The rain that had fallen the day previous to my examination of these trees, and the heat of the sun causing a quantity of manna to exude from them, its mode of secretion could be more readily distinguished. It is usually secreted about the commencement of December; but it depends on the weather whether the secretion is in greater or less quantity: this season it was abundant.
The manna trees had commenced during the latter part of December, to throw off their outer bark; their trunks, therefore, had a ragged appearance, and the ground underneath was strewed with dried crisped pieces which had fallen off, leaving a smooth and handsome new bark in their place. The black cockatoos (“Womberong,” and “Bulowla”) were occasionally seen in numbers, feeding upon the ripe cones of the Banksia, or “honeysuckles;”[123] and the smaller chattering parroquets were flying about, in hundreds, and revelling among the Eucalypti trees, which were now in flower; and, like to the humming-birds, they were extracting honey from the nectaries of the blossoms. On examining one that had been shot, the beak was covered, and the mouth filled, with honey, possessing the peculiar camphorated smell of the leaves and flowers of the tree, mingled with stamina; the stomach was filled with a dark, thick honey, among which some quantity of the stamina of the Eucalyptic flowers were mingled. The Blue Mountain parrot also sips the nectar from the flowers, as well as from peaches, &c. The natives, when they kill any of these birds, suck their beaks to extract the honey with which the mouth is usually filled, and also recover that collected in the stomach.
The aborigines were now collecting about the farms in expectation of a feast at the ensuing Christmas festival. I went up to one who was busily engaged in making an opossum-skin cloak: he sewed the skins together with the fibres of the bark of the “Stringy Bark” tree for thread, by first perforating holes in it with a sharp piece of bone, and then passing the thread through the holes as he proceeded. I asked him some questions, and then gave him a piece of tobacco: he asked for two piece tobacco, because “I merry busy, and you ask me much,” said blackee.
I visited “Northwood,” (distant about six miles from the Plains,) the neat farm of Mr. Francis M’Arthur, and afterwards rode across the plains to Dr. Gibson’s farm, at Taranna, which is situated near the “Soldier’s Flat;” this latter place consists of several small farms, of about a hundred acres each, which were granted by government to the discharged veterans. There were small bark huts erected upon the grants, and several ripe fields of grain and vegetable gardens about them.
The numerals among the aboriginal tribes of Goulburn Plains are as follows. One, Metong;—Two, Bulla;—Three, Bulla, metong;—Plenty, Nerang and Gorong.
Christmas Day is regarded as a festival by the blacks who live near the habitations of the white men, it being customary at this period for the settlers to distribute among them provisions and spirits, with which they contrive to render themselves perfectly happy. Several tribes had formed their encampment on and about the Plains, for the occasion, their huts had been speedily erected, by collecting the branches of trees, and lying over them sheets of bark, so placed as to form a shelter to windward; the fire being made in front. Some appeared in “native costume,” with an extra daub of red ochre, and the “bolombine” round the head; others wore tufts of the yellow crest of the white cockatoo, pending from their beards; but there were some who approximated to civilized society in dress, being arrayed in shirt, trowsers, and handkerchief;—and when thus cleanly “rigged out” in European finery, their personal appearance was not unprepossessing,—not that I mean to say they will bear away the palm for personal beauty.
Some of the “black fellers” had merely a jacket, others only a shirt: the garments, however, were merely put on for the occasion, to be soon after laid aside, as they find clothing materially obstruct them when engaged in hunting or other expeditions. The putting on the European garments serves merely to gratify their vanity, making them look “like white feller,” as they express it. Having observed, to one who petitioned me for a pair of “inexpressibles,” to look “like white feller,” that his father did not wear breeches; he replied, “My fadder no see white feller trowsers—if make a light (see) make get; but no white feller sit down this place when my fadder here.”
The “ladies” are conspicuous principally for their head gear; glowing in grease and red ochre, the ringlets of these “dark angels” were decorated with opossum tails, the extremities of other animals, and the incisor teeth of the kangaroo; some had the “Cambun” (“Bolombine” of the Tumat country,) or fillet daubed with pipe-clay bound round the forehead: this ornament is sometimes made from the stringy bark tree, as well as from the tendons of the kangaroo’s tail: lateral lines of pipe-clay ornamented the upper part of their faces, breast, and arms. Both men and women have raised cicatrices over the breast, arms, and back; but the forms of these personal decorations are various. They regarded with a degree of awe, a keyed bugle, with which a gentleman amused himself at this place: they called it the Cobbong (large) whistle; and were more pleased with the slow airs played upon it, than those of a lively and quick movement.
On the evening of Christmas Day we adjourned to the verandah: the scene was beautiful; the heavy clouds, which had previously obscured the heavens, had passed away: the sun, about to set, cast a red glow over the beautiful scenery of fields of golden grain; numerous herds of cattle and flocks of sheep scattered over different parts of the extensive plains; the elegant, drooping, young manna trees, and the sombre foliage of the Banksia, or honeysuckle; the picturesque wooded hills, with declivities covered with verdure to the plains beneath, and the farthest view terminated by distant mountains, formed a splendid prospect.
My attention was recalled from the enjoyment of this tranquil scene, by the noisy revelry of the blacks, whose approaches towards civilization were manifested by their getting intoxicated. The camp was now one scene of tumult and confusion: the huts, of a weak and temporary construction, were thrown down; the men, inebriated with “bull,” were chasing the women and children with sticks, who scampered away to escape the punishment awarded to their mockery: numerous curses, in English, proceeded from the lips of the inebriated blacks, being terms more expressive than any their limited language could afford. As the men swore, the women screamed and talked incessantly.