The aborigines have many superstitious ceremonies connected with their practice of the healing art, as we find among all primitive nations; those persons who take upon themselves the occupation to attend upon the sick or wounded, unite the offices of priest, soothsayer, and physician. The few medicines administered by them are from the vegetable kingdom; they also make use of a crystal for the cure of diseases, not by administering it to the sick person, but the physician employs its aid, to act upon the superstitious mind of his patient; it is the common quartz crystal, and is called by the natives, in the vicinity of Sydney, Krardgee Kibba, or Doctor Stone.[69] This name, borrowed from the Europeans, is sometimes employed by the Yas natives, but that by which it is characterized by them and likewise by the natives of the Murrumbidgee and Tumat countries, is “Merrúdagalle.” The aborigines say they manufacture it, but would not mention the ingredients of which it is composed; this was a secret!! The women are never permitted to look upon it, and the priests impose upon their minds a belief, that, should their curiosity prompt them so far, they would instantly die.
These crystals are valued by them according to their size, and it is not easy to procure a large one from them. They are not only regarded as a charm by which wounds and diseases of the human frame can be cured, but they advance another step, by declaring, that when thrown at a person (accompanied, I suppose, by certain incantations) it will have the power of causing his death. This power, said by them to be possessed by the stone, having been mentioned one day by a native to a European settler, the latter ridiculed it, and desired the black to put it to the test by throwing it at him. This, however, was refused, “he being good man;” alluding to the European, “he no want kill him;” and, after using every endeavour to induce blackee to make the trial, he shuffled out of the dilemma, by acknowledging “that it would have no effect upon the white fellers.”
The following account of the manner in which the crystal is used by the physician, may be considered interesting. In the Tumat country, a native black, named Golong, was suffering from a spear wound, received a short time previous in a skirmish with a hostile tribe; it was in the evening, (for the stones are only used after dark, as at that time their efficacy is considered greater,) when a native of his tribe, named Baramumbup, employed the crystal for the purpose of healing the wound in the following manner.
The patient was laid at a distance of twenty or thirty yards from the encampment, after which the physician commenced the examination of the wound, which he sucked; then, without spitting, he retired to a distance of ten or fifteen yards from the invalid, muttered, or appeared to mutter some prayer or invocation for about a minute; on concluding, he placed the crystal in his mouth, sucked it, and then, removing the stone, spat upon the ground, and trampled upon the discharged saliva, pressing it with his feet firmly into the earth. This ceremony was repeated several times on this and subsequent evenings, until the patient’s recovery, which, of course, was considered to have been effected by the wonderful curative properties resident in the crystal. On making inquiry, why the physician is so careful in trampling the saliva discharged from his mouth into the ground, no satisfactory reason could be obtained, a vague answer only being returned to the query; but it is not improbable that they consider, by this operation, they finally destroy the power of the evil spirit, extracted by the operation, through the virtues of the stone: some such reason for this proceeding may be inferred from an observation made to any European, who may be present at this part of the ceremony, that “He no come up again.”
A somewhat analogous custom exists among the aboriginal tribes of Brazil, called “Guachos,” as related by Spix and Martius in their Brazilian Travels. (English Trans. 8vo. vol. ii. page 77.) “Their Payés, or physicians, (called in their language, Vunageneto,) are conjurers and exorcists of the evil principle, which they call Nanigogigo. Their cures of the sick are very simple, and consist principally in fumigating, or in sucking, the part affected; on which the payé spits into a pit, as if he would give back the evil principle, which he has sucked out, to the earth, and bury it.”
CHAPTER X.
Leave Yas Plains for Sydney—Mr. Shelly’s farm—Splendid new road—Mr. Barber’s farm—Shoalhaven gullies—Interesting spot—Mr. Campbell’s farm—Journey resumed—Settlement of Bong, Bong—Bargo Brush—Profusion of flowering shrubs—View from the summit of Mount Prudhoe—The cow pasture road—Farms of Mr. M’Arthur, and Captain Coghill—Flowers—The white cedar—Government hospital at Liverpool.
On the 13th of October, I left Yas Plains on my return to Sydney,[70] retracing my route by Gonnong, Mut, mut, billy, I arrived at Goulburn Plains on the 14th. Resuming my journey on the following morning, accompanied by some friends, they carried me a different route from that by which I arrived at the plains: the road led over a rather hilly but open forest and good pasture land, and, travelling a distance of fifteen miles, (when close brush asserted its triumph over the former fine country,) we arrived at Mr. Shelly’s farm on the “Grampian Hills.” Proceeding six miles beyond, we crossed the splendid new road, forming a portion of the great southern line: it was wide, yet unbeaten; a dense forest bounding it on either side as far as the eye could reach, the felled trees being placed along, to point out the breadth of the road. This did not appear requisite, as the thick forest sufficiently indicated it.
At a short distance further on, we turned off the more direct road, and arrived at Mr. Barber’s farm, close to which commences the extraordinary and extensive fissure, called the “Shoalhaven Gullies,” extending through a large tract of country to the sea coast. This farm possesses natural beauties of a sublime and romantic character; but the soil is principally rocky, and does not seem to possess the valuable requisites to a settler, that of arable land and good sheep pasturage, in any quantity. To a visitor, however, the romantic beauties of the Gullies are sufficient objects of attraction; and, accompanied by Mr. Hume, senior, I was taken, at a very short distance from the house, to as splendid a scene as has been perhaps yet discovered in this interesting and peculiar country. I much regret that time did not permit me to make a closer examination of these gullies, which appear to owe their existence to some sudden convulsion of nature that had violently rent the hills asunder; down the steep sides, a dense vegetation concealed their depth, although the eye could reach, unimpeded, sufficiently deep to enable some idea to be formed of the profoundness of these chasms. The largest and most extensive gully, said to possess the most beautiful scenery, was five miles distant.