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 32 NGIA-NGIAMPE. CHAPTER IV. TRIBAL CUSTOMS. SECTION I. CHIEFSNGIA-NGIAMPE. EACH of the tribes of the Narrinyeri has its chief, whose title is Rupulle (which means landowner), who is their leader in war, and whose person is carefully guarded in battle by the warriors of his clan. The Rupulle is the negotiator and spokesman for the tribe in all disagreements with other tribes; and his advice is sought on all occasions of difficulty or perplexity. His authority is supported by the heads of families, and he is expected always to reside on the hunting grounds of the tribe. The Rupulle used to possess the right to divide the animals taken in the chase amongst the other heads of families, but this is seldom observed now. The chieftainship is not hereditary, but elective. The deceased chiefs brother, or second son, is quite as eligible for the dignity as the eldest son, if the heads of families prefer him. For instance, Peter, who is the Rupulle of the Point Malcolm tribe, was not, I believe, the eldest son of his father, nor yet the most warlike or athletic, but was chosen by his tribe for his wisdom, moderation, and good temper. But it is not always that a tribe exercises its power so discreetly. When a dispute arises it is generally settled by the stronger party having their way. If it is doubtful which is the stronger, they have a fight with waddies till one or the other is beaten. But the most real authority exercised by the chief and his supporters is enforced by means of witchcraft. If any young men or women attempt a departure from the customs of their forefathers they are immediately threatened with ngadhungi, or millin, and this usually restrains them. Ngia-ngiampe. —There appears to have existed a sort of traffic between the tribes on the Murray and those near the sea, and a


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 NGIA-NGIAMPE. curious sort of provision is made for it, the object of which may be the securing of perfectly trustworthy agents to transact the business of the tribesagents who will not by collusion cheat their employers and enrich themselves. The way in which this provision is made is as follows: When a man has a child born to him he preserves its umbilical cord by tying it up in the middle of a bunch of feathers. This is called a kalduke. He then gives this to the father of a child or children belonging to another tribe, and those children are thenceforth ngiangiampe to the child from whom the kalduke was procured, and that child is ngia-ngiampe to them. From that time none of the children of the man to whom the kalduke was given may speak to their ngia-ngiampe, or even touch or go near him; neither must he speak to them. I know several persons who are thus estranged from each other, and have often seen them in ludicrous anxiety to escape from touching or going near their ngia-ngiampe. When two individuals who are in this position with regard to each other have arrived at adult age, they become the agents through which their respective tribes carry on barter. For instance, a Mundoo blackfellow who had a ngia-ngiampe belonging to a tribe a little distance up the Murray would be supplied with the particular articles, such as baskets, mats or rugs, manufactured by the Mundoo tribes to carry to his ngia-ngiampe, who, in exchange, would send the things made by his tribe. Thus a blackfellow, Jack Hamilton, who was speared at a fight at Teringe, once had a ngia-ngiampe in the Mundoo tribe. While he lived on the Murray he sent spears and plongges, i.e., clubs, down to his agent of the Mundoo blacks, who was also supplied with mats and nets and rugs to send up to him, for the purpose of giving them in exchange to the tribe to which he belonged. The estrangement of the ngia-ngiampes seems to answer two purposes. It gives security to the tribes that there will be no collusion between their agents for their own private advantage, and also compels the two always to conduct the business through third parties. Sometimes two persons are made ngia-ngiampe to each other temporarily. This is done by dividing the kalduke

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 34 THE TENDI. and giving one part to each of them. As long as they retain the pieces they are estranged from each other; but when the purpose for which this was done is accomplished, they return the pieces of the kalduke to the original owner, and then they may hold intercourse with each other again. I do not, however, think that the natives know the real origin and meaning of this custom. I think it probable that it may have arisen from this circumstance. The natives never marry into their own lakalinyeri, or tribe. Nevertheless it often happens that those who belong to different lakalinyeris are too nearly related to be allowed to marry. Frequently, but not always, in such cases, the custom of ngia-ngiampe is observed, and such near relations are thus prevented from entering upon the marital relation with each other. THE TENDI. The form of government amongst the Narrinyeri was much more complete and regular than would have been expected amongst such a barbarous people. They actually have an institution which is extremely like our trial by jury, and they have had it from time immemorial. This they call the Tendi. It is the judgment council of the elders of the clan. Every clan has its tendi. The number of the tendi is not fixed; it appears to be regulated by the size of the clan; but it always consists of experienced elderly men. When any member of the tendi dies, the surviving members select a suitable man from the clan to succeed him. This council is presided over by the chief or rupulle of the clan. He is generally chosen for his ready speech, temper, and capacity for authority. The office is not hereditary but elective in the council itself. A seat in the tendi is called "tendi lewurmi," the judgment seat. All offenders are brought to this tribunal for trial. In case of the slaying by a person or persons of one clan of the member of another clan in time of peace, the fellow-clansmen of the murdered man will send to the friends of the murderer and invite them to bring him to trial before the united tendies. If, after THE TENDI.


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 35 full inquiry, he is found to have committed the crime, he will be punished according to the degree of guilt. If it were a case of murder, with malice aforethought, he would be handed over to his own clan to be put to death by spearing. If it should be what we call manslaughter, he would receive a good thrashing, or be banished from his clan, or compelled to go to his mother’s relations. All cases of infraction of law or custom were tried thus. A common sentence for any public offence was so many blows on the head. A man was compelled to hold his head down to receive the stroke of the waddy, and would be felled like a bullock; then get up and take another and another, until it was a wonder how it was that his skull was not fractured. It is this tendi which so often causes natives to leave work suddenly and mysteriously, and go off to some meeting of their people. An interesting trial is to come off, in which, perhaps, they are witnesses, or, at any rate, concerned. I have been at the tendi. I find the following entry in my journal:  I went to the camp to-day. They were holding the tendi. There are about 200 natives here, and they were nearly all present. It appeared to be a united tendi of two clans which had met to settle some dispute. There were forty-six men present, who took part in the talking, either as councillors or witnesses, I suppose. The tendi took place at a distance from the camp, and was arranged in two parties all decently seated on the ground, opposite each other. On one side was our clan, with King Peter sitting in a very dignified manner at their head as president, and on the other was the Coorong clan, over whom old Minora presided. Several men of the Murray and Mundoo clans sat at the side, between the two parties, and joined in the discussion, apparently as amici curiæ. The matter under consideration was a case of suspected murder. The Point Malcolm clan were accusers, and the Coorong clan defendants. A young man had died under suspicious circumstances; the latter clan asserted the death to have been purely accidental, while the former brought forward witnesses who deposed to reasons for suspecting that certain men of the Coorong had been guilty


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 36 THE TENDI. of foul play. I cannot give the natives credit for much order in their method of conducting business. There was a tremendous amount of talk. Sometimes one would speak, then half-a-dozen would all speak together in an excited and vociferous manner, then some friend would interject an exclamation. I could not make out the drift of the discussion. If it had been English it would have been bad enough, but in Native it was incomprehensible. I afterwards heard that the tendi broke up without any decision being arrived at. I was told by a very trustworthy native a remarkable circumstance connected with the tendi, and the ideas of these people on the subject: "An old man, the uncle of my informant, who was then a boy about ten years old, was very ill. This was some thirtyfive years ago, and before the clan to which he belonged had any intercourse at all with Europeans. During the old man’s illness he was assiduously attended by his friends, for he was much beloved. His nephew was continually at his bedside. At last death was manifestly approaching, and the sufferer was being supported in the arms of his friends, who expected every minute to be his last. As he lay there he pointed upwards to heaven and said in the Potauwallin dialect, ’Tand an amb Kiathangk waiithamb,’* which is to say, ’My tendior judgmentis up there.’ It was a remarkable recognition of a judgment to come, by one in heathen darkness. My informant, who is a believer in Jesus, said the words of the old man ever after stuck in his memory. He also said it was not uncommon to hear the aged men say that there was a tendi in the heavens for the spirits of those who died." I am rather sorry that the tendi is not so potent as it used to be amongst the natives. It is still resorted to as an excellent means of discussing and disposing of difficulties, but its penalties cannot always be carried out. I have no doubt that men of the Narrinyeri have suffered imprisonment at the hands of the whites for carrying out the sentence of the tendi in cases where it awarded substantial justice against offenders. waiirrangk."
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 GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS. 37 SECTION II. GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS. The Narrinyeri dwell in a country where there has always been a stern necessity to hunt for food. They have not, like the Polynesians, a country which produces almost spontaneously a subsistence for the inhabitants. Hence, the amusements of the Narrinyeri have always consisted in practising those arts which were necessary to get a living. They have practised spear and boomerang throwing in order to gain expertness, so as to get game with more certainty. They showed great dexterity in the use of the reed spear, or kaike; the shaft of which is a stout reed, and the point, about a foot long, of hard and heavy wood. It is thrown with a taralye or throwing stick. I have known a man killed by one of these spears at ninety yards, and the weapon passed through his bark shield too. I have known one pass through a thick shield and take a man’s eye out. The principal amusement of youths formerly consisted in practising spear-throwing. The Narrinyeri have a game at ball. A number of men stand round, and one pitches the ball to another on the other side of the party, and those near try to catch it. The sport gives occasion to a great deal of wrestling and activity. Another game is a sort of wrestling match for the possession of a bunch of feathers. At night, what the whites call a corrobery, but which is called by the Narryinyeri, ringbalin, is the favourite amusement. There are many kinds of corroberies, but the main thing in all of them is the song and dance. Skin rugs are rolled up tightly, and beaten by the fist, as they lie in front of the beater, who squats on the ground. These are called planggi, and the drumming is called plangkumbalin. The men knock two waddies together, these are called tartengk, and this practice is called tartembarrin. By these means they beat time to the song or chant. In most ringbalin only the men dance; the women sit on the ground and sing. The songs are sometimes harmless, and the dances not indecent; but at other times


