Australian Savages.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 849, 8 June 1888, Page 10

Australian Savages.

(The Field.) Oheying an almost universal law, the Australian aboriginal is vanishing eff the face of the earth with greater rapidity than is the fate of any other race of Bavages. Nearly forty years ago the writer was well acquainted with the great tribeß which inhabited the riverine province of N.S. Wales, and is tempted to write down some of his reminiscences. His experience of them is that, remove the varnish of civilisation from other races of men, the Australian aboriginal will compare, not unfavorably, physically and morally, -»ith the uneducated rest of his species. A large * cordbori,’ by some of the Murray tribes, was a very wild and picturesque sight ; and, properly represented on the stage of a large theatre, would make a Bnccess as a spectacle. The scene is, generally, an open space in the forest, on the bank of a liver ; time, a pitch dark, moonless night; a wide semi-circle of blacks, six or eight score perhaps, sitting behind a curved line of small fires, near each of which is piled a heap of dry gum leaves. When thrown on the embers, these will flare with a bright light like gas. The women sit close to the fires, each with her skin cloak rolled up tightly- before her. No young men are visible, and there is but little apparent excitement in the camp. ' But presently one or two of the old warriors will begin crooning a sort of chant, to a monotonous drawling tune, over and over again. Presently two or three of the magicians and elders of the tribe, dressed in a little paint and pipe-clay, gaunt and grey-bearded, will rise up, with arms in their hands, and stand in the dim light of the tires, chanting and clashing their weapons, boomerang and heelomans, against each other, in perfect time to the song. Then the women join in with their shrill voices, thumping their skin drums in unison, so that forty sound as one. Faster sing the old men, and faster the women join in with their screaming soprano, all always in perfect time and tune. The singers are becoming excited, and the wild song rises louder and louder, always to the regular beat of the drums and the clashing of shields and clubs. Suddenly on to the fires, which are ranged like footlights in front of the semi-circle of screaming, drumming gins, the boys and children dash the dry gum leaves, the bright flare lights up the scene with vivid light, the huge white bole 3 of the great gnm trees show out in the blaze like the shining columns of a temple. There is a rattle of arms, a shriek, the leaders of the orchestra (beating measure the while with their weapons) make the time faster and faster, every soul in the camp yells ont the tune, and suddenly dashes out from the black darkness into the bright circle of light a band of some thirty young warriors, looking verily like a gang of demons, their skins blacker than nature made them, with charcoal, broad pipe-clayed stripes down the inside of each leg and thigh, and every rib defined with a streak of white, a white fillet round each shaggy, black head, from under which the gleaming eyes shine like diamonds. With their resonant boomerangs and clubs clashing, always in perfect time, always accompanied by the dull drumming from the women, they dance with a curious, rapid, quivering shake of the leg and thigh, which none but a black fellow can accomplish. The chorus, led on by the fieroe-looking old men, waxes furious. Faster and louder grows the song, the line of young warriors, dancing in their shining paint within the brilliant blaze of light, look like devils at a sabbath, when lo ! a signal from the leader, a loud ‘ ugh’ from the dancers, and the wild men vanish into the darkness from which they issued, and sudden silence falls on the whole camp, in contrast to the excitement which a moment ago possessed the frantic crowd. We privileged white men, well known to them all, go among them, and the men and women who a few minutes ago were like furious Corybantes, will laugh at the whole proceeding, beg a hit of tobacco, and show you their solemn-looking babies._ They will beg you to stop ‘niiranghi while,’ because this is only the first act that we have seen. This cordbori is a big function that has been rehearsed for weeks, and will go on all Dight. And so will they proceed, each act becoming more dramatic. I femember a grand affair in 1854, representing the arrival of the first river steamer brought by Capt. Cadell up the Murray and Wakool ; a strange performance it was. Another, representing the rushing of a flock of sheep by wild dogs, cordboris dramatising the hunting of _ emu and the action of both animals

