THE ABORIGINES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 65, 14 September 1936, Page 10

THE ABORIGINES

1 ■. ■ •■ ■. .. ♦—-—- A SETTLER'S STUDY

LONELY CpAST AREA (From "The, Post's" Representative.)' .-'-■ ' ' SYDNEY, August 22. , Mr. J. B. Gibbs, a Northern . Terr tory cattle-station owner, who is a present in Sydney, said. that the mos remarkable discovery he had made ii the course; of a long study of the Aus tralian aboriginal was that the abo'ri gines, had handed down through' thi centuries a tribal tradition which ap parently had its origin in theßibli cal story cf Noah and the Ark. . Mr. Gibbs said that he had oftei heard parents. telling their children ; story of big rains, followed by floods that covered the whole earth, and o: the good man and his wife who flbatec off on a big tree, taking with them i pair of each species of animal. Th« story included a landing on a mountain, and the growth of anew tribe Careful investigation had convinced him that the legend was of ancient origin, and was not the relic of some garbled fragments of missionary teaching:. : ; • . ■'■■'•. Mr. Gibbs has lived in one of the loneliest sections of the\Gulf of Carpentaria country for thirty years, and since 1915 has controlled.his holding of 3000 square miles, including 70 miles of the coastline of the gulf. ' He said that the natives in his countrjK were good physical specimens. He had known them to cover. 100 miles on foot in two days. They showed a high measure of gratitude to any white man who treated them fairly, and he had several splendid proofs of their devotion. They had a knowledge of the curative properties of herbs. By boiling the leaves of one tree they distilled an unfailing cure for dysehtry. Another remedy was for colds,- and yet another for the treatment of kidney troubles. In the hunting of game, Mr; Gibbs said, the natives showed great ingenuity. An emu was made the victim of its own curiosity, being enticed by a moving object, usually a red rag, until it was close enough to be killed by a spear thrust: The bush turkey was deceived by the imitation of the call of its enemy, the eagle hawk. When hunting the kangaroo, the natives smeared themselves with mud. which: deadened the scent and made the natives less conspicuous. The natives hunted the dugong (the. so-called sea cow) with harpoons. Having harpooned one, they would Jeave it to tow a huge log about until it was exhausted. One great difficulty with the aborigines, said Mr. Gibbs, was caused by the intensity of theif faithfulness, t. If they adopted a "boss," no other white man could exercise efficient control aver them.