Games
“Murun Murun”
“Purru Purru”
“Murri Murri”
“Birbun Birbun”
Skipping
“Cat’s Cradle”
“Marutchi”
Turtle Hunting as a Game Swimming and Diving
Mimics
“Tambil Tambil”
Games – As a boy my father has often joined in with the games of the blacks. One of them, called “Murun Murun,” was played a great deal in the early days of Brisbane on the road to and from camp. As they came along their pathway into Brisbane the natives played this; then again as they returned in the evening. It was carried out so:-The men and boys picked sides, and each player had a small waddie, made for the purpose, which he hit on the ground to make it bounce. The object was to see who could make the instrument bounce furthest-there was a knack about it. The menfolk were very fond of this game; women never played with waddies or spears.
Another game was “Purru Purru.” It was played with a ball made from kangaroo skin stuffed with grass, and sewn up. “Purru” meant ball. As in the first game, sides were picked, but the women joined in. The ball was thrown up in the air, and caught here and there, each side trying to keep it to themselves or to catch it from the opposite one. “Murri Murri” was yet another game, and boys generally played it, though sometimes men joined in. The players picked a clear space, and stood in two lines, each holding a couple of small, sharp spears in their hands. In the open space between the lines a man stood. In his hand he held a piece of bark (generally gum), cut into a circular shape and some eighteen inches across. This, when the game started, he would throw on the ground, causing it to bowl along like a hoop about eight or nine yards from both lots of boys. As it passed they all threw their spears at it, trying to see who was best at hitting it. “Murri” was the native name for kangaroo, and this was really playing at spearing one of those animals.
The toy boomerang has been already mentioned the natives spent hours with it.
Another instrument (“Birbun-Birbun “) made from two lengths of wood tied together in the middle crosswise, was thrown and returned in the same manner. The lengths were about one and a-half inches wide, and eighteen inches long (or they were smaller), and one side of both was more rounded than the other. In throwing, one end of the cross was held. Often sides were taken for this and for boomerang throwing, to see who was cleverest at getting the return. This game is met with at present in the Cairns and Cardwell districts (Dr. Roth’s Bulletin, No. 4).
Yet another toy (which does not appear to have been hitherto drawn attention to or described) played with like the boomerang, was just a small piece of bark, obtained from the top branches of the fig-leaf box. The bark was taken six or seven inches long and an inch and a-half wide, then was rounded at both ends, and put into hot ashes. While hot it was bent into almost a half-circle, and kept so till, when cold and hard, it had taken on that shape. The bark mentioned is the only kind suitable for these toys, and they could only be made at one time in the year, when the sap was up, and allowed the bark to peel off easily. Father as a boy has made numbers of them, and, of course, has often thrown them and had lots of fun in the game. For sides could be taken for this also. These toys were thrown with the first finger and thumb, and circled and returned as a boomerang.
It may not be generally known that skipping with a vine was an amusement with the Brisbane blacks before ever they saw the white man’s skipping-rope used. But so it was, and the vine was circled round and round just as we do a rope, and also, like us, either one person or two could skip at a time. Men or women went in for the amusement, and it was a great thing to skip on the hard sea beach when near the water. Whatever kind of vine was handiest at the time was used-either those of the scrub or a creeper which grew on the seashore. And the blacks skipped away, keeping things going for a long time, amidst great interest and amusement from the onlookers. Some natives were splendid skippers, notably “Governor Banjo” of whom I will speak later. It seemed almost impossible to trip this man out, and my father says one could notice how his eyes watched every movement of the hands of those who turned the vine-for, of course, they did their best to get him off his guard. An extra-determined attempt at this caused roars of laughter always, for Banjo was sure to be ready.
Another amusement which seems European, yet which was common to the blacks in their primitive state, is that known to us as ” cat’s cradle.” An aboriginal held the string on his hands, while another took it off, and so on till they worked it into all sorts of shapes and forms. To the natives these shapes could be made to represent a turtle, a kangaroo, or, indeed, almost any animal or thing. They were very clever at it. The amusement was called “Warru Warru,” and with the white man’s appearance, his fences got the same name, because of the resemblance of posts and rails to the shape of the string when held in one way across the hands.
In hot weather the natives had lots of fun in the water, and would stay there for hours. It was remarkable that they always jumped in feet foremost, and the women all had a peculiar habit of bending up both legs and holding with their hands to each ankle before they “plopped” in. Many games were played in the water. “Marutchi,” or “black swan,” caused great fun. One man (the swan) would jump in, and when he had gone some thirty yards from the bank, several watchers would give chase. When they got within catching distance he would dive under, and they followed. If the bird were caught, he was held and tapped lightly on the head, and so died, and was taken ashore. However, he often escaped, because the captors laughed so much that they could not hold him, at the antics he went on with. He would cry out like a swan, and clap his arms up and down frantically as though they were wings.
