Volume 2

The natural history of man : being an account of the manners and customs of the uncivilized races of men / by J.G. Wood.

Date:
1868-1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of man : being an account of the manners and customs of the uncivilized races of men / by J.G. Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    106/880 (page 94)
    Thinking that some large and now extinct beast might liave lived in Australia, which might have been traditionally known to the aborigines, scientific men have taken par- ticular pains to ransack those portions of the country which they could reach, in hopes of finding remains which might be to Australia what those of the megatherium and other huge monsters are to the Old World. Nothing of the kind has, however, been found. Some very large bones were once discovered on the banks of a shallow salt lagoon (just the place for the bunyip), but when sent to the British Museum they were at once found to be the remains of a gigantic kangaroo. At present, the legend of the bunyip stands on a level with that of the kraken—every native believes it, some aver that they have seen it, but no one has ever discovered the least tangible proof of its existence. To these evil spirits the natives attribute every illness or misfortune, and in con- sequence are anxious to avoid or drive them away. All meteors are reckoned by them among the evil spirits, and are fancifully thought to be ghosts which multiply by seK- division. The aborigines think, however, that by breathing as loudly as they can, and repeating some cababstic words, they disarm the demons of their power. They have one very curious belief,—namely, that any one who ventured to sleep on the grave of a deceased person, he would ever afterwards be freed from the power of evil spirits. The ordeal is, however, so terrible that very few summon up sufficient courage to face it. During that awful sleep the spirit of the deceased would visit him, seize him by the throat, and, opening him, take out his bowels, which it would afterwards replace, and close up the wound ! Such as are hardy enough to go through this terrible ordeal—encoimter the darkness of the night and the solemnity of the grave—are thenceforth ' koradjee' men, or priests, and practise sorcery and incantations upon the others of their tribe. In Southern Australia, the natives believe that the sun and moon are human beings, who once inhabited the earth. The planets are dogs belonging to the moon, who run about her; and the various constellations are groups of children. An eclipse of either the sun or moon is looked upon as a terrible calamity, being sure to be the forerunner of disease and death. All burial-places of the dead are held as liable to be haunted by evil spirits, and are therefore avoided. Promontories, especially those which have rocky headlands, are also considered as sacred; and it is probably on account of that idea that the skull monu- ments, mentioned on page 88, are raised. Some of these places are rendered interesting by specimens of native drawings, showing that the aborigines of Australia really possess the undeveloped elements of artistic power. Owing to the superstition which prevails, the natives can scarcely be induced to visit such spots, giving as their reason for refusing that too much dibbil- dibbil walk there. Mr. Angas was fortunate enough, however, to discover a considerable number of these drawings and carvings, and succeeded in impressing into his service an old native woman. His description is so vivid, that it must be given in his own words:— The most important result of our rambles around the bays and rocky promontories of Port Jackson was the discovery of a new and remarkable feature connected with the history of the natives formerly inhabiting this portion of New South Wales. I refer to their carvings in outline, cut into the surface of flat rocks in tlie neigh- bourhood, and especially on the summits of the various promontories about the harbours of the coast. Although these carvings exist in considerable numbers, covering all the fiat rocks upon many of the headlands overlooking the water, it is a singular fact that up to the present time they appear to have remained unobserved; and it was not until my friend Mr. MUes first noticed the rude figure of a kangaroo cut upon the surface of a fiat rock near Camp Cove, that we were led to make a careful search for these singular and interesting remains of a people who are now nearly extinct. About a dozen natives of the Sydney and Broken Bay tribes were encamped amongst the bushes on the margin of a small fresh-water lake, close to Camp Cove; and from amongst them we selected ' Old Queen Gooseberry' (as she is generally styled by the colonists) to be our guide, promising her a reward of fiour and tobacco if she would tell us what she knew about these carvings, and conduct us to all the rocks and headlands in the