| CHAPTER I |
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| Introductory—Voyage to Australia—Arrival at Adelaide—Description of the city—Melbourne, the Queen of the South—Working men—The highest trees in the world—Two of the most common mammals in Australia | Pages [1]–12 |
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| CHAPTER II |
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| Sydney harbour—Jealousy between Sydney and Melbourne—The Blue Mountains—Brisbane and Rockhampton—First evening in tropical Australia—Gracemere station—Animal and plant life—Vine-scrubs—Excursion into the neighbouring districts—A Norseman who feels cold in Australia | [13]–30 |
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| CHAPTER III |
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| Journey to Western Queensland—Camping out—Damper (Australian bread)—The song of the magpie—Australian scrubs—Hunting the kangaroo—Devotion of parrots—Station life—Lonely shepherds—Migration of rats—Native justice—Australian fleas—Native mounted police—A remarkable flint instrument—The boomerang | [31]–52 |
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| CHAPTER IV |
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| Struggle between blacks and whites—116° Fahrenheit—Cool nights—Troubles—Bush-life—How the bushman spends his money—Inundations—Back again to Gracemere—A greedy snake—Courtship in the bush | [53]–62 |
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| CHAPTER V |
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| Journey to Northern Queensland—Mackay-sugar—Employment of South Sea Islanders—Townsville—A rough northern man—Sugar district on Lower Herbert—Visit to a successful Scandinavian—Blacks near Gardiner’s farm—Nolla-nolla—Spring—Arrival at Herbert Vale | [63]–75 |
| CHAPTER VI |
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| Headquarters at Herbert Vale—Civilised blacks—Domestic life—Nelly the cook—Cats—Swimming in fat—My bill of fare—Killing the bullock—Strong stomachs and bad fare | [76]–88 |
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| CHAPTER VII |
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| Kāmin (implement for climbing)—On the top of the gum-trees—Hunting the wallaby—The spear of the natives—Bird life in the open country—Jungle-hens—Cassowary | [89]–99 |
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| CHAPTER VIII |
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| Pleasant companions—Two new mammals—Large scrubs in the Coast Mountains—The lawyer-palm—“Never have a black-fellow behind you”—I decide to live with the blacks—Great expectations—My outfit—Tobacco is money—The baby of the gun | [100]–111 |
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| CHAPTER IX |
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| My first expedition with the blacks—A night in the forest—Fear of evil spirits—Morning toilet—Maja yarri—Borboby—The “lists” of blacks—Warriors in full dress—Swords and shields—Fights—The rights of black women—Abduction of women | [112]–127 |
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| CHAPTER X |
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| The appearance of the aborigines in the different parts of the continent—My pack-horse in danger—Tracks of the boongary (tree-kangaroo)—Bower-birds—The blacks in rainy weather—Making fire in the scrubs—A messenger from the civilised world—The relations of the various tribes—Tattooing | [128]–146 |
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| CHAPTER XI |
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| Respect for right of property—New country—My camp—Mountain ascent—Tree-ferns—A dangerous nettle—A night in a cavern—Art among the blacks—Edible larvæ—Omelette aux coléoptères—Music of the blacks—Impudent begging | [147]–159 |
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| CHAPTER XII |
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| The position of women among the blacks—The husband the hunter, and the woman the provider of the family—Black female slaves—“Marking” the wives—A twelve-year-old wife—Considerate husbands—Wives an inheritance—Deserted by my followers—Reasoning power of the blacks—Darkness and rain | [160]–171 |
| CHAPTER XIII |
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| Mongan, a new mammal—For my collection or to feed the blacks?—Natives do not eat raw meat—A young yarri—A meteorite—Fear of attacks—Cannibals on the war-path—The relations between the tribes | [172]–177 |
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| CHAPTER XIV |
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| 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 | [178]–187 |
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| CHAPTER XV |
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| Blacks on the track—A foreign tribe—Native baskets—Two black boys—Bringing up of the children—Pseudochirus lemuroides with its young—The effect of a shot—A native swell—Relationship among the blacks—Their old women | [188]–200 |
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| CHAPTER XVI |
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| Wild landscape on the Upper Herbert—Kvingan, the devil of the blacks—A fatal eel—Mourning dress—Flight of the blacks—A compromise—Christmas Eve—Lonely—Christmas fare—A “faithful” relative—A welcome wallaby | [201]–211 |
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| CHAPTER XVII |
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| A wedding—Love among the Australian natives—My first meeting with Yokkai—Big eaters—An accident—Left alone with Yokkai—A difficult descent—Return to Herbert Vale—A new beetle—Friends of the animals | [212]–222 |
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| CHAPTER XVIII |
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| Native politeness—How a native uses a newspaper—“Fat” living—Painful joy—Boongary, boongary—Veracity of the natives—A short joy—A perfect cure—An offer of marriage—Refusal | [223]–235 |
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| CHAPTER XIX |
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| A festival dance of the blacks—Their orchestra—A plain table—Yokkai wants to become “a white man”—Yokkai’s confession—A dangerous situation—A family drama | [236]–246 |
| CHAPTER XX |
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| Arrival of the native police—The murderer caught—Examination—Jimmy is taken to Cardwell—Flight of the prisoner—The officer of the law—Expedition to the Valley of Lagoons—A mother eats her own child—My authority receives a shock | [247]–255 |
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| CHAPTER XXI |
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| The rainy season—How the evenings are spent—Hardy children—Mangola-Maggi’s revenge—The crania of the Australians—The expedition to Cardwell—Dalrymple Gap—A scandalous murder—Entry into Cardwell—Yokkai as cook—“Balnglan’s” death—Tobacco cures sorrow | [256]–268 |
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| CHAPTER XXII |
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| Unpleasantnesses at Herbert Vale—New expeditions—Hunting human flesh—Cannibalism—Human flesh is the greatest delicacy of the Australian blacks—Superstitions in connection with the eating of human flesh—The taste of the cannibals—Cannibalism in Burma | [269]–274 |
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| CHAPTER XXIII |
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| The burial of the blacks—Black mummies—Sorcerers or wizards—Myths and legends—The doctrine of the Trinity in New South Wales—The belief in a future life among the blacks | [275]–285 |
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| CHAPTER XXIV |
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| My life in danger—Morbora’s ingratitude—Another danger—My position grows more precarious—The black man’s fondness for imitating | [286]–292 |
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| CHAPTER XXV |
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| Winter in Northern Queensland—Snakes as food—Hunting snakes—An unexpected guest at night—Yokkai’s first dress—Norway’s “mountains of food”—Departure from Herbert Vale—Farewell to the world of the blacks | [293]–302 |
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| CHAPTER XXVI |
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| Message sticks—The common origin of the dialects—Remarkably complicated grammar—The language on Herbert river—Comparison of a few dialects | [303]–313 |
| CHAPTER XXVII |
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| Frozen meat—Again in Gracemere—Australian scenery—In a carriole—Hunting the dugong—Cosmopolitan quarters for the night—Cure for nervous diseases—Poisonous rabbits—Marry only a person with good teeth—Bush girls—Mount Morgan | [314]–324 |
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| CHAPTER XXVIII |
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| A family of zoologists—Flesh-eating kangaroos—How the ant-eater propagates—Civilised natives—Weapons and implements—Civilisation and demoralisation | [325]–338 |
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| CHAPTER XXIX |
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| Religion—Blacks in the service of the white men—Fickle minds—Settlers and natives on the borders of civilisation—Morality—A life and death struggle—The cruelty of the whites—Future prospects of the Australian natives | [339]–349 |