1847 - Angas, G. F. Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand [Vol I.] - CHAPTER III: OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

       
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  1847 - Angas, G. F. Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand [Vol I.] - CHAPTER III: OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
 
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CHAPTER III: OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

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CHAPTER III.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

The Natives of the Lower Murray and the Lakes of Moorundi-- The Scrub Natives--The Parnkalla and Nauo Tribes to the westward of Spencer's Gulf.

THE aboriginal inhabitants of South Australia, like those scattered over other portions of the vast continent of New Holland, are divided into numerous tribes, each speaking a different language; and, though resembling one another in physical appearance and in the general character of their usages and customs, there are still certain habits and observances which are peculiar to a single tribe, and are totally unknown amongst their neighbours. Locality, the kind of food produced in particular districts, and other causes, are calculated to occasion these peculiarities; to which I shall refer separately, under their respective heads.

The South Australian natives are generally rather

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ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

below the average stature of Europeans; the women are disproportionately small, and their limbs are not so well formed as those of the men. Although I have met with men who measured six feet in height, and others stout and robust in the extreme, these are exceptions to the mass; who frequently exhibit limbs that are much attenuated, and forms extremely slight and thin.

The tribes on the sea-coast, and the people inhabiting the banks of the Murray and the lakes, are more athletic and better made than the individuals who seek a scanty sustenance amongst the scrub and on the hills of the interior; the former feeding chiefly on fish and wild-fowl, whilst the latter devour snakes, lizards, roots, and the gum of the wattle. The limbs, especially of the young people, are often disproportionately slender amongst these ill-fed tribes, and the stomach becomes so distended by the frequent use of juicy and green food, as to appear unsightly. The true colour of the skin is so disguised by dirt, ochre, and clay, as to be hardly discernible; it is of a purplish copper tint, and in some individuals is no darker than that of the natives of the Figi Islands. Their hair is black, or very dark brown, coarse, generally in curls, but never woolly; the beards and whiskers of the men are strong and abundant, and the whole body is often covered with hair, to a greater or less degree. Their eyes are universally of a dark reddish hazel, with very black lashes, and deep overhanging brows,

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NATIVE LANGUAGE.

and the whites are tinged with yellow, which gives a degree of savageness to their appearance. Their heads are not wanting in the perceptive faculties, though in the reflective they are deficient. The skulls of the women are worse than those of the men; they are elongated and very narrow, the development of the intellectual organs being remarkably small. The cheek-bones are high, and the brows projecting; the nose is broad and depressed, with little distance between the eyes; the mouth is rather large, but it frequently displays a set of regular and beautiful teeth; the jaw-bone is narrow, and the chin diminutive and retiring. Independently of their want of cleanliness, there is a perceptible odour about them which is offensive, and often rendered more intolerable by the use of shark and whale oil, with which they anoint their bodies. As almost every tribe has a language, or at least a dialect, peculiar to itself, so that they frequently cannot hold intercourse together, difficulties present themselves in the acquirement of the native tongue; which is considered to be of Malay origin: many of their words are remarkably liquid and musical. It is stated that in the interior of some of the Eastern islands there is existing at the present moment, a race, whose physical appearance, manners, and language strongly resemble those of the Australians; which corroborates the theory of their having sprung from Western Asia, and crossing Torres Straits, spread

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NATIVE POPULATION.

themselves over the wide continent of Australia. The New Zealanders, on the other hand, appear to have come from the eastward, bringing with them the arts and intelligence of the ancient races of Mexico, and, according to their traditions, peopling various islands now inhabited by the light-coloured tribes of the Pacific. Hence we can account for two distinct races, so different in manners, customs, and physiological character, inhabiting countries only one thousand miles apart.

The population of the native tribes inhabiting South Australia is not considerable. Constant wars and quarrels between the tribes, polygamy, and infanticide are amongst the causes of this. Their mode of life, too--not cultivating the ground, but seeking a scanty and precarious subsistence by wandering over large tracts of country in search of food, when the soil naturally produces but little comparatively for the support of the human race--- necessarily causes their numbers to be limited. On the banks of the Murray, and about the lakes and Encounter Bay, the natives are numerous; but for days together districts may be traversed in one direction without meeting with a single native. Their places of encampment are always near the water, and the banks of a large fresh-water river like the Murray must offer inducements to them which few other localities afford.

Families are usually small; three or four children by the same parents may be considered as an ave-

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TATTOOING. --TREATMENT OF WOMEN.

rage proportion. When the boys arrive at a certain age they undergo initiatory rites, which vary amongst tribes. Some practise circumcision; others knock out the front tooth, as is the custom with the natives of New South Wales.

Tattooing is performed amongst all the tribes. They do not mark the face like the New Zealanders, but raise large protuberances upon the back and shoulders, and cut deep incisions longitudinally across the chest, which they fill with clay, rendering them hard and horny, resembling tubes of gristle.

There does not appear to be any distinct ceremony of marriage amongst them. In battle the successful warriors endeavour to possess themselves of the young women of the opposite party; and it generally happens that the old and experienced men obtain the youngest and most comely women, whilst the old and haggard females are left for the more youthful portion of the opposite sex.

One of the surest marks of the low position of the Australian savage in the scale of the human species, is the treatment of their women. The men walk along with a proud and majestic air; behind them, crouching like slaves, and bearing heavy burdens on their backs, with their little ones astride on their shoulders, come the despised and degraded women. They are the drudges in all heavy work; and after their lords have finished the repast which the women have prepared for them, these despised creatures contentedly sit at a distance, and gather

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FOOD.

up the bones and fragments, which the men throw to them across their shoulders, just as we should throw meat to a dog.

