Page:History of West Australia.djvu/39

 Rh kangaroo, weakened by loss of blood, places its back against a tree, determined to defend itself. Should the native approach too closely it takes him in a deadly embrace with its fore paws, and rends him in twain with the claws of the hind legs. But the native is wary. He keeps at a safe distance, and projects spear after spear at the animal until exhaustion carries it supine to the ground. The huntsman places the marsupial on his back and carries it to some suitable site, where he makes his home, and feasts until the animal is eaten.

There are other ways beside these for catching kangaroos. The one which brings most glory, of which the hunter is proudest, is tracking and running down the game. A native of strong endurance only can accomplish this feat. Following the animal's tracks, he holds to them hour after hour, and sometimes for days, resting only at night. About the third day the weary, frightened, hungry kangaroo is caught and killed. Nets are also used and are set in the favourite haunts of the kangaroos, while pitfalls are made, stakes are driven into the ground at the fording places of rivers, or the native hides himself behind a screen of boughs at their drinking places. There he waits with unwearied zeal hour after hour until the kangaroo appears, and is speared. Some tribes follow different tactics, and as in the corroboree assume the antics of the marsupial, and even place kangaroo skins over their bodies, and hop and browse around until within spearing distance. In days prior to settlement some tribes possessed dogs which rendered them assistance in hunting. These animals had bushy tails, short pricked up ears, and resembled foxes.

Two methods are adopted for cooking the kangaroo. In one a hole is dug in the sand and a fire lighted in it. When the bottom and sides of this oven are thoroughly heated the fire is taken out and the kangaroo, skin and all, placed in it, and is covered with embers. In the other, the animal is cut into pieces and broiled. The flesh is excellent eating in both cases.

Sometimes the natives burn the dry grass in their district and arrange a sort of battue by which the kangaroos are brought within the range of their spears. After the fire sweeter grass springs up and the quicker fattens the young kangaroos. Whole tribes are invited to take part in these proceedings, and if much spoil is obtained they are treated with the greatest hospitality, and the nights are enlivened by corroborees. Should a kangaroo or other game be caught which has been speared by two natives, the law of the chase provides that the one who threw the first spear owns the animal.

Three modes are adopted for catching fish,— by spearing, weirs, and nets. In spearing, the native either stands on the bank of the sea or river or wades some distance into the water, and with spear ready is as immovable as a dark post. When the fish glides by it is pinned with certain aim by the spear. At other times the native rushes after the fish in the shallow water, dashing up the spray, and quickly secures it. These sights formed a romantic picture in the Swan River when the settlement was first formed. The weirs have already been described in the accounts of the voyages of Dampier and Lieutenant King. The nets are composed of rushes, strips of kangaroo and opossum skins, or the fibre of the spinifex. Fish are broiled, or, better still, are tied up in thick and tender bark, placed in heated sandholes with ashes on the top and baked. The juice is thus saved, and the fish, which in some instances obtains a flavour from the bark, is delicious eating. Another way is by spitting the fish on a pointed stick. For fishing and for communication with small islands bark canoes are used in isolated localities, while in north-west districts a log is floated and serves to carry them from island to island.

Sometimes the aborigines receive a much-prized gift from the ocean in the stranding of a whale. It is a great accession of wealth, and they make merry. The native is no longer selfish, and lighting a large fire, the smoke ascends to the sky and tells the joyful message to every native round about. The wealthy black "rubs himself with blubber, anoints his wives," cuts into the flesh of the whale, and choosing the choicest bits, broils or cooks or spits them, and eats his full. Then other natives come trooping in and eat and sing and dance and hold corroborees. Their revelry continues for some time, and the banquets form days to be reckoned by in their lives. They eat their way into the whale and climb about its stinking carcase, and come out again greasy and odoriferous, and eat and sleep. The pretty native girl joins the rest, and yet her greasy perfumed beauty is undimmed in the eyes of her husband. These feasts often end in disorder, and male and female heads are broken with the hatchet, and fights take place.

Native battles are of very small importance indeed, and usually end in little loss of life. Different tribes may congregate and occupy neutral ground and make elaborate preparations for the fray. They paint themselves most carefully and chant fiercely the great deeds they intend to do. But the native at wartime is neither brave nor courageous. His heart is then craven, and when he is confronted by enemies he takes every precaution not to get into danger. By both parties doing this all serious harm is avoided. Each tribe, after making its preparations and holding its corroborees, stands at some distance and utters the fiercest threats of defiance and revenge. They jump about, gesticulate, spit at their opponents, blow upon them, and make a great noise. When they come to close quarters spears are thrown, and perhaps the hatchet is even used; but as the laws of battle demand that a certain number of days' peace shall be allowed for burial, when one or two natives are killed the war is suspended and the customs of burial are gone through. Perhaps half a dozen men is the only loss on either side, and the proceedings are too often concluded by peace being proclaimed after women of either side are speared in the thighs. Black honour is thus assured. The women are the most pugnacious, and at times fight wildly with each other. In their fierce chants they do their utmost to incite the men to battle, and like Jezebels, hop round them and mention the names of their opponents, and decry their merits. Great noise is generally the beginning and the end of native wars.

It is only when one or two natives are found trespassing on a tribal district that much loss of life occurs. Then a party of natives rushes upon the trespassers and exterminates them. Their cunning is largely asserted in these collisions.

Messages of war are conveyed by two means, either by smoke or a notched stick. Not so many years ago a cordon of fires was lighted on hills and other eminences in England as messages to the whole countryside. The Australian natives use similar means. When war is declared or an enemy is observed a fire of green boughs is lighted and the thick smoke curls high into the air. A native some distance away reads the message and lights another fire, and so all the natives in the neighbourhood or district are summoned and gather together. Standing on a high hill, the several columns of smoke ascending to the heavens are distinctly observed, some near, some far away. A notched stick is sometimes