Page:Tom Petrie's reminiscences of early Queensland.djvu/47

 OF EARLY QUEENSLAND. 21 the cockatoo's topknot. The feathers were fastened to the ends of the sticks with bees' wax, and these sticks were stuck here and there in the knob of hair, as Japanese places little fans; and they looked quite nice. When a good fire was raging the gins all sat in rows of three or four deep behind the fire. The old and married gins would have an opossum rug folded up between their thighs, which they beat with the palms of their hands, and so kept time with the song they sang. The young women beat time on their naked thighs. They held the left wrist with the right hand, and then, with the free hand open, slapped their thighs, making a wonderful noise and keeping excellent time. A pair of blackfellows standing up in front of the gins between them and the fire, would beat two boomerangs together, and these men were in " full dress," as were those who danced on the other side of the fire. First these latter stood some distance off in the dark, but so soon as the singing and beating of time began they would dance up to the others. The men and women learning the corrobboree stood behind the rows of gins seated on the ground, and two extra men, other than those with boomerangs, stood placed like sentinels before the women, with torches in their hands, and they were generally also strangers learning. The torches were fashioned from tea-tree bark, and made a splendid blaze, aiding the fire in its work of lighting up the dancers for the benefit of those concerned. Some few women would dance, but they kept rather apart in front of the others, and their movements were different to those of the men — somewhat stifEer. Always there were two or three funny men among the dancers, men who caused mirth and amusement by their antics — even the blacks had members who could "act the goat." The aborigines painted their bodies according to the tribe to which they belonged, so in a corrobboree or fight they were recognised at once by one another. In the former there would perhaps be ever so many different tribes mixed up, for they might all know the same dance. Father says it was a grand sight to see about 300 men at a time dancing in and out, painted all colours. There they would be, men