By the time everybody was dressed, they looked truly awful; and I pleased them immensely by pretending to be frightened of these “gammon Debbil-debbils.”
I begged them not to carry me off, and they shouted with delight, and waved sticks at me, and danced about and said, “Me Debbil-debbil alright, me real fellow,” and tried hard to look fierce in spite of their grins. Poor old Goggle Eye was nearly bent double with laughing; for if there is one thing a blackfellow likes better than anything else it is a “play-about,” as they call fun and nonsense.
After supper we arrived at the party—four white men and a woman! The moon had risen, and innumerable fires were flickering among the trees; and everything was ready to begin.
His Majesty the King, and the Lords in Waiting, received us with a broad grin. Then they each stood on one leg and chuckled. Whenever a blackfellow has nothing better to do with his legs, he always stands on one, and lays the sole of the other foot against his knee, making his legs look exactly like the figure 4, with an extra long stem. I think our hosts chuckled because they did not know what else to do.
I thought, perhaps, that some of the old men might not be too pleased to have me at the party, and I said so to Goggle Eye. “Me bin talk,” he answered, with a wave of his hand, that showed he was in every way King.
The lubras were sitting near, ready to sing and beat time for the dancers. I think in the excitement of getting ready for the party, they must have forgotten to dress themselves, for they had nothing on, excepting a few feathers and things that had been left over from the men’s costumes. As nobody seemed to notice this, I suppose it did not matter.
A great big place had been cleared of all sticks and stones, and the whole tribe and their visitors stood round it, armed with spears. This particular patch of ground was near to a very sacred stone, and unless this corrobboree was danced there it would not be of much good. That was why it was so near the homestead.
The lubras began to sing a strange weird song, and a few blackfellows sounded the bamboo trumpets, and then the dancing commenced. It was very tiring both to dancers and onlookers. Up every one lifted a leg, and down every one stamped a leg and gave a fearful yell; then Billy Muck, who was a little way off from the dancers, gave a jump and a little run—and that was the First Figure!