Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

ABORIGINAL FOLK LORE.
To THE EDITOR.
SIR,-I have read with much interest Sir
John Forrest's address to the Natural History
Society, and also your leader, entitled
"Aboriginal Folk-lore," in the WESTERN
MAIL of October 8th. It is only natural that
people of European descent, on first coming
into contact with our aborigines, should feel
that there was a gulf fixed between them
selves and these filthy, vile ameling savage ;
but living among them soon takes the edge off
one's concert. We do not always bear in mind
how short a time it is since we ourselves made
bricks in Egypt." Dr. Jameson tells how
that 300 years ago our ancestors believed
as our aborigines now do-that sickness was
caused by an evil spirit possessing the
invalid. Shakespeare makes the Duke of
Exeter say that the French, By magic
verses hath contrived his (Henry the Fifth)
read an opinion which is still an article of
faith with our black brethren. ? My mother
relates that in the Irish village where her
childhood was passed, BO V Eagar would venture
out at night after 10 o'clock, because of
the ghosts who were in the habit of issuing from
the churchyard, and protruding from about
that hour till dawn and gruesome stories
were told of the tragic state of certain foolhardy
youths who essayed to participate in
the evening's diversions. An exactly similar
belief with its pendent story, is found among
Australian aborigines. They also think that
unconsciousness is do it, and it is quite
usual to be told that such a one has been
dead ; and idea which must have been prevalent
in olden times. Every one has read the
great historian Gibbaos' account of the
Greek nobleman, who was willing to become
a Christian if his friend, a Christian bishop,
could produce a single person who had been
raised from the dead, at a time when such an
event was an ordinary religious ceremony.
But nothing pleased me better than the
remark in your leader on Aboriginal Folk-lore
concerning the parallel between the
stories of Cerberus and Wannamana, because
one cannot observe these Singular people
without being convinced that they have
preserved, under unfavourable circumstances,
that mode of life which reached its
culminating point with, the ancient Greeks.
And particularly is this manifest in all that
relates to their music and weapons, which
includes whatever among them is connected,
however distantly, with art.
It is doubtful whether all aborigines have
as accurate an idea of the points of the com-
pass as the Mage of Captain Stokes A
Nor'-West blackfellow, sent by sea to Fremantle,
told how on landing he found it
almost impossible to walk, as the ground
rose and fell as the sun had done. Staggering
thus be himself said to the other salt
inside of him you must be drank,' where-
upon he felt very much ashamed. Presently
his innermost self recovered sufficient nerve
to retort, You can't be drunk, you've had no
grog.' This was consoling, but it did not
help him to walk any better. After a while
he began to look about him, and to ! there
was the sun setting in the East ! He felt
sick with fear. It was Ginkin. Ginkin, he
explained, was the name the Perth blacks
called him but in his country ' he was
called Mart. More, be continued, was often
visible in the form of a white owl. The
white owl was not More he had often killed
and eaten them ; but no blackfellow would
kill an owl in whom Mort resided. Here
is another link to bind them to the Greeks.
in the Old Testament mention is made of a
bird, which the translators called the ostrich,
who neglected her young, and left her eggs in
the sand to be hatched by the san. The
ostrich, in consequence, got a bad name for a
time, but has long been known a as a vigilant
parent. The charge is true, however, against
the Australian pheasant or grow.
Was Australia known to the Phoenicians ?
II to the Chinese, why not to share ?
During a residence of many years among
aborigines I have made only a very small
collection of stories and a short list of words,
yet I cannot reproach myself with indifference
to the subject. The
strongest impulse of our common
human nature is to give to those who have,
and to withhold from those who have not.
