
Mr. Stanbridge says that "the mother-in-law, or Gnalwinkurrk, does not,
under any circumstances, allow her Gnalwin, or son-in-law, to see her. If he
be near, she hides herself ; and if she require to go beyond where he is, she
makes a circuit to avoid him, at the same time thoroughly screening herself
with her cloak." Mr. Stanbridge adds that this remarkable custom is observed
arched and almost Roman ; his forehead well-shaped — not harsh and bony, but curved, and the lines
are good : the frontal sinuses are not prominent.
He is the only half-caste Bass's Straits man I have ever had the opportunity of closely examining.
He is very different from the half-caste Australian, and is also unlike the half-caste negro.
96 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
by the aborigines of La Plata ;* but it is knowTi in all parts of the globe where
the races are in an uucivilized state. It is practised in many parts of Polynesia,
if not in all parts ; and it is a recognised custom amongst some tribes in Africa.
A Kaffir must not look at his mother-in-law. If they meet, they avoid each
other. The man will leave the common path and take to the bush, holding up
all he has in his hands to hide his face. The woman cowers low, and puts her
hands over her eyes. And with them, as with our Aboriginals, the name of the
son-in-law must never be mentioned to the mother-in-law.
It is certain that this avoidance of each other has not originated in, or been
continued by, any whim or caprice. That peoples differing much from each
other and widely separated should have the same custom, suggests a common
origin. We have to seek for the reason rather in the conditions under which
they live ; and with polygamy and strict rules as regards the classes into which
men and women may marry, it seems, when we carefully consider the matter,
that it is a rule which would necessarily have to be made for common protection,
and for the proper maintenance of more important laws. It is easy to conceive
that not the violation of this rule, but the consequences which would result from
the habitual violation of it, might make the oral traditions and the doctrines
and discipline of the sages of the tribe less than waste breath, t
* On the authority of Dr. McKeiina, formerly Consul at Melbourne for the Argentine
Confetieration. It is, however, well known that this is a eustom of the Araucanians.
" I have noticed, en passant, several of the peculiar customs of the Aborigines ; and there are
others I might advert to, had I time. But one cus.tom springing from their family relations is so
singular, and apparently unique, that I must notice it. A traveller who has described the Aborigines
of Australia, speaks in approving terms of the extremely modest demeanour of the sexes towards
each other. He describes the women as taking a circuit to avoid passing where some men were
sitting, and carefully screening their faces that they might not be seen. Had he been familiar
with their customs, he would have found that this had another source than modest feeling. It was
the Knaltoin — a custom I have never heard or read of as existing among other people. It is this : —
As soon as a female child is promised in marriage to any man, from that hour he must never look
upon his expected wife's mother, or hear her name, and the same prohibition was extended to the
mother. She was never to look upon or hear the voice of the man to whom her daughter was to
be given. I have never been able to trace the origin of this custom ; but the ridiculous reason
assigned for this strange institution was, that if they saw or heard each other, they would become
prematurely old and die." — Edward Stone Parker.
"I may as well here also mention a curious custom they have relative to their domestic affairs —
if such a term can be applied to such a people. In many instances, a girl, almost as soon as she is
born, is given to a man. After this promise, the mother of the child never again voluntarily
speaks to the intended husband before he takes her to himself, nor to any of his brothers, if he have
any ; on the contrary, she shuns them in the most careful manner. If the future son-in-law, or
either of his brothers, should visit the tribe, she is always previously informed of his coming, so
that she may have time to get out of the way ; and if by chance she meets them, she covers her
head over with her skin cloak. If any present is sent to her, such as opossum or kangiiroo, and
such-like food, the receivers rub their faces and hands over with charcoal before it is taken and
tasted. When, again, a present of a skin cloak is made by the intended son-in-law, the mother gives
it to her husband to wear for some time before it is favored with her acceptance. This practice is
adhered to on both sides, for the son-in-law may see his proposed father, but will not on any account
see the mother ; their notions on these matters being, that when their children are niarried, the
parents become much older ; and if the girl's mother happens to see the proposed husband, it
■will cause her hair to turn grey immediately." — Life and Adventures of William Buckley, p. 89.
f This horror of the mother-in-law amongst savages cannot fail to suggest to the reader some
ludicrous notions connected with the habits of highly civilized peoples ; but any reference to them
more specific than this would be out of place in a work of this kind.
MAEEIAGE. 97
Wars, accidents, and disease — in the natural condition of this people as
children of the forest — make gaps in the domestic circles. Old men die of old
age, young men are killed in encounters with men of hostile tribes, and women
and children fall victims to neglect or cruelty or disease, or are purposely
murdered ; but when it happens that the head of a family dies, it becomes neces-
sary to dispose of the widows. We know what would happen to a widow in
poor circumstances in civilized communities ; and some will say that they know
what the widows ought to do in a savage state ; but Xature is stronger than
man's precepts, and it ordains that amongst savages the bereaved females shall
not be allowed to die of starvation. A widow with her children is taken to the
miam of the father or brother, and is supported until she can be exchanged for
a young woman of another tribe. No sentiment is allowed to interfere with
arrangements designed for her material comfort. She is obliged to mate with
the man chosen for her by her protector ; and though this mode of disposing of
her may appear cruel and harsh, it is surely more humane than that neglect
which a poor widow in a civilized country is sure to suffer. In a civilized
country, a poor widow and her children it is true do not always die of starva^
tion ; but if our rules were imposed on the Aborigines, the widows and children
would certainly die. Let us then judge this people with knowledge, and not
condemn them and their customs in ignorance.*
It is rare that European women intermarry with Aboriginals. One case is
known in Victoria. The daughter of a squatter or farmer, whose principal
occupation — riding through the forest after cattle — brought her into daily inter-
course with a black man — formed an affection for him, and finally abandoned
her home and lived with him in a miam in the bush. Subsequently, they were
married — with what results, as regards their domestic happiness, I know not.
Mr. Geo. E. Boxall, who appears to be well acquainted with the habits of the
Aborigines in New South Wales, says that the daughter of a farmer at Burrowa
became enceinte by a young blackfellow who had been brought up by the girl's
famdy. The child born was a girl, who, if alive, will be now (1876) twenty-one
or twenty-two years of age. She was named Mary, and resided with her mother
in 1864 on Pudman's Creek, about fourteen miles from the township of Burrowa.
It is probable that many such unions are known to the settlers in New South
Wales and Queensland. The younger members of a family living in the bush
— far away from towns — if their parents are unable to afford the expense of
educating them, soon acquire habits which bring them on a level with the
Aborigines ; and it should excite no surprise that the sisters should emulate the
brothers.
* "After a man dies, if his willows have no children, when the days of mourning are over, the
custom appears to be to offer them as wives, first to his brothers, and then to his first cousins ; but
if they have children, it is optional on their part whether they marry again." — IK. E. Stanhriiige.
Amongst the Bakalai, a tribe in Africa inhabiting a tract of country between the Equator and
2° S. and longitude 10° to 13° E., a man will not msirry a woman of liis own tribe or clan ; but
widows are permitted to marry the son of their deceased husband ; and if there be uo son, they are
allowed to live with the deceased husband's brother.
gfatlt, and gurlal of the §ml
-co--'
The instincts which govern the behaviour of the lower animals in the treatment
of their young seem to prevail, with some modifications, in all communities of
savages. If produced at the wrong time, or at the wrong place, the young are
neglected or destroyed ; if burdensome, they are abandoned. And yet, stronger
than tlie maternal love of the tigress or the lioness is that of the Australian
Aboriginal woman for a favorite child. She will die in an effort to preserve it,
and as willingly sufi'er the pangs of hunger, and the prolonged misery of hard
travel, to secure it from injur}\ When one which she has loved dies, she keeps
it still. Its little body is placed in a bag, and she carries it, together with all
that her master and husband may order her to bear, for days and days through
the forest, wee]iing now and again, as the senseless body beats against her sides,
and seems to chide her for the roughness of the passage. At the camp at night
it is put in a safe place, and not the most frivolous amongst the young men
would dare to exhibit by look or gesture his disapproval of the sacred duty of
the mother.*
If the loads which she has to carry become inconvenient, the mother will
unpack the bag containing her child, break its bones with a stone hammer,
re-pack the remains, and take them with her, even when the stench of the dead
body is so offensive as to keep her friends at a distance.
When other ties and other duties make it impossible for the mother any
longer to keep the relics near her person, they are disposed of either by burial,
by hiding them in the hollow of a tree, or by committing them to the flames of
the funeral pile.
Kot less is the regard paid to a deceased person of importance. The hands
are cut off; and the two nearest relatives carry these mementos, and hold them
sacred, and thus give evidence of the existence in their minds of feelings and
thoughts and imaginings which the untravelled European would fain limit to
the better educated and the more highly organized of our species.
The modes of disposing of the dead, and the observances on the near decease
of a member of a tribe who is esteemed or feared, are various. Not one tribe
has exactly the same customs as another.
* In the narrative of the Life and Adventures of William Buckley it is stated that the bones of
deceased children were carried about by their mothers in nets made of hair and tivisted bark. The
nets were tied round their necks by day, and placed under their heads at night ; and the bones were
invariably affectionately guarded.
DEATH, ANB BUEIAL OF THE DEAD. 99
The nortliern tribes in the Colony of Victoria seem to have placed the dead
body on a funeral pile, and, with prescribed formalities, lighted the dry wood,
and thus consumed the corpse. Some placed the body in a running stream ;
some threw it across the limb of a tree, so as to be out of the way of the wild
dog, but not secure from other flesh-eating creatures ; some deposited the dead
hunter in a cave ; others ■wrapped the remains in rugs or mats, and placed them
on an artificial platform, formed of sticks and branches — where the sentinel-
crow was sure to perch, and add a grim solemnity to the picture ; many interred
the corpse, or jjut it in an old mirrn-yong heap, or laid it with others — sacred in
their memories — in a stone-lined trench cut in the ground.
Perhaps the most common of all methods, as practised by the Aborigines of
this period, is that of interring the body.
The southern tribes have no appointed burial grounds for their people.*
• The blacks on the Bogan Kiver, in New South Wales, bury their dead in cemeteries
resembling those of Europeans. The graves are numerous, and the groumis are ornamented, and
there are curved walks or tracks through them. On the Lachlan River the graves are marked by
high mounds of earth, around which are placed rude seats. Ou the Murrumbidgee and Murray
(north of Victoria) the graves are covered with thatched huts. On the Darling Hiver they raise
mounds and cover them with branches of trees, and form a ditch around each mound; and some-
times, for greater security, enclose the mound with a fence of dead limbs of trees and branches.
Throughout the continent, however, it is the practice to bury the body near the spot where the
death occurred.
Oxley gives a description of a grave which he found on his journey. He thinks it was probably
that of some person of consideration among the natives. The form of the whole was semicircular.
Three rows of seats occupied one half, the grave and the outer row of seats the other; the seats
formed segments of circles, fifty, forty-five, and forty feet each, and were formed by the soil beiD<'
trenched up from between them. The central part of the grave was about five feet high and about
nine long, forming an oblong pointed cone. O-tley caused the tomb to be opened, and he found
beneath the solid surface of the ground three or four layers of wood lying across the grave, and
serving to support the cone of earth above; then several sheets of bark, underneath these dry grass
and leaves, and at a depth of four feet was the body. The grave was oval, about four feet in
length and from eighteen inches to two feet in width. The feet of the corpse were bent quite up to
the head, the arms having been placed between the thighs. The face was downwards, the body
lying east and west, with the head to the east. It had been carefully wrapped in a great number of
opossum skins, the head bound round (vith the net usually worn by the natives, and also the girdle.
It appeared, after having been enclosed in the skins, to have been placed in a larger net, and then
deposited in the manner before mentioned.
To the west and north of the grave were two cypress trees, distant between fifty and si.xty feet;
the sides towards the tomb were barked, and curious characters deeply cut upon them, in a manner
which, considering the tools they possess, must have been a work of great labor and time. The
drawing in Oxley's work shows the figures. On one tree I think an attempt has been made to
represent snakes, and on the other there is probably a copy of the device that the deceased had
carved on his shield.
Major Mitchell says that on the Bogan, not far from O.xley's table-land, he found the burial
ground of Milmeridien, and the natives scarcely lifted their heads as they passed it. It is thus
graphically described : — " This burial ground was a fairy-like spot, in the midst of a scrub of
drooping acacias. It was an extensive space, laid out in little walks, which were narrow and
smooth, as if intended only for 'sprites.' All these ran in gracefully-curved lines, and enclosed
the heaving heaps of reddish earth, which constrasted finely with the ac.icias and dark easuarinas
around. Others, gilt with moss, shot far into the recesses of the bush, where slight traces of still
more ancient graves proved the antiquity of these simple but touching records of humanity. Wiih
all our art we could do no more for the dead than these poor savages had done." — Vol. i., p. 317
At another spot he saw a large lonely hut of peculiar construction; it was closed on every side,
the materials consisting of poles and sheets of bark. It stood in the centre of a flat of bore earth
100 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
The body is buried generally within one or two hundred yards of the spot where
the death occurred. When a man approaches his end, his relatives and friends
remove him a short distance from his miam-miam — say five or six yards — and,
without regard to the weather, lay him upon the grass. One supports his head
and shoulders, holding him tenderly in his arms. By his side are placed a cord,
made of grass or some fibre, his opossum rugs, which are to form his pall, and
perhaps some favorite weapons or utensils. If of a good heart and stout, the
dying man regards these preparations without fear, and talks freely of his
coming end. Watching him carefully, the attendant sees at length that the
awful cliange has come ; and when the last breath has been breathed, he raises
the body, throws the pall over the head, and, with the help of his neighbours,
fastens it tightly, passing the cord twice or thrice around the neck. The knees
of the body are brought quite up to the breast, the elbows over the trunk and
near the hips, and the hands raised and pressed against the chest, and in this
position the corpse is made fast with the cords. The pall, meanwhile, has been
so kept as to conceal the body, and the attendants have scrupulously avoided
actual contact with the flesh. Three minutes, or less, are sufficient for these
preparations, and the corpse is then ready for the last ceremonials and the tomb.
of considerable extent, which was enclosed by three small ridges, the surface within the artificial
area having been made very level and smooth. The floor of the hut was covered with a bed of
rushes, and it was plain it had been recently occupied. A near friend of the deceased had rested
hero and watched the grave, in accordance with custom, until the flesh had left the bones. No fire
had ever been made in the hut, but fires had been kindled on the he.ath outside. — Vol. ir., p. 71.
Near the junction of the Murrnmbidgce and the Murray, Major Mitchell found several graves
all enclosed in separate parterres of exactly the same remarkable form, consisting of the s.ame kind
of double or triple ridges as those first seen in the lower part of the Lachlan. There were three of
these parterres all lying due east and west. On one, apparently that most recent, the ashes of a
hut still appeared over the grave. On another, which contained two graves (one of a small child),
logs of wood mixed with long grass were neatly piled transversely; and in the third, which was so
ancient that the enclosing ridges were barely visible, the graves had sunk into a gr,issy hollow.
Major Mitchell learnt from the widow that such tombs were made for men and boys only, not for
females, and that the ashes over one of the graves were the remains of a hut which had beeu burnt
and abandoned, after the murder of the person whose body was buried beneath had been avenged by
the tribe to whom the brother or relative keeping it company above ground had belonged. — Vol. ir.,
p. 87.
Major Mitchell makes the following general observations; — "The graves on these hills [near
the junction of the Darling and the Murray] no longer resembled those on the Murrumbidgce and
the Murray, but were precisely the same as those we had seen on the Darlhig, viz., mounds sur-
rounded by and covered with dead branches and pieces of wood. On these lay the same singular
casts of the head in white plaster which we had seen only at Fort Bourke. It is indeed curious to
observe the different modes of burying adopted by the natives on diflerent rivers. For instance,
on the Bogan, they bury in graves covered like our own, and surrounded with curved walks and
ornamented ground. On the Lachlan, under lofty mounds of earth, seats being made around. On
the Murrumbidgce and Murray the graves are covered with well-thatched huts, containing dried
grass for bedding, and enclosed by a parterre of a particular shape, like the inside of a whale-boat;
and on the Darling, as above stated, the graves are in mounds, covered with dead branches and
limbs of trees, and surrounded by a ditch, which here we found encircled by a fence of dead limbs
and branches." — Vol. ii., pp. 112-13.
The same explorer noticed in one place a large ash-hill (mirm-yong heap) on whose ample
surface the vestiges of a very ancient grave were just visible, the grave having been surrounded by
exactly the same kind of ridges which had been observed around the inhabited tomb near the
junction of the Lachlan and Murrumbidgce. — Vol. ii., p. 148.
DEATH, AXD BTJBIAL OP THE DEAD. 101
The ground around the body is now cleared of grass, which is burnt ; and it
is then carefully swept, so that the deceased lies in the centre of a circular
piece of dry earth, a few feet in diameter. On the ground near the body is
placed the tomahawk of the dead man, and his nearest of kin stands within or
near the margin of the circle. The male mourners then assemble. The first
who arrives seizes the tomahawk and endeavours to maim himself with it, aiming
a blow usually at the head ; but the relative of the deceased whose duty it is to
see that all rites are fulfilled wrenches it from him, and prevents him from
inflicting any deadly hurt ; and the mourner then quietly seats himself at a
distance of three or four or five feet from the corpse. Other mourners follow in
like manner, performing the same ceremony, and with the same result. None
is suffered by the attendant to maim himself.
Very soon a circle is thus formed on the marge of the cleared space within
which the body lies ; and if the deceased has made himself remarkable by his
deeds or his wisdom during life, and if his tribe is large, two, three, or four
circles of male mourners assemble on such occasions.
This ceremonial, simple as it is, strikes one with a kind of awe, and begets
respect for this people, when seen for the first time in the glade of a dense forest.
The mourners daubed with clay, tlieir faces changed and made strangely to
resemble one another by the rings around their eyes, which they have carefully
painted with white earth ; their bent figures, and their looks cast to the ground ;
the appearance of order and decency which tliey exhibit — make one regard this
rite as scarcely less solemn than that which is performed when a great warrior
of our own peoj^le is committed to bis last resting-place.
Tlie women are not suffered to come nigh the corpse at this stage of the
ceremonial. As soon as it is known tliat death has stricken their companion,
they muffle the dogs in opossum rugs, and collect in groups beside the trees
adjacent to the spot where the body lies. They approach not nearer than fifty
or sixty or one hundred yards. They give utterance to wild lamentations. They
cry piteously, and make heard the sounds of their sorrow far beyond the space
occupied by the mourners. There are, however, no screams or hideous outcries.
We hear the tones of distress. Their notes are plaintive. They swell, and fall,
and grow faiat, and rise again. Theirs is truly the wail of bereaved creatures,
and there is nothing viilgar in the demonstration, because in their -n-ildest grief
and sorrow there is the natural and not the affected outpouring of the heart's
misery and desolation. The nearest group, generally composed of three women,
leads and directs the sounds of lamentation ; the next responds in fainter and
yet wilder notes ; and, if the tribe is numerous, the dirge is continued far into
the forest.
When the body has lain about lialf an hour, the doctor, or sorcerer, or priest
approaches, and he provides each of the inner circle of mourners with a stick
about six iuches in length. The mourners begin to turn up the earth of the
cleared space with the sticks, makiug trenches about two inches in depth and
three inches in width, each trench formed by one mourner meeting that formed
by his neighbour — so that a circular trench is quickly excavated around the
body.
102 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOBIA:
The ■women at this stage cease their himentations — and all tlioughts are
directed to the result, the thoughts even of those who cannot see but yet know
that a solemn enquiry has been commenced.
As soon as the trench is finished, the doctor and the old men examine it. If
an aperture or hole or excavation made by some insect or worm be found in
the trench, and if that corresj^ond with some other hole between the trench and
the dead body, a connection between them is sought for. A straw or a small
reed is used to discover the connection, and if it be determined, tlieir future pro-
ceedings are settled ; but if that cannot conveniently be done, a line is drawn
from the corpse to the aperture in the trench.
In some such way a line is finally drawn, and to whatever point of the horizon
it is directed, there must the avengers go to get the kidney-fat of the slayer of
their friend. They must bring back to the tribe not only the kidney-fat, but the
kidneys and a piece of the flank of the murderer, as a peace offering. By the
depth of the aperture in the trench the doctor knows and tells the avengers how
far they must travel to find the sorcerer who has caused the death of their
friend.*
* This belief in sorcery is firmly implanted in the minds of all the Aboriginal natives of
Australia, and the customs arising out of the belief are various. Mr. Samuel Gason finds a curious
form of superstition in the Cooper's Creek district. He says that the natives attribute great power
to a bone — Mookooellie-duckana (literally, Mookoo, bone ; and duchana, strike) ; the compound word
signifying struck by a bone.
As soon as a native becomes at all unwell, fears are entertained that some enemy has used the
power of the bone to his injury, and the council of old men assemble to ascertain who is the guilty
person.
" Should the patient remain a considerable time without a change, or his maliidy increase, his
wife, if he have one — or if he have not, the wife of his nearest relative — is ordered to proceed to the
person who is supposed to have caused the sickness. She does so, accomp.anied by her paramour,
and on arrival immediately makes a few presents to the person suspected of her rehative's illness,
but makes no accusation against him, contenting herself with simply stating that her relative is
fallen ill, and is not e.xpected to recover ; whereupon he sympathises with her, and expresses a hope
that the invalid will soon be well again. He knows, however, perfectly well, though not accused,
that he is suspected of having caused the malady; and, on the following morning, acquaints the
woman that she can return to her relative, as he would draw all power away from the bone by
sleeping it in water. Accordingly, the woman carries back the joyful tidings that she has seen the
party who has the bone, and he has promised to take all the power out of it. Now, should the
invalid happen to die, and be a person of any influence, the man who acknowledged to having the
bone is murdered on the first opportunity. Men threaten their wives (should they do anything
wrong) with the bone, causing such dread in their wives, that mostly, instead of having a salutary
effect, it causes them to hate their husbands. The bone is not an ordinary one, but the small bone
of the human leg ; and one of every two of the natives is charged with having one in his possession
wherever he may go ; but, in my own experience, I have never seen more than a dozen, and those
at one of their ceremonies ; as, for instance, when the whole tribe desire to kill at a distance — say
from fifty to one hundred miles — some influential man of another tribe, they order several of the
old men to despoil the dead — that is, to take the small leg-bones from many skeletons. Of these,
the relics of their own tribe, they take from three to eight, which they wrap in fat and emu
feathers; all the most noted men of the tribe taking them and pointing towards the place where
their intended victim is supposed to reside, while doing which they curse the man they desire to
kill, naming the death they would wish him. All present are bound to secrecy, and the ceremony
lasts about an hour. Should thej' learn, after a few weeks, that the miin they destine to destruction
is alive and hearty, they account for it by supposing that some one of the tribe of the person cursed
had stopped the power of the bone. So strongly are men, women, and children convinced of the
power of the bone, that no reasoning can shake their belief."
DEATH, AND BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 103
This inquest being concluded, the digging of the grave is ordered. Two men
are selected for this duty. A dry but not a much elevated spot is generally
Revenge for the death of a member of a tribe ia very deliberately planned.
" Should a man of influence and well connected — that is, have numerous relatives — die suddenly,
or after a long illness, the tribe believe that he has been killed by some charm. A secret council is
held, and some unhappy innocent is accused and condemned, and dealt with by the Pinya.
"The armed band [Pinya] entrusted with the oflSce of executing offenders is appointed as
follows : — A council is called of all the old men of the tribe ; the chief — a native of influence —
selecting the men for the pinya, and directing when to proceed on their sanguinary mission. The
night prior to starting, the men composing the pinya, at about seven p.m., move out of the camp to
a distance of about three hundred yards, where they sit in a circle, sticking their spears in the
ground near them. The women form an outer circle round the men, a number of them bearing
fire-sticks in their hands. The chief opens the council by asking who caused the death of their
friend or relative, in reply to which the others name several natives of their own or neighbouring
tribes, each attaching the crime to his bitterest enemy. The chief, perceiving whom the majority
would have killed, calls out his name in ii loud voice, when each man grasps his spear. The women
who have fire-sticks lay them in a row, and, while so placing them, call out the name of some native,
till one of them calls that of the man previously condemned, when all the men simultaneously spear
the fire-stick of the woman who has named the condemned. Then the leader takes hold of the
fire-stick, and, after one of the old men has made a hole a few inches deep in the ground with his
hand, places the fire-stick in it, and covers it up, all declaring that they will slay the condemned,
and see him buried Uke that stick. After going through some practices too beastly to narrate, the
women return to the camp. The following morning, at sunrise, the pinya attire themselves in a
plaited band, painted white (charpoo), and proceed on their journey until within a day's stage of
the place where they suppose the man they seek will be found, and remain there during the day in
fear they may be observed by some straggling native. At sunset they renew their journey until
within a quarter of a mile of their intended victim's camp, when two men are sent out as spies to
the camp, to ascertain if he is there, and, if possible, where he sleeps. After staying there about
two hours, they report what they hiive seen and heard. The next thing done is the smearing of the
pinya with white clay, so as to distinguish them from the enemy, in case any of the latter should
endeavour to escape. They then march towards the camp at a time when they think the inmates
are asleep, from about midnight to two a.m. ; and, when within one hundred yards of it, divide into
two parties — one going round on one side of the camp, and the second round on the other — forming
a complete circle to hinder escape. The dogs begin to bark, and the women to whimper, not daring
to cry aloud for fear of the pinya, who, as they invest the camp, make a very melancholy grunting
noise. Then one or two walk up to the accused, telling him to come out and they will protect him,
which he, aware of the custom, does not believe, yet he obeys, as he is powerless to resist. In the
meanwhile, boughs are distributed by the pinya to all the men, women, and children, wherewith to
make a noise in shaking, so that the friends and relatives of the condemned may not hear his groans
while he is being executed. The pinya then kill the victim by spearing him and striking him with
the two-handed weapon, avoiding to strike him below the hips, as they believe, were they to injure
the legs, they would be unable to return home. The murder being consummated, they wait for
daylight, when the young men of the pinya are ordered to lie down. The old men then w.^-sh their
weapons, and, getting all the gore and flesh adhering to them off, mix it with some water ; this
agreeable draught being carried round by an old man, who bestows a little upon each young man to
swallow, believing that thereby they will be inspired with courage and strength for any pinya they
may afterwards join. The fat of the murdered man is cut ofl" and wrapped round the weapons of
all the old men, which are then covered with feathers. They then make for home." — The Dieyerie
Tribe of Australian Aborigines, by Samuel Gason, Police-Trooper, 1874.
Thrclkeld mentions a bone — Mur-ra-kun — which is obtained by the Ka-ra-kul, a doctor or
conjuror. Three of the doctors sleep on the grave of a recently-interred corpse, and in the night,
when the doctors are asleep, the dead person inserts .a mysterious bone into each thigh of the three
doctors, who do not feel the puncture more than if an ant had stung them. The bones remain in
the flesh of the doctors without causing them any inconvenience. When they wish to kill any
person, by means which cannot be known, they use the bone in a supernatural manner. The bone
enters the body of the victim, and he dies.
10-1 THE ABORIGINES OF TICTOEIA:
chosen, and the grave, when formed, is about three feet six inches in length, two
feet or a little more in width, and five feet in depth. With mde implements,
and sometimes deeply affected by the circumstances attending this, one of the
last rites to be performed in disposing of the body of their deceased friend, it has
again and again been observed that the diggers of the grave are never careless
or slovenly, and never fail to make it neatly. The sides are straight, and the
lines are truly parallel. When the excavation is finally completed, the sides
pared clean, and the whole interior carefully swept, it is ready for the reception
of the body. At this moment the women renew their lamentations ; and the
voices of the mourners are raised suddenly, so as to startle those amongst the
Aborigines who have not attended many burials. But the sounds are not
suffered to interfere with the serious work of interment. One of the men cuts a
piece of bark from a suitable tree in the vicinity, and trims it until it is exactly
the size of the bottom of the grave, where, as soon as it is finished, it is placed,
and over it are strewn fresh leaves and very small twigs of the gum-tree, so as
to form a soft bed. The chief mourner now approaches, and standing over the
grave, one foot on one side of it and one on the other, he suddenly, and with
passion and energy, tears off his reed-uecklace and the band which encompasses
his forehead, and throws them iato the grave. He then runs from the grave
towards the women, and attempts or seems to attempt to spear them. This
attack is well understood by the old women, and generally by both old and
young, and the sorrowful man is allowed to expend his energy, each one taking
care to avoid injury. The dead man's effects are produced while this is going
on, and the sorcerer now takes the foremost place. He opens the small bag, and
slowly and mournfully shakes out the contents ; and in like manner empties the
large bag. The contents — consisting of pieces of hard stone suitable for cutting
or paring skins, small relics, twine made of opossum wool, bones for boring
holes, and perhaps some articles obtained from Europeans — are placed in the
grave ; and the bags and the rugs of the deceased are torn up and thrown in
likewise. The sorcerer enquires if there is any other property belonging to the
dead man : if there is, it is brought forward and placed beside the bags and rugs.
All the articles which he owned in Ufe must be laid beside his body now that he
is dead.
On the completion of these duties, the body is borne towards the grave. This
is done without ceremony, and in some cases hardly with decency. A stout
blackfellow takes the deceased on his shoulders, and hastens with his load to
the grave, where he drops it suddenly into its resting-place, but not so as to
disturb the earthen walls of the grave. After the breath is out of the body it
must not be brought into contact with human hands nor with the earth. As the
heavy weight falls with a dull sound on the resounding bark, the sorcerer cries
aloud " Koor-re-koor !" He cries "Blood for blood!" or "Life for life!" And
though a savage cry, not more mournful is the voice of the officiating priest who
says over the body of one of our nation "Ashes to ashes — dust to dust." The
wild and weird and mournful cry of the sorcerer has scarcely died away when
one of the men steps into the grave and adjusts the body. The widow — as this
is done — begins her sad ceremonies. She cuts off her hair above her forehead,
DEATH, JlSD BUEIAL OF THE DEAD. 105
and becoming frantic, seizes fire-sticks, and burns her breasts, arms, legs, and
thighs. Rushing from one place to another, and intent only on injuring herself,
and seeming to delight in the self-inflicted torture, it would be rash and vain to
interrupt her. She would fiercely turn on her nearest relative or friend and
burn him with her brands. When exhausted, and when she can scarcely walk,
she yet endeavours to kick the embers of the fire, and to throw them about.
Sitting down, she takes the ashes in her hands, rubs them into her wounds, and
then scratches her face (the only part not touched by the fire-sticks) until the
blood mingles with the ashes which partly hide her cruel wounds. In this
plight, scratching her face continually, she utters howls and lamentations and
quick-voiced curses on the murderer of her husband, which interrupt strangely
and harslily the soft and tender sounds of woe which come from the groups of
women in the distance.*
Neither the cries of the bereaved woman nor her frantic movements are much
noticed by the men who are charged with the duty of interring the corpse. An
opossum rug is now put over the body, and carefully wrapped about it, and the
spaces between it and the walls of the grave are filled in with leaves and tender
twigs ; and the body itself is now covered with leaves. Another piece of bark,
similar to that lying in the bottom of the grave, and as well and as neatly trim-
med, is laid over the covering of leaves and twigs, and little pieces of bark are
so placed at the sides as to prevent the earth from falling upon the coverings of
the dead man. This brings the whole within two feet and a half of the surface of
the ground. Tliese arrangements being satisfactorily completed, a few of the
principal mourners approach. Each one after the other steps into the grave,
and, standing on the bark, mournfully contemplates for a few moments the last
bed of his departed friend. With eyes cast down, and lip and brow expressive
of deep sorrow, he is not surely far removed from his white brother in performing
this last not unholy office. Mourners not nearly related to the deceased merely
cast a glance towards the covered body, and give place to others.
As soon as these simple rites are performed, the men, not hastily and not
without respect to the dead, fill in the grave with earth, using their hands, and
sometimes a stone tomahawk. They stop now and again, and trample the earth,
and when the work is finally accomplished the sorcerer cries, " No-gee-mee,"
" That is enough."
Tliis voice is the signal to the women, whose wild music is at once stilled —
the dogs are let loose, and the members of the tribe are again in motion, and
mingle with one another as before. A few women assemble around the widow,
minister to her wants, and attempt to console her.
The grave is finally completed by raising over it a mound of earth, which is
generally twelve or eighteen inches in height, and about nine yards in length, aud
six yards in width. K the surface of the ground is level, a gutter is made to
* "The custom among the Australians of putting dust or ashes on the head, of shaving the
head, of clipping the heard, and of lacerating the bo<iy at death or in sign of mourninfi, appears very
similar to the practices among the Israelites in the time of Moses. — Vide Leviticus xix., 27, 2S ;
Leviticus xxi., 5 ; Jeremiah xlviii., :i7; Ezekicl xxvii., SO, 31, 32 ; Revelation xviii, 19, &c." — Journals
of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, by Edward John Eyre, 1815, vol. li., p. 353.
P
106 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
carry off the rain-water. Tlie grass and weeds for a small space around the
grave are cut with a tomahawk and removed, the roots burnt off, and the place
is made smooth, and swept. Boughs of trees are placed around it as a fence, a
fire is made at the eastern end of the grave, and the tribe then desert the spot.
They desert the spot because they say they believe that the wild black who
has taken the kidney-fat of the deceased, or the spirit winch has destroyed him,
will wander about the site of the old encaniijment. This is the reason they give
for keeping away from the grave ; but it is probable that the strong human
instinct which leads men to refrain from amusements, cheerful talk, and the
common acts of life in the vicinity of tombs and burial places, and the super-
stitions which are interwoven with all our thoughts of death, rather than any
dread of wicked spirits, are the causes which lead them to abandon the sepulchre.
No thought of danger nor dread of ghosts deters the widow from performing
her duties if the performance of them be jjracticable. If the new encampment
is within any reasonable distance of the grave, she visits it every night before
sunset and every morning before sunrise, and remakes the fire, and sweeps the
ground, and sits by the lonely bed of her deceased husband, sometimes in silent
sorrow, sometimes wailing or singing a dirge* as she wanders slowly through
the forest. Watching her figure, white with the ashes which cover her wounds,
and feeble from torture, we see a picture of real distress which is far more
affecting in its simplicity than the more elaborate mourning which civilization
requires of one bereaved. The fire at the grave is usually kept burning for
about ten days.f
If the deceased had in his life performed any remarkable feats, or rendered
himself notorious as a great hunter, or as a wise counsellor, the sorcerer would
have made a great speech on the occasion of the burial. Sitting cross-legged
at the side of the grave, and sometimes lying on his stomach with his head a
little raised, and sometimes with ear ])ent down, as if listening to the words of
the deceased, he would have alternately praised him as a valiant man, or a good
hunter, or as wise and skilful in deliberation or debate, and then listened for his
* On one occasion when Major Mitchell was near Rodrigo Ponds he heard a female singing.
He says, " While I stood near this spot attending the arrival of the party, which was still at some
distance, I overheard a female voice singing. The notes were pleasing, and very different from the
monotonous strains of the natives in general The soft Eounds so expressive of tran ■
quillity and peace were in perfect unison with the scene around." .... On approaching the
natives, he found that they took no notice of him. One young man continued beating out a skin
against a tree without regard to the presence of a stranger; and he discovered long afterwards thiit
the female was singing a funeral dirge. It is usual for the relatives of one deceased to seem inatten-
tive and insensible to whatever people may be doing around them. — Vol. i., pp. 117-18.
t The late Mr. W. H. Wright made mention of the following incident in a note to me: — "Some-
time about 1844-C I was informed that the tribe of Aborigines living near Wellington Valley were
coming — some twenty-five miles— up the Macquarie River on important business. They proceeded
by very easy stages — perhaps five miles a day — men, women, and children huddled together — and
some of them bore a sort of hand-barrow, or bier, on which a fire was, with much care, kept
constantly burning. In this way they proceeded to a grave situated on the Bell River, and there the
proceedings terminated, and they dispersed. I saw them en route. An intelligent black, who was
my tracker, informed me that their object in proceeding to the grave in question, and of maintaining
the fire so vigilantly, was to relieve the widow of the deceased (whose remains were interred in the
grave) from the bar to her marriage with another blackfellow. After the performance of certain
ceremonies she would be at liberty to marry again — not before." — 30th October 1876.
DEATH, AND BTJUIAL OF THE DE.U). 107
rejilies. Tlie sorcerer would have told the people that as their deceased brother
had killed many wild blackfellows, so, in justice, should many die for him, and
that the dead man had promised that if his murder should be sufficiently
avenged his spirit would not haunt the tribe, nor cause them fear, nor mislead
them into wrong tracks, nor bring sickness amongst them, nor make loud noises
in the night. Such a speech would have nerved the arms of the young men,
and the strongest exertions would have been used to kill many wild black-
fellows. The women would have urged speed, and the young children would
have given the men strength by their tears and their alarm ; because all believe
that if a dead man's wrongs be not avenged, his spirit will return and cause
calamity to the whole tribe of which he was a member.
If the death of a black occur after sunset, when there is not time to use all
the proper ceremonials in the light of day, the body is left in the place where
the spirit fled ; and the nearest of kin — male and female — sit by the side of it
during the long hours of night. Two fires are made, one at the east side of the
corpse, and one at the west ; and the male watches the east fire, and the female
the west. Not until the glare of the morning light has turned the green tree-
tojis to gold does the camp move or the ceremonials begin.
On the occurrence of the death of a GouUnirn black, on the south bank of
the River Yarra, a circumstance attending the last rites batHed the ingenuity of
the sorcerers not a little. After digging the small trench around the body, no
aperture was found, neither in the trench nor in the space between that and the
corpse, and the sorcerers and the mourners were perplexed and uneasy. But the
wise men were troubled but for a short time. If there was not the ordinary
manifestation, it was a sign that they were to look for another ; and one sorcerer
lying on his stomach spoke to the deceased, and the other sitting by his side
received the precious messages which the dead man told. The sorcerer, thus
informed, rose after the lapse of a quarter of an hour, and delivered his speech.
He told the credulous mourners that the dead man had given instructions as to
the way which they should go to find the wild black who had taken his kidney-
fat ; and the people were satisfied.
Sometimes a black, when he knows that he is dying, will save trouble by
naming the tribe to whose wicked arts he has become a victim. Gen-nin —
well known in Melbourne many years ago, and called by the whites "Jack
Weatherly " — was bitten by a snake, and all the iisual remedies failing, and
Gen-nin knowing that his end had come, told his friends that a man of a tribe
living in the north, whose country he described minutely, had entered the snake
and taken his kidney-fat ; and he gave sufficient information to lead to warfare,
if not to the avenging, by the murder of the right man, of his blood.
In some cases a strong and often successful efi"ort is made to screen the real
offender where injury is inflicted on a black. At the gathering of three tribes
on the bauks of the River King, and during a fight which occurred as the
result of the meeting, one black belonging to the Ovens River tribe was pierced
through the lungs by a spear. Before he died he screened the tribe he had been
fighting with by declaring that a wild Murray black had directed the spear, and
that the black who hurled it had nothing to do with the result.
108 THE ACOniGINES OF VICTORIA:
"When a woman or a cliild dies, none but the bereaved exhil)it sorrow. Cere-
monies tliere are none. A grave is dug, and the body is buried, and one might
suppose that the deceased was uncared for but for the fire which is lit near the
tomb. In burying a young girl, they raise a tumulus, and make a fire on the
top of it.
Some tribes inhabiting the country to the north and north-east are said to be
more than ordinarily scrupulous in interring the dead. If practica])le, tliey will
bury the corpse near the spot where, as a child, it first drew breath. A mother
will carry a dead infant for weeks, in the hope of being able to bury it near the
place where it was born ; and a dead man will be conveyed a long distance, in
order that the last rites may be performed in a manner satisfactory to the
tribe.*
When a man is killed in a fight, the tribes enquire whether or not the slain
was N'utker jum-buk — sulky or sullen. If violent or mad, N'ya-arunning, or
vicious, Karndooith — that is to say, if he pursued his enemy with malignity, and
not in the calm manner of a mau seeking merely for victory, but rather with
savage bloodthirstiness — he would be held to be unworthy of decent burial. He
would be left to chance mutilation and decay in the place where he fell. If he
were the aggressor, and sufi"ered death, the rites would not be performed. But
if the victim acted merely in self-defence, his body would be burned, and his
bones gathered together, and jilaced with decent care in the hollow branch of a
tree.
The tribes holding country on the Delatite Eiver, Ovens Eiver, Broken
River, and King River, appear to have burned the bodies of those who had
been married ; and a man killed accidentally was thought to deserve more than
common care in regard to the disposal of his body. His bones were collected
and placed in a hollow tree. The bodies of dead children were, in most cases,
also placed in the hollow branches of trees. In thus disposing of the body of
a child, there was neither negligence nor indecent haste. The hollow branch
• The people of the Wimmera follow some remarkable customs: — "In August 1849 a small
tribe of blacks was encamped on Pettit's Creek, a branch of the Wimmera, near its sources in the
Pyrenees, where one of their number, named 'Georgey,' a remarkably fine young man, and a great
favorite with them, was carried off by consumption. Having first asked permission, his people
chose an elevated spot within my paddock, and dug a grave, in which, after the bottom had bceQ
covered with dry grass, ' Gcorgey's ' remains were placed compactly ' folded ' within a good blanket,
tied round and across with a woollen comforter, and his pannikin and sundry small articles besides.
The grave was closed with a sheet of bark, aud the vault so formed covered with the hcaped-up
soil, and further, a fence was put up to keep the horses off it. In the month of November following
a great storm of wind and rain swept through the country, and almost as soon as it had cleared off
'Georgey's' friends again presented themselves aud begged for the loan of spade and shovel. In
reply to my enquiry why they wanted these, I was told that 'poor fellow "Georgey" was too much
cold and wet and miserable where he was buried,' and they wished to remove him. Having exhumed
the body, they wrapped an additional blanket and comforter round it, placed it on a bier made of
saplings, and carried it across the creek to another spot in the paddock, and placed it in a hollow
tree, all the openings in which they carefully stopped with dead sticks, so that no animals could get
in. The tree was frequently visited, and swept round about ; and the wails of the women used to
be heard on these occasions. The remains of the poor fellow remained here until a bush-fire con-
Bumed the tree some years afterwards, a heap of ashes and a few calcined bones marking the spot
when I revisited it."— W. E. Wright, MS., 30th October 1876.
DEATH, AND BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 109
was cleared of rotten wood, and well swept. The bottom was lined with leaves
and small twigs, well beaten down with a stiff piece of bark. Over those was
placed a piece of bark, cut neatly, so as to fit the aperture. Tlie body was
placed in a rude bark coffin. This was made by peeling the bark ofl" a sapling,
which formed a sort of tube, in which the deceased child could be securely
encased.
The coffin was placed in the hollow, twigs and leaves thrust in between the
coffin and the sides of the hollow branch, more leaves and twigs over the top,
and, finally, a lid of bark so adjusted as to make a very close covering, almost
impervious to rain.
The manner of burning the dead is simple enough. The men gather dry
branches, dry logs, and dry brushwood, and raise a pile about three feet in
height, three feet in width, and six or seven feet in length. Tlie woods are
selected of those kinds which not only ignite easily, but which will contmue to
burn without attention until quite consumed. "When the pile is ready — when
it is of the proper height, and every cranny has been stuffed with dry leaves and
brushwood — two blacks place the dead body on a rude hurdle made of branches,
and carry it to the pile. "Without touching any part of it, they gently and
carefully slide it on to the heap, where it is laid in a becoming attitude. Pre-
ceding the carriers are three or four aged blacks, who, with their spears raised,
walk solemnly and silently. Througliout the proceedings no word is spoken.
Green boughs and bark are laid over the body, and the pile is built to a height
of five feet or more. "While the men are busy building the pQe, there may be
seen, about thirty yards off, a black woman sitting by a very small fire. The
smoke is barely perceptible. She is silent and mournful, and gazes now and
again at the pile. At the right time, an older woman goes to the fire, and takes
a lighted stick. Thereupon the younger female weeps passionately, but never
speaks. The old woman says nothing, but slowly takes her way to the heap of
brushwood, and lights it. In a moment the whole is in a blaze; and all the men
at once return to the encampment. Thus silently do they complete their part
of the duty. After lighting the pile, the old woman returns to the younger,
who sits by the fire. The elder is really, or affects to be, in great grief, and the
two mourn together and weep, and wait until the body is entirely consumed.*
The Goulburn blacks made graves altogether different from those of the
Yarra or "Western Port tribes. For the burial of the body of a deceased warrior
they dug a grave about five feet in depth, and from the bottom of it they made
an excavation in a horizontal direction, about three feet in length and two feet
six inches in height. A bed composed of leaves and small twigs was made in
the cave thus formed, and the body was placed on it, and the spaces between it
and the sides packed with leaves and twigs. The mouth of the cave was closed
with a door, formed of a thick piece of bark, and was fastened securely by stakes
driven into the ground. The grave was then filled in with earth. At tlie end of
the grave most remote from the body, and at right-angles to it, was raised a low
tumulus in the shape of a shield ( Gee-atn).
* Amongst the Romans it was the next of blood that performed the ceremony of lighting the pile.
110 THE ABOEIGIXES OF VICTOEIA:
The Barrabool LLacks generally stuck a fighting-stick ( Worra-Korra) at the
eastern end of the grave of a yonng man.
Mr. Daniel Bunce,* an intelligent observer, and a gentleman well acquainted
with the habits of the blacks, says that no tribe that he has ever met with
believe in the possibility of a man dying a natural death. If a man is taken ill,
it is at once assumed that some member of a hostile tribe has stolen some of
his hair. This is quite enough to cause serious illness. If the man continues
sick and gets worse, it is assumed that the hair has been burnt by his enemy.
Such an act, they say, is sufficient to imperil his life. If the man dies, it is
assumed tliat the thief has choked his victim and taken away his kidney-fat.
When the grave is being dug, one or more of the older men — generally doctors
or conjurors {Buk-na^look) — stand by and attentively watch the laborers ; and
if an insect is thrown out of the ground, these old men observe the direction
which it takes, and having determined the line, two of the young men, relations
of the deceased, are despatched in the path indicated, with instructions to kill the
first native they meet, who they are assured and believe is the person directly
chargeable with the crime of causing the death of their relative.
Mr. John Green says that the men of the Yarra tribe firmly believe that no
one ever dies a natural death. A man or a woman dies because of the wicked
arts practised by some member of a hostile tribe ; and they discover the
direction in which to search for the slayer by the movements of a lizard which
is seen immediately after the corpse is interred.
There are several methods of ascertaining the direction in which the avengers
must go for the purpose of finding the wicked person who has comj^assed the
death of an Aboriginal. Mr. F. M. Hughan, who is competent to speak of the
habits of the Aborigines of the Lower Murray, thus describes one very curious
ceremony which he himself observed in 1851. On the death of an aged head-
man of a tribe, there gathered together near the grave very many mourners.
The women, as is customary, burnt themselves with fire-sticks, and howled
dismally ; and all the proper rites having been performed around the grave,
which was dug in a sandhill having a gentle slope towards the bank of the Tarn
Creek, a mound was finally raised and smoothly coated with wet clay. Around
the mound a circle of spears was formed, and by each spear sat a warrior.
Another set of less prominent men sat in a circle, each by his spear. Around
these, and at a little distance, and sitting fiirther apart, the women formed an
outer circle. Not a sound was heard from the mourners. Sadly and patiently
they awaited an event which was to be caused by the fierce sun overhead. The
heat was oppressive, but no murmur arose in the circles. At length the clay
which covered the grave cracked. The old men drew nigh, and having ascer-
tained the direction of the first main fissure in the drying clay, they indicated
the path which the warriors were to take in order to find the person who had
practised sorcery on their deceased relative. There, as elsewhere, it was the
duty of the avengers to bring back the kidney-fat of the first man of another
tribe whom they might meet.
* Since deceased. He was Curator of the Botanical Gardens at Geelong.
DEATH, ANT) BUEIAL OF THE DEAD. HI
Mr. Stanbridge, vrritiug of the natives of the central part of Victoria, says
that " when a person dies of a loathsome disease, the body is burned ; while that
of a young person, whose death is attributable to a different cause, is put into
a tree to decay. The bones are afterwards collected and buried, the mother
sometimes securing the small bones of the legs, to wear round her neck as a
memorial. Persons of matured life, especially old men and doctors, are buried
with much ceremony. The grave is made in a picturesque spot, to which the
body is borne by the relatives ; and with it are interred the weapons and other
articles belonging to the deceased. The grass is cleai'ed away around the grave
for about a yard at each side, and eight yards at each end, in the form of a
canoe, and the ground carefully swept daily by the female relatives ; and for a
time a small fire is made every night at the foot of the grave. K the person
were much respected, a Uttle covering of boughs or bark upon four supports is
placed over it, and the canoe-shaped space neatly fenced with stakes." Mr.
Staabridge adds that they have the same belief in sorcery as in other jiarts, and
that they select men to avenge the death, who go forth and kill the first persons
they meet, whether men, women, or children ; and the more lives that are
sacrificed, the greater is the honor to the dead. When a death occurs, the
women weep and lament, and tear the skin of their temples with their nails.
The parents of the deceased lacerate themselves fearfully, especially if he be an
only son. The father beats and cuts his head with his tomahawk, and groans
bitterly ; and the mother sits by the fire and burns her breast and abdomen
with a fire-stick until she wails with pain. This continues for hours daily,
until the time of lamentation is completed. Sometimes the bums are so severe
as to cause death. The relatives of the deceased cover their heads and the
upper part of their faces with white clay, which is worn during the time of
mourning, and widows in some cases have the hair first taken off with a little
fire-stick, by the doctor or priest, before they assume this badge of woe. The
dead are rarely spoken of, and never by name. To mention the name would
excite the malignity of Couit-gil, the spirit of the departed, which hovers over
the earth for a time, and finally goes towards the setting sun.
The following account of the burial ceremonies of the tribes living near the
mouth of the River Murray is compiled from a report written by the Eev. Geo.
Taplin. The report was published in the South Australian Register : —
The Narrinyeri, inhabiting the Lakes and the Lower Murray, believe, when
a death occurs, that sorcery has caused it. When a man dies, his nearest
relative sleeps with his head on the corpse, and dreams a dream and discovers
the name of the sorcerer who has caused the death of his friend. When the
body is being carried to the grave, the male members of the tribe gather around
it, and they call out the names of those who they think may have practised
sorcery, watching the dead body all the time. If it moves when a name is
mentioned, then they know on whom to be avenged. As a rule, the body stirs
not until the dreamer tells the name of the sorcerer of whom he has dreamt.
At that sound the bearers bend forward towards the dreamer, believing, and
making others believe, that the impidse is given by the corpse ; and thereupon
the tribe is satisfied that the murderer is discovered. The deceased, lying on a
112 THE ABORIGINES OF TICTOEIA:
bier, is placed over a slow fire for a day or longer, and when the skin blisters it
is removed. All the apertures of the body are sewn up, and it is rubbed with
grease and red-ochre. Finally, it is set up naked on a stage, formed of branches
and boughs of trees, and protected by a covering of branches. A small fire is
lighted under it, which is kept up by the attendants until it is dry ; and finally
it is wrapped up in mats and placed in a wurley. Tlie friends of the deceased,
both male and female, lament and wail during the performance of these rites.
They cut off their hair ; they smear their faces with fat and jjounded charcoal ;
they beat and cut themselves ; and in other ways give expression to their great
grief. Not one is indifferent. Any want of proper feeling would expose a
native to the suspicion of sorcery, and might cause his life to be forfeited.
While the body is drying, the relatives live, eat, drink, and sleep under the
putrefying mass, and the females weep continuously, and, if they can, copiously.
One always stands weeping in front of the corpse during the process of drying.
The dead body, all anointed with red-ochre and raised in a sitting posture ;
the smoke now partially hiding it and now sweeping behind it and spreading in
thin wreaths amongst the boughs ; the old men moving their long wands, on
which they have tied bunches of feathers, in order to paint the body with ochre ;
the patient grief-stricken groups standing by ; the weeping and disordered
females — together make up a picture which harmonises with the untilled
branch-strewn ground, the gaunt grey limbs of the sparsely-foliaged trees, and
the somewhat harsh lights and shadows of an Australian forest.
When any one leaves the wurley for a few days, he is expected, on his return,
to place himself in iront of the body and to weep and lament. Not untU the
sorcerer is destroyed, or other expiatory sacrifice made, is the spirit of the dead
man appeased. If the person named by the dreamer belongs to some tribe of
the Narrinyeri, a difficulty arises. They may not desire to kill the sorcerer.
Under such circumstances, they despatch messengers, in order to ascertain tlie
temper of the friends and relatives of the sorcerer. Probably the negotiations
result in the injured tribe formally cursing the slayer of their friend, and all his
people. If this is done, arrangements are made for a fight, and the hostile
tribes meet without delay. The men of the tribe to which the dead man
belonged commence to weep and lament as soon as they see their foes. Their
opponents mock and deride them, and some of them dance wild dances,
flourishing their spears the while. They shout, they laugh wildly, and take all
means known to them to provoke a fight. If they have long unsettled disputes
between them, in addition to the immediate quarrel, they fight somewhat
savagely, and one or two may perchance be killed, and the like number severely
wounded ; but if they are met merely to "give satisfaction" for the injury done
to the dead man, the fight is interruiDted, after a few spears are thrown, by some
old man, who declares that enough has been done. If the old men on both sides
agree, tlie hostUe tribes mingle on friendly terms, and there is an end of the
business. The death is avenged.
It is usual to preserve the hair of a dead man. It is spun into a cord and
fastened around the head of a warrior. Wearing it, he sees clearly, is more
active, and can parry with his shield or avoid the spears of his foes in a fight.
DEATH, AND BUEIAI; OF THE DEAD. 113
The funeral rites — as observed by the people of the Encounter Bay tribe, in
South Australia — are thus described by Mr. H. E. Meyer : —
" Children still-born, or that have been put to death immediately after birth,
are burned. If a child dies a natural death, it is carefully packed up, and the
mother or grandmother carries it about with her for several months, or a year ;
after which it is exposed upon a tree until the bones are completely cleaned,
after which they are buried. Young and middle-aged persons are buried in the
following manner : — As soon as the person is dead, the knees are drawn up
towards the head, and the hands placed between the thighs. Two fires are
kindled, and the corpse placed between, so as to receive the heat of the fires and
of the sun. After a few days the skin becomes loose, and is taken off. Such a
corpse is then called Grinkari. This custom may explain why this name has
been applied to Europeans, from the resemblance between their color and that
of the native corpse after the skin has been removed. After this all the open-
ings of the body are sewn up, and the whole surface rubbed with grease and red-
ochre. Thus prepared, the corpse is placed upon a hut so arranged that the head
and arms can be tied. It is then placed with the face to the east, and the arms
extended, and a fire is kept constantly beneath. It remains thus until quite dry,
when it is taken by the relations and packed up in mats, and then carried from
one place to another — the scenes of his former life. After having been thus
carried about for several months, it is placed upon a platform of sticks, and left
until completely decayed. The head is then taken by the next of kin, and serves
him for a drinking vessel ; and now his name may be mentioned, which if done
before would highly offend his relations, and is sometimes the cause of a war.
Tliis may be the reason of there being several names for the same thing. Thus,
if a man has the name Ngnke, which signifies water, the whole tribe must use
some other word to express water for a considerable time after his death. If a
man is killed in battle, or dies in consequence of a wound, he is supposed to
have been charmed with the plongge. And, in addition to the above-mentioned
ceremonies, they hold a kind of inquest over the corpse, to ascertain to whom he
owes his death. One of the nearest relations sleejDS with his head resting upon
the corpse imtil he dreams of the guilty person. As soon as this is ascertained,
which is generally after the first or second night, he orders wood to be brought
to make a kind of bier, upon which the corpse is placed. Several men then take
the bier upon their shoulders, and the dreamer — striking upon the breast of the
corpse — asks, ' Who charmed you ? ' He then mentions the name of some
person. All remain quiet. After he has asked this question many times, and
mentioned several names, he mentions the name of the person he saw in his
dream. The bearers then immediately begin running, as if mad, pretending
that the corpse has moved itself. The corpse is then erected as above described,
and all the friendly tribes come to lament. Tlie nearest relations cut off their
hair and blacken their faces, and the old women put human excrement on their
heads — the sign of the deepest mourning. If the supposed guilty one should
come to the lamentation, the dreamer looks narrowly to his countenance, and if
he does not shed tears, is the more convinced of liis guilt, and considers it now
his duty to avenge his relation's death. Tlie person who sews up the ajicrtures
Q
114 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
of the corpse runs some risk if he does not provide himself with good string ;
as, if the string should break, it is attributed to the displeasure of the deceased,
who is supposed to make known in this manner that he has been charmed by
him : also if the small quill used as a needle should not be sufficiently sharp to
penetrate the flesh easily, the slightest movement caused by pressing the blunt
point into the flesh is supposed to be spontaneous motion of the cori^se, and to
indicate that the sewer is the guilty person. Rather aged persons are not
treated with all the ceremonies above mentioned, but are merely ■^Tapped up in
mats and placed upon an elevated platform, formed of sticks and branches,
supported by a tree and two posts, and, after the flesh has decayed, the bones
are burned. The very old are buried immediately after death."
In these observances the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay tribe appear to
transgress the rule which forbids the touching by the naked hands of a dead
body. The above is given in Mr. Meyer's own language. It is undoubtedly an
accurate statement, and serves to show that no particular description of burial
ceremonies can be held applicable to all tribes, or even to any one tribe if the
age, character, or position of the deceased was such as to procure for him more
than ordinary respect. It is probable, however, that the customs of any one
tribe were rarely departed from without some strong and sufficient reason, even
when the most distinguished amongst them was consigned to his final resting-
place.
Mr. Charles TTilhelmi gives the following accoimt of the practices of the
Aborigines of the Port Lincoln district, South Australia: —
"Although, on the one side, they possess a fierce and hostile spirit, still, on
the other, it must be observed that they are capable of the more noble feelings
of pity and compassion. This is called forth by a dangerous wound, as also by
a severe sickness, biit still clearer is it observed at and after the death of a
friend. On such occasions they are accustomed, and particularly the female
sex, to assemble and to weep bitterly. The loud lamentations to which they
give vent upon the death of a relative or friend may perhaps be a custom
inherited from their forefathers, for they always weep together and at the same
time. They also employ foreign means to produce tears. They rub the eyes
and scratch the nose, if their own frame of mind should not be sufficiently
sorrowful, or if the example of others should fail to produce tears. Their weep-
ing and groans at the commencement of a lamentation seem to be somewhat
formal and forced, and thus the suspicion arises that they seem more sorrowful
than is warranted by their true feelings. Nevertheless, the Rev. Mr. Shurmann
believes that the Aborigines feel deeply and mourn heartily the death of a
friend. One of them is accustomed to break out suddenly into a long-pro-
tracted plaintive tone, and gradually his example is followed by the others.
After this lamentation, a profound silence is observed, and in truth their
behaviour is such as belongs to persons oppressed by great grief. For years
after the death of a fi-iend on no occasion whatever do they pronounce his
name. This, as one might suppose, does not proceed from superstition, but
from the simple reason that they do not wish again to awake their slumbering
feelings, or, to use their own expression, that they do not wish to weep too much.
DEATH, AND BUEIAL OF THE DEAD. 115
Should it be absolutely necessary to indicate a deceased person, it is done in the
following manner: — I am a widow — I am fatherless, brotherless, or the like, as
tlie case may be, instead of saying my husband, mj' father, or my brother is
dead. The last ground on which Mr. Shurmann bases the sincerity of their
grief is that they risk their lives to revenge their deceased friend, if susi^ecting
bis death to have been caused by foul means.
"Although at the interment of the dead certain rites and customs are
generally observed, these are at times dispensed with, as was instanced in the
case of an old man. After having dug a hole five feet deep and four feet long,
and spread some dry grass in the bottom, they lowered the corpse into it, with
the legs bent upwards, as the hole was too short to receive it in its proper
position. [Tliis is surely a mistake. The dead bodies of the natives are not laid
at full length.] The head, as is invariably done, was placed at the west end,
from the notion that the departed souls all reside in an island situated eastward.
The body was then covered with a kangaroo skin, and sticks having been driven
immediately above it lengthwise into the sides of the grave, leaving a vacant
space above it, the whole was then filled up with earth. As the last of this
simple proceeding, some branches or bushes were collected around the grave,
with the view, as I should think, of preventing stray cattle and horses from
trampling upon it. In the immediate neighbourhood only of European settle-
ments, where they can obtain the necessary tools, are they able to dig such deep
graves. Further up in the interior, where they are confined to the yam-sticks
for the operation of digging, the graves are made only sufficiently deep to admit
the body, the sticks being driven in immediately above it. This custom is
always observed, very probably in order to prevent the wild dogs from scraping
up the body."
These observations appear to refer to the practices of blacks who have been
contaminated by intercourse with the lower class of whites. They are in other
respects not in accord with what is known of the wild Aborigines. A black-
fellow with a yam-stick can dig out a wombat, and two or three or four would
quickly dig a grave four or five feet in depth, if they considered it proper to
make it of that depth. Mr. "Wilhelmi's observations, however, are not without
value.
Capt. Grey very graphically describes the burial ceremonies of the natives
of Perth, in Western Australia: —
"Yen-na and Warrup, the brothers-in-law of MuUigo, were digging his
grave, which, as usual, extended due east and west; the Perth boyl-ya, Weeban
by name, who, being a relation of the deceased, could of course have had no
hand in occasioning his death, superintended the operations. They commenced
by digging with their sticks and hands several holes in a straight line, and as
deep as they could; they then united them and threw out the earth from the
bottom of the pit thus made. All the white sand was thrown carefully into two
heaps, nearly in the form of a European grave, and these heaps were situated
one at the head and the other at the foot of the hole they, were digging, whilst the
dirty colored sand was thrown into two other heaps, one on each side. The grave
was very narrow, only just wide enough to admit the body of the deceased. Old
116 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOELl:
Weeban paiil the greatest possible attention to see that the east and west
direction of the grave was preserved, and if the least deviation from this line
occurred in the heaps of sand, eitlier at the head or foot, he made some of the
natives rectify it by sweeping the sand into its proper form witli boughs of
trees During the process of digging, an
insect having been thrown np, its motions were watched with the most intense
interest, and as this little insect thouglit proper to crawl off in the direction of
Guildford, an additional proof was furnished to the natives of the guilt of the
boi/l-f/as of that place. When the grave was completed, they set fire to some
dried leaves and twigs, then, throwing them in, they soon had a large blaze in
it; during this part of the ceremony, old Weeban knelt on the ground at the
foot of the grave, with his back turned towards the east, and his head bowed
to the earth, his whole attitude denoting the most profound attention; the
duty he had now to perform was a most important one, being no less than to
discover in which direction tlie boi/l->jas, wlien drawn out of the earth by the
fire, would take flight. Their departure was not audible to common ears, or
visible to the eyes of ordinary mortals, but his power of hoyl-ya gaduk enabled
him to distinguish these sights and sounds which were invisible and inaudible
to the bystanders. The fire roared for some time loudly in the grave, and every
eye rested anxiously on old Weeban ; the hollow, almost mysterious, sound of
the flames as they rose from the narrow aperture evidently had a powerful
effect upon the superstitious fears of the natives, and when he suddenly raised
his meeiTO [/i-<?/«e;va— throwing-stick], and then let it fall over his shoulder in
a due east direction (the direction of Guildford), a grim smile of satisfaction
passed over the countenances of the young men, who now knew in what
direction to avenge the foul witchcraft which they felt assured had brought
about the death of their brother-in-law. The next part of their proceedings
was to take the body of Mulligo from the females: they raised it in a cloak; his
old mother made no effort to prevent its being removed, but jjassionately and
fervently kissed the cold, rigid lips which she could never press to hers again.
The body was then lowered into the grave, and seated upon a bed of leaves,
which had been laid there directly the fire was extinguished, the face being,
according to custom, turned towards the east. The women still remained
grouped together, sobbing forth their mournful songs, whilst the men placed
small green boughs upon the body, until tiiey had more than half filled up the
grave with them; cross pieces of wood, of considerable size, were then fixed in
the opposite sides of the grave, green boughs placed on these, and the earth
from the two side heaps thrown in until the grave was completed, which then,
owing to the heaps at the head and foot, presented the appearance of three
graves, nearly similar in size and form, lying in a due east and west direction.
The men having now completed their task, the women came with bundles of
black-boy tops which they had gathered, and laid these down on the central
heap, so as to give it a green and pleasing appearance; they placed neither
meerro nor spear on the grave, but whilst they were filling in the earth, old
Weeban and another native sat on their hams at the head of it, facing the one
to the north and the other to the south, their foreheads leaning on their clasped
DEATH, AND BUEIAl OF THE DEAD. 117
hands, which rested ou one end of a meerro, whilst the other was placed on the
ground."
The following suggestive and highly interesting account of the ceremonies of
the blacks of the Vasse River, in Western Australia, as described by Mr. Bussel
in Capt. Grey's work, is valuable : —
" The funeral is a wild and fearful ceremony. Before I had finished in the
stockyard, the dead man was already removed, and on its way to the place of
interment, about a quarter of a mile from the place where the death took place,
and 1 left our house, entirely guided by the shrill wailing of the female natives,
as they followed, mourning, after the two men who bore the body in their arms.
The dirge, as distance blended all the voices, was very plaintive — even musical ;
nor did the diminution of distance destroy the harmony entirely. Some of the
chants were really beautiful, but rendered perhaps too harsh for our ears, iu
actual contact ; for as 1 joined myself to the procession, and became susceptible
of the trembling cadence of each separate performer — the human voice in every
key which the extremes of youth and age might produce — there was a sensation
etfected which I cannot well describe — a terrible jarring of the brain. The fiict
that the involuntary tears rolled down the cheeks of those infants who sat
passively on their mothers' shoulders, not appreciating the cause of lament, but
merely as listeners, must prove that these sounds are calculated to afl'ect the
nervous system powerfully. The procession moved slowly on, and at length
arrived at the place fixed upon for the burial. There had been a short silence
previous to coming thus far, as if to give the voice a rest ; for as the body
touched the ground, and the bearers stood erect and silent, a piercing shriek
was given, and as this died away into a chant, some of the elder women lacerated
their scalps with sharp bones, until the blood ran down their furrowed faces in
actual streams. The eldest of the bearers then stepped forward and proceeded
to dig the grave. I offered to get a spade, but they would not have it ; the
digging-stick was the proper tool, which they used with greater despatch than
from its imperfect nature could have been expected at first sight. The earth,
being loosened with this implement, was then thrown out with the hands with
great dexterity, in complete showers, so as to form, in the same line with the
grave, at both ends, two elongated banks, the sand composing them so lightly
hurled as to seem almost like drift sand on the sea-shore. In the throw, if
perchance the right limit was out-stepped, the proper form was retained by
sweeping. The digging, notwithstanding the art displayed, was very tedious ;
they all sat in silence, and there were no chants to understand, or to fancy one
understood, or perhaps to make meanings to. But at length the grave was
finished, and they then threw some dry leaves into it, and setting fire to them,
M'hile the blaze was rising up, every one present struck repeatedly a bundle of
spears with the mearu, which they held with the butts downwards, making a
rattling noise ; then, when the fire had burnt out, they placed the corpse beside
the grave, and gashed their thighs, and at the flowing of the blood they all
said, ' 1 have brought blood,' and then stamped the foot forcibly ou the ground,
sprinkling the blood around them ; then, wiping the wounds with a wisp of
leaves, they threw it, bloody as it was, ou the dead man ; then a loud scream
118 THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
ensued, and tliey lowered tlie body into the grave, resting on the back, with the
soles of the feet on the ground and the knees bent ; they filled the grave with
soft brushwood, and piled logs on this to a considerable height, being very
careful all the time to prevent any of the soil from falling into the apertures ;
they then constructed a hut over the wood-stack, and one of the male relations
got into it and said, ' Mya balung einya ngin-na' — (' I sit in his house'). One
of the women then dropped a few live coals at his feet, and having stuck his
dismantled meerro at the end of one of the mounds, they left the place, retiring
in a contrary direction from that in which they came, chanting."
At King George's Sound tlie body is laid in a short, narrow, and rather
sliallow grave. It is covered with a cloak, and the knees are bent and the arms
crossed. At the bottom of the grave is placed a sheet of bark, over which are
strewn leaves and branches. Leaves and green twigs are heaped on the body
also, and the hole is then filled with earth. Green boughs are placed over the
grave, and the weajjons of the deceased are laid likewise on it. The mourners
carve circles on the trees that grow near, at a height of six or seven feet from
the ground ; and, lastly, make a small fire in front. Their mourning is black or
•white, laid on in blotches across the forehead, round the temples, and down the
cheek-bones, and is worn for a considerable time. They scratch the cheeks to
produce tears. — (Mr. Scott Kind.)
Capt. Grey observes that the natives of many parts of Australia, when at a
funeral, cut off portions of their beards, and singeing these, throw them upon
the dead body. In some instances they cut off the beard of the dead Ijody, and,
burning it, rub themselves and the body with the singed portions of it.
All that relates to the customs of the natives of Cooper's Creek is of more
than common interest, because they appear to be in many resjiects inferior to
those tribes living in parts where food is more abundant and of better quality
than that obtainable in any part of the gi"eat dejiression towards which Cooper's
Creek trends ; and I was glad to receive through Mr. A. "W. Howitt the following'
paper from Senior Constable James : —
"During a residence of about eight years in that portion of South Australia
that is inhabited by the Dieyerie tribe of blacks (Cooper's Creek), I had only two
opportunities of observing the full funeral rites performed by them. As both
were precisely similar, I will only describe one. The deceased was an old man
who had been sick for a long time, and there was a considerable number of the
tribe assembled, having probably come to be present at the obsequies. As soon
as the breath was out of the body, all the women and children left the wurleys,
and, sitting down about fifty j'ards off, the women set up a great wailing, and
covered their heads and smeared their bodies with pipeclay. Pipeclay on the
head of a black of this tribe always denotes that the wearer is lamenting the
death of one of their number. The wailing was kept up for hours ; it was a
kind of monotonous howl, in which a sort of time was kept, and which now and
again would almost altogether subside ; then suddenly break out afresh as loud
and as vehement as ever. I may add that tears often course down the cheeks of
the women when they are lamenting the dead thus, but there appears to be little
grief in reality, for, if spoken to, they will at once stop lamenting, and answer
DEATH, AND BUEIAIi OF THE DEAD. 119
just as at any other time, the features and voice assuming the ordinary expres-
sion and tone. Directly the women left the camp, the men gathered round the
dead man and pulled his w^irley do^\^l, so that they could get close around the
body. An old man then advanced, and, with a green bough of gum in each
hand, stood astride over the body, facing the head, and, waving the boughs,
began to utter a sort of chant (keeping time with the boughs) over the body ;
at times he would make a sudden jjause, and then call the deceased sharply
byname ; again pausing, as if for a reply. The chant would then go on again
in precisely the same manner as before, always ending with the abrupt pause
and sharp call on the dead man by his name. His incantation, or whatever
it was, was kept up for fully two hours, the rest of the men standing silent
around the while ; the old man at length appeared to have satisfied himself
that he could not cause the dead man to answer, and so finished his conjura-
tion ; and saying something in his own language to the other men around,
they all proceeded to put pipeclay on their lieads and little spots of alternate
red and white all over their bodies. This done, some of the younger men
were sent off to dig a grave, and the elder ones proceeded to tie the great
toes of the body together very securely, with strong, stout string, and then
tied both the thumbs together behind the back, the body being turned face
downwards whilst the latter operation was going on. From the manner in
which the strings were tightened and the care taken over that part of the
business, one would think that even a strong, healthy living man could not
break or rise from such bonds. In reply to me, they said the tying was to
prevent him from 'walking.' The tying of the body being completed, and the
grave ready, eight men knelt down, four on each side of the body, and, takino- it
up, placed it on their heads, and thus carried it to the grave, followed by the rest
of the men in a disorderly, straggling crowd. The grave was about a quarter of a
mile from the camp. It was about four feet deep, and into this two men jumped
and assisted the bearers to place the body ; then, getting out of the grave, aided
those present in bringing and laying lengthwise on the body a large quantity of
dead wood, filling up the grave, and piling it above to the height of about four
feet and arouud the ends and sides of the grave, forming thus a pile of about
twelve feet in diameter, being round on the top. They said that wood was used
instead of earth to prevent Kintala (native dog or dingo) from scratchino- into
the grave and eating the body. The grave was then swept carefidly all arouud
so as to obliterate the traces of footsteps, and every one at once returned to the
camp, and proceeded to re-erect the -wiirleys a short distance from the camp in
which the death had taken place, as this tribe never again occupies a camp in
which a death has occurred. Every night for one moon (four weeks) two old
men went to the grave about dusk, and carefully swept all round it; each mornino-
for the same period, they visited it, to see if there were any tracks of the dead
man on the swept space. They told me that if they were to find tracks tliey
would have to remove the body and bury it elsewhere, as the foot-marks would
denote that the dead man was 'walking' and discontented with his present o-rave.
For some days after a death the women indulge in an occasional howl of lament.
The men never howl or give utterance to grief; merely wearing the pipeclay and
120 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
red-ochre till it nibs off. All who are aware of the death abstain from the
mention of the dead man's name. They do not like the conversation to be about
a dead man ; but if it sliould take that direction, the dead are not mentioned
directly by name. Should a white man offend by doing so, they always tell him
' That one tumble down, no you call im,' wliich is their method of saying in
Eno'lish 'That man is dead, don't mention his name.' When a death has
occurred, messengers are despatched to the various camps of the whole tribe
with the intelligence, and the pipeclay mourning is then put on the heads of all,
young and old of both sexes, and the wailing is raised by the women just as at
the place where the death has taken place ; but the absent men do not spot their
bodies with red and white ; only those who assist personally at the funeral rites
do that, asserting that by tliat means they run no risk of getting sick by contact
with the corpse, or, as my informant expressed it, 'You see very good make-im
like that ; suppose me no make-im, me tumble down too : that one' (indicating
the body) 'growl aloug-a-me.' "
Mr. Samuel- Gason, the author of the little work on the manners of the Die-
yerie people already referred to, gives the following description of the modes of
disposing of the dead. It appears that the fat of the corpse is eaten : —
" When a man, woman, or child dies, no matter from what cause, the big
toes of each foot are tied together, and the body enveloped in a net. Tlie grave
is duo' to about three feet, and the body is carried thither on the heads of three
or four men, and on arrival is placed on its back for a few minutes. Then
three men kneel tlown near the grave, while some other natives place the body
on the heads of the kneeling men. One of the old men (usually the nearest
relative) now takes two light rods, each about three feet long (these are called
coontja), and holds one in each hand, standing about two yards from the corpse ;
then, beating the coonya together, he questions the corpse, in the belief that it
can understand him, enrpiiring how he died, who was the cause of his death, and
the name of the man who killed him — as even decease from natural causes they
attribute to a charm or spell exercised by some enemy. The men sitting round
act as interpreters for the defunct, and, according as the general opinion obtains,
give some fictitious name of a native of another tribe. When the old man stops
beating the cooni/a, the men and women commence crying, and the body is
removed from the heads of the bearers, and lowered into the grave, into which a
native (not related to the deceased) steps, and proceeds to cut off all the fat
adhering to the muscles of the face, thighs, arms, and stomach, and passes it
round to be swallowed ; the reason assigned for this horrible practice being that
thus the nearest relatives may forget the departed and not be continually crying.
The order in which they partake of their dead relatives is this : — The mother
eats of her children ; the children eat of their mother. Brothers-in-law and
sisters-in-law eat of each other. Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, grandchildren,
grandfathers, and grandmothers eat of each other. But the father does not eat
of his offspring, or the oflspring of the sire. After eating of the dead, the men
paint themselves with charcoal and fat, making a black ring round the mouth.
This distinguishing mark is called Munamuroomuroo. The women do likewise,
besides painting two white stripes on their arms, which marks distinguish those
DEATH. AND BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 121
who have partaken of the late deceased ; the other men smearing themselves all
over with white clay, to testify their grief. The grave is covered in with earth,
and a large stack of wood placed over it. The iirst night after the burial the
women dance round the grave, crying and screaming incessantly till sunrise,
and so continue for a week or more. Should the weather be cold when a native
dies, fires are lighted near the grave, so that the deceased may warm himself,
and often they place food for him to eat. Invariably, after a death, they shift
their camp, and never speak of or refer to the defunct."
In Fraser Island (Great Sandy Island), Queensland, they have strange
methods of disposing of the dead. Old men, old women, and young women
that are not fat, are rolled in their blankets or rugs, and buried in a grave
which is dug to a depth of about four feet. They place a sheet of bark over
the corpse, near the surface, to leave room, as they say, for the spirit or ghost
(^Mothar-mothar) to move about and come up.
When a young man dies, they first skin him, then cut off his flesh, which is
placed on their spears to dry; the bones are then taken to pieces, the large ones
are cut asunder, and the marrow emptied out. The various parts — skin, flesh,
bones, &c. — are finally distributed among the kinsfolks, and carried about by them
in their bags and baskets, as charms to ward off evil. When old and stale, they
are placed up in trees, on boughs laid across for this purpose. Sometimes they
burn the bones of the dead and carry the ashes about with them. Sometimes
the dead bodies are placed (whole) in trees. They do not like to speak about
the dead ; among themselves, it is generally done in a sort of a whisper ; and
they are firm believers in ghosts.
There is great mourning and crying when a young man dies, and the female
relatives cut themselves about in a frightful manner with shells, kc. But there
is very little weeping or wailing when a woman or an old man dies.*
Capt. Grey, quoting Dr. Duncan, says that when a black of North Australia
dies, or is killed, the body is buried in the earth, and at the end of five days it
is dug up again, and the bones, &c., are wrapped up in the bark of trees, and
these are carried about by the tribe.
At Cygnet Bay, an ofiicer of the Beagle found a skeleton enveloped in three
pieces of papyrus bark. All the bones were closely packed together, and the
head surmounted the whole.
Comparing the modes of burial as practised by the Aborigines of Australia
with those of other uncivilized races, there are so many customs and rites
exactly the same, or similar, that we are not entitled to regard the Australian as
peculiar in his habits. A stranger who sees a burial of an Australian black is
apt to suppose that he has witnessed ceremonies unknown elsewhere. But,
separated by wide seas and vast continents, there are other races who follow the
like practices, and strangely even those of them which seem, before we reason
as to the causes, absurd and inhuman. For instance, the avenging of the
deceased man's blood — under the belief that sorcery has caused his death, and
that stratagems and subtleties have been used by some enemy — a man of
* Prom information obtained tlirough the Rev. L. Fison.
B
122 TEE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA.
another tribe — is known amongst the Ajitas, natives of the Philipjiine Islands.
A dead warrior amongst them cries from his grave for vengeance. His friends
arm themselves and disperse through the forests, and kill something — man or
beast — in order that the dead may rest in peace. They break little twigs as
they pass along as a warning to friendly natives ; but if accident brings them
near even a friend, then he is regarded as the enemy of the deceased, and must
die. The same idea moves the Wanyamufizi and other African tribes to ascribe
the sickness of a man to sorcery.
The placing of the dead body on a bier in the ■woods is a custom always
observed by the natives of the Nine or Savage Islands ; by the Tahitans ; by
the Dyaks of Borneo ; by the Araucanians, by the Ahts, and by other tribes of
American Indians.
The custom of neglecting the body of a man who has been killed in a quarrel
brought on by his o^\ti misconduct is found, with some modifications, in many
parts of the world. Amongst the Kaffirs, a man who has been killed by order
of the king is left to become the prey of wild beasts. A man of the Latooka
tribe killed in battle remains \;uburied on the lield to be eaten by hyenas.
Tlie curious method of interring the body in the bed of a running stream is
practised by the Obongos of Africa ;* and the body is placed in the hollow
branch of a tree in Central Africa, in New Zealand, and in Borneo. The Ashira
tribe, and the Krumen in Africa, and the Kingsmill Islanders, keep a fire burn-
ing beside the corpse. The Australian places a bunch of acacia or a throwing-
stick at the head of the grave of a warrior, and the Manganja tribe lay a weapon
or an implement of some kind on the tomb.
The repugnance which some of the Australians have to touch a dead body is
as strong in the Kaffir and the Bechuana.
The Latooka and Camma tribes in Africa, and the New Zealanders, smear
their faces and other parts of their bodies with red-ochre and grease and throw
wood ashes on their heads when they mourn.
* " When an Obongo dies, it is usual to take the body to a hollow tree in the forest, and drop
it into the hollow, which is afterwards filled to the top with earth, leaves, and branches. Sometimes,
however, they employ a more careful mode of burial. They take the body to some running stream,
the course of which has been previously diverted. A deep grave is dug in the bed of the stream,
the body placed in it, and covered over carefully. Lastly, the stream is restored to its original
course, so that all traces of the grave are soon lost." — The Natural History of Man, by J. G. Wood,
vol. I., p. 540.
I have already stated that interring bodies in the beds of running streams is practised by some
of the natives of Australia ; and when I informed Professor Hcarn of this fact, he at oiice drew my
attention to the description of the funeral of Alaric, King of the Goths, as given by Gibbon : — "The
ferocious character of the barbarians was displayed in the funeral of a hero whose valour and
fortitude they celebrated with mournful applause. By the labor of a captive multitude, they forcibly
diverted the course of the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of Consentia. The royal
sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed;
the waters were then restored to their natural channel; and the secret spot where the remains of
Alaric had been deposited was forever concealed by the inhuniiin massacre of the prisoners who had
been employed to execute the work."— Gi46on'« Decline and Fall (Dr. W. Smith's edition),
vol. IV., p. 112.
% Uatlcu (Biuanipmenf, aiul ik Sailg fife of ik Uatiuffi.
*<ro^v
It is necessary for a tribe to move very frequently from place to place,
always keeping within the boundaries of the country which it calls its own —
now to the spot where eels can be taken in the creeks ; often to the feeding-
grounds of the kangaroo ; sometimes to the thicker forests to get wood suitable
for making weapons ; to the sea^coast continually for fish of various kinds ;
and, at the right season, to the lands where are found the native bread, the yam,
and the acacia gum. Constantly under the pressure of want, and yet, by
travelling, easily able to supply their wants, their lives lack neither excitement
nor pleasure. When the head of a tribe, advised by the council of old men, has
fixed upon a camping ground at some distance away, notice is given to all the
families at early morning. Such things as they require on their journey they
carry with them, but property of another kind is secreted in their miams or in
the hollows of trees, or under stones, or in some thick patch of scrub. In
leaving it they know well that they will find it when they return. Laden with
their bags and rugs, and implements and weapons, they wend their way through
the forest in small parties : the males generally with the males, the females with
the females ; and the constant chatter and noise, and sometimes the loud calls
of the men, serve to amuse and cheer the tribe on its journey. Picking up what
pleases them, observing and noting what they subsequently may require, hunt-
ing an opossum, gathering buds or flowers or grubs, or lazily polishing and
improving some favorite weapon when there is a halt — men, women, and children
find the ramble pleasant enough.
When evening arrives, and the splendid deep blue-purple and rose and yellow
tints of the anti-twilight cover the eastern sky, the leader, having well regulated
the pace, comes to the site of the new encampment. He stops, throws dovra his
kangaroo rug (Morjra), sticks his spears in the ground, and at once commences
important duties. Immediately there is bustle and excitement, running hither
and thither, and loud " cooeys " from the young men. The leader quietly and
calmly surveys the forest, and seeing some stately tree having bark suitable to
his wants, advances slowly towards it. He chops a hole for his foot, takes his
tomahawk {Kal-bal>nf)-elarck or Karr-geinrj) between his teeth, and gravely
ascends, chopping holes as he proceeds, managing the wliole business easily and
gracefully. When he has ascended to a proper height, he commences to notch
the bark, descends and notches it also in the lower part, cuts the sides, and in
a short time removes with some care a large smooth sheet {Koon-toom). Each
head of a family in like manner procures bark, no one interfering with his
neighbour ; and in a short time a mmiber of lean-tos are constructed.
124 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The women gather sticks for the fires, and get water ; and each and all find
employment of some kiud.
The proper arrangement of the miams is well understood. Tlie Aborigines
do not herd together promiscuously. There is order and method. If the whole
of the tribe be present, the dwellings of those comprising the little village are
divided into groups, each group being composed of six or more miams. Each
miam is five or six yards distant from its neighbours, and the groups are at least
twenty yards apart.
Mr. Thomas says that he was often struck with astonishment when, on
approaching a large encampment occupied by several tribes, he observed how
carefully they had grouped the miams. Most often he could see at once, from
the position of any one group, from what part the natives had come. The
groups were arranged indeed as if they had been set by compass. At a great
encampment formed on a hill about three miles north-east of Melbourne there
were assembled, more than thirty years ago, eight tribes — in all about eight
hundred blacks — and they arranged their camps according to the following
plan : —
(1) (4) t
(2) (3)
(5)
(6)
(7) (8)
I. Loddon. 2. Campaspe. 3. Mount Macedon. 4. Goulburn. 5. Tarra. 6. Bar-ra-bool.
7. Western Port. 8. Bun-yong (or Bun-ung-on) and Leigh.
At an ordinary encampment the miams are arranged in such a way as to
admit of each having a separate fire, and the fires are so placed that the embers
cannot ignite the leaves or branches or bark of the miams. Accidental fires
are of rare occurrence ; but sometimes in a sudden squall the lighted sticks are
blown about, and cause the destruction of the frail dwellings.
In arranging the miams, care is taken to separate the young unmarried men
from the unmarried females and the families, and it is not permitted to the
young men to mix with the females. They are strict in preserving order
amongst the young of both sexes, but it happens frequently that all their
precautions are evaded. The young people find means of communicating with
each other, and arrange for meetings, notwithstanding that their parents may
have forbidden them to meet or to speak to each other. These stolen interviews
are often the cause of quarrels.
When several tribes meet there are sometimes as many as one hundred and
fifty or two hundred miams in a camp ; and though each man has to supply his
wants from the forest, where all is common property, there is seldom a dispute,
and rarely is an angry word used.
As soon as the fires are kindled, all the game that has been collected during
the day is produced and roasted; and a strong odour of singed wool and burning
ENCASrPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 125
meat begins to prevail. If the tribe has travelled far — say fifteen or sixteen
miles — and the men are very hungry, the cooking process is conducted hurriedly;
and the ■women and children are prompt in delivering the roots, tubers, and
fruits they have gathered on their journey.
As a rule, they are lazy travellers. They have no motive to induce them to
hasten their movements. It is generally late in the morning before they start
on their journey, and there are many interruptions by the way. If they are
wandering through a tract where there is much game, the women and children
are left to the guidance of only two or three of the men, the rest rambling from
spot to spot, holding their weaj^ons ready for slaughter, and hunting keenly in
every likely place. At such times, though the native mind is probably not
much impressed with the aspects of the landscape, the effect on a stranger who
comes suddenly in sight of the hunters is strong. To see them stalking through
the forest with their spears in their hands, now in the deep shades and sunless
depths of some cleft in the mountains, where their forms are only occasionally
visible, as they pass through the thick undergrowth of shrubs, or beneath the
broad green shelter of the tree-ferns — or, again, as they ascend some steep slope,
with their faces towards the sun ; their dark figures bronzed by the strong light
as they move in the sheen of the low fern, whose leaves, reflecting the rays of
the sun, make the bank a bath of molten silver, in which they seem to wade —
to see them thus, or when stepping from the gloom of the forest into the lights
which fall through the scanty foliage of some of the gums, is a picture which
cannot be easily described, nor, once seen, forgotten.
When the miams are built, the fires lighted, the roasting and eating quite
done, and their family affairs settled to their satisfaction, the men, women, and
children give themselves up to amusements, or employ themselves in light
labors. The old men hold grave converse, the warriors and younger men attend
to the repairs of their weapons and implements, the women chatter together,
the lads romp on the grass or amidst the fern, or practise themselves in useful
exercises, and the girls and very young children gather such food as they can
find on the ground or in the dead timber.
The forest that an hour before was silent, or echoed only the infrequent notes
of the bell-bird, or rung with the weird "ha! ha!" and "hoo! hoo!" of the laugh-
ing jackass, is now peopled with happy families. Its aspect is changed. Great
trunks have had the bark strijjpod oft', branches have been broken, notches
appear where the hunter has climbed, and the smoke of the fires rising slowly
through the branches of the tall trees tells the wanderer afar off that the tribe
is encamped.
Each little miam is built partly of bark and partly of boughs, or wholly of
bark or wholly of boughs, according to the state of weather or the whim of the
builder.*
* The late Mr. Thomas behered that at one time, in some districts of the Colony of Victdria,
the natives built and inhabited huts of a much more substantial character than the ordinary bark
miams. His belief was based on information received from one of the earliest settlers in the
Western district, who said he saw a native village on the banks of a creek, about fifty miles to the
north-east of Port Fairy, composed of twenty or thirty huts, some of them capable of holding
126 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The goverunieut of Aboriginal tribes is not a democracy. There are the
doctors or sorcerers, who, under some circumstances, have supreme power ; there
are the warriors, who in time of trouble are absolute masters ; tliere are the
dreamers, who direct and control the movements of the tribe until their divina-
tions are fulfilled or forgotten ; there are the old men — councillors — without
whose advice even the warriors are slow to move ; and, finally, there are the old
twelve people, and strongly built. Each hut was shaped somewhat like a bee-hive, was about ten
feet in diameter, and more than six feet in height. There was an opening about three feet six inches
in height, which was generally closed at night with a sheet of bark. There was also an aperture at
the top about nine inches in diameter, through which tlie smoke of the fire escaped. In wet weather
this .aperture was covered with a sod. These buildings were firmly built, and plastered with mud,
and were strong enough to bear the weight of a man. It is said that they also constructed d,ams in
the creek for the purpose of taking fish.
In Gellibrand's memoranda of a trip to Port Phillip (183G), mention is made of native huts, and
at one place he says about one hundred native huts were found near water. He found also many
"native wells." — Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, vol. ill., p. 6.'J-85.
A squatter — who was one of the earliest settlers in the Wannon district — says that the natives
had comfortiiblc huts at the time he first occupied the country. They were dome-shaped, made of
branches of trees, and covered with grass and clay. The opening, protected by a porch, was
always towards the north-west, whence came only gentle breezes occasionally — never strong winds
or storms. Observing this peculiarity — and having ascertained that a house presenting such a front
was protected from gales — he built his own bush residence with its doors and windows towards the
same quar ter.
Similar accounts are given by explorers who have visited other psirts of Australia.
Grey found on the Hutt River, in West Australia, "n.ativc villages, or, as the men termed them,
towns. The huts of which they were composed differed from those in tlie southern districts, in being
much larger, more strongly built, and very nicely plastered over the outside with clay, and clods of
turf, so that, although now uninhabited, they were evidently intended for fixed places of residence.
This again showed a marked diflference between the habits of the natives of this part of Australia
and the south-western portions of the continent; for these superior huts, well-marked roads, deeply-
sunk wells, and extensive warran grounds, all spoke of a large and, comparatively speaking, resident
population, and the cause of this imdoubtedlj' must have been the great facilities for procuring food
in so rich a soil." — North-West and Western Australia, by George Grey, vol. ii., pp. 19-20.
Similar huts were found by Grey on the road to Water Peak ; and in his progress towards
Hanover Bay he discovered a hut " built of a frame-work of logs of wood, and in shape like a
bee-hive, about four feet high and nine feet in diameter. This hut was of a very superior descrip-
tion to those he found afterwards to be generally in use in South-Western Australia, and dilTcred
from them altogether, in that its low and narrow entrance rendered access impossible without
stooping; and, with the exception of this aperture, the hut w.as entirely closed." — Ibid, vol. i., p. 72.
The following is M. Pcron's description of the habitations of the Aborigines, which he saw at Cape
Lesueur (lat. 2.5° 40' S.), Shark's Bay, in Western Australia : — " Au fond d'une petite crique qui
Be trouve immediatement a I'est du Cap Lesueur, j'.aperfus trois ouvertures semicirculiiires assez rap-
prochces les imes des autres, et trop rcguliercment semblablcs entre elles pour qu'il fut possible de
les attribuer au has.ard seul. Je m'avan<;ai ; un griind nombre d'emprcintes de pieds humains
paroissaient sur le sable; et des debris de feux recemment allumes a I'enlree de ces espices de sou-
terrains, ne me permettoient pas de douter qu' ils ne fussent I'ouvrage des indigenes et qu' ils ne
leur servissent de retraite. Pour lever toute espcce d'incertitude, je m'eng.agcai dans I'un de ces
rcduits obscurs : a peine il avoit un metre de hauteur a son orifice ; il fallut done me courber pour
y entrer, et m'y trainer pour ainsi dire, a quatre pattes. Sa profoudeur ctoit d'euviron 5 metres,
sur une largeur du tiers de cette derniere dimension. La partie supcrieure de la voiite etoil assez
unie ; mais de distance en distance on avoit pratique dans Ic has plusieurs petites cavites qui me
semblerent propres a reccvoir quelques ustensilcs de menage. Le plancher inferieur de cette h.abita-
tion ctoit tapisse d'une couche epaisse d'herbes marines. L'eloignement oii je me trouvois alors de
]a chaloupe, mon isolement, et surtout la nuit qui s'approchoit, ne me permirent pas de parcourir
les deux autres souterrains ; mals par tout ce que j'en pus voir, ils me parurent absoliunent sem-
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 127
women, who noisily intimate their designs, and endeavour by clamor and
threats to influence the leaders of their tribe. The young men, and those
amongst the elders who have not distinguished themselves, and the women and
the children, are led by the principal man of the tribe ; but he acts only in such
manner as the old men and the sorcerers and the dreamers have agreed to
approve. Though each of the principal men and priests seeks for his food, and
blables a celui que je viens de dC'crire. Quelque grossicTcs que de tettes habitations puissent etre,
elles n'en sont pas raoins les plus parfaites que nous aj'ons en roccasiou d'observer a la NouTelle-
Hollande ; sous ce rapport, il en est de mcme des cabanes dout j'ai di'ja parle, mais qu'il conrient de
faire couuoitre ici dans tons leurs details. Sur un sol de sable prucedemment dcpouille de toute
especc de vegetaux, s'elevent ces cabanes de la terre d'Endracht ; elles ont la forme d'une deral-
Bpbere legorement deprimee dans sa partie superieure ; le developpement de leurs parois dOcrit un
tour de spire ; de manidre que I'entree en est oblique et latcrale, a-peu-pres comme celle d'une co-
quille de lima(,'OU. Leur hauteur est de 12 a 16 decimetres (4 a 5 picds) sur un diametre de 20 a 25
decimetres (6 a huit pieds). Elles so composent d'arbrisseaux implantes dans le sable, rapproches
entre eux, le plus ordiuaircment disposes sur deux ou trois rangs ; et dont les rameaux, recourbea
dans toutes les directions, entrecroises dans tous les sens, forment la ToUte superieure, et comrae le
plancher de ces habitations. Sur cette Toiite sont appliquees a I'exterieur plusieurs couches de
feuillages et d'herbes seches, recouvertes d'une grande quantite de sable. A peu de distance et yis-
a-Tis I'ouverture de chacune de ces especes de fours, on voit les restes d'autant de gros feu.x, autour
desquels gisent (;a, et la quelques debris d'alimens." — Voijage de Dicouvertes aux Terres Australes,
pendant les ann(es 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, et 1804, par M. F. I'eron, vol. Ii., p. 207.
Ernest Giles says, " At ten miles, I came to a number of native huts ; they were of large
dimensions and two-storied." — Travels in Central Australia, p. 81.
In another place — near Glen 0.sborne — Giles found several native huts in the scrub, of large
dimensions, the natives having used the largest trees they could get to build them with. lie supposed
that the natives get water in this arid trsict from the roots of the Mulga-tree. Near some of the
Mulg.a-trees he noticed that circular pits had been dug. The trees, he says, die after being tapped. —
Ibid, p. 103.
In tracing the course of the Gwydir, Sir Thomas Mitchell found " huts of a native tribe
tastefully distributed amongst drooping acacias and casuarina; ; some resembling bowers under
yellow, fragrant mimosa; ; .some were isolated under the deeper shades of casuarina; ; while others
were placed more socially — three or four huts together fronting to one and the same fire. Each was
semicircular or circular, the roof conical, and from one side a flat roof stood forward like a portico
supported by two sticks. Most of them were close to the trunk of a tree j and they were covered
— not, as in other parts, by sheets of bark, but with a variety of materials such as reeds, grass, and
boughs. The interior of each looked clean, and to us, passing in the rain, gave some idea not only
of shelter, but even of comfort and happiness." — Vol. i., p. 76.
In sight of the Nundawar Kangc, the same explorer found huts substantially constructed, and
well-tli.atehed with dry grass and reeds. — Vol. i., p. 121.
On the Lower Darling, he saw huts of a strong and permanent construction, each forming a
BCmicirclc, and fiiciiig inwards or to the centre, the open side of the curve being towards the east.
One hut was unusually capacious and on a commodious pl.an, and might easily have contained twelve
or fifteen per.sons. Sir Thomas Mitchell gives a plan of this hut in his work. In it were many
small bundles of the wild flax, evidently in a state of preparation for making cord or line nets,
and for other purposes. Each bundle consisted of a handful of stems twisted and doubled once,
but the decayed state of these showed that the hut had been deserted. — Vol. i., p. 262.
Bunce describes the formation of a camp when a tribe was overtaken in a storm : — " There
were signs of rain, the sky became overcast, thunder was heard in the distance, and forked
lightning played amongst the branches of the trees. The women were busy with their tomahawks
in stripping large flakes or sheets of bark from the stringybark trees, and setting forks and
saplings whereon to place the bark for the erection of tcillams, or dwellings, as a shelter. The only
parties disengaged were the blackfellows, whose duties appeared to be to pray for fine weather by
a continued melancholy chant. This oflice they continued for a short time after the rain commenced,
and when all the rest of us had retired under shelter ; but finding that their good divinity, in the
128 THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
ministers to his own wants (with such help as he gets from his wives), and has
no one whom he can call servant, yet he enjoys the pleasures belonging to the
exercise of power. If a doctor, he orders, and he is obeyed ; if a dreamer, he
dreams, and the iuterjiretatiou of his dream is received as truth ; if a warrior,
the fighting-men obey him ; if au old man, all pay respect to him. The women
present instance, was deaf to their appeals, they exclaimed — ' M armingalha bullarto pork-wadding ;
guanlhueeneera ? ' ' Marmingatha is very sulky — and why ? ' ; and they commenced throwing ashes
in the direction in which they belieyed she resided, saying ' T'see Waugh,!' an exclamation of
contempt and defiance — after which they returned to the willams." — Australasialic Reminiscence!,
Bunce, p. 73.
Sturt found, on or near the banks of the Macquarie River, a group of seventy huts, each capable
of holding from twelve to fifteen persons. They appeared to be permanent habitations, and all of
them fronted the same point of the comp.iss. In another place he found in the thickest part of a
brush of Melaleuca a deserted village. The spot had evidently been chosen because of the shelter
afforded by the shrubs. The huts were large and long, all facing the same point of the conip.iss,
and in every way resembling the huts occupied by the natives of the Darling. — Slurt's Expedition,
1828-9.
"The native camps as far north as the seventeenth parallel of south latitude are generally bark
lean-tos, made of two upright forked sticks, with a sapling resting in the forks, and a sheet of bark
laid against the sapling and curving over it. Further north there are what are called 'two-story'
camps. These are formed of four forks, with saplings on each side, and with cross pieces laid on
them. On these rests a sheet of bark bent in the centre, tent fashion. Fires are always found at
each end. These camps are usually on high ground, and out of the reach of floods. The fires, it is
believed, are intended to drive otf the mosquitos. In some instances, where forked saplings were .
not obtainable, the roots of trees were utilized. They were turned end iip, the stems being buried
in the ground. In the dry season, a sheet of bark doubled in the middle with the ends resting on
the ground is the usual covering. On the coast their camps are all made of bent and arched
saplings, and filled in with boughs, forming closed chambers, either round or oblong; sometimes
of c^siderable size, and having a hole to get in at. At other places only bough lean-tos occur." —
Jilr. Gorman Taylor^ Geological Surveyor, MS,
Ordinarily their dwellings arc of a very unsubstantial character. In the Port Lincoln district
"their habitations are of a very simple and primitive construction. In the summer and in dry, fine
weather they heap up some branches of trees in the form of a horseshoe, for protection against the
winds; in the winter, and in wet weather, however, they make a kind of hut or bower with the
branches of the casuarina, in the shape of a deep niche, and erect them as perpendicularly as they
can, thereby to facilitate the dripping ofi" of the rain. In those parts of the country where they
have gum-trees (Eucalypti) they peel ofi" the bark, and fix it so well together as to make the roof
quite waterproof. In front of these huts they always burn a fire during the night for warming
their feet; and in the cold weather every one lies between a small heap of burning coals in front and
at the back, for keeping warm the upper part of the body. As the slightest motion must bring
them into contact with these burning coals, it naturally occurs that they at times seriously burn
themselves." — C. Wilhelmi.
Collins saw on the sea-coast huts formed of pieces of bark from several trees, put together in
the form of an oven, with an entrance, and large enough to hold six or eight persons. Their fire
was always at the mouth of the hut, rather within than without. Those living in the bush, at some
distance from the coast, contented themselves with, for each, a sheet of bark, bent in the middle
and placed on its two ends on the ground. — New South Wales, Collins, p. 360.
Shortly after the Europeans came to occupy Victoria the natives ceased to build huts, and they
no longer assembled in villages. The inducements to plunder, their fear of the invaders, the
depression caused by the appearance of a race possessing appliances so much superior to any known
to them, and the impossibility of preserving inviolate the lands which their people had held for
ages, caused them to wander aimlessly from place to place, and to seek shelter and find refuge in
the more advantageous localities belonging to tribes to a certain extent removed at that time from
the influences of the white men — localities which, before they met the whites, they would never
have been permitted to enter except as guests or as conquerors.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 129
have rights as well as duties ; and the government of a tribe might well serve as
a model to peoples claiming to be civilized but more inclined to vices than the
Australians. ■
Each miam is placed under the control of the head of a family ; whose duty
it is to keep order and settle any differences that may arise between the members
of the household or with those of any neighbouring miam. If any man is
jealous, and charges another with having paid unnecessary attentions to his wife
or his daughters, the head-man investigates the matter. Those who are impli-
cated become much excited, and not unfrequeutly come to blows, and a fight
follows. Under such circumstances, the head-man has to act judicially and
executively. He determines who is in fault, and he chastises him. The quarrel,
however noisy and violent, calls forth no interference from the inhabitants of the
neighbouring miams. They stare at the men and women who are quarrelling,
and they whisper and talk ; but even when two or three are fighting, and with
dangerous weapons, they never attempt to interrupt the proceedings. The
business of controlling the fight, it is well understood, belongs to the head-
man, and whatever he does is right. He stands by with his Leonile and
Mulga, ready to ward or to strike, and he seldom fails to preserve that just
mean between too slight punishment and revengeful injury which is not
enough considered amongst Europeans when disputes and crimes have to be
dealt with.*
* The mode in which offences are dealt with by the natives is highly interesting.
Mr. Samuel Gason says that the natives of Cooper's Creek do not punish their children for
committing theft, but the father or mother has to fight with the person from Avhom the property
was stolen ; and upon no occasion are the children beaten.
Should any native steal from another, or should one accuse another wrongfully of any offence,
the injured person challenges the wrongdoer, and a fight settles the difficulty.
If two or more men fight, and one of the number be accidentally killed, he who caused his
death must also suffer death. But should the offender have an elder brother, then he must die in
his place ; if he have no elder brother, his father must be his substitute ; but in case he has no male
relative to sufier for him, he himself must die. He is not allowed to defend himself, nor indeed is
he informed of the time when sentence will be executed. On some night appointed, an armed party
surround and despatch him. Two sticks, each about si.K Inches in length— one representing the
killed and the other the person executed — are then buried, and upon no occasion is the circumstance
afterwards referred to.
In the year 1869 I sent a memorandum to the gentlemen in charge of Aboriginal Stations in
Victoria, asking them, amongst other things, how lying and other like oflfences are dealt with by
the natives, and I received much interesting information on the subject.
The Rev. John Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, Gippsland, states that the blacks would only hurt a
man for telling a lie if the lie were told to hurt another black ; but they would take no notice of a
simple lie. A black in giving an account of an expedition would generally speak the truth ; only
Bome would not ; but the blacks have a good idea as to whom they may trust in this respect. As
to their mode of punishment, they have no authorized method ; if a man became obnoxious to
certain members of the tribe, they would quietly steal upon him and kill him. When a black has
committed himself, he will, what is called, stand out before those he has offended, so that they may
have their revenge Blacks never like a quarrel to be of long standmg : they do not like to bear
a grudge ; nothing would make a man more miserable than to think that some of his tribe had a
"down" on him. He would rather take a good thrashing than live in such a state. This is partly
owing to the practice which is very common among blacks of bewitching any one who has offended
them. This they would do by getting a piece of hair or somctliiug belonging to the person they
S
130 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
It is difficult to convey an accurate notion of the domestic affairs of the
Australian black. I have endeavoured to give a description of an encamp-
ment, but necessarily there are many details connected with the arrangements
of each hut, the duties devolving on the male parent, the work that the women
have to perform, and the education of the young savages, which must be dealt
with elsewhere.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer, a Missionary in Gijipsland, writes thus in a letter to
me : —
" The life of an Aboriginal was one of trouble. He lived in dread of his
enemies. Sometimes he was not able to keep a fire in his camp lest it should
light some secret foe to his place of shelter. At other times he himself would
have some wrong to redress, and would then act on the offensive, and strive to
kill some one for some fancied injury. Sometimes their camps were surprised
while the meu were away hunting. Tlie hunters would return to find most of
the women who happened to be at home murdered, and some of the younger
ones taken away to be wives for their enemies. Thus they had often real
grievances to avenge, but their complaints were more often fancied. Should a
member of their tribe die suddenly, or even by gradual decay, they would
charge some one with the crime, and would seek to have the death avenged.
On these occasions they generally went away from their camp fully armed and
liberally daubed with red-ochre or pipeclay, and if they chanced to fall upon
some unfortunate member of the tribe amongst whom the obnoxious person
was sui^posed to dwell, they would at once despatch him, and have a cannibal
feast, usually satisfying themselves by eating his skin. In their domestic life
everything was as simple as possible. They had no cooking utensils : all they
required was fire to roast with. They would have a wooden vessel to hold
water for drinking, but as they never washed their faces, they did not require
an extra basin for that purpose. Tliey had also a large grass bag for holding
food, &c. The man had a small grass bag in which to keep his private effects.
A look into such a bag would be interesting to a lover of the curious. First,
there would be several pieces of round stones, which he would tell you are
wish to enchant, so that when a black thinks or knows that his hair has been stolen, he is in
misery until it is restored again. This is one great reason why the blacks do not like to have
enemies.
The Rev. Mr. Hartraann, late of Lake Hindniarsh, says that the blacks had no particular mode
of punishing deception or lying. One found guilty of such offences was generally warned by the
chief, and if he persisted in his evil courses, the matter was settled by a fight. The stronger the
black, the more likely he would be to stand his ground. The blacks usually chose for messengers
and to send on expeditions such men as they could trust, and men who could talk well. Whatever
report they brought back was generally believed.
Mr. Green, of Coranderrk (Yarra Yarra River), informs me that, for bringing a false report
from another tribe to his own tribe, a man was for the first ofience well beaten with the waddy ;
for the second speared in the thigh ; and for the third he might be killed. For seduction and for
fornication with any young woman in his own tribe, the punishment was for the man death, and for
the Woman a spear in the thigh.
The Rev. F. A. Hagenauer writes thus : — " The Aborigines punished in their wild state all
deception and lying by open fight. If children did it, their parents had to stand and fight for it.
The blacks always gave quite correct reports of their expeditions, and do so to the present day."
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 131
Boolk. He would look very serious if you touched these, and he would not
fail to inform you that you might die at once if you touched them. Tliey are
his instruments of sorcery. With them he makes any of his enemies sick.
There is also something very carefully wrapped up with bark and well painted
with red-ochre. He might hesitate to tell you what this is : it is the fat of
some one whom he has killed. There are also several knick-knacks in his bag
which show that he has an eye to business. A glance into the hxrge grass bag
of his wife proves that she attends to the provisions. There are a few roots —
some KatKort (fruit of the pig-face), the leg of a native bear {Koola or Goola),
and the head of a kangaroo. Tliere are also a few opossum skins, for she is
busy making a rug {Marook), a few shells which are used in marking the skins,
and the end of the tail of an opossum, to which are attached the sinews of the
tail. Tliese are used for sewing the rug. Perhaps mixed up with tliese may
be seen the hands of some defunct member of the tribe — that of some friend of
the woman's, or perhaps one belonging to a former husband. This she keeps as
the only remembrance of one she once loved — and, though years may have passed,
even now, when she has nothing else to do, she will sit and moan over this relic
of humanity. Sometimes a mother will carry about with her the remains of a
beloved child, whose death she mourns. What cares she that it is in a state of
decay! She cannot forget the love she bore it, and being without hope of
seeing it in a future state, she clings to its decaying body — =until at length,
becoming too loathsome even for her, she is obliged to put it out of sight. As
to their dead — whether infants or adults — they usually keep them long after
the proper time. It is a pity that men in a savage state should take delight in
doing that which is nasty. But such is the fact. It is a very common custom
for the tribe, or that portion of it who are related to one who has died, to rub
themselves with the moisture that comes from the dead friend. They rub
themselves with it until the whole of them have the same smell as the corpse.
The writer will never forget his attending the funeral of a young man who had
been kept much too long. As he stood on the grave, trying to improve the
occasion, he was disgusted with the sickly smell which all had ; and even for
days after, when he came near one of the blacks, he was assailed with the same
disagreeable odour." *
There is a very amusing and truthful description of a native family given
by Grey. Speaking of the people of Western Australia, he says : —
" 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
•"While dead bodies were being thus dried, it was very trying to one's stomach to have
divine worship on Sabbaths. We had to have it in our own house. The little room would be
crammed with some forty or fifty blacks. They crowded the room as full as it would pack, and
thronged about the open door and window. As they had been living and sleeping in the wurley
with a putrefying body, the smell seemed to have been absorbed by their skins, and the odour
which arose from my congregation was excessivel3- unpleasant," — The Narrinyeri, by the Rev. Geo.
Taplin, p. 56.
This custom is probably restricted to certain districts. In many parts the body of the decea.sed
is not touched with the naked hand, nor is any part allowed to come into contact with the bodies of
the living.
132 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
■wound, in many folds, a cord spun from the fur of the opossum, which forms a
warm, soft, and ehistic 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 back-bone. 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 tlie southern portions of the continent ; but I have never seen a
native with a cloak anywhere to the north of 29° S. lat. These weapons,
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, wliilst 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 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. Tluis equipped, the
father of the family stalks forth, and at a respectful distance behind him follow
the women ; a long 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, more-
over, 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. Tlie 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, &c.; opossum hair to be spun into waist-belts; shavings of kangaroo
skins to polish spears, &c.; the shell of a species of mussel to cut hair, &c.,
with ; native knives ; a native hatchet ; pipeclay ; red-ochre, or burnt clay ;
yellow-ochre ; a piece of paper-l)ark to carry water in ; waist-bands and spare
ornaments ; pieces of quartz which the native doctors have extracted from their
patients, and thus cured them of 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 rai^idly, 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, &c., which they have collected during the
day. Skins not yet prej^ared 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
ENCAMPMENT AKD DAILY LIFE. 133
general, each woman carries a lighted fire-stick or brand under her cloak and
in her hand." *
When a tribe is encamped, it is not permitted to any other tribe to approach
the camp without warning. Bent on revenge, or with an intent to murder, or
for the purpose of stealing a young woman, a warrior will sometimes invade a
camp in the night and seek to effect his purpose, but such enterprizes are not
of very common occurrence. Whether for friendly intercourse or for war, the
tribe which seeks a meeting must give notice of its coming in due form. A
messenger ( We-ar-^arr), whose duty it is to proceed to the camp and state the
intentions of the visitors, or to invite them to come to the camp of his tribe, is
formally appointed by the principal man of the tribe, assisted by the old men
in council. The young men are not allowed, under any circumstances, to take
part in such deliberations as may be preliminary to so important a matter as a
visit to or the reception of another tribe. On very solemn occasions two
ambassadors or messengers are appointed ; ordinarily, only one. Tlie messenger
lias to carry a token, by virtue of which he passes safely through the lands of
the several tribes, j The token is a piece of wood, eight or ten inches in length,
sometimes round and sometimes flat, and seldom more than one inch in thick-
ness. On it are inscribed hieroglypliics which can be read and interpreted, and
which notify all persons of the nature of the mission. K the mission is a friendly
one, the stick is streaked mostly with red-ochre ( Werrup) ; but if unfriendly, or
for the purpose of demanding satisfaction for injuries done, or for war, then it
is mostly streaked with white-ochre {Ngarrimbul). The principal man, in
putting this stick into the hands of the messenger, and having named the tribe
for which the invitation is intended, says, " You hold this now" {Koong-ak kinee
Mirrambinerr). "Look out and find plenty of blackfellows" {Yane-rvat benjer
oonee kolen). "You tell all blackfellows to come here" (Toombooni boolc-am7i
kolen-yan-an niool or Tom-buk U-mar-ho KooUn Ker-Iin-go).
The messenger, on ajiproaching the camp of the tribe to which he has to
deliver his message, does not at once break in iipon their privacy. He sits
down at a considerable distance from the camp, but usually within sight of it,
and makes a very small fire of bark and twigs for the purpose of indicating his
presence by the smoke. After the lapse of a quarter of an hour, one of the
aged blacks approaches him, carrying in his hand a fire-stick, or a piece of
thick bark ignited at one end. The messenger presents his token to the old
man, who scans it and orders his conduct accordingly. Some hours after, if the
messenger has announced visitors, the members of his tribe arrive, and, if they
are friendly, there is a corrobboree at night. If the purpose is war, the
messenger has to hold a debate with the old men of the tribe, which sometimes
lasts far into the night.
However unpleasant the tidings may be, the persons of the messengers are
held sacred, and they are always patiently heard and hospitably treated. K the
message is of such a kind as to require an answer, the answer is given, and the
bearer is conducted safely to the boundaries of the district he has invaded.
* North-West and ^yeslern Australia, vol. ii., pp. 265-6.
t The message-sticks used by the natives are described in another pari of this work.
134 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The visitors usually so time their steps as to arrive at the camp some two or
three hours before sunset. When the principal man gives warning, they all sit
down, aiul tliey remain quiet for the space of half an hour or more. Tlie
influential Aborigines from each tribe then approach and confer respecting the
business to be transacted. If it is a friendly visit, or for the purpose of
procuring wives, or for arranging plans of any kind likely to be mutually
beneficial, they enter the camp, and everywhere are heard kindly greetings,
lamentations for those departed since they last met, and enquiries respecting
relatives and others. The visitors immediately after form an encampment at
some little distance from their friends.
When, in accordance with some arrangements suggested by the old men of
the tribes, and approved by the warriors, a strange tribe is invited to come into
a district which they have not previously visited, there are some practices to be
observed, the omission of which might lead to quarrels. The strangers are
preceded and introduced by members of some tribe having relations both with
the strangers and with the tribe that is about to receive them. Tlie duty of
those who have to introduce the strangers is something like that which devolves
on a master of ceremonies. Both parties must be consulted by them, and their
wishes ascertained, before any attempt is made to bring the tribes together.
The responsibility of the introduction, to a great extent, rests on the members
of the intermediate tribe. If all difficulties be removed, the strange tribe is
permitted to approach the camp — the metropolis of what to them is a new
country.
The strangers carry lighted bark or burning sticks in their hands, for the
purpose, they say, of clearing and purifying the air. Tlieir entertainers make
them welcome, first to the forest lands of which they are the owners ; then to
the trees, from which they cut boughs and present them to their visitors ; then
to the shrubs, of which they gather bundles and offer to them ; and then to the
grass and the herbs, which are freely spread before them ; and the bouglis and
the branches and the leaves and the grass are symbols of friendship which are
well understood by all — the givers and the receivers.
To each family is appropriated a separate seat, which is usually a dead
prostrate tree. At one end sits the head of the family, with his sons next to
him in the order of their birth ; at the other, his principal wife, with the other
wives and the female children. Two fires are made, one at each end of the log,
and at these the males and the females warm themselves and cook their food
without interference with each other.
During the first day the visitors are not permitted to minister to their own
wants in any way. A male amongst the entertainers fills a Tarnuk with water,
and carries it to the head of the family, and, looking at him fixedly, stirs the
water with a reed or a twig, and takes a deep draught of it, thus satisfying him
that it is good, and then leaves it for the use of him and his sons. A female
does the same office for the strange wives and the female children.
Food, consisting of all the varieties which the country affords, is laid before
the guests. They carry to them the kangaroo, the opossimi, the bandicoot, and
the bear, birds of several kinds, fish and eels, and the native bread and gum.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 135
During the performance of all these duties silence prevails. There is no loud
talk or cries or shouts such as are heard ordinarily in camp. The very aged
guests, male and female, occasionally weep copiously, and exhibit by their tears
and their gestures gratitude for the attentions shown them ; but the younger
members of the strange tribe simply stare and wonder.
When night falls, the strangers find that miams have been prepared for them.
Each family has one, and one is set apart for the young unmarried men.
Silence prevails throughout the night, and it would be a breach of etiquette to
indulge in the usual squabbles which serve under ordinary circumstances to
relieve the tedium of the night in an encampment.
The duties performed and the ceremonies used in receiving and attending to
the wants of a strange tribe have meanings quite intelligible to the Aborigines.
"VVTien they welcome the strangers to the forest lands they signify that as long
as they are friendly, and under such restrictions as their laws impose, they and
their children may come there again without fear of molestation ; the presents
of boushs and leaves and grass are meant to show that these are theirs when
they like to use them ; and the water stirred with a reed is understood as a
token that they may thereafter drink of it, and that no hostile spear will be
raised against them.
The Aborigines have many rather peculiar ways of welcoming their friends
when they arrive at an encampment after a long absence. The women usually
cry with joy, and the men make a howling noise until the visitors actually
appear. Strangers and visitors have various means of making known their
approach to a camp. Sometimes they raise a singular cry. When the cry is
heard by those in the camp, they know that a stranger or a visitor is approach-
ing, and at once they begin to shout, and the shouting and noise are continued
until the face of the visitor is seen and recognised. Strangers do not walk
straight into a camp ; some ceremony is observed. They sit down at a great
distance from the place where the tribe is stationed, and remain there quietly
until they are noticed. Sometimes they sit a long time before any one goes to
them. If one from the tribe goes to the strangers and welcomes them, they
then approach, and all kinds of civilities are paid to them by the men and
women. Buckley says that when he first encountered a tribe of Aborigines the
natives invariably struck their breasts and his also, making a noise between
singing and crying — a sort of whine.
Sir Thomas MitcheU observed that when strange blacks met, the men did not
at once begin to converse with each other ; but there did not appear to be any
such restraint on the women, who entered freely into conversation without check
or rebuke. Piper — Sir Thomas's black follower — on one occasion encountered a
strange native, and in vain was he entreated to ask a question of the unknown
traveller ; both stood facing each other for a quarter of an hour. They stood
about eight yards apart, neither looking at the otlier, and only gradually and
slowly did they at last enter into conversation. The female native was in the
beginning the intermediate channel of communication.
The mode of receiving a stranger in the Cooper's Creek district is thus
described by Mr. Gason : — " A native of influence, on arriving at one of the
136 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
camps of his own tribe, is usually received in the following manner : — On ap-
proaching the camp, the inmates close in with raised arms, as in defence ; upon
this, the person of note rushes at them, making a faiut blow as if to strike
theiu, they warding it off with their shields ; immediately after, they embrace
him and lead him into the camp, where the women shortly bring him food.
Should any female relatives to him be present, they cry with joy. If he visits
a neighbouring tribe, he is received in the same manner as by his own. A
native of no influence or note, on returning after considerable absence, takes his
seat near the camp without passing any remark. After remaining a few minutes
as if dumb, tlie old men close round him, ask where he came from, and what
befel him, when he tells them plenty of news, not forgetting to embellish. Then
two old men stand up, one retailing it, and the other repeating the sentences in
an excited manner. Upon this, as on all other occasions, the new-comer is
hospitably received, plenty to eat being furnished him." *
The practice of these ceremonies, as here narrated, will cause surprise in the
minds of those who have been accustomed to regard the Australian blacks as
little above the beasts that perish.
The account given by the late Mr. Thomas of a great gathering of Aborigines
at the Merri Creek, near its junction with the River Yarra Yarra, when a very
old man appeared as a guest, is somewhat curious. More than one hundred and
fifty Aborigines came from the country which lies to the north-west of Gippsland
and north-east of the Delatite River, and assembled at the camp of the Yarra
tribe, and they brought with them an aged head-man named Kul-ler-kul-lup.
He was supposed to be more than eighty years of age. He was at least six feet
in height, fat, and with a fine upright carriage. His forehead was corrugated ;
the fine horizontal wrinkles looked scarcely natural ; it seemed as if a native
artist had been at work on his countenance ; and his cheeks too were finely and
strangely wrinkled. His friends — indeed, all who saw him — paid respect to him.
They embarrassed and encumbered him with their attentions. He could not
stir without an effort being made by some one to divine his wishes. At sunrise,
the adult Aborigines — strangers and guests — sat before him in semicircular
rows, patiently waiting for the sound of his voice, or the indication by gesture
of his inclinations. None i^resumed to speak but in a low whisper in his pre-
sence. The old man, touched by so much fealty and respect, occasionally
harangued the people — telling them, probably, something of their past history,
and warning them, not unlikely, of the evils which would soon surround them.
Whenever Mr. Thomas approached for the purpose of gathering some hints of
the character of his discourse, the old man paused, and did not resume his
argument until the white listener had departed. Mr. Thomas endeavoured
through the chief-man — BilU-billari — of the Yarra tribe, to gain some informa-
tion touching the nature and substance of these long speeches, but though he
succeeded in gaining a seat amongst the adult Aborigines, Kul-ler-kul-lup
would not deliver a speech in his presence. Whatever the old man suggested
as proper to be done was done ; what he disliked was looked upon with disgust
* The Dieyerie Tribe, pp. 14-15.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LITE. 137
by all the men of all the assembled tribes ; what he liked best was by all
regarded as good. And he did not approve of the attempts of the vrhite man
to hear his discourses, and care was taken accordingly to prevent him from
learning anything relating to them. But when Kul-ler-kul-lup and his people
went away, Mr. Thomas ascertained from Billi-biUari that the old man had
come from a tribe inhabiting the Australian Alps (probably the north-western
slopes), which was not in any way connected with any of the Gippsland tribes,
and which had never had intercourse with any Gippsland people. He said that
Kul-ler-kul-lup had informed them that there was a race living in the Alps who
inhabited only the rocky parts, and had their homes in caves ; that this people
rarely left their haunts but when severely pressed by hunger, and mostly clung
closely to their cave-dwellings ; that to this people the Australians were in-
debted for corrobborees ; that corrobborees were conveyed by dreams to Kul-ler-
kul-lup' s peojile and other Australians ; and that the men of the caves and
rocks were altogether superior to the ordinary Aboriginal.
It is probable that Billi-billari gave a truthful account of Kul-ler-kul-lup' s
statements. It is more than probable that the Australians have always had a
belief in the existence of races both superior and inferior to their own ; and it
is certain that the accidental intrusion of members of distant and strange tribes,
acquainted with modes of fighting and decoration somewhat different from their
own, must always have been regarded as proofs of the existence of peoples
different from them. K easily taken and killed, such intruders would be
regarded as inferior; if superior in skill, and greater in daring, and able to
put to flight the warriors, then the visitors would be regarded as superiors. In
the latter case, the adoption of any other hypothesis would have cast a slur on
the fighting-men.
The Aborigines everywhere, and on all occasions, pay great respect to old
persons. K a number of strangers are going to a camp, the oldest man walks
first, and the younger men follow. Amongst the Murray blacks it is considered
a very great fault to say anything disrespectful to an old person. It is deemed
a serious thing to say, Kur-o-pi ther-a-ka rvirto (you grey-haired old man!). It
is only when a young man is very much enraged that he will venture to use
such words ; and if used, the consequences are sometimes serious.
" Respect for old age," says Sir Thomas Mitchell, "is universal amongst the
Aborigines. Old men, and even old women, exercise great authority among
assembled tribes, and ' rule the big war ' with their voices when both spears and
boomerangs are at hand." *
In the country occupied by the Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's Creek) the old men
direct the movements of the people. " Should any matter of moment have to
be considered — such as removing the camps, making of rain, marrying, circum-
cision, or what not — one of the old men moots the subject late at night, before
the camp retires to rest. At dawn of the succeeding day, each question, as
proposed by the old man, is answered at once, or, should they wait until he
has finished, three or four speak together; with this exception, there being no
♦ Interior of Eastern Australia, Tol. u., p. 339,
T
138 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
interruptions, and stillness prevailing in the camp. At first they speak slowly
and quietly, each sentence in its delivery occupying three or four minutes,
but generally become excited before the conclusion of their speeches." *
On all occasions, when I have seen a number of blacks gathered together,
they have shown the utmost afi'ection to the aged persons amongst them. It
has always been regarded by the principal men as a privilege to introduce to me
the very old men and old women, and I have observed with jjleasure the tokens
of respect and regard exhibited whenever the old people spoke. When in the
Western district many years ago, the natives brought to me, carrying her as
carefully as a mother would carry her child, the principal woman of the Colac
tribe. She was very feeble, and probably very old — how old it would be im-
possible to guess. They evidently looked ujDon her as one deserving of all care
and affection, and seemed very proud of her.