admirably represented, were common. Ihey were fond, too of acting, with ghastly verisimilitude, the writhiDgs of an agonised enemy, when transfixed by one of their horrible jagged spears. Under the influence of tije old black follows, the wizards and sorcerers of the tribe, who possessed a most baleful influence over them, the young men were sometimes chary of expounding the meaning of these dramatic performances, and they used often, doubtless, to represent deeds which would have brought down white vengeance on them, such as cattle and sheep stealing. One cordbori was explained to me as representing the origin of fire. I he Murray blacks believed that ages ago the crows were the dominant race, owing to their possession of the secret of making fire. The tribe of burrowing wallabies stole the secret from the crows, but, by incautious use thereof, set the Murray reed beds on fire. The blacks seized the opportunity, and have ever since been the lords of creation. Very often the blacks do not themselses know the meaning of the songs-they sing,, and cannot say whence they oame. In 1856 the Edward River natives bad a song which was very popular among them ; none of them knew the meaning of the words. I travelled that year more than five hundred miles to the north-east. All the blacks I mot were singing the same song ; none of. them knew its meaning, but all said that it had come to them from the north-eastward. These large cordbori meetings used often to lead to mischief. A lot of strange tribes would meet together, agree very well for a time, especially while game continued plentiful in the neighborhood ; but before dispersing murders might take place, in revenge for supposed deaths by fiercer -. Young women might be spirited away, and desperate quarrels ensue, only to be settled by- duelling. Ido not think any solitary white traveller’s life would have been very safe thirty years aso on the Murray near one of these assemblages when breaking up, especially if tobacco were scarce among them. . I was once so fortunate as to be an eye witness of one of their duels. The cause of quarrel was, of course, a lady. A young fellow of onr tribe had abducted a young woman, doubtless with her full consent, from some neighbors, and after days of palaver, it was settled by the seniors of the two tribes that satisfaction was to be given to the brother or cousin of the girl, more majorum, by single combat. The rival septs wsre camped on either side-of the river ; we forbade them to cross it, for hunting purposes or any other, on penalty of having their dogs shot, a convenient form of coercion with half-wild blacks ; had they not been kept apart, there would have been manslaughter. On the appointed day one party crossed the river and made two or three fires in our paddock, about a hundred yards from the rivai camp. There they sat, in almost total silence, for nearly an hour. Then a tall young fellow, with a white fillet round his brows, and a few yellow cockatoo feathers stuck in bis mop of hair, after saying a few words to the old men, walked out into the open; he was nearly naked,, and looked like a statue as he stood in the sun with the light shining on his bronze, limbs, waiting, with six reed spears, his throwing stick, and little narrow shield iu bis hand. He was followed by an old woman, who squatted down twenty yards behind him. Then forth Btalked the gay Paris, accompanied by two or three old warriors, who, after Eome yelling confabulation with the other party, stationed their man opposite, and about twenty-five yards away. Paris stuck his six spears in the ground, standing with his little shield held by the middle, in his left hand, his eye never off his antagonist, his throwing stick in his right ; the girl, the cause of the battle, running out behind, and crouching some thirty yards from him. Then, after a shout or two from the camps, the ’first man seemed galvanised into sudden fury, and, jumping from side to side, hurled all six spears at his adversary as hard as he could throw them, and almost as quickly as a man might fire the chambers of a revolver. The other fellow stood quite quiet, with his little red and white painted oval shield extended, and parried each spear as it came with a turn of his wrist; each lance seemed to touch the edge of the shield, glance, and bury itself with a swish in the grass, like a snake. 'J he girl sat quietly, rolled up in her possum rug, just out of the line of the spears. The old gin, behind the challenger, had pulled her skin cloak over her head, and was slamming it on the ground, yelling curses, and dancing like a she devil, as these hags always do when there is any mischief going on. The women in both camps were yelling and screaming awfully, and the men seemed to be trying to keep them quiet. Then one of the old men called to the defendant, who picked up his spears, and threw them quite gently one by one in the direction of the challenger, they were seized by the old woman, wbo broke them one after another. “The girl picked up the spears which had heed thrown at her young man, and handed them to one of the elders. There was tremendous yabbering and yelling in the camps until late in the day, when, the strange tribe cleared out. Our black told us that everything had been done properly, that there was no more anger between them —‘ Baal koola now,’ and there would be no fighting. The reed spear ia a beautiful weapon, a sharp barbless head, about, twenty-six inches long of heavy wood, is attached with gum to a strong reed, about five feet long. The last joint of the reed is cut off short, and firmly bound with sinew, to receive the hook of the throwing stick. The sling-like action of this latter will, in skilful hands, propel tbe lance with dangerous force full eighty yards. The black children practice as soon as they can run with toy spears, the target being a disk of bark bowled along the ground. Collisions between the white man and black man still occur in newly-settled country ; when the former ia the aggressor they are termed ‘ dispersals,’ when the latter ‘massacres.’ But battles with blacks, though often unavoidable, are a subject on which busbmen are very reticent. The institution of the black police in Queensland, where alone nowadays are many wild blacks to be found has, in great measure relieved settlers from ’the duty of Belf protection. The women have often saved the lives of white people by giving notice of a conspiracy of the tribes to attack them. Sometimes when there are children on an outside station these black women grow fond of them, and will on no account allow the?u to be put in jeo-

