A sweet but solitary beam,
An emanation from above,
Glimmers o’er life’s uncertain dream.
We hail that ray, and call it — Love.
The aborigines of Australia erect no dwellings of any kind. In wet weather or when a storm appears to be approaching they strip a few sheets of some kind of bark, which they rear up on the side towards the wind, supporting them by a sort of ridge-pole placed on two forked sticks driven into the earth. On the lee side of this they light their fire and then, creeping under the bark, lie both warm and dry enough, never seeking or wishing for any better habitation, as appears from the fact that those blacks who haunt the sea-coast, at any rate, might always find caverns and places sheltered by overhanging cliffs sufficient to lodge them most comfortably, but will not make any use of them whatever.
Whether it was owing to the previous seasoning Rashleigh had received in his life of hardship, or to the robust nature of his constitution, this rude mode of life, so different from any led by white men, even of the most abject poverty, did not do him the least injury; and our adventurer, recollecting the sufferings he had lately undergone, felt tolerably at ease even in the life of a savage. And knowing that he might expect death if he should fall again into the hands of his countrymen, he prepared to end his days with the blacks.
But about four years and a half after Rashleigh’s captivity, the ancient carandjie, his foster-father, died. He had been gradually getting more and more decrepit until for some time prior to his decease he had sunk into such a state of absolute torpor that his breathing could scarcely be discerned. During his last illness the whole tribe were most unremitting in their attentions, offering him portions of everything they procured as food; and when at length it became certain that he had ceased to exist such a peal of cries and yells of lamentations burst from all present, warriors as well as gins, as Rashleigh had never deemed possible for human throats to utter. He was somewhat shocked at one portion of the proceedings that followed, however; for a lusty black, who was ambitious of filling in the tribe the place that the deceased had so long occupied, now threw himself at full length upon the inanimate remains and applied his mouth to the dead man’s lips, appearing to inhale something very strongly for several moments. Shortly after this one of the gins, suddenly and as if by stealth, cut an incision with a sharp-pointed stone into gin, from which she hastily drew forth the kidneys, and throwing them upon the breast of the corpse, ran off, several of the other gins pursuing her, with loud cries and bitter reproaches, for a short distance; but all this seemed to be assumed anger, as the gin who had performed this operation returned in a few moments to the others, whom she mixed with, and they took no angry notice of her.
In the mean time the carandjie-elect took up the kidneys and very quickly stripped them of the small portion of shrivelled and yellow fat that disease had left appertaining to them. They were then replaced in the dead man’s intestines, the orifice being sewn up by Lorra with a length of kangaroo sinew and one of their bone needles. Gin was now rubbed all over with gum of the same kind as that which the blacks use instead of pitch for their canoes or weapons, and the head was decorated with parti-coloured feathers, stuck on the skull with the same adhesive material. After this the corpse was wrapped up in a new rug, or cloak, made of opossum skins, the fur being inside and the part that was exposed fancifully daubed with rude designs in coloured earths. A kind of stage or rude table being formed of green boughs, the deceased was laid upon it, a great number of little fires being made at a short distance upon every side in two rows, between which walked four warriors without arms, but bearing green boughs that they continued to wave over and around the body, at times running a few feet as if in pursuit of some imaginary object, and chanting a monotonous doleful sound. These watchers, or mourners, were occasionally relieved by others, who followed their example in all things; and this ceremonial was continued until the funeral, which was fixed for the next morning, as usual, at sunrise.
Several of the men now departed with the wooden paddles used by the gins, for the purpose of digging the grave. All that night the tribe were in commotion. None lay down to sleep. Nor was anything to be eaten until the conclusion of the obsequies from the death of the carandjie; but the fires being well maintained, some parties occasionally yelled forth their wild lament, while others danced or leaped, as it were in accompaniment to these rude sounds. The sable sextons having returned at dawn of day to announce that the grave was prepared, as soon as it became light the whole tribe were assembled. They were all unarmed, but frightfully smeared over their whole bodies with colours, of which white and red predominated; and all carried in one hand a shell, and in the other a green bough.
The body was now raised upon the stage, which was borne along by eight blacks, and Rashleigh could not help remarking as a singular coincidence that they also carry their dead feet first to the grave, which evidently was not accidental, as the corpse originally lay reversed; but the bearers, on taking it up, went round backwards until they had at length attained the proper position.
The instant that the march commenced, all the assembly, even the gins aNd children, began to cut, or at least to scratch, themselves with the shells they carried; and before they reached the grave the greater part of them were streaming with gore, as they seemed to vie with each other in the eagerness with which they inflicted these wounds in testimonial of their grief for the loss the tribe had sustained.
