Whereas the average European can distinguish between the tracks of a dog and a cat, it is a decidedly more difficult matter for him to discriminate between those of a mastiff and a wolf on the one hand and, say, those of a sheep-dog and a fox or jackal on the other. The aboriginal, however, learns to recognize not only the class, or species, or variety, as they are known to us, by the spoors, but can particularize each single individual. By looking at a track, for instance, which we can only describe as a “dog track,” an aboriginal can immediately tell us whether it is that of a “wild-dog” or of a “whitefellow-dog,” whether the animal is young or old, male or female, and whether it passed over the ground sometime to-day, yesterday, the day before, or a week ago; finally, he will tell us whether he has ever seen the dog, and, if so, he will probably know who the owner is. And all this information comes at a glance!
The children love basking in the sand; and spend hours playing with the glistening white and red drifts so plentiful in central and northern Australia. Little mounds are built, upon which they sit to defy the others to topple them; and oblong holes are scratched, into which some of the younger are laid and almost completely covered with sand. When the buried ones presently throw the sand from their bodies, the rest of the players scamper off with a hullabaloo and tell their elders the Kurdaitcha (devil-devil) is coming.
Along the north coast of Australia, the mud-banks of the tidal rivers are a great source of amusement. When the water recedes during the heat of day, the young folk make for the blue mud-banks to indulge in sport and play. Mud-sliding is usually the first item of the programme. Taking a long run over the firmer ground, the performers reach the mud-bank with considerable velocity, and in consequence of this, they slide over the slimy surface in much the same style as our children in the Old Country do over the ice. They maintain their balance with their arms. The sliding is effected either singly or in long chains they form by joining hands. They endeavour to make their slide reach the water, which, if they are successful, they enter with no end of splashing and shrieking “Ai! Ai! Ai!”
Another method often tried is to run and then take the “slide” lying upon chest and belly. As one is sliding this way, he turns his body round its long axis and eventually disappears into the water. To the observer a child sliding in this way looks deceptively like a stranded dugong or other big fish endeavouring to make back to water. Occasionally one of the sporters breaks the monotony of the game by negotiating the “slide” with his stern. Or he may bring along a small oblong sheet of bark, upon which he sits or kneels and propels himself along with his foot. In modern language this toy might be called a “mud-scooter.”
On Cambridge Gulf the girls have evolved yet another variety of this sport. One lies flat on the mud, face downward, whilst another stands behind her. The one lying now places her arms forwards and holds the palms of her hands together; at the same time she bends her legs to a rectangle in the knees, and keeping them together she holds them rigid in that position. Now the girl standing behind seizes the legs of the one on the mud at about the ankles and pushes the human sleigh along the “slide.” As a special favour a piccaninny might be allowed to take a seat upon the sliding girl’s back.
In the same district the boys delight in carrying each other pick-a-back to the brink of the softest mud, to precipitate the rider backwards into the slush or into the water.
To break the monotony, the children place themselves in a row, each with a number of flattish pebbles previously collected on the dry land, and take it turn about to pelt the surface of the water at a very sharp angle in order to make the stone ricochet as many times as possible.
A new game is begun by the girls stamping the water with their feet, as at a corroboree; the boys are preparing for a sham-fight. They cover the whole of their body, including the hair, with thick mud, which they maintain is the same as the ochre the warriors apply to their bodies when on the war-path. They pick sides and stand face to face on a bank, about half a chain apart. Upon a given signal they commence bombarding each other with mud-balls! One is reminded of the snowballing feats of European school children. The lads endeavour to dodge the mud-balls thrown by their adversaries with as little movement as possible, by just contorting the figure or lifting a limb to allow a missile to fly harmlessly by. Much gesticulation takes place during the friendly combat, and often does one hear an excited “Ai! Ai!” announcing the fact that a player has effected a narrow escape. The climax, however, is not reached until a hit is recorded, and a ball, too carefully aimed, spatters the body of a neglectful opponent. When the game is over, all participants rest for a while upon the surface of the muddy bank, then dive into the water and wash the slush from their heated bodies.
At Kurrekapinnya Soakage in the Ayers Ranges the bare, inclined surface of a granitic outcrop is utilized by the children for tobogganing. The same track has been in use for so long that the “slide” has become remarkably smooth from the constant wear. The tobogganer gathers a bundle of rushes at the soakage and makes for the top of the outcrop. There he places the bundle upon the polished “slide,” sits upon it, and starts himself moving down the slope. Considerable speed is attained by the time he reaches the bottom of the rock, whence he shoots into the sand adjacent to it. The performance is repeated over and over again.
The Victoria River tribes arrange competitions among the boys in tree-climbing, the lads being required to clamber up a number of selected trees, and down again, in the quickest time possible.