Untamed, as nature first formed free-born man,
When wild in woods the noble savage ran.
When our adventurer was restored to sense he found himself lying upon an arid beach, surrounded by a great number of aborigines, who seemed to have been using some kind of means for his resuscitation. The instant that their patient gave indication of returning life a quarrel arose among them, the object of which, so far as Rashleigh could divine it, seemed to be which should drag the white man off with him. And they were obviously about to appeal to the issue of arms to decide this contest when one of their number came up, whose arrival changed the whole course of action.
The black who now approached was one of the most revolting specimens of humanity that can possibly be conceived. A very few white hairs only remained upon his polished skull, forming a thin circle around it. His beard, however, was more luxuriant than usually falls to the lot of any Australian aboriginal. One of his organs of vision had been utterly extinguished, leaving in its room only a raw and bloody cavity. His other eye appeared to be more than half obscured by rheum. His body was emaciated by sickness until it scarcely possessed more substance than a shadow.
Add to the above that he was gashed and scarred all over, but particularly about the face, also that, though last not least among a race supereminent for uncleanliness, he appeared even more conspicuous for personal filth than any of his fellows, and you may conceive some idea of the unattractive appearance of this old black, for whom, notwithstanding, every facility was afforded by his compeers, who withdrew from around their prostrate prisoner, for whose possession they had been only an instant before quarrelling with the utmost excess of savage fury. And they permitted the senior to approach Rashleigh, who, upon his part, had been long expecting to receive the coup de grace among them, deeming it highly probable, amid the furious contention which had so long prevailed, that somebody, enraged at a repulse, might end the dispute by dashing out his brains with one of the clubs or nullah nullahs that were brandished so angrily upon all sides.
The scene was now entirely changed; all became so still and hushed around that the falling of a single leaf might with ease have been heard. The savages, as if surprised, suspended their weapons in the air in the midst of the explanatory, argumentative or threatening flourishes with which they had been erewhile assisting their oratory; and every man retaining the same posture he had occupied on the occurrence of this interruption to their unknown purpose, all eyes were now bent upon the decrepit savage.
Our adventurer, in the course of his rambles in New South Wales, had not omitted to satisfy his curiosity by enquiring of all whom he thought competent to afford information upon the various manners and customs of the nomadic races of Australia, and during the period of his investigations had received particular accounts of the personal appearance of, as well as the singular power and influence possessed by, the carandjies, even over the very wildest and most untamed tribes that had yet been heard of in the Colony. Among these rude bodies they appear to combine the characters of doctor, priest, magician and chief ruler. From the peculiarity of the marks made upon the parti-coloured personage who now drew nigh, as well as the great deference paid to him by the others, Rashleigh had no doubt but that this old savage was a carandjie of great eminence among his people.
The ancient black supported his tottering and feeble steps upon the rough limb of a tree. In his right hand he bore a green eucalyptus bough. Advancing to the white prisoner, he motioned with his hand, and all the other blacks fell back to a little distance, crowding together in a circle. The carandjie tottered several times round Rashleigh, waving his bough and chanting a kind of dull monotonous song, which seemed to our exile only a repetition of two or three words. At length he ceased to sing and sat down at the head of the captive, who silently watched his every motion. The old blackfellow next made a kind of speech, which was attentively listened to by the others, whose demeanour was perfectly altered and now appeared to be as pacific as a few moments before they had seemed animated by the wildest fury. A kind of guttural grunt hailed the termination of the carandjie’s harangue, who thereupon walked two or three more times round Rashleigh, waving his bough and chanting as before.
Two athletic black men now approached, who gently lifted Ralph from the ground and placed him on his feet, making signs that he should walk with them. Knowing the folly and inutility of resistance, our adventurer passively complied, and partly led, partly supported by his guides, reached the camp of the tribe, which, it being now fine weather, was in a piece of open forest land, and consisted of nothing more than a considerable number of little fires, beside each of which lay or sat the gin (wife) and dogs of the blackfellow to whom they belonged, watching, as it seemed, the dilleys (nets) that contained their fishing tackle and such weapons as the warrior did not carry with him. Rashleigh and his guards were guided to a resting-place by the decrepit old carandjie, who owned three fires, and of course, according to custom, three gins also; for no matter how many wives a blackfellow may have, each maintains her separate fire, and each provides a portion of food for her lord and master. Indeed, the latter always dispatches the former by the dawn of every day to fish, hunt for cockles and grubs, or to dig up swamp roots, according as either may be the usual kind of food for the season.
