Page:Tom Petrie's reminiscences of early Queensland.djvu/44

 CHAPTER III. Sacrifice — Cannibalism — Small Number killed in Fights— Corrobborees — " Full Dress " — Women's Ornaments — Painted Bodies — Burying the Nuts— Change of Food — Teaching Corrobborees — Making new ones — How Brown's Creek got its Name — Kulkarawa — "Mi-na" (Mee-na). IT has often been given out as a fact that the blacks grew so tired of nuts and vegetable foods during a bon-yi feast that to satisfy the craving that grew upon them for animal food, they terminated the meeting by the sacrifice of one gin or more. This is quite untrue, according to my father. As I have shown, the blacks had plenty of variety in the way of food during these gatherings, and, besides, on their way to the Bon-yi Mountains they travelled along the coast as much as was possible, and got fish and oysters as they went along. Then, after the feast was all over, they repaired again to the coast, where they lived for some time on the change of food. The following passage from Dr. Lang's " Queensland," issued in 1864, was quoted once by a gentleman (Mr. A. W. Howitt), who doubted its accuracy and wished my father's opinion on the subject : — " At certain gatherings of some tribes of Queensland young girls are slain in sacrifice to propitiate some evil divinity, and their bodies likewise are subjected to the horrid rite of cannibalism. The young girls are marked out for sacrifice months before the event by the old men of the tribe." Dr. Lang, says Mr. Howitt, gave this on the authority of his son, Mr. G. D. Lang, who, as the good doctor puts it, "happened to reside for a few months in the Wide Bay district." My father says there is no truth in this statement; it is just hearsay, as there was no "such thing as sacrifice among the Queensland aborigines, neither did they"ever kill any