and terrify the natives;[1] he would pretend that some other sorcerer was intent on inflicting injuries on a member of the tribe, and with him he would wage battle; he would pretend that he had discovered signs of sickness in a warrior, and forthwith that man was doomed to torments, suggested by the priest for his cure, the infliction of which provoked yells that were heard for long distances through the forest.
Those who had returned from the hunt narrated their exploits as they sat by the camp-fires. The mode in which they had tracked and finally speared the kangaroo was set forth; what they had seen in the day's journey; how the water had fallen or increased in some well-known reach of a creek; whether roots were plentiful or not in certain areas; whether traces of strange blackfellows had been observed—these, and all the domestic affairs of the people, the birth of children, the betrothals arranged, the marriages proposed, the fights that were to be anticipated, the next movements of the party, the re-arrangement of willams consequent on new domestic ties being formed or destroyed—all these subjects kept the people in lively chatter until the embers of the fires spread over the camps the rich red lights of burning woods that no longer sent forth flame; and then all was hushed, and the warriors sank into profound sleep—sleep so profound that a blow of a club only would waken some of them.[2]
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer gives the following information respecting the games of the natives of Victoria. He says:—"The ball with which they play is named Dirlk. The material of which it is made is suggested by the name. It is part of the organs of an 'old man' kangaroo, blown out. The game is played by the ball being thrown, or kicked up with the foot. Whoever catches the ball oftenest, wins the game." He adds:—"The blacks often amuse themselves by exhibiting their skill in wrestling; and they had a game like our 'Hide and seek.' One hid himself, and gave a signal by whistling. The fun, of course, was to find out, from the direction of the sound, where the hidden person was. They used also to play at digging out a wombat. A man or a boy got into a hole, and the amusement consisted in digging him out." They would sometimes play a game called Brajerack (the wild blackfellow). One man would be the "wild black," and he would endeavour to catch the other players who were
- ↑ It was a firm belief of the Aborigines of the Yarra and the Coast tribes that there were tribes of Aborigines very different from themselves in the mountainous parts of the colony; and it is certain that the men of Gippsland and those living on the highlands at the sources of the River Murray, and near the Great Dividing Range, were fiercer and bolder than the men living in the lowlands. Mr. H. B. Lane says that the "Dargo tribe, as described by Mr. Thomas Mitchell, a Local Guardian, was of a fiercer disposition and of a more ferocious aspect than those belonging to the Murray, upon whom they were in the habit (but not recently) of making predatory raids."
It seems, therefore, that the physical character of the country is as influential in Australia in modifying the habits of the people as in Europe and Asia; but in stating this, one must not lose sight of the fact that, whereas in Asia the hill tribes, as a rule, are the remnants of the Aboriginal inhabitants who have been driven by intruding races to remote retreats, they are in Australia members of the same great family—similar in speech, of like physique, and possessing habits and traditions identical with those of the tribes dwelling on the coast.
- ↑ Collins observed that all the natives slept soundly. In one case, of many known to Collins of the extreme soundness with which they sleep, a murderer first took a sleeping infant from the arms of the father whom he was about to deprive of existence.—An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut.-Col. Collins, 1804, p. 361.