pardy. I remember s very dashing perform, ance by one of these gins. A treacherous attack t»y a tribe of blacks took place on a newly forme 1 station in Queensland during the absence of some of the men. The kitchen at the homestead was the only building finished and defencible. It wsb built of slabs, with a bark roof, of course loopholed, of the usual style of bußh architecture, and well situated for defence. Progress had been made with a larger house near it. The squatter himself was awi»y from home at the time the attack was made, as the blacks well knew. The party, consisting of the squatter’s wife, her child, the stockman, and two men, took refuge, on the first rush of the savages, in the kitchen; and had just time to bar tbe door. With them was a black woman, who had been partially domesticated about the place. After a few shots hud been fired, the men discovered, to their horror and dismay, that they had no percussion caps ; the box containing their whole stock had been left on a shelf in a room of the unfinished house, distant about fifteen yards. The space to be crossed was exposed to the spears and missies of twenty or thirty black warriors. That savage woman ran across the pass of peril, and returned, bringing the box of caps, dodging two or three spears in going, and running the gauntlet of a whole shower of missies in returning, - thereby most undoubtedly saving tbe lives of her white friends from her treacherous fellow-tribesmen.’.' Bitter retribution was exacted for this most perfidious attack some time afterwards. We must not be too hard on men who ate forced to take the law into their own hands. It is difficult for us, who live at home at ease, paying our rates, and being protected by the policeman, to realise the position of a settler whoso life, the lives of his meD, and the existence of his stock —most likely his all—-are in danger from wild blacks. Many a time it has happened, in ‘new country,’ that a squatter has ridden out at day dawn some morning to visit an outlying sheep station, eight or ten mileß from the homestead, to see and count the flock, aud have a talk with the shepherd and hut-keeper. In outside country there are, or always should be, two men with a flock of sheep—one to take charge by day, the other to cook and watch by night. Our friend comes in sight of the lonely hut. As he rides np he notices that there is no smoke rising from tbe big chimney into the clear morning air. Drawing Dearer, he observes that the sheep are not nn the camp nor in the hurdles. He does not think much of that ; they may have drawn off while the shepherd is getting bis breakfast. Still, he fancies, as he comes along, that there is an odd'look about the place, the dogs do not bark, .and there are two or three crows on the roof of tbe hut—a queer place for crows. He looks at his pistol as he canters up to the hut door. There is no mistake about what has happened, for there lies the poor old shepherd across tbe threshold, stripped and dead, with a big jagged spear through him and the back of his head smashed in—a sorry sight. The same fate has befallen the hut-keeper, wbo is lying sprared to <death across his own watch fire, his clothes still burning ; and the poor dogs have been speared at tbeir chains. The track of rhe sheep is as plain as a coach road ; they have been rushed, in the direction of some thick scrub or deep gully in the mountains. Our squatter gallops home for help. It is no great wonder that the four or five armed and mounted men, who lay out the poor shepherd and his mate in the sacked hut, men who daily run the risk of a like fate, vow vengeance on the rascally, treacherous devils wbo have done this bloody deed. Following the sheep tracks, they come in a few miles to where the robbers have stopped for a feed of mutton ; there, besides the still burning fires, on which are grilling lumps of flesh with the wool on, are miserably crawling a score of wretched sheep, whose hind legs have been broken out of wanton, cruel mischief. Who can much wonder if, when, if ever, the pursuers come up with the myal robbers, some of the savages are shot ? I remember a characteristic story of one of these wild black fellows. One man, a regular outlaw, suspected of complicity in more than one murder, and a very unpleasant companion in the bush for any unharmed white man, came up alone one day to a lonely hut, in which were only a woman and her children, the men being away. The black fellow, naked, armed, and grim, began to ‘ bounce ’ the poor woman, demanding all the flour, tea, and sugar in the hut. It was ration day and Bhe was out of provisions. She Bbowed her visitor the empty ration bags, and told him that she and the children were ‘murry hungry.’ After rolling his fierce black eyes all over the place, and seeing no sign of provisions, the black fellow went down to the creek, produced a fishing line from somewhere iu his hair, and presently came back with three or four good fish, which he silently presented to her, picked up his spears, aud vanished into the bush. J.H.W.