Upon the whole their civilisation was of a rather low order. Eleven days before my arrival they had killed and eaten a man of another tribe on some hills near the farm. They returned triumphant, and boasted of their inhuman act. When they were abused for having eaten a man, they gradually became silent, and understood that it was something which the whites did not do and which accordingly was not right. This is always the habit of the Australian natives: as long as they remain in their native condition they make no secret of their cannibalism, but continued intercourse with the whites teaches them to regard it as something which is not comme il faut. Yet they keep up this infamous custom in secret before abandoning it altogether.
I was continually with the natives, both during the day and in the evening, hunting animals, and I was very much amused by the companionship of these children of nature. The blacks of Herbert river gave me from the very beginning an increased interest in the Australian race.
The boomerang was rare in these regions, for in the large scrubs there is no use for it. On the other hand I frequently saw another weapon, the “nolla-nolla” or club, the warlike weapon of the Australian native most commonly in use. It is a piece of hard and heavy wood sharpened to a point at both ends. One end is thick, and tapers gradually to the other end, which is made rough in order to give the hand a more secure hold; in using the weapon the heavy end is thrown back before it is hurled.
No great pains are taken in the making of these clubs. The majority of them are about two feet long. At a distance of ten to twelve yards the native will hit an object with a tolerable degree of certainty, but only small animals can be killed with this weapon.
“NOLLA-NOLLAS,” CLUBS (⅐ size).
a, c, from Central Queensland, near Rockhampton; b, from Northern Queensland, Herbert Vale. The thickest end of that marked c is usually stained dark brown.
As a weapon for hunting, the club is also of great service in another way. The small end is used for digging up the ground and loosening it when the native wants to bring out bandicoots, rats, roots, and similar things. With it he searches for eggs in the remarkable mounds of the talegalla. With his nolla-nolla he pounds at the trees to learn whether they are sound, and picks out the larvæ from the decayed trunks.
One day an egg of a cassowary was brought to me; this bird, although it is nearly akin to the ostrich and emu, does not, like the latter, frequent the open plains, but the thick brushwood. The Australian cassowary is found in Northern Queensland, from Herbert river northwards, in all the large vine-scrubs on the banks of the rivers and on the high mountains of the coasts.
For some time I made daily visits to the river bank and caught the beautiful green and blue Orthoptera, which from ten to eleven o’clock in the morning were found flitting among the trees and bushes.
In the vicinity of Mr. Gardiner’s farm there were both coffee and tobacco plantations, where the plants throve very well. According to the owner’s idea, however, the proper varieties had not yet been found. He had a tobacco factory near the plantation, but the tobacco produced here was so inferior in quality that the more fastidious even of the blacks disdained it. Tobacco thrives very well everywhere in Northern Queensland, and like cinchona, quinine, arrowroot, rice, and cotton, which wherever planted have thriven well, its cultivation is doubtless destined to become an important industry. It is only necessary to find the variety adapted to the climate. It requires great care, and the owner told me that he was obliged to look after every plant daily.