Their talent for mimicry is very great. It was a favourite diversion with the children to imitate the peculiarities in any one's gait, and they would go through it with the happiest success.
They are susceptible of friendship, and capable of feeling sorrow; but this latter sensation they are not in the habit of encouraging long. When Ba-loo-der-ry, a very fine lad who died among us, was buried, I saw the tears streaming silently down the sable cheek of his father Mau-go-ran; but in a little time they were dried, and the old man's countenance indicated nothing but the lapse of many years which had passed over his head.
With attention and kind treatment, they certainly might be made a very serviceable people. I have seen them employed in a boat as usefully as any white person; and the settlers have found some among them, who would go out with their stock, and carefully bring home the right numbers, though they have not any knowledge of numeration beyond three or four.
Their acquaintance with astronomy is limited to the names of the sun and moon, some few stars, the Magellanic clouds, and the milky way. Of the circular form of the earth they have not the smallest idea, but imagine that the sun returns over their heads during the night to the quarter whence he begins his course in the morning.
As they never make provision for the morrow, except at a whale-feast, they always eat as long as they have any thing left to eat, and when satisfied, stretch themselves out in the sun to sleep, where they remain until hunger or some other cause calls them again into action. I have at times observed a great degree of indolence in their dispositions, which I have frequently seen the men indulge at the expence of the weaker vessel the women, who have been forced to sit in their canoe, exposed to the fervour of the mid-day sun, hour after hour, chanting their little song, and inviting the fish beneath them to take their bait; for without a sufficient quantity to make a meal for their tyrants, who were lying asleep at their ease, they would meet but a rude reception on their landing.
APPENDIX XI--FUNERAL CEREMONIES
The first peculiarity noticeable in their funeral ceremonies is the disposal of their dead; their young people they consign to the grave; those who have passed the middle age are burnt. Bennillong burnt the body of his first wife Ba-rang-a-roo, who, I suppose, was at the time of her decease turned fifty. I have attended them on both occasions. The interment of Ba-loo-der-ry was accompanied with many curious ceremonies. From being one day in apparent perfect health, he was brought in the next extremely ill, and attended by Bennillong, whom we found singing over him, and making use of those means which ignorance and superstition pointed out to him to recover his health. Ba-loo-der-ry lay extended on the ground, appearing to be in much pain. Bennillong applied his mouth to those parts of his patient's body which he thought were affected, breathing strongly on them, and singing: at times he waved over him some boughs dipped in water, holding one in each hand, and seemed to treat him with much attention and friendship. On the following morning he was visited by a car-rah-dy, who came express from the north shore. This man threw himself into various distortions, applied his mouth to different parts of his patient's body, and at length, after appearing to labour much, and to be in great pain, spit out a piece of a bone about an inch and a half long (which he had previously procured). Here the farce ended, and Ba-loo-der-ry's friends took the car-rah-dy with them and entertained him with such fare as they had to give him. He was at this time at our hospital; during the night his fever increased, and his friends, thinking he would be better with them, put him into a canoe, intending to take him to the north shore; but he died as they were carrying him over. This was immediately notified to us by a violent clamour among the women and children; and Bennillong soon after coming into the town, it was agreed upon between him and the governor that the body should be buried in the governor's garden.
In the afternoon it was brought over in a canoe, and deposited in a hut at the bottom of the garden, several natives attending, and the women and children lamenting and howling most dismally. The body was wrapped up in the jacket which he usually wore, and some pieces of blanketting tied round it with bines. The men were all armed, and, without any provocation, two of them had a contest with clubs; at the same time a few blows passed between some of the women. Boo-roong had her head cut by Go-roo-ber-ra, the mother of the deceased. Spears were also thrown, but evidently as part of a ceremony, and not with an intention of doing injury to any one. At the request of Bennillong, a blanket was laid over the corpse, and Cole-be his friend sat by the body all night, nor could he be prevailed on to quit it.
They remained rather silent till about one in the morning, when the women began to cry, and continued for some time. At daylight Bennillong brought his canoe to the place, and cutting it to a proper length, the body was placed in it, with a spear, a fiz-gig, a throwing-stick, and a line which Ba-loo-derry had worn round his waist. Some time was taken up in adjusting all this business, during which the men were silent, but the women, boys, and children uttered the most dismal lamentations. The father stood alone and unemployed, a silent observer of all that was doing about his deceased son, and a perfect picture of deep and unaffected sorrow. Every thing being ready, the men and boys all assisted in lifting the canoe with the body from the ground, and placing it on the heads of two natives, Collins and Yow-war-re. Some of the assistants had tufts of grass in their hands, which they waved backwards and forwards under the canoe, while it was lifting from the ground, as if they were exorcising some evil spirit. As soon as it was fixed on the heads of the bearers, they set off, preceded by Bennillong and another man, Wat-te-wal, both walking with a quick step towards the point of the cove where Bennillong's hut stood. Mau-go-ran, the father, attended them armed with his spear and throwing-stick, while Bennillong and Wat-te-wal had nothing in their hands but tufts of grass, which as they went they waved about, sometimes turning and facing the corpse, at others waving their tufts of grass among the bushes. When they fronted the corpse, the head of which was carried foremost, the bearers made a motion with their heads from side to side, as if endeavouring to avoid the people who fronted them. After proceeding thus to some little distance, Wat-te-wal turned aside from the path, and went up to a bush, into which he seemed to look very narrowly, as if searching for something that he could not find, and waving about the tufts of grass which he had in either hand. After this fruitless search, they all turned back, and went on in a somewhat quicker pace than before. On their drawing near the spot where the women and children were sitting with the other men, the father threw two spears towards, but (evidently intentionally) short of them. Here Bennillong took his infant child, Dil-boong in his arms, and held it up to the corpse, the bearers endeavouring to avoid it as before described. Be-dia Be-dia, the reputed brother of the deceased, a very fine boy of about five years of age, was then called for, but came forward very reluctantly, and was presented in the same manner as the other child. After this they proceeded to the grave which had been prepared in the governor's garden. Twice they changed the bearer who walked the foremost, but his friend Collins carried him the whole of the way. At the grave some delay took place, for unfortunately it was found not to be long enough; but after some time, it being completed according to their wishes, Yel-lo-way levelled the bottom with his hands and feet, and then strewed some grass in it, after which he stretched himself at his length in it, first on his back, and then on his right side. Bennillong had earnestly requested that some drums might be ordered to attend, which was granted, and two or three marches were beat while the grave was preparing; Bennillong highly approving, and pointing at the time first to the deceased and then to the skies, as if there was some connexion between them at that moment. When the grave was ready, the men to the number of five or six got in with the body, but being still somewhat too short, the ends of the canoe were cut, in doing which the bines were loosened and the corpse exposed to view. It appeared to be in a very putrid state. Every thing was however adjusted, and the grave was filled in by the natives and some of our people.
On laying the body in the grave, great care was taken so to place it, that the sun might look at it as he passed, Bennillong and Cole-be taking their observations for that purpose, and cutting down every shrub that could at all obstruct the view. He was placed on his right side with his head to the NW.