It is pleasant, too, to note how quiet the people are when an old and
respected black is speaking to them. They never interrupt him. He begins
veiy slowly, uttering a few words at a time, and the sounds are soft and
pleasing. He makes a long pause, and drops his voice as he concludes a
sentence. Then, as he warms to his work, his eyelids quiver, he speaks more
rapidly, always pausing at the conclusion of a sentence, and soon his sentences
become longer, his voice a little louder, and he emphasizes a word now and
again in a very impressive manner. He ends abruptly, and sits down. When,
however, a man who is not much esteemed essays a speech, he is interrupted by
both men and women. All of them talk together, and, though he may raise his
voice, he is soon silenced by the clamor of the throng. In many things the
blacks are very like the whites.
The natives are "good haters," and they have, as good haters should have,
the greatest love for their friends and relatives. They testify the liveliest joy
when a companion after a long absence returns to the camp. When a young
man — a warrior — departs on an exjiedition as a messenger, tears are shed by the
old people, and the leave-taking is quite a solemnity. When a near relation, or
a dear friend, or any distinguished fighting-man is removed by death, they
testify their sorrow in the same way as the people of the Eastern nations of
antiquity did when overwhelmed with a great affliction or compelled by custom
to appear to be in deep grief
Men show strong affection towards each other ; they love their wives ;
women are faithful, and die on the graves of their husbands ; and indeed it
■would not be without labor to find amongst civilized races more touching
instances of affection than those that can be related of the Aborigines of
Australia.
The late Mr. Thomas has given an account in his writings, prepared at my
request, of the behaviour of the natives of Victoria under very painful circum-
stances : —
Burir-ger-ring, an old Mount Macedon black, of a great family, of whose
exploits he would often speak, had four wives. One day he came to the
* Samuel Gason, p. 14.
ENCAMP5IBNT AND DAILY LIFE. 139
encampment accompanied by the youngest of his wives, and hoiii Bun-(jer-ring
and this woman were sick and feeble. They had caught cold, and were suffering
from low fever. Mr. Thomas got medical aid, and the young woman recovered,
but old Bmi-ger-ring died. At the funeral the young widow was inconsolable.
She burnt and mutilated herself very much. She mourned Bun-ger-rimfs death
for many days, refused food, and sat daily and nightly moaning plaintively. She
stated boldly that she would starve herself to death and follow Bun-ger-ring ;
and sixteen days after his death she too was buried. Tlie wife of Ning-er-ra-
noul, of the Western Port tribe, sickened and died when her husband was taken
away from her. She survived him but a few days. King Benbow, well known
in Melbourne in 1848, whose wife was with him always, and was always
clinging fondly to him, literally died on his grave, from which she could not be
got away. Native men have shown the same great grief when their wives have
been removed by death. A great man of the Yarra tribe, whose wife died at
the foot of Mount Disappointment, was so much afflicted that he too died two
days after, and was buried in the same grave with her.
As an instance of the strong affection which men show towards each other,
when trouble and affliction overtake them, and when they have jointly to share
the burden, Mr. Tliomas has recorded the case of two Portland Bay blacks, who
were imprisoned in the gaol in Melbourne many years ago. Up to the time of
their imprisonment they kept together, and clung to each other as newly-caught
wild animals are seen to keep together when caged. During the period they
were in gaol one of them fell sick, and was separated from his companion, and
finally he died. When Mr. Tliomas communicated the tidings to the friend of
the deceased, he, though apparently in good health, felt the stroke so keenly
that he too sickened and died almost immediately. His body, cold and stiff,
was found in his cell the morning after he had received the tidings.
A number of cases of the like kind could be given : but enough has been
adduced to show that the Australian— in his domestic relations ; in his dealings
with friends ; in his intercourse with strangers ; in his ceremonious recep-
tion of ambassadors ; in his sorrows ; in his lamentations for relatives departed ;
in his strong affections, as well as in his hatreds — is altogether like ourselves,
when we are on our best behaviour, and not grimacing and attitudinizing, and
making a pretence of sorrow when there is no grief, and simulating joy when
there is no real cause for rejoicing. The Aboriginal is indeed usually very sorry
when he exhibits any tokens of sorrow ; and he is glad, beyond anything he can
himself exhibit of gladness, when there is occasion for the expression of such a
feeling. In this he is childish ; but it must be remembered that he has not
had eighteen hundred years of civilization, and is still in the state he was
created.
Life duking the Four Seasons.
Tlie tract of land owned by each tribe was well known to every member ; as
well known and as accurately defined as if the metes and bounds of it had been
set out by a surveyor. In most cases the area was very large, and presented
different aspects during the several seasons of the year. In the months of June,
140 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
July, and August — the winter season of the year — the flats near the rivers and
creeks were often flooded ; and the low lands generally were wet and cold, and
.unsuitable for camping ground ; and necessarily the natives moved to the best
sheltered spots on the uplands, where they were able to catch native bears, walla-
bies, and wombats — and on these and on the pupfB of the ant, and on the grubs
that are found in the trees, they chiefly supported themselves. In wet'and very
cold weather they were often miserable. When the rain fell heavily — perhaps for
many days — the men kept sulkily to their willams, and no inducement would
lead them to hunt game in the forests. The aspect of a camp at such times was
dismal in the extreme. The fires were maintained, it is true ; but the dripping
trees, the wet grass, the rain pouring heavily on the bark of the miams, and
penetrating them ; the absence of children before the openings of the dwellings,
and the forlorn appearance of the dogs moving occasionally from miam to miam,
in search of better accommodation — made a picture only to be equalled by those
that are familiar to the English people in the quarters of the cities and in the
districts inhabited by the poorest and most neglected of the inhabitants. In the
wet season the natives were undoubtedly unhappy — often starved — and never in
a condition to indulge in mirth or amusements.
In the spring — during the months of September, October, and November —
when the acacias blossom, and the watercourses in many places are resplendent
with the rich yellow flowers of these trees; when the birds mate; when the cold-
ness of winter is almost past, and only rarely, in exceptional periods, snow is
seen or hail falls ; when the first hot breath of the north wind makes itself felt
in the spring — the natives moved slowly towards the lower lands. Tliere they
were able to snare ducks, to catch other kinds of wild-fowl, and, as the season
advanced, to procure eggs from the nests of all kinds of birds. This was a time
of rejoicing. They spent many hours in pleasant ramblings and in fishing and
hunting when the moon was shining; and as the earth renewed her strength,
and nature sprinkled the sward with flowers, and filled the heath-clad downs
and the scrub-covered hill-sides with rich colors of flowering shrubs, the natives,
too, awakening from the torpor that the coldness of winter had induced, put
forth their strength, and, active and lively, hunted regularly and feasted heartily
on the good things that were easily procurable by their skill. Tliey never killed
any creature that was not in good condition if they could help it, and any that
was poor or lean was thrown aside. They cooked only the best of the birds and
beasts, as a rule; but when pressed by hunger, everything that was taken was
eaten, unless it was something forbidden by the laws, and these no one dared
violate.
During the summer season — in the months of December, January, and Febru-
ary — when the temperature is very high, and the hot winds so scorching as
sometimes to kill even indigenous trees ; when the ground is baked into a hard
crust, and cracked and fissured in all places where a thin soil covers granite or
basalt, and when the earth is dusty even to the very edge of the fast disappear-
ing swamps ; when the snakes are active, and bask in broad day in any ungrassed
patch of ground ; when the small lizards dart to and fro, and the large iguanas
slowly ascend their favorite trees for shelter or food ; when the native bear goes
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIEB. 141
to sleep at mid-day in the open forest, or dozes stupidly on the branch of a tree;
when the air is filled with the hum and whirr of innumerable insects ; when the
fading flowers of the trees and shrubs begin to give place to the succeeding
fruits ; when the grass is no longer green, and the streams even in the moun-
tainous districts flow somewhat feebly — the natives resorted to the large rivers,
and amused themselves and fed themselves by catching fish. They also hunted
the kangaroo, and killed opossums and porcupines. Tlieir vegetable food, in the
Yarra district, was chiefly the heart of the fern-tree ; but roots and bulbs and
fruits were gathered by the women and children in all places where these had
matured.
In the summer time there was no lack of amusements. Hunting, fishing,
fighting, and dancing — pursued in the day or night, as best suited their inclina-
tions — were to them as exhiliratiug as any of the practices of civilized peoples,
and many of them, perhaps it may be said, as innocent.
The warmth of this season caused them to be careless, to a certain degree, of
their willams ; and they often camped in small parties, in places remote from
their accustomed haunts, where they never thought of providing shelter, unless
when overtaken by a storm.
When the hot winds ceased to blow — when the shelter of a bark willam was
welcome, and the aspect of nature was no longer encouraging for such pursuits
as they followed in the summer — the natives moved to the higher grounds
belonging to them. The rains had wetted the green slopes formerly so delight-
ful ; cold blasts came from the south-west ; and the autumn, bringing to them
no rich harvests, no stores of corn, suggested only the discomforts of the
approaching winter.
Their food at this season consisted of kangaroo, opossum, porcupine, and
other animals, eels and various kinds of fish, and, of vegetables, the
bulbous roots of plants growing in the marshes, fern-trees, and the gum of
the wattle.
They were always mindful of the seasons in selecting the localities in which
to spend their time, taking into account not only the natural features of the
ground, but the facilities for obtaining food. They constructed tolerably good
bark willams in the winter, while in the summer they were content with such
shelter as a few broken branches afforded. They were rarely without good
fires.
The Eev. Mr. Buhner, of Lake Tyers, in Gippsland, in a letter to me, gives
the following interesting account of the movements of the natives in the south-
eastern part of Victoria during the several seasons. He says : —
" In summer time their days were spent chiefly in fishing for eels and fat
mullet (yPert-pianff). They camped at the entrance to the Lakes, where they
are plentiful at this season. They would find also in tlie gullies near the
entrance plenty of Koonyang (kangaroo apples), and these, with the fish,
would form their chief diet. Excei)tiug when they desired a change of food,
a day would be spent in going back into the bush for wallaby. The entrance to
Reeves River has always been a very favorite camping ground, as food in the
142 THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOIilA:
summer is very plentiful. In a wild state, a Mack did very little more, I
think, than attend to the wants of his stomach. In summer his nights would
be spent in getting eels or other fish, as at night they can he more easily taken.
He would go into the shallow water with a torch and a spear ; the fish would
be attracted hy the light, and they would fall an easy prey to the spear. The
natives are very skilful with the spear, seldom missing their stroke, but they
use great caution in striking at tlie fish. The day was spent by the men in
idleness, and in sleeping and eating. Tlie women made bags of grass for
themselves or their husbands, and sometimes, if a man could rouse himself, he
would get nil from his rug and employ himself in making a spear or some other
instrument of use, and towards evening the torches would have to be made for
the night's fishing. In winter the greater part of the time was occupied in
hunting native bears, kangaroo, etc. The long nights would be passed, if in
good humour, in joking; their great delight would be to hit off the peculiarities
of some absent member of the tribe, or of some dead black wlio was no relation
of any black present. K not in a good humour, they would find some griev-
ance to redress ; or perhaps some refractory young man would rush into a camp
to seize one of the yoimg women, in order to give the parents a hint that that
particular female ought to be given to him. This would cause a general fight,
and the young man would get a good thrashing, and then, perhaps, the tribe,
smitten with remorse for their conduct, would make atonement by giving up
the lady to him. In spring their time was devoted to fishing, as the fish then
begin to be plentiful. The autumn was spent in visiting other tribes and
getting up new corrobborees. Their food during this season was various,
chiefly opossums, bears, kangaroo, &c.
"As to their shelter — in summer, in their temporary camps, a few boughs
would suffice, as the nights were warm, and indeed, as they occupied themselves
at night in fishing, they did not require much shelter. In case of wet they
made a grass camp. In winter the camp was more substantial, as they
remained longer in one locality at that season. It was thatched witli grass
or made of sheets of bark. In spring, as well as in summer, they lived much
on vegetables and fruits.
" In summer they fished fnostly on the coast, or at the mouths of the rivers
which run into the sea, as at this season the fish were either going to or return-
ing from the sea. In winter they would more likely procure fish in the rivers
with grass nets, and often with hooks of bone with a line made of the bark of
the Yowan or lightwood. I believe they found tlie bone-hook as good for
fishing as the hooks supplied by Europeans, thougli no doubt it would be very
troublesome to make it, as it had to be scraped out with flint and shells. The
time when they had most wild-fowl was and still is in the spring, when the
birds are moulting. At this season they kill swans in large numbers. The
wild-fowls they get principally are swans and ducks.*
" I believe in their wild state the Aboriginals had more system, or worked
more by a plan, than at present. As they had only themselves to rely upon,
* The vegetable productions eaten by the natives are described in another part of this work.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 143
they took care to keep themselves supplied with food each day.* Had a stranger
come suddenly upon their camps, when the natives were in a wild state, at any
time during the day, he would have found them almost totally deserted. Had
he inspected them, he would have found tliem inhabited by a few old people and
children. But towards evening he would have observed blacks coming from all
quarters, some laden with game, some with fish, and a few with a stick of
firewood on their shoulders. Each had been away seeking food and necessaries
for the supply of the camp. In times of peace, when they had no fear of
enemies lurking about, they would move from place to place without caution.
The men would go in a mob to have a grand battue among the kangaroos, which
would be done by a number of men driving the animals into some corner where
they could spear them as the creatures tried to pass them. The women would
also go away in large numbers in canoes to fish ; but they would take care to
return to the camp before the arrival of their husbands, in order to have the
fires lighted and some of the produce of their day's labor roasted for the hunters.
The appetite of their husbands would probably not be so keen as that of the
hunters who are proverbially named when hunger is mentioned ; for, if successful
in their day's sport, they would have made an astonishing meal long before
reaching home. It is the custom of the blacks, when they catch a kangaroo, to
roast and eat part of it on the spot. And here a remark may be made respectino-
the much talked of enormous eating of the blacks. This is accounted for by
the way in which they live. As hunters, they would, at most, have a very
precarious living, for sometimes they would be unsuccessful in their hunting-
and their fishing would also fail. At such times they would have to allay
hunger by eating some of the various vegetable productions which are common.
The blacks are capable of enduring long fasts, and when they get food in
abundance, they are very liable to exceed the usual limits ; but let an Aborio-inal
be fed regularly every day, and it soon becomes apparent that he eats just as
much as is sufficient for him. In fact his appetite is not at all out of the
common."
• The natives are not so improvident as is generally supposed. They take great care of birds'
nests, and they sink wells, and protect the natural water-holes against the encroachments of
animals. They cover the springs of water witli stones and branches of trees ; and show, by
burning ofF the grass and in many other ways, that it is their duty to make provision for their
future wants.
Mr. Charles Coxen writes thus : — " Much has been said of the imprudence of these poor
creatures, and I do not intend to deny the general truth of such statements, but I believe that had
■we been better acquainted with their habits before the colonists came among them, we should give
them credit for more thoughtfulucss than we now do. In corroboration of this opinion, I may
inform you that, during an exploration trip into the interior, made by me in 1836, I found a
considerable store of grass-seed, gum from the mimosa, and other stores, carefully packed up in
large bags made from the skin of the kangaroo, and covered over with pieces of bark, so as to keep
them properly dry. The weight of the bags containing the grass-seed and gum was about one
hundred pounds ; the seeds had been carefully dried after being collected from the small grasses of
the plains. It is used as food after being ground into a kind of paste. The gum is also one of their
favorite articles of consumption, and when made into a thick mucilage, and mixed with lioncv or
sugar, is really very nice. Such instances of forethought are doubtless rare, and I believe are only
to be found beyond the influence of civilization." — The Kommillaruy Tribe. A paper read before
the Queensland Philosophical Society, I8C6.
144 THE ABOEIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
"A huntsman's life," says Wilhelmi, "under any circumstances is a
migratory one, but it becomes the more so in this country, where Nature's
products are obtainable only according to the season, and in districts far off
one from the other. On this account the Port Lincoln blacks are obliged at
times to resort to the sea/-coast for catching fish ; at others, to rove over hill
and dale in pursuit of game and roots ; and during the unproductive months
they are forced, for the smaller kinds of game, to roam through the whole
country, some parts of which are covered with an almost imjienetrable small
scrub, and other parts complete deserts, all the time having to contend against
a dreadful heat, rendered almost insupportable by the reflection of the rays of
the sun and of the surrounding burning scrub, and being, in addition to all
this, deprived of a sufficiency of water The habit of
constantly changing their places of rest is so great that they cannot overcome
it, even if staying where all their wants can be abundantly supplied. A certain
longing to revisit this or that spot, for which they have taken a particular fancy,
seizes them, and neither promises nor persuasion can induce them to resist it
for any time ; only in time and by degrees is this feeling likely to give way.
As they travel greater distances during the summer months than daring winter,
they then also more frequently change their places of rest." *
Property in Land.
Though the land occupied by each tribe was the common property of the
tribe, insomuch as they could hunt over it, kill the wild animals on it, and gather
the fruits and roots and tubers growing mthin its area, there were some
obscure personal rights of property. Members of the tribe, it is said, had lands
which they called their own ; the right to such lands descended from generation
to generation ; and these rights were respected by all, and jealously guarded by
the proprietors.
Grey says that " landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several
families, but to a single male ; and the limits of his property are so accurately
defined, that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out the
various objects which mark his boundary."
And Dr. Lang, in a letter to Dr. Hodgkin, quoted by Grey, states that
" particular districts are not merely the jiroperty of particular tribes ; particular
sections, or portions of these districts, are universally recognised by the natives
as the property of individual members of these tribes ; and when the owner of
such a section, or portion of territory (as I ascertained was the case at King
George's Island), has determined on burning off the grass on his land — which is
done for the double purpose of enabling the natives to take the older animals
more easily, and to provide a new crop of sweeter grass for the rising genera^
tion of the forest — not only all the other individuals of his own tribe, but whole
tribes from other districts, are invited to the hunting party, and the feast and
• Manners and Customs of the Australian Natives, &c., pp. 176-8.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 145
dance, or corrobboree that ensue ; the wild animals on the ground being all
considered the property of the owner of the land." *
Mr. Gideon Lang asserts that the natives have also rodividual property iu
various trees. On one occasion, when exploring, and suffering severely from the
want of food, and particularly the craving from the want of vegetables, his
black guide pointed to a bee passing over them, loaded, and evidently in
straight flight for the hive. Mr. Lang told the native to follow it, and he did
so; but when they reached the tree, the black had scarcely got off his horse
when he remounted, as if to go on again. Mr. Lang asked the reason for his
action, when he jjoiuted to a mark on the tree, evidently made by a stone
tomahawk, and said that it belonged to " N'other one blackfellow," and that he
coukl not toucli it — and at this time he was almost on the point of starvation,
as well as the others of the party, t
Reference is made in the same place to the statement of Sir George Grey,
that 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 gTiibs in
these trees are his property, and no one has a right to touch the tree ; but
Sir George here refers to the grass-trees, which, unless the top is broken or it
naturally decays, is not a proper receptacle for the grubs which supply the
natives with food. The man who took the trouble to break the tops of the grass-
trees was surely entitled to gather the grubs ; but he acqiiired no right to the
trees, and they could not, by his simply breaking the tops, become his property,
as a huge gum-tree might, or a parcel of land.|
The natives of the Darling had a mode of asserting their rights to the land
they inhabited which seemed to surprise Major Mitchell. The "Spitting Tribe"
caused the exjdorers to pour out the water from their buckets into a hole which
they dug in the ground ; and when a river chief had a tomahawk presented to
him, he pointed to the stream, and signified that the white men were at liberty
to take water from it.§
This, however, was no more than the assertion by the principal man of
tribal rights, and did not indicate any individual jiroperty in the waters or soil.
Eyre affirms that every male has a piece of land which he can call his own,
that he knows its boundaries and can point them out; that the father divides his
lands amongst his sons, and that there is almost hereditary succession ; that a
female never inherits, and that primogeniture has no peculiar rights or advan-
tages ;|| and Grej'adds that, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, a boy can point out
the portion of land which he eventually is to inherit, and that if the male children
of a family become extinct, the male children of the daughters inherit their
grandfather's land.
Lieut.-Col. Collins says, " Their spears and shields, their clubs and lines, &c.,
are their own property ; they are manufactured by themselves, and are the whole
* NoTtk-West and Western Australia, yo\.ii.,'p'it.2^i-5.
t Aborigines of Australia, by Gideon S. Lang, 1865, pp. 13-14.
X Sir George Grey's account of this mutter is very clear. See vol. ii., p. 289.
§ Eastern Australia, vol. i., p. 305.
il Eyre's Australia, vol. n., p. 297.
IT
146 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
of thcii- personal estate. But, strange as it may aiipear, they have also their
real estates. Ben-n'd-long gave repeated assurances that the island Me-mel
(known at the settlement by the name of Goat Island), close hy Sydney Cove,
was his own property ; that it had been his father's, and that he should give it
to Bij-gone, his particular friend and companion. To this little spot he appeared
much attached. He likewise spoke of other persons who possessed this kind of
hereditary property, which they retained undisturbed." *
In Eraser's Island (Great Sandy Island) it is said that there arc parts of
the land which the natives look upon as individually theirs, and on the death of
the fiither it descends to the sons. On the death of a mother, her property
descends to her brother.
This is strong evidence in favor of there being individual property in land
amongst the Australians; but is it satisfactory? What rights, exclusive of those
of other memljcrs of the triljc, were enjoyed by tlie proprietor ? What, in short,
were his advantages? This personal property would naturally suggest the
existence in each tribe of chieftainship; but nothing of the kind is known in
Australia. The council of old men rule the affairs of the tribe. The principal
man or principal men cannot act without their advice and approval. If they
did act without authority, they might incur puuisliment. How could the sons of
a daughter inherit? The iicoplc are not endogamous. A girl, it is true, is
betrothed at an early age to a man not of her own class or to a man of another
tribe with whom intermarriage is lawful ; but girls and women are exchanged,
and are not seldom stolen by men of neighbouring tribes ; and, moreover, an
old man has usually not one wife but several ; and how would the succession be
settled ?
It is not at all clear from the statements here quoted that there was any-
where, in the ordinary sense of the word., individual property in land. How,
indeed, could it consist with the maintenance of tribal rights, the rules of
hospitality, and the preservation of the common interests of the people ?
The llev. Joliu Buhner informs me that the foot tliat an Aboriginal is born
in a certain locality constitutes a right to that part, and it would be considered
a breach of privilege for any one to hunt over it without his permission.
Should another black have been born in the same place, he, with the former,
would have a joint right to the land. Otherwise, no native seems to have
made a claim to any particular portion of the territory of his tribe.
Mr. Bulmer says he has found this birthright common to the Murray
tribes, and he suspects it is common to most of the tribes of Australia.
In old times a fight would ensue if any one wilfully tresj^assed on the land
thus acquired as a birthright.
This is intelligible, and seems to accord with other customs of the natives.
In any large area occupied by a tribe, where there was not much forest
laud, and where kangaroos were not numerous, it is highly probable that the
several families composing the tribe would withdraw fi-om their companions for
short periods, at certain seasons, and betake themselves to separate portions of
* An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, 1804, p. 385.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 147
the area (always keeping within the boundaries of the district lawfully owned
by the tribe), and it is more than probable — it is almost certain — that each head
of a family would betake himself, if practicable, to that jiortion which his father
had frequented. In this manner — and where certain privileges were acquired
in consequence of a native having been born in a locality that could be
appropriated — individuals would claim a property in the land. There is nothing
to be discovered in the records relating to the Aborigines of Victoria which
would show such a ^jroprietorship as would justify the statements made by Mr.
Eyre. But he wrote of another part of the continent ; and it is scarcely to be
believed that so accurate an ol)server — so conscientious and careful a historian —
would be misled on such a point.
This is a subject of great interest, and to the ethnologist of the highest
importance ; and it is not to be dismissed by a reference to any authority,
however high. One has to consider, in connection with it, the laws that govern
the tribes, the habits of the people, and the accidents, amongst men in the
savage state, which would necessarily interfere with, and, in fact, render im-
possible anything in the nature of hereditary succession. And there are other
difficulties.
If, when any man was called to account for a crime, he kept himself within
the boundaries of his own land — how could he be brought to punishment?
Not, if he were contumacious, without violating his rights as the proprietor of
the sod. And in times of droiight, if a water-hole was within his boundaries,
would the tribe be prevented from resorting to it? Certainly not. What
rights, what privileges could individual proprietorship confer in a community
of savages?
Dogs.
Native dogs are found at every encampment. Tliey are in all conditions —
some very old, some mature and strong, and some in the stage of piippyhood.
Not less than twenty, i)erha2)s forty, may be seen at any time when a number of
natives encamp for the night. Before European dogs were introduced, the
blacks took the puppies of the wild dog, and brought them up, and trained
them to hunt. They are very kind to their dogs, and indeed nothing more
oifends a black than to speak harshly to his dogs, or to depreciate them ; and
if any one gave a black man's dog a blow, he would incur bitter enmity. Mr.
Gason has seen a woman crying over a dog that had been bitten by a snake ;
and he is of opinion that they take as much care of their dogs as if they
belonged to the human species. Their dogs are not only affectionate and faith-
fol companions, but tliey are of the greatest use to the natives. They assist
them in finding opossums, snakes, rats, and lizards. Tliey are, however, not
generally well fed. The black eats the meat, and the dog gets the bones. A
great many ribs, some belonging to the dead, and some to the living, may be
seen whenever a black's camp is approached.
Tlie native's affectionate care of the dog is not confined to gentle treatment
and kind words. The black woman is often its nurse. Sir Thomas Mitchell
1-^8 THE ABORIGINES Oi? VICTORIA:
says that "the women not unfrequently suckle the young pups, and so
bring them uj) ; but tliese are always miserably thin, so that we knew
a native's dog from a wild one by the starved appearance of the follower of
man."' *
The kindness they show to the domesticated animal does not prevent them
from hunting and killing the wild dog. When they catch one, he is killed and
thrown ou the fire, his hair is singed off, his entrails are taken out, and he is
roasted in an oven constructed of heated stones. The carcass is covered with
bark or grass, and earth ; and in the course of two hours or more he is well
cooked and fit to be eaten.
Buckley says that the howling of the numerous wild dogs affected his
spirits considerably. t I can well believe this. When on the Powlett River,
some years ago, my hospitable entertainer, the superintendent of the station
known as the Wild Cattle Run, killed a calf, in order to provide a sumptuous
supper, and the scent of the blood, or the knowledge conveyed to them somehow
that a beast had been slain, brought the wild dogs from the forest, and about
midnight they came close to the hut and howled most dismally. Ever and
anon a savage sound came from them too, as if they knew that blood was near.
They did not leave until they had aroused every sleeper.
In the Cape Otway forest, and in the forests at the sources of the Goulburn,
they are large and fierce. They generally follow any animal that they mean to
kill in a long line, one after the other, several paces apart, the largest and
strongest dogs keeping the lead. When snow lies on the eastern mountains,
and food is scarce, they will not hesitate to track a traveller.
Their depredations on the flocks of the settlers were at one time of serious
importance ; and, in consequence, it became necessary to use poison. Great
numbers were killed; and then another evil — a serious increase of grass-eating
marsupials — followed. Their natural enemy, the dingo, being in any district
exterminated or greatly reduced in numbers, they increased in ^jroportion, and
soon measures had to be taken to kill the large mobs of kangaroos that con-
sumed the grass.
In one district, a correspondent informs me, the dingoes have become so
cunning as to refuse the poisoned baits set for them. It is certain that some
sheep-dogs are so well acquainted with the fact that poisoned meats are laid for
dogs that they will not eat meat they chance to see when travelling.
Tlie Australian dingo is not wanting in courage. When fiiirly pinned in a
corner, he will attack a man, and exhibit the fierceness of a watch-dog. A rather
small dingo was exhibited some years ago at a great dog-show in Melbourne.
He attracted much attention, and while I was present he got loose. He was
not in the least afraid. He looked carefully at the great number of dogs
chained to pillars and posts, and selecting one, a bull-dog, as an antagonist, he
walked slowly towards him, erecting his bristles and snarling, and would have
attacked him had not a keeper appeared and secured him.
* Eastern Australia, vol. il., p. 341. t Narrative, p. 13.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 149
The dingo (Cams dingo) is called by many names in various parts of
Australia ; and of these, perhaps, the most common are the following : —
Yarra . . . _ Year-angin or Wer-ren-wil-lum.
Gippsland - - - - Ngurran.
Western part of Victoria - Purming (male, jjip kuru; female, Nriing-
gn-ck).
King George's Sound - - Toort.
RafHes Bay . _ . Alee.
Karaula - - - . Myeye.
Wellington Valley - - Mirree.
Eegeut's Lake (Lachlan) - Merry.
Moreton Bay - _ _ Mcliee.
Wollondilly River - - Merrigang or Warrigal.
{Wiiragul or Waragul means wild or
savage, in the dialect of the Yarra and
Western Port natives.)
The dingo is not unlike a sheep-dog, but he resembles also the fox, and at
times when he is enraged he has a wolf-like aspect. He is about two feet in
height, and his length is about two feet six inches. His head is rather like that
of a fox ; his ears are erect and not long, and he has whiskers on the muzzle.
He stands firmly on his legs, and shows a good deal of strength in his well-
constructed body — a body not likely to be overloaded with fat even when well
fed. His color varies from a yellowish-tawny to a reddish-brown, growing lighter
towards the belly ; and tlie tip of his brush is generally white. He cannot bark
like other dogs, but howls, and utters a kind of screech if much irritated. He
has a habit, too, of turning his head over his shoulder when he regards an
enemy, that reminds one of the fox. He affords good sport to a pack of
hounds.
The natives speared the wild dog, or took the pups from their lair and ate
them. I cannot learn that they set trajis for this animal.
It was believed by some for a length of time that the wild dog was of recent
introduction to Australia ; but this is not so. In sinking a well through volcanic
ash, near Tower Hill (Western district of Victoria), the workman came upon dry
grass, like hay, at a dej^th of sixty-three feet. Underneath this ancient grass-
clad surface they sank a depth of sixty feet through a blue and yellow clay, and
there they found the skull and bones of a dingo. And at Lake Timboon, also
in the Western district, the bones of the wild dog are found with those of the
Tasmanian Devil {Sarcophiliis ursinus), now extinct on the mainland, and only
found living in Tasmania ; the bones and teeth of the gigantic extinct kangaroos
(Macroptis Titan and M. Atlas), as well as bones and teeth of tlie genera
Nototherium and Diprofodon. lu fact it is now beyond doubt that the dingo
was alive and well when the now extinct marsupial lion ( Thylacoleo) roamed
through the forests of Australia : when the huge IJromornis fed peacefully
150
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
ou the plains ; and when the volcanoes, now cold and smokeless, sent forth
clouds of ashes and pillars of fire.
The native dog is not a decayed European species, but one entirely and
exclusively Australian.* Fig. 14 shows him as he usually appears.
Climbing Tkees.
Tlie natives are compelled by their necessities to ascend trees very frequently,
either for the purpose of catching animals, or for honey, or for bark for their
canoes or willams; and they are very expert and nimble in climbing to a great
height, whether the tree be straight or crooked, or of lai'ge or small dimensions.
The clumsy attitudes of a European who attempts to climb a pole or a tree
would excite the merriment of the Australian natives. They not only do their
business well, but, as a rule, do it gracefully.
The common method of climbing trees is well known. The native takes his
tomahawk and cuts a notch in the bark of the tree about three and a half or
four and a half feet from the ground. He puts the great toe of one foot into
this, and, raising himself as high as he can, and grasping the tree with one
arm, he cuts another notch a stage higher, and thus ascends. He works very
rapidly ; and it is rare indeed that a black misses his hold and falls to the
ground. In the basin of the River Yarra, and in the Western Port district,
* Grey mentions having seen a dog in North- Western Australia aUogether different In appear-
ance from the dingo or Caiiis Australiensis. It resembled the ilalay dog comiuon to the island ot
Timor. Grey nerer saw one wild — only domesticated and in the vicinity of the natives. — North-
West and Western Australia, vol. i., p. 239
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LITE.
151
iuid in many other parts of the colony, there are large numbers of old trees to
be seen with notches in the bark, which the blacks have climbed for the purpose
(if catching opossums, or for getting bark. In West Australia the end of the
wooden handle of the tomahawk is sharpened, and the native sticks the end into
the bark after making a notch, and drags himself up.
Tliis method of climbing by cutting notches is practised probably in all parts
of the continent. Collins gives an account of it in his work on New South
Wales (1804). He says : — " It has been remarked that these natives had longer
arms and legs than those who lived about Sydney. Tliis might proceed from
tiieir being compelled to climb the trees after honey and the small animals
w'iiich resort to them, such as the flying squirrel and opossum, which they effect
by cutting with their stone hatchets notches in the bark of the tree of a suffi-
cient depth and size to receive the ball of the great toe. The first notch being
cut, the toe is placed in it, and while the left arm embraces the tree, a second is
(Hit at a convenient distance, to receive the other foot. By this method they
ascend with astonishing quickness, always clinging with the left hand, and
(tutting with the right, resting the whole weight of the body on the baU of either
foot. One of the gnm-trees was observed by a party on an excursion, which
was judged to be about one hundred and thirty feet in height, and whicli Iiad
been notched by the natives at least eighty feet." *
Mr. Le Souef says that the blacks at Twofold Bay often climb trees in the
following manner. Tliey make a rope of the fibre of some vegetable, and attach
wooden handles to it, and ascend with ease even very taU smooth trunks. —
(Fig. 15.)
The natives of Tasmania also climbed trees by the aid of a rope in the
same way.
An Accoiiiil of the Enylinh Cohmij in New South Wales, by Licut.-Col. Collins, p. 357.
152
THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOBIA:
Sometimes a tree is climbed witli the help of a rope made of the fibre of
stringybark. The rope is passed round the trunk of the tree and the body of
the climber, and is so adjusted as to fit into the small of the man's back.
His tomahawk is kept in his waist-belt. The rope is held by the hands ; the
body is pressed against the tree, and by quickly jerking the rope upwards a
tall trunk is very easily climbed. Mr. Ho^\-itt obtained information respecting
this method from two natives of Gippsland, who, when they saw the sketch he
had made, expressed themselves as highly delighted. They suggested an
alteration, and when that was effected, they exclaimed, " Ko-ki! berry good !
that fellow all right now !"
In Queensland the native makes use of the strong creepers or climbing
plants, instead of a rope, and ascends a tree with great ease.*
Fig. 16, showing a native of Queensland in the act of ascending a tree, is
from a photograph.
Signals.
The natives have an easy method of telegraphing news to their distant
Iriends. When Sir Thomas Mitchell was travelling through Eastern Australia,
he often saw columns of smoke ascending throiigh the trees in the forests, and
he soon learnt that the natives used the smoke of fires for the purpose of
making known his movements to their friends. Near Mount Frazer he observed
a dense column of smoke, and subsequently other smokes arose, extending in a
telegraphic line far to the south along the base of the mountains, and thus
communicating to the natives who might be upon his route homewards the
tidings of his return.
* The Indians of South America climb trees with the assistance of a hoop of wild vines; and :i
similar method is adopted in Ceylon and in some parts of Africa. — Set Tylor's Earhj Histor)i oj
Man/and, 1870, p. 173.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 153
When Sir Thomas reached Portland Bay he noticed that when a whale
appeared in the bay the natives were accustomed to send up a column of smoke,
thus giving timely intimation to all the whalers. If the whale should be
perceived by one boat's crew only, it might be taken ; but if pursued by several,
it would probably be run ashore and become food for the blacks.*
Jardine, writing of the natives of Cape York, says that " communication
between the islanders and the natives of the mainland is frequent; and the rapid
manner in which news is carried from tribe to tribe to great distances is
astonishing. I was informed of the approach of H.M.S. Salamander on her
last visit two days before her arrival here. Intelligence is conveyed by means
of fires made to throw smoke up in different forms, and by messengers who
perform long and rapid journeys. "f
Messengers in all parts of Australia appear to have used this mode of
signalling. In Victoria, when travelling through the forest, they were accus-
tomed to raise smoke by filling the hollow of a tree with green boughs and
setting fire to the trunk at its base; and in this way, as they always selected an
elevated position for the fire when they could, their movements were made
known.
When engaged in hunting, when travelling on secret expeditions, when
approaching an encampment, when threatened with danger, or when foes
menaced their friends, the natives made signals by raising a smoke. And
their fires were lighted in such a way as to give forth signals that would be
understood by people of their own tribe and by friendly tribes. They exhibited
great ability in managing their system of telegraphy; and in former times it
was not seldom used to the injury of the white settlers, who, at first, had no
idea that the thin column of smoke rising through the foliage of the adjacent
bush, and raised perhaps by some feeble old woman, was an intimation to the
warriors to advance and attack the Europeans.
Oaths.
Capt. Grey makes a remarkable statement respecting the mode in which the
natives swear amity to one another, or pledge themselves to aid one another in
avenging a death. He says it is exactly the form referred to in Genesis, ch.
xxiv., v. 9 : — " One native remains seated on the ground with his heels tucked
under him, in the Eastern manner ; the one who is about to narrate a death to
him approaches slowly, and with averted face, and seats himself cross-legged
upon the thighs of the other; they are thus placed thigh to thigh, and squeezing
their bodies together they place breast to breast — both then avert tiieir faces,
their eyes frequently fill with tears — no single word is spoken; and the one who
is seated uppermost places his hands under the thighs of his friend ; having
remained thus seated for a minute or two, he rises up and withdraws to a little
distance without speaking — but an inviolable pledge to avenge the death has by
this ceremony passed between them."
• Eastern Australia, by Major T. L. Mitchell, F.G.S., Tol. u., p. 241.
t Overland Expedition, p. 85.
X
154 THE ABOEIGINES OF TICTOEIA:
I have made enquiries on this subject, and the Rev. Mr. Bulmer informs me
that there is no particular mode of swearing amity known to him. The Murray
blacks have a word to express a determination to prove faithful to a compact —
Merra mal i-imba, which is an untranslatable term, but might have its equiva-
lent in " Verily, I say to you." The sentence may be divided thus : —
Merra mal i-imba.
Yerily, I to you.
When an Aboriginal uses this term, he is thought to be sincere. There is a
similar term in use amongst the Gippsland blacks — Mack Gnata, which means
" Really yes," or " Very yes." This word mack is generally used to express
emphasis, as Mack lane, "Very good;" Mack thar, "A real name;" Mack
Naatban, " Really no;" so that a black who wishes to inspire confidence will use
such a term. In swearing amity, they would do it much in the same way as
ourselves, by a hearty grip of the hand or an embrace. Mr. Bulmer believes
that there is not any specified way of performing the ceremony, but that, no
doubt, it would depend on the position of the persons at the time, whether
reclining or otherwise, or it might be in case of sickness and probable death
that such a mode as that referred to by Capt. Grey was adopted. Mr. Bulmer is
inclined to think that the ceremony described by that explorer was some form
of incantation, for that is exactly the way their medicine-men sometimes handle
their patients.
Fights.
Those who have lived amongst the blacks cannot fail to have observed that
they are always expecting a fight. Distant tribes send messages to them re-
lating to various matters, and other messages are returned, which are not always
of a satisfactory character — and anger and ill-will, at last, lead to an outbreak.
Sometimes a man is sick in a tribe, and his friends at once conclude that he has
been made ill by the evil practices of his enemies ; suspicion is created — hints
are given by wary old blackfellows who have old grudges unsatisfied, and at
length some tribe is fixed upon with which it is deemed necessary to negotiate.
Ambassadors are sent to the ofi'endiug tribe ; these return and make their report ;
there is much talking amongst the elders ; and finally the excitement in the
minds of the men and women of both tribes results in a meeting. The sick man
is brought out of his miam, and the accused are required to stand beside him,
and to clear themselves. They behave thus : The sick man is provided with a
club and a shield ; if the person who presents himself is considered innocent, he
strikes the shield of the accused with his club, and the accused returns the blow
lightly, and retires. If one is singled out as the guilty person, a young man is
selected to fight him, and the two seldom cease fighting until blood is drawn.
Sometimes — but rarely — a fight is arranged for the purpose of testing the
strength of a tribe. As a rule, fights are brought about by the misconduct of
the women, the unauthorized killing of game, the sickness of some member of
a tribe, the death of a prominent man, the quarrels of children of different
families, or, not seldom, by trivial differences arising out of imaginary griev-
ances.
ENCAMPMENT A>"D DAILY LEFE. 155
In such encounters the women appear to suffer most, and in a great fight
one or more of them may be killed ; but the warriors are not often mortally
wounded during an engagement.* Several of the men may be seriously hurt ;
and if the wounds be caused by jagged spears, they may be rendered helpless
for a long time; but Nature is kind to creatures of her own rearing, and a gash
that would kill a civilized European is easily repaired if inflicted on a black
man, who has no mechanical contrivances, nor bitter medicines, nor spirituous
liquors to vex him in his pain.f After a very serious battle, some of the con-
quered may be murdered — and in committing these crimes there is evinced
a malignity which is not to be extenuated even amongst the most savage
natives.
* Fights amongst the natives were common in the early days of the settlement at Sydney.
Collins relates that hostile tribes were frequently engaged in combat, often during two days and
more, and that much blood was shed, but there was scarcely ever any loss of life. — P. 303.
He says, also, that the women almost invariably are the cause of quarrels aud fijihts, and some-
times, when hostile tribes meet, a woman begins the battle, scolding the enemy, and hitting the men
on the head with a club. — Collins, 1804, pp. 375-6.
t " The natives pay but little regard to the wounds they receive in duels, or which are inflicted
on them as punishments ; their sufferings from all injuries are much less than those which Europeans
would undergo in similar circumstances ; this may probably arise from their abstemious mode of
life, and from their never using any other beverage than water. A striking instance of their apathy
with regard to wounds was shown on one occasion in a fight which took place in the village of
Perth, in Western Australia. A native man received a wound in that portion of his frame which is
only presented to enemies when in the act of flight, and the spear, which was barbed, remained
sticking in the wound ; a gentleman who was standing by watching the fray, regarded the man with
looks of pity and commiseration, which the native perceiving, came up to him, holding the spear (still
in the wound) in one hand, and turning round, so as to expose the injury he had received, said in the
most moving terms, 'Poor fellow, sixpence give it 'um.'" — Norlh-West and Western Australia. Grey,
vol. n., pp. 244-5.
A gentleman, formerly residing in Wellington Valley, in New South Wales, and holding a high
position under the Government, informs me that on one occasion he saw a native pierced by a spear.
It entered his chest, and the point came out under the blade-bone. When the spear was withdrawn,
the man was seen by a surgeon, who declared that portions of the lungs were adhering to the spear.
The sufferer plugged the holes with gum and grass, and recovered so rapidly as to be able to walk
a distance of eighteen miles after the lapse of a week.
Another correspondent states that a blackfellow whose abdomen was perforated by a bullet used
grass and gum in the same manner, and never seemed to suflfer much from the wound.
Collins states that a black who had had a barbed spear driven into his loins, close by the
vertebrae of the back, had recourse to the surgeons of the settlements. Their utmost skill failed
to extract the weapon, and he went away trusting to nature for a recovery. He walked about for
several weeks with the spear unmoved, even after suppuration had taken place. Finally the spear-
head was e.\tracted by War-re-weer, his wife, who fixed her teeth in it and drew it out. He
recovered in a short time.— Coffins, 1804, p. 316.
"Leigh relates the case of an Australian whose temporal bone had been fractured by a blow,
and the temporal artery divided, and of another whose ulna and radius had been fractured in a
terrible manner ; that the first took part on the following day in some public meeting, and that,
though worms appeared in the arm of the second, the recovery in both took place without any
operation or even dressing." — Introduction to Anthropology, by Dr. Theodor Waitz, 1863, p. 126.
I have from time to time examined a large number of the skulls of natives, and I have seen on
many of them indentations and marks of injuries, evidently, from the state of the bones and the
sutures, inflicted long prior to death ; and I have often wondered how Nature, unassisted, could
repair such serious hurts. All the evidence I have collected goes to show that the native, uncon-
taminated by association with Europeans, is as independent of adventitious aids, in the cure of
wounds and fractures, as the wild animals of the forest.
156 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The natives seem to take great pleasure in these encounters. They have
afforded them on such occasions the opportunity of displaying their skill as
gymnasts and in the use of their various weapons, and of proving their superi-
ority, not only to the enemy with whom they may be engaged, but to the warriors
of their own tribe. Emulation leads them to attempt feats of daring, and
during the excitement of a general engagement they freely risk their lives. In
many cases warrior is pitted against warrior, and those thus engaged are not
molested by either enemies or friends. It would appear that unfair advantage
is seldom taken. They fight, too, when there is no actual ill-will between the
combatants, rather for the display of skQl and agility than for the purpose of
shedding blood. A great battle between two tribes is not a brawl — a brutal,
savage, bloodthirsty onset — but generally a well-devised set-to between the
fighting-men of each side. Towards the end, when the blood is heated — when
the yells and screams of the women and children are added to the hoarse shouts
of the warriors, when wives rush in to protect their husbands, and mothers
cling to their sons to shelter them and help them — there are many blows struck
in anger, and much mischief is occasionally done ; but the combats between the
fighting-men are not usually attended by very serious consequences. The
jumping, dancing, and spear-throwing induce a copious perspiration, and the
war paint begins to take new forms, and the ornaments they have assumed get
disarranged ; but beyond these casualties and a few ugly knocks, they come out
of the fight most often scatheless.
To a stranger — one new to the country — a great fight amongst the natives is
calculated to create alarm. The decorations of the warriors (except for their
paint and feathers or boughs, naked), their loud cries as they advance, the
shaking of the spears, the rattling of the clubs and other weapons as they
strike the shields or the trees, the wailing of the women, and the general aspect
of the assembled tribes, all — even including the grouping of the dogs — showing
a state of unusual excitement and turmoil, are likely enough to raise feelings of
terror. And then the scenery, so little in keeping with the violent motions of
the warriors and their savage yells, adds, by contrast, to the sternness of the
picture. Bounding the space where the combat is going on are numerous
ancient gum-trees, whose richly-colored boles, sheltering here and there a
cherry-tree clad in bright-green foliage, present in themselves exquisite pictures,
and perhaps, if the season is spring, the banks of the neighbouring creek will be
clothed with wattle-trees in luxuriant blossom. The sward on which the war-
riors are trampling is a short smooth grass, and beyond, seen through the trees,
are gentle slopes, at the foot of one or more of which are the miams of the
tribe, from whose fires thin blue smoke rises and seems to blend in the color of
the unclouded sky.
Only amongst uncivilized peoples and in forests where the axe of the white
man has not been heard can such scenes be witnessed ; and though they may
induce disgust and abhorrence, they are not altogether devoid of those elements
which serve to elevate our species. When the fight is over, the wounded are
well cared for. The animosity which infiuenced some of the more truculent
of the warriors is forgotten or concealed, and not seldom help is given
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 167
to the injured by both parties. Perhaps the day's work is concluded by
a dance, and the reconciliation of the tribes completely effected — to be inter-
rupted only when the winning graces and bright looks of some amongst
the women enthrall a strange warrior, and lead to a new cause of
quarrel.
Thougli there were commonly few deaths on such occasions, men and women
were killed sometimes, and the wars consequently had a tendency to reduce the
numbers of the tribes. When a warrior was slain, his wives were disposed of,
and the youngest children of the wives, and the children born after the decease
of the husband, most probably destroyed.
There have been no serious encounters — conducted strictly in accordance
with the etiquette of savage life — in the Colony of Victoria for many years.
After the arrival of Europeans, new implements were used, and new methods of
warfare were adopted ; and there are probably not very many now living who
have seen a well-contested fight, after the Aboriginal fashion, in this colony.
From the narrative of William Buckley one can gather, however, some accurate
notion of how the fights of the natives were conducted. He seems to have
given a very careful account of these, or the compiler of Buckley's Life and
Adventures — Mr. John Morgan — must have had an excellent knowledge of the
habits of the Australians.
One battle is thus described in Buckley's narrative : — " In a very short time
the fight began, by a shower of spears from the contending parties. One of our
men advanced singly, as a sort of champion ; he then began to dance and sing,
and beat himself about with his war implements ; presently they all sat down,
and he seated himself also. For a few minutes all was silent ; then our
champion stood up, and commenced dancing and singing again. Seven or
eight of the savages — for so I must call them — our opponents, then got up also,
and threw their spears at him ; but, with great dexterity, he warded them off,
or broke them every one, so that he did not receive a single wound. They then
threw their boomerangs at him, but he warded them off also, with ease. After
this, one man advanced, as a sort of chamiiion from their party, to within three
yards of him, and threw his boomerang, but the other avoided the blow by
falling on his hands and knees ; and, instantly jumping up again, he shook
himself like a dog coming out of the water. At seeing this, tlie enemy shouted
out in their language ' enough,' and the two men went and embraced each other.
After this, the same two beat their own heads until the blood ran down in
streams over their shoulders. A general fight now commenced, of wliich all
this had been the prelude, spears and boomerangs flying in all directions. The
sight was very terrific, and their yells and shouts of defiance very horrible. At
length one of our tribe had a spear sent right through his body, and he fell.
On this, our fellows raised a war-cry ; on hearing which, the women threw off
their rugs, and, each armed with a short club, flew to the assistance of their
husbands and brothers ; I being peremptorily ordered to stay where I was ; my
supposed brother's wife remaining with me. Even with this augmentation, our
tribe fought to great disadvantage, the enemy being all men, and much more
numerous. Soon after dark the hostile tribe left the neighbourhood ; and, on
158 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
discovering this retreat from the battle-ground, ours determined on following
them immediately, leaving the women and myself where we were. On
approaching the enemy's quarters, they laid themselves down in ambush until
all was quiet, and, finding most of them asleep, lying about in groups, our
party rushed upon them, killing three on the spot and wounding several others.
The enemy fled precipitately, leaving their war implements in the hands of their
assailants, and their wounded to be beaten to death by boomerangs — three loud
shouts closing the victors' triumph."
An account of another fight is given by Buckley : — " In the first place, they
seated themselves on their rugs, in groups of half-dozens, or thereabouts,
keeping their spears and shields and waddies all ready at hand ; our party
being prepared also. At length the young man already mentioned advanced
towards us. He had bunches of emu's feathers tied to different parts of his
body by a kind of yarn they make by twisting the hair of the opossum ; he was
cutting the most extraordinary capers, and challenged our men to fight — an
ofi'er which was accepted practically by a boomerang being thrown at him, and
■which grazed his leg. A spear was then thrown, but he warded it off cleverly
with his shield. He made no return to this, but kept capering and jumping
about until one of our men advanced very near to him, with only a shield and
a waddy, and then the two went to work in good earnest, blow following blow,
until the first had his shield split, so that he had nothing to defend himself
■with but his waddy. His opponent took advantage of this, and struck him a
tremendous blow on one side of the head, and knocked him do-wn ; but he was
instantly on his legs again, the blood, however, flowing very freely over his
back and shoulders. His friends then cried out enough, and threatened
general hostilities if another blow was struck ; and this having the desired
effect, they all soon after separated quietly ; thus ending an aS"air ■which at one
time promised to conclude very differently."
The late Mr. Thomas, in his notes prepared for this work at my request,
describes a fight which he witnessed on the 5th December 1843. The tribes
from Barrabool, Bun-ung-on, and Leigh River, encamped at a spot lying to the
north of Melbourne, at half-past four o'clock p.m. They advanced in close
lines, ten deep, and ten in each line, and squatted on the grass ; the Barrabool
west of the Bun-ung-on, and a little to the north-west of these the Leigh River
tribe. After sitting in silence for about half an hour, King William, the
principal man of the three tribes, advanced spear in hand, and quite naked, as
indeed were all the warriors. King William harangued the groups. He stated
that certain blacks were charged with killing two natives and abducting their
wives ; that the blacks so charged and their tribe were not afraid of appearing
before the Goulburn, Mount Macedon, Yarra, and Coast tribes, and they were
ready to have the accusers' spears thrown at them. While King William was
speaking, another black came forward and produced a number of charges, chal-
lenged his enemies, and acted generally in a rather violent manner. Whereupon
two warriors arose and made speeches, and expressed their willingness to receive
the spears of their opponents in the face of the assembled tribes. Tlien ensued
a general disturbance. All the men of all the tribes were greatly agitated, and
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILT LIFE. 159
many seized the opportunity to re-furbish their weapons. Tliose accused of
murder were quite naked and in mourning — that is to say, painted white — and
those charged with a lesser offence, being accomplices or otherwise implicated,
were also naked, but decorated with boughs {Murrum or Mooran Karrang) just
above the ankles. The men with the boughs on their ankles were on this
occasion stationed in front of the tribes, about ten yards from the nearest of
those squatting on the ground. Tlieir opponents advanced towards them, shook
their weapons, threw dust in the air, and commenced stamping and hissing, and
grinding their teeth, dancing from time to time through the ashes of a bark fire
that was kept burning at the spot. Then they formed a line, and were headed
by their principal men; then they arranged themselves in a moment in the
shape of a crescent, and as quickly formed again a straight line, all the time
hissing, grinding their teeth, stamping and grimacing, shaking their spears, and
jumping to an extraordinary height. At one time they stretched themselves
on the ground so as almost to touch the grass with their noses, keeping their
spears parallel with their bodies, and, acting in concert, they presented a very
remarkable spectacle. They ran backwards, sideways, and all ways, approach-
ing often close to the line of the men in murrum. All these frantic gestures
were used, however, merely to excite themselves and the accused. The principal
men on both sides kept up their somewhat angry discourse during the whole of
this procedure, and finally settled what was to be done. The word of command
at length was given : each black was at his post armed with his wonguim,
mulga, and leonile, either in his hand or lying on the grass at his feet ; and in a
moment a shower of missiles was directed towards the men in murrum. Some
of the missiles hit others not implicated ; their ire was aroused, and a general
fight ensued. Spears were hurled, and those amongst the accused who were
not struck were attacked with clubs and the leonile. (The latter, a most
formidable weapon, is used to strike at the head only.) The men not engaged
in the quarrel now interfered, going amongst the belligerents, with spears in
their hands, not throwing them, but pretending to throw them, whereby they
incurred danger in thus intermeddling, as spears were thrown by angry men at
them. A blow of a waddy from a disinterested individual put an end, however,
to this, and after a brief scrimmage the battle might be said to be over. At
this stage the wives of the accused persons joined the melfe ; and wailing,
howling, and jabbering, they commenced a fight of their own. Each woman,
holding her yam-stick {Kun-ang)* advanced towards her opponent and aimed
a blow. This was received on the yam-stick, which in defence is held in a
horizontal position, so as to protect the head. She struck perhaps two or three
blows, and then held her stick downwards but ready for defence, and received
the blows of her antagonist. This strange fight was continued for some time,
and the awful howls and execrations were deafening. At last the men inter-
fered. They hurled spears at the women, but so as not to touch them, yet not
until a strong man went to them spear in hand in a very threatening manner
did they disperse. As they departed, shrieking defiance, they beat the ground
* A strong, stout stick, sharpened at one end, most often at both ends, and hardened in the fire,
about seven feet in length, and used commonly for digging roots, &c.
160 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
with their yam-sticks. Finally the head-men, after much discussion, settled
the diifereuces, and this great battle was finished.
Mr. Thomas states that of all the fights he has seen he has never known
but of one death to arise from their frays.* He has seen desperate wounds
inflicted very often, but none but one was mortal. The one death referred to
was that of Ter-run-uk, a fine young Llackfellow of the Bun-ung-on tribe, who,
in a fight with the Barrabool men, was struck with a wonguim, which passed
through the lower part of his thigh. He was carefully attended to by Mr.
Thomas, who had him removed to his own farm at Pentridge, but he died,
contrary to the expectations of the large number of natives who were encamped
near Melbourne at the time and witnessed the occurrence.
In the great fight above described six natives were severely wounded, one
being penetrated by a double-jagged spear. It went quite through his thigh.
The long part was broken off, and the remainder dragged through the wound.
Ten of the women had their knuckles broken, and many of the men were
injured by the wonguim.
Mr. Thomas does not say what punishment was finally inflicted on the men
accused of murder. It is to be presumed that they were dealt with during the
mel^e.
When the fighting is quite at an end there is, says Mr. Thomas, an end also
to all animosity. The wounded are carefully attended to, sometimes by those
who a short time before were bent on inflicting wounds ; the injured parts are
washed, and such simple remedies as are known to them are quickly ajiplied.
The fights of the natives are conducted, in all parts of Australia, pretty
much after the manner described by Buckley.
A very interesting account of a series of fights amongst the tribes living
on the Macleay River (lat. 31° S.) is given in Mr. Clement Hodgkinson's work,
entitled Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay. He says : —
"Tlie fights of the natives are generally conducted on the principles of
retributive justice. Their mode of warfare is fair, open, and manly; for tribes
on hostile terms scorn to take the least undue advantage of each other, and
the instant a fight is concluded, both parties seem perfectly reconciled, and
jointly assist in tending the wounded men. In this respect the quarrels of the
Aborigines of New South Wales present a striking contrast to the cruel and
treacherous warfare of the North American Indians and the ferocious and
implacable contests which used to take place among the ci-devant man-eating
New Zealanders. Acts of treachery sometimes occur between individual
natives ; but these acts, though they involve the tribe to which the ofi'ending
party belongs in war with the other tribe, are always punished, as the off'ender
has always to bear the brunt of the engagement, and stand for some time
alone, unassisted by his companions, as a butt for the spears of the immediate
relations of the man whom he has kUled or wounded. It seems to be a regular
principle with the Australian Aborigines that blood must be shed for blood; and,
as an example will better illustrate the warfare of the natives than a general
* See statement respecting loss of life in fights, p. 32.
&
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 161
description, I will give a short account of a quarrel among some Macleay River
tribes during my stay there. Three young men belonging to the Yarra-Bandini
tribe, which was also the name of our cattle station (as that locality was the
head quarters of this tribe), had descended the river in a oanoe to Verge's
station, which is within the limits of the boundaries of the Calliteeni or
Kempsey tribe. The object they had in view was to kill a Tryal Bay native,
whom the savages had nick-named Cranky Tom from his comical hilarity; for
it would appear that Cranky Tom had some time before killed one of the
relations of these men in a fight, and they now determined to revenge his
death. Poor Tom, who was my earliest acquaintance among the Tryal Bay
natives, was stopping, with his 'gin,' Dilberree, near Verge's, without any
suspicion of treachery, when he was suddenly confronted by his enemies.
Having endeavoured in vain to protect himself with his shield, he soon fell,
pierced with wounds, and his head was then cut off by his savage enemies, one
of whom, named Henry, also took possession of the woman. This act of
treachery roused the indignation of two tribes, the Kempsey or Calliteeni
blacks, on whose ground the outrage had been committed, and the Tryal Bay
blacks, to whom the murdered man belonged. On speaking to the chief men
of the Yarra-Bandini tribe about this cowardly attack, they merely told me, in
reply, that Henry and the other men were ' murry stupid ' to act as they did,
but that Cranky Tom was a 'murry saucy fellow,' and deserved what he had
got. The Yarra-Bandini tribe were encamped, in the meantime, close to our
stockyards. The first of their adversaries in the field were the Kempsey
blacks, who came over one afternoon, and fought the Yarra-Bandini natives at
our very doors. The battle was conducted in the most fair and open manner ;
each party drew up in two lines, armed with spears, shields, and boomerangs,
and threw spear for spear for a considerable time before any damage was done.
At length, a Yarra-Bandini black was slightly wounded in the forehead ; and
soon after a Kempsey native, whom the sawyers named 'iVIajor Lovatt,' was
transfixed with a spear, which apparently passed through his lungs. This con-
cluded the fight. Both the hostile parties now mingled together in the most
friendly way ; and the Yarra-Bandini tribe was even more anxious than the
other in their endeavours to alleviate the wounds of the dying man. My partner
also rendered every assistance to him, but he expired in a few minutes. By
a most extraordinary revulsion of feeling, the Kempsey blacks now became
furiously enraged against the Tryal Bay tribe, whose cause they had just
espoused so actively. Accordingly, under the pretence that an immense flock
of ducks had settled on some lagoon down the river, the Kempsey natives, who
are few in number, but more conversant with the customs of the whites than
the others, succeeded in persuading some cedar dealers and sa^vyers at that
place to lend them some muskets, which they loaded with slugs, and they then
proceeded down the river in a boat. The Tryal Bay blacks, who were quite
taken by surprise by this unusual manoeuvre, were soon worsted, and several of
them were wounded by the shot, but none killed. Matters now became more
complicated, for one of the Nambucca Kiver tribes, being indignant at the
treatment of their neighbours at Tryal Bay, took part in the quarrel. A week
Y
162 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
or two afterwards, being at Yarra-Bandiui, a gin, who had been sent from our
station on some message, returned in a great hurry, glistening with moisture
from having swam across the creek, as she had seen the Tryal Bay tribe, who
were coming up to fight the natives at our place. She had scarcely bounded
away from us to warn them of the approach of their enemies, when the latter
appeared, marching in Indian file, having their bodies painted with red stripes,
and their bark shields whitened with pipeclay and adorned with double red
crosses. They advanced with a measured tramp, carrying their spears aloft at
a uniform slope, with their shields on the left side. They had just arrived
where we were standing, when the Yarra-Bandini blacks, having been warned
by the gin of the approach of their enemies, dashed out of the adjoining brush,
and, throwing themselves into regular rows five or six deep, commenced a
furious dance in defiance of the other party, leaping up and down at a measured
tread, whilst they beat time with their nuUa-nullas and waddies, accompanying
each jump with a short loud shout. As soon as their adversaries had arrived
opposite them, each party halted, whilst the chief men on both sides advanced,
and commenced a most animated dialogue, occasionally threatening each other
with their spears. A very old woman, whom the Tryal Bay blacks had brought
up with them, seemed to be particularly active in abusing and insulting the
Yarra-BancUni natives, whom she railed at unceasingly in a loud, screaming
voice. As the Australian Aborigines look upon their women as very inferior
animals to themselves, I suppose the Tryal Bay tribe had brought iip this
scolding old lady in order to evince the greater contempt for the other tribe ;
much on the same principle which once induced a king of France to send a
defiance to an English prince by a scullion, instead of a herald, in order to
insult him the more grievously. After a long altercation, the two hostile tribes
mingled together as though they were on the best terms with each other ; they
encamped, however, for the night at some distance apart. Next morning the
fight commenced, in which, according to the usual custom, the three natives
who had been the original cause of the quarrel stood prominently forward,
exposed to the spears of the Tryal Bay blacks for some time, without receiving
any assistance from their companions, until one of them received a spear wound
on the instep and another on the knee. The fight then became general, but no
further damage was done, as each party was equally adroit in warding otf with
their shields the missiles that were flying about. This engagement seemed to
conclude the quarrel between the Yarra-Bandini and Yarra-Hapiuni blacks,
as the gin, Dilberree, who had been carried off, was restored to her friends.
It was, however, some time before the other quarrels which had arisen from this
affair were fought out ; after which a general peace had to be consolidated by
solemn corrobborees, danced successively on the grounds of each of the belli-
gerent tribes. Although the Aborigines are, in general, so honorable and open
in their warfare with one another, their behaviour towards the whites is very
different, being often treacherous in the extreme. It frequently happens that
those persons who have been most liberal and kind to the natives are chosen as
their first victims ; for if a white man gives a present to a native without
stipulating for some service in return, the latter imputes the generosity of the
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILT LIFE. 163
white man to fear. Thus the sawyers at the Nambucca, who gave the blacks a
large quantity of flour, tobacco, sugar, &c., in order to propitiate them, became
immediately exposed to their murderous attacks, which did not cease until the
natives had received a severe lesson or two, to convince them of the superiority
of the arms of the white man."
The Rev. George Taplin says that on one occasion he witnessed a serious
outbreak amongst the natives of the Lower Murray, when about one hundred
people were engaged in earnest endeavours to knock each other's brains out.
The quarrel arose in this way. He had permitted four girls, about sixteen years
of age, to sleep in his kitchen, where the flour was kept ; and the natives hearing
of this, about a dozen of them, armed with spears and kanakis, called late one
night, and demanded that one of the girls, named Pompanyeripuritye, should
be given up, as they said she might have eaten of the flour from a bag from
which the Narumbar had partaken ; the Narimibar being the youths who were
in course of being made young men, and forbidden to eat with women — lest
they should grow ugly. The men took the girl away — though she was un-
willing to leave Mr. Taplin's house. On the following morning a great dis-
turbance arose. The natives had now firmly convinced themselves that the
girls and the young men had eaten of flour taken from the same bag, and the
youths and their friends attacked the tribe to which the girls belonged, and
fired their wurleys. This led to a fight. By the time Mr. Taplin reached the
spot there were men lying on the ground bleeding, and women were wailing
over them. The warriors as yet unhurt were uttering hoarse shouts and yells
of defiance, and fiourishing their weapons when they were not striking at the
heads of their opponents. Naked women were dancing about, casting dust iu
tlie air, and using obscene language to irritate their enemies and to encourage
their friends. Mr. Taplin went fearlessly amongst them, during the uproar,
and succeeded at length in persuading them to stop the fight and return to
their camps, not, however, before he himself narrowly escaped death from a
spear thrown by Dick Baalpulare. The spear passed within an inch of Mr.
Taplin's head. The reverend gentleman adds that he had his revenge for this.
Dick was bitten by a snake one day, and Mr. Taplin had the pleasure of curing
him. A Missionary's life amongst the wild natives of Australia is not without
its perils and excitements.
A fight amongst the Port Lincoln blacks is very well described by Mr. C.
Wilhelmi :—
" The second fight, on account of attempted murder, took place in Port
Lincoln, and the party about to be attacked were invited by heralds to attend
the combat. The natives, upon their arrival, were painted with a white color,
and wore little peeled sticks, which looked like plumes, in their hair. They
marched in long line, three deep, making now and then a halt, and with one
voice poured forth loud cries. As soon as they had completed these evolutions,
the other party, who were rather surprised, set to work to answer the salutation.
After having hastily painted themselves, and arranging themselves in single file,
they marched in a regular quick short step towards the enemy, who had in the
meantime formed a camp. After they had thus once or twice marched round
164
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
the enemy's camp, they formed themselves into a dense mass, bowed their heads,
and uttered a piercing cry. They repeated these movements two or three times,
and then returned to their own camp in the same order they had observed upon
leaving it. That evening, and the greater part of the night, were spent in sing-
ing and dancing; but with sunrise of the next day the fight commenced.
Eight men advanced from each side, making use of mimical gestures, although
the most profound silence was observed. They formed into a row, two deep,
about twenty paces from each other, so that they came to stand two to two.
Each warrior stretched his legs apart, and planted his feet firmly on the ground,
holding a sjiear and sling in the right hand, and the katta, or grubbing-stick,
together with other spears, in the left. They pushed forward their chests, and
moved their bodies from side to side, as a sort of challenge. Each one fixed his
eyes upon his especial antagonist, and seemed to have no concern about any of
the others, as if he had nothing to fear at their hands. Not a sound was
audible. Many spears were thrown on either side, and were avoided by moving
the upper part of the body to one side, or were parried by giving the spears a
blow with the katta or other spears held in the left hand. Thus the spears of
the opponents failed to reach their mark. At length some of the party who sent
the challenge went over into the ranks of the enemy, to show that they wished
to put an end to the combat. One quarrelsome old man, who had struck the
first blow, did not seem to be content to stay his arm without having spilled a
drop of blood. He stood opposed to a young man of not more than twenty
years of age, and he threw several spears at him after the youth had ceased fight-
ing. The old rascal made use of the most insulting and provoking language,
and was paid back, however, in his own coin. At length some of the old man's
friends interposed, and sought to intimidate him ; but finding they could not
succeed in this, they made a point of striking up his throwing-stick as often as
he placed a spear on it, thus causing the weapon to fall useless on the ground.
The skilful manner in which the Aborigines avoid or parry the spears is truly
astonishing. Mr. Schiirmann, who was an eye-witness of the last-mentioned
affair, tells us that the old man, who was renowned as a good marksman, took
such good aim that it seemed almost a certainty that he would hit his adverr
eary ; nevertheless, each spear was met and glided off the young man's katta
and shot over his shoulder, passing in close proximity to his ear. This can only
be accomplished by a sure and a firm glance, which are amongst the Aborigines
looked upon as the highest virtues of which they can boast, and of which they
are the most proud. It has been said that the Aborigines of this country are
possessed of a cowardly disposition, and it may be that, wheu opposed to the
whites, who are better armed and generally mounted, they have been found
wanting in courage. But it is impossible for any one who has been an eye-
witness to one of their own fights to form such an opinion; on the contrary, he
will be forced to confess that, when stirred u]) by passion, they will brave any
danger. They are extremely sensitive upon this point, and look upon being called
a coward as the greatest insult that can be ofi"ered. That little blood is sjiilled
in these Aboriginal contests is to be ascribed either to their skill or to the fact
that they are by no means bloodthirsty. Although, on the one side, they possess
ENCAMPirENT AND DAILT LIFE. 165
a fierce and hostile spirit, still, on the other, it must be observed that they are
capable of the more noble feelings of pity and compassion. This is called forth
by a dangerous wound "
In a pamphlet entitled Remarks on the prohaUe Origin and Antiquity of tlie
Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales, by a Colonial Magistrate, is a para-
graph to the following effect : — " The only remarkable custom (differing from
other savages) in their fighting expeditions is the adoption of the custom com-
manded to the Israelites on going out to war. [Deuteronomy, ch. xxiii., v. 12
to 14.] The natives believe that if the enemy discovered it they would burn it
in the fire, and thus ensure their collective destruction, or that individually
they would pine away and die."
In some parts o£ Australia the natives sent by a tribe to convey a challenge
carry with them spears, decorated with the feathers of the emu ;* and the
warriors, when they prepare for battle, use various colors for painting their
bodies. The colors, it is believed, are not selected at will by any of the
warriors, but are chosen, according to well-known rules, to suit the occasion.
The mode of painting, and the lines and figures depicted, are, however, left to
the taste of the men. That they are sufiiciently hideous, when arrayed for the
fight, is agreed by all who have witnessed an engagement.
It cannot be denied that the natives of Australia exhibit all the worst
features of savages on some occasions. They cut off the heads of enemies slain
in battle, and otherwise mutilate them ; and when a man is killed for having
caused, as they believe, the death of a member of their tribe, they take out the
kidney-fat and anoint their bodies with it.f Tliey rub themselves with the fat,
it is said, that they may thereby acquire the strength and courage that formerly
belonged to the slain man. They do not always wait for the death of the indi-
vidual before resorting to this disgusting practice. A man, disabled by the
blow of a club, is immediately seized upon, his body cut open, and his kidney-
fat abstracted. Sometimes the miserable victim, on recovering consciousness,
sees the conqueror anointing himself. A very strong man, of good constitution,
will, in case the knife has been used skilfully, survive this operation for a day
or two, enduring frightful agonies, and knowing well that a speedy death is
certain. Neither doctor nor dreamer can help him, and his only consoling
thought is that his death will be amply avenged. This subject is mentioned in
another part of this work. — (^See " Marmbul")
* Mr. Samuel Gason, writing of the Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's Creek), !at. 28° S., says, that when
there is a misunderstanding between two tribes, the women of one are sent to the other as ambassa-
dors to arrange the dispute, which they invai .ibly succeed in doing, when women from the other
return the visit to testify their approval of the treaty arrived at. The reason women are appointed
in this capacity is that they are free from danger, while, should the men go, their lives would be in
peril.
t " They take a man's kidneys out after death, tie them up in something, and carry them round
the neck as a sort of protection and valuable charm, for either good or evil." — Lije and Adventures
of William Buckley, p. 77.
The practice of carrying portions of the bodies of deceased relatives is elsewhere referred to.
Buckley was either not acq^uainted with the revolting practice described in the text or suppressed
the facts.
166 THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
Dances.
The natives of Australia have various dances — and in the performance of
these exhibit a skill and dexterity that can be the result only of long practice.
The young — both male and female — are encouraged to engage in these exer-
cises ; they are taught by the elders of the tribes, and tiiey are required to
observe the rules which have been in force amongst their forefathers with
scrupulous care. ,
Little is known of their mystic dances, which some regard as connected
with a form of religion, but the Ngargee, or Yain-yang (corrobboree), is familiar
to all who have lived in the bush.
They have their war-dances, before and after fights ; dances appropriate to
the occasion of "making young men;" dances in which fhe women only take
part ; dances in which the movements of the kangaroo, the emu, the frog, the
butterfly, &c., are imitated ; and a canoe-dance.
The performers on all such occasions, whether during the day or in the
night, are naked or nearly naked ; grotesquely painted with white clay ; and
they carry clubs or spears, or other weapons suitable to the character of the
dance. They decorate themselves, too, with boughs of trees and feathers. Tlie
women generally are the musicians, and the arrangements of the performance
are governed by a leader (usually an aged man), who beats time with the
corrobboree-sticks. At night a large fire is kept burning, near which the
musicians sit. The dancers retire to rude bush miams to array themselves, and
never appear until their decorations are completed to their satisfaction.
The late Mr. Thomas makes mention of the sacred dances, when the natives
set up effigies or painted figures, but gives no description of them. Mr. Parker
says he has witnessed ceremonies having resemblance to an act of worship,
when the blacks have assembled to propitiate Mindi, an evil spirit, whose sole
business it was to destroy.* They dwelt on this — the idea of a powerful and
destructive spirit — with awe and dread. Mindi, they believed, caused death ;
and they used certain prescribed ceremonies in order to appease his anger and
to avert death and other calamities from themselves, and to excite him to exer-
cise his power for the injury or destruction of their enemies. " Rude images,"
writes Mr. Parker, " consisting of one large and two small figures, cut in bark
and painted, were set up in a secluded spot ; the place was strictly tabooed ;
the men, and afterwards the women, dressed in boughs, and having each a
small wand, with a tuft of feathers tied on it, were made to dance in single file,
aud in a very sinuous course, towards the spot, and after going round it several
times, to approach the main figure, and ti-'Mch it reverentially with the wand. I
believe this to be a relic of the ophilatria or serpent worship of India."t
* The Aborigines of Australia, by Edward Stone Parker, 1854.
f Eyre witnessed a remarkable dance at Moorunde, in March 1844. The dancers were painted
and decorated as usual, and they had tufts of feathers on their heads like cockades. Some carried
in their hands such tufts tied to the ends of sticks, and others bunches of green boughs. After
exercising themselves for some time, they retired, and when they re-appeared they were seen carrying
a curious rude-looking figure raised up in the air. This singular object consisted of a large bundle
of grass and reeds bound together, enveloped in a kangaroo skin with the flesh side outwards, and
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 167
• On another occasion Mr. Parker was present when the natives performed
the Yepene Amydeet, or dance of the separated spirits. It was new to the
Aborigines of the LodJon, and was conducted by an old man, who stated that
it was practised by the jjeople of the north-west, amongst whom he had learnt
it. It was never introduced on any other occasion, and was soon after nearly
forgotten. " Holding boughs in each hand, which were waved in unison alter-
nately over each shoulder, and dancing for some time in lines and semicircles,
at length they gradually gathered into a compact circular body ; then slowly
sinking on the ground, and burying their heads under the boughs, they re[)re-
sented, according to the statement of the old native, who was master of the
ceremonies, the approach of death, and in the perfectly still and motionless
posture they maintained for some time the state of death itself Then the old
man, breaking suddenly into a new dance, and waving furiously his boughs
over the prostrate mass, gave them the word ; and, suddenly springing to their
feet, they joined him in his rejoicings. This was explained to me as intended
to represent the revival of the soul after death."
The ordinary dance of the natives of Victoria — the Ngargee or corrobboree
— ^has been carefully described by Mr. Thomas. A number of males, twenty or
thirty, or more, if three or four tribes have assembled for this dance, are selected
as the principal performers, and, as a preliminary, they retire to the bush, away
from the light of the fire, and decorate themselves, each according to his taste
— not, as a rule, consulting one another, and yet no two appear exactly alike,
except as regards the faces, which are generally painted pretty much in the same
manner. The sockets of the eyes are white, a white ring surrounds the sockets,
white streaks are drawn down the nose, and parallel streaks appear on the fore-
head. On their bodies the lines are arranged fantastically, but always according
to some plan in the mind of the jjerformer. During the time the men are thus
engaged, a native prepares a blazing fire, and others employ themselves in
cutting branches and gathering sticks and leaves, making a heap, so that the
fire may be quickly and conveniently fed during the ceremonies, and without
occasioning unseemly interruptions. As the flames leap up and the light
flashes through the trees, the dancers may be seen emerging from their retreat.
They wear boughs around their legs, just above the ankles, and a sort of apron
made of dressed skins. They form themselves into groups as they wait for the
signal to commence their feats of jumping and dancing. The women who have
to act as musicians are seated at some little distance from the fire, arranged in
painted all over in small white circles. From the top of this projected a thin stick with a large tuft
of feathers at the end to represent the head, and sticks were stuck out laterally from the sides for
the arms, terminating in tufts of feathers stained red to represent the hands. From the front a
small stick about six inches long was projected, cntling with a thick knob formed of grass, round
which a piece of old cloth was tied. This was painted white, and represented the navel. The figure
was about eight feet long, and was evidently intended to symbolise a man. This figure was carried
for some time in the dance. Subsequently there appeared iu its place two standards made of poles
and borne by two persons. The standards again were abandoned, and the men advanced with their
spears. Eyre believed that these dances and the image and the standards had some connection with
their superstitions, and that the figure was regarded in the light of a charm. — Journals of Expedition$
of Discovery into Central Australia, vol. u., pp. 236-8.
168
THE ABORIGINES OP VICTORIA:
a horseslioe-sliaped line. Tbey are quite naked, and eacli holds on her knees
an opossum rug, neatly folded up and stretched tightly, skin outwards. The
leader ai^pears in the ordinary costume of a native. He wears his opossum rug,
and is not painted or otherwise decorated. He carries a corrobboree-stick in
each hand. His station is between the group of women and the fire. When
all things are prepared, he advances carelessly towards the women, making a
droning sound as he walks, and suddenly strikes his two sticks together, which
is the signal for the performers to come forward. These arrange themselves in
a straight line, and then there is a pause. The leader eyes the line attentively,
and, if all of them are present, he commences to beat his sticks together ; the
performers strike their sticks in time with the leader, and the grand dance
commences. The time kept by the performers and the women who beat the
opossum skins — which are the only drums they possess — and the exactness with
which all the movements are conducted, are astonishing. The dancers, acting
strictly in concert, put themselves into all kinds of postures, moving sideways,
advancing slightly, retreating, extending their limbs, and anon standing straight
in line. The leader, all this time, is not idle. He beats his sticks vigorously,
and keeps up the nasal drone, raising his voice occasionally as he takes a few
steps to and fro, now turning his face towards the dancers and now towards
the women. As he faces the women, they raise their voices in song. After
posturing for some time, and getting heated with their exertions, the chief
performers become violent ; they hasten their movements in obedience to the
more rapid beating of the leader's sticks ; they shake themselves, and jump to
an incredible height, and at last, each taking a deep inspiration and inflating
his lungs, utters a loud, shrill noise. The sound, so accurate is the time, appears
to come from one mouth. This is the signal for retreat. Without any hint from
the leader, but in this instance in obedience to their own instinct, probably
feeling that they have done enough for the time, they precipitately flee to the
shelter of their bushes, where they rest for a short period. When they re-appear,
they arrange themselves in a curved line, and go through the same strange antics
as before, with such variations as may have been agreed upon. The women
remain seated in their places, beating time with their hands on their rugs, and
singing occasionally as the leader turns towards them. The singing of the
women adds much to the delight of the natives, and it certainly tends to soften
what may be regarded as rather a harsh entertainment. The women at times
raise their voices to the loudest pitch, and again sink them so low as scarcely
to be heard.
The men and women who are not engaged in the ceremony form groups at
some distance away, and watch the 2:iroceedings with the greatest interest. The
women sit with their rugs on their knees, and the men stand or sit, their
spears being stuck in the ground or lying by their sides. The spectators are
invariably greatly delighted with the entertainment. The women keep beating
their rugs in time to the music, and the men talk in low voices, criticising the
performance, and generally praising the dancers. One tall black has imposed
upon him the duty of keeping the spectators in their proper places. K any
should encroach on the space appropriated to the corrobboree, this black would
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 169
thrust them back. This man knows that he has authority, and he takes care to
let all people know that he means to exercise it.
When the dancers have sufficiently exercised themselves, when they have
gone through all the evolutions that are possible to them, having regard to the
kind of dance in which they are engaged, they suddenly change their line ; they
mingle together for a moment, then form in lines four deep, the front men
quickly separate, and those behind advance, and in this way they move towards
the women. At this moment they appear to be a confused mass of bodies, so
jumbled together as to cause alarm to white spectators, who cannot believe that
in the rapid movements of their sticks they will not break each other's heads.
But the whole is concerted, and is a part of the machine-like arrangement of
the dance. They shout, they stamp and jump ; the women beat their opossum
skins louder and louder, singing to the utmost pitch of their voices ; and at last
the leader gives a heavy stroke with his sticks, which at that moment are held
high over his head, and the dancers disappear ; the women take up their rugs
and repair to their miams, and the dance is done. The men are much exhausted
after their exertions, and are glad to seek repose. s^
Mr. Thomas states that a grand corrobboree, formed of the people of four
tribes, was held many years ago on the ground now occupied by the buildings
of the Supreme Court in Melbourne. One of the dancers was speared while in
the act of dancing, whether by accident or design is not known ; and afterwards
the men were careful to stick their spears in the ground or lay them by their
sides during the performance of the corrobboree. They did this to show that
spear-throwing was not to be permitted at such ceremonies.
William Buckley gives an account of a corrobboree where men and women
and boys and girls were engaged in dancing. He says: —
"At last all the women came out naked — having taken off their skin rugs,
which they carried in their hands. I was then brought out from the hut by the
two men, the women surrounding me. I expected to be thrown immediately
into the flames ; but the women having seated themselves by the fire, the men
joined the assemblage armed with clubs more than two feet long; having
painted themselves with pipeclay, which abounds on the banks of the lake.
They had run streaks of it round the eyes, one down each cheek, others along
the forehead down to the tip of the nose, other streaks meeting at the chin,
others from the middle of the body down eacli leg ; so that altogether they made
a most horrifying appearance, standing round and about the blazing night fire.
The women kept their rugs rolled tight up, after which they stretched them
between the knees, each forming a sort of drum. These they beat with their
hands, as if keeping time with one of the men who was seated in front of them
singing. Presently the men came up in a kind of close column, they also beat-
ing time with their sticks, by knocking them one against the other, making
altogether a frightful noise. The man seated in front appeared to be the leader
of the orchestra, or master of the band — indeed I may say master of the
ceremonies generally. He marched the whole mob, men and women, boys
and girls, backwards and forwards at his pleasure, directing the singing and
dancing, with the greatest decision and air of authority. This scene must have
z
170 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
lasted at least three liours, when, as a wind-up, they gave three tremendous
shouts, at the same time pointing to the sky with their sticks ; they each shook
me heartily by the hand, again beating their breasts, as a token of friend-
ship."
" The corrobboree," says the Rev. Mr. Bulmer, a Missionary at Lake Tyers,
in Gippsland, " is a simple affair. The tune is the best part of it. In fact the
tune is the chief feature, the poetry being generally poor. The song which made
a great stir at the last corrobboree I witnessed was composed of about five words.
It was of a language I did not understand, and indeed the blacks themselves
did not understand it ; but that did not matter to them. All they desired was
the tune and the figure of the dance. The words were as follows : —
Wilpon
Tho Wilpon
Me
Gra!
The sound of gra was carried on to a great length, while all the men made a
very graceful bend of the body, and thus it was repeated at pleasure. In the
corrobboree the blacks sometimes use their legs as in a regular dance, always
keeping time remarkably well. At other times they only bend their bodies in a
very graceful way. When the dance consists in using the legs freely, then, as a
rule, they never use any particular stick, but carry in the hand a boomerang or a
tomahawk, as in a war-dance ; but when they present themselves in figure only
bringing the body into play, they mostly have something in the shape of a stick,
which it is presumed belongs to that particular kind of dance. Sometimes the
stick is held in the left hand, to support the performer while he sways his body
backwards and forwards. At each forward movement he strikes the stick in his
left hand either with a bough or with another stick. It is astonishing to see
with what soldier-like regularity the body of each man bends to the time. On
certain occasions, when the legs have been mostly exercised in the dance, some
of the men would assist the women in the singing, and would use their sticks
in beating time."
The corrobboree-dance appears to be of a very similar character in all parts
of the island-continent. Mr. Gideon S. Lang gives a very amusing description
of a grand corrobboree at which he was present, in the Maranoa district. There
were about five hundred natives assembled, and the dance was performed in an
open glade, about two hundred yards in length and breadth, narrowing towards
the south end, and surrounded by a belt of rather thick timber. Across the
south end sat the orchestra, consisting of nearly one hundred women, and led
by a well-known native named Eaglehawk. " The leader," says Mr. Lang,
" chanted a description of the scenes as they passed, accompanied by the women,
their voices continuously repeating what seemed to be the same words, while
they beat time by striking with a stick a quantity of earth, tightly rolled up in
a piece of cloth or opossum rug. The moon shone brightly, lighting up the
stage and the tops of the trees, but casting a deep shadow below. This shadow
however, was again relieved by several large fires on each side of the stage,
leaving a clear view to Eaglehawk and the orchestra, behind whom stood the
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE.
171
spectators, the whites being in the centre. The first act of the corrobhoree was
the representation of a herd of cattle, feeding out of the forest, and camping on
the plain, the black performers being painted accordingly. Tlie imitation was
most skilful, the action and attitude of every individual member of the entire
herd being ludicrously exact. Some lay down and chewed the cud, others stood
scratching themselves with hind feet or horns, licking themselves or their
calves ; several rubbing their heads against each other in bucolic friendliness.
This having lasted for some time, scene the second commenced. A party of
blacks was seen creeping towards the cattle, taking all the usual precautions,
such as keeping to windward, in order to prevent the herd from being alarmed.
They got up close to the cattle at last, and speared two head, to the intense
delight of the black spectators, who applauded rapturously. The hunters next
went through the various operations of skinning, cutting up, and carrying away
the pieces, the whole process being carried out with the most minute exactness.
Scene the third commenced with the sound of horses galloping through the
timber, followed by the appearance of a party of whites on horseback, remark-
ably well got up. The face was painted whity-brown, with an imitation of the
cabbage-tree hat; the bodies were painted, some blue and others red, to represent
the shirts : below the waist was a resemblance of the moleskin trousers, the legs
being covered with reeds, tied all round, to imitate the hide leggings worn in
that district as a protection against the brigalow scrub. These manufactured
whites at once wheeled to the right, fired, and drove the blacks before them. Tlie
latter soon rallied, however, and a desperate fight ensued, the blacks extending
their flanks, and driving back the whites. Tlie fictitious white men bit the
cartridges, put on the caps, and went through all the forms of loading, firing,
wheeling their horses, assisting each other, &c., with an exactness which proved
personal observation. The native spectators groaned whenever a blackfellow
fell, but cheered lustily when a white bit the dust ; and at length, after the
ground had been fought over and over again, the whites were ignominiously
driven from the field, amidst the frantic delight of the natives, while Eaglehawk
worked himself into such a violent state of excitement that at one time the play
seemed likely to terminate in a real and deadly fight." *
Major (Sir Tliomas) Mitchell was entertained by the natives with a corrob-
boree — " their universal and highly original dance." Sir Thomas speaks in
glowing terms of their movements and of the general character of the picture
presented by the warriors in their forest home. " They dance to beaten time,
accompanied by a song (to this end they stretch a skin very tight over the
knees, and thus may be said to use the tympanum in its rudest form). . . .
The surrounding darkness seems necessary to the efi"ect of the whole, all these
dances being more or less dramatic — ^the painted figures coming forward in
mystic order from the obscurity of the background, while the singers and beaters
of time are invisible— have a highly theatrical eff'ect. Each dance seems most
tastefully progressive, the movement being at first slow and introduced by two
persons, displaying the most gracefiil motions both of arms and legs, while
* The Aborigines of Australia, by Gideon S. Lang, Esq., 1865.
172 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
others one by one drop in, until each imperceptibly warms into the truly savage
attitude of the 'corrobboree jump;' the legs striding to the utmost, the head
turned over one shoulder ; the eyes glaring, and fixed with savage energy in
one direction ; the arms raised and inclined towards the head ; the hands
usually grasping waddies, boomerangs, or other warlike weapons. The jump
now keeps time with each beat, and at each leap the dancer takes six inches
to one side, all being in a connected line led by the first dancer. The line is
doubled or tripled according to space and numbers, and this gives great effect ;
for when the first line jumps to the left, the second jumps to the right, the
third to the left again, and so on until the action requires due intensity, when
all simultaneously and suddenly stop." *
In describing a corrobboree performed when certain young men of the
Yarra-Hapinni tribe (Macleay River) were "made young men," Mr. Hodgkin-
son says that the dance on such occasions is of a much more solemn character
than ordinary, and that the performers paint themselves elaborately, even to the
toes. They cover their heads with the snowy down of the white cockatoo, and
when the light of the fires flashed upon them they appeared to be adorned with
white wigs. They carried their boomerangs, which were also elaborately painted
for the occasion. They seemed to have far excelled any of the natives of the
south in their decorations, and not to have come short of them either in their
evolutions. " They displayed," says Mr. Hodgkinson, " a degree of flexibility
in their limbs which might have created the envy of many a pantomimic
artist." t
Amongst the Narrinyeri (Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and Coorong, and the
Lower Murray River) " there are many kinds of corrobborees, but the main
thing in all of them is the song and dance. Skin rugs are rolled up tightly,
and beaten by the fist, as they lie in front of the beater, who squats on the
ground. These are called planggi, and the drumming is called plangkumbalin.
The men knock two waddies together ; these are called tartengk, and this prac-
tice is called tartembarrin. By these means they beat time to the song or chant.
Li most ringbalin only the men dance ; the women sit on the ground and sing.
The songs are sometimes harmless, and the dances not indecent ; but at other
times the songs will consist of the vilest obscenity. I have seen dances which
were the most disgusting displays of obscene gesture possible to be imagined,
and although I stood in the dark alone, and nobody knew that I was there, I felt
ashamed to look upon such abominations. There are also war-dances. I have
felt the ground almost tremble with the measured tramp of some hundreds of
excited men just before a fight. The dances of the women are very immodest
and lewd. The men sit and sing, and the women dance, hi Cobbin's Family
Bible is a picture, at Luke vii. 32, of the dance of Egyptian women. If it had
been drawn for a dance of Narrinyeri women, it could not have been more exact.
The corrobboree of the natives is not necessarily a religious observance ; there
• Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, by Major T. L. Mitchell, F.G.S., &c.,
1838 vol. II., p. 5.
t Australia, from Port Marquarie to Moreton Bay, by Clement Hodgkinson, 1845.
ENCAirPirENT AND DAILY LIFE. 1"3
is nothing of worship connected with it. It is used as a charm to frighten away
disease, and also in some ceremonies, but its real character is only that of a song
and a dance."
Mr. Tajjlin says that it is exceedingly difficult to get a corrobboree song,
which consists principally of words descriptive of incidents of travel, or hunt-
ing, or war. He gives, however, one native song in his pamphlet : —
" Puntin Narrinyerar, Puntin Narrinyerar, 0, 0, 0.
Puntin Narrinyerar, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.
Yun terpulani ar
Tuppun an wangamar
T}awewar ngoppun ar 0, 0, 0, 0.
Puntin Narrinyerar," &c.
It is thus translated by Mr. Taplin : — " The Narrinyeri are coming ; soon they
will appear, carrying kangaroos ; quickly they are walking." *
A lively picture of a corrobboree which was held in New South Wales some
twenty-five years ago is furnished by Lieut.-Col. Mundy. The preliminaries
were not different from those already described, and the various performers
took their stations and acted much in the same way as in a grand dance in
Victoria ; but the grapiiic description of the behaviour of the natives in the
war-dance, and when imitating the dingo, kangaroo, and emu, is worthy of
quotation : — " The first performance was a war-dance, wherein a variety of
complicated evolutions and savage antics were gone through, accompanied by
a brandishing of clubs, spears, boomerangs, and shields. Suddenly the crowd
divided into two parties, and after a chorus of deafening yells and fierce
exhortations, as if for the purpose of adding to their own and each other's
excitement, they rushed together in close fight. One division, shortly giving
way, was driven from the field and pursued into the dark void, where roars and
groans, and the sound of blows, left but little to be imagined on the score of a
bloody massacre. Presently the whole corps re-appeared close to the fire, and,
having deployed into two lines and ' proved distance ' (as it is called in the
sword exercise), the time of the music was changed, and a slow measure was
commenced by the dancers, every step being enforced by a heavy stamp and a
noise like a pavior's grunt. As the drum waxed faster, so did the dance, until
at length the movements were as rapid as the human frame could possibly
endure. At some passages they all sprang into the air a wonderful height, and,
as their feet again touched the ground with the legs wide astride, the muscles
of the thighs were set a quivering in a singular manner, and the straight white
lines on the limbs being thus put in oscillation, each stripe for the moment
became a writhing serpent, while the air was filled with loud hissings.
. The most amusing part of the ceremony was imitations of the dingo,
kangaroo, and emu. When all were springing together in emulation of a scared
troop of their own marsupial brutes, nothing could be more laughable, nor a
more ingenious piece of mimicry. As is usual in savage dances, the time was
kept with an accuracy never at fault The men were tall and
* The ISarrinyeri, by the Rev, Geo. Tapliii, 1874.
n4 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
straight as their own spears, mauy of them nearly as thin, but all surprisingly
active. Like most blacks, they were well chested and shouldered, but dispro-
portionately slight below the knee." *
In the narrative of their overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape
York, Northern Queensland (1 867), the Messrs. Jardine state that at a corrobboree
held near Newcastle Bay they observed that the natives used two large drums,
named Waropa, or Burra-liurra. These drums are obtained by barter or by
war from the islanders of Torres Straits, who frequently visit the continent.
" The drum," adds the Messrs. Jardine, " is neatly made of a solid piece of
wood, scooped out, in shape like an elongated dice-box. One end is covered
with the skin of a snake or iguana, the other being left open. When this
instrument is played upon by a muscular and excited ' nigger,' a music results
which seems to please him according to its intensity. Keeping time with these,
and aiding with their voices, they keep up their wild dance, varying the chant
with the peculiar b-r-r-r-r-r-r-o-o of the Australian savage (a sound made by
blubbering his thick lips over his closed teeth), and giving to their outstretched
knees the nervous tremor peculiar to the corrobboree." t
I had one of these drums in my possession. It was obtained in New
Guinea. It was made from a solid piece of very dark — nearly black — wood,
and rather richly ornamented with carved figures and lines. It had been
scooped out so as to leave only a thin shell. The part covered by skin was
round, and the other end rudely carved in the form of the head of a reptile —
perhaps an iguana. It was a beautiful specimen of native art. The natives of
Australia, when in their natural state, are, as a rule, slow to avail tliemselves
of new inventions, but the inhabitants of Cape York are indebted to the people
of New Guinea for more important works of art than the Waropa ; and, taught
by experience, seem to adopt foreign customs with a facility not generally
observed elsewhere. Anything originating with their own people is welcomed
by the natives everywhere, but that whioh is foreign is usually regarded with
distrust.
The dances of the females are referred to in another part of this work.
The dances described iu the Rev. J. G. Wood's work are only variations of
the corrobboree, but they are very interesting. In the Palti and other dances
it is said that the natives use red paint as well as white in decorating their
persons ; and in the Pedeku dance of the Moorundi natives they paint their
bodies with stripes of red-ochre only.
In the canoe-dance the bodies are painted with white and red ochre, and
sticks are used to represent the paddles. The men station themselves in two
lines, each with a stick across his back, which is held by the arms, and they
move their feet alternately to the tune of the song composed for the ceremony.
At a given signal they all bring their sticks to the front, and hold them as they
• Out Antipodes, by Lieut.-Col. Mundy, pp. 45-6.
t Macgillivray gives a figure of the drum used by the people of the village of Tassai. It is a
hollow cylinder of palm- wood, two feet and a half in length and four inches ia diameter. One end
is covered over with the skin of a large lizard. — Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake,
1852, vol. I., p. 260.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 175
do paddles, swaying themselves in regular time, as if they were paddling in one
of their light canoes.
These dances and these modes of decoration are unknown, as far as I am
aware, to the natives of Victoria.
At a grand corrobboree as many as four hundred natives assemble ; and, of
course, it is necessary to provide food for these, and to maintain order. These
matters are attended to by the council, composed of old men, who would suffer
in the estimation of the warriors if they proved unequal to their responsi-
bilities.
I have been careful to select descriptions of dances from the writings of
trustworthy travellers ; and to exhibit, as far as practicable, all the peculiarities
which mark these highly original and dramatic entertainments. No one
person — how extensive soever his experience might be — could gather all that
is remarkable in such ceremonies. He might witness dances in all parts of
Australia, and yet fail to note much that is important. It is only from the
observations of many witnesses that we can gather all the aspects of even
common objects. The impressions made upon different minds are reflected in
the extracts I have given, and the reader cannot fail to have presented to him
an exact picture of the oldest form of the drama that is now extant. Tlie
natives furnish, in these exhibitions, examples of tragedy, tragi-comedy, comedy,
and farce ; and the skill they evince in producing their pieces — all of their o\vn
composition, and not seldom, of late years, representations of scenes they have
witnessed when in contact with the whites — sufficiently prove that in mimicry
and in invention they are not surpassed by any race. Their music is not good,
but they have not arrived at that stage at which good music is possible.
These dances, performed nearly always at night, and not seldom when the
light of the moon is sufficient to enable a European to read a book ; the bright
fires, when there is no moon ; the weird figures ; the shadows cast by the trees
which encircle the space appropriated to the dancers ; the sounds produced by
the beating of the rugs ; the singing, now shrill and piercing, now low and soft;
the rattling of the sticks and weapons as the movements are hastened ; the
hisses and hoarse grunts of the performers, and the deep, smothered voices of
the black spectators — make altogether a picture which can be witnessed only in
Australia, and which leaves on the mind of the cultivated European an impres-
sion which can never be effaced.
The natives appear to have resorted to fighting and dancing at certain
seasons, in order to break the dreary monotony of their lives ; and in seeking
such relief they but followed the practices of other races.
The grand war-dance of the New Zealanders, and the propitiatory dances to
Hindoo deities as practised in India, closely resemble in the movements of the
dancers, the chants, the beating of drums, and the striking together of sticks
to keep time, the regulated dances of the natives of Australia.
The black drum ( Waropa) of New Guinea, the tom-tom of the East Indies,
and the drum of the European, are undoubtedly improvements on the tightly-
folded opossum skin of the Australian ; but the latter, as suggested by Sir
Thomas Mitchell, gives the first hint of the ancient kettle-drum {rvftTravoy).
1"6 THE ABORIGINES OF YICTOEIA:
The old Brahmin who beats time with a piece of bamboo for a dance in front
of a pagoda is but an imitator of practices followed in Australia perhaps before
the Aryan race had a footing in the tract drained by the Ganges ; and it is not
unreasonable, but just, to suppose that the makers of the flint implements found
so abundantly in all parts of the world had the same dances, similar songs, and
the like dramatic exhibitions as those described in this work.
Games and Amusements.
Tlie adult natives were seldom without employment — their wants being
many — but they found time too for amusements. Some of their games were
not unlike those which find favor amongst Europeans. The marn-grook, or
game of ball, for instance, is thus described by the late Mr. Tliomas. The men
and boys joyfully assemble when this game is to be played. One makes a ball
of opossimi skin, or the like, of good size, somewhat elastic, but firm and strong.
It is given to the foremost player or to some one of mark who is chosen to
commence the game. He does not throw it as a white man might do, but drops
it and at the same time kicks it with his foot, using the instep for that purpose.
It is thrown high into the air, and there is a rush to secure it — such a rush as
is seen commonly at foot-ball matches amongst our own people. The tallest
men, and those who are able to spring to a great height, have the best chances
in this game. Some of them will leap as high as five feet or more from the
ground to catch the ball. The person who secures the ball kicks it again ; and
again a scramble ensues. This continues for hours, and the natives never seem
to tire of the exercise.
I have seen the natives at Coranderrk amusing themselves in this manner
very often, and their skill and activity were surprising. It is truly a native
game. The ball, I believe, is often made of twine formed of the twisted hair
of the opossum. It is elastic and light, and well suited to be kicked from the
instep, as the natives use it.*
The young amongst the males derive much pleasure from the use of an
instrument named Per-bo-re-
gan. A stick about eighteen
inches in length is neatly pared.
At one end is tied a cord made
of the sinews of the tail of the
kangaroo, and to this is fixed a
small piece of bark or wood of
the shape of a fish, about five
inches in length. — (Fig. 17.)
The stick is held in the right
hand, and the fish-shaped piece
of wood is whirled rapidly over
* The Tongans excel in ball play, and have a game which consists in playing with five balls,
which are thrown from one hand to the other, so as to keep four balls always in the air. — The
Natural History of Man. Rev. J. G. Wood, vol. u., p. 339.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 177
the head of the player. This action produces a loud noise, and when the noise
is loudest, the result of great effort, the player gives the instrument a sudden
turn, causing it to make a report as loud as the crack of a stockman's whip.
On a quiet night in the forest, the sound of this instrument may be heard at a
distance of two miles or more. Mr. Tliomas has heard the sounds at this
distance when the soft wind has been blowing from the player to the place
where he was stationed.*
The piece of bark or wood is often ornamented with such lines as are carved
on the shields and other weapons.
Tur-dur-er-rin, War-rok-min-der-nei(, or Work-er?i-der-eit, is the name of
an athletic game in which the most skilful, or perhaps the strongest, proves the
victor. When this pastime is indulged in — and it is only in fine weather that
it is thought of — the old men and old women, with the children, seat themselves
around some smooth expanse of grass. The young men — the competitors —
break into groups, and place themselves opposite to each other. By this
action they express their readiness to take part in the encounters that are to
follow. After the competitors have been seated for a little time, one of the
strongest amongst them rises, grasps a handful of dust or ashes, and throws it
towards one opposite with whom he thinks he may measure his strength. He
then sits down. This is a challenge : and usually the native towards whom the
dust is thrown rises and accepts the challenge, and throws dust towards the
challenger. Tlien all the men of the two groups rise and throw dust, or the
ashes of the dead fires, around them. There is a pause, and during the time of
the pause the two men who are to engage in conflict rub their hands with ashes,
and each with his hands full of ashes or dust rushes violently forward, and the
wrestling commences. The men place their hands on each other's shoulders ;
they are naked ; their bodies have been well rubbed with the ashes of the dead
fires, and, holding fast, moving hither and thither, thrusting and pulling, they
struggle for the mastery. It is often long before one falls to the ground ; but
when he has fallen, the successful wrestler returns rapidly to his place, often so
much exhausted by his efforts that he is unable to speak. This continues until
all the wrestlers are tired. There is fair-play in all these encounters, and any
departure from the recognised mode of procedure would be severely condemned
by all.
The old men and others not engaged in the sport sit by, paying marked
attention to all the movements of the wTestlers, and as one after another is
victorious, they raise shouts in his praise.
The young amongst the males are taught all the arts of this kind of wrest-
ling at an early age, and they take much pleasure in the exercise. It is neces-
sary to the safety of an Aboriginal, who has often to trust to his strength and
skill in single-handed encounters with members of strange tribes, to be able to
act well in such exercises. What he has learnt in peaceful wrestlings by the
camp-fire is not seldom required for the preservation of his life in war, or in his
various secret expeditions.
* An instrument similar to this is used by the natives of the Macleay River, and is mentioned
by Mr. Hodgkiuson. It seems to be a modification of the ^Vitama.
2a
178 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
I have referred in another place to other amusements of the natives. The
throwing of the Wonguim, the Wee-weet, and the hurling of spears at a disc of
bark in the game named Per-re-ber-it, served to amuse and at the same time
to instruct the younger male members of a tribe. By these exercises emulation
was aroused, the older persons of the tribe in such competitions had the oppor-
tunity of imparting knowledge as to the uses of the several weapons and
instruments employed ; and while there was amusement and laughter, there was,
at the same time, in all such games, a kind of control, and an effort to preserve
and maintain discipline — not without effect in the after-life of those who
enjoyed these advantages of gaining instruction from the old warriors. Each
movement of the young men was watched with jealous eyes by every member of
the tribe who was permitted to be present at these trials of skill.
The females never play the game of Per-re-ber-it, or any other game in
which weapons are used. Usually, they are never suffered, even in play, to use
the spear or to handle it.
The young women, however, have games of their own, and that mostly in
favor is dancing. When in their native state, the girls amused themselves
with dances most commonly in the spring and autumn. Mr. Thomas observed
that on many occasions when engaged in the dance the young girls had woven
in their hair and on their wrists as bracelets wild flowers gathered from trees
and shrubs ; but whether this had been learnt from the Europeans or was an
ancient native custom is not known. The girls in these dances selected a
leader, and pursued the sport with a regularity and a regard to form which
surprised Mr. Thomas. Tlie old people looked on, and the parents were happy
and contented when they witnessed expertness and skill in these exercises of
their children.
The females have also a game of ball, but it is not played in the same
manner as that of the males, above described. One throws the ball, and another
catches it. The young children too, at times, find much amusement in getting
together and beating the opossum rugs and chanting or singing, in imitation of
the lubras who perform in the corrobboree. Their sweet voices, however, con-
trast remarkably with the generally harsher tones of the old women.*
The old men and the old women devoted their evenings to conversation —
and strange stories were told of phantoms and dim forms that had affrighted
them in their journeys and when camping. The priests lost no opportunity of
exercising and extending their influence, and many a night a camp was kept
awake by the vagaries of some sorcerer. He would pretend to fly ; he would
pretend to bring wild blackfellows to the camp, who would make hideous noises
• Bunce states that the natives often amused themselves with a puzzle. The string used in the
sport was named Kudgi-hudgik, and was made of the fibre of a tree {Sida pulchella), commonly
found on the banks of the mountain streams, as well as, in some places, on the banks of the Yarra.
The puzzle was played between two persons, and required two pairs of hands, and much resembled
the game of " cat's cradle." — Auslralasiatic Reminiscences, by Daniel Bunce, p. 75.
The game of " cat's cradle " is played by the Dyaks of Borneo. They are acquainted with all
the mysteries of the English modification of the game, and produce a number of additional changes
from the string. — The Natural History of Man. Rev. J. G. Wood, vol. n., p. 490.
There were probably some other games known to the natives of Victoria respecting which no
account baa been preserved.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 1~9
and terrify the natives ; * he would pretend that some other sorcerer was intent
on inflicting injuries on a member of the tribe, and with him he would wage
battle ; he would pretend that he had discovered signs of sickness in a warrior,
and forthwith that man was doomed to torments, suggested by the priest for his
cure, the infliction of which provoked yells that were heard for long distances
through the forest.
Those who had returned from the hunt narrated their exploits as they sat by
the camp-fires. The mode in which they had tracked and finally speared the
kangaroo was set forth ; what they had seen in the day's journey ; how the water
had fallen or increased in some well-known reach of a creek ; whether roots
were plentiful or not in certain areas ; whether traces of strange blackfellows
had been observed — these, and all the domestic aff"airs of the people, the birth
of children, the betrothals arranged, the marriages proposed, the fights that
were to be anticipated, the next movements of the party, the re-arrangement of
millams consequent on new domestic ties being formed or destroyed — all these
subjects kept the people in lively chatter until the embers of the fires spread
over the camps the rich red lights of burning woods that no longer sent forth
flame ; and then all was hushed, and the warriors sank into profound sleep —
sleep so profound that a blow of a club only would waken some of them, f
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer gives the following information respecting the games
of the natives of Victoria. He says: — "The ball with which they play is named
Dirlk. Tlie material of which it is made is suggested by the name. It is part
of the organs of an 'old man' kangaroo, blown out. The game is played by
the ball being thrown, or kicked up with the foot. Whoever catches the ball
oftenest, wins the game." He adds : — "The blacks often amuse themselves by
exhibiting their skill in wrestling; and they had a game like our 'Hide and
seek.' One hid himself, and gave a signal by whistling. The fun, of course,
was to find out, from the direction of the sound, where the hidden person was.
They used also to play at digging out a wombat. A man or a boy got into a
hole, and the amusement consisted in digging him out." They would some-
times play a game called Brajerack (the wild blackfellow). One man would be
the " wild black," and he would endeavour to catch the other players who were
* It was a firm belief of the Aborigines of the Yarra and the Coast tribes that there were tribes
of Aborigines very difEerent from themselves in the mountainous parts of the colony; and it is certain
that the men of Gippsland and those living on the highlands at the sources of the River Murray,
and near the Great Dividing Range, were fiercer and bolder than the men living in the lowlands.
Mr. H. B. Lane says that the "Dargo tribe, as described by Mr. Thomas Mitchell, a Local Guardian,
was of a fiercer disposition and of a more ferocious aspect than those belonging to the Murray,
upon whom they were in the habit (but not recently) of making predatory raids."
It seems, therefore, that the physical character of the country is as influential in Australia in
modifying the habits of the people as in Europe and Asia; but in stating this, one must not lose
sight of the fact that, whereas in Asia the hill tribes, as a rule, are the remnants of the Aboriginal
inhabitants who have been driven by intruding races to remote retreats, ihey are in Australia
members of the same great family — similar in speech, of like physique, and possessing habits and
traditions identical with those of the tribes dwelling on the coast.
f Collins observed that all the natives slept soundly. In one case, of many known to Collins
of the extreme soundness with which they sleep, a murderer first took a sleeping infant from the
arms of the father whom he was about to deprive of existence. — An Account of the English Cutony
in yew South Wales, by Lieut. -Col. Collins, 1804, p. 361.
180
THE ABOEIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
hidden from him. They had often sham fights with clubs and sliields made of
bark. " In this way," says Mr. Bulmer, " they would amuse themselves all
the year round, but more especially in the summer, when food was plentiful.
There is very little fun amongst the natives unless the larder is well stored."
The Murray blacks had similar games. Mr. Bulmer says he has seen their
wrestling matches. One man would stand out and challenge his fellows by
throwing dust in the air. He would stand thus until overthrown, and then
another would take his place. The game, however, which seemed to afford the
most amusement to the natives was the endeavour to snatch a bunch of emu'a
feathers from the hand of one who held them. All their games were of this
simple description. Mr. Bulmer says that they had a sort of war-dance that
was very amusing. The blacks sat in a large circle, and one of the old
men stood out fully equipped for a fight, and went through the form of fighting
an imaginary enemy ; and the earnestness of the old man as he urged his
imaginary enemy to hit him, his motions as he made-believe to receive a blow,
and his rush upon the foe (whom, of course, he conquered), were highly
diverting. The object of the exhibition was to instruct the youths in the arts
cultivated by warriors ; and no feint, or cunning stroke, or posture of defence
was omitted.
Mr. Taplin says the amusements of the Narrinyeri "have always consisted
in practising those arts which were necessary to get a living. They have
practised spear and boomerang throwing in order to gain expertness, so as
to get game with more certainty. They showed great dexterity in the use of
the reed-spear, or kaike, the shaft of which is a stout reed, and the point, about
a foot long, of hard and heavy wood. It is thrown with a tarali/e, or throwing-
stick. I have known a man killed by one of these spears at ninety yards, and
the weapon passed through his bark shield too. I have known one pass
through a thick shield, and take a man's eye out. The principal amusement
of youths formerly consisted in practising spear-throwing. The Narrinyeri
have a game at ball. A number of men stand round, and one pitches the ball
to another on the other side of the party, and those near try to catch it. The
sport gives occasion to a great deal of wrestling and activity. Another game
is a sort of wrestling match for the possession of a bunch of feathers." *
Traffic amongst the Tbibes.
Unlike the civilized and partially-civilized peoples of the earth, the natives
of Australia have no current tokens or representatives of value, exchangeable
for other commodities, whereby commerce is facilitated, and settlements of
accounts are made easy. They traffic only by exchanging one article for
another. They barter with their neighbours ; and it would seem that, as regards
the articles in which they deal, barter is as satisfactory to them as sale would
be. They are astute in dealing with the whites, and it may be supposed they
exercise reasonable forethought and care when bargaining with their neigh-
bours. The natives of some parts, however, appear to be reckless traders.
* The Narrinyeri, by the Key. Geo. Taplin, p. 27.
ENCAMPMENT AND DAILY LIFE. 181
In former times, the natives of the Murray and Goulburn exchanged large
bundles of spears for pieces of greenstone (Diorite), obtained from a native
quarry at Mount William, near Lancefield. The stones were carried by the
men in their opossum-skin cloaks. The quarry is extensive, and hundreds of
tons of stone have been taken from it.*
In the narrative of William Buckley's life it is stated that it was customary
for one tribe having an abundance of eels to exchange these for roots with some
tribe within whose grounds roots were plentiful.
Mr. Peter Beveridge says that the Lower Murray natives had one or two
men in each tribe, who were termed gualla nattom (messengers or postmen),
whose persons were sacred. They could travel amongst other tribes with
freedom. They carried news, and conducted all negotiations connected with
barter — one tribe exchanging what it possessed in abundance for such things
as were most desired, t
The tribes on the Lower Murray, near Lake Alexandrina, barter with those
living on the coast. A curious sort of provision is made for this traffic, the
object of which is to secure "perfectly trustworthy agents to transact the
business of the tribes — -agents who will not by collusion cheat their employers
and enrich themselves. The way in which this provision is made is as follows : —
When a man has a child born to him, he preserves its iimbilical cord, by tying
it up in the middle of a bunch of feathers. This is called kalduke. He then
gives this to the father of a child or children who belongs to another tribe, and
those children are thenceforth ngia-ngiampe to the child from whom the kalduke
was procured, and that child is ngia-ngiampe to them. From that time none of
the children to whom the kalduke was given may speak to their ngia-ngiampe,
or even touch or go near him ; neither must he speak to them. I know several
persons who are thus estranged from each other, and have often seen them in
ludicrous anxiety to escape from touching or going near their ngia-ngiampe.
When two individuals who are in this position with regard to each other have
arrived at adult age, they become the agents through which their respective
tribes carry on barter. For instance, a Mundoo blackfellow, who had a ngia-
ngiampe belonging to a tribe a little distance up the Murray, would be supplied
with the particular articles — such as baskets, mats, or rugs — manufactured by
the Mundoo tribes, to carry to his ngia-ngiampe, who, in exchange, would send
the things made by his tribe. Thus a blackfellow — Jack Hamilton — who was
speared at a fight at Teringe, once had a ngia-ngiampe in the Mundoo tribe.
While he lived on the Murray he sent spears and plongges (clubs) down to his
agent of the Mundoo blacks, who was also supplied with mats and nets and
rugs to send up to him, for the purpose of giving them in exchange to the tribe
to which he belonged. The estrangement of the ngia-ngiampcs seems to answer
* Mr. Albert A. C. Le Souef, MS. This quarry is referred to in Mr. Ulrieh's Catalogue of Rock
Specimens, p. 21. Mr. Joseph Parker mentions the traffic between the Ja-jow-er-ong tribes and
others in stones for tomahawks. Messengers were sent by distant tribes to procure stones for the
Bur-reek (tomahawk) from the Ja-jow-er-ong people.
t A few Notes on the Dialects, Habits, Customs, and Mythology qf the Lower Murray Aborigines,
by ilr. Peter Beveridge.
182 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA.
two purposes. It gives security to the tribes that there will be no collusion
between their agents for their own private advantage, and also compels the two
always to conduct the business through third parties." *
It appears that two persons may be made ngia-ngiampe to each other
temporarily. The kalduhc is divided between them, and as long as they keep
their respective portions they are estranged from each other, and may be
appointed to act as agents. This is a very convenient arrangement.
Mr. A. W. Howitt mentions the traffic that is carried on amongst the tribes
of the Cooper's Creek district. They exchange shields for girdles. Near
Kyejerou, Mr. Howitt saw a conch-shell, which had been brought from the north
or north-east coast. It was highly valued, and must have passed from tribe
to tribe for a long distance — perhaps eight hundred or one thousand miles.
Mr. J. McDouall Stuart says that he found, on the River Chambers (lat.
14° 30' S., long. 133° 2.5' E.), blacks in the possession of a piece of iron, which
was used as a tomahawk. It had a large round eye, in which they had fixed a
handle ; and the edge was about the breadth of an ordinary tomahawk. When
hot, it had been hammered together. It had apparently been the hinge of some
large door or other large article. The natives had ground it down, and seemed
to know the use of it.
At Attack Creek (lat. 18° 50' S., long. 134° 30' E.) he saw a black with a
large sea-shell, and a spear with bamboo at one end. Tlie sea-shell and the
bamboo showed that the natives had communication with the sea-coast, t
The people of the Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's Creek) are great traders. Mr.
Gason says that " their whole life is spent in bartering ; they rarely retain any
article for long. The articles received by them in exchange one day are bartered
away the next, whether at a profit or loss. Should any one of them, more
shrewd than another, profit on one occasion by this traffic, he is sure immediately
after to sacrifice his advantage, and the majority of their quarrels are caused by
bartering or refusing to barter."
The men of this tribe, when travelling for red-ochre, barter with the people
they come in contact with.
There is a considerable trade carried on between the natives of Cape York
and the islanders of Torres Straits. Two gentlemen — Mr. Howe and Mr.
Kennett — who had been residing for some time at Cape York, informed me that
the Australians obtain bows and arrows by exchange. Some of the Australians,
they thought, occasionally crossed over to New Guinea ; they certainly visit
many of the islands and atolls ; and on one occasion Mr. Kennett himself went
about half-way across. He told me that he was well-treated by the natives.
The Messrs. Jardine, in referring to this subject, say that the Goomkoding
and Gudang tribes seem to hold most communication with the islanders of Torres
Straits, the intermixture of races being evident. Kororega words are used by
both these tribes, and the bow and arrow are sometimes seen among them,
having been procured from the islands. Drums are also obtained by barter
from the people of Torres Straits. %
* The Narrinyeri, by the Rev. Geo. Taplin, pp. 25-6. f Explorations : 1861-2, pp. 64 and 75.
{ Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs, Jardine from Rochhampton to Cape York, 1867.
4oj)d.
'-co--
The natives of Australia are generally described as omniverons. There is
scarcely any part of the country in which they cannot find food, and there is
nothing in the nature of food, or of substances which can by any possibility
contribute to the maintenance of life, that they will not eat. When driven to
extremity by hunger, the black tightens his belt, and when overcome by thirst,
he covers his stomach with earth; but it is not often that he is forced to adopt
such measures. He eats of the fruits of the earth, literally, in due season, and
he catches wild animals when he can. He understands the nature of every
vegetable product in his district, and knows what to eat and what to avoid ;
and he is thoroughly conversant with the habits of the beasts and birds and
fishes that are to be found within the boundaries of his domain. Every
species of marsupial, from the largest kangaroo to the smallest mouse ; every
kind of bird, from the swift-footed emu to the little dicfeum that feeds on the
berries of the loranthus ; every egg that every bird lays ; every reptile ;
every one of the amphibia; every fish, whether in fresh or in salt water;
every shell-fish; and every crustacean and insect — he is familiar with, and
in general knows how to procure each by the easiest and quickest method.
From poisonous plants he is able to extract a wholesome farina, and he
roasts roots and grinds seeds into flour. He gathers manna in the heats of
summer. In the arid tracts he obtains water from the roots of trees ; and,
unless the region were inhospitable indeed, he could never actually perish of
hunger.
He makes a drink that, if not intoxicating, is certainly of a character
to exhilarate; and he chews or smokes a plant that stands in the stead of
tobacco.
It is wholly impracticable to give a complete list of all the indigenous pro-
ducts which serve him for food, nor is it possible to describe all the methods he
has of catching wild animals, or preparing the roots and seeds on which, in
certain seasons, he has to depend mainly for subsistence ; but I have collected
from numerous sources a great deal of information, much of which I trust will
be useful and interesting.
Many of the statements relate to the practices of the natives in parts of the
continent far distant from Victoria ; but each is calculated to throw light on the
modes of procuring food that were usual amongst our blacks before Port Phillip
was colonized.
184 THE ABOEIGDCES OF VICTOEIA:
HuNTiNo Kangaroos.
In hunting and killing the kangaroo the natives display great skill, a com-
plete knowledge of the habits of the animal, and often much perseverance and
great endurance. Kangaroos are much more numerous now in many parts of
Victoria than they were when the lands were in possession of the natives ; and
though it may appear at present to an inhabitant of the bush that a blackfellow
could have no difficulty in procuring a sufficient supply of this game, it was
different when the animal was regularly hunted, when it was the prey of the wild
dog, and when the tribes had to depend largely on it for food.*
Several modes of taking the kangaroo were employed. When a native was
living with his famOy in a district where kangaroos were easily found, he
would start off at early morning, with his wives and perhaps his children
accompanying him, and look for a feeding ground where there was some shelter.
The women and children would not follow his footsteps closely, but keep near
enough to invite his attention by some previously-arranged signal, as the
movement of the hand, or a sound — as that of a bird — if any one of them should
see the game. The hunter himself, keenly interested in the pursuit, would be
well prepared for the day's sport. He would have his spears sharpened, his
throwing-stick in good order, and his waddy at hand. His basket, slung over
his shoulder, would contain, as well as the throwing-stick, perhaps a knife.
Cautiously taking his way through the bush, keeping an eye on every animate
and inanimate object within the limits of his vision, moving noiselessly, he
would at last view the kangaroos feeding in some rather open well-grassed spot.
Having observed the direction of the wind, he would so direct his movements
as to get to leeward of the game, and he would use all the skill he possessed to
approach them as near as possible. He would advance a few steps, keeping his
body in one position, and note the behaviour of the kangaroos. The creatures —
keen-scented and quick of hearing — would exhibit some alarm perhaps, and the
hunter would remain still and motionless until they again began to feed. He
would thus advance, sheltered by bushes and trees, until within distance, and
then his spear would be thrown. He would rarely miss his aim. As soon as
the creature was struck, the women and children would shout with delight,
and hasten to the assistance of the sportsman.
* A squatter holding stations in the north-eastern part of Victoria informs me that a station in
his district, which at one time carried twenty thousand sheep, but has since been neglected, and has
now on it not more than four thousand, is overrun with kangaroos, opossums, wild cats, and wild
dogs. Jlobs (consisting of hundreds) of kangaroos eat the grass that should feed sheep. The mar-
supials have increased in a far greater degree than their natural enemy, the dingo, which lives in
this locality a life of ease and pleasure. The run is common ground for all the wild animals of the
neighbourhood. There they have their abode, but from time to time they visit neighbouring tracts,
and destroy much produce the result of cultivation. The native dog has been almost exterminated
in the more open parts of Victoria; and other animals formerly his prey have multiplied exceedingly.
I have seen mobs of kangaroos in the Western district so large as to defy even an attempt to make
an approximation to the numbers.
Professor McCoy referred to this subject in his essay {Recent Zoology and Palaontohgy of Fi'c-
toria) in 1866-67.
FOOD. 185
If the ground to leeward of the game was without cover, the native would
retire to a spot where he could construct a screen of boughs, and, with this
before him, he would without difficulty get within reach of his prey.
Sometimes two men set out together for the purpose of spearing the kangaroo.
One attracts the attention of the kangaroo by making a very slight noise, as by
breaking twigs or the like, while the other approaches stealthily from an opposite
direction until near enough to transfix the animal with his spear.
Kangaroos are frequently taken at their watering-places. If there is con-
venient and suitable natural shelter near a water-hole, the native conceals himself
in the bushes, and patiently waits until he can throw his spear with a certain
aim. If there is no shelter, he constructs a screen of boughs very artfully, and
in such a situation as not to attract the attention of the animals when they come
to the water.
Another method of catching kangaroos at their water-places is described in
a letter to me by Mr. A. F. Sullivan. The men of the Paroo make a pit, close
to the water, and enclose a space with two wings of brush-fence. Each wing is
from three hundred to four hundred yards in length, forming two sides of a
triangle. When a kangaroo comes for water, the natives hunt him into the
space between the wings, and thence into the pit, where he is easily knocked on
the head with a waddy.
Nets are also used for catching the kangaroo.
On great occasions, a large number of natives assemble and form a hunting
party. This hunt is always under the guidance of experienced persons, who
direct the mode of procedure and assign the hunters their places. An area of
country perhaps half a mile or more in diameter is encircled by the sportsmen,
who, shouting and clattering their arms, gradually close in, and when the
animals are in a narrow space they spear them, or knock them on the head with
waddies, as they jump from one point of danger to another.*
This method is practised both in scrubby forest tracts and also in more
open country where there are small plains.
