366 ON THE ABORIGINES OF THE LOWER MURRAY, 



often learn to read and to write, and I believe that Mr. Goodwin, 

 of Yelta, has had some very successful scholars, but I do not 

 think that the adults ever understood the principles of 

 Christianity. 



Once I met old Jacob, a Darling chief, in Mr. Goodwin's 

 house, intensely looking at a colored print, representing our Lord 

 as the " Good Shepherd," with a lamb upon his shoulders. 

 Jacob addressed me in his quaint way of " make a light ! name 

 belonging to that one Shepherd ? " 



I tried to explain the meaning of the picture, but to no 

 purpose, and all I got out of poor Jacob was : " bail, shepherd 

 belonging to this country ! never see him carry lamb on his 

 shoulders, he always leave him along the bush." Taking the 

 print literally, I do not think Jacob was far wrong. 



The natives living near Mr. Goodwin's place were much 

 more comfortable in many respects than any of the tribes seen 

 before ; they could always count upon a certain price in the 

 shape of flour, tea, and sugar, for any work performed ; they 

 lived in closed sort of huts, which had somewhat of a permanent 

 character ; but I have reason to believe that all the good 

 examples of Mr. Goodwin and his assistant, were counteracted 

 by the presence of a lot of hard-drinking and hard-swearing 

 bushmen at the Darling Junction public-house, opposite. 



Here, at Yelta, or rather on the New South Wales side of 

 the River, the natives had always assembled in large numbers 

 for the purpose of feasting upon fish and bartering their famous 

 Myall-spears for reeds, Wongal-twine, and nets the produce 

 of other parts of the country ; in olden times no doubt their 

 stone hatchets were exchanged in a similar manner, as from 

 Gunbower Creek to the Darling Junction there is not a stone to 

 be met with the size of a man's fist. I have been told that the 

 green stone, serpentine, or jade tomahawks used by the natives, 

 were obtained at Mount Macedon, and that a certain locality on 

 the side of the mount had been considered neutral ground by the 

 neighbouring tribes, who went there for the purpose of obtaining 

 suitable material for their weapons. 



About this time of the year, in the month of July, a similar 

 gathering had taken place ; and one night I visited the camp, 



