Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/87

Rh by his relatives, and disposed of according to the laws regulating mourning and the eating of human flesh, which are described in the previous chapter.

The friends examine the footprints of the murderers, and follow them sufficiently far to indicate the direction from which they came. If they are unable to follow up the track, they console themselves by expressing the wish that some evil may befall the murderer. If they have been able to follow up the track, they return home and collect as many men as possible, and make an attack on the suspected tribe; and, should they succeed in killing a member of the tribe—even though it be a woman, or only a child—they are satisfied, and the two tribes are again friendly. But if one of an innocent tribe should be killed, retaliation is sought, and probably another life sacrificed.

When a number of men have been implicated in a murder or other crime, they disguise their track by walking backwards in line over ground likely to retain the impressions of their feet; and they hide their numbers by stepping in each other's footprints. This they continue as long as they are in country belonging to another tribe. When lying in wait for an enemy they lay their ears near the ground, but not touching it, and listen attentively. They can hear the sound of footsteps on the soft sward at a distance of one hundred yards; those of a horse at two or three hundred.

Friendship is seldom allowed to interfere with the sacred duty of revenge. A man would consider it his bounden duty to kill his most intimate friend for the purpose of avenging a brother's death, and would do so without the slightest hesitation. But if an intimate friend should be killed, he would leave revenge to the relatives of the deceased. In all cases, if they fail to secure the guilty person, they consider it their duty to kill one of his relatives, however ignorant he may have been of the crime.

This law holding every member of the tribe responsible for the conduct of each individual in the tribe is doubtless founded upon the necessities of the case, and entails upon each one the duty of controlling the violent passions, not only of himself, but also of the others.