Mourning for the Dead
Red, White, and Yellow Colouring
No Marriage Ceremony
Strict Marriage Laws-Exchange of Brides
Mother-in-Law
Three or Four Wives
Blackfellows’ Dogs
Bat Made the Men and Night
Hawk the Women
Thrush which Warned the Blacks
Dreams
Moon and Sun
Lightning
Cures for Illness
Pock Marks
Dugong Oil
In contrast to white people, the aborigines wore red when mourning for the dead. Black being their natural colour, it would not of course express anything as it does with us. Red was put on all over the body, even the face, and then for deep mourning (for instance, if the deceased were a brother or sister) splashes of white clay relieved the monotony here and there. It was only the old people who troubled to mourn thus, however; and the old gins in addition wore feathers coloured red, stuck in little bunches here and there in the hair with bees’ wax. (The bees’ wax, which was carried about in dillies, would be warmed and put on the feathers, and then quickly, ere it hardened, the little bunches would be stuck in the hair-the women helping one another.) The close friends and relatives would remain so adorned for a month or two, but other old people, putting on mourning, would discard it again in a few days’ time.
The red colouring used for mourning was not the same as that used for reddening noses. They were both got from stones, but the latter was more uncommon, and the Turrbal tribe could only obtain it by barter with inland blacks. In both instances, two stones were rubbed together, and the powder coming from them just rubbed into the skin, but the mourning colour was a dull red, while the other was beautifully bright and glossy. Red colouring was called “kutchi,” which, however, was the name given to any paint.
When putting on white clay (“banda “) the natives would wet a piece well with their tongue, and so plaster it on. The yellow colouring, or “purgunpallam,” used at other times (never for mourning) was obtained from a toadstool (Polysaccum olivaceum) which grew, strange to say, always beside a big ant’s nest. My father says to his knowledge they never grew anywhere else. They were big and round, these toad- stools, and were full of a yellow powder which the blacks rubbed dry into their skins. White toadstools of the same shape are common enough.
For a woman about to become a wife, there was no painting up of the body, neither was there any particular ceremony or rejoicing of any kind. The aborigines, however, were most strict and particular with regard to their marriage laws indeed, they would not dream of allowing things we do; for instance a man might not even marry any of his former wife’s relations, and those we call cousins and second cousins were quite out of the question. Marriages were generally arranged without the contracting parties having any say whatever in the matter, and a man would often so get a wife from a tribe other than his own, though this wasn’t necessary.
At corrobborees the different tribes exchanged their goods, such as shields, spears, nets, etc., and often they made use of the same occasion to give and take wives. It was always a correct thing-indeed a general rule-for a “turrwan of one tribe to give his daughter to the son of a great man of another, and then the son’s father gave his daughter back for the other’s son. Or else they exchanged sisters. Or perhaps in the corrobboree there would be a man who danced and joked especially well, this man would take the fancy of a “turrwan” in an opposite tribe, and so he would generously present the capable young fellow with his daughter, or if he had none, his sister or next relation. Then the young man who had gained such a prize would give back his sister to the old man’s son, and so on, for it was always give and take.
If there was a widower in the camp, and the others thought him deserving of a wife, or if there was a man unmarried and deserving, the blacks would consult together to choose a wife for him without his knowledge. Then, if all relations agreed, the gin would be told by her friends who was to be her husband, and the man would be told in the same way whom he had to take for his wife.
In spite of all this arranging, two young people would sometimes make use of their own fancy, and run away together. There was such a thing as that inconvenient passion called love amongst the aborigines, I suppose. These two young unfortunates would be followed and brought back after a time, and straightway a fight was arranged between their respective tribes. If his friends should win, he was allowed to keep her, but, should her party have the better of it-then, oh injustice! she was beaten and cut about most frightfully, almost killed, and the pair were separated, she being sent back to her parents. Woman-poor woman-is there no justice for you anywhere?
Sometimes when these exchanges were being made, a little girl-a mere baby-of five or six years, might be given to a man of thirty or forty. However, she would stay with her parents until she was about fourteen years old. Then one day a hut would be made and a fire built in it, and the blackfellow would go alone into the hut, and sit beside the fire, the mother and father would bring the girl to him, leave her alongside and then walk away without speaking a word. Ever after- wards the mother must shun her son-in-law, and if she saw him she covered her face. She, however, might speak to her daughter. A mother-in-law was called “bugo-i,” and she always avoided her son-in-law thus. Even with the blacks you see a son and mother-in-law were not supposed to “hit it,” indeed with them it was a law that there should be no communication whatever between the two. According to some people this law with us would save trouble!
Different tribes would be related one to the other all over the place by these intermarriages, and Father always found some woman from another tribe in every fresh one he came across. The woman belonged to her husband’s tribe then, and children were always spoken of as their father’s son or daughter, not their mother’s. And if a man died and left a wife and family, his brother was supposed to take the widow; if there were no brother, however, then the next male relation of the deceased was responsible. Failing any relation, the widow was given to a man the tribe thought should have a wife, or perhaps if she and some man had a fancy for one another, and the friends did not object, their marriage was allowed.