Most of the outlying settlers come from
colonies where the black brethren are only to
be seen at mission stations, surrounded with
comforts which a pioneer recalls with envy,
or as a rare specimen on the platform at a
missionary meeting. Therefore, as they
J- -it;_e_
know nothing they can extract nothing from
their sable neighbours, who are wide awake
to the advantage of being able to speak in
a language unknown to those who have
become their masters. If the West Australians,
thoroughly acquainted as they
are with the language, customs, and legends
of the aborigines, would commit that information
to paper (not in an expensive book
which places it out of the reach of those who
would derive the most benefit from its per-
usual) and supply those living among the
blacks with it, a flood of light would be
thrown on a subject surrounded with much
darkness and many difficulties. If such a
body as the Natural History Society would
take the matter up, much would be done.
There are many persons in our district with
a good knowledge of the aboriginal language
who would willingly write what they know,
if any useful purpose were served by so
doing.
Permit me to give an instance of the value
of previous knowledge. While reading the
interesting legend Wannamarra, I remembered
that the word, or name, occurred in a
song which the inland natives sing. At that
moment a black girl appeared. She was asked,
Who is Wannamurra ? She did not know
never heard of him, her, or it. How than
about the song, ' Doody Marra placed, Wan-
namarra Guidi.' She smiled, shook her
head, looked blankly, and said she did
not know. A short paraphrase of the
story was related to her. Then, per
ceiving that the crowd eyes were plucked out,
she smiled! very sweetly, and proceeded to
disperse which all the charm and ease of manner
characterises of her race. With a short
apology for not understanding what was
meant sooner, she gave her version, which
naturally differed somewhat, ' here at the
quiet limits of the world, from that told on
the banks of the S win. lb his acquired a
local character and become dessicated in our
climate.
Wannamirra is a wild dog, who lives in a
country called Cqorbbolya, (abundance of
poison which lies to the west never to tire
east. He is rarely a l interior, (which, considering
the name of the country is not to be
wondered at but spends his time ringing
eastward and westward inland and on the
coast, seeking whom he may devour. He
attacks black-fellows and dogs, kangaroo,
everything, tearing open the chest, and eating
the liver, merely causing death. My friend
continued pointing to my arm-that the body,
was nothing, no more than the clothes-that
there was something inside which talked and
laughed, and walked about. This something
was the liver (and heart P) Yes, and
heart (cost) too. Wannamarra (staff in
the hind), tearing open the chest and
abstracting the liver, caused the person,
or animal to die ; the body fell to
the ground like a barrack (skin-mantle) and
soon became earth, even if not buried. The
song related the experience of a meeting inland
native) dying from want of water, while
Wannamurra was tearing him to pieces to get
his liver. She had never heard that the dead
lived as an in Ceorboolya, but was glad to
hear that they did. Mr friend had brought
her "jewels" with her, and the toddlers,
" Gladstone" and "Parnell," seized the
favourable moment to explore the interior of
my establishment, smearing the window
pane with their dirty little hand-?, and
threaten? Romulus and Remus, twin kittens,
to the great distress of their small parents
Little "Dillon," on his mother's back, finding
himself over-looked, roared so loudly that
he had to be drawn forth off the goods, and
comforted with a gift of sugar, so further
discussion of the subject was impossible.
But I have the key now; and when my
friend's spouse returns from a trip to the
eastward, I shall hear the whole story with
no doubt, with some original embellishments.
The mental capacity of the aborigines is
quite up to the average standard of civilized
races ; they seem to have thought out every
subject-, and to have arrived at the same
conclusion on such questions as can
be resolved as the rest of mankind and
on those that are unanswerable they
have called to their aid the same superstitions
that human nature has ever leant upon.
Nothing is more surprising than that with so
much ability they have accomplished so
little. This may, however, be safely attributed
to the absence of cultivatable plants
and domestic animals, and, above all, to the
terrible yolk) of communism, which extends,
as it must, if thoroughly carried out, to things
mental as well as physical, so that if any
among them shewed more than ordinary
cleverness they were killed, lest they should
dominate the others. It has crushed everything
out of them but music, and-murder.
Those who observe them with any attention
can arrive at but one conclusion-Maelar
Moonbang : Human nature the same, yesterday,
today, and for ever !
Yours, etc.,
PIONEER.
Israelite Bay, Nov. 9th
$