19 



She described, without any hesitation, how they took the 

 skull from a platform ("knocked off the head" were her 

 actual words) and put it to soak in the water until freed 

 from the soft parts ; and when cleaned they carried it about 

 by means of a handle made of string. "Lots of 'em," she 

 said, were used in this way. This statement affords a satis- 

 factory explanation of the missing crania at Swanport. 



Mrs. Karpeny knew the three old blacks mentioned by 

 Mr. Bott, and reminded me of a forgotten episode in which 

 one of them had taken charge of my brother and me as boys. 

 She also named several other natives who were well known 

 round the lakes in the early days. 



From Mr. Paul Martin, now of Appila-Yarrowie, I have 

 also some information on the same subject. He writes me, 

 under date May 17, 1911, to the effect that he went to live 

 in Strathalbyn about 1845, being then about eight or nine 

 years of age. He remained there until 1852, when he went 

 to the Victorian gold diggings. Returning afterwards to 

 South Australia he went to live on the lower Finniss. There 

 he saw many pock-marked blacks, and one of these — an in- 

 telligent man of about thirty or thirty-five — told him that 

 when he was a little boy "big one wind" came from the 

 vast (cf. Mrs. Karpeny's account ante); then, pointing to 

 his marked face, "this one come." He also said that many 

 blacks in the district were affected and that many died. It 

 is striking that in the accounts given by both Mrs. Karpeny 

 and Mr. Martin's informant the coming of the sickness is 

 associated with a strong wind, though the direction given in 

 the two statements is diametrically opposite. In this respect 

 Mrs. Karpeny's statement is an exception, for most of the 

 statements speak of. the disease as coming from the east. 



Turning now from the oral to the written evidence bear- 

 ing on the subject, and, first, as it relates to the Narrinyeri, 

 the Rev. George Taplin, writing in 1874 (which is the date 

 of the first edition of his account of this tribe), says (1, 44) : — 

 "They have a tradition that some sixty years ago a terrible 

 disease came down the River Murray, and carried off the 

 natives by hundreds. This must have been small-pox, as 

 many of the old people now have their faces pitted who 

 suffered from the disease in childhood. The destruction of 

 life was so great as to seriously diminish the tribes. The 

 natives always represent that before this scourge arrived they 

 were much more numerous. They say that so many died 

 that they could not perform the usual funeral rites for the 

 dead, but were compelled to bury them at once out of the 

 way. I think there must have been more than one visitation 

 of this kind, judging from the age of those who are pock- 

 marked." 