They use fire at times, when they wish to take a number of animals. The
men form a circle, and set fire to the bushes, and thus kill a great many
kangaroos and other wild animals of the forest.
In the Port Lincoln district, the men and boys are expert in using a club
named wirra. When the bush is on fire, and the animals are trying to escape,
they throw the wirra with unerring dexterity, and kUl both kangaroos, wallabies,
and kangaroo-rats.
* " 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 kantjaroo
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." — Grey, vol. u., p. 272.
Fair-play characterises the actions of the natives as well in their amusements as in battles
and disputes.
2b
186 THE ABOBIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The wirra is indeed a weapon of essential use to this people, and in throw-
ing it they have acquired a skill which is astonishing. Little boys of seven and
eight years old, and even girls of tender age, will knock down parrots from the
she-oak trees with this instrument. The children are taught to use it almost as
soon as they can walk. A piece of dry sponge is rolled along the ground, and
they are made to throw the wirra at it until they are accomplished iu its use.
Like the natives of Cooper's Creek, the people of the Port Lincoln district
use a number of signs, unaccompanied by sound, which are of great advantage
to them when engaged in hunting. They can, by using their hands, make
known to their companions the animals they discover, and in what situation
they are. They stretch out the first finger, in imitation of the leaping of a
kangaroo, when such an animal, quietly feeding, is in sight ; three fingers
stretched out, the second finger a little lower than the others, is the sign for an
emu ; when an opossum is seen, the thumb is raised ; and when the whole hand
is extended, it is known that a fish is near. They have signs of a similar kind
to indicate all the varieties of game.*
In tracking the kangaroo, the native has to bring into play other qualities
than those shown in hunting excursions of an ordinary character. He is never
sure in these adventures that he will be successful. A hundred unforeseen
misfortunes may rob him of his prey. The hunter himself, with his whole
attention devoted to the pursuit, may be followed by hostile blacks who have a
mission to kill him ; the wild dogs may cross the line, and perhaps secure the
animal when almost worn out ; another blackfellow may spear it as it hastens
to some water-hole to quench its thirst ; it may mingle with a mob of kangaroos,
and the single trail may be lost ; or the animal may be of extraordinary fleetness
and strength, and may escape the most arduous toil of the hunter ; but with all
these difficulties in front of him, the blackfellow patiently follows the marks
left by the beast, until success or failure causes his return to his miam.
This mode of hunting the kangaroo " 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. "t
The natives of the Gawler Range, in South Australia, use a method of
taking the wallaby which is highly ingenious. They make of long smooth pieces
of wood an instrument like a fishing-rod, to the thin end of which they attach
the skin and feathers of a hawk — so carefully arranged as to represent very
accurately a living bird. Taking this in his hand, and his spear, the hunter
• Manners and Customs of the Natives of the Port Lincoln District, by C. Wilhelmi, 1860.
t Grey, vol. ii., pp 273-4.
FOOD. 187
roams the forest until he spies a wallaby, when, holding aloft his mock-bird,
and giving a motion to the long flexible rod, such as to cause the mock-bird to
appear to fly and stoop, he utters the cry of the hawk, and the wallaby at once
takes refuge in the nearest bush. Cautiously stealing onwards, the native throws
his spear and secures the game.
Even when the native succeeds in spearing the kangaroo he is not always
sure of obtaining the carcass without difficulty. An old kangaroo of great
size is fierce when brought to bay, and must be approached cautiously and at-
tacked at a safe distance. If the hunter recklessly seized him, the brute would
endeavour to strike him with his great claw, and might seriously injure or kill
him. I have seen an "old man kangaroo" of great size attack a man on horse-
back. He followed the horse, and nearly succeeded in tearing open his quarter.
Twice he attempted to tear the horse, and had not the animal been guided by an
experienced rider, the kangaroo would have seriously injured him.
When hunted, the kangaroo invariably " makes tracks " for a water-hole ;
and, if hard pressed, will swim a river or enter the sea.
The native secures a prize when he spears a well-grown kangaroo (a forester).
Some weigh as much as 150 lbs.
When a kangaroo is killed, the native is careful to preserve the sinews of the
tail. He rolls the sinews around some stick or weapon or ball, so as to keep them
stretched and in a fit state for future use.
The cooking of the kangaroo was in general a very simple affair. The hair
was singed, the body scraped, and the entrails removed, and it was then roasted.
The favorite method in the Paroo district, Mr. Sullivan informs me, is to cook
the animal in a sort of oven. A hole is made in the ground, heated stones are
put into it with the body of the kangaroo, and the whole is covered with hot
ashes. In many parts the oven is more carefully constructed. The stones are
heated in the hole, grass is placed over the stones, and the whole is covered with
earth. If the steam is not sufficient to cook the flesh properly, holes are made
and water is poured in. The skin is left on, in order to preserve the juices of the
meat, and it is customary to remove the entrails after the body is well warmed.
The entrails are cooked separately. Sometimes the body of a large kangaroo is
cut up, and separate portions of it are broiled. The blood is collected in one of
the intestines, and a sort of "black pudding" is made. The elders, of course,
keep the delicacies for themselves, and amongst these the blood is very highly
prized.
The several kinds of kangaroo caught and eaten by the natives of Victoria
are as follow : —
Natiye Name — Lake Tyers.
Kangaroo - Jirrah - - Macropus major; weight about 150 lbs.
Wallaby - Tharogang - Halmaturus ualabatus ; weight about 50 lbs.
Rock wallaby - Wgat - - Pctrogalepenicillata (of N. S. Wales only).*
* The true rock wallaby (P. peniciUatd) is not known, Professor McCoy says, so far south as the
Lakes in Gippsland. The species named by the Rey. Mr. Bulnier may be a second local name for
H. ualabatus.
188 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
Native Name — Lake Tyers.
Red wallaby - Kt'narra - Halmaturus ualahatus.
Small wallaby Dak-nan - Halmaturus Billardieri.
Padamelon - Bowcy - - Halmaturus Billardieri.
Kangaroo-rat - Bree - - Bittongia cuniculus.
The red kangaroo ( Osphranter rufus) is found in the interior from just north
of the Murray.
Opossum.
Opossums furnish the natives with an abundant supply of animal food in all
the well-timbered tracts. Tliese creatures, in situations suitable to them, are
very numerous. When riding through the forests of the north-eastern parts of
Victoria, I have seen, at night, many hundreds of them, and it was not at
all difficult to get near them. They are easdy seen by moonlight ; and, by
keeping in the deep shadows cast by the bushes, one can almost reach them by
hand when they are on the lower branches of the trees. As far as I have been
able to observe them, they are less alarmed by sound and scent than any other
of the marsupial inhabitants of the bush. A loud noise would, of course, cause
them to hide themselves ; but one has not to be so cautious in approaching
the retreat of these creatures as in attempting to observe the habits of the
native cat, pr even the native bear, which does not ordinarily exhibit much
intelligence.
The opossum hunter roams through the forest, eyeing each tree as he goes,
until he sees one likely to hold an opossum in some of its holes. He examines
the bark, and so well skilled is he in his craft as to be able to determine at once
whether there are marks of opossum's claws on it, whether they are fresh
or not, and whether the creature has been ascending or descending. If the
examination is satisfactory, he climbs the tree and takes the animal out of its
hole.
Tlie various ways in which the natives climb trees are described elsewhere.
Sometimes the marks of the opossum's claws are very faint, and in such
case the hunter breathes on the bark, in order to see whether there are any
hairs or grains of sand on it. By such signs he is guided ; and he rarely
returns to his camp without a good supply of opossum flesh.
The several species of opossum constitute the ordinary animal food of the
natives. They are taken with comparative ease. Indeed industry more than
skill is required for their capture, though, without a knowledge of their habits,
and in places where they are scarce, a man might make many attempts before
securing one.
In cooking them the natives are not very particular. In general, they are
thrown upon a fire for perhaps a minute. Then the wool is pulled oif, a hole is
made in the stomach with a stick, and the entrails are taken out. The body is
then roasted slowly in the hot embers and ashes of the fire.
Sir Thomas Mitchell found that the native method of cooking the opossum
was not unsatisfactory. The flesh had a flavor of singed wool, but was not
unpalatable even to a white man.
FOOD. 189
Wlien a great number of opossums are caught at one time, they are cooked
in an oven in the same manner as the kangaroo is cooked.
The several kinds of opossums eaten by the natives of Victoria are as
follow : —
Native Name — Lake Tyers,
Opossum (common) - Wadthan - Pkalangista vulpina.
Black opossum - - Brak - Phalangista fidiginosa (Tas-
mania only*).
Ring-tail opossum - Blaang - Phalangista viterrina.
There is also the Phalangista canina, the native name of which I have not
obtained.
WosfBAT.
The wombats {Phascolomys platyrrhinus and P. niger) — the Karoot Norngnor
or Warren of the natives — are odd-looking creatures, with clumsy, fat bodies, very
short legs, and coarse hair. The specimens I have examined were gentle in their
habits — not at all pugnacious, but very obstinate. One in confinement was
shown a door where he could escape, and I attempted to stop him, but he thrust
himself forward with a strength and determination for which I was unprepared.
I used the utmost force to keep him back, but he good-naturedly struggled with
me, and finally gained the victory. He is not a handsome creature ; but, when
cooked, is said to afford some appetising morsels. Lieut.-Col. Collins says : —
" Tlie wombat, or, as it is called by the natives of Port Jackson, the womback,
is a squat, short, thick, short-legged, rather inactive quadruped, with great
appearance of stumpy strength, and somewhat bigger than a large turnspit-dog.
Its figure and movements, if they do not exactly resemble those of the bear, at
least strongly remind one of that animal. Its length from the tip of the tail
to the tip of the nose is thirty-one inches, of which its body takes up twenty-
three inches and five-tenths. Tlie head is seven inches, and the tail five-tenths.
Its circumference behind the fore legs, twenty-seven inches ; across the thickest
^art of the belly, thirty-one inches. Its weight by hand is somewhat between
twenty-five and thirty pounds. The hair is coarse, and about one inch or one
inch and five-tenths in length, thinly set upon the belly, thicker on the back
and head, and thickest upon the loins and rump ; the color of it a light sandy-
brown of varying shades, but darkest along the back. Tliis animal has not
any claim to swiftness of foot, as most men could run it down. Its pace is
hobbling or shufiiing, something like the awkward gait of a bear. In disposition
it is mild and gentle ; but it bites hard, and is furious when provoked. Mr.
Bass never heard its voice but at that time ; it was a low cry, between a hissing
and a whizzing, which could not be heard at a distance of more than thirty or
forty yards."
In those parts of the colony where there is ground suitable for the wombat,
whose habit is to burrow, he is found in great numbers. He has given names
* Professor McCoy informs me that the black opossum is known only in Tasmania. The
animal named Brak is perhaps the black flying opossum, Pelaurisia taguanoides.
190 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
to numerous places in Victoria, more particularly in the volcanic tracts, where
the earth is easily penetrated. In the Western district, before the whites
invaded it, he had a wide territory. Near the extinct volcanoes are beds of ash,
and in these the wombat-holes were at one time thickly inhabited. Now, one
sees a wombat — in the vicinity of numberless holes — rarely ; and it may be
presumed that the white man and his dogs and his guns are responsible for
the diminution of the numbers.
In the Life and Adventures of William Buckley a very good account is given
of the method employed by the natives to capture the wombat,
Buckley says : — " They [the wombats] live in holes in the earth, of about
twenty feet long and from ten to twenty deep, in an oblique direction, burrowing
in them like the mole. When well cooked they are good eating
The natives take these creatures by sending a boy or girl into their burrows,
which they enter feet first, creeping in backwards until they touch the animal.
Having discovered the lair, they call out as loud as they can, beating the ground
overhead, whilst those above are carefully listening, their ears being pressed
close to the earth. By this plan of operations they are enabled to tell with
great precision where they are. A perpendicular hole is then made, so as to
strike the extremity of the burrow ; and having done this, they dig away with
sharp sticks, lifting the mould out in baskets. The poor things are easily killed,
for they make no resistance to these intrusions on their haunts. There is,
however, a good deal of difficulty in making these holes, and in getting down so
deep to them — so that it is a sort of hunting for food of which the natives are
not very fond."
The wombat. Eyre states, is driven to his hole with dogs at night, and a fire
being lighted inside, the mouth is closed with stones and earth. The animal
being by this means sufl'ocated, is dug out at convenience.*
The wombat is roasted in his skin, and is said to afl'ord most excellent meat.
It is believed that this creature could be easily domesticated.
The wombats of Victoria weigh as much as seventy pounds.
Native Beab.
The native bear {Phascolarctos cinereus) — Koola (Gippsland), Kooh-hoor,
Karbor, or Kur-bo-roo (Yarra) — is arboreal in its habits, and is easily taken from
the trees. If he is found on the ground, he commences to climb as soon as he
sees an intruder, and utters a kind of growl as he rather slowly ascends, stopping
and looking back rather anxiously from time to time, and apparently disinclined
to take more exertion than is absolutely necessary for his safety. At Monkey
Creek, in eastern Gippsland, these animals are very numerous. One morning
I saw as many as five at one spot. One was apparently asleep at the side of
the track, and I went close to him and tickled his ear with my riding-rod. He
was pleased at first, but suddenly opening his eyes and seeing me, he shuffled
* Journal of Expeditions, toI. ii., p. 284,
FOOD. 191
to the nearest tree and commenced to climb it, seemingly with great reluctance.
I could have captured him with ease.
The natives may not skin the bear. He is roasted whole in his skin. The
flesh is said to taste like pork.
The weight of a bear is about forty pounds.
Baitoicoot, etc.
Tlie bandicoot (Perameles obesu/a, P. nasuta, P. fasciata, and P. Gunni)
— Menaak (Gippsland), Warrun (Western district), Bang (Yarra) — burrows,
and lives on roots. He is either caught in his nest or knocked down with a
stick.
The porcupine {Echidna hystrix) — Koivern (Gippsland), Wilanyul (Western
district), Ka Warren (Yarra) — burrows in the ground to a good depth. He is
. got out by digging with a stick, and is speared in the breast. This creature, in
proportion to its size, is of enormous strength.
In cooking it, it is usually covered with clay and roasted in its quills. In
Gippsland, the fat is severed from the lean and cooked separately.
Amongst other animals eaten by the natives are the following : —
Native dog {Canis Australasice) — Ngurran (Gippsland), Purnung (Western
district) — the male it is said being named Pipkuru, and the female Nrung-
yrrek) — Yearangin (Yarra) — speared or taken when young.
Native cat (large) (Dasgurus maculatus) — Womainte (Western district) —
Native cat (common) {Dasyurus viverrinus) — Beathedel (Yarra).
Water-rat {Hydromys Ckrysogaster).
Flying squirrels {Petaurista taguanoides), {Belideus breviceps and B. JVo-
tatus) — Berring (Western district).
Mice {Mus Xovce Hollandice) {Hapalotis conditor, H. apicalis, and H.
Mitchelli).
Bats {Molossus Australis), {Pteropics poliocephalus — flying fox), and several
small species of Scotophilus*
To these may be added the marsupials PhascogaJe penicillata and P. Calura
{Kutar of natives). These small rat-like marsupials are often confounded with
rats and mice in popular estimation, but they are fierce carniverous animals.
Emu.
The emu {Dromaius Australis) — Burri-niul (Yarra), Miowera (Gippsland) —
is a large bird, affording a good deal of nutritious flesh. When in an ordinary
position, the head is about five feet from the ground. He is very fleet and very
* The flying fox (Pteropus conspicillatus) is caught and eaten by the natires of North Australia.
The flesh is said to be very good. On some of the islands these bats appear in prodigious numbers,
and they may be seen flying in the bright sunshine, a thing unusual In nocturnal animals. —
Voyage of H.M.S. Kattlesnahe, 1852, vol. i., p. 97.
192 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
strong, and is hunted by the natives much in the same manner as the kangaroo
is hunted. In nearly all parts of Victoria he is speared, nets or yards not being
used as a rule.
Mr. Giles mentions finding in the interior of Australia yards erected by the
natives for yarding emus and wallabies, and in one place a yard was discovered
near a water-hole.*
In the Cooper's Creek district, when food is scarce, and the weather is very
hot, the natives follow the emu imtil he is tired, and capture him.
Tlie emu is not easily captured. I have seen a large kangaroo-dog knocked
over two or three times by a stroke from the leg of an emu. This was iu
ascending a range, when the dog was able to overtake the emu ; in going down
hill the bird extended his short wings and outpaced the dog. In former times,
flocks of emus, forty or fifty together, might be seen feeding on the plains.
The weight of an emu is about 130 lbs. The natives roast these birds in the
ashes of their fires.
Turkey.
The turkey {Otis Australasiensis) — Brea-ell (Yarra), Korn-jinah (Gipps-
land), Parimr-barim (Western district) — is a shy bird, but the natives are
cunning in taking him.
In the Western district they make an instrument long and flexible, like a
fishing-rod, and attach to the end of the thinner part the skin
and feathers of a small bird, or a dead butterfly, and a running
noose. — (Fig. 18.)
When the hunter sees a turkey, he slowly approaches the
bird, holding in front a bush to hide his person, and swinging
aloft the decoy with a peculiar motion characteristic of the bird
or insect. Tlie turkey's attention is at once arrested and wholly
taken up with the movements of the decoy. He stares at it
stupidly, turns round and stares again, but though it approaches,
he does not move far. He continues to stare until the black
gets near enough to slip the noose over his head and secure
him.t
The weight of a full-grown turkey is about thirty pounds. It
feeds on grass, beetles, and great quantities of grubs or larvae of
FIG. IB. insects.
The bird is always roasted by the natives, either in an oven or on the embers
of the fire.
* Central Australia, by Ernest Giles, 1875, pp. 43 and 71.
f When I was travelling over the plains of the Western district on one occasion, I had an oppor-
tunity of putting to the test this strange habit of the wild turkey. We saw several with their young
feeding on a wide, open, grassy plain, and selecting one old bird for experiment, we drove round him
in our carriage, gradually decreasing the distance, the bird turning round and staring stupidly all
the while at the vehicle, until the driver was almost within reach of him with his whip. We could
have secured him if we had had a noose.
FOOD. 193
Native Companion.
The native companion {Grus Australasiensis) — Goor-rook of theTarra natives,
and Korurik of the Western district — is a very elegant bird, of exquisite
plumage, and almost too beautiful to be eaten. He is quite friendly in his
habits, and may be seen sometimes following the plough, and busily engaged
in picking up grubs and worms. The natives kill this bird with a stick, a
boomerang, or a waddy. When a flock is flying low at evening, they come
within range, and a skilful man will easily secure at least one out of a flock.
The flesh is said to be very good. The bird is cooked in the same manner
as the emu and the turkey.
The weight of a full-sized bird is about twenty-five pounds. It feeds on
fish, lizards, mice, &c.
Catching Ducks and other Wild-fowl.
Aquatic fowls supplied the natives with food at all seasons — indeed when-
ever a native was hungry he would take one if he could secure it either by
boomerang, or waddy, or spear, or by following it in the water and catching it.
As far as I can gather, they did not have a " close season " in Victoria. They
took the birds when they could get them.
A common method of catching ducks is by fixing a net, about sixty yards
in length, across a watercourse, a river, a swamp, or a lagoon — the lower part
being three or four feet above the water. The ends of the net are either fixed to
trees or held by natives stationed in trees. One man proceeds up the river or
lagoon, and cautiously moves so as to cause the ducks to swim towards the net.
When they are near enough, he frightens them, and they rise on the wing, and
at the same time another native, near the net, throws up a piece of bark, shaped
like a hawk, and utters the cry of that bird. The flock of ducks at that moment
dip, and many are caught in the net. Four men are usually employed when
this sport is pursued. This account was given to me by Wye-wye-a-nine, a
native of the Lower Murray.
Mr. Beveridge says that sometimes three dozen ducks are caught in this
manner at one time, without the breakage of a single mesh of the net.
Major Sir Thomas Mitchell mentions this method of catching wild-fowl. He
says : — " The natives had left in one place a net overhanging the river, being
suspended between two lofty trees, evidently for the purpose of catching ducks
and other water-fowl. The meshes were about two inches wide, and the net
hung down to within about five feet of the water. In order to obtain water-
fowl with this net,' it is customary for some of the natives to proceed up and
others down the river, in order to scare the birds from other places ; and when
any flight of them comes into the net, it is suddenly lowered into the water, thus
entangling the birds beneath until the natives go into the water and secure
them. Among the few specimens of art to be found in use with the primitive
inhabitants of those wilds none came so near our own manufacture as the net,
2c
194 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
which even in quality as well as in the mode of knotting could scarcely be
distinguished from our own." *
Mr. Chenery says that he has often seen the natives of the Goulburu catch
ducks. A man swims under water, breathing through a reed, and approaches a
flock without creating any alarm. When he is within reach of a duck, he seizes
it by the feet, drags it under water, wrings its neck, and tucks it under his belt.
In this way, quietly and noiselessly, he secures a great number of birds.
In other parts a somewhat similar method is followed. When a number of
ducks is seen on a river or a lagoon, a native enters the water — far below them
— covers his head with flags or rushes, or any weed that is growing in the water,
and swims towards the flock. He approaches the ducks cautiously, and takes
one after another in the manner described by Mr. Chenery.
Sometimes the natives sneak along the banks of a river, and, concealing
themselves amongst the reeds, get so near the water-fowl as to be able to spear
them, or take them with a noose.
Meyer states that swans, geese, ducks, and other water-fowl, which are
plentiful in the Lakes, are taken by the men of the Encounter Bay tribe by a
noose at the end of a long stick. They steal upon them, concealed by the
long grasses and rushes on the banks of the stream, until they are within reach
of the birds.
Tajjliu finds the noose in use generally amongst the natives of the Lower
Murray, but the reed-spear is also employed. The natives send their spears
into the dense flocks of widgeon {pitnkeri), and transfix the birds as they fly.
By means of the spear they kill a great many.f
" Most of the wild-fowl on the Lakes," says Mr. Taplin, " are unable to fly
in the moulting season ; they then betake themselves to the reeds. A net is put
by the natives round a clump of reeds, beaters are sent in to drive out the
ducks, which rush into the nets and are captured by scores."^
In Gippsland the natives caught the wild-fowl also when moulting, and
when sitting on their eggs, or when just fledged. It does not appear that they
used either the net or the noose.
The swan was usually taken by stratagem. He was driven into reeds, and
then speared or knocked on the head with a waddy.
In the Paroo district ducks are taken usually, Mr. Sullivan informs me, in
nets, arranged like those in use amongst the natives of the Murray. Sometimes
they are knocked down by sticks, and sometimes a native will cover his head
with mud, and swim so close to a duck as to be able to hit it with ease with
any weapon he may have with him. When ducks are flying along a water-
course, a boomerang thrown amongst them will bring down one or two.
In cooking birds the natives used, in former times, an oven formed of a
number of heated stones on which wet grass was strewn. The birds were placed
• Interior of Eastern Australia, by Major T. L. Mitchell, F.G.S., 1838.
t Eyre states tliat the natives commonly used the tat-tat-ho — a long rod with a noose at the end
— for snaring water-fowl. — Journal, vol. u., p. 285.
X The Narrinyeri, p. 30.
FOOD.
195
on the grass, and covered with it; more heated stones were laid on, and the
whole was covered with earth. In this way they were half-stewed. The Murray
tribes still use this method. In Gippsland it has fallen into disuse.
The following is a list of some of the aquatic and other birds eaten by the
natives : —
Native Name — Lake Tyers.
Swan - - - - Gidi
Goose- . _ _ Krangnark -
Pelican - _ - Burran-
Common wild or black
Cygnus atratus.
Anseranas melanoleuca.
Pclecanus conspicillatus.
duck
Moimtain duck
Pink-eyed duck
Spoon-bill
Musk duck
Wood duck
Teal -
Speckled teal
Cormorant*
Shas -
Sea eagle -
Large gull -
Small common gull
Wrang - - Anas superciliosa.
Karagnack - Casarca Tadornoides.
Koortgan - Malacorkynckus membranaceus.
Wgang - - Platalea Jlatipes.
Bau - - Biziura lohata.
Naak - - Chlamydocken jubata.
Barook - - (?)
Koortgang - Anas punctata.
Karnie - - Phalacrocorax carboides.
Kurrowera - Phalacrocorax melanoleucus
and P. leucogaster.
Polioetus leucogaster.
Larus pacijicus.
Xema Jamesoni.
Kang-gang
Gnoman
Tarook -
Parrots of many kinds are very numerous in the forests of Australia, and the
natives are practised in killing them with the short heavy sticks they carry and
with the boomerang. The cockatoo-parrots fly in large flocks. Sometimes at
evening one may see hundreds of them high in the air, on the borders of the
swamps, flying hither and thither and screaming loudly. They are wary birds,
and a sportsman must use great caution in approaching them. In Gippsland
the cockatoo (Braak) and parrots of other kinds were not often killed by the
boomerang. The natives generally took them when they were sitting on their
eggs, or when too young to fly, or when moulting.
Grey gives an animated description of the killing of cockatoos by the
boomerang. He says : — " 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 afi"ords an open clear space above it, unenciunbered 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
* The natives plant stakes in the water, in places where there are no natural resting-places for
the shags and cormorants, and when the birds perch on these, they swim quietly up to them and
seize them. They also knock them off the branches of the stranded trees and withered stumps on
which they sit with sticks or with the boomerang.
196 THE ABORIGINES OF TICTORIA:
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 dis-
turbing 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 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 up-
wards 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."*
Amongst the parrots most commonly taken the following may be men-
tioned : —
Rosehill __.._. Platycercus eximius.
King lory -_.-.. Aprosmictus scapidatus.
Green leek ------ Pohjtelis Barrabandi.
Blue mountain - _ - _ - Trichoglossus multicolor.
Ground parrakeet ----- Pezophorus formosus.
Pennant's parrot ----- Platycercus Pennanti.
Cockatoo (species that fly in flocks) - Cacatua galerita.
Cockatoo (without a crest) - - - Licmetis tenuirostris.
Small birds of various kinds, which feed on the blossoms of the honey-
suckle {Banksia), are caught by the natives living in the Mallee scrub in the
following manner. A hole is dug in the ground sulSciently large to admit of a
man's sitting in it comfortably, and over it is built a mia-mia of green boughs
and twigs. In front a number of small sticks are stuck in the ground slant-
ingly and crossing each other. The native, having provided himself with a thin
stick, furnished with a running noose of fine cord at the end, takes his seat in
the hole, and imitates the chirping of the birds. After some trouble, he secures
one, and he uses this as a decoy, fastening it by a cord to one of the long
slanting sticks. It attracts numbers by its cries, and the native cautiously en-
snares one after the other with the loop, until he takes perhaps three hundred
• Grey, vol. n., p. 282.
FOOD. 197
or more. Having passed the loop over the head of the bird, he twists the stick
and adroitly draws it into the hole. A patient hunter is always weU rewarded
when pursuing this naethod of capture.
The natives had many other contrivances for catching birds ; but perhaps
the simplest and most curious is that formerly practised in New South Wales.
Collins relates that the men of New South Wales caught crows in this man-
ner : A native stretched himself on a rock, as if asleep in the sun, holding a
piece of fish in his hand. The bird — hawk or crow — seeing the prey, and not
observing any motion in the native, pounced on the fish ; and in the instant of
seizing it was caught by the savage, who cooked it quickly on the fire, making
a meal that for enjoyment might be envied by an epicure.
When a native was hungry he would eat any bird he could kill. Amongst some
of the more common, though not necessarily easily taken, may be mentioned
the eagle {Aqui/a audax), hawks (Teracidea berigora, Astur approxiinans, and
Tinnunculus cenckr aides); pigeon — large pigeon of Upper Yarra {Leucosarcia
picata), bronze-wing jiigeon (Peristera elet/ans), and crested pigeon (Ocyp/taps
lophotes); magpie (common) (^Gymnorhina leuconota), minah-bird {^lyzantha
garrula), wattle-bird (^Melipkaga carnuculata), mutton-bird {Puffinurus brevi-
caudus), and crow {Corcus coronoides); lyre-bird {Menura superba), owl {Strix
delicatula), laughing jackass {Dacdo gigas), and the more-pork (Podargus
hiimeralis and P. Cuvieri).
Turtle, etc.
Tlie fresh-water turtle {Platemgs Macquarid) — Xgart (Gippsland), Putch-
])oh (Lake Condah) — is found in great numbers in many of the rivers, lagoons,
and swamps of Victoria. It is caught with the hand, and roasted in the shell.
Ou the Murray, the natives take a great many of these reptiles during the
summer season ; and the flesh is said to be delicate and delicious.
The sea turtles are not seen far south of Shark's Bay, on the north-western
coast, and they do not come further south than Sydney, on the north-eastern
coast.* They are, of course, iinknown to the natives of Victoria.f
• Professor McCoy informs me that the leathery turtle {Sphargis coriacea) comes as far south
as Portland ; the hawk's-bill turtle (Care«a squamata) aui green turtle (CAe/onia fiVya^a) are not
known to him south of Sydney.
f On the north-western and north-eastern coasts the natives are adroit in taking both the green
turtle anil the hawk's-bill turtle. The former arc usually surprised on the beach when they come
to lay their eggs, but sometimes they are attacked in the water when they are asleep. In pursuing
this dangerous sport, the native has to exercise great caution in order to avoid the sharp edges of
the shells, those of the females being especially keen. When he sees a turtle that he thinks he
may venture to attack, he slips gently from his canoe, swims under the turtle, and by a strong
effort turns it on its back, at the same time wrenching the fore flipper so as to prevent it from
swimming. With the assistance of his companions, the sportsman then attaches a string to the
turtle and secures it. It is taken also, Mr. J. G. Wood says, in some places with the harpoon.
But the most remarkable method of all is that described by the Messrs. Jardine : — " A singular
mode of taking the hawk's-bill turtle is followed by the natives here. This custom, though said to
be known so long back as the time of the discovery of America by Columbus, is so strangely
interesting that I will give a short account of it as I have seen it pr,ictised. A species of sucking-
fish (^Remora) is used. On the occasion to which I alludi;, two of these were caught by the blacks
198 THE ABOEIGINES OF TICTOEIA:
Tlie numerous reptiles, easily caught in every part of the country, supplied
food during the summer season. Besides the smaller lizards, there is the large
iguana (II>/drosauri/s varius) — Bathalook (Gippsland) — which furnishes a
quantity of excellent flesh ; and, of the larger snakes, there are the death-
in the small pools in a coral reef, care being taken not to injure them. They were laid in the
bottom of a canoe, and covered over \rith wet sea-weed, a strong fishing-line having been previously
fastened to the tail of each. Four men went in the canoe— one steering with a paddle in the stern,
one paddling on either side, and one in the fore part looking out for the turtle and attending to the
fishing-lines, while I sat on a sort of stage fixed amidships, supported by the outrigger poles. The
day was very calm and warm, and the canoe was allowed to drift with the current, which runs
very strong on these shores. A smaU turtle was seen, and the sucking-fish was put into the water.
At first it swam lazily about, apparently recovering the strength which it had lost by removal from
its native element ; but presently it swam slowly in the direction of the turtle, till out of sight. In
a very short time the line was rapidly carried out, there was a jerk, and the turtle was fast. The
line was handled gently for two or three minutes, the steersman cau.sing the canoe to follow the
course of the turtle with great dexterity. It was soon exhausted and hauled up to the canoe. It
was a small turtle, weighing a little under 40 lbs.; but the sucking-fish adhered so tenaciously to it
as to raise it from the ground when held up by the tail ; and this some time after being taken out
of the water. I have seen turtle weighing more than 100 lbs. which had been taken in the manner
described. Though large numbers of the hawk's-bill turtle are taken by the Cape York natives, it
is very difficult to procure the shell from them ; they are either too lazy to save it, or, if they do so,
it is bartered to the islanders of Torres Straits, who use it for making masks and other ornaments."
— Descriplion of the Neighbourhood of Somerset, by John Jardine, Esq., Police Magistrate, Somerset,
Cape York, 1866.
" Turtle forms an important article of food, and four difierent kinds are distinguished at Cape
York and the Prince of Wales Islands. Three of these can be identified as the green, the hawk's-
bill, and the loggerhead species, and the fourth is a small one which I never saw. This last, I was
informed by Gi'om, is fished for in the following extraordinary manner : — A live sucking-fish
(Echeneis remora), having previously been secured by a line passed round the tail, is thrown into
the water in certain places known to be suitable for the purpose. The fish, while swimming about,
makes fast by its sucker to any turtle of this small kind which it may chance to encounter, and both
are hauled in together One day some of us, while walking the poop, had our attention
directed to a sucking-fish, about two and a half feet in length, which had been made fast by the tail
to a billet of wood, by a fathom or so of spun yam, and turned adrift. An immense striped shark,
apparently about fourteen feet in length, which had been cruizing al)out the ship all the morning,
sailed slowly up, and turning slightly on one side, attempted to seize the apparently helpless fish ;
but the sucker, with great dexterity, made himself fast in a moment to the shark's back. Ofif
darted the monster at full speed, the sucker holding on fast as a limpet to a rock, and the billet
towing astern. He then rolled over and over, tumbling about, when, wearied with his efforts, he lay
quiet for a little. Seeing the float, the shark got it into his mouth, and disengaging the sucker by
the tug on the line, made a bolt at the fish ; but his puny antagonist was again too quick, and fixing
himself close behind the dorsal fin, defied the efforts of the shark to disengage him, although he
rolled over and over, lashing the water with his tail until it foamed all round. What the final result
was we could not clearly make out." — Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, by John Macgillivray, 1852,
vols. I. and u.
Dampier makes mention of a sucking-fish ; and no doubt the fishling referred to by Pliny, in the
opening chapter of his 32nd book, was of the nature of the creature above described.
The common Remora, Professor McCoy says in a note to me, is eight or ten inches long, and is
occasionally found on sharks and other fish. He adds, in reference to the account given by Mr.
Jardine : — " It seemed to me that the natives successfully catching turtle by use of the Echeneis
remora of our seas was as mythical as the old classical fable referred to of these little sucking-fishes
stopping ships in full sail ; but, as Mr. Jardine has seen it, the matter is of course settled, although
he omits to mention how the line is attached to the Remora so as not to impede its locomotion and
yet stop that of a turtle. There is no doubt that the fish attaches itself to turtle, as well as sharks
and other fish, so firmly that the body may be torn sooner than the sucker be detached."
FOOD. 199
adder {Acanthophis antarctica), the black snake {Pseudeckijs porphjraicus),
the tiger snake {Hoplocephalus curtus), and the large brown snake {Diemenia.
superciliosa.)*
Frogs were roasted and eaten in some parts of Victoria; and amongst
these the natives probably often took the common green frog {Ranhjla aurea),
the smaller dark one (LymTWchjnastes Tasmaniensis), and the tree-frogs {Ihjla,
jjhi/Uochroa and Ht/la Verreauxi).
Fish.
There is not much to add, with respect to the native methods of catching
fish, to the information given under the heads of Spears, and Fish-hooks, and
Nets for Fishing. The natives appear to have practised at least five different
methods of taking fish, namely: —
1. B}/ hand. — In shallow pools, in lagoons, and in the ana-branches of
rivers, in times of drought, they would catch a few fish by wading into the
shallow water and taking them by hand. Black-fish are commonly caught by
hand in the water-holes of the Western district.!
In the Port Lincoln district, the natives go into the water and push the
fish before them with branches of trees until they are fairly driven ashore.
" Some fishes are, in the night, attracted to light, and then easily killed.
The blacks, provided with torches made of long strips of bark, go into the
water and catch them with the hand, striking them or spearing them."t
2. B}/ nets. — The native nets are used very much in the same manner as in
Europe. Mr. Francis F. Armstrong, the Government Inteqireter in Western
Australia, says that nets were not known when the Europeans first landed in
that colony, but that they are used by the people of the north coast, who make
the twine of a fibre obtained from spinifex or the bark of trees.
The method of fishing by the net is thus described by the Rev. J. G. "Wood.
He says : — " This requires at least two men to manage it. The net is many
feet in length, and about four feet in width. It is kept extended by a number
of sticks placed a yard or so apart, and can then be rolled up in a cylindrical
package and be taken to the water. One man then takes an end of the net,
unrols it, and, with the assistance of his comrade, drops it into the water. As
soon as the lower edge of the net touches the bottom, the men wade towards
* Buckley says, in his narrative, that on one occasion, when the natives set fire to the grass
and scrub of the forest for the purpose of enclosing and catching kangaroos, wombats, opossums,
native cats, wild dogs, lizards, snakes, &c., they found "a monster snake, having two distinct heads,
separating about two inches from the body, black on the back, with a brownish-yellow belly, and red
spots all over. It had been about nine feet long, but the fire had burnt the body in two, and,
being such an unnatural-looking monster, the natives were terribly frightened at its appearance."
Professor McCoy states that young snakes with two heads (monsters) occasionally occar of the
different species. One was lately sent to Melbourne.
t Much interesting information is given by Eyre respecting the several methods employed by the
natives in catching fish. He says he has seen them dive down in the river, without net or implement
of any kind, and bring up good-sized fish, which they had caught with their hands at the bottom,
— Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, 1845, Tol. u., p. 261.
t AVilhcUni, p. 175.
200 THE ABORIGINES OF TICTOEIA:
the shore, drawing with them the two ends of the net and all the fish that
happen to be within its range. As soon as they near the shore, they bring the
two ends of the net to the land, fix them there, and are then able to pick up and
throw ashore all the fish that are in the net. Some of the more active fish
escape by leaping over the upper edge of the net, and some of the mud-loving
and crafty wriggle their way under the lower edge; but there is always a
sufliciency of fish to reward the natives for their labor." *
" The Narrinyeri make fishing-lines and twine from two kinds of fibre. One
is a bulrush which grows in the scrub ; the other is the root of a flag or
bulrush which grows in fresh water, and is called Menungkcri. The rushes or
roots are, first of all, either boiled [ ? ] or steamed in the native oven, and then
chewed by the women. A party of them will sit round the fire and masticate
the fibrous material by the hour. While they do so, the masses of fibre which
have been chewed are handed to the men who sit by, and they work it up, by
twisting it on the thigh, into hanks of twine, either stout or fine, according
to the purpose to which it is to be applied. Others receive the twine as fast
as it is made, and make it into nets. They wind the twine on a short stick,
which is used as the netting needle. The only measure of the size of the mesh
is the finger of the netter, and yet their nets are wonderfully regular. The
stitch is exactly the same as ours, but it is taken over and towards the netter,
instead of under as we do. They make lengths of this net about four feet wide,
and tie straight sticks of Mallee across it, to keep it open ; then a number of
lengths are tied togetlier, end to eud, and it is used for catching fish or moulting
ducks, in the usual way."t
" Some nets are furnished with a bag or pouch of netting, with smaller
meshes placed at one eud of the net, into which the smaller fish are driven as
the net is hauled in. When the fish approach the shore, the natives enter the
water with the net, and swim about until they get the fish between themselves
and the shore ; they then spread out the net, those on shore directing them, so
that they may enclose the fish, and, as soon as this is accomplished, they are
drawn to the shore.-'t
3. By spearing. — Various kinds of spears, as figured and described in this
work, are used for taking fish of all kinds, both in the sea and in fresh water.
The natives are very skilful in all sports, as already stated, but in using the
spear in fishing they are astonishingly expert.
Sir Tliomas Mitchell describes a fishing scene on the Darling. He says : —
" There was an unusually deep and broad reach of the river opposite to our
camp, and it appeared that they fished daily in different portions of it in the
following manner. The king stood erect in his bark canoe, while nine young
men with short spears went up the river, and as many down the river, until, at
a signal from him, all dived into it, and returned towards him, alternately
swimming and diving ; these divers transfixing the fish under water, and
* The Natural History of Man, vol. n., p. 19.
■f The Narrinyeri (Lower Murray), by the Rev. Geo. TapUn, p. 30.
X Encounter Bay Tribe (South Australia), by H. E. A. Meyer, pp. 6-7.
FOOD. 201
throwing them on the bank. Others on the river brink speared the fish when
thus enclosed, as they appeared among the reeds, in which small openings were
purposely made to attract them. In this manner they speared with astonishing
despatch some enormous cod (Peel's perch), but the largest were struck by the
chief from his canoe with a long barbed spear. After a short time the young
men in the water were relieved by an equal numl^er, upon which they came out
shivering — the weather being very cold — to warm themselves in the centre of a
circular fire, kept up by the gins on the bank. The death of the fish in their
practised hands was almost instantaneous, and caused by merely holding them
by the tail with the gills immersed." *
At the mouth of the Murray, and at the Lakes, fish are caught with the
three-pronged spear ;t and the natives of the Bellingen Eiver (lat. 30° 30' S.) use
a sjjear of the same kiud.f It is mentioned also by Peron.§
Near Yelta, on the Murray, fish are speared with the paddle, which has hooked
grains at one end, made of kangaroo leg-bones. ||
Collins observed the several modes of catching fish as practised on the sea-
coast. On one occasion he saw the men killing fish with the fiz-gig — an instru-
ment made of the wattle, having a joint in it, fastened by gum, and from fifteen
to twenty feet in length. It was armed with four barbed jjrongs, the barb being
a piece of bone secured by gum. IT
Lieut.-Col. Muudy was much pleased with the sight of a native using
the fisli-spear. "Just opposite La Perouse's monument," he says, "we saw
a black s^Dcaring the rock-cod aud groper, which feed on the shell-fish toi'n
from the rocks in stormy weather. The figure of this man poised motionless on
a pedestal of rock, with his lance ready to strike, the waves dashing up to his
feet, was a subject for a bronze statue."**
4, By weirs. — The natives are ingenious in constructing weirs both in salt
aud fresh water. In the former they are placed in the flats left nearly dry at
low water, and in the latter so as to take advantage of floods, or an increased
artificial flow of water, which they manage by constructing dams, or excavating
the outlet of a lake or lagoon.
They have also movable dams. On the Bogan, "fishing is left entirely to the
gins, who drag every hole in a very effectual aud simple manner, by pushing
before them, from one end of the pond to the other, a movable dam of long,
twisted dry grass, through which the water only can pass, while all the fish
remain aud are caught."
In the Gwydir, Major Mitchell found osier-nettings of neat workmanship.
The frames were as well squared as if they had been done by a carpenter, and
* Interior of Eastern Australia, b}- Major T. L. Mitchell, F.G.S., 1838, toI. i., p. 266.
■f J he Narrinyeri, by the Key. Geo. TapUn, 1874.
J Australia, Jrom Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, by Clement Hodgkiason, 1845.
§ "La peche lour est faniiliere, et la foueue est rinstrument que nous leur avons TU employer
de prefireiicc : ils dressent aussi des piiges, pour le meme objet, sur les bords de la riviere Vasse."
— M. F. Piron, Tol. III., p. 162, 1800-1804.
II Lower Murray Aborigines, by Peter Bcveridge, 1861.
% New South Wales, by Liuut.-Col. Collius, 1804.
*♦ Our Antipodcs,hy Lieut.-Col, Mundy, 1857.
'Z D
202 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
into these frames twigs were inserted, at regular intervals, so as to form, by
crossing each other, a strong and efficient kind of net or snare. Where these
were erected, a small opening was left towards the middle of the current, in
order, probably, that some sort of bag or netting might be applied there to
receive the fish, while the native in the river above should drive them to this
netting.*
In Western Australia fish are nearly always taken in weirs, made of brush-
wood and poles, from three to six feet in depth.
Mr. Gideon S. Lang gives a description of a singular work of art constructed
by the Aborigines. He says: — " The great weir for catching fish, on the Upper
Darling, called Breemarner, is, both for conception and execution, one of the
most extraordinary works recorded of any savage tribe, and, independent of
another described by Murrell, the shipwrecked mariner, who passed seventeen
years among them, is quite sufficient to prove their capacity to construct works
on a large scale, and requiring combined action. This weir (Breewarner) is
about sixty-five miles above tlie township of Bourke. It is built at a rocky part
of the river, from eighty to one hundred yards in width, and extends about one
hundred yards of the river course. It forms one immense labyrinth of stone
walls about three or four feet high, forming circles from two to four feet in
diameter, some opening into each other, forming very crooked but continuous
passages, others having one entrance only. In floods, as much as twenty feet of
water sweeps over them, and carries away the tops of the walls ; the lower parts
of the walls, however, are so solidly and skilfully built with large, heavy stones,
which must have been brought from a considerable distance, and with great
combined labor, that they have stood every flood from time immemorial. Every
summer this labyrinth is repaired, and the fish, in going up or down the river,
enter it, get confused in its mazes, and are caught by the blacks by hand in
immense quantities. "t
5. By hoohs. — Catching fish by the hook and line was not practised by all
the natives of Victoria. In Gippsland, however, they used hooks made of bone;
and an ancient fish-hook of bone, obtained from Gippsland, is figured in this
work. Mr. Green says that the natives of the Yarra were unacquainted with
the hook. Meyer and Taplin and Wilhelmi state that it was not used in South
Australia until after the arrival of the Europeans; nor is it known on the Paroo.f
But the natives of Victoria, in some parts certainly — if not in the Western dis-
trict, most assuredly on the eastern seaboard — were accustomed to make fishing
hooks and lines. The Western Port blacks name the fish-hook Ling' an-ling' an
— but perhaps they derived the invention and were taught its uses by the Gipps-
land natives. In the north-eastern and northern parts of Australia the blacks
make excellent fish-hooks and good lines.
The hooks were not in all parts of the same shape as those that somewhat
resemble European hooks. They appear to have sharpened pieces of wood in
such a manner as when hitched to twine and baited would secure the larger
kinds of fish.
* Eastern Australia, 1838. f ^^e Aborigines o/ Australia, 1865, pp. 19-20. % A. F. Sullivan, MS.
FOOD.
203
Collins says he saw the natives fishing with the hook and line in New South
Wales. Tlie women, he says, used the hook and line. The lines were made of
tlie bark of a small tree, and the hooks of the mother-of-pearl oyster, which they
rubbed on a stone until it assumed the shape desired. " While fishing, the
women sing. In their canoes they always carry a small fire laid upon sea-weed
or sand, with which, when desirous of eating, they dress their meal." *
The hook, probably, travelled slowly southwards, along the eastern seaboard,
and had not reached the Lower Murray at the time the whites settled there.
Negative evidence on such a matter is not, however, of much value.
The fish-hooks figured in M. P6ron's work (1800-1804) are exactly similar
to those of Gippsland and Rockingham Bay ; and I think it may be safely
assumed that the invention of the shell-hook is native, t
Amongst the fish commonly taken by the blacks are the Murray cod ( Oligorus
Macquariensis), which is often three feet in length and very heavy ; the bream
{Chnjsophrys Australis) ; the schnapper {Pagrus unicolor) ; the herring (Proto-
troctes maroena) ; the black-fisli ( Gadopsis marmoratiis) ; the Murray cat-fish
{Copidoglanis tandanus) ; the gudgeon or trout of colonists {Galaxias ocellatus
and G. attenuatus) ; the eel {Anguilla Australis) ; the large conger eel {Conger
Wilsoni) ; the flounder {Rliombosolea Jlesoides and Pleuronecties Victories) ; the
flat-head {Platycrphalus Tasmanicus); the g^r-^sh{Hemiramphusintermedius);
the whiting {Sillago maculata) ; the chimera {Callorhynchus antarcticus) ; the
common skate {Raya Lemprieri) ; the sting-ray {Myliobates aqxila) ; the dog-
fish {Galeus canis and Mustela vulgaris); and the large shark (Odoniaspis
taurus).
Of the aquatic mammals may be mentioned the whale % (P/igsalits Gragi —
McCoy), the species commonly stranded in Victoria, and eaten by the natives ;
and the porpoise {Delphinus fulcifasciatus) ; and of the marine carnivorous
mammalia, the sea^-leopard {Stenorkynckus leptonyx), and the eared seal, Otaria
{Arctocephalus) lobatus.
* New South Wales, by Lieut.-Col. Collins, 1804.
t A fish-hook used by the natives of the Louisiade is figured and described in Macglllivray's
Narrative of the Voyage of the Rattlesnake. It is seven inches in length, is made of some hard
wood, and has an arm four and a half inches long, turning up at a sharp angle, and tipped with a
slightly-curved barb of tortoise-shell, projecting horizontally inwards an inch and a half. It
somewhat resembles the fish-hook of the New Zealanders.
J "A whale" says Grey, "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 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 he.art 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 favorite 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 tlicm on the fire, or cooks them as kabobs, by cutting
them into small pieces, and spitting them on a pointed stick. By-and-by, 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
204
THE ABORIGns'ES OF VICTOEIA:
The fish commonly taken and eaten in Gippsland are as follow : —
English.
Schnapper -
Gurnet
Flounder
Gar-fish
Large flat-head
Flat-head
Bream
Perch
Travalla
Sand mullet -
Fat mullet -
Sea trout
Golden perch
Silver perch -
Large perch -
Native. How taken.
Nerabogang - - With bone-hook.
Koortgut - - In the net ; seldom with hook.
Pertpin - - Speared.
Thacki - - Speared.
Bimbiang - - With spear and hook.
Brindat - - With spear and hook.
Kine - - With the bone-hook.
Tambun - - With the bone-hook.
Karie - - With the bone-hook.
Krinyang - - With the bone-hook.
Pertpiang - - In net made of grass.
Billing - - With the bone-hook.
Looterak - - In the net.
Kooee - - In the net.
Wirrinbown - - Speared.
The whale {Kaandha) and the porpoise (Kornon) are only procured when
stranded. No efforts are made to catch them. The seal {Ngalewan) is killed
on the beach.
The dugong is caught and eaten by the natives of the north, and much skill
is shown by them in capturing this creature.
The natives did not use much art in cooking fish. They were thrown on the
fire and broiled, and eaten without salt. The women often had fires in their
canoes, and they could cook and eat the fish as soon as they were caught. In
some parts, however, they adopted an excellent method. It is thus described
by Grey : —
" K 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 paper-bark is selected, and torn into an oblong form ; the fish
is laid in this, and the bark wrapt 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, fuU of
juice and gravy, not a drop of which has escaped. Several of the smaller sorts
of fresh-water fish, in size and taste resembling whitebait, are really delicious
see them climbing in and about the stinking carcass, 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 They remain by the carcass 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 carcass of a putrid
whale." — Noiih- West and Western Australia, vol. n., pp. 277-8.
FOOD. 205
when cooked in this manner ; they occasionally also dress pieces of kangaroo
and other meats in the same way." *
And in other jjarts of Australia the natives are not so indiiferent to the art
of cooking as is generally supposed. Mr. Hodgkinson thus writes of the natives
of the north-east coast : —
"Although, from the preceding details, the Australian natives might be
deemed the dirtiest savages in the world, with regard to the nature of the food
they eat and their mode of cooking it, yet such is not the case. It is quite
true, as many writers have reported, that the produce of the chase, such as
opossums, squirrels, pademellas, guanas, ducks, &c., are thrown down, unskinned
and unembowelled, before the fire, and devoured, entrails and all. But having
often observed the mode of cookery pursued by the Australian Aborigines, I have
never seen them omit to extract the entrads as soon as the animal was warmed
through, and they are then carefully cleaned and cooked separately. With
regard to the skin being left on (which is not always the case), it is purposely
done, in order to retain the juices of the meat, which would otherwise be dried
up by their simple mode of cookery ; but as soon as the animal is sufficiently
done, the skin is easily pulled off and rejected. The Macleay River natives
always clean and gut their fish, and cook them carefully on hot embers, and
they eat nothing whatever in a raw state, except cobberra and grubs. The
Australian Aborigines, therefore, though not remarkably scrupulous as to clean-
liness, are, at least, equally so with the less uncivilized New Zealanders, and
much more so than many of the African tribes."t
The common kinds of shell-fish eaten by the natives are as follows : — Fresh-
water mussel (Unio sp.) ; mussel (salt-water) {Mt/tilus Dunkeri) ; mutton-fish
{IlaHotis fiivosa); periwinkle {Lttnella undulata); limpet {Patella framoserica);
and cockle {Cardium tenuicostatum).
The sea cucumber {Holothuria sp.) is also eaten.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer gives the native names of these, as follow : —
Fresh-water mussel - Nerridewan. Cockle - - Tagera.
Periwinkle - - Moondara. Mutton-fish - Walkan.
Limpet - - - Banarcara. Sea cucumber - Jiraiton.
Mr. Hodgkinson says that the oyster {Ostrea mordax) is eaten by the
natives of the Bellingen River.
Tlie crab {Pseudocarcinus gigas) — Krangalang {G(\]}j}A&XiA); and the cray-fish
{Ilomarus aiuiulicornis) — Terndang (Gippsland) — as well as the cray-fish com-
monly found in creeks and ponds — the large Murray one {Astacoides serratus),
and the smaller (A. quinquecarinatus), afford excellent food. |
* North-West and Western Australia, vol. II., p. 276.
f From Port Macquarie to Morcton Bay, p. 229.
X " At Moorunde, when the Murray annually inundates the flats, fresh-water cray-fish make
their way to the surface of the ground, from holes where they have been buried during the year, in
such vast numbers that I have seen four hundred natives live upon them for weeks together, whilst
the numbers spoiled, or thrown away, would have sustained four hundred more." — Eyre's Journal,
vol. ji., p. 252.
206 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Bees, etc.
Tlie native not seldom adds to his usual stock of food by robbing a bee-hive.
When he sees bees busy near a tree, he can tell usually at once where the
aperture leading to the hive is, and he proceeds to cut open the trunk with his
tomahawk and take out the honey. Sometimes large quantities of comb are
taken from a hive. I have myself assisted in opening a hollow tree in which a
hive had secreted its stores, and the quantity of honey that was found in it was
surprising. It was peculiarly flavored, but not at all inferior to the honey of
Europe.
Occasionally in the bush the hunter in olden times woiild see a single
busy bee feeding on the flowers near his track. He would adroitly catch this bee
and affix to it a particle of down, and follow it until he found its nest.
In the narrative of the overland expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from
Eockhampton to Cape York (18G7) the following account is given of the
native bee : —
" This little insect (called Wirotheree in the Wellington dialect), the invasion
of whose hoards so frequently added to the store of the travellers, and no doubt
assisted largely in maintaining their health, is very different from the European
bee, being in size and appearance like the common house-fly. It deposits its
honey in trees and logs, without any regular comb, as in the case of the former.
These deposits are familiarly known in the colony as ' sugar-bags ' (sugar-bag
meaning, aborii/inicc, anything sweet), and require some experience and pro-
ficiency to detect and secure the aperture by which the bees enter the trees,
being undistiuguishable to an unpractised eye. The quantity of honey is some-
times very large, amounting to several quarts. Enough was found on one
occasion to more than satisfy the whole party. Its flavor differs from that of
European honey almost as much as the bee does in appearance, being more
aromatic than the latter : it is also less crystalline. As the celebrated
' Narbonne honey ' derives its excellence from the bees feeding on the wild
thyme of the south of France, so does the Australian honey derive its superior
flavor from the aromatic flowers and shrubs on which the Wirotheree feeds, and
which makes it preferred by many to the European."
Mr. Braim says that in New South Wales wild honey is collected by a small
stiugless bee, not so large as the common fly ; and that the honey-nest is
generally found at the summit of remarkably high trees. The honey is of
delicious flavor, after it has been carefully separated from the comb, the cells of
which are generally filled with small flies. The natives, however, devour it just
as they find it, and are very fond even of the refuse comb, with which they make
their favorite beverage called Bull, and of this they drink till they become
quite intoxicated.*
Professor McCoy informs me that the only bee in Victoria that makes a honey-
comb is the imjiorted one {Apis mellifica). It is more than thirty years since it
was first introduced. The honey-comb is always stored in the hollows of trees.
* History of New South Wales, by Thomas Henry Braim, 1846, vol. u., p. 248.
FOOD. 207
The natives are very fond of the pupae of ants. Tliey gather them and place
them in a tarnuk ; they are then mixed with the dry bark of the " stringj-bark "
tree, which they tear off the tree and rub in their hands imtil it is powdery.
When this is thoroughly mixed with the so-called ants' eggs, they take up some
in their hands and blow away the loose stuff, and finally get clean eggs to eat.
They say they are very good, the taste being something like that of a mixture
of butter and sugar.
Mr. Wilhelmi mentions the trough of bark used by the blacks of South
Australia for holding the pupae of the ants. The trough is called Yuta; it is
about four feet in length and eight inches in breadth. The natives open the
ant-hills, and the pupae are placed in this trough, which is shaken and so
manipulated as to retain the pupse and to throw off the dirt and refuse. The
season of the ants is in September and October, and during these months the
yuta is always seen in the hands of the natives.
A kangaroo skin, or indeed anything at hand that will hold the contents of
the ants' nest, is used for shaking and clearing the pupae of dust, &c., when the
tarnuk or the yuta is not to be had.
The pupaj of the common ant {Formica consohrina) are of the size of grains
of rice; those of the black and red bull-dog ants {Mijrmicia piriformis and M.
sanguined) are three-quarters of an inch in length.
Several kinds of grubs are eaten, namely, those taken from the honeysuckle
{Tharatkun krang), those taken from the wattle {Marttkem krang), and those
from the white-gum {Ballook krang).
All the grubs, says Mr. Bulmer, are named from the trees firom which they
are taken. Some natives prefer to eat the grubs raw ; others cook them by
placing them for a short time in the hot ashes of a fire.
The common grubs in Victoria are the Zeuzera citurata and Endoxyla
eucalypti (found in the wattle), and Endoxyla n. sp. (foimd in the gum-trees).
The moths — the Bugoug moths — (Agrotus sufusa) are greedily devoured
by the natives ; and in former times, when they were in season, they assembled
in great numbers to eat them, and they grew fat on this food.*
* The Bugong moths collect on the surfaces of granite rocks on the Bugong Mountains of New
South Wales, and in such manner as to admit of their being caught in great numbers. Mr. G.
Bennett says : — " To procure them with greater facility, the natives make smothered fires under-
neath those rocks about which they are collected, and suffocate them with smoke, at the same time
sweeping them oflE frequently in bushelfuls at a time. After they have collected a large quantity, they
proceed to prepare them, which is done in the following manner. A circular space is cleared upon
the ground, of a size proportioned to the number of insects to be prepared ; on it a fire is lighted,
and kept burning until the ground is considered to be sufficiently heated, when, the fire being
removed, and the ashes cleared away, the moths are placed upon the heated ground, and stirred
about until the down and wings are removed from them ; they are then placed on pieces of bark,
and winnowed to separate the dust and wings mixed with the bodies j they are then eaten or placed ia
a wooden vessel called Walbum or Calibum, and pounded by a piece of wood into masses or cakes
resembling lumps of fat, and may be compared in color and consistence to dough made from smutty
■wheat mixed with fat. The bodies of the moths are large, and filled with a yellowish oil, resembling
in taste a sweet nut. These masses (with which the netbuls or talabats of the native tribes are
loaded during the season of feasting upon the Bugong) will not keep more than a week, and seldom
even for that time ; but by smoking they are able to preserve them for a much longer period. The
first time this diet ia used by the native tribes, violent vomiting and other debilitating effects are
208 THE ABORIGINES OP VICTORIA:
The natives also eat earth-worms — and probably the Lumbricus was most
often taken. Whether the large earth-worm of Brandy Creek and south-
western Gippsland, the Megascolex Australis (McCoy), was ever used as food,
is not known to me. Tliis worm is about four feet in length and thick in pro-
portion, and, if it can be eaten, must afford readily the means of satisfying the
cravings of hunger, if not of the appeasing of the appetite. It has a peculiar
smell, like tar.
In addition to all these, the blacks have for food the eggs of birds and
reptiles ; and indeed there is scarcely any living thing to be found in the
earth, in the forests, on the plains, in the sea, or in the lakes, streams, or ponds,
that they did not occasionally eat.
The eggs are named thus in Gippsland — those of the emu, Booyanga
Miowera; those of the swan, Boojanga Gidi; those of the duck, Booyanga.
Wreng; those of the iguana, Booyanga Bathalook; and those of the turtle,
Booyanga Ngerta. Eggs are never eaten raw. They are always cooked in the
ashes until hard, and they are eaten in all stages of incubation.*
Vegetable Food.
Some account of the kinds of tubers, bulbs, roots, leaves, and fruits which,
before the advent of the whites, constituted the vegetable food of the natives
must necessarily be given. Though there was no lack of edible roots and tubers
in Victoria, the natives were not able to derive from their lands such great
quantities of excellent products as are yielded by the Bunya-bunya (Araucaria
Bidmilli) ; the Mondo and Mondoleu (species of capparis) ; the Parpa (Ficus) ;
the Tagon-tagon (mangrove — Aviccnnia tomentosa) ; and the rich farinaceous
and other food obtained by the pounding, maceration, and desiccation of various
nuts, seeds, and tubers of the many indigenous plants — including the palms and
zamias — which are found so abundantly in the northern parts of Australia.
Neither did the natives of the southern part of the island-continent resort even
to rude methods of cultivation ; nor had they the knowledge to treat seeds or
roots, in their natural state poisonous, in such a manner as to derive from them
the tapioca-like fecula and mucilaginous pastes that afford nourishment to tlie
people in the north.
produced, but after a few days they become accustomed to its use, and then thrive and fatten
exceedingly upon it. These insects are held in such estimation among the Aborigines that they
assemble from all parts of the country to collect them from these mountains. It is not only the
native blacks that resort to the Bugong, but the crows also congregate for the same purpose." The
natives attack the crows, kill them, and eat them, and like them very much after they have fattened
on the moths. £yre mentions this moth. Not only the natives but their dogs also fattened on it.
• " The eggs of birds are extensively eaten by the natives, being chiefly confined to those kinds
that leave the nest at birth, as the leipoa, the emu, the swan, the goose, the duck, &c. But of
others, where the young remain some time in the nest after being hatched, the eggs are usually left,
and the young taken before they can fly. The eggs of the leipoa, or native pheasant, are found in
singular-looking mounds of sand, thrown up by the bird in the midst of the scrubs, and often
measuring several yards in circumference. The egg is about the size of the goose egg, but the
shell is extremely thin and fragile. The young are hatched by the heat of the sand and leaves,
with which the eggs are covered." — Eyre's Journal, vol. u,, p. 274.
FOOD. 209
Inhabiting a colder climate, our natives had to depend rather on the
general abundance of some of the varieties of the vegetable food yielded by
their soils than on the number, richness, and great yield of such trees as give
spontaneously almost unlimited supi)lies of fruit in certain seasons of the year.
They had, however, like the natives of the northern parts, a complete knowledge
of every plant that grows ; and were well able to seize the advantage when,
during any season, or under favorable circumstances of soil or aspect, a parti-
cular root or tuber was in abundance.
They seem to have been unacquainted, generally, with the use, as a food,
of the clover-fern, Nardoo, though the natives of the north-western parts of
Victoria must have had intercourse with the tribes who use it, and could
have obtained it, sparingly, from the lagoons in their own neighbourhood.
Tlie people of the Lower Murray had, however, in use the appliances for
pounding roots and grinding seeds ; and the round and flat stones are some-
times now found on and in the vicinity of old Mirrin^yong heaps.
Murr-nong or Mirr-ti'yong, a kind of yam {Microseris Forsteri), was usually
very plentiful and easily found in the spring and early summer, and was
dug out of the earth by the women and children. It may be seen growing
on the banks of the Moonee Ponds, near Melbourne. The root is small,
in taste rather sweet, not unpleasant, and perhaps more like a radish than
a potato. This plant grows throughout the greater part of extra-tropical
Australia — and in Tasmania and New Zealand ; and it has been traced up
to the summit of our Alps. At 6,000 feet, in alpine pastures, it assumes
much larger dimensions than in the lowlands, and the roots are quite suit-
able for food. Indeed, the plant is one which might be cultivated for food
in cold countries. It is allied to the Spanish scorzonera, a well-known culi-
nary vegetable.
Mr. Turner tells me that the cockatoo feeds almost exclusively on this tuber
when the jjlant is in flower.
Buckley mentions the Mirr-ii'i/ong, which appears to have been commonly
eaten by the natives when he was living with them.*
In addition to the fruits of the quandang, native currant, native rasp-
berry, and native cherry, they had also in great quantities, in many parts,
the fruits of the mesembryanthemum, and the mucilaginous seed of the native
flax.
Tlie native truffle {Mglltta Australis), a subterranean fungus, was much
sought after by the natives. When cut, it is in appearance' somewhat like
unbaked brown bread. I have seen large pieces weighing several pounds, and
in some localities occasionally a fungus weighing fifty pounds is found.
The heart of the fern-tree, the spike of the grass-tree, sweet flowers of
several kinds, leaves of a kind of nasturtium, and the sow-thistle, were com-
monly eaten ; and the gums exuded by the wattles and a pittosponim were also
iised as food.
* Life and Adventures of William Buckley, 1852, p. 85.
2e
210
THE ABOEIGESTES OF VICTOEIA:
The Bev. Mr. Bulmer, in reply to my enquiries, has furnished me with a
list of the vegetables commonly eaten by the natives of Gippsland. They are
as follows : —
Common Name.
Native Name.
How eaten.
Sow-thistle -
-
Thalaak
Always eaten raw.
Mesembryanthemum
(pig-face)
-
Katwort
Fruit eaten raw.
Flag -
-
Toorook
The root sometimes roasted,
and also eaten raw.
Water-grass -
-
Loombrak
Tlie root roasted in ashes :
never eaten raw.
Male fern (common 1
fern)
Geenan
Root roasted in the ashes.
Tree-fern
-
Kakowera
The pith roasted in the ashes.
Dwarf tree-fern
-
Karaak
The pith roasted in the ashes.
Native cherry
-
Ballat -
The fruit, when ripe, eaten raw.
White currant
-
Yellitbonng -
Fruit eaten when ripe.
Black currant
-
Lira -
Fruit eaten when ripe.
Large black currant
-
Wandha-wan
Fruit eaten when ripe.
Kangaroo apple
-
Koonyang
Fruit eaten when ripe.
From Mr. Hogau, of Lake Condah, I have received also, in reply to enquiries,
the native names of the vegetables formerly gathered for food by the Aborigines
of the Western district. The list is as follows : —
Native Name.
- Mukine-
- Purtich
- Yerat or Murr-nong
- Pekurn
- Tarook
- Tallerk
- Meakitch
- Pallert
- Boring-hoot -
- Karwin
out of the head of the stem, just below where the leaves spring, are
very good and refreshing on a hot day, and when roasted properly
are excellent).
The natives used also to compound liquors — perhaps after a slight fermen-
tation to some extent intoxicating — from various flowers, from honey, from
gums, and from a kind of manna. The liquor was usually prepared in the
large wooden bowls (tarnuks) which were to be seen at every encampment.
In the flowers of a dwarf species of Banksia {B. ornata) there is a good deal
of honey, and this was got out of the flowers by immersing them in water.
The water thus sweetened was greedily swallowed by the natives. This drink
was named Bcal by the natives of the west of Victoria, and was much
esteemed.
Common Name.
Fern
Rush
Yam
Mushroom
Grass (a kind of)
Thistle -
Kangaroo apple
Native cherry
Wild raspberry
Grass-tree
How eaten.
Roasted.
Roasted.
Roasted.
Roasted.
Roasted.
Eaten raw.
Eaten raw.
Eaten raw.
Eaten raw.
(not stated — pieces cut
FOOD. 211
" The only sweets," says Mr. Taplin, " whicli the Narrinyeri knew of before
the advent of Europeans were the honey of the native honeysuckle or Banksia;
the honey of the grass-tree flowers {Xanthorrhoea), and the manna which falls
from the peppermint-gum tree {Eucalyptus). These they used to gather care-
fully, and infuse them in water, and drink the infusion with great enjoyment." *
Little is generally known of the niiinna of Australia. It was, however, at
one time an important article of food ; and in the western part of Victoria the
natives gather it in pretty large quantities still.
In summer the Aborigines of the Mallee country eat Ldrap, Ldrp, or Lerp
— a kind of manna. It somewhat resembles in appearance small shells ; it is
sweet, and in color white or yellowish-white. It is gathered in December,
January, February, and March. It is a nutritious food, and is eaten with
various kinds of animal food. " This saccharine substance," says Baron von
Mueller, C.M.G., in a letter to me, " is obtained from one, or perhaps from
several, species of Eucalyptus of the Murray and Darling districts. It is not a
real manna, but is known as lerp, a name given to it by the Aborigines." Dr.
Thomas Dobson, of Hobart Town, many years ago referred the insect from which
the lerp emanates to the genus Psylla as Ps. eucalypti. Lerp is very different
from the so-called manna, which is gathered from the large Eucalyptus
viminalis occurring near Melbourne and elsewhere. [For the geographic
range of E. vim. see 3rd vol. of Flora Australiensis.'] The latter (the manna
of the E. viminalis') emanates from a cicadeous insect — seemingly a true species
of cicada — and the substance is amorphous ; while the lerp-snyar is of a
crystalline and shell-like structure. Dr. Thomas Anderson, of Edinburgh, was
the first to make known to scientific men the character and properties of lerp,
and this was in 1849. Baron von Mueller states, further, that until the insect
which produces lerp is collected in all its stages, and examined, together with
the flowering and fruiting branches of the Eucalyptus on which the insect
feeds, it will be impossible to give such an account of it as will be satisfactory,
and that there may be more than one species of bush which furnishes lerp.
Baron von Mueller adds that the so-called manna is perhaps in some
localities a saccharine exudation of the bark of Myoporum platycarpum.
The following account of two kinds of manna found in Victoria is given by
the jurors in the records of the Victorian Exhibition of 1861 : — "Two varieties
of a substance called manna are among the natural products in the Exhibition.
One kind is ordinarily found in the form of irregular little rounded masses, of
an opaque white color, and having a pleasant sweetish taste. In the early
months of summer it is most abundant, being secreted by the leaves and slender
twigs of the E. viminalis from punctures or injuries done to these parts of the
tree. The little masses often present an aperture at one end, showing the
attachment of the small twig from which the manna has been secreted in a
liquid form — at first transparent, and of the consistence of thin honey — and then,
becoming solid, drops off in the condition that has been mentioned. It consists
principally of a kind of grape-sugar, and about five per cent, of the substance
called Mannite."
* The Narrinyeri, p. 31.
212 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Another variety of manna is the secretion of the pupa of an insect of the
Psylla family, and obtains the name of Icrp among the Aborigines of the
northern districts of the colony. At certain seasons of the year it is very
abundant on the leaves of the E. dumosa, or Mallee scrub, and these are
occasionally whitened over with the profusion of this material, so that tlie
shrubby vegetation has the appearance of being iced. It is found in masses of
aggregated cones, each covered with a filamentous material like wool, and has
a color varying from an opaque white to a dull yellow. Beneath the little
dome, or shield, which presents on the concave a somewhat reticulated character,
the pupa remains until ready for its further development, when it escapes by
forcing its passage through the apex of the cone. The woolly material alluded
to is composed of solid filaments, more or less striated transversely, and in
some instances distinctly corrugated or beaded. They give a faint series of
colors by polarized light, and when submitted to the action of iodine, imme-
diately become intensely blue. These varieties of manna are of no medicinal
value ; and, apart from their consideration as objects of natural interest and
curiosity, have obtained but little notice."
Large quantities of this bush-sugar can be collected with ease, in the proper
season, in the north-western parts of the colony, as well as in some localities in
the east ; and it furnished formerly, during the summer months, a jjortion of
the food of the natives.
Lieut.-Col. Mundy gathered it near Bathurst, in New South "Wales. He
says : — " It sounds strange to English ears— a party of ladies and gentlemen
strolling out in a summer's afternoon to gather manna in the wilderness ; yet
more than once I was so employed in Australia. The substance is found in
small pieces, on the ground under the trees, at certain seasons, or in hardened
drops on the surface of the leaves. It is snowy white when fresh, but turns
brown when kept, like the chemists' drug so called ; is sweeter than the
sweetest sugar, and softer than Gunter's softest ice-cream. The manna is
seldom plentiful ; for birds, beasts, and human beings devour it, and the
slightest rain or even dew dissolves its delicate compounds
Hundreds of quails were to be found within a few paces of the manna-fields." *
Manna as it is found in Tasmania is mentioned also by Lieut. Breton, f
At my request, and, I know, under unusual difficulties, the Government
Botanist has hurriedly prepared the following list of vegetables commonly
eaten by the natives of Victoria. Tliough it makes no claim to completeness,
it adds materially to our knowledge of the food-resources of the Aborigines, and
it wiU be studied with great interest in all parts of Australia. The list is as
follows : —
" 1. Tubers of numerous terrestrial orchids belonging to the genera
Dipodium, Gastrodia, Thehjmitra, Diitris, Prasophi/llum, Microtis, Pterost>jlis,
Lyperanthus, Cyrtostylis, Caladenia, and Glossodia.
* Our Antipodes, pp. 79-80.
t Excursions in New Soulh Wales, Western Australia, and Van Dieinen's Zand, by Lieut.
Breton, B.N., 1830-33.
FOOD. 213
2. Eoots of various liliaceous small plants, for instance, of Arthropodium
paniculatum, A. striatum, Ccesia vittata, Bulbine bulbosa, Anguillaria Australia,
Burchnrdia umhellata, Tlii/sanotus tuherosus, T. Patersoni. I am not certain
whether these were used by the Aborigines always in a raw state.
3. Tuberous roots of Geranium dissectum, var. piloswm; also of Scirpus mari-
timus, Microseris Forstcri, of two bulrushes ( Typha Muelleri and T. Brownii),
of Triglochin procerum.
4. Young shoots, bases of leaves, and young flower-stalk and spike of the
grass-tree {Xanthorrhoea Ai/stralis).
5. Fruits of Solanum vescum (the Gunyang of our natives) ; fruits of many
Epacridece (although always small), of the genus Stjphdia and its allies ; also
of Kunzea pomifera.
6. Fruits of two kinds of raspberry {Rubus parvifolius and the rarer R.
rosifoliiis) ; also of Eugenia Smithii and of several species of Persoonia.
7. Seeds of the native millets (species of Panicum), particularly P. decowr-
positum.
8. Leaves of the Nasturtium terrestre, and several species of Cardamine and
Lepidium, for cress.
9. Fruits of Mesembryanthemum aequilaterale (so-called ' pig-face '), raw, also
the leaves baked.
10. The mucilaginous seed of the native flax (Linum marginale^.
11. Leaves of the clover-sorrel {Oxalis corniculata').
12. Gum of the wattle-acacias {Acacia decurrens, A. pycnantha); also of
several other species of this genus ; also of Pittosporum philhjroides.
1 3. Berries of the native elders {Sambucus Gaudichaudiana and S. xantho-
carpa) ; also of RImyodias.
14. Honey-like secretion from the flowers of Banksias, or so-called native
honeysuckles (Banksia marginata, B. integrifolia, B. serrata, B. Cunninghami).
15. Fruit basis of the so-called native cherry-trees {Exocarpus cupressi-
formis, E. stricta, E. aphylla) ; also fruits of the allied genus Leptomeria.
16. The quandang, fruit o? SantalumPreissianum; also the desert Nitraria.
17. The sweet flowers of several species of Xerotes, and the milky unripe
fruit of Marsdenia Leichhardti.
18. The young top shoots of the cabbage-palm (Livisfonia Ausfrafis) ;
but the value of this esculent was not known to the natives in their uncivilized
state.
19. The large native truffle {Mylitta Australia).
20. The seeds of the Portulaca oleracea (the Purslane). These can be
gathered by a blackfellow to the extent of many pounds weight in a day; and
they can be baked into nutritious cakes, infinitely superior to cakes made of
uardoo flour. The plant is pulled up, the sand and earth shaken oft', and it
is then jilaced on bark or on kangaroo skins. Soon the lid-like upper parts of
the seed-vessel spring oft' by contraction whilst drying, the numerous though
214 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
small seeds drop out, and they furnish, on account of their starchy albumen, a
very wholesome food. Tlie tubers of Portulaca napi/ormis (Mueller), of wide
distribution in tropical Australia, are also used by the natives for food." *
The natives are industrious in gathering the ripe seeds of plants in the whole
of the large area drained by the River Murray. In some parts, as on the Paroo,
the women may be seen in troops returning to their miams with the produce of
the day's labor. Each has a little wooden shoe-shaped vessel on her head, full
of seeds, and one woman follows another — Indian file. Tlieir dark, perfectly
naked figures ; their graceful attitudes as they change their steps and gait to
preserve the equipoise of the load they bear on their heads ; the merry tones of
their voices as they exchange gossip by the way ; the character of the country,
flat, and but scantily covered with vegetation in many places — all in strict har-
mony with the rather savage aspect of the procession ; the warm tints in the
sky, and the spears of yellow light gilding every object on which they fall —
form altogether a novel and not unpleasing spectacle to the stranger. When
the women reach their homes, they proceed to grind the seeds of the nardoo and
grass between two stones. The larger flat stone, about eighteen inches in length,
one foot in breadth, and about two inches in thickness, is called Yelta on the
Darling ; and the smaller, held in the hand — the other larger stone resting on
the ground — is about six inches in length, five inches in breadth, and one inch
or more in thickness. The latter is named Nay-ka. The stones used for grind-
ing in nearly all parts of the Darling are Silurian sandstones, and when the
seeds are ground up and made into paste, the natives necessarily swallow a
quantity of sand with each morsel. Water is added as they grind the seeds,
and they scoop up the paste with the forefinger. In some places the paste is
baked into cakes.
Dr. Gummow states that the fruits of the nardoo were used by the natives
of the Lower Murray in Victoria ; and the seeds of grasses, no doubt, were
likewise ground up and eaten.
Dr. Gummow mentions also, as vegetable food eaten by the people of the
Lower Murray in Victoria, the sow-thistle, used as a kind of salad, the gum of
the acacias, and manna. " The roots of the Compung>ja^^ he says in his letter
to me, " are in appearance like sticks of celery, and when baked much resemble
the potato, from the quantity of starch contained in them."
Mr. Cairns, writing of the food of the natives of the same district, says that,
according to information afl"orded him by Mr. P. Beveridge, the " kumpung
springs up from the root, through the mater, about the end of August, or as soon
as the weather becomes slightly warm. When about a foot in length above the
water, the natives pull it up and eat it for food in an uncooked state. In flavor
* " The Portulacece are all Innoxious plants, possessed of very little either smell or taste, and not
remarkable for any active properties. Their leaves are for the most part fleshy, and often edible.
The common purslane {Portulaca ohracea") is cultivated on the continent as a dietetic vegetable,
and esteemed, notwithstanding its insipidity, for the readiness with which it takes the flavor of
more sapid viands. The seeds of purslane are said to be anthelmintic. . . . The Da-t-hai of
Caffraria, the roots of which are eatable, is a purslane." — Outlines of Botamj. Burnett, p. 740.
The Government Botanist is to be commended for drawing attention to the properties of this
plant. Every explorer and every bushman should make himself acquainted with it.
FOOD. 215
it is very insipid, but extremely satisfying, and in this state is termed by the
natives Joutey. It is full grown or nearly so by the time the waters recede, and
remains green imtil the frosts come round, when it becomes quite brown, and, if
not destroyed by fire, continues so until the young shoots spring up the follow-
ing season ; and so it goes on from year to year, until it becomes so thick as to
be impervious to the sun, thus rendering the ground quite swampy and impass-
able for stock. In the summer the natives dig up the roots, which they either
roast or boil [?], and after masticating them, and obtaining all the starch there-
from, they retain the stringy, fibrous parts in lumps, which the lubras carry about
with them in their nets or bags, like careful housewives, until such be required
for making strings or threads, which they afterwards net into bags, girdles, and
other useful articles."
Baron von Mueller, it is said in the paper from which I have qiioted, has
examined this particular kind of Australian bulrush, and has foimd it to be
closely allied to a species found in Switzerland — the Typha Shuttleworthi*
Berries of several kinds were gathered by the natives of Victoria ; and on
the coast at Port Lincoln, in South Australia, the plant known there as karambi
{Nitraria Billardierii) affords large quantities of a pleasant cool fruit. It is
found on the western coast of Spencer's Gulf, growing on high sandliills ; and,
when the weather is hot, the natives lie at full length under a bush, and do not
leave it until they have stripped it of its berries. The fruit is in form and size
like an olive, and is of a dark-red color.f
In North-Western Australia the blacks prepare and eat the By-yu, the pulp
of the nut of a cycas, which in its raw state is poisonous. It is mentioned by
Capt. Cook, and well described by Grey : — " 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 [acting
as a most violent emetic and cathartic]. The natives eat this pulp both raw
and roasted ; in the latter state they taste quite as well as a chestnut." |
This method of treating the nut has been carried undoubtedly from the
north-east to the north-west.
Nardoo {Marsilea quadrifolia), previously referred to, the fruits of which
form much of the vegetable food of the natives of the Cooper's Creek district, is
extensively distributed, and owing to the difierent characters it presents — due to
the season when it is gathered, the greater or less moisture in the soil in which
*Oxley states in his Journal (1817-18) that he saw the natives eating the roots of thistles
(^Galu-nur).
fWilhelmi, p. 173.
X North-West and Western Australia, vol. ii., p. 296.
216 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
it grows, and the temperature and humidity of the air — a great number of varie-
ties have been collected and named by botanists ; but the Government Botanist,
who has examined all the Australian Marsilete that have been named, is of
opinion that they are referable to one species, the typical Linnajan Marsilea
quadrijolia. " The nutritive properties of the Marsilea fruit," says Baron von
Mueller, " are evidently very scanty. It seems to contain but slight traces of
protein combinations, and but little starch, its nourishing property resting
mainly on a mucilage, pertaining to a certain extent of that of the seed-testa of
flax, cress, quince, zygophyllum," &c.*
Mr. Gason very accurately describes the nardoo : — " A very hard fruit, a
flat oval, of about the size of a split pea ; it is crushed or pounded, and the
husk winnowed. In bad seasons this is the mainstay of the natives' suste-
nance ; but it is the worst food possible, possessing very little nourishment
and being difficult to digest." f
Mr. Howitt describes it in his notes on the Aborigines of Cooper's Creek.
In the swampy tracts near the lower part of Cooper's Creek, as likewise to
a less extent in other low swampy lands, liable to periodic inundations, this fern
grows gregariously, and when the floods abate the fruits are well formed and
very abundant.
Tlie melancholy incidents attached to the fate of Burke and Wills, who, on
returning to Cooper's Creek, vainly sought the means of sustaining life by
eating the nardoo flour, will never be forgotten by Australians. Wills and
King — when the small party was reduced to extremity — used to collect daily a
bag of nardoo seed, and carry it to the camji, where Burke employed himself in
pounding it. Wills, in his journal, says — " I cannot understand this nardoo
at all ; it certainly ■will not agree with me in any form. We are now reduced
to it alone, and we manage to get from four to five pounds per day between us.
It seems to give us no nutriment
Starvation on nardoo is by no means very iinpleasant, but for the weakness one
feels, and the utter inability to move oneself, for, as far as appetite is concerned,
it gives me the greatest satisfaction. Certainly fat and sugar would be more to
one's taste; in fact those seem to me to be the greatest stand-by for one in this
extraordinary continent ; not that I mean to depreciate the farinaceous food;
but the want of sugar and fat in all substances obtainable here is so great that
they become almost valueless to us as articles of food without the addition of
something else."
The natives appear to subsist largely on nardoo and fish in this part of the
continent, but they have in addition many roots and plants.
Mr. Cobham informs me that the blacks are in the habit of going to the
swamjjs early in the morning, for the purpose of collecting the fruits of the
nardoo. They take the fruits home in bags, and roast them in the ashes of their
fires. When roasted, they are put into a shallow wooden vessel, made by
* On the Systematic Position of the Nardoo Plant, and the Physiological Characteristics of its
Fruit, 1862.
t The Dieyerie Tribe, p. 32.
FOOD.
217
hollowing out the elbow of a tree, and the ashes are blown away by the breath ;
they are then pounded on a stone, and again placed in the wooden vessel,
shaken, and the husks blown away, until only the flour remains, which is mixed
with water, and made into rolls about eighteen inches in length. These rolls
are baked and eaten.
As this plant is of great interest, I give a figure and a description of it
from Sir William Hooker's work (Fig.
19), placed at my disposal by the Govern-
ment Botanist.
"The caudex creeps for some length,
and is scarcely so thick as a crow's quill,
rooting, branched, and knotty; the knots
are densely woolly with fernigiuous hair,
and seem to be the rudiments of a new
cluster of fronds. Fronds or leaves from
the apex of a woolly knot or branch, two
to four from one point. Petioles from
four inches to a span long, erect, flexuose,
slender, silky, bearing at the point four
spreading broadly cuneate leaflets, finely
and radiately veined, the veins here and
there anastomosing, villous with dense
silky hairs, especially beneath ; the hairs
often deciduous above, and occasionally
beneath, subulate, articulated, tawny.
From the very base, among the cluster
of petioles, arise one or two erect pedun-
cles, about two inches long, in other
respects resembling the petioles ; these
are terminated each by an obliquely erect, fig. 19.
ovate, compressed capsule, transversely
striated, with a gibbosity on one side at the base, densely clothed with imbri-
cating, subulate, jointed hairs."
" Fig. 1, Leaflet; fig. 2, Capsule ; fig. 3, The same cut through transversely;
fig. 4, Hairs from the Capsule — all more or less magnified." *
[The figure is reduced one-half in the engraving here given from Sir Wil-
liam Hooker's lithograph.]
In New South Wales the natives have, amongst many other fruits, the
Geebung, a native plum, and the "five corners."
The Nonda {Parinarium Nonda—F. v. Mueller) of Northern Queensland,
bears a fruit in size and appearance resembling a yellow egg-plimi, and in taste
like a mealy potato, with, however, a trace of that astringency so common to
Australian fruits. It is much eaten by the natives.f
* Icones Plantarum, by Sir 'William Jackson Hooker, BLH., Tol. Ti., 1834.
j- Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine, p. 76.
2f
218
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Perliaps the most remarkable of all the fruits eaten by the natives is the
Bunya-bunya. It is obtained from a Queensland pine (Araucaria Bidnilli),
which appears to be restricted to a very limited area, and to bear a profusion of
fruit only once iu about three years. The only tree bearing fruit which I have
seen had a bunch of cones near the top, and the stem and leaves being prickly,
it was not easy to get at
them. One was removed,
which is tigiired here. —
(Fig. 20.) The tree was
growing in the garden of
the late Mr. Hugh Glass,
at Moonee Ponds. The
length of the cone was
six inches, and the dia-
meter five inches and three-quarters ; and
it weighed shortly after it was pulled two
l^ounds ten ounces. In the native forests
much larger fruits are found. The engrav-
ing shows the fruit about one-third of the
natural size.
When there is a profusion of fruit in
the Bunya-hunya district "the supjjly is
FIG. 20. vastly larger than can be consumed by
the tribes within whose territory the trees
are found. Consequently, large numbers of strangers visit the district, some
of them coming from very great distances, and all are welcome to consume as
much as they desire, for there is enough and to spare, during the few weeks
which the season lasts. The fruit is of a richly farinaceous kind, and the blacks
quickly fatten upon it. But after a short indulgence in an exclusively vegetable
diet, having previously been accustomed to live almost entirely upon animal
food, they experience an irresistible longing for flesh. This desire they dare
not indulge by killing any of the wild animals of the district — kangaroo, opossum,
and bandicoot are alike sacred from their touch, because they are absolutely
necessary for the existence of the friendly tribe whose hospitality they are
partaking. In this condition, some of the stranger tribes resort to the horrible
practice of cannibalism, and sacrifice one of their own number to provide the
longed-for feast of flesh. It is not the disgusting cruelty, the frightfiil
inhumanity, or the curious physiological question involved that is now under
consideration ; but the remarkable fact educed of an unhesitating obedience,
imder circumstances of extraordinary temptation, to laws arising out of the
necessities of their existence ; and the indirect proof afforded of the severe
pressure upon the supply of food which, under ordinary circumstances, must
have prevailed among the Aboriginal tribes. The strangers dared not, in their
utmost longing, touch the wUd animals, because they were absolutely necessary
for the existence of the tribe to which the district belonged. They might eat
their fill of the Bunya-bunya, because that was in profusion, and prescription had
FOOD. 219
given them a right to it. Such a singular condition of things could never have
arisen but in an old over-populated country, the laws of which had acquired that
immutable character which is conferred only by immemorial custom." *
Tliere is evidence constantly cropping up in the narratives of travellers —
evidence not always very clear — that there were areas in Australia common at
certain periods, by prescriptive right, to strange tribes. To these the strangers
would resort to procure what was there in profusion — it might be red-ochre,
stones for tomahawks, fruits, or gums. Grey says that in one part of Western
Australia, known to him — there may be, and probably are, many other localities
— the acacia trees, growing in swampy plains, are literally loaded with a
tragacyuth-like gum {Kmon-nat), aifording a sufficient supjdy of food to support
a large assemblage of persons. These kmon-nat grounds are generally the spots
at which the annual barter meetings of the natives are held ; and during these,
fun, frolic, and quarrelling of every description prevail.
Mr. Gideon S. Lang refers to this matter in his pamphlet, and states that
" there is also the nurp, a sort of raspberry, which grows in large quantities
over the sandliills on a rim which I took up on the Glenelg. AU the neigh-
bouring tribes had the right to go there, and did so in large numbers when the
fruit was in season. K hill in the interior of the Sydney district which produced
a very hard stone, peculiarly suitable for the manufacture of stone tomahawks,
was the subject of similar regulations ; and so was a certain quarry of sandstone
at St. Kilda, near Melbourne, which was peculiarly adapted for grinding down
and sharpening the stone tomahawks."
That this much-despised people have, under certain circumstances, interests
in common ; that these should be respected, and that hostilities and deadly
animosities during periods longer or shorter should be suspended or buried —
suggest new views respecting their moral perceptions and the laws that govern
their actions.
Amongst other savage races we find a community of property in places
specially favored by the occurrence of rocks or clays or food which were a
necessity or a luxury to tribes living far distant. Speaking of the Great Red
Pipe Stone Quarry of the Coteau des Prairies, between the Minnesota and
Missouri Elvers in the Far West, Catlin tells us '•' that this place should have
been visited for centuries past by all the neighbouriug tribes — who have hidden
the war-club as they approached it, and stayed the cruelties of the scalping-
kuife, under the fear of the vengeance of the Great Spirit who overlooks it — wiU
not seem strange or unnatural when their customs are known. That such has
been the custom there is not a shadow of doubt, and that even so recently as to
have been witnessed by hundreds and thousands of Indians of different tribes
now living, and from many of whom I have personally drawn the information ;
and as additional and still more conclusive evidence, here are to be seen the
totems and arms of the diflerent tribes who have visited this place for ages past,
deeply engraven on the quartz rocks." t
* The History of Australian Discovery and Colonization, by Samuel Bennett, Sydney, 1867, pp. 268-9.
t Illustrations of the Manners, §-c., of the North American Indians, by George Catlin, vol. n., p. 167.
220 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOniA:
Mr. Hodgkinson says that, in consequence of the seeds of the cones of the
Bunyor-hunya being, during one season of the year, the principal support of large
tribes of natives, the Governor had promulgated an order enjoining the Com-
missioner of Cro\\Ti Lands at Moreton Bay to prevent persons from forming
stations in those parts of the country in which these Australian fruit-trees
grow.*
This noble pine is, for the same reason, still protected by Government.
The Araucaria BidwiUi has a diameter of from tliirty inches to forty inches,
and its height is from one hundred to two hundred and twenty feet. The chief
forest is in latitude 27° S., where it grows over an area of three hundred and
sixty square miles. The v?ood is strong and good, easily worked, and shows
beautiful veins when polished, f
Any account of the vegetable products habitually used by the natives of
Victoria would be incomplete if reference were not made to the water-yielding
roots, from which, in arid parts of the country, the Aborigines derive, without
much trouble, supplies of water sufficient for all their wants. Stanbridge says
that the huuter, in places far removed from permanent water, has to draw his
supjily of that element from the roots of the swamp-box and weir-mallee, which
run a few inches below the surface of the earth. Sometimes five pints of water,
which is very good, are taken from one root. %
The late Dr. Gummow states, in a letter to me, dated the 9th April 1872,
that it frequently happens to the natives, when out in the Mallee country, that
the water-holes, from which they had counted on obtaining a supply of water,
have dried up ; but they are never, therefore, at a loss. They select in the small
broken plains some Mallee trees, which are generally found surrounding them.
The right kind of trees can alwaj-'s be recognised by the comparative density of
their foliage. A circle a few inches deep is dug with a tomahawk around the
base of the tree ; the roots, which run horizontally, are soon discovered. They
are divided from the tree aud torn up, many of them being several feet in length.
They are then cut into pieces, each about nine inches long, and placed on end in
a receiver ; and beautifully good, clear, well-tasted water is obtained, to the
amount of a quart or more, in half an hour. This method of ^jrocuriug water is
not confined to the Mallee only. The roots of several other trees yield water.
A knowledge of this means of getting water, and of the trees which yield it,
says Dr. Gummow, would have saved the lives of very many white men, whose
bleached skeletons, lying on the arid plains, alone testify to their once having
existed.
" During a recent visit to the Murray," says Mr. Cairns, "where I had often
heard of this useful shrub \_Weir-MaUee], my friend, Mr. Peter Beveridge, rode
with me into the Mallei, accompanied by one of his native stockmen ; who, on
our approaching the edge of one of the plains, at once pointed out the tree. It
grows upwards of twenty feet high, and scarcely differs in appearance from those
• Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, 1845, p. 112.
t Queensland, Australia, by Richard Daintree, p. 82.
t Some Particulars of the General Characteristics, Astronomy, and Mythology of the Tribes in
the Central Part of Victoria, by W. E. Stanbridge, F.E.S., 1861.
FOOD. 221
around, to the eye of a stranger, but easily to be detected on the bro'wnish tinge
of its leaves being pointed out. Our black immediately proceeded to cut a yam-
stick, about five or six feet long, which he pointed with his tomahawk, and then,
tracing the roots by a slight crack discernible on the surface of the ground, he
dug underneath it, till, obtaining space enough for the point of his stick, he
pushed it under and then prized up the root as far as he could. Going farther
from the tree, he repeated the operation untU he had perhaps fifteen or twenty
feet of the root laid bare. He now broke up the roots into lengths of three to
four feet, and, stripping off the bark from the lower end of each piece, he reared
them against the tree, leaving their liquid contents to drop into a pannikin.
On holding a piece of root horizontally, no water is to be seen, but the moment
it is placed in an upright position a moisture comes over the peeled part, until
tlie pores fill with water, which drops rapidly. The natives, when travelling in
search of water, on finding the tree, usually cut off a large piece of the bark to
serve as a dish, which they place at the foot of the tree, leaving the broken roots
to drain into it, whilst they smoke a pipe or light a fire. The root, on being
broken, presents to view innumerable minute pores, through which the water
exudes most copiously ; from a pint to a quart of pure water being procurable
from a root of twenty to thirty feet long Many explorers
have been much surprised to find natives existing where there was apparently
no water to be found, either in roots or otherwise ; but their surprise has been
changed into admiration at another wonderful provision of Nature, in the
Mum — so called by the natives, but Mallee-oak by the whites. This tree is
very like the She-oak, but with bark less rough and more silvery in color. Tlie
wood is very hard, like lance-wood, and capable of taking a fine polish. When
the trunk attains a diameter of about six inches, it becomes pijiy, thus forming
a natural reservoir, in which the rains of the wet season are collected ; the
branches of the tree, which join at the top of the stem, acting as conducting-
pipes. The narrow aperture prevents much evaporation, and the natives know
how to obtain water here, where an inexperienced traveller would never dream
of searching for it. To procure this water, the native ties a bunch of grass to
the end of his spear, and then climbing the tree, dips his primitive piston-rod —
if I may so call it — into this singular well. Drawing it up again, he squeezes
the water from the grass into his bark dish, and thus proceeds untU he obtains
sufficient for his present requirements." *
Tlie native boys who accompanied Eyre in one of his journeys procured
water from the roots of trees exactly in the manner described by Mr. Cairns, t
Sir Thomas Mitchell makes mention of water-yielding trees. On or near the
Bogan he found the natives digging up roots for the sake of drinking the sap.
Tliey first cut the roots into billets and then stripped off the bark (sometimes
chewing it), and, holding one end of the billet upright in the mouth, the juice
dropped into it. He found the natives everywhere skilful in getting water. lu
one place where he encamped with his party the water was hot and muddy ;
• On the Weir-Mallei, a Water-yielding Tree, &c., by John Cairns, Esq., 1858.
t Journals of Expeditions of Discover;/ into Central Australia, vol. I., p. 350.
222 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
but the blacks knew well liow to obtain a clean and cool draught. Tliey
scratched a hole in the sand beside the pool, thus making a filter, in which the
water rose cool but muddy. They next threw into tlie hole some tufts of long
grass, through which they sucked the cooler water, freed in this manner from
sand or gravel. *
Stokes refers to the ingenuity and great fertility of resources of the natives
in all situations, and particularly when journeying in apparently waterless
tracts. They were never at a loss. Besides procuring water from the roots
of trees, they collected also the dew from the leaves of shrubs.f
The Bottle-tree of Northern Australia famishes a refreshing beverage.
Binkey {Brachycldton Delabechei) is generally found in stony scrub laud,
and is remarkable on account of its enlarged trunk, similar in shajie to a
lemonade bottle. The natives cut holes in the soft trunk, where the water
lodges and rots the trunk to its centre. These trunks are so many artificial
reservoirs of water. When a tree has been cut, its resources are not exhausted.
The tired hunter, when he sees a tree that has been tapped, cuts a hole
somewhat lower than the old cuts, and obtains an abundant supply of the
sweet mucilaginous substance afforded by this plant.|
One of the myths of the natives, referred to in another part of this work,
would lead one to suppose that they were not unacquainted with the fact that
the bladder of the frog acts as a reservoir for water — like the pericardium and
bladder of the large tortoise of the Galapagos Archipelago — and they may have
occasionally killed these reptiles, as well for water as for food.
I cannot learn whether or not the natives of Victoria used any plants as
narcotics or sedatives, or whether any herb or shrub in the colony was chewed
or eaten as a nepenthetic ; but in the Cooper's Creek district the blacks chew
Pitcherie, which is believed to be a narcotic, and the men are very fond of it.
As preserved in their bags, it presents the appearance of small dried twigs, and
is" said to be procured from a narrow-leaved shrub growing in the country to the
north-west of Cooper's Creek. §
* Major Sir Thomas Mitchell, vol. i., pp. 31 and 197.
t Discoveries in Australia, by J. Lort Stokes, Ck>iumander R.N., 1846, p. 13.
i A. Thozet, 1866. See Catalogue annexed.
§ Since the above was written, the Government Botanist has addressed a letter to the editor of
the Australian Medical Journal respecting this plant. He says : — " Some weeks ago I was asked by
our last president about the origin of the Pitury, a stimulant said to be of marvellous power, and
known to be in use by the Aborigines of Central Australia. It so happened that after years of
efforts to get a specimen of the plant, I at last, this week, obtained leaves, and silthough I have seen
neither flowers nor fruits, and although these leaves are very similar to those of various otherwise
widely disallied plants, I can almost with certainty, after due microscopic examination, pronounce
those of the Pitury as derived from my Duboisia Hopwoodii, described in 1861 {Fraijm. Phytogr.
Austr. 11., 138). This bush extends from the Darling Kiver and Barcoo to West Australia, through
desert scrubs, but is of exceedingly sparse occurrence anywhere. In fixing the origin of the Pitury,
now a wide field for further enquiry is opened up, inasmuch as a second species of Duboisia (/?.
myoporoides, R. Br.) extends in forestland from near Sydney to near Cape York, and is traced also
to New Caledonia, and lately by me also to New Guinea. In all probability this D. myoporoides
shares the properties of D. Hopwoodii, as I now find that both have the same burning acrid taste.
Though the first known species is so near to us, we never suspected any such extraordinary pro-
perties in it as are now established for the later discovered species. Moreover the numerous species
FOOD.
223
Pitcherie is described in Mr. Alfred Howitt's notes on the Aborigines of
Cooper's Creek. — {See Appendix.)
The Messrs. Jardine state that all the people of the north are mnch addicted
to smoking. They now use tobacco when they can get it, but, before it was
procurable, they smoked the leaves of a large, spreading tree — a species of
Eugenia. These leaves, the Messrs. Jardine think, must possess some narcotic
property. They smoke to such an extent as to become insensible. The pipe
used is a piece of hollow bamboo, about two feet and a half in length, and as
thick as a quart bottle. One of the smoking party fills this with smoke from a
funnel-shaped bowl, in which the leaf or tobacco is placed, by blowing through
a hole at one end of the tube. When the bamboo is filled, it is handed to one
of the men, who inhales and swallows as much of the smoke as he can, passing
the pipe on to his neighbour. These travellers have seen a smoker so much
affected by one dose as to lie helpless for some minutes afterwards.*
Macgillivray gives a very similar description of the mode of smoking, as
observed by him at Cape York, and the effects produced by inhalation.f
The animal and vegetable food of the people of the Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's
Creek) is, according to Mr. Samuel Gason, as follows : —
Chookaroo
Kaimoonka -
Wurtarrie
Pildra -
Capietha
Miaroo -
Poontka
Arutchie
Cowirrie
Thillamillarie
Puhjara
Koolchie
Koonappoo -
Kulkuna
Kooraltka
- Kangaroo.
- Bush wallaby.
- Kangaroo rat.
- Opossum (of rare occurrence).
- Native rabbit.
- Eat.
- Mouse.
- Native ferret.
- Rat (species not known).
- A species of ferret.
- Long-snouted rat.
- Species of rat.
- Species of mouse.
- Species of wallaby (very swift).
- Spotted ferret.
of the allied genus Anihocereis, extending over the greater part of the Australian continent and to
Tasmania, should now also be tested, and further, the many likewise cognate Sc/iwenkea3 of South
America should be drawn into the same cyclus of research, nothing whatever of the properties of
any of these plants being known. The natives of Central Australia chew the leaves of Duboisia
Hopwoodii, just like the Peruvians and Chilians masticate the leaves of the Coca {Erythroxylon
Coca), to invigorate themselves during their long foot journeys through the deserts. I am not
ccrtiiin whether the Aborigines of all districts in which the Pituiy grows are really aware of its
stimulating power. Those living near the Barcoo travel many days' journeys to obtain this, to
them, precious foliage, which is carried always about by them broken into small fragments and tied
up in little bags. It is not improbable that a new and perhaps important medicinal plant is thus
gained. The blacks use the Duboisia to excite their courage in warfare; a large dose infuriates
them. Administered medicinally, it dilates the pupil, just as Anihocereis does."
* Overland Expedition: Northern Queensland, p. 84.
t Ifarrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 1852, toI. l., p. 126.
224
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Kulunda
Tickawara
Kunnie - - -
Kopirrie
Patharamooroo
Choopa - - -
Kudieworoo -
Wakurrie
Moonkamoonkarilla
Oolaumi
Woma - - -
Tkoona
Wondaroo
Woonkoo
Wirrawirrala
Wipparoo
Marrakilla, -
MitJdndie - - -
KooUelawirrawirra
Mulkunkoora - - -
Thandandiewindiewindie-
Kurawidieyackayackuna -
Kidathirrie -
Thidnamura -
PinchiepincMedara
Curawura
Kunienundruna
Thirriethirrie
Thoaroopatkandrunie
Wliite and black rat (similar to the house rat).
Native cat.
Jew lizard.
Iguana.
Black iguana (very scarce).
A slender lizard, about 3 inches long.
Red-backed lizard, about 3 inches long.
Flat-headed lizard, about 3 inches long.
Small black lizard with short tail, generally
found under the bark of trees.
Lizard, transjjarent skin, spotted yellow and
black, about 5 inches long.
Carpet snake, from 5 to 12 feet long, large
body ; its bite not venomous.
Grey snake, generally about 5 feet long;
venomous.
Green and yellow snake, very thick body, about
5 feet long, quite harmless, and has a sleepy
appearance.
Light-brown and grey snake, from 4 to 7 feet
long ; venomous and very vicious.
Large brown snake, with yellow belly, from
6 to 10 feet long; very venomous.
Long thin snake, black, shaded with other dark
colors, aT)out 7 feet long ; very venomous, its
bite causing instant death ; so the natives
are very cautious in killing it.
Large brown snake, about 7 feet long, has a
large head ; is very venomous and vicious.
White and yellow spotted snake, small thin
body, about 3 feet long ; harmless.
Small yellow and black spotted snake, about
3 feet long ; harmless.
Black and green spotted snake, 5 feet long ;
venomous.
Small black snake, small mouth, about 5 feet
6 inches ; venomous.
Flat-headed snake, green back, yellow spots
on belly, about 4 feet long ; venomous.
Frog.
Toad.
Bat.
Eagle hawk.
The largest hawk, excepting first-named.
Small speckled hawk.
White hawk.
FOOD.
225
Milkieworie -
Pittiekilkadie
Kirrkie
Kookoongka -
Windtha
Wurchiewurckie
Killawoloowolloorka
Moonyie
Woroocatkie -
Kulathoora -
Kudrungoo
KillunkUla -
Kooranyawillawilla
Poolimka,
Catkathara -
Willaroo
Moodlubra
Murnpie
Woparoo
Koorookookoo
Mulliep irrpaoonga
Choonda
Thindriethindrie -
Thiewillagie -
Mulyamulyayapunie
Pootlioopoothooka -
Kowulka
Koorabaukoola
Booralkoo
Ooroo - - -
Culiemulyandurie -
Moolpa
Chooiechooie -
Dickadickulyerra -
Mootoomootoo
Tkanpatltanpa
Tharalkoo
Thowla
Kockadooroo -
Chipala
Koodnapina -
Thookabie
Doolpadoolparoo -
Kilkie - - -
Muroomuroo -
Wathawirrie
Large grey hawk.
Speckled hawk.
"Whistling hawk (very swift).
Kite.
Grey owl.
White owl.
Dark-brown owl.
More-pork.
Emu.
Bustard,
White cockatoo.
Ked-breasted cockatoo.
Cockatoo parrot.
Parrot.
Shell parrot.
Curlew.
Pigeon.
Bronzewing pigeon.
Flock pigeon.
Dove.
Quail.
Red-breasted robin.
Shepherd's companion (a species of wagtail).
Small species of lark.
Swallow.
Sparrow.
Crow.
Magpie.
Native companion (large species of crane).
Nankeen-colored crane.
Black and white crane.
White crane.
Snipe.
Species of snipe.
Species of snipe.
Slate-colored suipe.
Teal.
Si)Oon-bill duck.
Mountain duck.
Whistling duck.
Brown duck, with red beak.
Diver.
Black diver.
Water-hen.
Black water-hen.
Species of water-hen.
2g
226
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Muloora
Boorkoopiya
Kootie -
Thaumpara ■
Kirrpij/irrka
- Cormorant.
- Long-beaked cormorant.
- Swan.
- Pelican.
- GuU.
Fish and other fresh-water habitants are few and unimportant, being caught
in the water-holes and lakelets, which can only be called creeks or rivers when
the floods come down; the last of which occurred in 1864.
Paroo - - - - A small bony flat fish.
MidthoomuUhoo - - A fish weighing from 3 to 3| lbs.
- A fish averaging 4 lbs.
- Mussel.
- Cray-fish.
Moodlakoopa
Koorie - - - -
Kuniekoondie
The vegetable food is various
Yowa - - -
Winkara
Mumjaroo
Kunaurra
Ardoo -
Cobboboo
Wodaroo
Coonchirrie -
Patharapowa
Caulyoo
Wodlaooroo -
Wirrathandra
Mulkathaudra
Yoongundie -
Mootcha
- Kather larger than a pea, found three inches
deep in the ground.
- A very starchy root, about five inches long.
- A plant much eaten.
- The seed of the munyaroo, used when ground
into meal between two stones.
- Often described in newspapers and by writers
as nardoo. [Referred to in another part of
this work.]
- A ni;t found on the box-tree, on breaking
which it discloses a grub ; this is probably
a gall.
- A thin long root, obtainable only where the
soil is rich and covered with turf. This is
one of the best vegetables the natives pos-
sess, sweet and mealy.
- The seed from a species of acacia, ground and
made into small loaves.
- The seed of the box-tree, ground and made
into loaves.
- The seed of the prickly acacia, pounded and
made into loaves.
- Very fine seed, taken from the silver-grass
growing in the creeks.
- Seed of an acacia.
- Seed of the mulga^tree.
- Black, fine seed, taken from a plant similar to
clover.
- Native cotton-bush. When the leaves sprout
and become quite green, the natives gather
and cook them, and at seed-time they pluck
ni)rl ent tlie pods.
FOOD. 227
Kuloomba - - - Indigenous clover ; when young, cooked by the
natives and eaten in large quantities.
Willapie - - - A small watery plant.
Yoolantie _ - - The native fig.
Bookabooda - - - The native gooseberry,
Mundawora - - - Tlie native blackberry.
Thoopara - _ - The native pear.
Yegga - - - - The native orange.
Mr. Gason gives the native names and excellent descriptions of other
animals and products, many of which will be referred to elsewhere.
There is scarcely any suliject more worthy of engaging the attention of the
man of science than the indigenous food-resources of a country ; and every fact
bearing on the various methods of treating the native roots, tubers, seeds, and
pods, by those who can have had no enlightenment from civilized peoples, is
also of singular interest, as showing how, by slow steps, a kind of knowledge of
the nature of the changes that take place during maceration and desiccation
must have begun to grow in the minds of the more able amongst the Aborigines.
Tlie keen observation of the Australian savage could not fail to be exercised
when he was soaking a bulb in water, and he would know that the vegetable
would undergo some change, but his untrained intellect would not enable him
to reason on the results of the process.
I have already stated that by far the most important of the edible fruits of
Avistralia are found in the northern parts of the continent ; and as the fullest
and clearest information respecting such of those as are eaten by the natives of
Northern Queensland is given by Mr. A. Thozet, I think it right to quote his
notes and catalogue. It will be observed that the native foods referred to in the
catalogue were prepared under Mr. Thozet's superintendence for the Melbourne-
Paris Exhibition.
NOTES ON SOME OF THE ROOTS, TUBERS, BULBS, AND FRUITS USED AS
VEGETABLE FOOD BY THE ABORIGINALS OF NORTECERN QUEENSLAND,
AUSTRALIA.— (By A. Thozet.)
For the occasion of the forthcoming exhibition, specimens of the various
native foods have been carefully prepared under the superintendence of the
compiler of the following catalogue, who deems the present a good opportunity
of drawing attention to them by a few remarks.
Our pioneer exjilorers and travellers, in passing through trackless paths
previously untrodden by the foot of the white man, in their praiseworthy
efforts in the cause of civilization, often die of hunger, althoiagh surrounded
by abundance of natural vegetable food, in the very spot where the Aborigines
easily find all the luxuries of their primitive method of life, and not a few,
unacquainted with the preparation which several of the deleterious plants
require, lose their lives in venturing to use them. These martyrs to progress
228
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
in a new unsettled country like Northern Queensland should stimulate to
further exertion those who either by taste or accident have become acquainted
with the practical resources of our flora.
The vegetable foods here referred to have been divided into three categories : —
1. Those used without any preparation.
2. Those which require baking only.
3. Those which, being poisonous, require to go through a process of
maceration, pounding, and desiccation.
The first category includes roots and bulbs, which, like the native yam and
water-lily, are very plentiful, and available at any time. Tlie fruits, though
more numerous, do not offer advantages equal to the others, as they mature only
at certain seasons of the year.
The second category includes the root of a bean and the tubers of a rush,
which are also plentiful, and easily obtainable.
The last category is the most important, as it furnishes an inexhaustible
supply. These plants, with the exception of Entada scandens, besides being
abundant, are of wide distribution over the northern part of this continent.
Should the publication of these particulars be instrumental in affording
relief to the suffering, or in saving the lives of any lost in the trackless forests
of the interior, the writer will feel amply rewarded.
without any preparation,
Roots or Tubers.
1. Hibiscus heterophyllus, Vent. Native sorrel. Aboriginal name, Batham.
Found on banks of rivers and creeks, occasionally on plains. A rather tall shrub, part of
the stem and young branches covered with small prickles. Leaves entire or lobate. Flower
white and pink or yellow, with purple centre. (Roots of young plants, young shoots, and
leaves eatable.)
2. Sterculia trichosiphon, Benth. Platan-leaved bottle-tree. Ketcy.
In scrub land. A tree of a beautiful pyramidal growth when young; becoming enlarged in
the centre with old age. (Roots of young plants eatable.)
3. Sterculia rupcstris, Benth. Bottle-tree. Binhey.
Generally found in stony scrub land, remarkable by its enlarged trunk, similar in shape to a
lemonade bottle ; some measure six to eight feet in diameter. (Roots of the young plants
eatable.)
The natives refresh themselves with the mucilaginous sweet substance afforded by this tree,
as well as make nets of its fibre. They cut holes in its soft trunk, where the water lodges and
rots them to its centre, thus forming so many artificial reservoirs. On their hunting excur-
sions afterwards, when thirsty, they tap them one or two feet below the old cuts and procure
an abundant supply.
4. Cissus opaca, F. Muell. Bound yam. Yaloone (large), Wappoo-waj^poo
(small).
Found principally in clayey soil. Small creepers. Leaflets usually three, four, or five, dark-
green and smooth. Berries black and globular. Tubers very numerous, some weighing five
to ten pounds. Eaten in hot weather like water-melons (the small and young are the best);
they are, however, diflicult to digest. Probably the yam alluded to by Leichhardt, in his
Journal of an Overland Expedition, page 150. He says: " Both tubers and berries had the same
pungent taste, but the former contained a watery juice, which was most welcome to our
parched mouths."
FOOD.
229
5. Dioscorea punctata, E. Br. Long yam. Kowar.
A small rough, twining creeper. Leaves heart-shaped and smooth. Flowers terminal. The
cluster of the winged capsule look, to an unacquainted observer, like the flowers of the common
hop. (Small young tubers eatable.)
G. Uelockaris sphaeelata, Rush. Kaya.
Lagoons, creeks, and ponds. Small, almost spherical tubers, six to twelve in each plant.
Stems, or Flower-stalks.
7. Nymphaa gigantea. Hook. Blue water-lily. Yako Kalor, Rockh. tribe;
Kaooroo, Cleveland Bay tribe.
Very abundant in all lagoons and ponds. (Flower-stalks of the unexpanded flowers, after
being broken and deprived of their fibrous part, are eatable.)
8. Xantkorrkosa sp. Grass-tree. Ko7io.
Over ridges and mountain sides. (Small part of the extremities of the young shoots and the
white tender base of leaves eatable.)
9. Livistonia Atistralis, F. Muell. Cabbage-tree palm. Konda.
Found in valleys and gorges seventy to 120 feet in height. (White part of the undeveloped
leaves eatable.) "Several of my companions suffered by eating too much of the cabbage-
palm." — Leichhardl's Overland Expedition, page 72.
Fruits.
10. Melodorum Leichhardtii, Benth., F. Muell. Merangara.
A small shrub, sometimes a strong tall creeper. Bark aromatic. Producing in the top of
our scrub trees an oblong or almost round fruit, with one or two seeds.
11. Cajjparis Mitc/ielli, Liad. Wild pomegranate. Mondo*
In open plain. A small tree of a very crooked growth. Bark longitudinally fissurated.
Trunk and branches covered with short prickles, the branches nearly always drooping.
Flowers white. Fruit large oblong or spherical, two to three inches in diameter.
12. Capparis canescens, Banks. Native date. Mondoleu.^
In scrub or open forest land. A creeper, ascending small shrubs or large trees, with stipulate
hooked prickles. Leaves oblong. Flowers white. Fruit pyriform, half inch in diameter.
13. Cappcris nobilis, F. Muell. Small native pomegranate. Rarum.
A small scrub tree, with stipulate prickles on the branches. Leaves oval oblong. Flowers
white. Fruit globular, one to one and a half inch in diameter, with a small protuberance at
the end.
14. Grewia polggama, Hoxbh. Plain currant. Karoom, Rockh. tribe; Cleve-
land Bay tribe, Ouraie.
A small shrub, found amongst grass. Large, alternate, ovate serrated leaves. Berries
bro«Ti and smooth, two or four in an axillary peduncle. Leichhardt speaks of this small
plant in his journal, page 29.5: — "I found a great quantity of ripe Grewia seeds, and, on eating
many of them it struck me that their slightly acidulated taste, if imparted to water, would
make a very good drink. I therefore gathered as many as I could, and boiled them for about
* This name was given in allusion to the heel of a native; the fruit, when ripe, resembling that
part of the foot.
t Diminutive of Mondo,
230 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
an hour. The beverage which they produced was at all events the best which we had tasted
on our expedition, and my companions were busy the whole afternoon in gathering and boiling
the seeds." The same explorer states also, that a I'iristance of the natives they obtained another
good beverage by soaking the blossoms of the tea-tree {Melaleuca leucadendron), which were
full of honey, in the water used for drinking.
15. Owenia cerasifera, F. Muell. Sweet plum. Rancooran.
A beautiful scrub tree with erect trunk and pinnate glossy leaves. Eatable part (^sarcocarp")
red.
16. Rhamnus vitiensis, Bentli. Murtilam.
Scrub tree. Trunk and branches whitish. Leaves very smooth, shining, serrate, crenulate,
and green on both sides. Berries, quarter inch diameter.
17. Zizyphusjujuba, Lam. Torres Straits jujube-tree.
The trunk and branches covered with prickles. leaves ovate, rarely orbicular, green,
smooth above, and white tomentose underneath. Fruit ovoid, yellow when ripe, half to three-
quarter inch diameter.
18. Rubus roscefolius, Sm. Native raspberry. Neram.
Found in creeks and valleys.
19. Terminalia oblongata, F. Muell. Yananoleu.
A large scrub or open forest tree, with branches spreading almost horizontally. Spikes a
little longer than the leaves, with white-yellowish flowers. Fruit purple, flattened and winged.
20. Barringtonia sp. Broad-leaved apple-tree. Barror.
A small tree in open forest, alluvial soil. Flowers white and pink. Fruit like a middle-
sized apple.
21. Jambosa sp. Buyan-buyan.
A tree found in creeks. Rich bright foliage with abundant white blossoms. Fruit rose and
red, pyriform and drooping.
22. Cucumis sp. Native cucumber. Pumpin.
On rich alluvial soil and amongst grass. Fruit from half an inch to three-quarters of an inch
in diameter, and one to one and a half inch in length. The natives bite off one end, press the
pulpy substance and seeds into their mouths, and throw away the outer skin or rind, which is
very bitter.
23. Nauclea Leichhardtii, F. Muell. Leichhardt's tree. Toka, Eockb. tribe;
Taberol, Cleveland Bay tribe.
Found on the banks of rivers and creeks. Stem erect. Leaves broad, oblong, deciduous.
Flowers globular and fragrant. Fruit one and a half to two inches diameter, usually spherical,
but varying much in shape; very soft when ripe; pulp slightly bitter.
24. Polyphragmon sericeum, Desf. Kavor-kavor.
Commonly met with in the bed of creeks. Fruit half inch in diameter, in shape not unlike
the crab apple of Europe.
25. Maba sp. Scrub box, or ebony. Ronone.
A small tree, with dark scaly bark. Leaves ovate or obovate, almost sessile. Fruit small
egg-shaped, orange-red when ripe.
26. Achras sp. Baleam.
A tall, straight scrub tree. Bark thin, grey, yellowish. Leaves obovate obtuse. Fruit as
big as a middle-sized plum; with four or five smooth, shining, flattened seeds.
FOOD. 231
27. Carissa omta, E. Br. Native scrub lime. Karey, Rockh. tribe; Ulorin,
Cleveland Bay tribe.
A small prickly shrub. Flowers white, fragrant. Fruit one-third inch diameter; egg-shaped.
28. Myoporum difusum, R. Br. Amulla.
Among grass. A diffuse, almost prostrate, small herbaceous plant. Leaves alternate
dentate at their base, lanceolate, acute. Fruit quarter of an inch diameter, on an axillary
solitary peduncle; white and pink when ripe; slightly bitter.
29. Exocarpiis latifolius, R. Br. Native cherry. Oringorin.
A small scrub tree. Bark almost black, scaly. Leaves thick, dark -green. Fruit red when
ripe.
30. Ficus aspera, E. Br. Rough-leaved fig-tree. Noomaie, Rockh. tribe;
Balemo, Cleveland Bay tribe.
Very common in scrubs and plains. Fruit black when ripe.
31. Ficus sp. Leichhardt's clustered fig-tree. Parpa.
A good-sized tree, found in scrub, also on the banks of rivers and creeks. Leaves ovate,
lanceolate, acute, dark, smooth; green above and pale-green underneath. The fruit, which is of
a light-red color when ripe, hangs in clusters along the trunk, and on some of the largest
branches.
32. Pipturus propinqims, F. Muell. Native mulberry. Kongangn.
Found in creeks. A soft shrub, almost herbaceous. Leaves broadly ovate, serrate, acuminate,
tomentose, and white underneath. Fruit white, transparent.
33. Musa Bronmii, F. Muell. Native banana, Morgogaba, Cleveland Bay
tribe.
34. Pandanus sp. Screw pine. Kaor.
The eatable part is the side of the seeds adhering to the rachis.
Seeds.
35. Nelumbium speciosum, Willd. Pink water-lily. Aquaie.
A splendid aquatic plant. The stalk of the leaves erect; the latter peltate slightly concave,
one to two feet diameter. Flowers pink; five to eight inch diameter. Seeds, twenty to thirty-
five; more than three-quarters imbedded in a large flat-topped torus.
{2bis.) Sterculia trichosiphon.
(Sbis.) Sterculia rupestris.
36. Sterculia quadrijida, R. Br. Convavola.
In shrubs .and creeks. Leaves ovate or cordate. The pod, which contains three to six black
ovoid seeds, is of a bright-crimson color when ripe.
{Ibis.) Nymphcea gigantea.
WITH PREPARATION.
Baked only.
Roots.
37. Pkaseolus Mungo, Linn. Komin, Rockhampton tribe; Kadolo, Cleveland
Bay tribe.
Found slightly twining among grass. Stems and branches hairy. Leaflets three, narrow,
three to four inches long, acute. Flowers pale-yellow. Pod cylindrico], two to four inches
long. Hoots the shape of small long carrots.
232 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
38. Acacia BidmUli, Benth. Bidwill's acacia. Waneu.
Found usually in stony ridges. A small tree, prickly when young. Small leaflet, fifteen to
twenty-five pairs, one-eighth inch long. (Roots of the young plants eatable.)
(bbis.) Dioscorea punctata.
Large old roots.
Bulbs, Titbeks, or Stems.
(Iter.) Nymphcea gigantea. The tubers.
39. Aponogeton sp. Warrumbel, Rockhampton tribe; Koornabaie, Cleveland
Bay tribe.
Found in shallow water in lagoons or ponds. A small aquatic plant. Leaves oblong, lying
on the surface of the water. Rachis erect. Flowers numerous, small, and yellow. Bulbs
spherical, half inch to one inch diameter.
40. Dendrobium canaliculatum, R. Br. Yamberin.
Very abundant on the decayed trunks and branches, principally of gum-tree. (The bulbous
stems, after being deprived of the old leaves, are eatable.)
(Qbis.) Helocharis sphacelata.
The small tubers, baked, are roughly pounded between two stones, and made in the same
shape as almond cake.
Pod.
(3G5fs.) Sterculia quadrifida.
The mucilaginous substance of the unripe pod eatable.
Fruits.
41. Avicennia tomentosa, R. Br. Mangrove. Egaie, Cleveland Bay tribe ;
Tagon-tagon, Rockhampton tribe.
A small tree, but sometimes attaining eighteen inches in diameter; generally found on the
estuaries of rivers and creeks. Small numerous roots protrude at the base of the crooked
trunks. Leaves pale-green above, and white tomentose underneath. Fruit heart-shaped, with
two thick cotyledons. The Aboriginals of Cleveland Bay dig a hole in the ground, where they
light a good fire; when well ignited, they throw stones over it, which, when sufficiently heated,
they arrange horizontally at the bottom, and lay on the top the Egaie fruit, sprinkling a little
water over it; they cover it with bark, and over the whole earth is placed, to prevent the steam
from evaporating too freely. During the time required for baking (about two hours) they
dig another hole in the sand; the softened Egaie is put into it, they pour water twice over it,
and the Midamo is now fit for eating. They resort to that sort of food during the wet season
when precluded from searching for any other. — MurreWs testimony*
Near Mount Elliot and Cleveland Bay there is also an eatable root, Wangoora, probably a
species of Jponuca. The roots, very bitter, are cut in two, put into water for one hour or one
hour and a half, and are afterwards baked for three or four hours, in the same way as the
Egaie; they then carry it in a dilly-bag {Yella barda) to the water's edge, where, by pouring
water over and pressing it, they make the starch fall upon the bark in the same way as arrow-
root falls from the cylinder into the trough; they wash it three or four times until the water
is very clear, and the yellow fecula is then fit for use. — Murrell's testimony.
