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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 FROM 
 
 The Hitchcock Estate 
 
Cornell University Library 
 GN667.N5 F84 
 
 Aborigines of New South Wales. 
 
 Clin 
 
 3 1924 029 890 013 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029890013 
 
I, 1, 3^ Kamal-arai 
 Ka.ma.!-a_ra.i proper 
 2.Wil-arcu 
 3. Sat-irnba 
 
 4. Yu^ .gdi 
 
 5. Yikka-jiri 
 5. Paikal-yu_g 
 7. Waxi-^aji 
 
 Kurig-jai 
 9. Murrin-jarj 
 lO.Garego 
 I.Wira-dhin 
 
 12. Associated tribes 
 
 (Uci-!a.ci, TitaM 
 Yittha, Yiri-ijiri,4i;.) 
 
 13. Bai-kan-ji 
 
 14. Kornu? 
 
Published by Autliority of the New South Wales Commissioners 
 for the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. 
 
 THE ABORIGINES 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW SOUTH WALES, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN ERASER, B.A., LL.D., 
 
 SYDNEY. 
 
 CHARLES POTTER, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, PHILLIP-STREET. 
 
 1802. 
 
 12A 121—92 A 
 
I^Written by Dr. John Fraser at the request of the New 
 South "Wales Commission for the World's Columbian 
 Exposition at Chicago, and published under its authority. 
 
 la-ALL EIGHTS RESERYED.-m, 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 I. 
 
 Introduction ... ... ... ... ... , . . . ... 1 
 
 II. 
 
 Birth and Childhood 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 III. 
 
 Maturity... 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 IV. 
 
 Marriage 
 
 
 
 
 .. 26 
 
 V. 
 
 The Tribe 
 
 
 
 
 .. 36 
 
 VI. 
 
 Social and Domestic 
 
 
 
 
 .. 43 
 
 VII. 
 
 Weapons, Tools, Utensils 
 
 
 
 
 .. 69 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Death and Burial 
 
 
 
 
 .. 78 
 
 IX. 
 
 Conclusion ... 
 
 
 
 
 .. 90 
 
 X. 
 
 Appendix 
 
 The Illustrations ... 
 
 Physical Measurements 
 
 1. Anthropometry 
 
 2. Stature 
 
 3. Census of Aborigines (1891) 
 
 4. Craniometry 
 
 Index 
 
 
 
 
 ..91-101 
 
 .. 91 
 
 ..91-100 
 .. 92 
 .. 95 
 .. 95 
 .. 96 
 
 .. 101 
 
THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 -INTRODUCTION. 
 
 AjS^ American negro knows that Africa is his ultimate home of origiD, but, if 
 one of our Australian Uacks at this " "World's Exposition " were to claim 
 him as a kinsman, the claim would, in most instances, be promptly rejected 
 as absurd. And yet the whole of Australia and 'New Guinea and the New 
 Hebrides, and many of the adjacent islands are, at this moment, occupied by 
 black tribes which are branches of an Eastern Ethiopian race, just as truly 
 as the American negroes are sprung from the Western Ethiopians of Africa. 
 These two divisions of the Ethiopian race have existed from the earliest 
 times ; for, from the opening lines of the Odyssey, it is evident that Homer 
 knew of them in his day; and in the beginning of the fifth century B.C., 
 they were distinct portions of the army that Xer.tes led against Greece ; for, 
 speaking of them, Herodotus says, "The Ethiopians from the sun-rise (for 
 two kinds served in the expedition) were marshalled with the Indians, and 
 did not at all diifer from the others in appearance, but only in their language 
 and their hair. Por the Eastern Ethiopians are straight-haired, but those of 
 Libya have liair more curly than that of any other people. These Ethiopians 
 from Asia were accoutred almost the same as the Indians." (Ser., VII-70.) 
 
 At a much earlier period than Homer's time, these Ilamites or Ethiopians 
 were one and undivided ; for, on the plains of Babylonia, probably 1500 years 
 before that, they seem to have aspired to universal dominion under the leader- 
 ship of Nimrod, who was of their blood, and it is quite possible that the 
 Akkadians of primitive Babylonia were Hamites. 
 
 If the reader should think it strange that I assert claims of kindred 
 between the Australian indigenes and the American negroes — races who now 
 live in regions so far apart, and in outward circumstances so very different — 
 I would simply ask him to think of the relation which he himself, as a native- 
 born American, bears to many of us in Australia. Three hundred years 
 ago, your individual ancestors and ours lived in the same village, perhaps, in 
 Hampshire ; the colonising spirit of our common race there, or the pressure 
 of arbitrary power later on, carried your forefathers to the Columbian land, 
 while ours remained behind, till, in the fulness of time, the thirst for gold 
 or the prospect of a happier life led us hither ; and yet I presume that neither 
 Americans nor Australians desire now to disown their common ancestry, 
 separated though we are by the width of a vast ocean. The causes which 
 led to this severance from the old stock in your case and ours were mostly 
 of a peaceful kind ; but it must have been violence that broke the Babylonian 
 Hamites into two pieces, and hurled them to the west and to the east — into 
 Africa, and towards Australia. In a great battle, the enemy's line or columns 
 may be firm and dense ; yet the charge of a mass of heavy cavalry will cut 
 that line in two, and scatter the fragments far a-field by the mere force of 
 the impact ; and, if the disrupting force be strong enough, the broken portions 
 may be kept apart, unable to unite again. Somewhat in this way, I think. 
 
2 THE ABOEIGINES OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 were the black Hamites driven from Babylonia. Settled on these fertile 
 plains, they had increased tp a great multitude, when a powerful race from 
 the north — perhaps the Shemites, who afterwards formed the kingdom of 
 Assyria — fell upon them and broke them in two ; one portion fled into 
 Africa ; the other — the one which concerns my present inquiry — w;as driven 
 into India ; thence, after many and various experiences, into the Eastern 
 Peninsula and Archipelago, and thence into Australia and Melanesia. On 
 this theory, which is in part based on the facts of history, I account for the 
 kinship of the African negro to the Australian indigene. 
 
 It will not be necessary, at this point, to say more about the origin of the 
 Australian black man ; I now proceed to examine him in his native environ- 
 ment, as he grows up from birth to manhood, and thence from manhood to 
 old age. 
 
 If the limits assigned to this pamphlet had permitted, additional sections 
 could have been introduced, treating of the 'karaji' or medicine-man, spirit- 
 world, mythology, the physical features of the natives, their moral and 
 intellectual qualities, their cave-paintings and other specimens of art, their 
 language, as well as the probable origin and migrations of the Australian 
 race. But, as it is, many of my facte and arguments are here produced for 
 the first time ; and the same facts are sometimes referred to in two or more 
 sections, for they belong to each. 
 
 II.-BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 Sirtli '^^® children of an Australian household have a pleasant time 
 
 TheMother °^ ^*' ^^* *^® ^°* °^ *^® mother is indeed hard. Married at 
 an early age, she has not only to bear and rear the children, 
 but she does all the heavy work of the family ; in camp, it is her duty t^ 
 put up the rude .wind-shelter of sticks and foliage which serves them as a 
 home, to make a fire and keep it burning, and to cook the food ; on the 
 march, she carries in a bag, resting on her back and slung from her neck, all 
 their portable property, and seated on this bag is her youngest child, kept 
 securely there and protected from the weather by a cloak of opossum skin, 
 which is also fastened round her neck ; in this bag, in addition to the few 
 utensils she requires for domestic labours, she has a yam-stick with which to 
 dig up the numerous native roots which are used as iood, a supply of these 
 and of other articles of food required for a meal, a quantity of native string 
 and hooks for catching fish. As her husband walks along, she follows him 
 at a respectful distance, and, if there is any conversation between them, it 
 flies from front to rear and back again. If they sit down to meal, she still 
 keeps behind and gets her share flung to her without ceremony. For the 
 ready kindling of a fire, whenever it is required, she has to carry with her a 
 smouldering piece of firewood ; if she allows this to go out, and thus put 
 her lord and master to the labour of getting fire by friction, or if she in any 
 other way gives him displeasure, he will beat her severely, even till her body 
 is covered with bruises and her hair is matted with blood ; she sulks, perhaps, 
 for a while thereafter, but soon forgets her beating ; for is that not the common 
 lot of all black women? And yet the kuri or 'black man* is usually kind 
 and affectionate to his jin, 'wife,' and they are, both of them, specially kind 
 and. indulgent to their children ; if any of the younger ones is injured by an 
 accident, or diseased, or sick, he is carefully tended until well • if he is 
 deformed or otherwise helpless, his parents carry him about even for years, 
 and his brothers must hunt for him, and thus supply him with food. 
 
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 ^ . And yet these same men, so tender towards the young, have 
 , ,. ' ' cannibal propensities which they occasionally indulge. If a 
 neighbour's child is fat and plump, some of them thinlc that 
 they are hungry, and, in the absence of the mother, they kill the child and 
 cook it and share it among them. On one occasion, a grown women, whose 
 bodily condition was that of an ox iit for the shambles, overheard some men 
 expressing a desire for a feast on her flesh ; but, discovering herself, she 
 routed them with such a storm of indignant words as a black woman only can 
 utter. The blacks of the present day deny this cannibalism, but it certainly 
 was practised, although not generally ; it exists even now in Queensland. 
 
 -p , ,■ In some conditions of her life, the principles laid down in the 
 ,. " fifteenth chapter of Leviticus (vv. 19,33) strictly apply to a 
 black woman, whether married or single. She sequesters her- 
 self for a time ; she must not cook any food for others, for everything she 
 touches is unclean ; she lies on the other side of the fire, away from her 
 husband ; and a blackfellow, moving about in the bush, will go a long distance 
 round about to avoid her tracks in such a case ; if she sees him drawing 
 near her in ignorance, she must call out to warn him, lest contact, even of 
 the faintest kind, should make his hair turn prematurely grey or bring other 
 evils. A 'kuri' onceslept in a blanket that had been used by his 'jin.' When 
 he came to know that it was defiled, he thrust his wife through with a spear, 
 and shortly after he himself died from fear of the consequences of this 
 pollution. In some localities, she must paint her head and body down to the 
 waist with red clay, and shun all contact with others. 
 
 Parturition is easy, and no assistance is required. If the band is on the 
 move, the woman goes aside into the bush alone or with a female companion, 
 and ere long she rejoins them, either with or without the child ; for infanti- 
 cide is common. If a mother thinks her daily toil so heavy that the child is 
 to be a burden she cannot -bear, she buries it in a sand-heap, or puts a pebble 
 in its mouth to choke it, or simply leaves it to perish where it is. Or, if the 
 father thinks that the care of the little one will impair to him the value of 
 his wife's labours, he takes a club, and, notwithstanding the resistance of the 
 mother (for she is not always forsaken by her natural affection), he kills the 
 child. It is curious that, in some places, the maternal uncle is expected to do 
 this deed, and that, in other respects and in other circumstances of a boy's life, 
 this uncle acts as a father to him. Girls especially are not spared. To 
 escape drudgery also, women, who are about to become mothers, kill the 
 child by violence before its birth. The natives do not regard infanticide as 
 a moral offence or a violation of law, but simply as a matter of convenience, 
 ren-ulated by the circumstances of each case ; for, in an instance known to 
 me, the parents killed two. or three of their earliest offspring and yet spared 
 children that came after, and reared them carefully. 
 
 A black women likes to have children by a white father, for the half-casto 
 son has the qualities of a superior race. Pifty years ago, in one locality 
 which I know, the half-castes had become so num.erous that the leaders of 
 the tribe, after deliberation, killed the whole of them. They feared that the 
 young men would be too powerful for the tribe, because of their white blood. 
 
 If the band happens to be in camp when a birth is imminent, the father 
 gets out of the way for several days ; one or two married women come in to 
 nurse the baby ; the sick mother is kept warm, with hot stones, if necessary; 
 she drinks only tepid water, and very little solid food is given to her ; in a 
 very short time she is well again. There are very few deaths from child-birth, 
 and there are no idiot children. 
 
THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH "WALES. 
 
 >, .. As in other negro and negroid regions, so here; there is very 
 ""• little abortion from natural causes, and few deformed or peculiar 
 births, although an albino sometimes appears and is allowed to live. 
 
 rp-i pj -J J The newly-born child is not black, but somewhat fair in colour ; 
 the blackness appears first on the forehead and then gradually 
 spreads. The soles of the feet and the palms remain white for some time, 
 and these, even in the grown man, are of a light pinkish colour. A half-caste 
 man and a half-caste women at Gloucester had several children ; the first- 
 born grew up to be fairer than black children are, but those that followed 
 were darker and darker ; at last, a friend of mine said to the father, " Jimmy, 
 how is this"? "Oh," he replied, "that is always so ; the black blood 
 comes out at last." And, so far as my information goes, that explanation 
 seems to be correct. The new-born babe is not washed or swaddled ; it is 
 simply rubbed all over with grease and charcoal, and laid near the fire, or 
 committed to the nurse's arms, if there is one present ; the placenta is 
 buried. A chrysalis, got from under the bark of a tree, is much valued as 
 food for the child ; it tastes like raw eggs. The mother suckles the child, 
 and continues to suckle it for a very long time, perhaps two years or more ; 
 the indigestible nature of the black man's food, and the uncertainty of the 
 supply of it, render this necessary for the rearing of the child. Prom the 
 hardness of her lot in these and other respects, a black women is barren and 
 old at thirty. There is a restriction of food for the woman herself when 
 she is about to become a mother ; she must not eat kangaroo or eel or birds. 
 In Melanesia, the father, too, at that time abstains from certain kinds of food, 
 on the belief that in some occult way they would iujure the child. 
 
 -y . This is a very simple affair ; if the scream of an eagle was heard 
 ^' at the moment of the birth, or the hoot of an owl, or if a bandi- 
 coot or kangaroo was seen to pass by, the name of that animal, with some 
 derivative termination added, is applied to the child ; one was even named from 
 fire, because the htit caught fire when the child was born. In some quarters 
 the father and mother, after the birth of their first child, are addressed by 
 the name of their child in honour; a formative — anni for the father and 
 annike for the mother — is added to the name to make it apply to them. 
 As a parallel to that, we remember that the tribes among whom David 
 Livingstone laboured had a similar custom. Among his i5arotse people 
 too children bore the name of gun, horse, waggon, &c. Among the Kal- 
 mucks of the Lower Volga, it is customary to carry the new-born babe 
 into the open air, and whatever object first meets the eye — be it sheep, dog, 
 or anything else — that gives its name to the child. Besides the similar 
 usages among us, our blacks also give the child a name from the place where 
 it was born ; as Awabakal, 'a man of Awaba,' Awabakalin, 'a woman of 
 Awaba,' England-kal, ' tbe English.' They have words too to describe 
 the different stages of a man's life ; for instance, one tribal dialect says — 
 taicum, 'a baby'; balun, 'a boy'; oubbo, ' a youth' ; murrawan, 
 'a lad' iu his first initiation; kumban-gari, ' a lad,' in another stage of 
 initiation; kibbara, ' a lad' fully initiated ; paigal, ' a man' ; mobeg, 
 ' an old man.' 
 
 jj,. ^ Training for bush life begins very early. As soon as the little 
 
 . / ' one is able to toddle about, the father makes for the boy a 
 
 small spear to practise with at a mark ; the girl gets a st'ick, 
 
 aitd is taught to recognise food-roots and to dig them out, to find the larvse 
 
 of insects under the bark of a tree, and to kill lizards ; and the parents take 
 
 as much delight in this business as we do in teaching our children their 
 
BIETH AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 alphabet. If a river or lagoon is near the camp, the young ones soon learn 
 to be amphibious, and, when they become a little older and stronger, they 
 have much of their amusement in the water, chasing each other and sporting 
 in it in as lively a way as a Polynesian in the surf. The boy is soon able to 
 go out with his father on hunting expeditions, and learns all sorts of wood- 
 craft, and ere long is himself an expert hunter, and knows the whole of the 
 ' taurai ' and its denizens and its products as familiarly as an English gentle- 
 man knows his own domain. Nor is the girl's education neglected. In 
 England, in other days, a young girl was taught to spin, but the black girl's 
 only attire being her own swarthy skin, her labour is somewhat different; 
 under her mother's eye she takes the hairs of the slain opossums, and, n 
 twirling them against her knee with the flat of her hand, rolls them into [Mr 
 string. This is useful in many ways ; for the women are expert netters, and 
 with it they make their bags ; and, where fishing is possible, it is used for 
 lines. One girl in a family is usually set apart as the fisher, and, to render 
 her little finger more sensitive to the line, the point of it is taken off at the 
 first joint. They also plait the human hair into long cords, and no moi'e 
 convincing proof of affection can be shown than when a man sends a cord 
 of his own hair with which to bind up the tresses of his friend. Fashion 
 among black men required that, on great occasions, the men's hair should be 
 done up into the shape of a cone on the head, and bound together with cords. 
 
 ,-n , , Some writers, who consider our blacks as the lowest of the 
 ^^ ,. human race, allege in proof of this that they are devoid of 
 
 •^ ' natural affection and unkind to children and parents. Certainlv 
 
 the killing of their children is an unnatural act, but, as I have already said, 
 that is not done of choice ; otherwise they are foolishly fond of their young off- 
 spring, and treat them with great indulgence, and patiently bear the burden 
 of them when sick or crippled. Then also, our blacks are very kind to the 
 aged and infirm. Many a time have I seen blind Boko led about by two other 
 men of the tribe as tenderly and carefully as if he were a little child — led by 
 the hand to the white man's door ; if any food was given to them. Boko 
 always got his share first ; if a glass was oilered, the top of the glass was 
 his. If a man is only an old man, he is honoured, and a word from him will 
 be an end of strife ; his very age, bringing with it experience, may qualify 
 him to be a chief, especially if he is also wise in counsel. If a marr is old 
 and infirm, and thus unable to hunt, the tribal law, to which they are all 
 trained, requires the young hunters to bring the very best of the food and 
 give it to him. Erom the pressure of a hard mode of life, the parents kill 
 their babes; but if a child dies, although only a few weeks old, mourning is 
 worn in the camp as if for an adult ; the mother and other relatives raise at 
 times during the day, and especially at sun-down, those ' keening' cries 
 which betoken the presence of death ; in excess of grief the women even 
 cut their heads till the blood streams down. Is it true then that our blacks 
 show no affectionate regard for young or old? It would be better if those 
 who slander them thus would only take care to be Avell informed before 
 they speak. 
 „. , Not only are they kind to children, they are kind to the dog, the 
 
 jLinaness. gjjjy ^jQjnestic animal they have. The women carry this kindness 
 to excess ; if a pup has lost its mother, they suckle and nurse it, and a black 
 man goes to sleep with a dog nestling in his bosom to keep him warm when 
 the fire has gone out. He gets a strong liking for his dogs and they for 
 him, and, if you meet him as he wanders through the bush, two or three dogs 
 are sure to be following at his heels. They are useful to him in hunting, 
 and so he likes them as companions. 
 
THE ABOEIGINES OP WEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 Ill.-IVIATURITY. 
 
 The Bora. 
 
 In Australia, boys and girls reach maturity at a somewhat earlier age 
 than in the colder latitudes o£ Europe and America. But to a black lad 
 maturity is a period of much anticipation ; for then he lays aside his state of 
 pupilage as his mother's boy, and enters the tribe, but only through certain 
 ceremonies of initiation which ' make a man' of him, and thereby give him the 
 qualification and the right to act as a member of the tribe. These ceremonies 
 are, in this part of Australia, called the Bora ; and, as that name has been 
 used in English books ever since the earliest settlements in this land, it has 
 established a prescriptive right to recognition, and is understood everywhere. 
 It seems to me, therefore, unnecessary to use any other name for it, merely 
 noting that in various places it has various other names. But, with some 
 minor differences in the mode of its administration, the Bora exists every- 
 where throughout Australia. I therefore conclude that it belongs to the 
 whole race, and is an essential attribute of its existence. 
 
 Now, before I go on to examine the ceremonies of the Bora, it may be 
 convenient to say here that the negroes of Upper Guinea had, and still have, 
 certain religious mysteries singularly like those of the Bora. These, like 
 the Bora, are ceremonies of initiation, and not only bring a youth to a 
 knowledge of his country's gods, but qualify him to commune with spirits 
 and to hold civil power and authority in the State ; all the uninitiated are 
 to him a profaniim mdgus, who, on the least transgression of his commands, 
 may be hurried away into the woods, there to be destroyed by the evil spirits 
 which the magical power of the initiated can command and control. As an 
 assembly for thus receiving the youths into the tribe is convened but four 
 or iive times in a century, and occupies a period of five years, only a small 
 proportion of the male population can acquire the qualification necessary 
 for power in the State. The king issues, when he pleases, an order for the 
 holding of this assembly. The preparations are committed to the care of ' 
 those old men that are known to be best acquainted with the mysteries. 
 These choose suitable places in the woods, and make ready there every 
 appliance which can produce surprise, awe, and chilling fear on the minds of 
 novices. All women, children, and strangers are warned from the spot during 
 the ceremonies, and the novice believes that, if he reveals any of the secrets of 
 the grove, the spii-its, knowing his faithlessness and profanity, will bring 
 destruction upon him in some way or other. The country, for some three or 
 four miles around, is sacred and inviolable, and the evil spirits will carry off 
 those who intrude. 
 
 These and similar particulars are to be found' at greater length in Bishop 
 Hurd's Rites and Ceremonies, which was published eighty years ago — long 
 before the science of ethnography had come into existen'ee ; and if it were 
 needful, after so good an authority, to bring further evidence, we have it in 
 a more recent form in the books of Mons. P. du Chaillu, Mr. "W". Winwood 
 Eeade and others, on Equatorial and Central Africa. Prom these I now give 
 some quotations : — " In Equatorial Africa, before any are permitted to wear 
 clothes, marry, and rank in society as men and worsen, the young have to. 
 be initiated into certain mysteries. I received certain information on this 
 head from [myfriend] Mongilomba, after he had made me promise that I would 
 not put it in my book. He told me that ho was taken into a fetich house, 
 stripped, severely flogged, and plastered with 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 
 
MATIJEITT. 
 
 sucli as he had never heard before. These, he was told, emanated from a spirit 
 called TJkuk. He afterwards brought to me the instrument with which the 
 fetich man makes the noise. It was a whistle made of hollowed mangrove 
 wood, about 2 inches in length, and covered at one end with a scrap of bat's 
 wing. Por a period of five days after initiation, the novice wears an apron 
 of.diy palm leaves, which I have frequently seen. 
 
 "The initiation of the girls is performed by elderly females, who call them- 
 selves ' 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 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 the men beat drums outside, she cries ' Okanddl yo, 
 JO, JO,' which reminds one of the 'evohe' of the ancient bacchanals. The 
 ceremonies performed in the hut and in the wood are kept secret from the 
 men, and I can say but little about them. Mongilomba had evidently been 
 playing the spy, but was very reserved upon the subject. 
 
 "During the novitiate which succeeds initiation, the girls are taught religious 
 dances, the men are instructed in the science of fetich. It is thea that they 
 are told that there are certain kinds of food which are forbidden to their 
 clan. One clan may not eat crocodile, another hippopotamus, nor a third 
 buffalo. These are relics of the old animal worship. The spirit Ukuk (o;- 
 M'wetyi, as he is called in the Shekani country) is supposed to live in the 
 bowels of the earth, and to come to the upper world when, there is any 
 business to peform. He is then supposed to dwell in the fetich house, which 
 is built in a peculiar form, covered with dry plantain leaves, and is always 
 kept perfectly dark. Thence issue strange sounds like the growling of a 
 a tiger, which make the women and children shudder and run to their houses. 
 When the mangrove tube is thus heard to be at work, the initiated repair to 
 the house, and a 'lodge ' is held." 
 
 Farther south, the Kafiirs have similar ceremonies in connection with the 
 circumcision of boys. The main features are these: — "This national rite is 
 performed at the age of puberty, and partakes partly of a civil and partly of 
 a religious character. As a civil rite it introduces boys into a state of man- 
 hood, and as a religious rite it imposes upon them the responsibility of con- 
 forming to all the rites and ceremonies of their superstition. Circumcision 
 is generally performed about the time of the new year. A number of neigh- 
 bouring kraals club together, and arrange that the boys thereof shall be cir- 
 cumcised together. A hut is erected for that purpose about half a mile from 
 the most central kraal. To this hut the boys are taken, having been placed 
 in charge of a person appointed to that office, and under whose charge they 
 continue during the whole time of their initiation, and which state of initia- 
 tion is called xibukweta, the boys themselves being termed abalcweta. Here 
 the ceremony is performed, after which healing plants are applied, together 
 with certain charms, especial care being taken to preserve the whole of these, 
 to be burned at the appointed time, in order that they may not fall into the 
 hands of sorcerers or witches, who might make use of them, as uhuti, to 
 bewitch the boys. During the whole time of their initiation, which generally 
 lasts until the Kaffir corn crops are reaped, the boys form an entirely 
 
THE ABORIGINES OE NEW SOrTH WALES. 
 
 separate community ; they sleep in one hut, and no others are allowed to eat 
 with them. Another heathenish custom connected with this rite is the 
 tthutsliila, which consists in attiring themselves with the leaves of the wild 
 date, in the most fantastic manner ; and, thus attired, they visit each of the 
 kraals to which they belong in rotation, for the purpose of dancing. After 
 all this the dbahweta are taken to the river to be washed ; for, during the 
 whole time of their separation, they smear themselves all over with white clay. 
 The whole of the men of the kraals to which they belong being assembled, 
 the boys are chased by them, and obliged to run as fast as possible all the 
 way to the river. After having sufficiently performed their ablutions, they 
 return to their huts, when everything connected with their ubulcweta, 
 including their ' karosses,' bandages, &c., is collected inside the hut, and the 
 whole is burned. The boys, having been smeared with fat and red clay, are 
 presented with new ' karosses.' They then proceed in a body to the kraal 
 which has the charge of them, all of them being esceedingly careful not to 
 look back upon the burning hut, lest some supernatural evil should befall 
 them ; and, in order more effectually to avoid this, they are careful to cover 
 their heads all over with ' karosses.' The nest day, all the men assemble in the 
 cattle-fold, and a grand feast ensues, at which the ceremonies of ulcuyala 
 and uleusolca are performed. The iirst consists in discourses or lectures by 
 the men to the novices on their duties as members of society, as they have 
 now entered into the important state of manhood. These duties, they are 
 told, consist in obeying their chief, defending their tribe from all enemies, 
 and in conforming to all the customs, and fulfilling all the rites and ceremo- 
 nies of their forefathers. They are also exhorted to be careful in providing 
 for their parents and all others committed to their charge, and to exercise a 
 spirit of liberality towards all their neighbours and friends. The uhusoha 
 consists in presents being made to them, by the men assembled, of cattle, 
 'assagais,' &c., in order to give them a start in life. They are then pro- 
 nounced to be men, and are admitted to all the privileges of that important 
 state. 
 
 " During the period of their seclusion, the novices are distinguished by 
 having their faces and legs smeared with a kind of white clay, and their 
 ' karosses' left undressed with the usual preparation of red-ochre. Their 
 appearance in the presence of married women is strictly prohibited. It is 
 accordingly no uncommon thing to see a party oF abakweta take instant 
 ilight to some hiding-place, while a woman of that class passes by. No such 
 interdict exists with regard to the unmarried. 
 
 " One of the most striking proofs of the amazing power which the chief, 
 TJtahaka, acquired over the minds of the Amazulu was that he was able to 
 induce his people to abandon this custom. This was done solely for military 
 purposes, as it migKt sometimes interfere with, or prevent, his ambitious 
 designs. 
 
 " Ntonjane is the initiatory rite analogous to circumcision, by which girls 
 are introduced into womanhood ; it is partly of a civil and partly of a 
 superstitious nature. The girl is placed in a separate hut, and none but 
 females are allowed to see her ; and, during the time of her separation, 
 which lasts from seven to ten days, neither she nor any of lier female 
 companions are allowed to use milk. A festival ensues at which much 
 license prevails." 
 
 In Eiji — also a Melanesian region — there are ceremonies of initiation 
 similar to those of the Australian Bora ; and these are called the ' Nanga ' 
 custom, but it existed only among certain tribes. An oblong space of 
 
MATUEITT, 
 
 considerable size was surronnded with low stone walls, and then divided into 
 three enclosures by two parallel walls running across ; each of these low 
 dividing stone walls had in the middle a break in it like a door-sill, which could 
 he easily stepped over. The farthest of these enclosures was the most sacred, 
 and there was set in it the 'kava' bowl. In the open ground beyond that, 
 and outside the encircling wall, was a bell-roofed house, called the ' sacred 
 temple.' On 'Nanga' occasions, the people are of five kinds — (L) the 
 women, children, and uninitiated, who must keep outside the enclosure 
 altogether ; children must not even play near it ; (2) the young men about to 
 be initiated for the first time ; (3) those who have passed through one Nanga 
 ceremony ; (4) those who have attended two Nangas, and have thus become 
 full members ; (5) the old men or elders who have charge of the sacred Nanga 
 and preside at the ceremonies. The rite is celebrated at long intervals, and 
 intimation is given, perhaps two years beforehand, that all may be ready. 
 But famine or war may intervene and delay the holding of the Nanga ; hence 
 youths long past puberty, and even bearded men, may come to be initiated. 
 When at last the time for the Nanga has come, great preparations are made 
 and food collected in quantities, for the men must not retura to the 
 villages while the ceremonies last ; a pathway is carefully cleared from the 
 village to the Nanga enclosure, and along this the novices advance, all clean 
 shaven ; they come on in single file, treading in the footsteps of an old priest, 
 who goes before them with his carved staif of office in hand ; he leads them 
 into the middle enclosure — the ' Great Nanga,' — where the other celebrants 
 are already seated, chanting a song like the low murmuring of the surf on a 
 distant coral reef. The novices are then conducted to huts near by, which 
 have been made ready for them. Thus ends the first day. On each of the 
 three days that follow, they are led from the huts to the ' Great Nanga' by 
 the same guide and in the same manner, and then return to their huts. But 
 on the fifth day, when they have come as before, they find the Nanga 
 empty ; the procession now stops, and, from the forest on all sides around, 
 come screams of parrots and booming noises which frighten the novices ; 
 their priestly friend now lead them into the farthest or most sacred Nanga ; 
 there they see lying on the ground in front of them the bodies of men, 
 covered with gashes and blood, and their bowels protruding ; beyond these 
 is the high priest, sitting alone and looking at the comers with a fixed stare. 
 Stepping over the prostrate bodies, the young men follow their guide and 
 stand in a row before the high priest; he now utters a yell, and the dead 
 men — who represent the spirits of ancestors — rise up and go to the river and 
 wash themselves clean. These men then ornament themselves, and come back 
 walking with a rhythmical movement and a solemn chant ; they place them- 
 selves in front of the young men, and silence ensues. Pour old priests now 
 appear; the first carries a cooked, ham wrapped in leaves, but his hands do 
 not touch the food ; the second carries baked pork in a similar manner ; 
 the third has a cup full of water; and the fourth bears a napkin 
 of native cloth. The food and water are applied to the lips of each 
 of the novices in succession, and he takes a little. The fourth priest 
 wipes the mouth of each with his napkin. The chief priest now instructs 
 them as to their duties, and enjoins them not to divulge anything of what 
 they have seen or done. The young have thus passed through their first 
 novitiate ; in token of welcome, presents are now given to them by all the 
 celebrants. On the following morning the women are summoned, and, 
 according to custom, they crawl on hands and knees through the first two 
 enclosures into the presence of the chief priest and the elders. The chief 
 priest sprinkles them with water from the sacred bowl, and makes a prayer 
 
10 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 to tlie ancestral spirits for tlie mothers and their children. The women now 
 return in the same way as they came. When they have emerged from the 
 enclosures, the men there rush upon them, and a scene o£ much licence ensues. 
 The initiated of the first and second year are now daubed all over with black 
 paint, and in each hand they carry a green bough. The old priest puts 
 himself at the head of them, and all who have been participants in the 
 ceremonies go down to the river and wash themselves clean ; the chief 
 priest, seated on the river bank, now further instructs them — tells them 
 about the customs of the tribe, and their own duties as tribesmen ; that 
 they miist not eat the best of the yams, but must be content with the com- 
 moner kinds of animal and vegetable food, and must bring the fresh-water 
 fish and the eels to the old men; any violation of these rules will be 
 punished by the gods. This ends the rite of initiation. 
 
 The vale iatnbu — ' the sacred house' — is used on special occasions for- the 
 rite of circumcision. When any great man is dangerously ill a family 
 council agrees that his own or his brother's son shall be circumcised as a 
 ' soro,' or propitiatory offering, for his recovery. Other lads offer themselves 
 for circumcision along with him. They are there circumcised, and their 
 foreskins are carried by the priest in cleft reeds to the Nanga, and the priest, 
 holding these in his hands, offers them to the gods, and prays for the sick 
 man's recovery. 
 
 I have quoted these examples at considerable length, because they all 
 throw important light on the ceremonies of our Bora, and they all belong to 
 black races like our own. I now return to the African ceremonies. 
 
 The essential idea prominent in the negro ceremony of initiation is that of 
 death and a new birth — a regeneration. Hence the catechumen, before he 
 proceeds to the groves, gives away all his property and effects, as if about to 
 die to the world, and, on the completion of his novitiate, when he returns to 
 his kindred, he pretends to forget all his past life, and to know neither father 
 nor mother, nor relations, nor former friends. His is a new life. His whole 
 aspect is that of a new man, for he is now differently attired, and, as a badge 
 of his new rank, he wears a collar of leopards' teeth round his neck. During 
 the five years of his training, the probationer is attended by some old and 
 experienced devotees, who act as his instructors. They teach him the ritual 
 of their religion, various songs and pieces of poetry, mostly in praise of their 
 chief god, and, in particular, he learns from them a dance of a frenzied kind. 
 While this course of education is proceeding, the king frequently visits the 
 groves, and examines the candidates. When their training is sufficiently 
 advanced, they receive each a new name, and, as a token of their regeneration, 
 several long wounds, which afterwards become permanent scars, are made on 
 their neck and shoulders. They are now conducted to some retired place at 
 a distance, where women may attend them. Here, their religious education 
 being already complete, they are instructed in those jn-inciples of morals and 
 politics which will make them useful as members of the State, and fit to act 
 as judges in civil and criminal causes. This done, they leave the groves and 
 their tutors, and, with their new badges of perfection upon them, they exhibit 
 their magical powers in public by means of a stick driven into the ground, 
 with a bundle of reeds at its top, or they repair to the public assemljly, and 
 join in the solemn dances of the wise men or in the duties of civic rulers. 
 
 The aboriginal races of India also have observances similar to those of the 
 African negroes ; for, among some of the Dravidian tribes of Central India, 
 "persons desiring to enter the priesthood are required to retire for some days to 
 the jungle, and commune in solitude with the deity. Before they are confirmed 
 
MATIJEITT. 11 
 
 in their office they are expected to perforin some marvellous act as evidence 
 of their having acquired superhuman power." In another tribe, the novice 
 " retires to the jungle, and there remains alone and v^ithout clothing for 
 eight days, during which time he performs certain purificatory rites. On 
 the eighth day he returns, and enters upon the discharge of his duties." 
 So far the negroes of Upper G-uinea and the tribes of the Dekkan. 
 
 I now turn to Australia ; and there, when a boy approaches the age of 
 puberty, a feeling of restless anticipation spreads over his mind, for he 
 knows that his opening manhood has brought him to the threshold of 
 ceremonies of mysterious import, through which he is to be formally received 
 into the tribe, and thereby to acquire the dignity of a man. The rites of 
 initiation are important, numerous, and prolonged ; and, as his admission 
 does not Concern himself or his family merely but the whole tribe, these 
 observances call together large assemblages, and are the occasion of general 
 rejoicing. 
 
 This assembly — the most solemn and unique in the tribal life — is called the 
 Bora. The whole proceedings are essentially the same everywhere in their 
 general features and teachings, but the details vary among the different 
 tribes. Therefore, instead of a separate narrative for each tribe, I will 
 endeavour to present a full view of the Bora, taking one tribal mode as the 
 basis of my description, but introducing from the other tribes such features 
 as appear to me needed to complete the significance of the. ceremonies. 
 
 The chiefs of the tribule know that some boys are of an age to be initiated ; 
 they accordingly summon to them the public messenger or herald, and bid him 
 inform the other sections of the tribe that a Bora will be held at a certain 
 time and place, the time being near full moon, and the place being usually a 
 well-known Bora-ground ; they also send him away to invite the neighbouring 
 tribes to attend. This invitation is readily accepted; for, although the tribes 
 may be at variance with each other, universal brotherhood prevails among 
 the blacks at such a time as that. Tlie day appointed for the gathering is, 
 perhaps, a month or two distant, and the intervening time is filled with 
 busy preparations by the leading men of the novices' tribule. They select a 
 suitable piece of ground near water if possible, and level for convenience 
 in sitting or lying on. Two circular enclosures are then formed and cleared 
 of all timber, even of every blade of grass — a larger and a smaller, with a 
 straight track connecting them. The smaller and sacred circle is about a 
 quarter of a mile up the ridge, and out of sight of the other, and in those 
 that I have examined the path between is due east and west, or nearly so. 
 The trees that grow around the smaller circle they carve, perhaps up to 
 twenty feet from the ground, with curious emblematical devices and figures. 
 The circuit of each ring is defined by a slight mound of earth laid around, 
 and, in the centre of the larger one, they fix a short pole with a bunch of emu 
 feathers on the top of it. When these arrangements are completed the 
 ceremonies should begin, but there is often considerable delay. The cause 
 of such delay will appear from the words of a friend of mine : — " We had 
 some young blacks in our house, fifty years ago, and the older blacks 
 would come to us, and ask us to allow these lads to go off for a time to be 
 made ' boombat.' Sometimes the boys would be away for the best part of a 
 year. Sometimes the old men would bring back the boys in a short time, saying 
 that things were not ready for the Bora, that the other blacks were slow in 
 coming up, and so forth, and that the ceremonies could not go on then ; but 
 usually all the men, the lads, and the ' jins ' went off together on their way to 
 the appointed place of meeting. At night time, whereyer they camped, several 
 
12 THE ABOEIGINES OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 of the men would go out in different directions and make friglitsome 
 noises all around, scaring the ' jins ' almost out of their wits, and awing 
 the boys. Thus matters would go on until they reached the hig camp 
 of assembly." A large concourse is there. The men stand with their 
 bodies painted in stripes of colour, chieily red and white. The women, 
 who are permitted to be present at the opening ceremony only, are lying 
 prone on the ground all round the larger ring, and are covered all over with 
 rugs and cloaks. 
 
 The boy, painted red all over— I say boy, but several boys may be initiated 
 at once,— the boy is brought forward, and made to lie down in the middle of 
 the ring, and covered with an opossum rug. Such of the old men as have 
 been appointed masters of the ceremonies now begin to throw him into a 
 state of fear and awe by sounding an instrument called tirrikoty, similar to 
 what an English boy calls a ' bull-roarer.' In Central Africa, a whistle is 
 used similarly as a sacred instrument, and something similar seems also to 
 have been used in the mysteries of ancient G-reece. In Australia the men 
 use tirrikoty on all occasions when they wish to frighten the women and the 
 boys, who cower with fear whenever they hear it. " On one occasion," said 
 a friend to me, " a number of blacks were working in the corn-field, near the 
 Barrington Eiver. A little boy began to sound his toy ' bull-roarer.' The 
 blacks all took to their heels. A few, however, rushed up to him and said, ' Bail 
 ('no') you "do that ; that's one of our gods.' " It is not lawful for anyone to 
 handle it except those who have been initiated at the Bora. It is made of a 
 piece of thin wood or of the bark of a tree. It is 9 to 12 inches long, and is 
 sometimes shaped and marked so as to make it look like a fish. The roaring 
 sound is supposed-to be the voice of a dreaded evil spirit, who prowls about 
 the camp of the blacks at night and carries off and tears and devours those 
 he can seize. Wh^n the performers think that the ' boombat ' (so they call 
 the novice) has been sufficiently impressed, tirrikoty ceases to speak. They 
 then raise the boy from the ground, and set him in the middle of the ring in 
 such a manner that his face is turned towards the cleared track which leads 
 to the circle of imagery. Then an old man comes forward, breathes strongly 
 in his face, and makes him cast his eyes upon the ground ; for in this humble 
 
 attitude he must continue for some days. 
 I, 
 Two other old men next take the boy by the arms and lead him along the 
 track, and set him in the middle of the other enclosure. As soon as this is 
 done the women rise from their prostrate position, and begin to dance and 
 sing. The Murringgari tribe, on our south-east coast, place along this track 
 or path some figures, moulded in earth, of various animals (totems), and one 
 of Dharamulan, a spirit-god whom they reverence. Before each of these 
 figures the devotees have a dance ; and a ' karaji,' medicine man or doctor, 
 brings up, through his mouth, apparently from his stomach, the'joea' or 
 magic of the totem before which they then stand. Eor the porcupine, he shows 
 stuff like chalk, for the kangaroo stuff like glass, and so on. Meanwhile, 
 the boy has been sitting in the smaller circle with downcast eyes. He is told 
 to rise, and is led in succession to each of the carved trees around it, and is 
 made to look up for a moment at the carvings on them, and, while he does so, 
 the old men raise a shout. When he has come to know all the carvings 
 sufiGciently, the men give him a new name, which must not be revealed to the 
 uninitiated, and they hand to him a little bag containing one or more small 
 stones of crystal quartz. This bag he will always carry about his person, and 
 the stones must not be shown to the uninitiated on pain of death. This con- 
 cludes the first part of the performance. 
 
MATURITY. 13 
 
 A fire is kept constantly burning in the centre of tliis upper ring. The 
 boy is made to lie within the ring prone on the ground for weeks, it may be, 
 getting only a very little food and water now and then. When he wishes 
 to go outside, the old men carry him over the raised border of the ring. One 
 black boy told me that, when he was initiated, he joined the assembled crowd 
 in the month of August, and did not get away till about Christmas. ' When 
 the men in charge of the sacred circle at last bade him rise from his recum- 
 bent position, he said he was so weak that he staggered and fell. He says 
 that he was kept two or three weeks among the women at the lower circle, 
 because the other young men from the tribe were not ready, and had not come 
 up ; that the women thei'e lie flat, covered up with opossum cloaks, sheets of 
 bark, and the like, and dare not look up ; that the ' boombat' is among them, 
 painted all over with ruddle ; that a black man keeps running round the 
 outside of the circle sounding ij>r«7coi'!/; that the 'boombat' is then taken 
 from among the women into the centre of the circle and kept there a short 
 time — perhaps a quarter of an hour — and is then led away to the upper 
 circle, where the old men are. All this while the ' boombat' keeps his eyes 
 cast upon the ground, and must not look up. On approaching the sacred 
 circle, he was told now to look up at each of the marked trees and then 
 look down again. My informant said: "When I was put within the 
 ring I was made lie down, covered over, and kept lying there on the 
 ground for three months ; several times I tried to peep out, but nearly 
 lost my life for it, for they tl^reatened to kill me with spears ; other boys 
 are not kept so long as three months ; the old men regulate the time 
 according to the strength of the boy." All this is additional evidence 
 corroborating the information I got from other quarters ; for a considerable 
 portion of what I now tell about the Bora is new, and comes from my own 
 investigations. 
 
