WILD TRIBE OF NATIVES. 525 



"It appears that, about thirty years ago, 'Nonnia' (who is 

 noAV about sixty years of age), for some reason not rightly knoAvn, 

 bolted fi-om Popiltah Lake with one or two lubras, and hid himself 

 in the dense tract of mallee which covers the country for about 600 

 square miles along the South Australian and New South Wales 

 boundary, from about the thirtieth to the eighty-first milepost. 

 Here he has carefully concealed himself from the whites and 

 blacks (being particularly afraid of the latter), living on kangaroo 

 and whatever he could get hold of, and obtained water from the 

 roots of the red mallee and needle or waterbush. 



" During this thirty years in the wilderness the old gentleman 

 has raised quite a little family around him, and is now the proud 

 father and grandfather of about twenty-eight men, women, and 

 children, over all of whom he reigns supreme, and his word is law. 

 These blacks have remained constantly in this wretched mallee 

 wilderness the whole time, wandering from place to place in search 

 of food, and living principally upon black scrub kangaroos, which 

 they sneak upon and spear. When surprised by the tame blacks 

 they had several dogs with them, but only three came in with 

 them : they are dingoes which they caught when young, and 

 tamed. Their wurleys or gunyahs are very small and low, made 

 in the usual way by piling mallee boughs together and thatching 

 them on the outside with porcupine or spinifex. They cook all 

 their food by roasting it in the hot ashes in a hole in the ground. 

 Fire they produce in the old way of rubbing two sticks together ; 

 and when once they got a light, carried a firestick with them for 

 several days from place to place. Their only weapons are mallee 

 spears with barbed points, and their clothing a kangaroo skin with 

 the fvir side out, thrown across the shoulder and secured with 

 kangaroo sinews. I did not notice any cuts or tattoo marks on any 

 of their bodies, such as the tame blacks often have on the back 

 and shoulders ; and, with the exception of the old man, M'ho is very 

 thin, all the others seem very well developed, and the young men 

 are very swift runners. None of them smoke roots or anything of 

 the kind, consequently all show splendid white teeth. 



" It is almost impossible to get any information out of them, and 

 their language seems to be slightly different to the river blacks, 

 and their captors often have considerable difficulty in making 

 them understand, although Nonnia originally must have known 

 their lingo. Since the coimtry roujid the Scotia blocks has 

 been improved and tanks sunk these blacks have been known to 

 come in to the water, fill their waterbags (which are made ovit of 

 skins of kangaroos' legs), and then clear off again. The tame 

 blacks tell me they will not eat rabbits, but are very fond of cats 

 and white ants (or ants' eggs) ; these latter they are very expert at 

 getting, and use a 'koolaman,' or sheet of bark about 2ft. long 

 and 6in. or Sin. wide as a sort of sieve for shaking the ants out of 

 the earth ; they then slightly roast them bj- placing the koolaman 