This plant may be the same as the one alluded to by Leichhardt, page 284: — "I tried several
methods to render the potatoes which we had found In the camps of the natives eatable, but
neither roasting nor boiling destroyed their sickening bitterness; at last I pounded and washed
them, and procured the starch, which was entirely tasteless, but tliickened rapidly in hot water
like arrowroot, and was very agreeable to eat, wanting only the addition of sugar to make it
delicious — at least, so we fancied."
* The late James Murrell was a wrecked sailor, who lived seventeen years amongst one of the
Cleveland Bay tribes, in Northern Queensland, Australia.
FOOD 233
POISONOUS IN A RAW STATE.
Pounding, Desiccation.
42. Caladium mackrorkizon, Vent. Hakkin, Kockhampton tribe ; Banganga
or Nargan, Cleveland Bay tribe.
Found in moist, shady places. A strong herbaceous plant, with rery large sagittate leaves.
Tlie young bulbs, of a light- rose color inside, found growing on large old rhizomes, are scraped,
and dirided in two parts, and put under the ashes for about half an hour. When sufficiently
baked, they are then pounded by hard strokes between two stones —a large one, Wallarie, and
a small one, Kondola. All the pieces which do not look farinaceous, but watery when broken,
are thrown away; the others, by strokes of the Kundola, are united by twos or threes, and put
into the fire again; they are then taken out and pounded together in the form of a cake, which
is again returned to the fire and carefully turned occasionally. This operation is repeated
eight or ten times, and when the Hahkin, which is now of a green-greyish color, begins to
harden, it is fit for use.
43. Tgphonium Brownii, Scott. Merrin.
A small herbaceous plant; found in sandy, shady places. Leaves sagittate entire or three
lobate. Flowers purple, dark, of a disagreeable odour. The tubers, which are yellow inside,
are manipulated in the same way as the Hakkin, but none are watery, and they are made to
adhere together after the first roasting.
Pounding, Maceration, Desiccation.
44. Entada scandens, Benth. Barbaddah, Cleveland Bay tribe.
A strong climber. Pod two to four feet in length, and three to four inches in breadth. The
seeds, one and a half to two inches diameter, are put in the stove oven and heated in the same
way and for the same time as the Egaie; they are then pounded fine and put into a dilly-bag,
and left for ten or twelve hours in water, when they are fit for use. — Murrell's testimony.
45. Cgcas media, R. Br. Nut palm. Baveu.
A graceful tree, with a crown of fruit the size of a walnut, yellow when ripe; very common
on the mountain sides and in valleys. The nuts are deprived of their outer succulent cover
{sarcocarp), and are then broken; and the kernels, having been roughly pounded, are dried
three or four hours by the sun, then brought in a dilly-bag to the water stream or pond, where
they remain in running water four or five days, and in stagnant water three or four days. By
a touch of the fingers the proper degree of softness produced by maceration is ascertained.
They are afterwards placed between the two stones mentioned, reduced to a fine paste, and
then baked under the ashes in the same way that our bush people bake their damper.
Pounding, Maceration.
46. Enccphalartos Miquelii, F. Muell. Dwarf zamia. Banga.
Found generally in the same locality as the palm nut, with a large cone fruit not unlike a
pine-apple. The seeds, orange-red when ripe, and separating freely, arc baked for about half
an hour under ashes; the outside covers and the stones are then broken, and the kernels,
divided by a stroke of the Kondola, are put into a dilly-bag and carried to a stream or pond,
where they remain six or eight days before they are fit for eating.
47. Enccphalartos sp. Leichhardt's aborescent zamia.
Prepared In the same way as E. Miquelii.
Mr. Norman Taylor, of the Geological Survey Staff in Victoria, who was
engaged in exploration under the Government of Queensland, supplies the
following statement relative to the customs of the natives of York Peninsula: —
" Their cooking is done by scooping a hole in the sand in the river-beds, making
a fire, and piling stones on. When sufficiently heated, the wood is taken away,
^34 THE ABOEIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
the stones arranged flat, the animal to be cooked is laid on them, and then
covered with some green branches, over which is laid tea-tree bark, and the
whole covered with sand. About two hours are sufficient, and as the juices and
steam are all kept in, the product is not to be despised. On the inland rivers,
or those flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria, the natives' food appeared to be
principally mussels and fish, the beds of the rivers being covered with old camps
and gi-eat quantities of roasted mussel-shells, and the rivers and creeks being
dammed with weirs, some very nicely built of
stone. — (Fig. 21.) In the small water-holes the
*~" gins catch the fish by puddling the water up, and
then sweeping the fish down with an oval net set in
a cane frame and held between two of them. Oa
the coast, at certain seasons, turtle are a favorite food, and at other seasons
bivalves (Ostrea, Perna, and Cyrena) and univalves {Cerithium and Potamides)
are obtained in great quantities, and of large size, from the mud flats and man-
grove swamps. The inland tribes obtain kangaroos and opossums, &c., but these
are rare on the coast. The coast scrubs contain great varieties of nuts and fruits ;
and generally the seeds of two water-lilies {Nelumbium and Kymphcea), the root
of an arum, the nuts of a zamia or cycas, various yams and roots of difi'erent
creepers, form their food. Several of the roots and nuts are poisonous, and
require a long and tedious preparation, by maceration in water and filtering
through the sand, the results being a tasteless starch."
FoBBiDDEN Food.
The natives have many very curious laws relating to food. The old men are
privileged to eat every kind of food that it is lawful for any of their tribe to eat,
but there are kinds of food which a tribe will eat in one district and which tribes
in another part of the continent wiU not touch. The women may not eat of the
flesh of certain animals ; certain sorts of meat are prohibited to children and
young persons ; young married women are interdicted from partaking of dainties
that delight the palates of older women ; and men may not touch the flesh of
some animals until a mystic ceremony has been duly celebrated. Their laws,
indeed, in connection with hunting and fishing, and the collecting, cooking, and
eating of food, are numerous and complex ; and as the penalties believed to be
incurred for a breach of these laws are, in most cases, serious diseases, or death,
they are obeyed. Some suppose that cunning old men established the laws for
the purpose of reserving to themselves those kinds of food which it was most
difficult to procure, and that one efl"ect of their prohibitions was to make the
young men more expert in hunting ; and it has been suggested that the eating
of some animals was interdicted in order that the natural increase might not be
prevented. In looking over the list of animals prohibited to young men, to
women, and to children, one fails to see, however, any good reasons for the
selection — unless we regard nearly the whole of the prohibitions as having their
source in superstitious beliefs. A man, for instance, may not eat of the fiesh of
the animal that is the totem of his tribe; and he is forbidden to kill some others
FOOD. 235
for food because they are the property of sorcerers, who, the blacks believe, inflict
fearful diseases on men that eat of animals that they have reserved for them-
selves.
They have other remarkable customs in regard to food. Mr. D. Stewart, of
Mount Gambier, states, in a letter to the Rev. Lorimer Fison, that the natives
of the south-east corner of South Australia have a kind of i^artnership, formed
in boyhood and continued through life, in the division of kangaroo meat. When
a kangaroo is killed, each partner takes a specified portion. As each man has
some eight or ten partners, the whole tribe is mixed up in it.
These laws, with various modifications arising out of the diverse character
of the food supplies, are known in all parts of the continent, and bear a
resemblance to some of those that are obeyed by the savage tribes of Africa.*
As to their origin, or as to any changes that have been effected in them, the
blacks know nothing.
According to information afforded by Mr. John Green, the yoiing amongst
the natives of the Yarra tribe were forbidden to eat the following : —
Common Name. Natiye Name.
Opossum (young) ----- Walart
(Tliey might eat the old male opossums.)
Flying squirrel _ _ _ _ _ Warran.
Porcupine ------ Ka^warm.
Emu ------- Boorra^mile.
Bustard ------ Woorna-hit.
Ducks ------- Toolim.
Swan ------- Goona-Karra.
Iguana ------- Pujing.
Turtle ------- Koorrong-nile.
Large fish ------ Woora-tnoo/{.
If any young person, they were told, should eat any of the flesh of the
animals above named, unless and until he was given authority to eat it by the
old men, he would sicken and die, and not one of the doctors could cure him.
After the age of thirty he could eat any of them with impunity.
It will be observed that no mention is made iu the list of the kangaroo,
bandicoot, wombat, native bear, or native dog, or of the native companion, the
cockatoo, the pigeon, the quail, or of parrots, or of the eggs of birds and rep-
tiles, or of eels or snakes, or of any kind of vegetable food. Tlie food available
to the young men was various ; and the few kinds prohibited seem to have been
selected by the elders for reasons not apparent on the surftice.
The Rev. John Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, in Gippsland, says, in a letter to me,
that his experience with regard to the restrictions before and after initiation is
as follows : —
" Among the Gippsland blacks it is usual to forbid the use of certain
kinds of food to the uninitiated. They are forbidden to eat the following : —
All animals of the female gender except the wombat. They may eat all
* Savage Africa, by Winwood Eeade, 1863.
236 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
animals of the male gender except the porcupine : this they arc to avoid. They
are not allowed to eat the generative organs of any animal ; some indeed are
ordered to skin all the animals, so that in skinning them they may cut off the
parts forbidden. Of birds, the only restriction seems to be the black duck.
They are not allowed to eat grubs which are got from the gum-trees. There are
no restrictions with regard to vegetable food among the Gippsland tribes.
Among the Maneroo tribes the uninitiated are not allowed to eat the
opossum, the bandicoot, the porcupine, the emu, the young native bear, the
young kangaroo, or grubs. I am told that the young women were also under
this rule before marriage.
Among the Murray blacks the uninitiated were not allowed to eat parts of
the emu, or the black duck or grubs ; and of fish the following kinds, namely,
the golden perch {Bangnalla), the eel-fish {Yamia). Tlie uninitiated were
called VTUyango Kurnundo — a term synonymous with our hobbledehoy. As
soon as they were made ' young men,' they were called Tkalera, to express
strength and manhood.
The young girls never went through any ceremony of initiation, and there
was nothing kept from them either before or after marriage, except the large
eaglehawk and the hind part of the emu. The latter is always kept from
young people. No one except old men and women may partake of such food.
Among the Murray blacks the women abstained from fish during certain
periods, and at these periods they were not allowed to go near water for fear of
frightening the fish. They were also not allowed to eat them, for the same
reason. A woman during such periods would never cross the river in a canoe,
or even fetch water for the camp. It was sufficient for her to say Thatna, to
ensure her husband getting the water himself. I have not found this supersti-
tion amongst the Gippsland tribes. I am told by an Omeo woman that her
tribe would not allow the young women to eat the porcupine before marriage,
though they had no ceremony of initiation. I do not tliink you will find that
any of the Victorian tribes put their young women through any form of initiation.
Very young children were allowed to eat anything until they came to years of
discretion. At about the age of twelve years they were put under training.
But the Maneroo blacks would not allow little children to eat the porcujjine."
In the Lower Murray district " certain kinds of food could not be eaten by
young men and boys. Twenty kinds of native game were forbidden to the Nar-
umbar — that is, tliose undergoing initiation into manhood — and thirteen kinds
to the boys. These prohibitions were strictly observed. Certain penalties were
said to follow disobedience. If the boys ate wallaby, they would turn grey; if
they ate the fish called Ti/iri, they would have sore legs ; if they cooked food
with j»«/y2 OT pandandi wood, all the fish would forsake the shore."*
In the Port Lincoln district "the general principle, with regard to the divi-
sion of game is, that the men eat the male animals, the women the females, and
the children the small animals ; but since there is no rule without its exception,
so, in this case, the men claim the right also to eat the female and small animals,
* The Narrinyeri, p. 90.
FOOD. 237
while the women and children must abide by the established rules ; the common
kangaroo-rat, however, they are all, without any distinction, allowed to eat. As
a fixed prohibition, the wallaby, in the Parnkalla language called Yarridni, and
the two species of bandicoot, Kurkulli and Yartini, dare not, on any account, be
eaten by young lads or girls, as, according to their opinion, they would, with
the latter, cause premature puberty, and, witli regard to the former, give to the
beard a brownish appearance, instead of its becoming a jet-black color, as it
ought to do Lizards are considered the proper food for young
girls whose puberty they wish to hasten on, and snakes for women to make them
bear children." *
Grey, writing of the natives of "West Australia, says that amongst the laws
intended for the preservation of food there are the following : — " 1. No vegetable
production used by the natives as food should be plucked or gathered when
bearing seed. 2. That certain classes of natives should not eat particular articles
of food ; this restriction being tantamount to game laws, which preserve certain
choice and scarce articles of food from being so generally destroyed as those
which are more abundant Independent of these laws, there are
certain articles of food which they reject in one portion of the continent and
which are eaten in another ; and that this rejection does not arise from the
noxious qualities of the article is plain, for it is sometimes not only of an
innocent nature, but both palatable and nutritious. I may take, for example, the
Unio, which the natives of South- West Australia will not eat, because, accord-
ing to a tradition, a long time ago some natives ate them, and died through the
agency of certain sorcerers who looked upon that shell-fish as their peculiar
property." f
Bennett informs us that " in most tribes the young men might not eat the
flesh of the young kangaroo, the bandicoot, or the opossimi. Young girls were
not allowed to take the young from the pouch or eat the flesh of tlie old wallaby.
Married young women were not to eat emu's eggs, or the young of any animal.
No female could eat fish caught in places where they spawn." %
According to the information I have received, the natives of A^'ictoria never
ate oysters ; but this shell-fish is eaten by the blacks of the Bellingen River, in
Queensland. § There are some kinds of food, however, which seem to be uni-
versally abhorred — as, for instance, the fat of swine. As a rule, the natives
will not eat pork, or any kind of fat the nature and origin of which are not
known to them. A correspondent of the Rev. Lorimer Fison's says that the
natives of Eraser's Island (Great Sandy Island), Queensland, will not touch
pork or pork fat ; and the natives of Victoria also strongly object to this food.
On one occasion an old native woman named " Elizabeth " came to my house,
and, as usual, food was given her, and a basin full of tea. I was informed that
Elizabeth would not drink the tea, and strongly objected to it. I went to her
and asked her why she objected to the tea ; and though her manner was usually
* Manners and Customs of the Australian Natives, in particular of the Port Lincoln District, p. 176.
f North-Wcsl and Western Australia, vol. II., p. 237.
{ Australian Discovery and Colonization, p. 253.
§ Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.
238 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
very respectful, she, on this occasion, looked angrily at me, and said, "What's
that ? Fat ! Me not like 'em tea with fat ! " The cook had jiut a good deal of
cream into the tea, and Elizabeth wonld have none of it.
P(5ron found the like strong objection to fat amongst the natives of King
George's Sound :— " lis burent du cafe, mang^rent du biscuit et du boeuf sal6;
mais ils retuser^nt de manger du lard que nous leurs oifrimes, et le laissirent
sur des pierres, sans y toucher." *
Tlicir aversion to fat probably arises from the circumstance that, in their
belief, the fat of some animals is poisonous — as, for instance, that of the duck-
billed platypus — and that the eating of the fat of some animals is interdicted.
K they ate of fat that was given to them by whites, they might violate a tribal
law.
Sir Thomas Mitchell mentions that when his party killed an emi\ none of the
Aboriginal young men would eat of the bird, aud, on makiug enquiries, he found
that young men were not allowed to eat either the flesh or the eggs of the emu
until some ceremony was performed. In the case of " Piper," Sir Tliomas
Mitchell's blackfellow, it was deemed essential that he should be rubbed all
over with emu fat by an old man. " Richardson," an old man, ministered unto
" Piper ;" he was well rubbed with the fat, and afterwards he was not afraid to
eat emu flesh. The result of eating it, to any young man, until authorized and
empowered so to do, was an eruption of boils and the breaking out of sores all
over the body.
It cannot be doubted, I think, that while, probably, these prohibitions had
their origin in superstition, and that young and old were alike credulous, the
doctors and sorcerers turned their credulity to profit. They secured for them-
selves the best of the food, and managed to get it without labor ; but unless
they had had the aids derived from the false beliefs of the people, they could
not have maintained for any length of time a system which pressed so injuri-
ously on the young aud active men, aud was so obviously for the advantage of
the drones in the hive. Superstition, as an ally, enabled the old men to maintain
themselves in comfort, and to feast to their content, at tunes when the workers
of the camp might be sorely pressed by hunger. Superior strength, and the
influence which age commands, might have sufiiced for the easy government of
the women aud children in this matter ; but the young men must have had a
firm belief in the doctrines taught by the sorcerers, or they would never have
abstained from good food which they themselves had procured, and patiently
watched the old wizards of the camji while they ate the emu and feasted on the
rich meat afforded by the iguana.
MiRRK-TONGS, ShELL-MOUNDS, AND StONE-SHELTEKS.
The large heaps of earth, charcoal, and ashes — the cooking-places of the
natives — the shell-mounds on the sea-coast, aud the stone-circles on the plains,
show that this people have occupied the country for a long period — how long it
is impossible to guess. The mounds and the stone-circles are of such a character
* Voyaije de Dccouvertes aux Terres Australes, 1800-1804, vol. n., p. 154.
FOOD. 239
as to be easily destroyed by such slight changes as are effected by long-continued
rains, great floods, or the alteration of the course of a stream. Tlie ashes and
charcoal of their cooking-places, too, would in time be removed, little by little,
in seasons of drought, when hot winds prevailed. The light material, dried by
the sun, would be blown away. It would not be safe therefore to assume,
because no remains of these ovens and stone-circles have been found in post-
Pliocene deposits, that they did not once exist. The period of the first occupa-
tion of the continent by the Australian race must be determined by other than
such negative evidence as this. It must be ascertained by the position in the soil
of less perishable monuments. Their stone implements, almost indestructible in
their character, are surer guides, in considering this question, than any other of
their works of art ; and the inferences to be derived from the position of these
in recent accumulations is discussed elsewhere. Yet it is not without instruction,
when we view the size and position of the mounds and circles, to reflect on the
immense periods of time which must have elapsed since some of these were first
visited by the natives. Tlie thought of most persons on seeing a very large
mound is that the population has been in past times very dense ; but this theory
is untenable. Tlie country has always been sparsely peopled — the food supplies
and the modes of procuring food regulated the numbers ; and the great size of
the mounds is due to the frequent visits of a few persons dtiring long periods,
and not to any sudden accumulation caused by the presence of a multitude.
This fact is borne out by the formation of the mounds. The layers of which
they are composed point clearly to the slow and gradual heaping-up of small
quantities of material from time to time.
The sites for Mirrn-yong heaps appear to have been chosen generally in
localities near water ; and whether because the site was the most convenient that
could be chosen, or that it was always preferred because blacks had frequented it
previously, is not known ; but it is well ascertained that each site was used as a
cooking-place by generation after generation. They are often found near or
slightly within the margin of a forest or a belt of timber ; and the situation is
nearly always well sheltered.
There are numerous old Mirrn-yong heaps on the banks of the River Plenty,
on the Darebin Creek, and the Merri Creek, near Melbourne ; they are seen in
all parts of the Murray basin, and on the coast ; and there are large heaps iu
the Western district, some of which I have examined.
They are in general of an oval shape, about one hundred feet in length and
about forty feet in breadth, and rising to a height of twelve feet or more. They
are composed of burnt clay, a little soil, quantities of charcoal and ashes, burnt
and unburnt bones, and stones. They enclose numerous fragments of black
basalt, chips of greenstone, in some places whole and broken tomahawks, and
in more than one have been found human skeletons, as if they had been used in
later times as places of burial.
The late Mr. D'Oyly Aplin, at one time Acting Director of the Geological
Survey of Victoria, and for a long period a Geological Surveyor, was very active
in making researches in reference to these Mirrn-yong heaps ; and he obtained
much interesting information respecting a group of mounds on Mr. John L.
240 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Currie's station, near Mount Elephant. Mr. Currie, in reply to Mr. Aplin's
enquiries, stated that the mounds were eight or nine in number, in close
proximity to each other, and on the edge of a large marsh. At tlie time they
were last examined by Mr. Currie they were much reduced in size, by the
trampling of cattle and sheep. The material being light, and the surface being
broken by the hoofs of the cattle, much of it was blown off in clouds of dust iu
summer. The largest was about thirty or forty yards in length by about fifteen
or twenty yards in breadth, and from ten to twelve feet in height. They were
nearly twice as high when Mr. Currie first saw them, and at a distance looked
like hay-stacks. They are composed of the sort of ash and soil commonly found
in Mirrn-yoyig heaps, and there is mixed with the ashes a good deal of wood-
charcoal — although there are no trees at the present time within three miles ot
the spot. A human skeleton and the bones of the native cat and other animals
were found in one of the heaps. Mr. Currie thinks that the blacks who resort
to the marsh in the season when swans' eggs are abundant may have lost a
companion by death and disposed of his remains in the mound, as offering a
burial-place where an excavation could be made with the least labor. The bones
of the animals, he supposes, are those of creatures that had burrowed in the
mounds.
Some human bones were found by Mr. Currie's gardener in his garden at
Lara, near Cressy (the same district), imder rather peculiar circumstances. In
digging, the man came upon a trench, about nine inches in width and twelve
inches in depth, in which were several human bones, disposed in order, and
covered to the depth of four or five inches with small round stones. The trench
seemed to be of considerable length, but it was not farther explored. This is
not a mode of sepulture common to the natives ; and perhaps was not their
work at all. It does not appear that the matter was investigated.
When Mr. Reginald A. F. Murray, Geological Surveyor, was in the Cape
Otway district, he made careful enquiries respecting these mounds. Mr. Henry
Ford found three Mirrn-yong heaps between the Lighthouse at Cape Otway and
the Parker River — two about twelve feet in diameter and three feet in depth,
and one thirty feet in diameter and five feet in thickness — all on the open dunes
(grassed) overlooking the coast. Mr. Ford opened two, and found in them one
etone tomahawk, about four inches in length and three inches in breadth, and
one, one inch in thickness, sharpened at one end, and composed of hard, fine-
grained siliceous sandstone ; numerous chips of chert or flint, black and white,
such as occur along the coast, and used probably for cutting, skinning animals,
cleaning skins, &c. ; bone-awls, six inches in length, some round and some
triangular, carefully ground and smoothed ; bone nose-ornaments (apparently),
about two inches in length, round and polished, and bluntly pointed at both
ends ; charred bones of the wallaby, opossum, kangaroo-rat, birds, fish, seal
(ribs, vertebrae, and jaw-bone), dog (jaw-bone) ; mutton-fish shells ; fresh
and salt water mussel-shells ; and limpet, whelk, periwinkle, and buckie
shells.
The stones that had been used for the oven were hard siliceous pebbles from
the coast.
FOOD. 241
Sir Thomas Mitchell found many native ovens on the Murrumbidgee. " The
common process of natives," says Sir Thomas " in dressing their provisions, is
to lay the food between layers of heated stones ; but here, where there are no
stones, the calcined clay seems to answer the same purpose, and becomes
the better or harder the more it is used. Hence the accumulation of heaps,
resembling small hills. Some I observed so very ancient as to be surrounded
by circles of lofty trees ; others, long abandoned, were half worn away by the
river, which, in the course of ages, had so far changed its bed that the burnt
ashes reached out to mid-channel ; others, now very remote from the river, had
large trees growing out of them." *
Middens are found on the banks of nearly all the rivers and large lakes and
marshes in Victoria, and on the sea-coast ; but it does not appear that they
occur in every part of the north. Mr. A. F. Sullivan informs me that he has
never seen ovens or mounds, similar to those on the Murray, anywhere in
Central Australia.
Shell-mounds, some covering large areas, are common on nearly all parts
of the coast, and may be seen almost everywhere at those points where rocks
are uncovered by the tide, and where it was easy for the natives to procure
shell-fish. I have examined many of these mounds, and nearly all were
remarkable for containing mostly the shells of the common mussel, with a
less number of such shells as the mutton-fish, cockle, periwinkle, limpet, and
oyster. Whether the latter was eaten or not, I cannot say. There is usually
a great deal of charcoal mixed with the shells ; and, in some cases, bones and
implements are found in the heaps.
Mr. Murray collected, at the mouth of Coal Creek, near Cape Patterson,
four chips of chert and two well-polished bone-awls from a shell-heap made
up principally of shells of the mutton-fish, limpet, periwinkle, &c. The awls
appear to be very old, and, judging from the appearance of the heap, it is
jjrobable that it is long since the spot was frequented by the blacks.
It is nearly impossible to ascertain, even approximately, the extent of some
of the ancient shell-mounds. The mussel-shells, and many of the smaller frag-
ments of the haliotis, &c., have been blown about by the winds, and the area
covered by shells is consequently much larger than would have been the case if
they had remained in the place where the natives ate the fish. Some of the
mounds in Victoria — measuring only the thicker, unmoved parts — are many
yards in diameter, and they must have been the resort of the natives during very
long periods. Grey found, on a neck of land near the sea, between Port George
the Fourth and Hanover Bay, in West Australia, "a complete hill of broken
shells, which it must have taken some centuries to form, for it covered nearly, if
not quite, half an acre of ground, and in some places was ten feet higli. It was
situated just over a bed of cockles, and was evidently formed from the remains
of native feasts, as their fire-places and the last small heaps of shells were
visible on the summit of the hill." f Grey refers in a note to a similar mass
* Eastern Australia, vol. il., p. 81.
t North- West and Western Australia, vol. i., p. 110.
2 I
242 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
of shells, though of smaller dimensions, which is spoken of by Capt. King
as having been found at Port Essington : — "A curious mound, constructed
entirely of shells, rudely heaped together, measuring thirty feet in diameter
and fourteen feet high, was also noticed near the beach, and was supposed to be
a burying-place of the Indians." *
Tlie shell-raounds in Victoria are, as a rule, never opened by any one. Few
peojjle know that they have been formed by the natives ; and there is therefore
no wanton injury done to them. In one or two places I have seen a shell-mound
cut through where a track to the coast has been formed ; but the old middens
are not interfered with ; and future archi\3ologists will find abundant fields for
research, in all parts of Australia, when more attention is given to the habits of
the natives and a deeper interest is felt in their earlier history. What may be
disclosed by a thorough examination of some of the ancient mirrn-yong heaps
and shell-mounds one cannot guess, but it is not at all improbable that valuable
discoveries may yet be made. It would be of the highest interest to find any
such stone implements as those of the Tasmanians, or any implements in a
transition state ; and those who have the opportunity sliould not neglect to
investigate the old mounds wherever they are opened. In the mirrn-yong heaps
tomahawks of a remarkable form have been discovered by accident ; and it is
altogether too early to suppose that all that can be known is known respecting
the Australian natives, t
(Stones, arranged in a circular or semicircular form, are found in some places
on the wide plains in Victoria. They appear to have been set up to afford
shelter in places where there was no natural break-wind. This is probable,
but by no means certain. Very little is known respecting these ancient stone-
circles.
In January 1873 I received a letter from Mr. R. E. Johns, a gentleman
holding an important Government appointment at Avoca, in Victoria, drawing
my attention to a statement in a pajier on the Monuments of Unrecorded Ayes,
in No. 125 of Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts, to the
following effect: — "Even in Australia, in the Colony of Victoria, they [stone-
circles] are to be seen in numl)ers, sometimes circle within circle, as at
Avebury, and without any tradition among the natives as to their origin."
Mr. Johns made enquiries, and being unable to learn anything respecting
such structures, he wrote to the editor, and found that the authority for the
statement regarding the stone-circles of Victoria was a paper by the late Sir
James Y. Simpson, in the Proceedinys of the Society of Antiquaries (Scot/and).
Mr. Ormond had written to Sir James Simpson, informing him that he had
seen many such stone-circles, especially near the Mount Elephant Plains, in
Victoria. They were from ten to one hundred feet in diameter, and in some
there was an inner circle. The stones varied in size and shape, and human
* King's Australia, vol. I., p. 87.
■f Mr. Frank Stephen informs me that in digging into one of the shell-mounds at Frankston
Point a stone tomaliawk was found at a depth of six feet from the surface. The numerous shell-
mountls between St. Kilda and Point Nepean contain, no doubt, many such relics; and the more
ancient implements are likely to be of great interest to the ethnologist.
FOOD. 243
bones had been dug out of mounds near these circles. The Aborigines had no
traditions respecting them, and they invariably denied all knowledge of their
origin." Mr. Johns pursued his enquiries, and on referring to Mr. Philip
Cluiuncy, a District Surveyor, and to Mr. Peter Manifold, of Purrumbete, a
well-known settler in the Western district, he ascertained their real charac-
ter ; — they are shelter-circles, erected in situations where neither brushwood
nor bark can be obtained for building miams.
No doubt many of the heaps of stones have been erected for shelter ; but
when the natives had to perform certain ceremonies, to prepare tliemselves for
their dances, and to use the strange rites elsewhere referred to, they must
necessarily in such places have built up stones for the purpose of exhibiting the
rude figures before which they danced, and going through the several parts of
their mysteries.
In Mr. Hewitt's notes on the Aborigines of Cooper's Creek these stone-
circles are mentioned. He found them in many places where the ground was
bare, as, for instance, on extensive clay-flats. The stones were of various sizes,
but generally about eight inches in diameter. The natives would give no
satisfactory account of them, and ilr. Howitt regards them as worthy of
investigation.
Mr. Giles, in his overland expedition, found in a glen near the Rawlinson
Range several small mounds of stones, placed at even distances apart ; and
though the ground was all stones, places like paths had been cleared between
them. There was also a large piece of rock in the centre of most of these
strange heaps. They were not very high — not more than two and a half feet.
"I have concluded," says Giles, "it may be said uncharitably, that these are
small kinds of Teocalli, and that on the bare rock already mentioned the
natives have, and will again perform their horrid rites of human butchery,
and that the drippings of the pellucid fountains from the rocky basins above
have been echoed and re-echoed by the dripping fountains of human gore
from the veins and arteries of their bound and helpless victims." * A minute
description of these mounds would have added much to the value of Mr.
Giles's narrative, . if, as he supposed, they were the work of the natives.
"Were not these stones only natural out-croppings of tlie rock, and no more ?
It does not appear that they were pyramidal buildings ; and it is not yet
ascertained that the natives of the interior of Australia follow the religious
observances of the ancient people of Mexico. Careful notes respecting the
character of these stone heaps, information as to the kinds of stones used,
and rough measurements, would have been valuable.
Grey found heaps of stones of a different character in North-West Australia.
One lieajj was twenty-two feet five inches in length, thirteen feet ten inches in
breadth, and four feet three inches in height ; and another was twenty-two feet
five inches in length, sixteen feet in breadth, and five feet ten and a iialf
inches in height. They are represented in the drawing given in his work as
symmetrical heaps. Grey says: — "They were both placed due east and west,
* Geographic Travels in Central Australia, 1872-4, by Ernest Giles, p. 171.
244 THE ABORIGINES OF A'ICTORIA:
and .... with great regularity. They were both exactly of the same
length, but differed in breadtli and height. They were not fonned altogether of
small stones from the rock on which they stood, but many were portions of very
distant rocks, which must have been brought by human labor, for their angles
were as sharp as the day they were broken off; there were also the remains
of many and difterent kinds of sea-shells in the heap we opened. My own
opinion concerning these heaps of stones had been that they were tombs ; and
this opinion remains unaltered, though we found no bones in the mound, only
a great deal of fine mould, having a damp, dank smell. The antiquity of the
central part of the one we opened appeared to be very great — I should say two
or three hundred years ; but the stones above were much more modern, the
outer ones having been recently placed ; this was also the case with the other
heap. Can this be regarded by the natives as a holy spot?"*
"On the Murray River singular-looking places are found sometimes, made by
the natives by piling small stones close together upon their ends in the ground,
. . . . and projecting four or five inches above the ground. Tlie whole
length of the place thus enclosed by one which I examined was eleven yards :
at the broad end it was two yards wide, at the narrow end one. The position of
this singular-looking place was a clear space on the slope of a hill, the narrow
end being the lowest, on in the direction of the river. Inside the line of stones
the ground was smoothed and somewhat hollowed. The natives called it Mo»-
yumbuck, and said it was a place for disenchanting an individual afflicted with
boils." t
It is now very difficult to obtain information from the natives respecting
these erections.
Cannibalism.
The natives of Australia are, under some circumstances, guilty of cannibalism.
In another part of this work it has been shown, on the authority of Mr. Samuel
Bennett, that during the Biinya-hunya season, strangers who visit the Bunya-
bunya forest for the sake of the fruit are impelled by a craving for flesh to
kill one of their number and eat him. Children are killed and eaten ; and the
fat of the bodies of those who have been killed in battle, as well as of those who
have died a natural death, is occasionally swallowed. Hull says that tlie natives
eat human flesh, and offer human victims as sacrifices. J Mundy appears to
have had no doubt of the existence of cannibalism in New South Wales, and he
makes mention of the desjDatch of Sir George Gijips {Parliamentary Blue Book,
1844) in which is given an account of "perhaps one of the most ferocious acts
of cannibalism on record." §
Mr. Angas, quoted by Wood, gives an example of cannibalism, as occurring
in New South Wales : — " A lad had died, and his body was taken by several
* North- West and Western Australia, vol. I., p. 227.
t Journals of Expeditions of Discovery, by Edward .John Evro, Tol. ii., p. 365.
X Remarks on the probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales,
by a Colonial Magistrate, 18-J6, p. 18.
§ Our Antipodes, by Lieut.-Col. Mundy, 1857, p. 48.
FOOD. 245
young men, Tvho proceeded to the following remarkable ceremonies. They
began by removing the skin, together with the head, rolling it round a stake,
and drying it over the fire. Wliile this was being done, the parents, who had
been uttering loud lamentations, took tlie flesh from the legs, cooked and ate it.
The remainder of the body was distributed among the friends of the deceased,
who carried away their portions on the points of their spears ; and the skin and
bones were kept by the parents, and always carried about in their wallets." *
The Rev. Mr. Taplin states that the Tattiara natives are reputed to be
cannibals. Tliey are called Merkani, and are hated by the Narrinyeri, because
the Merkani have a propensity to stealing fat people and eating them. If
a man had a fat wife, he was always particularly careful not to leave her
unprotected, lest she might be seized by the prowling Merkani. t
A correspondent of Mr. Howitt's, referring to the statements made in the
Rev. Mr. Taplin's work, says that cannibalism amongst the Tattiara blacks is
not well authenticated. Isolated cases of man-eating are told of all the tribes
by their neighbours, but they themselves invariably deny that the practice is
indulged in. The Tattiara countiy is in lat. 36° 20' S., and extends for some
miles both on the west and east of the 141st meridian, the boundary between
Victoria and South Australia. The Tattiara blacks are nearly allied to the
Glenelg tribe, are warlike, and in many points like the Narrinyeri.
Gason's account of cannibalism, as existing amongst the Dieyerie tribe, near
Cooper's Creek, is given elsewhere.
From a manuscript report placed in my hands by the Rev. Lorimer Fison I
learn that the natives of Fraser Island (Great Sandy Island), Queensland, are
cannibals ; and that in former times cannibalism was much more common than
now. Tliey eat the young men and young women that are fat. Their word to
express hunger after flesh is said to be Nulla-peetkung.
The Jardines, on their overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape
York, found "at a native fire the fresh remains of a negro roasted: the head
and thigh-bones were alone complete ; all the rest of the body and limbs had
been broken up, and the skull was full of blood. Whether this was the body
of an enemy cooked for food, or of a friend disposed of after the manner of
their last rites, must remain a mystery — until the country and its denizens
become better known." J
It must be admitted that the condition of the body was in the highest degree
suspicious.
Sir Thomas Mitchell says the Australian savage is not a cannibal. § In this
he is right, if the term be restricted to such practices as were followed in some
parts of Europe, up to the end of the fourteenth century, and to the feasts on
human flesh in which the men of Fiji and New Zealand indulge. The Aixstraliau
is not a man-eater as the New Zealander is. When severely pressed by hunger,
he has been known to eat human flesh ; and for the proper performance of
certain ceremonials he is required by his laws to use the fat of tiie kidneys and
* The Natural History of Man, vol. 11., p. 62. f The Narrinyeri, p. 2.
X Overland Expedition, 1867, p. 12. § Eastern Australia, 1838, toI. li., p. 344.
240 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
other parts of the body for anointing himself, and he also swallows the fat and
skin on some occasions ; but he does not, like many of the South Sea Islanders,
build a huge oven, and cook a number of human bodies, in order that a wiiole
tribe and its friends may enjoy a feast. Horrible and disgusting as may be the
customs amongst his people, he is not so bad as his neighbours.
Mr. Alfred W. Howitt has been good enough to obtain for me some infor-
mation from the natives of Gippsland respecting the eating of human flesh.
He says : —
" Taking kidney-fat, called Wurnewunga wallunga — i.e., the fat of the
' stone,' the kidney being so called from a supposed resemblance to a rounded
pebble — from the coucjuered enemy, is not the custom of the Gippsland
blacks, who, however, know of it as being customary among those of Maneroo
— the BrajeraJfs. The custom here is, or rather was, to remove the skin
from each side extending from the arm to the waist, and from the breast to
the shoulder-blade, and from each thigh in front from the groin to the
knee. This was roasted on the fire, and eaten by all men present. Women
and boys were not allowed to eat this, or even to see the operation per-
formed. It is said to have been done ' because father belonging to you and
me' — that is, the ancestors — did it; in other words, as a traditionary custom,
the meaning of which was lost. It is denied that any of the strength or
courage of the deceased would pass to the eaters. One blackfellow explained
it to me by saying — 'After fighting that fellow, berry hungry.' The following
instance may be given, which occurred soon after Gijjpsland was settled. My
informant is Long Harry, otherwise Toorl-bourn (name given by his father),
Bungil Bottle (name given by his contemporaries on account of his propensity
to empty bottles containing strong waters), and otherwise Bungil Wunkin (a
name indicating that he is the great boomerang thrower of the tribe, wliicli has
been acquired lately). The story is as follows, which I give as nearly as possible
as he told me : — 'When I was a young man, beard just growing — I had been
made "Jerry-ale" — a lot of strange blacks came down to Gippsland. They were
some Dargo River blacks, and with them some Omeo blacks. The Gippsland
blacks did not meddle with them, because the Dargo blacks live on the upper
part of this river (Mitchell), and therefore belong to us. The names of two of
the Dargo blacks were Tare-ngun and Too-turn-burr ; they were two brothers,
very strong men, and left-handed. Tliere were several others, but I forget them.
Among the Omeo blacks were one called Panky Panky and another Biujo. I
don't know what these names mean, they belong to another language. This mob
of blacks camped at the Top Plain, near Busliy Park, and were looking round
for 'possums, and so on — hunting. The Gipjjsland blacks were camped near
Bushy Park, and I was there, and so knew all about this. The Dargo blacks
quarrelled with the Omeo blacks, and they separated camps. Tare-ngun sent
two men to find out where Panky Panky was encamped. In the night, just before
dawn, the Dargo blacks all surrounded the Omeo men's camp. Binjo's wife saw
them, and jumped up and sang out. The others rushed in — they were armed
W'ith reed-spears, pointed with glass — and speared the two men. Binjo ran out,
but was followed, and overtaken about half a mile off. He had his blanket
POOD. 247
rolled up like a "Bamarook,"* and caught the spears in front ; but other men
came behind him, and he was killed. He was full of spears. He was left
lying there. I don't know what became of him ; I expect tlie wild dogs eat
him. Then they caught the women, and each man who had first speared the
man took his wife. Then the men killed in the camp were skinned, and the
skin roasted and eaten. Panky Panky was a very big, fat man, twice as fat as
" Billy the Bull." f All the men who were there helloed to eat the skin. Then
the camp was thrown down on the dead men, and Tare-ngun and the others
went away with the women. One woman had a fine little boy at her back, in
her 'possum rug. One old man took him out, and, holding him by the feet,
knocked his head against a tree, and killed him like a 'possum. Some said,
"Why did you do tliat ; we wanted to keep him?" He said, "By-aud-by,
when he grows up, he will kill you." To an enquiry what roast skin tasted
like, Harry says, 'Like "porcupine ;" 'J and Toby, otherwise Wunda Garerout
(which may be freely translated, 'Where is the creek?'), remarks, 'Yes ; like por-
cupine. I once eat a piece of a Tarra blackfellow, when I was a young man.' "
Mr. Hewitt's account of the practice, as it existed amongst tlie warlike tribes
of Oippsland, shows, probably, the furthest extent to which the horrible custom
was usually followed, and may be taken as a fair statement of the facts as
affecting, at any rate, the natives of Victoria. In the northern parts of the
continent, and in tlie interior, when there is a scarcity of food, it is not doubted
tliat revolting instances of cruelty, followed by cannibalism, are not rare. §
The Habits of Ajjimals (from information furnished by the Aborigines).
About seven years ago I obtained from the Superintendents of the principal
Aboriginal Stations in Victoria, accounts, taken down from the lips of the
natives, of the habits of some of the animals which it was presumed they were
well acquainted with ; and I now give these in the form in which I received
them. They are valuable — not so much because of what they contain, but — as
showing in what direction the mental energies of the natives are directed. All
that concerns them as hunters and fishers they know ; but questions relating
to matters of no pi-actical importance to them in their mode of life they neglect.
As regards things of interest to them, and as regards facts in connection
with their pursuits, they are full of knowledge, and capable of imparting the
knowledge they jiossess ; but they are invariably wearied, and to some extent
annoyed, when questioned on subjects to which they are iutlifierent.
* Bamarook is the oval shield with which reed-spears or boomerangs are warded off. Tum-
numy is (he long narrow shield with which blows from the wadily are stopped.
f Billy the Bull, a stout black, of Lake Tycrs, aud perhaps the strongest blackfellow here.
J Echidna.
§ Eyre quotes the official report of Mr. Protector Sicvewright, of Lake Tarong (Port Phillip
district), published in August 1844, in which some details arc giren of an instance of cannibalism
that are almost too shocking to record. The natives seem to have fallen upon the dead body of
tlieir enemy with a ferocity surpassing that of the most savage amongst carnivorous animals. The
liver and viscera were torn from the corpse aud eaten raw ! — Juurnah of ErpeJitions of Discovert/,
vol. 11., pp. 257-8.
248 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Tliis indifference to the acquisition of knowledge which does not seem at
the moment to he of use or profit is as clearly apparent in the Aboriginal mind
as in that of an ordinary European, and is shown not more in these papers,
contributed hy the Superintendents of Stations, than in the statements gene-
rally in this work. In this respect the ordinary European is in no way better
than the Australian black. Knowledge that cannot be turned to immediate
profit is despised by both, and were it not for the labors of those who value
knowledge — not for what it confers, not even for what it may confer, but simply
for its exceeding preciousness as knowledge — the arts — even those that give
wealth — would advance but slowly ; and the physical powers that can be
governed and directed at the will of man would remain undiscovered.
Habits of Native Animals, according to accounts given to the Rev. John
Bulmer by the natives of Lake T}'ers, Gippsland : —
BiirUjan or Platypus.
Tlie platypus lives in the water ; he makes holes under the banks of the
rivers. A good many live in one place ; they have i)leuty of young ones in
their holes : never saw any eggs, only young ones. It has young ones about
spring-time : never saw him feed his yoimg. It makes its nest of weed out of
the water. It is veiy good to eat : plenty of fat. It has Gola Koo-yun or spur
on its hind foot, which it sticks into any one : makes hand belonging to black-
fellow swell very much. The platypus is not very big ; about half as long as
the arm of a man.
Jirrah or Kangaroo.
The kangaroo generally has its young ones in the summer-time ; it has
never more than one young one at a time. Blackfellow finds the young one in
the pouch very small ; they must grow in the pouch. Kangaroos in the day-
time like to lie in the sun, and in summer-time they make themselves a big
camp. Tliey go in big mobs ; sometimes there is only one male in a mob and
sometimes two.
Batkalook or Iguana.
The iguana eats any kind of flesh-meat ; he catches birds or rats, or any
dead thing ; he lives in the holes of trees, and makes his nest in the ground :
he has a good many eggs. Blackfellow not know how many. The iguana
never sits upon her eggs ; the yoimg ones come out without that ; the mother
does not feed her young ones. The blacks generally keep out of the way of the
iguana when it is savage or angry. When it is very angry it makes a hissing
noise. It will sometimes run after any one who is trying to kill it.
Fish.
The reason why blackfellow catch many fish sometimes and sometimes not
many is because the fish in cold weather go into the deep and in summer they
come up.
FOOD. 249
No-yang or Eel,
The eel is mostly found in weedy places. It goes up the rivers to put its
young ones ; sometimes it goes out into the sea — generally in the summer-
time. Blacks think they go to sea to hide themselves, because they like to
stop in weedy or deep places. The eel feeds upon little fish, and will eat young
eels and also shrimps or crabs.
Thurrung or Snake.
There are many different kinds of snakes. There is the Ninballa nark, or
black-backed snake ; the Thurrung, or grey snake ; and the Galang, a small red-
lookiug snake. The snake has a good many eggs — about ten. When the young
ones come out of the eggs, they go down the mother's throat, for sometimes
blackfellow finds them inside the mother when he kills the snake. The snake
makes a hole in the ground ; some get into a hole in a tree ; and some go up
very high trees. Snakes like a place where there is plenty of grass. When a
snake bites any one, he leaves his tooth in the place where he bites. Black-
fellow can get cured of the bite of the snake by the black doctor singing over
him. Many blackfellows have been saved in that way.
Habits of Native Animals, according to accounts given to the Rev. A.
Hartmann by the natives of Lake Hindmarsh : —
The Platypus.
The platypus lives both on the land and in the water. It can keep under
water a long time, say half an hour. It burrows holes into the bank of the
river, some ten or fifteen feet, slanting towards the surface of the ground,
branching off on either side in short passages, with a nest here and there. The
nests are made of layers of rushes and grass. They cast their young ones in
autimin, and give them suck. They have from six to ten young ones, which are
grown up towards the end of winter, when they are taken out by the mother
and taught to shift for themselves. They live chiefly on small cray-fish and
other fish. They dive for the fish and catch them in their claws. When leaving
the hole in search of food, they cover the entrance with clay : in fact, it is
always kept closed. They appear to come out only in the morning and evening,
except in cloudy or rainy weather, when they are seen during the day. When
attacked, the platypus defends itself with its claws.*
* The Ornithorhyncus is an ovoviviparous animal, and suckles its young. Its burrow and nest
are made much in the w.ay described by the natives. It usually feeds in the mud at the bottom of
streams, where it finds very small shell-lish, river insects, river weeds, &c. When engaged in
feeding, it uses its mandibles in the same manner as a duck. It is stated by naturalists that the spur
is not used as a weapon of offence, and that a scratch given by the spur causes no such effects as
those described by the natives of L.ake Tyers. It is not likely, however, that the natives would
make a mistake in such a matter. A recent case of poisoning is mentioned as having occurred near
Jerry's Plains, m the Maitland district. A man whilst flsliing in the river found a platypus
entangled in his net, and in attempting to disengage it, the animal, it is said, struck its spur into
his forefinger. The wound caused intense pain, the hand and arm became swollen; and medical
aid was sought. The sufferer was treated as for snake-poisoning, and recovered.
2k
250 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
The Kangaroo.
TTiey take their rest chiefly during the day ; and they are very wary. Even
when they sleep, lying on their side, the ears are constantly moving. The
hearing of the kangaroo is very acute. I was told that, in trying to sneak
near them, the cracking of your ankle-hones they hear at a distance of one
hundred and fifty yards. They always feed with the head with the wind, and
thus are not easily surprised. When startled, they give a rap with the foot on the
ground, to give notice to the others. They fight also a good deal, uttering a sort
of grunting ha ha, catching hold of one another, hitting with their fore-paws
and kicking with their hind ones, but never killing one another. Their usual
feeding-time is in the night. As to the mode of breeding, the blacks are not
sure whether the kangaroo is born or not. What they have found to be the case
is this : a small, small kangaroo — the size of the first joint of the finger — hang-
ing on the teat in the bag. The teat seems to be grown together with the mouth,
and is gradually separated on the growing of the young one : the little thing,
pulled away from the teat, dies.* The kangaroo feeds its young only by means
of the teat ; when they grow bigger they eat grass. The old kangaroo, when
hunted by dogs, throws its young one out of the bag to save its own life, but
dogs generally do not care about the young ones, except they are already pretty
big. Number of young — one. Breed once a year. The breeding-time begins
about June, and in about six mouths the young leaves the bag, but even after
that the young will stick to its mother for years. The strength of the kangaroo
is in its tail ; when broken, it can neither fight nor run much. The kangaroo
makes no proper nest, but, in the heat of summer, he scratches a hole in the
ground to fit his own body, to lie in to keep himself cool. When resting or
sleeping in that hole, he keeps throwing dust on his head with his fore-paws to
keep off flies and other insects. Tlie red kangaroo catches the big flies that
come near him ; and if these flies have come from a man just then sneaking
near him, he smells the presence of the man in the fly, and makes off at once.
The white and red kangaroo, sleeping very fast, have their own way to guard
themselves against being sur23rised. They make their young ones keeji watch,
and these young ones sit up, looking like a log. You would not distinguish them
from the same.
* The blacks and the whites, as a rule, are ignorant of the mode in which the young of the
kangaroo is placed in the pouch. From the observations of naturalists of the highest repute, It
appears that, after parturition, the mother opens her pouch with her fore-paws, and uses her mouth
to carry and place the young one on the nipple. A very young kangaroo — say twelve hours alter
birth — is only one inch and two lines in length, and is nearly transparent. I have myself
detached a young one less than two inches in length from the nipple of a dead kangaroo — killed in
a kangaroo hunt ; and to me it seemed impossible that the mother could have carried and attached
it to the nipple ; yet there is irrefragable evidence of this being the mode in which it is placed in
the niarsupium. It is stated that in one instance a very young kangaroo, forcibly removed from the
nipple and left in the bag, was replaced by the mother. The foetus itself could not regain the
nipple.
The account taken down by the Rev. Mr. Hartmann is very interesting. The natives evidently
rarely or never investigate for the purpose of satisfying curiosity or gaining knowledge that would
not be of use to them.
FOOD. 251
The Lizard.
The lizard lays its eggs in a nest of grnbs (which the blacks eat). It does
not any more care about its eggs. They lie about ten months among the grubs
before being hatched. The big lizards feed on the small ones and other things
they can get, such as frogs, &c. All the lizards, and the snakes too, get blind
in the middle of summer, and keep so for a month, when they go into holes ;
but before doing so they throw off their outer coat, and for the space of a month
you see no lizards or snakes. They go into the water too, and can keep under
water for a little time.
The Eel.
The eel is not found at Lake Hindmarsh.
The Snake.
Snakes are not numerous here. The black snake, diamond snake, and deaf-
adder, a snake like the diamond with a very black head, and another black
snake with yellow stripes. All of them are poisonous, but especially the one
with the black head. The diamond with the black head and the striped ones
live only in the Mallee. They live chiefly among the roots of trees. They can
keep under water for a long time.
Fish.
The blacks have no particular reason to give why fish are plentiftil at one
time and scarce at another. They simply say, " Tliis is not the time for fish."
Note. — Mr. Hartmann says, in a letter to me, that it is a difficult matter
to get a long and minute account of the habits, &c., of the animals mentioned
in my memorandum. About the lizard and snake he could hardly get anything
from the blacks, in spite of asking a great many questions.
Habits of Native Animals, according to accounts given to the Rev. F. A.
Hagenauer, of Lake Wellington, Gippsland : —
The Platypus.
The duck-billed platypus makes no nests, biit lives in holes on the banks of
rivers ; it gets its young ones like the water-rats, always in simimer, and has
never more than two young ones at one time ; it suckles its young ones like
rats. When the young ones are full grown, they are very good for eating, but
not before.
The Kangaroo.
The kangaroo lives on grass and rushes, and carries its young ones always
with it in its bag ; it teaches its young ones to jump about every morning
before sunrise, till they are old enough to go alone.
252 THE ABOEIGES'ES OF VICTORIA.
The Lizard.
The lizard feeds on worms and flies ; it lays its eggs in holes and soft
ground, and leaves them ; when the young ones are out of the egg, they care for
themselves. Both the lizards and their eggs are good for eating.
Eeh.
The eels generally live in water-holes, rivers, and swamps ; but often, when
the grass is wet, they travel long distances over it. Eels are very good for
eating.
Snakes.
The common sort of snakes are to be found or met with everywhere ; they
sleep in winter and travel in summer. Before the snakes changed their heads
with the turtles they were not dangerous, but now, if they bite, nearly always is
death certain. Some snakes were good for eating long ago, but now beef and
mutton are better.
Habits of Native Animals, according to accounts given to llr. John Green,
of the Coranderrk Station (Yarra River) : —
The Platypus.
The blacks say that the platypus has but one young at a time, and that it
gives birth to it in the same way as a dingo, and suckles it. It is in the spring
of the year that they have their young. They make a nest in a hole in the
ground on the bank of a creek.
Snakes.
The blacks say that they do not know anything about snakes.
The Lizard.
The small lizards lay their eggs in old logs, and they are hatched by the
heat of the sun. The large lizards lay their eggs in the roots of hollow trees,
and then clay up the hole. About the middle of summer they return, and
remove part of the clay, leaving only a small or thin crust over the eggs, which
the young ones can easily remove themselves.
Fish and Eels.
The blacks say they do not know how fish and eels breed.
Kangaroo.
They say that the young are formed first in the womb, and when they are
born the mother puts them into the pouch.
§haM^,
-co--
Long before the Europeans came to mix with the Aboriginal natives of Australia
the latter were afflicted with various diseases — some resembling those that are
generally regarded as having had their origin in Europe and Asia. They had,
as a conmion complaint, ophthalmia, brought on by exposure to the weather.
Over the dusty dry plains of the interior, which cast back the rays of the sim
with an intensity that cannot be believed until it is experienced, they were
sometimes compelled to wander ; and the heat, and the dust, and the stinging of
the flies and mosquitos, almost blinded them.
" The poor winking people of New Holland," as they are called in Dampier's
Voyage, " have their eyelids always half-closed, to keep the flies out of their
eyes, they being so troublesome here that no fanning will keep them from
coming to one's face ; and without the assistance of both hands to keep them
off, they will creep into one's nostrils, and mouth too, if the lips are not shut
very close. So that from their infancy, being thus annoyed with these insects,
they do never open their eyes as other people, and therefore they cannot see far,
unless they hold up their heads, as if they were looking at somewhat over
them."* It was on the 4th January 1688, in the height of the Australian
summer, that Dampier saw the natives of the north-west coast, and his straight-
forward, uncompromising language was no doubt justified by what he saw.
Sir Thomas Mitchell found a native on the Eiver Bogan afflicted with oph-
thalmia, and again on the Lachlan one almost blind from o^^hthalmia or filth. t
The comiilaint, combined with neglect and exposure, sometimes causes a native
to lose the sight of one or both eyes. In the low, flat country drained by the
Murray, Murrumbidgee, and Lachlan, this disease is common.
A very fatal disease, which nearly all writers describe as small-pox, was
prevalent very many years ago, and carried off great numbers. Mr. Gason says
that the Cooper's Creek natives call it Mooror-moora, and that they were evi-
dently subject to it before coming into contact with Europeans, as many old
men and women are pock-marked in the face and body. They state that a
great number died of this disease ; and Mr. Gason has been shown, on the top
of a sandhill, seventy-four graves, said to be those of men, women, and children
who perished by this fell disorder.^
• Dampier's Voyages, 1688, vol. i., p. 464. f Eastern Australia, roL I., p. 197.
t The Dieyerie Tribe, 1874, p. 28.
254 THE ABOUIGESrES OF VICTORIA:
On the Lower Murray and near Lake Alexandrina the blacks have a
tradition that some sixty years ago a terrible disease came down the River
Murray, and carried off the natives by hundreds. This must have been small-
pox, as many of the old people now have their ftices pitted who suffered from
the disease in childhood. The destruction of life was so great as to seriously
diminish the tribes. The natives always represent that before this scourge
arrived they were much more numerous. They say that so many died that they
could not perform the usual funeral rites for the dead, but were compelled to
bury them at once out of the way. Mr. Taplin, who makes these statements,
thinks that there must have been more than one visitation of this kind, judging
from the age of those who are pock-marked.*
Mr. Peter Beveridge says many adults on the Lower Murray are marked
with small-pox, which he thinks may have been contracted by the natives in the
neighbourhood of Sydney, and passed on from tribe to tribe. The people state
that their sufferings from this disease were fearful in the extreme, and that the
deaths were so numerous that they could not inter the bodies, but left them
where they died, and moved their camps to a new locality. This was repeated,
they relate, day after day, until the whole atmosphere was tainted with the de-
composing bodies. They thought that not one would escape death, and they
had arrived at such a pitch of misery as to be careless whether they died or not.
When the hot summer set in, however, the distemper gradually abated ; but it
was years before they got over the panic. This seems to have been the only
great terror that is remembered by them, and the only period they can indicate
as one in which great numbers died of the same disease.f
Mr. Jno. G. Clapham, of Casterton, states, in a letter to Mr. Nathaniel
Munro, to whom I am indebted for much assistance, that in the year 1841 he
went to reside on the River Murray, at its entrance into Lake Alexandrina, and
he noticed among the different tribes resident on the river and the lake many
adults deeply pitted with small-pox. The blacks described to Mr. Clapham the
manner of attack and death, and said that the disease came down the river and
continued its course along the lake to the sea-coast, carrying off great numbers.
They added that the tribes have never recovered the loss of life sustained, but
have since remained comparatively few.
In his journey, Sir Thomas Mitchell found nearly everywhere traces of the
small-pox ; and many of the people of the tribes inhabiting the large area
drained by the River Darling were marked with it. He saw pock-marked men
on the Bogan, at Fort Bourke, and all along the course of the Darling down to
near its junction with the Murray. At Fort Bourke, the marks on the people
were not larger than pins' heads — in other places marks of confluent small-pox
were seen. The disease had raged amongst them with extraordinary virulence ;
the people at Fort Bourke at the time of Sir Thomas Mitchell's visit repre-
sented only the remnant of a tribe, and it was believed that small-pox had
nearly depopulated the Darling. The females were numerous in proportion to
the males, and M'ere not secluded by the men, as in other places where they
* T%e NaTrinyeri, 1874, pp. 32-3. f The Lower Murray Aborigines, &c., 1861.
DISEASES. 255
were more in demand. On a little hill, on the banks of the Lower Darling, Sir
Thomas saw three large tombs, of an oval shape, and in length about twelve
feet. Each stood in the centre of an artificial hollow, the mound or tomb in the
middle being about five feet high, and on each of them were piled numerous
withered branches and limbs of trees, no inappropriate emblems of mortality.
These tombs. Sir Thomas believed, covered the remains of the tribe swept off
by small-pox — the marks of which were left on all that remained alive.*
Collins states that small-pox killed great numbers of the natives shortly
after the settlement was formed in New South Wales [1788]. Niunerous dead
bodies were found in excavations of the rocks, or lying upon the beaches and
points of the diiferent coves. Many families had been swept off. Whether it
had ever appeared before could not be ascertained, but the name they gave it —
gal-gal-la — indicated a previous acquaintance with it.f The name given to this
disease at Raffles Bay is, according to Dr. Wilson, Oie-boir.
I have been thus particular in collecting information respecting the ravages
of the small-pox, because it shows in what manner the numbers of the native
race have been reduced in consequence of the introduction by the whites of one
contagious disease. Other diseases have been brought by the white man which
have killed many thousands ; but this terrible malady, so frightful in its effects
whether the sufferer lived or died, and so potent in causing destruction, struck
the natives with terror. The mother beheld her children dead or disfigiired ;
the husband saw his wife, if she lived, with a body that was the more loathsome
because it recalled every day and every time he looked upon her the horrors
through which his tribe had passed. Their graves were multiplied in numbers
until at last the dead were so many that graves could not be provided for them ;
and the bodies were left on the banks of rivers, on the sands of the coast, and
in the depths of the forest, to rot or be eaten by the dogs. Nothing can be
imagined more likely to dispirit a people, to drive them to despair, and to cause
them to lose all hope, than such a visitation as that which struck down the
natives during the period immediately subsequent to the formation of the settle-
ment at Point Maskeleyne. That it was introduced by the whites is certain,
though none of the colonists that accompanied Governor Phillip appear to have
suffered from it.
"In the month of April 1789," says Bennett, "the dead bodies of numbers
of natives were seen in the bush, and in various jilaces about the shores of the
harbour ; and others were found in a dying condition from a disease wliich they
called gal-gal-la. The Governor, thinking this a favorable opportunity to
conciliate and again open friendly relations with them, ordered two sick children
and a man who was found nursing them under a rock in the harboiir to be
brought to the camp. The medical officers at once pronounced the disease to
be small-i)ox. The presence amongst the Aborigines of that dreadful scourge
was considered exceedingly remarkable, seeing that it could not have been
communicated to them by the whites, having never made its appearance among
* Eastern Australia, 1838, Tol. I., pp. 216, 255, 259, 260, 301.
f The Enylish Cvlony in New South Wales, 1804, p. 58.
256 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
the colonists. Both the black children recovered, but the man died shortly
afterwards. Col. Collins gives a most affecting picture of the devotion and
attention to the children shown by this poor savage, who was not their parent,
but who, in a very short time, endeared himself to the strangers by whom he
was surrounded, and died eight days after he was seized with the disease, to the
regret of all who had witnessed the amiability and gentleness of his deportment.
Not one case of the disorder occurred among the white people either afloat or on
shore, although there were several young children in the settlement ; but a
North American Indian, who happened to be on board the schooner Supply, took
the disease and died. This fact would seem to indicate that the lower vitality of
the colored races sometimes offers a field in which the seeds of disease will fully
develop themselves, even when they are not sufficiently vigorous to germinate
under conditions afforded by the more robust and enduring constitutions of
white people. There was no trace to be cUscovered among the Aborigines that
such a disease as small-pox had ever visited the country before, and therefore it
is only reasonable to conclude that the infection, in a latent state, must have
been introduced by the newly-arrived colonists, although they themselves
escaped its ravages. Their immunity from the scourge might have arisen either
from some peculiarity in their system induced by the changes of climate which
they had lately undergone, the food on which they existed, or, which is more
likely, the superior vitality of their race. The numbers of the Aborigines
■who fell before this dreadful disease must have been very great. Famine had
prepared them for pestilence, and the pestilence which smote them was the
more terrible, because, being wholly unknown, it found them entirely unpre-
pared with even such simple remedies as those with which savages frequently
combat diseases of a very severe character." *
The small-pox appears to have followed the tribes along the courses of all
the rivers, both on the north and on the south, and to have reached those living
near the mouth of the Murray and the Lakes some years after it was first heard
of in Sydney. The traditions of the natives respecting its ravages may be
accepted as accurate — indeed their burial-places are the dumb memorials of
the visitation ; but the exact period of its appearance in Victoria cannot of
course be ascertained from the blacks.
This disease undoubtedly, besides reducing the numbers, effected a great
alteration in the condition of the Aborigines generally, and led probably to
the breaking \x\) of some tribes — the remnants coalescing for protection from
inimical tribes and for the conservation of their common interests.
It is now difficult to ascertain the nature of the diseases which existed
amongst the natives j)rior to the colonization of Australia by the whites.
Those that are now named as most fatal appear to be exactly of that charac-
ter which would be induced by the change of habits incidental to their contact
with Europeans. For instance, it is stated by many writers that they are
afflicted with rheumatism, colds, and pulmonary diseases ; but, in consequence
of their association with the whites, they have altered their mode of living.
• Australian Discovenj and Culonization, 1865, pp. 142-3.
DISEASES. 257
They wear clothes when they can get them ; their food is different ; they
indulge in spirituous liquors, and they are alternately enjoying some of the
comforts introduced by the colonists and resorting to their original customs
— at one time too warmly clad perhaps, at another time lying out in the
bush, exposed to all weathers — not taking any such precautions as they would
have taken when in their natural state. A native living in the wilds of the
bush, and imcontaminated by contact with the whites, was probably as healthy
as any of the animals that he chased. If he survived the accidents of child-
hood, and did not break down under the trying ordeal through which he
had to pass on being " made a young man," he was for the rest of his
life almost invulnerable to the indigenous diseases of his country. That the
natives were hardy is unquestionable. Sir Thomas Mitchell says that one
"freezing night the natives stript off all their clothes (their usual custom)
previous to lying down to sleep in the open air, their bodies being doubled
round a few burning reeds." * And this at a time when the earth was white with
a hoar-frost.
All that can be collected now relating to diseases bears no reference to the
time when the blacks were in a state of nature, and must consequently be
received with caution. I have shown elsewhere that a native rapidly recovers
from wounds that would prove fatal to men of other races, and this appears
to me to be inconsistent with the statement that they are naturally of a weak
constitution and of inferior vitality.
" Tlie principal diseases," says Mr. Taplin, " to which these [the Narrin-
yeri] tribes of Aborigines are subject are of a scrofulous nature. The ten-
dency to tuberculosis is seen in childhood in the form of tabes mesenterica,
and sometimes of hydrocephalus. Towards the age of puberty it is developed
as pulmonary consumption. Sometimes it is carried off before the age of
puberty by induration and ulceration of the glands of the neck. The above
are the most fatal diseases amongst the Narrmyeri ; the majority of deaths
are caused by them. The other diseases to which they are subject are liver
complaint, diarrhoea, and dysentery, and, rarely, brain fever. I have never
known a case of intermittent fever amongst them. Of course they are subject
to inflammation of the bowels, kidneys, liver, lungs, and throat
I have never known a native to have the measles. This disease has at
different times prevailed amongst the whites ; but the blacks, although con-
stantly about the dwellings of those laboring under it, never caught it.
. . . . I have never known a case of scarlatina amongst the Aborigines,
although it was very prevalent some years ago amongst the whites ; and I have
reason to believe that a great deal of clothing from houses infected by the dis-
ease was given to the natives. The natives are very subject to epidemic
influenza, which they call 7iruwi.'"'\
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer informs me in a letter that the diseases most prevalent
amongst the blacks are rheumatism of the joints, bronchitis and other affections
of the lungs, dysentery, and syphilis. No doubt, he says, their mode of living
♦ Eastern Australia, vol. u, p. 144. f The Narrini/eri, p. 32.
2l
258 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
tends to induce these diseases. Tliey expose themselves to all kinds of weather ;
they will sleep without any coveriug ; and their conduct in other respects is
such as to bring on diseases of the worst description.
On the Government Stations in Victoria, where considerable numbers of
Aborigines are now located, and where their ailments are treated by profes-
sional gentlemen who report regularly to the Board for the Protection of Abo-
rigines, the most common diseases are catarrhs, influenza, pneumonia, chronic
bronchitis, phthisis, rheumatism, glandular affections, inflammation of the
kidneys or liver, lumbago, tabes mesenterica (in one case with chorea), eczema-
tous affections (as psoriasis, &c.), hydatid tumours in the lungs, &c., low
intermittent fever, oj)hthalmia ; whooping-cough, affecting adults as well as
children ; gonorrhoea, and syphilitic diseases. The natives are not free either
in these establishments from prevailing epidemics, as measles, scarlet fever, &c.
There is one complaint which seems to be indigenous. Collins mentions it.
He says that the natives living on the sea^coast, who feed chiefly on fish, have
a disorder greatly resembling the itch. They term it Djee-ball-djee-ball. It
was sometimes virulent, and those afflicted with it were rendered loathsome.
Mr. Tapliu says this disease amongst the Narrinyeri is called WirruUume, and
resembles pustular itch, but is not communicable to Euro])eans ; even half-castes
seldom have it, although they may sleep with persons suflering from it. The
application of sulphur, he adds, is a specific against the Wirrullume. Mr.
Gason reports that a cutaneous disease, which he thinks is the itch, and called
by the Dieyerie people Wittcka, is prevalent at Cooper's Creek. The symptoms
are innumerable small pimples all over the body, causing considerable irritation,
only to be temporarily allayed by rubbing the parts affected with a sharp
instrument or stone — the hand alone being insufficient to afford relief. It is
very contagious, si^reading from one person throughout the camp, and is
probably caused by a general want of cleanliness and allowing mangy dogs to
lie with them. They are subject to this disease once a year.
The late Mr. Thomas stated that this kind of leprosy, or itch, was called by
the natives of Victoria Buhburum; and that they had it always amongst them.
He knew scarcely one above twelve years of age that was not affected with it.
He added — "All animals, dogs, cats, and even opossums, if kept by the blacks
as pets, are soon affected with it ; the animals lose all their hair, and soon show
only a bare skin."
Boils are common, too, amongst the natives in some parts. Mr. Gason says
that a disease — Mirra — afflicts every native once in his life — sometimes at three
years of age, but more fi-equently at fourteen or thereabouts. The symptoms
are large blind boils, under the arms, in the groin, or on the breast or thighs,
varying in size from a hen's egg to that of an emu's egg. The complaint
endures for mouths, and in some instances for years, before it is eradicated, and
during its presence the patient is generally so much enfeebled as to be unable
to procure food — indeed he is often rendered quite helpless. The only remedy
employed is the application of hot ashes to the parts affected.
Mr. John Green informs me that he has observed the blacks to suffer from
a disease which is obscure in its origin, and develops symptoms not observed
DISEASES. 259
amongst Europeans. A native will sometimes begin to mope. He may have a
slight cold, or there may he nothing in his appearance to indicate any kind of
sickness, but he sits over the fire, and will not move if he can help it. He does
not complain, but he appears to be ill notwithstanding. This may continue for
as long as six weeks. As soon as the lungs are attacked — and, sooner or later,
in all such cases, the lungs begin to exhibit signs of disease — the patient rapidly
sinks and dies. Recoveries, he says, under treatment by Europeans at even an
early stage of the disorder are not common. Sometimes, but rarel}', a black
will recover without medical treatment of any kind.
The Right Reverend Dr. Rosendo Salvado, Bishop of Port Victoria, in a
most interesting and valuable report, addressed to the Honorable the Colonial
Secretary of West Australia, makes mention of a case not very dissimilar to
that just described. He says : — " A strong and healthy young native, who never
in his life knew what strong liquors or European vices were, is admitted into a
private house, mission, or establishment ; for some time he goes on well, gay and
fidl of life ; but in a few months, or perhaps after a couple of years, a fatal
melancholy takes possession of him. Being asked what is the matter with him,
he answers, ' Nothing ! ' 'Do you feel sick ? ' ' No, sir.' ' Do you suffer any
pain ? ' ' No, sir.' * Why are you not so cheerful as before ? ' ' I do not know.'
He takes his meals as regularly as ever, he has no fever, yet he daily and
almost at sight loses his flesh, strength, and health. What is the technical
name of such a disease ? Perhaps consumption, perhaps liver complaint. Let
it be so ; but is there no remedy for such diseases ? Are there no preventives
of their causes ? Yes, there are ; but, nevertheless, that native died shortly
after."
The good bishop consulted several medical gentlemen respecting the
maladies which afflict the natives, but he could get no satisfactory information
as to their origin or the best mode of treatment.
One doctor confessed that, as a general rule, every time he had taken any
sick native under his especial care, he succeeded only, he regretted to say, in
killing him the sooner. Dr. Salvado has observed that when a native has been
under treatment by a medical man in a hospital or a private house, he has
made no improvement, but when consigned to the care of his friends and taken
to the bush, he has rapidly recovered.
It is undoubtedly true that the modes of treatment adopted by Europeans
are not, as a rule, successful, if the black be at all uuder the influence of his
own people. In the first place, there is the feeling of loneliness; he is separated
from his companions, and his spirits droop. Then the old superstitions are
strong upon him. His hair, perhaps, has been cut, his old clothes taken away
from him, and with them probably some valued possession on which his heart
is set. He fears the white man, dreads his medicines, and shrinks from the
outward applications which may, for aught he knows, be possessed of secret
properties that will cause his destruction. He sighs for a return to his old
friends and his old pursuits ; and it is highly probable that he neglects every
precaution that his medical attendant has enjoined as necessary for his recovery.
The European doctor, indeed, is always at a great disadvantage when dealing
260 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
with the natives ; and though medical men are in Victoria most zealous and
painstaking at all the Aboriginal Stations, they are thwarted continually by
the people for whose benefit they use their utmost skill. A blackfellow, sent
to a hospital for treatment, has informed me confidentially that he was being
poisoned. Another has said, " Doctor no good," and some have shown the
strongest predilection fiir quack medicines. Tliey seem to know instinctively
what is genuine and what is not ; and they cling as strongly to the latter as
any of the Europeans. Tliey seem, too, to have the same regard and respect
for irregular practitioners as the whites ; and some will greedily take medicine
from the hands of a person who pretends to a knowledge of physic when they
will actually refuse the draught that medical skill has made ready for their
cure.
Tliey have in their natural state a firm belief in the methods of cure adopted
by their own doctors. Mr. Wilhelmi says that amongst the diseases which
aflSict them most often are " sores, diarrhoea, colds, and headache. For
removing these, or partially curing them for the time, they apply outward
remedies, some of which appear to be elfective. The chief ones are rubbing,
pressing, and treading even upon the afflicted parts of the body, in particular
the belly and the back ; tightening of the belt, and also of the band which they
usually wear roimd the head ; bandaging the diseased part ; sprinkling or wash-
ing it with cold water in case of fever or inflammation. Sores or wounds are
generally left to take their course, or the utmost done is to tie something tight
round them, or, if inflammation has ensued, to sprinkle cold water upon them.
Bleeding of the lower arm they apply in cases of headache. A most extraor-
dinary remedy against headache I saw applied in 1849, in the case of a woman,
who submitted to having her head so cut up by another woman with pieces of
broken glass that the blood actually dropped through her thick bushy hair.
Tlie cure by bleeding is confined to the males only, and is frequently applied
during the hot season. They do not allow the blood to run on the ground, but
upon the body of some other man, directing the ann in such a manner that the
stream forms a number of small cross lines, in consequence of which the body
assumes the appearance of being covered with a tight-fitting network of very
small meshes. The object of the custom partly is, as stated above, to act as a
cure for headache and inflammation, and partly also to promote the growth of
tlie young peojile, and to preserve the strength and vigor of the aged ones.
The women may be present at the operation of bleeding.
Whenever engaged in this or certain other operations, the Witania is put in
motion, to prevent young iinmarried people from unwittingly surprising them.
The natives have also their regular doctors, called Mintapas, who pretend to be
able to remove, by sucking, sickness out of the body. They put their lips to the
jjit of the stomach in case of general disease, and to the sufiering part when
confined to any fixed spot, and, after having sucked for some time, pull out of
their mouths a small inece of wood or bone, pretending that this is the body of
the disease, which had been communicated by some evil-disposed jierson, and
now been extracted by them. So superstitious are these ignorant children of
Nature, that they have the fullest faith in these absurdities, and passionately
DISEASES. 261
defend them against any one expressing the least doubt respecting them, or
hinting even that the Mintapa might have put the piece of wood or bone into
his mouth previoiisly."
The Rev. Mr. Taplin refers to the vigorous squeezings and kneadings of tlie
native doctors. Sometimes a patient will groan when he is under treatment,
so severe are the manipulations, and the cure is indeed often harder to bear
than the rvmirri (disease) itself. For rheumatic affections the Narrinyeri
employ a vapour bath. They heat stones in the same manner as for cooking,
and the patient is placed on a sort of stage made with sticks. Tlie hot stones
are put under the stage, the sick person is covered up with rugs, all but his
head, wet water-weeds are put on the hot stones, and the space below the stage
is made as close as possible. The steam ascends, and soon the sufferer is
enveloped in it. This method is said to be effectual.*
Sometimes their practices are strange enough. Mr. Taplin has seen a grey-
bearded old man, stark naked, performing a solemn dance before his sick son,
singing and beating time with the Tartengk.\ This business will continue
j)erhaps for an hour, the old man being firmly convinced that his labors will
result in a perfect cure. The Kuhlukke — mea-priests, sorcerers, or doctors — are
imposters, and rob the poor natives of their food, in order that they may live
in idleness. They pretend to every kind of skill in treating diseases ; and use
the superstitions of the natives to their own great advantage. And it appears
that the women are the chief supporters and believers in the Kuldukkes.
Without their favor and countenance, the arts and impostures of this class
would fail to support them.
* Mr. F. Hughan, a gentleman well acquainted with the habits of the natives of the Lower
Jlurray, has sent me the following statement : — " A great number of the natives belonging to the
tribe best known to me suffered very much from internal complaints, and swellings or tumours
in the side, these latter being sometimes of a considerable size. By way of relieving or curing
these complaints, I have seen the blacks resort to bleeding by suction, and also to a system of steam-
bathing, which was practised as follows : — A hole was dug in the ground about a foot deep, at the
bottom of which was laid lighted bark, and on the fire damp leaves were placed to a level with the
top of the excavation ; over the hole the patient was placed in a state of nudity. The portion of
the body affected being immediately over the leaves, which, acted on by the heat of the fire, emitted
a steam, which was not permitted to escape, as opossum rugs were heaped on the doctored individual,
who was thereby subjected to the influences of a bath, which could hardly fail in causing perspira-
tion to burst from every pore of the patient in unmistakable quantities. Whether any radical good
was effected I cannot say. One case of doctoring, on the principle of counter-irritation, I was
witness to, and felt thankful that no such remedial measures were required on my own account.
In the employ of a settler on the Lower Jlurriiy was a man named Abel, and at the time of which
I write he was suffering from a very severe attack of sandy blight, and no means adopted by him
to obtain relief were successful. Amongst the blacks on the station was one who went by the
euphonious name of ' Dicky the Lawyer,' and this worthy undertook to cure Abel, providing the
latter would undergo the operation proposed by the legal darkie, Abel did consent, hopeful of
obtaining relief ; and having an idea that Uicky might, after all, be in the possession of something
which would cure the really terrible pain he (.Vbel) was suffering. Dicky having plucked some hair
from his head, placed it in his mouth, and grinding it between his teeth, he, in course of time, reduced
it to fine particles. After doing this he placed Abel in a standing position against the wall of the
hut, and then with the finger and thumb of e.ich band he opened the eyes of Abel, into which he
suddenly spurted the hair from his month, a proceeding which, to all appearance, caused Abel the
most acute agony, for he dropped to the floor, and absolutely rolled about with the pain, until it
had somewhat subsided. Whether due to Dicky's peculiar practice, or to some other cause, I cannot
say ; at all events, from that out, Abel's eyes improved rapidly until they were perfectly restored."
t The two waddies knocked together on such occasions arc named Tartengk
2G2 THE ABOEIGLNES OF VICTORIA:
The doctors {Koonkie) of the Dieyerie people are like the Kuldukkes of the
Narrinyeri. They are chosen apparently partly by the suffrages of the people,
but a Koonkie must have seen the devil {Kootchee) before he is eligible for
election. Mr. Gason relates how a man or a woman becomes a doctor. If any
among the young have had nightmare or an unpleasant dream, the particulars
are stated to the tribe, and if they are satisfied that the young person has seen
the devil, election to the office of Koonkie is at once approved of. The males,
however, are not allowed to practise until after initiation. Indeed they are not
deemed proficient until they have undergone the rites and ceremonies appro-
priate to that event. When any one is ill, the Koonkie examines him, feels the
parts affected, and rubs them and sucks them until he ascertains the cause of
the injury. He then retires. During his absence he provides himself with a
piece of wood about one or two inches in length, and at once returns to the
camp, where he procures a lump of red-hot charcoal. He rubs the charcoal in
his hands to warm them, and he feels the disordered parts again ; and, after a
little manoeuvring, he seems to bring out the piece of stick (which he had
provided himself with) from the patient's body. This causes great rejoicing,
and all believe in the skill of the Koonkie. He repeats this performance,
bringing out of the body twine, or charcoal, or whatever he may have had an
opportunity of jjrocuring with the least trouble. Mr. Gason has seen a native
who was quite ill actually cry for Koonkie, and, after being treated in this
manner, appear to recover. Should the patient not recover, Koonkie tells the
people that some Koonkie of another tribe, possessing more skill, has taken
away from him the power that was given by the devil ; and every one is
satisfied. When a Koonkie is ill, he calls in another Koonkie to practise on
him. Mr. Gason adds that the Dieyerie natives treat sores, cuts, bruises, and
the like, if slight, by applying dirt to the part affected, and, if severe, hot
ashes. In cases of any kind of sting, leaves of bushes, heated at the fire,
are applied to the part stung. The leaves are made quite hot — as hot aa
the patient can bear them, and the cure is said to be effectual.
Mr. Stanbridge found the like practices to prevail amongst the natives of
the north-western parts of Victoria. The doctor receives his special gifts while
in a trance, lasting two days or more, when he visits the world of spirits. He
is more reasonable in some respects than the doctors of the Lower Murray, Port
Lincoln, and Cooper's Creek. He occasionally administers a decoction of a
fleshy-rooted geranium, the only root used medicinally; but, like them, he bleeds
in the arm with a sharp flint. Incantations, however, to which all maladies
are ascribed, are likewise the most powerful curatives. Mr. Stanbridge de-
scribes the operations of the doctors : — " The patient is seated in front of the
operator, who utters a monotonous chant, makes passes by drawing his hands
downwards over the part affected, and at intervals rubbing and blowing upon it.
At the conclusion, supposing the disorder to be rheumatism, hot ashes are
applied ; but as incantation loses its power by the presence of a third person,
it is very seldom, and only by accident, that the ceremony is witnessed." *
* The Aborigines of Victoria, by W. E. Stanbridge.
DISEASES, 263
The natives of the Macleay River (Queensland) bleed themselves, and cook
and eat the blood, which they believe will cure them of all ailments. The
bleeding is carefully done, a piece of broken sheU being used as the cutting
instrument. Another revolting practice is mentioned as common amongst the
Macleay River tribes in cases of illness : — " The wife or gin of the sick man
procures a hollow conjeboi leaf, and a strong piece of string made of opossum
fur closely twisted ; she then draws the string violently backwards and forwards
against her gums, until they are terribly lacerated and bleed profusely. She
Bpits out the blood, as it exudes, into the conjeboi leaf, and continues to saw
her gums until she has obtained a considerable quantity of blood, which is then
swallowed by the sick man." *
Belief and hope are often more powerful in their effects than the medicines
of the pharmacopoeia. The native believes in the curative properties of his
vapour bath, his decoction of geranium, his bleedings, his kneadings and
pressings and treadings ; the sucking of the parts affected ; the existence of
pieces of wood or twine or bone in his body ; in the power of the doctor to
extract them, and in the wild incantations and dances of the old men ; and the
hope which is engendered by his unfaltering faith strengthens him, and he
recovers.
Absurd as many of their practices may seem, revolting as some of them are,
they are not more absurd or revolting than the methods of cure adopted by the
more ignorant among the peasants of Europe.
Tlie following letters relating to the diseases of the Aborigines appeared in
the first report of the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines : —
District Police Court,
Sir, Melbourne, 8th November 1860.
. I have the honor to forward reply to your communication of the 1 3th ultimo,
touching the diseases most common to Aborigines and mortality among them.
1. Although the Aborigines of this colony are liable to the usual diseases
of Europeans, I invariably found, years back, that they seldom had the common
diseases, as rheumatism, &c., to the extent Europeans have. Yet, I may state
that eight-tenths of the mortality among the Aborigines of Victoria arises
through intemperance, bringing on pulmonary disorders, pleurisy, pneumonia,
disorders of the chest, consumption, &c., which carry them off so sj)eedily that
the ablest medical treatment, when available, seldom saves them. I may safely
state, that when their respiratory organs are once affected, recovery becomes
hopeless. I have witnessed this so invariably within the last ten years as to
look forward for death as soon as they are afflicted in the chest.
2. The Aborigines, however, were not so affected in their respiratory organs
years back as at present ; they have only been carried off so precipitately since
they have become slaves to intoxicating liquors. I have known blacks, years
back, to labor under diseases of the lungs for nine or more months, but now
seldom so many weeks, and often not so many days.
* From Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, by C. Hodgkinson, 1845, p. 228.
264 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
3. There is a peculiarity even in their pulmonary disorders not usual in the
European ; there is not that straining, distressing cough which Europeans labor
under ; the phlegm comes free without much exertion and pain to the invalid,
hut accompanied with blood.
4. Wounds, of whatever kind, which do not affect a vital part are more
readily cured than in the case of white people. I have seen most desperate
wounds inflicted by their weapons (that would have kept Europeans for months
invalids) healed in an incredible short time, to the astonishment of medical
men. Wounds, whether by accident or otherwise, are immediately attended to
by their doctors ; if in the fleshy part of the body, they suck the blood from the
wound, and continue sucking until blood ceases to be extracted. If little blood
comes from the wound, they know all is not right, and will put the patient to
pain by probing the wound with their lancet (a sharj) bone), or place the body
in that position so as to compress the opposite part to force blood. Tliey know
well the consequence of stagnant blood or matter, especially in the upper i)art
of the body. When the wound is thoroughly clean, they leave the rest to
nature, and place a lump of pridgerory (a kind of wax oozing from trees) on
the wound ; should there follow a gathering, they open the wound afresh, and
see all right, and again cover it over with pridgerory.
5. Their general remedy is friction. If very severe about the thighs or legs,
the doctor gets a good mound of hot ashes prepared, made solely from bark
which is without grit ; the patient is laid on his belly, and the doctor rubs most
unmercifully the hot ashes on the part afiected, as a butcher would in saltiug
meat; if in the thighs or legs, the patient is put into the mound of heated ashes
nearly up to his knees, where he sits whilst the doctor is rubbing with hot aslies
the parts affected. During this process the doctor is incantating, blowing
occasionally a portion of the dust into the air with a hissing noise. When
sufficiently operated upon, the invalid is wrapped up in his blanket.
6. Tlie blacks treat boils and swellings thus: when hard, they lotion the
part well with decoction of wattle bark ; when obstinate, they boil wild marsh-
mallow, and poultice — if it softens and does not break, they apply their sharp
bone-lancet.
7. The Aborigines are deeply afflicted with a disorder called by them bub-
burum ; white men call it itch, but it is in no way like it : it appears as raised
dark scabs, and spreads, joining each other, until they cover almost all the lower
extremities ; it seldom affects the head or upper parts, but I have known it
almost cover the thighs and legs, so that the afflicted one could with difficulty
move about. The native cure for this distemper is every night and morning to
grease the parts affected with wheerup (a red-ochre) mixed with decoction of
wattle bark. I knew one instance of this disease becoming most distressing to
a white man, in a respectable position, who was contiaually cohabiting with
black lubras.
8. Through their imprudence and carelessness they often get severe
burns, wliich they cure by dabbing the parts over with melted fat, after-
wards dash the parts affected with a puff made of opossum fui- and the dust
of wheerup.
DISEASES. 265
9. The Aborigines of Australia are very subject to dysentery, but not to the
fatal extent as Europeans : their remedy for this disorder is drinking plentifully
of the decoction of wattle bark and eating gum in the day, and pills night and
morning made by themselves of wattle bark and gum.
10. If of long standing, the patient is compelled to lie on the back; the native
doctor places his foot on the patient's ear, and presses this organ until water
literally gushes from the patient's eyes ; however rough the treatment, I have
known this operation to give relief, and the patient to be cured.
11. Tlie blacks study much the color of the spittle in those afiected in the
lungs, and know well its stages. Wlien the patient begins to expectorate blood,
much attention is paid him ; should this increase, which is generally the case,
the doctors hold a consultation, and when once a consultation is held the doctors
will not allow the patient to take any more medicine from the whites. The
invalid is laid on his back and held firm by three or four blacks, whilst the
native doctor keeps continually pressing with his feet, and even jumping on his
belly. I need scarcely state that this cruel practice brings on premature death.
12. Though this disease (venereal) in the first instance must have been con-
tracted from the whites, the native doctors have prescribed a cure which,
though simple, has proved efficacious : they boil the wattle bark tQl it becomea
very strong, and use it as a lotion to the parts afi"ected. I can state from
my own personal knowledge of three Goulburn blacks, having this disease so
deeply rooted in them that tlie then colonial surgeon, Dr. Cousin, on examin-
ing them, said life could not be saved unless they entered the hospital and
had an operation performed, which they would not consent to ; after eighteen
months these three blacks returned to Melbourne among the tribes (two were
young and the other middle-aged) perfectly cured, and the blacks assured me
that they had only used the wattle bark lotion. Dr. WUmot, our late coroner,
also saw these three blacks whilst in this state, and after their soundness, and
in his report upon the Aborigines stated : " However violent the disease may
appear among Aborigines that it could not enter into their system, as it did in
European constitutions."
13. In the Aboriginal primitive state, in times of sickness, as influenza or
other diseases prevalent, they invariably carried fire about with them wherever
they went on thick pieces of bark which they provided for the day's journey.
14. The Aboriginal doctor's treatment in fevers is strictly the cold water
system, no matter what kind of fever it may be, accompanied with prohibition
of animal food. The doctors have a quantity of water by them, fill their mouths
full, and spurt it over the whole of the patient's body, back and front, and for a
considerable time on the navel, then with their hands throw it over face and
breast, then lay the patient on the back, breathe and blow on the navel, incan-
tating continually while operating. K the patient be young, the doctor will
carry him and plunge him into the river or creek ; the adult patient will volun-
tarily plunge himself in three or four times a day. The blacks obstinately
persist in this mode of treatment, although they find death generally the result.
I was not a little surprised to find many years back that this was also the mode
of treatment adopted by the natives of the South Sea Islands. I was called
2 M
266
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
to witness their habits, when a party of them were enticed over by the late
Mr. Boyd. They were located at Mr. Fennel's (Mr. Boyd's agent), on the
banks of the Yarra ; as soon as fever attacked them, they crept to the banks
of the Yarra and plunged themselves in three or four times a day.
15. I attach to this report on the diseases of the Aborigines the opinion of
twenty-nine gentlemen, situated in various parts of the colony, who, one and
all, bear testimony to the awful mortality among them, the following opinions
of the cause : —
Names of
the Gentlemen
confluUed.
Diseases.
Names of
the Gentlemen
consulted.
Diseases.
Mr. Orr -
Venereal
Mr. Gilles
Intemperance
Mr. Lane -
Scorbutic
Mr. Strutt
Intemperance and violence
Mr. Templeton -
Intemperance and venereal
Mr. Allan
Influenzji, inflammation of
Mr. Sherard
Intemperance and exposure
lungs, venereal
Mr. Shuter
Consumption and decline
Mr. Godfrey -
Drunkenness, consumption.
Mr. Wilson -
Intemperance and exposure
venereal
Mr. Fisken
Bronchitis, pericarditis, psori-
Mr. Gottreux -
Bronchitis, afiection of the chest
asis, and intemperance
Mr. Currie
Pulmonary complaints, intem-
Mr. McLcod
Intemperance and exposure
perance
Mr. Ormond
Consumption, venereal, in-
Mr. Lydiard -
Syphilis, intemperance, rheu-
temperance
matism
Mr. Cooke
Sypliilis
Mr. Stewart -
Consumption, intemperance
Mr. Aitken
Liver complaints, intempe-
Mr. MitcheU -
Pulmonary consumption, ve-
rance, rheumatism
nereal
Mr. Skene
Syphilis, consumption, rheu-
Mr. Cooke
Consumption and old age
•
matism
Mr. Huon -
Influenza, intemperance
Mr.Bereridge -
Pulmonary consumption, ve-
Mr. WiUs-
Intemperance, gun shot
nereal
wounds, venereal
Mr. Allen -
Influenza
Mr.Featherston-
Pulmonary consumption, ve-
Mr. Craig -
Influenza, consumption, in-
haugh
nereal
temperance
Mr. Lewes
Atrophy, influenza
16. A return from a public hospital I deem would be a fair criterion for the
Central Board, embracing the two points, mortality and disease.
Eeturn of Aboriginal Natives admitted into the Melbourne Hospital from
1st January to 8th November 1860 : —
Date.
Name.
Tribe.
Disease.
Bemarks.
April 17 -
Tommy Buckley -
Gippsland
Burnt back - - .
Discharged July 20
July 4
Maria - - .
Yarra
Pneumonia . - -
„ 24
Sept. 14 -
James Shaw-
Hopkins Kiver -
Pleurisy, phthisis -
Died October 20
„ 18 -
Sandy - - .
Sydney
Pneumonia and phthisis -
„ Sept. 25
Oct. 30
Tommy Buckley -
Gippsland
Pleurisy and phthisis
„ Nov. 2
„ 30 -
Tommy Mannering
Yarra
Pneumonia and phthisis -
tt >r '
Four deaths and two discharged.
I have, Ac,
(Signed)
WiLLLiM Thomas.
DISEASES. 267
Church Mission Station, Yelta, Lower Murray,
Gentlemen, 26th November 1860.
In reply to the communication of your secretary bearing date the 15th
October, I have the honor to inform you that I have no statistics of the diseases
prevalent amongst the Aborigines ; of ten that have died here during the last
four years, there have died of consumption, three ; of debility and purulent
scabies, one ; inflammation of lungs, one ; hardening of the stomach, one ;
venereal, &c., one ; old age, two ; and one from a spear wound. The three first
were men, the second a boy, the others women, with the exception of the one
speared, who was an elderly man.
I do not feel qualified to draw up a special report upon the subject, but, for
the information of your Board, will mention the diseases which I have observed
to be most prevalent amongst the Aborigines in this district.
I will first state that the treatment I adopt is the homoeopathic, the
medicines being administered in a solution of the tincture or the crude drug in
suitable doses. In all curable cases this treatment has been invariably suc-
cessful, and in the face of many disadvantages, smoking, unsuitable diet, and
such like.
The medical treatment the Aborigines get generally is very little. At the
various stations salts is the almost universal remedy for all their complaints,
and, I doubt not, is often the source of much after-suffering to them, producing
haemorrhoids, &c.
Inflammation of the lungs is of frequent occurrence, and, when not fatal in
itself, is generally the commencement of pulmonary affections, which terminate
fatally after a year or two of lingering sickness.
The violent exertion they undergo at corrobborees, combined with sleeping
upon wet ground, causes them to take cold, which generally produces inflam-
mation of the lungs ; this affection being more frequent in the summer, when
they make their camps upon the flooded ground, and sleep upon it almost as
soon as the water is off — the coolness and moisture being grateful to them at
the time ; this I think is one fruitful cause of their sicknesses. Influenza is
prevalent amongst them at times, generally at the commencement of winter and
at its close. It has proved fatal in several cases. Where it has been combined
with inflammation of the lungs or enlargement of the liver, I have known a few
cases which terminated fatally in each instance.
Dropsy is not unfrequent. I know of one case in which the woman, after
lying for some months very ill and becoming of a great size, recovered, and is
now her usual size and free from the disease. As she was not at this station, I
had no opportunity of administering medicine to her. A man died of this
complaint a few months since, about twenty miles above Euston.
Heart Disease. — TSvo men died last summer at a station on the Darling, and
their deaths were attributed to this disease.
Apoplexy. — I have known one well-marked instance, and the two cases
above mentioned may have been similar instances. Sudden deaths are not
unfrequent.
268 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Paralysis is not uncommon. I know of two instances in this neighbourhood —
both men, who lost the use of one side and the power of speech. Tlie one
recovered his speech after a few months ; and, later, the use of his limbs. Tlie
other is still speechless, and his leg and side are quite paralysed. Another
instance, which occurred about two years ago, was a young man at this station,
who was suddenly paralysed in one arm, and lost both hearing and speech, but
in about a month fully recovered without any medical treatment, and he has
had no repetition of the attack.
Rheumatism is very common ; I think very few are free from it. I have
afforded them temporary relief at times by giving them an embrocation of
turpentine and oil.
Diarrhoea, which sometimes results in dysentery, is at times prevalent,
especially at the time when certain native berries are in season. The usual
homoeopathic remedies have invariably counteracted the disease.
Chronic Diarrhoea. — I have met with several instances which, from the
irregularity of the patients' diet and other causes, have been very difficult to
cure. These complaints, combined with the very injudicious and frequent use
of salts, are the fearful cause of hajmorrhoids.
Skin Disease (a virulent pustular scabies) is very common, and often very
troublesome. It generally succumbs to sulphur, or, in very severe cases, to
sulphur and mercury. Tliis complaint, when combined with a weakly state of
body, sometimes proves fatal ; it then forms a crust over the whole skin, and is
exceedingly painful and itchy, and is accompanied with fever. I know one case,
a weakly boy of about twelve years of age, in which death ensued from its
effects. It arises principally from filth, and is propagated by contact.
Hardening and Enlargement of the Stomach. — Tliis is a disease that appears
to be peculiar to this people. The stomach becomes perfectly hard ; at first it
feels about the size of the fist, but it gradually enlarges to a great size. Tlie
limbs and body waste away to a mere skeleton ; the appetite is voracious, with
a great craving for meat, though the patient is able to eat but little at a time,
and the food seems to afibrd no nourishment ; great debility ensues, and the
patient dies after lingering perhaps a year, or even two. I have not been able to
find a cure for it, though I have often relieved it for a time by the use of medi-
cine and nourishing diet. A medical friend has treated one case by the external
application of iodine with some little benefit, but without eflPecting a cure. The
patient, I hear, is now near death. He pronounces the complaint incurable.
Men and women are alike subject to it ; the cases I have met with have been
persons in the prime of life. No post-mortem examination has been made in
any case, so that little is known of the peculiar features of the disease, or its
cause. It would be interesting and useful to anatomize a case ; but I fear the
prejudices of the people would be opposed to anything of the kind.
Venereal is not so frequent amongst the men as is generally supposed. I
have seen very few cases, but I believe many of the young women, and even
girls, are afflicted with it. I have seen on the Darling several severe cases.
The young women and girls are sought after by the white men, who suffer very
severely for their folly and wickedness. The women, when very bad, abstain
DISEASES. 269
from animal food, and live chiefly on vegetable diet, and generally get round
after a short time, though I should not say that they were cured. They rarely
apply for medicine for it, except in very severe cases.
In conclusion, I would remark that the sexual excess which the present
generation of Aborigines indulge in renders them weak in constitution and
deficient in stamina, and consequently more Liable to disease and less able to
bear it. The present generation is not equal to the former. The old people are
finer, stronger, and better able to endure fatigue. As one remarked to me
a short time since, " in former times, before whitefellow come, blackfellow
could run like emu ; but now, supposing big one run, then big one tired, and
plenty heart jump about : not always like that blackfellow."
Many of their best customs and most stringent rules in regard to the young
people have been weakened and broken by the introduction of the evil habits
of vicious white men ; and the young men, being more intelligent, pay less
regard to the old men, and follow their own sexual desires to the full extent.
The young women are even more sensuous and reckless of future consequences.
I am not aware that complaints common to Europeans exhibit any marked
difference upon the Aboriginal constitution.
The universal belief that all sickness is caused by witchcraft, worked by one
of another tribe, has often an injurious effect, and I think sometimes hastens the
disease to a fatal termination.
Trusting these few remarks will be useful to your Board, in assisting them
to reply to the questions of the Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the
Colonies.
I have, &c.,
Thos. Hill Goodwin.
Sriiss antl In'Konal ©rnanunls.
«K7r)^«
The coverings and ornaments used and worn by the Australian natives — ^male
and female — are fully described in the notes prepared at my request by the
late Mr. William Thomas, and in the letters and memorandums furnished in
reply to questions put by me, by Mr. John Green, of Coranderrk, the Rev. Mr.
Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, in Gippsland, and Dr. Giuiimow, J.P., of Swan Hill.
The males paid attention to their weapons rather than to their dress ; and
the females relied more on the attractions presented by their forms unadorned
than on the necklaces and feathers which they carried. The proper arrangement
of their apparel, the ornamentation of their persons by painting, and attention
to deportment, were important only when death struck down a warrior, when
war was made, or when they assembled for a corrobboree.
In ordinary life little attention was given to the ornamenting of the person.
Different from the women of Polynesia, the Australian females seem to have
no love for flowers. The rich blossoms of red, purple, and yellow, so abundant
in the forests, are never, or very rarely, twined in their hair, or worn in rich
garlands around the neck: nor do they deck themselves with the bright plumage
of birds. A warrior may wear a plume, but his daughters are content with
the grey, hair-like feathers of the emu for the slight covering which decency
demands. Nor did they use in Victoria — as far as I can gather — the gaily-
colored shells of the sea-shore for necklaces, as the Tasmanians did.*
The men had no ear-rings of gold, nor armlets of silver : none of the metals
were known to them ; and no precious stone — not a piece of jade even — was
worn by them : yet their rugs of skin ; their aprons of feathers or skins ; their
necklaces of reeds or teeth ; their head-bands of fibre ; their dresses of boughs
for the dance — are not without interest.
I believe I have gathered together all that is known of the dress and orna-
ments of this people ; and my correspondents have been careful in making
enquiries and exact in giving information. The dress and ornaments of the
Aborigines of the Yarra tribe were, according to the information afforded by
the late Mr. Thomas, as follows : —
• The Tasmanian necklace is described elsewhere. The late Mr. Thomas states in one of his
papers (referred to in another part of this work) that Aboriginal girls are sometimes decked with
flowers when they dance together. I have never seen the natives use flowers for ornamenting their
persons. Careful enquiries have been made, and it would appear that they are not so used com-
monly in any part of Australia.
DEESS AND PERSONAL OENAMENTS.
271
1. The opossum rug, called Waller-wal-lert. It hung loosely about the
body, had a knot at each upper corner, and was fastened by a small stick thrust
through holes made by the bone-needle — Min^der-ynin. It could be cast off in
a moment. It was carried or worn when travelling, but in the camp it was
usually kept in the miam. In making an opossum rug some skill and know-
ledge are employed. In the first place, it is necessary to select good, sound,
well-clothed skins. These, as they are obtained, are stretched on a piece of
bark, and fastened down by wooden or bone pegs, and kept there until they are
dry. They are then well scraped with a mussel-shell or a chip of basalt, dressed
into proper shape, and sewTi together. In sewing them the natives worked from
the left to the right — not as Europeans do — and the holes were made with the
bone awl or needle, and instead of thread they used the sinews of some animal
— most often the sinews of the tail of the kangaroo.
The rug was usually ornamented on the inside. Lines straight, of herring-
bone pattern, or sometimes representing men and animals, were drawn with a
sharp bone-needle, and filled in with color.
2. The band around the forehead, called Leek-leek. In this band is placed a
feather from the native companion, the eagle, or the lyre-bird. Sometimes the
native put his tomahawk, or some other small article, in this band; but the
tomahawk was usually carried in the belt that is worn about the waist.
The Leek-leek was usually made of the sinews of the tail of the kangaroo,
but often of the sinews of other animals, if these could not be obtained. The
Leek-leek was fashioned by the women, as a rule ; but yoxmg men often amused
themselves by making this ornament.
3. The bone, or a piece of reed, worn in the septum of the nose, caUed
Noute-komer. The bone of some animal — generally a bone somewhat curved —
three or more inches in length, was passed through a hole made in the septum
of the nose, and carried joyfully, as something likely to gain favor with both
sexes.
4. The reed-necklace. Reeds cut into short pieces — of different lengths and
different diameters — were strung on twine made of the wool of the opossum, or
of some fibre, and hung round the neck in many folds, falling in some cases
quite down to the chest. The reed-necklace was called Kourn-hurt. Another
necklace, worn sometimes, was made of the sinews of the legs of the emu.
This was formed into a kind of net, and was called Kour-ur-run.
5. The ornaments worn around the loins. Strips of the skin of some animal,
fashioned as shown in Fig. 22, :
were tied with some fibre around
the loins, so as to conceal the
lower parts of the body in front
and behind. These ornaments
were called Murri-guile.
6. The band around the arm, called Yel-un-ket-ur-uk. A band made of the
skin of a small flying squirrel {Tuirirtuin) was fastened around the arm to give
strength.
272 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
7. The hunger-belt. The native used occasionally a belt, made of the skin
of the native dog {Wer-rev^Willum), which was worn round the waist, and so
arranged as to admit of its being tightened when required. The fur of the
animal was outside, and the skin pressed against the body. This belt was called
Ber-buk, and it was used chiefly when travelling rapidly, or on some expedition
requiring secresy, in the course of which the native might have difficulty in pro-
curing food or water. When oppressed by hunger, the belt was tightened.
In traversing country occupied by a hostile tribe, the native might be afraid
of even taking an opossum from a tree. The noise made by cutting steps
with his tomahawk would be sufficient to attract attention in a still night.
Fearful and anxious, yet bent on performing what he conceived to be his duty,
resortiuo' to many stratagems — walking backwards in soft sand or loamy
ground ; crouching in the day time, and making rapid journeys in the night —
hunger and thirst would have overcome him but for his belt. Tightening it
more and more, and having still a craving appetite, he would doubtless deal
with his enemy, when he found him, with less mercy by reason of such
sufl'erings.*
llr. Thomas has given but little information respecting the dress and
ornaments of the females. In his notes I find that the band tied round the
forehead of the females was called Murra-hul. It was made of the fur of the
opossum or the hair of the native cat. The fur was twisted into threads by the
hand, in the same manner as the material for net-bags was prepared.
The young females wore, not as a garment but for preserving decency, a skirt
or girdle (composed of the fur of the opossum) called by them Leek-leek.
The Til-bur-nin, or apron (Fig. 23), worn by adult females when dancing,
is made of the feathers of the emu. The feathers are attached to a strong
cord, generally made of the sinews of the tail of the kangaroo, and they are
worked in, six or more together, by tine sinews or fine cord made either of some
fibre or of the far of the opossum. It forms a thick but short apron, in
length six feet or more, and when wound round the waist descends not quite half-
way to the knee. It is fastened by a knot. One specimen in my possession is
very well fashioned. The cord, made of the far of the opossum, is double, and
the shafts of the feathers are bound and secured to the cord by extremely fine
* Speaking of the Moors of Africa, Winwood Reade says that they are remarkably hardy, and
can pass days without eating or drinking. On such occasions they wear, like the Red Indians,
a hunger-belt, which they gradually tighten. — Savage Africa, by W. Winwood Reade, p. 444.
DEESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS. 273
sinews. Tlie whole is neatly wrought, and the feathers are so arranged as to
hang graceftilly, even when the cord is twisted.*
Tlie kangaroo bag, carried by the males, sheltered them from storms at times,
and therefore may be described here. Tlie large kangaroo bag, Bool-la-min-in
or Moo-gro-moo-gro, is used and carried by the males only. When not engaged
in hunting, the Aboriginal keeps his tools and implements in this bag, his
Leange-walert, teeth of animals, mussel-shells, bits of quartz and black basalt,
&c., &c. When engaged in hunting, he starts in the morning with the bag
almost empty. It contains only his tomahawk, waddy, and wouguim ; and all
the game he secures during the day is put into the bag. If successful, he has
a heavy load to carry back to his miam, the bag itself not being very light.
The bag is made of the skin of the kangaroo, which is taken from oiF the
animal with the greatest care, cleaned with a basalt-chip and mussel-shell, and
stretched on pegs and dried in the sun. The ends are brought together and
tied with strings made of grass, and a grass rope is attached to the ends, so as
to enable him to sling the bag over his shoulder. The kangaroo-skin bag is
now rarely seen south of the River Murray.
Mr. John Green says the full dress of an Aboriginal man, when prepared for
the dance in the corrobboree, was as follows : — Aromid the head and crossing
tlie forehead a piece of the skin of the ringtail opossum was worn, the orna-
ment being called by them Jerr-nging ; a feather of the tail of the lyre-bird
was inserted between the band and the forehead (named Kan-kano), and around
the neck and the biceps of each arm were worn ornaments made of reeds, like
necklaces (Tarr-goorrn). Suspended from the loins by a cord, and hanging in
front, was a strip of opossum skin {Barran-jee])). Each ankle was decorated
with small boughs {Jerrang), and in the hands were held two sticks (Xanaik)
for beating time. The body was painted with white clay. The double line of
horizontal stripes on the chest was named Bikamnop, and the straight lines
from the cord around the loins to the ankles were called Bcek-jerrang.
The ornaments worn by a female of the Yarra tribe were few and simple.
In the septum of the nose was inserted a piece of the bone of the leg of a
kangaroo, called Ellcjerr ; around the neck was worn a very long reed-necklace
{Tarr-goorrn), and around tlie loins was fastened the usual apron made of emu
feathers and sinews, called Jerr-barr-ning {Til-bur-7iiri).
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer has given me a descrijition of the ornaments which
were worn by the natives of Gippsland in the olden time. The natives, he says,
were fond of ornaments of their own manufacture, and, not able to decorate
themselves with articles made of gold, silver, or other metals, or with precious
stones, they strove to make their appearance agreeable by using such adorn-
ments as the materials within their reach enabled them to fashion. Round the
forehead {Nern) the males wore a piece of network, made of the fibre obtamed
from the bark of a small shrub which grows plentifully near Lake Tyers. Tlie
length of the band was from nine inches to one foot, and the breadth about two
* The ancient Egyptians used tlie Til-bur-nin. Young girls wore "a girdle, or rope, of twisted
hair, leather, or other materials, decorated with shells, round the hips." — The Ancient Egyptians.
Wilkinson, toI. li., p. 335.
2k
274 THE ABOEIGESTES OF VICTORIA:
inches. It was called Jimbirn. It was worn sometimes by females, but very
seldom ; and was always regarded as belonging to men. Tlie Jimbirn was
useful as well as ornamental, as it kept the hair from falling over the eyes.*
To the Jimbirn was attached an ornament, made of the teeth of the kangaroo —
Nerndoa jirrah {nerndoa, teeth ; jirrah, kangaroo) — and string formed of the
wool of the opossum, which was so arranged as to cause the teeth to hang on
each temple. At the back of the head was suspended from tlie string which
fastened the Jimbirn a wild dog's tail — Wreka baanda {wreka, tail ; baanda,
dog). This nuich resembled the cue, which was thought becoming some few
years ago in Europe. Over the ears and pointing to the front was placed the
fur of the tips of the ears of a native bear (Koola), called by the natives Kirianga
Koola. Over the forehead was worn sometimes the feather of the eagle, a tuft
of emu feathers, or the crest of a cockatoo. This ornament answers to the tuft
of feathers with which military men decorate their hats and helmets. The hair
was always well greased, and plentifully sprinkled with ruddle, called by the
natives Ni-Je. Mr. Buhner says he has never seen any ear-ornaments. They
never, he thinks, pierced the ears. But it was considered proper to bore the
septum of the nose. Indeed it was ordained that the septum should be pierced,
and that each person should wear in it a piece of bone, a reed, or the stalk of
some grass, the name of the ornament being Boon-joon. The old men used to
predict to those who were averse to this mutilation all kinds of evUs. If it
were omitted at the proper time, the sinner would sutler — not in this world, but
in the next. As soon as ever the sjiirit — Ngowk — left the body, it would be
required, as a punishment, to eat Toorta gmanang (filth — not proper for trans-
lation). To avert a punishment so horrible, each one gladly submitted, and
his or her nose was pierced accordingly.! Around the neck were worn a few
* The fillet was used by the Egyptians, but whether to bind the natural hair or the wig is not
clear. — (See Wilkinson ; The Ancient Eijt/plians, vol. ii., p. 325.)
The ChaIJa;ans wore " a band of camel's hair — the germ of the turban which has now become
universal throughout the East."
Amongst the Assyrians, " if the hair was very luxuriant, it was confined by a band or fillet,
which was generally tied behind the back of the head" (like the Egyptian fillet).
The rich worshippers who brought offerings to the gods in Babylonia " had a fillet, or head-
band — not a turban — round the head." — RawUnson : The Five Great Monarchies of the A/icient
Eastern World.
Some of the Ancient Persians wore round the head a twisted band, which resembled a rope.
The Greeks and the Romans wore fillets.
Dido bids Barce bind her head in these words —
" Tuque ipsa pia tege tempora vitta."
The infulae and vittae — a sort of white fillets — were used in Roman sacrifices.
The Italian lista, the French bande, and the English bandeau, or brow-band, are little different
from the Aboriginal head-band. Shoemakers wear a band round the head, so as to keep the hair
from falling over their eyes when they are at work ; and until lately the bandeau was worn by
English ladies. It is certain that the Jimbirn is more ancient than these.
t It is very singular, says Mr. Bulmer, that the natives, who have no form of religion, should
have a distinct idea of a spirittial existence. They think that the soul, as soon as it leaves the
l'o<ly> goKs off to the east, where there is a land abounding in sow-thistles (Tliallak), which the
departed eat and live. The spirits are sometimes prevented from reaching the happy land by the
moon, which devours them if they encounter it, and indeed feeds on str.ay mortals and spirits of
departed men and women. When the moon is red, they see proof that it has eaten plentifuUy of its
favorite food.
DEESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS. 275
strings of beads, made of reeds called Thaqui, or of opossum fur (K>/oonri).
Wrapped around the right arm were worn a few strips of the skin of the ring-
tail opossum ( Yunda-bla-ang). This list includes all the ordinary articles of
adornment used by the natives of Gippsland.
Mr. Bulmer once asked a native why he wore such things, and he re2ilied
that he wore them in order to look well, and to make himself agreeable to the
women — -a motive that, in Mr. Bulmer's opinion, is not confined to the blacks.
Many will agree with Mr. Bulmer.
When prepared for the corrobboree, the men had suspended from their waist-
belts bunches of strijis of skin, both before and behind ; but usually they had
no covering of any sort. What they did wear was not as clothing, but as
ornament. They painted themselves for this dance. Ordinarily, they smeared
their cheeks with ruddle, but for the dance they painted their bodies. Tliey
seemed to desire to make themselves as hideous as jiossible. They marked each
rib with a streak of white pipeclay {marld), and streaks were drawn on their
legs and arms and on their faces, so as to make themselves ajipear, in the
flickering and flaming of the camp-fires, as moving skeletons. Mr. Bulmer
believes that they so painted their bodies with the design of making them-
selves terrible to the beholders, and not beautiful or attractive. An Australian
native is wise : that man who could make himself appear very hideous at a
corrobboree — who could by his art attract all eyes — was not likely to be
forgotten on the next day. And as much care woiild be employed to attain
this as the other position depending on the milder efforts of the toilette.
The ornaments worn by the females were not much regarded by the men.
The woman did little to imjirove her appearance. She was the worker, the
carrier, often the food-winner ; and if her physical aspect was such as to attract
admirers, she was content. Her chief ornament was the string of beads — Thaqui.
From her waist was suspended — not so much for ornament as for a covering —
a piece of fringe about four inches in depth. This was called Kyooyig, and
was worn by girls until they attained a marriageable age. While she wore
the Kyoong she was called Kyoongal Woor-kut — that is, a girl who wears
the Kyoong. It was the duty of the mother, at the proper time, to remove the
Kyoong; but it frequently happened that the girl would elope with some
young man, and take it off herself — which invariably gave rise to scandal, base
suggestions, and quarrels. Nearly all the ornaments, Mr. Bulmer says, were
made by the females.
The dress of the male Aboriginal of the Lower Murray, according to in-
formation furnished by Dr. Gummow, of Swan Hill, cousisted only of the
opossum rug, called Fir-ri-?vce. The female also used a rug as a covering;
but by both males and females it was worn only on cold days, or when moving
from camp to camp. On ordinary occasions the females wore nothing more as
a dress than the ajiron of emu feathers, called by the natives of the Lower
Murray Mor-i-uh. This was cast aside after the birth of a child.*
* Some article of dress or ornament worn for the purpose of distinguishing tlie maiden from the
wife seems to be necessary to a people in a state of savagery or barbarism. The snood used by
maidens in Scotland is no doubt very ancient.
276
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Tlie yoiing males ■wore wallaby skins, cut into shreds and fastened by a
string around the loins. It was worn until the whiskers grew, and the upper
incisors — Wid-c/on-wo-ri — were knocked out.
The women, when travelling, carried a bag made of the leaves of some
aquatic plant or flag, in which their fish, game, and yams were placed. The
bag was called Koorn-goo. Each man also had a bag, but larger, in which he
carried kangaroo and emu meat. This bag, too, was called Koorn-goo.
Dr. Gummow has sent me specimens of the ornaments worn by the natives
of the Lower Murray: —
The band tied round the head, extending from the occiput over the parietal
bones to the place of the frontal suture, called Mar-rung-nuJ, is showTi in Fig.
24. This specimen was obtained by Dr. Gummow from one of the old natives.
This ornament is closely woven, and to the eye resembles a thick coarse cloth,
but it is really soft and pleasant to the touch. It is made of the fibrous root
of the wild clematis {Mo-u-ec). It is exceedingly strong. The length of the
band is twelve inches, and the breadth one inch and a quarter. Dr. Gummow
says that these bands are usually made by the women. Wing feathers of the
cockatoo are stuck in the baud, one on each side of the head. The feathers are
called Wyrr-tin-nag. This band is worn by males only.
Mr. A. F. Sullivan, of Bulloo Downs, CuunamuUa (Queensland), gave me
a specimen of the Mar-rung-nul, made of the fur of the opossum. It is very
soft, and well and closely woven. Tlie band is fourteen inches in length.
When worn by the natives, it is made white with clay or bixrnt gypsum.
The band of network (Fig. 25) Dr. Gummow says is named Moolong-
nyeerd. It is worn across the forehead, with the kangaroo teeth as pendants,
which, when lashed together, are known as Leangerra. When stretched, as it
DRESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS. 277
would be when on the head, the broader part of the network is nearly twelve
inches in length and three inches in breadth. The open network on each side
up to the knot is four inches in length. The material is the fibre of some
acpiatic plant, twisted and formed into a fine, hard, durable twine. The teeth
are fastened neatly with the tail sinews of the kangaroo ( Wirr-ran-nee). It
would not be easy to find anywhere a more highly-finished piece of work of its
kind than this. Tlie wider part is beautifully knitted. This band was worn
both by males and females.
The sash or band of network, called Ni-yeerd (Fig. 26), is worn as a belt
round the loins. In it the native carries the Wan-nee (boomerang), or the
tomahawk or other weapon. This specimen, which was sent to me by Dr.
Gummow, is not inferior to any other piece of network I have seen. Tlie
twine, formed of the fibre of some flag, is uniform in thickness and evenly
twisted; and the meshes are all of the same size. It is very strong and
elastic, and as well fitted for the purpose desired by the native as if it had been
manufactured expressly to his order by the most accomplished of Europeans.
It is six feet four inches in length. Its general character, and the manner in
M'hich it is knitted, are shown in the engraving.
Dr. Gummow has carefully described the several ornaments worn by the
natives of the Lower Murray in the letters, memorandums, and drawings which
he has sent to me. He thus speaks of the bone, Mellee-TneUee-u, which is carried
in the septum of the nose : — " Enclosed is a sort of awl made from the thigli-
bone of the emu, called Pin-kee, which is used for boring the septum of the
nostrils, also for perforating opossum skins when sewing them together to form
rugs {Pirri-wee). The sinews of the kangaroo tail were used as thread, and
called Wirr-ran-nee. After using the perforator called Pin-kcc for piercing the
septum of the nose, a piece of reed is slipped on to the point as a canula, and
as the Pin-kee is withdra'mi, with the reed as a sheath, the latter is left to act
as a tent, so as to dilate the opening. Gradually increasing the size of the reeds
until the opening is sufliciently large, the Mellee-meUee-u — a piece of bone from
the leg of the emu or the kangaroo — is finally inserted, and this remains in the
septum of the nostrils of the males until the front teeth are knocked out. The
females undergo the same treatment, and wear during their lives a ring of bone,
cut from the wing of the bustard {Narroo-cee). Tlie ring, called Kolko, is
rather more than one-third of an inch in length, and the diameter is two-thirds
of an inch. The aperture in the ring forms a foramen between the nostrils."
278
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Dr. Guramow's specimens of the ornaments described by him are very
valuable ; and as he has obtained from old natives the names and uses of the
several specimens, his contributions are of more than ordinary interest.
Tlie natives of Cooper's Creek, according to Mr. Howitt, sometimes place
feathers in the nose, instead of a bone.
This necklace (Fig. 27) was very common many years ago ; but the only
examples I have seen have
been obtained in the western
districts of Victoria. It is
formed of a long strip of
well - dressed kangaroo skin,
to which are attached the
teeth (incisors) of the kan-
garoo.* Each tooth is fas-
tened to a small piece of skin
by the tail sinews, and is
neatly fixed to the long strip
by knots passed through inci-
sions. The skin is stained
with red-ochre ; and the con-
trast of colors is not un-
pleasing. The specimen here
figured is in the possession
of Mr. E. von Guerard, the
well-known landscape pain-
ter.
FiQ. 27. — (Scale I)
The reed-necklace (Fig. 28) commonly worn by the Australian females (and
not seldom by the males) is named Ja/i-kul by the natives of Lake Hindmarsh,
and Kor-hoort or Tarr-goorrn by the natives of the Yarra. The reed is called
Djarrk. Pieces of reed — in length from a half to three-quarters of an inch —
* Dr. Gumraow informs me that the incisor teeth of the lower-jaw of the kangaroo — such as arc
used for a necklace of this kind — are named Lean-now.
DEESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS.
279
are strung on twine made either of some fibre or the hair of the opossum ; and,
wlien extended, the necklace is thirty feet or more in length. In the example
here figured there are four hundred and seventy-eight pieces of reed. Tliis light
and not inelegant ornament is greatly prized by the young females, and they
expend a great i^ortion of their time in making necklaces of this pattern. A
reed-necklace, worn both by males and females, and named by the natives of the
Lower Murray Kill-lid — formed of
pieces of reed half an inch in length,
and little more than a sixteenth of
an inch in diameter — was presented
to me by Dr. Gummow. It is well
made. The fibre on which the sec-
tions of reed are strung is very fine
indeed, and I cannot conjecture how
it was manufactured. Dr. Gummow
says that this kind of necklace was
of different sizes — according as it
was intended for the male or the
female.
This necklace (Fig. 29) was found
in a basket, described in another
place, which was dropped by a
woman of the Burdekin tribe, when
surprised by a party of whites. The
string is made of the fibre of some
root, wrought into a very strong but
thin twine. On this twine are strung
short sections of a reed. The pen-
dant is composed of twine coated
with gum, on which are fastened human hair, feathers, and shells (unio), by
a wrapping of twine made of the fur of the opossum. This ornament exhibits
in its manufacture more of neatness and delicacy than is
usually seen in native work. It was sent to me with the
native bag in which it was found by the late Mr. Matthew
Hervey.
I have received from Mackay, in Queensland, through
the kindness of Mr. Bridgman, an ornament which is used
as a decoration by the natives of the Far North. It is
worn round the forehead, and is named Ngungy-ncjiingy.
The shells — fragments of the nautilus — are ground into
form and strung on a fine twine made of the fibre of
some plant. — (Fig. 30.) Larger pieces of shell — also of
the nautilus — are worn on the breast, suspended from the
neck, and are called Carr-e-la. These are also strung on
twine of the same kind as that used for the stringing the
smaller pieces. — (Fig. 31.)
280
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
Mr. J. A. Panton has sent me a very curious head-dress ( Oogee) — (Fig. 32) —
which is worn in the corrobhoree dance by the men of Cape York. It is formed
on a framework of sticks. The feathers of the cockatoo are notched at the ends
(except the lower feather at each side), and the quills are turned over the cun^ed
stick, and very neatly tied with twine. The inner arch is strengthened at the
back by sticks, and the cloth which covers them is exactly like canvas. The
two spaces which would appear just above the eyes when the head-dress was
worn have a border of thick twine. They are colored with red-ochre, as is also
the edge of the inner circle. The whole is ingeniously constructed ; and the
white and yellow of the feathers, and the red paint, must have appeared hideous
by the light of the corrobhoree fires.
Mr. Willielmi says that in the north-west the men decorate their heads after
a strange fashion, on occasions of rejoicings and when engaged in their mystic
ceremonies. They place in the head-band, behind the ears, two small pieces of
green wood, decorated from one end to the other with very thin shavings, which
appear like a plume of white feathers. The sticks are so placed as to admit of
their being tied together in front, and at a distance they resemble two long
horns. The Port Lincoln blacks get white birds' down, and make a sort of
wreath, which looks not unlike a woman's cap.
A head-dress of feathers is also worn by the old men at Cooper's Creek.
On the Macleay Kiver, at the ceremony of initiation, the men wear high top-
knots of grass, while others tie the hair in a knot, and cover the head with the
snowy down of the cockatoo.*
In other parts a plume of white cockatoo feathers is worn. Sir Thomas
Mitchell saw, near the Biver Bogan, some rather curious decorations. One
had a kind of network, confining his hair in the form of a round cap, from
• From Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, by C. Hodgkinson.
DRESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS.
281
the front of which arose a plume of white feathers. A short cloak of opossum
skin was drawn tight rovmd his body with one hand, and with the other he
grasped his boomerangs and waddy. At another spot he saw two natives with
hideous countenances, and savagely painted with crimson-red on the abdomen
and right shoulder, the nose and cheek-bones were also gules, and some blazing
spots were daubed like drops of gore on the brow. The most ferocious wore
round his brow the usual band newly whitened.*
Some were seen by the same explorer with the nose and brow painted with
yellow-ochre ; and a boy, led by a man, was so dressed wth green boughs that
only his head and legs remained uncovered. Emu feathers were mixed with
the wild locks of his hair, and he presented altogether a strange spectacle.
On the Darling, at a native dance, the men were hideously painted, so as to
resemble skeletons.
As far as I have been able to learn, yellow is most commonly used for pur-
poses of decoration in the north and north-eastern parts of Australia.
Mr. Samuel Gason gives the following list of ornaments worn by the Dieyerie
tribe : —
KultrakuUra Necklace made of reeds, strung on woven hair, and sus-
pended round the neck.