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 38 GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS. the songs will consist of the vilest obscenity. I have seen dances which were the most disgusting displays of obscene gesture possible to be imagined, and although I stood in the dark alone, and nobody knew that I was there, I felt ashamed to look upon such abominations. There are also war dances. I have felt the ground almost tremble with the measured tramp of some hundreds of excited men just before a fight. The dances of the women are very immodest and lewd. The men sit and sing, and the women dance. In Cobbin’s Family Bible is a picture, at Luke vii. 32, of the dance of Egyptian women. If it had been drawn for a dance of Narrinyeri women it could not have been more exact. The corrobery of the natives is not necessarily a religious observance; there is nothing of worship connected with it. It is used as a charm to frighten away disease, and also in some ceremonies, but its real character is only that of a song and a dance. I have often been asked for one of the corrobery songs, and a translation of it. It is exceedingly difficult to get. Their songs consist principally of words descriptive of incidents of travel or hunting or war. I never heard of one which was not of this character. A party will go to the country of another tribe; then one of them, who has the talent, will make up a song, descriptive of what they saw, and the adventures which happened to them. This will be learnt by the others; and they will sing it at the first corrobery in the tribe. At other times a hunting adventure will form the subject of such a song, and, having been learnt, will be sung. Once, when I was coming up in the boat from Goolwa, Captain Jack kept on singing. I asked him what he was singing. He replied about that turkey upon the front of the house at the Goolwa. On making more particular inquiry I found that the said turkey was the gilt figure-head of a ship, representing an eagle, which had been saved from a wreck and fastened up over a shop front in that township. This had attracted the attention of my native friends; and so Captain Jack had set himself to make a song about it, and succeeded in constructing a ditty, which, after a line or two descriptive, broke


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 GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS. 39 out in a chorus"O the turkey at the Goolwa, O the turkey at the Goolwa!" The following is a song in native:  Puntin Narrinyerar Puntin Narrinyerar O, O, O Puntin Narrinyerar O, O, O, O, O Yun terpulani ar Tuppun an wangamar Tyiwewar ngoppun ar O, O, O, O Puntin Narrinyerar, &c. Translated this is"The Narrinyeri are coming, soon they will appear, carrying kangaroos, quickly they are walking." A NATIVE SONG OR CORROBERY, ON "THE RAILWAY TRAIN." Werentou nar a lew a Kapunda, Yung in al in a kawil, Yreyin tyiwewar. Kuldi nrottulun Pumpundathun tyiwewang a rung taltammulun. Free Translation. You see the smoke at Kapunda, The steam puffs regularly, Showing quickly, it looks like frost, It runs like running water, It blows like a spouting whale. ... The above is a very imperfect attempt to render the corrobery in English. The idea of the composition seems to be, first to describe the subject, then in the course of the song to multiply descriptive adjectives giving a vivid idea of the scene, and also to throw in any comparisons which may be illustrative, and the whole with abundant interjections of wonder, and gesticulations.


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 40 WEAPONS. CHAPTER V. WEAPONSMANUFACTURESTAKING GAMECOOKING DISEASESMEDICAL TREATMENT. THE productions of a barbarous people are always scanty in quantity and inferior in quality; but they are interesting, and often direct our attention to materials which would probably be otherwise overlooked in our plenitude of resources, but which the necessities of the uncivilised have led them to search out for themselves. Each tribe of the Narrinyeri has been accustomed to make those articles which their tract of country enabled them to produce most easily. One tribe will make weapons, another mats, and a third nets; and then they barter them one with the other. WEAPONS. They make their weapons from the hard wood which grows in their country. Heavy spears generally come from the Upper Murray natives, and are highly valued. They are made of the hard and elastic miall wood, and are formidable weapons. Some of the spears made by the Narrinyeri are barbed with spicules of flint. They are called meralkaipari, or deadly spears. The commonest spear is the kaike, or reed spear. It is made by fastening a point of hard, heavy wood, about two feet long, to a shaft formed of a stout reed, or else a dried grasstree stick (Xanthorrhoea), called nglaiye. This spear is thrown with the hooked taralye, or throwing stick. I have seen it pierce a dead tree so deeply that it took a very strong pull to extract the point from the wood. Their shields are made of wood or bark of the red gum tree. Their clubs are of wood. The patience exhibited in the cutting of some of them with their rude implements is wonderful.


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 MANUFACTURES. 41 MANUFACTURES-TAKING GAME. They make canoes of the bark of the red gum tree stripped off in large sheets. These sheets are laid on the ground and the sides and ends encouraged to curl up to the proper shape while it is drying by being tied with cords strained from side to side and end to end, and stones are placed in the bottom. But these bark canoes, although handy when new, soon get sodden and break. They seldom last more than twelve months. The Narrinyeri make fishing lines and twine from two kinds of fibre. One is a blue rush which grows in the scrub; the other is the root of a flag or bulrush which grows in fresh water, and is called menungkeri. The rushes or roots are first of all either boiled or steamed in the native oven, and then chewed by the women. A party of them will sit round the, fire and masticate the fibrous material by the hour. While they do so, the masses of fibre which have been chewed are handed to the men who sit by, and they work it up, by twisting it on the thigh into hanks of twine, either stout or fine, according to the purpose to which it is to be applied. Others receive the twine as fast as it is made, and make it into nets. They wind the twine on a short stick, which is used as the netting needle. The only measure of the size of the mesh is the finger of the netter, and yet their nets are wonderfully regular. The stitch is exactly the same as ours, but it is taken over and towards the netter instead of under as we do. They make lengths of this net about four feet wide, and tie straight sticks of mallee across it to keep it open, then a number of lengths are tied together end to end, and it is used for catching fish or moulting ducks in the usual way. Most of the wild fowl on the lakes are unable to fly in the moulting season; they then betake themselves to the reeds. A net is put by the natives round a clump of reeds, beaters are sent in to drive out the ducks, which rush into the nets and are captured by scores. The Narrinyeri were not acquainted with fishing by means of hooks before the white man came. They soon learned to appreciate this method, and made native lines to use with European


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 42 COOKING. fishhooks. Fish are also caught with the three-pronged fishing spear. This weapon is a slender pole, about fourteen feet long, with three points of sharp bone lashed to its top with twine. Every native carries one in his canoe. The men are very expert in the use of them. They are used in much the same way as our eel spear. A man will stand in a canoe silently watching with uplifted spear until a fish comes beneath, when the weapon is darted down on its back, and it is lifted transfixed from the water. Wild fowl are caught by means of a long wand with a noose at the end. A native lurks silently amongst the reeds with this in his hand. It looks like a reed. It is slipped over the head of the first unsuspecting duck or other water fowl which comes near enough, and it is dragged to its captor. The reed spear, before guns were introduced, was employed with considerable effect against the dense flocks of widgeon (native, punkeri) which abound on the lakes. The natives would send the spear into the flying flock and transfix the birds as they flew crowded together. In this manner they killed many. COOKING. Before the coming of the whites the natives never had any hot water, because they had nothing to boil it in. Their vessels at that time were the shells of the fresh water tortoise (emys), human skulls with the sutures stopped up with a resinous gum called pitchingga, also the skins of small species of kangaroo, such as wallabies, stripped from the animal and made into a skin bottle. Their method of cooking was either by roasting on the embers, which they do very nicely, and, where they are clean people, very cleanly; and steaming in the native oven. The oven is used in the following manner: A large fire is made, and into it is thrown lumps of stone about three inches in diameter. Then a hole is made in the ground and a fire kindled in it, which is suffered to burn down to glowing embers. Then the pieces of heated stone are placed on the embers in such a way as to secure a pretty level surface. On the top of this green grass is laid, COOKING. 43


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 then upon the grass the animal or meat to be cooked, more grass is heaped on the meat, then more hot stones on top of that, and then over all is placed a quantity of earth or sand. As the cooking goes on a smooth pointed stick will be thrust down through to reach the lowest hot stones without touching the food, and then withdrawn; water is then poured into the hole made by the stick to increase the steam below. When the food is supposed to be cooked, the top earth is carefully taken away, then the stones and grass, and there is the meat. I can assure the reader that the savoury smell of meat cooked thus is most appetizing. The only sweets which the Narrinyeri knew of, before the advent of Europeans, were the honey of the native honeysuckle or Banksia, the honey of the grasstree flowers (Xanthorrhoea), and the manna which falls from the peppermint gum (Eucalyptus); these they used to gather carefully, and infuse them in water, and drink the infusion with great enjoyment. The Narrinyeri make a great many mats and baskets of different kinds. Most of them are made of rushes, worked together with a sort of stitch. Baskets and mats of various shapes are thus produced. Another kind of mat is made of the bark of the mallee scrub, dried and beaten into a fibrous mass. This is worked together with meshes, and makes a thick durable mat. Sometimes a quantity of the shaggy sea weed, which is found on the shore, is washed in fresh water and dried, and worked into the mat, forming a sort of shaggy nap. Such a mat would be used as a bed. The Aborigines obtain a great many skins of wild animals, and peg them out on the ground until they are dry. Kangaroo and other large skins are used in this state as mats to keep off the damp when camping on damp ground. Oppossum skins, after they are dried, are carefully scraped, then scored across the fleshy side with a sharp stone or shell to make them flexible, and, after being cut into squares, sewn together with the small sinews of a kangaroo’s tail, and an excellent warm rug is produced. Now-a-days common European thread is used to sew the skins together, but the rugs are not so durable.


