Dingo a member of the family - A black who does not smoke - Hunting the flying-squirrel - Diseases among the natives - Their remedies - A splendid offer - Unpleasant companions - Trouble in getting dogs.
It was a pleasure to return to Herbert Vale and meet once more Nelly's smiling face at the gate. She asked with deep interest what kind of animals I had secured, and seemed delighted when I showed her the skins I had brought. My first visit was to the kitchen cupboard, where I took possession of a bowl of fresh milk. Into it I broke a piece of fresh-made damper and sprinkled on it a lot of sugar, making a dish which, under the circumstances, tasted better to me than a dinner at Bignon's.
In the middle of the night both the superintendent and myself were roused by a terrible howl from Nelly, who was being flogged by her husband, the Kanaka, up in the loft of the storehouse. Old Walters had to go up there with his cane, which he always kept near the door, but he did not succeed in getting the Kanaka to respect his authority.
The next morning I at once set out to find a dingo suitable for my next expedition; this was a very difficult matter, for the dingoes are much more rare here than farther south in Australia, where natives can be seen followed by ten or twelve dogs, which are of different breeds, for the dingoes of the natives quickly mix with the shepherd-dogs, greyhounds, and terriers of the colonists. On Herbert river there are rarely more than one or two dingoes in each tribe, and as a rule they are of pure blood. The natives find them as puppies in the hollow trunks of trees, and rear them with greater care than they bestow on their own children. The dingo is an important member of the family; it sleeps in the huts and gets plenty to eat, not only of meat, but also of fruit. Its master never strikes, but merely threatens it. He caresses it like a child, eats the fleas off it, and then kisses it on the snout.
Though the dingo is treated so well it often runs away, especially in the pairing season, and at such times it never returns. Thus it never becomes perfectly domesticated, still is very useful to the natives, for it has a keen scent and traces every kind of game; it never barks, and hunts less wildly than our dogs, but very rapidly, frequently capturing the game on the run. Sometimes it refuses to go any farther, and its owner has then to carry it on his shoulders, a luxury of which it is very fond. The dingo will follow nobody else but its owner; this materially increased my difficulties in finding a dog, for it was useless unless the owner could be persuaded to go with me; besides, but few of the dingoes understand hunting the boongary, for which they have to be specially trained from the beginning.
In company with four men I rode across Sea-View Range. On its summit a tribe was said to be encamped owning a very good dog, which I had heard much talked of. I sent two of my men to the camp with a supply of tobacco, in order to borrow the dog, but they returned in the evening minus both dog and tobacco, for the dog had followed its owner to another camp, and still they had, with their usual liberality, distributed the tobacco right and left.
On the way I shot a kangaroo, which I wanted to use as a lure. Kangaroos are very hard to kill, and once one of these animals hopped ninety paces after it had been shot by an express rifle, the exploding ball of which had torn its heart into pieces. According to my experience they die most speedily when they are hit in the breast with a charge of large shot, which, if the distance is not too great, generally makes them fall on the spot. In such a case the quick death of the kangaroo made so deep an impression upon my natives that the event was the topic of their conversation for several days, accustomed, as they are, to see kangaroos run away pierced with several spears.
In the evening, as we approached the tribe said to have the dog, I sent two of my men in advance to inform the natives of my coming, otherwise they would be afraid of the white man and take to their heels. We encamped close by on a plat of grass extending into the scrubs. Gongola, the owner of the dog, and two other men came to me when they had learned the object of our visit. Gongola was a large stout fellow, and very friendly. In order to get on the right side of him I at once gave him a piece of tobacco, which he appropriated and then went away.
Before long he returned with two mound-builder's eggs, which he presented to me. This liberality surprised me, for it is rare among the blacks, except among themselves. I suppose he wanted to show me that I was welcome. My experience is, on the whole, that uncivilised blacks are much more friendly and unpretentious than those who have been in contact with the white men. Gongola's friendliness was all the more praiseworthy, since my gift was of no value to him; for he did not like tobacco. It is rare to meet natives who are not fond of tobacco; I only saw one other besides Gongola. I invited him to have supper with us, and he took his meals with us as long as we remained here.
Late in the evening my men heard the flying-squirrel (Petauroides) climbing the tall gum-trees above our heads, and the next day the blacks hunted these animals. Some of the men climbed the trees with the aid of their kamins, in order to frighten them out from their abodes. Like chimney-sweeps they pulled the kamins up and down in the hollow tree-trunks, at the same time shouting Po-po! Po-po! in imitation of a night bird, and this po-po was repeated by all those who stood below. The natives think that in this manner they can give the flying-squirrels the impression that it is night, and thus more easily coax them out. As a rule, they come forth quite suddenly, stretch their fliers, and fly slowly and elegantly into another tree, and while climbing the stem of this tree they are killed with sticks thrown at them.
They soon succeeded in frightening one of these animals out of a tree, and although the sun was shining in all its splendour, the squirrel landed with remarkable accuracy at the foot of a gum-tree eighty paces distant. While ascending the trunk I shot it.