Yinka - A string of himian hair, ordinarily three hundred yards in
length, and wound round the waist. This ornament
is greatly prized, owing to the difficulty of procuring
the material of which it is made.
Mundamunda A string made from the native cotton-tree, about two or
three hundred yards long; this is worn round the
waist, and adorned with variously-colored strings
wound round at right-angles. These are worn by the
women, and are very neatly made.'
Kootcha - Bunch of hawk's, crow's, or eagle's feathers, neatly tied
with the sinews of the emu or wallaby, and cured in
hot ashes. This is worn either when fighting or
dancing, and also used as a fan.
Wurtawurta- A bimch of the black feathers of the emu, tied together
with the sinews of the same bird, worn in the Yinka
(girdle) near the waist.
Chanpoo - A band about six inches long, and two inches broad, made
from the stems of the cotton-bush, painted white, and
worn round the forehead.
Koorie - A large mussel-shell pierced with a hole, and attached to
the end of the beard or suspended from the neck.
Also used in circimicision.
Oonamunda - About ten feet of string, made from the native cotton-bush,
and worn round the arm.
* Eastern Australia, by Major T. L. Mitchell.
2o
282
THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA.
Oorapatkera^ A bunch of leaves tied at the feet, and worn when dancing,
causing a peculiar noise.
Unpa - - A bunch of tassels, made from the fur of rats and wallaby,
worn by the natives for the sake of decency. Tliey
are from six inches to three feet in length, according
as they are intended to be worn.
Thippa - Used for the same purpose as Unpa. A bunch of tassels
made from tails of the native rabbit, and, when
washed in damp sand, very pretty, being white as
snow. It takes about fifty tails to make an ordinary
Thippa, but some Mr. Gason has seen consisting of
three hundred and fifty.
Aroo - - The large feathers from the tail of the emu, used only as
a fan.
Wurdwurda- A circlet or coronet of emu feathers, worn only by the
old men.
d^ruiimNitalion.
The modes of ornamenting the shields, clubs, and other weapons of the
Aboriginal natives of Victoria are similar to those of the people who fabricated
the urns of baked or burnt clay found in tumuli in England and Scotland.
They are restricted to forms few and simple, but, whether separate or in com-
bination, not without some pleasing etfects. Of the hundreds of old weapons
that I have examined — weapons made before the natives had gathered any hints
from Europeans — I find that the lines carved on them were in the form of the
chevron, herring-bone, or saltier. In some, the round or egg-shaped figure was
used as a border. If the reader will refer to the figures of the shields and clubs
in this work, he will see every variety of these styles ; and in not a few broad
bands at right-angles to the longer axis of the shield, or in the form of a cross
with two feet (saltier).
Similar figures are found impressed on an urn recovered from the stone cists
of Lesmurdie, in Banff"shire ; and on another of well-baked material and of
unusual thinness which was "discovered under a tumulus at Memsie, Aberdeen-
shire. Beside the latter lay a bronze leaf-shaped sword, broken in two." *
In the Memsie urn, the round dots or rings are arranged in a band dividing
one set of herring-bone lines from others above and below it.
It seems that the savage, in all parts of the world, has, in his first attempts
at ornamentation, used the lines above described for decoratmg his weapons
and utensils. We may suppose that he depicted, first, straight lines ; secondly,
lines forming the herring-bone and the chevron ; and, lastly, the saltier, which
would arise naturally out of the combinations of those figures. This is borne
out by a careful examination of the wooden shields.
Some of the spear-shields are ornamented with dots and bands only ; and
the bands are always hollowed out. Curved lines are rarely seen. Any attempt
to represent a curve in all the specimens I have examined has been a failure. t
The folds of the snake and the neck of the swan are shown as angles — acute or
obtuse — not as curves.
* Wilson : Pre-Historic Annals of Scotland, pp. 426-7, vol. I. Wilson thinks the idea of these
patterns was derived from the observation of the indentations originally made by the plaited net-
work on rude sun-dried urns. Our Aborigines knew not the use of clay. The origin of this system
of ornamentation must be sought for elsewhere.
t The encircling lines dividing the pictures in the bark drawing which follows may be regarded
as an exception. But it does not represent native archaic art ; and the attempts in the same pictures
to show the folds of the snake and the curves of the necks of the birds justify and support the state-
ment that, as a rule, the uneducated native cannot describe a curve.
284 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
On a few of the weapons appear rude figures of men and four-footed animals.
One figure of a man sliown by lines on a club is in tlie dress and attitude of a
native dancing in a corrobboree.
The carvings are confined to their weapons of wood. Not one of the bone
implements in my possession has a single line engraven on it.
There are peculiarities in the arrangement of the lines on the ornamented
shields of the West Australian natives which suggest that some meaning —
understood only by the warriors themselves — is conveyed by such representa-
tions. The natives of Victoria often used forms the meaning of which is
discoverable now. A Lyl-lil (figured in this work) represents a lagoon, and
probably an anabranch of the Broken River, and the space enclosed by the lines
shows the country which the tribe of the owner of the weapon occupied. In
like manner the natives of the Upper Darling represented on their shields
figures in imitation of the totems of their tribes. One in my possession has
engraven on it the figure of an iguana.*
Among the common forms on their shields and other weapons are the fol-
lowing.— (Fig. 33.)—
FIQ. 33.
Designs after the following pattern (Fig. 34) are not often seen. On the
flat or rounded surfaces of their weapons they not infrequently scored lines
in detached parallelograms. — (Fig. 3.5.) The remaining surface of the weapon,
when this style was used, was left smooth, or was polished, so as to give
greater prominence to the figures.
The shields of the natives of Queensland are ornamented with very fine lines
in rather irregular patterns, and with circular dots. — (Fig. 36.) The inner side
of the shield is also carved, and on one in my collection there appears what is
probably a figure of the totem of the tribe. It is strange that it should be
shown on the inside of the shield.
FIG. 34. FIG. 35. FIG. 36.
Their boomerangs are made of a hard, nearly black, wood, resembling
ebony, or of a wood resembling the raspberry-jam wood of West Australia, and,
unlike those of any other part of Australia which I have seen, are decorated.
» '• Most of their instruments are ornamented with rude carrcd work, effected with a piece of
broken shell; and on the rocks are frequently to be seen various figures of fish, clubs, swords,
animals, and branches of trees, not contemptibly represented." — An Account of the English Colony in
New South Wales, by Lieut-Col. Collins, 1804, p. 381.
Collins states, in another part of his work (p. 377), that, in ornamenting their weapons and
instruments, each tribe used some peculiar form by which it was known to what part of the country
they belonged.
OENAMENTATION.
285
The figures cut on tliem are in all the specimens in my possession of the
following patterns. — (Fig. 37.) Other missiles are marked thus. — (Fig. 38.)
All these forms have a meaning intelligible to the blacks of that part of the
continent.
One sees in the simple forms used by the natives of Australia the rudi-
ments of the arts which gave sjdendour to the palaces of ancient Chaldasa. In
the richest monuments of the luxurious races that dwelt on the lands watered
by the Euphrates and the Tigris the same lines and combinations of lines as
those here figured are used and repeated. On some of the columns there are
patterns which are line for line the same as those seen on the shields made by
the natives of the Yarra. From a race that used the like style of ornamen-
tation the Saxon derived the zigzag moulding of his arch — and Gothic
architecture, perhaps, the hint of the quatre-foil. The lines that ornament the
fowling-piece and the pistol of modern manufacture in Europe are but repeti-
tions of the designs which are seen on the Australian Mulga and the Leon-He.
The artist will view with interest these first attempts at ornamentation.
That such forms have been in use in all ages, and are still universally adopted,
show that artistic invention has its limits, and is as surely subject to law as are
the physical forces which we may investigate, and in some sense control, but
cannot change.
A common instinct prevails whenever the mind is left to its own resources,
and is unaided by exjierience and untaught by example. A very young child
in Europe and a full-grown native of Australia will make a diagram and not a
picture in any attempt to represent the figure of a man or an animal or a plant.
The coarser pictures of the Chinese and the Japanese are but highly-colored
diagrams.
The rude drawings of men made by European children are all alike. For
the head there is a circle, with dots where the eyes, nose, and
mouth should appear ; the body is shown by another circle or an
oval ; and the arms and fingers and legs are represented by
lines.
The Australian native shows the human figure somewhat
diflerently. He sketches it usually thus. — (Fig. 39.) Throughout
the continent this form is understood. In like manner the natives
'^°' ^'' have conventional forms for trees, lakes, and streams ; and in trans-
mitting information to friends in remote tribes they use the conventional forms,
but in many cases modified, and iu some cases so simplified as to be in reality
rather symbols than diagrams or pictures.
286 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
The natives of the, Murray and the Darling, and those in other parts adja-
cent, carved on the trees near the tomhs of deceased warriors strange figures
having meanings no doubt intelligible to all the tribes in the vast area watered
by these rivers.
That they possessed the power of conveying ideas by a sort of picture-
writing is beyond doubt: picture-writing indeed was common long before
Europeans made encroachments in any part of the island-continent. Tlie
characters employed, and the meaning of some of them, are referred to in
another part of this work. The native not only was able to convey ideas in this
manner, but occasionally made pictures, intelligible to all, representing events
iu his life.*
Some years ago, the Honorable Tlieo. J. Sumner sent me a piece of bark on
which were depicted various scenes in tlie life of an Aboriginal. It was obtained
near Lake Tj'rrell, from a hut of bark constructed by a native. He had orna-
mented the sheets of bark composing his hut very elaborately, and one piece
was brought to Melbourne by Mr. Stanbridge. The native artist was not a wild
black. He had observed the customs of the whites ; but he had received no
instruction from them, except such as an intelligent man would derive from
looking at their works. He cannot be strictly regarded as an uneducated
native. The landscapes, if they can be so called, and the figures shown in
Fig. 40, are faithfully reduced from the original sheet of bark on which they
were drawn, and which is now in my possession. The bark was smoked on
the inside by placing it over a fire of twigs and leaves until the surface was
blackened but not charred, and the artist drew the figures with the nail of his
thumb.
Beginning at the top, we see what appear to be clouds beyond the horizon.
A snake is gliding towards the farther edge of the plain, and a part of the
body is out of sight. There are a few trees on the plain, and these are placed
seemingly for the purpose of illustrating events. There is a pigeon perched on
the top of a tree ; there are two kangaroos exchanging signals ; a native com-
panion walking, and another feeding ; an emu at rest, but with the head turned
watchfully towards the rear; there is a snake coiled ; there are turkeys walking,
feeding or pluming themselves ; and there is a gum-tree admirably depicted,
with apparently a cherry-tree quite near it (commonly seen in the bush — the
* How like are the practices of men througliout the world I " And so the Indian Cadmus, with
his paints of diverse colors, depicts oa the smooth birch baric such simple figures and symbols as
are now to be found engraven on liundreds of rocks throughout the American Continent ; .and are
in constant use by the forest Indian in chronicling his own deeds on his bufliilo robe, or recording
those of the deceased chief on Ms grave-post. This is a simple process of picture-writing, trans-
latable with nearly equal facility into the language of every tribe." — Wilson's Pre-Historic Man, vol.
II., p. 125.
The Bosjesman is also an artist. He makes figures on rocks, and paints the roofs of caves, like
the Australians and the North American Indians. He represents figures of men and the forms of
beasts. He uses in coloring them red and black, and sometimes white, and his drawings have given
rise to speculations as to their origin somewhat similar to the theories propounded respecting the
cave-paintings of the natives of the north-western part of the continent. He, like the Australian,
understands and appreciates art. He loves pictures. They appeal to his intellect in a manner that
only an artist can comprehend.
To face pngc 288, vol.
OENAMEXTATION 287
cherry-tree seems to seek the shelter of a gxun), and a man is climbing the
gum-tree, tomahawk in hand. Two men are seen on the right of the picture :
one is seated, with a pipe in his mouth ; the other, gun in hand, is regarding
attentively the game in the distance. Their spears, clubs, shields, bag, and
tomahawk are lying on the ground. The following parts of the picture are
divided from the above by encircling lines. Towards the left, in a circle, there
are two figures of natives and a snake : one native is pointing towards the snake
with his right hand ; in his left hand he holds a stone tomahawk. Tlie other
native has a bag in his right hand, and a tomahawk uplifted in his left. The
artist has evidently made a mistake here : natives are very rarely left-handed. He
no doubt believed when he drew these figures that he had placed the imjDlements
in the right hand of each, not in the left. Unskilled persons sometimes make
this mistake when they attempt to draw figures. Towards the right, within the
next encircling line, there is an inner line, within the bounds of which a native
is seen in a canoe on a stream. A spear is in his right hand, ready to strike
any fish he may see, and a stick {kannan) in his left hand, with which he
is propelling the canoe. A duck is skimming the water in front of the
canoe.
Lower down, towards the right, is a crateriform lake, exactly resembling
those of the Western district of Victoria. It is fringed with small trees (true
to nature), and the fences of the squatter are depicted. A stream having a con-
nection with the lake (also true to nature) is well drawn. In the lower part of
this picture are shown a crateriform lake, with an outlet or a feeder and a
squatter's house. The lake on the upper side is fringed with small trees, and
an old dead tree on the right is rigidly true in execution. The way in which
the motion of water is conveyed is excellent ; it is nearly at rest in the lake,
and it is running in the stream. This is worthy of study. The squatter's
house is seemingly built of stone (basalt), and the chimney of brick. At the
back of the house, and at a distance from it, some of the natives are dancing,
and others are apparently engaged in a mystic ceremony. The figures in
motion, those at rest, the women who beat the opossum skins, the weapons
held in the hands of the dancers or laid aside, are all clearly sho^^Ti.
This picture, the work of a native who had never received instruction, far
surpasses any work of art that could be produced by even an educated European
who was not a landscape painter. It is full of life and action. The unaffected
plainness of the work, the simplicity of it, and the skill and knowledge evinced,
are sufficient to compel admiration. And the poor materials ! A piece of
smoked bark, carved and indented with the nail of the thumb or a piece of
bone ! *
* " A boy belonging to a tribe at the Manning River, who had been induced to accompany a
friend of mine as far as the Macleay, drew with a piece of chalk human heads and figures, kanga-
roos, &c., witli a firm, well-defined outline, which few English boys of his age could have done
better, unless they had had lessons in drawing." — Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay,
1845, by C. Ilodgkinson, p. 243.
The Tasmauians also made pictuies on baik. Buace describes theii drawings. — See Austrt^ i
astatic Reminiscences, pp. 49, 50.
288
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
On the death of Bungeleen (an Aboriginal native
who was tolerably well educated, and was for some time
under the care of the late Mr. Wm. Thomas, the Protec-
tor of Aborigines), one of the men of the Yarra tribe
was requested to make a suitable design for a tombstone
to be placed over his grave ; and he furnished accordingly
the following picture. It is carved in wood. — (Fig. 41.)
Tlie artist is now dead ; and it is impossible to give an
explanation of the picture. Mr. John Green says that
the Aborigines of tlie Yarra do not know what meaning
he attached to the several figures ; but they suppose
that the men represented in the upper part of the draw-
ing are friends who have been appointed to investigate
the cause of the death of Bungeleen ; the figures of the
birds and animals (emus, lizard, wombat (?), and kan-
garoos) indicate that he did not die for lack of food ; and
the strange — somewhat obscure — forms below the hollow
band are those of Mooroops, or spirits who have caused
the death of the Aboriginal by their wicked enchantments.
The carving is excellent ; and the engraving accurately
represents the figures.*
The natives, as already stated, frequently carved
figures of some kind on the trees growing near the graves
of deceased warriors. Oxley gives a drawing, from which
it appears that a portion of the bark was first removed
from the trees and that the designs were cut in the wood.
'''°- *'■ These would last for a long period.
They also ornamented the places of burial by cutting figures in the turf;
and when the priests exercised some of their rites, spaces were cleared, and
designs made by removing the grass and cutting into the soil.
The inner sides of the opossum rugs used by the natives were usually orna-
mented. They inscribed lines on the skins, and darkened them with powdered
charcoal and fat, or with other colors. The figures were the same as those on
their weapons, namely, the herring-bone, chevron, and saltier, with representa-
tions of animals in outline. In many examples a pattern was chosen and fairly
worked out. When an animal was figured, it was common, as in the drawings
^^^^^^^;;^^ I have given, to fill in the space around it with lines
^ '^^^5= — (Fig- 42). This style of ornamentation is effective.
""*^^^^^^^J^^ When a figure of some bird or beast is carved in wood — as
F,Q. 42. on shields or throwing-sticks — it is, in some specimens, in
relief, the surrounding lines being cut on a somewhat lower plane ; but most
often it is cut out to the depth of the eighth of an inch, the surrounding lines
* The tomb-board of Wabojeeg, a celebrated war chief, who died on Lake Superior in 1793,
resembles that of Bungeleen. It is described in Sir John Lubbock's work on The Origin of Civiliza-
tion and the Primitive Condition of Man, 1870, p. 35.
ORNAMENTATION. 289
being raised. Both methods are striking, and when colors are used, the effects
are far from unpleasing.
Attention has been given from time to time to the figures and paintings
found in caves in Australia. As far as I am aware, no paintings have been
discovered in caves in Victoria, though in one or two there have been detected
evidences of such caves having been frequented by the Aborigines, not perhaps
because of the shelter which they afforded, but in order to enable the priests to
perform some rites, or to present, for the purpose of increasing their influence
amongst the natives, some tricks or jugglery. One cave in Victoria, which I
have often visited, is said to have been the abode of Puudjil. In Western Aus-
tralia there are numerous caverns in the sandstone rocks, and Capt. (now Sir
George) Grey, the explorer, has given a very interesting account of the paint-
ings which he saw in them. I have carefully examined all the figures and
descriptions of the cave-pictures given in Grey's volumes,* and, with one doubt-
ful exception, they appear to me to be the work of natives, unassisted by any
knowledge gained by intercourse with persons of a different race. Moreover, I
believe them to be modern, and similar to the drawings that are now made iu
caves by the natives of North-Western, Northern, and North-Eastern Australia.
Tliese figures have been compared vnth those of the Hindoos and Egj'ptians,
and an attempt has been made, as far as I am able to understand the argument,
to show that the natives of Australia have derived their ideas of such forms
from the representations of the gods of the ancients.f If there be any resem-
blance, I can find none. It is much more reasonable to suppose that the
Hindoos and Egyptians used forms derived from the representations of the
Aboriginal peoples who once roamed over the sites of their splendid cities than
that the savages now living borrowed from them. |
Tlie figures in Capt. Grey's work resemble, in many respects, those usually
drawn by the natives of Victoria and other parts, and the colors are those
employed by them. The first figure given in Capt. Grey's work is that of a
iace and part of the body of a man. The eyes and nose are shown, but not the
mouth. Tlie head is surrounded with bright-red rays. § The arms are neatly
* Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in Nvrth-West and Western Australia, hy George
Grey, 1841.
f Remarks on the probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales,
by a Colonial Magistrate, 1846.
X The Hindoos, it is true, paint their bodies. They paint their arms and their breasts, and
sometimes their throats. " Sandal-powder, turmeric, chuna or lime, ashes from a consecrated fire,
cow-dimg and other holy combustibles, made adhesive by a size of rice-water, or sometimes rubbed
on dry, are the ingredients and usages on this occasion. Several lines of white, ashen, or yellow
hue are commonly seen drawn across the arms and breasts ; and I understand that Yogis and
Saniasis, and other pious persons, frequently carry about them a little packet of these holy
pigments, with which they mark those who show them respect in repayment of their attentions." —
The Hindu Pantheon, by Edward Moor, F.R.S., p. 375.
Surely these practices have been derived from those of a more ancient uncivilized race.
Civilization struggles vainly against such usages; it may sometimes almost extinguish them, but
it is certain it never originates them.
§ Fresh hght is thrown on this subject by the discovery of the head-dress {Oogee') worn at
corrobborees by the men of the North. As soon as Mr. Panton sent me the decoration, it occurred
to me that this picture in Grey's volume was an attempt to represent it. The head-dress is figured
290 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
drawn, and the thumb and fingers are delineated. On the body
are markings of this kind. — (Fig. 43.) The face is painted
white, and the eyes black, with encircling red and yellow ^^^ /C^
lines. FIG. 43.
Figure No. 2 is thus described : — " Upon the rock which formed the left-hand
wall of this cave, and which partly faced you on entering, was a very singular
painting, vividly colored, representing four heads joined together. From the
mild expression of the countenances, I imagined them to represent females, and
they appeared to be drawn in such a manner, and in such a position, as to look
up at the principal figure which I have before described (No. 1) ; each had a
very remarkable head-dress, colored with a deep bright blue, and one had a
necklace on.* Both of the lower figures had a sort of dress, painted with red
in the same manner as that of the principal figure, and one of them had a band
round her waist. Each of the four faces was marked by a totally different
expression of countenance, and although none of them had mouths, two, I
thought, were otherwise rather good-looking. Tlie whole painting was exe-
cuted on a white ground."
Figure No. 3 — an ellipse — painted a bright-yellow, and dotted over with red
lines and spots, and having across it two transverse lines of blue, encloses a
drawing of a kangaroo. The kangaroo is well sketched, and is exactly such a
figure as an Aboriginal native would make. The ellipse seems to me to be
intended for the representation of a spear-shield, but the black spots are not
placed exactly where the handle of the weapon is usually inserted.
Another drawing. No. 4 — that of a native carrying a kangaroo — ^presents
many of the peculiarities that belong to native art.
A colored picture of a man at page 214 is also — as far as I am able to
judge— the work of a native. It is thus described by Capt. Grey : — " The
principal painting in it [the cave] was the figure of a man, ten feet six inches
in length, clothed from the chin downwards in a red garment, which reached to
the wrists and ankles ; beyond this red dress the feet and hands protruded, and
were badly executed. The face and head of the figure were enveloped in a
in another part of this work, and the reader may consider it in connection with the drawing in Grey's
Tolume. It must be borne in mind that everything else figured in the cares where these pictures
were seen was undoubtedly the work of the natives ; and it is highly improbable that foreigners —
intruders — who necessarily would have been daily and hourly in fear of losing their lives— unless
they were guests of the natives, or captives— would have taken the trouble to procure the several
colors necessary for such decorations as those described. It is suggested that the natives borrowed
from India. But no figures in the Hindoo Pantheon resemble the cave-drawings. Around the head
of Krishna, rays like those of the sun (not at all like the feathers of the cockatoo) are depicted,
and Krishna wears a crown elaborately wrought. And not the head only but the body of Surya is
surrounded with rays. If the red lines in the figure copied by Grey were intended to represent rays,
and not the feathers of a bird, there is something to be investigated in the history of the natives of
Australia that is of absorbing interest.
One of my correspondents has suggested that the figures may have been drawn by Portuguese or
Spanish sailors, and are sacred emblems : if so, they must have been painted some three centuries
ago — but, assuredly, they are not of a character to endure for any very great length of time.
* The necklace is so drawn as to remind one at once of the necklace of kangaroo teeth figured
in another part of this work.
OENAMENTATION. 291
succession of circular bandages, or rollers, or what appeared to be painted to
represent such. These were colored red, yellow, and white ; and the eyes were
the only features represented on the face. Upon the highest bandage or roller,
a series of lines were painted in red ; but although so regularly done as to
indicate that they have some meaning, it was impossible to tell whether they
were intended to depict written characters or some ornament for the head." * At
the right hand of the figure there are shown in the drawing, in three perpen-
dicular lines, a number of circles — a kind of ornamentation already described.
Capt. Grey seems to have regarded all these figures as the work of the
Aboriginal natives.
Fronting one of the caves was seen cut out in sandstone rock the profile of
a human face and head. Tlie rock was hard, and Capt. Grey states that to
have removed such a large portion of it witli no better tools than the stone knife
and hatchet, such as the Australians use, must have entailed great labor. " Tlie
head," he says, " was two feet in length, and sixteen inches in breadth in the
broadest part ; the depth of the profile increased gradually from the edges, where
it was nothing, to the centre, where it was an inch and a half; the ear was
rather badly placed, but otherwise the wliole of the work was good, and far
superior to what a savage race could be supposed capable of executing."
The head shown in the drawing at page 206 resembles that of a European ;
and, if it was the work of an Aboriginal, is a proof that the artistic skill of this
people has been greatly underrated.
In one of the caves Capt. Grey found imprinted on the sides the stamp of a
hand and arm. The outline of the hand and arm was painted black, and the
rock about it white.
These representations appear to be common in "Western Australia and else-
where. Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, formerly a Geological Surveyor in Western
Australia, informs me that the natives make these pictures by blackening the
hands and pressing them against the roof. He saw one cave in granite rock
where there were many such figures of hands of different sizes, the form of
each being cut out very neatly.
Indeed the j^ractice of ornamenting caves, rocks, and trees, and cutting
figures on the ground by removing the grass, is characteristic of this peojile.
There are amongst the natives artists who take delight in depicting figures of
animals, and scenes in their domestic life, and in making strange devices for
their weapons. Their pictures are found in every part of the continent, and
also on the islands adjacent to the continent to which they had access. A large
number of references could be given illustrative of their love of art, but a few
will suffice to induce the reader, perhaps, to regard with a higher interest the
first attempts of a savage people to imitate the forms of natural objects, and to
pourtray, though usually in no very durable form, incidents in their lives.
* Sir George Grey obserTes that " this figure brings to mind the description of the Prophet
Ezekiel : — ' Men pourtrajed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with verrailion,
girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes
to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity.' — Chap,
xxiii., H, 15."
292 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Mr. A. W. Howitt informs me that it -was the custom of the natives of
Gijipsland to striji a sheet of hark, bend it across the middle, and set it up like
a tent, and draw figures inside with charcoal, or perhaps red-ochre (nia/). He
says he saw such an one on the Wonnangatta River, when prospecting, in 1861.
He thinks the figures drawn were those of men, emus, &c.
Mr. Hodgkinson saw, at the place prepared for the ceremonies of initiation,
at the Macleay River, trees minutely tattooed and carved to such a considerable
altitude that he could not help feeling astonished at the labor bestowed on the
work.
When exploring in the Cape York Peninsula, Mr. Norman Taylor found in
one place a flat wall of rock on which niunerous figures were drawn. They
were outlined with red-ochre, and filled in with white. A figure of a man was
shown in this manner, and was spotted with yellow. And on the hardened-
earth flats at the back of a beach were some regularly-drawn turtles cut out in
outline, reminding him of the sculptured rocks on the South Head of Sydney,
near Boudi, where men, sharks, fish, &c., are carved on the flat sandstone
rocks.
Mr. Giles, in his explorations in Central Australia, found, at the camping-
places of the natives, paintings of snakes, iirincijially white, and imperfect
shapes of hands, scratched, he thinks, by children with bits of charcoal. In the
caves he found the same kinds of ornamentation as those used by the natives of
the Barrier Range and the mountains east of the Darling, namely, representa-
tions of the hand, generally colored red or black. Tliese are made by filling the
mouth with either charcoal or red-ochre, damping the wall where the mark is
to be left, and placing the palm of the hand against it with the fingers stretched
out, and then blowing against the back of the hand. When the hand is with-
drawn, the space it occui^ied is clean, while the surrounding wall is black or red.
One device represented a snake going into a hole. The hole was actually in the
rock, and the snake was painted on the wall, and the spectator was to suppose
that its head was just inside the hole. Tlie body of the rejitile was curled
round and round from the tail, but the breadth was out of all proportion to its
length. It was painted with charcoal-ashes, which had been mixed with emu-
fat. In another jiart he saw again the rude figures of snakes, and hands, and
devices for shields.*
On Depuch Island, one of the Forestier group, lying close to the north-west
coast of Australia, Stokes discovered a large number of paintings, consisting of
figures of birds, fishes, beetles, crabs, &c. The natives had removed the hard
outer coating of the rocks, and thus obtained a smooth surface for their
pictures. " Much ability," says Stokes, " is displayed in many of these repre-
sentations, the subjects of which could be discovered at a glance. The number
of specimens was immense, so that the natives must have been in the habit of
amusing themselves in this innocent manner for a long period of time. I could
not help reflecting, as I examined with interest the various objects represented
— the human figures, the animals, the birds, the weapons, the domestic inci-
* Geographic Travels in Central Australia, 1872-4, by Ernest Giles.
OENAIIENTATION. 293
dents, tlie scenes of savage life — on the curious frame of mind that could induce
these uncultivated people to repair, perhaps at stated seasons of the year, to
this lonely picture gallery, surrounded by the ocean wave, to admire and add to
the productions of their forefathers These savages of Australia,
as we call them, who have adorned the rocks of Depuch Island with their
drawings, have in one thing proved themselves superior to the Egyptian and
the Etruscan, whose works have elicited so much admiration, and afforded food
to so many speculations — namely, there is not in them to be observed any trace
of indecency."*
Three of the figures from the plate in Capt. Stokes' work are here shown : —
Fig. 44 represents "a native armed with spear and wommera or throwing-stick,
probably relating his adventures ;" Fig. 45, a kangaroo ; and Fig. 46, a crab.
Sir. Green informs me that amongst the natives of the Yarra, white, when
used for decoration in the corrobboree, is called Trrin-in bigger-min-in ; and
when used in mourning, Trrin-in mir-rin mir-rin. The native name for red is
Trre-barrien, and when used in the corrobboree Trre-harrien mirra-Un. Black
is Woorr-karrim, and blue (which probably means dark or dusky) is also named
Woor-karrim.
According to Mr. Bunce, red was named Bee-bee-thu-ung, and black Boorooee
(meaning "darkness" or "night").
Mr. Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, says that white, red, and black are the only
colors used by the natives of the districts he has visited. Blue is not known
to them. Since the white man came they have used blue colors, but they
obtained them from the whites. The native names of the colors, according to
Mr. Bulmer, are as follow : — White, Tarpa-tarpal ; red, Noorook or Krook;
and black, Nirnba-nirnbal. Tlie last name is applied to anytliing dark or
dusky, so that a blue coat would be called Nirnba-yiirnbal gree.\
Mr. Bulmer says he has seen both white and red used during periods of
mourning, but in the corrobboree white only.
» Discoveries in Australia, 1837-43, vol. ii., pp. 170-3.
f Mr. Bulmer informs me that the word gree does not mean a coat only, but is used to desig-
nate anytliing a native possesses. A man calls anj'thing he owns gree. He adds that the natives
express different shades of color by putting before the word for color the equivalent of our word
very: thus very dark or nearly black is Mak-nirnba-nimhal, Blackness itself, or more properly
"the mother of darkness," is Yackan-nirnba-nirnbal. The work Yackan is used to express some-
thing extraordinary, as Yachanda-willang, a great rain. One of the towns in the Beechworth
district is named Yackandandah.
294 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
The colors used by the natives in painting tlie caves which were visited by
Capt. Grey were white, black, red, yellow, and blue. Blue is rarely used by
the Aborigines, and in some districts it was unknown prior to the colonization
of Australia by the whites. Tliis color was perhaps obtained by mixing black
and white.
In ornamenting their rugs they copied from nature. One man told Mr.
Buhner that he got his ideas from the observation of natural objects. He had
copied the markings on a j'iece of wood made by the grub known as Kran<j ;
and from the scales of snakes and the markings of lizards he derived new
forms. The natives never, in adorning their rugs or weapons, as far as Mr.
Bulmer knows, imitate the forms of jjlants or trees.
A red pigment was obtained by the natives, either from decomposed rocks,
where it is found as clay, or by burning some trap-rock or pori>hyry. Yellow
clays and yellow-ochre are not plentiful, and in some districts the i)igment is
not found at all.* White is got in the areas occupied by granite and I'ahcozoic
rocks almost everywhere ; but in the large tracts occupied by Tertiary rocks,
where white clays are not found near tlie surface, the natives collected gypsum
and selenite, burnt the mineral, and produced a very good pigment. A black
color was made from charcoal or from soot. The charcoal or soot was mixed
with fat and used as a paint.
The color most commonly used during periods of mourning was white, but,
as already stated, both white and red are used by different tribes. Amongst the
natives living within the water-shed of the Murray, white alone, Mr. Bulmer
thinks, is used. On the eastern side of tlie Cordillera, iiowever, he has seen
the bodies painted with a mixture of red-ochre and fat. The natives take the
fat of the deceased, mix it with ochre, and smear their bodies. Both white and
red are commonly applied at other times, for purposes of decoration, f
* lu an official report addressed to the Government of South Australia, aud dated 30th June
1874, which I have just received from Mr. E. A. Hamilton, the Sub-Protector of Aborigines in
South Australia, it is stated that serious depredations have been committed by Aboriginals known
as the Saltwater blacks. These men come down every year from Cooper's Creek and elsewhere to
obtain supplies of ochre from the Aroona cave. On returning to their own country, they not unfrc-
quently rob the huts of shepherds. Mr. Butttield, one of the Sub-Protectors, has suggested that a
supply of ochre should be sent to Mount Hope, so that the natives might no longer be obliged to
travel a long distauce to obtain it.
t "The next day the women separated from the men and painted themselves all over with
white clay, and the men did so with red, at the same time ornamenting themselves with emu
feathers, which they tied round their waists. They were in every other way quite naked." — Life
and Adventures of William Buckley, p. 47.
" They grease and paint themselves with red and white ochre. They pluck the white hairs
out of their beards." — Ibid, p. 72-3.
"They use three colors in painting themselves — viz., black, red, and white. The black and red
colors are the produce of a soft stone, which they draw from a great distance in the north. By
rubbing or scraping it they obtain a powder, which they rub into the fat which they have before
put on their faces, arms, and breasts ; the colors then assume quite a metallic lustre. The white
color is prepared of a soft clay or chalk. It is applied on particular occasions only — among others,
for dancing and when in mourning For indicating mourning, the women paint
their whole front, a ring round each eye, and a perpendicular line about the stomach ; but the men
paint the breast by making drawn or punctured streaks down from the shoulders, all verging
OENAMENTATION. 295
In the corrobboree, when an effect had to be produced at night in front of
the fires, they used white. The ribs were indicated by lines of white, and the
prominent bones and limbs by daubs and streaks. The aspect of a crowd of
natives so painted is hideous.
Mr. Bulmer says that the men generally smeared themselves with red when
they wished to make themselves attractive, or smart {Taa-jaan). A young
man would cover his hair with red powder, put on ajimbirn, or brow-band, and
rub his body with fat and red-ochre. In some parts yellow, as well as red and
white, is used for painting the body. Oxley met with men on the Lachlan
whose faces were daubed with a red and yellow pigment.* In painting their
weapons they generally used white and red. The smaller lines on a shield
were filled with white, and the broader lines were colored red. Sometimes they
painted the herring-bone lines white, and then drew a streak of bright-red paint
along the lines formed by the angles, producing a curious and not unpleasing
effect.
None of the natives of Australia appear to have practised the art of
tattooing. They marked themselves by scars ordinarily in a very rude manner,
but occasionally men have been seen whose bodies were covered with cicatrices
in regular lines, making a sort of pattern. One remarkable instance of the
kind, illustrated by a drawing after a photograph (Fig. C), is shown in this
work. It is a portrait of a native of Queensland.
Mr. Bulmer tells me that, according to his observations, the natives of each
tribe scarred themselves after a pattern common to the tribe. The people of
one tribe, he says, had a mark of this form — (Fig. 47) ; another used this —
(f%
O O O o
o o o o o
O O O o o
FIG. 48.
(Fig. 48) ; another, with lines after this fashion — (Fig. 49). In some tribes
the scars were on the back, in others on the arms, or on the chest or abdomen.
We may regard these markings as the rudiments of the art practised by the
New Zealanders and Polynesians, whose methods of tattooing have been brought
to the highest state of perfection. The cicatrices are made by cutting the skin,
towards and joining at the navel. The difference in the design of the painting indicates the nearer
or more remote degree of the relationship with the deceased. The black color in some parts is also
used for mourning, according to what Mr. Schiirmann has been able to ascertain, at the death of a
relation by marriage, while the white is used at the death of blood relations. It thus becomes
evident that the natives do not paint themselves in one and the same manner, but dillerently,
according to the degrees of relationship between them and the deceased, which is expressed by the
various designs." — Natives of the Port Lincoln District, by C. Wilhelmi.
* The natives of the Louisiade Archipelago, Macgillivray states, paint themselves with two
pigments — pounded charcoal mixed up with cocoa-nut oil, and lime, obtained from burnt shells,
similarly treated. They also decorate their persons with iJowers and strongly-scented plants, and
with large white cowries appended to the waist, elbows, and ankles. They use, too, fragments of
other shells, and human bones made into bracelets. — Voyatje of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, lb52, vol. i.,
pp. 215-16.
296
THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
and filling the openings with clay. * Both men and women mark themselves
in this manner ; and in Queensland it is rare to see a native without cicatrices
on the shoulder.
On the plains beyond Nundawar, Sir Tliomas Mitchell saw a man with
scarifications all over his body ; and Sir Thomas stated, quite correctly, that
these scars or ridges distinguish the Australian natives in all parts of the
continent. Tliey have attracted tlie attention of all voyagers, and are mentioned
by Cook. Oxley on his journey saw two natives, both youths, not exceeding
twenty years of age, most horribly marked by the skin and flesh being raised in
long stripes all over the back and body. Some of the stripes were full three-
quarters of an inch deep, and were so close together that scarcely any of the
original skin was to be seen between them, f
The figures — from jjhotographs — given in this work show how this
mode of decoration was practised. Though they are used certainly as tribal
marks, the pain and misery attendant on such cuttings are endured more for
the purpose of adornment than anytliing else. A man covered with tliese
ridges of flesh is very proud of his appearance, and would not hide them if he
could, t
It is not unprofitable to compare the modes of ornamentation in common
use in Australia with those of neighbouring races.
The people of New Guinea decorate their weapons and implements
much after the fashion of the Fijians, using in all the specimens I have
examined black and white, to give effect to their
patterns. Some of the lines, however, are un-
like any I have seen on Fijian weapons, and
greatly resemble the forms that appear on some
of the razor-knives from Denmark, of the age
of bronze. I have copied these lines from a
wooden drum of the New Guinea natives. —
(Fig. 50.)
* Collins says that the scars are made with the broken pieces of shell that they use at the end
of the throwing-stick. By keeping open the incisions, the flesh grows up between the sides of the
wound, and after a time, skinning over, forms a large weal or seam. — New South Wales, 1804,
p. 358.
f Journal of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, by John Oxley, 1817-18,
p. 172.
t At the village of Tassai, on the largest of the Brumer group, Macgillivray saw specimens of
tattooing. He says : — " This practice of tattooing the body, or marking it with coloring matter intro-
duced into the skin by means of punctures or incisions, is rarely exhibited by the men, and in them
is usually confined to a few blue lines or stars upon the right breast ; in some instances, however,
the markings consisted of a double series of large stars and dots stretching from the shoulder toward
the pit of the stomach. Among the women the tattooing extends over the face, fore part of the
arms, and whole front of body, continued backwards a little way over the shoulders, usually, but
not always, leaving the back untouched. The pattern for the body consists of series of vertical
stripes, less than an inch apart, connected by zigzag and other markings — that over the face is
more complicated, and on the forearm and wrist it is frequently so elaborate as to assume the
appearance of beautiful lace-work." — Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, vol. i., pp. 262-3.
OENAMENTATION.
297
The New Zealanders use the herring-bone, broad bands, and triangular
markings, but these are sub-
ordinate to the loop- coil,
wliich is prominent in all
their decorations. Tlie He
Taiaha, or staff of office of a
chief (of which I have two
very old specimens), is thus
carved. — (Fig- 51.) Their
canoes and paddles often show
these lines.— (Fig. 52.) They
imitate the human figure, and
grotesque faces and figures
appear on their canoes, pad-
dles, and indeed on all things
that they carve. Eyes are in-
variably represented by rings
made of the shell of the ha-
'^'°-='- liotis. '^'°"-
Many of their works of art are very beautiful. The patterns are intricate,
the lines deep, and the style bold. In those that are elaborately decorated the
effect is rich, calling to mind very often that of the markings on crustaceans
and the shell of the tortoise. The posts of their pahs, their houses, their canoes
and weapons, and tlieir boxes, are minutely carved ; and though they use but
few patterns, these are so adroitly placed as to produce very pleasing contrasts.
The Fijians use such figures as these for their weapons. — (Fig. 53.)
^^S^S
Their cloaks usually exhibit the following lines. — (Fig. 54.)
iilliliiXiiliiJ
Their pottery is embellished, and almost in such a manner as to suggest
that the devices may have originated in the indentations made on soft clay by
2q
298 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA.
plaited network. A water vessel in my possession is ornamented thus.-
(Fig. 55.)
The people of New Caledonia, it appears, do not decorate their clubs or other
weapons. Only one of the specimens in my possession is marked in any way.
They are good artists, however, and scratch figures on wood with neatness and
skill. A stick in my collection, about five feet in length and two inches in
diameter, is entirely covered with drawings, and many of the forms are very
cleverly executed.
It is to be regretted that it is not possible to show here all the various forms
of ornamentation in use in the islands of the Pacific. Better perhaps than
language — better perhaps than the physical aspect or color of the peoples —
they would suggest affinities which by research might be established. It ia
worthy of note that the spears of the North Australians are ornamented nearly
in the same manner as the arrows of the South Sea Islanders. They carve on
them bauds, filled in with longitudinal lines, which alternate with blank spaces,
and the lines are colored — in the arrows usually with a black pigment, and in
the spears with red or yellow ochre.
Mkt Mfapuj).
The club or waddy called by the natives of the River Yarra Kud-jee-run or
Kudrjer-oong is used mostly in single combat, when both combatants are
provided with the strong shield (Mu/r/a).* Blows are aimed at the head only
with this weapon. To strike at any other part would be deemed imfair. It is
a heavy and strong weapon, and is made of the Burgan (mountain tea-tree,
Kunzea peduncularis), or box or red-gum {Eucalyptus rostrata).
FIG. 56. — (Scale j'j.)
Figs. 56 and 57 are common forms of the club. This club is called by some
of the men of the Murray Kootn-bak-mallee.
* The £gures on the Egyptian monuments would lead one to suppose that the weapous used by
the allies of the Egyptians were not very diflferent from those made by the Australians, as shown iu
this work. In an engraving in Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, one of the allies is represented as
carrying a club somewhat similar to the K ud-jer-oong .
And speaking of the Egyptians, Wilkinson says : — " A club has also been found and is now in
the British Museum, armed with wooden teeth, similar to those in the South Sea Islands ; but it
was probably of some rude, foreign people, and is not represented on the monuments.
" In ancient times, when the fate of a battle was frequently decided by personal valour, the
dexterous management of such arms was of great importance ; and a band of resolute veterans,
headed by a gallant chief, spread dismay among the ranks of an enemy. They had another kind of
mace, sometimes of uniform thickness through its whole length, sometimes broader at the upper
end, without either the ball or guard ; and many of their allies carried a rude, heavy club ; but no
body of native troops was armed with this last, and it cannot be considered an Egyptian weapon.
"The curved stick or club (now called lissdn 'tongue') was used by heavy and light armed troops
as well as by archers ; and if it does not appear a formidable arm, yet the experience of modern
times bears ample testimony to its efficacy in close combat. To the Bisharieen it supplies the place
of a sword ; and the Ababdeh, content with this, their spear and shield, fear not to encounter other
tribes armed with the matchlock and the yatagdn. In length it is about two feet and a half, and is
made of a hard acacia wood." — Pp. 364-5, vol. i.
The curved sticks or clubs above referred to are thus figured : —
-^
\B=
^
Curved stick or club. — Thebet.
300
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
^ijS^n^mi
j.-aj-ita- -
FIG. 57 (Scale i.)
(Showing different aspects of the same weapon.)
Fig. 58 is not uncommon in Victoria, and is called by the natives of the
Yarra Yeamherrn, and by the Lower Murray iieojile Moonoe. Wi/e-nye-a-nme,
a native of the Murray, says that the lu'oper name is Mun-7nip (pronounced
FJG. 58.— (Scale ^.)
with a lisp), and that the weapon is used for striking most often, but is some-
times thrown so as to cause the sharp point to enter the body of the enemy.
He instructed me carefully in its use. Some of tliese clubs are more sharply
pointed than that shown in the drawing.
Fig. 59 is that of a club obtained from tlie River Burdekiu by the late Mr.
Matthew Hervey. It ajjpears to have been used not only as an offensive
weapon, but also for digging roots, thrusting into hollow trees when searching
FIG. 59.— (Scale 1^.)
for animals, &c. The lower end is much worn. Tlie native (Burdekin) name
of this instrument is not known to the writer. It is exactly like the clubs in
use at Rockingham Bay, and at Mackay in Queensland. At Mackay the club
is double-pointed, and is named Mattina.
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS.
301
The form of the waddy varies with every tribe, and men of the same tribe
have clubs very differently formed and ornamented. The upper part of some
is pear-shaped, and in others like two cones placed base to base, and so
fashioned as to present a cutting edge. Of this latter form there are various
modifications. It is with the Kud-jer-oong that the natives usually chastise
tlieir wives.
Fig. 60 shows another and rather remarkable form of the waddy. It is the
weapon called Kul-luk by the Aborigines of Gippsland. Its shape approaches
tliat of the wooden sword used by some natives of Australia, but it is thicker
and heavier and not so broad as the wooden sword of the Victorian natives.
The name of this weapon on the Murray is Pirr-ben. Any tough, hard, and
hea\7 wood is selected for this instrument.
The names Kud-jer-oong, Kul-luh, and Warra-narra are applied to the
clubs used in Gippsland ; but the Warra-Tvarra is not, properly speaking, a
club or waddy.
The Warra-narra — or Worra-worra, as it is named by the Yarra and
"Western Port tribes, or Xulla-nuUa of the Lower Miirray — is made from a
sa2)Iing.
A young tea-tree {Melaleuca erici/olia) is puUed up, cut short, and the
root fashioned into a knob forming a weapon of the shape shown in Fig. 61.
The root is called Kow-un-o. This instrument is sometimes used in a general
fight, but more often in single combat. "When fighting with it the men are not
allowed to carry the Mulga to protect themselves. They strike and guard
with the Worra-norra ; and a man who knows how to use it will soon disable
a less skilful antagonist.
There is another form of waddy, much resembling in shape the Li-lil, but
thicker, heavier, and stronger.
Tlie clubs in my possession vary in weight from ten ounces (a weapon fit
only for a boy) to two pounds eight ounces.
302
THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Tlie Leon-ilc or Langcel (Fig. 02) is perhaps the most dangerous of all the
weapons of this class. It is employed in single combat in the same way as the
Kud-jer-oong, but because of the facility with which the point can be suddenly
-(Scale
turned at the moment of striking, is difficult to avoid. Both combatants are
protected by the Mulga. Tiiis is the instrument, I believe, which the natives
of Lake Tyers name Darn^de-wan. In choosing wood for making this weapon
the native endeavours to select a sapling, and a part of the root forms the
head. Any hard tough wood is taken for the purpose.
A weapon nearly of the same form as the Australian Langeel is found
in New Caledonia.
A waddy (Fig. 63), said to have been made by the natives of Cooper's
Creek, is different from any I have seen. It is a large and heavy weapon.
The sunken parts are painted with a white clay, and the protuberances are
colored a bright-red.
The fighting-stick, Konnimg (Fig. 64), of the native men, is much shorter
than that carried by the women. It is not more than two feet six inches or
three feet in length. It is employed in close combat principally, and dreadful
wounds are inflicted by it sometimes. The warrior, holding it with the right
hand by the middle, makes stabs into the neck, breast, and sides of his
opponent, and not seldom forces the sharp point into the eye. This stick is
iised also as a missile, and with it the hunter can kill birds and small animals
with ease and certainty. A weapon of a very similar character was in use
amongst the natives of Tasmania.
The weapon Fig. 65 is from Queensland. Mr. Bridgman informs me that
it is a double-pointed NuUa-nuUa, called by the natives near Mackay Meero.
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS. 303
Rough instruments similar to this, he says, are used for killing game, but
that here figured is employed only when fighting. It is either thrown at
the enemy, or used to pierce him in close combat. It is curious to find the
word Meero applied to a weapon of this kind. In West Australia the lever
for propelling the spear is named Meero. The weight of this missile is twenty-
four ounces. It could not be used as a throwing-stick.
The wooden sword (Fig. 66) was sent to me by Mr. George Bridgman, of
Mackay, Queensland. It is two feet eleven inches in length, and rather more
than two inches and three-quarters in breadth. It is colored mth a bright-red
pigment, and farther ornamented with rude serpentine streaks of white clay.
It somewhat resembles the Kul-luk of the Gippsland natives, but is not so well
made. It weighs forty-one ounces. The name of this weapon at Mackay is
Bittergan, and I am informed is used with two hands, to strike the back of an
opponent's neck and break it.
The natives of Queensland use also a weapon exactly like the Leon-ile or
Langeel of the people of Victoria, a figure of which is given in this work.
The sword used at Rockingham Bay (Fig. 67) is a larger and much more
formidable weapon than that just described. Mr. John McDonnell has sent me
a drawing and a description of one. It is fifty-seven inches in length, three
and a half to five inches in width, and three-quarters of an inch in thickness.
It is made of hard wood, and the weight varies from eight to ten pounds. It
is sharp at both edges and at the point. Tlie handle is bound with twine, and
gum is used to attach the twine firmly to the handle, and to assist also in
retaining a firm grasp of the weapon. It resembles the large club or sword
(described elsewhere) made by the natives of Port Darwin.
Mr. A. J. Scott states that the wood of which the swords are formed is like
brigalow. Tlie handle, he adds, is bound as described, and is only large enough
for one hand. They are so heavy that few white men can raise them at arm's
length ; and it is difficult to understand how they can be in any way an efficient
weapon in the hands of the Australian savages, unless they are far more power-
ful men than their more southern brethren, and more so than the generality of
white men.*
• Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1865, vol. xxxv., p. 204.
304
THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Speaks.
War Spears.
Tlie MongiJe, a double-barbed spear (Fig. 68), is one with which cruel
wounds are inflicted. If it strikes a black fairly, it will enter quite up to the
lower barb, and it can be extracted only by cutting open the
wound and drawing it through. Tlie Rev. Mr. Bulmer informs
me that the natives of Lake Tyers name this spear Wal.
A hard and tough wood is used for making spears of this kind.
With a piece of quartz the native cuts a groove on each side of
the upper end, and he inserts tberein small chips of hard black
V'lK basalt, or chips of some other suitable stone, and these chips
are fastened and fixed in their places by Pid-jer-ong, a gum
resembling pitch.*
A gum called Jark, obtained from the Acacia molUssima, is
occasionally used for fastening the chips ; but the blacks of the
Goulburn had either a better gimi or a better mode of preparing
it than other blacks, because at one time they used to exchange
their P id-jcr-omj for various articles with the members of neigh-
FIG. 68.
bouring tribes.
Another form of the Mongile is shown in
Fig. 69. This is a double - barbed spear, made
wholly of wood; and though difficult to fashion
and to keep in good order, because of the barbs,
which required care in cutting out, and were
always liable to be broken, was much in favor
at one time with the men of all tribes. The
lower end is sharpened, and it is thrown ^\ith
the hand alone, not with the Kur-ruk. Tliere is
a lighter spear, fitted on both sides with chips,
and having a thicker piece of wood at the lower
end, and made to be thrown with the Kur-ruk,
which is used in hunting.
The woods used for making the Mongile were
Dargoin, messmate {Eucalyptus Jissilis), Wool-ip,
tea-tree {Leptospermum lanigerum), and other hard
and tough timber.
These spears vary in length from eight to eleven
feet.
Tlie spear Fig. 70 is, I believe, not common.
It is pointed at the lower end, and cannot therefore
be thrown with the Kur-ruk.
* Pid-jer-ong oozes from a tree called Mi-mee-rong by the natires of the Goulburn.
OFPENSIVE WEAPONS.
305
Figs. 71, 72, 73, and 74 show various forms of the Nandum. Tliis s^jear is
used in war. As in making and keeping the wooden Mongile, great skill,
patience, and care are necessary so as to fashion the barbs of the Nandum
neatly and to keep them whole. The same kinds of wood are used for this
spear as for the Mongile, and it is generally of the same length.
Some men, instead of carving barbs, which is a difficult and tedious business,
cut a groove on one side, and insert chips of quartzite, quartz, or black basalt,
fastening them in their places with Pid-jer-ong, if they can
get it, in the same manner as in making the Mongile.
The Nandum is
sharpened at the lower
end, and is not thrown
with the Kur-ruk.
Spears similar to the
Nandum are used by
the natives of Central
Australia, but they
are propelled with the
throwing-stick.
The natives of the
Murray and other parts
have a spear of hard
wood, barbed on one
side, and fitted into a
reed, which is thrown
with the Kur-ruk. This
resembles the Tir-rer.
The jagged war-spear
of the natives of the
Lower Murray, made
wholly of wood, is
called Tilloo-koanie.
Figs. 75 and 76
ehow the usual form of
the reed-spear — Tir-
rcr, Da-aar, DJer-rer,
or Jcr-aor. It consists
of a tough heavy piece
of wood, rounded and
brought to a fine
point, and hardened
and polished, which
is fitted into a reed
FIGS. 71, 72, 73, 74. FIGS. 75, 76.
{Phragmites communis) (Scale ,'5.)
which grows abundantly on the banks of the Eiver Goulburn and other rivers.
The wood is fastened to the reed by the sinews of the tail of the kangaroo, and
2r
306
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
FIGS. 77,
the union is commonly made perfect with Pid-jer-ong. Sometimes a bone is
substituted for the piece of hard wood.
This instrument is commonly used for spearing eels ;
but it is employed in battle also, and it is then thrown with
the Kur-ruk. It is known and used in all parts of Victoria.
The reed-spears of the Lower Murray, Dr. Gummow says,
vary in length from six to seven feet, but they are seen of
all lengths.
The name of the reed-spear amongst the natives of the
Lower Murray is Ulami; the reed of which it is made is
called Tar-gie, and the hard-wood head 'Tarromiie. The
sinews of the tail of the kangaroo with which the head is
fastened to the shaft are named Werranncc, and the resin
of the pine {Callitris verrucosa), which is used to make
firm the union, is named Bij-jin-ne. The name given to
this spear by the natives of Lake Tyers is, according to
Mr. Bulmer, Kam-ma. Another kind of reed-spear, which
is thrown with the Merri-wan or Kur-ruk, is called by them
KoKat.
Two forms of spear are shown in Figs. 77 and 78. In
Fig. 77 the head and barb are formed wholly of bone, which
is firmly attached to the shaft of wood by sinews and gum.
In Fig. 78 the head and shaft are of wood, and the barb is
a piece of bone, which is fixed by sinews and gum to the side. These are used
principally for spearing fish.
Dr. Gummow, of Swan Hill, who is well ac-
quainted with all the weajjons and implements of
the natives, states that these are used also in war.
The name of the spear is Koanie ; the spike of bone
is called Kulkie, the barb TiUoo, and the shaft of
the spear Marrongie.
Figs. 79 and 80 are common forms of fishing-
spears. They are made wholly of hard tough wood.
Dr. Gummow states that No. 79 is called Gow-
dalie, and No. 80 Wormegoram. They are from
ten to fifteen feet in length. They are used, says
Dr. Gummow, during the spawning season, when
the fish are on flooded ground, in about eighteen
inches or two feet of water. The blacks in their
canoes quietly traverse the extensive flooded ground,
where the aquatic grasses are just appearing through
and above the surface of the water. The fish are
then spawning, and as the canoe proceeds, the fish
gently glide or steal away, conveying to the grass a
wa^'y motion perhaps within a few feet of the canoe,
FIGS. 79, 80. when the black with unerring aim strikes with
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS.
307
No. 79 or No. 80, pressing the fish against the ground until he can secure it
with No. 81.*
Fig. 81 is a fishing-spear of wood {Ujie-koanie),
used both in securing fish and for striking them when
the native dives. It is commonly employed for taking
fish in deep clear water-holes. A number of blacks
at a given signal go down feet foremost, and as the
cod, &c., pass them they spear them. They often spear
them under logs also. The spear is from five to six feet
in length. One end is brought to a fine point, and is
smoothed and hardened and well poUshed, and the
other is pointed but not sharpened. It is a handy
weapon.
Fig. 82 shows the form of Tir-rer used in spearing
and catching eels. It is never or very rarely employed
for any other purpose. The upper end is made of a
piece of hard wood well rounded, and carved at the
point into two short prongs. The wood is attached in
the usual manner to a long reed, or, if a reed cannot
be found long enough for the purpose, two or more are
joined together with Pid-jcr-ong. The lower portion
of these spears is sometimes made of Bag-gup, the
peduncle of the grass-tree {Xanthorrhcea Aiistralis).
Koy-yun (Fig. 83) is made of any hard and tough wood.
It is fashioned with great care ; one end is brought to a fine
point by scraping with quartz chips, rough pieces of sand-
stone, or the like. It is neatly rounded and well polished,
and is from nine to eleven feet in length. It is a spear very
commonly used ; and a native prides himself in having the
weapon thin, smooth, and well balanced. The lower end is
thinner than the middle of the weapon, but not brought to a
sharp point, and it is not thrown with tlie Kur-ruk.
A spear resembling the Koy-yun is made of two pieces of
wood ; the upper piece is highly polished and brought to a
fine hard point, and is fitted into a thicker and coarser piece,
and well fastened with giim. It is thrown with the Kur-ruk,
and used generally as a hunting-spear.
FIG. 82.
(Scale ^.
* Wilkinson gives the following interesting account of the use of the bident by the ancient
Egyptians :— " To spear with the bident was thought the most sportsmanlike way of killing fish.
In throwing it they sometimes stood on the bank, but generally used the papyrus punt, gliding
smoothly over the water of a lake in their grounds, without disturbing the fish as they lay beneath
the broad leaves of the lotus The bident was a spear with two barbed points, which
was cither thrust at the fish with one or both hands as they passed by, or was darted to a short
distance j a long line fastened to it preventing its being lost, and serving to recover it with the fish
when struck. It was occasionally furnished with feathers, like an arrow, and sometimes a common
spear was used for the purpose ; but in most cases it was provided with a line, the end of which was
308
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
A war-spear of a peculiar form (Fig. 84) is used by the natives of Central
Australia. It is a long weapon, made of a hard tough wood, and is
sharpened at the lower end. It is not thrown witli the Kur-ruk. I
have never seen a spear of this kind amongst the weapons of the
natives of Victoria.
I have received a collection of weapons from the northern parts
of Australia, amongst which are several stone-pointed spears, gene-
rally resemhling that shown in Fig. 85. Tlie head of one is a piece
(if nearly black basalt, and the others are formed of fragments of
yellowish-grey granular quartzite. They are not ground or polished.
They are made by striking off chips, and the form of many of them
is perfect. Indeed it is scarcely to be believed that skill could be so
directed as to produce from pieces of stone, by percussion
only, such beautiful weapons. Tlie length of the stone-
heads is usually about eight inches. Tlie spears are from
nine to nine feet six inches in length, and the shafts are
composed of a kind of reed or bamboo. They are securely
fiistoned to the stone-heads by twine and gum. Tliey are
hollowed at the end, and tied with sinews or twine to
1B||a| strengthen them, so as to be thrown with the long throw-
^lls ing-stick which is used in the north. They are ornamented
with longitudinal grooves in bands alternating with plain
spaces, and the colors used are red, yellow, and white, the
wliite often appearing in dots on the other colors. Tlie
weight of these spears varies from ten ounces to eleven
and three-quarter ounces.
With these stone spears were also other specimens of
the skill of the natives of the north. Notably, a three-
pronged spear, each prong being barbed (the barbs, twelve
in number on each prong, pointing outwards) ; a wooden
spear with twelve barbs on one side, and another with
twenty barbs, all neatly cut, and certainly most useful
implements in fishing and most dangerous weapons in
warfare. With these were a long throwing-stick {Wo-
mcrah), and a kind of club, almost paddle-shaped, which
could be used for several purposes. It is shaped thus —
(Fig. 86). It is colored a bright-red, and ornamented
with wliite lines in the manner shown in the engraving.
It weighs seventy-two ounces. Whether the latter is
an Australian weapon or one brought from the islands
immediately north of the continent is uncertain. It is perhaps one of those
held by the left hand, or wound upon a reel. This mode of fishing is still adopted in many coun-
tries ; and the fish-spears of the South Sea Islanders have two, three, and four points, and are
thrown nearly in the same manner as the bident of the ancient Egyptians. Their attendants, or
their children, assisted in securing the fish, which, when t.aken off the barbed point of the spear, were
tied together by the stalk of a rush passed through the gills." — The Ancient Egyptians, p. 239, vol. i.
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS.
309
of the Port Essington natives, described by Macgillivray as being four feet in
length, and made of the tough hard wood called Wallaru — a kind
of gum-tree — the ironbark of New South Wales. Tlie natives fight
with them only at close quarters.
Mr. Suetonius H. Officer informs me
that the natives of the Murray, accord-
ing to their own account, were accus-
tomed to use stone-headed spears. Mr.
Officer, however, has seen none. It is
not at all improbable that the natives
of the Murray procured stone -headed
spears from the northern tribes, and
they may have made imitations of them.
A model of a spear (Fig. 87), said to
be from the Far North, has been sent to
me by a gentleman well acquainted with
native weapons. The head is made of
greenstone, and is polished and brought
to a fine point. Tlie stone is attached
to a long weU-shaped spear of hard
wood by sinews and gum. Tlie lower
end is not hollowed, and it could not
therefore be thrown with the Kur-ruk or
Womera/i. I cannot believe that this
spear is in common use. It difl'ers alto-
gether from
the spears
used by the natives
of Port Darwin.
All the stone spear-
heads I have seen
have been made by
striking off chips.
Not one is ground
or polished.
The stick by
which spears are
thrown — Kur-ruk,
or Gur-reek (Yarra
tribe), Murri-ivun
(Goulburu tribe),
Mecra, or Womerah
—is shown in sev-
eral forms in Figs.
88 are shown. It
Tlie details of the
88,
(Scale ;
89, 90, 91,
92, and 93.
9, 90, 91,
(Scale ^.)
Three aspects
of Fisr.
is a beautiful implement, and apparently an old one.
310 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
ornamentation are drawn with all the accuracy and care that could be
employed, and the engraving faithfully represents the original. Figs. 89, 90,
91, and 92 are common forms of the instrument ; and Fig. 93 is a mere stick,
with a projection at the upper end for insertion into the hollow of the spear-
end. Great leverage is obtained by this instrument. It is held in the manner
shown in Fig. 94. In throwing the spear, the right hand is drawn backwards
over the shoulder. It enables a man to throw a spear with much force and
great accuracy. Its simplicity, and its perfect adaptation to the uses for which
it is designed, strengthen one's belief in the natural genius of this people.
The woods most commonly used for this instrument are Bailee (cherry-tree,
Exocarpus cupressiformis), and Moeyanfj (blackwood).
When a Kur-ruk is broken, either by accident in the chase or in battle, the
body is kept, and a new hook fitted to it. Sinews of the tail of the kangaroo
and Pid-jer-ong enable the black to eftect the repairs with ease.
It will be seen that in some of the weapons (Figs. 91 and 92) a tooth is
fitted into the wood at the upper end. These have either been repaired in the
manner above described, or, for greater convenience, originally so fashioned.
Dr. Gummow states that the natives of the Lower Murray call this instru-
ment Moor-oona. At Lake Tyers it has nearly the same name as that given to
it by the natives of the River Goulburn — Merri-nan.
Throw-sticks.
The natives of Australia have invented a number of leaf-shaped weapons,
which are used as missiles, or for striking and cutting the enemy when at close
quarters. Some of these appear to be modifications of the club, and others
again bear a resemblance to the Wonguim or boomerang which, when thrown,
returns to the thrower. The wooden swords are thrown sometimes in the
excitement of battle ; in some districts they are rarely used as swords, but most
often as missiles ; and, accordingly as they are most commonly employed by the
difierent tribes, they are regarded either as swords or missiles.
Each kind of weapon is described in turn ; and the reader will observe that
there is an attempt made to establish a connection between the several classes
of weapons, and to suggest in what manner such a missile as the boomerang
may have been discovered by the natives of Australia.
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS. 311
Won^uim.
The Wonguim, or boomerang (Fig. 95), is known, it is believed, nearly
throughout the whole extent of the island - continent. The weapon here
figured is one used by the natives of Victoria. It measures twenty inches
and a half from point to point ; its greatest breadth is two inches and a
half, and the greatest thickness about half an inch. It is a flat curved blade,
with peculiarities of form which will be described hereafter.
The weight of these weapons varies from four ounces to ten and a half
ounces. Those as light as four ounces are rarely used in Victoria, but such
light weapons seem to be much in favor in Western Australia.
The woods commonly used for making boomerangs are the limbs of the
ironbark and she-oak, but the roots of the various kinds of eucalypti are in
some places highly esteemed.
Very good boomerangs, of the class to which the Wonguim belongs, are
sometimes made of the bark of the gum-trees. The bark is cut into the right
shape, and heated in ashes and twisted slightly. Weapons made of bark may
have a good flight, but they are not so valuable as those made of hard wood.
Even those made of wood are not seldom heated, softened, and twisted ; but the
best Wonguims are cut with a tool into the right shape. The eye of the maker
guides every stroke, and when the instrument is finished it is not necessary to
heat it and bend it.
The Wonguim returns to the feet of the thrower when skilfully thrown.
Generally it is so fashioned as to describe a curve from rigbt to left ; but one
in my possession, which I have seen thrown with precision, so as to return
every time to within a short distance of the thrower, is a left-hand boomerang.
It describes a curve from left to right.
Tlie boomerang here described is usually regarded as a plaything : it is not
a war-boomerang ; and though it is occasionally used in battle, and sometimes
for kUliug birds and small animals, it is not so handy as the short stick named
Konnung.
At the present time the natives of Western Australia appear to use the
Wonguim very often in their battles ; but in serious engagements it would not
be deemed a sufficient weapon.
In form, in length, and in weight, the boomerangs which return vary a good
deal. The men who are most skilful in shaping these instroments rarely make
two of the same pattern. Tliey are chii)ped and smoothed as experiments made
from time to time suggest alterations, and the weapon is not finally completed
until it has been thrown successfully, and has come back in the manner desired
by the maker.
312 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
When a skilM thrower takes hold of a boomerang with the intention of
throwing it, he examines it carefully (even if it be his own weapon, and if it
be a strange weapon still more carefully), and, holding it in his hand, almost
as a reaper would hold a sickle, he moves about slowly, examining all objects
in the distance, heedfully noticing the direction of the wind as indicated by the
moving of the leaves of trees and the waving of the grass, and not until he
has got into the right position does he shake the weapon loosely, so as to feel
that the muscles of his wrist are under command. More than once as he
lightly grasps the weapon he makes the effort to throw it. At the last moment,
when he feels that he can strike the wind at the right angle, all his force is
thrown into the effort : the missile leaves his hand in a direction nearly
perpendicular to the surface ; but the right impulse has been given, and it
quickly turns its flat surface towards the earth, gyrates on its axis, makes a
wide sweep, and returns with a fluttering motion to his feet. This he repeats
time after time, and with ease and certainty. When well thrown, the furthest
point of the curve described is usually distant one hundred or one hundred
and fifty yards from the thrower.
It can be thrown so as to hit an object behind the thrower, but this cannot
be done with certainty.
The slightest change in the direction of the wind affects the flight of the
missile to some extent ; but the native is quick in observing any possible causes
of interference.
It can be thrown so as to run along the groimd for some distance, hoop-
fashion, then ascend, describe a great curve, and return to the thrower. There
is another method of throwing it. Lieut. Breton says: — "I have seen a
native throw one so as to make it go forty or fifty yards horizontally, and
not more than three or four feet from the groimd; it would then suddenly
dart into the air to the height of fifty or sixty yards, describe a very con-
siderable curve, and finally fall at his feet." *
I have seen the natives at Coranderrk throwing the Wonguim on many
occasions ; and the skilful thrower seemed to be able to do exactly what he
liked with the weapon. He would throw a thin blade in such a way as to make
it almost disappear in the distance — indeed, when the edge was presented, it
was for a moment or two impossible to follow the flight with the eye — it would
then return, gyrate above the thrower in an absurd manner, descend and
describe a curve as if it were about to strike him, go off in another direction,
Btm descending, so as to alarm a group of blacks at a distance, and fall finally
some yards behind him ; the thrower, the while, regarding the weapon with an
intelligent and amused expression, as if he knew exactly where it was going
and where it would fall.
On one occasion I showed a Daylesford native a boomerang made by the
blacks of Western Australia. The form of the weapon, the wood of which it
was made, and the use for which it was intended, whether for play or war,
were all unknown to him. I asked him if it would come back when thrown,
* Excursions in New South Wales, &c., by Lieut. Breton, p. 237.
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS. 313
and he said he did not know. All the time I was speaking to him he was
examining the weapon attentively. He asked me many questions respecting
it — as to the native who made it, where it came from, &c. — and after having
satisfied him on these points as well as I was able, he requested permission
to make trial of it. I gave permission, and in a short time he had discovered
its peculiarities, and threw it in such a manner as to surprise all who beheld
his efforts. The weapon made many astonishing flights, and came back as
obediently as the larger and heavier weapons which he had been accustomed
to use.
In the hands of a native, the Wonguim always comes back, and there is no
such thing as failure when it is thrown by a skilled warrior.
It is dangerous to stand near the thrower, if the observer have not self-
possession. When the instrument returns, it is necessary to look at it atten-
tively, and not to move unless it comes too nigh ; any hurried movement, due
to alarm, for the purpose of avoiding it, might result in its striking the
affrighted person and inflicting a serious wound. Tlie plan is to stand quite
still, and to wait patiently until the force is expended. The thrower, if skilful,
will take care that, if the observers keep their places, none of them are injured.
The natives o fa part of the River Murray (near Kulkyne) name the "come-
back" boomerang Wittoo-ah-nil.
Barn-geet.
The Barn-geet, Ban-geek, or Barn-geek of the natives of the Yarra, the war-
boomerang, is shown in Fig. 96. It is most commonly used in battle. Many
of the specimens in my possession are at first sight undistingiiishable from
the Wonguim, but when the characters of the several weapons are understood,
it is not difficult to separate the come-back boomerangs from those which
do not return when thrown.
Usually, the Barn-geet is not so much curved as the Wonguim, and the best
weapons are nearly as straight as the blade of a sword ; there is seldom any
twist as in the Wonguim; but some are twisted, though not in the same
manner as the weapon that returns.
Tliey are made of the hardest woods, are very neatly fashioned, and have a
sharp cutting edge. In battle they are dangerous weapons.
The length of the weapon sho\\-n in the figure is thirty inches, the breadth
is an inch and three-quarters, and the greatest thickness of the blade is half an
inch. The weight is ten ounces, which appears to be the ordinary weight of a
good weapon, but some are as light as eight ounces.
2s
314 THE ABOEIGIXES OF VICTORIA:
This instrument is always thrown straight forwards, and if it hit the ohject
at which it is aimed, the blow is very severe. Wt/e-wi/e-a-nine says that it will
pass througli tlie body of a man, if the point strikes tlie softer parts. It can
be thrown a distance of one hundred and fifty yards. Sometimes the thrower
will cause it to strike the ground, rebound, and hit the person at whom it is
aimed.
The name of this weapon amongst the natives of the Murray is Praah-ba-
nittoo-ak.
Li-lil.
The Li-Ul (Fig. 97) is used in battle. It is thrown very much in the same
manner as the Wonguim, but skill, only acquired by much practice, is necessary
to give due effect to the weapon. It is believed by many to be even a more
dangerous instrument in the hands of a brave and experienced warrior than the
Barn-geet. The Barn-gcet may wound severely, may cause a contusion, or even
break the arm if it strikes that limb ; but the Li-lil, forcibly and skilfully
directed, will break a leg, fracture the ribs, or penetrate the skull.
FIG. 97. — (Scale t!j.)
(a.) Curve as seen on holding the weapon with the blade from the body. (A.) Side view. It
19 ornamented in the same manner on the other side. (The meaning intended to be conveyed by
the lines is referred to elsewhere.)
The weapon here figured is a very old one, and is that used by the natives
of the River Ovens and the Broken River, in Victoria. One of the men of the
Yarra tribe who examined it informed me that the men of the Mitta Mitta
tribe named the instrument Bunj-jul.
Wye-mye-a-nine ioi Kulkyne) says that the weapon is not usually thrown,
biit is employed in battle to strike at and cut the enemy, who defends himself
with the heavy wooden shield (J/«/ya). His peoj^le call it Bol-lair.
The fine sharp edge would suggest this as the ordinary method of using the
instrument ; but in the excitement of battle, or under circumstances when it
was impossible to close with their opponents, the natives would doubtless use
this, as well as clubs and fighting-sticks, as a missile.
The woods used for making the Li-lil are Moe-yang (blackwood, Acacia
vielanoxylon), or ironbark (^Eucalyptus leucoxylon).
The weight of the Li-lil is fourteen ounces. The length from point to point
is twenty-seven inches, the greatest breadth of the blade is five and a half
inches, the breadth of the lower part is two inches, and the thickest part (the
centre of the blade) measures half an inch. It is smoothed to a fine edge ; and
the maker has left the ornamental lines in relief at one part where it was not
practicable to show the pattern by incisions. The part to be grasped by the
hand is not sharper than the same part in a Wonguim or Barn-geet.
OFFENSIVE "VVEAPONS.
315
I believe it would be impossible to procure many examples of this weapon
in Victoria : it seems to have been used only amongst certain tribes, now, as
tribes, extinct.
Quirriang-an-rrun.
Tlie instrument called by the natives of the River Murray Quirriang-an-tmin
(Fig. 98) is not generally used as a missile, but most often in close combat,
just as a sword would be used by a soldier.
The length of this weapon is thirty-six inches, the greatest breadth is three
inches and a half, the breadth of the lower part is nearly two inches and a half,
and the greatest thickness of the blade is four-tenths of an inch. It weighs
from nine to ten ounces.
It is made of very hard wood ; the edges are sharp, and whether used as a
sword or a missile, it is undoubtedly a formidable weapon.
It is much curved, as shown in the engraving, and both in striking at the
enemy and in hurling it this form would not be without advantage to the native
who used it. It is now very difficult indeed to obtain weapons of this kind in
Victoria. I have been able to find only two specimens amongst the tribes of
the southern part of the continent.
The group of weapons shown in Fig. 99 represent the Qiiirriang-an-Tvun, a;
the Barn-geet or Praak-ba-Kittoo-ah, b, c, d, and e; and the Wanguim,/.
316 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
I purposely omit from this group the Konnung, or short stick sharpened at
both ends, which seems to have been used at various times by uncivilized
peoples in all parts of the earth for the purpose of killing birds and small
animals. Tlie Konnung is round ; it is not a blade ; and none of the figures in
the group are round: they are blades.
In seeking for the origin of the Wonguim — the boomerang which returns
when thrown — in endeavouring to ascertain the first steps which led to the
invention of it, it is necessary to consider the character of the weapons, simple
in themselves, which might, by some slight modification of structure, induce
the natives to entertain the idea that an instrument of a certain form would
return to the thrower when projected.
The reader will perceive, on carefully examining tlie figures in this work,
that there is a gradual passage from the Kul-luk, which is not quite round nor
yet quite a blade, to the Li-lil, which is thin and leaf-like in form. The Quir-
riatig-an-tvun is but a modification of the Li-lil, and from the Quirriang-an-wun
to the Praak-ba-Kittoo-ah there is but a step. If the Praak-ba-witto-ah were
curved a little more, and if one amongst ten thousand of such had, by some
accident, the twist which distinguishes the boomerang, the discovery would be
made. It would be difficult to make many war-boomerangs without some twist
or departure from the straight line ; and if but one answered to the form of
the Wonguim, the acute intelligence of the native would be awakened.
One cannot say whether or not the boomerang — the most remarkable of all
weapons used by savages — was the result of trials of weapons of this class, but
it is reasonable to imagine that the invention originated in some such way.
Mr. Hubert de Castella has suggested that the Aborigines derived the inven-
tion of the Wongxim from observation of the shape and the peculiar turn of
the leaf of the white gum-tree. As the leaves of this tree fall to the ground,
they gyrate very much in the same manner as the Wonguim does ; and if one
of the leaves is thrown straight forwards, it makes a curve and comes back.
Such an origin for a weapon so remarkable is not to be put aside as unreason-
able. It is very probable that if children played with such leaves, some old man
would make of wood, to please them, a large model of the leaf, and its peculiar
motions would soon give rise to curiosity and lead to fresh experiments.
In what manner the instrument was invented is perhaps, at this time, of
small importance : that it is used over nearly the whole extent of the Australian
continent, and that it has never been used anywhere else — as far as history
enables one to judge — is a fact of surpassing interest.
It is said that the natives of California use a boomerang ; but, according to
the information I have been able to obtain, their weapon is a stick — somewhat
like the Warra-n:arra or Konnung of the natives of Victoria — which is thrown
at animals in the chase, and does not return to the thrower.
That many have recognised in the weapons of tribes in various parts of the
world what they have conceived to be boomerangs or instruments having the
property of returning to the thrower when projected, and that it has been
attempted to prove that the boomerang was known to the ancients, arises
principally from the circumstance that the form and character of the
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS.
317
Wonguim of the Australian is not generally understood. Travellers have carried
to Europe numerous instruments called boomerangs — such as the Wonguim
proper, the Barn-geet, the Kul-hik, the Li-lil, and the Quirriang-an-nun — and
many, desirous of experimenting, having examined these, and viewing them
all as weapons of the same kind, and such as should possess the same pro-
perties, have arrived at conclusions that are erroneous. Before, however,
touching further on this subject, it is proper to describe the Wonguim, the
weapon which has a return flight.
The most obvious difference of form between the boomerang which returns
and that which does not return is in the curve, looking at the flat side of the
weapon. Five specimens of the boomerangs which return show the foUowin^
measurements : —
1. Length, twenty-four inches. Drawing a straight line from point to
point, and measuring from nearly the centre of that line to the inner
curve, four inches and three quarters.
2. Length, twenty-four inches. To inner curve, measured in the same
way as described above, four inches and a half.
3. Length, twenty-four inches. To inner curve, four inches and one-third.
4. Length, twenty-two inches. To inner curve, three and three-quarter
inches.
5. Length, nineteen and a half inches. To inner curve, eight and a
quarter inches. (This is a left-hand boomerang.)
Of those which do not return the measurements are as follow : —
1. Length, thirty inches. To inner curve, four inches.
2. Length, thirty-four inches. To inner curve, four inches and one-third.
3. Length, twenty-seven inches. To inner curve, three inches and one-third.
The Wonguim exhibits al-
most invariably a much sharper
curve than the Bani-geet ; and
this of itself would almost be
sufficient to guide the observer
in discriminating them, if he
had a number of apparently similar wea-
pons placed before him. Considering the
Wonguim by itself, there are three charac-
teristics on which it appears to me de-
pends its property of returning to the
thrower when projected into the air.
1st. Tlie curve of the blade, looking
at the flat side, which varies
from that shown in Fig. 100 to that of Fiff,
2nd. The twist, which, much exag.
gerated, is shown in Fig:. 102.
Tins twist IS most clearly seen in the heavy weapons, and is that which is
observed when the instrument is held m the hand exactly as it would be when
318 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
about to be thrown. In many even very good weapons the twist is scarcely
perceptible, particularly if the blade be very thin. When the blade is exceed-
ingly thin, the very slightest difference of form at the ends is sufficient to
cause a reciprocating motion when the instrument is projected into the air.
The twist in the ordinary right-hand boomerang is of the kind shown in
Fig. 103. It is to be noted, however, that when the weapon is much bent in
the middle, thus (Fig. 104), it is not necessary to give this twist to the ends
of the blade. If a boomerang showing such a line as that in Fig. 104 were
much twisted, the balance would be destroyed, and it would not return to the
thrower.
3rd. The section througli the middle ; two examples of which, full size,
are shown in Figs. 105 and 106.
As regards the length of the weapon and the curve, looking at the flat side
of the blade, it is apparent, judging from the variations in the length and
form, that the artist has a free choice within certain limits ; but if he make a
hea%'y weapon, the twist must be considerable, and the section through the
middle must exhibit a bulge on one side, and a very flat surface, if not actually
a depression, on the other.
The twist is clearly observable in all the weapons made by the natives of
Victoria. It is exactly that which would be seen if one held each end of a thin
strip of cardboard between the finger and thumb of each hand. If the ujjper
end were held by the finger and thumb of the left hand and drawn slightly
towards the left, and if the lower end held by the finger and thumb of the other
■were drawn slightly towards the right, the twist of the right-hand Wonguim
would be accurately represented. This twist is the twist of the screw, and the
property the boomerang has of ascending is due to its having this form.
The form of the weapon in section is apparently essential to its flight and
return. It is observable in all the specimens I have examined, and in all,
whether right-hand or left-hand, the flat side in gj'ration is towards the earth.
One can easily imagine the perplexity of an enquirer who should have a
number of these instruments presented to him, some left-hand, some right-
hand, and some apparently of the like form, but not made to return. His
experiments with them would but embarrass him the more ; and if he suc-
ceeded in throwing one weapon successfully again and again, he might
conclude that his want of success with the others was due solely to their
imperfections. With such help and instruction as the natives have given
me, I would not myself venture to decide at once as regards some weapons
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS. 319
I have seen whether they were left-hand or right-hand. When the blade is
very thin, the twist scarcely perceptible, and the section only kno^vn by
modelling it, and the end to be grasped not marked, it is almost impossible
to determine what kind of motion it will have in the air.
If the Wonguim is suspended by a string attached to one end, and if a
plumb-line be held over the point of suspension, it will be seen that the line
cuts a point at some little distance from the inner curve. This indicates that
the centre of gravity is not in the weapon itself. But a centre may be found.
By attaching a thin slip of wood to the inner part of a boomerang, and using
the point of a needle for a support, the weapon may be balanced and made
to rotate freely. It cannot be balanced in any other way.
This discovery, however, is not mine. It was made many years ago by the
late Sir Thos. L. Mitchell, and in his " Lecture on the Bomareng-Propeller," *
which was read before the Australian Society on the 30th December 1850, this
and many other interesting facts connected with the Wonguim are mentioned.
He says : —
" Of all the novelties presented by New Holland or New South Wales to
the European, the original human inhabitant has always appeared to me by far
the most interesting. Could he but tell us his history ! What may be gathered
from his language ? Is there anything occult amongst his coradjes (or priests)
handed down by tradition ? Or can we learn anything from his arts, seeing
how simple and yet efficient his means and appliances are ? Nature alone,
or his Maker, must have taught him these when the Australian man first began
to exist. How ancient, then, may not these weapons be ? So few in number,
yet so efficient ! The spear and bomareng are available either in war or the
chase, although the club seems chiefly intended for warlike purposes. The
missiles are nicely adapted to the resistance of fluids and the laws of gravita-
tion ; even in the form of clubs the centre of gravity seems to have been most
fiilly considered.
But it is in the use of such missiles and clubs that these children of
Nature show how well they know her laws. By means of the Wammerah, or
throwing-stick, the spear is thro\vn with much greater momentum, and of course
increased velocity. The angular club, the rotary shield, the elastic handle of
the stone-hatchet, all appear very original, but yet strictly consistent with
whatever science teaches, and not susceptible of improvement by anything to be
learnt at colleges. The bomareng is one of the most remarkable of these missiles.
Its flight through the air, from the hand of an Australian native, seems in
strict obedience to his will. In its return, after a very varied course, to the foot
of the thrower, this weapon seems so extraordinary that a Vice-President of the
Royal Society, about twelve years ago, observed to me 'that its path through
the air was enough to puzzle a mathematician.' f
* See report in the Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, 11th January 1851.
t The following notice of another lecture on the same subject, delivered by Sir Thomas Mitchell,
appeared in the Alhenceum of 10th December 1853, p. U82 : —
" Origin, History, and Description of the Boomerang-Propeller : A lecture, delivered at the United
Service Institution, by Lieut.-Col. Sir Thomas L. Mitchell. ' Some sixteen years ago, on his return
320 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Such a remark by one of the ablest mathematicians of his time was not
forgotten. On the contrary, it was remembered on the next occasion when I
had opportunities of studying the flight of bomerengs thrown by the hands of
Australian Aborigines, and then I perceived that in its rotary motion through
the air, a hollow centre of greater or less diameter, but usually of about one-
third of the disc, was described by the whirl of the bomereng, and it occurred
to me that the centre of the whirling motion might be found iji a line of
equilibrium which should divide the surface acting on the air into three portions,
in such manner as that the eccentric portions should equal the central one.*
The discovery of this centre, insignificant as it may appear, was still some-
thing new, for on attaching a centre to a bomereng, it was possible to show
that this centre was not only during its rotary motion the centre of that motion,
but also the centre of gravity when in a state of rest, while it was apart from
and quite clear of every part of it.
The natives when bent on exhibiting the more curious flights, twist the
bomereng, by placing it at the fire, evidently for the purpose of giving it the
property of spiral movement, thus showing how well they understand the screw-
action upon the air. On making' a small wooden model with a spiral turn like
a screw, and giving it by means of an attached centre, and the fork and cord
of a hmuming-top, rapid rotary motion, the model ascended to the roof of the
room with such force as to be broken in pieces against it. ....
The inner edge of the bomereng is found to form a cycloid.
The outer edge consists of two parabolic curves whose foci appear to overlap,
so as to be both in the axis of motion. These curves are presented by a section
of the half-bomereng, when at an angle of 45° with the axis."
from an expedition into the interior of Australia, Sir Thomas Mitchell exhibited some of the native
weapons in this country, among others was the boomerang. The flight of this singular weapon
through the air, to use the words of Mr. Bailey, then Vice-President of the Royal Society, " was
enough to puzzle a mathematician." One curious point about it was its resemblance to a weapon
used by the ancient Egyptians for killing wild-ducks, as this pastime is found represented on the
walls of a tomb at Thebes. Interest in the weapon thus excited, Sir Thomas tried a number of
experiments with it, the ultimate result of which is the invention of the boomerang-propeller. Into
the question of relative merits as between the screw, the boomerang, and the paddle-wheel, we shall
not enter. The friends of each are, of course, confident of the superior virtues of their power, and
intolerant of any other. Sir Thomas Mitchell's discourse is in part controversial, being a reply to
certain strictures by Capt. R. Fitzroy.' "
* When these facts and Sir Thomas Mitchell's theory were promulgated, it was pointed out that
the principle had been applied long before by Mr. R. Hodgson, who claimed to be the discoverer of
the parabolic-propeller, and whose experiments, it was affirmed at the time, were successful. Mr.
Hodgson's blades were each sections of a parabola, and attached to the shaft in positions coincident
with the plane of a right cone placed longitudinally with the apex foremost. Mr. Hodgson's theory
was that blades of a parabolic form, fixed at the angle chosen, would take a better grasp of the
water, and have, therefore, a greater propulsive force than any other; and that, from the property
peculiar to the parabola, that all rays of light coming parallel to its axis are reflected into its focus,
BO also all water thrown off from a blade of parabolic form must diverge from it in the direction of
the focal point, and that consequently a propeller with parabolic blades must allow the water to
escape from it much more readily than any other.
The discussions which arose in consequence of Sir Thomas Mitchell's application of the principle
involved in the flight of the Wonguim is not without interest, and the reader may refer with profit
to the Mechanics' Magazine, from which I have extracted the above notes. — See vol. XLi., pp. 238,
256, 268 i vol. XLii., p. 231 j vol. Xiix., p. 130 j and vol. xlix., p. 547; years 1844-5 and 1848.
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS. 321
Col. A. Lane Fox, at a meeting of the British Association, in August
1872, in his capacity as President, in the Anthropological Section, made some
observations on the boomerang (not the Barn-geet but the Wonrjuiin) which it
appears to me are founded on the examination of a number of weapons called
by Europeans boomerangs, instruments, as I have elsewhere stated, altogether
diiferent from the missile which returns to the thrower. He said : — " Tlie
earliest inhabitants of the globe, as they spread themselves over the earth,
would carry with them the rudiments of culture which they possessed, and
we should naturally expect to find that the most primitive arts were, in
the first instance, the most widely disseminated. Amongst the primeval
weapons of the Australians I have traced the boomerang, and the rudi-
mentary parrying shield— which latter is especially a primitive implement —
to the Dravidian races of the Indian peninsula and to the ancient Egyptians,
and although this is not a circumstance to be relied on by itself, it is
worthy of careful attention in connection with the circumstance that these
races have all been traced by Professor Huxley to the Australoid stock, and
that a connection between the Australian and Dravidian languages has been
stated to exist by Mr. Morris, the Rev. R. Caldwell, Dr. Bleek, and others.
And here I must ask for one moment to repeat the reply which I have else-
where given to the objection which has been made to my including these
weapons under the same class, ' that the Dravidian boomerang does not
return like the Australian weapon.' The return flight is not a matter of
such primary importance as to constitute a generic difference, if I may use
the expression; the utQity of the return flight has been greatly exaggerated ; it
is owing simply to the comparative thinness and lightness of the Australian
weapon. All who have witnessed its employment by the natives concur in
saying that it has a random range in its return flight. Any one who will take
the trouble to practise with the cUfferent forms of this weapon will perceive
that the essential principle of the boomerang, call it by whatever name you
please, consists in its bent and flat form, by means of which it can be thrown
with a rotatory movement, therebj' increasing the ranc/e and flatness of the
tvajectovy. I have practised with the boomerangs of difl'erent nations. I made
a facsimile of the Egyptian boomerang in the British Museum, and practised
with it for some time upon Wormwood Scrubs, and I found that in time I could
increase the range from fifty to one hundred paces, which is much further than
I could throw an ordinary stick of the same size with accuracy. I also suc-
ceeded in at last obtaining a slight return of flight ; in fact, it flies better than
many Australian boomerangs, for they vary considerably in size, weight, and
form, and many will not return when thrown. The etficacy of the boomerang
consists entirely in the rotation, by means of which it sails up to a bird upon
the wing and knocks it down with its rotating arras ; very few of them have
any twist in their construction. The stories about hitting an object with
accuracy behind the thrower are nursery tales ; but a boomerang when thrown
over a river or swamp will return and be saved To deny
the afliuity of the Australian and Dravidian or Egyptian boomerang on account
of the absence of a return flight, would be the same as denying the aflSnity of
322 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA :
two languages whose grammatical construction was the same, because of their
differing materially in their vocabularies." *
There are four statements in his address which call for remark.
1. The utilitij of the return Jiiyht has been much exaggerated. By wliom
has it been exaggerated ? A well-made boomerang thrown by a skilful native
will as certainly return to him as a bullet from a rifle will strike a fair mark.
A weajjou of this kind thrown at a bird on the wing will kill the bird if it
strikes it, and if it does not strike it, it will return to the thrower. The native
can easily convince Europeans of the utility of the return flight of his weapon,
under all circumstances, whether it be used in the chase or in war. That
it is made principally for the purpose of afl'ording amusement is true enough ;
but it has beneficial uses besides, and if these are not often exhibited, it is
because he has other weapons better suited to his purpose.
2. It has a random range in its return Jlight. This is the remark of one who
cannot have seen the Wonguim thrown by an expert. A well-made Wonguim, in
the hands of one who can use it, returns always to the place, or very nearly to
the place, to wliich the thrower intended it to return. Many of the natives are
not capable of using tliis weapon skilfully. In order to secure success, there
must be some talent, much practice, and, whenever an experiment is made with
the intention of disjilayiag the peculiar properties of this missile, a patient
observance of the circumstances of place and position. A hill in front which
might cause an eddy in the air, a hollow where the wind might be fainter than
at the point where the thrower was standing, the slightest thing which might
influence the flight of the Wonguim, would be carefully noted by a skilful native
if he were required to show with what success he could make the instrument
perform.
3. Many will not return when throrcn. The Wonguim always returns to the
thrower if properly thrown. A skilful thrower never fails in making it
return.
4. Very few of them have any twist in their construction. I never saw a
Wonguim made by the natives of Victoria which was not twisted. The thin
leaf-like weapons of the West Australians are twisted. In some the twist is so
slight as to be scarcely perceptible, but it is there, and can always be dis-
covered.
It is quite possible, as Col. Lane Fox states, to get some sort of return
flight, if a crooked stick be thrown into the air ; but the Wonguim of the Aus-
tralian is something more than a crooked stick which sometimes comes back.
On many occasions I have had the opportunity of seeing the most skilful
amongst the natives exerting themselves to the utmost in throwing this weapon
— one seeking to rival the other — and it is when they are thus bent on exhibiting
their dexterity that it is possible to judge of the power they possess over the
weapon. The feeling of the observer on the conclusion of such an exhibition
is that the native can do what he likes with it.
* British Association, Section D., opening address by the President, Col. A. Lane Fox. —
Nature, No. 146, toI. vi., p. 323.
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS. 323
It is safe to deny the affinity of the Dravidian or Egyptian boomerang with
that of the Australian native, because the first under no circumstances what-
ever could be made to behave as the Wonguim does. Tlie flat leaf-like weapon
of the Australian difters essentially from the Egyptian crooked stick.
Lieut.-Col. Mundy, who was in Australia for some time, had frequent
opportunities of seeing the natives throwing the boomerang, and he writes
thus : — " There are two kinds of boomerang — that which is thrown to a distance
straight ahead, and that which returns on its own axis to the thrower. I saw,
on a subsequent occasion, a native of slight frame throw one of the former two
hundred and ten yards, and much further when a ricochet was permitted. With
the latter he made casts truly surprising to witness. The weapon, after skim-
ming breast-high nearly out of sight, suddenly rose high into the air, and
returning with amazing velocity towards its owner, buried itself six inches deep
in the turf, within a few yartis of his feet. It is a dangerous game for an inat-
tentive spectator. An enemy or a quarry ensconced behind a tree or bank, safe
from spear or even bullet, may be taken in the rear and severely hurt or killed
by the recoil of the boomerang. The emu and kangaroo are stunned and dis-
abled, not knowing how to avoid its eccentric gyrations ; amongst a flight of
wild-ducks just rising from the water, or a flock of pigeong on the ground, this
weapon commits great havoc." *
Sir John Lubbock was informed by Mr. Merry that on one occasion, in order
to test the skill with which the boomerang could be thrown, he ofi'ered a reward
of sixpence for every time the boomerang was made to return to the spot from
which it was thrown. He drew a circle of five or six feet on the sand, and
although the boomerang was thro-mi with much force, the native succeeded in
making it fall within the circle five times out of twelve, f
These statements stand curiously in contrast with those made by Col.
Lane Fox, and with the facts as known to all those who have seen an expert
practising with a good Wonyuim. It would surely be thought ridiculous if a
person who for the first time took a billiard-cue in his hand and repeatedly
missed the ball were to aflSrm that the properties of the cue were altogether
misunderstood, and that the "breaks" reported as having been made by some
players were " nursery tales." It is exceedingly difficult to acquire the knack
of throwing the boomerang Kith ease and certainty. I have practised for years,
and can throw some boomerangs not unsuccessfully; others which I have in my
possession, and which experienced natives can throw with admirable pre-
cision, I cannot manage at all. In my hands they behave in the same way as
a crooked stick, and this is solely owing to my want of skill.
Sir Gardner Wilkinson gives figures from the Egyptian monuments repre-
senting sportsmen using throw-sticks for the purpose of killing birds. f The
figures in his work no doubt correctly represent the weapon ; and it appears in
one drawing like the Warra-irarra^ or knobbed stick of the Australians, and
in another like the Quirriany-anr-wiin. It is certainly not a boomerang ; and it
* Our Antipodes, p. 47.
f Pre-Uisloric Times, p. 352.
J The Ancient Egyptians, by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, vol. i., pp. 236-7.
324
THE ABORIGINES OP VICTORIA:
is but reasonable to suppose that, if the Egyptians had had any knowledge of
a weapon having the peculiarities of the Wonguim, it would have been repre-
sented in use by sportsmen in such a manner as to leave no room for doubt as
to its character. Its mode of return to the sportsman would have been accu-
rately depicted by the ingenious artists who have told us by figures on their
monuments the most minute circumstances attending the uses of weapons and
tools amongst that ancient people.
Wilkinson says that "the throw-stick was made of heavy wood, and flat, so
as to ofl'er little resistance to the air in its flight ; and the distance to which an
expert arm could throw it was considerable, though they always endeavoured to
apjiroach the birds as near as possible under cover of the bushes and reeds.
It was from one foot and a quarter to two feet in length, and about one and a
half inch in breadth, slightly curved at the upper end ; but in no instance had
it the round shape and flight of the Australian Boomerang.'"'
Nearly all the writers in Europe who have treated of the Australian
boomerang, as I have stated already, api)ear to have been misinformed as to
the character of the weapon ; but the most extraordinary error is that made by
Bonomi. He gives drawings of the Egyptian bommereng and that held in the
hand of Ximrod, and proceeds to say — " Tlie most curiously carved is that from
Southern Africa, the Ilunga Munga (Fig. 107) ; it is made of iron, and used to
throw at a retreating enemy. Tlie Tromhash (Fig. 108) is from Central Africa,
from the neighbourhood of Dar Foor ; it is like the former, of iron, and chiefly
used in war. The two following are made of wood. Fig. 109, called Es-sellcm,
is that used by the pastoral tribes of the Desert, between the Nile and the Red
Sea; and Fig. 110 is the Australian bommereng. TVe have given the sections .
of these missiles, as we conceive that peculiar property of returning towards
the thrower may be in some measure dependent on its flatness, although an
ancient Egj'ptian one in the collection of Dr. Abbott, of Cairo, is round, like
the Sellem of the Bishareen, and like it also made of the sunt-tree, the Mimosa
Kilotica, an excessively hard wood The Australian
bommereng is much more curved than either of the specimens we have given,
and possesses in a higher degree the singular property of returning to within a
few yards of the thrower." *
I know not what may be the behaviour of the weapons here figured when
thrown, but they difi"er essentially in form from the Wonguim of the Australians.
* Nineveh and its Palaces, by Joseph Bonomi, F.R.S.L., pp. 135-6.
OFFENSIVE "WTIAPONS. 325
The weapon figured by Bonomi, as an Australian bommereng, is not known to
me, and I doubt if the like has ever been seen by an Australian native. The
figure somewhat resembles a bad drawing of the Leonile.
Some years ago I saw an instrument in Melbourne, made by Mr. J. C.
Benyo, which behaved in the air like tlie Wonguim. Two pieces of wood of
equal length, flat on one side and rounded on the other, are fastened together
at right-angles, in the form of a cross, and this constitutes the missile. It is
tlirown exactly in the same way as the boomerang is thrown, and when pro-
jected either vertically or horizontally it will describe a circle, and return to the
thrower. I had two of these missiles made, and I have practised with them
frequently. They are more easily managed than the Wonguim; and any one,
after a few trials, can become expert in the use of them. Shortly after I had
procured these toys, I had a model made, consisting of two limbs only, and
2>hiced at right-angles to each other, the luubs being flat on one side and curved
on the other ; but it was useless, and behaved as any piece of stick would when
thrown. This puzzled me, and I set to work to find out the cause of the failure.
I chscovered it at length : it needed to have given to it the twist like that shown
in Fig. 103. I cut away a portion of the wood at each end, so as to effect this,
and it is now an excellent boomerang. It is made of light wood, and can be
tlirown effectively only when the wind is faint ; but after a few trials, when one
has ascertained exactly the direction in which it should be thrown, it will make
a beautiful flight, flutter over the head for some time, and at last drop at the
feet of the thrower, or very near his feet. Any one can make this toy; and both
amusement and instruction are derived from watching its motions, whether it
be thrown vertically or horizontally. It was in making this instrument that I
discovered what points are essential in the Wonguim.
The Rev. Mr. Kane has directed my attention to an essay on the boomerang
in the transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.*
The writer, in a scholarly paper, suggests that the boomerang was in use in
ancient times amongst the peoples of Europe, that there is in Australia a race
of men of Indo-European origin, and that the boomerang was one of the
weapons introduced by this race into Australia.
Tlie paper is divided into ten parts : the first treats of the Cateia ; the
second of the Aclys ; the third of the Ancyle ; the fourth of the radical mean-
ings of the names Cateia, Aclys, Ancyle, and Teuton ; the fifth of the javelin
of Cephalus and Aquifolia of Pliuy ; the sixth of the clava of Hercules and
hammer of Thor ; the seventh of the remaining names of the Cateia, Caia, and
Kaile, and of its origin ; the eighth of the comparative antiquity of the boom-
erang and spear ; the ninth, on the transit of the names of the curved missile
to the straight weapon ; and the tenth, of the modes of throwing the Cateia,
&c., among the ancients.
Tlie ingenious argimients of the author are supported by a great number of
references to the writings of the ancients.
* On the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang, by Samuel Ferguson, Esq., M.R.I.A., read
22nd January and 12th February 1838.
32G THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Of the Cateia he says : —
"Tlie kiliee or boomerang, at present the peculiar weapon of certain Austra-
lian islanders, several varieties of which are represented in Plate I. [reference
will be made to the figures in the plate], appears to have been known to
European and other continental nations from a very remote period.
The name by which the boomerang is most readily recognised in the works
of Roman writers is Cateia. Of this, the earliest notice is found in the ^^Jneid
of Virgil, where, among various tribes who joined themselves with Turnus,
mention is made of a people accustomed to whirl the Cateia after the Teutonic
manner : —
' Et quos maliferie despectant maenia Abellse
Teutonico ritu soliti torquere Cateias.'
— Virg. Mneid, 1. \ni., v. 740.
Tlie next mention of the Cateia occurs in the Funics of Silius Italicus,
where the poet describes an individual of one of the Lybian tribes, who accom-
panied Hannibal to Italy, as being armed with the bent or crooked Cateia : —
' Tunc primum castris PhcBnicum tendere ritu
Cinyphii didicOre Macae t squalentia barba
Ora Tiris : humcrosque tegunt Tclamina capri
Setigeri : panda manus est armata Cateia.'
—Sil. Itat. Punic, 1. in., v. 274.
A third notice of the Cateia is found in the Argonautics of Valerius Flaccus,
where, in an enumeration of the Maeotic nations which rose in arms against
Jason, a people are described whose tents of raw hides were carried on waggons,
from the extremities of the poles of which their young men whirled Cateias : —
' Quin et ab Hyrcanis Titanius expulit antris
Cyris in arma viros : plaustrisque ad praelia cunctas,
Coraletae traxere manus : ibi sutilis illis
Et domus, et cruda residens sub vellere conjimx
Et puer e primo torquens temone cateias.'
— Val. Flac. Argonaut., 1. n., v. 83.
From those notices it may be collected : — 1st. That the Cateia was an
instrument of a curved shape, for this is the constant meaning of the adjective
pandus. ' Carinse pandfe' {Virg. Georg., 1. ii., v. 89). — -' Delphines pandi'
{Ovid. Trist., 1. iii., v. 9). — 'Fauces pandfe' {Stat. Sglc, 1. iii., v. 15). —
'Rostrum pandum' {Ovid. Metamor., 1. iv., v. 57). — 'Rami pandi' {Ovid.
Metamor., 1. xrv., v. 37). — ' Juga panda boiim' {Ovid. Amor., 1. i., and Eleg.
1. xiii., v. 4). 2nd. That it was a projectile — •' e temone torquens.' 3rd.
That it was dismissed with a rotatory motion — ' torquens' — ' soliti torquere.'
For, although the verb torqueo is frequently applied to the projection of the
straight missile, it is always with reference to the rotatory motion either of the
amentum, by which several sorts of straight missile were thrown, or of the
weapon itself round its own axis.
Tliese marked characteristics of the boomerang would, perhaps, furnish
sufficient grounds for inferring an identity between it and the weapon under
consideration ; for, from recent experience, it might safely be asserted that no
instrument having the peculiar shape ascribed to the Cateia could be projected
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS. 327
with a rotatory motion, without also exhibiting the great distinguishing pro-
perty of the boomerang by a reciprocating flight. But the description of the
Cateia, given by Isidore, Bishop of Seville, a writer of the end of the sixth and
beginning of the seventh century, renders this line of argument unnecessary.
He describes the Cateia as a species of bat, of half a cubit in length, which, on
being thrown, flies not far, on account of its weight, but where it strikes it
breaks through with excessive impetus. And if it be thronn by one skilful in
its use, it returns back again to him who dismissed it. The passage occurs in
the ' Origines'' under the head Clava, viz. : —
' Clava est qualis fuit Herculis, dicta quod sit clavis ferreis inricein religata, et est cnbito
semis facta in longitudine. Haec et Cateia, quam Horatius Caiam dicit. Est genus Gallici teli ex
materia quam maxinie lenta ; quie, jactu quidem, non longe, propter gravitatem, evolat, sed ubi
peryenit vi nimia perfringit. Quod si ab artifice mittatur, rursum redit ad eum qui misiL Hujus
meminit Virgilius dicens. Teutonico ritu solili torquere Cateias. Unde et eas Hispani Teutones
Tocant.' — Isidor. Origin., 1. xviii., c. vii.
Thus all the characteristics of the boomerang, its use, its shape, its mode of
projection, its extraordinary impetus, and its peculiar reciprocating flight,
belong to the Cateia, from which it cannot but be concluded that these were
the same weapon."
The statements made and the authorities quoted in the other parts of Mr.
Ferguson's paper are scarcely less interesting than those given in the above
extract. He thus concludes: —
" Many of the foregoing inferences will, doubtless, appear in a high
degree speculative ; and the writer is conscious that, in pushing the enquiry
in some directions to the length it has gone, the bounds of strict induction
have been very closely approached; still it is submitted that if the first
step of the argument, namely the identification of the Cateia with the Aus-
tralian weapon, have been taken on sure ground, it will not be possible to stay
the subsequent progress of the encjuiry. And that this step has been taken
with great, indeed with extraordinary, certainty, appears as well from the
minuteness with which all the peculiarities of the weapon in question are
described in the passages already quoted as from the fact that unquestionable
representations of the boomerang are found on ancient monuments. The repre-
sentations in PI. II., Figs. 1 and 2, taken from Sig. Rosellini's ' Egyptian
Monuments'' cannot be mistaken; and the reader who will take the trouble of
referring to Mr. Wilkinson's work on the same subject will there find still
ftirther confirmation of the acquaintance of this most ancient people with the
very implement in question. In the latter instance, parties are represented
throwing missiles of a form which, from experiment, it is now certain, must
have produced a reciprocating flight, at birds, reminding us strongly of that
passage of Strabo (1. iv., pp. 196-7, Ed. Causab.) where be describes the Belgae
of his time as using ' a wooden weapon of the shape of a grosphus, which they
throw out of the hand, and not by means of an ancyle, and which flies faster
than an arrow, and is chiefly used in the pursuit of game.' So, also, it is diffi-
cult to assign any other use to the instrument appearing in the hand of the
Belgic Briton represented in PI. II., Fig. 6.
328 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
If any certainty could be had that the notices so far collected were all that
antiquity could furnish on the subject, a new and very wide field of speculation,
of perhaps a still more interesting character, would be opened, in the endeavour
to trace the international resemblances between those people known to have
used such weapons in the old world, and the tribes who still retain the use of
them in the new. Even on the scanty materials here brought together, there is,
however, sufficient to excite serious attention in the foct that amongst the
ancient nations using the Cateia and its cognate weapons certain peculiar
characteristics are distinctly traceable, such as the prevalence among them,
from the earliest ])eriods, of Amazonian habits, and there being in almost every
instance of the 7vhite variety of mankind, and of the Xanthous family of that
variety, characteristics which point in a very marked manner to an Indo-
European origin.
Now there are in Australia two distinct races of men, one of which is clearly
of the white variety, as ajipears from the colored drawings which accompany
M. P^ron's Voyage to Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales in 1824.
What, then, shall we say ? Has the Euroi)ean or Indo-European weapon, with
its characteristic name, been introduced into Australia by these lighter-com-
plexioned islanders ; and are these far-separated savages members of the same
great Japhetic stock, of whom we have this testimony from the oldest and most
authentic of human records, ' By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided '
—(Gen. c. X. V. 5.)?"
The drawings which accompany Mr. Ferguson's paper are very interesting.
Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7, in Plate I., are Australian weapons, and represent the
boomerang which returns when thrown ; and Figs. 5 and G represent accurately
enough the Li-lil or Bol-Iair. The figures from Rosellini and others are those
of weapons not in the least like the " come-back " boomerang, but one is not
very different from the Leonile or Langeel of the Victorian natives. The
weapons figured on the coins might be such as would return when thrown; but
neither the form of them nor the manner in which they are held would suggest
that they had that property.
The figure entitled " Sabre i\ ricochet," from Voyage cle Dccouvertes aux
Terres Australes, par M. Pcron, atlas, tab. xxx., as given by Mr. Fergiison,
is nearly that of the Kul-luk of the Gippsland natives. It is neither a Wonguim
nor a Barn-geet. Probably a mistake was made by the artist..
The weapon in the hand of the Belgic Briton (PI. II., Fig. 6) is shown
thus —
If the weapon had had the property of the boomerang, it is not probable that
the artist would have represented the warrior as holding it by the middle.
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS. 329
Tlie boomerangs of the people of Rockingham Bay and the districts adjacent
are ornamented with incised lines, differing in this respect from those in use in
the southern and western parts of the continent. Tliose from the north-east
coast in my collection are not " come-back " or " play " boomerangs ; they are
such as are used in warfare, and it is doubtful whether " come-back " boomer-
angs are in general use on the north-east coast.
The boomerangs which I have received from Mr. Bridgman are thus orna-
mented (Fig. 112):—
Tlie name of the boomerang at Mackay is Wongala. Others from the dis-
tricts north of Mackay, the native names of which I have not been able to
obtain, have waved lines cut on them, and perhaps exhibit figures indicating
the country occupied by the owners.
These boomerangs vary in weight from eight and three-quarter ounces to
nine ounces.
They are not very neatly made ; but as weapons of war, or as instruments
for killing game, they are no doubt effective, and possessed of properties tliat
are understood and highly prized by the natives of North-East Australia.
The most of the weapons now found in this area have been made since the
introduction of European tools, and, for the purposes of the ethnographer, are
valueless.
The specimens of the art of the old natives of the north-east coast that are
figured in this work could not have been described but for the singular activity
of my friends in Queensland.
2u
Stii\mvt "SaTcnponji.
-c^-
Shields.
Of shields there are two kinds — the Mulga used for warding off blows given
by the Kud-jee-run and Lcon-ile, mostly in single combat, and the Gee-am
for protection in a general fight against spears.
Figs. 113, 114, 115 show the form of the Mtdga, and one kind of ornamen-
tation, and Figs. 116, 117, 118, 110,
120, 121, 122, 123, 124,125, the usual
modes of ornamentation of the front
of the weapon. I have never seen a
shiekl of this kind ornamented on the
inner surfaces.
Of the several shields {Mulga) in
my possession, none measures in
length more than forty-one inches.
The usual proportions are as fol-
low : — Length, thirty -five inches ;
breadth, five inches ; depth, about
four inches ; size of the aperture for
the hand, from three to three and a
half inches.
The wood preferred by the natives
for making the Mulga is ironbark
{Eucabjptus sideroxyJon), but box
(E. loicoxylon) is that most com-
monly used. Gum, peppermint, or
FIGS. 113, 114-, 115. indeed any hard wood, is taken if the
(Scale ,',.) necessity is great.
Garrong (wattle-tree, Acacia mollissima) is not seldom employed for shields
and other weapons.
Shiekls having an angular face-length from thirty to forty inches, a breadth
of two inclies, and a depth of five and a half inches, and ornamented in a similar
manner to those already mentioned, are used by some tribes in the same manner
as the ordinary Mulga.
Figs. 126, 127, 128, and 129 exhibit the form of these shields. A portion
of Fig. 129 is enlarged, to show the style of ornamentation, which is alto-
gether unusual in Victoria. Weapons of this shajje are named Drumming in
the Western district.
defexsi\t; weapons.
331
332
TUE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
The weight of the Mulga is generally two pounds eight ounces to three
pounds eight ounces.
Tliis weapon is called Murgon by the natives of the Lower Murray, and
Uarr-a<jci\)Y the natives of Gippsland.
Probably for the purpose of preventing injury to the
knuckles, it is customary to wrap around that part of the
wooden shield grasped by the hand a j)iece of the skin of
the opossum, as shown in Fig.
130. The Kul-luk and other
instruments have the handles
usually so covered, both for the
protection of the hand, and to
ensure a more secure hold of
the weapon.
The Gee-am or Kerrcem
(spear - shield) — Figs. 131 and
132 — is used in battle only,
never in single combat.* Used
skilfully, it protects all parts
of the body from spears. Un-
less the jioint of a spear hap-
pens to strike the centre, which
a skilful warrior by his move-
ments makes almost impossible,
it is impenetrable.
The usual dimensions are as ^*°- '3°-
follow : — Length, thirty-eight inches ; greatest breadth, ten
inches ; and thickness rather more than a quarter of an
inch.
It is made of the bark of the gimi-tree. Binnap (manna
gum-tree. Eucalyptus viminalis) is very often used.
In making these shields some skill is necessary. After
the bark is taken from the tree, and rudely shaped in the
form desired, a mound of eartli is raised some three feet
in length, and about the breadth of the bark ; hot ashes
are placed on the mound, the bark is laid thereon, and it
is covered with heavy stones and sods. The green bark,
FI0.125.— (Scale J.) by the time the ashes are cold, has taken the curve of
the mound, and the finishing and ornamenting of the weapon are pursued at
leisure. The natives of Lake Tyers call this shield Bam-ev-ook.
* The large wicker shield used by the Persians was called Gerrhum, and was shaped somewhat
like the Assyrian Gerrha. (For an account of ancient shields see Eawlinson and Wilkinson.)
Hence yippov was the name amongst the Greeks for anything made of interlaced twigs, as the
square shield made of osiers and the like. The similarity of names for the same kind of weapon is
indeed strange.
DEFENSIVE WEAPONS.
333
111 Figs. 131-2, 133-4 it will be seen that the handle — the inside length
which is usually four inches — is not separated from, but forms a part of
the weapon. Such
instruments are now
rare. In making
them, the wood next
to the bark and a
part of the wood of
the tree are used,
and great art is ne-
cessary in cutting
out the piece and
perfecting the shape,
so as to make the
instrument strong
and durable. In
Figs. 135, 136, and
137 the handle is
formed of a separate
piece of wood, which,
when green, is thrust
into holes made to
receive the ends.
(Scale 1
FIGS. 131, 132.
(Scale J.)
"When finished, the handle can
scarcely be taken out without
breaking the weapon. These
figures give different and ver\"
instructive examples of the
modes of ornamentation in
favor amongst the Aborigines.
The weight of a Gee-am is
about one pound eleven ounces.
Some are lighter, but seldom
are any of them heavier.
Mr. George Bridgman, of
Mackay, in Queensland, has
sent me a very curious shield.
The back, front, and sides are
shown in the engraving. It
is rudely but profusely orna-
mented, with shallow incised
136,
(Scale ^.)
334
THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOEIA.
lines irregularly disposed, but so as to form a pattern. — (Fig. 138.) Tlie two
rows of shallow depressions marked with detached circles, at the top and
bottom are colored red. The spaces at the ends are painted white. The back
is nearly flat, and the
handle is cut out of the
solid wood. A figure,
perhaps that of some
reptile, is drawn on
it, and colored white,
and the spaces marked
with incised lines are
painted red. This shield
is twenty inclies and a
quarter in length, and
seven inches in breadth, '''°- '^s-
and weighs only thirty-sLx ounces. Tlie name of this
shield at Mackay is Goolmarnj.
The shield Fig. 139, from Hockingham Bay, Queens-
laud, is a remarkable specimen of native art, and difl'ers
altogether from the shields in use in other parts of the
continent. The form is an irregular oval. It is thirty-
seven inches in length, and fifteen inches in width at
the widest part. The thickness varies from one and a half to three inches.
There is a boss or knob in the centre about three inches in length, an inch and
a half in width, and about an inch in height. The whole is colored black,
yellow, white, aud red, iu stripes and patches. The reverse is plain, and the
liandle is sunk in the wood. The wood of which it is made is very light.
Mr. A. J. Scott says that this shield is formed of the soft, light wood of the
buttress root of a description ofjicus, and that it is sometimes painted iu blue,
black, red, and yellow bands, in a quaint zig-zag pattern.
Mrajjona and Jmpkmcutf) of the Wtr^i ^ufifraliaiis.
--O"-
Some six years ago I asked Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, who was then engaged
in making a geological survey of part of the Colony of "West Australia, to pro-
cure for me some of the weapons of the natives of the west and nortli-
west coast of Australia ; and he was good enough to send me a very valuable
collection, which I have used in preparing this brief account of some of the
more important implements employed by the blacks in this part of the con-
tinent. In order that accurate descriptions of them might be given, I applied
to the Honorable Fred. Barlee, the Colonial Secretary at Perth, to supply
information respecting some of them ; and with his usual kindness, and with
an alacrity in the promotion of scientific investigations not always found in
gentlemen occupying similar exalted positions, he furnished valuable notes,
made by himself, from statements communicated to him by an intelligent
native.
No one but a person who has engaged in such labors as have occupied me
for many years knows how difficult it is to ascertain the facts respecting even
the commoner implements and utensils used by the natives. I have had the
most positive statements respecting the use of one kind of spear absolutely
contradicted by other statements apparently equally trustworthy ; and in all
such cases it has been necessary to apply to the blacks themselves for an
explanation. A spear of a peculiar form is employed in one locality almost
exclusively as a weapon of war ; in another it is commonly used for striking
fish ; and in a district not far distant perhaps it is altogether unknown.
With such difficulties to encounter, it was with peculiar satisfaction that I
was able to avail myself of the aid of gentlemen of culture and experience in
procuring some few data for this necessarily imperfect description of the West
Australian weapons and utensils.
Perhaps the most interesting of all the offensive weapons used by the
natives of the western part of the continent is the K//(ie or boomerang. It is
essentially the same as that found in the southern and eastern colonies, but it
is somewhat diiferent in form, and is exceedingly thin and leaf-like. Some of
those in my possession are scarcely three-tenths of an inch in thickness in the
thickest parts, and they have knife-like edges. The weight of the heaviest is
four and three-quarter ounces and the lightest a little under four ounces. The
extreme length varies from twenty inches to twenty-three inches, and the
breadth is from one and three-quarters to two inches. At first sight they
appear to be quite flat ; but a close examination shows that there is a slight
336
THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
twist ; and in weapons so thin as these a very small deflection is sufficient
to ensure their true flight and their return to the thrower. They are made by
the natives with wonderful precision and accuracy, and they are dangerous
weapons in their hands. Common forms of the Kj/lie are shown in Fig. 140.
Some years ago, as already stated, I
took one of the West Australian boomer-
angs to Coranderrk, and showed it to
the natives. Tliey were much surprised,
and seemed at first scarcely to believe it
to be a boomerang made by an Austra-
lian ; but " Tommy Farmer," an intelli-
gent fellow, handled it carefully, and
sought to discover whether it was one
that would come back. He then threw
it, and it made a large circuit, and re-
turned to him. All the West Australian
boomerangs seem to fly further than those
used by the natives of the east.
The wood of which my specimens are made appears to be that of some
species of acacia, and in forming them advantage has been taken of a natural
curve of the wood. They are not carved or artificially colored ; but they are,
nevertheless, very beautiful implements, on account of the
natural tints and veins of the wood. Some are of a rich red-
dish-brown, with streaks of dark-brown, and the edges are
cream-colored.
The most common form of spear in use in West Australia
is that shown in Fig. 141, where the head alone is given. It
is named Gicl-jee, Gee-jee, or Borral (spear-stone). It is
about eight feet in length, and is thrown with the Meero (or
Wotnerah). The heads of those in my collection are coated
with a hard gum, forming a ridge on one side, in which pieces
of glass are impacted, and the whole is stained with the gum of
the xanthorrhaa, to render it smooth and impervious to mois-
ture. They weigh from six and a half ounces to seven ounces.
Tlie woods used for making this weapon are Boordono, which
is the best ; Woonarra, which is good ; and Goodyidgee, which
is common. Mr. Barlee could not ascertain the botanical
names of the trees from which these woods are procured. The
cutting tools used in making the spear are shells and quartz,
or glass, if it can be procured. The point is very sharp. When
threatening an enemy, a native wUl say, Ngadrjol nhynueen
daanaga — "I wUl you sj^ear ! "
The light spear (Fig. 142) is formed entirely of very hard wood, and is eight
feet in length. It is sharpened at both ends, and each end is brought to a very
fine point. It cannot, of course, be thrown with the Womerak. In the thickest
part the diameter does not exceed four-tenths of an inch, and it weighs eight
FIG. 1+1. FIG. 1«.
WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS.
337
otmcea. The only specimen from West Australia that I have in my possession
was obtained by Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, and it is conjectured that it is used both
in hunting and in war. It is a light and well-balanced spear ; and great skill
must have been employed in shaping it and in bringing the ends to such fine
hard points as they present. The wood of which it is made has dark veins in
it, and it appears to have been polished and rubbed or varnished with some
sort of gum or resin.
A rather remarkable spear, Fig. 143, is the only
one brought from West Australia by Mr. Brown
which is in any way ornamented. The shaft from the
point downwards is scraped smooth for a length of
nearly nine inches, and marked with black bands ;
and the wood being white, the effect is peculiar.
Below the scraped or polished part the wood is in
the same state as when the bark was peeled off, except
that it has been rubbed with a gum or resin to protect
it from the wet.
The spear is nearly eight feet in length. One
weighs five and three-quarter ounces, and another six
and a half ounces. The barb is formed of very hard
white wood, and is exceedingly thin and sharp. It is
firmly fixed to the head by some kind of string or
sinew, and further strengthened by a coat of the gimi
of the xanthorrkcEa. The lower end is hollowed for
the reception of the point of the Wotnerah, and one
is tied (as shown in the figure), to strengthen it.
As a weapon of offence, it would be highly dangerous.
It resembles the barbed spear of the Cape York
natives.
The double-barbed spear — Pillara — (Fig. 144) —
is thrown from the Womerah like the Gid-Jee, but is
employed more commonly in close combat, when it
is thrust at the enemy. The wood from which this
weapon is made is not known, and it is not used
within a distance of four hundred miles north of
Perth. It is about nine feet in length. It is stated
by the Eev. J. G-. Wood* that this spear is in use at
Port Essington ; and this agrees with the informa-
tion furnished by the Honorable Mr. Barlee.
The four-pronged spear (Fig. 145) is about sis
feet in length, the tapering heads being apparently
of the same kind of wood as the shaft. The barbs on "''o- '♦a-— (Scale J.) fig. i**.
each side project outwards. Though this is named as a West Australian
weapon, it is not known, as far as could be ascertained by the Honorable
* Natural History of Man, vol. u., p. 41.
2x
338
THE ABOEIGENES OF VICTOEIA:
Mr. Barlee, to any of the natives of Perth. It is supposed to be a weapon in
use at Port Darwin, or on some part of the north or north-west coast.
A three-pronged spear, barbed at each point, somewhat similar in con-
struction to this, is in use amongst the natives of Cape York.
The Meero or Womerah, the lever for propelling the spear,
differs in form from those in use in Victoria, thoiigh the prin-
ciple is the same. The flat, shield-like Womcrahs (Fig. 140)
in my collection are made of djarrah, and are very thin and
well polished. They are not ornamented in any way. The point
for receiving the end of the spear is made of very hard white
wood, and is fastened to the head with gum ; and there is a
lump of gum at the end, so placed as to prevent the implement
from slipping in the hand. The length is one
foot ten inches, and the greatest breadth five
inches. The weight varies from seven and three-
quarter ounces to ten ounces. Mr. Barlee
informs me that this implement is usually
made of Mang-art, a species of wattle, called
raspberry-jam, from the scent of the wood
being like that preserve. The natives carve
the wood into proper form
with the stone-chisel, and
smootli it with a rasp
made of the rough bark
of any forest tree.
Fi
of
147 is another
form of the throwing-
stick in common use
amongst the natives of
the north-west coast. I
have in my possession a
good specimen sent to me
from Port Darwin by Mr.
J. G. Knight.
The wooden shield
{Woonda) of "West Aus-
tralia (Fig. 148) is two
feet nine inches in length,
1 and six inches in breadth.
FIG. 1*5. It is made of the wood of
a species of bastard cork-tree (botanical name not known), and the hole for the
hand is cut out of the solid block. Its weight is thirty ounces. Is is curiously
ornamented. The grooved ridges, forming straight lines from the points, take
a sudden turn near the middle, where they unite. The dark lines in the
engraving represent the ridges which are hollowed or grooved, and these grooves
are filled in with ruddle. The hollow parts between the ridges are painted
WEAPONS AND IMPLEIIENTS.
339
!lf:
white, thus forming alternate stripes of bright -red and white. "Why the
shields are ridged and grooved has not been ascertained. As only one form
of shield is known in West Australia, it must be inferred that it is used both
as a guard against spears and clubs ; and Mr. Barlee says that the natives
consider it a sufficient protection for their bodies
when in a half-kneeling or stooping position. It
is rough-hewn with the stone-chisel, and carved
and finished with the teeth of the opossum or
kangaroo-rat.* Tlie red color for ornamenting
it is prepared from a yellow clay ( Wilgce), which
is burnt into red-ochre, and the white from a sort
of pipeclay {Durda-ak),
All the shields from "West Australia are orna-
mented in the same manner, and the form, as far
as I am able to ascertain, is the same every-
where on the west and north-west coast.
