An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I Part 52

There indeed existed among them some idea of a future state, but not connected in any wise with religion; for it had no influence whatever on their lives and actions. On their being often questioned as to what became of them after their decease, some answered that they went either on or beyond the great water; but by far the greater number signified, that they went to the clouds. Conversing with Bennillong after his return from England, where he had obtained much knowledge of our customs and manners, I wished to learn what were his ideas of the place from which his countrymen came, and led him to the subject by observing, that all the white men here came from England. I then asked him where the black men (or Eora) came from? He hesitated; did they come from any island? His answer was, that he knew of none: they came from the clouds (alluding perhaps to the aborigines of the country); and when they died, they returned to the clouds (Boo-row-e). He wished to make me understand that they ascended in the shape of little children, first hovering in the tops and in the branches of trees; and mentioned something about their eating, in that state, their favourite food, little fishes.

[* Blair's Sermons, vol i Sermon I]

If this idea of the immortality of the soul should excite a smile, is it more extraordinary than the belief which obtains among some of us, that at the last day the various disjointed bones of men shall find out each its proper owner, and be re-united? The savage here treads close upon the footsteps of the Christian.

The natives who inhabit the harbour to the northward, called by us Port Stephens, believed that five white men who were cast away among them (as has been before shown) had formerly been their countrymen, and took one of them to the grave where, he told him, the body he at that time occupied had been interred. If this account, given us by men who may well be supposed to deal in the marvellous, can be depended upon, how much more ignorant are the natives of Port Stephens, who live only thirty leagues to the northward of us, than the natives of and about Port Jackson!

The young people who resided in our houses were very desirous of going to church on Sundays, but knew not for what purpose we attended. I have often seen them take a book, and with much success imitate the clergyman in his manner (for better and readier mimics can no where be found), laughing and enjoying the applause which they received.

I remember to have seen in a newspaper or pamphlet an account of a native throwing himself in the way of a man who was about to shoot a crow; and the person who wrote the account drew an inference, that the bird was an object of worship: but I can with confidence affirm, that so far from dreading to see a crow killed, they are very fond of eating it, and take the following particular method to ensnare that bird: a native will stretch himself on a rock as if asleep in the sun, holding a piece of fish in his open hand; the bird, be it hawk or crow, seeing the prey, and not observing any motion in the native, pounces on the fish, and, in the instant of seizing it, is caught by the native, who soon throws him on the fire and makes a meal of him.

That they have ideas of a distinction between _good_ and _bad_ is evident from their having terms in their language significant of these qualities.

Thus, the sting-ray was (wee-re) bad; it was a fish of which they never ate. The patta-go-rang or kangaroo was (bood-yer-re) good, and they ate it whenever they were fortunate enough to kill one of these animals.

To exalt these people at all above the brute creation, it is necessary to show that they had the gift of reason, and that they knew the distinction between _right_ and _wrong_, as well as between what food was good and what was bad. Of these latter qualities their senses informed them; but the knowledge of right and wrong could only proceed from reason. It is true, they had no distinction in terms for these qualities--wee-re and bood-yer-re alike implying what was good and bad, and right and wrong.

Instances however were not wanting of their using them to describe the sensations of the mind as well as of the senses; thus their enemies were wee-re; their friends bood-yer-re. On our speaking of cannibalism, they expressed great horror at the mention, and said it was wee-re. On seeing any of our people punished or reproved for ill-treating them, they expressed their approbation, and said it was bood-yer-re, it was right.

Midnight murders, though frequently practised among them whenever pa.s.sion or revenge were uppermost, they reprobated; but applauded acts of kindness and generosity, for of both these they were capable. A man who would not stand to have a spear thrown at him, but ran away, was a coward,jee-run, and wee-re. But their knowledge of the difference between right and wrong certainly never extended beyond their existence in this world; not leading them to believe that the practice of either had any relation to their future state; this was manifest from their idea of quitting this world, or rather of entering the next, in the form of little children, under which form they would re-appear in this.