The natives here, particularly the women, looked wretched, being both poor and filthy. Some of them had a sickly, pale complexion and dry skin, and many of the children were covered with eruptions. My impression is that there was too little variety in their food, as they lived chiefly on vegetables. The Australian is usually sound and healthy, and not much troubled with illness. But for the skin diseases, which he gets from the white men, he is usually a healthy individual. It is very rare to see any one with a bodily defect, though an old warrior with one hand was well known near Rockhampton.
In Central Queensland, about 300 miles west of Rockhampton, an epidemic of erysipelas is said to have raged about fifty years ago. The manager of a station in that district told me that there were caves on the property in which there were hundreds of skeletons, indicating that there must have been an epidemic among the natives. The blacks had informed him that a great many had died at the same time, being "sick in their mouths and noses." Smallpox has also been known among the Australian natives, for example, near Murrumbidgee in New South Wales, as reported by Beveridge.
I did not think lung diseases possible among the savages of Australia before I saw these pale faces on Sea-View Range. They certainly looked as if they had consumption. But as I had no other symptoms to go by than their exterior, my assumption is not of course of much value.
Strange to say, the natives on Herbert river never complained of rheumatism. They were to some extent troubled with venereal diseases, against which they know no remedy; but these diseases do not appear in their most violent forms in Australia. The blacks who came in to Herbert Vale used to rub their wounds with tar, which they procured at the station. Apart from this, they let the disease run its course.
When the Australian becomes "civilised" and begins to wear clothes he becomes more subject to disease. He regards clothes simply as ornaments that he may wear or not as he pleases. He will perspire during the whole day in a woollen jacket, but in the evening, when he really might need it on account of the cool temperature, he is sure to take it off and sleep in his old-fashioned way. On a hunt he lays aside all clothes for the sake of convenience, no matter how "civilised " he may be, for he wants to be naked when he climbs trees and pursues animals. But this thoughtless way of wearing clothes brings on colds, and as a result rheumatic fevers and lung diseases. I never found fever and ague among the Australian savages, except in the solitary case of a well-dressed civilised black on Herbert river.
As the hard and tough vegetables eaten by the blacks are a severe tax on their teeth, which they also constantly use for making their implements, the older members of the tribe have their fore-teeth worn down to the gums, which therefore become very tender. I have also seen blacks troubled with toothache. In such cases they make one of their comrades suck the cheek until the blood flows, very much as we use leeches. Toothache in one of the front teeth is sometimes radically cured by placing a stick against the tooth, whereupon the "dentist" with a violent blow knocks the tooth into the mouth.
The Herbert River blacks have no medicines. The only remedies used are to suck out the blood over the spot where the pain is felt, or to rub the sore place with saliva. The sick are treated by the "doctor," who as a rule is the most cunning man in the tribe and a great humbug. When he has sucked blood from a spot where the patient feels pain, he usually shows to the latter a piece of bone or a little stone, which he pretends he has sucked out, and which he declares to be the cause of the illness. In other parts of Australia, where diseases must be more common, the blacks are said to know healing herbs, and in many places they have peculiar ways of treating diseases.
On Herbert River no remedy is known against snake bites. The victim simply lays himself down to die. In New South Wales, on the other hand, snake bites are cured in a very interesting manner. The wound is squeezed between the thumb nails until the blood flows; then a piece of warm opossum skin is laid on the wound, which is sucked as soon as the skin becomes cold. The opossum is warmed a second time, and the process is repeated until the patient is out of danger. The operation usually lasts about forty-five minutes. It is a remarkable fact that the Herbert River natives attribute a healing virtue to the sweat of the armpits, to which they attach supernatural qualities, putting it under the nose of the patient to make him well.
Wounds and scratches on the blacks heal with remarkable rapidity. Two natives near a station, having borrowed knives from white men, fought. One cut numerous gashes in his opponent's back, while the other continually inflicted wounds right down to the hip-bone of the former. The combatants were separated and brought into the camp in a miserable condition. All their comrades did was to strew ashes in the wounds, and after three weeks' time the victims were perfectly restored.
The natives are very kind and sympathetic towards those who are ill, and they carry them from camp to camp. This is the only noble trait that I discovered in the Australian natives.
After having borrowed Gongola's dog in return for a large piece of damper, I rambled about for a few days before I returned to Herbert Vale. The chief result of the hunt was a kind of bandicoot (Perameles nasuta), which utters a peculiar sound which the natives imitate in order to coax it out.
The next evening I was requested by the young men of the tribe to lead an attack on a neighbouring tribe. The purpose was to steal women. They represented to me what beautiful women there were in the other tribe, and how easy it would be to make an assault with a gun. To tempt me still further they held out a promise of the first choice in the division of the spoils. They also called my attention to the fact that we would find a number of yarri. I declined all their tempting offers, but they continued to urge on me their plans for this "Rape of the Sabines"; as they were unable to persuade me, and consequently failed to get the valuable support of the gun, they finally desisted from their purpose.
The majority of the young men wait a long time before they get wives, partly for the reason that they have not the courage to fight the requisite duel for one with an older man. They therefore prefer to wait until they can get a wife in exchange or by inheritance. It is rare, however, for a man to die unmarried, and as the majority of men have at least two wives, the women are more numerous on Herbert River than the men. The same observation is made by the excellent observer Mr. White of Western Queensland, but so far as I know the opposite is true of a large portion of Australia.