It is somewhat strange that we should find in
Central Africa a shield very closely resembling
that used by the natives of "West Australia. The
Neam-nam, in the Nile district, just under the
Equator, have a weapon nearly of the same size
and form as that of the "West Australians, and,
like it, the hole for the hand is scooped out of the
solid block.t The Neam-nam shield is usually
covered with the skin of an antelope, but it
appears some are carved and colored. Mr. Alex-
ander '\Villiams, in Notes and Queries, says that
the late Mr. Christy called his attention to the
exact similarity of the shields of the West Aus-
tralian blacks to those used by the natives of
Central Africa — " a similarity not only in shape
and pattern but actually in the succession of
colors in the pattern." | ^1°- '*8.
It is certainly remarkable that the shields of the natives of the west of
Australia should difi'er so much in their character from those of the natives of
the south and the east.
The Kadjo or Koj-jer — native hammer or tomahawk — (Fig. 149) — difiers
from all others known on the continent of Australia, and indeed an implement
exactly similar has not been found, it is believed, in any part of the world. I
have two specimens, and they are alike. One edge is chipped, so as to be of use
in cutting and chopping, and the other is blunt, and may be employed as a
hammer. The stone is a fine-grained granite — one is almost pure quartz —
and the edge and the head are formed by percussion. They are not ground.
* See Leange-wakrt, used for carving by the natives of Victoria,
t Natural Hixtonj of Man, vol. I., p. 493.
X Quoted in Nature, 20th July 1S71, p. 230.
340 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
The wooden handle is formed of hard wood like that used for spears, namely,
Boondono or Mang-art, and is about four-tenths of an inch in diameter and
seven inches in length. The handle is fixed to the stone by giun obtained
from the tough-top xantkorrlioea, being stronger and more adhesive than that
got from the brittle-top xantltorrkaa. It is said that two stones are used in
forming the head, and it is not iinlikely from the manner in which the handle
is inserted that this is so ; but the only way in which I could ascertain the
mode of construction would be by breaking a tomahawk, and that I should
hesitate to do. The Kadjo is usually painted a red color with Wilgee.
The end of the handle is brought to a sharp point, and in climbing trees, the
native, after he has cut a hole for his foot, reaches up as high as he can, sticks
the sharp end into the bark, and draws himself up with the hold thus obtained.
K the stone forming the head of a West Australian tomahawk were found
anywhere divested of the gum and handle, it is doubtful whether it would be
recognised by any one as a work of art. It is ruder in its fashioning, owing
principally to the material of which it is composed, than even the rude unrubbed
cliij)ped cutting-stones of the Tasmanians. There is much to be learnt from the
study of a West Australian tomahawk.
The stone-chisel. Fig. 150, is called by the natives Dom-ak or Dun-ah* It is
two feet four inches in length, and about one inch in diameter. The cutting
edge projects about two-tenths of an inch, and the stone is securely fastened to
the head by gum.
FrG. 150. — (Scale ,'5.)
In two specimens I possess the stone is pure quartz. Below the lump of
gum in which the stone is fixed the implement for the length of an inch and a
half is smooth; then there is a hollow, and below that the round stick is grooved
longitudinally, so as to enable the mechanic to obtain a firm hold of it. The
wood is not heavj', but very hard, and of a dark reddish-brown color. It is used
for cutting and shaping boomerangs, shields, clubs, &c., and is employed also in
war and in himting. It is throwTa in such a manner as to turn over in its flight,
and if it strike a man or a kangaroo, death is certain. It closely resembles the
stone chisel or gouge used by the natives of the Grey Ranges (lat. 29° 30' S.,
long. 141° 30' E.), but is a neater if not a better tool than theirs.
• Mr. Philip Chauncy informs me that the stone-chisel is named Dhabba. The Dow-ak is a
stick that is thrown, and is rounded at both ends.
WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS. 341
The meat-cutter or native knife — Dahba — (Fig. 151) — is made by fixing to a
sliort hard piece of wood (such as that used for spears), with the gum of the
aanthorrhoea, fragments of quartz. It looks like a saw, but it is really a knife,
and is employed by the natives to cut or jag flesh. This implement is
mentioned by the Rev. J. G. Wood, and its uses, I think, have been mis-
understood.*
The native scoop or spade — Waal-bee — (Fig. 152) — is used for digging roots
and holding water. It is made of the outside wood of trees of the eucalyptus
tribe, and is formed first by burning it so as to hollow it rough]}', and is finished
by scraping it with sharp stones and shells, and polishing it with a rasp made of
the bark of the Banksia. It is a kind of Tarnuk, but is thinner and better
formed, somewhat like a kava bowl without the feet. It is spoon-shaped, and
is sixteen inches in length and seven and a half inches in breadth. Mr. Barlee
says that this implement is not at all common in West Australia.
Tlie other implements used by the natives are a waddy or club, formed of
the same kind of wood as the spears, and a large war club {Wcerba). Tlie
latter is made of very hea\'y wood, and is found only amongst the natives of
the north-west coast.
Amongst their ordinary implements are bone-needles or skewers, and awls
or piercers, also of bone ; and they use likewise shells, sand, and rough rasps
made of the bark of trees.
Mr. H. Y. L. Brown sent me a ball of twine (JVoom-buie) composed of tlie
wool of the opossum, which the natives wrap round the head or the arms or the
body. A warrior places a bright-colored feather in this when it is wound round
Ills head ; and with his cloak of opossum skins, his spear, throwing-stick, and
tomahawk, he is ready for peace or war.
* Natural History of Man, vol. u., p. 3S.
JmjjUmcntfj and UlauufadurDS.
'-CO^"
The bags, the baskets, the wooden vessels for holding water, and the tools
used by the natives, are few in number, but they are sufficient for their
wants.
They have made good use of the raw materials within their reach ; and,
whether dealing with wood or bark, or with the bones, skins, or sinews of
animals, they have exliibited ingenuity, and produced work as excellent as it
possibly could be under the circumstances in which they labored.
In the descriptions which follow, the reader will discover much information
quite new even to those who have lived amongst the Aborigines for many
years, and who are well acquainted with tlieir furniture and utensils. I have
not relied on my own observations. I have sought to gain information from
settlers in various parts of Australia; and though I have used all means
available to me in collecting facts for this very interesting branch of my
work, I cannot believe that I have secured everything that is known respecting
the implements of the natives.
The tool with which weapons are carved — Leange-walert — was discovered
by accident ; and I know not how many other tools of the like kind, or dis-
similar, may be in use amongst the tribes in the interior.
That the natives were ready at all times to devise sure means for the
capture of animals, and for cooking them, and for entrapping their enemies or
killing them, may be accepted as proofs that they are not deficient in invention
or energy. The skill exhibited in their works is imperfectly shown in the
figures and descriptions in this work.
It was not known until lately that the natives were in the habit of com-
municating with far-distant friends by means of message-sticks, on which are
carved figures and marks sufficiently clear to convey information relative to
important occurrences. The i^icture-writing in use amongst this people,
rude as it is, is of the highest interest, and all that relates to it will be
studied by ethnologists perhaps more carefully than anything else in this
work.
I was glad to receive from the Honorable Mr. Barlee, the Colonial Secretary
in "Western Australia, sticks on which messages are written — thus confirming
other statements made respecting this method of transmitting intelligence.
IMPLEMENTS AND MANUPACTUEES.
343
Bags and Baskets.
The native females use a great many kinds of bags and baskets. They carry
all their little treasures in the large bags when they are travelling. Fig. 153
FIG. 153. — (Scale I.)
shows a large bag or basket, made of the leaves of the common reed {Phrag-
mites communis) which grows abmidantly on the banks of the Rivers Yarra
and Goulburn. The material is twisted into a rope, and arranged in loops,
as shown in Fig. 154.
FiQ. 154-. — (Scale J.)
The above figure is drawn from a bag presented to the late Mr. A. F. A.
Greeves, in 1840, by Mary, the wife of Benbow, at that time the principal man of
the Yarra tribe. I have never seen a bag or basket resembling this in use, but
it was common amongst the Aborigines of the Yarra and Goulburn prior to the
arrival of the whites. Though it is now old, it is yet a strong and useful bag,
the material of which it is made being durable ; and it is well and neatly put
together.
The net-bag — Bel-ang or Pel-ling — (Fig. 155) — is made of the fibre obtained
from bark, or of the hair of the native cat or opossum, and it is of all sizes.
344 TELE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Some are no larger than a purse, and others almost like fishing-nets. Tlie
fancies or necessities of the women determine the size of the bag. When the
fur is picked off the opossum or native cat, the woman sits down and works it
into twine by rubbing it with her hand on the inside of the thigh. The bags
are very strong and durable. Fig. 156 shows the arrangement of the loops.
FIG. 155. — (Scale J.)
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer says that the bag {Ba-thung) used by the women of
Gippsland for carrying their property is sometimes made of grass, and not
seldom of the fibre of the stringybark.
A bag — Bee-lang — used by the natives of the Yarra is shown in Fig. 1 57. It
is thirteen inches in length, and four inches in depth, when not extended. It is
elastic, and would contain a great quantity of goods if necessary. Tlie twine
of which it is composed is made of the fibre of the bark of a eucalypt
{Eucalyptus obliqua). It is strong and well twisted. The mode of construction
IMPLEMENTS AND MANUTACTUEES.
345
from the top downwards, is shown in the figure. Tlie string for carrying it is
very strong. The woman has not only twisted the cord well and stoutly, but
has wrapped around it very closely a fine fibre, so as to give additional strength
and security.
This bag seems to have been designed for carrying small articles, and must
have been attached to some belt at the side, or carried in the hand. The string
is too short to allow of its being passed over the head.
A flat basket — Fig. 158 — formerly in common use amongst the natives of
the southern parts of Australia, if not elsewhere, is now
rarely seen. It is beautifully woven, very strong, and
made in such a form as to be conveniently carried either
on tlie back or on the breast. The size of the basket
varies according to the requirements of the maker.
Some for young people who have few worldly posses-
sions are small ; others in my collection, probably for
the use of those who had more wealth in bone-awls and
the like, are larger. The flags or grasses of which it is
made are variously colored, and advantage is taken of
this to give some sort of pattern to the work. Eyre
says that in one part of South Australia this basket '''°- '^^•
is called P ool-la-da-noo-ko.
The basket Bin-nuk, Been-ak, or Bo-ut, is of various sizes ; and, in
selecting the material to make it, due regard is had to the purpose for which
it is required. Some are large and strong, in which the women can carry a
child ; and others quite small, only sufficient to hold their bone-needles, hair,
necklaces, and the like. Some are made of a kind of flag — Kur-ra-Kcin —
which is split by the naU and made fit for weaving, and others of Poa
Australis and Xerotes longi/olia.
The large baskets are provided with handles, some-
times made of grass or the fibre of tlie stringybark, so
as to admit of their being slung over the back ; but the
small baskets are not made with handles. Fig. 159
shows a basket made of a kind of flag by a woman of a
tribe in Gippsland. The manner in wliicli each row of
leaves is fastened to the one above and below is
shown in Fig. 160, which represents a portion of
three rows of the size of the specimen. The con-
necting ribbon fastening one row to the other
forms a series of loops on the upper surface of
each row through which the fastenings of the
row above are passed. In addition, there are
loops each passing round two of the rows in a
pattern up and down the basket, which serve
to give greater strength. This basket is nine
inches in height, and the diameter at the top is
seven inches and a half.
2 Y
346
THE ABOIUGINES OF VICTOEIA:
The grass baskets used by the natives of Gippsland are called Minni-
gnal-ak. The patterns vary little amongst the natives of Victoria, and that
shown in the figure is a fair spccimeu of their art in basket-weaving. The
small baskets are usually carried Ijy the woman in the large Bln-nuk.
It is not easy now to get baskets of the pattern which prevailed before the
introduction of Euro])ean arts. Those made by the women at Coninderrk are
of all shapes and sizes, invariably provided with handles, and made for sale,
and with a view to meet the wants of the whites who purchase them.
Dr. Gummow has sent me a beautiful basket {Mid-jerr) from the Lower
Murray, which is used for carrying the eggs of the Loivan (Mallee hen).
Accompanying the basket is a specimen of the fibre ( Widging-nee) of which it
is made — a sort of carex, Dr. Gummow thinks.
A small basket of excellent workmanship (Fig. 161) was lent to me by the
late Mr. Matthew Hervey, in order that it might be figured for this work.
It was dropped by a woman of the Burdekin tribe
(Queensland) when surprised by a party of whites. It
contained a few bone-needles, a necklace, some fur, and
other little articles of use. The material of which it is
made is a flag split into very thin
strips, and the manner in which the
strips are put together is shown in
the enlarged engraving b. It was
provided with a loop made of some
vegetable fibre sufficiently long to
admit of its being slung over the
shoulder. I figured this with the
utmost care, and the engraving is a faithfiil copy of the original drawing.
This basket is the best piece of Aboriginal work of this kind I have ever
seen. It is evidently old, and has been carried for a length
of time ; but it is firm, elastic, and as fit for use as when
first made.
Mr. John McDonnell, of Brisbane, in Queensland, has
forwarded drawings and descriptions of several weapons and
implements from Rockingham Bay. Amongst these is a
wicker-work bottle or basket (Fig. 162), finely wrought, and
ornamented with perjiendicular streaks of red and yellow. It
is thirteen inches in height, and twenty-five inches in circum-
ference at the widest part. It has a cord handle.
(Scale 4)
Water Vessels.
Tlie vessels used for holding and carrying water by the Aborigines of Vic-
toria were commonly made of the gnarls of gum-trees, or of the bark covering
the gnarls, or of a portion of the limb of some tree. The large tub — Tarnuk
bullito or Tarnuk bullarto — was either a hollowed log or a large gnarl hollowed
by fire and gouging.
IMPLEilENTS AND MANUFACTUEES.
347
The large tub nearly in the centre of the Fig. 163 is the Tarnuk hullito. It
is a large hollowed gnarl. The marks of the fire which was kindled in it to
burn out the interior are still clearly perceptible, though it has been hacked
and gouged for the purpose of increasing the capacity. It is a very heavy
vessel. This is rather an unusual form of the Tarnuk. Such vessels were
ordinarily made of the naturally bent limb of a tree, or of an uprooted tree.
The limb or tree was placed in a liollow excavated in the ground, and a large
cavity was formed in it by burning and gouging. The Tarnuk bullito was not
carried from camp to camp. It was too heavy for carriage, and one could
always be made at each camping ground, if the old one left by the tribe on
the last visit was decayed or damaged.
The Tarnuk bullito was used for poimding and macerating the blossoms of
the honeysuckle and box, from which a beverage was obtained — sweet — some-
what like sugar and water, but with a flavor of its own. When it was difficult
to get a limb of a tree, or a tree suitable for a Tarnuk bullito, the natives cut
a thick piece of bark from off the curved limb of a gum-tree, heated it in ashes,
and bent it so as nearly to resemble the shape of a canoe, and stopped the
ends with clay. This was a temporary expedient most often resorted to on
hurried journeys. The bark of the Eucalyptus viminalis was preferred for
the purpose.
The two buckets — one with a string for carrying it — on the left-hand side
of the figure, and the other on the right — are the Tarnuk proper. This vessel
was used for carrying water from place to place when journeying, and for keep-
ing water iu when encamped. The women always carry these buckets, and fill
348 THE ABOEIGIJJES OF VICTOEIA:
them with fresh water when they reach a creek or water-hole. They are indis-
pensable to a tribe that is wandering through forests or over plains where
water may not be met with at every place of encampment.
Tlie Tarnuk in all tlie specimens I have seen is the hollowed gnarl of a
gum-tree. Unlike the Tarnuk bullito, however, it is made very thin, and the
interior is smooth. It was smoothed, no doubt, by laborious scraping. It is
light, and, even when full of water, would not be a very heavy burden. The
bark covering the gnarl, but most often the layer of wood next to the bark, was
used for these vessels. Those made of such wood are, 1 believe, the lightest,
as they are certainly the best. The twine for carrying the vessel was made of
the fibre of the stringybark or some other vegetable fibre, and was passed
through holes pierced on each side of the Tarnuk.
The shoe-shaped vessel shown in the figure in the foreground was used as
a drinking vessel — the water being taken either out of the Tarnuk or out of a
creek. It is called No-beenr-tarno by the natives of the Yarra.
The specimen in my possession is made of the limb of a tree — the larger
part being that which sprang from the parent stem. The pointed part or
tongue was evidently used as a handle. It will hold about two pints of water.
It is roughly made, and, though very old, is yet serviceable.
The gnarled tree shown in the drawing is not an unfair representation of
the mode of growth of some of the eucalypti, and it was from such knobs and
gnarls as are there depicted that the natives found materials for the Tarnuks.
On the River Powlett, in Gippslaud, and elsewhere, the gnarled trees are
seen stripped of their bark, and the larger excrescences have been cut off with
the stone tomahawk for the purpose of making water vessels.
In some parts of Victoria and in central Australia the natives use the skins
of animals for carrying water. The skin of the native cat is preferred. It is
taken off with the greatest care, the incision and the skin which covered the
feet, &c., are carefully sewn up and made water-tight, and the neck is left open.
This vessel is carried with a string, formed into a loop and passed over the
head, the skin of water hanging at the back.
These vessels resemble the water-skins used by the ancient Egyptians.*
"Among many of the tribes may be seen a strange sort of ornament or
rather utensil — namely, a drinking cup made of a human skull. It is slung
on cords and carried by them, and the owner takes it wherever he or she goes.
These ghastly utensils are made from the skulls of the nearest and dearest
relatives ; and when an Australian mother dies, it is thought right that her
daughter should form the skull of her mother into a drinking vessel. The
preparation is simple enough. The lower-jaw is removed, the brains are
extracted, and the whole of the skull thoroughly cleaned. A rope handle,
made of bulrush fibre, is then attached to it, and it is considered fit for use.
It is filled with water through the vertebral aperture, into which a wisp of
grass is always stuffed, so as to prevent the water from being spilled." t
* The Ancient Egyptians. Wilkinson, vol. i., p. 34.
t The Natural History of Man. J. G. Wood, Tol. ii., p. 86.
nrPLEMENTS AND MANUFACTTTEES. 349
Eyre refers to the use of skulls as drinkiug cups. The sutures are closed
with wax or gum.
The vessel used by the natives of Gippslaud for holding water for domestic
purposes is made of bark, and the ends are tied exactly in the same way as
tliey tie the ends of a canoe. Tliis vessel is called GU-ang. The Murray
blacks use a vessel of wood like the Tarnuk proper, and the name they give it
is Karr-a-ki.
Mr. Nathaniel Munro says that in some parts shells are used for drinking
vessels, where they can be procured large enough for the purpose ; but vessels
for holding water are generally made of green bark. Pieces are cut into
various shapes, laid on the fire or in hot ashes until they are soft and the
edges begin to contract, and then they are easily wrought into the forma
desired by the natives. When the bark is heated, it can be drawn into many
shapes without breaking it or causing it to crack.
The Mussel-shell.
Tlie mussel-sheU — U-born — is much used by the natives for the purpose of
scraping and preparing skins for bags, opossum rugs, &c. It is a valuable
tool. It is used ordinarily as it is taken from the living animal ; but if a
favorite and well-shaped shell becomes a little blunted by use, it is sharpened
with a stone. When the whites introduced their manufactures, the natives
eagerly seized on the worn-out iron spoons, which they found near their huts,
and converted the bowls into tools which served them better for scraping skins
tlian the mussel ; but some of the old blacks even now use the mussel.
Leange-walert.
The tool with wliich the natives used to ornament their wooden shields and
otlier weapons is called Leange-n-alert. The lower-jaw of the opossum is
firmly attached to a piece of wood (which serves as a handle) by twine made
of the fibre of the bark of Eucalyptus obliqua and gum. This tool, simple as
it is, enables the black to carve patterns in the hard, tough woods of which his
weapons are made with ease and rapidity. The front tooth is like a gouge or
chisel, and with it he scoops or cuts out the wood with great facility. The old
weapons are easily known by the marks made l)y the tooth ; those fabricated
since the introduction of knives and other European tools are altogether differ-
ent in the surfaces which they present, though the patterns may be the same.
Tlie instrument shown in Fig. 1G4 was made by Wonga, the principal man of
the Yarra tribe, and was used by him in ornamenting weapons.
350
THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Mm-DER-MIN, KTC.
The awls or nails (Fig. 165) used by the Aborigines for fastening the skins of
animals to bark or wood when they are put out to dry in the sun are of various
sizes. Those used for pegging down a large skin are long, and those for the
skins of the opossum, native cat, &c., much smaller. They are usually made
of the leg-bones of animals. Those made of bone are smoothed, polished, and
brought to a fine point. They fashion nails or pegs also of hard wood, the
points being made still harder by subjecting them to fire. The native name for
nail is Min-der-min or Miv^dah-min. The late Mr. Tliomas collected
a number of the bone-nails. Those used in Victoria are similar to
the naUs in use in Queensland. The basket lent to me by the late
Mr. Matthew Hervey, which was dropped by a
woman of the Burdekin tribe, contained amongst
other things what appeared to be a hussy. I
found in it six bone-awls, one wooden awl or
nail, and three pieces of bone shaped like a
spatula.— (/See Fig. 160.) The
bone awls or naUs were used to
pierce holes in the skins of
which, when sewn together, they
make rugs, and the spatula-like
instrument perhaps for flattening
and smoothing the seams. Tlie
hussy was a piece of opossum skin
tied together with twine spun
from the fur of the
opossum, and again
(Acluai'lize.) '""■ '«-CAc'ii''l size.) fastened securely with
stronger twine made of some fibre. It contained also two relics —
tufts of hair, tied with twine of opossum fur.
Fig. 167 shows the lancet used by the natives. It is a spine
taken from the hinder part of the porcupine {Echidna kijstrix). It
is strong, tough, and very sharp. I have a number of these spines.
They are slightly flexible, and, though many years'old, are now quite
fit for use. They were used for bleeding and for extracting thorns,
pieces of spear-points, and the like. The specimen here figured was
at once identified by Professor McCoy, to whom I submitted it for
examination.
Kan-nan
FIG. 167.
(Actual size.)
The stick used by native women (Fig. 1 68) is about seven feet in length, from
one and a half to two and a half inches ta diameter, and seldom less than three
or four pounds in weight. It is named Kan-nan or Kon-nung. Saplings of any
suitable tree furnishing a tough wood are used for making these instruments.
IMPLEMENTS AND MANUEACTUEES.
351
The Kan-nan, -when sharpened at each end, is hardened by placing the points in
a mound of smouldering bark ashes. With this stick the women dig up roots,
the Mirr-n\jong especially. It is the weapon with which they fight also.
When their evil passions are roused, they scold, yell, and shake these
sticks in defiance. They beat the ground with them, stamp savagely,
and at last, throwing off their rugs, approach each other and begin the
encounter. The assailant aims blows at the head of her enemy, and
the enemy holding the Kan-nan over her head horizontally, and with
her hands as far apart as possible, receives perhaps six or seven blows.
Tlie assailant then lifts her weapon, and holds it horizontally so as to
protect her head, and receives just as many blows, and thus the fight
goes on until the men separate them. Broken knuckles are the injuries
mostly given ; but sometimes a clever woman hits her enemy on the
head and disables her. They invariably fight fairly, and strike no foul
blows.
Nerum.
The noose used for strangling an enemy — Nerum — (Fig. 169) — con-
sists of a needle about six inches and a half in length, made of the fibula
of the kangaroo, and a rope two feet six inches in length. The cord is
formed of twine of seven strands, which are five feet in length. The
strands are doubled and twisted so as to form a loose rope of fourteen
strands. One end of the rojie is securely fastened to the head of the
fibula by sinews (taken from the tail of the kangaroo), and the other
end is made into a loop also securely bound by sinews. The loose rope
is elastic and very strong. Tlie fibre of which the rope is composed is
similar to that obtained by pounding and washing the roots of the
bulrush ; but a suitable material may be got also from the bark of the '''°' "*'
EucaJijptus oUiqua. It is well and thoroughly twisted. Tlie Aboriginal
carrying this noose tracks his enemy to his miam ; and having marked the
spot where he has gone to sleep, he approaches him stealthily, slides the bone
under his neck, puts it through the loop, and quickly draws it tight, so as to
prevent him from uttering the slightest sound. He then throws the body with
a jerk over his shoulder, and carries it to some secluded spot where he can take
securely and at his ease the kidney-fat.
352 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Weet-weet.
Tlie plaything (Fig. 170) called by the natives of the Yarra Wi-tch-wi-tck,
We-a-Kitcht, Weet-Tveet, or Ww-voit, is one of the most extraordinary instru-
ments used by savages, and in some respects is almost as interesting as the
boomerang. The head — in shape like two cones placed base to base — is about
four inches and a half in length and one inch in diameter; and the stem, not
quite two-tenths of an inch in diameter, is about twenty-one inches in length.
The whole length of the instrument varies in diiFerent specimens from twenty-
three inches to twenty-six inches. Tliose I have seen are from twenty-four to
twenty-six inches. The best — and only the best were used in olden times —
resemble that shown in the figure. The knob and handle are of one piece; but
not infrequently it is found convenient to fix a knob of hard, heavy wood to a
suitable handle by splitting one end of the handle, and fastening it with gum
and sinews to the knob. They are often broken when the thrower misses his
aim ; but it is easy to repair one by joining the handle to the knob with sinews
and gum ; and an instrument so made behaves nearly as well as one carved out
of a solid piece of wood. The handle is very flexible. The weight of the toy
is less than two ounces.
I had an opportunity of seeing this missile used when I visited the
Aboriginal Station at Coranderrk, on the loth January 1873. I had previously
been making enquiries respecting the Weet-weet, and had asked one of the
Aborigines to make me one ; and as soon as the men saw the toy, the game of
Weet-7i:eet became once more popular, and several of them were provided with
the instrument when I visited them. The game began in this manner : The
throwers, each holding one or more of these toys in their hands, stood in a
group near a small rise or hillock in the grassy ground in front of the school-
house. They threw in turn, and carefully noted where each instrument fell.
The manner of throwing the toy was very curious and interesting. Tlie native,
having carefully looked at the hillock, walked about six or eight yards from it,
and then turned his back towards it. In the hollow of the palm of his right
hand he placed the thin end of the Weet-weet, grasping it lightly with the
thumb and first and second fingers, and slightly doubling inwards the third
and fourth, and then held it horizontally, nearly level with his forehead, very
tenderly holding the tip of the head between the finger and thumb of the left
hand. In this attitude he stood a second or two, and suddenly running back-
wards a few steps, violently wheeled round, and with extraordinry force threw
the instrument downwards towards the hillock. The cone, touching the grassy
mound, glanced off, and flew to a great distance, hitting the ground and again
glancing off until its flight was stopped by some impediment. All the men
were greatly excited, and, one after another, threw the Weet-weet. It is not
easy to describe the mode in which it is thrown, but from Tommy Farmer, who
IMPLEMENTS AND MANUFACTURES. 353
attempted to teach me the use of the instrument, I learnt that it was by a kind
of jerk just at the moment of leaving the hand that the best effect was produced.
It is of course thrown underhand. Tommy Farmer was by far the most expert
in throwing the Weet-weet, and he sent one so great a distance that I deter--
mined to ascertain by measurement how far he had thrown it. Mr. John Green
assisted me in doing this, and we found that he had thrown it 220 yards. We
were of opinion that if its flight had not been checked by some rank fern and
underwood which it struck, it would have gone much further. Many of tlie
other men threw it easily 100, 150, and 190 yards. Its flight is so rapid
that the eye cannot always follow it. It is a highly exciting and interesting
game, but it is one that is not altogether free from danger. On one occasion,
as I was informed, a person sitting carelessly too near the line of flight of
the toys was struck by one, which pierced his thigh, and inflicted a dangerous
wound. If the missile hit the softer parts of the body, it would penetrate
deeply, and undoubtedly cause death. As well as I could ascertain, it is never
used in battle.
In olden times this game was frequently played. The players stood in a row,
and he who could throw the Weet-Tveet the greatest distance was accounted the
winner.
It is singular that so simple an instrument is not known and used amongst
the young persons of civilized nations. It has been a plaything of the natives
of Victoria probably for ages, and they may claim to have discovered the
best form of projectile long before any knowledge of the principles involved
in its construction dawned upon the minds of scientific men in Europe.
The Rev. J. G. Wood thus describes the peculiarities of this missile : —
"The 'Kangaroo-rat' is a piece of hard wood shaped like a double cone, and
having a long flexible handle projecting from one of the points. The handle
is about a yard in length, and as thick as an artist's drawing pencil, and at a
little distance the weapon looks like a huge tadpole with a much elongated tail.
In Australia the natives make the tail of a flexible twig, but those who have
access to the resources of civilization have found out that whalebone is the best
substance for the tad that can be found. When the native throws the kangaroo-
rat, he takes it by tbe end of the tail, and swings it backwards and forwards, so
that it bends quite double, and at last he gives a sort of underhand jerk and
lets it fly. It darts through the air with a sharp and menacing hiss like the
sound of a rifle ball, its greatest height being some seven or eight feet from
the ground. As soon as it touches the earth, it springs up and makes a suc-
cession of leaps, each less than the preceding, until it finally stops. In fact, it
skims over the ground exactly as a flat stone skims over the water when boys
are playing at ' ducks and drakes.' The distance to which this instrtmieut can
be thrown is really astonishing. I have seen an Australian stand at one side
of Kennington Oval, and throw the kangaroo-rat completely across it. Much
depends upon the angle at which it first takes the ground. If tlirown too high,
it makes one or two lofty leaps, but traverses no great distance ; and if it be
thrown too low, it shoots along the ground, and is soon brought up by the
excessive friction. When properly thrown, it looks just like a living animal
2 z
354
THE ABOEIGENES OF VICTORIA:
leaping along, and those who have been accustomed to traverse the conntry say
that its movements have a ■wonderful resemblance to the long leaps of a kan-
garoo-rat, fleeing in alarm, with its long tail trailing as a balance behind it.
A somewhat similarly-sliaped missile is used in Fiji ; but the Fijian instru-
ment has a stiff shaft, and it is propelled by placing the end of the forefinger
against the butt, and throwing it underhanded. It is only used in a game
in wliich the competitors try to send it skimming along the ground as far as
possible." *
IIessage-sticks.
Fig. 171 shows four sides of a message-stick, such as is used by the natives
of Queensland. It was sent to me by Mr. N. Bartley, who says, in a letter dated
21st June 1870, that it was given to him by the Honorable R. Pring, Q.C.,
Attorney-General of the colony. An Aboriginal named Jacob was condemned
for a serious crime committed by him, and a plot was laid by some members of
his tribe to rescue him. The message-stick, which had been conveyed to Jacob
by some means of which the gaol authorities could get no knowledge, was found
in his possession, and a native trooper, belonging to another part of the country,
gave an interpretation of the symbols.
" Ckarbig" the native trooper, said that the symbols conveyed the following
intelligence : — " Two blackfellows come up in two days ; seventeen days ago.
One blackfellow come up to where this fellow (Jacob) sit down. The track
shown on the stick means that from the place where the blackfellows set out to
Brisbane. The message means that the Aboriginals were taking steps to aid
Jacob in some attempt at escape."
Tins is certified by Mr. J. Hooke Rogers as being the translation given by
" Charbig,'' but it is vague enough. The message-stick no doubt conveyed
intelligence to Jacob of some sort ; but even with the help of Charbig^s trans-
lation it is hard to guess what that was. The stick itself is valuable, as showing
that the natives can convey intelligence to their friends by symbols. The figure
is the full size of the orio^inal.
* The Natural Histari/ of Man, by the Rev. J. G. Wood, vol. ii., pp. 41-2.
IJIPLE3IENTS AND MANUPACTTJEES.
355
i
Long after the receipt of the message-stick from Queensland, the Honorable
Fred. P. Barlee, M.P., the Colonial Secretary of West Australia, was good
enough to send me two message-
sticks.— (Figs. 172 and 173.)
The stick shown in Fig. 172 is
ten inches in length, and a little
more than three-tenths of an inch
in diameter. Tliat sIiotmi in Fig.
173 is nearly seven inches and a half
in length, and four-tenths of an inch
in diameter.
They are formed of a hard yel-
lowish wood, the name of which I am
not able to give. The marks are
neatly and clearly drawn, and are
filled in with a black pigment, so as
to be distinctly seen.
Mr. Barlee says, "Tlie accom-
panying 'native sticks' used by Abo-
riginals in the vicinity of Shark's
Bay are new to me, and will pro-
bably be of interest to you. They
are used, I am informed, as mes-
sages to distant tribes in cases of
hostility and other matters connected
with tribal customs."
These message-sticks will be re-
garded by scientific men as of pecu-
liar interest and value ; and no
doubt some special enquiries will be
instituted in order to discover to
what extent this system of conveying
intelligence amongst savage tribes
prevails, in what manner it originated, and how far it has been perfected.*
* Mr. BiUmer states that he has seen a stick [message-stick ?] carried about from camp to
camp as belonging to a particular corrobboree. It was used by the men — never by the women.
He has known of such sticks having been carried for hundreds of miles. He mentions (under date
15th January 1874) that fourteen years ago a stick of this kind came down the Murray to the junc-
tion of the Darling. It had been carried the whole length of the river ; and, to his astonishment,
when he went to Gippsland he found it had penetrated even there, so that it must have been con-
veyed more than a thousand miles. The stick was of the dimensions of a common walking-stick,
and was carved after the Aboriginal manner. It was smeared with red-ochre. It was an object of
great curiosity to the blacks.
The late Mr. John Jlooro Diivis stated in a letter to me, in 1874, that when on a visit to
Benalla he became acquainted with the fact that the Aborigines have the means of com-
municating with each other at a distance, and that peculiarly-formed notclics on a stick convey
their ideas in a manner similar to the knots on a cord used in the days of old by the Mexicans.
356 THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOEIA.
KOORN-GOON.
The Aborigines when dancing in the corrobboree sometimes use two sticks
about eighteen inches in length, formed of some wood which, when dry, is
sonorous. These they strike together during the dance. The name of the
stick (Fig. 174) is, according to Mr. Bulmer, Koorn-goon.
He adds that a friend of his, having decided on forming a new station, started from the Edward
Kiver with a lot of cattle, having with him several blacks. When the settler was about to
return home, one of the young natives asked him if he would carry a letter to his — the black's —
father, and on expressing his willingness to do so, the young man gave him a piece of stick, about
one foot in length, which was covered with notches and lines. On reaching home, the settler went
to the black's camp, and delivered the letter to the father, who thereon called together all the blacks
that were living with him, and, to the settler's great surprise, read off from the stick a diary of the
proceedings of the party day by day from their departure from the Edward River till their arrival
at the new station, describing accurately the country through which they had travelled and the
places where they had camped each night.
Eyre mentions that young men sent with messages of invitation to a distant tribe carry with
them, as their credentials, long narrow nets made of string manufactured from the rush. These
nets are left with the tribe they arc sent to, and brought back again when the invitation is
responded to.— Vol. n., pp. 219-20.
$ioM Jmphm^nh.
^-CO-v-
The stone implements used by uncivilized races are necessarily regarded by
archfeologists and geologists with great interest. In many parts of Europe
there are no traces of the ancient race that once occupied soil now the sites of
luxurious cities but such as can be gathered from the stone axes and flint
flakes which explorations from time to time discover.
The archffiologist, by comparing these implements with others found in
neighbouring lands, where they are associated with remains more perishable,
but which happily have not altogether gone to decay, gains hints for hia
guidance in the endeavour to discern something of the life and habits and
character of the men who made and used them. And he gains help too by
comparing the celts with the instruments now used by savages.
The geologist finds that he has not embraced all that comes within the scope
of his labors if he omits to give a distinct place in his system to those drifts
where occur chips and flakes of flint and stones bearing the marks of an art
which civilized men cannot practise with success.*
Whether regarded as objects which, if studied with care, may throw light
on the condition of the ancient races who once peopled Europe and Asia long
prior to the dawn of civilization, or as helping the geologist to a clearer view of
the history of the earth's crust duriug the most recent period — in his eyes, as
compared with former periods, but the records of yesterday's changes ; in the
* " Indeed," as Professor Stecnstrup well says, " these flakes are the result of such a small
number of blows, they are so simple la appearance, that the art shown in their manufacture has
generally been much underrated. Any one, however, who will try to make some for himself, while
he will probably be very unsuccessful, will at least learn a valuable lesson in the appreciation
of flint implements." — Pre-Historic Times (Lubbock), p. 193.
"Many of the stone weapons and implements made by the Australian Aborigines are far
superior in construction to the rude flint implements found in the European drift. The spear-heads
in particular of some of the tribes are beautifully-finished articles, and conclusively prove that those
wlio made them must have possessed an almost marvellous manual dexterity. In Captain King's
account of his visit to Hanover Bay, he says : — ' What chiefly attracted our attention was a small
bundle of bark, tied up with more than usual care ; and upon opening it wo found it contained
several spear-hcads, most ingeniously and curiously made of stone ; they were about six inches in
length, and were terminated by a very sharp point. Both sides were serrated in a most surprising
■way. The serrature was evidently made by a sharp stroke with some instrument ; but it was
effected without leaving the least mark of the blow. The stone was covered with red pigment, and
appeared to be a flinty slate. These spear-heads were ready for fixing ; and the careful manner in
which they were preserved plainly showed their value ; for each was separated by slips of bark, and
the sharp edges protected by a covering of fur. Their hatchets were also made of the same stone,
the edges of which were so sharp that a few blows served to chop off the branches of a tree.' " —
Australian Discovery and Colonization, by Samuel Bennett, p. 280.
358 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA :
/eyes of the archaeologist, a day so far past that the lapse of time can scarcely
be measured by years — : in what way soever these implements are looked at, it
cannot be denied that they have a higher significance and a greater value than
perhaps any other weapons or tools used by savages.
Knowing full well the importance of the questions involved, I have exerted
my best energies^ to gather together stone implements from all parts of Australia.
These will be described, and such information respecting them will be given as,
it is hoped, may clear up some points now obscure.
The stone implements used by the natives are as follows : — ■
(a) Hatchets.
(b) Klnives.
(e) Adzes.
(d) Chips of basalt for jagged spears.
(e) Chips of basalt for cutting and scraping skins of animals, &c.
(/) Stones for pounding roots, seeds, &c.
(^) Stones for sharpening spears and hatchets.
(/) Stones for fishing.
(i) Stones used by women in making baskets.
(j) Stones from which ruddle, &c., are obtained.
/ (k) Sacred stones kept by priests and others.
^ The hatchets are of various forms, and differ in size and weight ; but those
of the Victorian natives are nearly all of the same general character. They are
provided with wooden handles, as a rule ; and the handles are, in Victoria, all of
the same shape, and they are fastened to the stone uniformly with cord and
gum.*
The rocks used for making tomahawks are granite, porphyry, diorite, basalt,
■^ lava, metamorphosed sandstone, hard sandstone, dense quartzite resembling
hornstone, and granular quartzite. I have seen but few implements made of
vein-quartz. The porphyries and diorites are ^jreferred, and nearly all the best
tomahawks in my collection are of diorite.
According to Mr. G. H. F. Ulrich, F.G.S., sixty-four tomahawks in my
collection may be classed as follows : —
Greenstone and dense diorite - - - - 18'1
Aphanite - - - - - - - - 13
Nephritic greenstone ------ 2
Porphyritic rock ------- 4'i
Dense black anamesite . - - . _ 1
Black basalt _-__--- 1
Felspathic granite (leptynite) , _ - - 1
Metamorphic rock - - - - - - 14<«
Quartzite -------- 8v
Hard siliceous sandstone ----- 2
* Mr. A. W. Howitt informs me that the natives of Cooper's Creek do not fasten wooden handles
to the stone. They grasp the tomahawk with the fingers and thumb, holding the blunt end in the
hollow of the hand, and use it in cutting exactly as the Tasmanians used the chips of chert which
serred them as hatchets.
STONE IMPLEMENTS. 359
Of those composed of metamorphic rock, four specimens are from Gippsland,
two from the River Powlett (on the borders of Gippsland), one from Western
Port, one from the Goulburn Valley, three from the Yarra, one from Swan Hill,
one from Bacchus Marsh, and one from a locality unknown. It would seem,
therefore, that the natives of Gippsland either preferred the hard pebbles of
metamorphic rock, which are to be found abundantly in the beds of their
streams, or had little commerce with the Western tribes, amongst whom the
greenstone axes were common. The natives of Gippsland were always regarded
by their neighbours as "wild blacks ;" and it is possible that the interchange of
weapons and implements, which in early times was quite an important business
between the natives of the south and those of the north, was not carried on with
the Gippsland people. Other facts well known to the early settlers support this
view.
In some places in Victoria there are seen the quarries where in former times
the natives broke out the trappean rocks for their hatchets. Large areas are
covered with the debris resulting from their labors ; and it is stated, on good
evidence, that natives from far distant parts were deputed to visit these quarries,
and carry away stone for implements. When one or two natives were selected
by a distant tribe to make a journey for the purpose of procuring diorite or
basalt from such quarries, they carried with them credentials, showing exactly
their object. If they faithfully pursued that object, and tarried no longer in
any place than was necessary, they appear to have been allowed to proceed
without molestation, and to have been treated as guests — not always as welcome
guests, but with such protection as the host gives to those that, perhaps
unwillingly, he entertains. If, however, they interfered in the quarrels of any
tribe, violated any custom, or seemed not really anxious to hasten the journey,
they were treated as enemies, and sometimes pursued and killed.
It is not to be supposed, however, that the native tribes of Victoria within
the boundaries of whose lauds there was neither diorite nor basalt were alto-
gether dejiendent on their neighbours for supplies of stone. Many of them
made hatchets of the rocks which they broke out of sandstone quarries, and,
though far inferior to those made of trappean rocks, were nevertheless effective
on ordinary occasions.
It is certain that the natives often bartered skins, spears, shields, and other
things for stone. ^ iT
Hatchets made of diorite are possessed by tribes occupying the wide Ter- -^ ^ >
tiaries which stretch north of the River Murray, where for many miles no rock
is to be seen. These, or the material of which they are made, could have been
obtained only by favor or by barter, or from enemies captured or slain in battle.
Tlieir young men may have been permitted to visit the quarries in the south or
east, and to take away stone, but it is at least probable that they paid some-
thing for the privilege.*
• In the Life and Adventures of William Buckley the tomahawks used by the natires of Victoria
and the mode iu which the stone was obtained are thus described : — " The heads of these instru-
ments are made from a hard black stone, split into a convenient thickness, without much regard
to shape. This they rub with a very rough granite stone trntil it is brought to a very fine, thin
"^#
300 THE ABOEIGINES OP VICTOEIA:
In the extensive tracts occupied by sands and clays, and in which no stone
fit for tools is to be obtained, the natives must have cast wistful eyes towards
the more favored localities where all the best materials for stone implements
are to be found ; and one may conjecture how they would humble themselves
and entreat those who could supply them with good materials. Their best
feathers, their best woods, their favorite skins, and even their wives and daugh-
ters, would be offered in exchange for the basalts and diorites which occur on
and in the neighbourhood of the Great Eange.
y^ The stone tomaliawk is all-important to the native, and in some districts he
could scarcely maintain existence without it.
/He natives of Victoria, according to the information I have obtained, appear
to have used the one-edged tomahawk exclusively.* I have not found a single
example of the two-edged tomahawk in Victoria. Their Merring, Karr-geing,
Kal-baling-elarek, or Ktil-bul-en-ur-uk, in this respect, and also in its being
ground and shar2)ened, differs from the tomahawk of the West Australian
natives, which is made of granular quartzose granite or of quartz-rock, and
fashioned by repeated blows until the desired shape is attained. It will be
seen, too, that the wooden handle is diflereut.
The opinion entertained by many archaeologists that ground and polished
tools belong to the Neolithic period, and those made by successive blows to the
Palfeolithic period, is reasonable enough, and probably, as regards some extinct
races, true ; but we have here in Australia, on the east, highly-polished imple-
ments, and on the west, in districts where rocks susceptible of polish are not to
be obtained, rude stone axes made by a succession of blows. There is no
method by which we can thstinguish a difference of period if we examine stone
imjjlements. In the hands of a native of Australia you see a highly-polished
stone axe of diorite and a knife or adze of granular quartzite or porcelainite
made by blows, and which could not be easily ground by any contrivance
edge, and so hard and sharp as to enable them to fell a very large tree with it. There is only one
place that I ever heard of in that country where this hard and splitting stone is to be had. The
natives call it Kar-heen, and say that it is at a distance of three hundred miles from the coast
inland. The journey to fetch them is therefore one of great danger and difficulty — the tribes who
inhabit the immediate localities being very savage and hostile to all others They vary
in weight from four to fourteen pounds ; the h.andles being thick pieces of wood split and then
doubled up, the stone being in the bend and fixed with gum, very carefully prepared for the
purpose, so as to make it perfectly secure when bound round with sinews."
This description is sufficiently accurate. The hard black stone was no doubt diorite or basalt,
and the rock on which the axe was ground a very rough sandstone. Mr. G. S. Lang says that the
natives called St. ICilJa Eitro-Yoroke, wliich was the name of the sandstone found there, and used
by them to fashion and sharpen their stone tomahawks. The statement that the stone was found
at a distance of three hundred miles from the coast is valueless; the natives could not convey even
approximately a notion of a distance so great. They must have said it was Wirratc-wiirate
bultarto — along way ofE — perhaps thirty miles or more. That the niitives of Australia travelled
great distances for the purpose of procuring stones is certain, but not in Victoria.
* Lieut. Breton, R.N., in his Excursions in New South Wales, Sec, 1830-3, gives figures of two-
edged stone tomahawks which, he says, were used by the natives of New South Wales. They are
like those of the West Australians in some respects ; but the edges appear to have been polished,
and the wooden handles are double— not single and brought to a sharp point, as they are in West
Australia.
STONE IMPLEMENTS. 361
available to him. VSome of the axes are merely large pebbles, sharpened and
polished at one end ; others are evidently from a quarry, and made by blows
given with skill and precision, so as to knock off flakes one by one until a
scalpriform implement was obtained. The end of the stone was ground, the
handle fitted to it, and the axe was then ready for use. Some of the axes
made of sandstone appear to have been formed by grinding only.
In addition to the ordinary tomahawk, the natives of some parts of Victoria
had large stone axes made of basaltic rock, which were used for splitting trees.
One in my possession is eight inches in length, five inches in breadth, and two
inches in thickness. It weighs four pounds eight and a half ounces. Imple-
ments of this size are very rare. One was found in trenching a garden at
Ballarat by Mr. Samuel Hutson, on the 16th March 1864. It is described and
figured in Dicker's Mining Record. Its length was eight inches, its largest ^^
diameter a little under four inches, and its weight about five pounds avoir- /
dupois. Like that in my collection, it was of basaltic rock, and grooved for "^
receiving the wooden handle.
It is scarcely possible to disturb any large area of the natural surface in
Victoria without lighting on some of these weapons. In ploughing the ground
they are often found and cast aside. In a small garden on the banks of the
River Powlett in the County of Mornington, on the edge of the dense forest,
four tomahawks were discovered ; and indeed many of the old implements in
my collection were got in digging or ploughing. And all over the country
flakes of black basalt used for cleaning skins and for fitting into spear-heads
are abundant. I have in some places collected in half an hour, from an old
Mirrn-yong or midden near the sea-coast, as many small flakes (broken ofl" in
making tomahawks) as would fill a pint measure. Mr. Geo. H. F. Ulrich
found a great number when engaged in making geological surveys. He says : —
" During the prosecution of the Geological Survey over the Castlemaine,
Yandoit, and Mount Tarrangower districts, my attention was frequently
attracted by the occurrence on the surface of small angular 'chips of a dense l/
black rock that very much resembled Lydian stone, but on closer examination
proved to be basalt.* The only place where this peculiar dense variety of
* This black, very compact, dense, hard, rather brittle basalt, with a flat conchoidal fracture,
resembling Lydian stone, but containing minute grains of olivine porphyritically dispersed, has
been analysed by Mr. Cosmo Newbery, with the following results — 5 per cent, soluble in hydro-
chloric acid ; — Soluble portion. Insoluble portlott.
Silica 34-80 - - 6339
Alumina - - 3858 - - 16-U
Manganese protoxide ----- trace - - 101
Iron sesquioxide 1807 - - 1003
Lime 7-12 - - 5-26
Magnesia .--.... trace - - 341
sotM - - - -
Titanic acid — -- 0-63
Water 143 - - —
Oxide of copper -...-- — -- trace
10000 10205
3 A
362 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
basalt has as yet been observed in situ is near the Little Coliban River, about
seven miles west of Kyneton, and it forms there apparently irregular thin
layers and disconnected patches in the common grey vesicular doleritic basalt
of the district.*
Concerning the mode of occurrence of the chips — I observed tliem most
abundantly on the slopes of softly-rising hills, in some places several inches
beneath the surface, but also on the surface and in crevices of outcropping rocks
on the tops of the highest Silurian ranges in the Fryer's Creek, Yandoit, Mount
Tarrangower, and other districts — quite into the dense forest. In fact they ap-
pear so generally distributed that any one, I believe, whose attention has been
directed to them, could not fail to find one or more or several of these chips
on any route he might choose through the ranges mentioned. Their mode of
transport to such heights and distances, exceeding thirty miles from the Little
Coliban River, was an interesting puzzle to me for a long time. The wild idea
of considering them as having been carried over the country in consequence of
submersion and tilting of the strata beneath the sea first presented itself, and
was, of course, soon discarded ; and the proposition for some time gained favor
that they might have been transported and scattered by emus, whose proclivity
for swallowing hard angular bodies to aid digestion is well known. However,
the finding near the Muckleford Creek of a pretty large piece of tlie rock, and
near it a number of smaller ones, all with at least one, and some with two
sharp knife-like edges, solved the riddle, in proving conclusively that human
hands had been at work there.
No doubt these chips have, during past generations, been carried about, and
lost or thrown away by the Aboriginals of the country, who used them instead
of knives for fashioning their wooden weapons, skinning opossums, and other
work requiring cutting and scraping."
Any one who will take the trouble to examine the country as Mr. Ulrich
has done will corroborate the statements made by him. Most of the flakes and
fragments are such as were struck off by the Aboriginals when shaping their
->^ tomahawks ; but not a few were made expressly for scraping the skins of beasts
-— taken in the chase, for fitting into the heads of spears, and for knives or
adzes.
When Mr. Ulrich was examining the mineral districts of South Australia,
\r . he observed that chips and flakes of basalt were to be found in almost every
locality. He sent me one — a chip struck ofl' in forming a tomahawk, as sug-
gested by the natives to whom I submitted it for examination — which he
picked up on a low rise twelve miles north of Pekina, about three hundred
miles north of Adelaide. Broken tomahawks, broken adzes, chips and flakes
of basalt, and near the coast old Mirrn-yong heaps, which for ages have been
covered with drift-sand, are from time to time discovered. All these show that
the Aboriginals, living in exactly the same state as they were found when
* Similar patches occur in the Newer Volcanic rock at Mabnsbury, associated with small
iiTcgular bauds of hematite. Good specimens have been collected and sent to me by Mr.
Shakespeare.
STONE IMPLEMENTS. 3G3 ^
Australia was first discovered by Europeans, have been for periods incalculable
the possessors of the soil.*
Mr. E. J. Dunn made a large and valuable collection of stone implements
when engaged in geological researches. He says : — "When connected with
the Geological Survey at Maldon, Clunes, and other places, I took great interest
in the relics of the blacks, and spent many days in hunting about the low
ranges for tomahawks, in which pursuit I was moderately successful. I have
between forty and fifty broken and whole ones, several sharpening-stones, and ^ J
some pounds weight of chips of a great variety of rocks, though black basalt(Z^
predominates. The tomahawks are nearly
all of greenstone ; the others are of por-
])hyry or metamorphic sandstone. Nine-
tenths of the broken heads have the shape
shown in Fig. 175. When no stone was
available in the immediate neighbourhood fig. 175.
of their haunts, they carried thither pieces (LoDgitudinal section at right-angles to
of a few pounds weight for many miles."
Mr. Reginald A. F. Murray, a Geological Surveyor employed by the. Govern-
ment, informs me that he has found stones in the Mirrnr-yong heaps near
♦ In all other countries where the natural surface has not been interfered with, such remains
may be sought for. The following extract from Mr. Blandford's work on Abyssinia is of peculiar
interest when considered in connection with the facts above stated : — " In many places small chips
of obsidian are found scattered about, frequently far from any locality where the rock is met with
in silu. From their peculiar form, and the nature of the facets, there can be little or no hesitation
in attributing these to human manufacture. They are evidently the chips struck off in the process
of manufacturing stone implements, and are perfectly identical in shape with similar chips found
extensively in Europe and India. A few were met with near Zulla, some were picked up on the
highlands, and two or three in the neighbourhood of Magdala. But a much larger number were
found at Rairo, near Af Abed in the Habab, in the centre of a granitoid country, and with no
volcanic formation nearer than the hUls between Ain and the sea, at least twenty miles distant.
The fragments found are of no special beauty; no well-formed implements were obtained ; and the
occurrence of such chips is simply interesting as adding one more to the numerous countries in
which traces of the early use of rude stone implements by mankind have hitherto been found." —
Observations on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia, by W. T. Blandford, F.G.S., &c.
Earl says : — "The relics of a people who are supposed to have been of an anterior race to the
present inhabitants are found in many parts of Java, and a description of several specimens of
ancient instruments, accompanied by figures, is given in the Natuuriumlige Tijdschrift voor Neder-
landsch Indie for the year 1850. Some of these figures represent the exact form of the spear-heads
of slate and 'baked sandstone' which are in common use among the natives of the northern parts
of Australia, and are made by the natives of the interior, who understand the art of splitting them
from the rough pieces with a few blows of an axe or hammer of greenstone."
Similar ancient implements are found in China, where they are venerated as relics of ancestors ;
and Darwin states that " in all parts of Europe, as far east as Greece, in Palestine, India, Japan,
New Zealand, and Africa, including Egypt, fiint tools have been discovered in abundance ; and of
their use the existing inhabitants retain no tradition. There is also indirect evidence of their
former use by the Chinese and ancient Jews."
Many of the stone axes found in Europe, as figured and described by Darwin, 'Wilson, Lubbock,
and others, differ little from the tomahawks used in Victoria. The stone axe of the St. Enoch's
Croft canoe, made of highly-polished dark greenstone, figured in Wilson's Pre-Historic Man, is cer-
tainly an implement more completely finished than those usually foimd in Australia. The axe was
discovered in 1780 in a canoe on the banks of the Clyde, at a depth of twenty-five feet below the
surface. From its shape, one would suppose that it had not been fitted with a wooden handle.
3 64 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Shelford. The stones were basalt, and those in some ovens on Silurian ground
^ had been carried thither by the blacks, who had evidently recognised the superior
x^ heat-enduriug and heat-retaining properties of that rock. Mr. Etheridge,
formerly of the Geological Survey, noticed the same facts in the Mclvor district,
and stated that he saw there, in ovens, fragments of basalt that must have been
carried several miles.
The stone implements used by the natives of Tasmania are described in
another place. From information most kindly communicated by Ronald Gunn,
Esq., F.R.S., Dr. Agnew, the Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Tas-
mania, and the Rev. Mr. Kane, it appears that the natives of that island had
no stone implements that can be regarded as tomahawks. They used stones
roughly shaped by blows, so as to get a cutting edge, for skinning animals,
^ [ cleaning skins, shaping clubs, &c. ; but they were not fastened to wooden
"^ handles, as the Australian axes are.
It will be seen, on referring to the detailed descriptions of the Australian
axes, that many of them are very beautiful implements, well-formed, well-
. balanced, and with cutting edges of equal finely-executed curves. They indeed,
/^y in the best examples, greatly resemble, in the form of the cutting edge, the
American axe, which is considered by woodmen the best implement of this
kind that has yet been invented.
It is remarkable that no stone hatchet, chij) of basalt, or stone knife has
been found anywhere in Victoria except on the surface of the ground or a few
inches beneath the surface. It is true that fragments of tomahawks and bone-
needles have been dug out of Mirrn-yong heaps on the sea-coast, covered
wholly or partially by blown sand ; but though some hundreds of square miles
of alluvia have been turned over in mining for gold, not a trace of any work
of human hands has been discovered. Some of the drifts are not more than
three or four feet in thickness (from the surface to the bed-rock), and the fact
that no Aboriginal implement, no bone belonging to man, has been met with,
is startling and perplexing.
Within quite recent periods — at various times since the colony was occu-
pied by the white race — large rivers, like the Snowy River in Gippsland, have
in some places changed their beds ; creeks have cut through bends of a horse-
shoe shape, and rivulets have made for themselves new channels. Such old
beds and channels in many jjarts have been completely dug over by gold-
miners, and the detritus and debris have been washed ; but, as far as I know,
there has not been recorded any discovery of native implements. In much
older gravels, clays, and sands, underlying Recent Volcanic rocks, where occur
fossil fruits belonging to genera now found only in the northern parts of Aus-
tralia, the miner has carried his explorations ; but nothing belonging to man
has been seen. More recent deposits, in which are imbedded trunks of trees,
and where the cones of the Banksia, leaves of several species of eucalypts,
and remains of marsupials, are of common occurrence, are likewise barren.
The tracts where, over a large area, volcanic ash, some thirty or forty feet in
thickness, overlies a grass-clad surface once trod by the native dog, and on
which his bones are found, retain no trace of the native. Even the caves
STONE ISrPLE5IENTS.
365
which have been explored exhibit no other than very recent evidences of the
existence of the race. All this is the more extraordinary, when we take into
consideration the fact, already stated, that old tomahawks, chips of basalt, &c.,
are widely scattered over the surface of every part of Australia that has yet
been visited by Europeans.
If only small portions of the alluvia in Victoria had been excavated — if
the country had not been occupied for twenty years by many thousands of
miners, who have washed the gravels down to the bed-rock in innumerable
shallow gullies — the non-discovery of relics might have been easily accounted
for ; but in this country the spots most likely to conceal them have been laid
bare.*
Dr. Day, of Geelong, sent me, through Mr. J. A. Panton, a collection of
bone-needles found in the garden of Mr. Currie, near Camperdown. They are
evidently very ancient, and it was supposed at first that they had been obtained
from some one of the younger Tertiaries ; but on making enquiries. Dr. Day
ascertained that they had been uncovered by Mr. Currie's gardener when
trenching, and that with them were numerous human skulls aud other bones —
proving that the spot had been an ancient burial-place of one of the Western
tribes.
Hatchets.
The tomahawk shown in Fig. 176 {a, and h) is that commonly used by
the Aborigines of the Yarra. The stone is a dense quartzite, resembling
d)
FIG. 176. — (Scale J.)
* This is true as regards Victoria — no stone implements have as yet been discovered in the
drifts; but in Bennett's admirable History of Australian Discovery and Cvhmization it is stated
that, as "a conclusive proof of the vast antiquity of this mode of making and sharpening the axe
[i.e., by rubbing or grinding the rudely-formed axe on a flat stone] is afforded by the fact that, in
sinking wells and other excavations in the Hunter Valley, flat rocks with these axe-marks on their
surfaces have been discovered at the depth of thirty feet or more below the prcsent'surface-lcvel,
and covered with drift or alluvium, which, in all probability, must have taken thousands of years
to accumulate." — The History of Australian Discovery and Colonization, p. 263.
It is nowhere recorded, however, as far as I can gather, that any stone axe or chip has been
found at any depth below the surface-soil in Australia.
3GG
THE ABOBIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
A
liornstone, with a splintery fracture. It appears to have been sliaped by well-
directed blows. It has a keen, well-polished cutting edge. The stone is five
inches in length, two in breadth, and about three-quarters of an inch in thick-
ness. The wooden handle is fifteen inches in length, and is well and firmly
fixed to the stone. Though the gum used in fixing the head to the handle is
now cracked and crumbling, the union is perfect, the wood having been origi-
nally well heated and moistened and made to grasp the stone closely. The
handle, near the head, is strongly bound with the fibres of the stringybark.
The weight of this implement is thirteen and a half ounces.
FIQ. 177. — (Scale J.)
In Fig. 177 is shown a well-made tomahawk from Lake Tyers in Gippsland.
The stone is greenstone (dense diorite), of very even texture, and appears to
have been taken nearly in the form in which it is seen now from a river-bed.
The cutting edge has been ground and polished, but in other respects it has
not been altered. It is six inches in length, two and a half inches in breadth,
and one inch in thickness. The wooden handle is fifteen inches in length ; and
the weight of the whole is one pound five and a quarter ounces. As the handle
could not be made to embrace the stone so closely as to prevent some move-
ment, pieces of stringybark have been inserted between the wood and the
stone, and near the head the handle is bound with the sinews of some animal.
yNo gum was used in efi"ecting a junction.
fr
^
FIG. 17B. — (Scale }.)
Another tomahawk from Lake Tyers (Fig. 1 78) is also an excellent imple-
ment. The stone is a hard metamorphic schist, very dense and heavy. It is
more or less polished all over the surface, and it is now difficult to say
whether it was found originally nearly in the shape in which we see it or
was wrought into form by hand. It has a good cutting edge, and the curves
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
367
are as good as those of the best American axes. It is six and a half inches in
length, three and a quarter inches in breadth at the broadest part, and nearly-
one inch and a quarter in thickness. The wooden handle is firmly fixed to the
stone without gum or stringybark wedges. The weight is one pound twelve
and a half ounces.
A Victorian tomahawk, exactly like many of those used in the north-
western parts of New South Wales and in Queensland, is shown in Fig. 170.
T3eP
FIG. 179. — (Scale J.)
The wooden handle is stout, and is fastened with gum and cord. The part
grasped with the hand is also tied for better security.
Fig. 180 represents a stone tomahawk from the Burdekin Eiver, North-
Eastern Australia. It was in the possession of the late Mr. Matthew Hervey,
and is an excellent, well-made implement, worthy of preservation. The stone
is an altered slate. It has been made by striking off" flakes ; and the cutting
edge is beautifully formed and highly polished. The head where the handle
grasps it is covered with a gum obtained perhaps from the xanthorrhaea, and
the junction is perfect. The wooden handle has been split from the strong
5
FiQ. 180. — (Scale J.)
runner of some creeping plant. It is tough, very strong, and somewhat elastic.
The cord which binds the two parts of the handle near the head is made of
fibres obtained from the root of a plant resembling the lily, and is neatly and
well twisted. This implement is, I believe, named Karra-gain by the natives
of the Burdekin. This is one of the best native tomahawks I have seen. It
was obtained from a wild tribe quite unacquainted with the arts of Europeans.
A large and rather remarkakle tomahawk (Fig. 181) was brought from the
Munara district by Mr. J. A. Panton. The stone is a hard, very dense, dark-
green aphanite (a fine-grained variety of diabase). It is beautifully polished
quite up to the handle. The breadth is four inches and three-quarters, the
length is five inches, and the thickness about an inch and a half. The
handle is apparently of light wood, coarsely fashioned ; and the twisted cord
368
THE ABOEIGINBS OF VICTOEIA:
with which it is tied is made of the fibres of some bulbous root. The gum
is hard, and resembles that got from the xanthorrhoca. It is heavy and
clumsy, but the grinding and i^olishing of the stone must have given much
trouble to the artist. The weight of the implement is two pounds four and a
^
FIG. 181. — (Scale J.)
quarter ounces. It is probable that it was used for splitting large trees ; and in
handling it and proving its strength, one is justified in supposing that it had
been made for rough work of this kind, and not for cutting holes in climbing.
\A very large stone implement (Fig. 182), in the possession of Mr. W. E.
^fc. Stanbridge, is one of the most remarkable of all the stone
/Z^*!i weapons yet found in Victoria. It was discovered in a field
at Daylesford. It is supposed to have been used for digging
roots, and in sinking holes to get at the wombat. It was
made by striking off flakes ; but the cutting part is ground
and polished. It appears to be a piece of metamorphosed
sandstone. It is about fourteen inches in length, five inches
in breadth, and rather more than one inch and three-quarters
in thickness.
The tomahawks in my collection which have been found
at various times in the soil of gardens, in fields when they
•) have been ploughed, or in Mirrn-yong heaps, or on the sur-
face of the ground, or in the beds of streams, are of course without handles.
Many of them, as will be seen from the figures and descriptions, are remarkably
well made ; and the differ-
ences in form and mode of
manufacture are so great as
to make one regard them
with much interest. Only
those which illustrate most
completely the art of this
people are figured ; others
are described in words only.
One large axe-head in
my collection (Fig. 183)
was dug out of a Mirrn-yong
FIG. 183.— (Scale }.) heap at Lake Condah by
Mr. John Green. Its weight is four pounds eight and a half ounces. Its
length is eight inches, its breadth five inches, and its thickness rather
-(Scale
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
369
more than two inches. It is grooved so as to admit of the wooden handle being
firmly attached to it. It is so much decomposed on the surface as to be easily
scratched with the nail, and must have lain covered by the charcoal and the soil
of the Mirrn-yong heap for an immense period of time. The thickness of the
decomposed outer layer (clay ironstone) is about one-sixteenth of an inch ; and
when a small portion of this was removed, the rock proved to be a basalt or
greenstone. Wye-wye-a^nine, a native of the Murray, informs me that axes of
this kind were used for splitting open large trees, so as to get out opossums from
the hollows, when it was impossible to reach them in any other way. The name
of the implement is Pur-ut-tkree. Fitted with a suitable handle, the weight
would not be less than six or seven pounds. This is a rare form of the toma-
hawk, and the specimen here figured is undoubtedly very ancient.
The stone axe (Fig. 184) from Coranderrk looks like a pebble from a brook.
It seems to have been formed, not by striking off flakes, but by notching it.
It is a hard, dense, black greenstone (like aphanite), and how it was notched I
cannot imagine. Its weight is one pound one and a half ounces. Its length
is six inches and a half, its breadth two inches and a quarter, and its thickness
one inch and a half. In section it is lenticular. The cutting edge has sym-
metrical curves, and the lower part is highly polished. There is a hollow on
one side of the upper part of the stone, made probably for attaching the handle
with security. This is in aU respects an implement of a highly-interesting
character. It is in excellent preservation, and the edge is very sharp.
riG. 184.— (Scale \.) fig. i85. — (Scale }.) fig. i86. — (Scale J.)
The implement from Lake Tyers (Fig. 185) is a piece of hard granular meta-
morphic sandstone. Its length is six inches and a half, its breadth two inches
and a half, and its thickness one inch and a quarter. Its surfaces are flat, but
at the cutting edge it has the usual curves. Its weight is one pound two and a
quarter ounces. It is evidently a very old implement. When this instrument
was shown to Wye-wye-a-nine, he said it was Tal-kook — very good — and one
of the best in the collection.
Another axe from Lake Tyers (Fig. 186) is a hard, nearly black, meta-
morphic sandstone, from the vicinity, probably, of some mass of granite. It
■weighs one pound, and is sis inches in length, two inches and a half in breadth,
and one inch in thickness. It is a clumsy, ill-made weapon. The cutting edge
is roughly formed and not symmetrical, though highly polished. It appears to
have been a water-worn fragment obtained from a river-bed.
3b
370
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
A mutilated tomahawk, with a beautifully-curved cutting edge (Fig. 187),
was obtained by Major Couchraan when engaged in surveying Pental Island,
on the River Murray. It is a fine granular — nearly dense — quartzite.
A small tomahawk obtained from the Yarra tribe (Fig. 188) is rudely
fashioned from a block by striking off flakes. The cutting part is well ground
and polished, and when fitted with a handle it must have been a handy and
useful instrument. The rock is aphanite, and the axe is only three inches and
a quarter in length. Its weight is seven and a quarter ounces.
FIG. 187. — (Scale J.) FIG. 188. — (Scale i.) fig. i89. — (Scale J.)
A very small greenstone axe, found in the neighbourhood of Kilmore
(Fig. 189), has a polished cutting edge ; but the edge itself is much chipped
and jagged, perhaps because the grinding and polishing were never completed,
or because of rough usage after completion. Its weight is three ounces. Its
length is only two inches and a half, its breadth in the broadest part less than
two inches, and its thickness no more than three quarters of an inch. This is
the smallest tomahawk in the collection.
In Fig. 190 is shown a tomahawk of greenstone (resembling serpentine),
roughly shaped by chipping, and partly ground in one part. It was found in
the neighbourhood of the quarry at Lancefield, where stone suitable for these
implements was in former times dug out by the natives. It appears to have
been partly formed, and then, being found unsuitable, thrown away by the
natives. Its weight is ten and three-quarter ounces. It is interesting as
showing the form which these implements presented after chipping, and before
being ground and polished, and affords a notion of the immense labor the natives
must have bestowed in giving to a roughly-chipped axe the proper shape and
polish. To shape this fragment into a good axe would, without mechanical
appliances, require the hard labor of many days.
FIG. 190.— (Scale J.) FIG. 191.— (Scale i.)
Another roughly-shaped axe (Fig. 191) was found in the same locality. No
attempt has been made to grind or polish it. The upper part appears to have
been accidentally broken off, probably when chipping it. The material is a
metamorphic siliceous sandstone (knotted sandstone).
STONE IMPLEMENTS. 371
Fragments of highly-polished stone axes, such as are commonly found in
the low ranges running down towards creeks and in scrubby lands, are shown
in Figs. 192, 193, and 194. These have been struck off when axes have been
used with violence, or have accidentally struck a rock when a blow has been
aimed at a branch lying on the ground, or at some animal when the native
has failed to capture it. Great numbers of such fragments are found in nearly
all parts of the colony. The stones are greenstone, of fine, even texture. The
largest fragment is not more than two inches in length, and one inch and a
half in breadth. These are altogether different from the flakes struck off in
forming tomahawks, which are still more mmierous.
FIGS. 192, 193, 194.
(Scale i.)
A very thin axe, of dense siliceous metamorphic rock, about three inches
and a half in length, and two inches and a half in breadth, was presented to
me by Mr. John Saunders, of Bacchus Marsh. He states that it was found in
a native oven {Mlrrn-yong), on the banks of the River Werribee, by Mr. C.
Mahoney, about twenty-four years ago. There were found also in the same
heap some human bones, which were recognised as part of the skull and the
lower-jaw of an Aboriginal, and with these remains were bones of the kangaroo,
&c. The implement has a shai-p cutting edge, and when fitted with a handle
must have been a very good instrument, and useful in cutting holes in the bark
when climbing trees, and for shaping shields, spears, &c. It is a very ancient
instrument, though not nearly so old as some others in my collection.
A beautiful iixe, of dense aphanite, made by striking off flakes, was given
to me by Mr. Alfred Chenery, of Delatite. It is four inches in length, an inch
and a half in breadth, and rather more than an inch in thickness. The curves
of the cutting edge are symmetrical and highly polished. There is no imple-
ment in my collection which more completely exhibits the skill of the Aborigines
than this ; but as another equally good and of the same character is figured in
this work, it is unnecessary to give a drawing of it. It is a light and very good
tomahawk.
A tomahawk of aphanite greenstone, in part slightly fine granular, rudely
formed, and with an unsymmetrical cutting edge, was presented by the same
gentleman. It was found near the River Delatite, and belonged probably to
the men of the same tribe wlio had fashioned the axe above described.
Mr. Reginald A. F. Murray, one of the Geological Surveyors employed by
the Department of Mines, found near Alexandra, in the same district in which
Mr. Alfred Chouery's tomahawks were discovered, a small axe of very fine,
dense, metamorphic micaceous rock, much resembling a variety of gneiss called
cornubianite. It is pitted, owing to the Fahlunitic minerals on the surface
having decomposed. The edge is not sharp, but an eftort has been made to
polish the whole of the surface of it. It is a fragment ; but it shows that the
natives experimented with difl'erent stones, and, when necessities were great,
372
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
took those that were most easily to be got. Mr. Murray says that the fragment
was probably broken off during use, and that it must have been carried many
miles, as no stone of a similar character is found in the district.
An axe of an unusual form (Fig. 195) was dug out of a garden at Win-
chelsea. It is much weathered and decomposed on the surface, and is exactly
like a piece of Mesozoic sandstone, but on taking off a small portion of the
crust it is seen to be a bluish-grey dioritic rock. It is polished all over, and
must at one time have had a very keen cutting edge. It is deeply grooved in
the place to be grasped by the wooden handle, and for greater security there is
a projecting point or shoulder on that side where the wooden handle would be
fastened with sinews. It is four inches in length, three inches and three-
quarters in breadth, and one inch and three-quarters in thickness. On one
side the groove is highly polished by the friction of the wooden handle. It
must have lain in the soil a very long time. The whole surface is decomposed
to the depth of one-sixteenth of an inch. Its weight is fourteen ounces.
A tomahawk, in shape somewhat like that shown in Fig. 195, but not
grooved for the handle, and of a smaller size, was found near Geelong. It is
a hard, dense, nearly black, quartzite, resembling greenstone. The curved
surfaces of the cutting edge are good, and highly polished. It is three inches
in length, and rather more than two in breadth. It is one inch and a half in
thickness, and weighs eight ounces and a half.
FIG. 195.— (Scale i.)
FIG. 196. — (Scale |.)
Mr. Alfred Howitt sent me a well-formed axe (Fig. 196), which was found
in cutting a race on the Dargo River. Mr. Browne, the claimholder, who
discovered this and another tomahawk in making excavations for the race,
informed Mr. Howitt that they were buried about a foot deep in the soil and
fine gravel. The locality is the crest of a steep spur immediately below a
capping of volcanic rock, and a dense scrub covers the whole place. It is not
possible to form an estimate of the age of the tomahawks, but it is certain
that they must be very ancient. The implement is five inches in length, two
inches and a half in breadth, and nearly two inches in thickness. The cutting
edge, like that of others of the best kind, exhibits beautiful curves, and it is
now so sharp as to cut hard wood easily. It looks like a water-worn stone
firom a river-bed, and has not been altered at all except at the cutting edge,
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
373
■which is ground and highly polished. The stone resemhles hornfels, and is,
in all probability, a water-worn fragment of metamorphic rock from the near
neighbourhood of granite. This axe was much admired by Wi/e-wi/e-a-nine,
who, when he saw it, said — Tal-kook — very good. Its weight is one pound
three ounces and a quarter ; and, when fitted with a good handle, it must have
been a most excellent implement.
A large stone tomahawk, in the possession of Mr. G. C. Darbyshire, which
he has permitted me to examine and figure for this work (Fig. 197), is, it is
believed, from the Darling district.
It has been formed by striking off
flakes, and the skill and precision
with which this has been done can-
not be properly represented by any
drawing. It is a beautiful unple-
ment, with a highly-polished and very
sharp cutting edge. The gum used
in fixing the handle still adheres to
it, and the stone is not in the least
decomposed in any part. The ma-
terial is a dense dark-green quartzite,
resembling hornstone. It is seven
inches in length, three inches and
a quarter in breadth, and the greatest
FIG. 197. — (Scale
thickness is one inch and a half. It weighs one pound nine ounces and three-
quarters. Though it may be said that this axe is roughly hewn, the blows
have been given with so much precision as to excite surprise, having regard
to the material of which it is composed. "With all the help of good tools, I
question whether any European could make a better axe if he had a rough
block of quartzite given to him for the experiment.
When I was at Mr. Fehan's out-station on the River Powlett, I asked the
manager, Mr. Bees, whether any stone implements had been found in the dis-
trict, and on his informing me that some had been turned up in digging the
garden (a piece of land about a quarter of an acre in extent, and having a
steep slope towards the river), I wrote to Mr. Fehan asking him to procure, if
possible, any specimens of this kind. He replied promptly and courteously,
and sent me five stone axes, all of which, I understand, had been found in the
garden. The area now known as the Wild Cattle Run must have been, in past
times, a favorite resort of the natives. It was probably debatable land, and
certainly, if the oldest accounts given by the natives are to be trusted, the
scene of many battles between the Western Port blacks and the tribes of
Smith- Western Gippsland. lu these encounters it is not unlikely that imple-
ments were often lost, but still it is remarkable that so many as five stone axes
should have been found in digging up the surftice of a smaU area.
One of the axes is evidently very ancient. It has been split in using it, and
then thrown away. It has lain so long in the ground that it is now pitted all
over, both on the polished side and ou that which has been broken. It is a
374 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
piece of metamoriiliic nodular schist, and the Fahlunitic minerals are decom-
posed and washed out. The siliceous base alone is left on the surface.
Another, of felsite porphyry, is also ancient. It is almost perfect. A small
piece is broken oif the cutting edge.
A flat, nearly square axe of very fine granular dense diorite greenstone has
a good cutting edge, but the grinding extends over a surface no more than half
an inch on each side. This implement is altogether different from the hatchets
now used.
The fourth — of metamorphic sandstone, like quartzite — ^has been formed by
striking off flakes. It is well ground, has a good edge, and is evidently more
recent than any of the others found in the garden.
The fifth — of dense quartzite — is an excellent implement, and from the
appearance of the upper part, where the wooden handle was fixed, has
probably been disused but for a comparatively short time. Its weight is
one pound nine and three-quarter ounces — nearly double the weight of any
of the others.
A very small tomahawk, of fine-grained dense siliceous metamorphic sand-
stone, was found by one of Mr. Robert Anderson's servants in the " Cups," at
Cape Schanck. It has a remarkably good edge. It is one of the best axes in
my collection.
Three small, neatly made axes, with well-polished cutting edges, sent to me
by the Honorable Theodotus J. Sumner, M.L.C., were found near Tyabb, on
the western shore of Western Port. One is of aphanite, and two of metamor-
phic rock.
One sent from Coranderrk is of aphanite — small, ill-shaped, but with a keen
edge ; and another, of very fine-grained siliceous sandstone, is triangular, and
when fitted with a handle must have been a very useful implement.
At Green Hills, near Mooroolbark, Mr. "William Turner found two axes —
one somewhat flat, and made by striking off flakes, but with the usual well-
ground cutting edge ; and another nearly round, and with a narrow sharp
edge. The latter is a piece of hard, dense, tough metamorjAic rock.
The Honorable W. A. C. a'Beckett has sent me a small axe, found near
Craubourne. It is a dense aphanite, with, in places, a porphyritic texture.
It has a cutting edge, and one side is flat and beautifully polished. One cannot
say why this side was polished. The stone may have been used for grinding
and polishing other axes. It is the only specimen of the kind I have seen.
Of the axes found near Melbourne I possess only two specimens. One — a
very neatly-formed implement — was found in a paddock near my house. It is
composed of fine-grained laminated felspathic granite, resembling leptynite
or white stone. The edge is highly polished and very sharp. The other is
unfinished. I picked it up many years ago in the bed of the Moonee Ponds
(a creek). It is a fragment of metamoqjhic sandstone, chipped and shaped,
but not ground.
I have obtained from Mr. Oct. Lloyd a small axe of very fine-grained hard
greenstone, which he found near the Red Bluff at Brighton. It is a mode-
rately good axe.
STONE IMPLEMENTS. 375
From the Mirrn-yo7ig heaps on the shores of Cape Otway, Mr. Reginald
A. F. Murray has sent me, together with other Aboriginal implements, two
ancient stone axes. One, a fragment — much discolored, by having lain a great
length of time in a mass of charcoal, burnt bones, and the like — is of black
basalt. It is broken and disfigured, but one side of the cutting edge is well
polished. The other — evidently, from its condition, from a Mirrn-yong heap,
being blackened with charcoal — was found in a cart-rut. It is a good weapon,
and the edge is very sharp. One side is nearly flat and slightly polished ; the
other side is convex. It is a dense black anamesite — intermediate between
dolerite and basalt. Where the material for such axes was obtained one can
but conjecture.
Mr. Geo. C. Darbyshire found at Audley, near Hamilton, in the western part
of Victoria, a well-shaped, chijjped, and partially ground axe of ajihanite porphyry
(felspar porphyrite). It is an unfinished implement, of a material rarely used.
In Section 3, Yarram Yarram, near the Jack Eivulet, in Gippsland, and
on the site of an old native camp, Mr. John Ferres found an axe of aphanite.
It is a rude hatchet with a heavy head. It has been made by chipping. The
cutting edge is highly polished, but not sharp.
In the excavated gravel, near the site of the dam at Malmsbury, Mr.
Davies found an axe of dense greenstone, with a ground cutting edge. The
upper part is broken off. It is similar in shape to the axes used by the
Loddon tribes. It is evidently an old implement, thrown away when it had
become useless. One side is much flatter than the other, and it would appear
to have been used in shaping and grinding other axes.
A large hatchet, weighing one pound seven and three-quarter ounces, was
sent to me by Mr. John Filson, of Flemington. It was found at Kerang, on
the Lower Loddon. It is formed of dense, hard, tough, nephritic greenstone.
Its length is five and a half inches, and its breadth two and three-quarter
inches. The corners are not rounded. The cutting edge is quite straight and
well polished, and as keen as when it was finished. It is not as well shaped,
but is as good an implement as any in my collection. The curves on each
side of the straight cutting edge are not surpassed by the best American tools.
Mr. Clement Johnstone, Mining Surveyor, sent me what appears to be only
a fragment of a stone axe of porphyry from Albury, on the River Murray. It
has a well-rounded and exceedingly sharp edge. The polished surfiice at the
edge is nowhere more than two-tenths of an inch in extent, and the greatest
thickness of the stone is only three-tenths of an inch. One would suppose, at
first sight, that the sides had been split off, but it may be a rare form adapted
to some particular purpose.
Another axe — from Chiltern, a little lower down on the River Murray — was
found by Mr. R. Arrowsmith, Mining Surveyor. It is, like that just described,
a hard, dense, nearly black, siliceous porphyry. It is six inches in length, two
inches and a quarter in breadth, and about six inches and a quarter in circum-
ference. It is a very heavy and beautifully-finished implement. The polishing
extends more than two inches from the cutting edge on each side, and the
curves are symmetrical. Its weight is one pound seven and a quarter ounces.
376 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Mr. Suetonius H. Officer, of Murray Downs, has collected three axes on the
Lower Murray. One is of dense greenstone, one of porphyritic rock, and the
third a quartzite with felspar enclosed — a kind of felspathic granite. They are
all good axes, with excellent cutting edges. The axe of porphyritic rock is six
inches in length and two inches in breadth. It has a sharp curved cutting
edge, no more than an inch and a quarter in breadth. Tliis is apparently a
very old weapon, and somewhat resembles the axe found by Mr. Arrowsmith.
Mr. Reginald A. F. Murray found on the banks of the River Leigh a frag-
ment of an axe, of which little more than the polished cutting edge remains,
greatly resembling in form the stone axes used in the western parts of Queens-
land. It is a piece of greenstone.
Lieut.-Col. Champ has added to my collection a small well-finished axe of
black siliceous porphyry, also from the Leigh, which has a very fine edge ; and
a portion of an ancient tomahawk, showing only the half of the cutting edge,
of very hard metamorphic rock.
Mr. Jolin Lynch, the Mining Surveyor at Smythesdale, obtained from a
miner at Bottle Hill, near Carngham, a very well-made tomahawk of ajihanite,
which was found in a puddling machine. It had been lying, as suggested by
Mr. Lynch, on or very near the surface of the ground where the wash-dirt
was deposited, and had been thrown with the wash-dirt into the machine.
The cutting edge, less than an inch in breadth, is well polished, and very
sharp.
Two axes from the River Darling are interesting. One, of very dense, tough,
granular greenstone, resembles that obtained by Mr. Panton in the Munara
district. — (Fig. 181.) It is five inches and a half in length, four inches in
breadth, and in the middle about one inch and a half in thickness. It weighs
one pound fifteen ounces. It has a very fine and rather pointed cutting edge.
It was found by Mr. William Hoff"mann.
The other, brought to Victoria by Mr. Darbyshire, is of prase-like quartzite,
very tough and hard, and with a good edge. Tiie edge is highly polished, but
otherwise it is rudely formed. It is a small axe, not larger than those com-
monly used in Victoria.
Mr. Molesworth Greene has allowed me to make ?k facsimile of an axe of
great size, which was lately brought from the Paroo, in Queensland, by Mr. A.
Sullivan. It is eight inches in length, six inches in breadth in the broadest
part, and two inches in thickness. It is an oval-shaped weapon, highly finished,
and, for a great extent around the cutting edge, well polished. The wooden
handle is not attached, but the place of attachment is apparent, and on one side
there is a mass of gum adhering to it. It is as large and as heavy as the
implement (Fig. 183) found at Lake Condah.
Another tomahawk, of dense greenstone, shaped somewhat like the American
axes made by Collins and Co., was obtained by Mr. A. Sullivan on the BuUoo
Downs, Paroo. From the appearance of the surface, one would suppose that it
had been buried in the earth for a long period.
A curious axe, sent to me by Mr. J. McDonnell, of Brisbane, Queensland, is
an example of those used in the Moreton Bay district. It is a rude rhom-
STONE IMPLEMENTS. 377
boidal block, evidently occurring naturally. It is five inches in length, two
and three-quarters in breadth, and an inch and a half in tliickness. It is of
hard, dense greenstone. It has an irregular, ill-formed cutting edge, and an
attempt has been made to polisli the whole surface of the stone.
There are four other axes in my collection very similar to those already
described. One with the wooden handle attached by sinews and gum is, I
believe, from the Far North. It is exactly like the tomahawks used by the men
of the Yarra. One, of aphanite, is not finished, being polished only in one or
two places, but is instructive as showing at what stage the polishing was
begun. It is apparent that the axe was, in the first instance, j'retty well
formed by chipping ; but the labor of reducing the uneven surface to smooth-
ness and polish, with symmetrical curves, must have been very great. Another
imperfect axe, of greenstone, shows in like manner the method employed by
the Aboriginal artist. The last is a fragment of an axe that probably had
been broken in using it.
I have to add to these descriptions an account of what is believed to be a
spurious tomahawk, but which is so like in form to many that are figured in
this work as to have deceived some who are well acquainted with Aboriginal
stone implements. It is an oval-shaped piece of basalt, picked up by me from
a cart^rut, where it may have been rubbed by the wheels of passing vehicles.
I cannot say whether or not it was formed by hand ; but the character of the
rock, and the grinding, seem to favor the view that it is a fragment shaped by
accident in the manner suggested. There are doubts respecting this stone ;
and the fact that it is not easy to detei'mine its character should teach caution
to those who are inclined too hastily to ascribe to accident that which is really
the work of human hands ; and to others who, without proper consideration,
regard as the work of extinct races stones whose form is due to the operation
of unknown forces.
The axe Fig. 198 was in the possession of the late Mr. A. F. A. Greeves ;
and it is figured because it is in itself a remarkable
implement, and contrasts with the axes made by
the natives of Australia. This axe, of a mineral
resembling jade, well-shaped, with a good cutting
edge, but not highly polished, was picked up many
years ago in Pitcairn's Island. It is not known
whether it is a relic of a colored race that once
peopled that island, or whether it was taken to
the island by the Tahitians who accompanied the
mutineers, or was fashioned by some of the muti-
neers who reached the island in 1789. It is
worthy of preservation. At the present time the
history of our species is being eagerly investi- '''°- ''b.— (Scale j.)
gated by learned men, and this implement may prove of value : if an ancient
axe, it is of surpassing interest ; if made by the mutineers, an instance of
the recurrence to habits of the uncivilized which teaches an important
lesson.
3o
378 the aborigines of victokia:
Getting Stone for Tomahawks, etc.
Mr. John Green, in reply to my questions on this subject, says that the
stones used for making tomahawks were dug out of the quarries with a pole
of hard wood. Tlie stones were found in blocks, not much larger than the
ordinary tomahawks, and shape was given to the blocks by striking off
flakes with an old tomahawk. The cutting edge was formed and polished
by grinding and rubbing on a piece of sandstone. Sometimes a stone was
found in the bed of a creek or river, or on the sea-shore, of the desired form,
and this was ground and sharpened, and used as a tomahawk ; but such a
stone was considered as very inferior to the tomahawk of greenstone shaped
in the manner above described. Pebbles were never used by the men of
the Yarra tribe if they could get the greenstone blocks. The greenstone was
brought from a quarry near Kilmore, on a range called Mount Hope by the
Europeans, and known as Wil-itn^ee Moor-ring (Tomahawk-house) amongst
the natives.
The flakes of basalt, &c., used for skinning animals, were struck off by
blows given with an old tomahawk or some other suitable stone.
The wood of the silver wattle {Acacia dealbata) was used for making the
handles of tomahawks. The native name of this wood is Ur-root. The
piece of a bough chosen for a handle was pared on one side as far as the
pith; it was then heated in the ashes of a fire, and bent with the hands.
The gfum used for fastening the handle to the stone was obtained from the
silver wattle. The handle was tied with sinews {Berreep) from the tail of a
kangaroo.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer informs me that the natives of Gippsland never, as
far as he can learn, got stones from a quarry for their tomahawks. They
selected suitable stones amongst those lying on the sea-beach or in the bed of
a stream. They shaped the cutting edge either with an old tomahawk or a
piece of stone. They did this by striking it near the edge, so as to cause
pieces in the form of flakes to fall off. As soon as the edge was thin
enough, it was ground and polished on sandstone. The flakes called Kror-
gan, used for jagged spears, skinning animals, &c., were made in the same
way, namely, by striking the edge of a block of stone with an old toma-
hawk.
The old tomahawks from Gippsland in my collection seem to have been
formed in the manner described by Mr. Bulmer.
He says that the natives often used pieces of reed, sharpened at the end,
for skinning animals. Reeds are plentiful in many parts of Gippsland, and
being easily obtained and readily fashioned, and quite as efi"ective as the flakes
of stone, it may be supposed that they were, as a rule, preferred. Broken
spears, and reeds not suitable for spears, are always found at a camping place,
and when quite dry and sharpened at the end, would be as good as a sharp
flake for skinning the kangaroo, &c. It is not known whether reeds were used
in other parts of Victoria for this purpose.
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
379
Uses of the Tomahawk.
The tomahawk — (Figs. 176-7-8-9, and 180) — called hy the natives of the
Yarra Merrmg, or Kul-bul-en-er-uk, or GalbiUng rC garrook; by the men of Lake
Condah Kar-rak-ing ; and on the Lower Murray Pur-ut-three — is one of the most
useful implements possessed by the Aborigines. A man never leaves his encam})-
ment without his hatchet. With its help he ascends trees almost as rapidly as
the native bear can climb. He cuts a notch for his toes, and placing the hatchet
between his teeth, so as to set free his arms, ascends one stej), cuts another
notch, and so on until the height he desires to reach is attained. The rapidity
with which he climbs and his dexterity would surprise a stranger. With the
stone axe he cuts open limbs of trees to get opossums out of the hollows ; splits
open trunks to take out honey or grubs or the eggs of insects ; cuts off sheets
of bark for his miam or for canoes ; cuts down trees, and
shapes the wood into shields or clubs or spears ; cuts to pieces
the larger animals of the chase, if necessary ; and strikes off
flakes of stone for inserting in the heads of spears and for
skinning beasts and cleaning the skins. With an old toma-
hawk he will shape from a rough block of stone a new toma-
hawk. Its uses are so many and so various that one cannot
enumerate them. It is sufficient to say that a native could
scarcely maintain existence in Australia if deprived of this
implement. It is not a weapon of offence ; but in battle a
man would not scruple to use it either for striking his enemy
or in warding off blows. In secret expeditions, and when
using the noose {Neruni) for strangling a victim, he would
of course have his club or tomahawk ready for any emergency ;
and the tomahawk would be the easiest to carry, and the more
certain to do execution.
Knives and Adzes.
The stone chisel or gouge (Fig. 199), of which there is
more than one example in my collection, is formed of a frag-
ment of quartzite, firmly set into the end of a rough handle
of wood, and secured in its place by gum. The instrument
is seventeen inches in length, and altogether is a good strong
piece of work. Those I possess could be used effectively in
hollowing a tarnuk or shaping a shield.
Blr. J. A. Panton says that this instrument is commonly
used by the natives inhabiting the country north-east of the
Grey Ranges (lat. 29° 30' S., long. 141° 30' E.).
I have not found it in Victoria ; and I am indebted to
Mr. Panton for the specimens I possess.
FIG. 199. — (Scale J.)
380
THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The stone knife (Fig. 200) is also from the north. Mr. Panton says it is
used by the Aborigines of Booloo and Cooper's Creek. The stone is a hard,
dense, rather granular quartzite. It has not been ground or polished — that is
impracticable with such a stone — but it has been so skilfully fractured as to
present a fine serrated cutting edge. The implement is altogether nearly
eight inches in length. The stone is firmly fixed to the wooden handle
by gum. With it one can easily
cut wood, and in the hands of the
natives it must have been a useful
tool.
The stone knife (Fig. 201) is
also formed of quartzite and by
percussion. It would be almost
impossible to grind or polish it. It
is used by the natives of the Paroo.
It is not provided with a wooden
handle, but one end is encased in
opossum skin (the fiir outwards),
so as to admit of its being grasped
firmly and used easily.
This implement is in the possession of Capt. Rothwell, R.A., formerly
Private Secretary to the late Lord Canterbury.
The people of New Zealand have axes and adzes not differing very much
from those of the Australians ; but in general the stone-head is nephrite. The
head of one in my collection — a specimen which formerly belonged to Mr. A.
Tighe — is exactly like the Australian stone axe. It has been formed by strik-
ing off flakes, and the cutting part has been ground. The wooden handle,
however, is ditferent. A notch has been cut in it, and the stone is inserted
in the notch and tied with strong twine. It is a beautiful imjilement.
The stone-head is four inches in length, and rather more than two and a
half inches in breadth, and it has a sharp edge. The wooden handle is nineteen
inches in lensfth.
FIG. 200. — (Scale i.)
FIG. 201. — (Scale J.)
Chips for Spears.
Figs. 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, and 207 represent fragments of black basalt
exactly similar, mineralogically, to the basalt which occurs at Malmsbury,
m M 4
^1
FIGS. 202,
203,
(Scale J.)
and identified by Wi/e-mye-a-nine as chips that the Australians used in
making jagged spears. The name of the chip amongst his people is Fed-th —
(pronounced with a lisp).
STONE IMPLEITENTS. 381
Tliese fragments were picked up in parts of the colony formerly frequented
by the natives, but at great distances apart, and are undoubtedly pieces lost
accidentally when the spears were in use, or dropped from bags when the
Aborigines were travelling. They are to be found on the low schistose ranges
which are almost bare of soil, in all parts ; but where the deeper soils occur,
they are, of course, concealed.
Chips for Cutting Scaes, etc.
Tlie chips Figs. 208 and 209 were shown to Wi/e-wj/e-a-nine with a great
number of other fragments. When he had attentively examined them, he
said that they had been used for cutting the flesh when the natives wished
to raise scars. The name is the same as that given to the chips used in
making jagged spears — Ped-th.
4-1 »♦
FIGS. 208, (Scale J.) so'-
They are pieces of hard, dense basalt, and might be used, one would
suppose, for inserting in spears ; but Wye-wijc-a-nine insisted that they were
cutting instruments and nothing else.
In all cases where I had the opportunity of testing his statements by
other evidence (and I had opportunities of doing this very often), I found
him to be strictly accurate, and the discrimination displayed in selecting these
as cutting instruments, from amongst a great number of other chips, which to
the eye appear to be alike, is a proof that this native is possessed of faculties
of a high order.
Chips for Skinning Opossums, etc.
Tliis stone (Fig. 210) is used for skinning the opossum and other animals.
It was at once identified by Wye-wye-a-nine. The name is simply Lah — a
stone.
%
no. 210. — (Scale 5.)
Fragments of Tomahawks, etc.
The stone shown in Fig. 211 is a piece of greenstone. A part of one side
is highly polished, and the other is the rough surface of a fracture. This Wye-
FiG. 211.— (Scale J.)
Kye-a-nine recognised as a fragment of a tomahawk. It was found on the
ranges ; and its character was not known until Wye-wye-a-nine examined it.
382 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
The chips shown in Figs. 212-lG were collected by Mr. Ulrich, and are thus
described by Wye-wye-Or-nine: —
Fig. 212 represents a fragment of a tomahawk {Pur-ut-three). It is a piece
of hard, dense, black basalt.
Fig. 213 is also a piece of a tomahawk; it is, like Fig. 212, composed of
black basalt, and certainly more resembles a chip which would be used for a
jagged spear than anything else.
! .^^■-
(Scalc J.)
Fig. 214 is a chip for a chisel ( Wot-thim).
Fig. 215 is a chip used in scraping spears. With this instrument the
natives remove the bark and cut away excrescences. The name is Wallen-JaA.
Fig. 216 is a chip for a jagged spear.
Chips for Skinning, Cutting Open, and Dbessing Animals Killed in
THE Chase.
This chip (Fig. 217) was dug out of a Mirrn-yony heap by Mr. John Green,
and he and others believed it had been used for skinning animals. It has
a tolerably sharp cutting edge, and appears to be a fragment of chert. It
has not been ground or polished, and the fracture is semi-conchoidal. I was
FIG. 217.— (Scale full size.)
quite sure it was an ancient chip that had been used in cutting open and
skinning animals taken in the chase ; but when Wye-mye-a-nine saw it he
appeared to recognise it at once as a fragment struck off in making a toma-
hawk.
Stones for Pounding and Grinding Seeds, etc.
The grinding-stones (Fig. 218) used by the natives of the Darling are of
the following description : — The slab, generally of sandstone, is about twenty-
two inches in length, fourteen inches in breadth, and about one inch in
thickness. The hand-stones ( Wallony) are round, or of an oval form, and
vary in size. One is four inches and a half in length, three inches and a
half in breadth, and one inch and three-quarters in thickness ; and another
is six inches in length, four inches and a half in breadth, and three inches
in thickness. The Wallony have hollows cut in them, so as to be more easily
held by the hand.
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
383
Mr. Howitt says the stones here figured are like those usually seen at
Cooper's Creek. In the flat stone there is a depression which leads out to
the edge by a channel. In grinding grass or portulac seed a little water is
sprinkled in by the left hand, and the seeds being ground with the stone in
the right hand form a kind of porridge, which runs out of the channel into
a wooden bowl {Peechee), or a piece of bark. It may then be baked in the
ashes, or eaten as it is, by using the crooked forefinger as a spoon. The term
used for grinding seeds is Bowar dakoneh.
Nardoo seeds are pounded by the above, placing a few in at a time with
the left hand. The "tap-tap" of the process may be heard in the camp fur
into the night at times.
Tlie slabs of sandstone used are, he was told, brought by the Cooper's
Creek blacks from somewhere below the parallel of Mount Peril, out on the
edge of the western plains (Flinders Range, South Australia).
In the Museum in Melbourne there are two stones — a slab and a stone —
in shape like two cones placed- base to base, which I am assured are used in
some parts of the Darling for grinding nardoo. They are different altogether
from the stones ordinarily employed for this purpose, and resemble those made
by the Kaffirs. The round grinding-stone is very soft, and, owing to its shape,
could be used in no other way than as the Kaffir women use it for reducing
boiled corn to paste.
I have made careful enquiries, and I cannot learn that these stones are
used anywhere in Australia.
Several sorts of stones are used for pounding roots and seeds. I have seen
on the banks of creeks in Victoria hollows in isolated oiitcropping rocks which
may have been used for the reception of seeds or roots. Certainly the stones
I observed were hollowed by man, and probably have been employed for some
such purpose.
Sharpening-stones.
Mr. E. J. Dunn collected a large uumbor nf stone implements in Victoria,
FIG. 219. — (Scale J.)
and amongst them several sharpening-stones. These sharpening-stones are
nearly all of the same shape. — (Fig. 219.) Tliey are from four to six inches
384 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
in length, two and a half to three inchea and a half in breadth, and about one
inch in thickness. They are dish-shaped, and the part used for polishing is
smooth, and in some specimens much hollowed. In one case both sides of the
stone have been used for sharpening. Some are of dense sandstone — nearly all
quartz — and others of micaceous schists and sandstones of various degrees of
hardness.
Tliese stones were used for polishing the edges of tomahawks, and for finish-
ing clubs, shields, &c. They are found occasionally on or a little beneath the
surface of the ground all over the colony. Wlien much worn, they are liable to
break in the middle, and the half of a sharpening-stone of this kind is often
seen.
Mr. Turner, of Mooroolbark, says that when polisliing a tomahawk with a
stone of this kind tlie native holds the stone between the toes of one foot, and
slowly sharpens his axe, which he has in his right hand, by gently rubbing
the edges in the hollow.
Wije-nyc-a-nine says that amongst his people the men were accustomed to
grind and polish their axes on any suitable stone that they could find, and that
this was done day by day, as opportunity served. Tlie same native saw an
oval-shaped piece of rough gritty sandstone in my collection, which was sent to
me by Mr. John Green as a specimen of the stone ( Yourri-urrok) used for
sharjiening the heads of spears. He recognised it at once, and told me that
the name of it in his tribe was Mirg-ma^rook, and that it was commonly
employed for the purpose stated.
Another piece of stone — (Fig. 220) — a weather-worn fragment of micaceous
sandstone, hard and gritty — was used for rasping the sapling and shaping it
into the form of a spear. The name of this stone is Wallen-jah; and though
bearing the same name as the fragment shown in Fig. 215, has not exactly the
same use. The latter is used for scraping the sapling, the former for rasping
and shaping it ; the one is a cutting instrument, the other a sharpening-
stone. This specimen was found by one of the Geological Surveyors in the
basin of the Eiver Loddon.
%'\
FIG. 220. — (Scale J.) FIG. 221. — (Scale J.)
Tliis fragment (Fig. 221) was used for sharpening the points of the wooden
spears. It also is named Wallen-jah in the Lower Murray district. It would
appear that the natives had several stone implements all called Wallen-jah,
which were employed in making spears at different stages of the operation.
The stone shown in Fig. 215 — a chip of basalt with a cutting edge — was
used for scraping off the bark and removing excrescences from the sapling ;
that shown in Fig. 220 — a piece of rough sandstone of irregular form — as a
STONE IMPLEMENTS. 385
rasp for giving a round form to it, and for smoothing it ; and the fragment
here figured (Fig. 221) — a chip of basalt — for polishing the points and in
finishing it.
I have met with great difficulties in the endeavour to ascertain the uses of
the several fragments which are in my collection. At one moment the state-
ments of the natives seemed to be altogether irreconcilable with facts gathered
from them respecting stone implements that to the eye of a European did not
difiier in character; but patience, and a careful attention to the explanations
given by Aboriginals and others well acquainted with their tools and imple-
ments, have enabled me to place each in its proper position, and to discover
how it was emjjloyed and for what purposes.
Stones used in Fishing.
This stone (Fig. 222) is said to be used by the natives of the River Murray
when engaged in fishing with nets. "When the nets are placed in the right
position, the diver goes into the water at some point below the nets, and
holding in each hand a stone of this kind, he makes a noise, by striking them
together, which frightens the fish, and they rush up stream and are caught.
Wye-wi/e-Or-nine tells me that the stone has no name indicating the use to
which it is put. It is simply Lah — a stone. The specimen in my collection
FiQ. 222. — (Scale }.)
is a hard, dense greenstone, with one face highly polished. The small indenta-
tion in the back for the reception of the point of the middle finger enables
the diver to hold it securely in his hand. Wye-wye-(v-nine grasped the stone
as soon as he saw it, and showed me how it was used by the divers. Stones
of a similar form are used for pounding roots, &c., and the stone here figured
may have been used for such purposes when not required by the fishermen.
Stones used in making Baskets.
In making baskets the women commence by plaiting that part which is to
form the centre of the bottom, and having completed this, they work around it,
adding plait after plait until the Ml size of the bottom is attained. To steady
and fix the work thus done, so that their hands may be free for weaving the
sides of the basket, they use an implement named Weenamong. This most
often is merely a flat smooth pebble picked out of the bed of a brook. It is
usually about four inches in diameter, but for large baskets heavier stones are
used. Whether large or small, the stone must be dense, and diorites and fine
quartzites are accordingly employed.
3d
386 THE ABOEIGIXES OF VICTORIA :
I have often watched the women when engaged in this work. They nse the
stone adroitly, turning it from time to time in such a manner as to fix the
bottom of the basket in the desired position while they weave a part of the side.
To signify the beginning of the basket, they nse the word Moom-nenk, which is
literally Moom, the bottom, and newk, the basket begun.
For Ruddle.
A piece of trap rock, named Boo-boorrn by the natives of the Murray, is
put in the fire and kept there until it becomes red-hot. When taken out,
the native scrapes from the surface a red powder, with which he makes a
paint to color his shields and other weapons, to dye his rug, and, if necessary,
to ornament his person. Tlie native name of the stone is, on the Lower
Murray, Noor-in-yoo-rook, and the name of the ruddle obtained from it is
the same.
Pigments of various kinds were used by the natives, the character and
composition of which are described in another place.
Bulk.
A stone — believed by the natives to possess extraordinary powers, and
held in great estimation by the sorcerers — was presented to me by Mr. A. W.
Howitt, who obtained it from an old man in Gippsland. It is egg-shaped,
about four inches in length, and two and a half inches in breadth. It is
thickly covered with oxyd of iron, and it is impossible to say, without
breaking it, what its mineral composition is ; but on clearing one small
part of the thick coating of red oxyd, it presented an appearance like that of
a trap rock. It must have had given to it the form which it now shows many,
many years ago, and may indeed have been a treasure in the tribe to which
the old man belonged before Australia was known to Europeans. The name
of the stone is Bulk, and with it and other stones the priests work enchant-
ment. It weighs twenty-seven and a half ounces.
Stones of this character are described by Grey. He says : —
"The natives of South-Western Australia likewise pay a respect, almost
amounting to veneration, to shining stones or pieces of crystal, which they
caU Teyl. None but the sorcerers or priests are allowed to touch these, and
no bribe can induce an unqualified native to lay his hand on them. The
accordance of this word in sound and signification with the Baetyli mentioned
in the following extract from Burder's Oriental Customs (vol. i., p. 16) is
remarkable : —
'"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he
had put for his pUlow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the
top of it, and he called the name of that place Be-thel. — Genesis xxviii.,
18. From this conduct of Jacob and this Hebrew appellation, the learned
Bochart, with great ingenuity and reason, insists that the name and veneration
of the sacred stones called Baetyli, so celebrated in all Pagan antiquity,
STONE IMPLEMENTS. 387
were derived. These Baetyli were stones of a round form ; they were supposed
to be animated by means of magical incantations with a portion of the Deity,
they were consiilted on occasions of great and pressing emergency as a kind
of divine oracle, and were suspended either round the neck or some other
part of the body.'
" That this veneration for certain pieces of quartz or crystal is common
over a very great portion of the continent is evident from the following
extracts from Threlkeld's Vocabulary, p. 88 : —
"' Mur-ra-mai, the name of a round ball, about the size of a cricket-ball,
which the Aborigines carry in a small net suspended from their girdles of
opossum yarn. The women are not allowed to see the internal part of the
ball. It is used as a talisman against sickness, and it is sent from tribe to
tribe for hundreds of miles on the sea-coast, and in the interior. One is now
here from Moreton Bay, the interior of which a black showed me jirivately
in my study, betraying considerable anxiety lest any female should see its
contents. After imrolling many yards of woollen cord, made from the fur
of the opossum, the contents proved to be a quartz-like substance of the size
of a pigeon's egg. He allowed me to break it and retain a part. It is
transparent, like white sugar-candy. They swallow the small crystalline par-
ticles which crumble off as a i^reventive of sickness. It scratches glass,
and does not effervesce with acids. From another specimen, the stone appears
to be agate of a milky hue, semi-pellucid, and strikes fire. The vein from
which it ajjpears broken off' is one inch and a quarter thick. A third siiecimen
contains a portion of cornelian, partially crystallized, a fragment of chalcedony,
and a fragment of a crystal of white quartz.'
"And again, in Mitchell's Expeditions into Australia, vol. ii., p. 338 : —
" ' In these girdles the men, and especially their coradjes or priests, fre-
quently carry crystals of quartz or other shining stones, which they hold in
high estimation, and very unwdliugly show to any one, invariably taking
care, when they do unfold them, that no woman shall see them.' " *
* Two Expeditions of Discovery. Grey, vol. n., pp. 340-2.
Ufta and ^ijih-hoolifi.
■"K^-O--
Thb natives used hooks and nets as ■well as the spear in catching fish.
William Buckley makes the following statement in his Life and Adven-
tures: — "They used to take me out on calm evenings to teach me how to
spear salmon, bream, &c. Their manner is to get some very dry sticks, cut
them into lengths of ten or twelve feet, tie several of them together into a
kind of faggot, and then light the thickest end ; with this torch Llazing in one
hand and a spear in the other they go into the water, and the tish, seeing the
flame, crowd round and are easily taken." *
The Jardines saw, at Maramie Creek, " two parties of blacks fishing on the
river They used reed-spears, pointed with four jagged prongs, and
also hooks and lines. Their hooks are made of wood, barbed with bone, and
the lines of twisted Currejong bark." The same writers say that "considerable
nicety is shown in the making of fishing lines and hooks. Tlie former are
made from the fibres of a sjiecies of climber, very neatly twisted. The fish-
hooks are made of tortoise-shell, or nails prociired from wreck-timber. They
are without barbs, and our fish-hooks are eagerly sought for in place of them."t
In catching eels, Buckley observed that though they spear them frequently,
"they generally use lines — the bait being a large earth-worm. Having these
worms ready, they get a piece of elastic bark and some long grass, on which
they string them ; this is tied to a rod, and as the eel, after biting, holds on
tenaciously, he is thrown or rather jerked upon the bank."
At the mouths of some of the creeks in the western parts of Victoria, and
in the channels through which the lakes overflow, the natives take eels in large
c[uantities. They are so numerous as to embarrass them, and vast quantities
are thrown aside and left to decay.
■—=> "W^hether using the spear, the net, or the hook, the native is almost always a
more successful sportsman than the European. He knows the habits of the
fish, the places where they are to be found, and the food which they prefer ;
and patient in waiting, quick in seizing an advantage, and with a j^erfect
command of the implement he is using — spear, net, or hook — he is never, or
very rarely, disappointed with the results of his labors.
* Life and Adventures of William Buckley, p. 40.
f Narrative of tlie Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rochhampton to Cape York,
Northern Queensland. Camp 33. Lat. 16° 27' 30' S.; p. 26.
NETS AND FISH-HOOKS. 389
The Murray cod, the black-fish, and the herring were the food of the natives
during certain seasons ; and before the whites invaded the solitudes of the
forests, through which flow in deep shade, even in the height of summer, strong
streams, bubbling in sharj) bends, rijipling where the rocks come to the surface,
and gliding smoothly where deep water occurs in long reaches, small parties
put up rough sheelings (Miams) for protection against the winds of the night,
and fished with net and line whenever the weather was propitious. Even< —
now — enervated, and with no love for the sport, but with a desire merely
to get money — the poor natives haunt the streams that once were their own,
and bring away fish in well-fiUed baskets from places where many a sportsman
would fail to induce the fish to bite.
How it happens that their fish-hooks are so well made, that their lines, if
not always as neatly twisted, are as good as ours, and that their nets are not
much difi"erent in form or texture from those used by fishermen in Europe, may
induce new speculations in the minds of those who believe that the Australian
is poor in invention — lower than the lowest amongst mankind, and scarcely fit
to be classed with the Bosjesman of Africa or the Mincopie of the Bay of
Bengal.
The nets, hooks, and lines used by the natives are of the follo-n-ing descrip-
tion : —
Fishing-net, Lake Tyers. — The Eev. Mr. Bulmer has sent me a fishing-net ^
made by the blacks of kangaroo-grass {Anthistiria ciliata), called by the natives
Karn, which is really excellent as a work of art. The knot is the same as
that of nets of European manufacture. The size of the mesh is two inches
from knot to knot. The natives do not use the ordinary mesh in netting,
but regulate the size of the interstices with their fingers ; and instead of a
needle they use a piece of stick with the twine wound around it. For sinkers
they use stones, and for floats the bark of the tea-tree. The name of the net is
Ba-arang, and the floats are called Pliart. They do not set the net with stakes,
as, being made of grass, it is too fragile for that; but two persons, each in a
canoe, take hold of the ends, and draw it through the water, whilst others beat
the water and frighten the fish into the net. The net which Mr. Bulmer has
forwarded is remarkable for the evenness of the twine and the uniformity in
the size of the meshes.
Hand-net. — The hand-net which the Rev. Mr. Bulmer has sent to me is t^
closely woven, and is made also of the kangaroo-grass. The mesh is formed
thus.— (Fig. 223.)
ill
The hand-net is used in procuring bait for fishing with the hook. It is
stretched on a bow, is let down to the bed of the stream, and is drawn through
390 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
the water by the women. This net is called Lowrn by the natives of Gipps-
land. Similar nets were used formerly in all parts of Victoria.
Wye-jvye'd^nine informs me that the fishing-net provided with floats and
sinkers is called by the natives of the Lower Murray Kid-kul-ook, and the
landing-net Moonv-gyiil. A small square net — somewhat like Mootn^gnil, as
regards the meshes — is used to catch fish in small streams. It is named Mook-
kurra. *
Mr. John Green has obtained from the natives of the Yarra a specimen of
their fishing-nets. It is made of tlie fibre of the stringybark, and is a coarse
strong net. It is named Karrt-keerrt. The mesh is shown in Fig. 224.
FIG. 22<l-.
The mesh of a fishing-net from the Eiver Burdekiu, in North-Eastern
Australia, is shown in Fig. 225. The net is round, and about seven feet in
diameter. Tlie size of the mesh is one inch. The t-\vine is strong, but not veiy
even. This net was in the possession of the Honorable Matthew Hervey, now
deceased, to whom I was indebted for some rare and valuable specimens of
native implements.
Mr. Jolm McDonnell, of Brisbane, has sent me a portion of a net used by
the natives of Northern Queensland. The mesh is seven-tenths of an inch, and
is even throughout. The twine is formed — as well as I can judge — of a fibre of
some bark, but of what tree I know not. It is an excellent net. Tlie knot is
exactly the same as that of the net sho\\Ti in Fig. 225.
* Tlie Ancient Egyptians used a net with wooden floats and sinkers similar to the Ba-arang
above described ; and a landing-net with a kind of bow somewhat resembling the Australian Lowrn.
— See A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, p. 188, toI. ii.
NETS AND FISH-nOOKS. 391
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer has been able to obtain an ancient fish-hook, for-
merly used by the natives of Gippsland. It is made of bone, and is thus
shaped.— (Fig. 226.)
As soon as the natives were able to get hooks of Euro-
pean manufacture, they ceased to make hooks of bone or
wood, and the ancient fish-hooks are now very scarce in
Victoria. The cord which is attached to the hook is made
of the bark of the lightwood, called by the natives Yotvan.
The fibre is strong and flexible.
The women are expert anglers. They will sometimes
secure as much as 60 lbs. weight of fish with the modern
hook ; but what was the measure of their success when they
used the bone, wooden, or shell fish-hook is not known to
me. ""lo- "6-
Mr. J. A. Panton says that the natives of the Geelong district used in
former times, for catching bream, a piece of hard wood or bone sharpened at
both ends and attached to the line by a hitch-knot. — (Fig. 227.)
Tliis cannot be called a hook. It was baited, however, and when seized by
the fish and the line strained, the bone stuck in the jaws, and the prey was
secured. This is a very simple but a very ingenious contrivance for taking fish.
A curious implement is found in Queensland, which it is believed is used
for catching fish. It is formed of a piece of hard wood, sharpened at each end
and barbed. — (Fig. 228.) The barbs are fastened to the wood with some vege-
table fibre.
A fish-hook used by the natives of Rockingham Bay in Queensland, and
presented to me by the late Mr. Matthew Hervey, is shown in Fig. 229. It
is somewhat similar in form to the ancient fish-hook of the
Gippsland people ; but instead of being made of bone, the
material used is a section of the shell of a species of haliotis.
It is beautiful in shape, highly polished, and has a very
sharp point. It is securely and neatly attached to the cord
with twine made of the fibre of some plant. This is in all
respects a most excellent hook; it is in good preservation,
and might be used now, I have no doubt, with success, in
taking large fish.
Another kind of fish-hook — made of tortoise-shell — is
also in use at Rockingham Bay. In form it is exactly that no. 229.
figured above. It is four inches in length, and about a quarter of an inch in
width at the widest part. It is a very beautiful hook.
392
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA.
Fig. 230 shows the form of fish-hook used by the natives of New Zealand.
It was presented to the late Mr. A. F. A. Greeves by the late Dr. Alexander
Stewart (Assistant-Surgeon 19th Regt.), who received it from Ne Penuta, chief
of the tribe of Wairau natives, in token of gratitude for
relief from a dangerous illness which necessitated the per-
formance of a delicate and difficult operation. It was used
for catching a fish called Kaiwai, which appears to have
some resemblance to the salmon. It was employed very
much in the manner the sportsman uses the fly — the shell,
when revolving, by its briglitness attracting the fish and
causing them to rise. The barbed point made of bone is
firmly attached by twine (of vegetable fibre) to the shank.
The front part of the shank — that part next the barb —
is of shell (Dr. Stewart in his description calls the shell a
species of mussel, but it is a section of a haliotis), and
the back part is of Totara or ironwood. It is well and
firmly fixed to the line ; and the shell and wood are very
carefully carved so as to make the work smooth and almost
of one piece.
This hook is figured, in order that the reader may com-
pare the work of the Australian with that of the New
Zealander. Excellent as it is, it is not superior to the
hook of the Rockingham Bay natives.
This kind of hook — formed of shell and wood — is common in the islands of
the South Seas.
Uldltods of |r0{!u(ht0 ^iri.
The Aborigines of the southern parts of Victoria obtain fire in the manner
shown in Fig. 231. A flat piece of wood, ten inches in length, and one inch
and a half in width, is placed on the ground and held firmly in a horizontal
position by the toes of each foot of the operator. In his hands the man holds
upright, and with one end of it fixed in a slight depression previously made
in the flat piece of wood, a stick about half an inch in diameter and two
feet in length, which he twirls by a rapid motion of his hands. The stick
held between the palms of the hands is rubbed rapidly to and fro, and some
pressure is exerted downwards. When the hands nearly touch the flat piece
of wood, they are suddenly raised almost to the top of the vertical stick, but
so skilfully as to keep the stick in its place (and this is a movement not easy
to Europeans), and then again the twirl and downward pressure follow, and
the movements are repeated until the charcoal-dust ignites. Fig. 232 shows the
form of the sticks employed. When the sticks are dry, smoke and fire soon
arise in the hole in the flat piece of wood. The native, having previously
reduced to powder some dry leaves of the eucalyptus, which easily iguite, turns
or tilts the flat piece of wood towards the powdered leaves at the moment when
3e
394 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
ignition occurs, and soon gets a fire. Tlie operation, under favorable circum-
stances, occupies only a few minutes in the hands of a skilful Aboriginal ;
but, if the ■weather is damp and the man is clumsy, it is hard work for many
minutes, and success does not always follow the first attempt. A European
unaccustomed to the business might twirl the stick for a long time and
scarcely raise a smoke by this method. *
The Aborigines of the Yarra name the process of getting fire Werrgarrk ;
the name of the upright stick is Boo-ho-bo; the flat piece in which the upright
stick revolves, Bah-a-noo; the dust which collects in the hole in which the
vertical stick turns, Kan-an-doorr ; the first fire, Manr-noo-en; and the word
for flame is Kool-kool-boo-noo-cn.
The woods commonly used for making fire-sticks {Weenth-kalk-kalk) are
the Djelwuk {Jtledycarua Cunninghamii) and the Prostanthera lasianthos
(Lab.).t
Tlie inhabitants of the Lower Murray, near Swan Hill, procure fire by a
different method. Out of a suitable piece of wood the Aboriginal cuts a
knife — in shape almost like a butcher's knife — and in another piece he cuts
a long thin slit. In the slit he places finely-powdered dry gum leaves, or
powdered dry grass, or some other inflammable substance. Placing the stick
with the longitudinal slit in it in a secure position, he rubs the wooden knife
across or at right-angles to the slit very rapidly, holding the knife generally
with the right hand, and, for the purpose of giving greater energy and
steadiness to his movements, keeping the right WTist firmly in the left hand.
Instead of i^reparing a second stick with the longitudinal slit in it, he not
seldom takes advantage of the cracks in the trunk of a dry fallen tree. Some
dry substance carefully reduced to powder by the hand is put into the cracks,
and the wooden knife, used in the same manner as above described, soon pro-
duces smoke and fire. The latter is the mode I saw successfully employed at
Coranderrk by a native of the Murray. When the Yarra men had got fire by
twirling the upright stick, Giilpie said that he knew of a quicker and better
method of getting fire. This annoyed some of the old men of the Yarra
* Even with such instructions as the Australians have given me, I cannot get fire by cither of
the methods they have taught me, though with some exertion I can cause smoke to rise by
twirling the stick or using the wooden kuife. Procuring fire by means of fire-sticks is a laborious
and difficult operation to the unskilful. A European wandering in the bush would be incapable of
getting fire by rubbing two sticks together. Even if provided with fire -sticks, he would
accomplish nothing more than the blistering of his hands. In the city we may despise the
Aboriginal and contenui his habits, but in the forest he is our superior; and when we seek his
help, he is invariably an intelligent and skilful teacher.
f The manner in which the Aborigines procured fire before the Europeans came amongst
them was thus : — They cut a piece of wood about eight or nine inches in length, and one inch
or more in thickness, and made it oblong, about one inch and a half or two inches in breadth.
Two or three holes were made on one side of its flat surface, and a thin round stick was worked
by the hands upwards and downwards — as a mechanic would work a drill-bow — in one of these
holes until the friction ignited the pith, which, dropping on some dried stringybark or other fine
vehicle, caused the latter to smoulder. At a puff, the smouldering bark burst into flame. One
minute or less was required for the operation. The upright stick was made of the young plant
of a tree called by them Tak-wurk {Djelwuk).— William Thomas, MS.
METHODS OF PRODUCING FIEE.
395
tribe, who denied that any other means could be employed by an Aboriginal.
Knowing well what he proposed to do, I encouraged Gulpie to make an
experiment. He cut a wooden knife in a few moments, sat down beside a
dry log, and having filled the longitudinal cracks with dry grass, which he
had previously well rubbed in his hands, he commenced operations, and in a
few seconds sent up a smoke. This method is shown in Fig. 233.
In the north-eastern parts of Australia a very similar method, it is said,
is adopted. In Fig. 234 the man is represented in a sitting posture. Having
planted in the ground a strong stick, in which a longitudinal slit has been
made, or in which there is a natural slit, and having filled the slit with dry
powdered gum leaves or the like, he draws the stick towards him, and keeps
it firmly in its place by pressing his chest against it. In his hand he holds
the wooden knife, which he rubs rapidly across the stick uutU he gets fire.*
* Mr. Robert Hughan says that the Aborigines of the Burnett, in New South Wales, get fire
in the following manner :— They cut with the hatchet a hole in a dry fallen tree. They fill tliis
hole with part of the dry ripe head of the flower-stalk of the xanihorrhaea, well powdered
between the hands, and then turn the stem head downwards into the hole and twirl it. In a
few seeouds they get fire.
Mr. H. E. A. Meyer, writing of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay tribe, in South Australia,
says that they obtain tire by using the grass-tree. A split piece of the flower-stem of the grass-
tree is placed upon the ground, the flat side uppermost, and the lower end of a thinner piece
pressed upon it, while the upper p.irt is held between the palms of the hands, and an alternate
revolving motion is given to it by rubbing the hands backwards and forw.ards until it ignites.
Mr. Alfred Howitt states, in a letter to me, that the Aborigines of Gippsland used to get
fire by twirling the peduncle of the grass-tree; and the Rev. Mr. Taplin, in his paper on the
Narrinyeri tribe of Aborigines, says that the people of the Lower Murray get fire in the same way.
396 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Travellers Lave informed me that they have seen the wooden knife or wedge
employed by some men in the interior exactly in the same way as the Maories
use it — that is to say, rubbed rapidly along a groove until the fine charcoal-
dust at the extremity is ignited. The Aborigines of the Yarra, and others
in Victoria, assert that they have never heard of this plan.
There are probably many other ways of using the fire-sticks known to
the tribes in the interior ; but all the evidence yet obtained shows that friction
only — and no easier or better method — is resorted to by the Australians on the
somewhat rare occasions when they have to practise the art of getting fire.
Their habits, in the ordinary life of a tribe, would prevent the necessity of
having recourse to the fire-sticks. Whether encamped or travelling, a tribe is
always well provided with fire. It is the duty of the women to carry fire. A
stick, a piece of decayed wood, or more often the beautiful seed-stem of the
Bauksia, is lighted at the fire the woman is leaving ; and from her bag, whicli,
in damp weather, she would keep filled with dry cones, or from materials
collected in the forest, she would easily, during her journey, preserve the fire
got at the last encampment.
Messengers, warriors on an expedition, and hunters, would sometimes have
to use the fire-sticks, but in ordinary camp life rarely.*
It hapjjens, consequently, that white men who have lived with the
Aborigines, and who have become acquainted with many of their practices, are
unable to say liow fire is procured ; and when asked to describe the process,
state vaguely that two sticks are rubbed together, and that, after some
exertion, one of them bursts into a flame. In all the processes the knack
consists in keeping the charcoal-powder exactly in the place where there is the
most friction, and it is needless to say the stick does not burst into a flame.