APPENDIX II-STATURE AND APPEARANCE

We observed but few men or women among them who could be said to be tall, and still fewer who were well made. I once saw a dwarf, a female, who, when she stood upright, measured about four feet two inches. None of her limbs were disproportioned, nor were the features of her face unpleasant; she had a child at her back, and we were told came from the south sh.o.r.e of Botany Bay. I thought the other natives seemed to make her an object of their merriment. In general, indeed almost universally, the limbs of these people were small; of most of them the arms, legs, and thighs were thin. This, no doubt, is owing to the poorness of their living, which is chiefly on fish; otherwise the fineness of the climate, co-operating with the exercise which they take, might have rendered them more muscular.

Those who live on the sea-coast depend entirely on fish for their sustenance; while the few who dwell in the woods subsist on such animals as they can catch. The very great labour necessary for taking these animals, and the scantiness of the supply, keep the wood natives in as poor a condition as their brethren on the coast. It has been remarked, that the natives who have been met with in the woods had longer arms and legs than those who lived about us. This might proceed from their being compelled to climb the trees after honey and the small animals which resort to them, such as the flying squirrel and opossum, which they effect by cutting with their stone hatchets notches in the bark of the tree of a sufficient depth and size to receive the ball of the great toe.

The first notch being cut, the toe is placed in it; and while the left arm embraces the tree, a second is cut at a convenient distance to receive the other foot. By this method they ascend very quick, always cutting with the right hand and clinging with the left, resting the whole weight of the body on the ball of either foot.

In an excursion to the westward with a party, we pa.s.sed a tree (of the kind named by us the white gum, the bark of which is soft) that we judged to be about one hundred and thirty feet in height, and which had been notched by the natives at least eighty feet, before they attained the first branch where it was likely they could meet with any reward for so much toil.

The features of many of these people were far from unpleasing, particularly of the women: in general, the black bushy beards of the men, and the bone or reed which they thrust through the cartilage of the nose, tended to give them a disgusting appearance; but in the women, that feminine delicacy which is to be found among white people was to be traced even upon their sable cheeks; and though entire strangers to the comforts and conveniencies of clothing, yet they sought with a native modesty to conceal by att.i.tude what the want of covering would otherwise have revealed. They have often brought to my recollection, "The bending statue which enchants the world," though it must be owned that the resemblance consisted solely in the position.

Both women and men use the disgusting practice of rubbing fish-oil into their skins; but they are compelled to this as a guard against the effects of the air and of mosquitoes, and flies; some of which are large, and bite or sting with much severity. But the oil, together with the perspiration from their bodies, produces, in hot weather, a most horrible stench. I have seen some with the entrails of fish frying in the burning sun upon their heads, until the oil ran down over their foreheads. A remarkable instance once came under my observation of the early use which they make of this curious unguent. Happening to be at Camp Cove at a time when these people were much pressed with hunger, we found in a miserable hut a poor wretched half-starved native and two children. The man was nearly reduced to a skeleton, but the children were in better condition. We gave them some salted beef and pork, and some bread, but this they would not touch. The eldest of the children was a female; and a piece of fat meat being given to her, she, instead of eating it instantly as we expected, squeezed it between her fingers until she had nearly pressed all the fat to a liquid; with this she oiled over her face two or three times, and then gave it to the other, a boy about two years of age, to do the like. Our wonder was naturally excited at seeing such knowledge in children so young. To their hair, by means of the yellow gum, they fasten the front teeth of the kangaroo, and the jaw-bones of large fish, human teeth, pieces of wood, feathers of birds, the tail of the dog, and certain bones taken out of the head of a fish, not unlike human teeth.

The natives who inhabit the south sh.o.r.e of Botany Bay divide the hair into small parcels, each of which they mat together with gum, and form them into lengths like the thrums of a mop. On particular occasions they ornament themselves with red and white clay, using the former when preparing to fight, the latter for the more peaceful amus.e.m.e.nt of dancing. The fashion of these ornaments was left to each person's taste; and some, when decorated in their best manner, looked perfectly horrible.