 The ' boombat' is next conveyed, blindfolded, to a large camp, at a distance 
 of several miles, no woman being near, and food is given to him, which he 
 eats still with his eyes east down ; here they keep him for eight or ten days, 
 and teach him their tribal lore by showing him their dances and their songs ; 
 these he learns, especially one aong, of which I c*iu tell nothing further than 
 that it is important for the boy to know it. These songs, they say, were 
 given to them by Bayemai, the great Creator. At night, during this period, 
 the ' boombat' is set alone in secluded and darksome places, and all around 
 him the men make hideous noises, at which he must not betray the least sign 
 of fear. At some part of the ceremony a sacred wand is shown to him. Of 
 this, Eidley says : — "This old man, Billy, told me, as a favour, Vi'hat other 
 blacks had withheld as a mystery too sacred to be disclosed to a white man,, 
 that ' dhurumbulum,' a stick or wand, is exhibited at the Bora, and that the 
 sight of it inspires the initiated with manhood. This sacred wand was the 
 gift of Baiamai. The ground on which the Bora is celebrated is Baiamai's 
 ground. Billy believes the Bora will be kept up always all over the country ;, 
 such was the command of Baiamai." 
 
 Another conspicuous part of the inner Bora customs is the knocking out 
 of one or more of the upper front teeth of the ' boombat.' This is effected 
 by a smart blow on a wooden punch applied to the teeth. But the older and 
 more correct way seems to have been for one of the old men to apply his 
 lower teeth to the upper front teeth of the young man ; if that failed, the 
 mallet and punch were used. " On one occasion," says my friend, " a black 
 boy in our service came back to us from the Bora ; I observed that his tooth 
 was not out, and I asked him why. ' Oh,' said he, ' old Boney no good ; he 
 tried three times and nearly broke his own teeth ; and so he gave it up.' '" 
 
14 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 As to the tootli itself, one account says that it is given to the lad's mother, 
 and she afterwards burns it ; another says that it is conveyed^ from one 
 sub-tribe to another until it has made the circuit of the whole tribe ; on its 
 return, it is given to the owner or kept by the head man. This tooth- 
 breaking, however, is not practised by some of the larger tribes ; but, instead 
 of it, there is circumcision or the cutting off of the hair. 
 
 All these formalities being now completed, the ' boombat's ' probation is 
 at an end. They now proceed, all of them together, to some large waterhole, 
 and, jumping in, men and boys, they wash off the colouring matter from 
 their bodies, amid much glee and noise and merriment, and when they have 
 come out of the water they paint themselves white. 
 
 Meanwhile, the women who have been called to resume their attendance, 
 have kindled a large iire not far off, and are lying around it, with their faces 
 on the ground and their bodies covered as at the first ; the two old men who 
 were the original initiators bring the boy at a run towards the fire, followed by 
 all the others, with voices indeed silent, but making a noise by beating their 
 ' bumarangs ' together ; the men join hands and form a ring round the fire, 
 and one old man runs round the inside of the i-ing beating a shield. \A. 
 woman, usually the boy's own mother, then steps within the ring, and, 
 catching him under the arms, lifts him from the ground once, sets him down, 
 and then retires ; every man present, the boy included, now jumps upon the 
 decaying red embers, until the fire is extinguished. 
 
 In corroboration of all this, I give the following statement made to me by 
 a friend who, from his boyhood, was familiar with the Kurringgai tribe and 
 its habits : — ■ 
 
 " After the ceremonies at the upper circle are completed the men remove 
 to a flat piece of ground a long way off ; here a fire has been kindled at a dis- 
 tance of perhaps 100 yards from a deep water-course, in which a considerable 
 number of blacks can hide. The ' bbombat,' that is, the newly initiated lad, 
 is carried to this spot blindfolded, and he is persuaded that he gets there by 
 flying through the air ; ' but,' said one ofthemto me, 'Ilobked out from under 
 my bandage, and I saw I wasnot flying.' Th^flre on the flat is a large one ; 
 it has been kindled early in the morning, and the ' jins ' seat themselves on 
 an elevated slope near by as spectators of what is to follow. Afavouredfew 
 of their white friends may also sit among them. After a while, a party of men, 
 painted white, red, yellow, emerge from their concealment in the ravine, and 
 run into view from one quarter, and advance towards the fire ; all the while 
 each man beats together two weapons in rhythm, two 'bumarangs,' or a spear 
 apd a ' bumarang,' or a spear and a club, and soon. They come on in single file 
 to the sound of this music, and, when near the fire, they move on and on till they 
 form a complete circle around it ; they then face inwards, .make a loud crashing 
 noise simultaneously — and disperse. Upon this, another band, from another 
 quarter, similarly come in and do likewise. When all the bands have thus 
 encompassed the fire in succession, the ' jins ' arise, descend from the heights, 
 and lay themselves prone in a circle round the fire, and are carefully covered 
 up. -n-ith cloaks, blankets, and the like ; they dare not look up, for several 
 blacks with spears in hand are running round outside the circle of prostrate 
 women, ready to kill them if they should dare to look. A white wom.an, who, 
 on one occasion, had come with her black servant to see the sights, was 
 compelled to go and lie down also. When the women are all properlv 
 placed, a band of blacks, perhaps a hundred in number, with the ' boombats"' 
 among them, suddenly come out of the ravine. The 'boombats' have had their 
 hair cut short, and can thus be recognised. All the men in this band have 
 
HATUEITT. 15 
 
 weapons in their two hands, and strite them together as before, but their 
 weapons, their bodies, and their hair are all painted white. They too approach 
 the fire shouting, 'boom,' 'boom,' 'boom,' and moving their bodies to and fro, 
 as in a 'karabari' dance. When they have formed themselves into a complete 
 circle, they join hands, and move round the fire two or three times. The women 
 are still lying on the ground between the circle and the fire. They now rise 
 up at command, and, with head bent, they pass outwards under the out- 
 stretched arms. Then the men in white — •' white as cockatoos ' — take hold of 
 the ' boombats,' rush in, all leap tipon the fire, which, by this time, has died 
 down considerably, raising a column of smoke of dust, until the fire is wholly 
 stamped out. The men in white now take the ' boombats ' back to the ravine, 
 and leave them there in charge of two of their relatives. The men in white 
 return to their post, and the previous performers, with the party-coloured 
 bodies, rush in upon the white men ; a general conflict ensues — apparently 
 a real fight, for ' bumarangs' and other weapons are thrown about — but this 
 does not last long." 
 
 After all this is over, the two men — the father and the uncle perhaps — to 
 whom the ' boombats ' were committed take them away into the thick forest, 
 and keep them there for many weeks, training them, and testing their fitness 
 for tribal occupations. When the young man is at last allowed to join his 
 kindred, he is addressed as ' boombat,' and does not get his tribal name till 
 some time after. 
 
 Thus end the ceremonies of the Bora. The youth become a man ; for his 
 initiation and his instruction are over. But, although these are the formalities 
 observed in admitting a youth into the tribe, yet, in the Bora, as in free- 
 masonry, the novice does not become a full member all at once, but must 
 pass through several grades, and these are obtained by attending a certain 
 number of Boras. Here also, as in Africa, restrictions as to food are imposed, 
 which are relaxed from time to time, until at last the youth is permitted to 
 eat anything he may find. Thus the process of qualifying for a full member- 
 ship may extend over two or three years. Then he becomes an acknow- 
 ledged member of the tribe, undertakes all the duties of membership, and 
 has a right to all its privileges. 
 
 I have thus finished my description of the Bora ceremonies, and with them 
 correspond the similar observances in Africa, in India, and in Fiji, of which 
 I gave a condensed account as a sort of introduction to the Bora. 
 
 Now when I cast my eye over the Bora and its regulated forms, I feel 
 myself constrained to ask, "What does all this mean?" I, for one, cannot 
 believe that the Bora, with all its solemnities — for the rites were sacred, and 
 the initiated were bound not to divulge what they had seen and done — 
 is a meaningless, self-developed thing ; still less that the same thing can 
 have developed spontaneously in Australia, in Fiji, in India, and in farthest 
 Africa. I prefer to see in it a symbolism covering ancestral beliefs, a 
 ■symbolism intelligible enough to the Kushite race at first, but now little 
 understood and yet superstitiously observed by their Australian descendants. 
 
 Accordingly, I now proceed to what I regard as the most important part 
 of this inquiry ; for I shall attempt to show that, in many respects, the Bora 
 corresponds with the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient world. 
 If I can prove that the germ ideas which underlie the Australian Bora, as it 
 has been, and still is, celebrated among our indigenea, are the same as those 
 in many religions of antiquity, and that these same ideas present themselves 
 in ceremonies of similar import among nations now widely separated in place, 
 
16 THE ABOEiaiNES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 I think tliat we hare then established a strong presumption that there is a 
 common source from which all these things have sprung, and that there is a 
 community of origin from which this community of belief springs. 
 
 I now offer such analogies as my limited knowledge permits me to refer to : — 
 (A.) In the Bora there are two circles ; the one is less sacred, for the 
 women may be present there, although only on the outskirts ; in it certain 
 preparatory things are done to bring the ' boombat's ' mind into a fit state 
 of reverential awe for the reception of the teaching in the other circle — the 
 adytum, fhe^ pmietralia, — where the images of the gods are to be seen. The 
 women and the uninitiated must not approach this other circle ; it is thrice 
 holy ; " ])rocul este, profani.'" 
 
 («.) In the earliest religions, the circle is the invariable symbol of the sun, 
 the bright and pure one, from whose presence darkness and every evil thing 
 must flee away. Thus we have the disc as the symbol of the sun-god in 
 Egypt, Chaldiea, Assyria, Persia, India, China, and elsewhere. This fact is 
 so well known that it is needless to multiply examples. Those who are 
 within the circle are safe from the powers of evil. The sacredness of the 
 circle in those early ages is obvious from the Chaldsean name (G-enesis, xxxi, 
 47) " the circle of witness" — a name given to a solemn compact of friendship, 
 witnessed by that celestial orb which looks down on and observes all the 
 deeds of men. In Persia, at this day, in the southern parts of it, which were 
 originally inhabited by a Hamite race of a negroid type, there are to be seen 
 on the roadsides large circles of stones, which the tradition of the country 
 regards as set there by the Caous, a race of giants, that is, of aboriginals. 
 Then, in the classic nations, both in Grreece and Italy, some of the most 
 famous and ancient temples were circular in form, especially the Pantheon 
 at Athens, and at Eome the temple of Vesta, the goddess of the sun-given, 
 eternal fire. At Rome, also, for a hundred years from the foundation of the 
 city, the worship of the gods was celebrated in the open air (c/'. the Bora), 
 often in sacred groves ; and there also the temple of Janus, the oldest and 
 most venerated of the iioman gods, was merely a sacred enclosure on which 
 no building stood till the time of the First Punic War. The pomosrium, or 
 circuit of the walls of Home, was a sacred ring, and the Circus was conse- 
 crated to the sun. In Britain too, the fire-worship of the Druids led them 
 to construct ring-bemples in various places, and especially at Stonehenge, 
 where there are two rings, as in the Bora, but concentric. Even the rude 
 Laplanders, who are sprung from the same Turanian race, which was one of 
 the earliest elements in the population of Babylonia, make two circles when 
 they sacrifice to the sun, and surround them with willows ; they also draw a 
 white thread through the ear of the animal to be sacrificed ; and white, as we 
 shall presently see, is the sun's livery. 
 
 (B.) In the Bora, the two rings, both of them sacred, communicate with 
 each other by means of a narrow passage, in which are earthen represen- 
 tations of certain objects of worship ; the upper contains the images* or 
 symbols of the gods carved on trees, and the novice is so placed in the outer 
 ring that he faces the passage and the shrine of the gods, and thus faces the 
 east ; for this passage, as I have said, runs east and west. 
 
 (c.) The inner shrine is an arrangement common to all religions. At 
 Babylon, in the temple of Bel us, which was built in stages, the worshipper 
 had to pass through these seven stages of Sabaeism before he reached the 
 shrine. This was the topmost of all, and contained a golden image of the 
 
 * One tree, at a Bora ground wliicli I examined, had on it a carving of an iguana, 
 flanked by two men, its guardians. 
 
MATTJEITT. 17 
 
 god. Each of these stages was devoted to the worship of one of the Babylonian 
 gods. So also in the Bora, the worshipper advances bj' stages along the 
 passage leading from the one circle to the other, and pays his devotions to 
 each of the images in succession. In Greece and in Home, the roofed temples 
 were commonly arranged in two parts, an inner and an outer, and the statue 
 of the god was so placed that a worshipper, entering by the external door, 
 saw it right before him. At the very ancient temple of Dodoncean Zeus, in 
 G-reece, the god was supposed to reside in an oak-tree, and it is quite possible 
 that the xoanon, or wooden image of the god, was here, as in other grove 
 worship, merely a carved piece of wood, as in the IJora ; and in this sense 
 Pestus gives fustis decorticatus as an equivalent for delubrum. The student 
 of Biblical archaeology will also remember the Asherah of the Israelite 
 idolaters — the consort of the sun god Baal. This was a pillar or statue of 
 the goddess, but of wood, for it could be cut down and burned. Such a 
 pillar our blackfellows also have been known to erect ; for, on one occasion, 
 several men of a tribule, and at a spot which is well known to me, were seen 
 to cut down a soft cedar. This happened, too, while a Bora was going on. 
 They dressed it with their hatchets, and cut one end of it into the rude 
 figure of a head and face. They then carried it some distance down the river 
 to a sandy spot, and setting it up there like a pillar, they danced in a circle 
 around it. This was certainly an act of worship, the same as many other 
 acts of worship in the heathen world. A friend of mine knows of a similar 
 incident that occurred on another of our rivers, far ofl: from this one. Was 
 it merely a happy thought on the part of these blackfellows, or an undesigned 
 coincidence, that led them to do these things ? or was it a portion of an 
 ancestral form of worship, brought from other lands ? 
 
 (0.) In the Bora, the novice in the outer circle has his body painted all 
 over with red, but at the close of his novitiate, he washes in a pool, is thereby 
 cleansed, and then paints himself all white. The other celebrants paint 
 themselves red and white for the ceremony. They, too, at the close wash in 
 a pool, and retire white like the ' boombat.' This transformation is to them 
 a cause of much rejoicing. 
 
 (c.) Among the black races the colour red was the symbol of evil ; and so 
 Plutarch tells us that the Egyptians sacrificed only red bullocks to Typhon, 
 and that the animal was reckoned unfit for this sacrifice if a single white or 
 black hair could be found on it. In certain of their festivals, the Egyptians 
 assailed with insults and revilinga any among them who happened to have red 
 hair, and the people of Coptos there had a custom of throwing an ass down 
 a precipice because of its red colour. The god Typhon was to the Egyptians 
 the embodied cause of everything evil, malignant, destructive, man-hating, 
 in the economy of nature {cf. the Persian Ahriman), just as Osiris, the 
 bright and beneficent sun, was an emblem of all that was good. In the 
 Levitical law, the new heifer was a sin-offering for the Israelites, probably 
 with some reference to the ideas of the Egyptians about that colour. In India, 
 Ganesa, the lord of all mischievous and malignant spirits, is symbolised by 
 red stones; and the Cingalese, when they are sick, offer a red cock to the 
 evil spirit that has caused the sickness. The blacks of Congo wash and 
 anoint a corpse, and then paint it red; and their black brethren in Mada- 
 gascar, when they are celebrating the rite of circumcision, never wear any- 
 thing red about them, lest the child should bleed to death. The negroes of 
 Tipper Guinea — far enough removed from Australian Borus to prevent 
 even a suspicion of borrowing — make a similar use of the colours red and 
 white ; for, in Benin there, when a woman is first initiated into the rites 
 
18 THE AEOEIG-INES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 which the Babylonians sanctioned in honour of their goddess Mulitta, she 
 seats herself on a mat in a public place, and covers her head, shoulders, and 
 arms, with the blood of a fowl ; she then retires for her devotions, and, 
 these being finished, she washes laerself, returns, and is rubbed all over with 
 white chalk where the blood has been. The youna; ladies of Congo (also a 
 black country) have a similar custom ; but they besmear their faces and 
 necks with red paint. 
 
 In Australia, those who pass through the Bora paint themselves white at 
 its close. Everywhere in Australia there is the belief that the black man, 
 when he is dead and buried, still lives ; but he is then white. Our indi- 
 genes say, " Black man dead jumps up white fellow;" hence a white man is 
 called ' wunda, ' a word which originally described only the black man in 
 his spirit state after death. The father of a friend of mine was the first 
 white man to enter, some sixty years ago, the territory of a black tribute 
 near to where I lived. It so happened that the tribe had just lost their 
 chief by death ; and so, as the white man whom they saw coming over the 
 crest of the hill towards their camp bore some physical resemblance to the 
 deceased, they soon got to hail him as their chief returned to them in the 
 ' wunda ' state, and to this hour they claim that white man's son as one of 
 themselves, a brother ! 
 
 Now, in the ancient rituals, white was the colour sacred to the sun — the 
 benign god before whom darkness flies away. In India, white agates rep- 
 resent Siva, the eternal cause of all blessings ; in Persia, white horses were 
 sacred to the sun ; in Celtic Britain, some of the Welsh people, even now, 
 whiten their houses to keep away devils ; and so with many other examples 
 in Aryan lands. "I said to King Sewa at Talaber, on the Niger,' so writes 
 Mr. W. Winwood Eeade, ' if I die may my»blood be on your head.' 'Ah, 
 take care ; take care,' said he, ' you have had evil thoughts against me, and 
 that is why you are ill. Do you see that fetich behind you ? That is a> 
 spirit who protects me from your evil designs.' I looked round, and saw 
 in a corner by the bed, some long sticks, which, oddly enough, I had never 
 noticed before. They were daubed all over with some clammy white stuff, 
 and Sewa, it seems, ha.d ordered this fetich to be put into the house in case 
 I tried to bewitch him." 
 
 In these senses, the ' boombat ' enters the Bora with the brand of 
 Typhon upon him, exposed to all evil influences, to disease and death from 
 animals, men, and spirits ; but, after he has made the acquaintance of his- 
 father's gods, and has learned the sacred songs and dances of his tribe, he 
 comes forth another man ; he washes away the badge of darkness and evil, 
 and assumes the livery of the children of light. 
 
 This felt subjection to unseen evil and aspirations for deliverance from it 
 in the minds of our native race, is not only natural to man everywhere, but 
 was a marked feature in the whole system of Akkadian magic ; for those old 
 Chaldfeans believed that innumerable spirits, each with a personality, were 
 distributed throughout nature ; sometimes in union with animate objects, 
 sometimes separately. Existing everywhere, they had both an evil and a 
 good aspect — at one time favourable, at another unfavourable, controlling 
 both life and death ; regulating all phenomena, whether beneficial or des- 
 tructive, both of air and earth, fire and water. A dual spirit — bad and 
 good — was allocated to each of the celestial bodies, and to each living being. 
 A constant warfare existed and was keenly maintained between the bad and 
 the good ; and, according as the one principle or the other held sway, so did 
 blessings or disasters descend upon nature and upon man. Hence the value 
 
MATUEITT. 19 
 
 of religious rites sucla as the Bora ; for tlie due observance of these, repeated 
 from time to time, gave, for a while at least, the victory to the good spirits, 
 and brought blessings to the faithful. Thus, then, I explain the red colour 
 of the novice at the Bora, the red and white of the celebrants, and the white 
 colour of the men when the service was completed. 
 
 (D.) fiidley says that the Bora is Bayemai's ground. He adds : — 
 " Baiamai sees all ; he knows all ; if not directly, yet through Turramulan, a 
 subordinate deity. Tarramulan is mediator for all the operations of Baiamai 
 to man, and from man to Baiamai. Women must not see Turramulan on 
 pain of death. And when mention is made of Turramulan, or of the Bora 
 at which he presides, the women slink away, knowing that it is unlawful 
 for them so much as to hear anything about such matters." 
 
 {(I.) 'We have seen that, at some places, an image of Dharamulan is set 
 up at the Bora. In another place, the bull-roaring instrument, whose voice 
 begins the ceremony of the Bora and warns the women not to look, is called 
 tirrikoty, and is sometimes made in the shape of a fish. The magic wand 
 that Eidley mentions is called dliurumbulum, and the great ancestral Bora 
 ground of the Kamalarai tribe in New South Wales is at Tirri-hai-liai. The 
 source of all these names seems to me to be dara, dri, — a very old language 
 root, meaning ' to protect,' from which come words in various languages, 
 meaning ' a prince,' ' a lord.' I therefore take Dharamulan to mean some- 
 thing like " Lord of the mysteries;" for it is evident that he presides at the 
 Bora, and is the giver of the blessings therein communicated. The use of a 
 fish-shaped roarer to indicate his presence leads me to compare him with the 
 Chaldsean god Hoa, Hea — half man, half fish — who, in the Chaldseo-Baby- 
 lonian religion, was reverenced as the revealer of all religious and social 
 knowledge. His abode was the sea — the Persian Gulf — where he passed the 
 night, but by day he remained among men to instruct them. Thus he 
 became a legislator and protector. Hea, as a god, sees that " all is in 
 order," and, being acquainted -with all sciences, he can baffle the powers of 
 evil by his magic arts. Witli this I compare the ' magic' shown by the 
 ' karaji' in the Bora in the presence of Dharamulan's image. The Akka- 
 dians, and from them the Babylonians, invoked the aid of Hea, when spells 
 and incantations were found unavailing against the demons. So in the Bora 
 passage, when Dharamulan has been duly honoured and magic influence 
 conjured up for the driving away of all adverse spirits, the lad is taken into 
 the upper circle and sees there the gods of his fathers, and learns to know 
 them and their attributes, just as in the greater Eleusinia of G-reeee the 
 duly qualified were, after a course of previous preparation, led into the 
 inner sanctuary in the darkness of night, and there, by a dim light, allowed 
 to see and know the holy things. 
 
 (E.) The next steps in the process of initiation are interesting: — (1) a 
 sacred wand is shown to the ' boombat ;' (2) he gets a new name ; and 
 (3) certain white stones are given to him. 
 
 (e.) (1.) The wand. — In this there is a notion of consecration and saered- 
 ness ; for, on the Egyptian monuments, the deities are constantly represented 
 as holding in one hand a long rod or wand, with a crook on the upper end of 
 it. The king also, and some of the higher officers of State, carry this 
 ' crook.' In India, we find that Tama, the regent of the south, has a name 
 from a sacred staff or rod, and some religious impostors wear, as badges of 
 sanctity, a staff and a deer's skin. The Magi of Persia carried the 
 "■bare^ma' or 'harsom,^ a divining wand, as one of the badges of their minis- 
 try, and the magicians of Egypt similarly had rods in their hands wheii 
 
20 THE ABORIGINES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 they stood in the presence of Pharaoh. The traditions of Peru speak of a 
 sacred golden wand borne by the son and the daughter of the Sun. These 
 are analogies ; but the nearest approach to the use of the wand in the Bora 
 is, I think, to he found in the Pinnish Kalevala, where there is a reference 
 to a "celebrated wand " — evidently, as in Peru, a sun wand — which protects 
 its possessor from all spells and enchantments ; even the gods are glad to 
 use it against the powers of evil. 
 
 (2.) A new name. — Having now acquired a knowledge of sacred things, 
 the initiated is henceforth a new man ; he is now ' twice born,' and, like his 
 kinsman in Upper Guinea already mentioned, he will come out to the world 
 in a new character, renouDcing his former estate. In India, a youth becomes 
 one of the ' twice born ' by investiture with the sacred cord, receiving thus 
 a spiritual birth ; thereafter, like our ' boombat,' he passes into the hands of 
 religious preceptors, who teach him the sacred prayers, mystic words, and 
 devotional ceremonies. In more modern times, whenever a monastic house 
 or a nunnery receives, from the world without, one more recluse, a new name 
 is given by which he or she may thenceforward be known in religion. The 
 underlying idea in all these instances is, that a religious profession gives one 
 a new character and a new relation to the rest of the world. And who will 
 deny that this is true, whether the professor be black or white ? 
 
 (3.) The white stones.- — I am inclined to believe that the 'boombat' 
 receives only one or two of these at a time, aad that the number of them is 
 increased according to the number of Boras be attends, until he becomes a 
 full and accepted master of the craft, and thus needs no more. In any case 
 they are used as talismans, and are carried in his waist belt during the whole 
 of the man's life. A ' karaji,' in the presence of a friend of mine, swal- 
 lowed three or four small ones, saying, " That fellow stick there." He 
 believed that the crystals, remaining in his stomach, would give him more 
 power as a medicine man. The negroes of Guinea use small stones as 
 fetiches, and they carry them about their necks or under their armpits. 
 These stones are sold to them by the priest, after being formally consecrated. 
 The white colour is a sun colour. It is beneficent and preservative against 
 evil, as already shown ; hence the Hindoos dedicate white stones to Siva, the 
 eternally blessed one. 
 
 (P.) The initiated lad is next led to a camp at a distance ; he is kept 
 there for eight or ten days receiving instruction, especially in songs and 
 dances ; he also eats here, and his confidence in divine protection is tested 
 by hideous noises during the darkness of night. 
 
 (/) It is rather singular, as a coincidence, that Pestus speaks of certain 
 religious ceremonies in Eome as lasting ten days, and that the Dionysia and 
 the greater Eleusinia of Greece also lasted nine or ten days, and that part 
 of these Grecian ceremonies was a solemn meal and a solemn bathing or 
 purification by water ; thereafter instruction was given. So also, a young 
 Brahman must reside with his preceptor for some time, until he has acquired 
 a thorough knowledge of the sacred books ; he must pass through certain 
 purificatory rites, wliich remove the taint of former sin ; one of these is the 
 cutting off of the hair, and with this corresponds the cutting off of the hair 
 in the Bora, or the knocking out of the front teeth, as practised by some of 
 our tribes. The singing and the dancing are everywhere essential parts of 
 pagan worship, and the dance is, in its origin, religious. 
 
 (G.) Then come the washing and purification which I have just spoken 
 of; but, after that, they join hands all round, dance round the fire and jump 
 into it and through it. 
 
MATURITY. 21 
 
 (y.) Analogies to this way of purification and protection by fire are 
 abundant. In Bretagne, at this hour, the French farmers protect their 
 horses from evil influences by the service of fire. They kindle fires at night- 
 fall ; then, at dawn of day, the horses are led thrice around the fires, and a 
 particular prayer, known only to a few, is said before the dying flame. As 
 the last words are pronounced, the men all leap on the embers with their 
 feet joined. The ancient British Celts, to which stock these same Bretons 
 belong, did much the same thing ; for on May Day the Druids used to light 
 large fires on the summits of the highest hills, into which they drove all four- 
 footed beasts, using certain ceremonies to expiate ttie sins of the people. 
 Until very lately, it was a common practice in diff'erent parts of Ireland to 
 kindle fires in the milking yai'ds on the first day of May, and then many 
 women and children leaped through them, and the cattle were driven through 
 in order to drive off evil influences. In ancient Eome, on the feast of Pales, 
 in April, the same forms of purification and dedication were observed. The 
 Hottentots of the present daj'- retain the old customs, for they make their 
 cattle pass through the fire as a preservative against the attacks of wild dogs. 
 In India, the youth, when about to be invested with the sacred thread, stands 
 with his face to the sun, and walks thrice round a fire ; and, in the marriage 
 ceremony, the bride is lead thrice round a sacred fire. An incantation, used 
 by the Chalda?an sorcerers of old, has these words, "May the Grod Pire, the 
 hero, dispel their enchantments or spells for the injury of others." An 
 Australian 'jin,' going to the river to fetch water after nightfall, carries for 
 protection a burning stick ; and the men in the camp at night, when they 
 think an evil spirit is near, throw firebrands at him to drive him away. 
 Should we wonder, then, that our Australian blackfellows, if, as I believe, 
 their ancestors first of all came from Chaldaean land, have not forgotten the 
 fire observances, and still trust in the protection of a fire god ? 
 
 So far the Bora and its analogies. I have thus considered at some length 
 these institutions, both because the Bora is the most important of all the 
 social regulations of our aboriginal tribes, and because its universal distribu- 
 tion among them, although with slight local difEerences in the manner of 
 its celebration, seems to me a strong proof that our black tribes are all 
 brethren of the same race, and that they are of the same origin as the 
 rest of mankind, their closest kindred being the blacks of Africa. Is it 
 possible that so many tribes, with so many different dialect.^, and confined 
 by their laws and habits each to its own hunting ground, should have 
 evolved from their own consciousness ceremonies so similar, and which, when 
 examined, correspond in so many points with the religiousness of the ancient 
 world ? How is it that the blacks of Australia and the blacks of G-uinea in 
 Africa have similar ceremonies of initiation ? Is it not because they have 
 come from the same ethnic source, and have a common ancestry and 
 common traditions ? 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 Here I wish to introduce a few particulars which are connected, more or 
 less remotely, with the subject of this section. These are— (1), the ' kara- 
 bari' ; (2), astral worship; (3), the use of gesture language and masonic 
 signs ; (4), the numeration of the aborigines. 
 
 ™, 'Karabari' is an aboriginal name for those dances which our natives 
 
 ^ i^ . often have in the forests at night. Hitherto the name has been 
 Karabari. ^j.jj.^.gjj 'corrobboree,' but etymologically it should be 'karabari,' 
 for it comes from the same root as ' karaji,' a wizard or medicine man, and 
 '-bari' is a common formative in the native languages. The 'karabari' 
 
22 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 has teen usually regarded as a form of amusement, a dance to wMle away 
 the time on the moonlight nights ; but the men alone engage in it, a few- 
 women sitting by and making a tap-tap accompaniment to the rhythmical 
 movements of the performers, and from the description of a simple form of 
 the ' karabari,' which I give ia the section on the social life of the natives, 
 it will appear that these dances partake of a semi-religious character. Eor 
 them the men dress themselves with great care in their own way, and often 
 dance ail night long, and in very dark nights, too, to the light of a blazing 
 fire. To a white onlooker they seem to be a band of demons, ghastly as the 
 skeleton dead, working themselves up into a fit state for some act of devilry. 
 But there cannot be much amusement in it, for the men take it quite seri- 
 ously, no fun goes on, and their movements are so vigorous that the actors 
 are covered with sweat, and at the close are completely exhausted by their 
 efforts. And they are not mere dances, these ' karabaries,' they are imitations 
 of the hunting of the kangaroo, and of the way in which the emu and other 
 food animals are killed. In short, I regard them as semi-religious dances, 
 by which our blacks, after the custom of their, ancestors, pray for success in 
 getting food. In this view I am strengthened by what I know of similar 
 dances in Equatorial Africa. Eor instance, Mr. "W". W. Eeade says : — " In 
 the Grorilla country, Etia, the chief hunter of the village, came and told me 
 one evening that he had heard the cry of a njina (gorilla) close to one of the 
 neighbouring plantations. He said that we should certainly be able to kill 
 him the next day, and that, during the night, he and his friends would cele- 
 brate the gorilla dance. . . To the music of three old men, who had 
 their faces grotesquely chalked, danced Etia, imitating the uncouth move- 
 ments of the gorilla. Then the iron bell was rung, and O'Mbuiri, the evil 
 spirit, was summoned to attend, and a hoarse rattle mingled with the other 
 sounds. . . . Here could be no imposture. It was not an entertainment 
 arranged for my benefit, but a religious festival, held on the eve of an enter- 
 prise. . . . The dancing was not discontinued until cock-crow." 
 
 It is true that a ' karabari ' dance sometimes appears to us no more than 
 an amusing pantomime ; for our blacks are very clever mimics — many of 
 them, most amusing fellows, when one comes to be familiar with them ; as, 
 for example, when they got up a ' karabari ' on the estate of my friend 
 Mr. M'L, and invited him to see it, knowing, as they did, that he was always 
 good-natured and kind to them. There he saw himself personated by a 
 blackfellow, who was made up as an excellent duplicate, even to the helmet- 
 hat on his head. There they danced in their usual way, and made a song to 
 tell how the white man had come from afar and taken the land from them, 
 but that some white men were good to them, and so on. Sometimes, how- 
 ever, the ' karabari ' pantomimes are not so complimentary as this ; for a 
 party of blacks dress themselves up as colonists, and imitate a conflict with 
 the natives, in which, of course, the colonists are signally routed and 
 damaged, much to the delight of the rest of the tribe who are looking on. 
 
 Astral ^^ *° astral worship, our native tribes are attentive observers 
 Worship °^ ^^^ ^^^" ' ^^ ^^'^^ ^^^ °^ ^^® around the camp fire, after night- 
 -' ■ fall, their gaze naturally turns to the starry vault above, and 
 there they see the likeness of many things with which they are conversant 
 in their daily life — young men dancing a 'karabari' (Orion), and a group 
 of damsels looking at them (the Pleiades), and making music to their dance — 
 the opossum, the emu, the crow, and so on. But the old men will tell you 
 that the regions " above the sky" are the home of the spirits of the dead, and 
 that there are shady fig-trees there, and many other pleasant things. Many 
 
MATITEITT. 23 
 
 men of thfiir race are there, and that one of the foremost of them all is a 
 great man, Menee : he is not visible, but they all agree that he is in the sky. 
 A greater than he is the great Gharabooung, who, while on earth, was always 
 attended by a small man ; but now the two shine as comrades in the sky — ■ 
 the "Heavenly Twins." Both G-harabooung and Menee are "skeletons," 
 they say. In his mortal state, Gharabooung was a man of great rank and 
 power ; he was so tall that his feet could touch the bottom of the deepest 
 rivers ; his only food was snakes and eels. One day, not being hungry, he 
 buried a snake and an eel; when he came back to eat thom, he saw fire 
 issuing from the ground where they were ; he was ■named by his companion, 
 the little man, not to approach, but he declared he did not fear the fire, and 
 boldly came near ; then a whirlwind seized him and carried him " above the 
 sky," where he and his companion still are, and " can be seen any starry night." 
 There is no worship in that, only respect and reverence towards ancestors ; 
 but the next story, which I give in the words of a friend, contains an example 
 of the religious exorcism of an astral phenomenon portending evil : — " In 
 1845 or 1846, a comet appeared, and the blacks at Dungog acted a special 
 ' karabari' on account of it. The only explanation I could get from them 
 was that the ' karabari' was held because of the appearance of the comet. 
 There was a performance three times a day, and each performance had two 
 acts in it. In the background, at the spot where the performances took 
 place, three sheets of bark were set up, the one in the centre being larger 
 than either of the other two, and all three having devices painted on them, 
 similar to those on the trees around the upper Bora circle. In front of these 
 sheets of baric were the performers arranged in a straight line, and painted 
 as is usual for a ' karabari ' ; at some considerable distance behind these was 
 a line of several fires, and behind the fires sat the ' jins' who were to give the 
 music, and behind them the spectators. In each act the men danced' karabari' 
 for a while, and, at a time when the attention of the spectators was fastened 
 on the acting, two blacks, curiously painted, rushed out suddenly from some 
 hiding-place, and placed themselves, motionless, in a crouching attitude, with 
 staring eyes and pointed finger, right in front of the fires. These were called 
 the two ' ghiitas.' This performance lasted about a week, probably as long 
 as native food could be procured for all, and then the blacks moved on and 
 taught their next neighbours the songs and the performance. The whole 
 affair must have come from a distance ; for the words of the songs were 
 strange to our men, resembling those of the Kamalarai dialect, and it was 
 
 the Paterson blacks who came and taught it to the Dungog blacks." 
 
 * 
 The two ' ghutas', as I think, were ' karajies', exorcising the evil portended 
 by the coming of the comet. 
 
 Here, also, I introduce another friend, who has a curious tale to tell about 
 doings at the Bora : — 
 
 " When travelling between Surat and Goondiwindi, about the year 1858, 
 we came to a spot on the Mooni Creek, in the midst of scrub country, 
 where the blacks had erected a large mound of a curious shape on an open 
 space within the scrub. On proceeding to examine it, we found it covered 
 with sheets of bark ; these we removed to the number of forty or fifty, and 
 then we saw that this figure resembled the body of a duck, but with the 
 neck, head, and protruding tongue of a large snake. The body was about 
 fifteen feet long, with a height of six or seven feet ; the neck and head were 
 ten feet long , and stood high above the ground. The body was made of 
 boughs of trees and bushes thickly pressed together ; the neck and head 
 were a long log of suitable shape, with the one end fixed in the ground 
 
24 THE ABORiaiNES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 among; tte boughs. The wliole had been plastered over with'mud, and 
 this, when dry, had been ornamented with red and white colours in 
 streaks and daubs. The head had also been shaped to represent the 
 head of an angry snake, and was coloured red. The mouth oi: the figure 
 was furnished with a fierce forked tongue. The ground around this curious 
 figure, to a diameter' of about fifty feet, was trodden bare as by the feet of 
 many men. 
 
 " We were afterwards informed by the blacks near by that they had made 
 this figure, and that they had danced a ' karabari ' around it ; that it was 
 tha ' dibbil-dibbil ' — a demon which frequents deep water-holes, and carries 
 ofi' and devours those who incautiously enter. They called the figure 
 ' wunda.' The tribes all around had assembled for this ' karabari,' and we 
 
 could see numerous camps near. Mr. C saw a similar figure on his 
 
 place about fifty miles farther down the Mooni. The blacks had been 
 holding a Bora there." 
 
 f~, , In several instances, blacks in their wild state, and in places 
 
 -J- far removed from contact with civilisation, have been known 
 
 ^ 3 ' io make use of masonic signs when approached by white men. 
 Anextractfrom a private letter written by a staff surveyor in Queensland and 
 not hitherto published, is a proof of this : — " In 1882-83, on the Flinders and 
 other rivers flowing into the G-ulfof Carpentaria, the blacks were very hostile, 
 and that made me go forth with a W'ell-armed party, consisting of ' kanakas,' 
 principally Tanna boys — a fierce and warlike tribe — and we had frequent 
 and severe encounters with the natives. One Sunday, when we were resting 
 in our camp on Settlement Creek, my horses, which were feeding about 
 twenty chains away, began to gallop about furiously — a proof to me that 
 the blacks were among them. Taking with me six of my boys, I quickly 
 entered the bed of the creek, and we ran down it till we were opposite the 
 place where the horses were. Then we suddenly emerged, and found our- 
 selves among a band of about twenty natives, who were amusing themselves 
 by spearing my horses. The fight which ensued was short, sharp, and 
 decisive; at the end of it only one black was left — a very tall and powerful 
 specimen, evidentlv a chief. He was completely hemmed in by myself and 
 my boys, and had hitherto escaped harmless by bounding and jumping 
 about. I had just covered him with my rifle, and in another instant he 
 would have dropped, when, to my utter astonishment, he gave me in rapid 
 succession three or four times, the penal signal of a inaster mason, and there- 
 upon stood to order. I instantly answered him, and, going nearer, I gave 
 the signs of entered apprentice, fellow craftsman, and master mason, which 
 he appeared to understand. My next five or ten minutes were f ullv occupied 
 in saving him from the wrath of my boys. But when I had succeeded in 
 making them understand that he was not to be harmed, I turned round to 
 our captive, and found he was gone ! He had dived head foremost into the 
 very long grass, and wriggled through it like a snake ; he got clean off, for 
 not one of us could find him ; I was much disappointed at this, for I wanted 
 to question him, and through him I might have succeeded in forming friendly 
 relations with the tribes round about. Again, some weeks thereafter, as I 
 was returning along a creek where I had completed a survey, I turned aside 
 to look at a spot where we had a fight with a few natives three days before 
 when on our way down, I saw the body of one man laid out, and covered 
 with bark ; on the chalky ground round him numerous emblems were carved, 
 some of them undoubtedly masonic signs, while others were representations 
 of snakes, iguanas, alligators, and the like. 
 
MATUEITT. 25 
 
 " Our Eight AVorsLipful D.G-.M., the Hon. Charles Augustus Gregory, 
 formerly Surveyor-General of Queensland, one of our earliest explorers, told 
 me that he also found traces of free-masonry amongst the blacks of the 
 north-west of Queensland, although not so unmistakable as those I have now 
 narrated." 
 
 Captain Sturt, one of our early explorers, had a somewhat similar 
 experience sixty years- ago, when he penetrated into the interior, far beyond 
 the limit of previous discovery. He tells how he met here an old man and 
 his sons, and then he goes on to say : — " After some time, and having 
 conferred with his sons, he turned round and surprised me by giving me one 
 of the masonic signs. I looked at him steadily. He repeated it, and so did 
 his two sons. I then returned it, which seemed to please them much ; the 
 old man patting me on the shoulder and stroking down my beard. They 
 then took their departure, making friendly signs until they were out of 
 sight." 
 
 In the region where this incident happened to Captain Sturt, the blacks 
 have an extensive system of gesture language, by which tribes who do not 
 know the neighbouring languages are able to communicate with each other 
 on a great variety of subjects. It is quite possible that this knowledge of 
 gesture language is a portion of the instruction given to the youths of the 
 tribes there at the Bora ceremonies ; and therefore I have brought it into this 
 section. In gesture language a considerable variety of ideas can be conveyed 
 by the movements of the hand, and by applying it in various ways to the 
 body ; just as in our love stories, a young swain is represented as applying 
 his right hand to the region of his heart to signify his love. It may be that 
 Captain Start's adventure was only an instance of this gesture language ; but 
 I can scarcely explain the experience of Mr. Bedford, in Queensland, in the 
 same way. I leave it unexplained. 
 
 yy- ,. In the month of September, 1SS8, there were some letters 
 
 jp ,. in the Times newspaper, London, on the subject of Aust- 
 
 ralian arithmetic. A distinguished authority there said " one 
 of the clearest indications of the low mental powers of savages is that afforded 
 by arithmetic." It seems to me that this statement is too general ; for, even 
 although the power of counting up to high numbers were wanting in a 
 savage, it doe^ not follow that his mental powers in general are low. Per- 
 ception, cognition, and memory are mental powers ; but, if Sir John Lub- 
 bock's memory were weak, and yet the cognitive and perceptive faculties 
 remained strong and vigorous, it would be unjust to say that he is a man 
 " of low mental powers." Colonists who have been long familiar with the 
 blacks of Australia, with one voice, cry out against the assertion that they 
 are of low mental power, and could give hundreds of instances to the con- 
 trary. A friend of mine who, in his boyhood fifty years ago, was much in 
 contact with the tribe in the midst of which his father had settled, has told 
 me that two black boys, his companions, were " out and out good chess 
 players, taking plenty of time to study the moves, and showing great patience 
 and calmness ; these boys never went to school, and yet they could count up 
 to a thousand." It is very clear that mental power was there, in these boys, 
 but unseen and dormant, like seed in the ground, until circumstances led to 
 its being developed. 
 
