108 ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES OF 50 YEARS AGO 



Some of their inferences were very amusing. A 

 Moonie River " boy," who accompanied a drover to Sydney, 

 was taken by him to the theatre. The piece was a tragedy, 

 and as a finale the heroine was stabbed by an assassin. 

 The dagger used was of the usual " telescoping " kind, 

 and liquid, representing blood, dripped from the blade. 

 Combo stood up in great excitement, and amid the dense 

 silence, cried out in broken English, " Well, well ! Stupid 

 white-fallow, to kill that budgeree {i.e., good) young 

 woman ! I want to go home ! " On my telling him it 

 was not real, he replied, " I saw the blood on his knife." 

 The curtain fell mth the drover. Combo and myself the 

 cynosure of all eyes. I saw this same man about five 

 years afterwards on the Balonne River. He told me he 

 had just returned from North- west Queensland, having 

 spent the whole intervening period fulfilling his mission. 

 Knowing the interest I took in blacks' ways, he told me 

 his adventures, and, as was the custom in those days, I 

 took him on as a sort of " Man Friday." 



The account he gave me was, as near as I can now 

 remember, as follows : — The news of his return from Sydney 

 had soon spread far and wide, and he was required at all 

 corrobborees in order to recount to the other blacks what he 

 had learned. 



The listening blacks carried the tale to more distant 

 tribes, who wished corroborative evidence. Their etiquette 

 ran thus : — 



A general meeting was convened at some rendezvous, 

 and at dusk the fires were set blazing. The narrator left 

 the circle and took up a position directly opposite to where 

 the leading men of the community are stationed. One 

 of the " elders " then calls out to him, " Where did you 

 come from ? " He replies by naming the last place at 

 which he spoke. " Where are you going ? " To this he 

 replies that he is going all about with news because he has 

 Been the white- fellows' camp and the " big waterhole " 

 {i.e., the sea). A general request is then made for him to 

 anfold his tale. Choosing a position so that his voice can 

 be heard through all the camp, and addressing himself to 

 the leading men, he tells all he knows. As this is the univer- 

 sal practice among them, and as in this way the news of 

 Governor Phillip's landing and the outbreak of the gold 