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 44 DISEASES. DISEASESMEDICAL TREATMENT. The principal diseases to which these tribes of Aborigines are subject are of a scrofulous nature. The tendency to tuberculosis is seen in childhood in the form of tabes mesenterica, and sometimes of hydrocephalus. Towards the age of puberty it is developed as pulmonary consumption. Sometimes it is carried off before the age of puberty by induration and ulceration of the glands of the neck. The above are the most fatal diseases amongst the Narrinyeri; the majority of deaths are caused by them. The other diseases to which they are subject are liver complaint, diarrhoea and dysentery, and, rarely, brain fever. I have never known a case of intermittent fever amongst them. Of course they are subject to inflammation of the bowels, kidneys, liver, lungs, and throat. They have amongst them a skin disease, which they call wirrullume; it resembles pustular itch,* but it is not communicable to Europeans; even half-castes seldom have it, although they may sleep with persons suffering from it. The application of sulphur is a specific against the wirrullume, I have never known a native to have the measles. This disease has at different times prevailed amongst the whites, but the blacks, although constantly about the dwellings of those labouring under it, never caught it. This is remarkable when we remember what devastation this disease caused in the islands of Polynesia. I have never known a case of scarlatina amongst the Aborigines, although it was very prevalent some years ago amongst the whites; and I have reason to believe that a great deal of clothing from houses infected by the disease was given to the natives. The natives are very subject to epidemic influenza, which they call nruwi. They have a tradition that some sixty years ago a terrible disease came down the River Murray, and carried off the natives  Since writing the above, I have known of a few having measles, but very few, and although no precautions were taken against contagion, the disease did not spread.
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 NATIVE DOCTORS. 45 by hundreds. This must have been small-pox, as many of the old people now have their faces pitted who suffered from the disease in childhood. The destruction of life was so great as to seriously diminish the tribes. The natives always represent that before this scourge arrived they were much more numerous. They say that so many died that they could not perform the usual funereal rites for the dead, but were compelled to bury them at once out of the way. I think that there must have been more than one visitation of this kind, judging from the age of those who are pock-marked.* The Narrinyeri attribute all diseases to witchcraft; consequently they employ as remedies certain countercharms. A man will mutter a sort of incantation over a diseased person for the purpose of dispelling the malignant influence from which he is suffering. There are amongst the natives certain men who claim to be doctors. Their method of treatment is partly by incantations, mutterings, tappings, and blowings; and parly by vigorous squeezing and kneading of the affected part. The doctor will kneel upon his patient, and squeeze him until he groans with the infliction. This is supposed to press out the wiwirri or disease. In cases of rheumatism they employ a sort of vapour bath which is prepared as follows: They make a fire, and heat stones, as if for cooking; then they make a sort of stage with sticks, and the patient is put thereon. Under the stage they put some of the hot stones, and, having first covered up the sick person with rugs, all but his head, and closed in the place where the hot stones are in the same way, they put wet water-weed on the stone, and the steam ascends under the rugs and envelopes the body of the patient. This method of cure is often found very effectual. But their methods of treating the sick often appear to us very absurd. I have felt amused and yet sorry when going to the these, at Pultowar, was opened last year, and found to contain scores of human skeletons arranged in rows. These were probably the victims of small-pox.  Since I wrote the above I have been informed by one of the surgeons of the Adelaide Hospital that he has good reason to believe that the Aborigines often suffer from hydatids in the liver.
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 46 NATIVE DOCTORS. wurley to see a sick youth, perhaps, and to find his grey-bearded old father, stark naked, performing a solemn dance before his son, singing and beating time with the tartengk. I have known an old native keep it up for an hour, and, of course, feel convinced that he had done wonders towards restoring his boy to health. There used to be a class of doctors amongst the natives called kuldukke men. They were great impostors; their impositions and lying became notorious around the lakes. Their method of procedure was by dancing, whistling, incantations, and squeezing the diseased part. They used by sleight-of-hand to produce extraordinary substances from those parts which were afflicted. I knew a white man who for a joke submitted himself to the kuldukkes, in order to cure an attack of rheumatism in the shoulder. The doctors muttered charms, and whistled, and blew, and danced, and at last produced a small piece of the leg of an old chair, which had been kicking about in the back yard for weeks before, and solemnly declared that they had extracted it from the diseased shoulder. These kuldukkes soon ceased to exert influence amongst the natives, and their practice has died out. One circumstance which contributed to this result was the following: There was an intelligent native at Goolwa, named Solomon. He used to be regularly employed by settlers in that neighbourhood. One day Solomon went to work after breakfast, leaving instructions with his wife to make a couple of dampers for their dinner. This was soon accomplished, and two dampers and a small cake awaited the return of their owner to his midday meal. Just then a lot of kuldukke men passed the hut, and looked in rather inquisitively. Presently they told Solomon’s wife, who was known to be a superstitious body, that they could see a spirit, the dreadful Melapi, coming across the ocean, and that he would be certain to hurt her husband unless he were driven away. This they offered to do by their enchantments if she would give them one of those dampers. The poor foolish woman believed their story, and one of the dampers was soon devoured. The kuldukkes then began dancing, whistling, pointNATIVE


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 DOCTORS. 47 ing spears, and muttering charms in a very energetic manner. In a quarter of an hour they came and said that their strength was insufficient, and that they must have another damper. With a sigh the wife handed over a second fee. They then danced about still more vigorously, and made demonstrations which might fairly be supposed sufficient to frighten a demon; and then they came and told the woman that the mighty deed was done, her husband was safe, the evil spirit had departed; and then they rapidly followed his example. Just then Solomon appeared in sight, ready for dinner. Extremely long was the face which he pulled when he heard the story, and found there was only a very small cake remaining for his meal. With a deeply injured expression, he said to his wife, "What for, you big one stupid, let em kuldukke men cheat you? Him no look out Melapi, him only look out my dinner." It is remarkable that the Narrinyeri have no idea of poison. Unlike some other Australian tribes they know nothing of any poisonous herbs or plants. They were very much astonished when Europeans showed them how death could be produced by something taken into the stomach; they had never known any person killed in this way before. The firm opinion of all natives appears to be that death is not natural to man, but is always produced by sorcery.* by Europeans.
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 48 RELATIONSHIPS. CHAPTER VI. RELATIONSHIPS. FOR many years I had been aware that the system of relationships amongst the Aborigines was different from ours, and had prepared a table of degrees of kinship: but I had not arranged them into a system. Some few months ago I received the following information in a circular, from the Rev. Lorimer Fison, of Victoria:  Sydney, March 6th, 1871. SIR, About twenty years ago Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, of Rochester, New York, discovered among the Iroquois Indians an elaborate system of kinship widely differing from ours. Subsequent extensive inquiries carried on by this gentleman, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, U. S., disclosed the astonishing fact that this complicated system is in use not only among all the North American Indian tribes, but also among the Tamil and Telugu peoples of Southern India, who number some twenty-eight millions. Having made inquiries among the Fijians and the Friendly Islanders, at the instance of Professor Goldwin Smith, of the Cornell University, I found the system prevailing among all their tribes, and have moreover lately met with unmistakable traces thereof among the aborigines of Queensland. The chief peculiarities of the Tamilian system may be briefly stated as follows:  1. I being male, the children of my brothers are my sons and daughters, while the children of my sisters are my nephews and nieces; but the grandchildren of my sisters, as well as those of my brothers, are my grandchildren. 2. I being a female, the children of my sisters are my sons and daughters, while the children of my brothers are my nephews and nieces; but the grandchildren of my brothers, as well as those of my sisters, are my grandchildren. 3. All my father’s brothers are my fathers, but all my father’s sisters are my aunts. 4. All my mother’s sisters are my mothers, but all my mother’s brothers are my uncles. 5. The children of my father’s brothers are my brothers and sisters, so also are the children of my mother’s sisters; but the children of my father’s sisters and those of my mother’s brothers are my cousins. 6. I being male, the children of my male cousins are my nephews and nieces, but the children of my female cousins are my sons and daughters. [Note. These relationships are reversed in the North American Indian system, and this is the only important, point whereon that system differs from the Tamil.] 7. All the brothers of my grandfathers and those of my grandmothers are my grandfathers; all their sisters are my grandmothers.


