Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/96

 CHAPTER XVIII.

AMUSEMENTS.

leading amusement of the Australian aborigines is the karweann, or korroboræ, which somewhat resembles pantomime, and consists of music, dancing, and acting.

Little can be said in favour of the aboriginal music. The airs are monotonous and doleful, and there is no such thing as harmony. Men and women join in singing. The women commence, each one accompanying her voice with regular beats of the open hand on a rolled-up opossum rug, which sometimes contains shells, to produce a jingling sound; the men strike in with their voices and with their music sticks. These sticks are made of hard wood, and are about nine inches long and an inch and a half in diameter, rounded, and tapering at each end to a point. The one is held stationary, and is struck with the other. The sound produced is clear and musical, and can be heard at a great distance.

Many songs having appropriate airs are universally known. Very often complimentary or descriptive songs are composed on the instant, and are sung to well-known airs, the whole company joining in the chorus. A lament called 'Mallæ malææ,' composed in New South Wales in commemoration of the ravages of small-pox, is known all over the Australian colonies, and is sung in a doleful strain, accompanied with groans and imitations of a dying person. The following is a song in the Chaap wuurong language, with its translation. It is said to have been composed in the neighbourhood of Sydney by one of the aborigines of that country, and to have been translated into the different languages as it became known. In singing it the last two lines are repeated three times.