 Sir John Lubbock also says : — " In no Australian language is there any 
 word for five." This is not quite correct ; for I know at least two large 
 tribes (and there may be others that I do not know of), the one in Queens- 
 land, and the other in the south-east of New South Wales, which have single 
 
26 THE ABOEIGINES OF ]S^EW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 words for " five," and in each ease the word is formed from the native word 
 meaning " hand." As to the general question — the counting of mimbers — ■ 
 I believe that a careful analysis of the numerals used by the Aryan family 
 of languages will show that the base of them is ove, P.vo, three, and no more, 
 three, being in many religions a sacred and complete number ; and that the 
 other digits are expressed by words meaning one-three, hand, hand-and-one, 
 liand-and-two, two-four, one luanting, two hands. If it should be proved that 
 the Aryans, now the most civilised of races, originally said one-three iovfour 
 why should our blackfellows be considered of low mental power because they 
 say two-two ior four? Indeed, I am inclined to think than our Australians 
 count four in the more natural vs-ay ; for they see nothing eround them 
 arranged in threes ; the beasts and birds go in pairs ; they themselves have 
 two feet, two hands, two eyes, and so they count by twos. If the Aust- 
 ralian blacks separated from the parent stock of mankind at a time when 
 the common numeral system was limited to one, two, or one, two, three, then 
 their ease is merely one of arrested development, their environment being 
 unfavourable after their separation ; or, if they ever had a developed system 
 of composite numbers, these have fallen into disuse through the operation of 
 a law of nature ; for their wants are few and they live so much from hand 
 to mouth that they had no need for higher numbers. Their neighbours in 
 Polynesia, who have plenty of fish to count, and bunches of bananas, and 
 yams, and 'tare,' and cocoa-nuts, have developed many peculiar expressions to 
 indicate the number of these ; but our blackfellow, who is well pleased when 
 he is able to sing of the capture of " Wakula, boolara, bundarra," (one, two 
 kangaroos), and whose only property is two or three sj)ears, clubs, 'bumar- 
 angs,' does not require to use high numbers in his daily speech. Neverthe- 
 less, when it is necessary, he counts ten, twenty, thirty, forty, by opening and 
 closing his hands, and thea for higher numbers he contents himself with 
 saying " many, many." 
 
 Por these and other reasons, it is desirable that men of science in Britain 
 and elsewhere should be careful in building theories upon what is said about 
 our Australian aborigines ; much of the information they have about them 
 is unreliable, for it has not been gathered by competent observers or tested 
 on scientific principles. 
 
 IV.-WIARRIAGE. 
 
 T) , _ ,, , As is the experience of the rest of mankind, so our black- 
 fellows also know something of love, courtship, and marriage. 
 To us it may appear novel to talk of love in this connection, but an Australian 
 girl, though black, is a lovable object. The youog women are in general 
 comely to look on ; they have plump faces and persons ; their gait has all 
 the gracefulness of nature ; their eyes are bright and sparkling ; their voices 
 thin and melodious, and their laugh clear and happy; in their behaviour they 
 are engaging and modest. I do not wonder that the young men of the tribe 
 love such girls. And thus youthful attachments do spring up. But, as in 
 more civilised communities, these love-ties may be rudely broken ; for a girl 
 in infancy, or even in the expectation of her birth, is often betrothed to an 
 old man, a friend of the family, and at maturity, but not till then, she must 
 go to join her husband, whatever her lover may say ; or she belongs to 
 a division of the tribe with which a young man of his clan must not marry 
 on pain of death ; or another lover asserts a claim to her, and the two rivals 
 must fight it out, the girl being the prize of victory. It is true that to 
 escape from the betrothed man, the girl may elope with her young lover and 
 hide for a time until the storm is blown over ; iDut it is not easy to get free 
 
MAERIAGE. 27 
 
 of tlie storm, for the girl's family are bound to go after the girl and bring 
 lier back to fulfil the engagement made for her ; if they find her, they beat 
 lier and drag her with them ; but it may be that she elopes again and again, 
 and, if at last they see that she is determined on it, they let her have her own 
 way. A wife too may run away from her husband either alone in order to 
 escape from misery, or in company with another man as likely to be a kinder 
 consort to her ; but that too is dangerous, for the enraged husband pursues 
 and may kill the paramour ; her he beats unmercifully with his club and 
 com|)els her to return; if he thinks that she means to run away again, he 
 thrusts a spear through her leg, and so keeps her still for a time at least. 
 " Oh, how cruel !" you say. Tes, it is cruel, if we are to judge these blacks 
 by our standard of humanity. But, in considering this question of Australian 
 marriage, we must always bear in mind that here the woman is the absolute 
 property of her husband, just as much as an}'' goods and chattels, and he 
 may do with her whatever he likes, even to the extent of putting her to 
 death, without any challenge from social or tribal law. And whenever we 
 express our virtuous indignation at the cruelty of Australian blacks, we 
 should at the same time bear in mind that, not so very long ago, our own 
 English law allowed a husband to chastise his wife and to tyrannise over her 
 in many ways ; and American law was once very tender in dealing mth the 
 rights of a master over his slave as his own private property. 
 
 But all the girls are not betrothed at birth or in infancy ; many of them 
 grow up to maturity, mingling with the young men in their daily life and at 
 merry-makings, such as the tribal dances called the ' karabaries,' although in 
 them the girls and women are not performers, except in so far as they make 
 the music, while the men go through the performance of the dance. It has 
 been said that in their life before marriage, these young people have no 
 restriction in their intercourse and follow their lusts unchecked. Now it is 
 difiicult for one who has not lived among the blacks to disprove an assertion 
 of this kind ; but those white men who are likely to have had the opportunity 
 of knowing the facts, declare, that, on the contrary, the young people are 
 kept strictly under the eye of their near relatives and must not go beyond 
 the camp, unless accompanied by a married person. And the charge is not 
 probable ; for, at 12 or 13 years of age, a girl gets a husband and then the 
 marriage laws are binding ; and, at an earlier age, there are the laws which 
 we may call those of the " forbidden degrees" ; these regard the intercourse 
 of certain male and female classes in the tribe as incest. 
 
 -J^^ . Let us suppose, then, that a young man has by courtship 
 
 '^^ '"-^ ■ gained the goodwill of a girl of the tribal class with which 
 he is by law permitted to intermarry, or has taken a fancy to such a girl 
 without any preliminaries ; how must he proceed in his suit ? Of course, he 
 knows that he cannot marry until he has passed through the Bora 
 ceremonies of initiation into the privileges and duties of a tribesman. But, 
 if he has been initiated, he knows also that the tribal law gives him a right 
 to claim in marriage any girl of the proper class, and he now asserts that 
 claim either in person or by an envoy. He goes to the spot where the girl's 
 family is encamped and says to her father, ' I will come and take away Bunna 
 by-and-by,' or he sends his uncle with a similar message. No purchase- 
 money is offered or paid, and yet the father cannot refuse unless the girl has 
 been previously betrothed, for the young man has marital rights in posse 
 over any unmarried girl of that clals. And so the father consents ; and, the 
 sanction of the chief* and tribal council being obtained, the marriage 
 
 * In some places the chief gives a knotted string as a sort of " marriage license." 
 
28 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 ceremony is fixed for a certain day. If there is no father alive, the girl's eldest 
 brother or uncle gives consent. And the young man's suit prospers the more 
 readily, if he has a sister whom he can use as barter with the girl's guardian 
 to be a wife of his. Meanwhile, if there has been no courtship, the young 
 woman's wishes have not been asked, and she may dislike the man chosen, 
 or may prefer another. In that case, as soon as she hears of the arrange- 
 ment, she runs awav from her father's control, and tries to find concealment 
 and refuge in some far distant part of the tribe where she may have friends. 
 Taking with him several of his companions, but they must be of the same tribal 
 class as himself, he pursues ; if he finds the girl, he beats her into submission, 
 no one hindering ; and, if she refuses to move, they all unite in carrying 
 her by force back to their camp. As a reward for their assistance, they are 
 all allowed to share with the husband the jus jirinuB noctis. In the Andaman 
 Islands, a Mincopie takes with him four companions on a similar errand, 
 and with like results. Elsewhere, custom requires the bride to resist her 
 husband literally with tooth and nail, and sometimes he emerges from the 
 contest not only worsted, but having his face streaming with blood from the 
 scratches on it. But in Australia, even when the marriage is founded on 
 mutual consent, the girl's natural dread of subjugation makes her shrink 
 from placing herself entirely under the control of the man, and she shows 
 unwillingness or reluctance to go to him ; the parents then interfere 
 and compel her by blows to go, or the man himself comes and drags 
 her away. Among the African tribes round Kilimajijaro, the correct 
 thing for the bride to do is to run off ; the bridegroom pursues, and has 
 no difficulty in overtaking her ; he seizes her, puts her on his shoulder, 
 pick-a-back, and carries her in triumph to his home, she all the time 
 screaming and the neighbours standing by and laughing heartily at her 
 discomfiture ; for, as they too were similarly laughed at, so it is now their 
 turn to laugh. This universal feeling with reference to marriage has given 
 rise to the theory of " marriage by capture," by which it is alleged that 
 marriage, in its first origin, was simply the act of a strong man taking 
 possession of a woman by force, and of as many women as he was inclined to ; 
 but I hold that the theory is fallacious, and that the facts on which it is 
 founded admit of quite another explanation. 
 
 But our Australians have a sort of marriage by capture, somewhat after 
 the fashion of the rape of the Sabine women in the early history of Home. 
 When a tribesman, from one cause or another, has a difficulty in getting a 
 wife in his own tribule, he takes with him a few of his comrades, and, making 
 an incursion into the neighbouring territory, he carries off a woman of that 
 tribe to be his wife. He does not seize anyone that comes first to his hand ; 
 for here too the tribal restrictions as to the intermarriage of certain classes 
 prevent ; and, however much the names of these intermarrying classes may 
 vary throughout the island, a black man always knows which class of females 
 he may marry with ; but the capture here may be similar to that by which 
 liobert of Normandy, and other bold men in the middle ages, got their wives ; 
 the persons may have known something of each other beforehand, and the 
 forceful suitor could not brook the delay of gentler ways. 
 
 Another kind of marriage by capture the Australians have, but it is common 
 enough among all savage people. A war band invades the territory of an 
 adjoining hostile tribe, kills the men, and carries off the women. Each woman 
 becomes the property of her individual captor. 
 
 In some districts, when a young man wants a wife, he goes to a camp 
 where there are females and throws in a ' bumarang ' : if it is not thrown 
 
MAEEIAGE. 29 
 
 back, lie enters and takes the girl ofHs choice ; but if it is thrown back he 
 knows he must fight for her, for there is a rival in the way. So among the 
 Kaffirs, the bride on her marriage day has her body covered with red ochre, 
 and at one part of the cermonial has to throw an ' assagai ' into the cattle 
 kraal where the men are assembled. • 
 
 rpi p But when the match has been arranged with the full consent of 
 
 •>' all the persons concerned, and the day fixed for the ceremonial, 
 then there is such a gathering of friends and well-wishers as graces a similar 
 occasion in more civilized quarters. As many as 200 guest may arrive, the friends 
 of both families ; there is a great store of food prepared for the feast which 
 ensues ; a great fire is kindled and the guests arrange themselves on opposite 
 sides of it ; meanwhile the bride's mother has built a ' gunya' or native hut, 
 which is merely a rude shelter made of sticks and leafy boughs ; and the 
 bride has made a fire there ; the man is arrayed in gorgeous attire — that is, 
 streaks of red and white paint over his body ; the bride is brought in ; she is 
 seen to be similarly attired ; or, in some localities, she is merely adorned 
 with white feathers stuck in her hair ; the girl is led to the ' gunya ' by her 
 mother, or she is simply told to go to her husband, and she goes ; or, if not, 
 she is compelled to go. The young couple sit there all night, and do not 
 speak to each other ; at break of day she goes off to her father's home, but 
 at night she returns to her own, and then the whole proceedings are brought 
 to an end. This is the usual routine of a set marriage ceremonial, but the 
 details of it vary among different tribes. 
 
 -AT .1 . • From the day of the marriage, the bride's mother, who has been 
 , * "* ' so useful that day, not only becomes a mother-in-law to the 
 ^"'' young man, but ever after, up to the hour of his death, holds a 
 
 mqst peculiar relation to him ; she must not speak to him nor he to her ; 
 they must even avoid looking at each other. One day, a friend of mine 
 was out riding about in the bush with a black man to assist him with the cattle ; 
 they saw a black woman not far off, and my friend said to the man, " Jack, 
 there's Mary; call her.; I want to speak to her." Jack took no notice of 
 this ; whereupon the gentleman, thinking that he had not been heard, 
 repeated the command. There was no answer. At last, when appealed to 
 again, the black man replied, " What for you ask that : you know I can't 
 speak to that fellow ; she my wife's mother." And so all communication 
 between the two must be carried on through a third person! If the man and 
 the mother-in-law chance to cross each others' path in the forest, or be in 
 danger of meeting there, the woman hurriedly hides behind a bush or a tree 
 till he is passed, and he holds his shield before his face so that he may not see 
 her. And this curious arrangement — which in some places is called the 
 ' knalloin ' custom^affects also the mother of a little girl who has been 
 betrothed to an older man. From the hour of betrothal, they become mother- 
 in-law and son-in-law, and must avoid each other. They must, if possible, 
 never see each other. It is hard to account for so remarkable a custom ; but 
 our indigenes certainly think that, if there were any communication between 
 the two, some great evil would happen to one or both of them. The evil 
 spirits would come and inflict punishment on them by making them die or 
 become prematurely old. 
 
 Nor are the Australians alone in this curious superstition. A Kaffir 
 woman dislikes to use the name of her father-in-law or of any word which 
 contains his name. She avoids this by using another word of the same 
 meaning. Among the negroid Mincopies of the Andaman Islands, a man 
 and the wife of a younger brother avoid each other, and all converse between 
 
30 THE ABORIGINES OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 tliem is carried on through another person. He must not touch her or his 
 wife's sister ; but he shows all respect towards the wife of his elder brother, 
 especially when she is older than himself ; thus this shyness affects only a 
 a married relative, who is younger than himself, even although marriage is 
 not possible between them. Women similarly are restricted in their inter- 
 course with a husband's elder brother or male cousin, or his brother-in-law. 
 And, in Northern Melanesia, similar reserve exists ; for all women are either 
 the sisters of the men, and between them consequently marriage is impossible; 
 or they are the wives in posse of the men ; and, conversely, the women hold 
 corresponding relations to the men, and, therefore, men and women, who are 
 already related by marriage, show much shyness towards each other. They 
 avoid using a word which forms any part of the name of a relation by marriage, 
 and a man and his mother-in-law specially shun each other, as in Australia. 
 
 ■p And this state of things in the Santa Cruz group seems to me to 
 
 gamy, ^j^j.^^ considerable light on the system of marriage restriction in 
 the Australian tribes. It is well known that their law prevents a man from 
 marrying a woman of his own tribal class, and compels him to take his partner 
 from a certain other class. This exogamous system in our native tribes 
 has given rise to much discussion, and various reasons, more or less pro- 
 bable, have been assigned for it. Briefly, the facts are these. Throughout 
 Austraha, a tribe is, for the purposes of marriage, divided into two, or four, 
 and sometimes six, classes, and within each of these no marriage is possible. 
 Every man in that class must take a wife from another class, and the class into 
 which he has to marry is fixed for him. Intermarriage with a woman of his 
 own class is incest and a heinous offence. Now, it is clear that the two- 
 class arrangement must have been the original one, for four and six classes 
 can have come from two by subdivision ; but, if four was the original number, 
 it is difficult to see how the strong conservatism of savage tribes towards any 
 custom, which they regard as somewhat of a religious nature, would permit 
 them to curtail an arrangement handed down to them from their ancestors. 
 I shall there assume at present, and for this argument, that every where there 
 are only two exogamous intermarrying classes in each of our tribes, and 
 within each of these no marriage is permitted. It is also known that 
 everywhere among Ethiopians, that is, black tribes, marriage with a sister 
 is abhorred, and a sister's daughters are regarded as younger sisters, while 
 a sister's son inherits a man's property to the exclusion of the man's own 
 son. Descent is reckoned through the mother, and the mother's brother 
 has a special relationship to all her children closer than that of the 
 father's brother. A man may marry a brother's daughter, but not a sister's. 
 Paternal cousins of the same name may marry, but not maternal cousins. 
 Now, let us suppose that the first founders of any particular black race — 
 that is, the leaders of the first band that went forth to people new lands, 
 were two brothers, the band consisting of themselves and their wives and. 
 children, or two brothers going forth alone to settle on an island already 
 inhabited. Such a case is quite possible, for tradition in various parts of 
 Oceania says that such a thing has happened. The children of each of these 
 brothers, whom we shall call A and B, cannot marry among themselves, 
 for they are all brothers and sisters, but any son of A can marry any 
 daughter of B, and any son of B can marry any daughter of A, for these- 
 are brothers' children. Thus two exogamous intermarrying classes are- 
 established w^hich would embrace the whole community in perpetuity ; for 
 these class distinctions are heritable property. And even where the two 
 families of founders came as immigrants and settled among a small population 
 already established in an island or district, any wife whom a man might take 
 
MAEEIAQE. 31 
 
 from among these indigenes would be a sister-in-law to the other men, of 
 the same division, and her daughters would be their younger sisters, descent 
 flowing through the mother. Exactly the same issues would arise whenever 
 the two immigrant founders of families and races were sisters ; and of such 
 a case, too, Polynesia has traditions. And now I see how the mother-in-law's 
 shyness and prohibition of communion come in. If the tribal view of 
 physiology alleges that the daughter is specially a product of her mother, 
 and continues to have a special physical relation to her mother (for the evi- 
 dence points in that direction) , then the girl's husband must shun all appear- 
 ance of direct communication with the mother-in-law, for she is of the same 
 tribal class as her daughter, and that is a class over all members of which he 
 has the possibility of marital rights ; but his relation to the daughter would 
 render the slightest touch of the mother-in-law equivalent to incest — worse 
 even than intercourse with a sister. I offer this as a theory to account for 
 this curious custom among our Australians. As a theory, it seems to explain 
 also why the father-in-law is not avoided in the same way. A father-in-law 
 on a visit to his daughter may enter the ' gjtinya ' and consort freely with 
 the husband, but the mother-in-law must stay outside. She must not speak 
 to the man even when he is dying ; only when he is dead, can she look on 
 his face, and join in the bleeding gashes and the wailing cry of grief for the 
 friend who is gone. It is needless to say that the natives themselves cannot 
 tell why all this is so. To all inquiries they only reply, ' Our fathers did so, 
 and so do we.' 
 
 However, in course of time the two primitive classes were expanded into 
 four, and each of these four classes came to be subdivided into ' totem ' 
 varieties. This happened, as I think, not from the pressure of necessity and 
 the fear of inbreeding, as some say, but in a much more natural way. The 
 experience of all nations that have had any vitality in them shows a sort 
 of gemmation, a putting forth of fresh shoots which go out and establish 
 themselves as new tribes and independent existences. Increase of population 
 leads to this, or civil dissension, or a tendency to wander and colonise. The 
 leader of such a sept bears the by-name of 'the lion,' or 'the bear,' or 'the 
 kangaroo.' On his death that animal is regarded as his visible representative, 
 and is reverenced accordingly. No man of that clan will harm it ; for, on his 
 death-bed, he may have told his people that henceforth his spirit would live 
 in that animal, and so it is the lirst of their ancestors. That animal becomes 
 to them a ' totem,' after which they are named, and to which they look for 
 protection against evil ; if it is a thing, it becomes to them a ' fetich ' in 
 which the spirit dwells, and may do them good or ill, according to their 
 behaviour towards it. In Scotland, although there is no ' totemism ' there, 
 yet the principles which produced it in savage nations still exist ; for a loyal 
 Bruce will not willingly kill a spider; the Highland clansmen cherish the 
 plants which are the badges of their clans ; and the Scot abroad loves to see 
 the thistle, just as much as the shamrock delights the Irishman. Thus I 
 account for the spread of ' totemism.' Here, again, Polynesian -myths show 
 us this very process going on. Pili, originally a Samoan hero, was the 
 name of the leader of the swarm that peopled Hawaii ; now Pili means a 
 'lizard,' and the Hawaiian's reverence, or rather dread, the lizard. 
 
 Whenever a tribe, with only two exogamous classes, thus sent off a hive 
 from itself to form another tribe, it is natural to expect that the names of 
 these two would be retained and applied to a portion of the hive, while two 
 or more fresh names would be introduced for the other classes. Or, on 
 discarding the old names, the new band would arrange itself in divisions, 
 
32 THE ABOEIG-INES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 named from tbeir several leaders. In this way tlie Israelite tribes, wlien they 
 occupied the land of Canaan, called themselves by the names of the sons of 
 Jacob. In Australia, the names by vphich the various tribes call their class 
 divisions are very diverse, and the ' totem ' animals of their sub-divisions are 
 very diverse ; and yet a black man, wherever he is on this vast continent, 
 knows whether a female whom he meets is of the class with which he can 
 intermarry. Oa one occasion, an aboriginal man came to my house from 
 Eockhampton, which is 800 miles distant. He was a very intelligent black, 
 and, in conversationwith him, I learned that, when he had reached a town 
 about 30 miles from ours, he found there a young black woman whose father 
 belonged to our local tribe, and knowing her to be of the proper class, 
 Jimmy married her. How he knew, I cannot tell. It may be that he 
 found her ' totem' name to mean the same animal which was the ' totem ' 
 of the class with which he could intermarry in Queensland. 
 
 ,-- . An aboriginal community, then, is commonly divided into four 
 
 „, ■' marriage classes, which, in the Kamalarai tribe of New South 
 Wales — one of the most widely known — are called : — 
 
 1 2 3 4 _ 
 
 Male ... ... Ippai Kumbo Murri Kubbi 
 
 Female ... Ippatha Butha Matha Kubbitha 
 
 The first and the second of these classes have each the same subdivisions, 
 named after native animals, which they take as their ' totems,' viz., emu, 
 bandicoot, black snake ; while the third and the fourth take kangaroo, 
 opossum, iguana. The Kurringgai tribe, which occupies our sea-coast for a 
 long distance north and south from Newcastle, has the same class divisions, 
 except that Murri is by them called Bia, and their sub-divisions are black 
 snake, bandicoot, eagle-hawk, and stingaree. Other tribes elsewhere have 
 still the four classes, but under different names and with different sub- 
 classes. The law of intermarriage is such that there is no marrying 
 between members of the same ' totem,' but an Ippai must marry a Kub- 
 bitha, a Murri a Butha ; a Kumbo must marry a Matha, and a Kubbi an 
 Ippatha. The children of these marriages also arrange themselves in these 
 classes and sub-classes by fixed laws. The rule of descent, as given by 
 authors who have written ou this subject, is this : — Descent is reckoned 
 through the mother. To this rule, however, there are exceptions where the 
 children follow the father'' s classification. I am therefore disposed to offer 
 this on a more generally applicable rule : — Ohildren take the class and ' totem'' 
 of their grandparents, and tiiis rule, so far as I can see, admits of no exceptions. 
 It corresponds also with a natural impulse among ourselves in the naming of 
 our children. I tabulate my view thus : — 
 
 Laws op descent amoko the Austealian Indigenes. 
 
 Eule : — "Ohildren fake the classification of their grandparents.'" 
 
 Por Males. 
 
 Murri (kangaroo') is the son of Ippai (emu) -. therefore his sons are 
 
 Ippai (emu). 
 Kubbi (opossum) is the son of Kumbo {bandicoot) : therefore his sons 
 
 are Kumbo (bandicoot). 
 Ippai (black-snake) is the son of Murri (iguana) -. therefore his sons are 
 
 Murri (iguana). 
 Kumbo (bandicoot) is the son of Kubbi (opossum) : therefore his sons 
 
 are Kubbi (opossum). 
 
MAREIAGE. 
 
 33 
 
 Por Females. 
 
 Martha {kangaroo) is the daughter of Kubbitha (kangaroo) : therefore 
 her daughters are Kubbitha (Jcangaroo). 
 
 Kubbitha (opossum) is the daughter of Matha (opossum) -. therefore her 
 daughters are Matha (opossum). 
 
 Ippatha (emu) is the daughter of Butha (emu) : therefore her daughters 
 are Butha (emu). 
 
 Butha (hlack-snake) is the daughter of Ippatha (blacJa-snake) : there- 
 fore her daughters are Ippatha (black-snake). 
 
 The lineal descent thus becomes : — 
 
 For Males. 
 
 For Females. 
 
 
 Ippai 
 
 Kumbo 
 
 Kubbitha 
 
 Butha 
 
 
 Murri 
 
 Kubbi 
 
 Matha 
 
 Ippatha 
 
 
 Ippai 
 
 Kumbo 
 
 Kubbitha 
 
 Butha 
 
 
 Murri 
 and so on. 
 
 Kubbi 
 
 and so on. 
 
 Matha 
 
 and so on. 
 
 Ippatha 
 and so on. 
 
 
 As to the form of these names, it is obvious that those for females all end 
 in -tha, and are taken from the corresponding names for males. The names 
 Butha and Matha seem to be irregular; but Butha may be for Gutha from 
 Kumbo, for in Kumbo the to is phonetic and intrusive, and the root is Ku, 
 or rather Gu ; as to Matha, it is regularly formed from the same root as 
 ■Murri, for Murri ought to be v^ritten Ma-ari, the -ari being a common suffix 
 formative in the language, and Ma is the root, from which also comes Ma-in, 
 a dialect form of the same meaning as Murri. Mari and Main both mean 
 a 'native' or ' blackman' ; its substitute, Bia, means 'father.' Ippai, in the 
 "Wiradhari dialect, adjacent to the Kamalarai, means an 'eagle-hawk.' I 
 cannot give any account of the names Kumbo and Kubbi, but they seem 
 both to come from the same root Ku or Gu. I presume that Murri and 
 Ippai were the two primary classes in the Kamalari system. 
 
 ■,T- „ It may seem strange that there should be so many different 
 
 ^j ^ -^ names for the four tribal classes ; but that is everywhere a 
 asse^. peculiarity of the Australian dialects ; each dialect generally 
 has its own name for the most familiar objects. Thus the tribal languages 
 have many words to mean a 'kangaroo,' and still more to mean the different 
 varieties of the kangaroo. And so, if the class-names designate the same 
 animals from tribe to tribe, these names must vary as other common words 
 do. But if, as seems likely, the Australians came hither in different bands 
 and at different times, each band under its own leaders, whose names after- 
 wards became 'totems' to their followers, then I can understand how the 
 class-names in the tribes are now so various, and why these names do not 
 everywhere signify the same animals. This origin of the class-names receives 
 countenance from facts known to esist among other savage tribes. The 
 Battaks of Sumatra, for instance, have among them clans, whose ' totem' is 
 the turtle-dove, the crocodile, &c., and the clansmen allege that they got 
 these names from their first ancestors. Then again it is well-known that, in 
 
34 THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 fhe Australian classification, some animal-names — the eao;le and tlie crow — 
 are more common than others, and these two especially fi-gure much in the 
 native mythology. Is it unreasonable to suppose that these were the by- 
 names of two great chiefs of the first immigrants ; just as Caleb, ' dog,' was 
 one of the leaders of Israelites in their invasion of Canaan. Now, on the 
 Murray Eiver, two class-names are Makquarra, ' eagle,' and Kilparra, ' crow.' 
 In our latitudes the synonyms for these are MuUian, and Wagan, and if the 
 same classification existed here these might be the class-names in use instead 
 of Makquarra, and Kilparra. 
 
 , . , The natives take another curious view of their tribal classifica- 
 nima ^j^^ , they believe that all natural objects are similarly divided 
 ■asses. ^^^^ classes, male and female ; hence they address their dogs as 
 ' ippai,' ' ippatha,' and so on ; so also they speak of the sun, moon, and 
 stars ; and the ' totem ' names also in some places are taken from the stars 
 and trees, and even rain. A blackfellow always treats with special respect 
 and kindness the animal or thing whose ' totem' name he bears. If he is 
 a Kilparra man, he thinks that the ' crow' watche« over him and will give 
 him due warning in time of danger, or will even communicate with him in 
 his sleep. If a colonist kills his ' totem' animal, the black will say, ' "W'hat 
 for you shoot that fellow ? that my father ' ; or '■ that brother belonging to 
 me; why did you do it?' And in common conversation among themselves 
 they often address each other, not by their individual names, but by their 
 class-names. 
 
 ,, . There now remain only a few minor points to be considered 
 
 jfi- -, ^-f in connection with this subject of tribal marriage. It has 
 ^' been said that morality is unknown in our tribes, and that 
 individuals consort together, male and female, like the beasts of the field. 
 This is utterly untrue so far as the Australians are concerned, and although 
 their code of morals is not founded on the Christian system as ours is, and 
 they therefore occupy a much lower platform, yet the light of nature is 
 still with them, in many respects, undimmed, as will be shown in another 
 section, and they have social and tribal punishments for those who trans- 
 gress. A woman who violates her fidelity to her husband may be beaten by 
 him, or speared through the leg ; that punishment may bo considered brutal, 
 but it is the only substitute they have for jail and hard labour. If she con- 
 tinues wanton, the elders of the tribe compel her to submit to »• sort of 
 homoeopathic remedy so effectual that, if it could be enforced in a civilised 
 community, I am sure that adultery would soon disappear. Or, if the husband 
 chooses, he may complain to the elders. of the tribe, and they, on cause shown, 
 decree a divorce ; but not if she has children. A wife may similarly com- 
 plain to them of the conduct of her husband, and they may order both the 
 man and his paramour to be punished. A woman also, who is cruelly used 
 by her husband, may flee from him, and place herself under the protection 
 of another man, with the hope of becoming his wife ; but the two men must 
 then determine possession by single combat in presence of the chiefs. 
 
 In other directions, the blackman's belief that his wife is only to be dealt 
 with as a portion of his private property comes into play. When visitors 
 come to the camp they are accommodated with wives while they remain ; 
 and a brave chief, who has done much for their tribe by his prowess, gets the 
 wives of other men sent to him by them as a mark of respect and friendship. 
 Two men may even agree to exchange wives for a time ; and, however jealous 
 a husband may be of his wife's fidelity in "the tribe, he is quite ready to 
 bargaiu with a white man, and with her consent too ; for a black woman 
 
MxiEEIAGE. 35 
 
 considers it an honor to be thus courted by a man of a superior race. Here, 
 and in Equatorial Africa likewise, if a lover only agrees to giTe something, 
 no objection is raised by the husband ; and yet, notwithstanding all this, our 
 natives may be said to be on the whole a moral people — perhaps as moral, 
 generally speaking, as some of the European nations ; and their morality in 
 marriage is stamped on their languages ; for these have words which describe 
 the wantonness of a woman, and such words could not exist if morality were 
 unknown. 
 
 There are widows in the Australian tribes. When a man dies, his widow 
 is the property of his next brother, even if he has a wife already ; for there 
 is polygamy in the tribes, but it exists chiefly in the households of the chiefs, 
 and is not otherwise common. If from any cause this refuge fails the 
 widow, she goes to the dead man's paternal cousin, avoiding the sister 
 relationship as usual, or she goes back to her father's home, and remains 
 there until her brothers give her away in barter ; or, if she has no other 
 resource, she becomes the property of the community. This levirate custom 
 is not confined to Australia. In ivielanesia the woman is told at the time of 
 her marriage to which of his brothers she will have to go in the event of her . 
 husband's death. Among some of the aboriginal tribes of the north-west 
 provinces of Hindustan, the levirate custom also exists. The Bechuanas of 
 Africa have the same custom, and all the wives of the deceased elder brother 
 are taken over by his next brother. Even the wives of a deceased king there 
 belong to his son, and he may retain them or give them away as presents to 
 the under-ehiefs. 
 
 T 7 , ., The principle of inheritance by birth has not much scope in 
 Australia, for our blackf ellows have very little property to leave 
 to heirs. Their all is a few spears and a club and a shield, 
 a 'bumarang,' a cloak; some of these are put in the grave with the dead 
 man. Of course, the wife's utensils will belong to her successor. Keverthe- 
 less, there are indications to show that a man, when dying, may, by a verbal 
 will, leave such property as he has to a son or to any one he chooses. It 
 appears, however, that in all things there m a closer sympathy between a 
 man and his sister, for the maternal uncle has most to do with his sister's 
 family. In some places it is he that negotiates a marriage and gives away 
 the bride, and it is he that acts as guardian to his young nephews. This 
 seems to correspond with, although it does not go so far as, the Dravidian 
 custom, where, as in Travancore and among the Canarese, the law of in- 
 heritance passes over a man's sons, and conveys his property to his sister's 
 sons. The same is the law in Northern Melanesia. This also means that a 
 sister, from some physiological or other-cause, is regarded as nearer to a man 
 than his brother ; hence the rale elsewhere, that a man may marry his brother's 
 daughter, but not his si.ster's ; hence aLso the fact that in a part of the 
 Melan'esian region a mother's brother is called a father, while a father's 
 brother is only an uncle. 
 
 -j.,j- . 1 Only one thing more may be added in this section ; in spite of 
 .rp ,■" the hardness of their mode of life, married coujiles often live 
 •^ ' ■ happily and affectionately together to a considerable age, and 
 as they are a merry, laughter-loving race, their troubles and jirivations pass 
 lightly away. In their natural state, and wherever food is abundant, they 
 are prolific, and children are numerous in a native c^mp ; but in a hard time 
 abortion and infanticide are common; and, especially since the blacks in the 
 peopled districts have taken to European food and iuduigences and habit:^, 
 their name and their generation will soon have disappeared from the lands 
 of which their fathers were the sole possessors. 
 
36 TJIE ABORIGINES 0¥ NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 V.-THE TRIBE. 
 
 •TJ7, , lu Australia there are only two things to be considered when we 
 ■ ^?'f, proceed to locate a tribe — its territorial limits and its language. 
 ** * ■ Eeligion cannot be taken as an element in this question, nor 
 tribal descent ; for the Bora, which is of a semi-religious nature, and the 
 native beliefs as to their deified ancestors, and the influence of evil spirits, are 
 much the same everywhere throughout the continent, and there are no 
 traditions as to a separate origin and descent of tribes, as in the stories of 
 Grreece and Rome ; but it is well-known here that each tribe had its own 
 'taurai' — territory or hunting-ground — usually determined by natural 
 boundaries, such as mountain ridges and rivers ; any transgression of these 
 limits was regarded by the adjacent tribe as a casus belli, and would at 
 once lead to hostilities. As a consequence of this isolation, and from the 
 operation of a principle, which caused the name even of a common thing to 
 be changed as soon as any man died who bore that name, the dialect of each 
 tribe has diverged very much from the original stock. Thus it is that each 
 tribe has come to be distinguished both by its dialect and by the limits 
 within which each member of the tribe might wander, without encountering 
 enemies who would drive him back. In many instances, the line of division 
 between languages, and consequently between tribes, lies on the test word 
 for ' no,' and this mode of distinguishing them seems to come from the 
 natives, for one of the largest tribes in New South Wales has always been 
 called the Kamalarai, the 'no-ers,' both by themselves and by others. And 
 many other tribes are named in the same way. In the case of the Kamal- 
 arai, however, another consideration comes into view. Immediately to the 
 north of them, there is a big stretch of country in which the word for ' no' is 
 wal; the people are therefore called the Walarai ; but their language is not 
 materially different from the Kamalarai, and they are arranged in four 
 esogamous classes bearing the Kamalarai names. For these reasons the 
 Walarai are regarded as only a sub-tribe of the Kamalarai ; and so also for 
 the Ngaiamba blacks on the west side, who speak the Wailwan dialect. I 
 have been considering this question of the tribes in New South Wales for 
 many years, and I cannot find that they are more than eight in number, the 
 Kamalarai, the Wiradhari, the Bakanji, the Kurring-gai, the Tung-gai, the 
 Paikalyung, the Waehigari, the Miirringgari. In addition to these, we have, 
 on our southern frontier, the Ngarego, who come in from Gippsland, which is 
 part of the colony of Victoria; and in the south-west corner, on both sides of the 
 Murray River, there is a bunch of associated tribes, each of them small, but 
 yet having its own name and differences of dialect. These seem to be the 
 fragments of tribes which have been hemmed in there by the irruption of 
 stronger tribes from the north. The Takkajari and the Kornu ■ tribes, on 
 our northern boundary, properly belong to Queensland. Of these names for 
 tribes, Kurringgai and Paikalyung mean the ' men.' 
 
 ™, Now, these tribes have their sub-divisions, each with a ' taurai' 
 
 ' rp -T J of its own ; and the sub-tribe is called by the name of some local 
 ''* '* "■ feature of its ' taurai,' a river or a mountain, or the like, and 
 to this is added a suffix — ' kal ' on the coast, ' gialong' inland — to denote 
 place. And this principle of sub-division goes down even as far as the clan 
 and the family. Eor to each family is allotted a portion of the local 'taurai,' 
 from which it may obtain its supplies of food, and sometimes a dying chief 
 has been known to say that he wished to give some particular part of it to a 
 favourite son. This looks like a claim to private ownership in land, but, as 
 that is opposed to the communal system which prevails in all the tribes, I 
 would not admit the force of this evidence until it is established on better 
 ground. 
 
THE TRIBE. , 37 
 
 ■n 1 • Tliat the use of their 'taurai' is jealously guarded, even by tlie 
 sub-tribes, admits of no doubt. An incident, for which I can 
 vouch, proves this; for I have it on the testimony of a friend whose aid was 
 invoked on the occasion. About fifty years ago, in the Walarai country, one 
 division of the tribe had increased so mucb in numbers that their hunting- 
 ground was too strait for them, and a scarcity of food ensued. They therefore 
 sent their public messenger, or herald, to an adjacent sub-tribe, requesting them 
 to surrender a part of their ground. This was refused, on the plea that it was 
 against tribal law to do so, and that even if it were lawful, their ' taurai,' if 
 curtailed, would not be sufficient to furnish them with enough of food. 
 The others then sent back an insolent message to say that they would come 
 and take what they wanted, and would leave them nothing but grass to eat. 
 The latter replied that, if so, they would appeal for justice and aid to the 
 neighbouring sub-tribes. On this, both parties prepared for war, and the 
 weaker side asked my friend to come and help them with his musket. This 
 he declined to do. But the two sections assembled their forces and met ; as 
 usual, numerous parleys ensued, much talk, and angry oratory. At last it 
 was agreed that next day an equal number from each side should fight it out. 
 "When the time for action came, their courage, I suppose, began to fail them, 
 or their passions had cooled, for the dispute was settled by single combat. 
 This is the common course and issue of a tribal quarrel. 
 
 rp 77 Notwithstanding all this, a man going on a visit or on business 
 
 ''^ '' ■ may pass freely from any one locality within the tribal 
 boundaries to any other, and wherever he comes he is received with 
 hospitality. It is only a war-party or a band of blood-avengers that will 
 cross the "boundary, and enter on the land of another tribe. Nor is this 
 fencing of territory confined to Australia. The negroid Mincopies of the 
 Andaman Islands have strict regulations of the same kind between their 
 tribes, and the Hottentots of South Africa had the same before the white 
 man came there ; as they possessed flocks and herds, intrusion on their pasture 
 lands was a serious offence. So long as a tribe depends on the chase or on 
 pasture for its subsistence, and is nomadic in its members, there is local 
 community in land ; but when any portion of the tribe takes to cultivation, 
 then individual tenure in land springs up. Now, our blackfellows have not 
 got beyond the hunter stage, and do not cultivate ; it is only in peculiar 
 circumstances, where there are permanent supplies of food, that they settle 
 in one place, and build grass huts for constant occupation. 
 „. . , . And yet our tribes, even when hostile, do not shut themselves 
 Visiting, a^itogether out from social intercourse with each other. At the 
 Iradmg. g^gg^^ Bora ceremonies, men of the adjacent tribes are invited to be 
 present, and universal brotherhood prevails ; and, at a certain season of the 
 year, a sort of fair, called Mindi, is held in any place which may be suitable, 
 and tribesmen from all quarters attend. There is then a general barter of 
 useful articles— in fact, a buying and selling, something like a Nijni- 
 Novgorod trafficking, to which each man brings the things that his own 
 district produces, and exchanges them for others which it has not, and which 
 he wishes to have. 
 
 In Melanesia, unimproved bush land seems to belong to nobody ; but, as 
 soon as a man by labour clears a piece of land, it is his own in perpetuity; 
 villagers who may happen to settle on it pay no rent ; they only make 
 presents as a sort of feudal homage to the head of the family which is 
 descended from the original proprietor. But, if the owner of the land lets 
 another man plant fruit-trees on it, these trees and their produce are the 
 heritable property of the planter and his representatives. 
 
38 THE ABOEIGINES OE ISTEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 ■jij-- , • It is not supposed that the Australian tribes have in all time 
 tgra ions. gQ^^^JQ^jg^ ^^ occupy the very same ' taurai' which they now have. 
 There is ailux and reflux among savage tribes — a growth and decay. This is 
 very conspicuous in Africa. A tribe, whose location was near the Cameroon 
 Mountains, was, in a few years, found to have drifted down to the mouth of 
 the Congo ; and Livingstone's friends, the Malotolo, are now said to be 
 almost extinct. In our country, the Maroura tribe, which now lives at the 
 junction of the Murray with the Darling Eiver, was found, in 1831, far up 
 the Darling, and moving down. These chauges happen in various ways. 
 About 1830, a terrible epidemic of an eruptive disease like variola raged 
 among our tribes. At a spot which I know the deaths were so rapid and 
 numerous that the blacks could not bury their dead ; they had constantly to 
 shift their camp, and just leave a sick friend with a little water beside him 
 to live or to die, untended. After this, the tribe never recovered its 
 numerical strength. Now, if, in these circumstances, a neighbouring tribe 
 had escaped the epidemic and seized the opportunity to make an attack, 
 these Kurringgai would have disappeared from the map, and the others would 
 have occupied their place ; and such a movement as this, like the letting 
 out of water, might have caused the displacement of many other tribes 
 further to the north. Such displacements are very common in a region 
 which is overcrowded, as is Central Africa and on the Zambesi ; for, in a 
 crowd, when it once begins to move, a man cannot help shifting his position 
 as it moves. So it has been with the Makololo ; another tribe came in and 
 conquered them ; killed all the men ; spared the women and children ; and 
 thus the tribe is gone. Livingstone says that there were traces of many 
 extinct tribes in the lands he passed through. And so it must have been in 
 Australia in the past. 
 
 m n J There is notliing of the nature of kingly rule in any one of 
 
 „ the tribes, nor is there an over-chief for the whole of a tribe ; 
 
 , ' but the affairs of each section of a tribe are administered by 
 
 a number of elders, among whom one man is considered the 
 
 leader or chief, because of his superior wisdom and influence. To this man's 
 
 opinion much deference is given when the old men sit in council, although 
 
 he cannot control the others by his individual authority. He and his wife 
 
 and his family occupy a position of dignity and respect in the sub-tribe, for 
 
 I have heard the daughter of such a chief claim to be a ' princess ' ; and I 
 
 have seen such a chief walking along with stately parade, and two henchman 
 
 behind him at a proper distance, carrying on their shoulders the animals 
 
 which had been caught for food. He is addressed by his title as chief, and 
 
 not by his name, and younger men do not speak to him till they are spoken 
 
 to, and in all respects his position is one of honour. He and his assessors 
 
 regulate all matters that may be referred to them by the members of the 
 
 sub-tribe in their individual relations, as well as the general interests of their 
 
 community ; they settle private disputes, allot punishments, and see them 
 
 executed ; they conduct the great tribal ceremonies, such as those of the 
 
 Bora ; and decree either peace or war. At their councils they sit in a circle 
 
 at a distance from the camp, in the recesses of the bush, and often at night 
 
 time. " I once," says a friend of mine, " came suddenly upon a lot of the 
 
 old men sitting in a circle in anxious deliberation. As I passed on, one 
 
 of them whispered to me not to tell anybody that I had seen them." 
 
