It is difficult to convey an accurate notion of the domestic affairs of the Australian black. I have endeavoured to give a description of an encampment, but necessarily there are many details connected with the arrangements of each hut, the duties devolving on the male parent, the work that the women have to perform, and the education of the young savages, which must be dealt with elsewhere.
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer, a Missionary in Gippsland, writes thus in a letter to me:—
"The life of an Aboriginal was one of trouble. He lived in dread of his enemies. Sometimes he was not able to keep a fire in his camp lest it should light some secret foe to his place of shelter. At other times he himself would have some wrong to redress, and would then act on the offensive, and strive to kill some one for some fancied injury. Sometimes their camps were surprised while the men were away hunting. The hunters would return to find most of the women who happened to be at home murdered, and some of the younger ones taken away to be wives for their enemies. Thus they had often real grievances to avenge, but their complaints were more often fancied. Should a member of their tribe die suddenly, or even by gradual decay, they would charge some one with the crime, and would seek to have the death avenged. On these occasions they generally went away from their camp fully armed and liberally daubed with red-ochre or pipeclay, and if they chanced to fall upon some unfortunate member of the tribe amongst whom the obnoxious person was supposed to dwell, they would at once despatch him, and have a cannibal feast, usually satisfying themselves by eating his skin. In their domestic life everything was as simple as possible. They had no cooking utensils: all they required was fire to roast with. They would have a wooden vessel to hold water for drinking, but as they never washed their faces, they did not require an extra basin for that purpose. They had also a large grass bag for holding food, &c. The man had a small grass bag in which to keep his private effects. A look into such a bag would be interesting to a lover of the curious. First, there would be several pieces of round stones, which he would tell you are
wish to enchant, so that when a black thinks or knows that his hair has been stolen, he is in misery until it is restored again. This is one great reason why the blacks do not like to have enemies.
The Rev. Mr. Hartmann, late of Lake Hindmarsh, says that the blacks had no particular mode of punishing deception or lying. One found guilty of such offences was generally warned by the chief, and if he persisted in his evil courses, the matter was settled by a fight. The stronger the black, the more likely he would be to stand his ground. The blacks usually chose for messengers and to send on expeditions such men as they could trust, and men who could talk well. Whatever report they brought back was generally believed.
Mr. Green, of Coranderrk (Yarra Yarra River), informs me that, for bringing a false report from another tribe to his own tribe, a man was for the first offence well beaten with the waddy; for the second speared in the thigh; and for the third he might be killed. For seduction and for fornication with any young woman in his own tribe, the punishment was for the man death, and for the woman a spear in the thigh.
The Rev. F. A. Hagenauer writes thus:—"The Aborigines punished in their wild state all deception and lying by open fight. If children did it, their parents had to stand and fight for it. The blacks always gave quite correct reports of their expeditions, and do so to the present day."