Nothing could appear more terrible than a black and dismal face, with a large white circle drawn round each eye. In general waved lines were marked down each arm, thigh, and leg; and in some the cheeks were daubed; and lines drawn over each rib, presented to the beholder a truly spectre-like figure. Previous either to a dance or a combat, we always found them busily employed in this necessary preliminary; and it must be observed, that when other liquid could not be readily procured, they moistened the clay with their own saliva. Both s.e.xes are ornamented with scars upon the breast, arms, and back, which are cut with broken pieces of the sh.e.l.l they use at the end of the throwing stick. By keeping open these incisions, the flesh grows up between the sides of the wound, and after a time, skinning over, forms a large wale or seam. I have seen instances where these scars have been cut to resemble the feet of animals; and such boys as underwent the operation while they lived with us, appeared to be proud of the ornament, and to despise the pain which they must have endured. The operation is performed when they are young, and until they advance in years the scars look large and full; but on some of their old men I have been scarcely able to discern them. As a princ.i.p.al ornament, the men, on particular occasions, thrust a bone or reed through the _septum nasi_, the hole through which is bored when they are young. Some boys who went away from us for a few days, returned dignified with this strange ornament, having, in the mean time, had the operation performed upon them; they appeared to be from twelve to fifteen years of age. The bone that they wear is the small bone in the leg of the kangaroo, one end of which is sharpened to a point. I have seen several women who had their noses perforated in this extraordinary manner.

The women are, besides, early subjected to an uncommon mutilation of the two first joints of the little finger of the left hand. The operation is performed when they are very young, and is done with a hair, or some other slight ligature. This being tied round at the joint, the flesh soon swells, and in a few days, the circulation being destroyed, the finger mortifies and drops off. I never saw but one instance where the finger was taken off from the right hand, and that was occasioned by the mistake of the mother. Before we knew them, we took it to be their marriage ceremony; but on seeing their mutilated children we were convinced of our mistake; and at last learned, that these joints of the little finger were supposed to be in the way when they wound their fishing lines over the hand. On our expressing a disgust of the appearance, they always applauded it, and said it was very good. They name it Mal-gun; and among the many women whom I saw, but very few had this finger perfect. On my pointing these out to those who were so distinguished, they appeared to look at and speak of them with some degree of contempt.

The men too were not without their mutilation. Most of those who lived on the sea-coast we found to want the right front tooth; some, whom we met in the interior part of the country, had not been subjected to the authority of the tribe of Cam-mer-ray-gal; but a particular account of the ceremonies used on this occasion will be given under the article _Customs and Manners_.

I noticed but few deformities of person among them; once or twice I have seen on the sand the print of inverted feet. Round shoulders or humpbacked people I never saw. Some who were lame, and a.s.sisted themselves with sticks, have been met with; but their lameness might proceed from spear wounds, or by accident from fire; for never were women so inattentive to their young as these. We often heard of children being injured by fire, while the mother lay fast asleep beside them, these people being extremely difficult to awaken when once asleep. A very fine little girl, belonging to a man well known and much beloved among us, of the name of Cole-be, had two of its toes burnt Off, and the sinews of the leg contracted in one night, by rolling into a fire out of its mother's arms, while they both lay asleep.

Their sight is peculiarly fine, indeed their existence very often depends upon the accuracy of it; for a short-sighted man (a misfortune unknown to them, and not yet introduced by fashion, nor relieved by the use of a gla.s.s) would never be able to defend himself from their spears, which are thrown with amazing force and velocity. I have noticed two or three men with specks on one eye, and once at Broken Bay saw in a canoe an old man who was perfectly blind. He was accompanied by a youth who paddled his canoe, and who, to my great surprise, sat behind him in it. This may, however, be in conformity to the idea of respect which is always paid to old age.

The colour of these people is not uniform. We have seen some who, even when cleansed from the smoke and filth which were always to be found on their persons, were nearly as black as the African negro; while others have exhibited only a copper or Malay colour. The natural covering of their heads is not wool as in most other black people, but hair; this particular may be remembered in the two natives who were in this country, Bennillong and Yem-mer-ra-wan-nie. The former, on his return, by having some attention paid to his dress while in London, was found to have very long black hair. Black indeed was the general colour of the hair, though I have seen some of a reddish cast; but being unaccompanied by any perceptible difference of complexion, it was perhaps more the effect of some outward cause than its natural appearance.

Their noses are flat, nostrils wide, eyes much sunk in the head, and covered with thick eyebrows; in addition to which, they wear tied round the head, a net the breadth of the forehead, made of the fur of the opussum, which, when wishing to see very clearly, I have observed them draw over the eyebrows, thereby contracting the light. Their lips are thick, and the mouth extravagantly wide; but when opened discovering two rows of white, even, and sound teeth. Many had very prominent jaws; and there was one man who, but for the gift of speech, might very well have pa.s.sed for an orangoutang. He was remarkably hairy; his arms appeared of an uncommon length; in his gait he was not perfectly upright; and in his whole manner seemed to have more of the brute and less of the human species about him than any of his countrymen. Those who have been in that country will, from this outline of him, recollect old We-rahng.

