in quest of Prince Albert's Lyre-bird. 171 



two more shots. Polly upon this threw down her load, and 

 commenced howling and beating her head with a stone till the 

 blood ran down her face. More shots were fired, and then a 

 single shout, upon which Polly brightened up, and said that 

 that was Davy^s shout, and that he had succeeded in driving his 

 enemies off. We next heard a wail for the dead, and Polly 

 struck up a song. I advised her to take up her pack and come 

 on, but she took no notice of me, and continued howling. How- 

 ever, when I rode on, she followed, singing all the time, and so 

 continued for about two miles, when she suddenly screamed out, 

 and, throwing down her pack, rushed up to my horse and seized 

 hold of my stirrup-leather. At the same instant fifteen blacks 

 stood before us and stopped our horses. They all knew me, and 

 I knew some of them. They said they had come to take Davy's 

 gin, and that they would have her. One of the party, more 

 excited than the rest, raised his spear to kill her, but hesi- 

 tated to throw it for fear of striking my horse. They told me 

 that Davy had shot AVallumbin Charlie dead, and wounded an- 

 other of their men, and that Billy had nearly killed a third. 

 Two of them then rushed upon Polly to drag her away. I drew 

 my revolver, upon which they let h«r go, and she came back to 

 me and took hold of my leg. Upon this they left, saying that 

 they would kill Davy and Billy, and all the tribe, when I had 

 done with them shooting, but that they had no wish to ofi"end 

 me, and would wait until I was gone to another country. [All 

 the tribes round knew that I was going to leave the Richmond.] 

 This adventure made it late before we reached the Byangully 

 camp. It was nearly dark when we arrived, and we observed 

 at some distance that Davy and Billy were there before us and 

 had made a large fire. When we came to the camp, Davy re- 

 lated the great battle they had fought, saying that they had 

 fallen in with thirty Tabbo blacks, and, on hearing them at 

 some distance ofi", had charged their guns with ball. [This I 

 had given them in the morning for their protection, knowing 

 the feud that had existed between the tribes for some time 

 previous.] On their approach, Davy had fired and killed Wal- 

 lumbiu (the chief), and Billy had mortally wounded another 

 man ; the rest had fled away, some being wounded. Davy and 

 Billy were in great glee at having gained the victory, and 



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