 „ The succession to the dignity of chief is neither hereditary nor 
 
 nj^-^lw]^- " is i*' elective. "When an old chief dies he is buried with 
 
 uej^ii-p. gpgg|,^j honour, and the chiefs of adjoining sub-tribes attend 
 
 his funeral. Eor some time thereafter the government is allowed to go on 
 
THE TEIBE. 39 
 
 as before, and no steps are taken to supply his place ; at last the council 
 meets and agrees to recognise the eldest son of the deceased as chief in his 
 room, the succession by custom falling to him ; but if he is unwarlike, or 
 supine in disposition, or otherwise unfit to be a leader, he is passed over and 
 the nest son who may be fitted for the honour is chosen. If the late chief 
 has left no sons, the succession passes to his brother and his sons. If the 
 late chief's son is a minor, he cannot sit as chief till he has passed through 
 the Bora, and if, when he grows up, he is found unfit for his position he may 
 be deposed. If there are two rivals competiug for the chiefship, they settle 
 the matter by single combat. The government of the nine tribes of the 
 Mincopies is very similar to this ; each tribe has its ' taurai,' which is the 
 common property of all ; in each there are sub-chiefs or elders, and a head 
 chief, whose authority, however, is very limited ; for of himself he cannot 
 assign punishments or enforce obedience. A son of his succeeds, if he is 
 qualified ; but if not, there is always one of the other chiefs who is known 
 to be best fitted for the vacant position. There a man does not become a 
 chief by descent, but his public estimation elevates him to rank ; if he has 
 shown wisdom and skill, if he is -generous and hospitable, and has provided 
 ■liberal feasts for his friends, he is chief by general consent. In New Britain 
 the influence of a ' dukduk' man, a sort of sacred man, is also obtained by his 
 generosity in providing feasts of pigs and other viands, and in the northern 
 half of the New Hebrides something similiar to the ' dukduk' prevails. Iji 
 the New Hebrides also — a Melanesian region — there are no chiefs of sacred 
 blood and no hereditary rank ; in short, there, as in Australia, one man is 
 considered as good as any other, unless he shows fitness for the position ho 
 holds. Among the Bechuanas, a chief has mttch more power than an 
 Australian chief ; he has the command of life and death ; his decision is 
 always accepted ; and he alone sits when he is speaking in the council. 
 Q , , This Australian council of old and experienced men — this 
 J T, ■ T aboriginal senate and witenagemot — has the power to decree 
 . punishment for tribal offences ; the chiefs sit as magistrates to 
 
 decide on all causes that are brought before them. The punish- 
 ments which they impose are various; for serious offences against public law, 
 such as the divulging of sacred things, they decree death by the spear, pro- 
 bably at the hand of the tribal executioner, for there is such a functionary ; ifa 
 m.an has spoken to his wife's mother, he is obliged to leave the camp and pitch 
 his ' gunya' at a distance, and to remain there for some time ; if a husband com- 
 plains that his wife is wanton, and the council finds her guilty, she is 
 condemned to submit to a very ignominious punishment ; but for smaller 
 offences, the man is ordered by the chiefs to stand forth, armed only with a 
 shield, and thus to defend himself against the spears and ' bumarangs' thrown 
 at him by several men, the number of these varying according to the nature of 
 the fault he has committed ; only one spear is thrown at him at a time, and he is 
 warned each time of throwing; his relatives stand by, in his interest ; it is said 
 also that the chiefs sometimes allow a volley of spears to be thrown all at 
 once. In some cases, if the offence is not of any magnitude, the offender's 
 wife is allowed to stand beside him, armed with a yam-stisk — the women's 
 weapon ; with this she strikes down the spears as they come in. 
 
 But many grievances are arranged without the intervention of the chiefs, 
 in the rough and ready way common among schoolboys. Por instance, a man 
 has been found stealing from his neighbour, or two men quarrel about a 
 women ; a fight ensues, and with any weapons which may happen to be at 
 hand ; the one or the other gets his head broken, and there the matter ends. 
 In a set duel for some offence, the one man with his club pounds away at 
 
40 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 tlie other, who defends himself with his shield ; he continues showering 
 blows until he is tired ; then the adversary sets to work with Lis club, in 
 the same manner, until the one or the other succumbs. Sometimes also, 
 even in serious matters, the chiefs are not required to intervene. If a man 
 has by force taken and married a woman, in violation of any tribal law, 
 the women's relatives complain to the man's class ; they are bound to 
 compel the man to give back the woman ; if they do not, a party feud 
 arises, which can be appeased only by blood. The following description of 
 such a party battle was written sixty years ago, and is copied from a private 
 journal : — " 10th September, 1833. — I was to-day present for the first time at a 
 battle of natives, ten men being engaged on each side. A clear spot had 
 been selected as the place of combat. The two bands advanced to about 
 thirty paces from each other; then a parley commenced, in which words got 
 higher and higher, until, in exasperation, two or three ' bumarangs' were 
 thrown from the one side. Presently, the others returned the challenge in 
 the same way, and then the parties gallantly closed, and began to belabour 
 one another's heads unmercifully with their clubs. Three or four of the com- 
 batants were soon prostrate, and the blood on their backs showed that the 
 blows had been forcibly applied. Threats, dark and deep, were now heard ; 
 spears were got ready for action, and the dreadful howl of defiance was 
 raised. The combatants again opposed each other ; but with more deadly 
 weapons than before. But, while the sight of blood arouses the valorous 
 feelings of the men, it evidently excites the softer sensations of the other 
 sex ; for now, all at once, there rushed between the parties a hag bearing the 
 name of woman. Her eloquence was great, if we may judge by the noise 
 she made. She ' suited the action to the word and the word to the action,' 
 and, as often as a man lifted a spear to throw, she interposed herself. Her 
 violence was becoming outrageous, when there came forward from the oppor 
 site side a woman also armed with a tomahawk, and seemed inclined to take 
 summary means to quiet the first intruder. She, however, was not to be 
 daunted ; for, in reply, she brandished her stick as though game to the back- 
 bone. The angry mood, however, of these two females suddenly changed ; for 
 they ceased to threaten, and agreed to endeavour to preserve peace between 
 their friends ; but the first, finding her efforts in this direction to be unavail- 
 ing, abandoned herself to despair, and, seizing a tomahawk, cut her head with it 
 in a most dreadful manner. Whether she intended also to cut short her 
 existence or no, remains an unsettled question, for the tomahawk was 
 wrested from her hands. The female affray was to me by far the most 
 amusing part of the business, and no London fisherwomen could have 
 assailed one another with greater seeming virulence, or with more ready 
 language. The one party had hawks' feathers stuck in their- hair, a sure sign 
 that their intentions were deadly." 
 
 As I have said in another place, the war often ends in a single combat 
 between chosen champions, even after the battle has been set in array 
 between a picked band on the one side and the other; but when the women 
 interpose, and rouse the passions by their tongues, there comes on a general 
 melee. The women, too, take up the fight. They advance against each 
 other, and are roused to fury by mutual taunts of the most exasperating 
 kind. Then they close in, spit in each other's faces, tear hair, and strike 
 lustily with their yam-sticks. The men do not interefere. 
 
 The nature of the punishment imposed for an offence varies in different 
 localities. In Western Australia, a man guilty of abduction stands calmly 
 while the aggrieved parties drive their spears into his leg. Elsewhere, a man 
 accused of a serious offence gets a month's citation to appear before the 
 
THE TEIBE. 41 
 
 tribunal, oa pain of deatli if he disobeys. If be is found guilty of a private 
 wrong, he is painted white, and made to stand out at fifty paces in front of 
 the accuser and his friends, all fully armed. They throw at him a shower 
 of spears and ' bumarangs', from which he protects himself with a light shield. 
 If he is not harmed by these, his brother or other male relative, who stands by 
 as a second, hands him a heavy shield, and each adversary then advances, and 
 gives him a blow with a club. As soon as blood is drawn, all are friends 
 again. 
 
 Women and children are beaten with a stick if they cause strife by lying 
 or otherwise ; and if it is a man who does it, he must stand out and take 
 his punishment in the usual way with 'bumarang' and club. Liars are much 
 disliked ; and if anyone shows himself to be really a bad man and incor- 
 rigible, he is put to death judicially. 
 
 In some tribes, when a blood-feud has to be atoned,' the whole 'totem' 
 class of the aggressor meets the whole class of the victim ; champions are 
 selected to represent each side, as usual, and the rest of the men are 
 spectators. 
 
 In Melanesia and Polynesia generally, the punishment imposed for offences 
 is a fine of so many pigs. But in Eiji, a man may be strangled or clubbed, 
 or his ear, nose, or finger may be cut off for an offence. Adultery is severely 
 punished. But in all cases the aggrieved person will usually accept a ' soro,' 
 or expiatory gift, as satisfaction. 
 
 -p ,;. The council of chiefs also appoints the 'herald' or tribal 
 ,, messenger. He must be a man fluent of speech, well acquainted 
 
 ^ ' with the neighbouring dialects, and a good traveller. He passes 
 in safety between and through hostile tribes, for his person is inviolable, 
 and he is known to be a herald by the red net which he wears round his 
 forehead. Charged with a message from his tribe, he approaches the camp 
 of the enemy, and makes his presence known by a peculiar cry. This brings 
 around him all who are within hearing. He sits down and remains silent 
 for along time ; for this is native etiquette ; nor do they speak a word to him, 
 till, at last, his tongue is loosed, and then his eloquence is like a rapid 
 torrent. He is listened to with the greatest attention ; the chiefs consult, 
 and he waits there for the night or perhaps for several days to receive their 
 reply. 
 
 This public messsenger is often sent on peaceful errands to the sub- 
 tribes all around ; for, although the business of each of these is regulated 
 independently by its own council of elders, yet there are occasions of 
 general interest in which they all combine for their mutual benefit. Of 
 these occasions, the most important is the Bora ceremonies, at which young 
 men are formally admitted into the tribe, and are taught all the tribal lore 
 and their personal obligations as members of the tribe. That is a joyful 
 season, and blacks assemble then from all quarters. Another such occasion 
 is the Mindi meetings, or general fairs, when the blacks from distant places 
 bring in their commodities for barter. Another is a general hattue for game ; 
 for, if any sub-tribe find itself hard pushed for food, it can summon its 
 neighbours to give their assistance in the hunt. Then they all spread them- 
 selves in a circle, whose diameter may be 10 to 15 miles — like the hunting 
 circles which, in Celtic Scotland, are called tiomchioU — and gradually con- 
 verge, driving the game before them ; when the circle has become small 
 enough, the men despatch the kangaroos and the wallabies with their clubs 
 as they endeavour to break the line. Or, there may be disputes or grievances 
 between the sub-tribes, which must be arranged by mutual conference. For 
 
43 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 all suet purposes the public messenger is used. He gets Bis message from his 
 own chief, and ofE he goes in haste to deliver it to all concerned ; he also carries 
 a message-stick, that is, a short rod or baton with notches of various sorts 
 cut on it to assist his memory. If he is not known far from home, he may also 
 take with him his chief's ' bumarang ' as credentials. Different colours may 
 also be laid on the message-stick, according to the nature of the message 
 which he is to deliver. This one man may pass on and deliver his message 
 to all for whom it is intended ; but often he goes no farther than the nearest 
 ' taurai.' The chief of that division receives the message and the stick, and 
 sends it on by the hand of his own messenger, and in this way it soon is 
 known to all. The message tells the purpose for which the meeting is 
 convened, and the place and day of assembly. A meeting may also be 
 summoned by smoke signals, of which more anon. All who are thus sum- 
 moned are bound to obey on pain of death ; a black boy in the service of 
 a colonist will not stay on seeing the smoke signal. If he is refused per- 
 mission to go, he takes leg-bail, leaving behind him his clothing and all the 
 property which his master has given him. 
 
 A native, when conveying a white man's message, is likewise allowed to 
 pass ?afe, even through hostile territory. He carries in his hand a piece of 
 stick with a notch at the end, and fixed in this is a piece of white paper, 
 having the message written on it. To attack, or injure, or impede this 
 messenger is to raise a feud with the whole tribe of white men. 
 
 In Eiji, a messenger sent by the king carries with him rods or reeds of 
 various lengths ; as he delivers each message, he lays down the reed corre- 
 sponding thereto, and so on until they are all in a row before him. 
 
 In Africa, also, similar institutions are found ; for, on the Gold Coast 
 there are tribal messengers, who carry as their credentials the message canes 
 or swords of the head men. There, too, the succession in the tribe passes, 
 not to the son of the present holder of rank, but to his brother, or, failing a 
 brother, to a nephew. A traveller in the Soudan many centuries ago, 
 observes : — " No one here is named after his father, but after his maternal 
 uncle. The sister's son always succeeds to the property in preference to 
 the son." There, also, the heir must be born of a female of their own race. 
 " Ask them to trace back their race for a few generations, and they will 
 ultimately inform you of some mysterious connection between their original 
 progenitor and a hawk, a lion, or a wolf." "A tradition exists that the 
 whole of these people were originally comprehended in twelve families or 
 tribes, of which Aquonna will not eat 'buffalo ' (quonna), Essona will not 
 eat ' bush cat' (esso), and so on. Priendship exists between these families, 
 even although they be of diiferent nations, and inheritance is claimed." I 
 quote this, because it explains the origin of ' totemism ' in our Australiaii 
 tribes in relation to their internal classification according to the view which 
 I have given of it. 
 
 To the same effect is the following quotation from the "Equatorial 
 Africa," of Mons. Paul du Chaillu : — " This day I had a glimpse at another 
 curious superstition of these people. One of the hunters had shot a wild 
 bull, and, when the carcase was brought in, the good fellow sent me an 
 abundant supply of the best portions. I had a great piece boiled for dinner, 
 and expected [my friend] Quengueza to eat as much as would make several 
 hungry white men sick. Judge of my surprise, when, coming to the table 
 and seeing only the meat, he refused to touch it. I asked why. ' It is 
 roondah for me,' he replied. And then, in answer to my question, he 
 explained that the meat of the Bos braahikeros was forbidden to his family, 
 
ffi- 
 
 0,>,m^.^) ON A TREE AT THE UPPER BORA CIRCLE 
 
 n 
 
 PHOTO-UTHOGRAPHED AT THE GOVT. PRINTING OFFICE, 
 SYDNEY. NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 43 
 
 and was an abomination to them, for the reason that, many generations ao-o, 
 one of their women gave birth to a calf instead of a child. I laughed ; but 
 the king replied very soberly that he could show me a woman of another 
 family whose grandmother had given birth to a crocodile, for which reason 
 the crocodile was ' roondaK to that family. Quengueza would never touch 
 my salt beef, nor even the pork, fearing lest it had been in contact with the 
 beef. Indeed they are all religiously scrupulous in this matter ; and I found 
 on inquiry afterwards that there was scarcely a man to whom some article of 
 fopd is not ' roondali.' Some dare not taste crocodile, some monkey, some 
 boa, some wild pig, and all from this same belief. They will literally suffer 
 the pangs of starvation rather than break through this prejudice, and they very 
 firmly believe that if one of the family should eat of such forbidden food, 
 the women of that family would surely miscarry and give birth to monstros- 
 ities in the shape of the animal which is ' roondali^ or else die of an awful 
 disease. Sometimes I find that the fetich man forbids an individual to touch 
 certain kinds of food for some reason, or no reason rather. In this case, the 
 prohibition extends only to the man, and not to his family." Then as to the 
 law of succession, he says : " It is very singular that among all these people 
 descent and inheritance are taken from the mother. The son of a Camma 
 man by a woman of another tribe or nation is not counted a Camma ; and, 
 if we narrow it down to families, to be a true Abouya — a citizen of 
 Groumbi — it is necessary to be born of an Abouya woman. If only the 
 father were Abouya, the children would be considered half-breeds." Another 
 author says : — " The snake is the tutelary god of Whydah, as the leopard 
 is that of Dahomey, and, according to African custom, the Dahomans, when 
 they acquired Wydah, adopted the local divinity." And again: — "The 
 alligator is sacred to Dixeove, the hysena at Accra, the iguana at Bonny, 
 the leopard at Dahomey, and the snake at Whydah." 
 
 VI.-SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 
 
 rp Australians are naturally a merry, laughter-loving race, and, 
 
 " , ' in this respect, they resemble the Papuans, but are quite un- 
 like the Malays. This matter of temperament is a good test 
 of the kinship of a race ; for it is not subject to fluctuations, unless the race 
 is swamped by a permanent amalgamation with a different race. An 
 American Indian carries his impassive temperament on his face wherever 
 he is ; but if we examine the typical character of our Australians as a whole, 
 it is true of them that they are lively and merry ; their countenances, 
 especially those of the young women, tell us that they are so ; and if any 
 one of us were seated at a native camp-fire after dark, and heard the stories 
 that are told there, and saw the merriment and the laughter and the fun, 
 we could not doubt that it is their nature to be happy, if their environment 
 permit. This is also one of the characteristics of the African negroes ; for 
 it seems natural for them to be in good spirits, and this happy temperament 
 promotes their vitality. Our Australian is a great coward when brought into 
 contact with the unknown, especially if he can regard the thing as having some 
 relation to the domain of spirits. One day when a blackfellow was present, 
 one of my boys was blowing soap bubbles ; the man was frightened when he 
 saw them, and ran round the corner to hide from them. So his anger, and his 
 courage, too, when roused by provocation or taunts, soon ebb away ; he 
 strikes suddenly, but straightway he is cool again ; a black man has been 
 known to spear his brother in a fit of passion, but as soon as he saw the evil 
 he had done he burst into a paroxysm of grief and flung himself on the 
 
44. THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 prostrate body with weeping and wailing. Their natural affections are 
 keen ; in proof of this I need only refer to their grief over a dead relative, 
 even though it be a very young child ; they utter loud lamentations and cut 
 and burn the flesh of their bodies in grief. This expression of grief is 
 not all artificial or professional, like the hired ' ululatus ' of the Eomans 
 or the ' keening ' of the Irish. That it is genuine on the part of the near 
 relatives of the deceased I can prove by examples. Jackey, the ' king ' of 
 the Gresford blacks, died and was buried ; his mother could not be induced 
 to leave the spot ; she sat there night and day, refusing food, until one 
 morning she was found dead on his grave. She was buried beside her son ; 
 and, not long after, a little dog that had belonged to the old woman was 
 also found dead on her grave. These are facts. Then again, the transport 
 of delight with which Buckley was received by a woman, of a local tribe 
 who believed that this white man was her deceased son come to life again, is 
 a proof of the strength of natural affection among them. Another native 
 mother similarly rejoiced over Sir George Grey when he first penetrated 
 into the interior of South Australia. 
 
 Much that is said of native inhumanity is not true ; and so I add a few 
 facts for the truth of which I can vouch. A woman of the Dungog tribule 
 had a child which was hunch-backed and otherwise deformed ; she carried it 
 on her back for eighteen or nineteen years ; it seemed always no bigger than 
 a child of six or seven years. Her husband also carried about, for two or 
 three years, a son whose feet from the ankles had been destroyed by frost- 
 bite. At Durham Downs (Queensland), ' king ' Brady had a little boy two 
 years old, who became helpless from disease ; the mother carried him about 
 with hor for many years. When a man is sick, his brother or other near 
 relative has to tend him and go out hunting to provide him with food. " I 
 had a black boy," says my friend, " who was about 20 years of age ; he 
 came to me asking permission to leave my service ; for, he said, his brother 
 was sick, and he was I'equired to carry him about and get him food ; if he 
 did not go he would be killed." Again, this same 'king' Brady showed how 
 a blackfellow can have the sentiment of gratitude. In his wandering life he 
 had frequently received kindness from a storekeeper of the name of Adair, 
 whose place was on the Connors River ; on one occasion, when the river was 
 in high flood, Adair attempted to swim his horse across, but was swept away 
 by the torrent. Six white men were there looking on, afraid to give help ; 
 ' king ' Brady, who was a very powerful man, above six feet high and well 
 developed, swam in when Adair was about to go down the third time, and 
 rescued him. This he did without the offer of reward ! And now I give 
 two instances of obedience, both of them taken from the experience of my 
 friend, Mr. M. On one occasion, the master called his black woman servant 
 towards dusk, and said to her, " Mary, you may now go for the cows," 
 giving a wave with his hand to show where the cows were. Mary went off, 
 and did not return for several days ; when she came back, it turned out that 
 the poor woman took it to mean that she was to go to the Balonne Kiver — a 
 distance of 50 miles. And she went ! " One morning," said my friend to 
 me, " all our station horses were missing. At that time we had two young 
 black boys about 12 and 14 years of age. Thiuking that the horses had 
 only strayed to a little distance, we sent these two boys to look for them. 
 The boys did not return that day, nor the next, nor the next, and we con- 
 cluded that the boys had finally left us and joined their black friends in the 
 bush. But after a week's absence, the two came back, bringing all the 
 horses with them. The boys had tracked the horses across a country 
 covered with thick scrub, to a river forty miles distant ; there they 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 45 
 
 got them into a comer and tried to catcli them, but without success, for the 
 horses bolted ; faithful to their task, the boys then followed them 25 miles 
 down the river to D.Gr.'s place ; there they ran them into his stockyard and 
 put up the rails, thus securing them. All this time they had subsisted 
 on such native food— opossums, roots, &c. — as they could find. D.Gr. now 
 gave them food and supplied them with halters for the horses ; the boys then 
 rode the horses back to our place, barebacked. In this faithful service they 
 must have travelled at least 150 miles, if we reckon all the wanderings they 
 had in tracking." The same friend also said to me once : " On the discovery 
 of the gold-fields all our white men left us, and we were for a long time 
 entirely dependent on our black servants ; they were always good, and 
 useful, and obedient, and I cannot help liking the blacks because of their 
 fidelity to us." 
 
 Some of those instances rather belong to a section on the moral and 
 intellectual character of our Australians, but I have introdaced them here 
 because they have crossed my path at this point. 
 
 p , Anyone who has seen the bare back or breast of an Australian 
 
 Jfersona black man or woman will have observed various well-marked scars 
 
 jsran s there. These I shall call ' mombarai ' — a local native word in 
 and Urna- ^^^ ■^ovX\l Wales which answers to the English word 'brand. ' 
 
 ments. And although the other aboriginal dialects have different words 
 
 to designate these scars and marks, yet here also it would be convenient if 
 all would agree to use some one word to mean the same thing, when speaking 
 of things Australian. ' Mombarai' is also used to mean a mark of owner- 
 ship on an opossum cloak or on a tree in the forest. Por example, the 
 honey of the wild English bee or of the native bee, which is much smaller, 
 is an important article of food to the black ; when he sees these bees 
 frequenting a hole in a tree, he knows a nest is there ; or if he sees a single 
 bee within reach, he catches it, fixes a tiny piece of white down on its body, 
 and then sets it free ; as it flies he follows it, and his acuteness of vision 
 enables him to track it to its nest in a tree. In either case he marks his 
 'mombarai' on that tree, till he can return and cut it down. The next 
 blackfellow who passes that way will not touch the tree, for he recognises 
 the ' mombarai,' and knows by it whose the tree is. 
 
 It is usually said that the 'mombarai' on the body have no significance, 
 and that the women have them merely for ornament and to add to their 
 attractiveness. I can scarcely believe that there is no meaning in these marks. 
 I think it likely that, like trade-marks among us, each family has its own 
 'mombarai; ' for a friend tells me that he had an opossum cloak made for 
 him long ago by a man of the Kamalarai tribe, who marked it with his own 
 ' mombarai.' When this cloak was shown to another black some time after, 
 heat once exclaimed, " I know who made this; here is his 'mombarai.''' 
 To make this brand on a cloak, the maker folds the material at the place 
 where he wishes the brand to be, and presses the fold ; then, with the sharp 
 edge of a cockle-shell or a piece of flint, or some more modern instrument, he 
 scrapes off the pelt or the hair where the device is to be, until the pattern is 
 formed. On the human body the brand is cut with a piece of a flint or of a glass 
 bottle in some simple pattern, usually in corresponding portions, on both 
 sides of the breast-bone, and sometimes on the back as well ; the cuts bleed 
 a good deal, and to make them deeper the knife is applied again and again. 
 While the wounds are still open, hoar frost is rubbed in, or charcoal, and 
 that causes well-marked ridges to remain permanently there. I imagine that, 
 if we could trace these customs far enough back, we might find some religious 
 
46 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 ideaatthobasoof themall; foreventheraostseiiselessdisfiguremontsof fasliion 
 do not orif^inate in mere caprice ; Ihero is alwajN siome roason for them. And I 
 am tho more persuaded that there is signilieance in those scars, because I know 
 that in the Miiiyun<2; tribe they are not all made, at once ; there a lad is 
 'raurrawon' when he has got the scars on th(^ back, and he becomes 
 ' kumban-gari ' when the scars are made on his breast. At all events, they 
 may serve the same purpose as the blazon on a seaman's arms or breast, and 
 be useful in identifying a man's body if he has been disfigured on the field of 
 battle ; or, like tho knocking out of the front tooth in the Bora ceremonies, 
 the marks may help to identify him as a true blackfoUow when he dies and 
 descends to spirit-land. 
 
 All blaekfellows are more or less marked on the body in this way, but noi! 
 on tho fii'-e ; the thing is done when tho person is young, perhaps from 6 to 
 12 years of iige ; tho marks may be found also on the hips and the upper arm, 
 and, in the case of women, between tho breasts and down the back. 
 
 p ^ , Here I include the nose ornament, the dressing of tho hair, 
 A 1 , the head band, and the necklace. (Jthor articles of wear arc for 
 , ' dress. The nose ornament was worn by men ; J say was, for, 
 like other aboriginal customs, it has disappeared. Tho septum of 
 the nose was pierced in youth, and two or three straight bits of tough grass 
 were passed through the perforation and left there ; when the wound healed, 
 these were removed and athieker pencil of grass inserted ; and tlius gradually 
 the hole was enlarged until it was fit to receive permanently a longish bone 
 which was scraped thin at the ends, and stuck out from the nose somewhat 
 like the long waxed ends of an imperial moustache. I. suppose that a black 
 jnan thoughtthat this adjunct to his nose-tip improved his jjersonal ayipearance 
 or made him look terrible in battle ; but, as in tho (.'ase of the body scars, I 
 believe there is some religious significance; at the base of it originally ; for, in 
 certain localilies, the blacks saythat iiidessa man'snoso has been thus jiierced 
 his spirit will be subjected to great indignities when lu; is dead. Heneo 
 the women also wear the nose-bone. 
 
 Our blacks allow their hair to grow wild ; they merely cut it when it is too 
 long. i\Iany of them, both men and women, have fine frizzly hair; others 
 have straight hair ; in fact, in some districts, the frizzly and curly hair seems 
 to prevail, and in others the straiglit hair. So also the beard and moustache 
 are, in some persons, abundant and bushy; in others, scanty, or nearly 
 absent. But for special occasions, the men used to bind up their hair into a 
 conical bunch upon their heads and keep it together below with a meshed 
 net. Tho whole had the shape of tho head and shoulders of a beer-bottle, 
 The net was made of hair or of fibre from jjlants or from bark. 'J'o improve 
 the appearance of this fillet, and at the same time to adorn the head, feathers 
 from native birds were inscirfed in it in front, while at the sides strings of 
 kangaroo teeth were made to hang down on tho temples ; and from the back 
 part of it, the bushy tail of a native dog hung down like a qur.ne. 
 
 The necklaces wore worn by women and young girls. They usually wore 
 made of short lengths of a thin rood which were strung on a eonl — like the 
 ner:klaces of tube beads worn hy our children. .'In Nortliern Quermslarjd, sea- 
 shells are ground and strung into ne';klaces, and elK(!\vhere kangaroo 1x;e,th 
 are tastefully fastened to a strip of kangaroo skin, which is then worn as a 
 neck ornament. Our native women do not seem to care for pr;rsonal 
 adornment, nor do they use flowers or gay colour.', for that jiurpose; and in 
 this respect they are in striking contrast to the Bolynesian.s. 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 47 
 
 Tho articles of dress and olothinc; used by our men and women are few 
 and soauty. The most important is a large cloak, made of the furry skin of 
 the ojiossum or the wallaby. This is worn only in sickness and in the coldest 
 part of the year, but it is seldom seen now in the occupied parts of the 
 colonies, becaiise everywhere, on Queeu's Birthday, blankets are issued to 
 all blacks who choose to come and ask for them. The labour required to 
 prepare a cloak was considerable. Perhaps thirty or forty skins must be 
 secured — good skins, with plenty of fur on them. These were dressed by 
 pegtriiig them each on a piece of bark to dry there. The inner side was theii 
 carefully scraped clean with a shell-knife. They were then cut into a proper 
 shape, aud sewed together. Tlio finer sinews of a kangaroo were the thread, 
 and the needle was of bone. This cloak or rug hangs over the shoulders, 
 being merely tied round the neck by the hind legs, and fastened with a JibiiJa 
 of bone or of wood in front. The more artistic owners of clo.aks, both men 
 and women, ornament the inside of them with native devices, plain or 
 coloured. The cloak is not worn in camp ; there the heat of the fire is 
 enough. A kangaroo skin, with the hair worn inwards, is a favourite kind 
 of cloak in wet weather. 
 
 The only other article of clothing was the loin cloth. For men this was 
 merely a strip of hide fastened round the loins, and from it were suspended 
 two or four flaps of skin and fur, one in front and one behind, and two more on 
 the outside of the thighs to kei?p these in countenance. Sometimes an oblong 
 piece of hide was cut into narrow tas:s or cords, depending from a fillet left 
 tmcut, aud thi^ was substituted for the flaps before and behind. The young 
 females wore a girdle of o]iossum f nr, and at the native dances the women 
 put on a deeper apron, formed of the neck feathers of the emu. In some 
 places, their ordinary dress was a girdle of narrow strips of bark, with the 
 bones of deceased friends hanging among them. 
 
 The man, when travelling, also wore a waist-belt, in which was placed his 
 tomahawk, his amulet of crystals, his tobacco-pipe (if he had one), and any 
 other things which he thought it necessary to carry with him. This sash 
 was strongly made of twine or reedy tibre, twisted and knitted together, and 
 was more for utility than for clothing. Of the same kind is the htinger- 
 belt. T\"'hen on an expedition, it was not .ilways possible for a man to obtain 
 food ; so, when pressed by hunger, he could only tighten his belt and hurry 
 on. It is made of hide with the fur on ; but, as the hide is next the man's 
 skin, the belt can take a good grip. 
 
 -Vnother article maybe mentioned here as part of a black man's clothing ; 
 but we now, in our country, would scarcely reckon it as such, although, even 
 in Britain — 
 
 '■Time was when clothing, sumptuous or for use. 
 
 ■Save their own paiuted skins, our sires hail none.'' 
 
 A black m.an fortifies his body a^rainst the influences of weather and clim.ate 
 hr anointing it regularlv. The fat is saved from the animals which he kOls, 
 and with this he rubs his body all over, and lets it soak into the skin when 
 liquefied by the rubbing or the heat of a fire or of the sun. To iieighten the 
 oi?eof, he will also mix with the fat his favourite pigment, ruddle, the red 
 oxide of iron. The fat of the o;au is preferreil, or the oil of the mutton 
 binl, when the tribe has access to the coa>t. The hair, also, is greased with 
 the same material, and. as it is net washed, it becomes a matted mass, or hangs 
 down' in tangles on the neck. In my district, however, the hair is clean. 
 Either the fashieu of using animal grease never esisied, or the tribe has left 
 ir on'. 
 
48 THE ABORIGINES OE NEW SOITTH WALES. 
 
 At this point these aboriginal customs may he . compared with similar 
 usages among black tribes in other parts of the world ; for comparative 
 ethnography is as instructive as comparative grammar and philology. 
 
 At Port Moresby, in New Gruinea, the young women wear a grass petti- 
 coat, and their bodies are so beautifully tattooed that they seem to be covered 
 with the finest lace. The men are nude, and their faces only are tattooed, but 
 that slightly. They blacken their faces with a mixture of soot and gum, and 
 then sprinkle them over with white. Married women have their hair cut 
 close. At Motu, on the same coast, not only the wives, but the children are 
 shaven, and that is also done as a sign of mourning. The hair is sometimes 
 straight, but for the most part it is frizzly, and apt to become like a mop. 
 In colour it is brown-black. In Australia it is always a glossy black, although 
 a few instances of reddish hair have been observed. The Motu people have 
 the nose-stick, and wear a profusion of ornaments — heavy ear-rings, one or 
 more armlets on the upper arm, and necklaces of pigs' or dogs' teeth for the 
 women. 
 
 The Negrilloes of the Andaman Islands cover their bodies with a wash of 
 white clay during the hot weather. Doubtless they find that this white 
 colour makes the heat more supportable. In the Dekkan of Indian, and 
 among the tribes there of the Dravidian race, there is a curious custom, 
 which shows how tenacious of life an old mode of dress may be when the 
 inroads of civilisation have displaced it in favour of more modern attire. In 
 a small community there of the slave caste, the women wear gowns, but over 
 these, all round their buttocks, they put on an apron of twigs and green 
 leaves woven together. They think it shameful to appear without this. The 
 Bechuanas of Southern Africa, in .Livingstone's time, much resembled our 
 Australians in the simplicity of their clothing. The men wore in front an 
 apron about a span wide, and on their shoulders the dressed hide of a sheep 
 or antelope. To support the heat by day and the cold by night, they smeared 
 their bodies as our tribes do and they anointed the hair. The women had 
 the breast and abdomen bare, but round their waist was a cord, and from 
 it depended in front a lot of leather strings, about 18 inches long. On their 
 shoulders was flung a cloak similar to that worn by the men. 
 
 o7 ,, The Arabs and other nomads dwell in tents. This is not so 
 
 , much a matter of choice as of necessity. A people whose 
 y, jj ■ circumstances make them wander about from pasture to pasture 
 
 •' ' are deterred from raising permanent structures. They carry 
 their houses with them, or put up temporary shelters wherever they encamp. 
 Our blackfellows have not reached the pastoral stage, and yet they are 
 wanderers. If they settle down at any spot for a few days, the food they get 
 there by hunting or from roots may soon be exhausted, and they must move 
 on; or a death occurs among them, and they flee from the spot ; or they may 
 come to imagine that their enemies, the evil spirits, are too numerous or too 
 busy there, and so they decamp. When they reach a suitable place for a 
 fresh camp, the women set to work and raise wind-shelters, called ' gunyas.' 
 These are very simple affairs. Two strong sticks are fixed upright in the 
 ground, each about 4 feet high, and having a fork at the upper end ; across 
 these forks a ridge-pole is laid ; then leafy boughs or other materials are laid 
 aslant from the ground to this pole ; and thus the black woman's house is 
 complete. The back of it has been so placed as to be a shelter from the wind, 
 and if privacy is wanted — and blacks do not consider that as one oi the 
 essential wants of life — the opossum cloaks and a few skins -will cover in the 
 front and the sides. A fire is made in the open in front, and with dry grass 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 49 
 
 for a bed witliin, and a log, it may be, for a pillow, the ' mari' and his ' jin,' 
 turning their feet to the fire, lie down happily content, and sleep the dark- 
 ness of the night away. But wherever the ' taurai' contains a large lagoon, 
 plentifully supplied with fish, or gives access to the sea, or otherwise con- 
 tains the prospect of a continuous source of food, larger and more permanent 
 structures are reared as houses. In the building of these the men take their 
 share of the work. These huts are in shape something like a round dish- 
 cover, 6 or 7 feet high, and will hold a family of twelve persons ; a portion 
 may bei partitioned off as a separate room. Ton enter by a small door-opening, 
 and the fire is in the centre of the hut. Or several families may choose to 
 live together on some dry place near a river or lake. The blacks wisely avoid 
 sites that are marshy or under trees. The huts are then built contiguous, 
 like a terrace, all of them facing a central fire-place, which is common 
 property. These substantial huts are framed with branches of trees and small 
 logs fixed in the ground at one end, which are so sloped that they nearly meet 
 at the other end ; the whole is thatched with grass, or covered with sheets 
 of bark and turf and foliage. The coast natives of Tasmania also built 
 substantial huts, each of which would hold a score of people. They were 
 thatched with reeds in neat and regular tiers. The Australians did not learn 
 the art of building from the white settlers ; for Captain Sturt, when he first 
 penetrated into the interior, sixty years ago, found such huts there. " On the 
 Macquarie E-iver," he says, " several huts were observed by us, and from the 
 heaps of muscle-shells that were scattered about, there could be no doubt of 
 its being much frequented by the natives." And of the tribe farther west, 
 he says, " The natives of the Darling are a clean-limbed, well-conditioned 
 race, generally speaking. They seemingly occupy permanent huts. . . . 
 They lacerate their bodies, but do not extract the front teeth." Elsewhere, 
 as in some parts of South Australia, the natives make use of any stone that 
 may be handy, and raise stone walls for their huts. In the north-west, Sir 
 George G.rey found erections of stone, which may have been used for shelter. 
 But in the interior of Australia, and in the far north, there are extensive 
 limestone formations, and there the natives are saved the trouble of building ; 
 for the caves in the limestone ridges give them an easy home. Here, also, 
 they have room to display their love of art; for on the flat parts of the walls 
 of these caves they carve figures of alligators, or pictures of fights between 
 themselves and the colonists, all in red and white. 
 
 T-, , It is evident, then, that the food-question is the one that 
 " ■ determines a blaclifellow in the choice of a habitation. If 
 food is abundant, there he and his tribule will remain for a long time. It is 
 thus that shell-mounds and oven-mounds are found in various parts of 
 Australia ; but they were specially numerous within the territory of Victoria. 
 Their size, and the quantity of material they contain, are a proof that the 
 natives of many successive generations must have made their residence there 
 from year to year, while the supply of food lasted, returning again when the 
 food season came round. On one estate in Victoria, there were eight or nine 
 of these mounds, all near each other, and at a distance they looked like ordinary 
 hay stacks. The largest was about 125 feet by 50 feet by 12 feet. ' It had 
 been much broken down by the trampling of cattle and sheep, and therefore 
 at one time was much larger. The material of all such heaps is soil, ashes, 
 wood-charcoal, charred bones of the animals on which the natives feed, 
 native implements, pieces of flint, and the remains of the hard silicious stones 
 which are used for lining the oven and retaining the heat when it is covered 
 in. On the sea coast also there are many shell-mounds, or ' kitchen middens,' 
 which contain, in addition, great quantities of the remains of the (ihell-fish 
 
50 THE ABOEIG-INES OP NEW SOUTH WALES.. 
 
 common on ttat coast. One of these, near Cape Otway, was measured, and 
 found to be 30 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep. Occasionally a human 
 skeleton has been found in the mounds, as if the blacks had chosen that as 
 the softest place for digging the grave of a deceased friend. The mounds 
 are, in all cases, near to fresh water, for that is essential to the daily life of 
 the people. The American mounds in the valley of the Ohio and Mississippi 
 seem to correspond with these oven-mounds in Australia. 
 
 And now, it is natural for us to ask what causes can have induced the 
 natives always to frequent the same spot for cooking purposes, and to do so 
 from age to age, until the monnds assumed their present dimensions ; the 
 whole thing is so unlike their usual habits. And then the mounds are so 
 large that I can scarcely suppose that one single tribule has made any one 
 of them even by the labour of ages. Either the local bands of blacks must 
 have been numerous as swarms of bees in the past, and more steady in their 
 habits than now, or there must have been occasions on which they assembled 
 there in greater numbers than usual. I am inclined to think that the latter 
 is a reasonable explanation, and that such ceremonies as those of the Bora 
 and the Mindi-mindi drew the blacks together from all quarters and in great 
 numbers, and kept them on the same spot for months at a time while the 
 ceremonies lasted ; thus the heaps would grow apace from the quantities of 
 food consumed. In this view 1 am confirmed by the statement that these 
 mounds are often found on the margin of a forest. This is the very position 
 they would have if they were near the larger circle, around which the whole 
 multitude assembled when the ceremonies of initiation were about to begin. 
 And if these ceremonies were from time to time repeated at the same place, 
 and the Mindi marljets were also held there as a sacred place, I can easily 
 understand how these mounds have grown. This, however, is merely a 
 suggested explanation. 
 
 But there is proof that the blacks do gather from great distances and in 
 great numbers and remain together while the temporary supply of food lasts. 
 I refer to the annual feasting in the Bunya-bunya country. This is about 
 50 miles to the north of the town of Dalby in Queensland, and is named 
 from the native trees — a kind of pine with prickly leaves — which ai'e very 
 abundant in that locality. The Bunya-bunya tree, in the proper season, 
 bears a fir cone of great size — 6 to 9 inches long — and this, when roasted, 
 yields a vegetable pulp, pleasant to eat and nutritious. When the fruit- 
 season approaches, the blacks may be seen journeying to that part of the 
 country from distances of hundreds of miles, and there they remain feasting' 
 on till they are as fat as porpoises. Every third and seventh year there is 
 said to be a larger crop than usual and consequently a larger and longer 
 feast. Nature has been bountiful in providing such a tree and in such 
 abundance for the natives of that portion of Queensland ; for this vegetable 
 food restores their health, which often suffers from their constant diet of 
 animal flesh. 
 
 jSTo other part of Australia, so far as we know, is so kind to the blacks ; 
 many parts are inhospitable, and there the natives have a hard struggle to 
 live ; hence comes the pinched and dwarfed carcase Vv'hich many of them 
 have to carry about all their lives. But in many other places, and especially 
 near the rivers, there are indigenous trees which are fruit-bearing ; to these 
 the natives come in the season. Even far in the interior there are such 
 trees ; for the M'Kiolay expedition in 18G1 found the inland natives roasting 
 a round fruit, " which in very good." Almost all kinds of berries and seeds 
 and some kinds of gum are collected and used as food ; the soft root part of 
 water-Hags is eaten, and the soft pith of the fern-tree and grass- tree. Solutions 
 
SOCIAL A5D DOMESTIC. 
 
 of gums and macerations of several kinds of flowers sweetened with honey 
 are taken as a nutritious mucilage, and weeds such as 'pig-face' and 'fat-hen' 
 are like our vegetables. The seeds of grasses are pounded and made into a 
 sort of bread. On Cooper's Creek in the interior, the seeds of the 'nardu' 
 plant — a kind of fern — are used in this way ; but when eaten by our white 
 explorers in their distress, this food was found to be indigestible and to 
 contain little nutriment. 
 
 Then there are many sorts of esculent bulbs, which the colonists call by 
 the general name of ' yams' ; these, it is the duty of the women and the girls 
 to search for and dig up with ' yam- sticks,' for the use of the household. A 
 root much used by the blacks on the east coast is the ' tank.' This is a vine 
 which sends its tendril up to the tops of the highest trees, but the root is at 
 first single and tuberous ; as it goes down, it splits into two and becomes 
 thicker as it goes ; the roots descend 10 or 12 feet. Near the surface the 
 root is about the thickness of one's iinger ; farther down as thick as a man's 
 wrist. The blacks dig a hole round the roots, take out as much as they 
 require for a meal, roast it, and en,t it. At their leisure they return for 
 more. ' Tara' is the root of a kind of lily ; that is heated at the fire by the 
 women ; it is then pounded hard together bit by bit to remove the acrid taste 
 it has. 
 
 But when "a time of drought sets in, and the drought continues for one, 
 two, or three years, as it has done sometimes in the interior of the country, 
 the ' taurai' or food-ground becomes as bare and dry as a macadamised road ; 
 then ensues a time of hardship for the tribe, and fortunate it will be for 
 them if they have access to a river or a lake. Our blacks are expert fishers, 
 and have many modes of obtaining food in that way. One of their weapons 
 is a fish-spear with three prongs, barbed. When our telegraph line was first 
 carried across the continent to Port Darwin, on the north coast, to connect by 
 cable with India, and thence to Europe, frsqueut interruptions occurred on 
 the overland sections ; the repairers found that the wires had been broken 
 by the blacks and pieces taken away for the making of the prongs of their 
 fish-spears. When a boy, the black man has been trained to dive and remain 
 for a time under water ; now, armed with a fish-spear, he jumps itito the 
 river wherever large fish are to be found ; walking on the bottom with his 
 eyes open, he dislodges the lazy fish from their lairs and kills them, or spears 
 the smaller ones as they hurry past him. 
 
