17© AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



feast ! Then you white men come and shoot the poor black fellows ! " 

 Then, with his eagle eye flashing, and holding up one of his fingers before 

 Mr. Moore's face, he shouted out — " For every black man you white fellows 

 shoot, I will kill a white man ! " And so with " the poor hungry women : 

 they have always been accustomed to dig up every edible root, and when 

 they come across a potato garden, of course, down goes the wanna (yam- 

 stick), and up comes the potato, which is at once put into the bag. Then 

 you white men shoot at poor black fellows. I will take life for life ! " And 

 so far as in him lay Yagan kept his word.' 



Generally speaking, the colour of the natives is a chocolate brown ; their 

 dress is of the simplest kind : the opossum cloak, the strips of skin worn 

 round the loins and the apron of emu feathers constitute their wardrobe. 

 The aboriginal is essentially a hunter. His hands reveal his occupation at 

 once, as they exclude the idea of manual labour. An English ploughman, it 

 has been said, might squeeze two of his fingers in the hole of an Australian 

 shield, but he could do no more. Like most nomads, the objection of the 

 natives to steady work is insuperable. In pursuit of game, in stalking an 

 emu or a kangaroo, they will concentrate their attention for hours, and will 

 occasionally undergo great fatigue, but without some excitement or object 

 they will do nothing. No black man will ever stoop to lift an article if he 

 can raise it with his toe. And the big toe of the black man in the bush 

 is almost as useful and as flexible as the thumb. The missionaries at the 

 blacks' stations have achieved wonders with their pupils, but the one thing 

 they cannot do is to induce the pure aboriginal to labour in any such way as 

 the white man works. Give him a horse, however, and he is happy. 



Mr. E. M. Carr, Chief Inspector of Stock in Victoria, in his interesting 

 and valuable Recollections of Squatting in Victoria, brings the daily life and 

 the customs of the blacks vividly before the reader. His father took up 

 country so far back as 1839, in the Moira district; and Mr. Carr, though a 

 stripling, was left in charge. He came in contact with the blacks therefore 

 when they were absolutely in a state of nature. He gives a long and 

 interesting account of some matrimonial negotiations carried on between the 

 Ngooraialum and Bangerang tribes. We have space for only a small part 

 of his graphic story. The young people are betrothed to each other years 

 before the time of marriage, and, of course, have no voice whatever in the 

 arrangements. While Mr. Carr was staying with the Ngooraialum tribe, the 

 Bangerang, preceded by one of their number named Wong, arrived. ' The 

 Bangerang, after they had satisfied themselves by a glance that it was really 

 Wong, continued as if entirely unconcerned at his arrival ; taking care, how- 

 ever, to keep their eyes averted from the direction in which he was coming. 

 This little peculiarity, I may notice, is very characteristic of the blacks, who 

 never allow themselves to give way to any undue curiosity as regards 

 their fellow-countrymen, and as a rule refrain from staring at any one. 