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 RELATIONSHIPS. 49 8. There is one term for my elder and another for my younger brother; so also for my sisters, elder or younger. Hence there is no collective term by which I can indicate all my brothers, or all my sisters, unless I be either the eldest or the youngest of the family. Upon reading this it was at once suggested to me that here was the key to the system of relationships among the Narrinyeri. Upon referring to my table, drawn up years before, and also making inquiry amongst the most intelligent natives, I found that their system agreed with the Tamilian in most particulars.* The following is the system of relationship amongst the Narrinyeri:  1. I being male, the children of my brothers are my sons and daughters, the same as my own children are; while the children of my sisters are my nephews and nieces. The grandchildren of my brothers are called maiyarare; while the grandchildren of my sisters are called mutthari. 2. I being female, the children of my sisters are my sons and daughters, the same as my own sons and daughters are; while the children of my brothers are my nephews and nieces; consequently it is common to hear a native address as nanghy, or my father, the man who is his father’s brother, as well as his own father; and as nainkowa, or my mother, the woman who is his mother’s sister, as well as his own mother. 3. All my father’s brothers are my fathers, but all my father’s sisters are my aunts. But my father’s elder brothers have the distinguishing title of ngoppano, and his younger have the title wyatte. These terms would be used in the presence of my own father. The name for aunt is barno. 4. All my mother’s sisters are my mothers, but all my mother’s brothers are my uncles. Wanowe is the word for uncle. 5. The children of my father’s brothers are my brothers and sisters, and so are the children of my mother’s sisters; but the children of my father’s sisters, and those of my mother’s brothers, are my cousins. The word for cousin is nguyanowe. occupy the country next to the Narrinyeri, on the River Murray. 50 RELATIONSHIPS.
 * I find that the Tamilian system also prevails amongst the Meru nation, who


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 6. I being male, the children of my male and female cousins are called by the same name as the grandchildren of my sisters, mutthari. 7. The brothers of my grandfathers, and those of my grand mothers, and also their sisters, are my grandfathers and grandmothers. Whatever title my father’s father has, his brothers have; and so of the sisters of my mother’s mother. 8. My elder brother is called gelanowe, and my younger brother is called tarte. My elder sister is called maranowe, and my younger sister is called tarte. There is no collective term by which I can designate all my brothers and sisters, whether older or younger than myself. 9. The Narrinyeri make a difference in the termination of relationships, according as they are used in the first, second, or third person. Thus;  Nanghai, is my father. Gelanowe, my elder brother. Ngaiowe, your father. Gelauwe, your elder brother. Yikowalle, his father. Gelauwalle, his elder brother. Nainkowa, my mother. Maranowe, my elder sister. Ninkuwe, your mother. Marauwe, your elder sister. Narkowalle, his mother. Marauwalle, his elder sister. Generally the difference in the terminations is nowe for my, auwe for your, and walle for his or hers. A father and child, when spoken of together, are called retulengk; mother and child, ratulengk. 10. The Narrinyeri have words which signify bereaved persons answering to our words widow and widower. A widower, is Randi. Fatherless, Kukathe. A widow, Yortangi. Motherless, Kulgutye. One bereaved of a child, Main- One bereaved of a maiyari. brother or sister, Muntyuli. These particulars may not be very interesting, but they are important as indications of the race to which the Aborigines RELATIONSHIPS. 51


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 belong. They are also proofs of the precision and nicety of expression to be found in their language. The general scheme of relationship being the same as the Tamil and Telugu races in Southern India would go far to make us believe that the Australian Aborigines originally came from India. There seems a probability that their original seats were the East India Islands and the Malayan peninsula, and that they were dispossessed and driven southwards by the Malays; even as the Aboriginal races of India were dispossessed by the invasion of the Aryan tribes. The subject of relationship is nearly allied to that of names of persons. The Aboriginal method of naming possesses some peculiarities. A child receives a name as soon as it can walk, to name it earlier is considered unlucky. The name is generally significant of the place of birth, as Rilgewal, one born at a place called Rilge. A name is by no means permanent. A new name will be given on some particular occasion, such as arriving at manhood. Names are dropped and new ones taken if a person bearing the name happens to die. It is also very common for a mother or father to bear the name of a child. This is effected by adding the termination arni for father, or anikke for mother, to the name of the child. For instance, Koolmatinye arni is the father of Koolmatinyeri; and Koolmatinye anikke is the mother of Koolmatinyeri. The following are significant names of men and women:  PutteriThe end. NgiampinyeriBelonging to the back or loins. MaratinyeriBelonging to emptiness. WaldaninyeriBelonging to summer. There are also dual names borne by single persons, all females; Pombinga, Nautaringa, Meteringa. Property always descends from father to son. A brother’s property always is transmitted to the brother’s children, in cases where he dies without children of his own.


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 52 RELATIONSHIPS. TABLE OF RELATIONSHIPS DESCRIPTION OF RELATIONSHIP NATIVE TERM TRANSLATION My father My father’s brother Nanghai Father My mother My mother’s sister My father’s second wife My stepmother Nainkowa My mother My father’s sister My mother’s brother’s wife Barno My aunt My mother’s brother My father’s sister’s husband Wanowe My uncle My son or daughter My brother’s children Porlean My child (I being a male) My grandson My granddaughter My brother’s grandson My brother’s granddaughter My father’s brother’s son’s son My father’s brother’s son’s daughter Maiyarari My grandchild (I being a male) My elder sister My father’s brother’s daughter (if older than myself) My mother’s sister’s daughter (if older than myself) Maranowi My sister The relations last mentioned (if younger than myself), also my younger sister Tarte My younger sister My elder brother My father’s brother’s son My mother’s sister’s son Gelanowe My elder brother My younger brother and the relations last mentioned (if younger than muself) Tarte My younger brother My younger brother’s son My brother’s daughter Ngoppari (A title to distinguish them from my own children) My elder brother’s son Waiyatte (The same) My son’s wife My brother’s son’s wife Maiyareli My daughter-in-law. They call me the same. My daughter’s husband My brother’s daughter’s husband My wife’s father My niece’s husband Yullundi A reciprocal term by which a father-in-law and and a sonin- law address each other My sister’s son (I being a male) My mother’s sister’s grandchildren My sister’s daughter My father’s brother’s daughter’s daughter Nanghari, addressed as Ung A term for a nephew or niece of this kindred. My niece’s husband (I being a male) Kutyi My son-in-law My sister’s son (I being a female) My sister’s daughter (I being a female) Ngarra A term to distinguish them from my own children I being a female:- My brother’s son Mbari A nephew or niece of this kindred My brother’s daughter My mother’s sister’s son’s sons and daughters


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 RELATIONSHIPS. 53 DESCRIPTION OF RELATIONSHIP NATIVE TERM TRANSLATION I being a male:- My sisters son’s wife My sister’s grandson My sister’s granddaughter (I being a female) My sister’s grandson (I being a female) My sister’s graddaughter My father’s sister’s son’s wife (I being either male or female) My mother’s brother’s son’s wife My mother’s brother’s son’s son My mother’s brother’s son’s daughter My mother’s brother’s daughter’s son My mother’s brother’s daughter’s daughter Mutthari Grand relation This is nearest term we have in English My mother’s brother’s child My father’s sister’s son My father’s sister’s daughter Nguyanowe Cousin My father’s brother’s daughter’s husband (also my son’s daughter’s husband) My father’s sister’s daughter’s husband My mother’s sister’s daughter’s husband My wife’s brother Ronggi Brother-in-law My mother’s brother’s daughter’s husband Wurungelrop No equivalent My mother’s sister’s son’s wife My father’s brother’s son’s wife Ngulbowalle Sister-in-law My sister’s son’s wife (I being a male) A woman’s brother’s wife Rinanowe Sister-in-law My wife’s sister’s husband My wife’s sister Ngauwiruli Relation-in-law My father’s father My father’s father’s brother My father’s father’s sister Maiyanowe Grand relation My father’s mother Her brother Her sister Mutthanowe Grand relation My mother’s father His brother His sister Ngaityanowe Grand relation My mother’s mother Bakkano, kurukunu Grandmother I being a female:- My daughter’s child I being a female:- My son-in-law My daughter-in-law Also (I being a male) my wife’s mother Karinye A reciprocal term. No equivalent in English Twins Lalumpe The following are the words for relationships in Tamil, according to the Rev. E. C. Scudder, of Vellore; Rev. Miron Winslow, D. D., of Madras; Rev. Wm. Tracey, of Madura; and Rev. Mr. Symons, of Bangalore, South India:  My fatherEn takappan. My father’s elder brotherEn periya takappan (great father). My father’s younger brotherEn seriya takappan (little father).


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 54 RELATIONSHIPS. My father’s sisterEn attai. My father’s sister’s son, older than myself (I being a male)En attan, or maitunan. My father’s sister’s son, older than myself (I being a female)En machchan. My father’s sister’s son younger than myself (I being a male)En attan, or maitunan. My father’s sister’s son, younger than myself (I being a female)En machchan. My motherEn tay. My mother’s elder sisterEn periya tay. My mother’s younger sisterEn seriya tay. My mother’s brotherEn maman. His wifeEn mame. My mother’s brother’s sonEn maitunan. My mother’s brother’s daughterMaittuni, or (I being a female) macchari. My father’s fatherEn paddan. My mother’s motherEn paddi. My grandsonEn peran. My granddaughterEn pertti. My elder brother (I being a male or female)En tamaiyan, or annan. My elder sister (according as the speaker is male or female)En akkarl, or tammakay. My younger brotherEn tambi. My younger sisterEn tangaichi, or tangay, My brothers (the speaker being a male)En annan tambi mar. My brothers (the speaker being a female)En sakotherar. My sisters (the speaker being a male)En tamakay tangay mar. My sisters (I being a female)En sakothackal. A man’s brother’s children are his sons and daughters. A man’s sister’s children are his nephews and nieces.


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Rh

Narrinyeri call the Supreme Being by two names, Nurundere and Martummere. He is said to have made all things on the earth, and to have given to men the weapons of war and hunting. Nurundere instituted all the rites and ceremonies which are practised by the Aborigines, whether connected with life or death. On inquiring why they adhere to any custom, the reply is, because Nurundere commanded it. On one occasion I had an instance of this. I was out with the tribe on a great kangaroo hunt, at which about 150 natives were present. On reaching the hunting-ground, a wallaby, which had been killed on the road thither, was produced, and a fire kindled by the women. Then the men, standing round, struck up a sort of chant, at the same time stamping with their feet. The wallaby was put on the fire, and as the smoke from it ascended, the hunters, at a concerted signal, rushed towards it, lifting their weapons towards heaven, and making a loud shout in chorus. I afterwards learned that this ceremony was instituted by Nurundere, and it appeared to me very much like a sacrifice to the god of hunting. I have several times seen it performed since.