When the melancholy cavalcade arrived at their burial-place, which, like their council ground, commanded a view of the sea, Rashleigh perceived that it was a tract of open land very lightly timbered. The graves all appeared to be made near some tree, and there were several round a few of the largest. But what struck him as curious was that he had not observed the place before, though he must have passed either through it or at least very near it, and the more so because upon the nearest tree to each grave a portion of bark about two feet high and one foot wide had been removed, leaving the bare white trunk, on which the rude figure of a kangaroo, bandicoot, snake or bird of some kind had been carved, those trees that lay near more graves than one having a considerable portion of their rind stripped off and a corresponding number of emblems cut upon them.
The body was now laid upon the ground and a green bough placed in the right hand of the inanimate carandjie, which was drawn across his breast. Then every individual of the tribe, man, woman and child, walked round the corpse, making, as it seemed, a farewell obeisance to the departed ruler, repeating as they did so their wailings and gashes of sorrow. The pit, or grave, was about five feet square and eight feet deep. in its bottom four stout stakes had been set upright, and two poles leaned after the manner of skids on one side. When all the tribe had passed in review, the corpse was rested on the upper part of the skids, being held there by Rashleigh and the new carandjie. Exactly at sunrise they let go the arms of the body, which then slid gently down into its final resting-place. Sheets of bark were now fixed inside the upright stakes, the corpse being placed on its feet within the latter, leaning against one of the sides with its face turned towards the ocean; and many paddles being employed, the loose earth was quickly thrown in between the bark and the bank, which was trodden heavily in until it reached the level of the dead man’s head. All his customary weapons were now placed in the square pit that encompassed him, and it was covered up with another piece of bark, so that the corpse was, as it were, enclosed in a sort of cavity formed of the thick outer coat of the eucalyptus tree, which did not permit the earth to touch, much less to press it. A sufficient quantity of soil was now thrown on and over the whole so as to form a neat mound nearly three feet in height, which was beaten smooth with their paddles; and the whole ceremony was completed by the rude figure of a fish-hawk carved on the nearest tree, that being the emblem apparently suggested by the name of the deceased, which might be translated “the swooping warrior”.
Ralph Rashleigh viewed this whole ceremony with much the same degree of melancholy feelings that are apt to impress themselves on the minds of men when they are bereaved of some such humble friend as a dog or horse they value; for in spite of the service rendered to him by the old carandjie, who doubtless had saved his life, yet the form of this disgusting specimen of antiquity was so very revolting that our exile had much ado to consider him as being at all human. And yet it was no very long time before Rashleigh found that in him he had sustained the loss of a most powerful friend, who had hitherto controlled the savage humours of the males belonging to the tribe, who of themselves would have been now ready enough to mark their hatred of one every way so much superior to any of them by treacherously depriving him of life, if they could have divested themselves of the superstitious belief that haunted their minds, of the spirit of the departed carandjie being ever watchful and ready to avenge any injury which might be inflicted on his adopted white son.
A month had not elapsed from the funeral before these impressions seemed to be weakened, for Rashleigh was one day informed by the new chief, Terrawelo, that he must either resign the dead man’s two gins to him or fight for liberty to retain them. Now our exile had no desire to keep all three of the females; but the latter, having been treated very well by him, dreaded the idea of going to any of the blacks. Besides, the manner of the claimant indicated a kind of contemptuous superiority which Ralph had no notion of, seeing that he well knew his own muscular strength was greater than that of any warrior in the tribe. In fact, he had in sport wrestled with two of them at once, whom he overcame without much difficulty, because, though they look large in many instances, yet the aborigines of Australia are physically very weak.
Rashleigh told the chief at once that he intended to fight, according to the usage of these savages, which prescribes that if a man have two or more wives, any other who proves himself to be stronger or more expert at the use of their weapons than he may take all his gins away from him but one. The answer given by Terrawelo to this intimation was an attempted blow from his nullah nullah at Ralph’s head; but the latter, having been carefully watching the eyes of his opponent, dodged the threatened part on one side, and then, thrusting his head between Terrawelo’s legs, by that means threw the chief violently over his back to the ground; then, snatching up his fallen weapon, dealt the prostrate warrior such a blow that on its alighting on the black’s arm, which was held up to save his head, the limb was broken. Rashleigh was about to repeat tile stroke, but recovering from his fit of passion, he threw away the waddy and called out for the wounded man’s gin to help him away. Tumba here came up, and saying something about the chief being killed, attempted to secu............