The Native Tribes of South Australia, comprising the Narrinyeri, by ... G. Taplin. The Adelaide Tribe, by Dr. Wyatt ... The Encounter Bay Tribe, by ... A. Meyer. The Port Lincoln Tribe, by ... C. W. Schürmann. The Dieyerie Tribe, by S. Gason (edited by G. Isaacs) . Vocabulary of Woolner District...

Front matter

Camp os* Aborigines THE NATIVE TRIBES OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, COMPRISING The Narrinyeri By The Rev. GEORGE TAPLIN. By Dr. WYATT, J. P. The Adelaide Tribe The Encounter Bay Triek The Port Lincoln Tribe The Dieyerie Tribe By The Rev. A. MEYER. By The Rev. C. W. SCHURMANN. By S. GASON. Vocabulary of Woolner District! Dialect (Northern Territory) / By JOHN WM. OGILYIE BENNETT WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER By J. D. WOODS. : E. S. WIGG & SON, EUNDLE STREET. 1879. MELBOURNE: M'CARRON, BIRD AND CO., PRINTERS, 37 FLINDERS lane west. TABLE OF CONTEXTS. PAGES I.

Introduction

' vii II. THE NARRINYEBI 1—156 Chap. I. The Narrinyeri, or Tribes of Aborigines Inhabiting the Lakes Alexandrina and Albert, and Lower Murray 1 Chap. II. Social Customs — Section 1 — Marriage 10 Section 2 — Infanticide .,. ... 13 Section 3 — Initiation to Manhood, called Narumbe 15 Section 4 — Funeral Rites ... 18 Chap. III. Sorcery of various kinds — Section 1 — Ngadhungi 23 Section 2— Millin , 26 Section 3 — Neilyeri, or the Poison Revenge ... 29 Chap. IV, Tribal Customs- Section 1— Chiefs — The Tendi — Ngia-ngiampe 32 Section 2 — Games and Amusements 37 Chap. V. Weapons — Manufactures — Taking Game — Cooking — Diseases — Medical Treatment ... 40 Chap. VI. Relationships — System of Kinship 48 Chap. VII. Mythology 55 Chap. VIIL The History of the Mission at Point Macleay ... 66 Chap. IX, The Primitive Condition of Mankind 119 Chap. X. Language 123 Chap. XL (Supplementary).

Illustrative Anecdotes, &c. ... 133 Chap. XII. The Future of the Aboriginal Races, and Feasibility of Christian Missions to them 145 Appendix. The Wreck of the Maria TABLE OF CONTENTS. IV PAGES III. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ADELAIDE AND ENCOUNTER BAY TRIBES ... 157—168 IV. VOCABULARY OF THE ADELAIDE AND ENCOUNTER BAY TRIBES 169—182 V. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ENCOUNTER BAY TRIBE 183—206 VI. THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF PORT LINCOLN 207—252 VII. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE DIEYERIE TRIBE... 253—307 Part I. The Tribe — Its Country — Neighbours — Good and Evil Qualities — Love of Bartering — Food — Dogs — Traditions of the Creation and of the Sun — Subdivision into Families ... ... 257 Part II. Councils — Treaty — Mode of Reception — Armed Party — Laws — Ceremonies — Hole in the Nose — Extraction of Teeth — Circumcision — To Procure Harvest — To Invoke Peace — Operation of the Koolpie— Funeral Rites— Death Spell— Making of Rain— Making Wild Fowl lay Eggs — Making Iguanas — Superstition about Iguanas and Trees — Remedy for Accidents — Expedition for Red Ochre — Diseases — Doctor — Cure for Disease or Wounds ... 262 Part III.

Catalogue of Animals, &c. —Rats and their Congeners—Reptiles — Birds— Fish— Vegetables — Insects — Manufacturing Products — Weapons and Personal Ornaments ... 285 Pabt IV. The Dieyerie Dialect— Key to Pronunciation— Outline of the Construction of the Language System of Notation — Astronomical Terms List of Names distinguishing Age or Relationship—The Ten Commandments— Parts of the Human Frame — Vocabulary 290 VIIL VOCABULARY OF THE WOOLNERJ DISTRICT DIALECT 309—316 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. rAoE. Native Encampment - - . - - - - Frontispiece Portraits of Aboriginals --.-... 1 Holding Native Inquest ....... 20 Drying a Dead Body ....... 75 Teenminne ......... 114 Interior of a Native Hut- - - - - - -118 Stage Bearing Dead Bodies ...... 200 corroboree ..-.-—--•

INTRODUCTION.