 Though wonderfully dexterous in this, the black man does not trust himself 
 to his spear alone for success. At Brewarrina, on the Upper Darling, there 
 is an ingenious fish-cage constructed in the river by the natives, and called by 
 the settlers the " Eisihery." The fish, which we call the "Murray cod," 
 come up here, of all sizes, from 4 to 40 lb. weight. Here they lodge in the 
 deep holes, and, feeding on muscles and smaller fish of their own and other 
 kinds, they attain to a huge size, sometimes weighing as much as 120 lb. 
 To catch these fish of the smaller size, the blacks took advantage of a " falls" 
 or shelving part of the river just below a crossing-place, and placed in the 
 river, from bank to bank, a solid wall of stones, each about as large as two 
 men could carry. Below this weir, they laid in the river other stone walls at 
 right angles to each other, much like the dividing lines of a chequer- 
 board, thereby forming open spaces, each 8 feet square, and about 
 3 feet 6 inches deep. In these walls, which cross each other, they left 
 small slits open from top to bottom and about 15 inches wide, thus large 
 enough to let a fish of 40 lb. pass through. The wall of the weir next 
 the ford was made the most substantial of all to resist the force of 
 the current in the river. It also rose higher out of the water, the others 
 
52 THE ABOEIGINES OP NEW SOUTH WALES 
 
 being just so much lower as to cause a slight ripple over them. This fish- 
 trap is ingeniously constructed ; for the builders of it, knowing the habits of 
 the cod-fish, have so arranged the slits in the lower walls that the fish, in 
 going upwards, can proceed only in a zigzag direction, and as they never try 
 to turn back, they at last are collected in great numbers in all the squares, 
 but mostly in the upper ones, from which there is no exit, as the wall is solid 
 throughout. The river is here about 800 yards wide. Meanwhile, our 
 blackfellows are standing on the tops o£ all the stone walls, and ply their 
 spears with such effect that tons of fish are landed on the bank. At such a 
 time, when the fish are abundant, the fishers cannot use a tithe of the fish 
 they catch, and so sell them to all comers at a few pence- for a backful. As 
 for themselves, they have a noble feast, they and all their tribe ; and, as is 
 their habit whenever they have abundance, they gorge themselves so that 
 their bodies are swollen to unnatural dimensions and seem ready to burst. 
 When they can hold no more, they go to sleep like snakes, and sleep for 
 twenty-four hours or more. In my district, Bundiibilla once ate so much 
 beef at a meal that he had to be buried up to the neck in a pit of moist 
 sand — a native cure — for two hours, in order to sweat off the surfeit. As 
 soon as he was taken out cured, he began to eat again ! Those ethnologists 
 who say that our A ustralian blacks are the lowest of savage races would do 
 well to visit the fishery at Brewarrina, and see with their own eyes how 
 inventive and industrious these blacks can be in their own way. At what 
 time in the past that fishery was made I do not know ; but this I do know, 
 that it is no despicable piece of rude engineering skill, and that much labour 
 must have been expended in bringing these' blocks of stone to the sjjot, and 
 some risk to life in placing them where they are. 
 
 In the Northern Territory, a similar example of labour maybe seen. The 
 Limmen Creek, at a part of its course, breaks into two branches or streams. 
 In order to form a cul cle sac in which they might intercept the fish, the 
 blacks closed the end of one of these branches with heavy logs, which had to 
 be dragged to the water with much labour, and placed securely in it ; and as 
 such streams are often flooded by heavy rains, and carry everything away, it 
 is probable that this barrier had to be frequently renewed. Such dams are 
 found in many other places, but this one was remarkable for the skill and 
 perseverance of its makers. On rivers and creeks in Eastern Australia, 
 wherever the water is not deep nor the current strong, two slight obstruc- 
 tions of this kind are put in, and into the pond thus formed leaves of a 
 native plant are thrown. The fish are soon seen to be stupified, and the 
 blacks wade in and catch them with their hands. In the rivers of Carpen- 
 taria and the northern coast there are small crocodiles, 6 or 7 feet long, very 
 harmless fellows, which live on fish and water fowl. The blacks spear and 
 eat them. At Twofold Bay and along the south-east coast there, a stranded 
 whale is a god-send to the tribes. When the news spreads, they come down 
 in multitudes to enjoy the feast, and, for many days, they may be seen, like 
 black ants, hurrying out and in to the body of the monster, even when the 
 smell of it would be enough to keep any of us at a considerable distance.' 
 
 Eish are also caught by net and by hook. In every family there is one girl 
 who has been appointed to fish with line and hook. She is easily recognised ; 
 for her hand wants the end of the little finger. In youth a tight ligature 
 was kept round the first joint, until the tip of the finger fell off. This is 
 done to make the finger more sensitive to the line in fishing. 
 
 Another article of food is eggs and grubs of all kinds. The eggs of such 
 a bird as the wild turkey or native bustard are large, and many of them in 
 one nest ; but a man or woman can cat a wonderful number of large eggs at 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 53 
 
 one sitting. Even if an egg is partly hatched, he does not reject it. The fat 
 grubs that are found in the ground or under the bark of trees are also dainty- 
 morsels when roasted, and white men who have eaten them say that they are 
 very palatable. 
 
 All kinds of reptiles are eaten — snakes, iguanas, lizards, and others, and 
 on the northern rivers, turtles. Even frogs are cast on the fire and then 
 eaten ; but a blackfellow will not eat a snake unless he has killed it himself 
 or seen it killed ; for he believes that the snake, when wounded, bites itself 
 in its pain and thus poisons its own flesh. 
 
 A novel kind of food is ants, but I can scarcely believe that they are 
 much eaten ; and yet a friend of mine saw a black woman put her naked 
 foot on the bed of some red ants, and when they swarmed up her leg, as ants 
 always do when thus disturbed, she scraped them off in handfuls and ate 
 them ! But young ants and ant-eggs dug from the beds are readily eaten. 
 
 Birds and fowl of all kinds are caught, cooked, and eaten — water-hens, 
 ducts, hawks, owls, pigeons, and smaller birds ; even the large emu is caught 
 in nets. Our blacks are exceedingly ingenious and dexterous in trapping 
 . and killing all these. They can imitate to perfection the call of every bird, 
 and thus decoy it and bring it within reach. If a man sees a pigeon on the 
 branch of a tree at a distance, he stealthily approaches, keeping the body of 
 the tree always between him and the bird until he is close to it, and then his 
 stick does not miss its mark. 
 
 Almost every native animal in the bush or on the plains is killed and 
 eaten. But an animal which is the ' totem' of any man's class is never 
 touched by that man ; to him it is sacred, and its flesh is ' thambara,' 
 'forbidden.' He thinks that the 'totem' watches over him, and gives him 
 warning in time of danger, and so he will not harm it. As to the large and 
 swift quadrupeds, you would think that it would be impossible for one man 
 alone to catch a kangaroo ; and yet he does it. A black man's eyesight is 
 very strong and 'acute ; he sees a kangaroo afar off grazing, long before it can 
 see him. Immediately he adjusts his ' bumarang' in his belt, to have it 
 ready for action, and slips away into the nearest thicket ; here he tears out 
 a bushy shoot, large enough to cover his body; he emerges and, carrying this 
 before him, he cautiously advances ; if the kangaroo looks around on hearing 
 the rustling sound, fearing an enemy, at once the black crouches behind his 
 screen and remains stock-still, as if he were a rooted sapling ; the kangaroo, 
 satisfied that there is nothing moving near, begins to graze again ; and so 
 the black gets near enough to give the fatal blow. When several kangaroos 
 are seen grazing together, a band of men will stalk them in the same way by 
 forming a circle ; and when at last the circle has closed in, and the quarry, 
 detecting the enemy, begin to hop away, they find a spear or a club every- 
 where near enough to stop their career. 
 
 P , . , . Asa rule, the blacks do not care to eat fatty matter ; hence 
 es ric ion ^^^^ reject pork ; they say it is too fat. The flesh of certain 
 
 "■' '"' ■ animals also they reject ; the Tasmanians, for instance, would 
 not eat their native tiger and native devil ; and our own blacks do not like the 
 flesh of the native bear because of its gummy taste. But in addition to 
 voluntary abstention from the flesh of, ' totem' animals, there are restrictions 
 of food which tribal law imposes. To a lad who has not yet passed the Bora, 
 food of certain kinds is absolutely prohibited ; and while he is still passing 
 through the stages of the Bora ceremonies, he is not allowed to eat the flesh 
 of every animal he may catch ; for the process of qualifying for full member- 
 ship may extend over several years. In his tender years, the boy has 
 
54 THE ABOEIGINES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 been taught that he must eat only the female of the opossum, or bandicoot, 
 or other animals ; all others that he gets must be brought to the 
 camp and given to the aged and those who haye large families ; when 
 he has attended one Bora, he receives permission to eat the male, say, of the 
 ' paddymelon '; after another Bora, he may eat the ' sugar-bag,' that is, the 
 honey of the bee ; a step higher, and he may eat the male of the opossum, 
 and so on until his initiation is complete, and then he may eat anything. 
 An incident that occurred about fifty years ago will illustrate this matter. 
 A dray was travelling on the Great Northern Eoad, and, as the driver was 
 rather short of provisions, he said to his black boy, " Georgie, go and catch an 
 opossum ; we have no beef." Georgie soon got an opossum, and brought it 
 to the camping ground, but threw it down beside the fire. His master said, 
 " "Why don't you skill it, and roast it and eat it." Georgie replied, "Bail 
 (no) massa ; me loonnal yet-; you know me must not eat 'possum." "But, 
 Georgie, nobody will know ; nobody will see you." " The Kruben, he see 
 me ; he come and take me ; that fellow see everything," " Nonsense," said 
 his master, " tell him I bade you ; you eat." " Well, you are massa ; you 
 bid me eat, and I eat." And Georgie did eat at his master's bidding, and so 
 escaped the Kruben! His master told me the incident many years there- 
 after. 
 
 jT .■ Our blacks have many ingenious ways of hunting and catching 
 
 "'■ game, and thus of procuring food. Some of these ways have 
 already been referred to; but they also make use of nets for the same 
 purpose. They have nets for catching wild ducks. Beiug keen observers of 
 nature, they know the habits of the ducks, and arrange their plans accordingly. 
 Three or four men go together to a lagoon; two of them mentally calculate 
 the direction in which the ducks will fly, aiid how high they will rise when 
 disturbed, then quietly stretch a long net across from side to side, adjusting 
 it to any trees that may be near by ; the other man gets behind the ducks 
 and startles them suddenly ; they rise, but before they go far they find them- 
 selves entangled in the net, which the other blackfellows dexterously handle 
 so as to entrap the birds. A stronger net with a larger mesh is used for 
 catching the wallaby and the emu. Eor the wallabies, nets fixed on poles 
 are set upright at various distances near their haunts ; leading to these nets 
 ' wings ' are formed of sticks and boughs, in the same way as is done in 
 South Africa ; the hunters then distribute themselves in such a manner 
 that when the covert is beaten up the animals hop onwards to the nets, and 
 are there despatched. The emus are too large and swift to be secured in 
 this way, and so the nets for them are spread at their drinking places. 
 
 The opossum is a nocturnal animal, and sleeps during the day in some 
 hole in a tree. A hungry black man likes opossum, and so looks for one. 
 In the forest he examines the lower trunk of the trees, and finds one which 
 an opossum must have ascended last night for his daily rest ; for, by the 
 comparative freshnpss of the scratches made by the claws, he can at once tell 
 how long it is since an opossum was there. IJnsliDging his tomahawk from 
 his belt, he makes a notch in the tree near tho ground, and in it he places 
 the big toe of his right foot ; resting on this and grasping the tree with his 
 left arm, he makes another notch farther up, in which to rest the big toe of 
 the left foot, and so up he goes with amazing rapidity and safety, until he 
 reaches the animal's lair ; if he can got his arm into the hole and pull out 
 his prey, so much the less labour for him ; but if not, he must ply his toma- 
 hawk until he digs it out. The same thing must be done for the nest of 
 the honey-bees ; for the bees have their combs far up in the hollow of a large 
 tree, and, as the honey may have been accumulating there for several years, 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 55 
 
 an enormous quantity of it is often got from one hive. If a native finds it 
 best to dig out the hive, he climbs the tree and cuts into the side where it is. 
 How he protects himself from the stings of the bees I do not know. But 
 often it is preferable to cut down the tree. Then ensues a great feast. The 
 honey is mixed with water in native buckets, and, as usual, the people eat 
 and drink to excess, which excess brings on the usual consequences of a 
 surfeit of sweet things. 
 
 ■j~. The dog deserves notice as an auxiliary to our indigenes in 
 
 " ' their hunts. Long before the advent of the white man, the 
 Australians had tamed and domesticated the native dog of this island. It is 
 a wolf -like animal of a reddish colour, and with a fine bushy tail. In size it 
 is somewhat larger and stronger than a shepherd's dog. The first colonists 
 called it ' dingo,' a native name, and that name has established itself, and is 
 now the science-term for the ' dog of Australia,' although the same dog is 
 found also in !New G-uinea. But this name, like kangaroo, was originally 
 given in error, at a time when the native languages were imperfectly 
 understood ; for, in the dialect of the Sydney tribe, ' tingko ' means ' a bitch,' 
 while its general name for a native dog is 'warikal.' But whea the white 
 man came to these shores, and brought his dog with him, the natives ceased to 
 train their own dogs for the hunt, and now a native can scarcely be seen 
 anywhere in the bush without a following of two or three mongrels at his 
 heels. These dogs share his affections with his wife and children. He 
 tosses to them a portion of all his food, and at night he sleeps with them in 
 his bosom to keep him warm. 
 
 ^ , . The only thing that remains to be said as to food is the cooking 
 
 "■ of it. That is easily done ; for in general, the smaller animals 
 that are taken as food get only a sight of the fire, and the flesh is eaten half 
 raw. A fire is always burning in a native camp ; or, if it is smouldering, it 
 can soon be blown into a blaze, when a little fresh i'uel is placed upon it. 
 G-rubs, lizards, fungi, and other small articles, are merely laid on the hot 
 ashes and forthwith eaten. Native bread, such as the colonists call ' damper,' 
 is made in the same way. The native seeds have been carefully pounded or 
 crushed into a coarse meal. This is mixed with water on a piece of bark for 
 a baking board. This dough is made up into a lump, which is put among 
 the ashes and covered over with them. In a very short time it is baked 
 enough to be used. Farinaceous roots are prepared in the same way as a 
 sort of pudding. When a native wants to cook a bird, he puts it in the 
 embers just as it is; he takes it out, when its stomach is swollen a little, and, 
 ripping up the stomach, he removes the entrails and strips off the feathers. 
 The kidneys, being a dainty bit, he probably eats as they are. With a skewer 
 he now fixes up the stomach, and puts the bird back into the fire until it is 
 fully cooked. Taking it out again, he pulls out the skewer, and drinks the 
 gravy which has collected in the body of the bird. With his tomahawk he 
 cuts out the backbone, and, seizingthe carcase, he bends the two portions out- 
 wards till the bones of the breast are exposed. These he takes out one by 
 one, and after sucking the meat from the ends of them he tosses them to one 
 and another of his dogs. When he has -satisfied his own hunger, he shows his 
 complacency by a grin and a ' ha-a,' and then he throws the leavings to his 
 less lucky companion, who has been unsuccessful in the chase, and who has 
 been sitting by all this time. 
 
 Tor cooking the larger animals, and for providing a family supply of food, 
 ovens are used, and the ovens themselves and the mode of cooking are 
 similar to those among the Polynesians. A hole is dug in the ground, and 
 
56 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 is plastered with clay or mud ; the kindling is put in and the fuel heaped 
 on ; when the fire burns down, the emhers are raked out, and the oven is 
 lined with damp grass ; the fish to be cooked, or roots, or animals, all pro- 
 perly prepared, are now put in the hole in baskets, and the whole is covered 
 up with damp grass and earth above. This remains so all night, and in the 
 morning the contents are found nicely cooked. Several families may join 
 in making a large oven, each putting its own baskets in the oven. Eor 
 kangaroos, emus, native turkeys, and other large animals, the oven is lined 
 with hard stones instead of clay. The tail of the kangaroo is much valued 
 for a double reason ; the long sinews are pulled out from it, and dried and 
 stored; these are strong, and are much used for tying handles, &c., on native 
 weapons or tools, and for sewing ; the tail itself, after the hair has been 
 singed and scraped off, is roasted as it is, and is esteemed a delicacy. The 
 hair of the opossum, too, is valued for domestic uses. It is carefully taken 
 off before the animal is cooked, and the women of the household make it into 
 fine cord by twisting it on their knee with the hand, much in the same 
 way as the cobbler twirls his thread. The opossum is not skinned for cooking ; 
 the entrails are first taken out through an incision made in the breast ; the 
 cavity is then filled up with herbs, and the whole is roasted at the fire ; the 
 carcase is thus made to retain its juices, and, when cold, it can be carried 
 about as provisions and will keep for a considerable time. To keep blow- 
 flies from cooked food such as that, they hang it in the smoke of their fires. 
 
 ^ ., 7. There is one kind of food that must be mentioned here, 
 ■ although I believe that it was never common among all the 
 tribes, and the blacks in the settled districts, if questioned, will deny that it 
 was ever used by their tribes — I mean human flesh. Yet there can be no 
 doubt that they were cannibals, occasionally at least. And this custom 
 arose, not from the pressure of necessity, but, as I think, from quite another 
 principle. A native has the idea that the mental and moral, as well as the 
 physical, qualities of a man reside in his flesh or in his internal organs ; and 
 here even the classical nations of antiquity agree with him ; for they place 
 the seat of many of the passions and affections of humanity in the physical 
 heart, the liver, the reins, the bile. Hence he imagines that by eating the 
 heart or the liver of a brave or a wise man of his race, recently dead, he 
 acquires something of the wisdom and bravery of the deceased. The hand 
 of a white man was a valued morsel, because he who ate of it became partaker 
 of the manual dexterity of the victim. And so, in my district many years 
 ago, a ' jin ' was known to carry about in her bag the remains of the hand of a 
 stockman whom they had killed. And so it is also in Queensland after a 
 battle ; it is not the dead bodies of slain enemies that are eaten, but the bodies 
 of friends. These are put in a large oven just as they are, and, after a few 
 hours, are taken out and the choice parts are eaten. In another part 
 of Queensland the body is skinned before it is cooked, and the skin is 
 wrapped round a bundle of spears. To make this memorial more personal, 
 the hair of the head is left on it and the finger-nails ; it is carried about to 
 visit the places where the relatives of the victim are encamped ; and these 
 then make the usual lamentations for the dead. 
 
 Again, it is quite possible that the offering of hunjan sacrifices, and the 
 feast upon the sacrifice, in which the worshippers had to eat a portion of the 
 offering, may have had some share in leading men to cannibalism. There is' 
 no evidence whatever, nor even a suspicion, that our blacks ever offered 
 sacrifices ; but if, in the home of their origin, their first ancestors were, in 
 contact with a race that did so, the custom of eating the flesh may have been 
 copied from that race without adopting the sacrifice. 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 57 
 
 At all events, if the origin of cannibalism in the far past be such as I 
 suppose, it is not hard to understand how easily the habit of eating human 
 flesh drifted from its original moorings, and began to spare neither aged 
 relatives nor children. A plump child is here considered a sweet mouthful, 
 and, in the absence of the mother, clubs in the hands of a few wilful men 
 •will soon lay it low. On one occasion, a grown woman, who was in very 
 good bodily condition, overheard some men plotting for her destruction ; 
 but, showing herself suddenly in the midst of their ])rcB morte deliberations, 
 ' she so chastised them with the lash of her indignant tongue — and a black 
 woman can scold in the choicest of vituperation — that the conspiracy was at 
 once broken up. This habit of cannibalism is so established among certain 
 tribes in Queensland that it has passed iuto a by-word there. Some years 
 ago, when the increasing number of the Chinese was causing some uneasi- 
 ness at a portion of the coast, it became customary to say, jocularly, " Oh, 
 just send up country for the Diamantina Eiver blacks ; they will soon rid 
 us of them." But, in point of fact, Australian blacks do not like the flesh 
 of foreigners ; they say the flesh of a white man is too salt. 
 
 In closing this section on food and cooking, I need scarcely say that our 
 blacks had no knowledge of the working of metals, and used only wooden 
 water vessels before the white man came ; so all their food had to be put in the 
 fire, not on it. There was no cooking jby boiling, nor could they get hot 
 water, except by putting hot stones into the water in their buckets. 
 
 In this matter of Australian food and cooking, other lands present many 
 points of correspondence. The Kjians, too, were cannibals, and their ovens, 
 whether for cooking 'long 'pig ' or 'fat pig,' were much like those of 
 Australia. A hemispherical pit was dug from three feet to five or six feet in 
 diameter, according to circumstances ; the firewood was put in the bottom, 
 and on it a lot of stones that would bear the heat without cracking ; when 
 the fire burned down, the ashes were raked out, and the hot stones were thus 
 left in the bottom ; the pig, wrapped in large leaves, was laid on this, and 
 above it the bread-fruit, or ' taro,' or whatever else was to form part of the 
 meal ; the whole was then covered with a thick layer of leaves, and over that 
 a bed of earth. Two or three hours were needed for the heating of the 
 oven, and two or three hours more till the food was ready ; the food was 
 thus both baked and steamed. The ' ndalo ' (' taro ') of the Fiji larder is 
 the ' arum escwlentum.'' Like our Austrahans, the Fijians also catch fish in 
 fresh water by putting a native plant in the water to intoxicate them. In the 
 Chittagong district of South-Eastern India, the hill people do the same. 
 They form a dam in a stream, and put in it a certain kind of plant ; by it the 
 fish are stupified, and float on the surface belly upwards. They have also 
 an edible plant called ' tara,' something like asparagus. In the Dehli terri- 
 tory the Dherh caste will not eat hog's flesh. Our blacks too do not like 
 pork. 
 
 p. Essential to the art of cooking is the element of fire. Like 
 
 '^' other nations all the world over, the Australians have myths 
 about the origin of fire. One is— "Two men of their race, who are 
 now divine or, at least, astral, were journeying together. The only 
 food of the one was snakes and eels. One day, not being hungry, he 
 buried a snake and an eel. "When he came back to eat them, he saw- 
 fire issuing from the ground where they were. He was warned by his 
 companion not to approach; but he declared he did not fear the fire, 
 and boldly came near. Then a whirlwind seized him, and carried him 
 up 'above the sky,' where he and his companion still are, and he can be 
 seen any starry night." A Tasmanian legend is this : " Long, long ago, there 
 
58 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 ■was no fire in my country. Two blackfellows came ; they stood on the top 
 of a hill ; they threw fire like a star down amongst the black men, my 
 countrymen ; they (my fathers) were fricfhtened, and ran away. After a 
 while they came back, and made a fire — a fire with wood ; fire always now in 
 our land. These two blackfellows are now in the clouds. In a clear night 
 you can see them like two stars." These two legends are quite independent 
 of each other. The former conies from the blacks of my own district in New 
 South Wales, and was given to a friend of mine only ten years ago. The 
 other is at least thirty years old. 
 
 Eire is so necessary to their comfort that the blacks use the utmost care 
 never to be without it. On the march the women carry with tbem a piece 
 of smouldering wood of grass-tree or honeysuckle, or other suitable kind, so 
 as to be able to make a fire at once whenever the .party halts ; and, to provide 
 against accident to this piece of kindling, they also carry in their bags some 
 , o/V", . pieces of touchwood and the rub-sticks wherewith to make fire. To procure 
 ,'. « Y fire two things are necessary — a piece of soft, fibrous wood on which to 
 y/^' operate, and a hard close-grained stick with which to operate; and there 
 
 are two ways of operating — by rubbing or by twirling the stick. A black- 
 fellow sets to work thus : he looks for a log or a detached piece of the 
 soft wood he requires, and, selecting a susceptible spot in it, he inserts there 
 his twirling stick upright. Round the point of it he places a little of his 
 touchwood or some dry grass, if it is handy. Now, applying the palms of his 
 two hands to the twirling stick, he makes it revolve very rapidly, and keeps 
 it going by shifting his hands in an instant to the top as soon as they have 
 slipped too far down for comfort. Heat i^ soon generated, and smoke 
 appears. With a very gentle wind from his mouth, this is encouraged to 
 burst into flame, and the whole thing is done so dexterously that in two 
 or three minutes he has kindling enough to make a fire. But the blacks 
 say that this is hard work, and, if they are -journeying with white men, thev 
 clamour for matches before they undertake it. If they are alone, unhappy 
 is the quarter of an hour to the ' jin ' who has suffered her piece of 
 kindling to go out, and has thus imposed the labour. In the other process, 
 the friction goes by rubbing, not by twirling. A longitudinal cut is made in 
 the piece of soft wood, and a small cross-cut about midway to receive the 
 touchwood or grass. The hard rub-stick is then passed vigorously and 
 swiftly along the groove, and in a very little time fire is obtained as before. 
 The rubbing method is more common than the twirling ; but the spread of 
 the white man's matches has rendered it here, as in Eiji, nearly obsolete. 
 If there is any chance that the natives, when travelling, may not find suit- 
 able wood for fire-making, they carry with them strips of bark of the ' iron- 
 bark' tree, which is very fibrous and fluffy, and therefore suited for kindling, 
 and a piece of the flower stalk or cane of the ' grass-tree' on which to operate. 
 In Western Victoria it is the thigh-bone of a kangaroo, at one end sharpened 
 to a point, that is used as the twirler. A small hole is bored in the cane 
 down to the pith as a socket for the twirler, or dry touchwood is stuffed into 
 the end of the cane. The twirling begins, and fire is produced as before. 
 In New Caledonia also, the natives, when on the move, carry with them a 
 lump of smouldering wood for the making of a fire. This method of drawing 
 out the semma flammas by friction has been known to all nations, and is 
 probably as old as the existence of man. 
 
 Duilii Life ^^ '^ fitting, a black man's day may be said to begin at nighu 
 
 ■' -^ ■ If he has been fortunate in his hunting, he has a copious meal 
 
 whenever he returns to camp at stmset, and soon thereafter he ajid his 
 
 family retire to rest. But if they are at all wakeful or in a happy mood, 
 
SOCIAL AIS'D DOMESTIC. 59 
 
 several families will sit late round the camp-fire and amuse themselves with 
 stories, or with narratives of what they have seen or heard or done in the 
 past, or with tales of adventure in battle or iourneying, or with jokes and 
 riddles. All the while they laugh heartily at anything that tickles them. 
 Here is a genuine blackfellow's riddle. " A long time ago there lived an old 
 woman of our tribe, who was so strong that she coald overpower any of tlie 
 men. So she used to catch young fellows and eat them. One day she 
 caught a young man, and left him bound in her ' gunya,' while she went to 
 a distance to cat some sheets of bark to wrap the body in before she laid it 
 in the fire where it was to be cooked. While she was away two young 
 women, who had observed her doings, slipped into the hut and released the 
 prisoner. They then hurried to the river ; and, first knocking some holes in 
 the bottom of the old woman's canoe to hinder pursuit, th«y all escaped safe 
 to the other side in another canoe. Meanwhile, the old dame returned, and 
 saw that her prisoner had gone. She hastily repaired her damaged canoe, 
 and crossed, but only to find the young man surrounded by his friends, 
 ready to defend him with their spears. She boldly advanced, heeding not 
 the spears thrown at her, although they were sticking in her body everywhere. 
 She had seized the young man, and was making of£ with him again, when the 
 great wizard of the tribe opportunely arrived ; and, giving magical power to 
 the blow, thrust her through and through with his spear. Thus the young 
 man was safe. Question . Who v/as this old woman ? Do you give it up ? 
 Well, then, it was a porcupine." Now, although there is not much ingenuity 
 in this riddle, yet it reveals two things— the existence of cannibalism, and 
 the belief that a wizard's magic can overpower all natural strength and every 
 opposing influence. 
 
 If the black man sleeps soundly, the evil spirits do not visit him during 
 the night ; but sometimes, especially vrhen, as I suppose, there has been too 
 much kangaroo or wallaby at the evening meal, a demon visits him and 
 carries him away roughly and rudely to its abode, drags him about, and puts 
 him in great fea'r ; but towards daybreak he is always brought back, and. 
 placed quietly in his own ' gunya.' He firmly believes that this kind of 
 nightly pastime is the pleasure of the evil spirit, and so he takes it kindly. 
 That affects his body ; but his own spirit or ghost also goes away on adven- 
 tures during the night. Ho believes that he has two spirits— a spiritual and 
 a physical ' ego ' — a sort of ' animus ' and ' anima.' Of this dual existence of 
 his, the mortal part ceases to exist after death, but the other lives on. But, 
 even in his lifetime, the ' anima ' or ' geist ' may leave his body for a while, 
 and then come back again, as when he is in a faint or in a sleep. After 
 sleep he remembers that his ' geist ' left him during the night, and went 
 forth on its own business or pleasure. After a faint ho knows that his 
 spirit went from him on some errand or other, but he also knows that it has 
 returned, and so he does not trouble himself much about that. _ Even 
 when he is dying and his spirit has gone, if a friendly wizard is near 
 and observes the accident in time, the spirit may be pursued and over- 
 taken, and broughb back, and the sick man lives again. But an evil 
 wizard, even when the man is well, may come during the night, aiid 
 by his arts take out his kidney fat. Then the man is sure to dio 
 soon. These are the only experiences which an Australian may have 
 during the night, unless he chances to awake for a time ; then he may hear 
 the evil spirits— which, in this instance, are only the voice of some native 
 animals— near his bed, talking to him or to each other, and doubtless niedi- 
 tating mischief. Then he looks anxiously towards his camp fire ; and, if he 
 sees ft still alight, he complacently falls asleep again ; for he knows that the 
 
60 THE ABOEIGINES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 fire will keep all evil influences far from him and liis. But our black man's 
 slumbers may be disturbed by more dangerous visitors than these. A 
 revenge party from a neighbouring tribe, with which there is an Unsettled 
 blood-feud, may have stealthily come in to the camp, and before he is aware 
 of their presence a spear may be driven through his body and pin him to the 
 ground ; and he or any other man may be taken as a victim ; for if any one 
 of the tribule that has done the wrong can be slain, then atonement is made 
 and the blood-feud is wiped out. 
 
 Before daylight they are all awake, and are soon astir. Their toilet does 
 not take much time, for it is of the simplest description. There is no night 
 gear to fold and lay away for its next use ; for they all sleep naked, or in 
 the coldest nights with only a fur skin over them. There are no morning 
 ablutions ; no brush and comb for the hair ; no garments to fix carefully on 
 the body ; for in their natural state the waist-belt and its appendages are 
 their only wear ; and so they are soon ready for the morning meal. And 
 thus the day's labours begin. 
 
 Any one who sees them at a meal will notice that the natives are careful 
 to destroy all the fragments which they leave ; they throw them into the 
 fire or bury them. Again, it has been noticed that they are always careful 
 of their sanitary arrangements, whether in camp or on the tramp. With a 
 stick they remove a piece of turf and dig a small hole, and, leaving there 
 what nature casts off, they cover it up again. Even water is strewn over 
 with rushes, lest any one treading on it should be defiled. All this seems to 
 arise from cleanliness ; but there is a deeper reason for it ; a black man 
 believes that any portion of himself, as his hair, or of the food he has left, if 
 found by a hostile wizard, may be used against him, and made up into a 
 charm to do him harm. Hence his care to destroy all that, or cover it from 
 view. 
 
 After breakfast the men of the camp set out on the hunt, and are probably 
 away all day ; if there is already enough of provisions at home, they lounge 
 about, making spears and other weapons, or fixing the tools or weapons 
 that they have. Nor are the women idle ; they go out, and with the yam- 
 stick dig up food-roots, gather seeds and wild tree-fruits or berries of plants, 
 collect eggs, and otherwise do their share in filling the family larder. 
 Within doors, if we may so speak, they busy themselves in spinning into 
 thread and cord the bundles of opossum hair which they have in their 
 baskets, or in making up the thread into nets and bags ; or in plaiting rushes 
 into baskets ; they also sew skins together to make rugs. The children, 
 meanwhile, have been enjoying themselves in their own way with games of 
 lively movement and exercise, such as children everywhere love to have ; or 
 they go to the river, girls and boys together, and enjoy themselves as much 
 in the water as they do on the land. They throw themselves in doubled 
 up, and thus make a great splashing noise. They pursue each other 
 in the water, and swim and dive like ducks. When they get bigger, 
 these children pass on to other employments ; the girls remain with their 
 mother and learn all she can teach them, and help her in her labours. 
 When he is 7 or 8 years of age, the boy goes forth with his father to the 
 chase ; here he learns to stalk the kangaroo, to recognise on a tree the 
 marks of an opossum's recent ascent, to knock down the pigeon from its 
 branch, to follow the honey-bee to its nest, and all other accomplishments 
 which, if he were in old England, would have been included under the name 
 of ' woodcraft.' He is thus early taught to exercise his faculty of observa- 
 tion, and he becomes quick of eye and acute in understanding all natural 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 61 
 
 phenomena, and in detecting the disturbances which the foot of man or of 
 beast has worked in the aspect of nature around him. And so, at a tender 
 age, he can tell, by the faintest tread on the grass or on the bare soil, by the 
 stones which the passing foot has upturned, or the pieces of dry wood broken 
 on the rocky ground, how many men have gone that way, and how long 
 before ; and thus he grows up to be a man, fit and capable, like his father 
 before him. 
 
 Perhaps a visitor from a distance, or a messenger arrives during the day. 
 He does not walk up to the door as we do, and forthwith announce himself ; 
 native etiquette forbids ; he makes a circuit behind the hut and then sits 
 down in front of it. He does not now look at anyone there, but his eyes 
 seem to roam in every other direction. Perhaps he takes out his pipe and 
 begins to smoke. After a while the person in the ' gunya ' speaks to him, 
 and all tongues are then unloosed. The following incident illustrates this 
 custom. Two blacks in my district were sent to gaol for a serious ofEence. 
 One of them died in gaol, and the other, on his release, went home. When 
 he approached the paternal residence, he made the usual circuit round it and 
 sat down. After a long silence his mother uttered a scream ; and, seizing a 
 tomahawk, she hacked her head in so savage a manner that her husband 
 rushed out and took the weapon from her. This was her way of showing 
 grief. The father then sat down, placed his baking board — a piece of bark — 
 before him, washed his hands, wiped them dry on his thighs, took flour and 
 water, mixed them, and baked a damper ; then he gave a piece to his son. 
 This was the family reconciliation. 
 
 Besides the bags netted from the hair cord, the women also make baskets 
 of grass and reeds. The baskets are so tightly and carefully woven that 
 they keep out water, and, like the bags, are very creditable examples of 
 manual skill. While the women are thus engaged the men are probably 
 sitting at the fire working up gum with which' to fasten their tools and 
 weapons, or kneading the pipeclay to streak their bodies with for the ' kara- 
 baries,' or native dances. The gum they use is chiefly that which comes 
 from the native grass-tree (xanthorrhced) . It is resinous, exudes from the 
 stem, and. hardens into bulbs which have to be softened at the fire, and 
 worked, like cobbler's wax, until it is soft enough for use. It is then applied 
 as a cement to bind, say, a stone axe to its haft, the joint being made secure 
 by lashings around it ; for this purpose the strong sinews of the kangaroo's 
 tail are used. Or, while the women and girls are busy with their netting or 
 other domestic duties, the men have the boys away with them in the bush, 
 and are training them to the right use of tools. They teach them to know 
 which woods are suitable for the fabrication of the various kinds of spears, 
 and 'bumarangs,' and clubs, and show how these should bo cut and scraped 
 and ornamented. If a piece of suitable spearwood has a twist on it, they 
 direct the boy to rub it well with grease, and put it again and again in the 
 fire for a little, and then bend it until it is quite straight. 
 
 And so on through the day the blacks are occupied with these employ- 
 ments and enjoyments, until night again comes on and calls them to the 
 evening meal and sleep. Considerable diversity, however, is sometimes 
 imported into their daily life by an occasional battle with enemies from 
 nnother tribe, or a set fight with a chosen party from a friendly tribule for 
 the settlement of a grievance, or the excitement which arises when one of 
 themselves has to stand out at the bidding of the tribal council and take his 
 punishment for some social offence, or by an elopement, a marriag'e, a wake, 
 and a burial. 
 
62 THE ABOEIG-INES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 y, . An epidemic may also spread from tribe to tribe, and cause mucb 
 
 iseases. gQjjj^jg^JQ^^ ^ friend says: — "When I arrived ia Dungog in 
 1840, I observed several oldish men deeply marked with traces of smallpox, 
 and, on questioning them, I found that when they were young a fearful 
 epidemic of this complaint had raged in the district and carried oJf great 
 numbers of the aboriginal population. I was informed that, when the 
 disease first appeared, they were camped at a place now called by the whites 
 ' Black Camp 'Creek.' Here the disease was of a very virulent type, and, 
 after a week or so, they were unable to bury their dead, and day by day kepb 
 moving onwards, leaving their dead on the ground. Before this the district 
 was populous, but after itthe blacks never recovered their numerical strength." 
 This leads me to consider next the diseases of the blacks as apart of their 
 social system ; for there is no doubt that the foreign habits which they have 
 learned from civilisation have changed their personal and social condition, 
 and have materially contributed to their decay as a race. In their native 
 condition, the men and women are almost impervious to the weather ; for they 
 are independent of clothing and hardened against the changes of the atmos- 
 phere ; their natural food, such as I have described it, suits the physiological 
 constitution which they have inherited from a loi\g line of ancestors ; and 
 their free, wandering life has become part of their nature. But now, in all 
 the districts in Australia to which civilisation has come, they wear the cast- 
 off clothes of the white settlers, or the blankets which the Colonial G-overn- 
 ments distribute to them once a year. These often get soaked with rain ; 
 and yet the natives, knowing no better or having no change of clothing, or 
 caring not, still move about all day long with these wet garments on, and 
 throw them off only when they lie down to sleep with their feet to the camp- 
 fire. In the morning, the garments are still wet, but they are put on and 
 worn again just as they are. Hence comes the prevalence of pulmonary 
 disease which now makes such havoc among our blacks ; and this not because 
 of any neglect or injury on the part of the colonists, but just because their 
 contact with civilisation compels the indigenes to adopt habits which injure 
 them. And so also in respect of their food. The food which they get from us 
 is to them artificial, and does not suit their physical wants. Our sheep runs 
 and cattle stations have occupied their hunting ground, and they cannot 
 easily get their natural food, even if they were to seek for it. Elour, bread, 
 and salt beef or boiled mutton, and tea, are to them poor substitutes for 
 their ' bunya' and fungi, and grubs, and kangaroo, and opossum, and honey, 
 and fish. They feel that they have no home and no country ; for the white 
 man, they say, has taken all from them. And so from impoverishment of 
 blood and the susceptibility to disease which it brings, and from the aimless- 
 ness of their acquired modes of life, they droop and die, and will continue 
 to droop and die till they are all gone, despite the fostering care of our colonial 
 rulers. Happily, one fruitful source of decimation in the past has been 
 stopped by legislation. The blacks had learned to like the white man's 
 ' fire-water,' and could buy it in the shops, if they had pence enough for a 
 glass. Olten have I been pained to see an old man who used to visit my 
 house put on his most persuasive countenance and whispered tones of voice, 
 while he begged me to give him "only one penny, massa, to buy tugar," 
 when I well knew that as soon as he gathered three or four pennies he would 
 buy, not sugar, but its distilled product, rum. But the law now forbids 
 publicans, under heavy penalties, to sell intoxicating drinks to any native. 
 
 In their natural estate, their diseases are few in number, but generally 
 severe ; ft)r, want of shelter and the absence of proper vegetable and 
 farinaceous I'oud, give a sick man very littld chance of recovery. The ' vis 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 63 
 
 medioatrix naturcB ' is their best friend, when they are sick, hut they supple- 
 ment and assist it by simple remedies, such as drinks from native herbs, 
 the moist-earth cure, and bandages with moist clay for wounds ; and a black 
 man's wound heals very rapidly. For severe colds they use the earth-bath. 
 A deep hole is dug in some soft moist ground ; the patient stands in it, and 
 the earth or sand is filled in around him up to the neck ; there he remains- 
 groaning and sweating profusely for two or three hours, all the time receiving 
 only a few draughts of water. As might be expected, the bath either kills or 
 cures. But their most common diseases are catarrh, phthisis, pneumonia, 
 ophthalmia, rheumatism, dropsy, and concretionary lumps in the stomach from 
 the use of hard indigestible food. Variola has also in the past made fearful 
 ravages among them, as I have just shown. Contagious fevers and some other 
 diseases have been communicated by white men. As they use so little 
 vegetable food, boiling in water being impossible to them, and eat animal 
 food at the most roughly cooked by roasting, they are afflicted with hydatids 
 and inveterate skin diseases, which are aggravated by their habit of sleeping 
 with their dogs in their bosoms. Scabies is thus common ; the hair falls off 
 and leaves bald patches on their bodies. There is some reason to believe 
 that variola and syphilis existed among them before the coming of the whites, 
 but it is extremely difficult now to obtain satisfactory evidence to that eifect. 
 Even desperate wounds received in battle are seldom fatal unless they touch 
 a vital part ; protruding bowels have been replaced, the gash closed with gum, 
 and held together by a plaster of leaves, and soon the man was well again. 
 When a man is severely wounded in battle, he can feign death and lie as still 
 as a corpse until the enemy departs. All Australians show themselves quite 
 insensible to pain. They bear their wounds and tribal punishments, or a 
 surgical operation, without flinching. Thirst and hunger they endure with 
 indifference. 
 
 Eor some diseases, the ' karaji,' or native doctor, when he is called in, makes 
 passes with his hand over the body of the sick man, much in the same way as 
 a mesmerist will do. This, however, is done as exorcism to the pain and the 
 disease, not as a piece of therapeutics. In the Mota district of New Guinea, 
 the sorcerer does exactly the same thing, but he is paid for it, while our 
 Australian ' karaji ' is highly esteemed, but not paid. 
 
 As to negro diseases in Africa, Dr. Livingstone says: — "The most prevalent 
 diseases are pneumonia, produced by sudden changes of temperature, and 
 other inflammations, as of the bowels, stomach, and pleura, with rheumatism, 
 and diseases of the heart. Every year, the period preceding the rains is 
 marked by an epidemic. Sometimes it is general ophthalmia, resembling that 
 which prevails in Egypt ; at another time it is a kind of diarrhoea, which no 
 medicine will cure until there is a fall of rain, when anything acts as a 
 charm. Among the Makololo, fever is almost the only disease prevalent. 
 There is no consumption or scrofula, and but little insanity. Small-poXand 
 measles visited the country some thirty years ago, but they have not^ again 
 appeared. I have seen but one case of hydrocephalus, a few of epilepsy, 
 and none of cholera or cancer, while many diseases common in England are 
 quite unknown." 
 