Although the natives say that Nurundere made all things, and that he now lives in Wyirrewarre, yet they tell many ridiculous traditions about his doings when he inhabitated the earth, as he is at one time said to have done.

He is represented to have been a great hunter, and there were contemporary with him two other remarkable hunters named Nepelle and Wyungare. According to the natives they must have been a mighty race, and the game which they pursued gigantic, for the salt lagoons are the places where Wyungare and Nepelle used to peg out the skins of the immense kangaroos which they killed, and thus denuded them of grass. A mound


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56 on the Peninsula is still pointed out as the remains of the hut of Wyungare.

Once upon a time, it is said, that Nurundere and Nepelle together pursued an enormous fish in Lake Alexandrina, near Tipping. Nepelle caught it, then Nurundere tore it in pieces, and threw the fragments into the water, and each piece became a fish, and thus ponde, tarke, tukkeri, and pommere, different kinds of fish, had their origin. But another sort of fish, tinuwarre (called bream by the whites), was produced in a different manner. Nurundere went to Tulurrug, and there finding some flat stones, he threw them into the Lake, and they became tinuwarre.

Wyungare was a personage who had no father but only a mother. He resided at Rauwoke with his parent, and was narumbe from his infancy, that is, he was made a red man, or kaingani, and was a mighty hunter of kangaroos. Once he was amongst the reeds at Oulawar, drinking water by drawing it up with a reed from the Lake, and Nepelle’s two wives passing by saw him, admired his handsome form, and fell in love with him. So they seized the first opportunity to visit his hut, and finding that he was asleep, they made a noise with their feet outside, like two emus running past, and awoke the hunter, who jumped up and ran out expecting to see some game. The two women met him with a shout of laughter, and throwing their arms round him, begged him to take them for his wives, to which he willingly consented. Of course Nepelle was very angry with all parties concerned at being treated so scandalously, and sought them at the hut of Wyungare,  but they were all absent, so he put fire in the hut, and told it to wait until Wyungare and the two women slept, and then to get up and burn them. In the evening they returned from hunting,


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Rh and laid down and slept. They were soon awakened by the flames of the burning hut, and rushed out of it, but the fire pursued them. For miles they ran along the shore of the Lake, chased by the vengeful element, until they reached Lowanyeri, plunged themselves in the mud of the swamp there, and the fire was unable to reach them. Afraid of the implacable hatred displayed by Nepelle, Wyungare sought a means of escape. He determined to effect this by going up to Wyirrewarre to live there. So he tied a line to a spear, and hurled it at the heavens. It stuck in, and he proceeded to haul upon it for the purpose of raising himself, but found it would not hold, for it was unbarbed. Then he took a barbed spear and repeated the experiment, this time with success, for it held firmly in the sky, and by means of the line attached to it, he pulled himself up, and afterwards the two women. Three stars are still pointed out as Wyungare and his wives. He is said to sit up there and fish for men with a fishing-spear, and when people start in their sleep it is thought to be because he touches them with the point of his weapon. Before his ascent it is related that he took a gigantic kangaroo and tore it in pieces, and scattered the fragments through the scrub, and they became the comparatively small kangaroos which exist now.

To return to the adventures of Nurundere. He had four children by his two wives. Once when he dwelt at Tulurrug two of his children strayed away into the scrub to the eastward, and were lost. Soon afterwards his two wives ran away from him. He pursued them, in company with his remaining children, to Encounter Bay, and there, seeing them at a distance, he exclaimed in anger, "Let the waters arise and drown them." So the waters arose in a terrible flood, and swept over the hills with fury, and, overtaking the fugitives, they were overwhelmed and drowned. At this time Nepelle lived at Rauwoke, and the flood was so great that he was obliged to pull his canoe to the top of the hill (that is Point Macleay); from thence it was transported to Wyirrewarre; the dense part of the milky way is said to be the canoe of Nepelle floating in the heavens.


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58 Then its owner, by using the same means as Wyungare had done, ascended thither also.

Then Nurundere went up the Coorong in search of his two lost children. At Salt Creek he met with a blackfellow sitting by a fire. This man by some kind of sorcery endeavoured to detain Nurundere from proceeding on his way, at which Nurundere was angry, and they fought. He speared Nurundere in the thigh; but he laughed at the wound, and said it would not hurt him, and in return speared the blackfellow through the body and killed him. Afterwards Nurundere heard a noise in the bush which was near, and upon searching it, found his two lost children, who had been hidden there by the blackfellow whom he had slain.

After these things Nurundere went to Wyirrewarre, taking his children with him. The Narrinyeri always mention his name with reverence. I never heard them use it lightly or with levity; and if he invented such clever weapons as the taralye or throwing stick, and the panketye or boomerang, and the curved club called marpangye, I think he deserves their respectful recollection. My own opinion is that he is a deified chief, who has lived at some remote period. The natives regard thunder as the angry voice of Nurundere, and the rainbow as also a production of his.

The legends of Nurundere are fast fading from the memory of the Aborigines. The young people know very little about them, and it is only from the old people that the particulars of them can be obtained.

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 LEGENDS. 59 Encounter Bay Tribe of Narrinyeri (the Raminyerar), published in 1846. These traditions were much better remembered amongst the natives then than now, and consequently this account is very trustworthy. The above legends were collected by myself eighteen years ago. Meyer says of the Narrinyeri "They do not appear to have any story of the origin of the world; but nearly all animals they suppose anciently to have been men who performed great prodigies, and at last transformed themselves into different kinds of animals and stones! Thus the Raminjerar point out several large stones or points of rock along the beach whose sex and name they distinguish. One rock, they say, is an old man named Lime, upon which women and children are not allowed to tread; but old people venture to do so from their long acquaintance with him. They point out his head, feet, hands, and also his hut and fire. For my part, I could see no resemblance to any of these things except the hut. The occasion upon which he transformed himself was a follows: A friend of his, Palpangye, paid him a visit, and brought him some tinwarrar (a kind of fish). Lime enjoyed them very much, and regretted that there were no rivers in the neighbourhood that he might catch them himself, as they are a river fish. Palpangye went into the bush and fetched a large tree, and, thrusting it into the ground in different places, water immediately began to flow and formed the Inman and Hindmarsh rivers. Lime, out of gratitude, gave him some kanmari (small sea fish), and transformed himself into a rock, the neighbourhood of which has ever since abounded in this kind of fish. Palpangye became a bird, and is frequently near the rivers. The steep hill and large ponds at Mootabarringar were produced by the dancing of their forefathers at that place. At the present time it is customary for two hundred or three hundred natives to meet together at their dances (or corrobbories, as they are called by the whites). At sunset a fire is made to give light. The women sit apart, with skins rolled up and held between the knees, upon which they beat time. The young men are ornamented after their fashion with a tuft of emu feathers in the hair; and those who are not painted red ornament themselves with chalk by making circles round the eyes, a stroke along the nose, and dots upon the forehead and cheeks, while the rest of the body is covered with fanciful figures. One commences singing, and if all cannot join (for the songs are frequently in a different language, taken from some distant tribe) he commences another song. If the song is known to all, the women scream or yell out at the top of their voices, and the men commence a grotesque kind of dance, which to us appears sufficiently ridiculous and amusing. It is upon an occasion like this that they represent their ancestors to have been assembled at Mootabarringar. Having no fire, this dance was held in the daytime, and the weather being very hot the perspiration flowed copiously from them and formed the large ponds, and the beating of their feet upon the ground produced the irregularities of surface in the form of the hills and valleys. They sent messengers, Kuratje and Kanmari, towards the east to Kondole to invite him to the feast, as they knew that he possessed fire. Kondole, who was a large, powerful man, came, but hid his fire, on account of which alone he had been invited. The men, displeased at this, determined to obtain the fire by force, but no one ventured to approach him. At length one named Rilballe determined to wound him with a spear and then take the fire from him. He threw


