56 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 



was very much annoyed when any white person scrutinized and exposed the 

 contents of her bag ; but the natives, though the more sensible of them were not 

 soiTy to see her powers and mysterious charms ridiculed, were too much 

 afraid of her to smile, or join in any mirth at her expense. 



White Lady was an honorary member of the teetotal society, and carried a 

 temperance badge suspended from her neck, which she said told her ' not to drink 

 spirits.' When an opportunity occurred, however, to get a drop of rum, she took 

 off the badge and hid it in the ground, and, when sober, put it on again. She 

 also had a cross suspended in the same way, which she said ' yabbered,' ' do not 

 tell lies,' 'do not kill anybody,' 'do not steal potatoes;' but, when hunger 

 prompted a raid on a potato field, the cross was temporarily buried in like 

 manner. This cunning woman possessed such power over the minds of her tribe 

 that anything she fancied was at once given to her. When she died, at 

 Kangatong, her death was followed by the usual wailing and scratching of faces 

 amongst her friends during the whole night ; but, as she had been such a terror 

 to her tribe on account of her reputed powers for evil, there was more form 

 than sincerity in their professions of grief. The following day her body and all 

 her property, consisting of clothing, opossum rug, ornaments and spells, were 

 placed on a bier made of saplings, and silently carried off by the fi-iends and 

 relatives, and interred in a grave two feet deep. Her head, however, and portions 

 of the legs and arms were buried in a cave near Mount Kolor, where she was 

 born. 



Every tribe has its doctor, in whose skill great confidence is reposed ; and 

 not without reason, for he generally prescribes sensible remedies. When these 

 fail, he has recourse to supernatural means and artifices of various kinds. 



The following remedies are those most commonly used. In cases of pain in one 

 spot the skin is scarified, and the blood allowed to flow freely. When the pain 

 is general, and arises from severe cold or rheumatism, a vapour bath is produced 

 by kindling a fire in a hole in the ground, covering it with green leaves, and 

 pouring water on them. The sick person is placed over this, and covered with 

 an opossum rug, and steamed till profuse perspiration takes place. He is then 

 rubbed dry with hot ashes, and ordered to keep warm. Another cure for 

 rheumatism is an infusion of the bark of the blackwood tree, which is first 

 roasted, and then infused while hot. The affected part is bathed with the hot 

 infusion, and bandaged with a cord spun from the fur of the flying squirrel, or 

 ringtail opossum, with a piece of opossum rug as a covering. Severe headaches 



