Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/72

 was very much annoyed when any white person scrutinized and exposed the contents of her bag; but the natives, though the more sensible of them were not sorry to see her powers and mysterious charms ridiculed, were too much afraid of her to smile, or join in any mirth at her expense.

White Lady was an honorary member of the teetotal society, and carried a temperance badge suspended from her neck, which she said told her 'not to drink spirits.' When an opportunity occurred, however, to get a drop of rum, she took off the badge and hid it in the ground, and, when sober, put it on again. She also had a cross suspended in the same way, which she said 'yabbered,' 'do not tell lies,' 'do not kill anybody,' 'do not steal potatoes;' but, when hunger prompted a raid on a potato field, the cross was temporarily buried in like manner. This cunning woman possessed such power over the minds of her tribe that anything she fancied was at once given to her. When she died, at Kangatong, her death was followed by the usual wailing and scratching of faces amongst her friends during the whole night; but, as she had been such a terror to her tribe on account of her reputed powers for evil, there was more form than sincerity in their professions of grief. The following day her body and all her property, consisting of clothing, opossum rug, ornaments and spells, were placed on a bier made of saplings, and silently carried off by the friends and relatives, and interred in a grave two feet deep. Her head, however, and portions of the legs and arms were buried in a cave near Mount Kolor, where she was born.

Every tribe has its doctor, in whose skill great confidence is reposed; and not without reason, for he generally prescribes sensible remedies. When these fail, he has recourse to supernatural means and artifices of various kinds.

The following remedies are those most commonly used. In cases of pain in one spot the skin is scarified, and the blood allowed to flow freely. When the pain is general, and arises from severe cold or rheumatism, a vapour bath is produced by kindling a fire in a hole in the ground, covering it with green leaves, and pouring water on them. The sick person is placed over this, and covered with an opossum rug, and steamed till profuse perspiration takes place. He is then rubbed dry with hot ashes, and ordered to keep warm. Another cure for rheumatism is an infusion of the bark of the blackwood tree, which is first roasted, and then infused while hot. The affected part is bathed with the hot infusion, and bandaged with a cord spun from the fur of the flying squirrel, or ringtail opossum, with a piece of opossum rug as a covering. Severe headaches