. The object of this publication is to preserve and to place before the public, in a collected form, some of the few accounts which have been written respecting the native tribes of South Australia. They are not numerous, nor are they sufficiently complete to furnish the materials for a full history of those races which once inhabited the immense territory known as the Province of South Australia. No attempt was ever made by, or at the instance of the Colonial Government, to investigate and record the manners and customs of the Aborigines, nor to preserve their language; so that now only a comparatively imperfect idea can be formed of the South Australian natives as a whole. The province which formed their home extended at the period of its proclamation as a British dependency, from the 132nd to the 141st degree of east longitude, and was bounded on the south by the Southern Ocean, and on the north by the 26th parallel of south latitude.

The area of the tract of country thus taken over by the white men was about 300,000 square miles, or 192,000,000 of acres. A considerable portion of this region was extremely fertile, and for Australia, well watered. From the way in which the black inhabitants are known to have lived, it was capable of supporting a large native population. Grass was abundant and game plentiful ; and, if they had been anything but savages of a very low type, they might have turned the natural products of the country to good account by making permanent dwellings, and by living in a kind of comfort equal at least to that enjoyed by savage races in other lands where nature has not been more bountiful. The Australian savage.s, however, are

INTRODUCTION.

. VIII wandering savages, seldom staying long at one place, and de pendent almost entirely upon the spoils of the chase or upon their success in fishing for subsistence. Such dwellings as they erect are of the most temporary character, consisting only of boughs piled together against the wind, so as to form a rude shelter, and thicker in the rainy season than in the summer, to keep out the wet. They do not cultivate the soil. At certain periods of the year, when roots of particular kinds are fit for use, or the seeds of indigenous plants are ripe, the women dig up the former and collect the latter for food; but they are dependent entirely upon the spontaneous operations of nature to supply this portion of their sustenance in abundance or scarcity, as the nature of the seasons may determine.

The Aborigines who occupied the country in and around the site of the present City of Adelaide were neither numerous nor warlike. They offered no opposition either to the landing or to the settlement of the Europeans ; indeed, their conduct was any thing but unfriendly. A good understanding was readily established with them. Captain Hindmarsh, R.N., the first Governor of the new colony, in his first interview with them in 1836, gave them clothes and blankets, with which they were apparently well pleased, and they generally lived harmoniously with the white settlers. Lord Stanley, when Secretary of State for the Colonies, was most earnest and persistent in his instructions to the Governors of the different Australian colonies respecting the treatment of the Aborigines of New Holland. He was deeply sensible of their condition, and he fully recognised the obligations towards them which he considered attached to those who had occupied their territories.

He constantly urged the adoption of some policy by which effectual protection .should be secured for them, and he expressed the utmost readiness to co-operate with the local authorities in any arrangement which would offer any reasonable prospect of bringing them within the range of the influences of civilisation. His humane wishes remain unfulfilled, and all the exertions of the various Governors have signally failed to attain

INTRODUCTION.

. IX the end they all had in view. Between the years 1821 and 1842, in New South Wales alone, £80,000 was spent in maintaining protectorates of the natives, and in trying to redeem them from barbarism. This large expenditure was unfruitful, and resulted in complete failure. The Aborigines of that portion of Australia (at least the comparatively few who remain) are no better now than their forefathers were, and no farther advanced on the road to civilisation. Wherever they have come into contact with white men, they have contracted many of their vices, without acquiring in any profitable degree such habits as would assist in raising them from their degraded condition. They have disappeared almost entirely except in the interior. The extinction of the native races in the adjoining colony of Victoria and their general condition is much the same, and it is the same all through the settled districts of Eastern Australia* The South Australian natives form no exception to the rule.

