Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/141

Rh with whom he laboured lest he should fall into the hands of lurking enemies. However, this opposition gradually died away, and some of our greatest opponents became as eager to earn wages as anybody. But there is a party even now composed of men who never work at civilised employments. We also found it necessary to relieve the sick and aged and infirm, who suffered much in those times of scarcity common among a race of hunters. For this purpose the Government granted us a supply of flour and other stores.

I found that infanticide was very prevalent, many infants being put to death as soon as they were born. In order to prevent this we gave to every mother a ration of flour, tea, and sugar until her child was twelve months old. This put a stop to infanticide.

The first death after our arrival occurred in a few months. It was a man in the prime of life, who died of consumption. The blacks performed the usual disgusting funereal rites, and set the body up in a large native hut with one side open at the top. There sat on a stage, tied to posts stuck in the ground, the disgusting object, filling the air with its dreadful stench, the form distended with putrefaction. Around it were wailing women, smeared with filth and ashes, and horrible old men, basting it with bunches of feathers tied to the end of long sticks, until it dripped with grease and red ochre. At intervals in the course of the day parties of men from a distance would come in sight. As soon as they saw the camp, they marched with their spears erect towards it. As they came near, women rushed towards them, and threw themselves on the ground, and cast dust in the air, wailing and crying out, "Your friend is gone; he will speak to you no more," and so on. Then a simultaneous wail would rise from the advancing party until they reached the spot and stood around the corpse. Many such scenes have I witnessed since. On that first occasion, I went to the camp, and, pointing to the body, I told them that the dead would rise again. They all started, and, looking incredulously at me, said, "No!" I then took the opportunity of preaching to them the doctrine of the