The natives have no cultivated food; their garden is the waste, and their plantation the trackless forest. They go forth to the chase armed only with a slender spear and a short stick; depending more on their own subtlety and acuteness, when in pursuit of wild animals, than on the efficiency of their weapons. At one season of the year they live chiefly on roots and vegetable productions. During the spring, eggs and young birds, guanos and small lizards, snakes, and the larvae of white ants and other insects, are sought after by them. They are especially fond of the caterpillar of a large species of moth; which, like the Cossus of the Romans, is regarded as a delicacy: it is a fleshy grub, of a cream-colour, about three or four inches long, and is found in the decaying wood of the Eucalyptus. The natives are very expert in discovering the retreats of these insects, and draw them out by inserting into their holes a thin twig, at the end of which a wooden hook is attached; this instrument is worn behind the ear of the men, and is called pileyah, or pari. The kangaroo, the opossum, and the emu are taken in various ways. The scrub natives, to the northward, go out in large parties, and surrounding their game, drive them towards large nets, in which they become entangled. I have seen single nets of this kind forty feet in length, and curiously

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THE CHASE.

manufactured out of the fibre of the bulrush-root. In other parts they steal upon their prey from amongst the bushes, when the animals come down at evening-time to the water-holes to drink; and when sufficiently close they throw their spears, and then despatch them with the wirri. The wombat, and other burrowing animals, are either dug or smoked out of their holes; and rats upon the Murray are caught in grass snares, baited with food. The natives can tell with astonishing precision whether an opossum has recently ascended or descended a tree; the light scratches made by its claws upon the smooth bark disclosing the circumstance. As the gum-trees frequently run up to thirty feet without a branch, and the circumference of their trunks is too large to be encircled by the arms and legs, they have another mode of ascending. With a small stick, pointed and hardened by fire, they make a hole in the bark large enough to admit the toe, then, reaching as high as they can, they make another, and thus ascend from hole to hole; their only mode of holding on being the insertion of the pointed stick into the bark, and the nail of the great toe, with which they cling as with a finger.

The women dig various roots, particularly those of the sorrel (Oxalis), and the smaller species of Xantharaea, or grass-tree; for which purpose they use a stout pointed stick, about five feet long, called a katta.

Both sexes use but little clothing; especially in

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CLOTHING. --GAMES.

summer, and when in pursuit of game, fishing, or engaged in any kind of exercise. A cloak of opossum-fur, or a piece of kangaroo-skin, is worn by the women of the Mount Barker and Adelaide tribes. Those on the Lower Murray manufacture round mats of grass or reeds, which they fasten upon their backs, tying them in front, so that they almost resemble the shell of a tortoise. In the loose portion of these circular coverings the mothers carry their children astride round the shoulders; the sharp eyes of the little creatures just peep over the edge of the basket, and if alarmed they suddenly pop down, and nestle beneath its shelter.

On grand occasions--such as at a fight, or during a corrobbory or dance--the men adorn themselves with the feathers of the emu, the pelican, and the cockatoo, and ornament their bodies with stripes and spots of red and white ochre. Bunches of the leaves of the gum-tree also enter into the decorations of their persons, at such times, amongst several of the tribes.

Like other savage nations, they practice various games and amusements. Sham-fights take place amongst the young men, in which they display remarkable dexterity. The game of ball, and throwing with small blunted spears, called matamoodlu, at a given object, or at one another, are also their common pastimes.

The only animal which they cherish or domesticate is the dog. Every warrior in the chase is attended

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FUNERAL RITES.

by several of them; and it is frequently dangerous to approach a native encampment, unless armed with a stout stick, to repel the sudden attack of a horde of lean and half-starved dogs, that rush out with the utmost fury to worry the intruder.

The sick are either entrusted to the care of sorcerers, or "wise-men"; or they are left to pine away in the encampment, amongst dirt and filth, unable to help themselves, and unaided by medical treatment. Old age and disease fall with aggravated weight upon uncivilized man; and it is heart-rending to witness daily, amongst these poor creatures, men and women tottering on the brink of the grave, and wasted away by European disease.

The dead, amongst the Lake tribes and those on the Coorong, are, as I have before stated, raised upon elevated platforms, and covered with rushes. To the northwards they bury in a sitting posture, and form small tumuli above the graves. At stated times the mourners, who are women, come to the tombs, and with their kattas dig up the ground about them, and put the place in order; this they accompany with the most violent howling and lamentations. Near the north-west bend of the Murray the widows shave their heads, cover them with a netting, and then plaster them with pipe-clay. forming, when dry, a skull-cap, or cast of the head, upwards of an inch in thickness, and weighing several pounds. These singular badges of mourning were found by Sir Thomas Mitchell high up

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HUTS.

the Murray, lying scattered about near the native burying-places; and their appearance then caused numerous conjectures as to their origin and use.

Their habitations are extremely rude and simple. In the summer time, a few green bushes broken off from a neighbouring tree, and stuck in a semicircle in the ground, constitute their only shelter from the wind. At other times they construct huts of the branches of trees, open on one side, and about four feet high, somewhat resembling a beehive. As permanent residences are unknown, they bestow but little labour on these frail habitations, which, when deserted, are soon scattered abroad by the winds of heaven. In the open forest country the women frequently make little retreats of bark and decayed wood; building them amongst the roots of fallen trees, and in retired places, where they may remain unobserved during the absence of the men. The tribes meet on certain occasions, when they all come together and encamp in one neighbourhood. At such periods as these, their nocturnal dances take place on a large scale; numerous fires glimmer in all directions through the woods, whilst the air resounds with the tremendous and demon-like yells of their savage performances.

