foreign lands. In this he noticed that they preferred to hear of other savage races to the wonders of civilised countries.
Nearly every tribe has its Boylya Gadak, or sorcerer, who is believed to possess superhuman powers, and on occasion is able to mete out retributive justice to anyone who is so foolish as to place himself within his power. The sorcerer is credited with visiting sleeping natives of another tribe and consuming their flesh, and even placing in their bodies bits of wood and quartz. Natural deaths are caused in this way. The boylya of the afflicted person's tribe is then brought into requisition, and, demurely stooping down, sucks the body of the native over the kidneys, liver, heart, or lungs, and presently rises and takes from his month the identical piece of quartz the enemy had implanted in the body. The boylya gadak who is unwatched, probably puts the article in his mouth when he stoops down to begin his operation. That bit of quartz is the most cherished relic of the natives, and is carried about by them in all their wanderings. Different European travellers have observed the efforts of the boylya and other natives to charm them away when they, for the first time, are seen. The natives gather on some rocky ridge or commanding hill, and there puff out their cheeks, blow energetically breaths of deadly enchantment, which should immediately kill or frighten them away, gesticulate wildly, and dance in weird fantastic movements. The picture made in this demonstration of the naked aborigines against the encroachment of the ghostly white men on their primal domains is, at least, pathetic and mournful. But the Englishman is imperturable, and forces his way onward. The spirits are more likely to come at night, and the native when he moves about always carries a lighted stick with him in the darkness to frighten them away.
Among the presiding spirits believed in by a few tribes is the Wangul, a monster whose realms are the lakes or rivers or oceans. Out of his watery bed this Australian Neptune rises and attacks the natives, generally the females. The Jilgi is another deity which frequents certain localities, and his haunts are most carefully avoided by the aborigines. At times he leaves his spirit-woods and visits his divine ire on some erring one. Wangul and Jilgi are as feared by those tribes who believe in them as the classical Greek feared Neptune or Jove. Thunder is said by some to be caused by black snakes, and the ignorant natives observe the roar and flash of the elements with horror.
Beyond these beliefs in an unknown, the natives are troubled not, and they meet death, when it is inevitable, bravely and without shuddering fear. They neither pray for favours nor give praise. It is remarkable that so light-hearted a people take such small notice of the mysterious, and are so unlike the light-hearted pagan races of the earth. Earnest efforts have been made to teach them of a God and the principles of Christianity, but have not been altogether successful, and it is doubtful whether an intelligence so limited can comprehend the intricacies and beauties of Christianity. They have lived for centuries their simple, untroubled daily life, and neither tradition nor conscience tell them of a hereafter as the European understands it. Free, democratic, contented, untramelled, they place no value on these things.
They are to a certain extent landed proprietors, and although nomadic their wanderings are within circumscribed limits. Every tribe has its own district, within which animals and fish and vegetation are as much its property as the run and flocks and herds are of settlers. But the kangaroo, wallaby, and emu are not branded, and are somewhat wilder than the sheep and cattle of the white man. And as the European resents a neighbour killing his stocks so does the native object to another tribe encroaching on his domains. This is the cause of aboriginal wars, and the native may resent with some justification the white man's taking away his freehold and despoiling his stock. A district is partly vested in the male, who, if he pleases, may sub-divide it among his sons and heirs. But if there be no male children, the sons of his daughters succeed to the land. The colony of Western Australia may thus be divided into those districts inhabited by the several tribes. Each tribe, or, more properly, each family, consists of from half a dozen persons in barren districts, to a hundred or two in others. The husband and father is the chief of the district, but his brothers and male relatives are not subject to him to any extent. There is no organisation of armies or tribes as it is understood among some dark races, and no prince or chief.
The father is the head, and he joins forces with his relatives in cases of war. Certain laws confer favours on, and circumscribe, certain classes. This is more particularly the case in the marriageable age of men and in the foods they are permitted to eat. Like the Jews of old, a man dying, his widow goes to the nearest relative, generally a brother, who sometimes thus obtains several wives. Polygamy is therefore recognised. The wife is to all intents and purposes a chattel. A man is not allowed to marry until he has subscribed to three compulsory ceremonies—hunger, exposure, and mutilation. In some tribes the genitive organs of males are mutilated so that they cannot marry at all. Circumcision is widely practised in the inland districts, and when a boy reaches puberty the men separate from the women and an old man performs the operation. It is sometimes recognised as a state function and orations are delivered at intervals during the operation, and much importance and pomp are placed on the occasion. It is then, too, that the complete mutilation takes place. Statements have also been made that the women at these periods of separation perform certain operations, but their precise nature has never been gleaned. Close intermarrying is prevented by well understood laws which enable a man to marry into certain families and not into others. The children receive their names in some districts from the mother, in others from the father, and, as in ancient days, from special circumstances at their birth or in their infancy. A female child is often affianced to a much older male soon after birth and she becomes his property from the age of seven years upwards. The marriage is celebrated by no display of wealth and hospitality, no taking of vows. The bride merely goes to the mia of the bridegroom which she prepares for his reception, or she erects a new hut. By this simple act she is his to do with as he wills. He may punish her in whatever way he wishes, and she must carry his burdens and tend his every whim. It often occurs that a pretty native girl who is affianced in infancy becomes a centre of attraction when she arrives at maturity, and intrigues take place among the men to obtain possession of her. Her life is then not a merry one, for in cases of punishment she is generally the sufferer. Willingly or not she may be spirited away; willingly she steals out of her husband’s camp and joins her lover; unwillingly, she is forcibly seized or stunned by a blow from a hatchet and carried off—so severely are their loves carried on. Then the couple roam from wood to wood, travelling long distances among strangers. Their tracks are sometimes followed and woe be to the young man if he is found asleep—a spear driven through his body ends his love affair. In case they are on the alert the combatants stand face to face and then move away, each ordering the girl to follow him, and whichever she
