Page:Australian Emigrant 1854.djvu/151

 had not gone far before he detected a glimmering light in the direction he was going. With increased caution he went on his way, and conjecturing, from the fact of several more fires becoming visible, that he had come upon the camp of natives, he got into the bed of the stream in order to avoid leaving any tracks behind him: in this way he soon came abreast of the encampment. There were about thirty weelems, or rude huts, pitched upon the side of a hill, at the base of which the stream ran. The night was cold, and it would have afforded Dodge infinite satisfaction to have left his watery bed and warmed his benumbed limbs at one of the largest of the fires, around which several warriors were conversing in a dialect quite unknown to the watcher. In consequence of the danger which would have attended the use of his pipe, poor Dodge was fain to dispose of a portion of the small store of tobacco he had remaining in another way—alas! for the result. The juice of the weed affected him with a severe fit of coughing which all his efforts were unable to repress, and in a moment the whole camp was in an uproar. A shower of fire-sticks were cast in the direction from whence the sound had proceeded, but they revealed nothing. Dodge foreseeing the turn matters were likely to take had crept into a clump of tall reeds which were at hand: his position was one of extreme danger, but that only rendered his brain more prolific in expedients. Being well aware of the extreme timidity and superstition of the natives at any disturbance by night, and also that there was a universal belief amongst all the tribes that darkness was the favorite time when Bund-gil-carno, the evil spirit, chiefly delighted to take his walks abroad, his plans were soon matured—he would play the very deuce. He plucked a broad leaf from the stem of a reed, and by holding it in a peculiar manner between his hands and blowing upon it strongly, he produced such a series of unearthly sounds as might well,