Mat pointed out how blistered and wounded their bodies and legs were, and explained by pantomime that they were hungry.
The natives now seemed satisfied, and led them by the hand, or rather conducted Mat in this manner—for they were afraid to approach Tim again, on account of the furious growls of Jumper—to the camp fires, where they intimated to the white men they should lie down; they then gave them a couple of cloaks of ’possum skin to cover their bodies with, and a quantity of roasted roots and fish to eat; this fare seemed to put new life in the brothers as they reclined on their soft rugs.
A black fellow then cooe’ed loudly, and several women and children seemed to spring up from the long grass around, where they had doubtless been hiding until the men knew with whom they had to deal.
Mat so far knew, as the whole tribe had now surrounded them, that he and his brother had fallen amongst blacks of the mainland of Australia, for he not only recognized types of visage, pictures of which he had seen in the squire’s museum in the Forest, but also most of the camp equipment, of which the squire had many specimens. Thus he was able to point out and name to Tim spears, woomeras, yelamans, boomerangs, stone tomahawks, and nullah-nullahs; also their dilly bags, large and small, containing fish and roots, and many small articles wrapt up in ’possum skins.
Whilst they were regaling themselves the tribe kept up an incessant jabbering, as they pointed out the white men to each other.
One of the blacks showed by signs that there were other white men, but men clothed; he seemed to imply far, far away to the west. This gave the brothers hope that there might be a settlement in that direction, until by repeated signs they surmised that they must be white men travelling to the north.
It was almost night when our gipsies encountered the natives, and by the time that they had finished their meal, the camp was wrapped in darkness, save for the light given out by the tiny fires.
Seeing that the white men had eaten up all their food, the blacks gave them a gourd of water, and then, taking Mat by the hand again, and signing to Tim to follow, conducted them to a gunyah, or hut, which was made of saplings and covered with bark. It contained a tiny upper story, also made of sheets of bark, just large enough for two men to lie down in. Pointing to this, they intimated that the white men might sleep there, which, indeed, they were nothing loth to do.
Mat, having first placed some cool green leaves on his brother’s ankles, pulled the rugs over them, for the night was chilly, and prepared to sleep.
Before darkness had quite set in they had observed two blacks start off on their back trail towards the coast, which caused Mat to remark that he “had read that blacks never travelled at night. However,” he added, “we shall know more about it in the morning. If I’d a pipe of ’baccy now, I’d be all right, but we can’t have everything, and these chaps don’t seem a bad lot, though they’re rum ’uns to look at.”