have rights as well as duties; and the government of a tribe might well serve as a model to peoples claiming to be civilized but more inclined to vices than the Australians.
Each miam is placed under the control of the head of a family; whose duty it is to keep order and settle any differences that may arise between the members of the household or with those of any neighbouring miam. If any man is jealous, and charges another with having paid unnecessary attentions to his wife or his daughters, the head-man investigates the matter. Those who are implicated become much excited, and not unfrequeutly come to blows, and a fight follows. Under such circumstances, the head-man has to act judicially and executively. He determines who is in fault, and he chastises him. The quarrel, however noisy and violent, calls forth no interference from the inhabitants of the neighbouring miams. They stare at the men and women who are quarrelling, and they whisper and talk; but even when two or three are fighting, and with dangerous weapons, they never attempt to interrupt the proceedings. The business of controlling the fight, it is well understood, belongs to the head-man, and whatever he does is right. He stands by with his Leonile and Mulga, ready to ward or to strike, and he seldom fails to preserve that just mean between too slight pnnishment and revengeful injury which is not enough considered amongst Europeans when disputes and crimes have to be dealt with.[1]
- ↑ The mode in which offences are dealt with by the natives is highly interesting.
Mr. Samuel Gason says that the natives of Cooper's Creek do not punish their children for committing theft, but the father or mother has to fight with the person from whom the property was stolen; and upon no occasion are the children beaten.
Should any native steal from another, or should one accuse another wrongfully of any offence, the injured person challenges the wrongdoer, and a fight settles the difficulty.
If two or more men fight, and one of the number be accidentally killed, he who caused his death must also suffer death. But should the offender have an elder brother, then he must die in his place; if he have no elder brother, his father must be his substitute; but in case he has no male relative to suffer for him, he himself must die. He is not allowed to defend himself, nor indeed is he informed of the time when sentence will be executed. On some night appointed, an armed party surround and despatch him. Two sticks, each about six inches in length—one representing the killed and the other the person executed—are then buried, and upon no occasion is the circumstance afterwards referred to.
In the year 1869 I sent a memorandum to the gentlemen in charge of Aboriginal Stations in Victoria, asking them, amongst other things, how lying and other like offences are dealt with by the natives, and I received much interesting information on the subject.
The Rev. John Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, Gippsland, states that the blacks would only hurt a man for telling a lie if the lie were told to hurt another black; but they would take no notice of a simple lie. A black in giving an account of an expedition would generally speak the truth; only some would not; but the blacks have a good idea as to whom they may trust in this respect. As to their mode of punishment, they have no authorized method; if a man became obnoxious to certain members of the tribe, they would quietly steal upon him and kill him. When a black has committed himself, he will, what is called, stand out before those he has offended, so that they may have their revenge. Blacks never like a quarrel to be of long standing: they do not like to bear a grudge; nothing would make a man more miserable than to think that some of his tribe had a "down" on him. He would rather take a good thrashing than live in such a state. This is partly owing to the practice which is very common among blacks of bewitching any one who has offended them. This they would do by getting a piece of hair or somethiug belonging to the person they