 A merry people always love amusements, and if those that 
 
 Amuse- -^^^q gome to them from their fathers are not enough they 
 
 ments. invent others. In civilised countries, the persistence of 
 
 children's games is very noticeable, and in different countries certain sports 
 
 and pastimes have so established themselves among adults that these have 
 
 become characteristic and national. The only national sport which our 
 
64 THE ABORIGINES OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 Australians have is the ' karabari' (q-v.). It is usually said that the 
 ' karabari' is only a dance, but I am strongly of opinion that, like the ancient 
 dances in their origin, it has something of religion in it. A ' karabari' of 
 which I was a witness led me to think so. It was thus : — At a given place 
 the men assembled after nightfall, dressed in their gayest attire — ^their own 
 swarthy skins — with their face, body, and limbs fantastically decorated with 
 streaks of white and red. They set up a pole, about ten feet long, tipped 
 aloft with a bunch of heath or other green foliage. The men arranged them- 
 selves in a crescent form opposite the pole, but at some distance from it, at 
 intervals of a few feet from each other. The ' jins ' meanwhile placed them- 
 selves on the ground beyond the pole, but facing the performers, ready to 
 give an accompaniment of music with their voices and some sticks which 
 they held in their hands and struck together to the rhythm of the musie. 
 All being in their places, the dance begins ; the music strikes up ; the 
 blackfellows turn their bodies iirst to the right, then to the left, stretching 
 out their hands in unison ; talking and shouting all the while. Continually 
 repeating these regulated and uniform movements, they slowly advance 
 towards the pole, closing up as they advance ; at last they cluster thickly 
 round it, and simultaneously throw up their arms several times towards 
 its top, with loud cries. Thus ended that ' karabari.' In it the slow 
 and subdued movements, the gradual approach, and the uplifted hands and 
 voices at the end appeared to me to give the whole dance the character of 
 an act of worship and invocation. 
 
 It is also true that a merry people give permanence to their mirth in the form 
 of Songs. Our blackfellows have numerous songs, which are used at their 
 ' karabaries,' but they frequently turn the ordinary incidents of their daily 
 life into song, and improvise on what they see going on around them. They 
 are keen satirists and excellent mimics, and in these self-made songs a white 
 man who may be present is sure to come in for a share of good-natured 
 comment, even although the ' improvisatore' be a friend. A gentleman (Mr. 
 McI.) who was well known for his kindness to the blacks on his estate was 
 invited to be their king by the local tribule, and he was looking on at what 
 may be called the ceremony of his investiture, which, as usual, took the 
 form of a ' karabari.' The blacks had made a figure of Mr. McL, crowning 
 it with a good imitation of the helmet hat which he usually wore. In their 
 songs, made for the occasion, they spoke freely of him and his peculiarities, 
 and told how the white man had come there and taken their country from 
 them. These are occasional songs prompted by the circumstances on hand ; 
 but the words of the proper ' karabari ' songs are often unintelligible to 
 those who use them ; and this confirms me in the belief that there is some- 
 thing religious about them. I know of one song which was composed by 
 some men of a tribe far off ; this song and the dance suitable to it were 
 passed from tribe to tribe by men detailed for the purpose, until, when it 
 reached my district, those who sang the words did not know what these 
 meant. And why should this persistence be maintained unless there be 
 8om(! sacredness in the thing? Here is the song of an old 'karaji' — 
 apparently an incantation song — which even his own daughters could 
 not translate for me: — («. 1) Burraijo, burraijo; {v.2)ojk nuara; 
 (i). 3) bindari, bindari; (i). 4) nunnalga, a ya nunnalga ; which verses 
 may be repeated ad libitum. The air to which the whole of this was sung 
 was very pleasant to the ear, and the old man, as he got near the end 
 of his singing, repeated the last words very fast, and then broke out into 
 a loud laugh. The next is a Kamalarai song of a very simple kind. 
 It is — Ngaia bula manga bundiira, bundara, bundara {da capo; 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 65 
 
 ad libitutn) ; which means, ' I two got kangaroos, kangaroos, kangaroos.' 
 Here are some Minyung songs : — (». 1) Windia bugga kulli? (u. 2) 
 ngaiabaia bugga; (w.3) kouwango kanggun kulli; (i).4) ngaiabaia 
 bugga ; which means, ' Where (is) the shield ? — I have the shield ; — Angry 
 they (are) over there; — I have the shield.' Another is: — (v.l) Waia 
 kaullga; («. 2) ling-gullumme naga; (j;.3) gommarabil naga; which 
 means, 'Up above go bowing; behold Lingullen ; behold the rainbow-coloured 
 one.' Each line of these two songs may be repeated any number of times. 
 Another Minyung song is: — {v. 1) Terriibilla, ngarrella, injegunga? 
 («.2) paigal bummoUen, ngullengwengarri; which means, 'Singing, 
 dancing, when will it be ? — ^when the blacks are painted, we will (make) 
 karabari.' On the Hastings, an east-coast river, this is sung : — {v. 1) Milla, 
 milla, milla, millilia; (v. 2) goa galline, goa galline, ngaia 
 galline,hire ilan,u,u,u. This last line they sing with the hands on the 
 hips and a shake and a bow. Many of these songs are known everywhere, and 
 are recognised at once by blackf ellows from far distant tribes. When small- 
 pox was raging all over the land, a propitiatory song was composed in New 
 South Wales in honour of, or addressed to, the demon which had sent the 
 calamity. This was speedily known and used all over the colonies. It was 
 sung in a doleful way, and interspersed with the groans and cries of the 
 dying. 
 
 These songs are trivial, and are not likely to arouse our enthusiasm, but 
 they suit the tastes of a simple-minded people. The airs to which they 
 are sung are also simple, having very little variation from a monotone. 
 The only accompaniment to the voice is a drum and music-sticks. The 
 drum is a very simple affair. The women wrap up their opossum cloaks 
 into the shape of a hollow cylinder — some with shells inside to make a 
 jingling noise — and on this, as a drum, they tap with their lingers in concert. 
 The sticks are made of hard wood, in shape something like an office ruler, 
 but tapering to a point at the ends. Two of these are used. The one is 
 struck by the other. The sound is musical, and may be heard at a great 
 distance. These sticks, however, are used only in certain districts. Elsewhere 
 ' bumarangs' are used instead. 
 
 At the Native Ball or ' karabari,' another adjunct is the painted skins of the 
 bands of performers and the ornaments they wear. Instead of the rouge 
 box and the puff powder as a preparation for the ball, every aboriginal 
 family has a supply of pipeclay and ruddle (red oxide of iron) . These, 
 if not to be had ia the district, are procured at the trading fairs and 
 otherwise by barter. The women delight in adorning their husbands 
 vnth these for the dance, and the men paint each other with stripes of 
 white on the ribs and chest and down the legs, and red and white on 
 the face and body, until, when they come forth and set themselves in 
 readiness to begin, they look like a band of ghostly skeletons. Their 
 chiefs have red streaks over and under the eyes and on their cheeks. 
 All, both men and women, put on a frontlet or head-band of native 
 material, and in it are stuck, just on the right side of the forehead, plumes 
 of swans' feathers. Necklaces of kangaroos' teeth or bits of reed and 
 armlets are worn ; and, hanging down behind from the belt, is something 
 that looks like a cock's tail. In the nose is the usual nose-stick ; tied to the 
 ankles are bunches of foliage which, in the dance, make a curious rustling noise, 
 reminding one of the jingle made by the ankle ornaments of some Noi-th 
 American Indian tribes in their dances. A big fire is kept burning while 
 the dance is going on, and the fitful glare of the light on the naked and 
 ghastly bodies of the performers, the silence of the forests in the darkness 
 
66 THE ABORIGIJSTES 0¥ NEW SOUTH AVALES. 
 
 all around, the bare trunks of the huge gum-trees — all combine to make a 
 weirdly scene to the beholder. The ' karabari' dances are kept up till the 
 dawn of day, and it is amazing to see the vigour and the energy which even 
 the old men display in twisting their bodies and stamping and turning to 
 one side and the other, every movement being made by all in unison, and 
 as mechanically as if all were but the united portions of one machine. In 
 an aU-night-long ' karabari' there are acts and interludes. The acts may be 
 of various kinds, representations of the stalking and capture of an emu, the 
 hunting of kangaroos, and other sylvan sports, or a fight with white 
 men, in which, of course, the blacks are victorious, much to the delight 
 of the spectators. The interludes consist of the merry-making of two or 
 three clowns, who are painted and dressed up in a peculiar way for the 
 occasion. 
 
 It vpill be observed that the women do not share in the dance ; for, of 
 general dancing in which both the sexes join, or even of dancing such as 
 ours is, the aboriginal Australians know nothing. 
 
 The Manly Amusements are spear-throwing, wrestling, and football. The 
 first of these is indigenous, but I am not sure that the others are so. As a 
 mark for the spears some object is set up at a distance, and the competitors 
 vie with each other in trying to hit the mark, as in our rifle competitions. 
 So in wrestling ; one man steps out and gives a challenge ; another offers 
 himself ; the rivals rub their hands and their bodies with ashes to assist the 
 holding ; he who throws his opponent three times is the victor, and stands 
 aside to be pitted next against some other victor, until one man emerges, amidst 
 the shouts of the by-standers, as undisputed champion. No tripping or unfair 
 dealing is allowed in these contests. In football, sides are taken — one 
 'totem' class of young men perhaps against another, but there are no goals 
 and no bounds. Each side tries as much as possible to keep the ball to itself 
 and kicks it in any direction. The ball is made of opossum skin, is about the 
 size of an orange, and is stuffed hard with charcoal. Besides these out-door 
 amusements, the men have others to keep them lively on wet days in camp 
 and at night round the camp fire. Then they tell stories, and make riddles, 
 and otherwise entertain each other, as I have already described. The 
 children too have their games — ' hide and seek,' string puzzles like ' cat's 
 cradle' for boys and girls. But the boys have games of their own ; while 
 still very young, they handle a small toy spear, and throw it either at a 
 stationary mark or at. a round piece of bark which is made to roll along 
 some yards in front of them. Then, they have also toy 'bumarangs,' and a 
 stick which makes ' ducks and drakes' on dry land. This stick is about 
 two feet long, with a spike knob at one end, and tapered off very thin 
 towards the other end as a handle. This stick is swung backwards and 
 forwards by the handle, and then pitched off", much in the same way as in 
 our ' throwing the hammer.' Jt has been known to go 220 yards. 
 
 In their sports and amusements, the Melanesians of Eiji resemble the 
 Australians. They have dances with rhythmical and regular movements 
 like those of troops on review ; the performers are gaily dressed after their 
 fashion ; they carry clubs and spears in the dance ; they march and halt 
 and march again ; a buffoon sometimes comes in and raises a laugh by his 
 grotesque drolleries. Besides these they have ' blindman's buff,' ' hide 
 and seek,' ' ducks and drakes,' ' hop, step, and jump,' stone-skittles, and 
 the like. All these sports seem to be indigenous there. Like our black- 
 fellows, they are also fond of hearing and telling native traditions and 
 extravagant fictions. 
 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC. 67 
 
 The African negroes, too, have great delight in lying near the fire at 
 night and telling stories. 
 
 y, 7 I have already spoken of pipe-clay and ruddle as articles of 
 trade ; the Mindi-mindi gatherings are the markets at which this 
 trade is carried on. The necessity for these fairs is not far to seek. A 
 Mack man's own ' taurai-' does not furnish everything he requires for his 
 daily life. In it there may be food enough, but he wants suitable stone for 
 an axe, wood for his spears and ' bumarangs' and shields and clubs, flint 
 for cutting and skinning, gum to be used as cement, and lumps of gritty 
 sand-stone, on which to sharpen his stone-axe ; for adornment, the pipe- 
 clay and the red-ochre are much valued, and so are swan-down feathers 
 and the rose-coloured crests of a certain kind of cockatoo ; some of these he 
 can supply, and for them he gets in barter others that he wants. Then also 
 there are manufactured articles which he can give in exchange, — ^tloaks, rugs, 
 baskets, knitted bags, nets, weapons, and tools ; most of these articles bear 
 the ' brand' of the maker. In this way the black man's wants are supplied 
 by the mutual interchange of commodities. I suppose that, at these fairs, 
 the usual amount of haggling goes on in the making of bargains, but there 
 is no quarrelling ; for, during the time, universal brotherhood prevails. The 
 fairs are held whenever there is a need for them. 
 
 In the Andaman Islands, large gatherings of a similar kind are held by 
 neighbouring tribes from time to time for barter and trading. 
 
 o- , All official communication between the tribes is carried on by 
 
 ^gnals. ^^^^ public messengers or heralds, as already described. But 
 
 ?*?^*' there is also the use of message-sticks as a means of communica- 
 
 sticles. ^^^^ between individuals at a distance. A piece of thick bark is 
 
 h-esture- ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ oblong shape, perhaps measuring 9 inches by 3 or 4 ; 
 
 language, ^j^^ ggnder makes a number of notches on the edges of it and 
 
 dimples or holes on the surface of it, and sends the stick to his correspondent, 
 
 who is said to understand what is wanted. The sticks are often round 
 
 like a ruler 'or rolling-pin. But there must be a good deal of guessing in 
 
 the matter ; for the marks are certainly not pictorial writing, and even the 
 
 blacks themselves are not quite sure of the meaning, unless there is a 
 
 messenger along with the stick. 
 
 More intelligible, however, are the smoke signals, by which news is con- 
 veyed to a distant portion of the tribe in a few minutes. A fire is kindled ; 
 bunches of leaves and branches are thrown on ; these soon make a fierce 
 blaze; then heaps of grass and reeds are put on the flame; these so 
 effectually smother it that the smoke escapes only through an opening on 
 the top of the pile. This also is covered up for a few minutes, and a 
 draught-hole is made down below, near the ground ; the vent is now opened, 
 and a dense black volume of smoke rushes out. The black man now proceeds 
 to raise what he calls " one big fellow smoke." This process, although it 
 appears easy, requires considerable dexterity ; it is effected by waving a long 
 leafy branch in a circle just above the vent ; the motion being horizontal, a 
 slight twist of the hand gives to the ascending mass a spiral form, which it 
 maintains to a great height. Thus the natives inform their friends at a dis- 
 tance that the message which has been sent in the morning, in this instance 
 by three smoke fires, may have been received. Between those who thus 
 telegraph to each other, there is a previous understanding as to the meaning 
 of each signal ; two smokes together may be taken to mean peace, and three 
 for war. A tribule twenty miles to the north may wish to know if the white 
 
68 THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 men between them and their next neighbours to the south are f riendlj and 
 so make this inquiry by means of one smoke ; to give a reply, a hollow dead 
 tree is selected, with three pipe-holes near its top ; a fire is kindled within 
 the trunk, and the smoke escapes by these pipes ; if only two columns of smoke 
 are w^anted, one of these holes may be plugged up. 
 
 Other simple modes of conveying tidings are used, which the ready intelli- 
 gence of the black man enables him to understand at once. A friend of mine 
 says : — " Many years ago, when I was out shooting, I went past a camp where 
 I knew the blacks were the evening before, but they were all gone. I saw 
 one of the black men approaching and I asked him where his comrades were. 
 He said he did not know as he had been away up the river for several days. 
 However, on going into the deserted camp, he called me and showed me 
 there a stick stuck in the ground with a cob of corn tied at the top of it and 
 pointing to the north-east. This meant, he said, that they had gone to a 
 settler's place in that direction to pull com." 
 
 Gesture language is another means of communication between our tribes. 
 It is not used by contiguous tribes ; for there are always individuals in such 
 tribes who can speak or understand the mutual dialects. But if a man of 
 the Sydney tribe wandered far into the interior of the continent, say to 
 Cooper's Creek, his language would have been of no avail to him there ; so 
 also, if a black from Port Darwin, in the far north, came to the same locality. 
 Hence the natives iu the interior have a very full and elaborate system of 
 gesture language, while our tribes on the eastern coast have nothing of the 
 kind. By certain movements of the hand, turning it in various ways and 
 placing in various positions in relation to the body, the tribes near Cooper's 
 Creek can speak with any strangers who come among them. 
 
 „ , 7 It seems to me odd that I should have to write the Celtic word 
 ' cromlech ' to describe anything that our blackfellows have 
 reared ; and yet there is sufBcient evidence to show that the piles and 
 circles of stones found ia different places in Aiistralia are not all of them 
 natural ; some of them seem to be monumental or religious, others for 
 shelter. I know of three huge pillar stones or rocks which stand in an 
 elevated position on a mountain range ; the blacks say that, when they see 
 these stones in a time of drought and wish firmly for one, two, or three days 
 rain, the rain will certainly come. An Irishman, whom I was talking with 
 one day, told me that in a very dry year he was obliged to leave his farm and 
 go off to the diggings ; he and two others were climbing a very steep part 
 of that range under the guidance of a blackfellow and came in sight of the 
 three megaliths ; the black told the story about them, and the Irishman did 
 wish hard for rain ; in an hour or two the aspect of the sky so changed that 
 he turned back, leaving his companions ; and, sure enough, the rain came, 
 and it rained the number of days he had wished for ! 
 
 On the plains of Yictoria there were stone circles from 10 to 100 feet 
 in diameter, and within some of these there was an inner circle. Similar 
 stone circles have been seen at Cooper's Creek. In another place in the 
 interior, Giles, the explorer, found mounds of stones at even distances apart 
 with a large rock in the centre of each ; the ground around was stony, but 
 paths had been cleared between these heaps. Sir George Grey also found 
 such heaps in north-western Australia ; one of them was 22 feet long, 14 feet 
 broad, and 4 feet high. They were placed due east and west and had been 
 built by the hand of man. . He thinks that they were tombs. 
 
WEAPONS, TOOLS, TJTENSILS. 69 
 
 V- 7 A supply of water is one of the necessaries of life, and in such 
 
 . . , a country as Australia, where severe droughts may occur, 
 water is often a precious commodity. The natives are very 
 acute in finding supplies of water. There is a certain fibrous root which they 
 tear up even in the desert, and from it get a pint or two of water. In a dry 
 water-course they dig a hole in a likely place and find water. But Eyre, the 
 explorer, on the route from Adelaide to King G-eorge's Sound, found wells 
 " sunk through loose sand 14 or 15 feet deep, and 2 feet in diameter, quite 
 circular, carried down straight, and the work beautifully executed." Sir 
 George Grey saw similar wells in north-western Australia. In his travels, 
 Eorrest saw in rocks sundry cavities, small and large, for the reception of 
 rain water. These may have been natural, but enlarged by the natives. 
 
 ^ , _P There is only one thing more which I have to mention under 
 ^ -^ this section ; it is the order of a native camp where various 
 ^' tribules are assembled. This is arranged on so simple a 
 principle that there is no difiiculty in finding any family, even when there 
 are hundreds of blacks assembled together. I shall take a portion of the 
 state of Illinois as an illustration. Let us suppose that the place of meeting 
 is where Springfield now stands ; the Springfield blacks erect their huts 
 there, and other blacks come in from north, east, south, and west. At what- 
 ever time they may arrive, the blacks from Williamsville will encamp im- 
 mediately to the north of their Springfield friends, and those from Lincoln 
 behind the others; on the east, those from Decatur will be nearest, and 
 from Tolono behind them ; and so on for Auburn and Carlinville on the south, 
 and for Jacksonville and Illinoistown on the west ; and in that order they 
 remain while the encampment lasts. 
 
 VI I. -WEAPONS, TOOLS, UTENSILS. 
 
 -TTT The fighting weapons of the Australians are few in number 
 
 , -v,, ■ and simple in construction ; they are spears, clubs, shields, and 
 y. ' * the ' bumarang.' Of the last there are two kinds, but it is 
 Humarang. ^^^ ^j^^ ^^^ ^^ these that is used in fights ; of the other 
 weapons there are various kinds and sizes. In speaking of all weapons 
 and tools I shall refer to them by the native names which they bear in New 
 South "Wales, and mostly in the Sydney dialect. It is necessary that 
 those persons who write on Australian subjects should come to some mutual 
 arrangement in this matter, for already much perplexity has arisen in the 
 minds of foreigners from our want of agreement on this point. The same 
 ceremonies and the same weapons are described by authors in the different 
 colonies, and so many different names for them are used that the reader is 
 left in doubt. The Sydney names ' bora,' ' bumarang,' ' karabari,' are 
 already established, and I see no valid reason why other Sydney words and 
 names should not be accepted as they are found in most of the older books, 
 and thus have the precedence. I have said that there ape two ' bumaraugs ;' 
 the other of these is commonly called the ' come-haok boomerang,' from the 
 strange peculiarity of its flight ; but while that name may be descriptive 
 enough, yet it is not convenient to handle, and in one view the name is in 
 itself contradictory, and therefore absurd, for it really means the ' play- 
 fighting ' weapon. The name ' bumarang ' has always hitherto been written 
 'boomerang ; but, considered etymologically, that is wrong, for the root of it 
 it buma 'strike, fight, kill,' and -ara, -arai, -ari, -arang are, all 
 of them, common formative terminations in this dialect. Therefore, I have 
 
70 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 always written the name as ' bumarang,' and the ' bumarang' is the fighting 
 variety, and to this use I will restrict that word. The ' come-bacJi' variety 
 is not a fighting weapon. A dialect name for it is ' bargan,' which word 
 may" be explained in our language to mean ' bent like a sicl?le or crescent 
 moon.' I will, therefore, say 'bargan' when I mean that variety. It is 
 important that two diiferent words should be used ; for much confusion has 
 been produced in the past by both varieties being called ' bumarang.' And 
 on this distinction depends the relevancy of the arguments for the identifi- 
 cation of our ' bumarang' with similar instruments in other lands ; for some- 
 thing like it is found on the Dravidian coast of India, in the tombs and on 
 the monuments of Egypt, and in some parts of the United States. In 
 Arizona and New Mexico, for instance, such a weapon is used for hitting 
 rabbits and small game ; its form varies from that of a cavalry sabre to an 
 obtuse angle of 130 degrees ; it is thrown forward horizontally; the material is 
 oak or ash, and the dimensions are about 20 inches long, 2 inches broad, and f 
 inch thick ; it is thin at the edge. On some of the Egyptian frescoes there 
 is seen a man in a boat, with a bent stick in his hand, and in the act of throw- 
 ing it at some birds above him. Such sticks are not ' bumarangs,' for they com- 
 monly have a double curve, somewhat resembling an elongated capital S. 
 But from a tomb at Thebes three instruments were got which are all true flat 
 ' bumarangs,' not curved sticks. One of these is in the British Museum. 
 Greneral Pitt Bivers has stated that, some years ago, he had a fac simile made 
 of this one, and found that, by throwing it against the wind, it came back to 
 his feet several times running. He thinks that the returning weapon — that 
 is, the ' bargan' — is only the other one modified in form, and adds that " the 
 racial connection between the Australians and the Egyptians, startling as it 
 at first appears, becomes the less improbable the more we look at in the light 
 of comparative culture." The link between Egypt and Australia is the 
 Dravidian races of theDekkan of India. Some years ago, three 'bumarangs' 
 from Kattyawar, Bombay, were presented to the Museum of the Anthro- 
 pological Society, London. 
 
 As the Australian weapon is so thin, it gets its tenacity and strength from 
 the toughness of the wood of which it is made. Here the wood chosen is 
 that of the fig-tree or willow ; elsewhere ' ironbark' and ' she-oak' are used, or 
 even the bark of a ' gum-tree.' No two ' bargans' are exactly alike in cut and 
 shape. The maker has to chip and smooth the piece of wood as he goes on 
 with his work. He tries it now and again, and makes alterations until its 
 action is perfect. Unlike the ' bumarang,' there is not much utility in it, 
 although with it a black man does kill birds and small animals, and some- 
 times throws it in battle. In shape it is a good deal like a reaping sickle 
 without a handle, with a slight twist in contrary directions at each end. To 
 throw it, our native takes hold of it by the one end, and keeps it horizontally 
 in his hand. He notes the direction from which the wind is blowing, and 
 turns to face it. He now poises the weapon, looks at it carefully, and gives 
 the end a twist if he thinks it is at all out of shape. He pauses for a few 
 seconds and considers the force with which he ought to throw it as against 
 the wind. Suddenly it leaves his hand and moves onward 50 or 100 yards iu 
 a straight lines ; then suddenly it rises in the air with a curious gyrating 
 motion to a great height, and returns, with a most fantastic irregularity in 
 its flight, and at last lodges itself on or in the ground at the thrower's feet. 
 A European, standing beside him, would run off to escape the danger as it 
 approaches, but that is the very way to put one's self in reach of a serious 
 wound ; for the instrument is sure to land near the very spot where the 
 thrower wishes it to stop, even although that spot is behind him. On one 
 
"WEAPONS, TOOLS, UTENSILS. 71 
 
 oceasion a colonist described on tte ground a circle about 5 feet in diameter, 
 and offered to give a blackfellow sixpence for every time he could land bis 
 'bargan' witbin that circle. He succeeded seven times out of twelve throws. 
 
 The average weight of a ' bargan' is from 6 to 10 ounces, and average 
 dimensions are 20 inches from point to point, 2 inches broad, and i an inch 
 thick. It is flat on one side and slightly rounded on the other ; the back is 
 round but the inner curve is worked to an edge. In all these respects, how- 
 ever, there is considerable diversity ; the ' bargans' in Western Australia, 
 for instance, weigh only 4 ounces. 
 
 The ' bumarang' proper is a larger and heavier weapon than the ' bargan.' 
 In shape it has a more open curve than the other, increasing its length to 30 
 inches, while the breadth and thickness are nearly the same as before, but 
 the weight is 10 ounces. It somewhat resembles a scimitar, and its inner 
 edge is sharp and dangerous in battle. Thrown from a distance of 150 yards, 
 it will break a limb, or pierce through the body of a man with its point. 
 
 An instrument resembling the ' bumarang,' but intended rather to be a 
 sword than a missile, wfis once in use among the natives on the River Murray. 
 It had the same curve as the ' bumarang,' but it was 3 feet long ; at one 
 end it was shaped like the butt of a gun-stock, and the width varied from 
 8J inches in one part to 2^ inches in another ; both edges were sharp. 
 
 It is rather remarkable that the ' bargan' was not known to the Tasmanians, 
 nor, apparently, the ' bumarang,' for it is said that their only weapons were 
 spears and clubs ; no shields even ; nor did they put jagged pieces of quartz 
 or bone on the end of their spears. Does this mean that the blacks of Tasmania 
 retained an earlier and more primitive style of weapon than the Australians, 
 and that, in consequence of their isolation in that island, a subsequent wave 
 of immigration or of social advancement in Australia did not reach them ? 
 On so obscure a subject it is hazardous to offer even a conjecture ; but my 
 own opinion has been that the now extinct Tasmanians represented the very 
 earliest population of Australians, and that these first immigrants, like the 
 Celts in Europe, were driven back and back by fresh waves of population 
 from Asia, till, at last, they found their final and only safe resting-place in 
 Tasman's Island. The facts seem to lend themselves to this explanation, 
 which is also supported by this circumstance, that some of the tribes on the 
 mainland do not use the ' bumarang,' nor is it known in New Gruinea. 
 
 „ „ Clubs and spears can claim great antiquity as lethal weapons. 
 
 ^P^"^^- ] t may have been a piece of wood used as a club that first brought 
 ■deathinto the world, and both clubs and spears figure in the earliest representa- 
 tions we have of men engaged in war or the chase. Language, which is 
 often a faithful custodian of the primitive ideas about things and their uses, 
 tells us what a spear was in its origin ; it was either a thing to be ' thrown,' 
 'a lance' (Er. lancer), or it was ' a twig,' ' a branch,' hence a rod, a sceptre, 
 a spear. Nothing can be simpler than this. When primitive man first 
 came to feel the necessity of defending himself against wild beasts, the 
 weapon readiest to his hand must have been the small branch of a tree, 
 sharp enough at one end to pierce the body of the foe, and blunt and heavy 
 enough at the other to knock him down ; or, if the enemy had not yet 
 come to close quarters, a stout twig which could be hurled against him so 
 as to pierce or disable him. Then, when the efi'ectiveness of these rough 
 and ready instruments had been proved, they were kept in store for 
 use. Hence the birth of clubs and spears. Then comes the fabrication 
 of these weapons by the help of fire and flint, ere yet the working of 
 metais had appeared. As contrasted with the animal creation, man is 
 
72 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 a tool and instrumeat maker, and the inventiveness of primitive men 
 was certainly stimulated by the instinct of self-preservation. So, I 
 imagine, I see a baud of them sitting day by day in some quiet valley 
 of the ranges of the Niphates mountains, burning, cutting, scraping, and 
 shaping the wood of the hardest trees into weapons of defence ; or selecting 
 the straightest and strongest reed from the water-courses, and fixing in the 
 ends of them a short piercer of hardwood. The same weapons, or many of 
 them, also ministered to the daily life of man ; for with them he could kill 
 for food both fish and fowl and beast. 
 
 Now, it is in this early stage of existence we find our Australian black- 
 fellows still. They are content with these simple weapons, and have never 
 attained to the use of metals. Their spears are either of reed or of wood, 
 and the wood-spear may be plain in its whole length, or with jagged barbs 
 worked in the natural wood at the point, or with stone jags fixed in the wood 
 there, or with one, two, or three barbs or prongs cemented and lashed on ; or 
 it may be furnished with a sharp point and head of stone. Of all these, the 
 reed spear is the easiest to make. A suitable reed is found at the lagoon or 
 river, or the lower part of the flowering stalk of the grass-tree is taken. 
 Neither of these requires any dressing. The thicker end is merely rounded 
 for the hand, and on to the other end is placed a long lancet of some hard- 
 wood, which has been carefully scraped into shape and smoothed. The 
 joining is secured with the usual gum cement, and wrapped round with 
 native cord. The whole is about 6 feet long. This is a fish-spear, but, like 
 other fish-spears, it is a dangerous stabbing weapon. Another fish-spear, 
 9 or 10 feet long, is wholly of wood, and is made to taper to a fine point like 
 the other. Another is a long taper point as before, but fitted into a stout 
 handle piece. Still another kind of fish-spear has the shaft wholly of wood, 
 but at the point is fixed a head and barb of sharp bone. Otber fish-spears 
 are from 10 to 15 feet long, and are furnished with long prongs, lashed on 
 in the usual way. 
 
 There is a similar variety in the wooden war-spears, but most of them are 
 barbed on one side or on both. They are from 8 feet to 11 feet long. A 
 tough piece of wood is taken for the purpose, but many days must our black 
 man labour till his spear is fit for use. Portunately, he does not consider 
 time a valuable commodity, and so he works on, taking pleasure in hig work ; 
 for is not the spear his own, and for his own use ? and will not his comrades 
 envy or praise him, if his made spear is fine in quality or workmanship and 
 effective in use ? But the tedious labour begins when he proceeds to shape 
 the jags on the end of it. There may be as many as a dozen of these all on 
 one side, or half a dozen on each side of a double-barbed spear ; each of these 
 jags must be so made that they will not easily break off when the spear is in 
 use. To avoid this labour, and also to use up a straight piece of material, 
 the spear-maker cuts a groove in one or both sides of the point of his plain 
 wood, and in these grooves he fixes sharp chips of hard stone, which are as 
 eificacious as barbs. Erom the northern territory of Australia come some 
 beautiful spears, with heads and points of basalt and quartzite, eight or 
 nine inches long. These heads have been formed by careful chipping, and 
 anyone who sees such a spear can estimate the care and patience which 
 the workman must use who wishes to make a successful spear-head. 
 
 Besides the ' come-back bumarang,' another curiosity of Australian inven- 
 tion is the throw-stick, with which many of the war-spears are impelled from 
 the hand of the owner. This is already known by the name of ' womara,' and 
 I think that the use of any other name for it only causes confusion. It is 
 
WEAPONS, TOOLS, UTENSILS. 73 
 
 a very ingenious instrument, and universally the same tlirouglxout the 
 Australian continent. If the blacks invented it after their coming hither, 
 that alone would prove that the ancestors of the race were not the despicable 
 baboons that some ethnologists would have them to be. In this connection, 
 we should remember that the beginnings of civilisation rose from the race 
 of Ham ; to them we owe the first rudiments of the science of astronomy, 
 the art of building, the skiU to work in metals, and the invention of pictorial 
 writing, and probably of the alphabet ; and, if the present representatives of 
 the Hamites do not now uphold the early promise of the founders of their 
 race, it is not wise to denounce them as the lowest of barbarians, as is too 
 often done ; for there may have been conditions in their ancient history 
 which have dragged them down from their first estate, and have kept them 
 down, their environment being unfavourable to recovery. One of these 
 depressing influences we shall have a glimpse of in the next section. 
 
 The ' womara' is an instrument of wood, from 24 to 30 inches long, and a 
 little thicker than a spear. Unlike the spear, it is not thrown at the enemy 
 in battle, but remains always in the black man's hand or in his possession, 
 reserved for use when it is required ; and so he ornaments it profusely, back 
 and front, in the highest style of native art. In its general outlines, the 
 ' womara' is not unlike an ice-skate, or a Chinese pointed shoe, with a round 
 sole on it ; only the ' womara' is very elongated, much narrower, has no heel, 
 and is not shaped like the foot. The point of it is turned up, exactly like 
 the point of a lady's crochet needle ; in fact, if you were to take a crochet 
 needle and magnify it sufficiently, flattening down the upper surface where 
 the hook is, you would have a very good example of a 'womara.' Not all spears 
 are used with the' womara,' but spears that are to be so used have a dimpled 
 hole worked in their butt end, which hole receives the point of the hook-end 
 of the ' throw-stick.' The thrower holds the ' womara' horizontally in his 
 hand, about the level of the ear, and thus at a convenient height for throw- 
 ing ; the stout end of it passes between his first and second fingers, and is 
 kept steady by the two other fingers being closed down upon it ; the spear, 
 fitted into the point of the hook at its end, rests on the knuckles of these 
 two fingers, and passes back between the thumb and the outer side of the 
 forefinger; the pressure of the thumb keeping it steady. When he is ready 
 to throw, the native gives the spear an onward impulse ; a sudden jerk dis- 
 charges the spear with great force, and leaves the ' womara ' still in his hand 
 to be used again if necessary. It is said that experiments made at the 
 bidding of the great Napoleon, proved that the ' womara' gave an additional 
 projectile force of about 50 yards. It is certain that our blacks find it is 
 useful, and like it, for it is in very general use. There was no ' womara' in 
 Tasmania. 
 „ „, , Clubs are certainly as old as spears, perhaps a little older. The 
 club in such a hand as that of Hercules is a terrible weapon 
 of attack, and the symbolical baton and mace of modern days are an 
 evidence that personal prowess with the club was a sure passport to 
 authority and power. The first clubs must have been only big roots or 
 broken limbs of trees. One of the simplest of Australian clubs, the 'nulla- 
 nulla,' resembles the root of a grass-tree in the shape of its head, and may 
 have been in its origin only this root scraped and dressed down to handy 
 dimensions. Then, when the efifectiveness of the instrument had been proved 
 by using it, others would be made of harder and heavier timber, but still in 
 the same shape ; such is the force of habit. The ' nulla-nulla' is in shape 
 something like a child's wicker-rattle, and has a sharp rim running round 
 the middle of the knob on the end. In consequence of its size and weight, 
 
74 THE ABOEIG-INES OP NEW SOFTH WALES. 
 
 the knob of the ' nulla' might be broken off by a heavy blow ; hence arises 
 the ' bundai' — also a war club — which has knob end nicely tapered off to a 
 stout round. The timber used in New South Wales for both the 'nulla' and 
 the ' bundai' is either ' myall' or ' myrtle' wood — hard and compact in the 
 grain. Unlike either of these is the ' kotara.' It is more used for thrusting 
 and stabbing, and the blade has a double edge something like a double lancet 
 or an artist's steel scraper. The blade is about one-third of the whole 
 length of the instrument ; it is thick at the mid-rib, and from it tapers on 
 both sides to the edges and the point. Another club is the ' kotumba.' For 
 its shape it owes less to the hand of man than the others; for it is only a 
 stout shaft with a natural club-foot on the end of it, but set on the shaft at 
 an obtuse angle. It is somewhat like a ' hockey'-stick, or a ' putter' in golf, 
 only that the handle is stouter and the arm is longer. 
 
 The ' nulla' and the ' bundai' may be made with bosses on them, either cut 
 from the natural wood or fixed on the head. A general name for all Austra- 
 lian clubs is ' waddy,' and, although they are really clubs, they are often used 
 as missiles in battle. Spears are never poisoned. Besides all these, there is 
 the yam-stick, the weapon of the women, and so called because it is used 
 by them in digging up tlae edible roots which go by the general name of 
 ' yams.' It is quite straight in its whole length, of tough wood, and sharp 
 at the point and edged near the end. The women wield it freely as a baton 
 in their own scrimmages, and a girl, when she is coming to be of age, is 
 presented with one by her mother to keep off importunate lovers. A variety 
 of it, perhaps about 3 feet long, is used by the men also in hand-to-hand 
 fights, and with its keen point they can give each other desperate stabs. 
 
 In Queensland, and other parts of Australia, the natives have a wooden 
 sword about 3 feet long, with short and stout handle. The blade is either 
 straight or slightly curved. The weight is from 3 to 10 lb. It is a dangerous 
 weapon. 
 
 Another offensive weapon is the arrow. Now the Australians have no 
 bows-and-arrows, and this fact has sometimes been urged against them as a 
 proof of their want of invention, and so of their degraded condition. But 
 the same thing can be said of some of the eastern Polynesians, for in some 
 of their islands bows-and-arrows are used only as children's toys, and in some 
 of the Melanesian islands — New Ireland, for instance — there are no bows- 
 and-arrows. It cannot be the absence of suitable wood that has prevented 
 the Australians from having the bow ; for our native ' myrtle " is a tough and 
 straight-grained wood, and quite suitable, while many native reeds wouW 
 make admirable arrows. If they ever had the bow-and-arrow they huva 
 laid them aside, because of their unhandiness. A native, when he is 
 wandering about, does not like to have his hands encumbered by any weapons 
 which he cannot use on a sudden ; for an enemy may rush upon him 
 unawares, or an animal of the chase may be startled from its lair ; then the 
 two or three spears which he carries with him are far more readily used than 
 a bow could be ; and the dexterity which he has in using the spear makes 
 the bow to him a very inferior instrument indeed. Let any one just see an 
 Australian use the spear and the ' womara ' in shooting at a mark, and he 
 will at once understand how the bow has lost place, if it ever existed here. 
 
 There is only one other thing to be said about the spear. The toea 
 of the natives are prehensile ; I have seen a man lift a straw from the 
 ground with his toes and raise it to his hand. And so also he can catch the 
 end of a light spear with his toes and drag it along with him through the 
 
WEAPONS, TOOLS, UTENSILS. 
 
 grass, as he walks. This fact is urged against him as a proof that he is 
 treacherous. Those who make that charge are not aware of the acuteness 
 of vision which a black man possesses. If a native and a colonist are riding 
 together over a level plain and some on6 is approaching in the opposite 
 direction, the native will see the the stranger probably 15 minutes before he 
 becomes visible to the white man. What hope then is there that a native 
 can take another native at a disadvantage by dragging a spear 'i\ith his toes ? 
 His very manner of walking would at once expose the subterfuge. Instead 
 of thi« faculty being the outcome of treachery, I believe that it has been 
 acquired in the chase. When stalking a kangaroo or an emu, the man's 
 hands are filled with his shield which he uses as a screen and the leafy 
 boughs which he carries as a counterfeit bush, and if he is able to have also 
 one spear in his hand, it is certainly desirable that he should have another 
 in reserve, if the first one should fail ; or at least, a small spear in addition, 
 to give the coup de grace, when the game is disabled by a first wound. 
 
 CT, . , , For every cut there is a parry in fencing ; and so, wherever 
 
 there are spears to be thrown, shields will be made and used 
 in defence. Australian shields arrange themselves in two main divisions — 
 (1) those that are used in peace when a man has to stand out at the bidding 
 of the elders and take his punishment for some tribal offence ; or when he 
 has to fight out a quarrel in single contest. As his adversary lays on with a 
 ' nulla ' or a ' bundai,' the defendant needs a strong, heavy shield to bear 
 the weighty blows. The other kind is much lighter, and is better fitted for 
 defence in battle. The heavy shields are all cut with the greatest care 
 out of the solid, very hard and close-grained wood being selected, chiefly 
 ' ironbark' ; but ' box ' and ' gum ' are also used. The length of the shields 
 is from 30 to 40 inches ; breadth, from 3 to 5 inches ; and average thickness, 
 about 5 inches. They are ail tortoise-backed in shape, and like the half of 
 a long pointed spindle cut longitudinally ; some of them have a slight ridge 
 all along the middle of the back. The inner side bulges enough in the 
 centre to admit of an oblong hole being made through it to receive the 
 hand. The weight of a shield is about 3 lb. 
 
 The round back of the shield is always ornamented all over with carving, 
 mostly of straight and zigzag lines. But the variety of the devices shows 
 the resources of the blackman's art, and the execution is so elaborate that 
 many weeks must be spent on the carvings of a single shield. 
 
 The lighter shields would not stand a blow from a ' nulla-nulla,' but are 
 quite strong enough to intercept spears in battle ; and in order to protect the 
 bearer's body in battle they are much wider than the others, sometimes 
 reaching 10 inches in width, while the thickness is usually about half an inch. 
 Indeed, these are so puffed out on the sides as to be like a sole or other 
 flat fish. The common material is the bark of a tree. This must be cut 
 off carefully, and, if possible, with a portion of the wood of the tree 
 attached. It is laid on a rounded mound of hot ashes, and covered with 
 stones and earth and turf. It is thus moulded into shape by heat. A shield 
 of this kind weighs about \\ or 2 lb. 
 
 The native shields of Western Australia differ somewhat from those just 
 described. They are obtuse at both ends, and in their outer surface they 
 resemble a flat spectacle case. There is only one kind, and the ornamentation 
 of them is uniform, consisting of a set pattern of grooves, filled in with red. 
 On the inner side the part for the hand is cut out of the solid. 
 
76 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 Imnle '^^^ earliest of implements is the stone axe, and the use of it must 
 ^ , be as old as the human race. It was used everywhere in this 
 
 ■ land, when the white man first came here, but it is seldom seen 
 
 o. , now in the settled districts. Ancestral implements even, like the 
 indigene himself, must disappear when civilisation comes in. 
 The savage ceases to care for the rude implements of his race when he sees 
 the work which steel can do. But the stone axe has done a good work for him 
 in the days that are past, when time and labour were commodities of little 
 value. With the aid of fire and that chipping instrument in his hand, the 
 savage was able to fell a tree, dress its trunk, and hollow it into a canoe, and 
 then boldly face the ocean, or paddle about on an inland lake ; and that was 
 no mean achievement. But the Australians, even those living on the coast, 
 have not been much given to the framing of canoes. Their canoes have been 
 literally barks, formed from the bark of trees, and fitted only for crossing 
 rivers and lakes. Yet the stone axe has been to him a much valued 
 weapon. 
 