APPENDIX III--HABITATIONS

Their habitations are as rude as imagination can conceive. The hut of the woodman is made of the bark of a single tree, bent in the middle, and placed on its two ends on the ground, affording shelter to only one miserable tenant. These they never carry about with them; for where we found the hut, we constantly found the tree from which it had been taken withered and dead. On the sea-coast the huts were larger, formed of pieces of bark from several trees put together in the form of an oven with an entrance, and large enough to hold six or eight people. Their fire was always at the mouth of the hut, rather within than without; and the interior was in general the nastiest smoke-dried place that could be conceived. Their unserviceable canoes were commonly broken up and applied to this use. Beside these bark huts, they made use of excavations in the rock; and as the situations of these were various, they could always choose them out of the reach of wind and rain. At the mouths of these excavations we noticed a luxuriancy of soil; and on turning up the ground, found it rich with sh.e.l.ls and other manure. These proved a valuable resource to us, and many loads of sh.e.l.ls were burnt into lime, while the other parts were wheeled into our gardens.

When in the woods I seldom met with a hut, but at the mouth of it was found an ant's nest, the dwelling of a tribe of insects about an inch in length, armed with a pair of forceps and a sting, which they applied, as many found to their cost, with a severity equal to a wound made by a knife. We conjectured, that these vermin had been drawn together by the bones and fragments of a venison feast, which had been left by the hunter.

In their huts and in their caves they lie down indiscriminately mixed, men, women, and children together; and appear to possess under them much the same enjoyment as may be supposed to be found by the brute beast in his den, shelter from the weather, and, if not disturbed by external enemies, the comfort of sleep.

The extreme soundness with which they sleep invites jealousy, or revenge for other wrongs, to arm the hand of the a.s.sa.s.sin. Several instances of this kind occurred during our acquaintance with them, one of which was too remarkable to pa.s.s unnoticed: Yel-lo-way, a native, who seemed endowed with more urbanity than the rest of our friends, having possessed himself (though not, as I could learn, by unfair means) of Noo-roo-ing the wife of Wat-te-wal, another native well known among us, was one night murdered in his sleep by this man, who could not brook the decided preference given by Noo-roo-ing to his rival. This murder he several months after repaid in his own person, his life being taken by Cole-be, one of Yel-lo-way's friends, who stole upon him in the night, and put him to death while asleep. It was remarkable, that Cole-be found an infant lying in his arms, whom he first removed, before he drove the fatal spear into the father; he afterwards brought the child with him into the town.

Yel-lo-way was so much esteemed among us, that no one was sorry he had been so revenged.

Being themselves sensible of the danger they ran in the night, they eagerly besought us to give them puppies of our spaniel and terrier breeds; which we did; and not a family was without one or more of these little watch-dogs, which they considered as invaluable guardians during the night; and were pleased when they found them readily devour the only regular food they had to give them, fish.

APPENDIX IV--MODE OF LIVING

The natives on the sea-coast are those with whom we happened to be the most acquainted. Fish is their chief support. Men, women, and children are employed in procuring them; but the means used are different according to the s.e.x; the males always killing them with the fiz-gig, while the females use the hook and line. The fiz-gig is made of the wattle; has a joint in it, fastened by gum; is from fifteen to twenty feet in length, and armed with four barbed p.r.o.ngs; the barb being a piece of bone secured by gum. To each of these p.r.o.ngs they give a particular name; but I never could discover any sensible reason for the distinction.

The lines used by the women are made by themselves of the bark of a small tree which they find in the neighbourhood. Their hooks are made of the mother-of-pearl oyster, which they rub on a stone until it a.s.sumes the shape they want. It must be remarked, that these hooks are not barbed; they nevertheless catch fish with them with great facility.

While fishing, the women generally sing; and I have often seen them in their canoes chewing muscles or c.o.c.kles, or boiled fish, which they spit into the water as a bait. In these canoes, they always carry a small fire laid upon sea-weed or sand; wherewith, when desirous of eating, they find a ready material for dressing their meal. This fire accounted for an appearance which we noticed in many of the women about the small of the back. We at first thought it must have been the effect of stripes; but the situation of them was questionable, and led us to make inquiry, when we found it to be the effect of the fires in the canoes.

