Page:Tom Petrie's reminiscences of early Queensland.djvu/37

 OF EARLY QUEENSLAND. 13 on the stillness after the night ! It comes with the dawn and the first call of the birds ; as the Australian bush awakens and stirs, so do Australia's dark children — or, rather they used to, for all is changed now. It must have been weird, that wailing noise and crying ; but one could imagine the birds and animals expecting it and listening for it ; and the sun in those days would surely have thought something had gone wrong, had there been no great cry to accompany his arising. Whether the dead were the better for the mourn- ing who can say? But they were always faithfully mourned for, each morning, and at dusk each night. It was crying and wailing and cursing all mixed up together, and was kept going for from ten to twenty minutes, such a noise being made that it was scarcely possible to hear oneself speak. Each person vowed vengeance on their relative's murderer, swearing all the time. To them it was an oath when they called a man "big head," "swelled body," "crooked leg," etc.; and so they cursed and howled away, using all the "oaths" they could think of. There was never a lack of some one to mourn for; so this cry was never omitted, night or morning. After the dying down of the cry at daybreak, the blacks would have their morning meal, and then, as in the case of this journey to the Bon-yi Mountains, when my father accom- panied them, they made ready to move forward on their way. A blackfellow would shout out the name of the place at which they were to meet again that night — this time it happened to be the Pine — and off they all went, hunting here and there, catching all sorts of animals, getting wild honey, too, and coming into the appointed place that night laden with spoil. This same thing went on day by day, and Father was treated like a prince among them all. They never failed to make him a humpy for the night, roofed with bark or perhaps grass; while for themselves they didn't trouble, unless it rained. The third night they camped at Caboolture (Kabul-tur, "place of carpet snakes"), and next day started for the Glasshouse Mountains. During this journey my father noticed some superstitions of the blacks. For instance, going up the spur of a hill a