Natives of Australia |
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Common terms and phrases
aborigines animal Arunta Baiame bark believed birds blacks body bone boomerang Boulia boys brother bush camp canoe Cape Central Australia child classes colour corroboree curious custom dance Daramulun dead death decorated described Dieri eagle-hawk earth eaten father feet long fire fish grass grave groups Gulf of Carpentaria hair hand head hole Howitt husband huts important inches initiation ceremonies kangaroo kill kurdaitcha Kurnai magic male marry medicine-man method miles mother Mura-muras nardoo natives opossum organisation origin paintings phratry piece of wood pituri PLATE Port Essington probably River Roth round rule says shell skin sometimes South Australia South Queensland South Wales spear Spencer and Gillen stone string taken Tasmanians throwing totem totem-kin tree tribal tribe Tully River Victoria water-hole weapons West Australia wife Wiradjuri woman women wound yards young Yuin
Popular passages
Page 247 - The natives of Western Australia say that when men first began to exist, there were two beings, male and female, — Wallinyup (the father), and Dovanyup (the mother) ; that they had a son named Bindinwor...
Page 64 - They produce fire with great facility, and spread it in a wonderful manner. To produce it they take two pieces of dry soft wood, one is a stick about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat : the stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, and pressing it upon the other, turn it nimbly by holding it between both their hands as we do a chocolate mill, often shifting their hand up, and then moving them down upon it, to increase the pressure as much ai possible. By this method they...
Page 96 - ... and skilfully built with large, heavy stones, which must have been brought from a considerable distance, and with great combined labour, that they have stood every flood from time immemorial. Every summer this labyrinth is repaired, and the fish, in going up or down the river, enter it, get confused in its mazes, and are caught by the blacks by hand in immense quantities.
Page 96 - ... extends about one hundred yards of the river course. It forms one immense labyrinth of stone walls about three or four feet high, forming circles from two to four feet in diameter, some opening into each other, forming very crooked but continuous passages, others having one entrance only. In floods, as much as twenty feet of water sweeps over them, and carries away the tops of the walls ; the lower parts of the walls, however, are so solidly and skilfully built with large, heavy stones, which...
Page 60 - The contents of a native woman's bag are : — A flat stone to pound roots with ; earth to mix with the pounded roots ; quartz, for the purpose of making spears and knives ; stones for hatchets ; prepared cakes of gum, to make and mend weapons, and implements ; kangaroo sinews to make spears and to sew with ; needles made of the shin bones of kangaroos, with which they sew their cloaks, bags, &c...
Page 241 - Doctor when he was going through, it would hurt his spirit, and when he returned home he would sicken and die. On the other side we saw Baiame sitting in his camp. He was a very great old man with a long beard. He sat with his legs under him and from his shoulders extended two great quartz crystals to the sky above him. There were also numbers of the boys of Baiame and of his people, who are birds and beasts. After this time, and while I was in the bush, I began to bring things up, but I became very...
Page 239 - A celebrated medicine-man named Ilpailurkna, a member of the Unmatjera tribe, told us that, when he was made into a medicine-man, a very old doctor came one day and threw some of his atnongara stones at him with a spear-thrower. Some hit him on the chest, others went right through his head, from ear to ear, killing him. The old man then cut out all his insides, intestines, liver, heart, lungs — everything in fact, and left him lying all night long on the ground.
Page 96 - It is built at a rocky part of the river, from eighty to one hundred yards in width, and extends about one hundred yards of the river course. It forms one immense labyrinth of stone walls about three or four feet high, forming circles from two to four feet in diameter, some opening into each other, forming very crooked but continuous passages, others having one entrance only.
Page 223 - ... who alone perceive him, and to whom he says, ' Fear not, come and talk.' At other times he comes when the blacks are asleep, and takes them up, as an eagle his prey, and carries them away for a time. The shout of the surrounding party often...