Their weapons and other works of art (if the term may be allowed) are rude and primitive; yet many of them display great ingenuity in their adaptation to the purposes for which they are constructed. Their carving seldom advances beyond a few lines

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WARFARE. --SUPERSTITIONS.

or angles, which ornament their wirris and wooden shields.

The native tribes have no distinct form of government; each man joins in the common hostility against his opposite tribe, and the men of most influence in matters of importance are the old and successful warriors. The possession of the soil is claimed by them, each tribe having its own hunting-ground or fishing locality, and the infringement upon these rights frequently leads to war amongst them. Their battles usually take place at daybreak. The two tribes meet on an open plain, naked and painted, with their spears and shields in their hands; a bunch of Emu feathers fastened at the end of a spear is sent as a challenge to the opposite party, and then raising themselves to a dreadful pitch of excitement -- using contemptuous language, and uttering horrid shouts and yells--they quiver their spears and rush on to combat. When one man is slain the fight generally ceases, though many others meet with severe wounds inflicted by the spears and wirris.

They appear to have no religious observances whatever. They acknowledge no Supreme Being, worship no idols, and believe only in the existence of a spirit, whom they consider as the author of ill, and regard with superstitious dread. They are in perpetual fear of malignant spirits, or bad men, who, they say, go abroad at night; and they seldom venture from the encampment after dusk, even to

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SAVAGE NOTIONS OF THE PLANETS.

fetch water, without carrying a firestick in their hands, which they consider has the property of repelling these evil spirits. They impersonate death as a man of a short, thick, and ugly appearance, with a disagreeable smell. They place great faith in sorcerers; who pretend, by charms and magic ceremonies, to counteract the influence of the spirits, to cure sickness; to cause rain and thunder, and perform other supernatural actions.

The sun and the moon are believed by them to have once inhabited the earth. They say that the moon is the man, and the sun his wife; several of the planets are dogs belonging to the moon; the constellations are groups of children, and the meteoric lights are supposed to be orphans. The Magellan clouds are regarded as signals of disease, and an eclipse is considered to bring with it destruction and death.

The following remarks apply more particularly to the tribes of the Lower Murray, and are the result of my researches amongst them.

The staff of their existence is the bulrush-root, which the women gather amongst the reeds: it is to them what bread is to the European. It is cooked upon a heap of limestones, with wood laid over the top; fire is then applied; the roots are placed on the stones; another layer of heated stones is put over them; wet grass is used to create steam, and a mound of sand is then formed over the oven. Kangaroo and the flesh of the emu and the wombat

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DIVING FOR MUSSELS.

are cooked in a similar manner, between heated stones.

After the bulrush-root is chewed, they spit out the fibrous part in the shape of small quids or pellets, heaps of which lie round their camping places. These fibres, after being well chewed, are converted into rope, of which they manufacture their fishing-lines, and nets for hunting and fishing.

A mussel, a species of anadon, is also constantly sought after, and is eaten with the bulrush-root. The women dive for them in the deep water of the Murray, with a net round their necks, which they bring up full, after remaining under the water for three or four minutes. On Lake Alexandrina the women go out upon rafts, constructed of layers of reeds, to the beds where these mussels abound. Eight or ten females will occupy one raft, and propelling it with a pole about twenty feet long over the bosom of the lake, will venture several miles from the shore. On this raft they will sit and cook their food, over a fire elevated upon wet sea-weed and sand; every now and then they dive off in search of the shells, and come up with their net-bags loaded with mussels. For eight months in the year they gather crayfish, which they catch with their toes, and immediately crush the claws, to prevent being bitten; they then roast them in the embers of their charcoal fires.

A windy day is chosen for snaring ducks, which are taken in this way: --One man, having a long

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DUCK AND SHAG-CATCHING.

slender rod, with a noose at the end, goes into the water and swims towards the ducks, his head being carefully covered with weeds, so that the fowl mistake it for something floating on the water; he then slips the noose over the head of one, drags it under water, breaks its neck, and fastens it to a girdle round his waist. Another and another are thus quietly despatched, until his girdle is filled with the spoil. Upright sticks are placed in the water, at a short distance from the shore, in such situations as shags and cormorants are known to frequent, and whilst the birds roost upon these sticks, the natives swim towards them and snare them in the same manner as the ducks. So expert are these people in stealing upon their prey, that I have known them approach pelicans whilst swimming, dive underneath the water, and catch them in their arms as they rise breaking their legs and wings to prevent escape. During dark nights they drive out the shags from the trees in which they are accustomed to roost, and climb into those where the frightened birds take shelter, catching them in their hands as they settle. In this sport they frequently receive severe bites from the shags upon their naked limbs.

In the summer-time, when the fresh-water turtle of the Murray leave the river to lay their eggs in the sand, these sharp-sighted savages track them to the sand-hills, and seldom fail in discovering their retreat. Turtle's eggs fried in the hot ashes form a palatable article of food.

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ORIGIN OF NAMES.

The cod of the Murray, and a fish in the lake resembling a salmon, are taken with rude hooks. A small cat-fish called pomery is speared from their canoes, in the shallows amongst the weeds; and the golden perch are driven out of the rushes near the banks and struck with the fishing-spear.

Tadpoles are fried upon grass. Of the entrails of the pelican they make sausages, by filling them with fat; when heated to the consistency of oil, an orifice is made at one end, and the delicacy is then handed round, each member of the family sucking out a mouthful of the fat.

The sharp edge of the mussel-shell is used as a knife, and the women crop their hair by this means; Another shell, found in the reeds, serves the purpose of a spoon.

The Lower Murray natives derive their names either from the spot where they were born, from some trivial occurrence, or from a natural object seen by the mother soon after the birth of the child; for example: --Peroocoont (centipede); Murrunmeille (make haste); Chembillin (chewing the bulrush-root); Rolcoorolca (the noise of the emu); Roncoomoodther (the barking of the dog); Ungoontah-ungoontah (stamping of the emu); Peetpeerim (the whistle of a bird).

