THE CORROBOREE 49 



episodes of savage-life as the surprise and slaughter of 

 enemies, battles, and hunting scenes. To the white who 

 has learned to understand them they are amusing, and the 

 skill with which the actions of animals and men, under the 

 conditions given, are represented is remarkable, and shows 

 the blackfellow to be a man of great intelligence, and a 

 past-master of the art of mimicry. Descriptions of 

 corroborees are to be found in the works of nearly all 

 writers on Australia ; but these are not always very 

 intelligible owing to the authors not having well under- 

 stood what they have witnessed. The actors usually 

 envelop themselves in various coloured paints — red (called 

 " wilgy " by the natives of New South Wales) and yellow 

 and white being the only hues, often arranged in grotesque 

 patterns, and oftener still drawn along the lines of the 

 bones, thus making the corroboree-actor look like a living 

 skeleton. Songs are sung, but there is never any dialogue, 

 at least I have never heard any. Single actors sometimes 

 boast of their individual prowess, but this is occasional 

 only, and not customary. 



The Darling plains blacks are not such fine people as 

 their brothers to the north in Queensland, nor are they 

 generally in gdod condition — why I cannot surmise, for 

 there is still an abundance of game on the land, and of fish 

 in the rivers. As in the days of Sturt and Mitchell, the 

 aborigines of this district still suffer from a form of 

 ophthalmia ; and some of them are nearly blind. Horrible 

 to relate, when they become quite blind, and consequently 

 helpless, they are abandoned by their companions, and left 

 to perish miserably in the desert. Some of them told me 

 that a man thus afflicted contrived to follow his tribe for 

 days begging piteously for food which was not given to 

 him, and at last he was knocked on the head with a waddy 

 that they might get rid of what they considered a 

 nuisance. But such instances of cruelty as this are not 

 universal among the blacks. Some tribes treat their old 

 and decrepit members kindly. 



Many of these people also suffer from loathsome skin 

 diseases, brought on, probably, by the filth they eat, but 



D 



