Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume II Part 28

Interested by an account I had received of the boyl-yas from the women, after Mulligo's death, I endeavoured to obtain from Kaiber a more ample statement of their belief relative to these people. The difficulty I laboured under upon this head, as well as the dread they entertain of these sorcerers, will be best shown by the following account of his answers to my questions, together with his incidental remarks:*

(*Footnote. His words were nearly as follows:

Boyl-ya yongar boyl-ya gaduk. Djerral, way-lo, wor-rar ngin noween; Boyl-ya windoo; boko-djee wattoo; boorda nganya men-d.y.k.e ngoomon. Boyl-ya yongar boola ngan-noween, kalla moquoin, boorda ngin-nee nganya men-d.y.k.e ngoomon. Boyl-ya donga gaduk, boorda gurrang ngoomon, nadjoo nginnee w.a.n.gow broo.

Boyl ya kote yan-na, ngin-nee bid-jar, bal-goon kote yan-na; kote yool yannow boyl-ya. Boyl-ya windoo-buk; boorda nganneel men-d.y.k.e ngoomon; nadjoo w.a.n.ga-broo. Goodjyte yool yannow. Boyl-ya wunja nginnee? Nganya goree katta mend.y.k.e. Boorda nginnee nganya goodjall waingur; Yoongar nungow broo. Boyl-ya bakkan broo kote ngan-now. Ko-tdje ngannow broo.

Yel-line ngan-now (ngin-nee nganya yonga, nadjoo wattoo yan-na.) Boyl-ya yoongar bogal boola ngin-now. Yoongar mend.y.k.e, boyl-ya wal-byne, wal-byne, wal-byne, etc. etc. boorda bar-rab-a-ra yoongar.)

The boyl-yas are natives who have the power of boyl-ya; they sit down to the northward, the eastward, and southward; the boyl-yas are very bad, they walk away there (pointing to the east). I shall be very ill presently.

The boyl-yas eat up a great many natives, they eat them up as fire would; you and I will be very ill directly. The boyl-yas have ears: by-and-by they will be greatly enraged. I'll tell you no more.

The boyl-yas move stealthily, you sleep and they steal on you, very stealthily the boyl-yas move. These boyl-yas are dreadfully revengeful; by-and-by we shall be very ill. I'll not talk about them.

They come moving along in the sky, cannot you let them alone. I've already a terrible headache, by-and-by you and I will be two dead men.

The natives cannot see them. The boyl-yas do not bite, they feed stealthily; they do not eat the bones, but consume the flesh. Just give me what you intend to give, and I'll walk off.

The boyl-yas sit at the graves of natives in great numbers. If natives are ill, the boyl-yas charm, charm, charm, charm, and charm, and by and by the natives recover.

I could learn nothing further from him.

The Wau-gul is an imaginary aquatic monster, residing in fresh water and endowed with supernatural power which enables it to consume the natives, although it generally attacks females. The person it selects for its victim pines away almost imperceptibly and dies.

SUPERSt.i.tION AND THEIR OPINION REGARDING THE NIGHTMARE.

The natives believe that the nightmare is caused by some evil spirit. The way in which they get rid of this evil being is by jumping up, seizing a lighted brand from the fire, twirling it round the head, and muttering a variety of imprecations; they then throw the stick away in the direction they conceive the spirit to be in. Some of them have explained this custom to me by stating that this evil spirit wants a light, and that when he gets it he will go away. They however also take the precaution of moving their position and getting as far as they can into the group of natives who are sleeping round the fire.

If they are obliged to move away from the fire after dark, either to get water or for any other purpose, they carry a light with them and set fire to dry bushes as they go along.

VENERATION FOR CRYSTAL STONES.

The natives of South-western Australia likewise pay a respect, almost amounting to veneration, to s.h.i.+ning stones or pieces of crystal, which they call Teyl. None but their sorcerers or priests are allowed to touch these, and no bribe can induce an unqualified native to lay his hand on them.

The accordance of this word in sound and signification with the Baetyli mentioned in the following extract from Burder's Oriental Customs (volume 1 page 16) is remarkable:

And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it, and he called the name of that place Bethel. Genesis 28:18.

From this conduct of Jacob and this Hebrew appellation, the learned Bochart, with great ingenuity and reason, insists that the name and veneration of the sacred stones called Baetyli, so celebrated in all Pagan antiquity, were derived.

These Baetyli were stones of a round form, they were supposed to be animated by means of magical incantations, with a portion of the Deity; they were consulted on occasions of great and pressing emergency as a kind of divine oracle, and were suspended either round the neck or some other part of the body.