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 60 LEGENDS. the spear and wounded him in the neck. This caused a great laughing and shouting, and nearly all were transformed into different animals. Kondole ran to the sea and became a whale, and ever after blew the water out of the wound which he received in hie neck. Kuratje and Kanmari became small fish. The latter was dressed iu a good kangaroo skin, and the former only a mat made of seaweed, which is the reason, they say, that the kanmari contains a great deal of oil under the skin, while the kuratje is dry and without fat. Others became opossums, and went up trees. The young men who were ornamented with tufts of feathers became cockatoos, the tuft of feathers being the crest. Rilballe took Kondole’s fire and placed it in the grass-tree, where it still remains, and can be brought out by rubbing.* "They tell a number of other stories concerning the origin of the sea, heat, &c., &c., but it will suffice to mention the cause of the rain and the origin of languages. "Near the Goolwa lived an old man named Kortuwe with his two friends, Munkari and Waingilbe. The latter, who were considerably younger than Kortuwe, went out fishing, and as they caught kuratje and kanmari they put the kuratje, which are not so good as the kanmari, aside for Kortuwe. The old man, perceiving this, commenced a song, Annaitjeranangk rotjer tampatjeranangk, (in the Encounter Bay dialect it would be Ngannang kuratjee tampin’for me they put aside the kuratje’), upon which rain began to fall. Kortuwe then went into his hut, and closed it with bushes, and Munkari and Waingilbe were obliged to remain outside and got wet as a punishment. The three were transformed into birds, and as often as Kortuwe makes a noise it is a sign that rain will soon follow. "Languages originated from an ill-tempered old woman. In remote time an old woman named Wurruri lived towards the east, and generally walked with a large stick in her hand to scatter the fires round which others were sleeping. Wurruri at length died. Greatly delighted at this circumstance, they sent messengers in all directions to give notice of her death. Men, women, and children came, not to lament, but to show their joy. The Raminjerar were the first, who fell upon the corpse and began eating the flesh, and immediately began to speak intelligibly. The other tribes to the eastward, arriving later, ate the contents of the intestines, -which caused them to speak a language slightly different. The northern tribes came last, and devoured the intestines and all that remained, and immediately spoke a language differing still more from that of the Raminjerar. "All this happened before the time of Nurunduri, with whose departure from the earth the power of transforming themselves, and making rivers, hills, &c., ceased. As with Nurunduri a new epoch commenced, as much of his history as can be told with decency here follows:He was a tall and powerful man, and lived in the east with two wives, and had several children. Upon one occasion his two wives ran away from him, and he went in search of them. Wherever he arrived lie spread terror amongst the people, who were dwarfs compared with him. Continuing his pursuit, he arrived at Freeman’s Nob. Disappointed at not finding his wives, he threw two small nets, called witti, into the sea, and immediately two small rocky islands arose, which ever since have been called Wittungenggul. He went on to Ramong, where, by stamping with his is placed upon the ground, the flat side uppermost, and the lower end of a thinner piece pressed upon it, while the upper part is held between the palms of the hands, and an alternate revolving motion given to it by rubbing the hands backwards and forwards till it ignites.
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 LEGENDS. 61 feet, he created Kungkengguwar (Rosetta Head). From hence he threw spears in different directions, and wherever they fell small rocky islands arose. At length he found his two wives at Toppong. After beating them they again endeavoured to escape. Now tired of pursuing them, he ordered the sea to flow and drown them. They were transformed into rock, and are still to be seen at low water. Discontented and unhappy, he removed with his children to a great distance towards the West, where he still lives, a very old man, scarcely able to move. When he went away, one of his children was asleep, and, in consequence, left behind. Nurunduri, when he arrived at the place where he intended to remain, missed him, and making fast one end of a string to his maralengk, he threw the other end towards where he supposed his son to be, who, catching hold of it, helped himself along to his father. This line is still the guide by which the dead find their way to Nuurunduri. When a man dies, Nurunduri’s son, who first found the way to his father by means of the line, throws it to the dead man, who catching hold of it, is conducted in like manner. When he comes near, the old man, feeling the motion of the line, asks his son who is coming. If it is a man, the son calls all the men together, who by a great shouting, arouse the half stupefied man. When come to himself, he silently and sadly approaches Nurunduri, who points out to him where he is to reside. If he belongs to the Encounter Bay, or one of the Goolwa tribes, he is allowed to live in Nurunduri’s hut; but if of one of the more distant tribes, at a distance off. Before he goes away to the place pointed out to him Nurunduri carefully observes his eyes. If tears are flowing from one eye only, it is a sign, that he has left only one wife; if from both, two; if they cease to flow from one eye while they continue to flow from the other, he has left three wives; and according to the number he has left, Nurunduri provides him with others. Old people become young, and the infirm sound in the company of Nurunduri. This is what the poor uninstructed people believe; therefore no fears about the future, or concerning punishments and rewards, are entertained by them. Thus far Meyer’s account of the legends which he found amongst the natives. I have omitted one or two which were too indecent for general readers. It is now the opinion of intelligent natives with whom I have conversed, that Nurunduri was the great chief who led the Narrinyeri down the Darling to the country which they now inhabit. They say that there is a tradition that two young men returned back on the track of the tribe, and were never more heard of. Nurunduri is represented as having led his sons, i.e., his tribe, down the southern shore of the Lakes, and then turned up the Coorong. There he appears to have met another tribe, coming from the south-east. A battle was fought, and, of course, the Narrinyeri say that they were conquerors. But yet, afterwards, Nurunduri led his people towards Encounter Bay,


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 62 DEMONS. and there appears to have resided until his death. There is also a tradition that two warriors afterwards led a party up the Coorong, and established themselves near Mount Gambier. In addition to the legends before related, the Narrinyeri tell some curious but absurd stories about the animals. For instance, they say that originally the turtle possessed venomous fangs, and the snake had none; so the latter begged the former to make an exchange, offering to barter his own head for the turtle’s fangs, alleging, as a reason, that he lived on the shore exposed to the attacks of the black fellows, while the turtle occupied a secure position in the Lake. So the turtle consented to the bargain, and ever since then the snake has had venomous fangs, and the turtle a snake-like head and neck. It is also said that once the pelicans were fishing in the Lake, and caught a great quantity of tukkeri. They carried them to Tipping, and there the magpies (muldurar) said they would find fire and cook the tukkeri for a share of them. The pelicans consented, but soon found that the magpies were taking advantage of their culinary operations to steal the fish. This led to a struggle, and a fight over the dinner, in which the magpies got rolled in the ashes, which gave them their black coats, and the pelicans got besmeared with the silvery scales of the tukkeri, which caused them to have white breasts. The Narrinyeri are terribly afraid of two wood demons, called Melapi and Pepe. They say that the former assumes any shape he pleases; sometimes he is like an old man, at other times he will take the form of a bird, or a burnt stump, and always for the purpose of luring individuals within his reach, so that he may destroy them. I have several times heard blacks declare that they have seen him. The natives also dread a water spirit, called Mulgewanke. The booming sound which is heard frequently in Lake Alexandrina is ascribed to him, and they think it causes rheumatism to those who hear it. He is represented as a curious being, half man, half fish, and instead of hair, a matted crop of reeds. I


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 DEMONS. 63 have often wondered myself what the noise is really caused by, which they ascribe to Mulgewanke. I have heard it dozens of times, and so have many other persons. It resembles the boom of a distant cannon, or the explosion of a blast. Sometimes, however, it is more like the sound made by the fall of a huge body into deep water. It cannot be the peculiar sound made by the Murray bittern, as I have often beard that too, and it is not at all like the noise in the Lake. At first I ascribed it to people blasting wood on the opposite side, hut since then I have been convinced that this cannot be the case. One peculiarity of the sound ascribed to the Mulgewanke is, that although it is sometimes louder than at others, yet it is never near, always distant. I have no doubt but at some time or other the natural cause of it will be discovered, but I have never yet heard the phenomenon explained. There is another superstition believed in by the Narrinyeri. Every tribe has its ngaitye; that is, some animal which they regard as a sort of good genius, who takes an interest in their welfaresomething like the North American Indian totem. Some will have a snake, some a wild dog, some a bird, and some an insect. No man or woman will kill her ngaitye, except it happens to be an animal which is good for food, when they have no objection to eating them. Nevertheless, they will be very careful to destroy all the remains, lest an enemy might get hold of them, and by his sorcery cause the ngaitye to grow in the inside of the eater, and cause his death. I know several persons whose ngaityar are different kinds of snakes, consequently they do not like to kill them; but when they meet with them they catch them, pull out their teeth, or else sew up their mouths, and keep them in a basket as pets. Once I knew of a man catching his ngaitye in the person of a large female tiger snake, and, after pulling out the teeth, he put it in a basket, and hung it up in his wurley. The nest morning they found that she had brought forth sixteen young ones. This increase of family was too much for those blacks to whom she did not stand in the relation of


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 64 DEMONS. ngaitye, so they killed them all; and on cutting the mother open afterwards found seven more young snakes inside of her, making twenty-three, in all, produced at one litter. One day a couple of wild dogs came on a predatory expedition into my neighbourhood, so I shot one of them; and immediately after was reproached very much for hurting the ngaitye of two or three blacks residing here. People are sometimes named from their ngaitye; as, for instance, Taowinyeri, the person whose ngaitye is Taow, the native name of the guana. It appears to me that the ngaitye of the Narrinyeri is the same as the aitu of the Samoans, hut it is not regarded with so much veneration by the former as by the latter. The names are evidently derived from the same original, ngaitye being the same word as aitu, only with the addition of consonants. The following is Dr. G. Turner’s account of the Samoan aitu:  "These gods were supposed to appear in some visible incarnation, and the particular thing in which his god was in the habit of appearing was to the Samoan, an object of veneration. It was, in fast, his idol, and he was careful never to injure it or treat it with contempt. One, for instance, saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in the turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the lizard; and so on throughout all the fish of the sea, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. In some of the shellfish, even, gods were supposed to be present. A man would eat freely of the incarnation of the god of another man, but the incarnation of his own particular god he would consider it death to injure or eat. The god was supposed to avenge the insult by taking up his abode in that person’s body, and causing to generate there the very thing which he had eaten, until it produced death. These gods they called aitu feile, or gods of the house." The Narrinyeri believe in the power of the dead to influence the elements, of which I once had a proof. A short time after the execution of the murderers of Mrs. Rainberd, we had a gale of wind for several days successively. Upon my remarking upon


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 RAINMAKERS. 65 the violence of the weather to some natives, they said it was occasioned by the blacks who had been hanged, who had sent the wind in revenge to try to injure and annoy the whitefellows. "You see," they said, "it blows from their country." The blacks also have their rainmakers. One old fellow, named Pepeorn, professed to be able to change the weather by his incantations; and I have heard him in summer time lay claim to the merit of having caused a welcome shower.