A great man, or “turrwan,” might have two or three, or even four, wives. In such a case he would take one out hunting when he went, leaving perhaps two to seek for roots/ and prepare them against his return. Then next day a different one would accompany him, and so on. These wives all lived happily enough together-the poor savages knew no greater happiness apparently, than to serve their lord and master. They were useful in carrying the burdens from one place to another. A woman, because she was a woman, always carried the heaviest load. A man took his tomahawk, his spear, and waddy, and that sort of thing; a woman humped along the weighty kangaroo and ‘possum skin coverings, the dillies with eatables, and sometimes also a heavy little piece of goods in the form of a child. At times, too, she would carry tea-tree bark on her back for the humpies, while ever and anon as they travelled along the men enjoyed themselves hunting and looking for “sugar- bags” (native bees’ nests), etc.
Sometimes old men (never young ones) would carry puppies too young to walk, but it was mostly women who did this also. Aborigines were “awful fond” of their dogs-they were the only pets they had. They would never by any chance kill a puppy, but would keep every one, and this, no doubt, accounted for the poor condition of these followers. Father says that even in old days they were a mangy-looking lot. Probably they did not get sufficient food, but had to live on the scraps and bones thrown to them. However, a gin would nurse a puppy just as carefully as any baby; all dogs would sleep with their owners, and they would drink from the same vessel. Children-in spite of their parents’ fondness for them–if they dared ill-use a dog, would call down torrents of abuse upon their little black selves, and they would be smacked soundly. Dogs would be taught to hunt; they were always native dogs in the old times, but those of the white man soon got amongst them, and my father knew one blackfellow who carried a domestic cat about with him.
The aborigines used always to declare that the “billing” (what we know as the small house bat) made all their menfolk, and the “wamankan” (night-hawk) made the woman. They did not eat either of these, but might catch and kill them. If the men got hold of a “wamankan” they would bring it into camp, and holding it up would chaff the women about it. They also chased the “fair sex” all over the place with this hawk, and with it plagued the life out of them in every conceivable way. For instance, they rolled it up in bark as though it were a dead body ready for burial, and putting it over their shoulder strutted about so. But supposing the women got possession of a “billing,” then their turn came, and the men were laughed at and taunted and chased. This kind of thing would generally start with jokes and yells and screams of laughter, but sometimes it ended pretty seriously in big fights and squabbles. Great cuts and gashes would then be the result, the women fighting just as viciously as the men.
A bird, the piping shrike-thrush (Collyricincla Harmonica, Latham), which the blacks christened mirram,” was always watched when it came near a camp, and it was spoken to and asked questions about certain things. The blacks noticed whether it called out in reply or not, and they took warning and acted accordingly. If the bird were silent all was well. Supposing, however, in spite of its silence something went wrong after all, then instead of losing faith in the bird they blamed themselves for not having asked it the correct question.
On one occasion, when my father returned from the Turon diggings in 1851, he showed the blacks some gold dust, and they informed him they knew where there was lots of it. So they took him to Samford to a creek in the scrub there, and sure enough there was plenty “yellow” showing, but the white boy saw at once it was only mica. However, they camped for the night there in the scrub.
Samford was all wild bush then. As darkness was descending a bird (a “mirram “) came and settled on a branch above their heads, and called out. An old blackfellow got up and spoke to it, asking if there were any strange blacks in the neighbourhood. The bird did not answer but flew away, so the natives felt safe. However, later on, a sound like some- thing heavy hitting against a hollow tree broke the stillness. The sound was rather peculiar to this day my father says he can hear it in fancy in the quietude of the scrub. He suggested that it was a tree falling; but this dark companions would not hear of this, and began to lament and blame themselves that they had not spoken properly to the “mirram.” It certainly would have answered if they only had asked the right question! They said the sound was a strange blackfellow knocking, and though it did not occur again, nothing quietened them, and one man sat up all night watching. All to no purpose though, for nothing happened. It was on the way back to Brisbane from the trip next day that the blacks showed Father the ” kippa” ring at Samford.
If an aboriginal dreamt anything special at any time, he would always repeat the dream to his companions, and they would take it seriously. A dream was called” pai-abun,” and during one a man would often see a person who had died, and imagine that he was told to do this or that–probably kill some one Also, if he saw anything dreadful in his dream he became exceedingly afraid, and would be convinced that the awful things he saw were really to happen. Again, if the moon or sun became eclipsed, it was a sure sign to the natives of the death of some one. Lightning, too, frightened them, and they always hid their spears and tomahawks during a storm. Spears when not in use were left standing upright against the doorway of a hut, and Father says that as a storm came up you would see the natives taking these and their tomahawks and laying them down on the ground under tufts of grass. Later on when they had learnt the white man’s habit of smoking they always took their pipes from their mouths when a storm was raging.
