Page:History of West Australia.djvu/38

 26 collected, powdered, and mixed with water or human saliva, and serve to sustain life. Worst of all, many tribes in the interior, and therefore more inhospitable regions, practise cannibalism. This horrible practice is constantly resorted to, and the natives on the fringe of such districts live in constant terror of getting within their power. Even now it is prevalent in different districts, and since the development of the goldfields native boys in the service of Europeans fear being left alone by night or wandering too far away by day. This only applies to particular parts of the goldfields. Happily, taking Australia as a whole, cannibalism is more the exception than the rule.

Throughout the colony, and especially in the vast arid stretches, the natives have their wells at intervals, where they can obtain water. An almost continuous line of these are found in the north-west and interior, wherever the water level is near the surface. But should this source give out, there are certain "water trees" from whose lateral roots quantities of the precious liquid are obtained. Explorers have much to be thankful for in native wells, or more correctly holes, for without them they would often have perished in the parched wilderness.

The primary and most attractive feature of native life is the hunt. The weapons are nearly the same in the hunt as in war. First is the spear and mero, or wommera, the stick with which it is thrown; next a stick used for many purposes, both in the fight and in the hunt, and named the douack, or dyuna, or walga or juwul; then the kadjo or hatchet, and lastly the kylie or boomerang, while other sticks are sometimes carried. The spear is chiefly used in fighting and in the kangaroo hunt. It is adroitly projected from the throwing-stick, and is more useful than the bow and arrow, for with it the native can dislodge opossums from their lairs in hollow trees, knock gum from high branches, and pull down the banksia cone. The hatchet, with head of hard wood or quartz gummed to the handle, is formidable, and is used as a hammer or tomahawk to cut notches in the bark of trees to form an entrance for the toe in climbing, for chopping up game, and for sundry other purposes. The boomerang is the most famous, and has somewhat the shape of a half-circle, flat on one side and round on the other, and when thrown into a flock of wild fowl or cockatoos rises in the air and returns to near the feet of the thrower. The natives are very expert with this weapon, which is composed of a hard wood, is often rudely carved, and is much cherished as an ornament. The boy is taught to throw the spear and use these other weapons at an early age. Hunting is done either in parties or by the father alone. In the former case a beat is made, and the men and their wives and children all take part. But the most interesting is where the father hunts alone, followed by his wives and family. Grey describes the hunter as equipped with all his worldly possessions. "Round his middle is wound in many folds a cord spun from the fur of the opossum, which forms a warm, soft, and elastic belt of an inch in thickness, in which are stuck his hatchet, his kylie or boomerang, and a short heavy stick to throw at the smaller animals. His hatchet is so ingeniously placed that the head of it rests exactly on the centre of his back, whilst its thin, short handle descends along the backbone. In his hand he carries his throwing-stick and several spears, headed in two or three different manners, so that they are equally adapted to war or the chase."

The huntsman leaves his last night's resting-place. Behind him at a little distance follow his wives with long sticks in their hands, which they often use as walking-sticks. On their backs, in bags composed of kangaroo skin, are their youngest children, together with a strange collection of native valuables. The bag represents the aboriginal portmanteau and perambulator. In it with the child are divers articles, such as stones to pound roots, quartz for making spear-heads and knives, and those precious bits of quartz which sorcerers have extracted from their bodies, earth to mix with roots as food, cakes of gum to make and mend weapons, kangaroo sinews, shavings of kangaroo skins to polish spears, shell of species of mussel to cut hair, knives, pipe-clay, and red ochre, besides, perhaps, other necessaries of food, the hunt, and the toilet. The hunt is one of the great occasions of savage life. The native's demeanour brightens up and in him is a wondrous change. His usually listless eyes fire and are alert, and glance from object to object. His gait, at other times slow, is quick, restless, and noiseless. Over the plain, up the hill, down the valley, he stealthily and rapidly walks, his wives following. His flashing eyes scan the earth, the woods, the sky, and peer among the trees, and over the long stretches of Australian country, for sign of game. No human being observes him; the whole active world is far away. He is lord of these good lands. The brightly plumaged parrots, the chattering cockatoos, the crooning pigeons, the feathered tribes of different species, look curiously down from their umbrageous homes and watch him. Beyond their chattering and chirping and calling to each other, the neighbourhood is silent.

Suddenly the native halts as if transfixed. His body is straight, his head erect. He is listening. His eyes scrutinise the woods, all his faculties are concentrated, and his soul is completely absorbed in sight and hearing. Again it is as if his whole life were lived in that moment. His wives noiselessly fall to the ground, and even the infants utter no sound. Habit tells them that they must be silent. From their horizontal position the women anxiously glance around them. Near their husband they descry a grazing kangaroo, and the quietude is broken by a suppressed whistle from one of them.

The kangaroo becomes alarmed. It is a female, and immediately standing on its long hind legs, and balancing itself by its tail, it timidly looks around. A little one runs to the mother and enters the pouch, its small head and pointed ears peering out to see where the danger lies. Intently watching for any movement and searching for some strange presence, the older marsupial stands at attention, and then, satisfied, hops to more plentiful pasture near by and continues her feeding. All this while the native stands motionless—he might be a charred stump or the typical West Australian "blackboy" (a small tree with black stump) for all the onlooker can tell. He waits before he moves. The kangaroo is not yet assured. It stands and glances around again, but observes no sign of an enemy. Again it crops the herbage. The native's opportunity arrives. He steals forward, his body motionless, his legs alone moving. The slightest indication of suspicion in the kangaroo, and he is as a statue. Deftly he fixes the spear in the throwing-stick while his eyes are searchingly bent on the poor animal, and then, holding his arms in throwing attitude, he advances to what he considers a good distance. Putting strength and aptness into the throw he hurls the spear, which cleaves into the body of the game.

The woods now resound with the shouts of his family, and women and children rise from their hiding-place and join in the race after the wounded animal, which, not completely disabled, bounds away. The pursuers have the advantage, and the