The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
chieftainship. males preponderate in numbers over females; the reasons thereof. disease. food.
Unlike other savage races, these people have not any hereditary, or elected chiefs, or rulers of any kind, to whom they can appeal or rely on in times of difficulty or calamity, or who may lead them to battle. This latter, however, is not of much moment, as they are by far too cowardly to fight in an open, straightforward manner, foe to foe, in daylight. Amongst higher races cowardice is held in thorough contempt, but being innate in the character of these people, it may not be so reprehensible after all, consequently should rather be viewed as a peculiarity of race than otherwise, and so be deemed a physical imperfection only, which it doubtless is, else there would be exceptions, and to this rule there is not one even to prove it. The oldest man in a tribe is, to some small extent, looked up to beyond his fellows, but this quasi respect is only apportioned him because of his being able to recount incidents, legends, and thrilling adventures (of which he is invariably the hero) that are beyond the ken of the others, and more than probable only had birth in his own fertile imagination. He, however, carefully dates the period of their occurrence far enough back to preclude the possibility of his being taxed with either plagiarism or romance.
In the long, bright, starry nights these old fellows are to be seen in perfection; it is then that they shine in all their self-glorification, which may almost be seen exuding from their pores, if their audience be attentive and numerous.
When there chances to be a dozen or two of one tribe camped together, one of these old fellows will get up, nude as he came into the world, with the exception of his waist-belt, which is of the narrowest, place his back to the fire, and with a flourish of his womera[1] (which he holds in his hand in readiness to emphasise his flowing periods) to attract the attention of his audience, who, nothing loth, subside into silence, and so remain for hours together (with perhaps an occasional ejaculation of wonder), listening with mouths and ears agape to the savage stories of the ancient narrator, who never seems at a loss for matter, and it is only when tired nature asserts herself, that these savage seances come to a conclusion.
These legends and histories, and in fact all their knowledge, is kept alive and handed down from one generation to another in this manner; therefore, whatever cannot be woven into an entertaining garb for winter's evening amusement is entirely lost and forgotten. This, therefore, quite accounts for their scarcity of historical lore, and the entire absence of anything like reliable testimony as to their antecedents—that is to say, if we endeavour to trace them back for several generations. Of course, any telling incident, such as a sanguinary midnight conflict, may not be altogether forgotten, even after a lapse of twenty-five years or so, and they will speak freely enough about it in a general way; but it is utterly impossible to get them to individualise or particularise upon the subject, as from the moment of a man's death (no matter how he may have come to an end) his name is never again spoken, and should there be another in the tribe bearing the same name, as frequently there chances to be, he immediately adopts another name.
Thus, much that would have been valuable information but for this superstitious foible, is totally lost. From this it will be seen that the aborigines are merely a people of the day, that it is their persistent endeavour to forget—unlike other races, whose whole aim, indeed whose every effort, is a straining to remember.
In all the tribes the males preponderate to a very considerable extent; this is not because fewer female children are born, as at birth the sexes are about equal. The mortality amongst the females after the age of puberty is attained, however, is far greater than it is amongst the males, and for this excess there are numerous very cogent reasons, amongst which the fact of their early maternity is not one of the least. We, ourselves, have known frequent instances of girls becoming mothers at the ages of eleven and twelve years, and child-bearing at these tender years entails future infirmities, which carry them off ere they have come to proper maturity; then, again, their husbands convert them into perfect beasts of burden, making them carry loads, sufficient almost to break down a horse, much more a weak woman. Besides that, they ill-use them in a most brutal manner, often, yes, very often, killing them outright in their ungovernable periods of passion. When an accident of this kind happens (we call it accident for mildness, but it is murder, none the less), the other members of the tribe do not pay the least heed to it; it is only a lyoore[2] and a husband has a perfect right to chastise his wife even unto death; the loss is not a tribal one; at least, it is not considered so, as it only effects the individual, and he soon discovers that it does so, for when his fire requires replenishing, or his coolamen[3] requires filling, he has to do them himself, or go cold and thirsty.
Wanton profligacy is another fertile source of disease and death amongst the women. We know that in general it is supposed that the venereal disease amongst the aborigines is entirely due to the Europeans, but a greater error than this never had promulgation, for long before the advent of the white man it was one of the greatest scourges this primitive people had to bear. The probabilities are that the trepang-hunting Malays and Chinese first introduced it on the Northern coast centuries ago, from whence it spread from one tribe to another, until the disease became a national calamity. The women being constitutionally weaker than the men, therefore less able to run away and hide during the frequent midnight massacres, are more liable to fall into the clutches of their relentless foes than the men; besides, at those times of extreme peril, they become perfectly paralysed with terror, and thus fall an easy prey to the ruthless assassins. The victims, therefore, of these slaughters are most frequently females, and children of tender years, or old, bed-ridden men. Such a thing as a chivalrous protection during these panics, or indeed at tiny other time, is quite unknown; in fact, it would be deemed derogatory to manhood to run the slighest personal risk for any such quixotic purpose; but then in all phases of aborignal life self-preservation is the only law. Everything they do, in short, is done instinctively; they never by any chance arrive at a conclusion by sheer force of logical reasoning.
There seems to be a perfect absence of diseases having a contagious nature, such as fevers, &c. With the exception of occasional visits from influenza, which seldom has a fatal termination, they are altogether exempt. During winter, 'tis true, they are very much subject to a kind of scurvy, which, from its prevalence, might be deemed contagious but we are inclined to imagine that it partakes more of a venereal character, and each break out is due to lack of nutritious food, combined with cold, wet lodgings. As the mild spring advances, and food becomes plentiful, this distemper gradually leaves them, and by summer their skins have returned to their normal sleekness, with a glossiness truly wonderful, considering the quantity of blotches with which they were marred during winter.