In many parts of that portion of the continent to which these pages specially refer they have entirely disappeared. Not a vestige of the Port Adelaide tribe remains. The Adelaide tribe is extinct, and so are those which dwelt near Gawler, Kapunda, the Burra, the Rufus, &c. In none of these places can a single trace of them be found.-f- They have left no memorials behind them, and their language as a language exists no more. Some relics of it have been preserved in the glossaries of Teichelmann, Wyatt, Eyre, &c, whose love for science or whose curiosity led them to make notes of words, &c, as their intercourse with the natives permitted, but for the rest it is as if the Adelaide tribes had never existed. At one time there were native schools in Adelaide and other places, and a training institution near Port Lincoln for the blacks, which was subsidised by the Government.

The native schools, like those who attended them, have passed away, and are * According to the last census there were only 1330 blacks in Victoria— 784 males and 546 females. There is no return from New South Wales. t The extinction is so complete that it was with the greatest difficulty that Mr. Waterhouse, the curator of the Museum, could collect a set of their weapons for the Paris Exhibition in the present year (187S). h

INTRODUCTION.

. X forgotten except by some of the earlier colonists. The Poonindie mission is now carried on without Government assistance. The mission at Point Macleay, established for the care of the natives who inhabit the country bordering upon Lakes Alexandrina and Albert and the Lower Murray, is also carried out without subsidy from the public purse. The general care of the Aborigines is entrusted to the mounted police, who periodically distribute blankets, flour, tea, sugar, &c, to the natives in those parts of the country where any of them survive, or from time to time may make their appearance. It is impossible, at the lapse of forty years after the first settlement of South Australia, to arrive at the exact measure of the extinction which has fallen upon the native races. In the early days, the Europeans were too busily engaged in locating themselves on their new possessions, and in the active task of rendering a wild country fit for the habitation of civilised men, to trouble themselves greatly about the native tribes, whose lands were confiscated for their use.

No census of the Aborigines was attempted to be taken. Any estimate, therefore, of what their numbers then were, must now be to some extent conjectural. In 1842, Mr. Moorhouse, who was Chief Protector of Aborigines in South Australia, estimated that there were about 3000 scattered over the tract of country extending 160 miles north and 200 miles east of Adelaide. Mr. Eyre, the protector at Moorundi, on the Murray, who quotes this estimate, considers that they must have amounted to at least double that number. Captain (now Sir George Grey, K.C.B.), however, found the number of inhabitants to the square mile to vary so much from district to district, that he could not arrive at any computation which would even nearly approach the truth. Assuming Mr. Eyre's estimate to be correct, as applied to the area given by Mr. Moorhouse, the rest of the colony would at least contain an equal number.

This would orve a total of about 12,000 souls, a number which cannot be considered to be excessive. The census of 1876, published by authority, o-ives the number of the Aborigines of all ages and of both sexes as 3953 for the whole of the province. Of these only 1000 are to be

INTRODUCTION.

. XI found scattered about the settled districts. The disproportion between the sexes is significant, there being 2203 males to 1750 females. Of the males, 217, or 0T1 per cent, only of the adults, (1862), were engaged in any kind of occupation with the settlers. These figures show that the whole of the native population of the province at the present time, is not much more than half of that which inhabited the settled districts in 1842; and where now a blackfellow is almost unknown, the black population at the foundation of the colony was, as has been seen, about 12,000 — a very small number for such an extensive territory. The black population now being 3953, it would seem that 67 per cent, of them, with all that belonged to them, have gone from the face of the earth in forty-two years. In South Australia there have been no wars against the Aborigines.

In the very early days of the colony, some tribes were attacked and chastised for wholesale murders, committed by them on shipwrecked people and parties travelling overland with stock. Some also were shot by settlers, sometimes in self-defence, and in many cases without adequate provocation. All the deaths, however, which can be ascribed to this cause, fail to establish such occurrences as forming one of the principal causes of their disappearance. All who have written upon the subject of the Australian native tribes acknowledge that they vanish before the white settler. Even in cases where they have been guarded from the habits and the maladies which are to some extent incidental to civilisation, the result has been the same, though not so speedily attained. A brief glance at the causes which have contributed to this end may be found interesting.

