96 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 



River Hopkins. The aborigines believe that thunder causes them to come out of 

 the water and lay their eggs. These they deposit in the sand, and cover with a 

 layer of soft mud, about the size of the mouth of a tea cup. This indicates their 

 position to the fisher, who digs them up with a stick. They are roasted in hot 

 ashes, and are considered very good eating. 



Snakes are very much dreaded by the aborigines, who, from their primitive 

 habits, are peculiarly exposed to danger from these reptiles. Only two instances, 

 however, of death from snake-bite are known to the present generation of the 

 tribes mentioned in this book ; and there is no recollection of any death of a 

 child from this cause. There are eight kinds of snake, including boas, most of 

 which are venomous ; and their poison is considered to be just as virulent when 

 they are in a semi-torpid state as when they are in full activity. There is only 

 one variety — the carpet or tiger snake — which will attack a man without 

 provocation, and this is the most deadly of all the Victorian snakes. The death- 

 adder of the interior of Australia, whose bite is said to kill a large dog in fifteen 

 minutes, is unknown in the Western District of Victoria. On the Mount 

 Elephant Plains there is a small kind of snake, called ' gnullin gnullin,' which is 

 about eighteen inches long, and one-third of an inch in diameter, of uniform 

 thickness, and terminating abruptly at the tail. It resembles the English 

 blind-worm, and, like it, is harmless. With the exception of this and the boas, 

 the bite of any of the snakes will produce temporary indisposition. When, 

 therefore, a person is bitten by a snake, and has not been able to discern the 

 species to which it belongs, he is made to look at the sun, and, if he see an emu 

 in it, the case is considered hopeless : he has seen his spectre, and must shortly 

 die. If nothing be seen in the sun, there is hope of recovery. The only remedy 

 used is rubbing the wound with fat. They have no idea of sucking the wound, 

 or scarifying it. They have a very correct idea of the nature of snake-bite, for 

 they believe that the poison is contained in a bag behind the eye, and is 

 projected into the wound through a hollow in the fang. They say that one 

 poisonous snake can kill another. 



Boa snakes are not so plentiful as the others. There are two kinds, a larger 

 and a smaller. Of the larger kind, individuals have been killed ten feet long. 

 They are of a dark mottled leaden colour, and have small heads, with large teeth. 

 The smaller kind is the more dangerous of the two. It will attack a human 

 being readily and unprovoked. When it has laid hold of its victim, it cannot 

 easily be removed. It winds itself tightly round the body until it reaches the 



