19 



fall into a stupor, during wliicli they cannot recognize men 

 of their own clan; and, if such a one were to endeavour to 

 enter the camp of a man in that condition, the latter would 

 threaten to kill even liis father, unless awakened from his fit. 



Mi'ftiny Straiiycrs. — The approach of a tribe to a party 

 of strangers, such as white men, is made in a definite and 

 formal manner, that is also in practice in Central Australia, 

 and appears generally adopted throughout the continent.^ 

 One or two of the most influential old men drav; near to the 

 strangers, and, in so doing, push before them a defenceless 

 child, upon whose shoulders both men place a hand, as 

 tiiough guarding their bodies behind the exposed figure of 

 an innocent. 



Wilson, in 1835, wrotet that Captain Barker used 

 every endeavour to induce the natives to come into the 

 camp at Raffles Bay, but without success, until a little child, 

 belonging to one of the soldiers, went and led in the chief, 

 who was evidently under great alarm, by the hand. 



While out on a flying trip in the Tomkinson Ranges, in 

 Central Australia, our party came unexpectedly upon three 

 women, who were busily engaged in cooking a snake, and 

 had not heard the approaching camels. On seeing them in 

 close proximity, two gins immediately fled. The third, with 

 an expression of most pitiable terror in her face, seized her 

 breasts, one with each hand, and forcibly squirted her milk 

 in the direction of the white men. 



Asking later the meaning of this strange act, we found 

 that she wished thereby to demonstrate that she was the 

 mother of an infant, in the hope that the white men would 

 not, under such circumstances, do her any harm. 



As an important geograpliical extension, I add that Dr. 

 Roth and Mr. Chas. Hedley have informed me that when 

 they traversed Mornington Island, in the Gulf of Carpen- 

 taria, they also came suddenly on a camp. All natives fled. 

 except some helpless pregnant women, who immediatelv began 

 to squirt milk from their breasts, as I have described. It, 

 too, w^as evidently an appeal for mercy, and an advertise- 

 ment of their condition. Apparently, therefore, the custom 

 is widespread. 



Hunting. 



When hunting, the ochred bodies of the persons act as 

 a protective colouration. The ''black boys" employed by 

 bushmen well know the value of the inconspicuous colour 



* Cf. T. L. Mit<;hell : Three Expeditions into the Intt^rior of 

 Eastern Australia, vol. i.. pi. xii., p. 194. 



t Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, 183o. p. 74. 