There can be no doubt, from the testimony of those who had much intercourse with the natives, that before the Europeans came into the country, and before they could have had any influence over them, the Aborigines were decreasing in number. Habits and practices, religious or otherwise, helped to cut the races short; and infanticide, as well as cannibalism, played their horrible part in accelerating the catastrophe. The native women cannot be considered less fruitful than the women of other b

INTRODUCTION.

. XII countries and races. Eyre * (quoting Dr. Moorhouse, Protector of Aborigines) states that each Aboriginal native woman has, on the average, five children, nine being the greatest number known, but that each mother rears, on the average, no more than two of her offspring. Such a fearful discrepancy can only be accounted for by the existence of some natural causes which affect infant life, or by the fact that they are put to death as soon as born. Eyre, in his account of the Aborigines, dwells at considerable length on the causes which operated principally in the diminution of tribes, or, as he expresses it, " from going on in an increasing ratio." He says, "First, there is polygamy and the illicit and almost unlimited intercourse between the sexes, habits which are well known to check the progress of population wherever they prevail.

Secondly, infanticide, which is very general, and practised to a great extent, especially amongst the younger and favourite women. Thirdly, diseases to which in a savage state young children are peculiarly liable, such as dysentery, colds, and their consequences." -f* In this it is probable that Eyre has been to some extent mistaken. The effect of the ailment to which he refers, according to statements gathered from a variety of quarters, was never so widely disseminated as his note would indicate. It is of course impossible to assert that it has not had some influence over the Aborigines, but proof is wanting that it has been sufficiently wide-spread to justify its being regarded as one of the primary causes of the dying out of the tribes. It is not known whence it was derived, or whether it existed amongst them before the advent of the Europeans.

He states, however, as a fact, that in 1841, when they assembled at Moorundi, there was but little sickness amongst them, but after visiting the town and some adjacent stations, they appeared to have contracted most horrible disorders. He describes certain appearances which are known to be produced from other causes. It is remarkable that if the case * "Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia," by Ed. Jno. Eyre. Lond. Boone, 1845. ■f He adds this note: — "Huic accedit, ex quo illis sunt immisti Europæi, lues venerea. Morbum infantibus affiant et ingens multitudo ■quotannis inde perit " Yol. II., p. 239.

INTRODUCTION.

. xiii was as represented by Eyre, the Narrinyeri tribe must have been particularly exposed to its influence, and it must have left it.s traces amongst them. Mr. Taplin, however, makes no mention of it, and he would scarcely be likely to pass over such a circumstance if it existed. The natives of some tribes suffer from a sort of leprous or scrofulous disease, which exhibits many of the characteristics mentioned by Eyre, but this disorder seems to afflict individuals and not families. Gason, speaking of the Dieyerie tribe, describes a disease which produces large boils under the arms, in the groin, and on the breast and thighs, varying in size from that of a hen's egg" to that of an emu's. It lasts for months and sometimes for years before it goes away. One complaint may thus have been, and not improbably was, mistaken for the other.

A friend * first called the attention of the writer to the existence of this malady. At the same time he mentioned what would seem to be a certain cure for it. He was present at Canowie when a flock of sheep was being dipped for scab. A number of blacks congregated to witness the performance, and to get tobacco or whatever else could be obtained from the station. One of them was in a deplorable condition of suffering from this disease. By way of a joke, it was suggested that the blacks ellow .should be dipped like the sheep. He seemed delighted at the proposal, at once agreed to it, and was dipped accordingly. The dipping mixture was composed of water, soft soap, tobacco, and arsenic — the last in the proportion of one ounce to the gallon of water. After his bath, the patient left with his companions.

In a short time he became ill, then worse, and finally so bad that it was doubtful whether he could survive. He lost his hair and his finger and toe-nails. By-and-bye he grew better, and then his skin came off. He was described as presenting the appearance of a magpie during the time the process of decortication was going on. Eventually he got quite well, and when he revisited the station was in sound health. His hair had grown, and his skin was as .smooth and as glossy as marble. He was completely cured. Other blacks who had heard of the circumstance came to Canowie and * Mr. F. Marchant, formerly of Arkaba.

INTRODUCTION.