Their chief ornaments are kangaroo-teeth fastened into their hair; a bone through the cartilage of the nose; and the down of the musk-duck and the black swan: this they twist into fillets and bind round

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ORNAMENTS AND WEAPONS.

the head. They are also partial to small bunches of reeds or feathers, which, being tied upon sticks, they attach to the hair, so as to be continually dangling at every movement of the head.

Although the weapons and utensils belonging to the various tribes are many of them similar in appearance, they are often designated by totally different names. The round mat of the Murray is called paingkoont; the basket taingkil; the kangaroo skin wernkoont. A net three and a half yards long, which is worn as a charm round the waist during sickness, and is beautifully manufactured of the fibrous bulrush-root, is termed mintum. The bomerang is not known amongst them. They have three kinds of spears in general use; the large barbed spear (woornd), made of the blue gum wood; the tea-tree spear, which is tipped with the light stem of the grass-tree, and barbed with sharp quartz or glass, cemented by means of the resin from the pine that grows on the sandy hills near the river, or by grass-tree gum and sand, of which they form a kind of glue; and the reed spear, which is like an arrow, and pointed with wood hardened by fire. The throwing-stick, for projecting the smaller spears, is called yeracool, and a short wirri for striking, puhr. Their summer habitations of boughs are termed muntum, and the winter huts pulgum.

They have a custom of offering their wives to their friends when they visit them; it is also regarded as a mark of respect to strangers. Many

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DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD.

of the men possess four wives; the old men securing the greatest number. A sister is exchanged for a daughter, and if a young man has several sisters he is always sure of obtaining wives in return. Should the ladies object, or become obstreperous, they are mollified by a shower of very sharp blows on the head with a wirri. They are kind to their children, and never beat them; if they are displeased, they take them up and throw them to a distance.

When an individual dies, they carefully avoid mentioning his name; but if compelled to do so, they pronounce it in a very low whisper, so faint that they imagine the spirit cannot hear their voice. The body is never buried with the head on, the skulls of the dead being taken away and used as drinking-vessels by the relations of the deceased. Mooloo, the native whom I met near the junction of the lake, parted with his mother's skull for a small piece of tobacco! Favourite children are put into bags after death, and placed on elevated scaffolds; two or three being frequently enclosed beneath one covering.

The bodies of aged women are dragged out by the legs, and either pushed into a hole in the earth, or placed in the forked branches of a tree; no attention whatever being paid to their remains.

Those of old men are placed upon the elevated tombs, and left to rot until the structure falls to pieces; the bones are then gathered up and buried

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EMBALMING.

in the nearest patch of soft earth. When a young man dies, or a warrior is slain in battle, his corpse is set up cross-legged upon a platform, with its face towards the rising of the sun; the arms are extended by means of sticks, the head is fastened back, and all the apertures of the body are sewn up; the hair is plucked off, and the fat of the corpse, which had previously been taken out, is now mixed with red ochre, and rubbed all over the body. Fires are then kindled underneath the platform, and the friends and mourners take up their position around it, where they remain about ten days, during the whole of which time the mourners are not allowed to speak; a native is placed on each side of the corpse, whose duty it is to keep off the flies with bunches of emu feathers, or small branches of trees. If the body thus operated upon should happen to belong to a warrior slain in fight, his weapons are laid across his lap, and his limbs are painted in stripes of red and white and yellow. After the body has remained for several weeks on the platform, it is taken down and buried; the skull becoming the drinking-cup of the nearest relation. Bodies thus preserved have the appearance of mummies: there is no sign of decay; and the wild dogs will not meddle with them, though they devour all manner of carrion.

When a friend, or an individual belonging to the same tribe, sees for the first time one of these bodies thus set up, he approaches it, and commences by

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SUPERSTITIONS.

abusing the deceased for dying: saying there is plenty of food, and that he should have been contented to remain; then, after looking at the body intently for some time, he throws his spear and his wirri at it, exclaiming, "Why did you die?"--or "Take that for dying."

If a man is sick, his women rub excrement over their heads, which they imagine will cure him; reminding us of the ancient Jews who were accustomed to sit with ashes upon their heads in times of distress. The women, when mourning, singe off their hair with a small fire-stick; the men remove theirs with a mussel-shell; they also blacken their faces with charcoal, and scratch their nose until they fetch blood. They conceive that sickness is caused by the evil spirit of some person who had a spite against them when living; and that the sickness is inflicted by the spirit gently touching the individual with a kind of wirri called millin.

An elegant species of fly-catcher, of a black colour, which continually hovers about in search of insects, performing all manner of graceful manoeuvres in the air, is regarded by them as an evil spirit, and is called mooldtharp, or devil. Whenever they see it, they pelt it with sticks and stones though they are afraid to touch or destroy it. An earthquake and a whirlpool are also termed mooldtharp by them. They have a tradition that a very long time ago a big black fellow, whom they style Oorundoo, came down in his canoe, and commanded

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BURNING THE DEAD. --MOORUNDI TRIBE.

the water to rise and form the river. The same Oorundoo is supposed to have made the bulrush root, and stocked the river with fish. His two wives proved untractable, and ran away from their lord; and to punish this unwarrantable behaviour on their part, Oorundoo very properly made two lakes to drown them, which correspond with the lakes Alexandrina and Albert.

They also say that after death the spirit wanders in the dark for some time, until it finds a string, when this same Oorundoo pulls it up from the earth.

