240 
SONGS. 
enchanter ; and wild and pathetic for the mourner. 
The music is sometimes not unharmonious ; and 
when heard in the stillness of the night and mellowed 
by distance, is often soothing and pleasing. I have 
frequently laid awake, after retiring to rest, to listen 
to it. Europeans, their property, presence, and 
habits, are frequently the subject of these songs ; and 
as the natives possess great powers of mimicry, and 
are acute in the observation of anything that appears 
to them absurd or ludicrous, the white man often 
becomes the object of their jests or quizzing. I have 
heard songs of this kind sung at the dances in a 
kind of comic medley, where different speakers take 
up parts during the breaks in the song, and where a 
sentence or two of English is aptly introduced, or a 
quotation made from some native dialect, other than 
that of the performers. It is usually conducted in 
the form of question and answer, and the respective 
speakers use the language of the persons they are 
supposed to represent. The chorus is, however, 
still the same repetition of one or two words. 
The following specimens, taken from a vocabulary 
published by Messrs. Teichelmann, and Schur- 
mann, German Missionaries to the Aborigines, will 
give an idea of the nature of the songs of the Ade- 
laide tribe. 
KADLITPIKO PALTI. CAPTAIN JACK’S SONG. 
Pindi mai birkibirki parrato, The European food, the pease, 
parrato. ( De capo bis.) I wished to eat, I wished to eat. 