. XIV begged to be dipped. The experiment, however, was too hazardous, and no one liked to risk a trial for murder or man slaughter, if, as was by no means unlikely, a patient should die from the effects of the treatment. Other diseases are mentioned by Eyre, such as gout, rheumatism, inflammation of the bronchiæ, lungs and pleura. Phthisis is common, and erysipelas sometimes is met with. Scrofula has been seen, but seldom. A disease not unlike smallpox, and leaving similar traces on the face, has been heard of, but it is not believed to be the true variola, and it has not been seen for years. Any reliable account of the maladies incidental to the South Australian Aborigines cannot now be obtained. With the cessa tion of the Protectorate of Aborigines as the function of a separate staff, all official interest in the native seems to have expired, and nothing now is done for them except periodically to give to them, through the mounted police, flour, tea, sugar, &c, and even this modicum of generosity is administered in a loose and perfunctory manner, owing to the pressure of more urgent duties on those who are in charge.

Allusion has been made to customs, religious or otherwise, which have tended to destroy some of the tribes. One which is calculated, without actual homicide, to thin the race, exists amongst those who live to the westward throughout the Port Lincoln Peninsula, and as far at least as the head of the Great Australian Bight.* The details of this peculiar practice are ap pended in a note. They can scarcely be recorded in English. How this horrible custom originated can only be a matter of conjecture. Probably it was intended to guard against too rapid an increase in districts when water is very scarce, and therefore the means of subsistence precarious and difficult to obtain.y * Now a port with a telegraph station. Discovered by Captain E. A. Delisser, late 79th Regiment. t Operationem hoc modo perficiunt, os Walabii (Halmaturus) attenuatum per urethram immittunt illudque ad scrotum protrudunt ita ut permeet carnem.

INTRODUCTION.

. XV The prevalence of infanticide seems to have been due solely to the desire to avoid the trouble of rearing children, and to enable the woman to follow her husband about in his wanderings, which she could not do if encumbered with a child. The first three or four are often killed, and no distinction appears to have been made between males and females. Half-caste children are almost always destroyed.* The practice prevailed long before the Euro peans came to South Australia, and in one tribe (the Narrinyeri) more than half of the children born were sacrificed in this way. One intelligent native woman is reported to have said, that if the Europeans had waited a few years more they would have found the country without inhabitants.-f- What became of these little unfortunates ? In some cases the bodies were burned, in others they were eaten.

One instance at least is known to the writer, where the mother admitted that her infant had been eaten. Other cases have been mentioned, but are not sufficiently authenticated to justify special notice. Amongst the Dieyerie tribe cannibalism is the universal practice, and all who die are indiscriminately devoured. Amongst this tribe there are distinct rules as to those who are entitled to partake of the loathsome banquet. For instance, the mother eats the flesh of her children, and the children that of their mother. Brothers and sisters in law eat of each other's flesh, and the same privilege is allowed to uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, grandfathers and mothers, as well as grand children, who eat of each other. The only restriction seems to be that fathers do not eat the flesh of their own children, nor that of their fathers' children.:}: Eyre gives it as his opinion that cannibalism is not common, but only occasionally practised by some tribes.

He states, however, that to enable them to become sorcerers amongst the tribes around Adelaide, they have at one period to eat the flesh of young children, and at another that of an old man; but it does not appear to him that they partake of each kind more than once in their lifetime. That it is not common now, or rather that it does * Eyre. t Taplin, page 13. % Gason.

INTRODUCTION.

. XVI not exist now amongst the tribes which frequently have inter course with white people, may be believed; but since the practice is, or at any rate was, common (whether arising from want or due to vengeance) to all the coast tribes, and to most of those which have been met in the interior, there seems nothing to exclude the South Australian natives from the suspicion of a custom which, except as above mentioned, has been found to be universal amongst them. Captain Barker, who was lost at the Murray mouth, is believed to have been eaten by the natives* With facts such as these on record, two causes of the extinction of the races are clearly established. The Europeans have had no hand in this; indeed, it is to their influence alone that these customs may be said to have been abandoned. The mortality from diseases, both prior to and subsequent to the settlement of the country, has done much to thin them out.

