110 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 



" Me think, great big one master " — pointing to the sky — " want smoke him pipe. 

 Him strike him match," suiting the action to the words, " and puff, puff," 

 pretending to smoke. Then he made a movement as though he slowly dropped 

 a match through the air. Tlie comical assumption of gravity with which this was 

 said, and the quickness with which the impromptu explanation was invented, 

 showed that if he did not understand my religious teaching, it was certainly not 

 from lack of intelligence.' 



BUCKLEY'S WIDOW. 



The following account has been kindly communicated by Mr. Goodall, the 

 Superintendent of the Aboriginal Station at Framlingham, who has in several 

 other ways assisted the writer in obtaining information from the aborigines 

 under his charge : — 



There is, at the Aboriginal Station at Framlingham, a native woman named 

 Purranmurnin Tallarwurnin, who was the wife of the white man Buckley at the 

 time he was found by the first settlers in Victoria. She belonged originally to the 

 Buninyong tribe, and was about fifteen years old when she became acquainted with 

 Buckley. She says that one of the natives discovered immense footprints in the 

 sand hummocks near the Eiver Barwon, and concluded that they had been made 

 by some unknown gigantic native — a stranger, and therefore an enemy. He set 

 off at once on the track and soon discovered a strange-looking being lying down 

 on a small hillock, sunning himself after a bath in the sea. A brief survey, 

 cautiously made, was sufficient. The native hurried back to the camp and told 

 the rest of the tribe what he had seen. They at once collected all the men in the 

 neighbourhood, formed a cordon, and warily closed in on him. When they came 

 near he took little or no notice of them, and did not even alter his position for 

 some time. They were very much alarmed. At length one of the party finding 

 courage addressed him as muurnong guurk (meaning that they supposed him to be 

 one who had been killed and come to life again), and asked his name, " You 

 Kondak Baarwon?" Buckley replied by a prolonged grunt and an inclination 

 of the head, signifying yes. They asked him a number of other questions, all of 

 which were suggested by the idea that he was one of themselves returned from 

 the dead, and to all the questions Buckley gave the same reply. They were 

 highly gratified, and he and they soon became friends. They made a wuurn of 

 leafy branches for him, and lit a fire in front of it, around which they all 