After spending the night at Herbert Vale, where I secured more men, I started on a new expedition. I was supplied with provisions for a long time, had an excellent dog and several capable hunters, one of whom was well acquainted with the regions I intended to visit. I started early the next morning in the finest of summer weather. A heavy dew had fallen in the night, running like rain from the roofs of the station houses, and the wet grass glistened in the bright sunshine. There was every promise of a successful expedition. At noon the natives were determined to turn northward, as they wanted to go to the "land" that I had visited on my last expedition, urging that we would there find many boongary. Their real reason was no doubt that, as they knew the country, they would have an easy time of it consuming my provisions, and thus escape the long difficult journey to the strange "land." I became angry, and called their attention to the fact that they had agreed to accompany me to this more distant region, and I gave them distinct orders to proceed.
Slowly and lazily they started on the journey, and continually presented new difficulties. They frequently stopped in order to prove to me that it was impossible to progress. We came to a river with steep banks, which it was necessary to cross, but I could not possibly get the blacks to show me the fording-place, and so was obliged to search up and down the river in order to find a place myself where it was possible to get to the other side.
Chinaman, who was our guide and the only person acquainted with the country, proved himself to be a perfect rascal, and was the leading spirit in all these intrigues. He preferred my food and his own comfort to the fatigues of the journey, but as I firmly opposed all his pretexts, he finally declared that he was unwilling to toil any longer among these rocks and scrubs! It was impossible to attempt to cross that night, for the sun was already setting behind the mountains.
We experienced some difficulty in finding materials for our huts on this grassy plain. A few trees were cut down and made into a shed, open on one side. This was all the shelter we had, and I made a pillar of brushwood, which at the same time formed a partition wall between me and the blacks. Two of my companions, who had a fancy to imitate the white man, laid claim to the opposite side of my pillow. Although I was not particularly pleased at having them so close, I was too tired to make any objections.
I felt Ganindali's waxed hair against my head, and knew that it was inhabited by those small black animals which give so much trouble to the natives; but as they thrive only on the blacks, I felt no uneasiness about going to sleep. Now and then my bedfellows roused me by scratching their heads to get at the uninvited guests, of which process my head not infrequently had to pay the penalty. When, under these disagreeable circumstances, I was aroused from my sleep, I noticed a horrible smell, which I could not understand.
Finally the odour became so strong that I could not sleep, and not until I had ordered the blacks away did I get peace for the rest of the night. In the morning I discovered that the terrible smell came from a large sore on Ganindali. His comrades told me that he had had it from childhood, and that he had got it from the devil. It cannot be denied that it was very disagreeable to have such a fellow in our company, but the dog would follow no one else, and so he was indispensable.
To my great annoyance Chinaman had disappeared, having deserted during the night; I hoped he would come back, and waited for him until noon, but he did not put in an appearance. We then proceeded without him, and succeeded in finding a good place to cross the river. In the evening we encamped at the foot of the mountains. My people were very willing to do all in their power, but it proved to be utterly impossible to accomplish anything in this unknown country without a guide.
There was therefore nothing else to be done except to accommodate myself to the circumstances and to return to Herbert Vale to make preparations for an expedition in some other direction. I started on my way back in low spirits, my thoughts dwelling on the folly of mankind. As a warning to the others, I threatened to shoot Chinaman if he ever came near me.
The heat was intense; the ground was gray, the grass withered and scorched by the sun; everything had a wintry look. The appearance of Herbert Vale at this time therefore was not inviting. Large swarms of grasshoppers filled the air, greedily attacking the few green shoots to be found at the bottom of the dry grass. They produced a peculiar buzzing sound when in dense swarms they flew up from the ground, and as I stood among them I could not help thinking of a snowstorm. Black lads amused themselves by running round and frightening the grasshoppers. The women gathered large quantities of them in their baskets. In one place a number of natives sat round a fire eating them. First, the contents of the baskets are thrown into the fire in order to burn off the wings and legs, whereupon each grasshopper is roasted separately; they taste like nuts, but there is of course very little to eat on them.
I ordered my blacks to encamp near the station, and at once began to get ready for a new expedition, but as it was difficult to secure more men in a hurry, they became impatient and disappeared with the dog, and thus all my plans were frustrated for the present.
Finally, having secured the aid of a few men, I rode off as soon as possible to capture the fugitives, and after a couple of days succeeded in finding Ganindali and some other blacks out hunting, but they had already delivered the dog to its owner, Gongola. They came to me rejoicing, and told me that it had recently captured a large yarri. It had chased the animal up into a tree, and the natives had themselves killed it with clubs. I asked very eagerly where the animal was, but alas! the old women had already eaten it, they said. The poor comfort I received was that next time they would give the yarri to me.
From Gongola's tribe I had frequently heard that there were many boongaries in a "land" very far away. They pointed up Herbert River valley to some mountains in the far distance, and thither I now resolved to make my next expedition.