Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/29

 INTRODUCTION. xix at one end a kangaroo’s tooth, fixed so as to fit into a notch at the end of the spear. This instrument gives an amount of leverage far beyond what could be exerted by unaided muscular strength. The fights are nearly always witnessed by the women and children of the tribe, and sometimes by other natives who are not concerned in the quarrel. They seldom last more than three or four hours. Few of those engaged are killed outright, but the wounded are often numerous, and death from the wounds inflicted frequently occurs. The rude surgery practised amongst them is scarcely equal to the treatment of such dreadful injuries as are inflicted by barbed or even smooth spears, or to fractures of the skull, &c. Eyre states that the most fatal affrays are those which suddenly spring up between tribes which have been encamped near each other on friendly terms about the women, or in consequence of some death, which is always attributed to sorcery on the one side or the other. The fight in such cases usually takes place at night, after the body of the deceased has been buried. Then, in addition to clubs and spears, resort is had to fire-brands, and the wounds inflicted are frightful.* The males are always obliged to side with their blood relations and their own tribes. The women excite the men to fight, and carry their weapons for them. It does not seem that the women and children are ever killed after the battle is over. Hostile camps are sometimes surprised just before dawn, and the males there are slaughtered in cold blood whilst sleeping or drowsy. In such cases the attack is usually made under the belief that some-individuals of the hostile tribe are great sorcerers, and have done much mischief to them. Their order of battle is commonly in line, or the warriors advance in the form of a crescent, biting their beards, spitting, throwing dust into the air, and shouting, and, sometimes, burning the grass, so as to destroy their adversaries. These wars are not frequent, and cannot be regarded as a chief cause of the dying out of the natives. Having said so much on the subject of the native wars, it is proper here to notice those attacks which were made by the
 * Eyre.