It was amusing to see with what rapidity and expertness the animals were skinned and embowelled by the blacks; the offal was thrown to the dogs, but as such a waste on the part of the natives does not often take place, we can only presume it is when game, as it was at present, is very abundant—the dogs are usually in poor condition, from getting a very precarious supply of provender: the liver being extracted, and gall-bladder removed, a stick was thrust through the animal, which was either thrown upon the ashes to broil, or placed upon a wooden spit before the fire to roast; whether the food was removed from the fire cooked, or only half-dressed, depended entirely on the state of their appetites: the flesh of the animals at this time preparing for dinner by our tawny friends appeared delicate, and was no doubt excellent eating, as the diet of the animals was in most instances vegetable.
The natives are as dirty in general habits as in cookery, and this unclean race were often seen as “chimney ornaments” in the settlers’ habitations, placing themselves on each side of the fire-place, or almost in the hearth, to get warm, looking like a huge piece of charred wood, and forming objects neither useful nor ornamental; they have a great antipathy to any thing like labour, (I do not mean to disparage the race by this observation, for all uncultivated tribes are similar in this respect,) and the only way to get rid of them whenever they became troublesome, was to set them to work.
Both sexes wear cloaks made from several skins of the opossum, kangaroos, or other animals joined together. In cold weather the fur is worn turned inwards, making a warm and comfortable garment; neither males nor females appear to regard it as a covering required for decency, but merely as a protection against the inclemency of the weather, as it is frequently thrown aside. The skins of either the opossum or kangaroo are used for cloaks, and are prepared, when recently taken from the animal, by stretching them out upon the ground with small wooden pegs, the inner side being scraped with a shell, until they are rendered perfectly clean and pliable. The skins when dry are stitched neatly together, with thread made from the long tendons of the muscles about the tail of the kangaroo; (which when dried are capable of being divided into threads of almost any degree of fineness;) the needle is formed of a piece of bone; and a number of these skins sewn together form the cloaks in general use. Among both males and females many have a sort of tatauing, or ornamental marks scratched upon the inner part of the cloak, according to the taste of the owner.
Both sexes have the septum naris perforated, in which a piece of straw, stick, or emu-bone is worn, looking like what Jack would term a “spritsail yard;” this practice is universal among the whole of the tribes seen in the colony, and is regarded as highly ornamental. I have before alluded to the loss of an incisor tooth of the upper jaw, observed among the adult male natives; this, on inquiry, I found proceeded from a custom existing among them, (which is attended at the time with much ceremony,) of a male, on attaining the age of manhood, having to undergo this operation, receiving at the same time the “cumeel,” or opossum-skin belt, after which he is admitted into the society of men, permitted to attend the corroberas, or consultations when any marauding or war expedition is in contemplation, or when the tribe is about to remove from one part of the country to another: previous to this, they are considered only fit society for women, and associate principally with them. A son of a chief at Yas Plains, who had not yet undergone this ceremony, necessary for his admission, attended one of their meetings: on being discovered, he was obliged to leave the assembly.
The females among the native tribes have little confidence reposed in them by the opposite sex, from fear that their secret plans and expeditions might be divulged by them: when, therefore, they form a plot to steal or kill cattle, they are careful to conceal their schemes from the weaker sex, and boys associate with them; for in instances not a few, when plans for marauding excursions have been overheard by the females, the latter have betrayed them to the stock-keepers, and thus frustrated their intentions. But may not this proceed from the want of mutual confidence between the parties? Among the tribes a chieftain does not preserve an hereditary rank, chiefs being chosen for superior bravery, being the best hunter, or having a superior mind.[65] Thus men in a state of nature choose their leaders; and we may observe a similar order of things among gregarious animals.
CHAPTER IX.
Perch, and other fish—An elegant couple—Kangaroo dogs—Black and white cockatoos—Vegetable productions—Mr. O’Brien’s farm—Herds of cattle—Bush life—Proceed towards the Murrumbidgee river—A bush track—Romantic country—Arrive on the banks of the Murrumbidgee—Cross the river—Swamp oaks, and other trees—Remarkable caves—Return to Yas—Superstitious ceremonies—Crystal used in the cure of diseases—Mode of employing it.
Large quantities of native perch are caught in the Yas and Murrumbidgee rivers; their flavour is delicious: their average length is nineteen inches, and the weight from three to six pounds: they have however been taken from two and a half to three feet in length, and weighing seventy pounds; and some even of the enormous size of one hundred, and one hundred and twenty pounds:[66] the breadth is great in proportion to the length of the fish. Those I examined were of a yellowish-green colour, covered with irregular black spots, with a silvery abdomen. They are named by the colonists, “river cod;” and by the aborigines, “Mewuruk.”[67] In the stomach of this fish I frequently found shell-fish, of the genus Unio, in an entire state. The larger kind of these shells the natives of the Tumat country call “Nargun;” and the smaller, usually found in rivulets or creeks, “Pindaquin, or Bucki.” Occasionally half-digested masses of green caterpillars, and other insects, were also found in the stomach of this fish. In the Tumat country, varieties of the “river cod,” are called by the natives Bewuck, Mungee, &c. Another fish of the family of perches is also caught in the Yas, Murrumbidgee, and other large rivers in the colony: it is called the “perch” by the colonists, and “Kupé” by the natives. I preserved a specimen, caught in the Murrumbidgee, measuring seventeen inches in length, and six inches at its greatest breadth, containing a fine roe: twenty inches was the greatest length they had as yet been taken in this river; but, like the “river cod,” it increases more in breadth, in proportion to its weight, than in length. The colour of the Kupé was inclining to bronze; the ends of the scales being black, gave to the fish a checkered appearance.
Among the native inhabitants of the Yas district was a pair of originals: the man was called Daraga, and his lady the “beautiful Kitty of Yas.” Neither of them had pretensions to beauty. The lady had ornamented her delicate form (for all the ladies are fond of adornments) with two opossum tails, pendent in a graceful manner from her greasy locks; pieces of tobacco-pipe, mingled with coloured beads, adorned her neck; an old, dirty, opossum-skin cloak was thrown over the shoulders; a bundle of indescribable rags around the waist; and a netbul or culy hanging behind, (filled with a collection of “small deer,” and other eatables, that would baffle all attempts at description,) completed the toilette of this angelic creature. Of her features I shall only say, they were not such as painters represent those of Venus: her mouth, for instance, had a striking resemblance to the gaping entrance of a Wombat’s burrow. The husband also had decorated the locks of his cranium with opossum tails, with the addition of grease and red ochre; a tuft of beard ornamented his chin; and the colour of his hide was barely discernible, from the layers of mud and charcoal covering it: he wore a “spritsail yard” through his “apology for a nose;” the opossum-skin cloak covered his shoulders; and the “cumeel,” or belt of opossum-skin, girded the loins: the pipe was his constant companion, as the love of tobacco among those who have intercourse with Europeans, is unbounded, and no more acceptable present can be made them.