coldness of the morning makes heavy the eyes of the sleepers, the young man steals from his miam and runs swiftly to the spot appointed for the meeting. When they meet, the girl, anxious and full of fears, runs even more swiftly than her lover to some sequestered dell, where she hopes they may remain undiscovered until the first surprise and natural indignation are no longer predominant in the minds of their relatives. The members of the tribe to whom the female belongs institute a search, as custom and law require; but it is not prosecuted energetically, nor does the absence of the girl evoke evil passions, if by report they have learnt that a young man is missing from the camp of the neighbouring tribe. After the lapse of a few days, the young man returns with
arms, when the etiquette on such occasions is to struggle violently for a few minutes, as if anxious to renew the contest, and then to submit quietly to superior force and cease the combat."—North-West and Western Australia. Grey, vol. II., pp. 243-4.
Collins gives much information of a very interesting character respecting the ordeal laws of the natives of New South Wales. One native, named Carradah, who had stabbed another in the night, but not mortally, was obliged to stand for two evenings exposed to the spears not only of the man whom he had wounded, but of several other natives. He was suffered to cover himself with a bark shield, and he behaved with great courage and resolution. It appears that throughout he was able to protect himself, but finally he allowed one of his adversaries to pin his arm to his side. After that there was a general fight—men, women, and children taking part in it.
In another case, where a young man had taken the wife of a native during his absence, spears were thrown, and the lover was wounded by the husband.
Again, a stranger—Gome-boak—a visitor to the natives of Sydney, had to stand, covered with his shield, to receive the spears of his hosts, in order to the settlement of some affair of honor.
Further, he informs us that, in March 1795, "a young man of the name of Bing-yi-wan-ne, being detected in an amour with Maw-ber-ry, the companion of another native—Ye-ra-ni-be Go-ru-ey—the latter fell upon him with a club; and, being a powerful man, and of superior strength, absolutely beat him to death. Bing-yi-wan-ne had some friends, who, on the following day, called Ye-ra-ni-be to an account for the murder; when, the affair being conducted with more regard to honor than justice, he came off with only a spear-wound in his thigh."—An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut.-Col. Collins, 1804, pp. 237-259, 285, and 287.
Mr. Wilhelmi also mentions the ordeal. A murderer at Port Lincoln was tried by his tribe, and it was ordered that the brother of the murdered man should hurl two spears at the criminal; and that if he should fail to hit the man, the crime should be expiated. From the violent and wild gestures of the warriors, the running about, the jumping, the biting of the beards and the weapons, the noise and the grimaces, it was expected that a sanguinary combat would ensue; but nothing of a serious character occurred. The antagonists—if antagonists they can be called—trod from their own sides into the foreground, and the avenger threw a spear most skilfully, which was parried as ably as it was thrown. Whereupon the combat was brought to a close.
One very remarkable case is thus described:—
"If one [a native] accidentally kills another of his people, he is punished according to the nature of the case—generally, to submit to the ordeal of the spear, as in the affair of Woolorong (alias Lonsdale), in the year 1844."
"This custom was prevalent with the ancient Greeks.—Homer's Iliad, b. 21, lines 62 to 150."
"Police Report.—Melbourne, 7th April 1844.—Woolorong was suspected of murder, and condemned to be speared at by seven of the best men of the Western Port tribe; as he ran by them at a certain distance, he escaped the spears thrown at him; but a general fight took place, and the police had some difficulty in suppressing the affray, after many were seriously wounded. Police Report.—Melbourne, 14th April 1844.—Yang-yang (alias Robert Cunningham), brought up for obstructing the chief constable in his attempt to take Woolorong (alias Lonsdale), a Goulburn black, for the murder of an Aboriginal boy in the service of Mr. Manton, at Western Port. Yang-yang pleaded to the bench that Woolorong was about to submit to the ordeal of spearing, viz.:—seven of the principal men of the Western Port tribe were each to throw a spear at him. If he
