XIX 
CORROBERY OR NATIVE DANCE 
479 
One day I accompanied Captain Fitz Roy to Bald Head, 
the place mentioned by so many navigators, where some 
imagined that they saw corals, and others that they saw 
petrified trees, standing in the position in which they had 
grown. According to our view, the beds have been formed by 
the wind having heaped up fine sand, composed of minute 
rounded particles of shells and corals, during which process 
branches and roots of trees, together with many land-shells, 
became enclosed. The whole then became consolidated by the 
percolation of calcareous matter ; and the cylindrical cavities 
left by the decaying of the wood were thus also filled up with 
a hard pseudo-stalactitical stone. The weather is now wearing 
away the softer parts, and in consequence the hard casts of the 
roots and branches of the trees project above the surface, and, 
in a singularly deceptive manner, resemble the stumps of a 
dead thicket. 
A large tribe of natives, called the White Cockatoo men, 
happened to pay the settlement a visit while we were there. 
These men, as well as those of the tribe belonging to King 
George’s Sound, being tempted by the offer of some tubs of 
rice and sugar, were persuaded to hold a “ corrobery,” or great 
dancing party. As soon as it grew dark, small fires were 
lighted, and the men commenced their toilet, which consisted 
in painting themselves white in spots and lines. As soon as 
all was ready, large fires were kept blazing, round which the 
women and children were collected as spectators ; the Cockatoo 
and King George’s men formed two distinct parties, and 
generally danced in answer to each other. The dancing 
consisted in their running either sideways or in Indian file into 
an open space, and stamping the ground with great force as 
they marched together. Their heavy footsteps were accom¬ 
panied by a kind of grunt, by beating their clubs and spears 
together, and by various other gesticulations, such as extending 
their arms and wriggling their bodies. It was a most rude, 
barbarous scene, and, to our ideas, without any sort of meaning ; 
but we observed that the black women and children watched 
it with the greatest pleasure. Perhaps these dances originally 
represented actions, such as wars and victories ; there was one 
called the Emu dance, in which each man extended his arm in 
a bent manner, like the neck of that bird. In another dance, 
