pupils are apt. How few amongst educated Europeans could compete with these children of Nature in the arts which they have cultivated!
A correspondent, who some twenty years ago had a station near Yering, on the River Yarra, and who subsequently had much experience of the native character in the southern and western parts of Victoria, had once, he informs me, in the early days of the settlement of the colony, some opportunities of observing the methods of tuition pursued by the natives. On one occasion he saw an old woman attended by a great number of girls, who appeared to be under her care, and engaged in useful employments. The old woman gathered materials with her own hands and built for herself a miam, and then with great care, and with many words of instruction, caused each girl to build a small miam after the pattern of the large one. She showed the girls where and how to collect gum, and where to put it; she caused them to gather rushes, and, with the proper form of rounded stone in their hands, instructed them in the art of weaving the rushes into baskets; she made them pull the right kind of grasses for making other kinds of baskets and rough nets, and she showed them how the fibres were prepared, and how nets and twine were made; she took from her bag the woolly hair of an opossum, and taught them how, by twisting it under the hand over the inner smooth part of the thigh, it could be made into a kind of yarn or thread; and in many ways and on many subjects she imparted instruction. She was undoubtedly a schoolmistress—a governess; but how long she kept her pupils at work, or under what conditions they were entrusted to her care, were subjects on which my correspondent could obtain no information.
On another occasion the same gentleman saw an old man accompanied by a number of boys—some of tender years and others nearly full grown—who appeared to be receiving instruction in the several arts by which a savage gains a living in the forest. The old man, whether merely to afford the boys amusement or to teach them the proper method of throwing the spear, engaged in the following pastime. A piece of bark was cut from a tree and formed into a disc somewhat larger than a dinner-plate, and this was put into the hands of one of the elder boys. Having selected an open space of tolerably smooth sward, the game commenced. The boys were placed in a row, and each was provided with a light spear; the elder boy, who held the disc, stood at some distance in front of the row, and at a given signal he hurled the bark disc—not as a cricketer usually throws a ball, but downwards from the shoulder, and with a peculiar jerk—so as to give the disc a ricochet-like movement as it bounded rather than rolled along the grass. Each little boy in turn threw his spear. Few hit the disc, but those that struck it or came very near it were complimented by the old man and by their fellows. The attitude of the boys, their eagerness, the attention of the old man, the triumph exhibited in his countenance when better play than usual was made, and the modest demeanour of the most successful spearman, formed a picture which was very pleasing. Other exercises followed this performance, and their aged instructor seemed to delight in the work which he had taken in hand. Obedience, steadiness, fair-play, and self-command were inculcated by the practices which were witnessed.