The natives around Portland Bay, and at the south-eastern extremity of South Australia, burn their dead, by placing them in hollow trees in an erect position, and covering them with leaves and dry sticks, and then setting fire to the whole. During the ceremony the women make a dismal noise around the blazing tree, uttering shrieks and dismal howls that echo through the woods. Amongst the tribes of the Murray, and those to the northward and westward, the practice of consuming the dead by means of fire appears to be totally unknown.

I shall next proceed to offer a few remarks upon the Moorundi natives, who inhabit the banks of the river about 180 miles higher up than the Lower Murray tribe, towards the great north-west bend of the stream.

The natives of this locality believe in the existence

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INITIATORY RITES OF MANHOOD.

of a water spirit, which is much dreaded by them. They say it inhabits the Murray; hut though they affirm that its appearance is of frequent occurrence, they have some difficulty in describing it. Its most usual form, however, is said to be that of an enormous star-fish.

When a boy arrives at the age of fourteen or sixteen years, the initiatory rites of manhood are celebrated. Two or more boys of the tribe being selected and caught by stealth, a friendly man seizes each one by the arms, and the operators commence by smearing their bodies all over with red ochre and grease. The women come up crying, lamenting, and cutting their own legs in the most dreadful manner with mussel-shells, until they bleed profusely. The boys are then led up by their relatives to a place where two spears are set up, inclined towards each other, and ornamented at the top with bunches of feathers. The boys lie down, with their heads towards the spears, and preserve silence during the whole ceremony. The Weearoos, or pluckers, who are persons selected from a distant tribe, come gently up and commence plucking out the hair from their bodies; at the same time, the spectators stand round carefully watching the operation. When this is finished, the friends gather green gum bushes, and place them under the arm-pits, and over the os pubis of the boys, who then walk away with much solemnity. The lads thus initiated, are entitled to wear two kangaroo teeth, and a bunch of emu

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RITES AMONG THE SCRUB NATIVES.

feathers in their hair. They are likewise allowed to possess themselves of wives, to join in the exercises of the chase, and to go to battle with the warriors of the tribe.

The scrub natives, who are called Wirramayo, and occupy the vast scrub country to the north-west of this part of the Murray, have a different method of initiating the boys into the privileges of manhood. The boy is brought by an old man to the encampment, and laid upon his back, with an opossum-skin bag put over his face, and five fires are lighted around him, each being composed of three firesticks, placed together in a triangle. The wittoo wittoo (a mysterious instrument, formed of an oval piece of wood, fastened to a string of human hair) is then whirled round, with great rapidity, over the fires, producing a loud roaring sound, which they consider has the effect of keeping away the evil spirits. With a sharp flint, the old man cuts off the foreskin, and places it on the third finger of the boy's left hand, who then gets up, and with another native, selected for the purpose, goes away into the hills, to avoid the sight of women for some time. No women are allowed to be present at this rite.

The emu and kangaroo are caught in very large nets, twenty yards long, and five feet high, which are here made of the roots of the marsh-mallow, baked and chewed, and then spun. Several natives will watch the emus as they go to drink at the lagoons, having heard the birds whistling, and set

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NETTING BIRDS AND ANIMALS.

their nets in readiness; they then drive the emus towards the nets, where other natives are lying in ambush; the birds get frightened and entangled, the natives rush upon them, and when in the net seize hold of them and kill them with spears and wirris. They catch the wallaby with nets about fifteen yards long, and two feet high: parties go out and set these nets across the paths which the animals take when they come out of the bush to feed, and women are sent round to the farther end of the thicket, where they make a loud noise, and drive the wallaby into the nets. Before they go a-hunting, they make a practice of smoking their nets, imagining it will give them better sport. In the narrow channels, connecting the back-water lagoons with the Murray, nets for ducks are hung suspended across from the trees: a native holding the lower rope on each bank; a third native, with a triangular piece of bark, imitates the whistling of the duck-hawk, and throws the bark into the air, when the ducks, under the impression that it is really their enemy, the hawk, fly rushing into the net. In this way great multitudes are taken. Poles with nets are also put up in the passages leading to the water, and when the bronze-wing and crested pigeons come at dusk to drink, the nets are let go as they fly past, and sand is thrown at the birds to prevent their escape, or to make them alter their course into the net.

Fish are caught by diving with a long wooden

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SPEARING FISH.

spear, with which they are transfixed beneath the water: one man will dive near the roots of an old tree, where a cod (ponkoo) is expected to lie, making noises to frighten out the fish, which, as it darts out, is speared by a semi-circle of natives, standing all in readiness to strike it.

During night, several bark canoes will go out upon the river, one keeping the middle of the stream, and the others on either side. In the stern of each of these frail boats is a round piece of bark, and on the bark, stuck upright in a coating of mud, are several pieces of kordkoo, the wood of a tree producing manna, which are lighted. A native stands with his back to the light, and as the fish rise he strikes them with the mugaroo, or fishing spear. Large nets are also used by the Moorundi tribes for the purpose of capturing fish.

Besides the produce of the chase, and the fish with which the river abounds, these people eat turtles, carpet-snakes, the larvae from the ant-hills, and the eggs of the lipoa, or scrub pheasant: which makes a nest in the sand thirty feet in circumference. The roots of the bulrush, and of a triangular species of grass or reed, called poolilla, and the fleshy leaves and fruit of the mesembryanthemum, or Hottentot fig, are also articles of food. Higher up the river, towards the Darling, a root called pou is much eaten by them, and is prepared by being bruised on large flat pieces of sandstone.

Their dances are rather different from those of the

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CORROBBORY DANCES.

south. The Rankpareidkee people, twenty miles beyond lake Bormey, have brought down a dance with them which is much practised by the Moorundi natives. It is performed by a number of natives ranged in a line, having their bodies gaily decorated with stripes of red ochre; the women beat time in a group together, and the dancers, who are all men, commence dancing and singing, with their arms extended, shaking their fingers in a peculiar manner, and beating violently on the ground with their left feet.