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 66 ESTABLISHMENT OF MISSION. CHAPTER VIII. THE HISTORY OF THE MISSION TO THE ABORIGINES AT POINT MACLEAY. IN May, 1859, it was resolved by the Aborigines’ Friends’ Association of Adelaide to establish an institution for the instruction and evangelisation of the Lake Tribes of Aborigines. I had been, about a month previously, appointed as their Missionary Agent. By direction of the Committee of this Association, I travelled over the country inhabited by the people whom we wished to benefit, and after some research and inquiry pitched upon Point Macleay, on the south side of Lake Alexandrina, as the best spot for our purpose. It is situated on a peninsula, formed by the lake above mentioned and Lake Albert and the Coorong; consequently the spot is very much isolated, being separated from the settlements by fifteen miles of water. It is a favourite resort of the Aborigines, who come there to assemblies of the tribes for various purposes. I now began to prepare a dwelling for myself and family, and in the course of five months got a small house built. While this was being erected I camped out among the natives, leaving my wife and family at Port Elliot. During this time I was led to observe that the Aborigines were composed of a mixture of two races, and my researches into their language have since confirmed the impression. In one class of natives I observed that both males and females were tall and slight, with small features, and usually with straight hair, while the other had broader and coarser features, clumsy limbs, and very curly hair. I have since seen persons of both become true and earnest Christians; I have, however, noticed that when a member of the former class becomes a Christian he is a more intelligent believer than one of the latter,


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 ESTABLISHMENT OF MISSION. 67 and that if he becomes an opponent to religion he is a more artful and unscrupulous and dangerous enemy than any member of the other class. During these five months in which the house was being built, I occupied myself much in going about with and amongst the natives, picking up a knowledge of their customs and language. This led me into much intercourse, not only with them, but also with the white settlers around the Lakes. I was frequently amused by the curious ideas which people had of the best way to treat the blacks. I remember one instance which occurred at this time. I happened to be detained at a shepherd’s hut by a contrary gale of wind, which prevented us from pursuing our voyage. My host, who was very hospitable, soon discovered that I was a missionary. A short time before two natives had been arrested for killing one of their tribe. The shepherd strongly expressed his opinion that they ought to be hanged. I ventured to put forward my doubts about the justice of such an extreme punishment, as the crime had been committed in accordance with the native custom to avenge the death of a relative. The shepherd’s reply has often recurred to my memory. "I dinna think," said he, "that we ought to care about their customs at a’; we ought to mak’ them gie up a’ such hathenish practices. Sure, it’s our duty to do a’ we can to mak’ Christians o’ them. Hang them, by a’ means, sir; I say, hang them! Sure, it’s our duty to mak’ Christians o’ them." Happily, there are few who would take this method of making Christians. On the 4th of October, 1859, I took my family up to Point Macleay, and have resided there ever since. The position was isolated enough. At that time our nearest neighbour was five miles off, our next ten miles beyond that, and our next fifteen miles further still. Very often we could not get across the lake for a fortnight in stormy weather. We were thus quite thrown upon the natives for society. There was myself and wife and three little children (the eldest six years of age), and a servant-girl of sixteen. Several times I have left my wife and family while I went away to the other side of the lake and never in a


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 68 FIRST DIVINE SERVICE. single instance did they receive insult or annoyance from the numerous blacks who lived upon the place. On the first Sunday after my arrival I opened the largest room in my house for divine worship, and invited the blacks to attend. A good number came and listened with attention while I read and prayed and tried to address them in simple language from the text, "The Lord is a great God." At that time I knew very little native; but some of the blacks knew a great deal of broken English, and by using their way of speaking, and coming down to their level, I managed to make some of them understand. When I first spoke to the natives about religion, I found that they believed in a god Nurundere, and at first I was inclined to adopt that name in speaking to the blacks for our English word God; but I soon found that Nurundere was only a deified blackfellow whose attributes were gigantic vices. I therefore determined always to use the word Jehovah for our God, and thus avoided the confusion which would have resulted from using the native name. Our Sabbath worship soon became crowded, and I was heard with deep interest. I went through the chapters of the "Peep of Day" and " Line upon Line," turning them into language intelligible to the blacks, and they came and heard me gladly. And now I began to seek to influence the minds of the natives in favour of civilisation. The great difficulty was to fathom the depths of their ignorance. We have received so much knowledge in early life that we take it as a matter of course that others possess the same. The tribe here had not had much intercourse with the whites. I remember well the first time some of the women heard our clock strike. They listened with astonishment; then inquired hurriedly in a whisper, "What him say?" and rushed out of the house in terror without waiting for an answer.* they first saw white men on horseback, and thought the horses were their visitors’ mothers, because they carried them on their backs! I have also heard that another tribe regarded the first pack-bullocks they saw as the whitefellows’ wives, because they carried the luggage!
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 IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION. 69 I remarked that many things that were interesting to us they only regarded with stupid wonder. I remember an instance of this. I showed some natives one day a picture of the interior of a splendid cathedral, but they could not understand it, and evinced no admiration at all. I then showed them another view, in the foreground of which was a wheelbarrow. This they recognised at once, and went into raptures over itit was such an exact likeness of our wheelbarrow. But there was not only ignorance to contend with, but superstition, and very active and antagonistic heathenism. I was very soon brought into opposition to the customs of the natives. The first time I came into conflict with heathenism will afford a good illustration of the sort of battle we constantly had to fight. It was on this wise. One day four girls of about sixteen years of age came and begged me to allow them to sleep in my kitchen, because they desired to escape from some relatives who wished to give them in marriage to men whom they did not like. As their mothers seconded their entreaties I consented to let them do so, never thinking any serious harm would come of it. They did this for two nights. On the third night we were all just thinking of going to bed, when a knock was heard at our front door. I went and opened it, and found about a dozen natives, armed with spears and kanikis, standing outside. I asked what they wanted. One of them, Bullocky House Bob, stepped forward, and said that they had come for his daughter, who was one of the girls in the kitchen, named Pompanyeripuritye. And he gave me to understand that they meant to have her. I tried to persuade her father to leave her, but it was of no use; she had to go with them, very unwillingly. Before they left, they said they did not like these girls to sleep in the kitchen, as they might eat some flour out of a bag from which the narumbar had partaken. The narumbar were the youths who were being made young men and, according to custom, were forbidden to eat with women lest they should grow ugly. I tried to assure them there was no danger of this, and they departed. Next morning, just after breakfast, a tremendous hubbub arose at the camps on the hill


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 70 NATIVE QUARREL. opposite my house. The notion had got abroad that the young women had eaten the flour of the narumbar in my kitchen, and the desecrated youths and their friends had in revenge fired the wurleys and attacked the relatives of the girls, and so a general fight began. I ran up, followed by my wife and a friend who was staying with me, and found that broken heads were becoming rather plentiful. There were about a hundred people earnestly endeavouring to knock each other’s brains out. Some were bleeding on the ground, and women were wailing over them; others were tittering hoarse shouts and yells of defiance as they flourished their weapons or brought them into contact with their adversaries’ heads. Women were dancing about naked, casting dust in the air, hurling obscene language at their enemies, and encouraging their friends. It was a perfect tempest of rage. I felt rather vexed at their foolishness, so I went amongst them and shouted that this fighting must cease. As I stood there, trying by persuasions and commands to stop the scrimmage, my wife saw Dick Baalpulare go deliberately behind a bush at a little distance from me and hurl a heavy spear at my head. It just missed me, going about an inch from the top of my head, I did not see it or know anything about it till afterwards. The women standing near my wife begged her to go home, as the men were going to kill me. However, after a good lot of trouble, I managed to stop the fight and get the natives to go back to their camps. But I found that I was blamed by both parties as the cause of the quarrel, through letting the girls sleep in my kitchen. I gave Dick Baalpulare a good rating afterwards for being such a rascal. I had my revenge on him though, for a snake bit him one day, and I had the pleasure of curing him. For six months after taking up our abode with the natives my principal work was visitation of the camps, as we had very few facilities for having a school for the children. My usual custom was to go and sit down amongst them and talk about whatever came uppermost, and gradually lead their minds to religious matters. I found that I thus instructed myself in their language


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 EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. 71 and customs, while I taught them many truths and exerted an influence against heathenism. During this period various circumstances occurred which I entered in my journal. Some of them are illustrative of our work. I find the following entries, which may interest the reader:  1859. 9th November. This morning, Peter, the chief, or rupulle of the tribe, told me that they had caught a white fellow in the night stealing fish from his pound. It will be understood that the natives make enclosures by driving stakes close together into the bottom of the lake, in a circle some twenty or twenty-five feet round, and place the Murray cod which they catch therein, to preserve them alive until the boats arrive with the parties who purchase the fish. To steal fish, then, out of the pound, is like stealing cattle out of a yard. When I heard Peter’s story, I got a lot of men together, and put a crew on board the whaleboat, in charge of an Englishman temporarily employed here; and off we started to catch the thief. As soon as he saw us he went off in a dingy to a boat which was anchored a little way from the shore, no doubt intending to escape; but the whaleboat swept round the corner, and he had to surrender. The foolish fellow cried and blubbered, and confessed to having stolen the fish. I put him into the whale-boat, sent him to Goolwa, and gave him in charge to the police. (He afterwards got a month’s imprisonment with hard labour. ) While we were thief-taking, that is, I and the Point Malcolm tribe, the Mundoo blacks, who were just starting for the lower Lake, tried to do another sort of stealing. They found Nourailinyeri, a young and very pretty girl, the wife of Henry, Captain Jack’s brother, sitting on the shore, so they seized her, and had started off when her husband and friends happened to come back and discovered the abduction. Off they rushed; Captain Jack soon caught her, took her away from her captors, and led her back to the camp. This the Mundoos resented, spears were thrown, and there was a tremendous row. I could not help admiring Captain Jack; he kept his temper excellently,


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 72 EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. and said there should be no fighting on this place. He would not take a weapon in hand, but went and broke all the spears which he could get hold of. The Point Malcolm blacks showed great forbearance, but the Mundoos were very bouncible. One Kaingani, all dripping with grease and red ochre, named Doughboy, especially distinguished himself. I saw him after much vociferous abuse aim and hurl a spear at one of the other side, but as he did so his foot slipped, and he only stuck it in the mud and broke it to pieces, and everybody laughed. After a great scrimmage, in which the old women, as usual, bore a distinguished part, the Mundoos went off to their own country. 30th. In conversing with the natives to-day I found that a word in Meyer’s vocabulary bears a very different meaning from what he says it does. It is the word mutturi, and its compounds. He says it means holy, sacred; whereas I find that it means generous, open-handed, having plenty to give away. I am mutturi when I have plenty of flour to give away. This is rather an important difference, and illustrates how easy it is to make mistakes in learning an unwritten language. 6th December. Very short of meat, so had to go and hunt for some myself. Pretty successful. The people on the run here positively refuse to sell us any meat, so we are compelled to live on fish and game; and, nice as these things are in moderation, one only has to get nothing else for three months to be made to feel a keen longing for beef and mutton. 12th. Every day’s experience shows that the natives are lamentably deficient in one respect, that is in governing their children. The little ones are allowed to do just as they like, and are never corrected. It leads one to see the need of those Proverbs of Solomon, which relate to the duty of correcting children. These heathen never do it. The men think nothing of thrashing their wives, knocking them on the head, and inflicting frightful gashes; but they never beat the boys. And the sons treat their mothers very badly. Very often mere lads will not hesitate to strike and throw stones at them.