When the women depart, the men, in the mean time, unless urgently pressed by hunger, still lie asleep or lounge about the fires, making or repairing their weapons for war or of the chase until the return of their partners, when each man goes to his gin, or he who is rich enough to have two or more, visits them all, taking the lion’s share of what they may have brought, and rewarding them by caresses and praises for diligence, or punishing them by blows for the reverse, according as their researches have been successful or otherwise.
Thus, either in peace or in war, the gins of the aborigines in this part of Australia, at the time these incidents occurred, were no better than slaves to their men, who repaid them with the most haughty and imperious usage for all their exertions, and only left them the refuse of the provisions which they themselves had made to satisfy hunger. The male savages confined their labours to hunting the kangaroo or the opossum, which the women on no account were permitted to touch until they were presented with such portions as the men thought fit. Sometimes, too, the latter would go and spear fish; but this they did chiefly by way of amusement, as if it were beneath their dignity to follow it as a pursuit.
Rashleigh had been placed on the ground near the old carandjie’s fire, and in a short time one of the gins supplied his guards with a quantity of cordage, apparently spun from filaments of bark. His hands were bound fast to his side and his feet tied together, so that he could not stir by any exertion of his own, after which the warriors withdrew, leaving our adventurer alone with the ancient carandjie and his gin. The former now came and sat very close to his head again and continued to chatter without any intermission, using many extraordinary gesticulations; but not one word, of course, of all that he said was intelligible to our exile.
By and by another gin approached, bearing a few fern leaves in her hand, on which lay a large fish, apparently fresh roasted. A few words passed between herself and the old black, after which she placed Rashleigh in a sitting posture and began to tear the fish to pieces with her fingers, feeding the prisoner with these morsels, which, though rather insipid for want of salt, were yet very welcome after so many hours of abstinence. A draught of water from a calabash finished this novel repast, and Ralph was then replaced in his former recumbent position by his black mistress or attendant, for she might he either for aught he knew; and she lastly covered him with an opossum-skin cloak, directing him, still making use of signs, to go to sleep, which, in spite of his anxiety, he did in a short time.
When he again awoke it was night. No sound save the hoarse croaking of the frogs in a neighbouring swamp disturbed the silence; but the uneasiness of his position prevented any further sleep. At the dawning the gins all departed as usual. A very short time afterwards Rashleigh’s bonds were loosened, and he was motioned by one of the warriors to rise. He did so and perceived that the whole of the males belonging to the tribe were assembled close at hand, each being fully equipped as for war and most frightfully smeared with different earths, yellow, white and red being the predominant colours.
A sort of procession was now formed, the ancient carandjie leading the way, supported by two athletic men fully armed. These were followed by a body of about a dozen, who bore nothing in their hands but green boughs, which they waved to and fro, chanting in a low tone a formula of a few indistinct monosyllables. Behind these came the prisoner, walking between two other stout men, who, like the foremost, were equipped with spear, shield and waddy, having their hair most fancifully decorated by red and blue feathers, mixed with tufts of cotton grass. Large bones were also thrust through their ears and the cartilage of their noses. After these came more men with boughs, and the rear was brought up by the body of armed warriors attached to this tribe, of whom, in all, not less than 150 were present.
They walked on slowly until they arrived at a small open green space from which the sea was visible. It was not yet sunrise, but the eastern sky had begun to glow with the approaching presence of that glorious luminary. Nearly in the centre of the little plain was a sort of mount, apparently raised by art at some distant period and now covered over with grass. On this mound Rashleigh was placed in a sitting posture. The warriors then ranged themselves behind and on each side of him as he sat facing the sea. Those blacks who had borne the green boughs stuck them in their girdles behind them with the leaves pointing downwards like so many tails. They next began to jump about in a rude sort of dance, imitating, as it seemed, the motions of a kangaroo.
In the mean time the carandjie drew near our adventurer and placed on the ground before him a bundle tied up in a kind of cloth made of opossum skins dressed with the hair on. Then, taking a bough, he proceeded to wave it to and fro in a mysterious manner over the parcel, chanting or muttering all the time. At length he opened it with great caution, and Rashleigh now perceived that it contained a number of human teeth, all of them single, or such as grow in the front of the jaw. Beside these the packet enclosed an instrument made of green talc, bearing an imperfect resemblance to a chisel, and a flat, irregularly-shaped stone of considerable size.