The art of making fire is, without doubt, known to all races of men.f The
legends and stories and some curious practices of the highly-civilized peoples
of Europe, show that their remote ancestors procured fire exactly in the same
way as the Australian gets it, i.e., by friction.
* The statements made in the Life and Adventures of William Buckley lead one to suppose
that getting fire by twirling the upright stick was rare. Men and women, when they left a camp,
always carried a lighted piece of bark or a brand. In one part of his narrative he says that "in
the winter months they are often much distressed for fire, and suffer greatly from hunger and
cold." It is probable that experts only used the sticks for getting fire ; and that small parties
wandering fi'om the main camp, and unaccompanied by fighting-men, may have had often to endure
cold, when by carelessness or accident the fire they carried was extinguished.
t It is believed by some that the natives of Tasmania did not know how to obtain fire. It is
considered proper in Europe to describe these and the natives of Australia as the most degraded
amongst all the races of mankind. Speaking of the Tasmanians, Lubbock says : — " They have no
means of expressing abstract ideas ; they have not even a word for a ' tree.' Although fire was
well known to them, some tribes at least appear to have been ignorant whence it was originally
obtained, or how, if extinguished, it could be re-lighted. ' In all their wanderings,' says Mr. Dove,
' they were particularly careful to bear in their hands the materials for kindling a fire. Their
memory supplies them with no instances of a period in which they were obliged to draw on their
inventive powers for the means of resuscitating an element so essential to their health and comfort
as flame. How it came originally into their possession is unknown. Whether it may be viewed as
the gift of nature, or the product of art and sagacity, they cannot recollect a period when it was a
desideratum It was the part of the females especially to carry
METHODS OF PEODUCING FIEE. 397
In considering and determining the position of the Australian in the great
families of mankind, it is interesting to compare his practices with those of
other men whose lives arc spent in the forest, and who know nothing of cities,
and whose discoveries go not so far as to change the mode of life, hut simply
to render the life that is natural to them safer and more pleasurable.
In procuring fire it is probable that the only method known to the earliest
races was that of rubbing two sticks together, an art suggested possibly, as
my friend the Kev. Kichard Taylor observes, by some man having noticed the
accidental production of fire due to the friction of dry branches of trees in a
gale. Getting fire by friction is known to many uncivilized peoples.
"The Kaffir blacksmith never need trouble himself about the means of
obtaining a fire. Should he set up his forge in the vicinity of a kraal, the
simplest plan is to send his assistant for a fire-brand from one of the huts.
But if he should prefer, as is often the case, to work at some distance from the
huts, he can procure fire with perfect certainty, though not witliout some labor.
He first procures two sticks, one of them taken from a soft-wood tree, and the
a fire-brand in their hands, which was studiously refreshed from time to time as it became dull and
evanescent.' " — Pre-Sistoric Times, p. 355.
Mr. Dove's statement is so important that it is to be regretted he did not give the facts on which
he based the inference that the Tasmanians did not know how to procure fire. The skill displayed
by the natives in the fabrication of weapons and utensils, their habits, and certain words in their
language, would lead one to suppose that the art of making fire was known to them as to other
savage peoples in a similar condition, but that, as amongst the Australians, it was not, probably,
very often practised. Mr. Dove was possibly not very careful in making observations, or perhaps
rash in drawing inferences.
Mr. James Scott, M.H.A., of Launceston, who is well acquainted with the habits of the Tas-
manians, states, in a letter read at a meeting of the Koyal Society of Tasmania on the 8th July 1873,
" that the Aborigines, in moving from camp to camp, if possible, carried a fire with them, to save
the labor of getting it by friction of two pieces of wood, the use of which was known to them."
The word for "fire" at Oyster Bay was, according to Dr. Milligan's vocabulary, Tonna; in South
Tasmania, 'Ngune; and in the western and north-western parts, Winnaleah. The word for "tree"
was Loatta; and for touch-wood (rotten wood), Weitree ouriatta and Weeau-anyhratta.
" In his history of the Ladrone Islands, Father Gobien asserts that fire, ' an element of such
universal use, was utterly imknown to them, till Magellan, provoked by their repeated thefts,
burned one of their villages. When they saw their wooden houses blazing, they first thought the fire
a beast which fed upon wood, and some of them who came too near, being burnt, the rest stood afar
off, lest they should be devoured, or poisoned, by the violent breathings of this terrible animal.'
This fact is not mentioned in the original account of Magellan's voyage. Freycinet believes that
the assertion of Father Gobien is entirely without foundation. The language, he says, of the
inhabitants contains words for fire, burning charcoal, oven, grilling, boiling, &c. ; and even before the
advent of the Europeans pottery was well known. It is difiicult, however, to get over the distinct
assertion made by Gobien, which, moreover, derives some support from similar statements made by
other travellers. Thus Alvaro do Saavedra states that the inhabitants of certain small islands in
the Pacific, which he called 'Los Jardines,' but which cannot now be satisfactorily determined,
stood in terror of fire because they had never seen it {Ilackluyt Suciely, 1862, p. 178). Again,
Wilkes tells us {United States Expl. Eiped., vol. v., p. 18) that on the island of Fakaafo, which he
calls ' Bowditch,' ' there was no sign of places for cooking nor any appearance of fire.' The
natives also were very much alarmed when they saw sparks struck from flint and steel. Uere, at
least, we might have thought was a case beyond question or suspicion ; the presence of fire could
hardly have escaped observation — the marks it leaves are very conspicuous. If we cannot depend
on such a statement as this, made by an ofiiccr in the United States Navy, in the official report of
an expedition sent out especially for scientific purposes, we may well be disheartened and lose
confidence in ethnological investigations. Yet the assertions of Wilkes are questioned, and with
898 THE ABOBIGINES OP VICTORIA:
other from an acacia, or some other tree that furnishes a hard wood. Of course
both the sticks must be thoroughly dry, a condition about which there is little
difficulty in so hot a climate. His next care is to shape one end of the hard
stick into a point, and to bore a small hole in the middle of the soft stick.
He now squats down places the pointed tip of the hard stick
in the hole of the soft stick, and, taking the former between his hands, twirls
it backwards and forwards with extreme rapidity. As he goes on, the hole
becomes enlarged, and a small quantity of very fine dust falls into it, being
rubbed away by the friction. Presently the dust is seen to darken in color,
then to become nearly black, and presently a very slight smoke is seen to rise.
The Kaffir now redoubles his efforts, he aids the effect of the revolving stick
by his breath, and in a few more seconds the dust bursts into a flame. The
exertion required in this operation is very severe, and by the time that the fire
manifests itself the producer is bathed in perspiration.
" Usually two men, at least, take part in fire-making, and, by dividing the
labor, very much sliorten the jjrocess. It is evident tliat, if the peri)endicular
much appearance of justice, by Mr. Tylor {Early History of Mankind, p. 230). In the 'Etlinog-
rapliy of the United Stales Exphriny Expedition' Hale give."* a list of Fakaafo words, in which
wc find Afi for 'fire.' This is evidently the same word as the New Zealand Ahi; but as it denotes
light and heat, as well as fire, we might suppose that it thus found its way into the Fakaafo
vocabulary. I should not, therefore, attribute to this argument quite so much force as does Mr.
Tylor. It is, however, evident that Captain Wilkes did not perceive the importance of the obser-
vation, or he would certainly have taken steps to determine the question ; and as IJale, in his special
work on the ethnology of the expedition, does not say a word on the subject, it is clear he had no
idea that the inhabitants of Fakaafo exhibited such an interesting phenomenon. The fact, if
established, would be most important ; but it cannot be said to be satisfactorilj- proved that there
is .at present, or has been within historical times, any race of men entirely ignorant of fire. It is
at least certain that as far back as the earliest Swiss lake-villages and Danish shell-mounds the
use of fire was well known in Europe." — Pre-Historic Times, pp. 453-4.
Mr. George French Angas repeats this statement, and says that the inhabitants of Eowditch
Isliind knew nothing of fire until the arrival of foreigners amongst them. — Polynesia, p. 402.
Probably the statements in the cases cited amount to no more than this : That the observers
were not able to ascertain^ — h,id not, in fact, the means of discovering — in what way the natives
procured fire. Hunters and warriors, whose necessities compel them to range through the forests,
sepiirated for many days from their tribe, could not well secure game, or pursue their enemies,
without having at hand the means of kindling a fire. Under pressing necessity, a warrior or a
liunter might remain for days without seeing fire ; but warfare, hunting, and other well-known
pr.actices of savages, could not be successfully followed constantly unless they had some method of
getting fire.
With habits different from those of now existing savage peoples, life might be maintained and
prolonged without any knowledge of the art of procuring fire. Without tribal laws compelling
warriors to follow enemies ; living in a state of degradation, far below that of the Tasraanians ;
and guided to the places where there was food, by intelligence scarcely surpassing that of the
kangaroo, or the wombat — it is conceiv.able that life might be passed in ignorance of the element
which is so highly prized by man.
If it be true that any races having the use of fire are yet ignorant of the mode of producing it,
it should not lead us to regard them as inferior to other races that resort to friction or percussion.
The habit of carrying fire-sticks continually, or the practice of getting fire from some near source,
as a volcano, might result in the disuse of the fire-sticks and forgetfulness of the art ; but that
would not necessarily prove inferiority.
If procuring fire is in any tribe among the artes perditcc, it would be well for the observer to be
more careful than Mr. Dove and Captain Wilkes, who seem not to have appreciated the importance
of the question on which they have written so decidedly.
METHODS OF PRODUCING FIEE. 399
stick be thus worked, the hands must gradually slide down it until they reach
the point. The solitary Kaffir would then be obliged to stop the stick, shift
his hands to the top, and begin again, thus losing much valuable time. But
when two Kaffirs unite in fire-making, one sits opposite the other, and as soon
as he sees that his comrade's hands have nearly worked themselves down to
the bottom of the stick, he places his own hands on the top, continues the
movement, and relieves his friend. Thus the movement of the stick is never
checked for a moment, and the operation is consequently hastened. Moreover,
considerable assistance is given by the second Kaffir keeping the dust properly
arranged round the point of the stick, and by taking the part of the bellows,
so as to allow his comrade to expend all his strength in twirling the stick.
. . . . Some of my readers may, perhaps, remember that English black-
smiths are equally independent of lucifer matches, flint and steel, and other
recognised modes of fire-raising. They place a small piece of soft iron on the
anvil, together with some charcoal-dust, and hammer it furiously. The result
is that enough heat is evolved to light the charcoal, and so to enable the black-
smith to set to work." *
In many other parts of Africa the method of obtaining fire by twirUng the
upright stick is known and practised.
Tlie Maori gets fire by using the wooden knife. He pushes the knife back-
ward and forward along a groove previously made in a flat piece of wood, and the
fine charcoal-dust which collects at the extremity of the groove, when ignited, is
placed in a lump of soft flax, and waved to and fro untU it bursts into a flame.
The names for fire in New Zealand are Kora, Kapiira, AM, Mapura, Maute,
Ngiha, Pakunu, Mura, and Kanaka. The sticks used in rubbing are named
Kauati and Kaureureu, and the name for both sticks Rororu. The dust caused by
rubbing is named Para, the process of rubbing Kauoti, and the flame Pakuroa.\
The Tahitian procures fire by rubbing the fire-sticks exactly after the
manner of the Maori. |
The Dyak of Borneo twirls the upright stick. "There is, however, one
improvement on the ordinary mode. Instead of merely causing a pointed stick
to revolve upon another, the Dyaks use instead of the lower stick a thick slab
of very dry wood, with a deep groove cut on one side of it, and a small hole on
the other bored down to the groove He places the wooden slab on
the ground with the groove undermost, and inserts his pointed stick in the
little hole, and twirls it rapidly between his hands. The revolution of the stick
soon causes a current of air to pass through the groove, and, in consequence,
the fire is rapidly blown up as soon as the wood is heated to the proper extent.
• . . . Some tribes merely cut two cross grooves on the lower piece of
wood, and insert the point of the fire-stick at their intersection." §
* The Natural History of Man. 3. G. Wood, vol. i., p. 101.
t Te Ika A Maui, by the Rev. Richard Taylor, M.A., F.G.S., p. 370.
{ Polynesia, by G. F. Angas, p. 286.
§ The Natural History of Man, by J. G. Wood, vol. Ii., p. 502.
Other methods of procuring fire are used by the Dyaks. The besiapi, as described by Mr.
Wood, " consists of a metal tube about three inches ia length, with a piston working nearly air-tight
400 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
In Java, fire is sometimes procured by friction. D'Almeida says : — " Before
starting on our return I felt desirous to smoke a cigar, in order to ' keep the
cold out ;' but finding I had forgotten my fusees, I asked one of the men if he
could give me a light. He immediately picked up a dried piece of wood, and
holding it fixed on the ground, asked one of his companions to rub another
across it. This being quickly done, in less than five minutes the friction caused
the upright piece to burn. The man soon blew it into a flame, and handed it
tome."*
This very nearly resembles the mode of getting "fire" as practised by
some of the Aborigines of New South "Wales.
The Japanese, it is said, followed the system employed by the Australians.t
The Lepcha get fire after the manner of the Yarra tribe of Victoria, t This
method of obtaining sacred fire, somewhat modified, is practised daily in the
Hindu temples. §
in it. A piece of dry stuff, by way of tinder, is introduced into the tube, the piston-rod is slapped
smartly down and withdrawn with a jerk, when the tinder is seen to be on fire." Sometimes a
case of bamboo and a leaden piston, with a hole at the end for the reception of the tinder, are
employed. They light tinder also by percussion, after a method not yet explained.
In the Mechanics' Magazine of the 18th August 1832 a description is given of an instmraent
exactly resembling the hesiapi by a correspondent. The editor remarks that it is well known on
the continent by the name of the "Instantaneous Light-giving Syringe." This method is mentioned
also in the Intellectual Observer (September 1865) by A. S. Herschel, B.A.
The Rev, Mr. Taylor says the Dyaks are acquainted with the methods of the Red Indians,
namely, the bow and string and the upright stick and cord. The Dyaks, who can smelt iron,
construct good bridges, and forge useful tools, can scarcely be regarded as an uncivilized
people.
Fire is thus obtained by the people of Sararak : — " One of the men strikes fire by means of a
small branch of soft wood placed on the ground. Squatting opposite it, he holds it in its place by
one of his toes, whilst some one places a foot on the opposite end for the same purpose. This
piece of stick having been previously cut flat on the upper side, a pointed piece of harder wood,
when it can be procured, is held in the right hand obliquely against the lower piece, somewhat as
we hold a pen, with the left hand pressing on the fingers of the right to add force to it. It is at
first gently moved along the line, the motion being gradually quickened, till some brown dust is
scraped up at one end of the incision thus made, and the friction being then increased in velocity,
the wood finally smokes and takes fire. A dry piece of poro or husk, brought from the house,
where it is kept for the purpose, readily ignites when the burning dust is deposited in it, and being
waved backwards and forwards, is soon in a blaze." — ^¥ild Life among the Pacific Islanders. E. H.
Lament, p. 156.
* Life in Java, by Wm. Barrington D'Almeida, vol. u., p. 277.
t Taylor, p. 3G8.
f Descriptive Ethnology. Latham, vol. I., p. 89.
§ Stevenson. Sama Veda, pref. vii. Quoted by Kelly.
" I know not if the Hindus ever possessed the art of concentrating the sun's rays by a lens, so
as to obtain fire by that process : that used by Brahmans for cooking, and for religious ceremonies,
is produced by the friction of two pieces of hard wood ; one about five inches diameter, with a small
conical hole, or socket, in the upper part, into which the other, shaped like a pin, is introduced, and
whirled about backward and forward by a bow ; the pin and socket fitting, the great attrition soon
produces fire. This machine, which every Brahman ought to possess, is called Arani, and should be
made of the Sami tree (Adenanthera aculeata or Prosopis aculeata), it being sacred to DEVI in the
character of SAXIA DEVI ; or if that be not procurable, of the Pipala, resembling in appearance
and name some species of our poplar." — TJte Hindu Pantheon. Moor, p. 214.
METHODS OF PEODUCING FIEE. 401
The Tongusy, inhabiting country eastward of the Lena, and who are the
representatives of the ancient inhabitants of Siberia, rub two pieces of wood
against each other to get fire when the tinder-box is not at hand.*
The Dacotah or Sioux Indians, Philander Prescott says, use the Australian
method, and twirl the upright stick. A piece of punk is kept ready to apply
to the charcoal-dust when ignited. f
Fire is procured by friction — when either their necessities or their super-
stitious observances require it — by all the tribes of America.
The usual mode of obtaining fire as practised by the Red Indians is shown
in Fig. 235. A piece of wood placed
perpendicularly to two other pieces
of wood is made to revolve rapidly
by moving a bow. Fire is soon
got by this method. There is,
however, a modification of this
apparatus.
" At the sacrifice of the white
dog, which was the New Year's
festival and great jubilee of the
Iroquois, the proceedings extended
over six days. . . . The fire
was kindled by swiftly revolving, by means of a bow and cord, an upright shaft
of wood with a perforated stone attached to it as a fly-wheel. The lower point
rested on a block of dry wood, surrounded by tinder, which was speedily ignited.
This is the ordinary process still in use among many of the Indian triljes." %
Mr. Paul Kane gives the following account of the process employed by the
Chinooks : — " The fire is obtained by means of a flat piece of dry cedar, in
which a small hollow is cut with a channel for the ignited charcoal to run
over ; this piece the Indian sits on, to hold it steady, while he rapidly twirls a
round stick of the same wood between the palms of his hands, with the point
pressed into the hollow of the flat piece. In a very short time sparks begin to
fall through the channel upon finely-frayed cedar bark placed underneath,
which they soon ignite. There is a great deal of knack in doing this ; but those
who are used to it will light a fire in a very short time. The men usually carry
these sticks about with them, as after they have been once used they produce
the fii'c more quickly." §
The Aztecs and Peruvians used the fire-sticks very much in the same way
as the natives of Australia use them. Great as these peoples were in arts,
in arms, and in all that makes the diflerence between the savage who lives in
the forest — scarcely as well sheltered as the birds — and the inhabitant of
palaces — these peoples, in the height and fulness of their glory, cast back to
the times when they too were wandering tribes ; and they elevated into
a religious festival the practice of an art which first raised them from a
* Latham, vol. I., p. 283. f Pre-Historic Man. Wilson, Tol. I., p. 132. f Ibid, p. 128.
§ llr. Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, in his Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, says that the Ahts
usu fire-sticks of cedar nearly in the manner described by Mr. Kane.
3f
402 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
condition, in some respects, little sujierior to that of the animals on which
they fed.*
To comijlete this brief sl<etch, it is necessary to describe the mode of pro-
curing fire as practised by the Esquimaux,! and the natives of Tierra del
Fueo'o t — peoples separated from each other by the whole extent of the globe.
And it is in the similarity and not in the difference of their methods that
the chief interest exists. It is true that both these families of mankind
occasionally resort to friction, but the practice common to both of getting fire
by the use of pyrites and quartz — striking fire as the Europeans do, by flint and
steel — is more startling than anything I have related of other races.
Both races, inhabiting very cold and very damp tracts, could not, as a rule,
depend in all seasons on fire-sticks for obtaining fire. Their necessities ap-
parently have driven them to have recourse to quartz and pyrites. Just as the
hea\'y pressure of a dense population leads to the invention of new methods of
preparing clothing, new methods of preserving and preparing food, new methods
of travelling, new methods of transmitting messages, so — amongst savage
peoples — a damp climate causes the savages to resort to surer means than those
common to their progenitors in another clime of getting fire when they need it.
* "Among the Aztecs and Peruvians a peculiar sanctity was associated with the familiar
service of fire. At the close of the great cycle of the Aztecs, when the calendar was corrected to
true solar time, at the end of the fifty-second year, a high religious festival was held, on the eve of
which they broke in pieces their household gods, destroyed their furniture, and extinguished every
fire. In the reconstruction of the ritual calendar which then took place, the intercalated days were
regarded as belonging to no month or year. They were held as though non-existent, and were
dedicated to no gods, on which account they were reputed unfortunate. It was a period of fasting
and penitence, during which no fire smoked, and no warm food could be eaten throughout the whole
land. At the close of that dreary interval, during which they dreaded the final extinction of the
Sun, the ceremony of the new fire was celebrated. After sunset the priests of the great temple
went forth to a neighbouring mountain, and there, at midnight, the sacred fl.ame was re-kindled
which was to light up the niitional fires for another great cycle. The process by which the fire was
procured, by revolving one piece of dry wood in the hollow of another, is repeatedly illustrated in the
Mexican paintings of Lord Kingsborough's great work." — Pre-Historic Man. Wilson, vol. i., p. 125.
Women were not allowed to witness the ceremony. If by accident one should have chanced to
see it, she, it was believed, would have been transformed into some beast.
The Peruvian Sun-worshippers got fire by means of a spherical mirror of bright metal, the
sun's rays being made to inflame a heap of cotton. If the sun's rays were obscured, they resorted
to friction. The Inca, surrounded by his nobles, joined in the solemn celebration in the great square
of the capital.
f'For obtaining fire, the Esquimaux generally use lumps of iron pyrites and quartz, from
which they strike sparks on to moss which has been well dried and rubbed between the hands.
They are also acquainted with the method of obtaining it by friction, which is a slower and more
laborious process." — Pre-Historic Times. Lubbock, p. 400.
X In Tierra del Fuego, Weddell says that the Fuegians procure fire by means of iron pyrites and
a flinty stone. They catch the sparks in a dry substance resembling moss. It is fashionable to
speak of the Australians as the most degraded amongst all the races of mankind : consider the
condition of the Fuegians, and decide. "Dr. Hooker informs us that at the extreme south of Tierra
del Fucgo, and in mid-winter, he has often seen the men lying asleep in their wigwams, without a
scrap of clothing ; and the women standing naked, and some with children at their breasts, in the
water up to their middles, gathering limpets and other shell-fish, while the snow fell thickly on them
and on their equally naked babies. In fact, fire does not appear to be a necessary with them, nor do
they use it to warm the air of their huts as we do, though sometimes as a luxury they take advan-
tage of it to toast their hands or feet." — Pre-Historic Times. Lubbock, p. 438.
METHODS OF PEODUCING FIEE. 403
Twirling the stick or using the wooden knife or file to procure fire is
regarded by many as a sign of the inferiority of the Australian tribes ; that
they have no better or readier method of getting it is commonly citeil as a
proof that they are not ingenious. I have shown, however, that this method,
variously modified, is practised in many parts of Polynesia, is used by some
tribes in Asia, is known in Japan, is to this day practised by Brahmaus in
India, is the only mode known to tribes in America, and that in Africa the
Kafiir has exactly the same sticks, and uses them in precisely the same
manner as the Aborigines of the Yarra. They are not then, as regards this
art, in any degree inferior to savage, barbarous, or even partially-civilized
peoples. Even the pseudo-civilization of Peru and Mexico knew of this art,
and it was resorted to when the necessity arose. It borrowed its splendour
from the religious rites associated with the practice of the art ; and had these
peoples been permitted to prosper, and had they advanced to a higher state of
civilization, the simple art would never have been forgotten.
The practice of the art is common to all uncivilized peoples ; and more than
that, any evidence of its having existed at any time amongst any people —
however high they may have been or are now amongst the races of the world,
and however far removed from barbarism — must be regarded as a j^roof that
that people had at one time the same habits, if not the same instincts and the
same origin, as those amongst whom the art is still practised.
When, and how, and where the first improvement on the commonly jjrac-
tised method of twirling the upright stick by the hand was made known to
men of our own race is not in any record, because it jjreceded that ejjoch in
which records became possible.
Any method better than that known to the Australian must have been
welcomed by the people amongst whom there were probably some other
signs of civilization, and in their minds that craving for a better condition
which is only satisfied by new discoveries and the promulgation of new
truths.
The discovery of a new fire-generator was perhaps the beginning of civili-
zation amongst the peoples of the 4^ryau race — or if not that, at least an
indication that they had emerged from barbarism.*
* " The Invention of the chark," says Kelly, " was an event of immeasurable importance in
the history of Aryan civilization. Scattered through the traditions of the race there are glimpses
of a time when the progenitors of those who were 'to carry to their fullest growth all the elements
of active life with which our nature is endowed' had not yet acquired the art of kindling fire at
will. From that most abject condition of savage life they were partially raised by the discovery
that two dry sticks could be set on fire by long rubbing together. But the work of kindling two
sticks by parallel friction effected by the hand alone was slow and laborious, and at best of but
uncertain efficacy. A little mechanical contriv.ance of the simplest and rudest kind completely
changed the character of the operation. The chark was invented, and from that moment the
destiny of the Aryan race was secured. Never again could the extinction of a solitary fire become
an appalling calamity under which a whole tribe might have to sit down helpless, naked, and
famishing until relief was brought them by the eruption of a volcano, or the spontaneous combus-
tion of a forest. The most terrible of elements, and yet the kindliest and most genial, had become
the submissive servant of man, punctual at his call, and ready to do whatever work he required of
it. Abroad, it helped him to subdue the earth and have dominion over it ; at home, it was the
404 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The Greeks and Eomans followed the practice of their remote ancestors when
they made their sacred fire ;* and the English and the Germans have preserved
in their religious and superstitions observances a record of the period when they
were wanderers iu wild forests, depending on the unassisted soil for sustenance.
Kelly t tells us that the holy fires of the Germanic races are of two classes.
In the first are included those which the church, finding herself powerless to
suppress, appropriated and made part of her ceremonial rites. The new or
sacred fire was generally got by fiint and steel, but sometimes by friction.
The second class embraces those which are used as preservatives against
epidemics, cures for witchcraft and the like — all pagan in their origin and
character.
" The need-fire, nydfyr, new German noth feuer, was called, from the mode
of its production, confrktione de Ugnis, and, though probably common to the
Kelts as well as Teutons, was long and well known to all the German races at
a certain period. All the fires in the village were to be re-lighted from the
virgin flame produced by the rubbing together of wood, and in the highlands
of Scotland and Ireland it was usual to drive the cattle through it by way of
lustration, and as a preservative against disease." %
To this is added the following interesting note : — " In the Mirror of 24th
June 1826 is an account of this having been done in Perthshire on occasion of
a cattle epidemic. ' A wealthy old farmer having lost several of his cattle by
some disease very prevalent at present, and being able to account for it in no
way so rationally as by witchcraft, had recourse to the following remedy, recom-
mended to him by a weird sister in his neighbourhood, as an efi'ectual protection
from the attacks of the foul fiend. A few stones were piled together in the
barn-yard, and wood-coals having been laid thereon, the fuel was ignited by
miU-jirc — that is, fire obtained by friction ; the neighbours liaviug been called
in to witness the solemnity, the cattle were made to pass through the flames in
the order of their dignity and age, commencing with the horses, and ending
minister to his household wants, the centre and the guardian genius of his domestic affections." —
Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore. Kelly, p. 40.
Eloquent as these words are, and true as they are — if we note the time and the circumstances
to which they have reference — it is but just to observe that the chark could only do more easily
what the palms of the liands can do as effectively. Time and labor perh.ips were saved, and that
was all. But any invention which saves time and labor leads to culture and refinement, and affords
the opportunity and prepares the way for other labor and time saving inventions.
* " The Arj'an method of kindling sacred fire was practised by the Greeks and Romans down
to a late period of their respective histories. The Greeks called the instrument used for the purpose
pi/rcia, and the drilling stick trupanon. The kinds of wood which were fittest to form one or other
of tlie two parts of whicli the instrument consisted are specified by Theoplirastus and Pliny ; both
of whom agree that the laurel (daphne) made the best trupanon, and ne.xt to it thorn and some
other kinds of hard wood ; whilst ivy, athragene, and vitis sylvestris were to be preferred for the
lower part of the pyreia. Festus states that when the vestal fire at Rome happened to go out, it
was to be re-kindled with fire obtained by drilling a flat piece of auspicious wood (tabulam felicis
materia)." — Kelly, p. 44-5.
The scholar need not be reminded of the many references to this practice in classics, and how
largely language has profited by appropriating various modifications of the two words — niptiov
and TpvTTavov.
t Folk-lore, p. 46. J The Saxons in England. Kemble, vol. i., p. -360.
METHODS OF PRODUCING FIEE. 405
with the swine. The ceremony having been duly and decorously gone through,
a neighbouring farmer observed to the enlightened owner of the herd that he,
along with his family, ought to have followed the example of the cattle, and
the sacrifice to Baal would have been complete.' "
Grimm mentions the making of will-Jire by means of the wheel as having
been practised by the people of the island of Mull, in 1767, for the purpose of
curing their cattle of some disease then prevalent.
In the Scottish highlands, according to Logan, the need-fire is still made for
the same purpose ; and old superstitions connected with fire yet linger in
Ireland.*
I have been thus particular in describing these practices, because it is too
commonly supposed, when we find any practice curioiis or not, simple or not,
amongst savage peoples, that these peoples have derived the practice from some
civilized race. Surely it is but reasonable to believe that the universal practice
of getting fire by friction amongst all the civilized nations has its origin in
the customs of the past, when the men of these nations were uncivilized. It
is indeed a proof that it was once their usual, if not their only method of
getting fire. High civilization, culture, and the possession of much knowledge,
in Athens or in Rome, could consist with the existence, in the near neighbour-
hood, of men who were little above the savage state, and who would have had
to resort to fire-sticks whenever they needed fire. Perhaps not one man in ten
thousand in London knows how to get fire by friction, but less than five
hundred miles from the capital there are men living who practise the art.
How did the Aborigines of Australia first get fire ? Probably they were ^—
never without it. Far back in geological times there were active volcanoes in
Victoria ; and in the Miocene and Pliocene periods the southern and western
parts formed an archipelago ; the Pliocene sea was dotted with islands, and
many active points sent upwards tall columns of smoke. Immense rivers of
molten lava flowed towards the ocean with which they were at war. Yet we
know from the fossils found in the Pliocene and post-Pliocene drifts that there
were many spots covered with a rich vegetation — with trees bearing probably
edible fruits — and that the climate was more like that of Queensland than that
now prevailing in those parts of Australia lying to the south of the River
Murray. Whether or not these islands were peopled, we shall, in all likelihood,
never know. Coming to the Recent period, we find, in the places where the
volcanic fires lingered until the land took the shape we now see, thin beds of
volcanic ash overlying the natural grass-grown surface ; and it is not impossible
* "Until lately, fires of straw were kindled on the 1st of May, in the milking yards, throughout
many parts of Ireland. Men, women, and children passed through, or leaped over their flames,
while cattle were driveu through them
" In the south-western parts of Ireland, many persons yet living remember to have seen fire
asked from a priest's house when any disease or epidemic broke out in the country. With this
fire, other fires, first quenched, were afterwards re-kindled in the peasants' houses. Such practice
■was thought to avert the pestilence. But if the priest refused the fire — as he usually did, to
discountenance an old superstition — the people then sought it from the 'happiest man' — supposed
to be the best-living person in the parish. This curious custom is worthy of being recorded, for it
seems to have come down from a very remote period." — Iriah Folk-lore.
406 THE ABORIGINES OP VICTOBIA.
— it is even probable — that in such sijots there may be discovered relics of the
ancient inhabitants of the soil.
The Aborigines point to some of the recently extinct volcanoes, and say that
fire came from them once. Whether they have learnt anything of the nature
of these hills from the whites, or whether their forefathers had, and transmitted
to their descendants, any knowledge of a period when they were active points, is
not determinable.
Some amongst those who came first to the colony assure me that the
Aborigines designated hills known to have been once active points as Willum-
a-weenth — the place of fire — and described them as in former times giving forth
smoke and steam.
In the most of cases — in nearly all — the geological evidence is certainly
against the supposition that the Aborigines could ever have had knowledge of
these points as once active volcanoes.
Assuming, however, that Australia was not peopled until long after the
extinction of the volcanic fires, it is not probable that the Aborigines were
unacquainted with fire. The rubbing together of two branches in a gale of
wind — as suggested by the Rev. Mr. Taylor — might have caused a destructive
conflagration in a climate as dry as this of Victoria. The fall of a heavy bough
on a mass of pyritous quartz rock might have lighted the grass ; a flash of
lightning might have kindled the dry bark of a gum-tree ; or the slipping of a
mass of rock in summer might have ignited the withered ferns. On some days
in summer the air at Melbourne is very dry and very hot.*
Solar radiation, as measured by a black-bulb thermometer, is sometimes on
a clear day in summer as much as 160-2° ; the temperature in the shade has
been as high as 114°; and on one day, when a fierce hot-wind blew (23rd
December 1857), the highest temperature in shade was I09"2° ; and the wind-
gauge registered a force of 12|lbs. per square foot. It is conceivable that over
a vast tract covered with dry grass, dry ferns, and withered and powdered gum
leaves (which, owing to the oU they contain, are highly inflammable) ; the long
rubbing together of dry boughs, agitated by the wind ; or the tread of a heavy
animal, such as the kangaroo or the native bear, on masses of hard pyritous
quartz rocks, causing them to strike and grind against one another — might
cause a conflagration.
Whether these things happened or not, in the winter there would be no
fires. Necessity must have compelled the Aborigines to strain their faculties
in invention during that season. How they came to invent a means so simple
and efficacious as the fire-sticks we can only conjecture.
The Aboriginal tells us in his own words how fire was first obtained ; and
in the proper place the reader will find the stoiy.
* Fires due to meteoric agencies are not rare in Australia. In the Age of the 8th December
1874 it is stated that during a thunderstorm two large cocks of hay on the farm of Mr. \V. Anketell,
at Coburg, were struck by lightning and took fire ; and that at Bolingbroke a farmer had a cock of
hay set on fire in like manner during the same storm. In the Geelong Advertiser of the 2nd
February 1875 mention is made of a severe thunderstorm, when a tree was struck and shattered by
lightning and a log fence set on fire.
(Jaitoui).
— c:>-
The canoes used by the natives of Victoria are usually made of the bark of
some species of gum-tree. Tlie bark of the red gum-tree {Eucalyptus ros-
trata) is generally preferred ; but in many districts the bark of other trees
is taken, not because it is the best, but because it is easily obtainable of the
sizes required. The Koor-ron or canoe is not made unless there be immediate
occasion for its use. When it is necessary to cross a stream, a lake, or an arm
of the sea, the natives assemble near the point of departure, and earnestly
discuss questions relating to the means of transport. Some may be able to
swim well and swiftly, and these would take to the water at once, if it were not
for the goods they must carry — their shields, their weapons, and their cloaks.
When it is finally settled that the water must be crossed, the oldest and wisest
of the tribe have devolved on them the duty of making a suitable canoe. If
the numbers be large, the canoe must be large — so as to carry as many as
possible at one time ; and all the trees in the neighbourhood are examined
until one is found whose bark is suitable. It must be a large tree ; and it
must lean and be curved, so as to admit of a piece of bark being taken off in
such a form as not to need much manipulation. Labor is disliked by the
Aborigines ; and unnecessary labor is to them simply impossible. A gum-tree
growing somewhat in the manner shown in Fig. 236 is selected ; and the bark
is cut at the points x x, and along the line sho-mi by dots ; and by pressing
the wooden handle of the tomahawk and a pole between the bark and the wood,
the sheet is gradually and carefully removed.
408
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
According to the kind of bark used, the sheet is either put over the fire and
turned inside out, or employed as cut, the ends being tied ; or if the bark be
thick — so that the ends cannot be tied — the stem and stern are stopped with
clay or mud. Mr. J. A. Panton says that the natives of the south coast inva-
riably construct their canoes of thick bark, which does not admit of the ends
being tied together. The water is kept out by walls of clay at each end. —
(Fig. 237.)
Mr. Bulmer has sent me a bark canoe from Lake Tyers, which is of the
following figure — (Fig. 238) : —
Mr. Bulmer says that the canoe — Gri — is propelled by a stick named Jen-
dook. The person propelling the vessel holds the stick by the middle and plies
it on either side. In crossing deep water the natives lay aside the jcn-dook, and
sit down, and the vessel is then propelled by two scoop-shaped pieces of bark
( Wrail), about six inches in length. They are more convenient than the jen-
dook, more easOy used, and serve for baling the boat as well as for propelling.
It will be observed that the Gippsland canoe is of a dififerent pattern to
that first figured. The ends are fastened together with a stout rope made of a
vegetable fibre ; and there are stretchers to prevent the collapse of the sides.
In such a canoe the use of clay is not necessary if the seams or cracks have
been previously caulked with gum.
Mr. Alfred Howitt, who has been under the necessity of making and using
bark canoes, has supplied the following information. He says : —
" I am acquainted with two kinds of bark canoe. One kind which is folded
together, and tied up at the ends to form the stem and stern, and another kind,
which is not tied at the ends, but is usually completed by a lump of mud at
one or other end, as may be required by the shape of the canoe. The first kind
of canoe is used, I think, alone by the Gippsland blacks. At least I do not
remember having seen any other ; nor can I at this time recall seeing any tree
from which the curved sheet of bark required for the second kind had been
stripped. As illustrative of the first kind of canoe, I may describe one which
the blackfellow ' Toolabar'' and I made a few years ago to cross the Snowy River
during a flood. A stringybark-tree was chosen, having a straight bole, free
from branches or knots, and about [four] feet in diameter at the butt. It was
ascertained by taking a chip of bark out with the tomahawk that it would
strip freely. Two straight saplings about ten feet in length were cut, trimmed
CANOES. 409
of their branches, and one end of each flattened on each side for some distance,
so as to have a bladed form and to be pliable. Toolabar now cut through the
bark round the tree about two to three feet from the ground ; cut the bark in
a straight line upwards for about ten feet — ascending by notches cut into the
divided line — and then cut the bark round the tree as he had already cut it down
below. Descending from the tree, he carefully inserted the blade of his toma-
hawk under the cut edge of the bark, thus separating it for some distance up
from the tree. Then, inserting the thin blade of one sapling, he ran it upwards
between the bark and the tree, leaving it thus partially spreading open the
bark. The second sapling was inserted in the same way on the other side, and
by working first one, and then the other, cautiously upwards and backwards,
the whole sheet of bark was finally separated, all but a small portion on the
upper run. It then presented something of this aspect — (Fig. 239). We both of
us now carefully detached it by taking hold of it from behind by the lower edge,
and 'easing' it down to the ground. The next process was, as it lay smooth side
downwards — nearly flat on the ground — to strip oif the old outer rough fuzzy
bark until we had the sheet cleaned ; there being then only remaining the
brown under bark, and the light-colored inner fibrous layer. The next process
was to chip off the brown inner bark from about two feet at each end, leaving
there only the thin toiigh inner layer. We now threw together the chipped-off
bark with such dead leaves and rubbish as lay at hand into a heap, aud, setting
fire to it, placed our sheet of bark over the flames, so as to form a kind of
horizontal flue, from each end of which issued volumes of smoke aud heated
vapour. Thus in a very short time we had our bark well steamed and pliable.
Taking it now off the fire, we rapidly, but with care, turned it inside out,
doubled up the sides, and secured them together at the distance we required for
tlie canoe, by passing cords through holes previously made near each edge — the
cords being twisted strands of the inner fibrous bark pulled from the edge of
the sheet. I think three of these ligatures were made. One end of the canoe
was now again warmed, and Toolabar folded it together, much as a sheet of
paper is folded to make a fan, squeezing the folds together, biting them together
3 G
410
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
with his vice-like jaws, and lashing the folded end securely with more stringy-
bark cord. The lashing extended about a foot back from the point. The other
end was sewed in tlie same way. A stick, pointed at eacli end, and of the exact
length of the width of the canoe, was now jammed alongside each 'tie,' the stick
points holding fast in tlie string holes. Thus the strings held the canoe from
spreading, and the sticks prevented it from coming together. In addition,
pliable branches were forced in under the 'ties' as ribs, and the canoe was
complete. A section taken at a tie would be thus (Fig. 240) : —
a "tie." J " stretcher." c"rib." (/"canoe."
Side view of Canoe.
FIG. 240.
" Speaking from memory, this canoe was about ten feet long, and carried
Toolabar, myself, and our saddles and effects over the ' Snowy ;' but tliere was
not much to spare between the edge of the canoe and the water. At the other
side Toolabar pulled it up on tlie bank, and said, half seriously, ' Leave him
here, I b'lieve mraat (dead blackfellow — ghost) might want him.'
" The second kind of canoe I have seen used on the Darling and elsewhere in
Eiverina. It is usually cut from an inclined tree — a red-gum, according to my
recollection. At Pammumaroo, near Menindie, having to cross some things,
the blackfellow I had there made a canoe. A bent red gum-tree was chosen,
and a sheet taken off from the bend ; as the two ends were not enough out of
the water, a big lump of the tenacious mud of the Darling River was kneaded
into each end and smeared over a crack or two in tiie bottom. This kept out
the water, and I crossed myself and a bag of flour (200 lbs.). If my memory
serves me, there was only just room for the flour and myself — the canoe was
probably not much over eight feet in length ; but somewhat wider than the
one I have last described. Such a tree I rudely figure above (Fig. 241).
CANOES. 411
"Although red-gums of very large size grow at Cooper's Creek, I never
observed that a sheet of bark had been removed for a canoe ; nor did I ever
observe a canoe with the blacks, or the remains of one. I conclude that they
do not use one ; and this applies equally to the blacks north of tSturt's Desert
(Diamantina River) — in fact, so far as I know, to all Central Australia and
South Australia, excepting at the Murray River. This seems a mere truism in
respect to a country having no flowing rivers ; but when floods such as those
of Cooper's Creek and the Diamantina occur, one might have expected to find
the blacks using bark canoes on such occasions. The only other remark wliich
suggests itself to me as regards canoes, is the observation I have made, that
when navigating a large sheet of water during rough weather — such as parts of
the Gippsland Lakes, Lake Tyers, Sydenham Inlet — the canoe-man, in propel-
ling his canoe — standing upright — by means of a long light pole for a paddle,
does not bring his craft 'cud' on to a sea, but 'bow' on, so as to 'sidle' over tlie
waves, the canoe ricHng over sideways like a duck. End on, it would probably
break its back across the wave."
Toolabar, the Gippsland native, who is mentioned in Mr. Hewitt's state-
ment, has informed him that the best canoes are obtained from the bark of the
following trees, here arranged in order of merit : —
1. Mountain ash, a variety of iroubark, not turned inside out, but tied.
2. Stringybark, turned inside out and tied.
3. Red-gum, generally fTom a bent tree ; may be tied, but not turned
inside out.
4. A variety of blue-gum {Ballook), turned and tied.
5. White-gum of river valleys, turned and tied; likewise the Snowy
River mahogany {^Din7iack).
6. Peppermint; "no good," according to Toolabar; as also a thin yellow-
barked stringj'bark ( Yert-clmch), the good kind beiug Yan-goura.
Toolabar measured on the ground canoes for two, three, and four people ;
and the first was in length about seven feet six inches, the second eight feet,
and the third from ten feet to twelve feet.
Mr. Howitt adds that in travelling from Grant towards Bairnsdale he found
a striugybark-tree from which a sheet of bark for a canoe had been stripped,
the bend evidently having been used. The ends, he has no doubt, had been
tied, but he thinks it could not have been turned. He made a sketch on the
spot, and furnished me also with diagrams. — {See Fig. 242.) The sheet of
bark taken ofi" was twelve feet in length, and four feet four inches measured
round the convex side of the bend.
Mr. Nathaniel Munro gives me the following account of the canoes which
he has seen used in Victoria. In fashioning a canoe, the natives take a large
piece of bark, free from knots, and with their tomahawks cut it into the shape
of an ellipse, having its ends pointed, and with its transverse and conjugate
diameters as three to one. When this is laid on the fire, it contracts, and
doubles over into a cigar-shaped canoe. The ends, which are subsequently
tied together, curve up in such a manner as to be above the water-line when
it is set afloat. The sides, which have a tendency to come together, are kept
412
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOBIA:
apart by stays. Should a leak occur, the hole is stopped with clay. In
making large canoes, the bow is constructed as above described, but, in order
to give greater strength and security, a semicircular piece of bark is fitted
into one end. That end, when the piece is so fitted, is of course the stern.
According to the information I have received, the largest canoes made by
the natives of Victoria are about eighteen feet in length ; and a vessel of that
size ■«ill carry five or six men, or more. The late Mr. Thomas saw the natives
crossing the strait between the mainland and French Island in a canoe in
which there were four persons.
Mr. Peter Beveridge says that the natives of the Lower Murray (in Vic-
toria) make canoes from the bark of the red-gum. They generally select
a tree with a bend in it, as that saves them a great many hours' work in
the manufacture of their tiny craft ; because, if they use the bark of a straight
stem, they have to give it the necessary curve at each end, by means of fire.
On leaving one district for another, the Aborigines conceal their canoes in
the scrub on the borders of the lake or swamp on which they have been used,
and, as it is seldom that they remain more than six -weeks at one camping
place, shifting, as they must, from i)lace to place in search of game, it happens
that most of the lakes and swamps have hidden near the water's edge bark
canoes, and so carefully concealed in the rushes and scrub as not to be
discovered easily by even their own people.
In the forests near the sources of the River Powlett, and elsewhere in
Victoria, there still remain many trees from which bark has been taken to
make canoes and water vessels.*
* Some of these trees were shown to me by Mr. Bee, the superintendent of Mr. Feehau's
station, which occupies an area that was once debatable land, held alternately by the tribes of
Gippsland and those who had their head-quarters at and near Western Port.
CANOES.
413
Mr. Samuel Bennett, in his exceedingly valuable and interesting History
of Australian Discovery and Colonization, makes the following remarks
respecting the canoes of the Aborigines : — " The canoes used by the Aborigines
on the eastern coast are the best to be found in the whole continent, and they
scarcely deserve the name. Tlie Australian canoe represents one of the most
primitive appliances ever used by mankind for the purpose of navigation. In
some districts it consists of a mere sheet of bark, slightly raised at the edges,
serving even in still water to float but a single person, and requiring the
greatest care to prevent its overturning. In others a nearer approach is made
to the boat form by bending the sheet of bark somewhat in the form of the
sides of a boat, sewing or tying up its ends with some fibrous material, and
making it water-tight by means of gum or clay. At best, however, it was but
Canoes, Lake Tyers, from a Photograph by Walters.
FIG. 243.
a sorry substitute for a boat, and it is probable, from the fact that it was not
even known to some of the coast tribes, and that it had in its most rudimentary
state never reached Tasmania, that its introduction was not of very ancient
date even on the mainland. To the tribes of unmixed Aboriginal blood, like
the Tasmaniaus were, and some on the north-west coast still are, the canoe
was wholly unknown. It was, therefore, in all probability a thing of foreign
invention, and of modern introduction. The compai'ative ignorance of the
Australian Aborigines, the Andaman Islanders, and other people of Negrito or
Indian Negro race, of the use of the canoe, supplies a strong link to connect
them with each other " *
I cannot agree with Mr. Bennett. There is no evidence which would suggest
that the bark canoe is of foreign invention. Indeed it is almost beyond doubt
that the Australians of Victoria, before the arrival of the whites, had learnt
* The History of Australian Discovery and Colonization, by Samuel Bennett, p. 266.
414 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
nothing from foreigners. On the authority of Mr. Knight, I can state that the
natives of the north-west coast of Australia use rough log canoes, though they
are, as he remarks, " of the most primitive description." *
* Western Australia : its History, Progress, Condition, and Prospects, by W. H. ICnight, p. 106.
The natives of Tasmania had canoes, and they were described more than seventy years ago.
They are referred to in another part of this work.
Mr. Taplin says that the natives around Lake Alexandrina make canoes exactly like those used
in Victoria.
Oxley, in 1817, saw a bark canoe on a lake near Port Macqnarie sufficiently large to hold nine
men, and in form it resembled a boat.
Mitchell (1838) found that the natives could strip a tree of its bark, and forma canoe, and
propel it through the water witli astonishing case and swiftness.
Abel Tasman states that the proas of the natives of the north-west coast, which he saw, were
made of the " bark of trees ;" and Capt. Stokes gives an account of the rafts formed of poles of
the palm-tree, and propelled by a very rude double-bladed paddle, which, he supposes, may have
misled Tasman. The raft of unbarked timber, he thinks, may have been mistaken by Tasman for
a bark canoe.
Mr. Martin gives the following account of the crafts used at Roebuck Bay: — "As this race of
people have no rivers or deep-sea inlets to cross, the craft commonly used by the natives of the
Glenelg district is of rare occurrence here. These consist of three or four mangrove sticks, about
si.x or seven feet in length, pegged together with pine. The ends of all the sticks are carefully
shiirpened, and only such sticks as are n!iturally bent to a suitable shape .appear to be chosen.
About the middle of the canoe there is a pine pin projecting six or seven inches on either side,
probably .affording a similar support to the native mariner as a stirrup does to a horseman. Of
course there is no attempt to make a bottom to the canoe, nor do the specimens seen show the least
sign of orn.amentation. There is a red-ochrcous stain to be detected upon them here and there,
but we account for them as having been communicated from the persons of the natives colored
with wilgi (red-ochre)."
The Messrs. Jardine, in the narrative of their overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape
York, give a description of the canoes of the natives of the northern part of Australia. They
say: — "The greatest ingenuity which the natives dis|)l;iy is in the construction and kilancing of
their canoes. These are formed from the trunk of the cotton-tree {cochlospermum), hollowed out.
The wood is soft and spongy, and becomes very light when dry. The canoes are sometimes more
than fifty feet in length, and arc each capable of containing twelve or fifteen natives. The hull is
balanced and steadied in the water by two outrigger poles, laid athwart, having a float of light wood
fastened across them at each end, so that it is impossible for them to upset. A stage is formed on
the canoe where the outriggers cross, on which is carried the fishing gear, and invariably, also,
fire. The canoes are propelled by short paddles, or a saU of palm-leaf matting when the wind is
fair."
Mr. J. A. Panton states, from information furnished by Mr. Halpin, of the Leigh Road, near
Geelong, that the canoes of the Cape York natives are of superior build to auy others in Australia.
Some are forty-five feet in length and three feet in beam. They are cut from a solid log, and fitted
with a sort of deck or framework, about twelve feet in length, and fi.xed amidships, overh.anging
the sides about three feet. This upper deck has an outer railing, and within it and the deck are
kept the fishing-lines, spears, &c.
All the natives of Austr<alia, and the natives of Tasmania, have been aeciuainted with rude
modes of transport by water for a long period, and the time when the first bark canoe was made
will never be known. The woods in Australia are hard, but eminently fitted for the construction
of canoes ; and they no doubt would have been used by the natives if the bark had not offered a
substitute, at once easy to obtain and easy of manipulation. I have in my possession (fashioned by
the natives) a large wooden tarnuk (water vessel), formed of the wood of the eucalyptus. It is
fifteen inches in length, twelve inches in bre;idth, and six inches in depth. It is from three to four
inches in thickness, .and is very heavy; but it is buoyant on water. Any large sound gum-tree, if
shaped and hollowed, would make an excellent canoe.
CAKOES. 415
The Andaman Islanders have single-tree canoes, and they are acquainted
with the use of outriggers, * and I have always understood that in the manage-
ment of their vessels they are expert.
On the north-eastern coasts the natives sometimes use canoes formed of a
single trunk of a tree, fourteen feet in length, very narrow, and fitted with an
outrigger, t
Undoubtedly, the larger and better vessels have been constructed on models
copied from foreigners ; but the natives of Gippsland and the Murray, who
make canoes of bark, and tie the ends, or stop them with clay, could not have
learnt from foreigners these methods of constructing such vessels. It was,
perhaps, from the accidental floating of the wooden or bark tarnuk that the
invention was derived. %
Some very interesting letters relating to the canoes of the Australians are
found in the AthencBum. It is impossible, in order to do justice to the writers,
to summarize the statements made in the letters ; and I shall therefore quote
them nearly as they appear in that journal.
Mr. 0. W. Brierly says : — " The Times of Wednesday the 29th January
1862, in a review of the Transactions of the Ethnological Society, refers to the
various opinions of ethnologists with respect to the original unity of the
human species, and the probability or otherwise of the difiereut portions of the
globe having been peopled by the migrations of a single race, and mentions
that Mr. Crawfurd holds ' the supposition of a single race peopling all countries
to be monstrous, and contradictory to the fact that some of them to this day do
not know how to use or construct a canoe.' At a recent meeting of the Royal
Geographical Society, Mr. Crawfurd stated that the Australians have no canoes,
so that perhaps these may be the people alluded to as not knowing how to
construct or use them. I will not presume now to offer any theory upon the
question as to the source from whence Australia was peopled, but perhaps you
will kindly allow me space in your columns to say that at Eockingham Bay,
on the north-eastern coast of Australia, the natives have very neatly-made
canoes ; and further on, at a river opening in the mainland opposite the
• " In nothing do the Andamaners show their skill more than in canoe-making In
the making and management of canoes they are simply unapproachable, even though their tools
are of the rudest possible description." — Natural Hislonj of Man, by J. G. Wood, vol. ii., p. 213.
Capt. Mouatt's description of the canoes of the Andamaners, quoted in the Kev. Mr. Wood's
work, gives one a high idea of the skill of these i.slanders.
f Voyage aulour du Monde. Freycinet.
I From the descriptions I have given, it may appear to the reader that it is very easy to make
a bark canoe. The natives indeed make such vessels without much labor, but a European would
find it difficult to imitate them. Mr. Ilamilton Hume, in the account of his expedition from Lake
George to Port Phillip, says, that being determined to cross the River Murrumbidgce, when flooded,
he set out in search of a sheet of bark suitable for a canoe, such as the n.atives use ; after a
good deal of trouble, he got the bark, and succeeded in forming a canoe, but unfortunately, and to
his great disappointment, it cracked and became useless for his purpose. lie attributed this to the
fact that it was late in the season, that the sap was down, and that the bark had set to the wood.
His skill and enterprise were, however, exerted in a different manner ; and he safely crossed the
river in his cart, under which he had fastened a tarpaulin. — Overland Expedition to Port Phillip.
Hamilton Hume, 1824.
410 THE ABORIGINES OV VICTORIA:
Frankland Islands (long. 146° E., lat. 17° 12' S.), were not only catamarans or
rafts, but canoes made out of the solid tree, and having an outrigger on one
side ; and it is somewhat remarkable that botli the canoes and catamarans at
this place resembled others we afterwards met with at the south-eastern jjart
of New Guinea. At Cape York (North Australia) we found tlie natives had
large canoes, with double outriggers and mat sails, with which they stood
boldly out in a strong breeze with as much sail as our own boats would carry
under the same circumstances : indeed the Australians generally, upon all
parts of the coast that I have visited, show little fear of the water, and under
the direction of white men make very good whalers. In June 1848, the
natives near Cape Grafton (lat. 16° 51' S.) came oif in their canoes and
boarded the Will-o'-the-wisp, a small sandal-wood trader, which they nearly
captured. There are at least six varieties of canoes and rafts along the north-
eastern shore of Australia alone ; and these are dilFerent from others found on
the coast to the southward and in other parts." *
The late Mr. Beete Jukes, in reply to Mr. Brierly's letter, wrote as follows : —
" Will you allow me to refer to the paragraph headed ' Canoes in Australia,'
in your last number, for the purpose of stating exactly how the case stands ? In
Western Australia, although some large islands front the coast near the mouth
of Swan River, at a distance of not more than three or four miles, no natives
had ever landed on them till the arrival of the settlers. They had not the
remotest notion of a canoe nor any kind of water conveyance whatever. This
is true also, as far as my enquiries sixteen or eighteen years ago enabled me to
ascertain, for all the west and for all the south coast of Australia. On the
north-west coast they used bundles of rushes tied together to assist them in
swimming from one island to another. In Botany Bay, Cook found them using
strips of bark tied together at the ends, making a sort of dish, in which a man
could stand. In Rockingham Bay, when I visited it in H.M.S. Fly, we first
saw bark canoes sewn together, and having' thwarts, something like the canoes
of the North American Indians. North of this the canoes improved till we
came to the large ones belonging to the Papuan Islanders of Torres Straits,
with sails and outriggers. West of the Gulf of Carpentaria, however, these
disappear at once, and the natives had nothing at Port Essington that could be
called a canoe until they got some of the Malay sampans. I believe therefore
that the Australians derived their canoes from the Papuan Islanders, and that
Mr. Crawfurd is right as to their original destitution ; although Mr. Brierly is
also right as to existing facts.
" P.S. — Does any wood grow in Australia large enough and light enough to
make a canoe if merely hollowed out ? I doubt it. Neither is there any of
which a bow could be made." t
In reference to the above. Sir Daniel Cooper thus writes : — " Mr. J. B.
Jukes, in his letter on canoes in Australia, is wrong in his statement with
respect to New South Wales. In the Catalogue of the Natural and Industrial
Products of New South Wales for the Exhibition of 1862 is the following
* Athenaum, p. 304, 1st March 1862. f ■^*'<'> P- 331, 8th March 1862.
CANOES. 417
extract from a lecture on the Aborigines of New South Wales by Edward J.
Hill, Esq. : — ' The canoes of the natives are of two kinds. Those intended for a
mere temj^orary purpose — to cross a river or lagoon — are formed from the bark
of a gum-tree, simply tied together at the ends, with a piece of stick to keep
the sides from coming together. Wlien intended for fishing or permanent use,
much more trouble is taken. A large sheet of bark is taken from the stringy-
bark-tree ; the outer side of the bark, which is very rough and stringy, is
carefully removed ; it is then slowly, and with very great attention, passed
over a blazing fire until it has become thoroughly hot through, which makes
it very pliable ; the ends of the bark are then brought together and laced with
a cord made from the same description of bark ; the gunwale is strengthened
Ijy a band of rashes laced along the edge ; and two or three stretchers are
placed, according to its length, to keep the canoe in shape. A canoe of this
kind is usually occujiied by two men — one at the stern, who propels it with a
short paddle in either hand, and the other at the bow, armed with spears, with
which to strike the fish. Wheu crossing a river or lake, four or five persons
may be conveyed in one of them with safety. When employed in fishing, a
flat stone is placed in the centre, on which a small fire is always kept burning,
on which they can cook their fish when they catch them.'
" Mr. Hill speaks the language and knows the customs and habits of the
Aborigines thoroughly, and may, therefore, be considered an authority. In
1834 I saw the natives using the large canoes outside both Jervis Bay and
Twofold Bay, and the large fish which were brought in by them clearly proved
to me that their canoes must have been very buoyant and strong. Any one
acquainted with the strength and tenacity of stringybark would not wonder
that a primitive people without metal tools should use it for boats in pre-
ference to wood, which could only be hollowed out in a rude manner and with
immense labor. On the Murray, Murrumbidgee, and other interior rivers, tlie
bark canoe was used ; and all who have seen much of the natives, especially
on the coast, will admit that they are skilful men in a boat.
"What Mr. Brierly states about the canoes on the north-east coast I believe
to be correct, but I cannot vouch for its accuracy from jiersonal observation.
The north coast of Australia is regularly visited, I believe, by the Malays for
the purpose of trepang-fishing. If Mr. Jukes will be good enough to examine
the Australian timbers, and the description of tliem in the Catalogues of the
Great Exhibition, he will find the doubts expressed in the F.S. of his letter
fully answered." *
Mr. Brierly, in another letter, makes the following statements : —
" I cannot but feel fiattered by the testimony of so eminent an authority as
Mr. Jukes to the truth of my observations about the canoes of Australia, and
well remember the interest with which (on board H.M.S. Rattlesnake) we used
to consult his valuable work ujion that part of the world during our surveying
cruises over much of the ground which he had visited in H.M.S. Fli/ before us ;
but I think in the observations which he makes for the purpose of stating
* Athenaum, p. 364, 15th March 1S62.
3h
418 THE ABOEIGENES OF VICTOEIA:
' exactly how the case stands ' in the present instance, there are one or two
points in which he does not define this quite clearly, and with your kind per-
mission I will endeavour to show which these are. After alluding to the
canoes they saw at Rockingham Bay, Mr. Jukes observes, that ' north of this
the canoes improved till we came to the large ones belonging to the Papuan
Islanders of Torres Straits.' The improvement in the canoes here spoken of
conveys correctly the state of the case so far ; but at Cape York we arrive — in
the first instance on the mainland — at important canoes, with double out-
riggers and sails, belonging to the Australians ; while next to these, increasing
in size and importance, are the canoes of the Kowraregas, or natives of the
Prince of Wales's Islands, who are friendly with the Gudang tribe at Cape
York, and in constant communication with them. The Kowraregas are a true
island tribe, more Australian than Papuan, though in many respects superior
to the Australians ; and it is the large canoes of these people, and not of
Papuans, which we have on the Australian side of the straits. The Kowra-
regas intermarry both with the Australians and with the more Papuan tribes
of the islands nearer New Guinea, as the Kulcalagas, Badulegas, Italegas,
and others ; indeed the islanders of the straits generally appear to be more or
less a mixed race, with a greater or less proportion of Australian or Papuan
character as their islands approach either side of the straits. The Prince
of Wales's Islanders have no direct communication with New Guinea, but get
ornaments, feathers, and weapons through the Badus and other tribes, who
obtain them either from New Guiuea or from islands immediately upon its
coast, and take back in return from the Kowraregas the shell of a large flat
oyster they call Marri, which is much valued by the people to the north for
making breast ornaments. After speaking of the canoes of Torres Straits, with
sails and outriggers, Mr. Jukes remarks, that ' west of the Gulf of Carpentaria
these disappear at once ; and the natives at Port Essington had nothing that
could be called a canoe until they got some of the Malay sampans.' I think
Mr. Jukes is right as to the disappearance of the sailing canoes west of the
Gulf of Carpentaria ; but the sketches of canoes taken by Mr. Banes, the artist
of Mr. Gregory's expedition, and now to be seen in the chart-room of the Royal
Geographical Society, show that the natives of the Goulburn Islands, upwards
of two hundred miles to the westward of Cape Arnhem, on the western side of
the Gulf of Carpentaria, have well-made paddle canoes, capable of carrying, at
least, three men in a rough sea. At Port Essington we saw two kinds of
wooden canoes — one brought over by the Malays, and another and smaller
kind, which appeared to me to be native ; but of this I am not sure, as I do not
find any note about it upon my sketches of them. Macgillivray says ( Voyage
of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, vol. i., p. 146) that before they obtained canoes from the
Malays, bark canoes were in general use among the natives here.* Speaking
* In Macgillivray's work it is stated that at Rockingham Bay the canoes are constructed of a
single sheet of bark of the gutn-tree, brought together at the ends and secured by stitching. The
sitter squats down with his legs doubled under him, and uses a small square piece of bark in each
hand as paddles, with one of which he also bales the water out by dexterously scooping it up from
behind him. At Port Essington the natives at one period used bark canoes, but at the time of his
CANOES. 419
with reference not only to the west, but also to all the southern coast of Aus-
tralia, Mr. Jukes says that the result of his enquiries, sixteen or eighteen years
ago, enabled him to ascertain that the natives of these parts of Australia ' had
visit (1846) such vessels were completely superseded by others, hollowed out of the trunk of a tree,
which they procure, ready-made, from the Malays, in exchange for tortoise-shell, and in return for
assistance in collecting trepang.
lie gives the following description of the canoes seen by him at Coral Haven, in the Louisiade
Archipelago : — " The usual length is about twenty-flve feet, and one of this size carries from seven
to ten people. The body is formed by the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, tapering and rising at each
end, short and rounded behind, but in front run out into a long beak. A stout plank on each side
raises the canoe a foot, forming a gunwale secured by knees, the seam at the junction being payed
over with a black pitch-like substance. This gunwale is open at the stern, the ends not being con-
nected, but the bow is closed by a raised end-board, fancifully carved and painted, in front of which
a crest-like wooden ornament fits into a groove running along the beak. This figure-head, called
tabiira, is elaborately cut into various devices, painted red and white, and decorated ivith white egg-
shells and feathers of the cassowary and bird of paradise. The bow and stern also are more or less
profusely ornamented with these shells, which besides are strung about other parts of the canoe,
usually in pairs. An outrigger extends along nearly the whole length of the left or port side of
the canoe. In its construction there are employed from six to eight poles, two inches in diameter,
which rest against one side of the body of the canoe, and are secured there ; then passing out
through the opposite side about five feet, inclining slightly upwards at the same time, are connected
at the ends by lashing to a long stout pole completing the strong framework required for the
support of the float. This last is a long and narrow log of a soft and very light wood (probably a
cotton-tree), rising a little and pointed at each end, so as to offer the least possible resistance to the
water. Four sticks passing diagonally downwards from each of the transverse poles are sunk into
the float, and firmly secure it. A strip of the inner portion of the outrigger frame is converted into
a flat form by long sticks laid lengthways close to each other; — here the sails, masts, poles, spears,
and other articles are laid when not in use. The paddles vary slightly in form, but are usually
about four feet in length, with a slender handle and a pointed lance-shaped blade. The number of
men able to use the paddles is regulated in each canoe by that of supporting outrigger poles, the end
of each of which, in conjunction with one of the knees supporting the gunwale, serves as a seat.
One sitter at each end, being clear of the outrigger, is able to use his paddle on either side as
requisite in steering, but the others paddle on the right or starboard side only. The man seated at
the stern closes with his body the opening between the ends of the raised gunwale, and thus keeps
out the spray or wash of the sea. Still they require to bale frequently, using for this purpose the
large shell of Melo Ethiopica The sails are from twelve to fifteen feet in length and a
yard wide — made of coarse matting of the leaf of the cocoa-nut tree stretched between two slender
poles. The mast is stepped with an outward inclination into one of three or four holes in a narrow
shifting board in the bottom of the canoe, and is secured near the top to a slender stick of similar
length made fast to the outside part of the outrigger ; a second pole is then erected, stretching
diagonally outwards and secured to the outer one near its centre. Against the framework thus
formed the sails .are stuck up on end, side by side, to the number of three or four, occasionally even
five, and kept in their places by long sticks placed transversely, their ends as well as those of the
mast being sharpened to serve as skewers which in the first instance secure the sails." — Voyage of
the Rattlesnake, vol. I., pp. 202-4.
Another canoe, of a somewhat different construction, but also formed of the hollowed-out trunk
of a tree, was seen near Rossel Isl.and.
The natives of Bruracr Island use catamarans. One nine feet long, consisted, according to
Macgillivray, of three thick planks lashed together, forming a sort of raft, which one man sitting
a little behind the middle, with his legs doubled under him, managed very dexterously with his
paddle. Others were seen of a larger size, capable of carrying a dozen people with their effects.
The canoe of this part of New Guinea is about twenty-five feet in length, is made of the trunk of a
tree, and carries seven or eight people. It is carved, as is also the catamaran. Small temporary
sails are used for the canoes.
Near Redscar, canoes were observed similar to those in use at Brumer and Dufaure Islands, but
there were slight differences noticed in the arrangement of the outriggers and outrigger floats.
420 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
not the remotest idea of a canoe nor any tind of water conveyance wliaterer.'
When I visited Twofold Bay, in the yacht M^anderer, soon after our arrival in
Australia in that vessel, twenty years ago, we found the natives of that part
had their canoes — of bark, certainly, hut still canoes in which they went out
into the bay to catch fish by lines and spearing. Twofold Bay is upon the
southern point of the continent, in lat. 37° 6' 40" S. The concluding remark,
in which Mr. Jukes expresses his doubt as to whether any wood grows in Aus-
tralia 'large enough and light enough to make a canoe if merely hollowed out,'
will surprise many, besides myself, who have visited Australia. I have before
me a list of upwards of three hundred Australian trees, many of which, from
their great size and other jiroperties, must be adapted for making the largest
canoes. A considerable proportion of the large Australian trees, as the black
butt {Eucalyptus media?), become very hollow when they attain their greatest
size. One of the most useful trees in Australia, the cedar {Cedrela Australis),
is very large and light, and is cut annually in great quantities at the Bellen-
gen, Clarence, and other rivers, and floated down to the coast for shipment
to Sydney. Nearly all the Australian wooden canoes that I have seen had
oiitriggers with floats of light wood attached ; and these not only give great
stability, but are calculated to support upon the surface of the water canoes
made from wood which other^^^se, from their weight, might not be adajited
for the jiurpose. A friend of mine in Sydney had a canoe made from one of
the Australian trees (the red-gum, I believe), and this carried upwards of
fifteen people easily, without any assistance from floats or outriggers. "When
we were at Cape York, the natives pointed out to me the trees of which they
said they made their canoes ; and Macgillivray ( Voyage of H.M.S. Rattle-
snake, vol. II., p. 16) gives the following account of their construction at
that place : — ' A tree of sufficient size, free from limbs — usually a species of
bombax (silk-cotton tree) or erythrina — is selected in the scrub, cut down,
hollowed out where it falls, and dragged to the beach by means of long
climbers used as ropes. The remaining requisites are now added; two stout
poles, fourteen to twenty feet in length, are laid across the gunwale, and
secured there from six to ten feet apart ; and the projecting ends are secured
by lashing and wooden pegs to a long float of light wood on each side, pointed,
and slightly turned up at the ends. A platform or stage of small sticks laid
across occupies the centre of the canoe, extending on each side several feet
beyond the gunwale, and having on the outside a sort of double fence of
upright sticks, used for stowing away weapons and other gear. The cable is
made of twisted climbers, often the Flagellaria Indica, and a large stone serves
for an anchor.' When I wrote the letter on this subject, which you did me the
honor to insert in your number of the 1st inst., I had not seen Mr. Crawfurd's
paper '0« Classification of the Races of Men, ^ published in the last volume of
the ' Transactions of the Ethnological Society,'' and my observations then were
in consequence of the statement which I heard Mr. Crawfurd make at a meeting
of the Royal Geographical Society, and the views attributed to him in a notice
of his paper in the Times of the 29th of January last. Upon reading Mr.
Jukes's letter, however, I thought that perhajDS the paper itself miglit contain
CANOES. 421
some reference to an ' original destitution ' of the Australian natives with
respect to canoes, in which Mr. Jukes believes Mr. Cra^vfurd to be right;
but, upon looking through it, I can only find the most positive assertions
{]}]). 355, 361) that the Australians 'have no canoes to this day,' and that
' even now ' they cross their own rivers only on rude rafts." *
Mr. Beete Jukes replied thus: — "Will you allow me to state my opmion
a little more deliberately than in my hastily-written note which appeared in
your number of the 8th inst.? The statements as to existing facts made by
Sir D. Cooper and Mr. Brierly are, of course, beyond all question. I looked
at the subject from an ethnological point of view — whether the Australians
had anything of their own invention worthy of being called a canoe. Before
writing the ethnological chapter in the ' Voi/a^e of II.M.S. Fhj^ published
in 1847, I searched most, if not all, of the early voyages and travels for
information on this matter among others. From this search, and from my
own observations and enquiries made during our voyage, I came to the con-
clusion that, before they were visited by Europeans, the Australians had no
canoes anywhere along the south, west, and north-west coasts, from Cape Howe
to Cape Leuwin, and thence to Melville Island, or thereaboiits. On the east
coast, at Twofold Bay, Botany Bay, and the other places visited by Cook,
Flinders, King, and others, as far north as Sandy Cape, the only canoes
mentioned are, as I believe, the strips of bark tied together at the ends, with
rough sticks to keep them open, which have been already described. I was
much struck with the bark canoes about Rockingham Bay, as they resembled
those I had previously seen among the Mic-Mac Indians of Newfoundland,
although greatly inferior to them. The detailed description of those canoes
wliich I find in my own notes agrees precisely with that quoted by Sir D.
Cooper from Mr. Hill. The fact mentioned by Sir D. Cooper, however, that he
had seen similar canoes outside Jervis and Twofold Bays, in the year 1834, is
new to me, and would, had I been aware of it, have, j)ro tanto, modified my
statements as to canoes of New South AVales. I still believe that the canoes
made of hollowed trees found among the Australians of the north-east coast
are either procured from the Papuan Islanders, or that, at all events, it was
from these islanders that tlie Australian learnt how to make them. Mac-
gillivray says, in the passage quoted by Mr. Brierly from the ' Voyage of the
Rattlesnake^ that they now use iron axes, which they must of course procure
from 'white men.' The larger canoes among the Torres Straits Islanders
themselves must, I think, have been procured from New Guinea, whence so
nuxny of their implements are derived, ornamented with cassowary and not
with emu featiiers. The doubt expressed in the P.S. of my note, as to the
possibility of getting trees in Australia large enough and light enough to make
canoes, if hollowed out, is certainly of too sweeping a character ; for I had
hardly posted the note before I recollected the beautiful jiine-trees which grow
in such jjrofusion about Whitsunday Passage and tlie neighbourhood — a part of
the Australian coast much superior in aspect, and, I believe, in value, to any
* Atkenaum, p. 397, 22nd March 1862.
422 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA.
other portion of any side of it. Tlie statements of Macgillivray and Mr. Brierly
show clearly that I was wrong in this. Still the generality of Australian
trees are ill adapted for such a purpose. It was always said in the Australian
Colonies that none of the native woods would float in water. "Whether that be
true or not, almost all the large trees of the greater part of Australia are at
the same time heavy, hard, and brittle, readily splitting into slabs or splinters,
but not easily cut across the grain. It is probably in great measure the
nature of their woods which has prevented the Australians from becoming as
advanced in the arts of life as the Papuans, who have in New Guinea not only
large canoes of solid timber, but powerful bows, and large, well-constructed
houses, built on the stumps of stout trees, all cut down to one uniform level
by stone hatchets not very much superior to those used by the Australians. I
am not speaking of what might be done by Europeans with Australian woods,
but solely endeavouring to learn the condition of the Australians before they
came into contact with either Papuans, Malays, or Europeans. My own
impression was that their intercourse with the former had not been of very
much earlier date than that with either of the latter, and that it was from the
Papuan Islanders of Torres Straits that the art of canoe-making was making
its way among the Australians when they were first visited by Europeans. It
appeared to me that this art had spread from Torres Straits, as from a centre,
down the east coast to Twofold Bay and Cape Howe, and along the north
coast not nearly so far, in consequence of the great indentation of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, with its barren and therefore uninviting shores. I feel sure that
we were told at Port Essington that the natives had no wooden canoes before
that coast was visited by the Malays. Can any one now give any certain
information as to Port Phillip before it was colonized? Had the natives any
canoes there ? And what kind of canoes were they ?" *
It is not necessary to add anything to the statements already made
respecting the use of canoes by the natives of Australia, nor to reply to the
questions put by the late Mr. Beete Jukes. The letters which appeared in the
AthencBum show how things the most obvious may be overlooked altogether,
or, if seen, misunderstood, by trained observers of the highest ability. And
travellers, who have to depend on hastily-made observations, or on the appa-
rently accurate accounts of settlers less informed than themselves, should
refrain from too hastily drawing conclusions.
• Athenaum, p. 431, 29th March 1862,
at Its.
..-co-^
PUND-JEL.
PuKD-JEL or Bun-jil created all things, but he made no women. Pund-jel has
a wife named Boi-boi, whose face he has never seen. Yet he has a son whose
name is Bin-heal, and a brother named Fal-hj-yan. Though Pund-jel was
the creator of all things, he had help from Bin-heal and Pal-hj-yan. Pund-
JEL always carries a large knife or sword (Bul-li-to kul-pen-kul-pen gye-up)*
and when he made the earth {Beek) he went all over it, cutting it in many
places, and thereby formed creeks and rivers, and mountains and valleys. All
these things are believed by the Boo-noo-rong or Coast tribe.
The Aborigines of the Yarra (the Wa-woo-rong tribe) say that Bun-jil
made the earth {Beek-warreen) and all things besides. He had two wives, and
he gave one of them to his brother Boo-err-go-en. He had two sons, Ta-Jerr
and Tarrn-nin, and these he sent very frequently to destroy bad men and bad
women — wicked men and women who had kUled and eaten blacks.
Boo-err-go-en, the brother of Bun-jil, was very wild, and though he had
had given to him one wife, he was not satisfied. Bun-jil had a sword or knife
(^Warra-goop), and also an instrument named Ber-rang, with which he could
open any place or any thing, and in such a way as to make it impossible for
any one to know how or whether or not it had been opened. No one could see
the opening he made.
The Aborigines of the northern parts of Victoria say that the world was
created by beings whom they call Nooralie — beings that existed a very long
time ago. They name a man who is very old JSfooralpilg.'f They believe that
the beings who created all things had severally the form of the Crow and the
Eagle. There was continual war between these two beings, but peace was
made at length. They agreed that the Murray blacks should be divided into
• The word for knife is the same in Bunce's Vocabulaty, but the spelling is different.
f Nooran-an-ya means " far off."
" The Murray natives believe in a Being with supreme attributes, whom they call Nourelle; that
he lives in the sky, and is surrounded by children born without the intervention of a mother ; that
Nourelle never dies, and that blackfellows go to him, and never die again. They also believe that
Nourelle created a great serpent, and gave him power over all created things." — Aboriginal Natives
of New South Wales. Pamphlet by a Colonial Magistrate, 1846.
424 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
two classes — the Mak-quarra or Eaglehawk, and the KiJ-parra or Crow.
Tlie conflict that was waged between the rival powers is thus preserved in
song : —
Thnj-arrd balkee mako ;
Knee strike Crow ;
Nato-panda Kambe-ar tona;
Spear father of him.
Tlie meaning of which is : " Strike the Crow on the knee ; I will spear
his Mher."
The war was maintained with great vigor for a length of time. The Crow
took every possible advantage of his nobler foe, the Eagle ; but the latter gene-
rally had ample revenge for injuries and insults. Out of their enmities and
final agreement arose the two classes, and thence a law governing marriages
amongst these classes.
The First Men.
The Melbourne blacks say that Pund-jel made of clay two males. This
was in long, long ages past ; and the two first breathed in a country towards
the north-west {Oodi-yul-yul mootiinno per-reen N^jervein). Pund-jel made
of clay two male blacks, in the following manner : — With his big knife he cut
three large sheets of bark. On one of these he placed a quantity of clay, and
worked it into a proper consistence with his knife. When the clay was soft,
he carried a portion to one of the other pieces of bark, and he commenced to
form the clay into a man, beginning at the feet ; then he made the legs, then
he formed the trunk and the arms and the head.* He made a man on each
of the two pieces of bark. He was well pleased with his work, and he looked
at the men a long time, and he danced round about them. He next took
stringybark from a tree {Eucalyptus ohliqua), made hair of it, and placed it
on their heads — on one straight hair and on the other curled hair. Puxd-jel
again looked at his work, much pleased {Bul-li-to monomeetli), and once more
he danced round about them. To each he gave a name : the man with the
straight hair he called Ber-rook-hoorn ; the man with the curled hair, Koo-kin
Ber-rook. After again smoothing with his hands their bodies, from the feet
upwards to their heads, he lay upon each of them, and blew his breath into
their mouths, into their noses, and into their navels ; and breathing very hard,
they stirred. He danced round about them a third time. He then made them
speak, and caused them to get up, and they rose up, and appeared as full-
grown young men — not like children.!
* " In company with some blacks, I was looking at a brickmaker at work, near the new bridge
over the Yarra (Prince's bridge), when a Western Port black, named ' Billy Lonsdale,' seeing the
brickmaker smoothing the clay in the mould, said ' ilarminarta, like 'em that Pund-jkl make 'em
Koolin.'"— 77ic latt William Thomas's MS.
f Some say that the first man was made at Koorra-boort, a place near Ballarat ; others
that he was made at Boo-err-go-en [this is the name of Pcxd-jel's brother], situate on the River
Goulbum, about twelve miles above the town of Yea. He was formed, they say, of the gum of
MYTHS. 425
The story is thus told by another man of the Wa-nvo-ron^ or Yarra
tribe : — Bund-jel was the first man. He made everything, and the second
man (Kar-jveen) he made also, as well as two wives for Kar-neen. But
Bund-jel made no wife for himself, and after the lapse of time he came
to want Kar-neerCs wives. Kar-wcen watched his wives very jealously,
and was careful that Busd-jel should not get near them. Bund-jel,
however, was clever enough to steal both of the wives in the night, and he
took them away. Kar-rceen, taking some spears with him, pursued Bund-
jel, but he could not find him, nor could he find liis wives. But in a
short time Bund-jel came back, bringing with him the two women. He
asked Kar-neen to fight on the following day ; and he proposed that if Kar-
meen conquered he should have the women, and if Bund-jel conquered that
they should be his. To this Kar-neen agreed. But Kar-neen had in his
mind a different plan. And this was his plan : to make Ingargiull or
the wattle {Acacia mollissima), and he came out of the knot of a wattle-tree, and entered into the
body of a young woman, when afterwards he appeared as a male child.
The following is an account of the creation of Kainj-ani : — The stars were formerly men, and
they leave their huts in the erening to go through the same employments which they did while on
earth. Some are remarkable amongst them, as Pungngane, Waijungngari, and their Ningarope.
The first was born naturally, aud the others were made as follows : — Ningarope Isetitiae plena in
latrina lutum amceue erubescens ccrnebat ; hoc in hominis figuram formabat, quje tactu divse
motura vitalcm sumebat et tunc ridebat. He was thus a Kainj-ani at once from his color [red],
and his mother took him into the bush and remained with him. Pungngane, his brother, had two
wives, and lived near the sea. Once when he remained out a long time, his two wives left the hut
and went and found ^yaijungngari. As tliey approached, he was asleep, and the two women,
placing themselves on each side of the hut, began making the noise of an emu. The noise awoke
him, aud he took his spear to kill them ; but as soon as he ran out, the two women embraced him,
aud requested him to be their husband. His mother, enraged at the conduct of the women, went
to Pungngane, and told him what had happened. Very much enraged, he left his hut to seek that
of his brother, which he soon found; but there was no one there, as his wives and brother were
out seeking for food. Very much vexed, he put some fire upon the hut, saying "Kundajan," mean-
ing, let it remain, but not burn immediately. Waijungngari and the two women arrived in the
evening, and lying down to sleep, the fire began to burn, and frequently to fall upon the skins with
which they were covered. Awaking with fright, they threw away the skins and ran to the sea.
Out of danger, and recovered a little from his fright, Waijungngari began to think how he could
escape the wrath of his brother, and threw a spear up to the sky, which touched it and came down
again. He then took a barbed spear, and throwing it upwards with all his force, it remained
sticking in the sky. By this he climbed up and the two women after him. Pungngane seeing his
brother and wives in the sky, followed with his mother, where they have remained ever since.
To Pungngane and Waijungngari the natives attribute the abundance of kangaroo and the fish
called PonJe. Pungngane caught a Ponde, and dividing it into small pieces, and throwing them into
the sea, each became a Ponde. Waijungngari multiplied kangaroos in the same manner. They
have many similar histories of the stars. The milky way, they say, is a row of huts, amongst
which they point out the heaps of ashes and the smoke ascending. — Aborigines of Encounter Bay
Tribe, Suulh Australia. H. E. A. Meyer, 1846.
" In the beginning," say the Dieyerie, "the Moora-moora (good spirit) made a number of small
black lizards (these are still to be met with under dry bark), aud being pleased with them, he
promised they should have power over all other creeping things. The Moora-moora then divided
their feet into toes and fingers, and placing his forefinger on the centre of the face, created a nose,
and so in like manner afterwards eyes, mouth, and ears. The spirit then placed one of them in a
standing position, which it could not, however, retain, whereupon the Deity cut off the tail,
aud the lizard walked erect. They were then made male aud female, so as to perpetuate the
3i
426 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
corrobboree. Kar-ween spoke to Waung (the Crow), and asked him to make
a corrobboree. And many crows came, and they made a great light in the
air, and they sang —
Mene-Nar-in-gee,
Targo Barra Targo,
Burra mene long-go,
Wah !
"Whilst they were thus singing, Bund-jel danced. Kar-neen took a spear and
threw it at him, and wounded him a little in the leg, but not in such a manner
as to hurt Bund-jel much. Bukd-jel, however, was very angry, and he seized
a spear and threw it at Kar-Keen. It was so well thrown that it went through
the joint of Kar-rveen's thigh. And Kar-ween could walk about no more.
Kar-neen became sick. He became as lean as a skeleton, and thereupon Bund-
JEL made Kar-ween a Crane, and that bird was thereafter called Kar-ween.
race. . . . Men, women, and children do not vary in the slightest degree in this account of
their creation."
There are many superstitions of the Dieyerie tribe and of the neighbouring tribes near
Cooper's Creek (lat. 27° S.) which are interesting. Mr. Gason describes the ceremonies performed
when the blacks desire the wild-fowl to lay eggs ; and refers to those practised when they wish
for a plentiful supply of wild dogs, an abundance of snakes, for more strength to their young men,
and the like. These ceremonies are, however, not over-cleanly in their character. " When it is a
bad season for iguanas {Koppirries), one of the principal articles of their food, some of the natives
proceed to make them. This ceremony is not observed by the Dieyerie ; but as they are invariably
invited and attend, I think it proper to describe it. On a day appointed, they sit in a circle, when
the old men take a few bones of the leg of the emu, about nine inches long, and sharpened at both
ends. Each old man then sings a song, while doing so piercing his cars, first one and then the
other, several times, regardless of the pain, if not Insensible to it. I add the song, which is not in
the Dieyerie dialect, and a translation of it : —
Pa-pa-pa. Kirra-a. Lulpara-na.
Mooloo Kurla parcha-ra. Willy oo lana
Mathapootana murara Thidua-ra Mindieindie
Kurtaworie-woriethiea-a.
Translation — 'With a boomerang we gather all the iguanas from the flats and plains, and drive
them to the sandhills ; then surround them, that all the male and female iguanas may come
together and increase.' Should there be a few more iguanas after the ceremony than before, the
natives boast of having produced them j but if they are as scarce as previously, they have their
customary excuse, that some other tribe took away their power. The iguana is supposed to be a
conductor of lightning, and during a thunderstorm all these reptiles are buried in the sand. And
should any natives become grey, or have much hair on the breast when young, it is supposed to be
caused by eating the iguanas when children.
"There are places covered by trees which are held very sacred — the larger ones being supposed
to be the remains of their fathers metamorphosed. The natives never hew them, and should the
settlers require to cut them down, they earnestly protest against it, asserting they would have no
luck and themselves might be punished for not protecting their ancestors." — The Dieyerie Tribe,
by Samuel Gason, 1874.
The Maories give this account of the making of man : — " Of Tiki little is preserved ; his great
work was that of making man, which he is said to have done after his own image. One account
states that he took red clay and kneaded it with his own blood, and so formed the eyes and limbs,
and then gave the image breath. Another, that man was made of clay and the red-ocbreous water
of swamps, and that Tiki bestowed both his own form and name upon him, calling him Tild-ahua,
or Tiki's likeness Some traditions say that Tiki is a woman j but the general idea is
the contrary."— re Ika A Maui, by the Kev. Richard Taylor, M.A., 1870, pp. 117-18.
MTTHS. 427
BuND-XEL was the conqueror. The two women became his wives, and he had
many children.
After this, Ballen-baUen (the Jay), who at that time was a man, had a great
many bags full of wind, and being angry, he one day opened the bags, and
made such a great wind that Bund-jel and nearly all his family were carried
up into the heavens.
The First Women.
Pal-hj-yarij who is described sometimes as a brother of Potd-jel, and some-
times as a son, has the control of the waters, great and small. He is supreme
over rivers, creeks, and lagoons ; and the sea obeys him likewise. All creatures
that live in the deeps or shallows he can control. There is nothing in the deep
waters of the rivers that can perplex him ; and his chief pleasure is to paddle
in the shallow waters, and to dive to great depths in the deep waters. One
day he was playing in a deep, deep water-hole. He thumped and threshed the
waters with his hands, in the same manner as the women beat the skins when
men dance the corrobboree. The water became thick ; it became very thick ;
it became as mud ; and PaJ-hj-yan could no longer see through it as before.
But something he saw at length. And dividing the thick waters with a bough,
so as to get a glimpse of things underneath, he beheld what appeared to be
hands, such as Piind-jel had given to the men he had created. Fal-Jy-yan
took a strong twig, bent it into the form of a hook, and again divided the
waters, and there appeared two heads (such as Piisd-jel had given to the
men), then bodies (similar to those made by Pc^ntd-jel), and finally two
creatures like Mon-mon-deek (young women). Pal-ly-yan named one Kun-
ner-warra, and the other Ku-ur-rook, and he brought them to Pund-jel, his
brother, to show them to him. Piind-jel gave to each man whom he had
created a woman. Pcnd-jel put into the hands of the men spears. To each
man he gave a spear ; and Pal-ly-yan gave to each woman and put into her
hands a Kan-nan (digging-stick). Pal-ly-yan spake to the men and women,
and told them to live together. He ordered that the men should use their
spears for killing the kangaroo, and he told the women to use the Kan-nan to
dig roots.
Pund-jel and Pal-ly-yan remained with the blacks for three days. They
showed the men how they should spear the kangaroo and the emu, and they
told the women where they could find roots.
On the third day, Pund-jel, Pal-ly-yan, and the four blacks sat down. A
whirlwind {P it-ker-riny or Wee-oong-koork) came, on the third day, when they
had all sat down. On the third day, when they had all sat down, there came a
storm (Koor-reen), a great storm {Borrn-geen-borrn-geen), and the whirlwind
and the storm and the great storm carried Pund-jel and Pal-ly-yan upwards —
far away — and the blacks saw Pund-jel and Pal-ly-yan no more.
The Dispersion of SIankind.
There was a time when men and women were numerous. In some parts of
the earth they were very numerous, and they were wicked; and Pund-jel
428 THE ABORIGINES OF TICTOEIA:
became angry. Pukd-jel became very sulky {Xar-eii)* when he saw that men
and women were many and very bad. He caused storms to arise, and fierce
winds to blow often. In the flat lands there arose suddenly whirlwinds f of
great force, and on the mountains the big trees were shaken with strong winds.
Ptind-jel came down to see the men and women. He spoke to no one. He
carried with him his big knife. With his knife he went into the encampments,
and he cut with his knife. He cut this way and that way ; and men, women,
and children he cut into very small pieces. But the pieces into which he had
cut the men, women, and children did not die. Each piece moved as the worm
{Tur-ror) moves. BuUito, buUito, koor-reen, pit-ker-recn (great, great storms
and whirlwinds) came and carried away the pieces that moved like worms, and
the pieces became like flakes of snow {Kabbing). X They were carried into the
clouds. The clouds carried the pieces hither and thither over all the earth ;
and PuND-jEL caused the pieces to drop in such places as he pleased. Thus
were men and women scattered over the earth. Of the good men and good
women Pund-jel made stars. The stars are still in the heavens, and the sor-
cerers can tell which amongst the stars were once good men and good women.
Death.
The Aborigines of the Murray believe not in death — in annihilation. They
believe that when the body becomes motionless — in our sense of the word,
dead — it may rise again and appear perhaps in the form of a white. But they
have a strange account of the occasion on which death — as the word is used in
the ordinary sense — was first brought into the world.
The first created man and woman were told not to go near a certain tree in
which a Bat {Bon-ncJ-ya) lived. The Bat was not to be disturbed. One day,
however, the woman {Xonya) was gathering firewood, and she went near the
tree in which the Bat lived. The Bat flew away, and after that came death.
Many amongst the Aborigines died after that. §
• Boo-hi-il (rery sulky) is the word used by the men of the Varra, according to Mr. John
Green. The negative form is N'uther jum-buk, i.e., not in a mood to converse or confer with
any one.
t The men of the Yarra tribe say that Ngar-ang, an evil spirit, causes the whirlwind ( Wee-
oong-hoorh) to arise.
X "Flakes of snow." One unacquainted with the climate of "Victoria might suppose that the
Aborigines could have little or no knowledge of snow, and that the simile is far-fetched. But snow
falls on the mountains every year, and in winter the plains of the higher parts of the Great
Dividing Range and the main spur are sometimes more than knee-deep in snow. The Aboriginals
are well acquainted with snow-storms, are close observers, and have good memories ; and it is
probable that something more than is told in the story is meant to be conveyed by the words of
the simile.
§ This story appears to bear too close a resemblance to the Biblical account of the Fall. Is it
genuine or not ? Mr. Bulmer admits that it may have been Invented by the Aborigines after they
had heard something of scripture history ; but he says — "The blackfellow who told me the story
was by no means sharp. I should not give him credit for inventing such a story. I believe it to be
a genuine tradition of their own." Notwithstanding the similarity, I am inclined to agree with Mr.
Bulmer. Some cause must have suggested itself to their minds ; and why not this ?
Mr. Armstrong, interpreter to the natives of West Australia, has communicated the following
curious tradition : — The natives state that they have been told, from age to age, that when man
MTTns, 429
The Maji with a Tail.
The Coranderrk blacks say that there is one man {Kooleen) under the ground
{Beeli) who has a long tail. He has a great many wives and many children.
He is a very bad man, and always laughs at the blacks because they have no
tails. The Yarra blacks believe also that when the kidney-fat is taken away by
sorcery, and a person dies, the spirit goes to Buxd-jel. The body will rise
again if the deceased has drunk water belonging to Mewjan (the Moon), but if
the person has drunk water belonging to Mongabarra, (the Pigeon), the body
will not rise again.
Origen of the Sea.
The doctors or priests say that the sea was created by Bund-jel. The sea —
BuUarto warreen — has waters different from those that flow in the creeks and
rivers, and very different from those that descend from the sky. Woo-too-no,
Woo-too-no, Woo-too-no Per-reen Ngervein — ^many long ages past Bund-jel was
very angry with the blacks. Bukd-jel was very angry with all black people,
because they had done evil and wicked things ; and Biin-jel BuIgo-Lou-er-ner*
many days on the earth, and all the black people were drowned, except such as
BuND-JEL favored, and these were caught up by him and fixed in the sky as
stars. One Kaolin and one Baggarook — one man and one woman — who had
climbed a high tree on a mountain, escaped the flood which Bdnd-jel had
made, and they lived ; and all the people now existing are descended from
these two.
How Water was first Obtained.
Tlie Aborigines of Lake Tj'ers say that at one time there was no water any-
where on the face of the earth. All the waters were contained in the body of a
huge Frog, and men and women could get none of it. A council was held, and
first began to exist there were two beings, male and female, named Wal-li/ne-yup (the father), and
Doronnop (the mother) ; that they had a son, named Bin-dir-woor, who received a deadly wound,
which they carefully endearoured to heal, but totally without success ; whereupon it was declared
by Wal-lyne-yvp that all who came after him should also die in like manner as his son died.
Could the wound but have been healed in this case, being the first, the natives think death would
have had no power over them. The place where the scene occurred, and where Bin-dir-woor was
buried, the natives imagine to have been on the southern plains, between Clarence and the Murray;
and the instrument used is said to have been a spear, thrown by some unknown being, and directed
by some supernatural power. The tradition goes on to state that Bindir-woor, the son, although
deprived of life, and buried in his grave, did not remain there, but rose and went to the west, to
the unknown land of spirits, across the sea. The parents followed after their son, but (as the
natives suppose) were unable to prevail upon him to return, and they consequently have remained
with him ever since. Mr. Armstrong says of this tradition that it is the nearest approach to truth
and the most reasonable he has yet heard among the natives, and it is certainly highly curious, as
showing their belief that man originally was not made subject to death, and as giving the first
intimation we have heard of their ideas of the manner in which death was introduced into the
world.
* BtTXD-jEL oceanum creavit minctionc plures per dies in terrarum orbem. Bultario Bulgo
magnam lotU copiam indicat.
430 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
the wisest amongst all the animals enquired into the circumstances connected
with this extraordinary drought. It was ascertained beyond doubt that the
monster Frog had within himself all the waters that should have covered the
waste places of the earth, and further, that if the Frog could be made to laugh,
(^Kramban), the waters would run out of his mouth, and there would be plenty
in all parts. It was agreed that an effort should be made to cause the monster
Frog to laugh. Several animals danced and cajiered befoie him, but he remained
as solemn and as stupid as any ordinary Frog, even when their gestures were
sufficient to make mirth anywhere. All the animals tried and failed. At length
No-yang (the Eel) began to wriggle and distort himself, and the Frog's jaws
opened. He laughed outright. When he laughed, all the waters came out of
his mouth, and there was a flood {Koorpa). Great numbers were drowned in
the flood. Many, very many, perished in the waters. The Pelican (Booran),
who before the flood was a blackfellow, took upon himself to save the black
people. He cut a very large canoe {Gre), and sailed among the islands which
appeared here and there in the great waters, and he took the people into his
canoe, and he kept them alive. By and by the Pelican had a quarrel with the
people whom he had saved. He quarrelled with them about a woman, and the
Pelican was turned into a stone.
The following is the tradition of the Aborigines of one part of the River
Murray. Before the earth was inhabited by the existing race of black men,
birds had possession of it. These birds had as much intelligence and wisdom
as the blacks — nay, some say that they were altogether wiser and more skilful
in all things. The Eaglehawk seems to have been a ruler — the chief amongst
the birds— and next in authority was the Crow. On one occasion the Eaglehawk
left his son in charge of the Crow. The young one became thirsty, and asked
the Crow where he could get a drink. He was told to go to the river ( Warn-
dnan), and the Crow went with him. The Crow made the young one drink
until he was swollen to an immense size. The Crow then threw something at
him, and caused him to burst, and the waters that flowed from him overspread
the country.
The Sun.
At the beginning the Sun did not set. It was at all times day, and the
blacks grew weary. Nooralie considered and decided at length that the Sun
should disappear at intervals. He addressed the Sun in these words : —
Yhuko warrie, Yhuko warrie,
Yarrarama wane dilya,
Yantha, Yanthoma wane dilya,
Tull Tull.
"Which being interpreted means : " Sun, Sun, burn your wood, burn your
internal substance, and go down."
The natives believe that because the Sun gives heat it needs fuel, and that
when it descends below the horizon it reaches vast depths whence it procures
fresh food for its fires.
MYTHS. 431
The Moon.
The Moon was aberrant before her motions were regulated by Nooralie.
Nooralie had much to remember and to consider before he could decide what
should be the times of the appearance of the Moon, and how she should appear,
but at length he addressed her in these words : —
Puk-a Mal-imba Penah-pethanha,
Die you bone whiten,
Penak Buhja Bulga.
bone powder powder.
In other words : " Die ! your bones whiten — and your bones go to
powder."
The Moon obeyed Nooralie. She dies at regular periods — and re-appears —
and does her duty to the Aborigines as Nooralie in times long past commanded
her to do. *
The Sun, the Moon, a>t3 the Stars.
The progenitors of the existing tribes — whether birds or beasts or men —
were set in the sky, and made to shine as stars if the deeds they had done were
mighty, and such as to deserve commemoration, t The Eagle ( Quarnamero) is
now the planet Mars, and justly so, because he was warlike, and much given to
fighting. The Crow ( Wdgara) is a star, and smaller stars are set about him,
and those represent his wives.
The Moon, before he was set in the sky — (our Satellite is always regarded
and spoken of as a male by the Aborigines of Victoria) — was very wicked, and
* " Their traditions suppose that man and all other beings were created by the Moon, at the
bidding of the Moora-moora. Finding the Emu pleasant to the sight, and judging it to be eatable
(but unable, owing to its swiftness, to catch it during the cold that then prevailed), the Moora-
moora was appealed to to cast some heat on the earth so as to enable them to run down the desired
bird. The M oora-moora complying with their request, bade them perform certain ceremonies (yet
observed, but not proper to be described), and then created the sun." — The JJieyerie Tribe (^Cooper's
Creek), by Samuel Gason.
It is more reasonable to suppose that it was light and not heat that the blacks prayed for.
t Nearly all animals they suppose anciently to have been men who performed great prodigies,
and at last transformed themselves into difTtrent kinds of animals and stones. Thus the Kamin-
jer.ir point out several large stones or points of rock along the beach whose sex and name they
distinguish. One rock, they say, is an old man named Lime, upon which women and children are
not allowed to tread ; but old people venture to do so from their long acquaintance with him. They
point out his head, feet, hands, and also his hut and iire. For my part, I could see no resem-
blance to any of these things except the hut. The occasion upon which he transformed himself
was as follows : — A friend of his Palpangije paid him a visit and brought him some tinwarrar (kind
of fish). Lime enjoyed them very much, and regretted that there were no rivers in the neighbour-
hood, that he might catch them himself, as they are a river fish. Palpangye went into the bush and
fetclied a large tree, and thrusting it into the ground in different places, water immediately began
to flow, and formed the Inman and Ilindmarsh Rivers. Lime, out of gratitude, gave him some
hanmari (small sea fish), and transformed himself into rock, the neighbourhood of which has ever
since abounded in this kind of fish. Palpangye became a bird, and is frequently near the rivers. —
Aborigines of Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia. H. E. A. Meyer, 1S46.
432 TIIE AB0EIGINE8 OF VICTOEIA:
went about doing as much harm as he could. * The GippsLind blacks say that
the first lot of men he met he turned into ducks, and left them in that con-
dition. On one occasion he visited the Eagle. He set his miam near that of
the Eagle. Tlie Eagle had been out in the forest catching kangaroos, when tlie
Moon camped near his abode, and having come home with two of these animals,
he oifered the Moon some of the flesh. The Moon swallowed joint after joint.
He left nothing. He devoured the two carcasses. He then killed the Eagle
and swallowed him. After j^erforming these feats he went upon a journey. In
going through the forest he met the two wives of the Eagle. They were alarmed
when they saw him, and guessed suddenly that he had swallowed their
husband. The Moon asked for water, and they pointed to a well. He went
there to drink, and, as he was drinking, the women struck him with the
stone tomahawk ( Wallung-g^vi-an'). They cut open the Moon, and extracted
from his capacious stomach the body of the Eagle, who thereupon came to life
again.
The Aborigines are not without some knowledge of astronomy. Mr. W. E.
Stanbridge, in his paper O71 the Aborigines of Victoria, states that "All the
tribes have traditions, and particular families have the reputation in their
respective tribes of possessing the most exact knowledge of them. A family
having this character in the Boorong tribe, who inhabit the Mallee country in
the neighbourhood of Lake Tyrril, and who take pride in saying that they
know more of astronomy than any others, state that the earth is flat, and that
it was in darkness until the Sun was made by Ptipperimbul. This person was
one of the race who then inhabited the earth, and who are now called Ntirrum-
bung-uttias, or old spirits. They possessed fire, and also the same charac-
teristics as the present race, but were translated in various forms to the heavens
before the present race came into existence. All the celestial bodies, as well as
all appearances in space (tgrille) are supposed to have been made by them.
They exercise all spiritual influences, whether for good or evil, upon the earth,
where they are represented in a material form amongst other creatures by the
Pupperimbul {Estrelda-Temporalis), to kill one of which would be avenged by
a deluge of rain.
" Gnowee (Sun); an emu's e.gg, prepared and cast into space {tyrille) by
Pupperimbul, before which the earth was in darkness, f
" It is said by another tribe that the emu's z^g was prepared by Berm-berm-gl,
and carried into space by Penmen, a small bird which they do not destroy.
* The Encounter Bay people say that the Moon is a woman, and not particularly chaste. She
stays a long time with the men, and from the effects of her intercourse with them, she becomes
very thin, and wastes away to a mere skeleton. When in this state Nurrunduri orders her to be
driven away. She flics, and is secreted for some time, but is employed all the time in seeking roots,
which are so nourishing that in a short time she appears again and fills out and becomes fat
rapidly. — Aborigines of Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia. U. E. A. Meyer, 1846.
f The Sun, the Encounter Bay tribe believe to be a female, who, when she sets, passes the
dwelling-places of the dead. As she approaches, the men assemble, and divide into two bodies,
leaving a road for her to pass between them. They invite her to stay with them, which she can
only do for a short time, as she must be ready for her journey of the next day. For favors
granted to some one among them she receives a present of a red kangaroo skin, and therefore in
the morning, when she rises, appears in a red dress, — Ibid.
MYTHS.
433
" Ckargee Gnowee (Venus) ; sister of the Sun, and wife of Ginahong-
bearp.
" Ginahong-bcarp (Jui^iter) ; Foot of Day, a chief of the Nurrumbung-uttias,
and husband of Chargee Gnowee.
" Mityan (Moon) ; Native Cat {Damjurus Geqffroyii) ; who fell in love with
one of Unurgunite^s wives, and while trying to induce her to run away with
him, is discovered by Unurgunife, when a fight takes place ; Mityan is beaten
and runs away, and has been wandering ever since.
'^ Marpean-kurrk (Arcturus) ; mother of Djuit and Weet-kurrk. The dis-
coverer of the bittur, and the instructor of the Aborigines where to find it.
When it it is coming into season with them, it is going out of season with her.
The bittur is the pupa of the wood-ant, which is found in large communities,
and of which the Aborigines are very fond. They subsist almost entirely upon
it during part of the months of August and September. When she is in the
north at evening, the bittur is coming into season ; when she sets with the Sun,
the bittur is gone, and {cotchi) summer begins.
'■'■ Djtiit (Antares) ; son of Marpean-kurrk ; the star on either side is his
wife.
" Neilloan (Lyra) ; a Loan flying {Leipoa ocellata) ; the mother of Totyar-
guil, and discoverer of the Loan eggs, which knowledge she imparted to the
Aborigines. When the Loan eggs are coming into season on earth, they are
going out of season with her. When she sets with the Sun, the Loan eggs are
in season.
" Totyarguil (Aquila) ; the star on either side is his wife. He was the son
of Neilloan, and was, while bathing, killed by a Bun-yip ; his remains were
afterwards rescued by his uncle {Collen-bitchick).
" Although the Bun-yip appears to be an imaginary creature, yet it is feared
by every one, and is described as having a head and neck like an emu, and as
inhabiting deep holes in rivers and lakes, where it kills persons who venture
therein.
" Karick-karick (the two stars in the end of the tail of Scorpio) ; a male
and female Falcon.
" Bcrm-bcrm-gl (two large stars in the fore-legs of Ceutaurus) ; two brothers,
noted for their courage and destructiveuess, who spear and kill Tchin-gal. The
eastern stars of Crux are the points of the spears that have passed through
him ; — the one at the foot through his neck, and that in the arm through his
back.
" Tchin-gal (the dark space between the fore-legs of Centaurus and Crux) ;
Emu ; who pursues Btinya until he takes refuge in a tree, and who is afterwards
killed by Bcrm-berm-gl.
" Bunya (star in the head of Crux); Opossum ; who is pursued by Tchin-gal,
and who, in his fright, lays his spears at the foot of a tree, and runs up it for
safety. For such cowardice he becomes an opossum.
" Tourt-chinboiong-g/terra (Coma Berenices) ; a flock of small birds drinking
rain-water, which has lodged in a fork of a tree.
3k
434 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
" Kourt-chin (Magellan Clouds) ; the larger cloud a male, and the lesser
cloud a female Native Companion (Grus Australasianus).
" War-ring (Galaxy) ; the smoke of the fires of the Nurrumhung-rdtias.
Another account is, that only a part of the Galaxy is the smoke of the fires of
the Nurrumbung-uttias, and that the other part is two Mindii — enormous
snakes — which made the Murray {Millec). The existing Mindii are about
eighteen feet long.
" Kulkun-bulla (the stars in the belt and scabbard of Orion) ; a number of
young men dancing. (A corrobboree.)
" Larnan-kurrk (Pleiades) ; a group of young women playing to Kulkun-
bulla.
" Ghellar-lec (Aldebaran) ; Rose Cockatoo ( Cacatue Leadbeateri) ; an old
man chanting, and beating time to Kulkun-bulla and Larnan-kurrk.
" Ware-pil (Sirius) ; male Eagle ; a chief of the Nurrumbung-uttias, and
brother of War.
" Collow-gullouric Ware-pil (Eigel) ; female Eagle ; wife of Ware-pil.
" Won (Corona) ; a boomerang thrown by Totyarguil.
" Weet-kurrk (Star in Bootes, west of Arcturus) ; daugliter of Marpean-
kurrk.
" War (Canopus); male Crow; the brother of Ware-pil, and the first to
bring fire from space (tyrille), and give it to the Aborigines, before which they
were without it.
^'■Collow-gullouric; War (a large red star in Rober Caroli, marked 966);
female Crow, wife of War. All the small stars around her are her children.
" Yerrer-det-kurrk (Achernar) ; Nalwin-kurrk, or mother of TotyarguiVs
wives.
" Otchocut (Delphinus) ; Great Fish.
" Collen-bitchick (double star in the head of Capricornus) ; a large Ant,
uncle to Totyarguil, and rescuer of his remains from the Bun-yip. The double
star is his fingers feeling for the bank of the river.
"Yurree (Castor), Wanjel (Pollux) ; two young men that pursue Purra
and kill him at the commencement of the great heat ; and Coonar-toorung
(Mirage) is the smoke of the fire by which they roast him. When their smoke
is gone, weeit (autumn) begins.
'^ Purra (Capella); Kangaroo; who is pursued and killed by Yurree and
Wanjel.
" Unurgunite (a small star, marked fifth magnitude 22, between two larger
ones, in the body of Canis Major). He fights Mityan, and makes him run
away, for having tried to induce one of Unurgunite'' s wives to elope with him.
The star on either side of Unurgunite is his wife ; that farthest from him is the
object of Mityan! s affections.
"The tribes inhabiting the country extending from Swan Hill to Mount
Franklin have similar names and mythological representations for the stars to
those here described."
MYTHS. 435
The Bun-yip.
The earliest settlers in Victoria heard from time to time, and from natives
far removed from each other, accounts of a creature dreadful in aspect and
voracious in its ajipetite for human beings, which did much hurt to black
people who strayed from their miams.* This being was generally represented
as resembling no known animal. It had a head and ears, and a huge body
covered with fur or feathers. It always came suddenly upon the blacks when
it meant to destroy them ; but its groanings and bellowings were heard at
certain times by all the people of a tribe when thej^ encamped near a lagoon, or
by deep water-holes, or by the sea^shore. The noises it made always terrified
them very much. It was destructive. In the Life and Adventures of William
Buckley, \ the narrator states that "in this lake [Modewarre], as well as in
most of the others inland, and in the deep-water rivers, is a very extraordinary
amphibious animal, which the natives call Bun-yip, of which I could never see
any part except the back, which appeared to be covered with feathers of a
dusky-grey color. It seemed to be about the size of a full-growm calf, and
sometimes larger. The creatures only appear when the weather is very calm
and the water smooth. I could never learn from any of the natives that they
had seen either the head or tail, so that I could not form a correct idea of
their size, or what they were like Here [on the Barwon River]
the Bun-yips, the extraordinary animals I have already mentioned, were often
seen by the natives, who had a great dread of them, believing them to have
some supernatural power over human beings, so as to occasion death, sickness,
disease, and such like misfortunes They told me a story of a
woman having been killed by one of them, stating that it happened in this
way : — A particular family one day was surprised at the great quantity of eels
they caught ; for as fast as the husband could carry them back to their hut,
the woman pulled them out of the lagoon. This, they said, was a cunning
* As the Aboriginal tribes throughout Australia have their tales of the mnch-dreaded " Bun-
yip" — an hypothetical monster that dwells in the swamps and rivers — so the New Zealanders have
their legends and songs about the terrible " Tanniwha," and the slaying of three of these monsters
by brave warriors of the olden time, the ancestors of the chiefs of Roturua. These traditions are
handed down by the natives with extraordinary minuteness of detail, and bear a close resemblance
in many points to our own legend of St. George and the Dragon. According to the native story,
the " Tanniwha " devoured men, women, and children wholesale. It lived in caverns, or at the
bottom of rivers and lakes, was shaped like an enormous lizard of the size of a whale, and had
sharp teeth and a flaming tongue. It took three hundred and forty brave men to despatch one of
these " Tanniwhas ;" at length, after a severe conflict, they destroyed him, and he stretched himself
out " like a dying grub," and expired. On cutting him open they found " his belly full of bodies of
men, women, and children, together with garments of all sorts, and weapons of war innumerable."
— Polynesia, by G. F. Angas, F.L.S., p. 76.
The reader will remember that in England the peasants not long since believed in the stories
of the Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heugb, and the Lambton Worm. Those were the Bun-yips
and Tanniwhas of our ancestors.
t Life and Adventures of William Buckley; thirty-two years a Wanderer amongst the Aborigine*
of the then unexplored country round Port Phillip, now the Province of Victoria, by John Morgan,
Tasmania, 18.^2.
436
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
manoeuvre of a Bun-yip to lull her into security, so that in her liusband's
absence he might seize her for food. However this was, after the husband
had stayed away some time, he returned, but his wife was gone, and she was
never seen after. So great is the dread the natives have of these creatures,
that on discovering one they throw themselves flat on their faces, muttering
some gibberish, or flee away from the borders of the lake or river, as if
pursued by a wild beast When alone, I several times attempted
to spear a Bun-yip ; but had the natives seen me do so it would have caused
great displeasure. And again, had I succeeded in killing, or even wounding
one, my own life would probably have paid the forfeit ; they considering the
animal, as I have already said, something supernatural."
The Western Port blacks call the Bun-yip Toor-roo-dun, and a picture of
the animal, made by Kurruk many years ago, under the direction of a learned
doctor, is that of a creature resembling the emu.* — (Fig. 244.) On the Western
Port plains there is a basin of water — never dry, even in the hottest sum-
mers — which is called Toor-roo-dun, because the Bun-yip lives in that water.t
Toor-roo-dun inhabits the deep waters, and the thick mud beneath the deep
waters, and in this habit resembles the eel. The natives never bathe in the
waters of this basin. A long time ago some of the peojjle bathed in the lake,
and they were all drowned, and eaten by Toor-roo-dun. The Goulburn blacks
have the same dread of this terrible creature ; but their doctors, priests, and
wise men say that Toor-roo-dun does not eat the blacks, but contents himself
with holding them in his embraces untQ they die. All the blacks believe in
* Mr. Stanbridge says the natives describe the Bun-yip as having a head and neclc like
an emu.
f There is a place now called Toor-roo-dun on the northern shore of Western Port Bay. It is
situate on Stawell's Creek, which discharges part of the overflow of the Koo-wee-rup Swamp into
an inlet of the sea. The great swamp (Koo-wee-rup) has an area of 120 square miles ; it receives
the waters of the Bun-yip River and the Kardinia, Toomuo, and Ararat Creeks, and its overflow is
conveyed to the sea by numerous creeks and channels. It is a place wlicre one might expect to
find the seal in such a situation as to give rise to the wild stories told by the natives.
MTTHS.
437
the existence of a huge seal-like animal, which lives in swamps and deep
water-holes, and growls and bellows at night, and destroys, if he does not eat,
all black people who venture near his haunts.
Fig. 245 is the picture of a Bun-yip as drawn by an Aboriginal of the
Murray River, in 1848, in the presence of Mr. J. P. Main and Mr. John Clark,
and which was given to the late Mr. A. F. A. Greeves by the artist. Tlie
wood-cut is a facsimile of the drawing. Tlie coating of the animal is eitlier
scales or feathers ; but in truth little is known amongst the blacks respecting
its form, or covering, or habits. They appear to have been in such dread of it
as to have been unable to take note of its characteristics.
The doctors alone, says the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer, are able to point out
where the Bun-yip has his dwelling. Sometimes they indicate a deep water-
hole as the place of his abode, and sometimes a swamp surrounded by scrub
and reeds.
What the Myndie was to the blacks of the North-Western district, so was
the Bun-yip to those dwelling on the coast and near the swamps of the
Western district. Both were terrible, and both have their types in existing
creatures. The python {Morelia tariegata) may be said to represent the
fabulous Mj/ndie, and Koor-man (the seal) the Bun-yip.
Whether the seal which the blacks have named the BuTir-yip is the eared seal
(^Arctocephalus lobatus) or the large spotted sea-leopard {Stenor/iynchus Icp-
tonyx), or some other animal unkno\vn as yet to naturalists, is doubtful. That
the blacks in former times ate the seals which frequented the coast is certain,*
and it is probable, therefore, that some other creature was the cause of the
terror which afflicted them at nights wlien they heard growlings and bellowings
on the margins of the swamps. Seals proceed inland often for a considerable
distance ; many during certain seasons may have frequented the samjihire-
Life and Adventures of William Buckley, p. 99.
438 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA :
bound iulets of Western Port, and by their bellowings at night frightened the
natives ; but there is reason to believe that the seals known to them and to the
whites were not the same as Toor-roo-dun.
In deep water-holes of rivers and in swamps settlers have seen occasionally
a creature much resembling the Bun-yip, as it is described by some of the
Aborigines. The Advocate of I3th April 1872, quoting the Wagga Wagga
Advertiser, says : — " A few days ago a Mr. A , driving sheep, camped near
Mr. W 's station at the Midgeon Lagoon, and saw a very fast-swimming
beast hastening towards his party. It came within thirty yards, and then
stopped when it saw them. It was half as long again as a retriever-dog. The
hair all over its body was jet-black, and shining, and very long, say five inches.
Mr. A says he could not detect any tail. There was too much hair to see
its eyes. Its ears were well developed. The}' had a splendid view of it, for it
leisurely surveyed them for half an hour without showing alarm, about thirty
yards off, and then turned quietly round and swam away."
In a subsequent issue of the same paper the subject is again referred to : —
" The Wagga Wagga Express states that ' the Bun-yip ' has again been seen
twice within the last three months in the waters of Cowal Lake, in March last
[1873], by a party of surveyors, whose account can be relied upon, who were
out in a boat, and saw the animal about 150 yards of!'. They describe it to
have a head something resembling a human being — or, in their own words,
' like an old man blackfellow, with long dark-colored hair.' When seen, it
appeared to be going in a straight direction, rising out of the water so that they
could see its shoulders, and then diving as if in the chase of fish, and rising
again at intervals of about six or eight yards, and diving again. They tried to
get closer to it, but could not for the pace it was going ; consequently, could
give no description of it lower than the shoulders. They say the animal did
not appear to be afraid of them ; but most likely it must have been so intent
upon its occupation that it never noticed them. Again, a blackfellow and a
white man, who were out in a canoe, say they saw it about a fortnight since.
They agree in giving the same description of the head and hair as that given
by the surveyors. The animal was swimming straight towards them, and, when
it saw them, dived and disappeared."
Lake Cowal lies about 200 miles west of Botany Bay. It is rather a
swami^ or a lagoon than a lake, and is fed by the Manna and Yeo Yeo Creeks.
It is about eighteen miles in length and six miles in breadth. It expands and
contracts its water-surface with the varying seasons.
These statements by themselves might not be accounted of much value ; but
others have seen an animal of the same kind, Major Couchman, the Chief
Mining Surveyor in the Mining Department, says that he and Mr. Lavender
saw an animal resembling a water-dog swimming in the reservoir at Malmsbury.
It was large, and of a very dark color. He watched the animal for some time,
when it dived and disappeared. He saw it again when it was nearer, and then
knew that it was not a dog. Its head resembled that of a seal. Both Mr.
Lavender and he watched it for some time, and its form and the period during
which it remained under water after it had dived satisfied them that it was not
MYTHS. 439
any animal known to them.* Are there fresh-water seals in Victoria, and is
the Bun-yip a fresh-water seal ?
According to Mr. Stanbridge, Toti/arguil, now in the heavens {Aquila),
was, while bathing, killed by a Bun-yip. His remains were afterwards
rescued by his uncle CoUen-bitchick (double star in the head of Capricornus).
The double star, the natives say, is his fingers feeling for the bank of the
river.
* Speaking of Lake George, Lieut. Breton says " that no one seems to know wliat animals
inhabit the lake, though it is pretended that a species of seal, or, as it was called, a devil, had been
seen in it ; but as Satan is made to personify all animals whatever, when of the nondescript or
wonderful kind, it is not improbable that the creature in question may have been altogether ima-
ginary."— £xcariions in New South Wales, ^T., during the years 1830, 1831, 1832, and 1833, by
Lieut. Bretou, R.N., p. 62.
There is no outlet to the waters of Lake George ; and in 1828, when Sir Thomas Mitchell saw
it, it was a sheet of water seventeen miles in length and seven in breadth. It receives " no less
than four mountain streams from the hills north of it — viz., Turallo Creek, whose highest source
is fourteen miles from the lake j Butmaro Creek, which arises in a moimtain sixteen miles from it ;
Taylor's Creek, from the range on the east, six miles distant ; and Kenny's Creek, from hills five
miles distant. The southern shore of the lake presents one continuous low ridge separating its
waters from the head of the Yass Eiver, which would otherwise receive them. The water was
slightly brackish in 1828, but very good for use, and the lake was then surrounded by dead trees
of eucalyptus, of about two feet in diameter, which also extended into it until wholly covered by
the water. In that wide expanse we could find no fish ; and an old native female said she remem-
bered when the whole was a forest; a statement supported pro tanto by the dead trees in its bed, as
well as by its present state, for the whole of the basin is now (October 1836) a grassy meadow, not
unlike the plains of Breadalbane." — Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, by
Major T. L. Mitchell, vol. ii., p. 313.
The Rev. Richard Taylor states that when he was living in New South Wales there had been
a long-continued drought, and that Lake George was so completely dried up that the drays made a
short cut through it, and the drivers dug holes by the road-side to obtain water. In these
holes they frequently found large fish, encased in the dry soil, and doubtless numbers retained their
vitaUty until the bed became again covered with water. — Te Ika A Maui, p. 652.
This lake in its chief characteristics resembles some of those of Victoria, and it is somewhat
remarkable that the strange animal referred to in these pages should be seen in drainage areas so
completely isolated. If it had been heard of only in lakes and swamps connected with the sea, it
might have been safely assumed that it was a known species of seal.
The natives living near the mouth of the River Murray have a dread of a being that is said to
live in the waters of the lakes. Their water-spirit is called Mulgewanke. "The booming sound
which is heard frequently in Lake Alexandrina is ascribed to him, and they think it causes rheu-
matism to those who hear it. He is represented as a curious being, half man, half fish, and, instead
of hair, a matted crop of reeds. I have wondered myself what the noise is really caused by which
they ascribe to Mulgewanke. I have heard it dozens of times, and so have many other persons.
It resembles the boom of a distant cannon, or the explosion of a blast. Sometimes, however, it is
more like the sound made by the fall of a huge body into deep water. It cannot be the peculiar
sound made by the Murray bittern, as I have often heard that too, and it is not at all like the noise
in the lake. At first I ascribed it to people blasting wood on the opposite side, but since then I
have been convinced that this cannot be the case. One peculiarity of the sound ascribed to the
Mulgewanke is, that although it is sometimes louder than at others, yet it is never near, always
distant." — The Narrinyeri, by the Rev. Geo. Taplin, p. 48.
A correspondent, an old settler and one well acquainted with the natural history of the colony,
tells me it is his belief that in most cases the noise that frightens the natives is caused by the
movements in the water of the musk-duck.
When on the banks of the River Wannon, I approached a dense growth of reeds, and one of
these birds that had been hidden in the reeds made a dash into the water, and the noise and its
440 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
Statements resiiecting the appearance in our lakes and swamps of any
creature at all resembling the Bun-yip are invariably ridiculed. It seems to
be assumed that all living animals are known to man and described and figured
in his books. Scientific men, however, are willing to enquire, and they are
ready to publish and investigate facts whenever the interests of science require
them to do so. In this sjiirit Mr. Charles Gould, F.G.S., the son of the eminent
naturalist, has made known much very interesting and valuable information
resjjecting the existence of a seal-like animal in Tasmania. The following
extracts are taken from a paper read before the members of the Royal Society
of Tasmania in 1872 : —
" Having heard rumox;rs, ever since my arrival in this colony, of some
large and unusual animals being occasionally observed in the lakes in
the great central plateau, I had often projected a trip of exploration to
them, which circumstances have continuously j^revented. However, I always
bore the point in mind, and, therefore, when passing the evening at Constable
McPartland's hut at the Picton, while on an expedition to the Cracroft,
knowing that he had been for a long time stationed at the Great Lake,
I made enquiry whether he had seen any strange animals in the lake. He
told me instantly that he never had himself, but his son, who was much
more about the lake, had done so several times, and calling him, desired
him to tell me at once all about them. I find from my notes that the
date of our conversation was September 1870, and that young Francis
McPartland, who was an extremely intelligent and apparently truthful youth,
stated that 'two years previously he had several times seen water animals
in the lake at different places ; he had a good view of them off the shore
at Swan Bay, going from the station towards Mr. Smith's Neck. They
were within a stone's throw of the shore, and seemed to be three or four
feet long ; they were three or four in number, and seemed to be playing about ;
they did not jump out, but were splashing about, and sometimes threw the
water seven or eight feet up in the air. They showed their backs above
water ; also their heads, which were round, round like a bull-dog. They were
darkish in color ; he had seen them several times — once one alone, but
generally two together ; tliey swam about, keei^ing the head above the water ;
you can also see the shoulders ; they show the back when they are splashing.'
These were always seen by McPartland in some part or other of Swan Bay ;
sometimes near the shore, sometimes in the middle. Immediately on my
appearance, I thought .at the time, would create alarm in the dusk of CTening ; but it is scarcely
credible that so many strange tales should arise from this source. The natives are good naturalists,
and are probably better acquainted with the habits of this duck than we are.
The Bun-yip is mentioned by Grey in his work on North-West and Western Australia. He
says: — "The Wan-gul is an imaginary aquatic monster, residing in fresh water, and endowed with
supernatural power, which enables it to consume the natives, although it generally attacks females.