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 EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. 73 18th December. Visited the camps. It is a curious sight, to sit in the wurley and watch the natives eat their food. To-day I saw them having a meal. One was making for herself a large pot of stirabout. When it was cooked, she took it away behind the rest and began eating, taking out great mouthfuls of it with a flat piece of wood, and devouring it so very hot that I wondered she did not scald her mouth. All the while the rest were quite aware of her doings, and would like a share of the mess; but custom and propriety forbid that they should show it. So one hums a tune, another chats, and the rest try to look indifferent; but at the same time there is a ludicrous expression of interest in their faces, and anxiety that the eater should not devour all the stirabout. Presently, when the owner of the food had appeased her hunger, she divided what was left amongst the others to their apparent satisfaction. Then a damper, which had been cooking in the fire, was taken out. This was common property. One of the elders of the party took it and divided it into equal portions with his knife, and pitched the pieces across to those entitled to a share. It is regarded as very rude amongst natives for two people to converse together in whispers or an undertone in the presence of other people. What is said must be uttered so that all can hear. A tete-a-tete is very offensive and bad manners. 16th. I have been told several times lately that a man is living with the natives on the lower lake who says he has come down from heaven. The natives say he was once called Jimmy Myers, and was a well-known blackfellow who died at Hindmarsh Valley. He represents that he died and went to heaven, but was sent back to the earth again. Of course, they regard such a wonderful person with great admiration. 17th. To-day our boat came from Goolwa, and on board of her is the very man who claims to have returned from heaven. He is a most villainous-looking fellow. He came up to my kitchen very boldly. While he stood there with a lot of blacks around him, I asked him what country he was a native of. He said Africa. I inquired what part of Africa. He answered, "I am a


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 74 OPPOSITION OF THE OLD PEOPLE. Creole from the Cape." I took a picture of Cape Town, and asked him if that was like the place he came from. He replied that it was. All the while the blacks stood round listening and drawing their own conclusions. I told him that the boat should take him to Milang on Monday. 19th. Last night I heard the impostor, whose name is Armstrong, telling some women and children that he was Jemmy Myers, who had come back from the other world. He told them a lot of absurd rubbish to make them afraid of him. So we went, and before them all charged him with being an impostor. At last he confessed that he had allowed the blacks to believe that he was Jemmy Myers. I told him that it might be all very well as long as he was with the friends of that deceased worthy, but if he got amongst Myers’s enemies he ran great risk of being knocked on the head. I expostulated with him on his wickedness, and told him that I would do all I could to undeceive the natives. Most of them seem convinced now that he is a liar. The women abhor him. They are quite ashamed to speak of his abominable doings. This miserable wretch has been living on the natives for eight months. I took him to Milang in the boat to-day, and there got rid of him. We tried to promote the temporal well-being of the blacks. In order to this we did everything possible to procure profitable employment for the able-bodied and industrious. I exerted myself to procure a market for the fish which they caught, and was moderately successful. We also gave employment in fencing and clearing land to the young men. But the old people and more barbarous of the natives did not like to see the young men at this sort of work. So violent was their opposition at, first that they came down in numbers from the camp and beat the labourers cruelly with their waddies, and forced them to leave their work. They hoped thus to drive the young men from being so much under my influence. They used to say the young fellows would get too much like whitefellows. I have known an industrious man who dared not go out of sight of the white man


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Rh with whom he laboured lest he should fall into the hands of lurking enemies. However, this opposition gradually died away, and some of our greatest opponents became as eager to earn wages as anybody. But there is a party even now composed of men who never work at civilised employments. We also found it necessary to relieve the sick and aged and infirm, who suffered much in those times of scarcity common among a race of hunters. For this purpose the Government granted us a supply of flour and other stores.

I found that infanticide was very prevalent, many infants being put to death as soon as they were born. In order to prevent this we gave to every mother a ration of flour, tea, and sugar until her child was twelve months old. This put a stop to infanticide.

The first death after our arrival occurred in a few months. It was a man in the prime of life, who died of consumption. The blacks performed the usual disgusting funereal rites, and set the body up in a large native hut with one side open at the top. There sat on a stage, tied to posts stuck in the ground, the disgusting object, filling the air with its dreadful stench, the form distended with putrefaction. Around it were wailing women, smeared with filth and ashes, and horrible old men, basting it with bunches of feathers tied to the end of long sticks, until it dripped with grease and red ochre. At intervals in the course of the day parties of men from a distance would come in sight. As soon as they saw the camp, they marched with their spears erect towards it. As they came near, women rushed towards them, and threw themselves on the ground, and cast dust in the air, wailing and crying out, "Your friend is gone; he will speak to you no more," and so on. Then a simultaneous wail would rise from the advancing party until they reached the spot and stood around the corpse. Many such scenes have I witnessed since. On that first occasion, I went to the camp, and, pointing to the body, I told them that the dead would rise again. They all started, and, looking incredulously at me, said, "No!" I then took the opportunity of preaching to them the doctrine of the


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 76 SIGNS OF PROGRESS. resurrection of the dead. My words evidently produced an impression. While dead bodies were being thus dried, it was very trying to one’s stomach to have divine worship on Sabbaths. We had to have it in our own house. The little room would be crammed with some forty or fifty blacks. They crowded the room as full as it would pack, and thronged about the open door and window. As they had been living and sleeping in the wurley with a putrefying body, the smell seemed to have been absorbed by their skins, and the odour which arose from my congregation was excessively unpleasant. But yet their attention and earnestness made me feel that I could put up with this in order to teach them. They listened with the most intense interest while I told them the narratives of Holy Scripture. And after the service several would linger behind, and ask questions, and start difficulties. One day, after service, a man named Billy Waukeri said, "How do we know that this Bible is Jehovah’s book? White-fellows tell us plenty of lies; how do we know this is not a whitefellows’ lie?" Here was an opportunity to set before them the evidence of the Bible being God’s Word, and I was not slow to take advantage of it. In all this there was much to encourage belief that a divine influence rested upon the preached Word, and that in due time fruit would be gathered as the result of such a sowing of the holy seed. And so the months passed away. Sometimes the tide seemed in our favour, then opposition would arise and prevail for a time, but on the whole there was steady progress. Very small signs of spiritual life cheer the heart of a missionary to such heathen as these. Circumstances which in civilised communities have no significance are encouraging indications of movement amongst a heathen people. Such an event was the first time a poor dying woman asked me to read to her out of that "very good book"meaning some translations of Holy Scripture into the native language. How gladly I read and prayed with her, and encouraged her to look to Jesus! There was not much response, it is true; but yet it gave a glimmering


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 FIRST CONVERSION. 77 of hope, and a glimmering is to be hailed joyfully where there has been thick darkness. Since that time I have been at all sorts of deathbeds  dark and gloomy, fearless and horror-stricken, calm and exulting. And I have noticed in some instances, that natives who could speak good English when in health, would entreat that I should read and pray in native when they were near death. It was so much less difficult for them to apprehend it. And, while I have done so, the talk of the wurley would be hushed, and an expression of solemnity manifested in every face; and afterwards warm thanks would be given by the sick man or woman. We cannot stoop too low to save souls. Jesus stooped much lower than we can do to redeem us; and shall we not emulate His example, and try to seek and to save that which was lost? Efforts to make known the gospel do not always show their effects at once; but I have known many instances of people who seemed stolid and hardened at the time that they heard the Word, yet when sickness came upon them and death drew near they called upon the name of the Lord. But there have been darkly contrasted deathbeds to such as those I have been speaking of; where the dying person has been so imbruted that there was no fear of death. The wants of the flesh have absorbed all attention to the last. On one occasion I was trying to get a woman, whose case, as far as the body was concerned, was hopeless, to think of her soul; but every attempt seemed useless. At last I spoke of the certainty of her death. I said, "We shall die, and so will you." Another old woman who sat near hearing this said, "Ngurn pornani? wunyarn el takkani ngruwar nunnukki" ("We shall all die? then let us eat plenty of flour"). Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die that was the idea, evidently. I had not been more than three months preaching the gospel to the natives before there appeared a token of God’s grace in the decision of a young man named Waukeri to become a Christian. The decision was clear and unmistakable. It may not have been very enlightened, any more than that of many others