Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/803

XII would die. If such a woman were to let herself be seen by a man, she would probably be put to death. When the woman has recovered, she is painted red and white, her head covered with feathers, and returns to the camp.

At the Herbert River (Queensland) the camps are so arranged that the entrance of each commands an approach to the encampment. Thus in whatever direction one comes, the entrance to a hut faces one.

The instances given in this chapter of the division of food among the kindred and relations, and the special provision for old people, give an entirely different idea of the aboriginal character to that which had been usually held. This latter is derived from what is seen of the blacks under our civilisation. The oft-repeated description of the black-fellow eating the white man's beef or mutton and throwing a bone to his wife who sits behind him, in fear of a blow from his club, is partly the new order of things resulting from our civilisation breaking down the old rules. But it is also, in part, the old rule itself. I have shown that in some cases the wife is fed by her own people, and the throwing of food to another person is not an act of discourtesy. Its reason is that there is a deep-seated objection to receive anything which can convey evil magic from the hand of another person, and in many instances that applies to the two sexes.

Such contrasts between the old and the new condition of things struck me very forcibly at the Kurnai Jeraeil, where the people lived for a week in the manner of their old lives, certainly with the addition of the white man's beef and flour, but without his intoxicating drinks, which have been a fatal curse to the black race. That week was passed without a single quarrel or dispute.