his wife to his own people; and, except that he must bear many taunts from the young women his sisters and cousins, and much scolding from the old women, and grave threatenings and mutterings of wrath from the old men—his new state provokes little comment. His young wife is treated well, and is soon familiar with all the women of the tribe to which she has become attached.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, in Gippsland, gives the following account of a young man's condition in savage society, and how he obtains a wife:—An Aboriginal is not considered of much importance until he has arrived at the age of manhood. While he is a boy he lives under strict control; his food is regulated by the men, not as to quantity but as to quality. There are
warded them off, he was no longer amenable. If he was killed, satisfaction was complete. He further pleaded, that, had they not been interrupted, he would afterwards have induced Woolorong (alias Lonsdale) to surrender himself to the chief constable, or aided to take him. Upon this occasion the black native police refused to act. At the intercession of Mr. Protector Thomas, Yang-yang got off with an admonition and forty-eight hours' confinement."—Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales, by a Colonial Magistrate, p. 24.
The late Mr. Thomas, in his notes prepared at my request, gives another account of this affair. Various neighbouring tribes, actuated by friendly feelings, assembled to witness the judicial proceedings taken against two of the finest natives to be seen at that time—namely, Pole-orrong (alias Billy Lonsdale), who stood six feet high, and was named by Sir Richard Bourke after the first Police Magistrate in charge of the settlement—Capt. Lonsdale—and Warrador (alias Jack Weatherly), a great warrior, who were charged with killing a Warralim black, aged about eighteen years, at Torridon, on the Western Port plains, the station of Mr. Charles Manton. The young man had been enticed or persuaded to assist in bringing down to Melbourne a mob of cattle from beyond the Goulburn River, and thereafter to enter Mr. Mauton's service. The poor black had not been on Manton's station three weeks before he was found killed, not three chains from Manton's house. He had been carrying a bucket of milk from the milking-yard to the house when he was struck down. There were two sandhills between the house and the milking-yard, and his body was found in the hollow between the sandhills. This native was closely connected with one of the principal tribes of the Goulburn River, and the death of the Warralim black was soon made known through the press and by oral report. The men who did the murder were at once suspected by the tribes friendly to the Warralim, and they demanded satisfaction of the tribes of the Yarra and Western Port. After messengers had been despatched to and fro, it was finally decided that the eight tribes should assemble, and that the two offenders should undergo the usual punishment of having spears thrown at them by the members of each tribe to which the Warralim belonged. The tribes assembled were those of the Yarra, the Coast, the Barrabool, the Bun-ung-on, the Leigh River, the Campaspe, the Loddon, and the Goulburn. The two offenders came boldly forward, in deep mourning [painted with white-ochre], and stood in presence of their people without any signs of fear. They expressed their readiness to receive the spears, one by one; and nearly one hundred were hurled at Pole-orrong in the first instance, and then the same number were thrown at Warrador. The accused were not allowed to carry any offensive weapons, but they were permitted to protect themselves with the broad shield. They shifted, twisted, and so used their shields as to astonish the Europeans who witnessed the ordeal. Each was slightly wounded, but not hit in any part where a wound would have proved fatal.
It is interesting to record the particulars relating to a law of this kind as it exists in Australia.
The reader may be glad to be reminded that the judicial combat, according to ancient law, was taken advantage of by a criminal less than sixty years ago in England:—
"By the old law of England, a man charged with murder might fight with the appellant, thereby to make proof of his guilt or innocence. In 1817, a young maid, Mary Ashford, was believed to have been violated and murdered by Abraham Thornton, who, in an appeal, claimed his right by his wager of battle, which the court allowed; but the appellant (the brother of the maid) refused the challenge, and the accused escaped; 16th April 1818. This law was immediately afterwards struck off the statute-book by 59 Geo. III. (1819)."—Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, pp. 39-40.
See also A Collection of Celebrated Trials, by W. O. Woodall, vol. I.