The aborigines had peculiar habits with regard to illnesses. The “kundri”-the crystal stone before spoken of-was held to be the cause of pretty well everything in that way. A great man possessing one of these stones was always to the fore. At corrobborees he would come forward, and, wetting his breast with his hand, would shake himself and then, with a noise like a frog or a crow, would pull forth the string, with stone attached, from his mouth, amidst a great cry and wonder from the onlookers. Father has seen one. of these men kneeling and sucking a sick man’s body on the part where the pain was, then rising after a time, pull the “kundri” from his mouth saying he had sucked it from the sufferer’s body. There is said to be power in belief, and it would seem so for the sick man believing his enemy’s stone was removed would feel better and probably recover. The “turrwan” would be cute enough not to do this if he thought the case hopeless.
Another idea was, when any one was ill, to tie ‘possum hair string round the invalid’s ankles and wrists. Father has seen a man far gone in consumption, with hair tied on thus, and also round and round his body; an old gin sitting about a yard off had hold of the end of the body string, and with both hands she dipped it into some water she had ready in a “pikki” (pot made from bark, or the flower-leaf of the palm), and from the water to her mouth. Constantly she did this, and so urgently, that her gums bled freely with the rubbing, and the water became thick with blood she expectorated into it. The sick man seeing this believed the woman had taken bad blood from his body. It was a habit to let out blood in cases of swelling and bruises.
The natives cured headaches in the following fashion :- Two big flat stones were procured, these were made very hot, and then one would be placed on the ground with an opossum rug over it, on this the patient would lay his head and the other stone would be put on top of that again with another piece of rug in between to prevent burning. There the man would lie grinning for some time, until the great heat took the headache away. Two other cures they had for headaches one was to dive under water, and stop there as long as possible, and the other was a very hard knock on the head with a waddy. The latter my father has given them many a time at their request.
Often for pains such as toothache the blacks would burn with a fire stick-(for instance on the cheek)-their idea must have been that one pain would cure another. Flesh wounds would we washed and scraped with a stick till they ceased to bleed, then, as mentioned, fine charcoal powder or ashes would be put on them–sometimes even only ordinary dirt. It was wonderful how splendidly they healed up under this treatment. The blacks were always very good to their sick, but they had their own ideas of kindness. If at any time a man became unconscious, to make him recover, his ears would be banged and shouted into. So long as he could hear he was thought to be better.
When my father first came to North Pine pock marks were very strong on some of the old men; they explained to him how the sickness had come amongst them long before the time of the white people, killing off numbers of their comrades. Pock marks they called “nuram-nuram,” the same name as that given to any wart. (From this Neurum Neurum Creek, near Caboolture, gets its name.) The scourge itself was “bugaram,” and the latter was what the instru- ment similar to the “wobbaklan” was called. There was probably some connection, in that they were both awe-inspir- ing in their way. The “bugaram,” which the women never saw, was no common everyday instrument, and was looked on with wonder, while small-pox was something to be spoken of in a whisper and with bated breath. After the advent of the whites, consumption took hold of the race, and where before natives lived to a good old age, one would hardly see any old people-their remarkable freedom from sickness seemed to disappear.
The natives were great believers in the curative properties of the dugong. Father has seen sick blacks, unable to walk, apparently in consumption, carried carefully to the mouth. of the Brisbane River, and there put into canoes and taken across to Fisherman’s Island to where dugong were being caught. There they would live for some time on the flesh of the dugong, and the oil would be rubbed all over their bodies, and in the end they would return quite strong and well. In the early days of Brisbane, my father mentioned how he had seen this for himself to Dr. Hobbs, who was greatly interested, and afterwards recommended the use of dugong oil as a remedy similar to cod-liver oil, and this is how it came to be first used medicinally in Queensland.
If all the old aboriginals of Brisbane could come to life again they would not recognise their country-the country we have stolen from them. If they went hunting in the forests, where would be their spoil?-where, indeed, would they find the forests to hunt in? Oh! how they must have loved those forests-their forests; and could they return now, their cry would surely be as despairing as that of “Enone,” as Tennyson paints her lamenting the destruction of “my tallest pines, my tall dark pines, that plumed the craggy ledge.” Never, never more would she see “the morning mist sweep through them,” and never more shall one of Aus- tralia’s dark children see Brisbane as God made it. “God made the country, man made the town.” As the black hunted careless and free in those days long gone, little dreamed he of what his brother-white would do-little dreamed there was a brother-white.
The waters even have changed since those times. Dugong used to be very plentiful then, when there was nothing much in the way of disturbances. The blacks would catch them at Fisherman’s Island, at St. Helena, at a place near Dunwich they called “Gumpi,” at Bribie Passage, and at the mouth of the Pine River.