The canoe dance of the Rufus is one of the most graceful of these savage amusements; both men and women join in this dance, and are painted with white and red ochre. The performers are ranged in a double row, each one with a stick placed behind their arms, and move their legs alternately to the time of the song, according as it is fast or slow. Suddenly and simultaneously they all remove the sticks from behind their arms, and hold them up in front, and then commence swaying their bodies alternately from side to side, in the most elegant manner, imitating in all their movements the paddling of their bark canoes.

The Kuri dance is practised by the scrub natives to the northwards, and is thus described by a friend who has frequently witnessed its performance: --

"Of the many corrobberies played in the vicinity of Adelaide, when the annual meeting of the different tribes takes place, not one, in point of

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THE KURI DANCE.

uniqueness and dramatic effect, equals the Kuri dance.

"But here, as with everything else connected with the aborigines, there seems to be a great deficiency of order and system; for the play of the Kuri with all its movements can be lengthened, shortened, or diversified according to the caprice of the players themselves; so that no general rules can be given, either respecting its duration or its movements: out of four or five times that the Kuri was performed, each differed from the other in many respects; therefore the description of one must suffice as an example for the whole.

"But first, the dramatis personae must be introduced and particularly described. --The performers were divided into five distinct classes; the greater body comprising about twenty-five young men, including five or six boys, painted and decorated as follows: --In nudity, except the yoodna, which is made, expressly for the occasion, with bunches of gum leaves tied round the legs just above the knee, which, as they stamped about, made a loud switching noise. In their hands they held a katta or wirri, and some a few gum leaves. The former were held at arm's length, and struck alternately with their legs as they stamped. They were painted from each shoulder down to the hips, with five or six white stripes, rising from the breast; their faces also with white perpendicular lines, making the most hideous appearance: these were the dancers.

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THE KURI DANCE.

Next came two groups of women, about five or six in number, standing on the right and left of the dancers, merely taking the part of supernumeraries; they were not painted, but had leaves in their hands, which they shook, and kept beating time with their feet during the whole performance, but never moved from the spot where they stood. Next followed two remarkable characters, painted and decorated like the dancers, but with the addition of the palyertatta: a singular ornament made of two pieces of stick put cross-wise, and bound together by the mangna, in a spreading manner; having at the extremities, feathers opened, so as to set it off to the best advantage. One had the palyertatta stuck sideways upon his head, while the other, in the most wizard-like manner, kept waving it to and fro before him, corresponding with the action of his head and legs. Then followed a performer, distinguished by a long spear, from the top of which a bunch of feathers hung suspended, and all down the spear the mangna was wound; he held the koonteroo (spear and feathers) with both hands behind his back, but occasionally altered the position, and waved it to the right and left over the dancers. And last came the singers--two elderly men in their usual habiliments; their musical instruments were the katta and wirri, on which they managed to beat a double note; their song was one unvaried, gabbling tone.

"The night was mild--the new moon shone with a faint light, casting a depth of shade over the earth,

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THE KURI DANCE.

which gave a sombre appearance to the surrounding scene, that highly conduced to enhance the effect of the approaching play. In the distance, a black mass could be discerned under the gum trees, whence occasionally a shout and a burst of flame arose. These were the performers dressing for the dance, and no one approached them while thus occupied.

"Two men, closely wrapped in their opossum-skins, noiselessly approached one of the wurlies, where the kuri was to be performed, and commenced clearing a space for the singers; this done, they went back to the singers, but soon after returned, sat down, and began a peculiar, harsh, and monotonous tune; keeping time with a katta and a wirri, by rattling them together. All the natives of the different wurlies flocked round the singers, and sat down in the form of a horse-shoe, two or three rows deep. By this time the dancers had moved in a compact body to within a short distance of the spectators; after standing for a few minutes in perfect silence, they answered the singers by a singular deep shout, simultaneously: twice this was done, and then the man with the koonteroo stepped out, his body leaning forward, and commenced with a regular stamp; the two men with the palyertattas followed, stamping with great regularity, the rest joining in: the regular and alternate stamp, the waving of the palyertatta to and fro, with the loud switching noise of the gum leaves, formed a scene highly characteristic

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THE KURI DANCE.

of the Australian natives. In this style they approached the singers, the spectators every now and then shouting forth their applause. For some time they kept stamping in a body before the singers, which had an admirable effect, and did great credit to their dancing attainments; then one by one they turned round and danced their way back to the place they first started from, and sat down. The palyertatta and koonteroo men were the last who left; and as these three singular beings stamped their way to the other dancers, they made a very odd appearance. The singing continued for a short time, and then pipes were lighted; shouts of applause ensued, and boisterous conversation followed. After resting about ten minutes, the singers commenced again; and soon after the dancers huddled together and responded to the call by the peculiar shout already mentioned, and then performed the same part over again: with this variation, that the palyertatta men brought up the rear, instead of leading the way. Four separate times these parts of the play were performed with the usual effect; others followed the concluding one as follows: after tramping up to the singers, the man with the koonteroo commenced a part which called forth unbounded applause; with his head and body inclined on one side, his spear and feathers behind his back, standing on the left leg he beat time with the right foot, twitching his body and eye, and stamping with the greatest precision; he

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THE KURI DANCE.

