Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/172

167 The aborigines are more peculiar in their tastes than people of a more refined status, inasmuch as they are actually envious of a fellow native who becomes mad; envious of the marked good treatment which he receives on all hands, and of the high consideration in which he is held; consequently madness is very frequently simulated, and sometimes with so much success that months will oftentimes elapse ere the imposture is discovered; but when the madness is found to be only counterfeited then woe betide the pretender from thenceforward; his life then has but small pleasure in it, and it is only wonderful that the amount of ridicule and obloquy which is continually cast upon him does not make him in reality that which he has feigned.

The Ngallow Wattows are always bachelors, consequently have to carry all their own belongings from camp to camp, as well as erect their own solitary Loondthals, bring wood and water, and, in short, do everything which a native having a Lyoor never thinks of doing. Physically these men are small in stature, as a rule, and in flesh spare almost to attenuation; they excel, however, all the other tribal members in physical endurance, especially as regards the powers of making long trying journeys on very short commons; their continual trampings from tribe to tribe keeps them in a state of perpetual training, as it were, and the frequent scarcity of food which they encounter on their weary travels has a tendency to keep down flesh, and makes long fasting somewhat bearable.

The Bangals and Ngallow Wattows in general lead very solitary lives as compared with their fellows, seldom