all over with small white circles, the head made of feathers, and the arms represented by sticks. After dancing with this they retired, and again advanced, with two standards, each composed of a pole, on which nine branches were left. At the end of the branches was a plume of Hawk, Owl, or Emu feathers, tied on with white swan-down, or white painted bark, which was continued down the pole. These retreated, then many came forth with their spears, danced for some time, came closer to their friends, who sprang up to meet them, stuck two or three in the shoulders, and the ceremonies were ended. Tired and heated Captain Spencer retired to his hut, but not to sleep, for he was kept awake by the songs which were sung around him, and, in fact, in honour of him, these people having improvisatory powers. The songs were continued far into the night: one was a very sad lament, and Kinchela afterwards told him they were mourning for the dead; another, slow and wild, was concerning a sorcerer; and there were comic dialogues, which created great laughter. During the heavy rains which ensued, the principal amusement of the traveller was the conversation of Warrup or Ugat. They delighted in speaking of themselves and their customs, did not take any interest in descriptions of civilized communities, but when Captain Spencer told them of his own black men in India, they were much pleased. It was difficult to come to any conclusion concerning their religious belief; but as far as he could understand, they were aware of the soul being distinct from the body; which souls, some believed, lived in trees all day, came down at night to eat caterpillars and animals, but not vegetable food, and remained the size of a boy eight years old. Their notions of creation were equally vague; they said that a father and three male children lived in the clouds; the father very powerful, who made the world, fixed names to everything, put the tribes into their own districts, gave them their languages, and brought them from some place in the east, over the water, and that souls go to live with these four. These natives thought that there was a large serpent, which lived in high, rocky mountains, and which made all things by one stroke of its tail. They declared that everybody believed in an evil spirit, which haunts dark caverns, wells, and gloomy plains; that its name is Jinga, and that they are afraid of him at night. The gun of Captain Spencer was a constant source of apprehension, and kept up the notion of his being a sorcerer. Having been told by Kinchela that he knelt and prayed every day to the Great Spirit (which his master had said to him), they thought he was then working his spells. His relations treated him with great deference, and most particularly attended to all his requirements; generally speaking, however, he and Kinchela procured their own provisions. Gipsy would have led a happy life, if the dogs of the camp had not persecuted her, either with their enmity or their friendship; but at last her master invented a collar of Kangaroo skin, into which he inserted some of the strong thorns of the Acacia, and this, with her furious barking and sharp bites, after a while, kept them away, for they were great cowards. Charlie was perfectly independent, but he would often electrify Kinchela as he flew over the village, by saying, "I see you, Kinchela," and the man began to believe that the bird was acquainted with all his actions. The new sorts of food brought to Captain Spencer by his friends were different species of fungi, and Emu eggs, which, however, he could not eat, as they, and those of the Leipoa were stale; the natives themselves cared but little in what condition an egg might be, they ate it all the same. They brought him an abundance of small animals not much larger than mice,* which burrow in the sand, and which they say will go for months without water. They had beautiful, full black eyes, their long tail had a brush at the end, their fur was light red in colour, and they generally hopped on their hind legs, and carried their tail horizontally. Gip most delighted in moths, and grew quite fat. Little or no hunting took place, because there was a general feeling that the river would suddenly rise to a great height, and then every one must be ready. Preparations therefore were constantly making for fishing and catching wild fowl, and Captain Spencer watched their rude manufactures with interest. They did not however show much ingenuity, and the various hard woods of the country were their best resources in the way of tools. They made a cement with resin, gum, and wax. In forming a canoe, they choose a large Gum-tree which has a protuberance in the bark, open it with their tomahawk, strip the bark off very easily with a stone in large pieces, bind it into the form of a canoe, and stop up the ends with clay. This was their only boat, and yet, fragile as it was, in it they contrived to place a fire, and fish for hours. Their nettingneedles were only a pointed stick like a pencil, round which the string was wound, and they did not use any mesh. The strongest nets were made of the tendons of animals, of Opossum fur, spun with or without fibrous Hapalotus Mitchellii. * plants; mallows, grass, and rushes, supplied materials for mats and baskets, well-rubbed skins for bags; and they had rude wooden shovels; they cut their food with flint fastened into sticks, and their teeth and great toes were serviceable to them in all operations. The drinking-cups of some of the tribes were the skulls of those whom they had best loved. - CHAPTER XI. River overflows.-Different modes of fishing.-Cooking.-Frogs. - Cray-fish.-Tortoises.- Birds.-Wind.-Hatchet missing and restored.-Description of sorcerers.-Sorcerers come to cure a boy.— Restrictions concerning food.-Native laws and customs.-Women. -Quarrel and combat.—Boomerang.-Large Kangaroo hunt.— Tribe goes away and steals a young woman.-Preparations for war. -War song.-Departure in pursuit of the enemy.-Captain Spencer follows.-Encounter of the tribes.-Captain Spencer fires, frightens and pursues the guilty tribe.-The young woman found bleeding to death.-Taken home to be eaten.-Captain Spencer goes away. AT length the important moment arrived, the river was suddenly converted into a broad sheet of water, evidently the consequence of a rush from higher ground; and the noise of its foaming and tumbling was accompanied by the clamours of the natives. Other tribes had joined them, and all was bustle and turmoil. They suffered the first violence to abate, then they formed weirs with mats and nets across convenient places; and taking a quantity of water in their mouths, before they placed the weirs, they squirted it upon them just before setting, to ensure luck. Some then took small nets in their hands, and walking into the inundated parts dexterously placed them under the fishes, thus securing their prey, and, biting the fish to kill it, threw it to their wives. Some of the latter, however, were also in the water, groping and catching the fishes with their |