The person it selects for its victim pines away almost imperceptibly, and dies."
The belief in the existence of some strange creature in the inland and shore waters is spread
over the continent. Mr. Earl says that the natives of Port Essington speak of a monster inhabit-
ing the waters, which is regarded by them much as the Bun-yip is by the natives of the south.
The Port Essington Bun-yip is supposed by the whites to be the dugong.
MYTHS. 441
return I asked Mr. John Forster to favor me with a few lines to the chief
constable of the Lake district, and through his hands I received the following
statement : —
" ' Steppes, 25th October 1870.
" ' Sir, — With regard to your memo, of the 23rd of September last, rela-
tive to animals reported to have been seen in the Great Lake by young
McPartland, and supposed to be seals, having made their way from the sea up
the Derweut and Shannon Rivers, I now beg to inform you that I have made
enquiries amongst the shepherds in the vicinity of the lake, and I find that
several of them have seen an animal swimming in the lake very much resem-
bling a black sheep-dog with only its head above the water. I cannot find that
more than one has been seen at a time. I do not think it possible for seals
to make their way from the sea to the Great Lake, in consequence of a very
considerable waterfall being in the Shannon, near its junction with the Ouse,
unless, being amphibious, they could escape the fall and reach the river above
by land.
" ' The people that have seen this animal in the lake maintain that it is not
a platypus, but twice as large and much darker ; but as it has never been very
plainly seen, and considering the difficulty of any sea animal getting as far as
the lake, I think it must undoubtedly be a very large platypus. Mr. Headlam's
shepherd saw one at the very top of the lake, which he says was four or five
feet long, with a very large black head. A shepherd of Kermode's also saw
one. Ryan saw one at Swan Bay in the moonlight. Ridgers, the contractor,
has also seen them ; and I am told Mr. Kenrick Flexmore saw one at the
sandbanks.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
James Wilsox, Chief Constable.
John Forster, Esq., Hobart.'
" Mr. Morton Allport having informed me that Mr. Charles Headlam had
seen such a beast in the lake, proceeded to correspond with that gentleman,
from whom I furnish the society with the following note. I need hardly say
the testimony of so well-known a gentleman as Mr. Charles Headlam is
unimpeachable : —
" ' Egleston, Macquarie River, Tasmania,
29th April 1872.
" ' Dear Sir, — Yours of the 25th instant I have, asking for information in
reference to an animal I saw in the Great Lake some years ago. I have looked
over my journal, which I have kept for the last thirty-two years, and find that
it was on Monday, 25th January 1803, that I saw the animal. My son Anthony
was the only person with me at the time ; the time of day was about eleven
o'clock. The lake was very rough, and we were pulling our boat against a
strong head sea, when my oar nearly came in contact with a large-looking beast,
about the size of a fairly-developed sheep-dog. The animal immediately started
off at great speed towards an island in the Great Lake known as Helen Island.
3l
442 THE ABOUIGINES OF VICTORIA:
It appeared to have two small flappers, or wings, which it made good use of, as
I should think it went at the rate of thirty miles per hour. We watched it as
far as the eye could reach, and it appeared to keep on the face of the water,
never appearing to dive. I never remember seeing such an animal before or
since. My sons have just returned from the Great Lake, and crossed over the
lake twice in the boat, but saw nothing of our strange friend. It was in the
middle of the lake where we saw the animal, and in deep water. Should I
ever fall in with the beast again, I will not fail in securiug him if I can, and
you shall then see him in person.
I remain, yours sincerely,
Charles Headlam.
Morton Allport, Esq., Hobart Town.'
" Having arrived thus far, I was much gratified by seeing in the Mercury of
the 26th of April 1872 an extract from the Wagga Adoertiser, which I copy
as follows : — [The substance of this is given in another place.] And I was
still more interested by the spontaneous information received a few days
back that several townsmen of this city had seen a remarkable beast in Lake
Tiberias, while on a shooting expedition. My information is from Mr. Howe,
market gardener, of Campbell street, a keen sportsman and a lover of natural
history, evidently a good observer, and not likely to mistake a tadpole for a
crocodile, who states that, in company with Messrs. Shadwick and Currie, of
New Town, and five others, he was at the Lake Tiberias on tlie 17th July last,
and that while on the shore at the north-east end he observed swans, and,
creeping to the edge of the lake, fired at them. Immediately on the report
of the shot a great splash was seen, and some large beast started off' in the
water from a point about 100 yards distant, dashing towards some rushes, and
forming a great wave by his passage through the water. The rushes swayed
about violently as he passed through them, and one of the party, who had the
opportunity of seeing the beast more distinctly than the other, estimated the
length at five or six feet, and the breadth of back at nearly two feet. About
one hour afterwards the party saw what tliey believed to be the same beast
behind the rushes and out in the lake, splashing up the water to a height
of ten or twelve feet. This was noticed several times. Enquiries made by Mr.
Howe of persons in the neighbourhood elicited no information beyond tiiat
loud roarings had been heard at night.
" Mr. John Butler, of Shene, Bagdad, informs me that when on a visit to
Lake Echo, in company with the Rev. H. D. Atkinson, some years back, they
several times saw water tlirown eight or ten feet high in the air, without any
obvious cause. This happened right out in the lake, and was considered by
them unaccountable. The only other information is from Mr. Morton Allport,
to the effect that some aquatic beast, as big as a calf, was reported several
times last summer as being in the deep pools of the Jordan River.
" The evidence then shows that in the Great Lake, possibly in Lake Echo,
certainly in Lake Tiberias, some unusual animals of large size have been seen
at various times, answering in general description to a seal, but not cor-
responding with any species hitherto described.
MYTHS. 443
" In regard to Mr. Headlam's estimate of the rate of speed of the animal
seen by him, and which might be considered an exaggeration, I append an
extract from a popular account of seals, contained in the Muscuyn of Animated
Nature, at page 222 : — ' The common seal can remain imder water for about
five minutes, and swims so rapidly that, if alarmed, it will proceed nearly half
a mile during that period.'
" While the description of the ursine seal, ' lowing like a calf,' and of the
sea elephant, ' in whicli the voice is deep, hoarse, and terrific,' may give the
clue to the mysterious sounds said to have been heard at night issuing from
many of the Victorian lakes, and notably, if my memory serves me correctly,
from Lake Werribee [Modewarre].
" Now even should the animals, whose existence seems proved upon sucli
good testimony, simply prove to be known seals, a good and substantial
foundation for the Bun-yip story will have been arrived at. Tlie mysterious
appearance and horrible sounds will be fully accounted for, and a very inter-
esting and novel page in the chapter of seals sujtplied to us. How much more
interesting then will be the discovery should they prove to differ specifically or
even generically from any hitherto described form, and to be some fresh-water-
inhabiting mammal, analagous or allied to ' the otter-like or seal-like animal '
whose existence in the rivers and lakes of the mountain districts of New
Zealand has recently been established by Dr. Haast without doubt. — {See
Jlocltstetter's New Zealand, page 161.) Dr. Haast writes, in June 1861: —
'At a height of 3,500 feet above the level of the sea, I fre(][uently saw its
tracks on the Upper Ashburton River, in a region never before trodden by
man. They resemble the tracks of our European otter, only a little smaller.
The animal itself, however, was likewise seen by two gentlemen who have a
sheep station at Lake Heron, not far from the Ashburton, 2,100 feet high.
They describe the animal as dark-brown, of the size of a stout cony. On
being struck at with the whip, it uttered a shrill yelping sound, and quickly
disappeared in the water among the sea grass.'
" I may, in conclusion, mention that, M'hile on a recent visit to Sydney, I
saw in the Museum a young specimen of a species of seal entirely new to me,
of which the color was black, like that of the Wagga individual, but concerning
which Mr. Gerard Krefft was unable to give me further information than that
it was caught near Newcastle, New South Wales. Mr. Krefi't also tells me
that one seal in that collection had lived on plat}^uses, and must have been a
great distance from salt water."
The following letter, corroborative of the statements in Mr. Gould's paper,
was read to the Royal Society at a meeting held in October 1872 : —
" Black Brush, 6th September 1872.
" SiK, — I have to acknowledge receipt of a letter from Mr. Charles Gould,
soliciting information from me of a strange animal seen in the pools of the
Jordan. My reason for not complying with the request before was that I
was not able to see the parties in consequence of the dreadful state of the
weather and the flooded state of the River Jordan. I have since obtained the
information required, and will now state what I know of the aflfair.
444 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
" It was first seen about two years ago in the large pool at Mr. IMunday's
farm, at the Black Brush, by Mr. Munday himself. He states that it was like
a seal, with round head and two flippers, and plunged into the river. It was
afterwards seen by the Messrs. Tonks further up the river ; it was then seen
by the Cox family near their house ; and by several others afterwards in the
large lagoon under the rocks opposite my house, and by Mrs. Chaplin on the
bank of the river, close to the cows in the meadow. When approached, it
bounded into the river. She describes it as having a round head and flippers ;
that it was about four feet long, of a dark-grey color, and made a noise like
' hu,' ' hu.' I have myself seen the water thrown up, but could not account
for it. Others have seen the same — Mr. Gunn and the Messrs. McLaren. It
was afterwards seen farther up the Jordan by Mr. Collis's shepherd, who states
that it was lying by a log, and when disturbed it went into the river. It has
not been seen lately ; my impression is that it has made its way up the Jordan,
perhaps as far as Lake Tiberias. At night was the time it was heard to make
a noise. It very mucli alarmed one of Mr. Cox's sons when watering his horses
at the Jordan. He thought it was one of the cattle which had fallen in the
river ; he has seen nothing of it since. Should I hear anything further, I will
communicate with you.
Your obedient servant,
Edward Chaplin.
Morton Allport, Esq.
" P.S. — Tuesday morning, 10th September. — Mr. Fane Cox was at my
house this morning, and informs me that going home a few nights since, when
passing by the rocks opposite the lagoon by my land, some large animal went
down the rocks into the river, making a loud noise and throwing up the water.
He waited some time, thinking it would make its appearance again ; it did
not, and he could not tell anything about its description. He thought it was
a beast of some kind ; it made, he says, a loud gurgling noise, like that a
horse would make. — E. C."
These statements show that the natives have grounds for the alarm they
exhibit when necessity compels them to camp near deep water-holes or lagoons
at night, and for the stories they tell respecting the Bun-yip. It is scarcely
creditable to us that we have not correctly ascertained the facts ; but surely,
sooner or later, the minds of naturalists will be set at rest as regards the
creature which has given rise to so much speculation.
Mtndie.
The natives of the Melbourne district say that Mijndie is a great snake —
very long, very thick in the body, and very powerful. He is under the
dominion of Pund-jel. When Pund-jel commands him, Myndie will destroy
black people — young or old. He can do nothing of himself. Pund-jel must
first order him. He is known to all tribes, and all tribes are known to him ;
and when any tribe is very wicked, or when any tribe fails to overtake and kill
MYTHS. 445
wild blackfellows, then Puxd-jel makes Myndie give them diseases, or kills
them, as he thinks fit. Myndie is not quite like a snake. He has a large
head, and when he hisses and ejects poison, his tongue appears, which has
three points. Myndie inhabits a country named Lill-yo-ncr, which lies to the
north-north-west of Melbourne — a long, long way from Melbourne. He lives
near a mountain which is called Bu-ker-bun-nel* and drinks only from one
creek named Neel-cun-nun. The ground for a great distance around the place
where Myndie lives is very hard ; uo rain can i)enetrate it. It is hard ground
{Kul-ke-beek). No wood but Mullin can grow near it. The ground is covered
with hard substances, small and white, like hail. Death or disease is given to
blacks who venture near this ground. Myndie can extend or contract his
dimensions when ordered by Pund-jel. Myndie can ascend the highest trees,
and hold on to a branch like a ring-tail opossum, and stretch his body across
a great forest a great length, so as to reach any tribe.
Myndie has several little creatures of his own kind, which he sends out
from time to time to carry diseases and afflictions into tribes which have not
acted well in war or in peace. These little ones are very troublesome, but their
visits are not so much dreaded as the visits of Myndie himself, who is very
large, very powerful, and from whom no one can escape. All plagues are
caused by Myndie or his little ones. When Myndie is known to be in any
district, all the blacks run for their lives. They stop not to seize their weapons
or bags or rugs. They stop not to bury their dead. They set the bush on fire,
and run as fast as they can. Some, as they run, are afHicted by Myndie, and
become sick, and lie down, and some die. Some, when they are made sick,
attempt to rise, but tliey fall down again. Those that run swiftly and escape
are always quite well and never sufier from sickness. Mun-nie Brum-brum
can arrest and put back the Myndie with a wave of his hand or a movement
of his finger ; but no one knows his secret. No one can arrest Myndie but
Mun-nie BruTnr-brum.^
* Bu-ker-bun-nel, or Buhra-bant/ule, is a granitic mountain, situated about eighteen miles
north-west of Wedderburn, and about tweuty-four miles west of the Avoca River. It is but a
small area of granite, and lies closely adjacent to the Murr.iy Tertiaries which occupy the whole of
the Mallee country. The Mullin in the text is probably but another name for the Mallee (Euca-
lyptus oleosa and E. dumosa). In describing this country, the Aborigines no doubt included the
whole area occupied by them and their families, and that embraced plains called Kow. These
plains are found in the sandy tracts of the north-west. They are clay-pans — dricd-up basins of
old lagoons or lakes — and on the surface of them are found crystals of sulphate of lime and broken
and powdered gypsum and selenite. These fragments of sulphate of lime are "the hard sub-
stances, small and white, like hail." The nearest Kow is about twenty miles to the west of
Buhra-bamjule.
Mr. Skene, the Suryeyor-General, iufonns me that a tribe inhabiting the country near Pitfield,
northward of Lake Korangamite, told him, many years ago, that Myndie had his abode in a water-
hole near the tomi now known as Pitfield. The blacks at that time were Tcry much afraid of
Myndie, and when Mr. Skene proposed to pitch his camp near the water-hole, they fled, and
prophesied disasters to him and his party, who had approached so near the favored abode of this
dreadful serpent.
f A family named Mun-nie Brum-brum was the only one that ever set foot on the territory
occupied by Myndie.
A sorcerer, celebrated as a man possessing great power, a very old black, and a member of the
same tribe as that to which Mun-nie Brum-brum belonged, was a prisoner ill the Melbourne gaol
446
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Til is (Fig. 246) is a picture of Myndie as drawn by an Aboriginal, and it
tallies with pictures made by men of other tribes : —
FIG. 246.
All the evils that have ever afflicted the blacks of the southern and south-
eastern tribes have come, they believe, from tlie north-north-west.
KUR-BO-ROO.
The Native Bear, Kur-ho-roo, is the sage counsellor of the Aborigines
in all their difficulties. When bent on a dangerous exiiedition, the men
will seek lielji from this clumsy creature, but in what way his opinions are
made known is nowhere recorded. He is revered, if not held sacred. The
Aborigines may eat him, but they may not skin him as they skin the
kangaroo and the opossum. A long time ago Kur-bo-roo stole all the
many years ago. He had committed some depredations on the flocks of the settlers. The news of
liis arrest was carried to near and far-off tribes — to tribes more than 200 miles from Melbourne.
The men were greatly distressed. Telegraph flres were lighted, and night after night these could
be seen in all directions. Messengers from seven tribes were sent to my blacks. My blacks
importuned me day after day to liberate the black stranger. Finding that I would not liberate
him, they urged me and all the settlers with whom they were friendly to leave the district and go
to Van Dieracn's Land or Sydney. Some hundreds of blacks of many different tribes were in
Melbourne when the man of the tribe of Mun-nie Brum-brum was imprisoned, and they all fled,
exhibiting the greatest terror, as they expected that the captive would move Pund-jel to let
Myndie loose. Mijndie they believed would spare no one. None of the people returned until the
prisoner was set at large, which was some months after the first gathering and flight. — The late
Wm. Thomas's MS.
Mr. E. S. Parker's pamphlet on the Aborigines of Australia, contains a curious statement
respecting the Mijndie. He says : — "In the latter end of the year I84U, the Aborigines of all the
neighbouring districts were in a fearful state of excitement in consequence of the forcible capture
and temporary incarceration of some hundreds of their number by the military and police
authorities. Two lives were sacrificed on the spot, and several sickly people subsequently died
through the effects of the fright and e-xcitement. On that occasion, several of the natives informed
me confidentially that destruction was coming upon the white population, not even excepting those
whom they knew to be their friends. It was known that they were practising secret incantations
with this object. The eflccts were described graphically enough as producing dreadful sores,
dysentery, blmdncss, and death. The Mindi was to come. I did not at the time regard the pre-
diction as of much import. But, subsequently, ascertaining that the scars of the small-pox were
termed lilUpnnk Mindi, the scale of the Mindi, and the plague itself, which was to come in the dust,
as monola Mindi, the dust of the Mindi, I was able to identify the threatened agent of destruction
as the small-pox, of the ravages of which in former times there are traditions and traces among
the natives of the interior. It is believed to be in the power of the large serpent Mindi, the
supposed incarnation of the destroying spirit, to send this plague forth in answer to the appeals
and incantations of those who seek the destruction of their foes."
MYTHS. 447
drinking vessels {Tarnuli) belonging to the Aborigines, and he drained the
creeks, and made such a scarcity of water that all the women and young chil-
dren cried aloud. The men, women, and children had no water to drink ;
Kur-bo-roo had taken it all. Much distressed and perplexed, the Aborigines
gave way at length to extreme despair, for no helj^ came to them. Kur-ruk-
ar-ook seeing all these things, came down from the sky, and enquired into the
causes of this sorrow. Kur-ruk-ar-ook called all the bears to her and heard
their comi)laiuts, and she heard also all that the Aborigines had to say, and
she settled the quarrel thus : The blacks might eat the flesh of the bear, because
it was good, but they might not skiu it as they skinned common animals ; and
the bears were commanded not to steal the Tarnuk, the No-bean tarno, or the
waters of the creeks ; and all of them, blacks and bears, became friends by
means of the counsel given by Kur-ruk-ar-ook. Thenceforth the bear became
well disposed towards the blacks, and ever ready to give advice and help to
them.*
Another version of this story is given by the men of the Upper Yarra.
The bear by them is called Koob-loor or Koob-borr, and they say that Koob-borr's
father and mother died when he was about four years old. The tribe that he was
left with were not kind to him. At one time water was very scarce everywhere,
and poor little Koob-horr could not get any. No person would give him any
water. Oh a certain day all the tribe went out to hunt, and they forgot to take
little Koob-borr with them. All the people left the camp, some on one errand
and some on another, and Koob-borr was left alone. The people had forgotten
to hang up their tarnuks — they were full of water — and for once Koob-borr had
more than enough to drink. But that he might have always plenty, and also
avenge the wrongs which had been done to him, he took all the tarnuks and
hung them up on the boughs of a little tree. Having done this, he next
brought all the water of the creek and put it into the tarnuks, and finally
he climbed the tree and seated himself beside the tarnuks. The tree suddenly
* " I can vouch for their superstition on this head. I sadly wanted a bear's skin to make a cap,
but I could never get it. One day a black of the Yarra tribe, who had brought in a bear early,
before the rest of the blacks had returned to the encampment, was importuned by me to skin it.
He refused to skin it ; but at length, by giving him presents, and showing him that no harm could
come of the act, because all the sorcerers and all the blacks who could communicate with the sor-
cerers and other chief men were absent, he took off the skin and gave it to me. I took the skin to
my tent, and meant to make it into a cap ; but the young man became very restless. Remorse
overtook him. He could not put the skin on again, nor indeed, had he wished to do so, woijd I have
given it up. He said, ' Poor blacks lose 'em all water now,' and he became so much alarmed, and
exhibited such contrition and terror, that the old doctors came to enquire into the cause. He told
all. Much excitement followed. I said that the blacks had nothing to fear. I laughed at their
terrors ; but at length I was obliged to give them the skin. The skin and the bear were buried in
the same manner in which a black man is buried. Though the bear was actually roasting, his body
was taken away and buried vrHh the skin. This ceremony they all believed would propitiate the
bears, and avert the calamity of a loss of water." — The late Wm. Thomas's MS.
"Kur-bo-roo, a well-known Western Port black, and held in high esteem as a sorcerer, a
dreamer, and diviner, was named ' The Bear,' under the following circumstances. Kur-bo-roo was
born at the foot of a tree, and during his mother's trouble a bear in the tree growled and grunted
until Kur-bo-roo was born, when he ceased his noise. By this, it was said, the bear intended to
show that the male child born at the foot of the tree should have the privilege of consulting the
bears, and the child was called Kur-bo-roo. Kur-bo-roo attained to some excellence in his profession,
448 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
became very large — as large as a great many trees — and Koob-borr sat in the
tree until evening; and evening brought back the blacks. The blacks were
very thirsty ; the day had been hot ; and they had not found any water in
the places where they had been. The first man that reached the camp cried
out, "My tarnuk is gone!" — (Tarnoeek koonga-tool); and another came and
said, " My tarnuk is gone !" And they all came, and they found that all the
tarnuks had been taken away. They searched for them. Some went to the creek,
thinking that they might have been left there, but they could not find them.
Worse than the loss of the tarnuks was the discovery that the creek was dry.
Presently one of the men saw the big tree. "Ky!" said he, "what is that?"
— {K)j ! Anging-jc-kobbee ?) ; and they all looked, and they saw their tarnuks
hanging on the high boughs, and little Koob-borr sitting in the midst of them.
"Wall!" says one, "is that you?" — (Wak/ kenoogarra?). Have you any water
there ?" — {j^ga boona paun kolen-noo?). "Yes," replied Koob-borr, " here am I,
and I have plenty of water ; but I will not give you one drop, because you
would not give me any when I was nearly dying for the want of water." Some
now proposed to ascend the tree, but they were afraid to attempt it, because it
was so high. They were all very thirsty; something they determined to do ; and
two of the men at length commenced to climb the big tree. Koob-borr laughed
at them, and let fall a little water on them, and they loosened their hold of
the tree, and fell to the ground and were killed. Two men again attempted to
climb to the bough on which Koob-borr was seated, but he treated them in the
same way, and they too fell down and were killed. Two more attempted to
climb, and again they fell down and were killed, and two more, until nearly all
the men of the tribe were killed. Then men of other tribes came, and two
by two they attempted to ascend, and Koob-borr spilled water on them, and
they fell down and were killed. At length Ta-jerr and Tarrn-nin (the
sons of Pund-jel) came to the relief of the blacks. They proposed a plan of
ascending the tree, which proved successful. They climbed round and round,
and was regarded by all as a very wise man and doctor. When a black man dreams of bears, it i3
a sad omen. All the people are afraid when any one dreams of bears. One time, when there were
about two hundred blacks at Nerre-nerre-Warreen (on the Yarra), including about eighteen chil-
dren attending the school, Kur-bo-roo had a dream. He dreamt that he was surrounded by bears.
He awoke in a great fright about one o'clock in the morning, and at once aroused the whole encamp-
ment. It was half an hour or more before I could discover the cause of the great excitement
everywhere apparent. Fires were suddenly set ablaze. The young blacks climbed the trees, cut
down boughs, and fed the fires. The men, women, and children rushed hither and thither, display-
ing the greatest terror. I reasoned with them, sought to soothe them, endeavoured to control
them ; but all my efforts were useless. They fled from the spot where they had so long lived in
comfort. By eight o'clock in the morning the forest was a solitude^not a soul remained ; and all
because of a dream of Kur-bo-roo." — The late Wm. TTiomas's MS.
" The Laplanders will call the bear ' the old man with the fur coat,' but they do not like to
mention his name." — Tyhr, p. 145.
The Father of the Stairs is made to say, in Episodes in an Obscure Life, that in Labrador
" They're very frightened o' makin' bears angry, both whites and blacks ; they think there's a deal
of knowingness, like witches, in 'em. They're a queer lot, them Esqueemaws " — P. 166.
The curious reader may refer for further information respecting the bear and the fables con-
nected with him to the anthropological treatises of Blumenbach (Anthropological Society's volume,
1865, p. 80), and to the various works there quoted. But our beast is not a bear, and the natives,
of course, never heard Lim so called until the whites came.
MTTHS. 449
just in the line which a creeping plant takes. Koob-borr laughed as he laughed
at the others, until they had ascended to a great height, and then he took water
and let it fall, but the men were no longer in the same place, but higher up,
and it did not fall on them. Koob-borr ran and got more water, and poured it
where he had last seen the men, but again it did not touch them ; and finally
Ta-jerr and Tarrn-nin reached the high boughs. Koob-borr now began to cry,
but they heeded not his cries. They seized him and beat him until all his
bones were quite soft. They then threw him down, and other blacks beat and
tried to kill him. He did not die. He became in form and appearance what he
is now, and he ran up another tree. Ta-jerr and Tarrn-nin cut down the big
tree in which the tarnuks and all the water were ; and the water came out
of the tree, and flowed into the creek (Kala-derra)* and there has been ever
since plenty of water.
From this time Koob-borr became food for the people ; but it is a law
amongst the people that they must not break his bones when they kill him,
neither take off his skin before they roast him. If the law were broken, Koob-
borr would again become powerful, and he would dry up the waters of the creeks.
Koob-borr keeps always near the banks of the creeks, and near water-holes,
so that if the law be broken he may at once carry away the water. No one
has roasted Koob-borr without his skin or broken his bones in killing him
since the law was made.
When any one ascends a tree in which Koob-borr is sitting, he cries always
in the same manner as he cried when Ta-jerr and Tarrvr-nin climbed the tree
and threw him down.f
MiRRAM AKD WaRREEN.
Mirram (the Kangaroo) and Warreen (the "Wombat) were once men, and
they dwelt in the same place ; but Warreen had a good camp (willum) made
of bark, but Mirram had none. Mirram lived day and night in the open air.
Tliis was very good for Mirram when the weather was fine, and very good for
Warreen, too, who often slept in the open air with Mirram. They were very
good friends. At length a great rain fell.| Warreen went to his willum,
* A creek not always running — a creek that is dry in the summer— is called Koorr-nong.
t The native bear moans and growls when any one molests him in his leafy retreats. I have
often observed his habits in the forest. He is always found near water. At the present day
the Aborigines carefully conform to the law as laid down by their forefathers. They will not
Bkin a bear or break itg bones until it is roasted. In what way the native bear comes to be con-
nected with droughts it is impossible to say.
X How rain tirst came to fall is thus told by H. E. A. Meyer (Encounter Bay tribe): — "Near
the Goolwa lived an old man named Kortuu-e, with his two friends, Munkari and Waingilbe. The
latter, who were considerably younger than Kortuwe, went out fishing, and as they caught Kuratje
and Kanmari, they put the Kuratje, which is not so good as the Kanmari, aside for Kortuwe. The
old man, perceiving this, commenced a song — Annaitjeranangk rotjer tampatjerananyk (in the
Encounter Bay dialect it would be Ngannangk Kuratje tampin) — "For me they put aside the
Kuratje," upon which rain began to fall. Kortuwe then went into bis hut, and closed it with
bushes, and Munkari and Waingilbe were obliged to remain outside, and they got wet as a punish-
ment. The three wore transformed into birds, and as often as Kortuwe makes a noise it is a sign
that rain will follow.
3 M
450 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
made a good fire, and lay down comforta'bly in front of it, ■well sheltered by his
covering of bark. The rain fell so heavily that Mirrams fire was put out, and
he became wet and very cold. He sat a long time, the cold rain falling upon
him, thinking that Warreen would ask him to go into the KiUum, but this
Warreen did not do. At last, quite overcome with the wet and the cold, and
when he could not any longer bear the suffering, he went to the willum, and
asked Warreen to allow him to go in and sit down in a vacant corner. Warreen
said, " I want that corner for my head ;" and he turned over and laid his head
there. Mirram said, " Never mind, this place (pointing to an unoccupied spot)
will do." Warreen moved and laid his feet over that spot, and said, " I want
that place for my feet." Mirram spoke again : " This place will do," pointing
to the spot where Warreen' s feet had been. Warreen answered, " I cannot
give you that place ; I want to lie this way," and he raised himself and lay
down in front of the fire. Mirram grew very angry. He could bear such treat-
ment no longer, and he went away and got a stone, and came back quietly and
struck Warreen on the forehead with the stone, and made his forehead quite
flat. Mirram, when he had done this, said, " Now, your forehead will always
be flat, and you shall remain in a dark hole." Ever since poor Warreen
has had to live in a dark hole in the ground; and his forehead is flat at
this day, as it was made flat when Mirram struck his head with the stone.
But Warreen was at length in a position to retaliate. One day he took his
spear and threw it at Mirram. It hit him, and stuck fast at the lower end of
his back-bone. " Now," says Warreen, " that will always stick there, and will
be a tail (Moo-ee-bee) for you, and you will have to use it when you run, and
never shall you have Tvillum." This is how Mirram came to have Moo-ee-boo,
and why he has always to use it when jumping and running, and why he has to
Bleep in the open air.
BOOR-A-MEEL.
The fat of the emu — Boor-a-meel or Burri-mul — is sacred. When it is
taken from the bird, it is not handled carelessly. Any one who might
throw away the flesh or fat of the emu would be held accursed. It is
believed that the fat of the emu was once the fat of the black man. If one
black gives a piece of the fat of an emu to another, he hands it to him gently
and reverently. The late Mr. Thomas observed on one occasion, at Nerre-nerre-
Warreen, a remarkable exhibition of the effects of this superstition. An Abori-
ginal child — one attending the school — having eaten some part of the flesh of
an emu, threw away the skin. The skin fell to the ground, and this being
observed by his parents, they showed by their gestures every token of horror.
They looked upon their child as one utterly lost. His desecration of the bird
was regarded as a sin for which there was no atonement.
The Eiro ant) the Ceow.
The Crow one day went to seek for the eggs of the Emu, which he greatly
desired to eat. He at length found the nest of an Emu, and he began
JITTHS.
451
forthwith to take the eggs. But at the very time when he was doing this the
Emu returned to her nest. The Crow then commanded the Emu to go away.
She refused to go away. The Crow then, very angry, took his spear and
killed her. He carried away the eggs. His friends took the body of the
dead Emu, and prepared to roast it for food. They cut the choicest pieces for
the Crow, but he took only the head, which he carried up into a high tree, and
there he talked to the head. He told the head all that was proper for an
Emu to do in time of danger, when man threatened the Emu, and that an
Emu could not save her eggs when any man wished to take them. All that
was told by the Crow was heard by the Emu; and to this day the bird
attempts not to defend its nest.
The Eagle, the Mopoke, aitd the Crow.
Many of the traditions of the Aborigines of the River Murray and of
those of Gippsland are very similar in their outlines ; but the Mopoke occu-
pies a more prominent position in the stories of the Gippsland people than
in the legends of the Murray tribes. The Murray blacks say that the Crow
killed the son of the Eagle. ITais deed made the Eagle very augry; and, to be
revenged, he dug a large hole, and made a trap, and carefully covered it up,
so as, if possible, to catch his enemy. Attaching a string to his trap, he
retired to a distance and waited. At length the Crow approached the trap,
and entered it ; the string was pulled, and he was caught. The Eagle killed
the Crow. After a time the Crow came to life again and disappeared. The
Gippsland people say that the Eagle left his son in charge of the Mopoke
while he with his wives went to hunt kangaroos. The Mopoke put the young
one in a bag, and sewed up the bag and left him The Eagle during his
hunting excursion became uneasy about his son, and finally returned to ascer-
tain how he had been treated. When he came to know what had been done,
he grew very angry. He at once made a search for the Mopoke, and found
him, after some trouble, sitting in a tree. The Eagle, when he saw his enemy,
used guile. He exhibited no anger. He spoke gently. He determined to kill
him by subtlety. He slyly requested the Mopoke to go into a hole in the tree
to look for an opossum. The Mopoke obeyed, but returned without any. He
was told to go again, and he obeyed ; and as soon as he was in the hole, the
Eagle closed the hole, and made the Mopoke a prisoner. The Mopoke cried
aloud when he found himself fastened up, and he used these words : —
Wim-no nat jel-lomen gnong-ona wok-uk,
When I cut a hole Mopoke,
which means, "When will the Mopoke cut a hole?" He was determined to get
out, and, finding all means fail him, he at length, in great sorrow, broke his
leg and took out one of the bones, and very patiently bored a hole sufficiently
large to creep through. He got free. Again the Eagle met him, and they
spoke together, and the Eagle and the Mopoke made a solemn agreement
and a treaty of peace. The conditions were as follows : — The Eagle was to
452 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
have the privilege of going np into the topmost boughs of the trees, so that
he might from so great a height see better where kangaroos were feeding ;
and the Mopoke was to have the right to occupy the holes of trees. Thus
ended the disputes between the Eagle and the Mopoke.
MORNMOOT-BULLARTO MORNMOOT.
The first hurricanes and whirlwinds were caused by magpies.* They were
larger magpies than any seen now. They came from the north-west. Tlie
number was very great — so great as to darken the air — far exceeding in
number the greatest number of cockatoos ever seen on the wing. The sun
was hidden when the magpies were passing. Behind the magpies there was a
rushing wind and a noise like thunder ( Wan-du-bul).] A number of bags
were seen as the noise like thunder was heard. At first the bags were extended
and empty, but they filled as they travelled through the air, and bag after bag
burst high in the air, and the noise of the bursting bags was dreadful. Ever
after, in certain seasons, there came great storms, hurricanes, whirlwinds, + and
squalls in all the lauds where the blacks dwelt.
* Piping crow — Gymnorhina huconola. The Australian magpie, as he is seen in the forest,
hopping and half -flying, and now and again taking to flight, somewhat resembles the English
magpie. His voice is most musical, and at early morning and at night he is active, and his
rich notes are delightful. He is easily domesticated, and can be taught to say many words with
distinctness. He is not shy. He seems to love companionship with man. He follows the farmer,
and takes up his abode near his homestead. But he is pugnacious. In the breeding season the
birds will attack any traveller who approaches ne.ir to the spot where they have made their nests.
They will fly above him, and dart down and strike him on the face or the head with their bills, and
unless he is provided with a stick or a whip, they will injure him. Even when domesticated they
will fight when provoked. I could quote a number of statements in which the sagacity and
courage of this bird are recorded.
i Ngin-da-bil : Upper Yarra. Drum-bul-a-bul: Western Port. — (See "Language")
t On a calm day, when the sky is cloudless, and the solar radiation efiective, whirlwinds are
seen sometimes in numbers. On a wide open plain, at such times, six or seven may be observed at
one time. Near them you see the wind carrying upwards all light things, such as dust, leaves, bark,
feathers, and withered grass. At some distance away the thin column of dust looks scarcely thicker
than a thick rope; it bends slightly to the breeze aloft, but rises steadily and slowly, and at a height
of perhaps a thousand feet the dust it carries is dispersed. A faint yellowish mist, at a great
altitude, shows that the dust is being distributed. Whirlwinds of very great violence occur some-
times, but they are not very common in Victoria.
A whirlwind of an unusual character is thus described in the Portland Guardian of the 20th
June 1872 : — " On Tuesday evening last, about half-past four o'clock, a whirlwind of extraordinary
violence, tearing up immense trees by the roots and twisting and scattering branches about in a
manner that created the greatest alarm in the district, occurred. A number of people at lunch in
the Condah home-station of Mr. C. P. Cooke were 6rst alarmed by a strange rushing roaring noise,
and rushed out under the impression that the house was on fire. An eye-witness says : — In coming
out of the house, at about two miles distance, I could see the storm coming in a straight line
apparently for the house, and immediately the women and children were removed. Its course was
marked by the falling and crashing of trees, which were torn up by the roots, the trunks in many
cases being whirled for thirty or forty yards, and lying about in heaps, whilst the branches and
debris were tossed into the air, and carried forward at a great height with singular rapidity. For-
tunately, the storm, which kept in a straight line from the south-west, passed about 300 yards to
the south of the Condah home-station, and passed directly over the Condah Lake, into which some
of the tree Umbs of immense size were carried a distance of 400 to SOO yards. But the passing
MTTHS.
453
LOO-EKRN.
(A Myth relating to the country lying between the Riser Yarra and the River
La Trobe.)
The name of the country is Marr-ne-beek. The country belonged to one
called Loo-errn. Loo-errn is to some an evil spirit, and to others a good
spirit. Loo-errn had his house at Wamoom (Wilson's Promontory). If any
one not belonging to his country passed through it without his consent, he
died as soon as he arrived at the end of his joiirney ; and if any one of a
strange tribe, or any one of a tribe an unauthorized stranger might visit,
gave such a native anything to eat or to drink, he too died. Loo-errn was
over the lake was not the least remarkable part of the phenomenon. The water was raised in a
sheet or column, and carried all the way across its surface at a height which was averaged by the
terror-stricken onlookers at 300 or 400 yards. After passing the lake, the storm kept its course
over the stones which separate Condah from the Euraeralla. From our informant we learn that no
damage so far as he could ascertain, save the destruction of the trees, had occurred, and that in a
thickly-populated district it was wonderful that the houses escaped. The rate at which the storm
travelled is estimated at twelve miles an hour, and in its direct course for about fifty yards wide
nothing was left standing. Language can but imperfectly convey an idea of the noise and confusion
and the terror inspired by this singular visitation."
I have seen the effects of a storm of this kind in the forests of the 'Western district. In a
straight line some miles in length, and perhaps thirty or forty chains in width, huge trees were
uprooted and torn limb from limb ; and the stronger or better protected trees which had not been
uprooted were stripped of their branches, and were standing naked and dead in a wilderness of
broken boughs and withered shrubs. These giants, divested of their bark, bleached to a greyish-
white, and standing far apart, were ghostly in their aspect when seen in the twilight. The Abo-
rigines were no doubt strongly impressed with these phenomena when they were witnessed in past
times and before the whites came amongst them with their more or less unintelligible explanations.
Since this note was written I have found the follo«-ing account of a great storm in the Western
district in the Hampden Guardian (5th July 1872):— "The storm that passed over the district
early last Monday morning has left ample proof of its power in the neighbourhood of Terang.
Within half a mile east of that township, on the Camperdown main road, the wind appears to have
passed along in a regular hurricane. For some miles in length by about fifteen chains in breadth
the trees and everything else that stood in the way have been swept down before the fury of the
blast J and for the space that we have mentioned the telegraph poles were snapped off close to the
ground like so many twigs — the wires of course disarranged and the insulators broken. Large gum-
trees were torn up by the roots, or where they were so firmly planted in the ground as to offer
resistance, were twisted round, and the tops of the trees screwed off and carried some distance away
from the trunks. At one point a very substantial three-rail fence enclosing Mr. Niel Black's pad-
dock was actually blown out, and the heavy rails carried by the sheer force of the hurricane
several yards across the road. A four-roomed wooden house just caught the end of the whirlwind,
and was turned round (so says our informant) several inches from the square, and the family were
thrown out of bed, expecting that nothing but an earthquake waa upon them. The storm seems
to have come down by way of the south end of Lake Keilambete, and crossing the main road at
the point mentioned, passed on down to Black's River in the direction of the Big Bend. For a
time all comnmnication by telegraph was stopped, but by Monday evening the line was again got
into working order."
The extensive plains of the Western district, some eight thousand square miles in extent, and
everywhere destitute of trees or shrubs, are no doubt the cause of the storms which so suddenly
break over the adjacent districts. The atmosphere lying over these plains, which are exposed to
the full power of the sun, must occasionally be subjected to changes of temperature sutficient to
account for the whirlwinds and storms which devastate the forests on the margin of the plains.
Whirlwinds are frequently mentioned in the Fulh-lore of the Australian Tribes.
454 TIEE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
great and very powerful. Loo-errn's permission to enter his territory was
granted in tliis way : If any blacks — say from Geelong — wished to visit
the blacks at Western Port, they were to repair to some part of the mouth
of the River Yarra, wait there for the Yarra blacks, and, having found
them, tell them where they proposed to go. If their proposal was approved
of, they were conducted over the river, but always with their backs towards
the side to which they were going. When they had crossed over, they were
made to sit down with their backs towards Wamoom. A large fire was
kindled in front of them, and they had to sit there a whole day without
moving, and without food or water.* This was done to let them know in
what manner Loo-erni would roast them if they offended in any way against
the laws of his country. At sun-down, or perhaps a little before sun-down,
cue of Loo-errn's young men would bring some water in a tarnuh, holding
in his hand a reed. The tarnuk full of water was placed near the lips of
the first amongst the strangers, and just as the lips of the half-roasted and
perspiring creature touched the wooden vessel, the reed was passed between his
lips and it, and the tarnuk was taken to the next man, and the same ceremony
repeated. This was done to all the strangers ; and then the tarnuk was taken
away. After this some meat would be brought, and the smallest piece that
could be cut was given to each. These things were done to show in what
manner Loo-errn would treat them if they offended against the laws of his
country in any way. After sun-down the travellers would be permitted to leave
their places, and to eat and drink as much as they might think good for them.
Next day each would have handed to him a piece of bark and also boughs to
get a light from the fire at which they had been half-roasted. With this fire
in their hands, they would be conducted to the place where they wished to go;
but they were required to keep their eyes on the ground all the way. If a halt
were made, each would have to sit with his back towards Wamoom. Thus they
would be conducted, day after day, holding in their hands the bark or boughs
lighted at Loo-errn's fire until they reached the tribe they desired to visit.
Loo-errn! s country — that which was peculiarly his own — was that tract of
heavily-timbered ranges lying between Hoddle's Creek and Wilson's Promon-
tory. The higher parts and the flanks of these ranges are covered with dense
scrubs, and in the rich alluviums bordering the creeks and rivers the trees are
lofty, and the undergrowth luxuriant ; indeed in some parts so dense as to be
impenetrable without an axe and bill-hook. Any Aboriginal who dared to
penetrate this country without the permission of Loo-errn died a death awful
to contemplate, because the torments preceding death could never be described.
Before any black could see Loo-errn it was necessary not only to undergo
the roasting but to wash two or three times a day for several days, and then
to paint the body. These things were usually done at some point about a day's
journey from Wamoom.
When a company of strangers had been conducted by Loo-errn's young
men to some resting-place at a proper distance from Wamoom, the whole party
* Other particulars are giren which need not be recorded.
MYTHS.
455
would retire to rest ; but before the faintest color of morning was seen in
the east, when the note of the earliest bird was heard, when the first cold
breeze began to stir the mists of the swamps, and when the stars were glit^
tering and melting in the steel-blue of the western sky, the conductors would
awake the strangers and recommence the journey. All but the initiated keep
their eyes on the ground. No unnecessary conversation interrupts the journey
through the tall damp ferns, past the ghost-like forms of the grass-trees,
through the deep mazes of the tangled reeds and tea-tree. When they gain a
height, and when they are in sight of Wamoom, the strangers turn their backs
towards it. The conductors gesticulate. They enquire whether Loo-errn will
show himself. A joyful cry is heard. Loo-errn is pleased, and will show
himself to the strangers ! Yes, he will show himself, but at a great distance I
One of the conductors takes his kur-ruk (throwing -stick), and orders the
strangers to fix their eyes on the point of it. " Look well ! " he cries, as he
moves the kur-ruk slowly towards Wamoom, where Loo-errn is standing. Their
impatient eyes follow the slow movement of the weapon, and in a moment they
all see Loo-errn. Clothed in mist, and regarding with uiuiatural but human
eyes these intruders on his domain, Loo-errn, a^-ful and majestic, permits for
a few seconds his form to be visible. It is over. The strangers depart.
Loo-errn indicates through his young men that he is pleased with the strangers.
They have been obedient to his laws. Ever after, by the power of Loo-errn,
the strangers can kill all enemies except those belonging to Loo-errn's coimtry.
Wl-WON-DER-RER.
There is a range with a well-marked culminating point lying to the north-
east of "Western Port, which, the Aborigines say, is inhabited by an animal
resembling in form a human beiug, but his body is hard like stone. The
mountain is called Narn, and the strange animal is named Wi-Kon-der-rer.
Formerly this animal used to kill many blacks. So many indeed were killed by
Wi-won-der-rer that at last it became necessary to consider in what way those
remaining might be preserved. A council of aged and wise men was held,
and much debate ensued, and many suggestions were made. Finally it was
agreed that the most cunning doctor, with other learned doctors and priests,
should visit Nam and ascertain the condition of Wi-won-der-rer, and, if possible,
kill him and his people (of whom there were a good many). The wise men
explored the mountain ranges very carefully. Armed with spears, stone
hatchets, and waddies, they sought to find and slay the strange creatures with
bodies like stones. And they found them at length ; but their weapons, when
they assaulted them, made no impression on them. It was reported, however,
that these creatures were viUnerable in the eyes and the nostrils. One doctor
said he had thrust his spear into the eye of a Wi-n'on-der-rer, and had killed
him, and another said that he had killed one by thrusting his spear into his
nostril.
The blacks will not visit this range. A settler was lost many years ago
in the neighbourhood of Nam, and though every inducement was offered to
456 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
the blacks to explore the range, and, if possible, track him, they would oa
no account go near it. They said the settler had been caught and killed by
Wi-7vo?i-der-rer.
BUK-KER-TIL-LIBLE.
About two miles east of Narneian or Brushy Creek (a tributary of the River
Yarra), and adjacent to a small outlier of dense hard black basalt, there occurs
in the Upper Silurian rocks a stratum of limestone rich in fossils. It crops
out about half-way between the Brushy Creek and the Running Creek.
Receiving the storm-waters which foil on the basaltic ridge, it has undergone
decomposition, and the waters, percolating the limestone, have carried away
some parts of the rock, and formed a cave or deep chasm about 120 feet or more
in depth. The occurrence of limestone in the Silurian rocks of Victoria is not
common, and still less common are caves or pits such as this near Narneian.
The Aborigines have a legend relating to this natural opening. They call it
Buk-ker-til-lible. They say that it lias no bottom. They throw stones into it ;
the stones give forth a hollow, dull sound as they strike against and rebound
from the sides of the chasm, and the blacks fail to catch the last dull thud as
the stones fall on the bottom. If you tell them that the bottom can be found
at a great depth, they say that there is a small hole not easily found which
leads to greater depths — dejjths without end. Pund-jel, they say, made this
deep hole. He was once very angry with the Yarra blacks. They had com-
mitted deeds not pleasing to him, and he caused a star to fall from the heavens
and to strike a great many blacks, and to kill them ; and the star fell deep
into the earth, and made the chasm which is to be seen near Narneian.
The River Murray.
The River Murray was made by a Snake. He travelled from the head of
the river to the mouth, and as he went along he formed the valley and the bed
of the river. The Snake, however, in making this great excavation, disturbed
the Crow. The Crow was sitting in a tree, and, disliking the business, at length
became wrathful, and cut the Snake into small pieces.
Nrung-a-Narguna.
A mysterious creature, Nargim — a cave-dweller — inhabits various places in
the bush. He haunts especially the valley of the Mitchell in Gippsland. He
has many caves ; and if any blackfellow incautiously approaches one of these,
that blackfellow is dragged into the cave by Nargun, and he is seen no more.
If a blackfellow throws a spear at Nargun, the spear returns to the thrower
and wounds him. Nargun cannot be killed by any blackfellow. There is a
cave at Lake Tyers where Nargun dwells, and it is not safe for any black to go
near it. Nargun would surely destroy him. A native woman once fought with
Nargun at this cave, but nobody knows how the battle ended, Nargun is like
MYTHS. 457
a rock ( WaUtiny), and is all of stone except the breast and the arms and the
hands. Ko one knows exactly what he is like. Nargun is always on the look-
out for blackfellows, and many have been dragged into his caves. He is a
terror to the natives of Gippslaud.*
. Ga/MUim4
KOOTCHEE,
The following account of the Evil Spirit that torments the natives of the
Dieyerie tribe (Cooper's Creek) has been communicated to me by Senior
Constable James. Kootchee has great power. The doctor {Koonkie), Gasoa
says, is a native who, when a chUd, has seen the Devil, and the DevU is
called Kootchee. Kootchee, strange to say, gives power to the doctors to
heal all sick. The Dieyerie people live in dread of Kootchee notwithstanding.
Mr. James's statement is as follows : — Nearly every sickness or death that
results from natural causes is ascribed by these blacks to Kootchee, and the
old men practice many rites and ceremonies to charm away the sinister
influence exercised by Kootchee. I am not acquainted with the charms,
but know that certain human bones, red-ochre, and clay form the principal
ingredients used in working the charms. I may add that none but evil
influence is ever assigned to Kootchee. When it thunders, " Kootchee growl "
{i.e., is angry or fights), say the blacks ; and if the thunder be loud and
near, the whole camp rushes out in a body in the direction the thunder is
heard, and, elevating the hands in front of the chest, fingers upward and palms
outward, make sudden vigorous movements, as if pushing a physical opponent
away, and cry, " Hoo, hoo,'' at each push. They say this is to drive Kootchee
away. If they hear wild pigeons cooing in the night, they are dreadfully
frightened, and ascribe it to Kootchee. I have often been called from my bed
at night by the station blacks calling to me to come and kill Kootchee for
them. They would call out, " Massa, come on, you shoot-um Kootchee; him
big one growl along-a blackfellow. You hear um ?" Listening, I would hear
the cooing of the pigeons ; and generally succeeded in pacifying them, and
allaying their fears by telling them (what they knew, if not excited) that it
was merely the pigeons. I noticed that such alarms would never arise if the
camp of blacks was a strong one and contained many fighting-men. They also
ascribe the whirlwinds to Kootchee; and as on the open plains of the interior
they can be traced by the clouds of dust they raise, they have ample opportuni-
ties of seeing the course taken by the whirlwinds. Should one come near the
camp, it is a bad omen ; should one pass right over it, it is worse. In this case
the whirlwind or Kootchee should be destroyed by throwing boomerangs at it ;
but to fight thus is, they think, highly dangerous.t I once knew a young
* How Bungil Bottle behaved when he canie in sight of a cave at Dead-cock Creek in Gipps-
land, and what kind of a being Nargun is, and where he dwells, and how he behaves, are well told
by Mr. Alfred Howitt. — See Third Report of Progress, Geological Survey of Victoria, p. 220.
f Shooting at the storm is practised by other savages.
" During the terrible thunderstorms which occasionally pass over the country, the Namaquas
are in great dread of the lightning, and shoot their poisoned arrows at the clouds, in order to drive
it away. As may be imagined, there is no small danger in this performance, and a man has been
3 N
./
458-' THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
black, about twenty-two years of age, strong, active, and healthy, who started
from the station, and ran in pursuit of a whirlwind to kill it with boomerangs.
He was away about two or three hours, and on his return was very much
exhausted. He said he had killed Kootckee, but that " Kootckce growl along-a
me. Me tumble down by'm bye." He described where he had run to, a place
about eight miles oif. As the weather was very hot, and he had had no water
until his return to the camp, he doubtless suifered much from his over-exertion;
be that as it may, he was so firmly persuaded that he was supernaturally
injured, that he got downhearted, gave up hunting, &c., and moped about the
camp ; finally lying up altogether, and dying about eleven months after his
encounter with Kootckee. Of course he was looked on as a hero by the whole
tribe, and his achievement was made the theme of a new corrobboree, as they
invariably distinguish special services or events thus, and, as far as I can learn,
hand them down from father to son by that means. They appear to ascribe
many forms to Kootckee. Sometimes he is like a big blackfellow; then a whirl-
wind ; at times he is Woma (a snake) ; but generally they ascribe no definite
form to him, alleging he can take any; but they appear firmly persuaded that
he is tangible, and can be fought with physical weapons equally well as with
charms. I never heard good ascribed to Kootckee; the nearest approach to it
was when they saw the "Aurora Australis" in 1869, they said then '■^Kootckee
make old-man fire," i.e., big fire.
Fire.
The manner in which fire was first obtained is thus described by the Abori-
gines of Gippslaud : — There was a time when the Aborigines had not fire. The
people were in sad distress. They had no means of cooking their food, and
there was no camp-fire at which they could warm themselves when the weather
was cold. Tom-er-a — fire — was in the possession of two women who had no
great love for the blacks. They guarded the fire very strictly. A man who
was friendly to the blacks determined to get fire from the women ; and, in order
to accomplish this difiicult feat, he feigned amity and affection, and accom-
panied the women on their journeys. One day, seizing a favorable opportunity,
he stole a fire-stick, which he hid behind his back, and, making some slight
excuse, he left the women, carrying with him the fire. He returned to the
blacks, and gave them that which he had stolen. This man was ever after-
wards regarded as a benefactor. He is now a little bird. The little bird has a
red mark over his tail, which is the mark of the fire.
killed by the lightning-flash, which was attracted by his pointed arrow. Other tribes have a
similar custom, being in the habit of throwing stones or other objects at the clouds."— i?. G. Wood,
vol. I., p. 306.
It would be interesting and valuable to put together all the practices of savage nations in some
sort of order, classifying them, and thereby laying sure foundations for a science. At present our
knowledge of primitive man, as represented by living races of savages, is found in paragraphs
scattered through thousands of volumes and pamphlets. When shall arise a William Smith who
will do as much for ethnology as he did for geology ?
MYTHS. 459
The story told by the Aborigines of the River Yarra is as follows : —
Kar-ak-ar-ook, a female (now the Seven Stars), was the only one who could
make fire ( Wccnth).* She would not give any one any of it. She kept it in the
end of her yam-stick. But Waung (the Crow) fell on a plan to get it from her.
Kar-ak-ar-ook was very fond of ants' eggs, and Wauny made a great many
snakes, and put them under an ant-hill, and then invited Kar-ak-ar-ook to
come to the nest to dig up the eggs. After she had dug a little, she turned up
the snakes, and Waimg told her to kill them with her yam-stick. She accord-
ingly struck the snakes, and fire fell out of the yam-stick. Waung picked up
the fire, and went off with it. Kar-ak-ar-ook was afterwards set in the heavens
by Pund-jel (the Maker of Men). Waung, however, was nearly as selfish as
Kar-ak-ar-ook. He would not give fire to any one, but he would cook food for
the blacks — always keeping the best pieces of the meat for himself. Because of
this, Pund-jel was very angry with Waung, and he gathered together all the
blacks, and caused them to speak harshly to Waung, and Waung became afraid.
To save himself and to burn them, he threw the fire amongst them, and every
one picked up some of the fire, and left. Tchert-tchert and Trrar took some of
the fire, and lighted the dry grass around Waung, and burnt him. Pund-jel said
to Waung, " You sliall be a crow to fly about, and shall be a man no more."
Tchert-tchert and Trrar were lost or burnt in the fire. They are now two large
stones at the foot of the Dan-den-ong mountain.
Tlie Boon-oo-rong tribe, who inhabited the district lying to the south-east
of Melbourne, give this legend : — Two women were cutting a tree for the pur-
pose of getting ants' eggs, when they were attacked by several snakes. The
women fought stoutly and for a long time, but they could not kill the snakes.
At last one of the women broke her kan-nan (fighting-stick), and forthwith
smoke came from it. Waung (the Crow) picked up the fire and flew away with
it. Two young blacks, Toordt and Trrar, both very good young men, flew
after the Crow and caught him. The Crow, much frightened, let fall the fire,
and a great conflagration followed. The blacks generally were much afraid
■when they saw this. Toordt and Trrar disappeared. Pund-jel came down
from the sky and said to the blacks — "Now you have fire, do not lose it."
Pund-jel allowed them to see Toordt and Trrar for a moment, and then he
took them away with him, and set them in the sky, where they now appear as
stars. By-and-by the blacks lost the fire. Winter came on. They were very
cold. They had no place whereat they could cook their food. They had to eat
their food raw and cold like the dogs. Snakes multiplied and everywhere
abounded. At length Pal-gang, who had brought forth women from the
water, sent down from the sky Kar-ak-ar-ook to guard the women. [She is
represented as a sister of Pal-gang, and is held in respect unto this day by the
black women.] This good Kar-ak-ar-ook, who was a very fine and very big
woman, with nerrirn-nerrim kan-nan (a very, very long stick), went about the
country kUling a multitude of snakes {Ood-gul-gul Kornmul), but leaving here
and there a few. In striking one, her big stick broke, and therefrom came fire.
* See StaDbridge, supra, Karick-karick.
400 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
Waung (the Crow) again flew away with it, and for a lengtli of time the blacks
were in great distress. One night, however, Toordt and Trrar came down
from the sky, and mingled with the blacks. They told the blacks that Waunt;
had hidden the fire on a mountain named Nun-ncr-woon. Toordt and Trrar
then flew U2:)wards. Trrar returned safely with the fire, having, during his
journey, pulled bark from off the trees to keep the fire alive, as is usually
done by the Aborigines when they are travelling. Toordt returned to his
home in the sky, and came back no more to the blacks. It is said that he was
burnt to death on a mountain named Mun-ni-o, where he had kindled a fire in
order to keep alive the small quantity he had procured. He made a fire hard
by a tree called Mdlo-an on that mountain.
Some of the sorcerers or priests affirm that he was not burnt to death on
that mountain, but that Pund-jel, for his good deeds, changed him into a fiery
star, and they now point to Mars as the good Toordt.
Ihe good Kar-ah-ar-ook had told the women to examine well the stick she
had broken, and from which came the smoke and fire, and never to lose the
gift ; but, as this was not enough, Trrar took the men to a mountain, whereon
grows Djcl-ivuk (of the wood of which they could make weenth-kalk-kal k, i.e.,
fire-sticks), and he showed them how to form and use Boo-ho-ho and Bab-a-noo,
so that they might always have the means at hand to light a fire. He left
them no spark of fire at that time. He flew away upwards and was seen no
more.
Mr. Stanbridge says that the Boorong tribe, who inhabit the Mallee country
in the neighbourhood of Lake Tyrril, have preserved an account of the Nur-
rum-hung-uttias, or old spirits, a people who formerly possessed their country,
and who had a knowledge of fire. The star Canopus ( War, i.e., Waimg) he
says is the male Crow, the brother of Ware-pil, and the first to bring fire from
space (tyrille), and to give it to the Aborigines, before which they were
without it.
Another account of the mode in which fire was first procured by the
Aborigines of Australia is thus given by Mr. James Browne : — * " A long,
long time ago a little bandicoot was the sole owner of a fire-brand, which he
cherished with the greatest jealousy, carrying it about with him wherever he
went, and never allowing it out of his own special care ; so selfish was he in
the use of his prize, that he obstinately refused to share it with the other
animals his neighbours ; and so they held a general councO, where it was
decided that the fire must be obtained from the bandicoot either by force or
strategy. The hawk and pigeon were deputed to carry out this resolution ;
and after vainly trying to induce the fire-owner to share its blessings with its
neighbours, the pigeon, seizing as he thought an unguarded moment, made a
dash to obtain the prize. The bandicoot saw that aft'airs had come to a crisis,
and in desperation threw the fire towards the water, there to quench it for ever.
But, fortunately for the black man, the sharj^-eyed hawk was hovering near the
river, and seeing the fire falling into the water, he made a dart towards it, and
* Canadian Journal, voL I., p. 509, quoted by Wilson.
MTTns. 461
with a stroke of his wing knocked the brand far over the stream into the long
dry grass of the opposite bank, which immediately ignited, and the flames
spread over the face of the country. The black man then felt the fire, and said
it was good."
Mr. Meyer states that the Aborigines of Encounter Bay were once, accord-
ing to their own account, without fire. Their ancestors, they relate, were a
long time ago assembled at Mootabaringar, and having no fire, they were
compelled to perform their dances in the day-time. They sent messengers —
Kuratje and Kanmari (fabulous beings, who subsequently became fishes) —
towards the east, to Koncloh, to invite him to the feast, as they knew that he
possessed fire. Ko7idoIe, who was a large, powerful man, came, but hid his
fire, on account of which alone he had been invited. The men, displeased at
this, determined to obtain the fire by force ; but no one ventured to approach
him. At length one named KilhaUe determined to wound him with a spear,
and then take the fire from him. He threw the spear, and wounded him in the
neck. This caused a great laughing and shouting, and nearly all were trans-
formed into different animals. Koncloh ran to the sea, and became a whale,
and ever after blew water out of the wound which he had received in his neck.
Kuratje and Kanmari became small fish. Tlie latter was dressed in a good
kangaroo skin, and the former in a mat only, made of sea-weed, which is the
reason, they say, that the Kanmari contains a good deal of oil under the skin,
while the Kuratje is dry and without fat. Others became opossums, and went
upon trees. The young men who were ornamented with tufts of feathers
became cockatoos, the tuft of feathers being the crest. Rilballe took Kondole's
fire and placed it in the grass-tree, where it still remains, and can be brought
out by rubbing.
The following Legend of the Origin of Fire and of the Apotheosis of Two
Heroes, by the Aborigines of Tasmania, as related bg a natice of the Ogster
Bay Tribe, is extracted from a paper by Joseph Milligan, Esq., F.L.S., in the
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania: —
" My father, my grandfather, all of them lived a long time ago all over the
country ; they had no fire. Two blackfellows came ; they slept at the foot of a
hill — a hill in my own country. On the summit of a hill they were seen by
my fathers, my countrymen — on the top of the hill they were seen standing ;
they threw fire like a star — it fell amongst the black men, my countrymen.
They were frightened ; they fled away, all of them ; after a while they returned ;
they hastened and made a fire — a fire with wood ; no more was fire lost in our
land. The two blackfellows are in the clouds ; in the clear nights you see
them like two stars.* These are they who brought fire to my fathers.
The two black men stayed awhile in the land of my fathers. Two women
(Lowanna) were bathing ; it was near a rocky shore, where mussels were
plentiful. The women were sulky, they were sad ; their husbands were faith-
less, they had gone with two girls. The women were lonely ; they were swim-
ming in the water, they were diving for cray-fish. A sting-ray lay concealed
• Castor ami Pollux.
4C2 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
iu the hollow of a rock — a large sting-ray ! The sting-ray was large, he had a
very long spear ; from his hole he spied the women ; he saw them dive : he
pierced them with his spear — he killed them, he carried them away. Awhile
they were gone out of sight. The sting-ray returned ; he came close in shore,
he lay in still water, near the sandy beach ; with him were the women, they
were fast on his spear — they were dead !
The two black men fought the sting-ray ; they slew him with their spears ;
they killed him ; the women were dead ! The two black men made a fire — a
fire of wood. On either side they laid a woman ; the fire was between : the
women were dead !
The black men sought some ants, some large blue ants {Pugganyeptietta) ;
they placed them on the bosoms {ParuggapoingtcC) of the women. Severely,
intensely were they bitten. The women revived — they lived once more.
Soon there came a fog {^Magnentagana), a fog dark as night. The two
black men went away ; the women disappeared : they passed through the fog,
the thick dark fog ! Their place is in the clouds. Two stars you see iu the
clear cold night ; the two black men are there — the women are with them :
they are stars above !
How Fire was first obtained.
{According to the belief of the people of Lake Condah.)
A man threw up a spear — ujjwards, towards the clouds — and to the spear
a string was attached. The man climbed up with the help of the string,
and brought fire down to the earth from the sun.
A long time after this all the people went up to the other world by the
same means, excej)t one man, and from the one man that was left all the
people on the earth came. The name of this man was Eun-newt. He is
now the Bat. It was the Crow who sent the first rain.
Priests and Sorcerers — Wer-raap.
Wer-raap (a doctor) is made by the spirits {Len-ba-moorr) of deceased
doctors.
The Len-ha-moorr meet the man whom they intend to make a doctor in the
bush, and instruct him iu all the arts and devices projjer for him to know,
in order that his influence in the tribe may be powerful ; but from time to time
they visit him subsequently, and give him aid and information. Sometimes
they visit Wer-raap in the night, tell him that some one is sick, and furnish
him with the means of cure. If the kidney-fat of any man has been taken
away, Len-ba-moorr will communicate the fact, and take the doctor to the
black who has possession of it. If the wicked man has not eaten it, Len-ba-
moorr will give power to the doctor to get it and bring it back, and cure the
sick man.
Wer-raap flies away with the Len-ba-moorr, who have given wings to Wer-
raap; and sometimes Wer-raap does not return for two, three, or five days.
MYTHS. 463
Wlien the people of the tribe see Wer-raap again, he is covered with feathers.
He has had a long flight. He visits the sick man, and if after a time the sick
man gets well, Wer-raap relates all the facts connected with the recovery of the
kidney-ftxt ; but if the man dies, Wer-raap tells them that the wicked black
had eaten the kidney-fat before he could fly to him.
If any one has a pain in the chest, the doctor examines him. He probably
finds that the Wer-raap of another tribe, instructed by other Len-ba-moorr, has
put a piece of opossum rug in the body. The man is taken away from the
camp by the doctor, who lays him upon the ground, puts his mouth to the part
afiected, and at intervals sings songs taught by his own Len-ba-inoorr. In
these songs he conjures the Len-ba-moorr to enter into the part, and put out
whatever is causing the pain or sickness. This sometimes is continued for
many hours. At length the doctor gets out something, which he shows to the
sick man, and to others subsequently. K the doctor succeeds in extracting all
the substances put into the body by the strange Wer-raap, the man gets well.
Sometimes the strange Wer-raap, instructed by his own Len-bor-moorr, is too
strong for the doctor, and in that case the man dies.
Some fifteen years ago, Wonga, a principal man of the Yarra tribe, was
afilicted with ophthalmia, and he went into the Melbourne Hospital, where he
remained for several weeks. When he came out he could see nothing. But
Tall-boy, a celebrated Wer-raap belonging to the Goulburn tribe, which at that
time was encamped on the Yarra, undertook to cure him. Tall-boy took out
of Wonga! & head behind his eyes several rotten straws (which Wonga carefully
preserved for several years), and on the second morning after the ojieratioa
Wonga could see the ships in the Bay, and on the third morning he could
see the mountains at the head of the Yarra. No one doubts the power of
a skilful Wer-raap.
The spirits {Len-ba^moorr) instruct the doctors as to the best mode of
killing a man of a strange or hostile tribe. If it is desired to compass his
death by slow degrees, that may be done in several ways. One method is thus
described : — A piece of bark is taken in the hand, and hot ashes are thrown
towards the point of the compass where the tribe is known to be encamped,
and a song is sung, and all the birds of the air are required to carry the
ashes, and to let them fall on the doomed man. The ashes cause the flesh
to dry up, and the man withers and becomes as a dead tree. He is not
able to move about, and at length he dies.
If it be wished by the tribe that any man of another tribe should be made
sick and put in great pain, the Wer-raap makes a model in wood of that part
of the body in which the pain is to be seated. The model is hung near a fire
and made very hot, and the wild black a long way ofi" by this means has that
part made hot too, and he suffers accordingly. The singing of songs is never
neglected in these practices.
And again there is another way of afflicting an enemy. Something belong-
ing to the doomed man is secured. It may be a spear perhaps. It is brokea
or cut by a tomahawk into small pieces ; the pieces are put into a bag, and the
bag is hung near a fire. A song is sung ; the Len-ba-moorr are implored to
4G4 THE ABOBIGINES OF VICTOEIA :
convey the heat to the ■wild thick ( Waragal CooleenUt), so that he may wither
and die. Hair from the head of an offender is treated in the same way, and
with the same results.
The hag {BcJamj) in which Wer-raap carries his magic bones (bones of
the emu, Kalk-harramill Midl-bang-goo-weet), and white stones ( Warra-goop),
is never out of sight. His treasures are sacred, and very valuable. As long as
he keejis them he can never become sick ; but sometimes his Len-ha-moorr
become dissatisiied with him, and make his relics leave the bag and go into the
bag of some other Wer-raap, and then, thus desjioiled, he becomes sick and
dies.
The doctor sometimes uses hot ashes and leaves of trees as a cure for pains.
Sometimes he treads on the patient, and by strong pressure expels the noxious
things that hurt him ; but, as a rule, he can cure only by the help of his
attendant spirits, Len-ha-moorr.
Some years ago a number of Aborigines encamped on the Yarra had
amongst them some men who were in the habit of indulging in intoxicating
liquors to excess. One of them, Barak, having indulged like the rest, became
very sick. He could eat scarcely at all, and was indeed very ill. He attrib-
uted his illness, however, not to his bad habits, but to sorcery. Piinty, a
black from Gippsland, at this time visited the tribe, and Barak, on seeing him,
requested him to go back to Gippsland and bring away his spears, which he
said the Gippsland blacks were using in some way to his hurt. Punty said
that he knew nothing of the spears, and would not go back. Barak immediately
got behind Punty, and cut off some of his hair, and threatened that if he did
not go back and fetch the spears he would kill him by treating the hair in the
manner prescribed by the Wer-raap * Barak and Punty fought, and the disturb-
ance caused Mr. Green to interfere. Mr. Green told Barak that he had been
tipsy, and had lost his spears. He took Punty^s hair from Barak, and offered
some of his own, in order that Wer-raap might make him (Mr. Green) sick ;
* Mr. F. M. Hughau, who has had much intercourse with the Aborigines, has favored me with
the following interesting anecdote : — " On one occasion, whilst travelling with sheep from a back
nm to the Murray frontage, I observed that the black boy Jimmy, who was driving the ration-cart,
occupied himself in pulling single hairs from his head and burning them slowly in fire, which was
ignited at the ends of two pieces of bark laid together. This was continued for so long a time
that I became more than curious as to the why and wherefore, particularly as Jimmy kept up a
constant succession of moaning undertones — interesting, doubtless, to the performer, but anything
but cheering to me. At last I looked at the boy and said, ' Jimmy, what for you do like it that?'
upon which he replied, ' Bale you yabber I You think it no good. You see bine-bye.' I did not
ask him anything further until we got into camp ; but I must confess to having wondered more
than ever as to what his object tended. After supper, and whilst drawing away at my pipe, I
tackled Jimmy again, and, after a good deal of verbal sparring, the secret oozed out. It appeared
that some time previously a relative — brother, if I do not forget — of Jimmy's died, his death being
caused, as the members of his tribe impUcitly believed, by some one connected with another, and,
of course, a hostile one ; and it was to compass the decease of the unknown slayer of his relative
that Jimmy had laid himself out, for he assured me that as the hair he burnt was consumed, so did
the secret destroyer gradually pine away, till at last he would ' tumble down' — the blacks' expres-
sion for 'die* — and to bring about this glorious end Jimmy had resorted to the plan alluded to ; and
as he went at it with unabated perseverance the next day, I can only suppose that he was gloating
over the speedy downfall of a hidden foe." — US., llth Dec. 1871.
MYTHS. 465
but Barak would have none of it. He said that he could not manage to get a
wlxite man made sick. Mr. Green still retains the hair. Barak speedily got
well, and reformed liis life. Poor Punty died some years ago.
Even now the old people believe firmly in the efficacy of the remedies pre-
scribed by the doctors, and in their powers to do injury to enemies. The
doctors gain influence generally by much self-laudation, much talking, and some
adroit depreciation of others ; but sometimes by accident. On one occasion an
old doctor told the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer that he had gained his influence by a
misadventure. He was cutting a branch of a gum-tree at a great height from
the ground, and was stupitUy sitting on the part of the branch which he was
severing from the trunk, when it broke, and he fell with it to the ground. He
was not hurt, and he at once was made a doctor. Whether the doctor was
telling a true story, or sarcastically illustrating the mode in which honors and
titles are sometimes gained amongst the whites, cannot now be ascertained.
The Eev. Mr. Hagenauer says that the Aborigines of Gippsland believe in
the existence of a good and superior Being, whom they name Mamengorook
{Mamen, father, and gorook, our) ; but they seem to regard him but little, and
are unwilling to say more than that he lives at a distance from them. He is
described as being white, very clean, and in Keledia (great brightness or glory).
Of evil spirits they can speak fluently. One called Ngatga does harm to
them continually, and of him they stand in dread. In all evils which befall
them Ngatga has a part. Great fires and great floods, as well as sickness and
death, have their origin in Ngatija. If a man dies, Ngatya is blamed : he has
come underground in the depth of the night, and has caused their warrior to
close his eyes.
It is generally believed that the corrobboree is held to satisfy Ngatya; but
Mr. Hagenauer suggests that this dance is a mere bodily enjoyment, and is an
imitation of the playing of young emus and the curious dances of the native
companions (^Grus Austral asiensis) on the large plains.
SORCKKT.
The blacks are very often attacked by the evil spirits, who are supposed to
inflict injuries and give diseases by such simple means as the thrusting of
twigs and small pieces of wood into the eye or the ear. The late Mr. Thomas
was witness to some of the panics which from time to time overtake the tribes.
He says that on the r2th December 1845, when several Aborigines were
encamped near him, three young male blacks, belonging to the native police —
severally named Quandine, Tom-boko, and Yeaptune — who were sleeping toge-
ther in one miam, awoke suddenly iu the early morning, and declared that they
were seized with the disease called Tar-run. Tliey stated that thin twigs of she-
oak had been thrust into their eyes, and that this had been done by some
sorcerers ; and they despaired ; and dismay spread amongst the peojile ; and
there was great confusion in the encampment. But jireseutly nine female
doctors approached. They led the young men to a large fire made wholly of
bark, which they had prepared specially for them, and in a suitable place away
3o
466 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
from the main encampment. Each of the nine females held in one hand a
piece of burning bark, and in the other a bunch of twigs gathered from the
Pallce. Each female tapped the patients on the head with the twigs. The
female doctors then walked round the fire, well warming the leaves of the
twigs in the flames, and the hot leaves were rubbed on the breasts of the
patients, and on the place where the Marm-bu-la is lodged, and on the navel.
And they quickened their pace, and heated the leaves more and more, and they
rubbed the leaves violently on the brows, heads, and hands of the patients,
repeating all the time strange songs and wild notes of sorrow and defiance.
When this was done, each female threw her bunch of twigs into the fire. They
next took Kun-nun-der (charcoal-powder), and each female doctor made a black
streak from the navel to the breast of each patient, and again a black streak
from each corner of the mouth to the ear. When all this was done, the patients
were taken back to their miam apparently much exhausted ; but so great was
the faith of the patients in tliis method of cure, that they soon recovered, and
followed shortly after their usual pursuits. During the trial, and when the
female doctors were very busy, Quandine, the stoutest of the three blacks,
fainted, and he was supported and tended by one of the female doctors.
Krum-ku-dart Buneit — evil spirits — take possession of the bodies of even
aged and wise men. Tuart, an old black, was lying comfortably asleep one
night in the encampment on the south bank of the River Yarra, when, about
midnight, an evil spirit entered into him, and he became mad. Mr. Thomas
was awakened by loud shouts — ^^ Kom-ar-gee Marm-in-arta U-reeT — " Get up
quickly, father!" — "an evil spirit has entered Tuartr Blazing fires were made,
lights flitted and sprang up in all directions, and the encampment was a scene
of fearful confusion. Mr. Thomas approached the aged Tuart, and found him
dancing like a maniac, foaming at the mouth, and exhibiting every symptom of
dangerous madness. Mr. Thomas was about to seize him, but was held back
by the blacks, who declared that Tuart was possessed of an evil spirit, and
would injure him. After capering wildly for about three-quarters of an hour,
the old man fell down exhausted, and was carefully and tenderly carried to his
miam by his friends. Quietness fell on the camp — all, including Tuart, fell
asleep, and no more was heard of the evil spirit.
When a black is ill, or when a black dies, they believe that the sickness or
the death is due to eminent powers of witchcraft. In the case of death, they
blame some one — and they seek revenge. They say that some men have strange
gifts : that they can make any black sick if they think fit. A black will bear
the most excruciating pain if he knows the cause — as, for instance, if he has
been wounded. But if sickness overtakes him — such as occurs frequently from
over-eating, from hunger, from drinking cold bad water when heated by exer-
tion — he grows alarmed. He fancies that some wizard has designs upon him ;
and this fear so deadens his faculties, makes him so helpless, that the disease —
slight as it may be — does not infrequently terminate fatally.
The blacks, as has been stated, like the whites, have doctors. But their
priests, sorcerers, seers, or doctors {Mak-ega) — all of them are impostors. They
pretend to the knowledge of all things above the earth and under it. They
MYTHS.
467
pretend that they know, and they not seldom describe to the members of their
tribe, everything that is being done by some distant tribe. They claim the power
of causing diseases — and they say that they can cure any man, how much soever
he may have been hurt in battle or brought down by sickness. They are very
indolent. Tliey seldom hunt or fish, or do work of any kind. Tliey make
strange noises in the night, wander about, and seek to terrify their people.
They are willing to receive gifts, and indeed live on the superstitions and fears
of their less profligate relations. Tlie men are afraid of offending them, and
the women regard them as beings altogether superior to the common order of
the species. They believe that the sorcerers can wound them, take their kidney-
fat, cause barrenness, or kill their children. The sorcerers pretend that they
are unlike other men. They cultivate tastes different from those of their tribe ;
they eat differently and at strange times ; they sleep when others are awake ;
and they pretend to make long journeys when all in the camp are slumbering.
By their wits and their cunning, and also by the knowledge they gain of
events by keeping watch during periods when others are asleep, they preserve
an ascendency over the members of the tribe ; and they contrive to live com-
fortably on the profits of their strange practices.
Tlie doctor, who in most cases is the principal man of the tribe, takes part
in dividing the country. When a male child is born, he is supposed to have the
right to designate the part of the country which shall belong to him when he
arrives at maturity. Whether this division of land amongst the persons
composing a tribe results in their claiming exclusive rights to any portion is
doubtful. This subject is dealt with elsewhere.
Tlie Aborigines of Gippsland, like those of all other parts of Australia,
have a firm belief in the influence and power of their doctors. In every tribe
the doctor has the blacks entirely in his hands, and he can do what he likes
with them. The Rev. ]\Ir. Hageuauer informs me that their wanderings and
their great gatherings are ordered by the doctors. If a black is sick, the doctor
is sent for. After a tedious examination, the patient is ordered to paint his
face white, and the doctor sits beside him until midnight, when, according to
the statements of the blacks, the doctor pulls out the substance which has
caused the sickness. If the patient gets well, the doctor is complimented
and rewarded, just as amongst ourselves; but if he gets worse, then Ngatya
is blamed, whose influence is great.
The doctors have great power. They can command the winds and direct
the course of tempests. Tliey can make the clouds descend in rain.* They
* The making of rain is said to be one of the grandest ceremonies of the Cooper's Creek
tribe. Mr. Samuel Gason says, "that when there is a dronght or dry season, frequent in the Dieyerie
country, the natives have a hard time of it. No fresh herbs, no roots, nothing but ardoo have
they to subsist on. The parched earth yielding no grass, the emu, reptiles, &c., are so poor as to
be nearly valueless for food ; it is therefore easily perceived that to the natives rain is the supremest
blessing. Believing they have the power of producing it, under the inspiration of Moora-moora,
they proceed as follows : — Women, generally accompanied by their paramours (each married
woman is permitted a paramour), are despatched to the various camps to assemble the natives
together at a given place. After the tribe is gathered, they dig a hole, about two feet deep, twelve
feet long, and from eight to ten feet broad. Over this they build a hut, by placing stiff logs about
468 THE ABOEIGIXES OF VICTOEIA:
can designate the personal enemy of any man ; but they never give more than
a general description of the enemy when called upon to bo explicit. The
enemy is usually called Ngallin-yook.
Mr. Hagenauer says that he has had some three or four Ngallin-yooks in
his school at oue time. These would not sit near each other, nor look one
another in the face. When questioned, each would say that " that one would
do something to me." "What would he do to you?" asked Mr. Hagenauer.
" Oh, I do not know, but he would do something to me."
In some parts the doctors forbid the burning of any old garments, skins, or
baskets, or the burning of old camps and miams.
The doctors can extract the blood of any man, and thus destroy him. The
most effectual means of causing death or giving diseases is known only to the
priests or sorcerers, but some methods of inflicting pain and communicating
fatal illnesses are known to most men. The late Mr. Thomas, many years ago,
attended a female who was ill of a fever. He administered medicines, and
gave her hopes of a favorable termination to her sickness. She listened to
him, and was grateful to him for his kindness, and was willing to believe that
all he said might prove true ; but at the same time exhibited a deep melan-
choly. The secret of this depression of spirits she disclosed. She told Mr.
Thomas that, " some moons back, when the Goulburn blacks were encamped
three feet apart, filling the spaces between with slighter logs, the building being of conical form,
as the base of the erection is wider than its apex; then the stakes are covered with boughs. This
hut is only sufficiently large to contain the old men ; the young ones sit at the entrance or outside.
This completed, the women are called to look at the hut, which they approach from the rear; then
dividing, some one way and some the other, go round until they reach the entrance, each looking
inside, but passing no remark. They theu return to their camp, distant about five hundred yards.
Two men, supposed to have received a special inspiration from the Moura-moura, are selected for
lancing, their arms being bound tightly with string near the shoulders, to hinder too profuse an
effusion of blood. When this is done, all the men huddle together, and an old man, generally the
most influential of the tribe, takes a sharp flint, and bleeds the two men inside the arm below the
elbow, on one of the leading arteries, the blood being made to flow on the men sitting around,
during which the two men throw handfuls of down, some of which adheres to the blood, the rest
floating in the air. This custom has in it a certain poetry, the blood being supposed to symbolise
the raifl, and the down the clouds. During the preceding acts, two large stones are placed in the
centre of the hut; these stones representing gathering clouds, presaging rain. At this period the
women are again called to visit the hut and its inmates, but shortly after return to the camp. The
main part of the ceremony being now concluded, the men who were bled carry the stones away for
about fifteen miles, and place them as high as they can in the largest tree about. In the meanwhile
the men remaining gather gypsum, pound it fine, and throw it into a water-hole. This the Moora-
mvora is supposed to see, and immediately he causes the clouds to appear in the heavens. Should
they not show so soon as anticipated, they account for it by saying that the Moora-moora is cross
with them ; and should there be no rain for weeks or months after the ceremony, they are ready
with the usual explanation, that some other tribe has stopped their power. The ceremony con-
sidered finished, there yet remains one observance to be fulfilled. The men, young and old, encircle
♦the hut, bend their bodies, and charge, like so many rams, with their heads, against it, forcing thus
an entrance, re-appearing on the other side, repeating this act, and continuing at it, until nought
remains of their handiwork but the heavy logs, too solid for even their thick heads to encounter.
Their hands or arms must not be used at this stage of the performance, but afterwards they employ
them by pulling simultaneously at the bottom of the logs, which, thus drawn outwards, causes the
top of the hut to fall in, so making it a total wreck. The piercing of the hut with their heads
symbolises the piercing of the clouds ; the fall of the hut, the fall of ram." — The Diei/erie Tribe,
by Samuel Gason.
MYTHS. 469
near Melbourne, a young man named Glb-her-ook came behind her and cut
off a lock of her hair ; that she was sure he had buried it, and that it was
rotting somewhere." "Her hair," she said, "was rotting somewhere, and her
Marm-bu-la (kidney-fat) was wasting away, and when her hair had completely
rotted, she would die." She stated further that her name had been lately cut
on a tree by some wild black, and that that was another token of death.
Murran* which signifies a leaf, was the name of the young woman ; and Mr.
Thomas says that he ascertained afterwards that the figures of leaves had been
carved on a gum-tree, as described by the girl. She died. The sorcerers said that
the spirit of a wild blackfellow had cut the figiires of leaves on the gum-tree.t
The blacks believe that the spirits of the dead ( Yambo kane) go about the
earth and visit the camps of the blacks. Sir. Bulmer gives a somewhat
amusing account of the way in which the spirits may be made usefiil. An old
woman — a widow — got up one morning, and declared that her deceased husband
had appeared to her in the night, and asked her when she was going to get
married again. He told her that unless she got married to a certain man of
the tribe whom he named he would visit her every night. She related her
experiences at some length, but whether or not the sly old lady succeeded in
obtaining the man she coveted is not recorded.
Maem-bu-la.
When an Aboriginal is alone and far distant from his encampments, he is
liable to have his kidney-fat taken from him by the spirit of a wild black. Tlie
kidney-fat {Marm-bu-la) is taken away in some secret manner, and death is
certain in the most of such cases, and scarcely to be avoided under the happiest
circumstances. J
* Marron is the word for " leaf " in Buuce's vocabulary.
t An Australian black is always very unwilling to tell his real name, and there is no doubt that
this reluctance is due to the fear that through his name he may be injured by sorcerers. Backhouse
observed that the Tasmanians also disliked their names to be mentioned. " How the name," says
Tylor, " is held to be part of the very being of the man who bears it, so that by it his personality
may be carried away, and, so to speak, grafted elsewhere, appears in the way in which the sorcerer
uses it as a means of putting the life of his victim into the image upon which he practices. Thus
Iving James, in his ' Damonohgy' says that 'the devil teacheth how to make pictures of wax or
clay, that by roasting thereof, the persons that they bear the name of may be continually melted
or dried away by continual sickness. A mediaeval sermon speaks of baptizing a 'wax' to bewitch
with ; and in the eleventh century, certain Jews, it was believed, made a waxen image of Bishop
Ebcrhard, set about with tapers, bribed a clerk to baptize it, and set fire to it on the Sabbath,
the which image burning away at the middle, the bishop fell grievously sick and died." Tylor
refers also to the belief of the Moslems that the "great name" of God is known only to prophets
and apostles, who by pronouncing it cau work miracles ; and to the concealment of the name of the
tutelary deity of Rome, which was enjoined in order that an enemy might not be afforded the
opportunity of sununoning the god, and tempting him by offers of a greater place to withdraw his
protection from the city.
X " Tlie Idolatrous Nations of old offered the kidney-fat, and the fat that covered the loins,
cxtractetl from human victims, as a peculiarly acceptable gift to the gods ; and the Jews used the
same parts of animals typically. — (Leviticus, c. lii., verses 3 and 4.) The same custom prevailed
with the ancient Greeks. Thus ' the fat of victims, which his friends bestow,' was indispensable. —
( Virgil's JEiieid, b. VI., lines 121, 122.)" — liemarks on the probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal
Natives of Xew South Wales, by a Colonial Magistrate, 1S4G, p. 22.
470 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
The late Mr. Tliomas* has given an account of this strange malady and the
eifects of it as observed in the case of a Goulburn black, who was attacked by
the spirit of a wild black while on a hunting expedition. The man said that
he believed his kidney-fat had been taken away from him. He became, accord-
ing to his own account, very weak, and was scarcely able to crawl back to the
encampment where his friends were. He began to tell his story as soon as he
had seated himself near his miam. All the men assembled and sat down
beside him. His brother and a friend supjiorted him in their arms, as he
became rapidly very weak, and they kept his head raised. A dead silence fell
on the assembly. The women took the dogs in charge, and muffled them in
their rugs. When Mr. Tliomas, at this stage, approached the encampment, he
saw only a few glimmering lights on the ground. There was no sound to
be heard, where, under ordinary circumstances, mirthful voices, the crackling of
branches, the barking of dogs, and all tlie other sounds of a great encampment
would have met his ear. An old black named KoUorlook having noticed the
arrival of Mr. Thomas at a spot beyond the creek on which was the encamp-
ment, crossed it, and ajiproached Mr. Thomas, and warned him against' visiting
the miams at a time when a man had had Marm-bu-la taken from him by
a wild black. Mr. Thomas's own servants had been prevented from crossing the
creek, and it was everywhere evident that a solemn and serious business was
being transacted by the natives. When Mr. Tliomas insisted on crossing the
creek, KoUorlook told him that he must not speak, that he must tread lightly
— that there must be no crackling of branches nor any unseemly noise made.
Mr. Thomas complied with these injunctions, and, on reaching the camp, found
the blacks seated in circles around the sick and, as they believed, dying man —
the oldest men forming an inner circle, the next in age an outer circle, and the
young men a third. A small fire, formed of smouldering bark, but at which no
flame was permitted to rise, was made to the right of and about three yards
from the sick man ; and at a distance of about two hundred yards in the
direction of the spot where he had lost his fat there were placed at short
distances apart smouldering pieces of bark, which looked like huge fire-flies
on the ground. One man attended to these pieces of bark, kept the fire alive,
but at the same time prevented any of them from bursting into flame.
Malcolm, a wizard — a most learned doctor — who believed he could fly and
cut the air as well as any eagle, now commenced his labors. He disappeared
in the darkness ; boughs cracked and rustled as he took his supposed flight
through the trees towards the sky. Malcolm's voice was heard. "Goo-goo-goo''''
was the sound heard in the still night, and the men holding the body responded
"Goo-goo-goo^ Malcolm could not at once find the wild black who had taken
the kidney-fat, and he was at last compelled to take what he made the blacks
believe was a lengthened flight. He was absent about three-quarters of an
hour. When, by the rustling of branches, Malcolm's return was announced,
the old men seated near the sick person cried "Goo-goo wandududuk mo-thur
ma-lar-voit marm-bu-Ia woo-re-mup " — each syllable being pronounced slowly,
* The late Wm. Thomas, Esq., MS., 26th August 1840.
JVn'THS. 471
distinctly, and solemnly. They said in these words — "Come, bring back the
kidney-fat — make haste." Malcolm appeared, and, without speaking a word,
seized the dying man in a savage manner, and rubbed him violently; devoting
his attentions mostly to the sides of the poor wretch, which he pushed and beat
unmercifully. He then announced that the cure was complete. All the men
jumped up. Tliere was joy and noise in all parts of the camp, where previously
there had been silence and mourning. Tlie sick man arose, lighted his pipe,
and smoked composedly in the midst of his friends.
The men told Mr. Thomas with triumph, and with much scorn of his unbelief
in native remedies, how easily a doctor of their people could cure diseases which
white doctors woidd regard as incurable ; and they pointed to the patient with
not unjustifiable pride, as a proof of the power of the Flying Doctor.
The blacks firmly believed that Malcolm had flown as the hawk flies, had
stooped on the wild black who had stolen the kidney-fat, and had taken it from
him, and had replaced it in the body of the patient — and nothing that Mr.
Thomas said to them had the slightest effect on their minds.
They believe that if the wild black who has stolen kidney-fat eats any, even
the smallest portion of it, the man whom he has deprived of it will surely die.
Tlie following accounts of some beliefs and curious practices of the natives
have been given to me by Mr. Alfred W. Howitt, the well-known explorer,
and now a Police Magistrate in Gippsland. The existence of the Birror-arks
and the Barm is well known to old blacks. Mr. Howitt says he has endeav-
oured to find a Birra^ark, but without success. He thinks one may be foimd
perhaps in other parts of Victoria. The belief in the existence of the Birra-
arks is universal ; and that which he has written down, he says, is believed by
all the Gippsland natives.*
Mr. Howitt has written down also some of the myths of the natives, and has
given a singidarly interesting account of Bolgcm, whose bones were found in
the manner described in the native language in another part of this work.
BowKAN, Brewin, and Bulltjxdoot.
"The Aboriginal natives of the neighbourhood of the Mitchell River, and of
the Lakes in North Gippsland, believe in three spiritual beings — Bowkan, a
beneficent spirit ; Brewin,\ a malignant spirit ; and with Brewin is associated
* It is generally supposed that the blacks have no idea of religion ; but it is pretty certain
that they have strong superstitions of some sort. It is well known that they will often cower in
the most abject terror in their mia-mias at the supposed entrance of some spirit ; and they will not
venture to eat without first casting some peace-offering to him over their shoulders ; nor can the
boldest of them be induced to venture out in the dark if he imagines that this spirit is anywhere
about.— Mr. H. B. Lane, MS.,30th October 1862.
f The native sorcerers, according to Grey, are named Boijl-yas in Western Australia, and they
have a mighty influence on the minds and actions of the natives. " The Boyl-yas are natives who
have the power of Boyl-ya ; they sit down to the northward, the eastward, and southward. The
Boy-^as are very had; they walk away there (pointing to the east) The .Bo^/-^a« eat
up a great many natives — they eat them up as fire would The Boyl-yas move stealthily
— you sleep and they steal on you ; very stealthily the Boyl-yas move. These Boyl-yas are dread-
fully revengeful They come moving along in the sky The natives cannot
472 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
BuUundoot — the term BuUun being ' two,' signifying a dual existence. Bom-
kan is also sometimes called Bullun-Bomkan. They are said to live in the
clouds; and sudden attacks of illness are often attributed to Brewin. Borckan
is invoked to relieve from the influence of Brervin, who inflicts upon the blacks,
as they believe, various forms of disorder, which are called, for instance, Toon-
dung, seemingly a chest affection; violent pains in the abdomen, &c. ; these may
be caused by Brewin with the hooked part of the throwing-stick {Murramm),
or by actually passing down the afflicted person's throat. In the latter case it
is attempted to drive out the intruder by shouting out abusive and threatening
words to him.
Oue form of charm used is this : —
Toondunga Brewiuda
Nandu-unga Ugaringa
Mrew murrawunda
Toondunga, &c., &c.
It is sung to a monotonous chant, and may be rendered, 'Oh, Brewin f I
expect you have given Toondung, or the eye (sharp hooked end) of the
Murraniin (throwing-stick).'
Besides this belief in Bowkan, BuUundoot, and Brewin, there is also one in
the Mrarts. The Mrarts are believed to be the spirits of departed blackfellows,
and they are considered to live in the clouds. They are mostly well disposed
towards the natives, but some do them injury, frightening them, and carrj'ing
off cliildren and grown-up people to devour. These evil Mrarts wander about,
particularly at night, carrying a net-bag, like the one used for catching small
fish in swamps, into which they are supposed to thrust the children.
Brookgill, near Boul Boul, on the Lakes, seems to have been a jilace
infested by these evU Mrarts, for several stories are current about them there.
see them. The Boyl-yas do not bite, they feed stealthily ; they do not eat the bones, but consume
the flesh. The Boyl-yas sit at the graves of natives in great numbers. If natives are ill, the Boyl-
yas charm, charm, charm, charm, and charm, and by-and-by the natives recover."
The Brewin of Mr. Howitt must have been a Boyl-ya.
The name Boyl-ya calls to recollection at once the word Bulotu (Hades) in the Tonguese
Mythology, and the boliauns, or bouyhe-lawns, mentioned in Irish Folk-lore. On one occasion,
Lageniensis, the author of the work (as quoted in the Athenceum, No. 2236, 3rd September 1870,
p. 299), assisted at the performance of some mysterious qutickery practised by a noted Sheogue
doctor, called Paddy the Dash, who was supposed to hold friendly communication with the " good
people," for his cabin adjoined one of their raths. The wizard's assistance was invoked in the case
of an old woman who had fallen into a decline. " We were but wee bit bodies at tlie time," says
the author, "and have only an indistinct recollection of Paddy drawing out of his coatmore pocket
a large black bottle, with two or three packages of brown paper, containing dried lierbs and a
bunch of boughe-lawns, or boliauns, on which the fairies are said to ride occasionally through the air.
The blossoms and tops of these buughe-lawn weeds were put in a porringer, filled with water, that
had been left simmering on the kitchen fire. Some unaccountable tlourisbes were made over the
sick woman, then some strokes on her back and forehead, with three shakes — 'in the name of
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost' — when helped to an upright sitting posture by female friends
assisting."
A Gippsland Birra-ark cotild have done no more than the Sheogue doctor.
It is pleasant to pass from south to north — from the blacks to the whites — in dealing with
these superstitions.
MYTHS. 473
One is that when the blacks were camped there many years ago, the camp
was roused at night by the shouts for help of a blackfellow, who was found
by those who ran up lying on his back in his camp, with his wife holding
him. He was ' shaking as if with cold,' and said that he ' was awoke by
a Mrart pulling him out of his camp by the leg.' Another account is of a
Mrart who was seen at that place in the day-time by a large number of blacks.
He, they say, was running along the edge of the tea-tree, carrying the net-bag.
One blackfellow who spoke of this said he was a little boy at the time, and
remembers how his mother ran into the lake with him, and that the black-
fellows fled in all directions with terror. He says the Mrart was like a very
tall blackfellow, and that his eyes were flames.
Mrarts appear also to the blacks often when asleep. One blackfellow has
told me that when he was camped on the Mitchell River, near Iguana Creek, a
few years ago, assisting to gather wild cattle, two Mrarts appeared to him in
the night as he slept. They were tall, and had long hands ; they stood side by
side at his fire, and were about to speak, when he awoke ; then they were gone.
But he saw on the spot where they stood a Bulk (one of the magical stones
used by the Aborigines). He kept the Bulk as a potent 'charm.
Connected with the Mrarts are the Blrra-arks. There are no Birra-arks
now living. The last one, Dinna Birra-ark, was a blackfellow who was shot
near the Lakes when the coimtry was first settled. Dinna Birra-ark is
rendered as meaning The Birra-ark. Many blacks now living remember these
people, and the following particulars are condensed from the account given
to me by several Aborigines : — A Birra-ark was a blackfellow who was in
communication with the spirits of the dead — of the Bungil Wour-kuwjey (the
old blackfellows). Any blackfellow may be made a Birra-ark who is found by
Mrarts in the bush ; but he must at the time be wearing one of the small
bones of the kangaroo's leg, called Goombert, through the hole pierced in his
nose. The Mrarts carry him off, it is said, up a ladder, which swings up into
the clouds. There he is instructed, and when he returns to his friends he is a
Birra-ark. The Mrarts teach him the corrobboree songs and dances, and he
in his turn instructs the blacks. He seems to be the jioet and magician of the
tribe. Many of the songs used here were composed by the Dinna Birra-ark
I have spoken of — the last of the bards. He was also consulted about many
things — for instance, of the whereabouts and well-being of some friend whom
the questioner had not heard of for a long time ; or as to whether any strange
blacks (Borajerack) were coming down ' on the war path ;' and, when the
country was first being settled, as to where cattle were to be found in the
mountains. The mode of procedure was this : On the evening fixed, a little
after dark, the Birra-ark goes out of the camp into the bush. All the blacks
in the camp keep quiet, very frightened ; one only ' cooyes ' very loud for a
long time; then a noise is heard. (The narrator here struck a book against the
table several times to describe it.) This is Bullun-Bomkan (the great spirit)
coming first. Then a loud whistle is heard up in the air at one side of the
camp, then another loud whistle in the air on the other side ; then is heard the
sound of Mrarts jumping down on the ground one after the other. They can
3 p
474 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTOEIA:
be heard talking together, but they cannot talk plainly. Next you hear the
Mrarts marching past the camp after each other, and a voice calls out, ' Do
not make a bright fire, or we shall go back.' Questions are now put to them,
which they answer, and the replies are always found to be true.
When the Mrarts go away, which they do when no more questions are put,
saying ' Now we are going back,' the blackfellows go out and find the Birra-
arh, sleeping on the ground where the Mrarts had been talking ; but some-
times he is found left in the top of a tree ; in one case on the top of a tree-
stem where the head had been broken off high up ; and in all such cases it is
in some tree very difficult to climb, and up which there are no marks of any
one having climbed. The blackfellows have had sometimes the greatest diffi-
culty in getting the Birror-ark down again from the places where the Mrarts
have left him.
A Murla-mullung is a doctor ; a blackfellow becomes a Murla-muUung by
being visited in the night by some departed relative — as a father, uncle, or
brother. The vision shows him the causes of disease, such as Toondung, the
inner bark of a variety of ironbark, which is supposed to get into the chest ;
Bulk, an egg-shaped quartz pebble ; Groggin, quartz fragments, to which may
be added Bottle, that is broken glass ; Murrawun, the magical throwing-stick,
made of ironbark wood.
For these and other ailments various charms and their appropriate tunes
are taught, and the sleeper on awakening is a Murla-mullung. He can now
charm out the Toondung by singing the appropriate remedy over the patient ;
and, placing his hand on the chest under the 'possum rug, draws out the
offending Toondung in the shape of some of the inner bark of the ironbark
called Yorcut; it is said always to have blood on it. In the same way other
cures are performed. If, for instance, the patient has had some quartz frag-
ments or broken glass placed in his legs or arms by the enchantment of some
enemy, the Murla-mullung straightens out the limb, smooths it down with his
hands, and then, after singing his chant, sucks the quartz or glass out of the
place, and removing it from his mouth, shows it to the patient, who is then cured.
As an example of what the Murla-mullung does, the following may serve: —
One of the blackfellows had some magical substance called Kru-gullung in a
bag; it was obtained from some Melbourne blacks. In the bag he kept a
waddy, and by this means the strength of the Kru-gullung was supposed to
pass into the waddy. One day, being drunk, he fancied to beat his gin, and
running after her, brandishing the waddy, he struck himself such a blow on the
side of the head that he inflicted a deep cut. The Kru-gullung passed out of
the waddy into his head, and the wound defied the skill of the English doctors
at Sale. A Murla-mullung at Bairnsdale, however, cured it. He sang his
song and sucked the wound, and extracted the Kru-gullung, which resembled a
glass marble.
Women may become Murla-mullung s as well as men ; but if a Murla-
mullung is stung by a bulldog-ant, or by a nettle, he feels his power gone
from him, and can cure no more till again visited by the spirit of a deceased
relative in his sleep.
MYTHS. 475
Barm is the name of the he-oak * (forest oak), but it also means a certain
kind of bewitchment by which the victim is killed. The mode of doing this
is called 'makiao; Barrn^ or 'to catch some one with Barrn.'' There is a
lesser and a greater process. The less is done by finding a place where the
intended victim has sat on the ground — the place must be still ' warm.' The
spot is then beaten with a Barrn, which is a piece of he-oak about an inch
diameter and four inches long, cut to a blunt point at each end; an appro-
priate song is chanted at the same time. The Barrn thereupon goes myste-
riously into the body of the victim, and unless got rid of by a Murla-mullung,
kills him. One counter charm against Barrn is this : —
Noomba jellen Barrnda,
which means, 'The sharp Barrn is not to catch me,' and is sung over and
over again. The other process is as follows : — A number of blackfellows join
together to get rid of some person. They are called Bungil Dowa-gunney, and
do as follows : — A place is found where a suitable he-oak grows, about six
inches in diameter. The branches are cut off, so as to leave the stem smooth
and pointed ; the bark is chipped ofl" smoothly ; on the ground an extended
figure of the victim is drawn, with the he-oak growing out of his head. Some-
times the outline is formed with he-oak branches, buried under the surface of
the ground. A Murrawun is stuck into the figure. Three or four trees are
then joined by lines marked on the ground from one to the other, and some-
times by stringybark cords, enclosing an area of perhaps eight or ten paces in
the side ; the surface, inside, is cleared up, and the grass and rubbish piled
over the Yamho-yaney or ' double ' of the victim, marked under the Barrn
tree. This tree is also called Tschu-duck. Everything being thus prepared,
the Bungil Dorva-gunneg go to the place about two o'clock in the afternoon.
They must be perfectly naked, rubbed with charcoal, and with their heads,
bodies, and limbs wound round with stringybark cords. They hold the small
Barms I have spoken of in their hands. They then chant for several hours
some song which is to have the effect of bringing the victim to the spot. It
is believed that when the incantation has been strong enough, the victim finds
himself impelled, by a power he cannot resist, to get up wherever he may be,
and walk towards the Barrn. He is said to walk like a man asleep ; he
staggers from side to side, and his eyes goggle out of his head. One song
describes them as being Woorburru^mreTO-nurrundu, or a ' cranky eye like the
moon.'
One of the songs used is this : —
Moon-aug ngi-ag [here comes the name] ;
Bee-ar lounganda-Barmda ;
which may be rendered thus : —
He is coming along [naming the person] ;
The Barrn is swinging him about.
So soon as he comes in sight of the Barrn, he walks straight to it, and on
entering the marked space the Bungil DoKo-gunney throw their Barms at him.
* Casuarina leploclada : Miquel.
476 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
He falls on his back ; they then draw his tongue out of his mouth and separate
it at each side from the throat. It is now put back, and he is roused. He
stands stupidly looking about him. One of the Bungil Dowa-gunney says to
him, ' You are only to live two days' — or whatever the time may be — to which
he nods assent, not being able to speak. They then send him home, sometimes
giving him a 'possum to eat on the road. At the end of the time he dies, as
ordered.
Sometimes it is said they amuse themselves by throwing big 'sow-thistles,'
which grow wild in places in the bush, at him ; they go right through him, but
are jjulled out before he goes home, though the poison remains in him.
The last blackfellow reported to have been killed by Barm was called
Bruthen-mungie ; but Barm has been made for the purpose of ' catching ' one
of the Bony Point blackfellows during the past year. My informant says that
Barm trees have been several times found lately, but that the blackfellows
finding them cut them up and throw them away.*
The Murrarcun is the magical throwing-stick, made of ironbark wood. The
person who has learned to make these, and to render them, as the blackfellows
describe it, ' big fellow poison,' is called a Bungil-Murrawun. He is said to
make it 'carry poison' by rubbing kangaroo marrow on it, and by singing
over it. The Murrarcun is used to injure blackfellows by pointing at them,
making a hissing noise at the same time ; by tying a piece of some one's hair
on it with some kangaroo fat and an eaglehaAvk's feather, and roasting the hair,
&c., before the fire ; in fact it is believed of potent effect in many ways.
I have spoken of a belief that quartz or broken glass can be put into a
person's legs or arms. The mode is described as follows : — The track of the
person is found ; a cross is marked on it with a sharji quartz fragment or a
piece of bottle glass ; round the cross are stuck in the ground some of the
* There are numerous strange practices in all parts of the world wliich have their origin in
superstitions like those mentioned.
Tjlor states, in his Researches into the Early History of Mankind, that those as to hair and nails
belong to Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Moslem lore ; and that tliey are alive to this day in Europe,
where, for instance, he who walks over nails hurts their former owner; and the Italian does not
like to trust a lock of his hair in the hands of any one, lest he should be bewitched or enamoured
against his will.
" The Peruvian sorcerers are said still to make rag dolls and stick cactus-thorns into them, and
to hide them in secret holes in houses, or in the wool of beds or cushions, thereby to cripple people,
or turn them sick or mad. In Borneo, the familiar European practice still exists of making a wax
figure of the enemy to be bewitched, whose body is to waste away as the image is gradually melted,
as in the story of Margery Jordane's waxen image of Henry VI. The old Roman law punished by
the extreme penalty the slaying of an absent person by means of a wax figure. The Hindoo arts
are thus described by the Abbe Dubois : — ' They knead earth taken from the sixty-four most
unclean places, with hair, clippings of hair, bits of leather, &c., and with this they make little
figures, on the breasts of whicli they write the name of the enemy ; over these they pronounce
magical words and mantrams, and consecrate them by sacrifices. No sooner is this done, than the
grahas, or planets, seize the hated person, and inflict on him a thousand ills. They sometimes
pierce these figures right through with an awl, or cripple them in different ways, with the intention
of killing or crippling in reality the object of their vengeance.' Again, the Karens of Burmah
model an image of a person from the earth of his foot-prints, and stick it over with cotton-seeds,
intending thereby to strike the person represented with dumbness. Here we have the making of
the figure combined with the ancient practice in Germany known as the 'earth cutting' (erdschnitt),
MTTns. 477
kangaroo bones called Goombert and a Murrawun. The quartz or broken glass
is then supposed to find its way into the person who made the track, and he
becomes crippled. It is also believed that by throwing quartz-powder towards
a person he can be mutilated in a terrible manner."
A native of Gippsland has related the following story to Mr. A. W. Howitt,
showing how a Mrart was outwitted by a blackfellow : — " A long time ago,
before ' you and me father been dead boy,' a blackfellow went to pick Goor-
nung (kangaroo apple) at a place near the Lakes, Gippsland, called Kin-tall-a
Mrart (jumping devil). While he was busy picking off the fruit, a Mrart
came by and popped him into his bag. Mrarts carry bags 'more big than
house — like it woolpack.' He caried off the poor blackfellow a long way, and
being tired, took him out of the bag to give him a drink. He scooped up
some water from a hole in the ground, and offered it to the blackfellow, who
refused it. He said, ' Den-bun-bo-buk,'' which means, 'The water's no good.'
That was the way ' old-man blackfellow ' spoke long ago. "We now say, ' Din-
din-yarn^ only at that time they said '■Den-biin-bo-biik^ The Mrart being good
tempered, threw out the water, and went to get some more. When he came
back his prisoner said, ' Den-bun-bo-buk ' — ' The water's no good.' There was
no water near, so the Mrart had to go down into a deep gully. This was
what the blackfellow wanted, and he ran off and escaped. K anybody makes
an excuse, we say to him ' Den-bun-bo-buk.'' "
Aboriginal Legend of a Deluge.
"A long time ago, 'when father belonging to you and me been alive,' there
was a very great flood ; all the country was under water, and all the black-
fellows were drowned except a man and two or three women, who took refuge
cutting out the earth or turf where the man who is to be destroyed has stood, and hanging it in the
chimney, that he may perish as his foot-print dries and shrivels." — Researches into the Early History
of Mankind, by Edward B. Tylor, 2nd edition, pp. 121-2, 1870.
The author of The Last of the Barons has told us how Friar Bungey made a waxen counterpart
of the Earl of Warwick for the Ducliess of Bedford, so that when her grace might be pleased to
stick pins and needles into it the stout Earl would become affected in the parts punctured. It seems
but yesterday that these and similar practices were common in a country whose people would be
incredulous if they were told now that their progenitors were savages — having practices like those
of existing rude nations, who, in the belief of some persons, are not inferior, but simply different.
The Barrn — as described by Mr. Howitt — would have been useful to the Duchess of Bedford.
Those who are iuclined to amuse themselves with what are generally regarded as the foolish
superstitions of the Australian natives may find enjoyment also in perusing the histories of witch-
craft in England. Our natives have strange beliefs, and are cruel ; but none of their superstitions
are so gross, or lead to such brutal murders, as those which have received the approval of the
most eminent persons in England. From the time of Henry the Eighth, when a statute was enacted
declaring all witchcraft and sorcery to be felony without benefit of clergy (33 Hen. VIII., 1541), up
to the 4th September 1863, when a poor old paralyzed Frenchman was ducked as a wizard at Castle
Hedingham, Essex, and died in consequence of the treatment he received, our civilized communities
have boldly set examples that the Aboriginal natives of Australia would be too humane to imitate.
Barrington estimates the judicial murders for witchcraft in England alone in two hundred years
at 30,000.
The laws against witchcraft were repealed by 10 Geo. II., 1736 ; but the belief in witchcraft in
England, and in English-speaking communities, if not as widely spread, is as strong as ever.
478 THE ABOEIGINES OF VICTORIA:
in a mud island near Port Albert. Tlie water was all round tlicm. The
Pelican, sailing about in his bark canoe, saw these poor people, and went to
help them. One of the women was so beautiful that he fell in love with her.
When she wanted to get into the canoe, he said, ' Not now — next time ;' so
that, ferrying the others one by one to the mainland, she was left to the
last. She became frightened, and being a cunning woman, she wrapped a log
of wood up in her ' 'possum rug, ' laid it by the fire to look like herself,
and then swam ashore and escaped. When the Pelican came back, he said,
' Come on now.' Receiving no reply, he became angry, and, going to the
supposed woman lying by the fire, he gave her a kick, when he at once found
out the trick that had been played upon him. Then he was very angry, and
began to paint himself white, ' to look out fight ' with the blackfellows.
When he was half-painted, another Pelican came by, and not knowing what
such a queer black and white thing was, struck the first Pelican with his beak,
and killed him. Before that, Pelicans were all black — now they are black and
white, and that is the reason."
The Port Albert Frog.
" Once, long ago, there was a big Frog — Tidda-lick. He was sick, and got
full of water. He could not get rid of all this water, and did not know what
to do. One day he was walking near where Port Albert is now, when he saw
a sand-eel dancing on his tail on a mud flat by the sea. It made him laugh so
much that he burst, and all the water ran out. There was a great flood, and
all the blackfellows were drowned except two or three men and a woman, who
got on a mud island. While they were there, a Pelican came by in his canoe.
He took off the men one at a time, but left the woman to the last. He wanted
to get her for himself. She was frightened, and so put a log in her 'possum
rug, like a person asleep, and swam to shore. When the Pelican returned,
he called to her to come. No answer. Then he was angry, and kicked the
'possum rug. There was in it a log. Then he was very angry, and went off to
paint himself with Marloo (pipeclay), to go and 'look out fight' with the
blackfellows. Before that time, Pelicans were all black. When he was partly
painted with Marloo, another Pelican came by, and not liking the looks of him,
bit him with his beak, and killed him. Tliat is the reason that Pelicans are
partly black and partly white to this day."
How THE Blackfellows Lost and Regained Fire.
" Once Bowkan was very angry with the blacks, and took their fire from
them, but the Bimba Mrit (the fire-tail finch) went off and stole fire from
Bowhan without his knowing it, and brought it to the blackfellows, and that is
why his tail is red."
Another account is this : — " Once upon a time the blacks were down at the
Lakes — a 'big lot of them ;' they were 'driving fish with their net' {Lawn).
The gins would not give any of the fish to Bowkan. He was very wild with
MYTHS. 479
them, and took all their fire. All the mob of black gins ran after him, but
could not get the fire back. A crow was there, and caught up a black snake
{Thoon-ya-rack), which he threw at Bowkan. Bowkan was so frightened that
he dropped the fire, and the gins recovered it."
The Native Dog.
" Some blackfellows were once camped at the Lakes, near Shaving Point.
They had been successful at fishing, and were sitting in their camp cooking
and eating wliat they had caught. Just then a native dog came up and looked
in. They took no notice of him, nor did tliey give him anything to eat. He
became cross, and said, ' You blackfellows are no good — you have lots of fish,
but give me none.' So he changed them all into a big rock ; and this is quite
true, for the big rock is there to this day, and I have seen it with my own eyes."
Another version of the dog and the natives at Shaving Point, as related
and explained by Toolabar: —
" Near Shaving Point, at the Lakes, a big mob of blacks were fishing with
the big grass-nets. They were fishing all night, and came to the camp in the
morning where the women were. They said, ' Oh, we have got plenty of fisli.'
The women said Yacka-torn (very good). One of the dogs belonging to the
women sang out Yacka-torn also. Then they were all made into Walhmg (a
rock). If a dog belonging to you or me were to talk like that, then we should
be changed directly into stone. Once at Swan Reach I heard a dog sing out
very loud. My father and I heard him. I was a very little boy. We ran
away very fast. If he had been near to me we should have been 'like it
Wallung (stone).' All the blackfellows sang out and ran away. I could only
hear the dog say ^ Bring' (bone). I think he was saying Bringu tarnu
ginganunga.''''
The History of Bolgan.
"About the year 1861, ^Bolgan' was a young girl of perhaps fifteen years of
age. She was the daughter of ^ Bookur,'' or, as the whitefellows called him,
' Edward.' At the time I speak of a number of the Murray River and Lake
blacks had agreed to go up the coast as far as Twofold Bay, and they were to
be guided by ' Jackey the Whaler,' who had been there years before ' spearing
whales.' It was also determined that they should accept the invitation of a
blackfeUow, ' Tommy,' to visit him on the way. This Tommy was in tlie
.service of some whites who had a small cattle station in the middle of the
great wilderness of country lying between the Snowy River and Cape Howe.
It was to this station, to visit Tommy, that the party were to proceed, and of
this party were Edward, his wife, his daughter Bolgan, and his little eight
or nine years old son, Charley. How many blacks went I know not, but there
were, so far as I can ascertain, some ten or a dozen — men, women, and children
— all more or less related to or connected with each other. In due course tliey
arrived at the station, having followed up a river from the coast until it became
480 THE ABOEIGINES OP VICTOKIA:
rocky, when they walked. They camped about a quarter of a mile from the
station, at the edge of the dense jungle through which the river flows — a jungle
about a quarter of a mile wide in places, and utterly impenetrable except on
foot ; dense masses of acmeuia and other umbrageous trees being bound
together with climbing vines and creepers.
Here the blacks remained for a few days, and some of the men took a job
to strip bark for the owners of the place. These were two young men of from
sixteen to eighteen, so far as their ages can be ascertained from the accounts
given by the blacks. Tommy and these two whites were the only residents
there ; the nearest station was thirty to thirty-five miles distant, and the whole
surrounding country, with the exception of the way to this station, is an almost
impenetrable scrub.
One morning before noon, when the blacks were about their camp — some
sitting by the fire, others preparing to go out to hunt for the day — Tommy
came down in company with the two white men. He had a poncho over his
shoulders, and his two companions were armed with guns. Edward was sitting
by the fire with his brother ' Curlip Tom' on his left hand, and his little son
Charley on liis right.
From this point I more especially quote ' Curlip Tom,' the previous par-
ticulars being derived from several informants : — Curlip Tom, sitting by the
side of Edward, heard a noise like the crack of a stockwhip, and Edward threw
up his arms and fell back. Curlip Tom jumped up and saw Tommy just
behind them with a small pistol with a square barrel in his hand ; smoke was
coming out of it. He seized his spears, and was in the act of fitting one to
the Murramim to spear Tommy, when the white men covered him with their
guns. He let fall his spear and ran into the scrub. All the other blacks had
already disappeared into the same shelter, and none remained but Edward
(lying on the ground). Tommy, and the two white men. After a while these
latter went off, and the blacks came out of the scrub. Tliey found poor
Edward not dead, but badly wounded ; he had been shot in the back of the
neck, and the bullet could be felt under the left ear ' like a stone.'
Hastily the wounded man was placed on a sheet of bark. The men of the
party carried him along the edge of the scrub, while the women and children
followed a parallel course in the thick river-scrub for safety. After some miles,
they found carrying Edward on the sheet of bark became impossible, and his
brother stripped a canoe, and, being accounted the best canoeman in the
country, took charge of the wounded man down the river, while the others
pursued their flight ; the men skirting the edge of the jungle, and the women
and children travelling in it as before.
In the afternoon the pedestrians had got ahead of the canoe on account of
the difiiculties attending the navigation of such a small stream from the
constant occurrence of logs and large trees fallen across its course. The party,
therefore, camped at a little open bend where the jungle was on only one side
of the stream, and awaited the canoe bearing the wounded man.
BoJgan and her mother and Charley were sitting by a small fire, when all
at once Tommy and the two white men came up on horseback armed as before.
MYTHS. 481
Tommy got off liis horse at a little distance, and his two comrades held it. He
went up to the women. He said to Bolyan, ' You come with me.' On her
not obeying, he presented the pistol at them. Her mother said, ' I would not
let you have her if I were not afraid you would shoot me as you did her father,
Edward.' Then BoJgan got up and went with him. He put her on his horse,
tied her feet under its helly, and, holding the bridle, walked off in the direction
of the station. The two white men with their guns came last.
Very soon after the canoe came down stream, and the flight was continued
till dark. Then they had reached a i)art of the river where a ledge of rocks
crossed it, and they camped. In tlie night the wounded man died. The
following morning the body was placed in the canoe, and conveyed to the west
side of the river. The canoe was then cut in two, the corpse rolled in it, and
carried a short distance up the hill side. A grave was dug with their
tomahawks by a big log where two small stringybark saplings were growing,
one on each side at the head, and one other sapling at the feet. While they
were burying poor Edward, some ' Bidwell' blacks — a man and woman and
two boys — came up, who were related to some of the Snowy River men present,
and they cried very much over poor ' Ned.'
The funeral being performed, the sad party plunged westward into the
dense scrubs lying between them and their ow^n country, and suffered great
hardship, and were nearly starved from want of food before they reached the
Snowy River. How long elapsed from this time I know not, till a party set
out to revenge the death of Edward ; I think it was not many mouths.
The brother of the murdered man, together with a number of the men of the
tribe, made up a ' war party,' went up the coast, revisited the scene of the
murder, and traced out the murderer to the Genoa River, where they found him
camped with Bolgan as his 'gin,' not 200 yards from the station occupied by
his white accomplices. When they first saw him he was looking for horses near
the station. '■Wiick nudain'' (the "Wonga pigeon) speared him, and he ran
off towards the station. The blacks pursued. The white men came out armed,
and threatened to shoot the blacks. These said, ' Never mind ; if you shoot, we
will shoot you,' for they had many guns. The white men were not ' game,'
and Dairy Mungee shot Tommy in front of the station. Then they carried off
Bolgan in triumph.
Of the two whites who are alleged to have been the participators in this
murder, one is said to have committed suicide some years ago, the other, the
younger one, still lives in the district.
When an enquiry was instituted — the story having become i)ublic after some
years — tlie brother and son of the murdered man were imable to find the spot
where he had been buried. Great fires had swept over the place and obliterated
the land marks ; the log — the young saplings — seemed to have disappeared.
Nor could they identify the alleged murderer when placed face to face with
him.
I have, however, no doubt that the main facts, as stated, are true. The tale
told by all the blacks who were present, and some of whom I have questioned,
agree circumstantially. And in following out in the locality itself, step by step,
3q
482 THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA:
tlie course takeu by the blacks before and immediately after the shooting of
Edward, I found that the narrative given me quite accorded with the features
of the country ; and, what is more important, that the locality of the camp, the
tree from which tlie canoe was strijiped, the ledge of rocks at which they
camped and where Edward died, could all be identified.
No doubt the usual accurate memory of the blacks for places would be dis-
turbed by haste of the interment and dread of a possible rc-appearauce of their
pursuers. The bush-fires of nine or ten years would, no doubt, have consumed
tlie ' big log,' and the three saplings could no longer be identified as trees.
The difference between a beardless youth and a bushy-bearded man might also
account for the blacks not identifying the alleged murderer, whom they had
before indicated by many concurrent minute circumstances.
Wliat was Bolyaii's history from the time when she was carried back to her
tribe until I saw her as the wife of ' Paddy Policeman ' I do not know. A few
years ago — about 18G9 or 1870 — Bolijan, or, as she was known to the wiiites,
' Hopping Kitty,' and Paddy Policeman, were missing, and soon dark rumours
became current among the blacks of foul-play. A search was made, but with-
out result. At length, mouths afterwards, during the dry summer, wlien the
lagoons about Boul Boul were drying up, a party of blacks were travelling
along the coast, and one of the men, in crossing a lagoon, puslied his feet along
in the mud, feeling with his toes for eels. He found a bone, and, lifting it out
with his foot, saw tliat it was not, as he supposed, a kangaroo but a human
bone. He called his companions, and they found the remains of a human
being pegged down in the mud by three or four tea^tree stakes. This is a
practice used by the Aborigines to secrete a body. The head was in this case
bent under the breast.
At an enquiry which was held, medical evidence showed that the remains
were those of an Aboriginal native — a woman — and that her right thigli had
been broken and badly set. Further, that the head had been severed from the
body by the ci;t of some sharp instrument, which had severed part of one of
the vertebrae. Tliore could be no doubt that it was tiie missing Hopping
Kittj' — poor Boll/an — whose life and whose death had been equally tragic.
Before long a rumour became current among all the blacks as to the manner
of the death of Paddy Policeman and Kitty. It seems that the last that was
known of their movements was that they, together with two brothers, Charley
and William, had gone down the Lakes in a boat together, with a fisherman and
his wife. Another addition to the party was a keg of spirits, which was on tap.
The consequence was, that in crossing the Lakes all the party were more or less
drunk, and that the keg was ' planted ' in a reed-bed by the blacks, who soon
returned and had a grand carouse. As is usual in such cases, there can be little
doubt that in this instance the blacks, when drunk, were no better than mad
savages.
Many years before, it seems that Paddy Policeman, when in the native
police — whence his name — had been instrumental in shooting a brother of
Charley and William. It is said by the blacks that this old feud broke out,
and that they quarrelled with and killed Paddy. Kitty escaped, and was
MYTHS. 483
making her way througli Boul Boul to tlie Lakes" entrance, and thence intend-
ing probably to go to the Mission Station, wlien she was overtaken by the
murderers of Paddy, and cut down from behind Ijy a blow of a tomahawk, and
then secreted in the manner described.
Such is the story current among the blacks, and it seems to be highly pro-
bable. The two men, Charley and William, were certainly the last persons
known to be with the deceased, and one, if not both, is capable of jierpetrating
the greatest atrocities.
No traces of Paddy were ever found. I expect he was too carefully pegged
down in the Lakes ever to come to light before the conger eels disposed of him.
But one of the blacks thought he had found Paddy's bones. It was thus : He
had, he said, been down at the edge of the Lakes (on the opposite side to where
Kitty was found), and had climbed up a tree to look in a hole, to ascertain if a
'possum were there. He heard a strange whistle. ' Hallo,' he said, ' name
that?' The whistle was repeated. The blackfellow — Tanko-wUlun — looked all
round about. At last he looked do^vTi on the ground, on the opposite side of
the tree to that on which he had climbed up. The whistle was repeated again.
^ Ko-ki! Bring'' (Hallo! bones). The whistle was again heard. Tanko-wiUun
climbed down the tree, and looked at the bones, ' Ko-hi ! Brmqa KurnV
(Hallo! blackfellow's bones). Then he know what it all meant — it was his
brother (cousin) Paddy whistling to him to tell him where his bones were lying.
He said it must be so, because ' He know 'em that one whistle belonging to
Paddy.'
I believe he thought the whitefellows very stupid when a medical man who
examined them said they were blackfellow's bones, but must have been lying
exposed many years.
Whatever might have been the fate of Paddy Policeman, that of Kitty could
scarcely be matter for doubt. Her life seems to have been a chain of tragical
events. When a small child, her tribe were hunted by the whites in revenge
of the murder of a stockman, ' Dan,' at the Murray River, and a bullet which
passed through and wounded her mother also broke poor BoJgans thigh. She
was always afterwards lame, and hence her English name — Hopping Kitty.
Her father was shot, and she herself carried off by Tommy. Her captor was
shot when she was rescued by her relatives, and, finally, she fell a victim, there
can be little doubt, in the revenging of an old blood feud."
END OF FIRST VOLUME.
MELBODENE :
JOHN FERKES, GOVERNMENT PRINTER.
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