remained a few minutes in this position, and then suddenly turned round, stood on his right leg, and did the same over with his left foot. In the meanwhile, the two men with the mystic palyertatta, kept waving their instruments to and fro, corresponding with the motion of their heads and legs, and the silent trampers performed their part equally well. The koonteroo man now suddenly stopped, and planting his spear in the ground, stood in a stooping position behind it; two dancers stepped up, went through the same manoeuvre as the preceding party with wonderful regularity, and then gave a final stamp, turned round and grasped the spear in a stooping position, and so on with all the rest until every dancer was brought to the spear, so forming a circular body. The palyertatta men now performed the same movement on each side of this body, accompanied with the perpetual motion of head, leg, and arm, and then went round and round, and finally gave the arrival stamp--thrust in their arm and grasped the spear; at the same time all sank on their knees and began to move away in a mass from the singers, with a sort of grunting noise, while their bodies heaved and tossed to and fro; when they had got about ten or twelve yards they ceased, and, giving one long semi-grunt or groan (after the manner of the red kangaroo, as they say), dispersed. During the whole performance, the singing went on in one continued strain, and, after the last act of the performers, the rattling accom-

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PARNKALLA AND NAUO TRIBES.

paniment of the singing ceased, the strain died gradually away, and shouts and acclamations rent the air."

The Parnkalla and Nauo tribes inhabit the country around Port Lincoln and to the westward of Spencer's Gulf, beyond Coffin's Bay. During my visit to these people, I obtained some interesting and curious particulars connected with their customs and modes of life; especially through my friend Mr. Schurrmann, a Lutheran missionary, who has for some time past been endeavouring, but in vain, to instruct these wild and savage tribes: they appear less tractable than those on the Adelaide side of the gulfs.

They believe in the immateriality of the soul; yet the residence of the shades of the departed Nauos is said to be upon the islands in Spencer's Gulf; whilst the ghosts of the Parnkallas are supposed to take their departure to the islands of the westward, towards the Great Australian Bight. They have an idea, universally prevalent amongst them, that after death they change to white men; and there are several Europeans at the settlement at Boston Bay, whom they believe to contain the spirits of some of their deceased relatives, and actually call them by the names of the deceased.

Of the general origin of things they have no definite idea; and many of the wonders of creation and remarkable natural objects are accounted for by them in a way that exhibits their gross ignorance

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NATIVE TRADITIONS.

and grovelling ideas. For instance, three stars in one of the constellations are said to have been formerly on the earth: one is the man, another his wife, and the smaller one their dog; and their employment is that of hunting opossums through the sky.

In the vicinity of Coffin's Bay, there are hills of white sand 100 feet in height, extending a long way inland. The natives have a tradition that a raging fire broke out along the west coast, and in order to quench it two of their ancestors raised these sandhills, which effectually buried the flames beneath them.

They affirm that the Nauo tribe was once entirely cut off by a great and powerful warrior, styled "Willoo" (eagle-hawk). This formidable individual attempted to possess himself of all the women, and destroyed every man except two, who escaped by climbing into thick trees. Their names were, "Karkantya" and " Poona" (two smaller species of hawk). Willoo climbed after them, but they broke off the branch upon which he sat, and he fell to the ground; that instant a dog deprived him of his virility, when he immediately died, and was transformed into an eagle-hawk. A small lizard is supposed to be the originator of the sexes. The men distinguish it by the name of ibirri, the women call it waka: the men destroy the male lizards, and the women the females.

Should an individual happen to die without any

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MODES OF CURING DISEASES.

apparent cause, they imagine that a great bird (marralya)--which is, in fact, a man of a hostile tribe who assumes that shape--pounces upon the sick person, squeezes together his ribs and causes him gradually to expire. A short time since a Parnkalla woman was bitten by a snake, but as no blood had issued from the wound it was not considered mortal; nevertheless, the woman died in a few hours. Her husband maintained that her death was not caused by the bite of the snake, but by the influence of an enemy of his who had assumed the form of the bird marralya; and, thirsting for revenge, he sought out his enemy and speared him: this caused a desperate war between the two tribes. These people also believe in apparitions, which are termed purhabidni; and at night when they go to fetch water they always provide themselves with a spear, in case of meeting a spectre.

They have various ways of attempting to cure disease. The most usual is that of pressing the wounded or diseased part with the hands, and repeating certain incantations over it. To cure fever they take water in the mouth and with it sprinkle the patient all over; and in cases of diarrhoea, the leaves of the juniper tree are heated upon the fire and used as a fomentation. For the headache and some other disorders, they bleed the patient underneath the arm, below the elbow, using for the lancet a piece of sharp quartz. They are extremely careful that no blood is wasted, and they sprinkle it over

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BURIALS. --WEAPONS.

each other, under the impression that it makes young-men grow, and adds to their strength. Women are not allowed to be bled, nor to have any portion of blood sprinkled upon their bodies. The doctors or sorcerers (mintapa) pretend to perform cares by sucking the stomach or other parts affected; and are supposed to draw out the disease in the shape of a hard substance.

The dead of the Parnkallas and Nauos are buried, in a bent posture, in a circular pit about five feet deep: sticks are placed horizontally across the top, leaves and grass are then strewn over them; and finally, a mound of earth, like an ant-hill, is raised above the grave.

Their weapons are the throwing-stick (midlah), which is made of the she-oak wood, larger and more clumsily shaped than that of the Adelaide tribes, and having no knob of grass-tree-gum at the extremity; the spear, usually with a single barb; the wadna, for striking fish; and the wirri. They carry in their wallets surplus barbs, which they attach to the spears by means of kangaroo sinews bound round them. These barbs are formed of very hard wood, scraped to a sharp point with pieces of quartz. With these spears they strike fish with extraordinary dexterity; and sometimes the fish may be seen swimming about with the barbs sticking in their backs, making it appear as though the spears were dancing upon the water.

