Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/751

XI forms her "mourning" has come off without assistance. During this time (perhaps for months) she communicates by gestures alone.

As an instance of the value of such a means of communication between tribes speaking different languages, I give the following.

In 1853 seventeen of the Wirangu tribe were driven in from their country to the west of Lake Torrens by a water famine. They came across, and made for Elder's Range in hope of getting water. Here they fell in with the Arkaba blacks, who received them very kindly and hospitably for about a fortnight, when the appearance of rain induced the visitors to take their departure homewards. They did not understand a word of each other's language, and it was merely by gestures that they managed to communicate with each other. They were in every respect very different to the Parnkalla, in language, colour, and general appearance. They were not of a very dark shade, more of a dark dirty red, and had rather broad features but a pleasant expression of countenance.

In contrast to the Dieri, the Kurnai may be instanced as a tribe without any "gesture language," although I have seen them use certain signs in lieu of words, when they were, from one reason or another, prevented from using, or were reluctant to use the words themselves. Thus the messenger who conveyed the news of the death of some individual to his kindred or friends, either spoke of the deceased in a roundabout manner, as the "father," "brother," "son," as the case might be, of "that person " (pointing to him), or what was perhaps more common, owing to the objection to refer to the dead, the messenger would say, naming the relationship, for instance, "the father of that one is ———", then concluding the sentence by pointing with the forefinger to the ground or to the sky. Thus intimating that he was buried, or that he had gone up to the Leen wruk or "good land."

Intermediately between these two extremes are other tribes, with a more or less extensive or limited gesture