Their notions of medicine, as amongst all savages, were of the most absurd nature. Amongst the Adelaide tribe the sorcerers werethe physicians. All internal pains were supposed to arise from witchcraft, and were variously 'treated. Sometimes the blood was sucked out from the part affected, and sometimes a bone was supposed to be extracted from it by suction. On other occasions the disease was taken away in an invisible form, and either burnt or thrown into water. In other diseases the sufferer was stretched on the ground and pressed on the diseased part by the hands or feet of the operator, and cold water then sprinkled over it and green leaves applied.-)- The natives are well acquainted with the use of bandages in cases of snake-bite. Bleeding is frequently resorted to to relieve headache.

The operation is performed by opening a vein in the arm with a piece of sharp rock crystal or shell, in the same way * The Rev. J. E. Tenison Woods (Discovery and Exploration of Australia. London: Sampson, Low, and Marston, 1865) says on this subject, "He had been speared by two natives and took to the water to avoid them. Afterwards the murderers said they threw the body into the sea, but no one who knows the horrible habits of these natives will believe that part of the story." (Vol I pp 364-5.) t Pro remedio, in pluribus morbis urina feminæ externe applicata, in eximia estimatione habetur.

INTRODUCTION.

. XVII as bleeding is resorted to amongst Europeans. Fractures are treated with splints and bandages;* but amongst some tribes the injured limbs are straightened and then encased in a coating of clay, which hardens and thus preserves the fracture from disturbance. In an instance related to the writer, the splints and bandages which had been applied to the broken leg of a native were removed when he was taken to his camp and the clay casing substituted. The same was done to a boy whose jaw had been fractured in falling from a horse. His face was covered with a thick clay mask. Both cases resulted in a cure, without leaving traces of lameness or disfigurement. Ulcers are generally sprinkled with alkaline wood ashes and the astringent juices of the bark of trees and grasses. Cuts and wounds are generally left to cure themselves, or are covered with clay to keep the air out; this, it is said, succeeds well.

With such medical treatment it can hardly be expected that many recoveries take place, when illness is serious. Whenever any native becomes a burthen to his tribe by reason of infirmity or chronic sickness, he is abandoned by his fellows, and left to die. It is difficult to estimate the ages which the older people attain. Captain Grey and Mr. Eyre consider that they frequently live to seventy and even eighty years of age. Others, again, think that they scarcely go beyond forty. Many old men and tolerably old women used to be seen in the streets of Adelaide some years back, probably over fifty, or perhaps more ; but none of them were decrepit or physically incapable of such exertions as the blacks are accustomed to make in their ordinary course of life. The treatment which the women experience must be taken into account in considering the causes which lead to the extinction of the native tribes.

Amongst them the woman is an absolute slave. She is treated with the greatest cruelty and indignity, has to do all laborious work, and to carry all the burthens. For the slightest offence or dereliction of duty, she is beaten with a waddy or a yam stick, and not unfrequently speared. The records of the Supreme Court in Adelaide furnish numberless instances of * Eyre.

INTRODUCTION.

. XVIII blacks being tried for murdering their lubras. The woman's life is of no account if her husband chooses to destroy it, and no one ever attempts to protect or take her part under any circumstances. In times of scarcity of food, she is the last to be fed, and the last considered in any way. That many of them die in consequence cannot be a matter of wonder, and as the natives generally do not marry the members of their own tribe, the loss of a child-bearing woman cannot be replaced. The condition of the women has no influence over their treatment, and a pregnant female is dealt with and is expected to do as much as if she were in perfect health. Within a very few hours after being delivered of a child, she moves about and goes to work as if nothing had happened to her. The condition of the native women is wretched and miserable in the extreme; in fact, in no savage nation of which there is any record can it be worse.

The wars which the tribes waged against each other, often in times gone by, caused a certain amount of mortality, but not so great as might generally be supposed. The South Australian Aborigines are fearless, but neither bloodthirsty nor ferocious. "Custom or example may sometimes lead them on to bloodshed, but it is usually in accordance with their prejudices or to gratify the momentary excitement of passion. With many vices and but few virtues, I do not think the Australian savage is more vicious in his propensities or more virulent in his passions than are the larger number of the lower classes of what are called uncivilised communities." This is Eyre's testimony, and his knowledge of the natives extended far beyond the limits of South Australia. The battles which take place between tribes usually occur about daybreak, or towards sunset in the evening.