At a motion from the old black, Rashleigh’s arms were secured by two of the bystanders, and the carandjie put on such an indescribably demoniac look that our exile now quite gave himself up for lost. His race was not yet run, however, for the ancient black magician, taking the implements of stone in his hand, approached, speaking very earnestly and pointing to the features of the others, making signs as if he wished the prisoner to open his mouth. Rashleigh at last complied with the direction, and the old man placed the chisel against one of his single teeth, looking round to the ocean as he did so. An instant after this the sun began to peer above the waves; and at the first glimpse of his body a smart tap on the chisel from the stone forced out the tooth, the patient’s head having been supported behind by, one of his guards.
A loud shout accompanied this operation, and the tooth was shortly afterwards handed round to each man present, all of whom, as Rashleigh observed, made a motion to spit upon it. It was at last restored to the carandjie, who placed it carefully among the others, tying up the parcel with great ceremony. A dance, called by the colonists a corroboree, now took place, in which only the unarmed men joined. It was, however, attended by much shouting and clashing of weapons among their armed brethren. At the conclusion of this dance Rashleigh was seized by his guards, who had before relaxed their grasp of him, and he was now laid on his face, being prevented from moving by numerous hands. Directly afterwards he felt several gashes inflicted on his back, and surely believing his end had now arrived, he resigned himself to his fate with as much composure as he could assume, and being almost indurated to torture by the cats of the Coal river, he did not betray by a groan any susceptibility to pain.
He was quickly turned over on the bleeding parts, and he now observed that each of the dancers bore a small sharp shell crimsoned with his blood. which flowed freely around. The operators, or as Ralph thought then, tormentors, now stooped towards him, their eyes glaring furiously on their victim. Again he felt the stabs, and a loud yell pealed around him. He was almost instantly raised from his recumbent position, when he found he had received no less than thirty-six deep cuts, regularly placed, before and behind him, in four rows of nine each, from his shoulders to the bottom of his ribs, but none lower than this. These gashes were, of course, now all streaming with gore, of which he also felt the warm current trickling down his back and legs. Another dance succeeded, after which the carandjie once more drew nigh with a shell full of some clammy styptic preparation, with which he anointed all the wounds, and they almost instantly ceased bleeding.
Rashleigh was then placed upon some boughs forming a sort of litter, which being hoisted upon the shoulders of four blackfellows, they returned to the camp in much the same order as they had left it, except that all the blacks made a great noise with shouting and beating their waddies against their shields, parties of them dancing along at times like so many mad furies.
When they arrived at the camp, the gins were all reassembled, busily roasting fish, roots and grubs, in short, apparently making preparations for a great feast. Two of their number were pounding some condiment between stones, which they afterwards put into a large calabash.
The men now squatted in a wide circle on the ground, the carandjie being placed next to Rashleigh; and directly afterwards the females presented to each some broiled roots and fish, also, by way of bon bons, a few of those large grubs that are found in rotten timber, which were now nicely roasted. The ancient black ate but very little himself, continually passing all that was handed to him over to our exile, who thought matters now began to look a little better. Still, the latter did not fancy the appearance of any of the food save the fish, which, though broiled without any kind of cleansing, just as they came out of the ocean, and eaten without salt, were nevertheless very good.
At various times during this repast calabashes full of some hot, moderately sweet drink were handed round to the festive group by their humble attendants, who were not allowed to sit down with them or to join in this rude revelry, but who, as soon as the men ceased eating, disappeared; nor did Rashleigh see anything more of a single gin during the remainder of the day.
To borrow a polite phrase, “after the ladies had retired”, the calabash before mentioned, which contained the pounded root, was put into requisition, being presented to the carandjie, and he divided its contents into a great many portions, which were put in other and smaller, calabashes or gourd skins, and the vessels having been filled up with water from a pond close by, their united contents were made to boil by having red-hot stones placed in them. The liquor was dipped out of these goblets with shells and eagerly drunk by the assembled blacks. Our exile partook of it and found it to have a taste something similar to fermented Spanish liquorice, but with a certain pungent acridity which it imparted to the palate after it had been swallowed. This drink speedily intoxicated the whole group. They danced, fought, sung and shouted away for several hours; and when at length Rashleigh was able to wrap himself in his opossum-skin cloak for the purpose of going to sleep, there was not one of his sable companions sensible. They all lay strewn about, completely dead drunk.
The next day our adventurer found himself very unwell, with all the symptoms of an overnight debauch, though he had drunk very little of this ardent mixture. But all the blacks really appeared more dead than alive. The old carandjie, in particular, lay like one in a torpor, and during the whole day he reposed with his head in the lap of his favourite gin, who ever and anon supplied him with some kind of cooling drink.
In a few days our exile’s wounds b............