283 



NOTES MADE AT ANNBAN STATION, MURCHISON DISTRICT, WEST 

 AUSTRALIA. 



The blacks of this district are characterised by some of tlie 

 most depraved habits made known about the aboriginal races of 

 Australia. Cannibalism is practised among them, and perhaps 

 assumed the worst type because it has become such an ingrafted 

 habit with them, that it is indulged in even without the excuse of 

 necessity and starvation. A case related to me by Mr. Cruik- 

 shank, the owner of the station, cannot possibly be more horrible, 

 and places the perpetrators in the worst light. 



At the present time there are two blacks from Morarie, on the 

 upper Murchison, imprisoned on Rottnest Island for killing and 

 eating a boy of eight or nine years of age. At the time of the occur- 

 rence of this dreadful deed, the tribe held a corroboree at Yalga, 

 and were well supplied with food, for beside their native game 

 they had received a sheep and a bag of flour from Mr. Cruikshank. 

 Of this, however, the two fellows did not partake but decoyed the 

 boy away from the camp into the bush, and there killed and ate 

 him. The boy belonged to their own tribe, and the deed does not 

 seem to have been approved of, because the murderers were com- 

 mitted on the evidence of the other natives. 



The women of the various tribes inhabiting this district fre 

 quently kill their young children to rid themselves of the trouble 

 of rearing them. Not far from Annean Station a woman gave 

 birth to a child whilst out shepherding, which she killed, and at 

 night brought the sheep home as if nothing had happened. On 

 one occasion Air. Cruikshank asked a woman about her baby which 

 he knew was ill ; she replied it was dead. But dead and ill being 

 synonyms in their language he did not believe in tjie child's death 

 and gave her a blanket to wrap it in. The next morning 

 he found the child dead on the top of a fence and the woman 

 gone. Whether the child had been placed in this position when 

 still alive is doubtful, but the woman had evidently neglected it 

 in order to get rid of it. 



I have, however, noticed mothers to be very kind and playful 

 with their children when these were healthy, and when they were 

 sick and seemed to sufi'er pain place warm ashes on their stomachs 

 and rub and tend them patiently and affectionately. It must not 

 be forgotten tliat it is the duty of the women to provide food for 

 themselves and the children, and to some extent for the men also, 

 in fact, these appropriate whatever they like of all that is brought 

 in. Under such conditions the children have to take their chance, 

 and it stands to reason that they must often get badly neglected 

 and begin to ail, when they become still more troublesome. Fore- 

 seeing this the woman may think it better to kill them imme- 

 diately after birth, although with them it is not a disgrace to 



