NORTH-WEST MYSTERY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 138, 14 June 1930, Page 20

NORTH-WEST MYSTERY

GIANT- BLACKS WITH LATiN ; WORDS

Gigantic blacks standing almost seven feet high, and armed with great sixteen-foot .spears, who speak, a strange dialect, unlike their caveman prototypes on the Kimbcrley coast! A rich field awaits* tiro -anthropologist and philologist on an island in the far north-west of Australia, for there they will find natives who can draw the shape of old Dutch cannon on the sand, and whose language bears a striking similarity to Latin, writes Bernard Byder in the "Sydney Sun." '■.-■ Living on Montgomery Island they are a'dwindling race, for ten years ago they could •bo numbered in hundreds, while to-day there are but a scattered few dozen. They can be seen in their crude catamarans fishing.i'oi- dugongyor on 1 be reef spearing iisJi left in pools by the fallen lido. Far removed from civilisation,, they have remained practically untouched by white influence, beyond a visit frojn 'ah'oc.casionarbeachcomber in search of ■: '-troeas, beche:de-mer, or' turtle 7 . shell, jtaid their only conception of a city is :.the tiny mission station at Port George '-.ly1., some fifty .miles away, visited in time of famine.. ■... ' At. the time of our visit 'we had * anchored our - 12-ton lugger some six miles off the island, owing to it being surrounded ■by a reef of some 20,000 acres. .'"■ ' -.■..'■■ '■' _. ' ; ■■.' "tn the; distance we could see a tiny •peck' pnt off. from the.shore,. , which turned but to be an old man paddling a catamaran, a crude craft composed of mangrove logs pegged together. He was carrying five or six great spears, and in addition to his lubra and a na;i tive dog, had a' fire burning merrily on ' aflat stone. ■ As he came nearer he appeared apprehensive, of our friendliness, but, his fears being allayed, he came-alongside |md made fast to the stern of the lugfef/tKe' woman hiding her face in her hands. The dog growled at the unusual sight "of white men, and as the old man looked Sip at us he uttered the one word f^aqua," at the same time splashing some water to illustrate his requirements. • .'_.-.'

He was brought on board and given water, while a pannikin was passed

over the side to his wife, who was rehletant to come on board. Water is scarce .on Montgomery Island, and though the natives obtain it by digging, it is very unpalatable. His thirst being appeased, he squatted'down'under the awning, and .when we pointed to.the water and said "aqua," he repeated the word. We then pointed to the dog, and received tho1 astonishing reply "caningo," an apparent mixture of canine and dingo. A pencil was produced,1 and his strange Answers' written down, as we pointed to various objects, though! his vocabulary was- iiinited, for ho had no words for tho unfamiliar buckets, hurricane lamps, or cinematograph camera, but, to out' astonishment, a rifle was no novelty to him, for he pointed to it several times.' ■ Tor "head-" he gave us "apita," which is allied to "capita." ' One could literally converse with this wild'man, for when.ashore for. crocodiles the next day. he acted as guide, and.gave a laconic "mat" when we bowled one over, signifying . that the particular crocodile was in truth "inorte." ~-•:.. Their ears being sensitive to ■' the sounds of the bush, they were alarmed at the rifles, and kept in the background with hands tb ears when one was being fired; but we soon found that ..though rifles may have been a little novelty, they,,knew of cannon.—-cannon, of the old- Dutch type, found on _the boats of the "early buccaneers—for'this particular man drewthe crude outline of one on the sand.' .' . "■ ' We, speculated as to the possible wreck of some early Spanish or Dutch navigator, and the cannon having t>een located by these natives in their travels amongst the hundreds of islands,. for it was certainly, a. cannon he drew. We left him and ;the remnants: of a once numerous tribe, but it came as a shock for we-white men to find a language/ distinctly like Latin spoken in this remote spot. Possibly it was also pleasant for-that'old native, who paddled across six miles of shark-infested water, to pj.y us hia respects in a dialect we could slightly understand.'