It is a singular fact that these western tribes have

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FIRE, FOOD, AND THE CHASE.

no means of kindling fire. They say that it formerly came down from the north; and the women, like the vestal virgins, always preserve it carefully, carrying it about with them in fire-sticks or between pieces of bark. Should the fire happen to go out, they procure it from a neighbouring encampment.

The roots of the grass-tree in the scrub are much eaten; and burning the grass for game during summer is practised. From January to April, their principal vegetable food is the fruit of the mesembryanthemum. Snakes, lizards, and the grubs from the ant-hills are also eaten; these latter they winnow from the rubbish of the cells in pieces of bark about three feet long, called uta, and devour them in large quids wrapped up in dry grass.

For hunting kangaroo-rats in the low scrub, each man is provided with a spear, having a bunch of feathers at the top. When one of the party surprises a rat, he immediately sticks his spear into the ground, at which signal the others all rush up and surround it.

They hunt fish in shoal water, by going in companies with bushes in their hands, and contriving to get outside the fish, which they drive on to the beach by throwing them up with the bushes. At the mouths of creeks, weirs of brushwood are constructed to catch the fish left by the receding tide. They frequently go fishing during the night, each man carrying a torch, which is replenished by a bunch of inflammable wood slung across his shoul-

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INFANTICIDE. --NUMERICAL NAMES.

ders; the light attracts the fish, which, as they rise, are struck with the wadna or the spear. Sea-fowl are killed at night with sticks, which they throw at them whilst the birds are asleep.

Infanticide is commonly practised immediately after birth; girls being the most frequent victims to this horrible custom.

Families of children have numerical names bestowed upon them: The first, if a male, is called Peri, if a female, Kartanya; the second, if male, Wari, if female, Waruyau; the third male, Kuni, female, Kunta; fourth male, Muni, female, Munaka; fifth male, Marri, female, Maruko; sixth male, Yarri, female, Yarrunta; seventh male, Milli, female, Melluka.

Before the young men can be admitted into the privileges and distinctions of manhood, they are compelled to undergo three distinct stages or ceremonies of initiation. At the age of twelve or fifteen, the boys are removed to a place apart from the women, whom they are not permitted to see, and then blindfolded. The men who accompany them set up a loud shout of herri, herri, herri! swinging round the witarna, a mysterious instrument used in incantations; and then proceed to blacken the boys' faces, enjoining them to whisper. For several months the boys remain in this first stage, with blackened faces, and continuing to whisper, until released; when they are again permitted to speak aloud. The place where the whisperers (now called Warrara)

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INITIATORY RITES OF MANHOOD.

have been thus initiated, is carefully avoided by the women and children.

The second ceremony takes place two or three years afterwards, when the lads become Partnapas. Their hair is tied up in a net upon the top of their heads, and not allowed to be cut. While in this state they do not whisper. The glans penis is slit open underneath, from the extremity to the scrotum, and circumcision is also performed. They then wear a bell-shaped covering, like a fringe, made of opossum-fur, spun, and called malbirrinye, which is continued to the third stage. At the conclusion of the second period, the Partnapas are permitted to take a wife.

In the third and last ceremony the young men arc styled Wilyalkanye, when the most important rites take place. Each individual has a sponsor chosen for him, who is laid on his back upon another man's lap, and surrounded by the operators who enjoin him to discharge his duties aright. The young men are then led away from the camp, and blindfolded; the women lamenting and crying, and pretending to object to their removal. They are taken to a retired spot, laid upon their stomachs, and entirely covered over with kangaroo-skins; the men uttering the most dismal wail imaginable, at intervals of from three to five minutes. After lying thus for some time, the lads are raised, and, whilst still blindfolded, two men throw green boughs at them, while the others stand in a semicircle around,

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INITIATORY RITES OF MANHOOD.

making a noise with their wirris and voices combined, which is so horrible that the wild-dogs swell the hideous chorus with their howlings. Suddenly one of the party drops a bough, others follow; and a platform of boughs is made, on which the lads are laid out. The sponsors then turn to and sharpen their pieces of quartz, choosing a new name for each lad, which is retained by him during life. These names all end either in alta, titi, or ulta. Previous to this they have borne the names of their birth-places; which is always the case amongst the women, who never change them afterwards. The sponsors now open the veins of their own arms, and raising the lads, open their mouths, and make them swallow the first quantity of blood. The lads are then placed on their hands and knees, and the blood caused to run over their backs, so as to form one coagulated mass;and when this is sufficiently cohesive, one man marks the places for the tattooing, by removing the blood with his thumb-nail. The sponsor now commences with his quartz, forming a deep incision in the nape of the neck, and then cutting broad gashes from the shoulder to the hip down each side, about an inch apart. These gashes are pulled open by the fingers as far as possible; the men all the while repeating very rapidly, in a low voice, the following incantation: --

"Kanya, marra, marra,
Kauo, marra, marra,
Pilbirri, marra, marra."

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INITIATORY RITES OF MANHOOD.

When the cutting is over, two men take the witarnas, and swing them rapidly round their heads, advancing all the time towards the young men. The whole body of operators now draw round them, singing and beating their wirris; and, as they reach the lads, each man puts the string of the witarna over the neck of every lad in succession. A bunch of green leaves is tied round the waist, above which is a girdle of human hair; a tight string is fastened round each arm, just above the elbow, with another about the neck, which descends down the back and is fixed to the girdle of hair; and their faces and the upper part of their bodies, as far as the waist, are blackened with charcoal. The ceremony concludes by the men all clustering round the initiated ones, enjoining them again to whisper for some months, and bestowing upon them their advice as regards hunting, fighting, and contempt of pain.

All these ceremonies are carefully kept from the sight of the women and children; who, when they hear the sound of the witarna, hide their heads, and exhibit every outward sign of terror.


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