The government of Aboriginal tribes is not a democracy. There are the doctors or sorcerers, who, under some circumstances, have supreme power; there are the warriors, who in time of trouble are absolute masters; there are the dreamers, who direct and control the movements of the tribe until their divinations are fulfilled or forgotten; there are the old men—councillors—without whose advice even the warriors are slow to move; and, finally, there are the old
twelve people, and strongly built. Each hut was shaped somewhat like a bee-hive, was about ten feet in diameter, and more than six feet in height. There was an opening about three feet six inches in height, which was generally closed at night with a sheet of bark. There was also an aperture at the top about nine inches in diameter, through which the smoke of the fire escaped. In wet weather this aperture was covered with a sod. These buildings were firmly built, and plastered with mud, and were strong enough to bear the weight of a man. It is said that they also constructed dams in the creek for the purpose of taking fish.
In Gellibrand's memoranda of a trip to Port Phillip (1836), mention is made of native huts, and at one place he says about one hundred native huts were found near water. He found also many "native wells."—Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, vol. III., p. 63-85.
A squatter—who was one of the earliest settlers in the Wannon district—says that the natives had comfortable huts at the time he first occupied the country. They were dome-shaped, made of branches of trees, and covered with grass and clay. The opening, protected by a porch, was always towards the north-west, whence came only gentle breezes occasionally—never strong winds or storms. Observing this peculiarity—and having ascertained that a house presenting such a front was protected from gales—he built his own bush residence with its doors and windows towards the same quarter.
Similar accounts are given by explorers who have visited other parts of Australia.
Grey found on the Hutt River, in West Australia, "native villages, or, as the men termed them, towns. The huts of which they were composed differed from those in the southern districts, in being much larger, more strongly built, and very nicely plastered over the outside with clay, and clods of turf, so that, although now uninhabited, they were evidently intended for fixed places of residence. This again showed a marked difference between the habits of the natives of this part of Australia and the south-western portions of the continent; for these superior huts, well-marked roads, deeply-sunk wells, and extensive warran grounds, all spoke of a large and, comparatively speaking, resident population, and the cause of this undoubtedly must have been the great facilities for procuring food in so rich a soil."—North-West and Western Australia, by George Grey, vol. II., pp. 19-20.
Similar huts were found by Grey on the road to Water Peak; and in his progress towards Hanover Bay he discovered a hut "built of a frame-work of logs of wood, and in shape like a bee-hive, about four feet high and nine feet in diameter. This hut was of a very superior description to those he found afterwards to be generally in use in South-Western Australia, and differed from them altogether, in that its low and narrow entrance rendered access impossible without stooping; and, with the exception of this aperture, the hut was entirely closed."—Ibid, vol. I., p. 72.
The following is M. Péron's description of the habitations of the Aborigines, which he saw at Cape Lesueur (lat. 25° 40’ S.), Shark's Bay, in Western Australia:—"Au fond d'une petite crique qui se trouve immédiatement a l'est du Cap Lesueur, j'aperçus trois ouvertures semicirculaires assez rapprochées les unes des autres, et trop régulièrement semblables entre elles pour qu'il fût possible de les attribuer au hasard seul. Je m'avançai; un grand nombre d'empreintes de pieds humains paroissaient sur le sable; et des débris de feux recemment allumés a l'entrée de ces espèces de souterrains, ne me permettoient pas de douter qu'ils ne fussent l'ouvrage des indigènes et qu'ils ne leur servissent de retraite. Pour lever toute espèce d'incertitude, je m'engageai dans l'un de ces réduits obscurs: à peine il avoit un mètre de hauteur à son orifice; il fallut donc me courber pour y entrer, et m'y traîner pour ainsi dire, à quatre pattes. Sa profoudeur étoit d'environ 5 mètres, sur une largeur du tiers de cette dernière dimension. La partie supérieure de la voûte étoit assez unie; mais de distance en distance on avoit pratiqué dans le bas plusieurs petites cavités qui me semblèrent propres à recevoir quelques ustensiles de ménage. Le plancher inférieur de cette habitation étoit tapissé d'une couche épaisse d'herbes marines. L'éloignement où je me trouvois alors de la chaloupe, mon isolement, et surtout la nuit qui s'approchoit, ne me permirent pas de parcourir les deux autres souterrains; mais par tout ce que j'en pus voir, ils me parurent absolument sem-
