Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/76

 similar description are found in the sand hills on the sea coast, and are put into a long bag made of rushes, which is fastened round the cheek. The doctor always carries these stones in his wallet, and lends them to sick people without fee or reward.

Sunstroke is not common, although the natives never wear any head-dress; but the effect of the sun's rays are known to be injurious to the brain, and to cause death. The rays of the moon are also believed to be hurtful; and, when the moon is looked at too long by any person, 'the devil in it makes them whirl round, and tumble helplessly into the fire.'

The aborigines were not subject, in former times, to pulmonary complaints, though they were very much exposed to the weather. At all seasons of the year the men, while travelling in a strange country, slept among bushes or long grass, often quite destitute of clothing. This was necessary to prevent surprise by enemies, who would be attracted by the smoke of a fire. Since the introduction of European clothing, however, they are very liable to affections of the lungs. The reason for this seems to be that, however much they may clothe and perspire during the daytime, they still very generally keep up the custom of throwing off their clothing when they go to sleep, with the exception of a kangaroo skin or an opossum rug in cold nights, or a little dry grass as a covering in hot weather.

The aborigines have been visited on several occasions by epidemics, which were very fatal. The first occasion which the natives remember was about the year 1830, and the last in 1847. The very small remnant of old aborigines now alive who escaped the first of these epidemics describe it as an irruptive fever resembling small-pox. They called it Meen warann —'chopped root.' They have still a very vivid recollection of its ravages, and of the great numbers cut off by it in the Western District. In remembrance of it they still chant a wail called Mallæ mallææ, which was composed in New South Wales, where the disease first broke out, and is known to all the tribes between Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The malady spread with rapidity from tribe to tribe, in consequence of the infection being carried by the messengers who were sent forward to communicate the sad news of its ravages. It was considered to be so infectious and deadly, that when anyone sickened and refused food, and when pustules appeared on the body, the tribal doctor gave them up at once, and the friends deserted them, leaving beside them in the wuurn a vessel of water to drink. When they died, the body was allowed to decay where it was; and, long afterwards, when all infection was supposed to be gone, and nothing left but bones, some of the