 As may be expected, the material used in making a stone axe was always 
 of the hardest description — basalt, diorite, granite, greenstone — and wherever 
 suitable rock did not exist in the ' taurai ' of any tribe, the rough material 
 was got from other tribes by barter ; or by purchase or favour, a deputation 
 of workers from the one tribe was allowed the privilege of taking what they 
 wanted from the quarries in the territory of another tribe. The material 
 being thus obtained, then commenced the labour of shaping the piece selected 
 for use as a hatchet. This was accomplished by striking it repeated blows 
 with another hard stone. In this operation, the Australians must have been 
 very dexterous ; for the spear heads known to have been made by certain 
 tribes are marvels of manual skill. Many tribes used the axes in their rough 
 state, that is, unpolished, because they had no access to sandstone rocks on 
 which to grind and sharpen them. Other tribes, again, had them polished 
 and so sharp as to cut through a branch with two or three blows. The 
 possession of a sandstone rub ground was thus much valued. There is one 
 notable place of that kind in the Kamalarai territory which must have been 
 used by the tribes around for many generations. It is an extensive deposit 
 of sandstone of a gritty nature,fit for the making of grindstones. The rock, 
 rises out of a deep reach of the river, and slopes backwards for about 30 feet, 
 and then terminates in a flat top, much of which is now covered with grass. 
 Tet over at least 2 acres of this top there may be seen innumerable hollows, 
 made in the stone by the blacks when sharpening their axes ; for as soon as 
 one groove became too deep the worker would begin another beside it. Not 
 only on the top, but also on the sloping side of the rock, these marks are 
 seen down to the water's edge, and below it, as far as the eye can reach. In 
 1841 there was a great drought in these parts, so severe that the large timber 
 on the black ridges round about and elsewhere all died over an extent of 10 
 or 12 miles. At that time the water in the river at the rubbing-place was 
 very low, and yet the rub-marks could still be seen far below the surface of 
 the water. How many generations of Kamalarai blacks had encamped there 
 we cannot tell, but the rocks still testify why they came there, and how 
 laboriously they toiled. 
 
 Among our Australian tribes, then, the stone axe is found both in the 
 rough and the polished stage, and is used both without a handle fixed to it 
 and with one. When there is no handle, the black man grasps the instru- 
 ment in the hollow of his hand, and continues chipping until his work his 
 done. When a handle is required, a suitable piece of wood is taken, and 
 
WEAPONS, TOOLS, UTENSILS. 77 
 
 split so as to receive the head of the axe, which may he notched at that part 
 to make it hold better ; the head is fixed there with native gum, and the 
 wood is then securely bound together behind the head with cord or strong 
 woody fibre ; or a flexible bough of a young tree is taken ; the part that is 
 to receive the head is placed for a time in hot ashes ; it is then taken out 
 and bent round the head, and secured as before with gum and cord. The 
 axes are usually 5 or G inches in length, 3 or 4 inches broad, and weigh 
 from 1 to 6 lb. ; the heavier ones were used for rough work. The cutting 
 edge has always the broad curve, which is so effective in the American wood- 
 man's axe. Smaller axes have the shape of the drop of a lady's ear-ring. 
 
 „7 • 1 Useful modifications of the axe are the chisel and the adze. 
 J J ■ Both of them are merely the stone-axe knives, with a haft fixed 
 on in such a way as to enable the worker either to push or to 
 etrike with the cutting edge, according to the nature of the work on which 
 he is engaged. But some tribes have a chisel made of the large bone of a 
 kangaroo's leg, sharpened to a cutting edge. With this they cut out the 
 hole that is used on the handle of a shield. It is also usef al in forming 
 wooden vessels, and in various kinds of native work. 
 
 Knives are made of flint, or chert, or quartzite. The stone is chipped to 
 a cutting edge, and is used either with or without a handle. 
 
 It is rather singular that the Tasmanians do not seem to have had stone 
 tomahawks. They used rough pieces of stone for skinning, and chipping, 
 and scraping purposes, but without a handle. The Australians also use 
 chips in the same way, and for cutting the scars on the body ; and for the 
 operation of circumcision, the tribes in Northern Queensland always use a flint 
 knife. I have already mentioned that the jags on spear-heads were often 
 inserted pieces of sharp stone. 
 
 Another implement that should -be noticed is the stone hammer. It is a 
 large stone, or, perhaps, two stones, one end being blunt for hammer work, 
 and the other sharpened as an axe. The handle appears to be inserted in the 
 middle, and then lashed to the stone with numerous folds of cord, gum being 
 used as a binder. Yery few examples of this instrument have been found, 
 and I rather think that the natives did not find it of much service to them 
 in their daily work, which seldom requires the aid of a hammer. Unlike the 
 Maories, the Australians have no stone clubs. 
 
 Among implements may be reckoned bone awls, bodkins, pins, and needles. 
 The awl or bodkin is made from the small bones of the hind legs of the 
 kangaroo, and is used for boring holes; when furnished with an eye, it is 
 a woman's needle ; a similar bone from an opossum is used as a picker. In 
 both cases a sharp point is got by rubbing. Pins for fastening the wearer's 
 cloak round the shoulders are of bone ; pins for ordinary purposes, such as 
 pegging down of skins to dry, may be of hardwood. 
 
 The ' quern ' stone is a very old institution in other countries ; but for the 
 purpose of grinding and pounding, the Australian women have only a flat 
 slab of sandstone and a small hand stone, round or oval in shape, with which 
 the seeds are' pulverised by rubbing or pounding. Thus from many kinds of 
 seeds, such as the ' nardu,' which they collect, the natives make a rough kind 
 of meal which la baked into ' damper.' 
 
 jj. ■■, These are not many in numbers, for their wandering mode of 
 
 Utensils, j.jg ^^gg ^^^ permit our natives to have much furniture or 
 
 many cooking utensils. In fact, the only house furniture that they have is 
 
 a tub for holding water and a spoon. There is a mussel shell with which to 
 
78 THE ABOEIGINES OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 sup up liquids, such as gravy in the body of a roasted opossum ; and the tub 
 is the cup-like bark removed from the gnarled knob growing on some bush- 
 tree, or the knob removed bodily and then hollowed out with fire, the axe, 
 and the chisel. These tubs were too large to be carried about, and were, 
 therefore, made mostly when the tribule intended to remain for some time 
 at a camping ground. A smaller variety of bucket, however, was carried by 
 the women, and with water in it, when there was no prospect of getting 
 water on the journey. Necessarily these buckets are lighter than the tubs, 
 and are made only of bark from a small gnarl on a gum-tree. They are 
 furnished with handles of string. Some tribes use skins of the smaller 
 animals as vessels for the carrying of water. 
 
 The native women are very good at making bags, baskets, and nets. The 
 bags, and baskets are indispensable to them when the family is travelling. 
 A large semi-circular basket is made of river reeds, which are twisted into 
 ropes and then plaited into shape. Bags of various shapes are made of grass 
 and stringy fibre from trees, and the thread or cord which the women spin 
 from the hair of the opossum or the native cat. Of these bags the loops 
 are strong and neatly made. I have in my possession a bag of this kind, 
 given to me by a friend who supplied a native woman on the cattle station 
 with some old stockings, and got back from her a serviceable bag neatly made 
 from the worsted. Some bags are made of grasses of various colours ; when 
 these grasses can be got, they are so used as to form a pattern in the work. 
 Other baskets are made of flags from the river brink, woven strongly together, 
 and are so large that they can be slung over the back, and can carry a child. 
 
 yy- , In fishing, the blacks use the spear or the net or the hook — 
 
 -rr , ■ the spear for large fish and the net where smaller fish are 
 numerous. The fishing-net is made of kangaroo grass ; the 
 mesh is about 2, inches in size, and the knot is the same as in European nets, 
 and was not copied from the white man. " It is not strong enough to be used 
 as a stake net ; so two men go out on the lagoon, each in a canoe, and drag 
 the net through the water, \vhile some others splash the water and drive 
 the fish towards the net. Smaller hand-nets, made of fibre, have a mesh 
 about an inch in size. The fish hooks used by the natives were of bone 
 and in shape like a boar's tusk. With European hooks, the blacks, both men 
 and women, are expert anglers, and can speedily secure a basketful of fish. 
 
 VIII.-DEATH AND BURIAL. 
 
 Causes of ^^^''^ ^ native is killed in battle, or is so severely wounded 
 Death *^^* ^^ ^^^^' °^ ^^ crushed to death by a falling branch of a tree, 
 or dies from some other visible cause, his comrades do not 
 wonder, because the manner of his death is manifest ; but it is quite otherwise 
 when a man sickens and dies from no obvious influences ; then the cause of 
 his death is ascribed to some hidden malevolence on the part either of evil 
 spirits, or of some wicked ' karaji' or wizard, who, at his own will, or hired 
 thereto by others, has, by magic arts, put something into the side man's body 
 sufficient to make him pine away and die. In the firm and universal belief 
 of our natives, a man among them dies, not because the vital machinery has 
 got clogged or is worn out, but because he has been bewitched by an enemy. 
 Those who have read Lenormant on Magic in Chaldeea know that this is a 
 very old belief, and that it produced there an elaborate ritual as against evil 
 spirits, and for protection from them. In our country the terror of it so 
 overpowers the mind, that when a man comes to know that a ' karaji' is 
 
DEA.TH AND BUEIAL. 79 
 
 operating against him, lie falls into low spirits from whicli te cannot be 
 roused, and ere long he dies, just from the fear of the evil that he imagines 
 is coming upon him. I am disposed to think that this dread belief has" had 
 an evil effect on the national life of the Australians ; for it has driven out of 
 their minds the remembrance that there is much good in life, and that even 
 in their own pantheon there are divinities which are beneiicent, — a remem- 
 brance which would have given them moral sunshine every day — and this 
 belief in the predominance of evil has crushed their spirits down, and 
 prevented them from aspiring to a higher state of social existence. Indeed, 
 I think that the prevalence of such a belief, in any nation, must always have 
 the effect of paralysing the public mind, and dragging the people down from 
 any degree of civilisation which they may have possessed. 
 
 So, when an Australian is sick, if the sickness is seen to come from some 
 intelligible cause, such as a cold or a surfeit in eating, the usual native 
 remedies are applied, and the matter ends there ; but if the illness comes 
 from fierce pains in the body, or general debility, or from a swelling of any 
 kind, then some wicked wizard at a distance has been turning the point of 
 a magic bone at him, with incantations, to do him harm, or has been burning 
 a portion of his hair against him, or some other refuse, that he has incau- 
 tiously left exposed ; or an evil spirit, roving about the camp at night, has 
 put a round stone in his body, where the lump is, with the intention that 
 he may fall ill and die ; then, in any of these circumstances the ' karaji' is 
 sent for, to come and remove the evil, or to counteract the witchery which is 
 doing so much harm. The ' karaji' sucks out the causes of the pain, or he 
 puffs and blows with his mouth till the evil spirit is driven away, and the 
 sick man recovers. But if the man dies, then that shows that the evil 
 influences have been very strong, or that the witchery of the other ' karaji' 
 has been too potent for the means intended to promote recovery. 
 
 At Death ^^ ®°°^ ^^ ^^^ ^^'^^ ™^^ ^^^' *^® ^^^^ ^°^ ^^® ^^^^ ^® raised, 
 and the relatives proceed to prepare the body for burial, 
 while it is still warm. There are many modes of burial, but if the 
 body is to be buried in a sitting posture — which is a common mode — the dead 
 man's legs are folded up, and his head bent down, so that knees and chin 
 nearly touch ; the body is then tied all round with native cord, and wrapped 
 in a rug which is also tied, so that the whole looks like a round bundle ; thus 
 it is made ready for the grave. But wherever it is not the fashion to truss 
 up the body in this way it is simply enclosed in sheets of bark at full length, 
 and thus prepared ; and the preparation does not take much time, for the 
 burial takes place not many hours after death. The Kurringgai tribe on our 
 east coast have a curious way of caring for the dead between death and 
 burial, which was thus described to me by a friend : — " On the 17th of April, 
 1842, in the afternoon, hearing shrieks, screams, and lamentations from a camp 
 about a quarter of a mile from my residence, I proceeded to the spot, and found 
 a lot of blacks — male and female — wailing and lamenting. I asked one of the 
 females what was the matter. She replied that a blackfellow was ' boi ' 
 (dead). I asked his name, but only got a shake of the head in reply. She 
 ■pointed to the spot where the body lay, and 1 went over to have a look. 
 Lying on his back, with his head and shoulders a little raised, was the eldest 
 son — quite an adult — of the deceased ; and supported on his abdomen and 
 chest was the body of his father wrapped up in a rug and covered over with 
 ' ti '-tree twigs and boughs. The son exhibited symptoms of much grief. I 
 pitied him and asked him wliy he lay in that position. He replied that 
 white men were stupid, and that the blacks always treated their dead in this 
 
80 THE ABORiaiNES 01 NEW SOUTH "WALES. 
 
 fashion, for the purpose, as he said, of keeping them warm. How long he 
 supported his deceased parent thus, I do not know ; for, having ascertained 
 when and where the burying was to be, I left the camp, intending to be 
 present to witness the ceremony, as I had never seen a burial." The son's 
 explanation that he was keeping the body of his father warm is only part of 
 the truth ; the blacks believe that an evil spirit, whom ' y call ' dibble- 
 dibble ' is prowling about on such occasions, and that he would carry off the 
 body and devour it, if it were not guarded ; for there is an evil spirit, which, 
 as they say, delights to feed on carrion of all sorts. 
 
 ■w- , n Our natives have many different ways of disposing of their dead. 
 
 Burial They inter the body (1) at full length ; (2) lying on its side, with 
 the lower part of the legs from the knee folded up behind ; (3) 
 with the body trussed up in a bundle ; (4) with the body erect in the grave ; 
 (5) with the body laid in a side cavity dug into the earth from the bottom 
 of a pit ; (6) they place the body in a hollow tree and leave it there, closing 
 up the aperture with a sheet of bark ; (7) they place the body on a high 
 raised platform, and afterwards gather the bones of the skeleton, or leave 
 them on the stage or scattered on the ground ; (8) they carry about these 
 bones for some time and then inter them ; (9) they do not inter the body, 
 but merely lay it on the surface of the ground, and cover it over with 
 logs, or they cover it with a mound of earth, and mark some trees near 
 by with a peculiar blazon ; (10) they fix the body over a slow fire, and thus 
 desiccate and smoke it till it is quite hard ; then they carry it about with 
 them a while and afterwards bury it ; the oil and juices which the fire brings 
 from the body are rubbed on their own bodies ; (11) they eat the dead body; 
 (12) in some districts the body is burned. Now, the great variety of 
 these modes of burial has always seemed to me a strong proof that the 
 Australian race is very mixed ; for a homogenous nation is very conser- 
 vative in its modes of the disposal of its dead ; and even cremation in our 
 own day and country makes little progress against old habit, although it 
 was common in old times, and is still common in some eastern countries. In 
 Australia the different modes that I have enumerated all exist in different 
 localities, except the first, second, and third, which are found in the same 
 tribe — the Kurringgai. In one portion of that tribe I know of a tribal 
 cemetery ; for a black likes to be buried near his kindred just as much as we 
 do, and near the place of his birth ; this burying-ground is on a tongue of 
 land formed by the river and is well shaded with trees ; and in it that tribule 
 has laid its dead for many generations. Some have been interred there lying at 
 full length and others trussed up ; and this seems to indicate that there are 
 reasons for that difference. The burial in a hollow tree, and still more the 
 raised stage for the dead body, remind one at once of the " towers of silence" 
 by which the corpse and the earth were kept from contact with each other ; 
 and even when they inter, the blacks are careful to surround the body with 
 boughs so that the earth may not touch it. This novelty of a raised stage 
 can scarcely be a thing which our blacks have invented for themselves since 
 they came into Australia; and if it is a custom which some portion of their 
 ancestors brought with them into this country, I would argue from it that 
 these ancestors were once in contact with, or rather formed part of, a race 
 which had beliefs similar to those of the Persians ; such beliefs are not readily 
 adopted by strangers ; they belong to a race. And further, this practice is 
 in strange contrast to the trussing and tying of the body elsewhere, which is 
 done, as the black say, to prevent the spirit of the deceased from wandering 
 in the night from its bed, and disturbing the living and doing them harm ; 
 for the spirit of the dead is malevolent for a long time after death. The 
 
DEATH AND BURIAL. 81 
 
 roasting of a dead body over a fire seems to us a shameful thing ; but it 
 corresponds with the mummifying of the dead in Egypt for preservation. A 
 friend in Queensland said to me one day: — " King Jackey's brother on our 
 station was dried in this way, and carried about for years by his mother. "We 
 always knew when " old Alie" had come into the camp by the wail which the 
 other blacks sent up on her appearance with her burden." The juices are 
 rubbed on their bodies by the relatives, from the idea that thereby the quali- 
 ties of the deceased are transferred to them. The same is the explanation 
 of the horrid practice of eating the dead. The body was first skinned and 
 then the relatives ate the choice parts, thinking that thereby they became 
 partakers of the same nature. The laying of the body on the surface of the 
 ground with a mouud over it is another curious custom ; for this is done 
 even where the ground is so soft as to admit of easy excavation for a grave. 
 It is an old custom, and, as such, there must be some reason for it. 
 
 rpi ri p The most interesting, because the most novel, form of grave is 
 that of the side cave driven horizontally in from the bottom of 
 the pit. Such a custom must be ancestral, for there is nothing whatever to 
 make it necessary. The Groulburn blacks in Victoria did this ; so did the 
 Omeo blacks in Grippsland ; but I have found that the same custom existed 
 in Eiji and also in Java. Can this curious observance have been invented in- 
 dependently in these diverse places ? In Fiji, when the shaft is to be sunk, 
 the first sod is cut with much ceremony ; then the pit is sunk and the grave 
 chamber made, and the chief laid therein with his strangled wives. "When 
 all is over, the sods are carefully replaced and every eft'ort used to remove 
 all traces of an excavation. In Fiji also, as with us, there are different modes 
 of burial ; the corpse is laid at full length with its head resting on the 
 wooden bar which is used in households as a pillow; or the legs are drawn 
 up and the body doubled till the knees touch the chin, the elbows being put 
 close to the sides and the hands turned up ; the whole is then bound 
 together securely. 
 
 "When our dead native Is to be interred, his male friends — his father, son, 
 uncle — go to a soft piece of ground and with their tools — a tomahawk, 
 digging-stick and hands, they dig a circular hole about three feet deep and 
 two feet in diameter, as much as will hold the body ; the bottom of the grave 
 is then lined with ' ti '-tree bark, the body is laid thereon, and pieces of stringy- 
 bark are placed all round it ; the eartli is then filled in, leaving a depression 
 at the top, on which a relative sleeps for several nights, to prevent the evil 
 spirits from carrying off the body. On the Darling Eiver, a mound is raised 
 over the grave and a low fence of brushwood put round it, and, just inside 
 the fence and around the grave, are laid many pieces of white plaster shaped 
 like eggs. I think that these white eggs are put there as charms against 
 the approach of evil spirits ; for Layard says that, '■ in the court around the 
 tomb of the founder of the Tezidis, there is a small recess filled with balls 
 of clay taken from the tomb of the saint. These are sold or distributed 
 to pilgrims and regarded as very sacred — useful against diseases and evil 
 spirits, and to be buried with the dead." And Threlkeld states that in the 
 Australian Bora ceremonies the word yarro, which means 'egg,' is used in a 
 mystic sense also for ' fire' or ' water.' And among the Khasias — a hill tribe 
 of north-eastern India — an illness is exorcised by the breaking of eggs, among 
 other methods. A mystic egg also figures largely in some of the most 
 ancient cosmogonies. 
 
 In Northern Q.ueensland, when the body is about to be buried, a fire is 
 first kindled in the grave — evidently to drive out the evil spirits — and after 
 the grave is closed, a fire is kept burning ou the surface — evidently to drive 
 
82 THE ABOEIGINES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 off the evil spirits at Biglit ; if the corpse is placed m a hollow tree, the 
 piece which has been cut out of the tree to admit the corpse is carefully 
 replaced— evidently to prevent the spirits from knowing that there is a body 
 there. At Wide Bay, also in Queensland, the natives are very careful not 
 to allow any of the earth to touch the body that is buried ; and, to accom- 
 plish this, they make a stage of sticks and bark over the body, and on this 
 they pile the earth that closes the grave. They also make mounds over the 
 graves. In the Wiradhari country. New South Wales, a hut is erected over 
 the grave, and thither friends come for several months ; but after a year or 
 so the hut is pulled down. 
 
 Even the digging of a grave seems to be attended with some danger ; for 
 at Cooper's Creek the men who go to do this work daub their bodies all over 
 with red and white spots and put pipeclay on their heads. In Fiji also, the 
 man who has dug the grave of a chief is unclean for a year. In South 
 Australia, the corpse is rubbed over with red ochre ; and the same is done on 
 the coast of New Gruinea. In the red colour there must be some virtue 
 which is of service to the dead in their subsequent existence as spirits, and 
 probably in their first passage into spirit land, like the Grecian 'obolus' placed 
 between the teeth of the dead man. 
 
 73 , . 7 The rites of burial are varied to suit the mode which the tribe 
 " ^'^ ' practises, but there are some accompaniments of burial which are 
 invariable. These are : — questions put to the deceased in order to ascertain 
 who was the cause of his death ; the relatives wail at the grave in token of 
 grief, and make gashes on their heads with cutting instruments or burn their 
 bodies with fire sticks. Mourning is put on and worn for some time after 
 the burial ; and a wail of grief is raised every evening for a month or two ; 
 the name of the deceased is never mentioned again ; and, if any common 
 word formed part of his name, that word is dropped and another substituted 
 for it. After the burial, all the blacks dwelling there at the time of the 
 death shift their camp to another place. These customs I shall presently 
 illustrate by examples. But first let me make some general remarks. 
 
 Some of our blacks are long-lived. I knew one or two who were sup- 
 posed to be over eighty years of age, and one of these, although paralysed 
 and helpless, and lying on the ground in his rude ' gunya,' was contented 
 and merry ; he was carefully tended by his two daughters. " Another black" 
 says a friend, " must be nearly a hundred years of age from all accounts." 
 But wherever they are brought into contact with the vices of white men, as 
 in our larger towns, they die off very rapidly. I am told that in the Mait- 
 land district, fifty years ago, there was a warrior known as Jimmy; he and 
 his son, and his grandson, all died within thirty years. 
 
 An old person, when no longer able to follow the camp as it moves about 
 from place to place, and evidently near death, is left at a suitable spot in 
 charge of one or two others ; if a woman, she is placed in the care of a woman 
 and a girl ; a man has a man and a boy left with him. When death comes, 
 these dig the grave and inter the body or bury it otherwise, and then rejoin 
 the camp. 
 
 The blacks, as I have said, bury in any soft ground which may happen to 
 be near, but some ti'ibes have regular burying-grounds which have been used 
 for generations, and are cojisidered sacred. To these a corpse will be 
 brought from a distance of many miles. " My black boy," says a friend, 
 " wishes to be buried where he was reared." This is the idea of kinship and 
 clanship even in spirit-land. I need not compare with this similar practices 
 and desires in all ages and countries. 
 
DEATH AND B¥EIAL. ' 83 
 
 "Wlierever a tribe inters tlie dead, after the grave is neatly dug, the body 
 is slung on a long pole borne on the shoulders of two relatives, and is 
 carried thus to the place of interment, followed by a company of friends ; 
 but, before it is placed in the grave, a wizard, standing by, questions the 
 deceased and asks him what enemy it was that bewitched him and so caused 
 his death, and so on, to which questions answers are given by an old black 
 on the other side ; sometimes these questions are asked while the body is on 
 its way to the grave, the bearers standing still for a little to see if the dead 
 man, by any movement, supplies an answer. "When the body is in the grave, 
 weapons and articles of clothing are placed beside the dead ; all present, and ■ 
 especially his relatives, contributing something ; thus they show their belief 
 in a life after death ; the women and the men then utter pitiful yells and 
 cut their heads till these stream with blood, or they take up fire-brands, if 
 they are near, and with them burn scars on the skins. This custom is of 
 very ancient date ; for the Mosaic law says, " Ye shall not make any cuttings 
 in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you." The mourning 
 for the dead is continued for three or four months ; the bereaved relatives, 
 mostly the women, smear their head with pipe-clay, and at supper time and 
 during the night raise loud cries of mourning. 
 
 Where the grave is like ours in shape, the body is simply wrapped at full 
 length in two sheets of bark, secured with stout cords, and laid in the grave ; 
 above the body is placed another sheet of bark, then grass, logs, and earth, 
 the earth on the surface being left as a mound. In one part of Queensland, 
 two sticks are set up in the ground near the grave ; each is about 2 feet long, 
 shaped like a club, and painted red ; their tops are covered with fine white 
 down from the cockatoo. In the Kamalarai country, not only is the bark of 
 the adjacent trees marked with devices, but another grave is dug near by — a 
 sort of cenotaph — for no body is put in it ; this they do, the blacks say, " to 
 cheat the Kruben." The ' Kruben' is a malevolent spirit that wanders about 
 at night, and carries off little children from the camp, and punishes those 
 men who are so wicked as to break any of the tribal laws of restriction ; and 
 " cheating the Kruben" seems to imply that he tears and devours the spirit 
 of the dead, and perhaps their bodies too. 
 
 ,py ^j , The tribes also believe that, after a man's death, his spirit 
 '^ ' wanders about, revisits the grave, interviews the spirits of its 
 living friends in dreams, eats up' the remains of food left lying about, and 
 warms itself at the night fires. Thus, when Buckley was seen sitting on a 
 grave, feeble from want of food, and with a broken spear in his hand, he was 
 naturally regarded as the spirit of the deceased black man come back to 
 visit his body, and was welcomed by the tribule as one of themselves. 
 
 Something analogous to all this is found among the blacks of Lower Gruiuea. 
 "When a man dies there, they ascribe his decease to the enchantments of an 
 enemy. At the grave they ask the corpse to tell who it was that took away 
 his life by sorcery ; why he departed ; was it because he was dissatisfied ; 
 and so on. They believe that souls pass into other bodies, but that the 
 spirit of the deceased still lives in another state, and therefore they inter 
 with him most of his own effects, and valuable presents from his friends. 
 They believe also that the wizards, by their incantations, can raise the dead 
 man to life, and make him hunt and fish and work for them. Therefore, 
 they erect at the burying place a wooden image of the god who is the 
 guardian of the dead ; thus the wizards are foiled. Is this the meaning of 
 the carvings on the trees and the red sticks at the graves of our own 
 indigenes ? 
 
84 THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 cr/ •/> ri Our blackfellows desert their camp when one of themhas died; 
 
 ■^ "' so also do the Hottentots. An explanation of this may be got 
 
 in a belief, shared by many ancient nations, but most developed among the 
 Hindus, that, when the " gross body" is laid in the grave or burned, the isoul 
 still lives in a material form, but that at first this is only a " subtile body," 
 not a real one, and therefore restless and miserable — a foul, wandering ghost, 
 " unhouseled, disapiJointed, unaneled,"-^so miserable as to have delight in 
 doing miserable acts, and taking revenge on all living creatures. Hence, 
 also, among various nations of old, savage and civilised, funeral rites were 
 renewed at various intervals ; for it was by these that the spirit gradually 
 attained to the possession of a real body, capable of enjoying its new life. 
 
 rpi -p 7 '^° illustrate the funeral arrangements of the tribes, I now 
 
 give two quotations from private sources : — " King Jackey's 
 funeral, August, 1833. A long neck of land is here formed by the junction 
 ■of a creek with the river, and the extremity of it, surrounded on three sides 
 ■by thickly growing timber, was the place of interment, — as pretty a spot 
 ■for the purpose I know of nowhere. When I approached, I saw an old man 
 digging the grave. This was a most laborious task, for the ground was very 
 hard, and the only tool he used was a tomahawk. The form of the grave 
 was oval, and its depth when finished was a little short of four feet. There 
 were about a dozen or more of blacks squatting or standing around, and 
 .amongst them the father, mother, and several brothers of the deceased. The 
 parents were howling in company, the man's voice resembling the three 
 sounds a — a — ar, long dwelt upon. The female's was more a treble, like 
 ei — ou — ou. This noise they kept up without intermission. The body, 
 'itself, trussed up in as small a compass as possible and wrapped in rugs, was 
 on the ground about four yards from the grave, supported by two relatives, 
 -who, as they bent over it on their knees, gave full tokens of their grief and 
 affection. The digging being finished, the sexton went to. some of the 
 youngest and freshest looking trees; breaking off the small leafy branches, he 
 proceeded to line the grave with them. When this was done, the brother of 
 the deceased descended to try whether the grave was comfortable, which he 
 did by Ijing in it in the position the body was to occupy. Some slight 
 alterations were required, and when these were made the younger members 
 ■ of the family came forward, and, surrounding the corpse, lifted it from the 
 -ground. While doing this, they gave a gceat shout, and blew with their 
 mouths, and waved with their hands over the body. These same observances 
 were repeated while the body was being lowered into the grave, where the 
 -brother of the deceased had already placed himself, ready to receive the body, 
 ■and to lay it carefully so that not a particle of earth should touch it. The 
 shout then set up by all of them was awfully deafening. The old father, 
 rushing by me, seized a tomahawk and cut his head in several places, until 
 the blood gushed in quantities from the wounds. Another old man snatched 
 the instrument from him and covered his own head with gashes ; three or 
 four did the same, some most viciously, while others seemed to think that 
 very little of that sort of thing was enough. The howling continued all the 
 while. Sheets of bark were now placed carefully over the body, and the old 
 men stretched themselves at full length on the ground and howled dread- 
 fully. One of them at length got up, and took a piece of bark which he 
 placed across the grave, and stretched himself on it, crying with all his might. 
 I then left them, nothing of the ceremony remaining but the filling up of the 
 grave." 
 
 Another friend, from whom I have quoted elsewhere, thus describes an in- 
 terment which he saw in 1812 :—" I repaired to the spot indicated on the 
 
DEATH AND BUEIAL. 85 
 
 following day, and found that a grave had been dug after the English 
 fashion, and in a short time the body was brought on a sheet of bark, 
 ■wrapped in a rug, on the shoulders of four of the tribe. They deposited the 
 body beside the grave, collected a lot of leaves aud twigs, which they spread 
 on the bottom of the grave and along its sides. The body was then lowered 
 down, — about three feet and a half — and when the earth and stones began 
 to descend, the eldest son jumped up, gave a fearful yell, drew his tomahawk 
 from his belt, and inflicted two or three severe cuts on his head, before his 
 friends could wrench the weapon from his grasp. I really thought he would 
 have killed himself. When the tomahawk was secured, he sat down, sobbing 
 and "weeping, on a stone at the head of the grave, the blood trickling, nay 
 flowing, rapidly down his face and breast, and there was quite a pool of 
 blood at his feet, before the ceremony was ended. All the males of the tribe 
 seemed really sad and sorry, as the poor old man w^as very much respected. 
 About a hundred yards from the grave, the females had established a fire 
 before the corpse arrived; they commenced a dirge and gave expression ta 
 deep grief and sympathy ; when the body was covered up, they howled and 
 lamented pitifully, and with fire-sticks burned their arms in different places, 
 but not seriously ; a few had the pluck to tap their heads with a tomahawk 
 to the effusion of blood, but they did it gently. I went up to the women, 
 when I saw what they were doing, and asked the reason why they chopped' 
 their heads and burned their arms, and I was told it was the custom. I 
 asked if they were sorry, but they said they were not. This ended the first 
 and last aboriginal funeral I ever witnessed. The man's name was never- 
 afterwards mentioned, nor his grave visited, by any of the tribe." 
 
 Cause of In the New Hebrides islands, similar beliefs and customs exist. 
 Death. A friend, wa-iting to me from Epi there, says : — " Unless the 
 person is very old or the cause of death is very obvious, the natives here 
 generally ascribe the death to an evil spirit called ' Semi,' who ' poisons ' 
 people ; ' semi' means ' poison.' Very often he acts by human agency, 
 and many a suspect is shot in consequence. The body is sewed up in matting 
 and banana leaves. The burial is usually on the day following the death. 
 All relatives or other friends of the deceased within a reascnaljle distance 
 attend. There is a great wailing kept up by the women within the enclosure 
 where the body lies. The men simply look in for a minute or two to cry, 
 and then retire. Two male relatives dig the grave. The body is lowered, 
 and a great quantity of banana leaves is laid over it before the earth is filled' 
 in. The disembodied spirit is supposed to haunt the scenes of its former 
 life. Cocoa-nuts, bananas, pudding, and other kinds of food are often hung- 
 on a tree or stick beside the grave, for the refreshment of the wandering- 
 spirit. Sometimes, in the still night a brother shouts out the name of the 
 departed, and tells him, with all the strength of his lungs, " Cocoanuts and 
 bananas are here ; come and take them." 
 
 rp Our indigenes, in the western part of the colony of Victoria, 
 
 o ."J?, think that children under five years of age have no spirits, but 
 ^^^ * ■ every person over that age has not only a soul or spirit of natural 
 life, but also another spirit which takes a visible but undefined form after 
 death ; it frequents the dead man's grave for a time, but disappears when 
 any one comes near. For it a fire is kept burning all night near the spot. 
 Elsewhere, in Victoria, it is said that the spirit, after hovering for a time 
 near the grave, finally goes off towards the setting sun ; and for its con- 
 venience, or rather guidance, where a long grave is used, the head is laid 
 towards the east and the feet to the west ; elsewhere it is the reverse. This 
 spirit is the wraith or likeness of himself, which accompanies every adult 
 
8G THE ABOEIGINES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 all through life, but is not visible to himself or auy one else until he sees it 
 when death approaches. The tribes near Kew Nurcia, in Western Australia,' 
 believe that, when a man is buried, his spirit sits on the branches of a tree near 
 by, singing dolefully like a bird. 
 
 Among the Kamalarai, the shroud of bark which encloses the body is 
 furnished with ornamental appendages, which make it twice or three times 
 the length of the body within. The grave is only a deep hole, and the corpse 
 is placed therein upright. No earth is allowed to touch the head, which is 
 protected by timber above it. A mound is raised over the grave. In letting 
 down the body, those near say ' whirr.' They make little fires about the 
 grave "to drive away evil spirits from the living," as some say; but others 
 say the fires are for the benefit of the dead. 
 
 In Victoria, also, no one cared to touch a dead body with his hand ; that 
 brings defilement ; and, in burying, the utmost care was used to cover 
 every part of the body and save it from contact with the earth. But in other 
 parts of the same colony no such care was used, aud the body was prepared 
 for burial by greasing, and rubbing over with red ochre. In South Australia, 
 the Narrinyeri desiccate the body and carry it about wdth them in that state 
 for months. The skeleton is then left on a raised platform of sticks. The 
 skull is sometimes preserved. A similar practice exists near East Cape, in 
 New Gruinea. There the dead are buried in a sitting posture, with the hands 
 folded. The earth is filled in up to the mouth only ; an earthern pot covers 
 the head. After a time, the skull is taken up and hung up in a net within 
 the house of the deceased. 
 
 Eevenae "*" ^^^'® ^^^'^ that, at the burial, the dead man is interrogated as 
 ■^ ' to the cause of his death. This is no idle form ; for, if the kins- 
 men imagine that they have got sure indications of the perpetrator of the 
 wrong, they are resolute in taking vengeance. This they consider a duty 
 which lies upon them all, to avenge their friend's death. These indications 
 would seem to us futile enough, but we are not Australian blackfellows. Of 
 course, the questioning does not often induce answers sufilcient to satisfy the 
 friends ; hence other modes are used. On the night before the burial, a male 
 relative lays himself on the dead man's body, expecting to get some sign from 
 the deceased. If a sound is heard, perhaps it may be from a kangaroo rat, 
 it is taken as a hint from the dead, and the direction from which it comes is 
 the direction in which they should seek for the enemy ; or after the burial, the 
 earth on the grave is watched, and the track of the first beetle or worm that 
 emerges shows the direction in which they ought to go ; even the way in 
 which the clay covering of a grave cracks is a sign. As soon as the relatives 
 have persuaded themselves that they know who it is that has caused tlie 
 death, they organise a revenge party of three or four men ; these travel by 
 night and use every effort to conceal their movements until they can pounce 
 upon the suspected man, and thrust him through with a spear. In all 
 likelihood, it is an innocent man who is thus killed ; and so there arises a 
 blood-feud between his kindred and the perpetrators of the wrong, if they can 
 be discovered ; and matters go on in this way among the tribules and tribes, 
 until there is scarcely a man of them who does not feel that his life is 
 constantly in danger from one cause or another. Need we wonder, then, that 
 under the influence of so depressing sources of dread and uncertainty, social 
 life among our indigenes should tend rather to degradation than to elevation. 
 
 Analoriies '^^^ Papuans have customs quite analogous to these in relation 
 
 •^ " ' to their dead. The Ivoiari tribe, near the south coast of New 
 
 Guinea, keep fires burning night aud day for months at the head and foot of 
 
DEATH AND BTJEIAL. 87 
 
 the grave ; tlie body is also desiccated as in South Australia and thus becomes 
 almost a dry skeleton ; then it is covered with a uniformly red colour. In 
 the process of drying by fire, the entire skin is first removed and the relatives 
 who do this — parents or spouse — rub the juices which the fire brings from 
 the body all over theirown person. To discover who is blameable for the 
 death, the wizard places on the corpse, at burial, several straws to represent 
 the number and position of the villages around ; he then begins his sacred 
 song ; and if a fly, or beetle, or other insect alights on any one of the straws, 
 that tells him where the guilty person lives. Suspicion does the rest of the 
 work. In the same locality, a small hut, having offerings within, is erected 
 over a grave, and if a husband lies there, the widow sits at the head of it 
 besmeared all over with ashes ; to this hut the widow repairs again and again, 
 perhaps twice a day, for several years, still wearing the garb of mourning. 
 The grave is not filled in. The body lies with the feet to the sea ; but in the 
 eastern Pacific the face is laid towards the rising sun. A Papuan tribe, 
 some distance inland from Port Moresby, do not often inter their dead, but 
 leave the body in a small hut which the relatives often visit ; when they do 
 inter, the body stands in the grave. If there are many deaths, the whole 
 village removes to another spot. 
 
 In Fiji, a few of the burial customs are similar to those in Australia. Por 
 instance, the grave is about three feet deep, mats are laid on the bottom, and 
 the corpse is also wrapped in mats ; a pent-house or roof, a few feet high, 
 is put over some graves ; the women make blazes on their bodies in token of 
 grief; the face of the dead is painted with vermilion. "VYomen there some- 
 times refuse to part with the dead body of a child, and keep it beside them ; 
 a local queen caused her dead child to be suspended in a bos from the 
 roof of a temple, and food to be ofl^ered to it for months. 
 jij- ■ Our own black women mourn as sincerely and deeply for a 
 
 •'' dead child as any mother can do. One woman persisted in 
 carrying a child about for a long time, even while the stench was such that 
 none could stay near her. Among the pigmy blacks of the Andaman Islands, 
 the parents and relatives weep for hours beside the corpse of an infant ; for 
 mourning, they put a lump of white clay over their foreheads, and leave it 
 there till the days of mourning are ended ; our blacks do the same with the 
 pipe-clay on their heads. The Andamanese mother then paints the head, 
 neck, wrists, and knees of her dead child with red clay and white clay, and 
 folding the body, knees to chin and hands to the shoulder, just as pur black 
 fellows do for adults, she wraps it in leaves which are secured to the body 
 with cords ; the body is buried in a sitting posture ; near the grave she places 
 some of her own milk, and kindles a fire there ; and the whole encampment 
 moves off to a distance of several miles. The Andamanese make the same 
 kind of mourning for adults, but they carry their adult dead into the jungle, 
 and either inter the bodies there or place them on a platform. In the grave 
 the body is set with the face to the east; they blow on the face to say good- 
 bye, and then fill in the grave ; a fire is kindled there, and water and some 
 other serviceable articles are placed near ; the brushwood for some distance 
 around the grave is cleared away ; if on a platform, the body is still made to 
 look to the east, because, as they s"ay, the abode of the dead is there. 
 
 In some parts of Australia, the blacks will not go near a recent grave for 
 a month or so after the interment ; but on the Murray Eiver, near Went- 
 worth, one or two friends visit the grave every morning for about a month to 
 keep the fires burning and the ground around the grave carefully swept. 
 If there are no foot-prints of spirits to be seen on the cleared ground, they 
 conclude that the spirit of the dead man does not wander at night, and is 
 therefore happy and does not require the fire or any further attention. 
 
as THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 I have already said that, in Queensland, a certain tribe marks the trees 
 near a grave with red spots, and set^ up two red sticks with white cockatoo 
 feathers on them a-top. On Car Nicobar Island, in the Bay of Bengal, the 
 natives set up a post with peculiar marks on it at the head of a grave ; when 
 the body is decayed, they disinter the hones, and cast them into the deep sea. 
 These same Nicobarese use the toes for picking up anything, just as our 
 blacks do. 
 
 But more striking analogies than these are to be found in African regions. 
 Du Chaiila says : — " My servant, Ishungui, died. The relatives of the 
 deceased slept one night m his house, as a mark of respect, and then all that 
 remained was to discover the person who had bewitched the dead man. 
 When all was ready for the trial, I went down to look at the doctor, who 
 looked literally like the devil. I never saw a more ghastly object. He had 
 on a high head-dress of black feathers. His eyelids were painted red, and a 
 red stripe from the nose upwards, divided his forehead in two parts. Another 
 red stripe passed round his head. The face was painted white, and on each 
 side of the mouth were two round red spots. Erom each shoulder, down to 
 his hands, was a white stripe, and one hand was painted quite white." 
 
 " They fear the spirits of the recently departed ; and, besides placing fur- 
 niture, dress, and food at their graves, they return from time to time, with 
 other supplies of food. When men and women are slain over a grave, they 
 even believe that their spirits join that of him in whose honour they have 
 been killed. During the season of mourning, the deceased is remembered 
 and feared, but when once his memory grows dim, they cease to believe in 
 the prolonged existence of the departed spirit. Ask a negro where the 
 spirit of his grandfather or great grandfather whom he did not know is, 
 and he will reply confidently that it is ' done, gone out, no more ;' or that he 
 does not know where it has gone. The fear of spirits of the departed seems 
 an instinctive feeling for which they do not attempt even themselves to 
 account, and about which they have formed no theory. They believe the 
 spirit is near and about them ; that it requires food and property ; that it can 
 and sometimes does harm them. They think it a vindictive thing, to be feared 
 and to be conciliated. But, as the memory of the departed grows dim so 
 does the fear of his spirit vanish." 
 
 "The greatest curse of the whole country is the belief in 'aniemba,' 
 sorcery or witchcraft. The African firmly believes death to be always a 
 violence. If the African is once possessed with the belief that he is 
 bewitched, his whole nature seems to change. He becomes suspicious of 
 his dearest friends. The father dreads his children, the son his father'and 
 mother, the man his wife, and the wives their husbands. He fancies himself 
 sick, and really often does become sick through his fears. By night he thinks 
 himself surrounded with evil spirits ; he covers himself with fetiches and 
 charms, makes presents to the idol, and to [the great spirits] Abambou and 
 Mbuiri ; and is full of wonder and frightful dreams, which all point to the 
 fact that the village is full of wicked sorcerers." 
 
 " I find that the superstitions of the people [the Apingi] are as great as 
 those of the tribes nearer the sea. They hold that death is caused by 
 witchcraft, but yet they do not remove after every death, as do the Camma, 
 Shekiana, Bakalai, and the other tribes. Among the sea-shore tribes, the 
 Apingi have great repute as wizards, and Apingi-land is the land of 
 ' aniemba,' where anyone may learn to become a powerful sorcerer. Con- 
 sequently the Apingi fetiches are very highly valued by the coast tribes, 
 especially those professing to remove barrenness." 
 
DEATH AND BUEIAL. S9 
 
 " The natives of Equatorial Africa are perpetually changing the sites of 
 their villages in obedience to their migratory instincts, which they do 
 not recognise, and for which they make the most absurd excuses, saying 
 that a man has died in that town, and that the place has become unlucky ; or 
 that a leopard has been seen prowling about and that they are afraid. They 
 believe in the transmigration of souls ; some think that after death they 
 become white men ; the soul transmigrates into the bodies of birds and 
 animals, others say. Criminals, however, are debarred from taking a second 
 lease of life, even in the humblest form ; they fly about as ghosts aud 
 torment mankind by their hideous appearance. Most of the negroes 
 exercise baptismal rites, and the practice of circumcision seems to be 
 universal in Africa, except at Accra. The initiatory ceremonies in Northern 
 G-uinea are of a higher order. The novice is shut up in a house during 
 eight days. Pood is given him once a day, and he sees only the slave who 
 brings it. At the end of that time, masked men present themselves to him 
 to try his courage in every possible way. If he braves the test, he is made 
 an adept." 
 
