It appears far from being an uncommon circumstance for the females of the aboriginal tribes about this and other districts in the colony, when they experience much lingering suffering in labour, to threaten the life of the poor infant previous to birth; and when it takes place, keep their word by destroying it. One instance was mentioned to me as occurring at a station at “Cuttabaloo,” (a hundred and twenty miles from Dabee,) and near the Castlereagh or Big River; (and I have since known several similar occurrences;) the woman had, in this case, been two days suffering from a severe and lingering labour, during which, she often threatened the poor unborn infant with death on its coming into the world, using the expression of “pi, a, cobera! (break its head!”[43]) and, on its birth, the unfortunate baby was absolutely killed by its unnatural parent.[44] This has occurred in a number of instances when the children were half-castes, and seems to be almost an invariable custom among the Australian aborigines,—as it is among the New Zealanders and natives of the Polynesian Archipelago, to destroy the infants produced by intercourse with Europeans, unless the father resides constantly with the female, or else may be near them at the time, to prevent the commission of so horrid and unnatural an act.
During a visit to the Murrumbidgee and Tumat countries, as well as other parts of the colony, I availed myself of every opportunity to procure information regarding acts of infanticide, as existing among the aborigines of this country. I succeeded in ascertaining that infants were frequently destroyed: sometimes the reason assigned was some personal defect in the infant,[45] (whence we may attribute the fact of a deformed person being seldom seen among native tribes,) or the mother not wishing to have the trouble of carrying it about: the female children were more frequently destroyed than the males. I heard of a weak and sickly child having been destroyed, and even eaten: the reason given by the unnatural parents was, that they were very hungry, and the child no use and much trouble; one redeeming quality, however, was, that they displayed a sense of shame when acknowledging the fact, and gave the reason for which they had committed so barbarous an act. It is seldom they will confess having destroyed their offspring: one, however, who had a child by an European, acknowledged it readily; and the reason given for the commission was its being like a warragul, or native dog. This was because the infant, like its papa, had a “carroty poll,” and thus resembled, in colour, the hair of the native dog, which is certainly not so handsome as the dark black locks of the aboriginal tribes.
Although addicted to infanticide, they display, in other instances, an extraordinary degree of affection for their dead offspring, evidenced by an act that almost exceeds credibility, had it not so often been witnessed among the tribes in the interior of the colony. I allude to the fact of deceased children, from the earliest age to even six or seven years, being placed in a bag, made of kangaroo skin, and slung upon the back of the mother, who, besides this additional burden, carries her usual netbul, or culy,[46] for provisions, &c. They carry them thus for ten or twelve months, sleeping upon the mass of mortal remains, which serves them for a pillow, apparently unmindful of the horrid fœtor which emanates from such a putrifying substance. Habit must reconcile them to it, for a woman carrying such a burden, may be “nosed” at a long distance before seen; and a stranger, unacquainted with this native custom, will see a woman with a large pack upon her back, from which such an odour proceeds, as to make him doubt from what it can be produced. When the body becomes dry, or only the bones left, the remains are burnt, buried, or placed into a hollow trunk or limb of a tree: in the latter instance covering the opening carefully with stones, &c. All the information that could be procured from them respecting this disgusting custom, was, “that they were afraid, if they buried them, the Buckee, or devil-devil would take them away.” When the adults among the aborigines die, the body is consigned to the hollow trunk of a tree, cave, or in the ground, according to circumstances, and wood, stones, &c. are piled on the entrance, or over the grave, so that, according to the ideas of these poor, superstitious savages, the Buckee may not be able to find them.
Even after the relation of this disgusting custom, these people are more degraded by writers than they really appear when seen in the interior, uncontaminated by European vices, in full native independence, hunters, but not tillers of the soil, from having no natural productions worthy of cultivation.[47]
The following is the practice of midwifery, as I observed it among the native tribes, more particularly those inhabiting the Yas, Murrumbidgee, and Tumat countries.
When a female is in labour she leaves the camp alone, and, should any assistance be required, she calls another female to her. When the child is born, the afterbirth, or placenta, is separated from the navel-string, or umbilical cord, by scraping or rudely cutting it with a shell, and the cord is left pending to some length from the abdomen of the infant. The parent then taking some water into her mouth, throws it over the child, rubbing the infant at the same time with coarse grass; and this, I suppose, they would call cleaning the little newborn creature. The first flow of milk is not given by the mother to the child, as they say it would produce griping. The afterbirth is buried by the mother, and soon taken up again and burnt; it is only buried, however, if they are not prepared to burn it immediately, but it is usually destroyed on the same day or night on which the woman has been delivered, although I could not ascertain correctly whether they entertain any such superstitious notions regarding the placenta, as obtains among the New Zealand females, yet by the care in burning it some such idea no doubt exists among them.[48] If the placenta is retained long after the birth of the infant, they endeavour to excite uterine contraction, by employing pressure on the lower part of the abdomen over the region of the womb. As soon as the child is born, the forehead of the infant is compressed, by laying the child upon its back and employing pressure with the foot; I could not find out for what object this was done, as the pressure was not repeated after the day following the birth of the infant.
The labours are sometimes tedious, and the suffering attending them severe; the presentations are generally natural; when preternatural labours occur, in most, if not in all such cases, they prove fatal for want of assistance.[49] After the delivery of the woman a belt of opossum skin, called “Cumeel” (similar to that worn by the males, when adults) is placed around the abdomen, and is removed after being kept on from twenty-four to forty-eight hours; the day after delivery the woman goes to the river for the purpose of ablution. Similar to most native tribes, the females are married at a very early age. I saw one in the Tumat country, whom I regarded as a mere child, and was surprised on being told that she had been married for eight months.
At “Dabee” I had an opportunity of viewing the native animal, called Koala or Cola,[50] and it immediately occurred to me (this being the first living specimen I had seen) how inaccurately the published representations of the animal were delineated, being probably, like most of the drawings of Australian animals, as well as many of other countries, taken from stuffed instead of recent specimens. The very peculiar droll-looking physiognomy of this little beast was entirely lost in the mis-representation. This animal, the Phascolartos genus of Blainville, was a young specimen, and covered over the body with a fine grey fur, having a reddish tinge, no tail, ears short and erect, and covered with thick long fur of a light greyish colour, eyes small, iredes brown, nose naked and pointed, upper lip divided, upper jaw projecting over the lower, hind feet like the opossum, the thumb wanting the nail. This animal laps when drinking, like a dog, and is very fond of milk; it uses the fore-feet in laying hold of the branches when eating the young leaves of the gum trees, (Eucalypti). This specimen was a male, and the noise it uttered was a peculiar soft barking sound. It sleeps during the day, running about to feed at night, but when roused will also feed during the day in its present state of confinement.
From many circumstances that have occurred, there is some reason to think that the aborigines of this country believe in the metempsychosis of the departure of the soul of their brethren into the bodies of certain animals; but as the notes I collected did not satisfy my mind, so as to assert this as a positive fact, I mention it, for others to procure information on the subject. That something like it exists, appears in some degree certain. In one instance, a native, at Béran plains, desired a European not to kill a Gúnar which he was then chasing, but to catch it alive as it was “him brother.” The animal, however, was killed, at which the native was much displeased, and would not eat any of it, but unceasingly complained of the “tumbling down him brother.”