56 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



natural causes, but of course believed to have been 

 caused by sorcery from another tribe, the mother is 

 forced to carry about the dead body for weeks, laying 

 her head upon it at night, if, peradventure, she may 

 there dream who has caused the child's death. 

 Instances are on record where the mother herself has 

 died as the result of this horrible custom. 



" Wives have to undergo all the drudgery of the 

 camp and the march, having the poorest food, and the 

 hardest work, and are occasionally cruelly beaten or 

 speared for even the most trifling offence." Curr. 



So that, although they are not altogether without 

 some joyful days, having at times some sources of 

 amusement, yet their lot in the main is a hard one, 

 and their yoke a heavy one. 



In common with her male relations she has to suffer 

 all those terrors which are the natural fruit of their 

 systems of sorcery and superstition. Tribes live in 

 constant dread of each other. Witchcraft is liable to 

 charge almost any one at any time with having caused 

 the death of some one of another tribe. 



Immediately the avenger of blood is on his track, 

 he may receive a blow from behind his back at a 

 moment when he is least suspecting, and so he is more 

 or less always suspecting it. 



Or the avenger may surprise him in his sleep or in 

 the early dawn, he knows not when. 