Father says it was great fun to watch this game, and when one bird was disposed of another was ready, and so on, for perhaps hours. He himself played the swan sometimes, but, being a white one, was easily seen among the dark forms, and so was captured quickly.
In something the same sort of way turtle-hunting was played at. Shallow water (about eight or nine feet deep) in creek or river, with a white sandy bottom, was chosen for this sport, so that the players could see down through it. Three or four people getting into a canoe would paddle about, and presently a man who had in the meantime quietly slipped into the water, would come up blowing as a turtle does not far from the boat. Immediately he popped down again, but the boat gave chase in his direction, one man standing up ready to jump in on the next appearance, which would not be long in coming. The “turtle” would hardly show himself this second time when he would be gone again, but the man on the alert would jump in and dive after the prey, and then another would help bring him to the surface, and lift him into the boat, when he was taken ashore. During all the time laughing and joking went on, indeed the blacks in those days were as “happy as princes.”
Often when playing in the water the blacks would dive down, and stay under to see who had the best wind, and could remain longest beneath the surface, or they would try their swimming powers in a race. And they were fond of getting hold of white stones or bones in order to dive for these. Throwing them in some yards apart, where the water was about ten feet deep, the object was to see who could find the most and bring them to the surface again. Father has spent hours thus in diving with the blacks; indeed, splendid as they must have been in the water, I hardly think their white companion was behind hand at all, judging from his after years.
Aboriginal children learnt to swim at a very early age. Small “kiddies” (really babies) were thrown into the water, and they seemed to take to it at once; swimming came naturally to them evidently. Their elders stood round bent on rescue if necessary, and they laughed heartily at the way the child, to prevent himself sinking, would paddle with his hands and feet. My father’s brothers taught him to swim in this same way by throwing him into the water.
As I have mentioned before, the blacks were very clever as “mimics.” They would amuse each other in that way for long hours together. Generally it would be when they were all lying lazily in the shade after a good meal or swim that some lively members would start with their antics. They perhaps imitated two fighters, or a man hunting, or a bird, or a kangaroo, etc.; indeed, everything they could think of; and they never failed to cause a laugh. At those times, too, they sometimes played with balls of mud in this way: Mud was rolled up into balls, and then two men, apparently solely to amuse the others, got hold of these, and dancing, with their bodies half-stooped all the time, they pelted each other. First one man in the dance turned and held out his cheek for a mud ball, then, receiving it, he threw one back, and held out the other cheek, and so on till they both would be smothered all over with mud. Though their faces were grave they must have enjoyed the fun (fun with a question after it), and the onlookers, of course, were convulsed with laughter.
Often the young boys had sham fights, with the men joining them. Sides were taken as in the real thing, and everything was carried out after the same style, but the weapons were harmless enough. Tambil meant “” blunt “-hence the name of the sport, “Tambil Tambil.” The spears used were fashioned from small oak saplings about five feet long and half-an-inch thick, or from strong reeds (Gahnia aspera) growing in the swamps or waterholes. All of them, however, were chewed in the mouth at one end into a sort of brush, so that when they hit they did not hurt. The shields were made from a piece of gum bark about eighteen inches long and seven or eight inches wide; two small holes were made in the centre on the under side, and a piece of split wattle branch was bent and put through these holes to form a handle. Sham fights taught the boys how to manage when their turn came to take part in a real one.
My father has fought with the little darkies many a time in a “Tambil Tambil.” Once during one held in the hollow below Beerwah on Gregory Terrace, a boy throwing a small sharp spear, which he should not have used in play, hit the white boy with it on the cheek immediately below his left eye. Though the wound was not a severe one and soon healed, a slight scar remains to this day. At the time the little blackfellow got such a scare at what he had done that he cleared out, and did not show himself again for two years. Afterwards, however, when they were both men, my father had a good deal to do with him; his name was “Dulu-marni” (creek-caught), and he was one of the twenty- five to be mentioned later, who bore P as a brand.
As well as the boys, girls were taught to fight and use the “kalgur,” so that they could protect themselves later on. The blacks had their way of teaching children even as we have. And they seemed to derive fun from the task. For instance, it was a source of amusement showing the lads how to climb. They picked a leaning tree first, and would instruct the youngster how to hold an end of the climbing vine with his big toe, etc. And then they had games in which they practised throwing spears or waddies at small saplings, seeing who was best at it. All this helped the boys to learn.
Aboriginal children delighted in imitating their elders in every way, and played much as white children do. And they were mischievous, of course. One rather cruel habit they had was to catch a March fly, and sticking a piece of grass through its body, watch with delight how it flew off with its burden. If the March flies were as plentiful and as troublesome as mosquitoes are to-day, one could not wonder at the delight even multiplied one thousandfold. But, alas! one could not treat mosquitoes so.