 " By a light and constant fire in the anus, the intestines are dried up like 
 parchment. The body is then plastered over with red clay, and rolled up in 
 cloth until it becomes a shapeless mass. The richer the person, the more 
 cloth he receives. Einally he is buried in a large grave, over which is 
 erected a roofless house. In Loango there is this difference — the body is 
 more rudely prepared by being smoked on a scaff'old over a green fire, in 
 the same manner as they dry their fish or their elephant meat. Erom six 
 months to a year, according to the rank of the deceased, the mummy is 
 exposed in a sacred house, to which his relatives come at stated periods to 
 mourn. After this he is placed in a coffin shaped like a barrel, and conveyed 
 to the grave in a kind of car." 
 
 "As we approached [the Shekiani village], the women caught sight of me, 
 and ran screaming into the houses. It is curious that nothing excites so 
 much terror in an interior African village as the appearance of a.ivJii/e man " 
 
 There is enough in these extracts to prove that the ideas of these 
 Equatorial Africans as to death and its causes are the same as those that 
 prevail among our Australian blacks. But similar ideas existed among the 
 Jews also more than 1,800 years ago, as this extract will show : — 
 
 "In addition to their reputed powers as prophets and interpreters of 
 dreams, the Essenes were also held iu high estimation as medicine-men. 
 Among the Jews of the time of Christ, most diseases were looked upon 
 either as the work of evil spirits, or as punishments inflicted upon men by 
 the immediate decree of an offended God. But the main tendency of 
 Jewish thought, in the time 'of Christ, was to attribute diseases to the 
 machinations of the powers of evil. At the head of this malignant host 
 stood Satan, the prince of the world, and he was surrounded by a multitude 
 of inferior spirits. Many of these demons were believed to be the souls 
 of the dead who roamed through the air, haunting tombs and desert 
 places, in a disembodied form. The ghosts of the giants who lived in 
 antediluvian times, the ghosts of the builders of the tower of Babel, and the 
 ghosts of those multitudes who perished at the Elood, were all numbered 
 among the evil spirits which brought diseases and death on men, and the 
 spirits of the wicked became demons after death. These demons entered 
 the human body by the nostrils, being presumably inhaled with the breath ; 
 they produced dumbness, lameness, madness, blindness, epilepsy, and indeed 
 every ailment of which there was the least doubt about the origin. Once a 
 
90 THE ABOEIGINES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 demon had taken possession of a man, the ordinary manner o£ getting him 
 expelled was by resorting to the mysterious processes of exorcism. The 
 Jews had a wide reputation throughout the Eoman Empire as exorcists ; the 
 rabbis practised exorcism in Palestine, and there can be little doubt that the 
 Essenes made use of it as well. The spells and incantations on which the 
 exorcists relied were believed to have been handed down by such men as 
 Noah, David, Solomon, who in turn were supposed to have learned them 
 from the angels." 
 
 IX. CONCLUSION. 
 
 In conclusion, let anyone ask me how it is that our aborigines have sunk 
 so low in the scale of humanity as to be regarded as among- the most 
 degraded of the races of men. I deny that this estimate of them is well 
 founded ; on the contrary, I assert that it was formed long ago by thosp 
 who imperfectly understood the habits and the social organisation of our 
 native tribes, and has been ignorantly passed from mouth to mouth ever 
 since ; that when these are thoroughly examined, our blacks are not the 
 despicable savages that they are too often represented to be. They have or 
 had virtues which some of us might profitably imitate ; they are faithful 
 and affectionate to those who treat them kindly ; they have rules of 
 family morality which are enforced by severe penalties. They show the 
 greatest respect to age ; they carefully tend and never desert the sick and 
 infirm ; their boys are compelled to content themselves with meagre fare, 
 and to bring the best of the food which they have found and to present it 
 to the aged members of the tribe and i,o those who have large families. I 
 am assuretL by one who had much intercourse with them for thirty years 
 that he never knew them to tell a He, and that his property was always safe 
 in their hands. Another of my friends says : — " At Cobark, long ago, the 
 station, with the stores and everything else, was left for a whole fortnight 
 in the charge of the black servants, the white men being away on business ; 
 on their return not a thing was missed." Another who has been familiar 
 with them since he was a child, says : — " Naturally they are an affectionate, 
 peaceful people; and, considering that they have never been taught to know 
 right from wrong, their behaviour is wonderful ; I leave my house open, the 
 camp being close by, and feel the greatest confidence in them." 
 
 Then, again, although the material civilisation of the world was commenced 
 by the race of Ham, yet the task soon fell from their hands, for morally 
 they were unfit for it ; for the conservation and the first dissemination of a 
 pure and undefiled religion, we are indebted to the race of Shem ; while the 
 sons of Japheth, audax lapeti genus, have gone forth to rule the earth and 
 the sea — even, Columbus-like, penetrating to the regions of the Ear West — 
 and to spread the blessings of good government, and the arts and inventions 
 of an enlightened age to the remotest lands. The Hamites, on the other 
 hand, have continued to sink in the social scale, have been crushed down by 
 the other races, and thus debased ; and wherever, as in our island here, the 
 sky above and the earth beneath have conspired to render the means of life 
 meagre and jDrecarious, there the process of decay has been accelerated, and 
 physically and socially their condition has been very low ; but still among 
 their institutions there are traces of better things. Would that we had a 
 full record of what they really are before they pass away from among us ! 
 
i' 
 
APPENDIX. 91 
 
 X. APPENDIX. 
 
 THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. Map of New South Wales, as occupied by the Native Tribes ... Frontuinece. 
 
 This is at once a Map of tlie Colony of New South Wales and of the native 
 tribes in it. No attempt has hitherto been made to show the precise extent 
 of territory occupied by each of these tribes ; their location has been under my 
 consideration and inquiry for the past ten years, and I believe that the results 
 now shown are nearly correct. The conditions which determine the bounds 
 of a tribe are explained on page 36 of this pampldet. The names Yunggai, 
 Paikalyrmg, Wachigari, and Murriuggari or Murrinjari, I have made ; for, 
 although these tribes have special names for their sub-tribes, they do not seem 
 to have any general name for the whole tribe. Yung is the name for New 
 England, the table-land occupied by that tribe; Wachi is the local word 
 for 'no.' 
 
 2. Plan oe a Boea-grouxd, showing Maeked Trees 11 
 
 This Bora ground is near the township of Gloucester, about 70 miles to the 
 north of Newcastle. It lies in the thickest depths of the forest there, on a 
 mountain spur which runs east and west. The last Bora ceremony was held 
 there twenty years ago. On this ground, as usual, the path from the lower 
 circle to the sacred one leads up hill, and so the site of the latter cannot be 
 seen from below. The plan is drawn to scale, and shows the upper circle to 
 be much larger than the other. The number of candidates to be initiated 
 sometimes makes this necessary ; for the young men have to lie on the ground 
 within the sacred circle for days or weeks together ; there may have been 
 fifteen or twenty candidates on that occasion — an unusually large number. 
 The Bora ceremonies are dying out, for the young men now refuse to be 
 initiated. 
 
 The exigencies of the plan make the carved trees look like stumps, but they 
 are all tall and stout gum trees. I examined this ground five years ago. 
 
 3. CAP.^nxG OTS a Boka Thee 42 
 
 This also is a marked tree at a Bora circle near Gloucester, but 15 miles 
 to the north-east of it. The figure of the iguana on the tree I take to be an 
 emblem of one of the native, gods ; that animal is a totain to one of the tribal 
 classes. In heraldry the two human figures would be called "supporters." 
 The whole is drawn to scale. 
 
 4. Disposal of the Dead 80 
 
 These two figures are photographed from the originals which are now in the 
 Australian Museum, Sydney. The skeleton shows the most common of the 
 modes of burial, and the other is a corpse as desiccated and carried about. 
 
 5. Photograph of an Indigene of the Minyung Teidr 91 
 
 This is a good specimen of one native type; he is a Clarence River black. 
 
 PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS. 
 
 There are now scarcely five thousand full-blood blacks in New South Wales. Notwith- 
 standing the fostering care of our Government and of the Aborigines' Protection Societies, 
 these natives are rapidly dying out, and ere long only the name and memory of the 
 tribes will be left in oui^ territory. As yet, not much has been done here to secure a 
 faithful record of what they are and have been. The present Commissioners to the 
 World's Fair have wisely resolved to make a beginning in the collection of scientific data 
 as to the physical condition of the blacks still alive within our borders, and of the 
 craniological features of the race in the past. For this purpose they have asked Dr. J. T. 
 Wilson, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Sydney, to examine some of the 
 aboriginal skulls now in the Australian Museum, Sydney, and they have got the police 
 surgeons and the police to make anthropometric measurements of the natives in various 
 parts of the colony. The data which have thus been obtained in the interests of science 
 are very valuable ; but, as they are copious and elaborate, only a mere abstract of them 
 can be given in this pamphlet, and this I now do by the direction of the Commissioners. 
 
92 THE ABOEIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 1.— AWTHEOPOMETRT. 
 
 In this section tlie returns obtained from the various localities give the name, age, 
 weight, &c. , of eacli person measured, but I have condensed these returns for the 
 purposes of this pamphlet by striking the average for each particular, according to the 
 number of persons shown. Therefore, in the tabulated view given below, tlie columns 
 are arranged thus : — 
 
 1 — The place near wliicli the persons measured are iisiially found. 
 
 2 — The map No. of the tribe in which that place lies. 
 
 3 — The number of individuals who were there measured. 
 
 4 — Their averarje age in years. 
 
 5 — Their average height in inches. 
 
 6 — Their average girth round the chest in inches. 
 
 7 — Their average weirjht in lbs. 
 
 All who were sixteen years old and under are reckoned as boys and girls. The various 
 places at which these pliysical measurements were taken are indicated in column 1 of 
 the tabulated view by the Italic letters prefixed to the names in the following list : — 
 
 I. Kamalarai Tribe, No. (on map) I, 11, III — 
 
 u, — Walgett h — Goodooga c — Cobar 
 
 d — Coonamble e — Wollar (near Gulgong) 
 
 IV. YoNG-GAi Tribe, No, IV— 
 
 f — Ashford g — Eundara h — Walcha 
 
 V. Yakka-jari Tribe, No. V — 
 
 i — Wellingrove (near Glen Innes) k — Tenterfield 
 
 VI. Paikal-yung Tribe, No. VI — 
 
 I — Grafton o — Lower Clarence Eiver 
 
 m — Lismore p) — Wardell (on Richmond River) 
 
 H— Casino g — Murwillumbah (on Tweed River) 
 
 VII. Wachi-gari Tribe, No. VII— 
 
 r — Oban (near Kookabookra) 
 
 VIII. KuRi.N-G-GAi Tribe, No. VIII— 
 
 s — Windsor t — Picton 
 
 IX. MuRRiN-jARi Tribe, No. IX— 
 
 u — Kiama ?/— Nelligen (near Bateman's Bay) 
 
 V — Nowra z — Eden 
 
 w — Yass aa — Eurobodalla (near Tuross River) 
 
 a;— Queanbeyau 16— Wallaga Lake (near Mount Dromedary) 
 
 cc — Twilingah (near Moruya) 
 
 X. Ngarego Tribe, No. X — • 
 
 cM— Cooma ce— Delegate (near Bombala) 
 
 XI. Wira-dhari Tribe, No. XI— 
 
 /— Obley (south of Dubbo) gg — Narrandera M— Nyngan 
 
 ii— Brewarrina Mission Station, No. II. 
 Ick — Brungle IMission Station (near Tumut), No. XI. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE I.— I"TJLIi-BLOOD BLOCKS. 
 
 
 2 
 
 MEN. 
 
 WOMEN". 
 
 BOYS. 
 
 GIRLS. 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 a 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 35 
 
 69 
 
 36 
 
 149 
 
 3 
 
 33 
 
 63 
 
 36| 
 
 148 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 42 
 
 23} 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 b 
 
 II 
 
 3 
 
 62J 
 
 66 
 
 371 
 
 148} 
 
 3 
 
 41} 
 
 60 
 
 31J 
 
 118 
 
 3 
 
 10} 
 
 47 
 
 23} 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 III 
 
 3 
 
 40 
 
 66 
 
 33i 
 
 131} 
 
 3 
 
 43} 
 
 61} 
 
 32 
 
 99} 
 
 8 
 
 6} 
 
 38} 
 
 281 
 
 40} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 ,, 
 
 i 
 
 38J 
 
 67i 
 
 37J 
 
 157} 
 
 3 
 
 37 
 
 62 
 
 34 
 
 125 
 
 4 
 
 9i 
 
 62} 
 
 24} 
 
 78} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 67i 
 
 665 
 
 34 
 
 134} 
 
 4 
 
 33} 
 
 62 
 
 38} 
 
 149 
 
 2 
 
 10} 
 
 62 
 
 28} 
 
 69 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 IV 
 
 3 
 
 51 
 
 67 
 
 38} 
 
 138} 
 
 2 
 
 45 
 
 64} 
 
 84 
 
 106} 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 60 
 
 27} 
 
 90 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 ,, 
 
 4 
 
 47 
 
 663 
 
 46J 
 
 145 
 
 2 
 
 301 
 
 66 
 
 88} 
 
 119 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 h 
 
 ,, 
 
 3 
 
 46J 
 
 68J 
 
 37 
 
 162 
 
 3 
 
 32} 
 
 66 
 
 37} 
 
 150} 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 56 
 
 27 
 
 83} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 V 
 
 1 
 
 43 
 
 69J 
 
 38 
 
 168 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 k 
 
 >l 
 
 26 
 
 44J 
 
 66J 
 
 35 
 
 142 
 
 11 
 
 46} 
 
 60 
 
 81} 
 
 109 
 
 4 
 
 133 
 
 69} 
 
 291 
 
 95i 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 45J 
 
 21} 
 
 42 
 
 I 
 
 YI 
 
 3 
 
 46 
 
 68 
 
 37 
 
 167 
 
 3 
 
 47 
 
 62 
 
 37 
 
 116 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 62 
 
 25} 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 ,, 
 
 1 
 
 36 
 
 68 
 
 SSI 
 
 157 
 
 2 
 
 45 
 
 63J 
 
 32J 
 
 103 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 51 
 
 26 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lb 
 
 „ 
 
 1 
 
 48 
 
 66 
 
 38 
 
 154 
 
 1 
 
 35 
 
 63 
 
 30 
 
 93 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 46 
 
 24 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 „ 
 
 35 
 
 42 
 
 663 
 
 34 
 
 127} 
 
 19 
 
 34} 
 
 60} 
 
 31} 
 
 116} 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 45 
 
 20 
 
 43} 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 41} 
 
 21} 
 
 45} 
 
 P 
 
 „ 
 
 2 
 
 29J 
 
 66| 
 
 36J 
 
 161 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 64 
 
 34 
 
 119 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 53} 
 
 27 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 „ 
 
 3 
 
 35 
 
 67J 
 
 35 
 
 140} 
 
 3 
 
 29} 
 
 58 
 
 32 
 
 112 
 
 8 
 
 14} 
 
 69 
 
 27} 
 
 98 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 YII 
 
 7 
 
 48 
 
 67i 
 
 35 
 
 146 
 
 4 
 
 47 
 
 65 
 
 30 
 
 138 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 38 
 
 23 
 
 72} 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 37 
 
 22 
 
 75 
 
 s 
 
 VIII 
 
 3 
 
 49 
 
 66 
 
 37 
 
 139 
 
 3 
 
 43} 
 
 60 
 
 33 
 
 112 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 8} 
 
 64 
 
 28} 
 
 82.} 
 
 t 
 
 „ 
 
 1 
 
 32 
 
 62J 
 
 36 
 
 160 
 
 2 
 
 65 
 
 62 
 
 38} 
 
 164 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 IX 
 
 3 
 
 47i 
 
 67 
 
 35 
 
 143 
 
 2 
 
 27} 
 
 62 
 
 86} 
 
 160 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 62} 
 
 24} 
 
 74} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 „ 
 
 3 
 
 45i 
 
 65i 
 
 34J 
 
 136J 
 
 3 
 
 87} 
 
 66} 
 
 34 
 
 107} 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 56 
 
 26} 
 
 79} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 „ 
 
 2 
 
 41 
 
 67 
 
 36} 
 
 134 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 X 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 49 
 
 63} 
 
 36 
 
 131 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 2 
 
 »» 
 
 2 
 
 47 
 
 65 
 
 35} 
 
 124 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 aa 
 
 „ 
 
 2 
 
 68 
 
 65J; 
 
 36 
 
 180} 
 
 2 
 
 75 
 
 61 
 
 36 
 
 112 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lib 
 
 „ 
 
 13 
 
 m 
 
 64* 
 
 36i 
 
 129 
 
 3 
 
 42} 
 
 62} 
 
 88 
 
 141} 
 
 2 
 
 9} 
 
 49 
 
 27} 
 
 54} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ec 
 
 
 8 
 
 63 
 
 681 
 
 37 
 
 141} 
 
 2 
 
 52 
 
 62} 
 
 29} 
 
 96 
 
 2 
 
 11* 
 
 56.^ 
 
 27J 
 
 72} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 dd 
 
 X 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 63 
 
 81 
 
 103 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ee 
 
 „ 
 
 8 
 
 S7i 
 
 67i 
 
 32} 
 
 148} 
 
 3 
 
 27 
 
 63 
 
 81} 
 
 117 
 
 2 
 
 14} 
 
 69} 
 
 26} 
 
 82 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 XI 
 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 64 
 
 35 
 
 135 
 
 3 
 
 34 
 
 64} 
 
 36 
 
 147} 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 66} 
 
 26} 
 
 64 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 57 
 
 30 
 
 77 
 
 W 
 
 „ 
 
 15 
 
 45J 
 
 66 
 
 37} 
 
 153} 
 
 4 
 
 35 
 
 61 
 
 36 
 
 161 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 hh 
 
 )» 
 
 4 
 
 32 
 
 65i 
 
 32} 
 
 180} 
 
 2 
 
 34 
 
 61} 
 
 33} 
 
 143 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 il 
 
 II 
 
 3 
 
 83J 
 
 69} 
 
 37 
 
 165} 
 
 3 
 
 m 
 
 61} 
 
 35| 
 
 161 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 6i 
 
 23§ 
 
 82 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jck 
 
 XI 
 
 2 
 
 56 
 
 65 
 
 35J 
 
 148 
 
 2 
 
 27} 
 
 63 
 
 803 
 
 116} 
 
 2 
 
 8} 
 
 48} 
 
 24 
 
 68 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 h and j/— No full-blood blacks here. 
 
9J. 
 
 THE ABORiaiNES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 TABLE II.— HALF-CASTE BLACKS. 
 
 
 2 
 
 MEX. 
 
 WOMEiV. 
 
 BOYS. 
 
 GIELS. 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 S 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 a 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 33J 
 
 09i 
 
 35* 
 
 147J 
 
 3 
 
 31J- 62 
 
 33 
 
 135 
 
 3 
 
 6} 
 
 49} 
 
 24J 
 
 73} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 b 
 
 II 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 72 
 
 38 
 
 138 
 
 2 
 
 22.1- 
 
 69 
 
 32} 
 
 117} 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 42} 
 
 22 
 
 47} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 III 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 „ 
 
 3 
 
 32 
 
 6SJ 
 
 36 
 
 148 
 
 3 
 
 23} 
 
 62 
 
 31 
 
 106 
 
 3 
 
 7} 
 
 51 
 
 22 
 
 54} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 28 
 
 65i 
 
 35J 
 
 147i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 IV 
 
 1 
 
 38 
 
 68 
 
 36 
 
 164 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 12:} 
 
 61 
 
 26J 
 
 83} 
 
 2 
 
 14} 
 
 69} 
 
 31} 
 
 99} 
 
 a 
 
 »> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 43 
 
 69i 
 
 34 
 
 118 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 55 
 
 31 
 
 92 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 h 
 
 „ 
 
 2 
 
 33 
 
 63i 
 
 36J 
 
 157 
 
 2 
 
 38i 
 
 64} 
 
 34} 
 
 146 
 
 3 
 
 10} 
 
 61} 
 
 24} 
 
 67} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 V 
 
 2 
 
 28 
 
 C6J- 
 
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 , 2, /t/i.— No half-castes here at present. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 2.— STATURE. 
 
 Measurements of stature have also been got from each police district, but, as all of 
 these cannot be produced here, I give the return from Walgett as a sample. The black 
 letters on the margin below indicate the measurements, which are : — 
 
 2i— Ground to the calf of the lep (thickest part). 
 
 ]i— Ground to the centre of the cap of the knee. 
 
 C — Ground to the forh. 
 
 d — Ground to the. umbilicus. 
 
 e — Ground to the chin. 
 
 f — Ground to the tips of the fingers, the hand hAac) placed against the thigh. 
 
 g — Length of the arm from the point of the shoulder to the elbow. 
 
 \ — Length of the arm from the elbow to the tips of the fingers. 
 
 
 FULL-BLOOD BLACKS. 
 
 HALF-CASTE BLACKS. 
 
 
 Three Men. 
 
 Three Women. Three Boya.* 
 
 Three Men. 
 
 Three Women. 
 
 Thi 
 
 ee Boys.^= 
 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 in. 
 
 a 
 
 15i 
 
 16.i 
 
 14} 
 
 14J 
 
 14 
 
 19 
 
 6i 
 
 8 
 
 14J 
 
 13J 
 
 m 
 
 14 
 
 161 
 
 15 
 
 143 
 
 141 
 
 10 
 
 91 
 
 1) 
 
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 22 
 
 20 
 
 18J 
 
 19 
 
 20i 
 
 8 
 
 Hi 
 
 17J 
 
 m 
 
 21 
 
 2H 
 
 m 
 
 IVi 
 
 19i 
 
 171 
 
 14 
 
 123 
 
 c 
 
 321 
 
 33i 
 
 32 
 
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 Hi 
 
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 28 
 
 31J- 
 
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 32i 
 
 33 
 
 31J 
 
 323 
 
 27 
 
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 20 
 
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 43 
 
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 41 16 
 
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 37i 
 
 381 
 
 341 
 
 28 
 
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 g 
 
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 163 
 
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 163 
 
 131 
 
 11.3 
 
 * The ages of the boys are not given. 
 
 3.— THE NUMBEE OE THE ABORIGINES IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 (CENsrs 1891.) 
 
 
 Under 
 16 years. 
 
 16 years 
 and under 
 21 years. 
 
 21 years 
 and over. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Full-Wood— 
 
 615 
 492 
 
 723 
 704 
 
 223 
 169 
 
 169 
 159 
 
 2,168 
 1,540 
 
 771 
 657 
 
 2,896 
 2,201 
 
 1,663 
 1,620 
 
 Females 
 
 Half-castes— 
 
 Males 
 
 Females 
 
 
 Total— 
 
 Males . . . . 
 
 1,238 
 1,106 
 
 392 
 328 
 
 2,929 
 2,197 
 
 4 559 
 
 
 3,721 
 
 
 Note.— The ages of the Aborigines are estimated approximately. 
 
96 THE ABOEIGIiXES OF KEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 4.— CEANIOMETET. 
 
 Abstract Eejoort on the Craniology of Australian Aborigines, 
 
 With table of measurements, 
 
 By J. T. AVilson, IM.B. (Edin.) ; Professor of Anatomy, University of Sydney; 
 
 Formerly Demonstrator of Anatomy, University of Edinburgh. 
 
 It is proposed in this appendix to give a short abstract or summary of some of the 
 characters of the skulls of Australian aborigines. 
 
 In illustration of some of the features referred to, there is added a table of measure- 
 ments made by the reporter on a series of six crania. It would be idle to frame definite 
 conclusions upon the results of an examination of any small number of skulls, and the 
 table is not introduced here for anysuch purpose, but it will be found to be, on the whole, 
 in accordance with the observations of other investigators. 
 
 The skulls measured were taken from the collection in the Australian Museum, and 
 the Trustees of that institution Iiaving kindly placed their craniological series at his 
 disposal, the reporter hopes in course of time to publish an extended series of observations 
 and measurements, from which it may be po.ssible to deduce more or less reliable averages 
 and conclusions, capable of being brought into line with those already published by 
 various eminent craniologists, 
 
 In the meantime a few of the chief references to the scientific literature of the 
 craniology of Australian aborigines may be here indicated. 
 
 MM. de Quatrefages and Hamy, in their great work " Crania Ethnica,'' have given the 
 results of a detailed examination by themselves of thirty-eight skulls, and they deal with 
 data from other sources, making up the number of crania referred to to eighty-two. 
 
 Professor Flower, in his lecture on the "Native Races of the Pacific Ocean" (Proc. 
 Roy. Inst, of Great Britain, 31st May, 1878), and in the "Catalogue of the Osteological 
 Specimens" in the Museum of the Pvoy. Coll. of Surg., Eng. (Pt. I, 1879), has stated the 
 results of the study of fifty-four Australian crania. 
 
 Professor Sir William Turner, in his Report on the Human Crania collected by 
 the "Challenger" expedition ("Challenger" Reports, Vol. X, Pt. XXIX), publishes his own 
 observations upon forty-four skulls, and collates his results with those obtained by the 
 investigations of De Quatrefages and Hamy, Flower, and others. He thus obtains data 
 collected from a series of one hundred and fifty crania, both from the littoral and the 
 interior ; the exact localities of collection being known in one hundred and twenty-nine 
 cases, and scattered over almost the entire extent of the island-continent. 
 
 For a further bibliography on the subject the reader may be referred to the memoirs 
 just quoted, and to a catalogue of the literature ))earing on Australian aborigines generally, 
 by R. Etheridge, junr., published by the Department of Mines of the Government of 
 New South Wales. 
 
 The following general account is partly based upon the general summary and analysis 
 of his own observations and those of his predecessors, embodied by Turner in the 
 " Challenger" Report referred to. It has been composed, however, in full view of certain 
 typical and selected specimens at the disposal of the reporter, who has throughout sought 
 rather to bring the characteristic features into due prominence than to aim at even 
 moderate completeness in this descriptive abstract. 
 
 As in other races, the distinctive characters of the Australian skull are most accentu- 
 ated in the male sex and in adult age, and it has been that form of skull which has been 
 more especially in view in the compilation of this sketch. 
 
 The very low cubic capacity of the Australian cranium is one of its most typical 
 features. The mean of 30 skulls is given by Turner as l,2:-i0 cub. centimetres, ranging 
 from 1,514 c.c. in the highest male to 930 c.c. in the lowest female. De Quatrefages and 
 Hamy gave 1,269 c.c. ; Flower gives 1,298 c.c. The average of the six skulls included in 
 the subjoined table (four male and two female) is 1 ,299 c.c. Topinard quotes from Broca 
 a male average of 1,347 c.c, and a female average of 1,181 c.c. 
 
 The mean of both sexes is microcephalic {i.e., below 1,350 c.c.) Indeed, according to 
 Turner, only about 25 per cent, of the male crania exceed the upper limit of microcephaly. 
 
 On the other hand, the adult male skull tends to be massive and weighty. Turner 
 mentions one skull which weighed, with the mandible, 2 lb. GJ oz. avoir., or 1,100 
 grammes ; while one of the six skulls examined in connection with this report weighed, 
 with the mandible, 1,084 grammes. 
 
 Some special features in the configuration of tlie skull are fairly characteristic, if not 
 severally, at any rate in correlation. The dimensional characters will be alluded to later 
 on, but a few others deserve notice. Thus, a very large proportion of Australian skulls 
 exhibit a marked ridging or antero-posterior elevation of the vertex. This is accompanied 
 
APPENDIX. 97 
 
 by, and partly due to, a flattening of the cranial vault on either side as far as the region 
 of the parietal eminences, giving a somewhat roof-like shape to the top of the skull. 
 When viewed from behind, this is seen to throw the parietal bosses into relief, and thus 
 to exaggerate the generally pentagonal outline of that aspect of the skull as a whole. 
 
 From above, in the norma verlicalis, the zygomatic arches are usually apparent, and in 
 some male skulls (as in No. 5 in table) are exceedingly prominent indeed. The elongated, 
 almost scapho-cephalic, character of some skulls is also very striking from this point of 
 view. 
 
 Viewed from the side in the norma lateralis, the frontal depression or backward slope 
 of the forehead is seen to be considerable, so that the frontal angle is a low one. The 
 sexual difference is, as is visual with this character, in favour of the female. The average 
 frontal angle in' the six cases tabulated below (male and female) was 66° 25'. This 
 low angle is doubtless in part due to the extraordinary apparent prominence of the glabella 
 in most of the adult male skulls, but the appearance of the latter feature is really to some 
 extent exaggerated by the counter-sinking of the frontonasal suture, which is also 
 characteristically extreme in such cases. 
 
 The several degrees of facial, anterior cranial and posterior cranial projection as 
 ascertained by Topinard's craniophore may be conveniently expressed, after Broca, in 
 relation to the total antero-posterior projection of the cranium taken as = 1,000. 
 
 With the six skulls tabulated below, the average projection of the face was 69 '41 ; of the 
 anterior cranium, exclusive of the face, 441 '53 ; and of the posterior cranium, 489 "Oi. Broca 
 states the proportions for Europeans as follows : — Projection of face, 64 '8 ; anterior 
 cranium, 409'9; posterior cranium, 525'2; and for negroes thus: — Projection of face, 
 137 '5; anterior cranium, 361 '0; posterior cranium, 501 '3. Hence the posterior cranial 
 projection is proportionally less, and the anterior cranial projection greater, than in 
 either negroes or Europeans, from which facts it may possibly be concluded that the 
 foramen magnum is placed considerably further back than in either of the races mentioned. 
 The individual variations in the proportions of these projections are, however, too great, 
 and the series examined too small, to yield any but inconclusive evidence. It may, 
 however, be noted that in no case did the facial projection approach at all near to that 
 given as the negro average by Broca. In only one case did the posterior cranial 
 projection reach the negro average, and indeed the limits of variation of this factor were 
 narrow. 
 The average of the basilar index (Broca) was 50'9, i.e., the upper mesoseme limit. 
 Each of the six skulls, when placed — minus the mandible — upon the table, rests 
 posteriorly upon the conceptacular region. One rests, in addition, upon the tips of the 
 mastoids, and one on the condyles ; thus they all illustrate the bulging down of the 
 occipital bone which Turner has noticed. 
 
 The cranial sutures, especially the sagittal and coronal, tend towards simplicity of type, 
 and early synostosis is frequent. The lambdoidal and occipito-mastoid, however, are very 
 commonly complicated and beset with a number of wormian bones, frequently of large 
 size. Epipterio bones are common at the pterion, which not seldom exhibits other forms 
 of departure from the ordinary H -shaped type. 
 
 The area of the temporal fossa is extensive, sometimes reaching up to, or even beyond, 
 the middle of the parietal eminences. 
 
 In the norma facialia the prominence of the superciliary ridges may be noted, but more 
 remarkable is the massive development of the orbital arches, especially towards their 
 outer ends, where they frequently jut out laterally to a striking degree beyond the limits 
 of the rather narrow inferior frontal diameter. 
 
 The rounded-off character of the outer orbital margins is noticed by Turner, as also a 
 comparable rounding off of the inferior boundary of the anterior narial apertures, so that 
 the floor of the nose is often almost continuous with the slope of the prognathous alveolar 
 margins of the maxillae. These were noteworthy characters in several of the crania 
 under notice. 
 
 The estimation of the dimensional characters is best effected by a study of the various 
 indices, which are usually calculated from the actual measurements. The subjoined table 
 contains the details both of the measurements themselves and of the indices. 
 
 The cephalic or length-breadth index appears from the results of the various observers 
 to be about 71, i.e., markedly dolicho-cephalic. Turner's average figures are 69 for males 
 and 72 for females. Flower's average is slightly higher, but, as the former points out, 
 the difference is probably due to the use by the latter of the ophryo-occipital diameter. 
 In the table the glabello-occipital has been used (after Broca, Turner, and others), and 
 the average obtained for the six crania is 70 '07. 
 
 The vertical or length-height index is on the average about the same as the cephalic, or 
 a little higher, e.g., De Quatrefages and Hamy give 71 '5 for the cephalic and 717 for the 
 vertical as their averages. 
 
98 THE ABOEIG-mES OE NBW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 It has been alleged that the vertical falls below the cephalic index in a much greater 
 proportion of skulls from the southern portion of the Australian continent than from the 
 more northern, and this is adduced as evidence in favour of the hyphothesis — advocated 
 also on other grounds by Topinard and others— of a dual origin for the Australian black 
 races. Turner has examined the evidence from crauiologicaldata available up to tlie date 
 of his work, and finds it inconclusive. 
 
 The gnathic index of Turner (' alveolar,' of Flower) expressing the relative proportions 
 of the basi-nasal and basi-alveolar lengths, and, ostensibly, the degree of "prognathism," 
 does not yield a numerical factor at all constant in the Australian races. Not only is 
 there a wide range of individual variation, but the sexual indications of the character 
 are non-reliable. 
 
 On the whole, the facial prognatliism indicated, according to Flower, by indicial 
 numbers above 103 is very inconstant in Australians, and Turner's average was below 
 103, i.e., mesognathous, while various individuals were facially orthognathic. In the 
 six skulls illustrative of this report the average gnathic index was 97 '8, which would just 
 place these skulls in the orthognathic category of Flower. The edentulous condition of 
 No. 3, and the loss of both median incisors in No. 4, may partially account for the low 
 average, but of the others only one attained a number over 103, so as just to class it, 
 according to Flower, as prognathous. Turner's mean from his considerable series was 
 100-6. 
 
 The facial angle nearly corresponding to this index, i.e. , the ophryo-alveolo-condylar, 
 obtained by the method of projections, was, in the series here dealt with, 80° 56', which 
 is less prognathic in this sense than in most races. 
 
 Topinard, whose method was followed in determining the above angle, criticises 
 adversely (Anthropology, Trans, by Bartley, Load., 1890) the value of the estimation 
 of facial prognathism in the above sense as affording a character of racial importance. 
 It is quite otherwise with the projection of the maxilla below the subnasal point, i.e., 
 alveolo-subnasal, or "true " prognathism. According to Topinard, this is a character of 
 genuine racial importance. In the Australian race he states the average of the angle of 
 this species of prognathism as 68" 24', and, judged by this criterion, Australians are among 
 the most prognathous of the races of men. The average angle in the six skulls tabulated 
 below was only 66° 44', the highest being 73° and the lowest 59°. 
 
 Co-related with the low gnathic indices in the table may be mentioned the high 
 palato-maxillary indicial figures. The connection between these factors has been pointed 
 out by Turner. That tliis concomitant variation is not merely due to the greater or less 
 extension of the alveolar arch is proved by the very considerable degree of alveolo- 
 subnasal prognathism which here co-exists with the high palato-maxillary indices. The 
 highest index, i.e., 142'6, in No. 4, was doubtless associated with absorption of the 
 incisor sockets, wliile the molars were large and well developed. On the other hand, the 
 lowest index, in No. 3, was in a quite edentulous skull. The latter was the only skull 
 which was not brachy-uranio, although in several the alveolar arch had undergone no 
 absorption whatever. Turner's average is 109, i.e., dolicho-uranic. The palato-maxillary 
 dimensions were carefully taken after Turner's directions. 
 
 The mean narial (nasal) index given in the table nearly corresponds with that given by 
 de Quatrefages and Hamy (57'9), and by Flower (56 '9). Turner's average was only 53-5, 
 owing to the presence in his series of several skulls with exceptionally low indices. One 
 in particular — a genuine Australian — was actually leptorhine, with an index of only 46. 
 
 'The mean orbital index in the table corresponds exactly with that found by Turner, 
 which was considerably higher than either Flower's or that of de Quatrefages and 
 Hamy. 
 
 The measurement of the cubic capacity was taken after Turner's modification of 
 Broca's method with No. 4 chilled shot, the measurements in each case being several 
 times repeated. The dimensions, unless other^vise noted, were taken according to Broca's 
 directions in his "Instructions Craniologiques et Craniomitriques," Paris, 1875. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 99 
 
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 CD c^ t^ 00 CO 00 
 
 
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 C M >;? rt tf 5 S tC 
 
 t5 ow-f,-^ e-ts 
 
 QJ "PI r*) "fcl H« 
 
 ^ CO CO eo (N 
 
 O IM (M <N ©1 
 
 O •->:\ ■-ftl t-^ 
 
 j3 <M (M c; cc 
 
 O ^ ^ CO CO 
 
 (U 
 H 
 
 p 
 o 
 
 §5 
 
 S 
 
 1^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 "3 
 
 e 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 .2 
 
 O 
 
 1^ 
 
 II 
 
 .CO, 
 
 CO CO t— lO m CO 
 
 ■•*1>*'iO (MC-]-^ -^MCO 
 
 ^ O 1-t lO C-l 
 — ' i-l rH 
 
 n CM o o CO 
 
 CO ■* CO 
 O 00 I~» 
 
 cDcom cocoo coc-ifM 
 
 ■■-11— lO Oil— IOJ Olfi-H 
 
 p 
 
 "A 
 
 *- p o 
 
 < ^ 
 
 X 00 CO CO ^^ 
 
 O CO CO CO CO 
 
 O CO C5 I-~ CO CO 
 
 Til CO ;0 CM CM CM 
 
 CDCOO COcOO (MQOCS 
 
 COCO'* COCOCO COCNCO 
 
 CO CD u^ CO 
 lO lO IQ lO 
 
 lO ■>* •# 
 
 t- -31 Cl 
 Tf -^ CO 
 
 OO -*"^C0 Ol— w 
 
 mco ifsioio iQ-^io 
 
 03 
 
 ^3 
 
 1 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 c 
 
 ■a 
 
 ■§ 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 c 
 
 s 
 
 is 
 s 
 
 _rt 
 
 
 &4 
 
 § 
 
 i 
 
 tf 
 
 £: 
 
 .§ 
 
 .§ 
 
 S 
 
 IH 
 
 K 
 
 (S; 
 
 iS 
 
 ^ 
 
 M 
 
 P-< 
 
 flH 
 
 02 
 
 CQ 
 
 O S a> " 
 
 f 
 
 •^ c3 o 
 C? S^ "2 
 
 ■uauiOjW. 
 
 o ^ j= 
 
 a ss If 
 
 'h-s ti3 SJ 
 ^ — , ' 
 
 •s.c'oa 
 
 s 
 
 •uapi 
 
 •U9UI0AV 
 
 SHOvaa aooia-iin.-i 
 
 .a 
 a 
 
 •s^oa 
 
 SHOvia ajtsvo-diivH 
 
INDEX. 
 
 101 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 Abortion .... . 4 
 
 Adornment, personal 46 
 
 Adze 72 
 
 AfEection, mutual - - - - 35 
 
 „ natural • 5 
 
 Amusements 63, 66 
 
 Axe, stone - - 76 
 
 B 
 
 Balls, native 65 
 
 Betrothal 26 
 
 Bii-th 2 
 
 Bora, the - 6, 11 
 
 Analogies — 
 
 African - - - - - 6 
 
 Kaffir 7 
 
 Fijian 8 
 
 Indian 10 
 
 Brands, personal - 45 
 
 Bumarang, the 69 
 
 Burial 82 
 
 „ modes of - - • 80 
 
 c 
 
 Camp, order of 69 
 
 CannibaUsm - • 3, 56 
 
 Child, the 4 
 
 Chisel - - 77 
 
 Classes, animal 34 
 
 „ names of tribal • - . - - 33 
 
 Clothing (See under Adornment) - - 46 
 
 Clubs 73 
 
 Cooking 55 
 
 Corrobboree, the (See Karabari) - - 21 
 
 Cromlechs - - - 68 
 
 Daily life 
 Death, at - - 
 „ causes of 
 Decamp 
 Descent, law of 
 Diseases 
 Dogs .... 
 Dwellings - 
 
 E 
 
 - 58 
 
 - 79 
 78,85 
 
 - 84 
 32 
 62 
 
 - 55 
 
 - 48 
 
 Education 
 Exogamy 
 
 Fire-making 
 Pood- - - - 
 
 ,, restriction of 
 See also Messengers 
 Freemasonry ■ - 
 Funeral, the - - 
 „ analogies 
 
 H 
 
 30 
 
 ■ 57 
 
 - 43 
 
 - 53 
 
 42 
 
 - 24 
 84 
 86 
 
 Gesture language- 
 
 24, 67 
 
 Ghost (spirit), the 
 
 - - - 83 
 
 Government, tribal - 
 
 - - 38 
 
 Grave, the - - - 
 
 .... 81 
 
 Hooks - 
 Hunting 
 
 Implements 
 Industrial - 
 Inheritance 
 
 78 
 54 
 
 76 
 69 
 35 
 
 £ 
 
 Karabari, the 
 Kindness - - - 
 Knives (See Adze) 
 
 21, 64, I 
 
 Life, daily 
 
 5 
 
 77 
 
 58 
 
102 
 
 THE ABOEIG-INES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 M 
 
 Manly amiisemen's 
 
 Marriage 
 
 „ ceremony 
 ,, classes 
 ,, fidelity - 
 
 Message sticks - - 
 
 Messengers, public 
 
 Migrations - 
 
 MotIier-in-laiv - - 
 
 Mourning 
 
 N 
 
 Warning 
 
 ..Nets - - - 
 Numeration, native 
 
 Ornaments, personal - 
 
 P 
 
 Parturition - 
 Punisbments - 
 
 a 
 
 Quarrels 
 
 E 
 
 Eestriction of food (See rood) 
 Revenge 
 
 3 
 
 39 
 
 39 
 
 53 
 86 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 66 
 
 Shelters - - - 
 
 - 4S 
 
 27 
 
 Shields - 
 
 75 
 
 - 29 
 
 Signals 
 
 - 67 
 
 32 
 
 Songs - - 
 
 64 
 
 34 
 
 Spears - 
 
 71 
 
 67 
 
 Spirits of man, two - - 
 
 85 
 
 - 41 
 
 Stone axe 
 
 - 76 
 
 38 
 
 Successor to chief 
 
 - 38 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 87 
 
 T 
 
 
 
 Temperament 
 
 43 
 
 4 
 
 Totems {See undei' Messengers) 
 
 - 41 
 
 78 
 
 Trading - - - - 
 
 37,67 
 
 25 
 
 Travellers 
 
 - 37 
 
 Tribal classes, names of - 
 
 - - 33 
 
 
 , , government 
 
 - 38 
 
 
 Tribe, the ; what is it ? - - ,- 
 
 36 
 
 
 „ boundaries of 
 
 - -.37 
 
 45 
 
 Tribule, the 
 
 ■■ 3G 
 
 u 
 
 Utensils 
 
 Visitij 
 
 w 
 
 Weapons, native 
 Worship, astral 
 
 -77 
 
 37 
 
 69 
 22 
 
 Sydney : Charles Potter, Government Printer.— 1892. 
 

 
 
 „s« 
 
 PLAN OF BORA GROUND NEAR GLOUCESTER, N.S.W. 
 
 CARVINGS ON TREES AROUND THE UPPER BORA CIRCLE 
 
 PHOTO-LiTHOGRAPHED^vT THE GOVT; PRINTING OFFICE. 
 SYCNey, NEW -SOUTH WALES, 
 

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