That this veneration for certain pieces of quartz or crystal is common over a very great portion of the continent is evident from the following extracts from Threlkeld's Vocabulary, page 88:

Mur-ra-mai: The name of a round ball, about the size of a cricket-ball, which the Aborigines carry in a small net suspended from their girdles of opossum yarn. The women are not allowed to see the internal part of the ball; it is used as a talisman against sickness, and it is sent from tribe to tribe for hundreds of miles on the sea-coast, and in the interior; one is now here from Moreton Bay, the interior of which a black showed me privately in my study, betraying considerable anxiety lest any female should see its contents.

After unrolling many yards of woollen cord made from the fur of the opossum, the contents proved to be a quartz-like substance of the size of a pigeon's egg, he allowed me to break it and retain a part. It is transparent like white sugar-candy; they swallow the small crystalline particles which crumble off as a preventative of sickness. It scratches gla.s.s, and does not effervesce with acids. From another specimen the stone appears to be agate of a milky hue, semi-pellucid, and strikes fire. The vein from which it appears broken off is one inch and a quarter thick. A third specimen contains a portion of cornelian, partially crystallized, a fragment of chalcedony, and a fragment of a crystal of white quartz.

And again in Mitch.e.l.l's Expeditions into Australia, volume 2 page 338: In these girdles the men, and especially their coradjes or priests, frequently carry crystals of quartz or other s.h.i.+ning stones, which they hold in high estimation, and very unwillingly show to anyone; invariably taking care, when they do unfold them, that no woman shall see them.

FORMS ON MAKING VOWS AND PLEDGES.

Genesis chapter 24 verse 9. And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning that matter.

This is exactly the form that is observed in South-western Australia, when the natives swear amity to one another, or pledge themselves to aid one another in avenging a death.

One native remains seated on the ground with his heels tucked under him, in the Eastern manner; the one who is about to narrate a death to him approaches slowly and with averted face, and seats himself cross-legged upon the thighs of the other; they are thus placed thigh to thigh, and squeezing their bodies together they place breast to breast. Both then avert their faces, their eyes frequently fill with tears, no single word is spoken; and the one who is seated uppermost places his hands under the thighs of his friend; having remained thus seated for a minute or two he rises up and withdraws to a little distance without speaking, but an inviolable pledge to avenge the death has by this ceremony pa.s.sed between the two.

One remarkable custom prevalent equally amongst the most ancient nations of whom any records are preserved, and the modern Australians, is that of naming children from some circ.u.mstance connected with their birth or early infancy. Thus in Genesis chapter 30 verse 11: And Leah said, A troop cometh, and she called his name Gad; etc. etc. etc.

Burckhardt observed the same custom among the Bedouins and says:

A name is given to the infant immediately on his birth; the name is derived from some trifling accident, or from some object which had struck the fancy of the mother or any of the women present at the child's birth.

Notes on the Bedouins, page 55.

CUSTOM OF CIRc.u.mCISION.

The natives of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and also those on the eastern sh.o.r.es of St. Vincent's Gulf, practise the rite of circ.u.mcision. That is, this remarkable rite is known to be observed in two points of the continent of Australia exactly opposite to one another, and which are separated by a distance of about twelve hundred miles.

OTHER SCRIPTURAL CUSTOMS.

The injunctions contained in Deuteronomy chapter 23 verses 12 and 13 are literally fulfilled by the natives in several parts of the continent. In addition to my own testimony on this point I will refer to Wilson's Voyage round the World, page 165, where he states:

They are cleanly in their manners, and in some respects superior to the Europeans, fulfilling the injunction of Moses in the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the twenty-third chapter of Deuteronomy.

This pa.s.sage relates to the natives of Raffles Bay on the extreme north of the continent of Australia, whereas I have observed the custom in the South-western parts of Australia.

They also conform strictly to the injunctions in Leviticus chapter 15 verse 19.

CHAPTER 17. CHARACTERISTIC ANECDOTES.

The following casual anecdotes, though trivial in themselves, will a.s.sist in ill.u.s.trating some of the peculiarities of the native mind and character.

MIAGO'S IMAGINARY SPEECH AS GOVERNOR.

Speech that the native Miago would have addressed to the aborigines of Perth if he had landed as Governor instead of His Excellency Mr. Hutt. He came into my room directly after the Governor had landed, and made this imaginary address.

Yiee, nap yongar Perth bak-ad-jee yuado--Moon-dee Moondee gurrang, gurrang boola: Mir-ga-na, Mir-ga-na gurrang, gurrang boola: Yal-gon-ga, Yal-gon-ga, gurrang, gurrang boola; yarn bal?

Buck-il-bury Wattup gidjee, yam bal gurrang boola?