All the very old men in the colony show distinct smallpox traces. In speaking of this scourge, they say that it came with the waters—that is, it flowed down the rivers in the early flood season, laying its death-clutch on every tribe in its progress, until the whole country became perfectly decimated by the fell disease. During the earlier stages of its ravages the natives gave proper sepulture to its victims, but at last the death-rate became so heavy, and the panic so great, that burying the bodies was no longer attempted attempted. The survivors merely moved their camps daily, leaving the sick behind to die, and the dead to fester in the sun, or as food for the wild dogs, and carrion loving birds to fatten upon, until in a short time the whole atmosphere became impregnated with the fœtid odours arising from the decomposing carcases. The poor creatures began to think that not one would escape death, and had altogether arrived at such a profound depth of misery through this foul destroyer as to feel indifferent whether they lived or died.
From what we have been able to glean from the native son, the subject of this disease, we are inclined to think that it must have come from Sydney, and if about forty or fifty years since the inhabitants of that city underwent the ordeal of this plague, there cannot be any doubt remaining on the subject. When the bright, torrid summer displaced the moister spring, the disease gradually died out, or had run its course, leaving but a sorry remnant of the aborigines behind, and it was years before the panic then caused was even partially forgotten. To this day the old men speak of it shudderingly, and with such an amount of loathing horror, as it is impossible for any other evil to elicit from, their inherent stolidity.
This small-pox infliction seems to be the only occasion (of which they have any knowledge) upon which great numbers died together, from one cause. It is therefore not to be wondered at if the survivors do look back upon the scourge with feelings of profound dread.
The natives attributed this pestilence to the malign and magical machinations of tribes with whom they were not on terms of amity; that, however, is only a matter of course, since they ascribe all the ills with which Nature smites them to the same source.
Their food consists of fish principally, and of which for about eight months in the year they have abundance; so large, indeed, is their supply during those months, they cannot nearly consume it, consequently quite a moiety is allowed to go to waste.[4]
To supplement the fish, they have kangaroo, emu, opossum, and wallaby, and besides these nearly every kind of aquatic bird is found in the greatest profusion on the lakes and lagoons. The latter they capture in immense numbers by the aid of nets, manufactured for that purpose only, and during the breeding season they get eggs by the thousand. The canoes arriving at the camps at that time are literally laden down to the water's edge with eggs only; they are heaped up at both ends until there is barely room for the native to stand and paddle. It is of but small moment to them whether the eggs have birds in them or not; they are consumed with a relish all the same, be they fresh or stale.
A species of flag, having a farinaceous root, called by the natives kumpung, grows in abundance by the margin of all the great rivers and lakes; it makes a very palatable and nutritious food, of which the natives are justly fond. It can be procured in abundance, but as it requires considerable labour to dig, much less of it is procured than its manifold merits warrant. The flower stem of this flag is also eaten when young; a foot or eighteen inches long is the best size. It is very insipid to European palates, and we fancy it contains but a small modicum indeed of nutritious matter; however, the natives are extremely partial to it, and therefore consume it in vast quantities. In this green stage it is termed by the aborigines ioonty. The common, small flowered yellow water-lily, which so plentifully fringes most of the colonial lakes and lagoons, is another source from whence they derive a desirable addition to their diet. The roots of this plant are formed of many tubers, of about an inch and a half long by half an inch in diameter. The root of one plant will frequently yield as many tubers as a half-pint measure will contain. They are baked before being eaten, and are of a sweet mawkish taste, very gluey in appearance, not unlike what is termed a waxey potato. They are called lahoor by the natives.
The sow thistle, dandelion yam, and a trefoil which grows on country which at times is inundated during their respective seasons are consumed in vast quantity. To see the lyoores[5] approaching the camp in the evenings, with each a great bundle of these green forage plants on her head, a stranger to their customs would imagine that they were providing the nightly fodder for a dairy of cows. They eat these herbs in a raw state by way of salad; the ioonty is also eaten uncooked.
Besides these they eat the larvae of several kinds of ants, some of which are tree-inhabiting insects, others are mound-raising ground ants. An immense grub also they consume in large quantities; it is two or three inches in length, and is found deep in the wood of the gum-tree. The natives are very expert in finding the trees in which these grubs are; in fact, they never err; yet to a casual observer, or even one with some acuteness, there is not the slightest difference in the appearance of a tree containing numberless grubs and one without any. These grubs are eaten with great relish, either cooked or raw.
During winter they are not in the least choice as to their food; anything having life, no matter how repulsive to European notions it may be, is most acceptable. At that time frogs are deemed good, snakes[6] most toothsome, and the abominable fetid wild dog is esteemed a luxury of the highest order.
- ↑ Womera: Throwing stick. This instrument is used for propelling the lighter spears. It is also invariably employed by aboriginal orators whilst speaking, to give effect to their eloquence.
- ↑ Lyoore: Woman.
- ↑ Coolamen: Water vessel.
- ↑ This is only applicable to the aborigines who inhabit the Northern frontier of the colony. With the exception of the too bountiful supply of fish, however, the food of the natives all over the colony is pretty much of the same character.
- ↑ Lyoore: Woman.
- ↑ It may seem an anachronism to speak of snakes as an article of food in the winter time, but it is not so, as the aborigine with his savage cunning knows when and where to catch the reptile napping during the season of hybernation.