THE FORGOTTEN DEAD 



" Of lonely folk cut off unseen." 



HOOD. 



A FEW months ago chance bestowed the opportunity 

 of listening to the conversation of one who for very 

 many years has hung upon the skirts of civilisation. A 

 bushman of rare resourcefulness, wide knowledge of the 

 dry as well as the moist parts of North Queensland, a 

 reader, and an acute and accurate observer of natural 

 phenomena, he has often entertained me with the 

 relation of episodes in his career which, though quite 

 unsensational, is of the material of which the history 

 of the bush must be compiled. He is now settled on a 

 tidal creek, his nearest neighbours miles away. Inde- 

 pendent of the regular assistance of blacks in the 

 cultivation of his land, he is one of those who, while 

 acknowledging no such thing as comradeship, and who, 

 true to his sentiments, keeps them at arm's-length, 

 has, albeit, acquired confidences rather unusual. 



When his reading matter has become exhausted, he 

 has sat night after night for months together absorbing 

 the lore of the camp. To him has been disclosed many 

 a well-guarded secret. Not unto every man who asks 

 do the blacks tell their thoughts or impart their legends. 

 You may study them ; but they, too, are discreet students, 

 who often keep their counsel while seeming to comply 

 with your anxiety to learn of their ways and be wise 

 as they are wise. 



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