69.6 



ABORICxINES COROBBERY DANCE. 



Marcli 



called ' Cocotu,"' had lately arrived from a distance, and as the 

 residents wished to conciliate them, a ' corobbery ' was pro- 

 posed, and Mr. Darwin ensured the compliance of all the 

 savages by providing an immense mess of boiled rice, with 

 sugar, for their entertainment. 



About two hours after dark the affair began. Nearly 

 all the settlers, and their visitors, had assembled on a level 

 place just outside the village, while the native men belong- 

 ing to both tribes were painting, or rather daubing and 

 spotting their soot-coloured bodies with a white pigment, 

 as they clustered round blazing fires. When all was ready 

 — the fires burning brightly — the gloom at a little distance 

 intense, by contrast, and the spectators collected together 

 — a heavy tramp shook the ground, and a hundred pran- 

 cing demon-like figures emerged from the darkness, bran- 

 dishing their weapons, stamping together in exact accordance, 

 and making hoarse guttural sounds at each exertion. It was 

 a fiendish sight, almost too disagreeable to be interesting. 

 What pains savage man takes — in all parts of the world where 

 he is found — to degrade his nature ; that beautiful combina- 

 tion which is capable of so much intelligence and noble exer- 

 tion when civilized and educated. While watching the vaga- 

 ries of these performers, I could not but think of our impru- 

 dence in putting ourselves so completely into their power : 

 about thirty unarmed men being intermixed with a hundred 

 armed natives. The dancers were all men ; a short kangaroo- 

 skin cloak was thrown about their hips, and white feathers 

 were stuck round their heads : many were not painted, but 

 those who were had similar figures on their breasts ; some a 

 cross, others something like a heart. Many had spears, and all 

 had the ' thro wing-stick' ; and a kind of hatchet,* in a girdle 

 round the waist. Much of the dancing was monotonous 

 enough, after the first appearance, reminding me of persons 

 working in a treadmill; but their imitation of snakes, and 



* This hatchet is made of two pieces of stone, joined together by a 

 lump of gum, almost as hard as the stone : it is used for notching- trees, 

 that the men may climb after opossums. 