In addition to fish, they indulge themselves with a delicacy which I have seen them eager to procure. In the body of the dwarf gum tree are several large worms and grubs, which they speedily divest of antennae, legs, etc.

and, to our wonder and disgust, devour. A servant of mine, an European, has often joined them in eating this luxury; and has a.s.sured me, that it was sweeter than any marrow he had ever tasted; and the natives themselves appeared to find a peculiar relish in it.

The woods, exclusive of the animals which they occasionally find in their neighbourhood, afford them but little sustenance; a few berries, the yam and fern-root, the flowers of the different banksia, and at times some honey, make up the whole vegetable catalogue.

The natives who live in the woods and on the margins of rivers are compelled to seek a different subsistence, and are driven to a harder exercise of their abilities to procure it. This is evinced in the hazard and toll with which they ascend the tallest trees after the opossum and flying squirrel. At the foot of Richmond Hill, I once found several places constructed expressly for the purpose of ensnaring animals or birds. These were wide enough at the entrance to admit a person without much difficulty; but tapering away gradually from the entrance to the end, and terminating in a small wickered grate. It was between forty and fifty feet in length; on each side the earth was thrown up; and the whole was constructed of weeds, rushes, and brambles: but so well secured, that an animal once within it could not possibly liberate itself. We supposed that the prey, be it beast or bird, was hunted and driven into this toil; and concluded, from finding one of them destroyed by fire, that they force it to the grated end, where it is soon killed by their spears. In one I saw a common rat, and in another the feathers of a quail.

By the sides of lagoons I have met with holes which, on examining, were found excavated for some s.p.a.ce, and their mouths so covered over with gra.s.s, that a bird or beast stepping on it would inevitably fall in, and from its depth be unable to escape.

In an excursion to the Hawkesbury, we fell in with a native and his child on the banks of one of the creeks of that n.o.ble river. We had Cole-be with us, who endeavoured, but in vain, to bring him to a conference; he launched his canoe, and got away as expeditiously as he could, leaving behind him a specimen of his food and the delicacy of his stomach; a piece of water-soaked wood (part of the branch of a tree) full of holes, the lodgment of a large worm, named by them cah-bro, and which they extract and eat; but nothing could be more offensive than the smell of both the worm and its habitation. There is a tribe of natives dwelling inland, who, from the circ.u.mstance of their eating these loathsome worms, are named Cah-bro-gal.

They resort at a certain season of the year (the month of April) to the lagoons, where they subsist on eels which they procure by laying hollow pieces of timber into the water, into which the eels creep, and are easily taken.

These wood natives also make a paste formed of the fern-root and the large and small ant bruised together; in the season they also add the eggs of this insect.

APPENDIX V--COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

How will the refined ear of gallantry be wounded at reading an account of the courtship of these people! I have said that there was a delicacy visible in the manners of the females. Is it not shocking then to think that the prelude to love in this country should be violence? Yet such it is, and of the most brutal nature of these unfortunate victims of l.u.s.t and cruelty (I can call them by no better name) are, I believe, always selected from the women of a tribe different from that of the males (for they ought not to be dignified with the t.i.tle of men) and with whom they are at enmity. Secrecy is necessarily observed, and the poor wretch is stolen upon in the absence of her protectors; being first stupified with blows, inflicted with clubs or wooden swords, on the head, back, and shoulders, every one of which is followed by a stream of blood, she is dragged through the woods by one arm, with a perseverance and violence that one might suppose would displace it from its socket; the lover, or rather the ravisher, is regardless of the stones or broken pieces of trees which may lie in his route, being anxious only to convey his prize in safety to his own party, where a scene ensues too shocking to relate. This outrage is not resented by the relations of the female, who only retaliate by a similar outrage when they find it in their power.

This is so constantly the practice among them, that even the children make it a game or exercise; and I have often, on hearing the cries of the girls with whom they were playing, ran out of my house, thinking some murder was committed, but have found the whole party laughing at my mistake.

The women thus ravished become their wives, are incorporated into the tribe to which the husband belongs, and but seldom quit him for another.