BOOMERANG DUEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13692, 7 March 1908, Page 5 (Supplement)

BOOMERANG DUEL.

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LIFE. During a fifteen months' residence in Adelaide I seldom saw a dark face in the city streets; but a journey northward once gave me, says a, writer in the Field, an opportunity of a, glimpse of aboriginal life under especially interesting circumstances. I was visiting at Fort Augusta, when the Chief Justice came to that town to hold the assizes'. There was something not a. little stimulating to one's souse of patriotism in the thought of British law pursuing its course in such surroundings. Port Augusta is almost on the borders of the desert. In the immediate neighbourhood there was growing in profusion the " salt bush," which supports the life of the sheep during drought, and the tempting "prickly jack," a weed good to look upon, but accursed to the farmer, us its pointed spur works havoc among the fleeces. Close by we saw a, prosperous ostrich farm, and a. number of camels, with their Afghan drivers, about to start on a journey still further north.

The strange impression of this juxtaposition of old and new was deepened by the nature of the principal case for trial. Itwas a charge against Jimmy Wonyilta of the murder of Billy Lee, both aborigines. The story of the crime was not a complicated one. A quarrel seemed to have arisen, through the refusal of the deceased, though of mature years, to submit to the initiatory rites which technically made him a "young man." The witnesses were careful to speak of him always as a *' boy," though it was testified that he had a. few grey hairs.

The actual conflict between the two men was conducted with much of the punctilio of a duel. Each of them was armed with what is commonly called the " double boo erang;" strictly speaking, it should rather be called a, club in boomerang form. It is a large and somewhat heavy weapon, not intended as a missile at all, but used to inflict a blow which must be delivered only against the head. The. inviolable etiquette of such encounters demands that each combatant in turn shall bend his head to the attack, not attempting to repay it until he has steadily suffered his own chastisement. Blow thus .solemnly alternates with blow, until the man with the stronger arm and harder head is left the victor. In this ordeal Hilly Lee succumbed. The witnesses in this trial were, of course, mainly aborigines themselves, for the crime was committed in ono of their camps. Their demeanour was extremely nervous." Again and again they had to be exhorted to hold up their heads and to speak clearly. One of them, a strong man with dints upon his head suggesting a long experience of boomerang duels, fainted in the course of giving his evidence, and another collapsed as soon as he had left the box. Later witnesses were, therefore, allowed to sit, and were frequently refreshed with a glass of water, which they would empty in a single gulp. Their evidence was given in a kind of pidgin-English, interpreted by a police-inspector, who vas also protector of aborigines for that district. The counsel for the defence had the advantage of having lived for some time among the blacks when a boy, and could consequently make himself easily understood by them. " You yabba longa, me now," was his intimation that they were now to speak to him instead of to his learned brother. " You tell me straight, no tell lies," was sufficient to emphasise the importance _of truthful answers. Several peculiarities in linguistic usage came out during the examination. The witnesses used the word " lose" as a euphemism for "die," and "kill" in place of strike. It had the oddest effect to hear how one man would kill the other, and then the other would retaliate bv killing him. Two peculiar characteristics noted by the writers on aboriginal customs were illustrated in this trial. One was the blacks' inability to count. At one point it was desired to ascertain what time elapsed between the death of the victim and the giving of information to the magistrate. The man who had himself carried the news could give no answer when the question was put to him point blank. He was next asked how many " sleeps" he had during his journey. This inquiry was also ineffectual.

Lastly, the lawyer proceeded in this fashion: " Where you sleep same night Billy Lee killed'/" "Me sleep So-and-So Creek," was the prompt answer. The place of sleeping: night after night was then elicited, until it was easy to calculate the total interval. So, too, the time of day at which any event happened was indicated not by, mention of the hour, but by pointing to the quarter where the sun was. The other characteristic especially illustrated was the reluctance of the friends of the dead man to mention his name after he is gone. It is stated by one of the latest authorities on aboriginal practices, Mr. N. W. Thomas, that to mention the name of a dead man is thought equivalent to summoning bis ghost, and that to avoid such a calamity words one© familiar will even be allowed to drop permanently out of use. In this case Billy Lee's " lubra" never once referred to her dead husband by name in, the whole of her evidence. She spoke of him invariably as " dead man." If it was uncanny to hear of a, man killing his antagonist after he had already been killed himself, it gave one no less of a creepy feeling when this woman told how ''deadman" ate his dinner, or walked outside his tent, or took up his boomerang.