I fancy that his impressions of a white
man's character will be favourable; for never in his life before had he
been able to gorge himself without having had the trouble of hunting his
food. From him I made out the following words, which I consider reliable:
ENGLISH. ABORIGINAL.
Smoke, fire. Warru or wallu.
Wood. Taalpa.
Arm. Menia.
Hand. Murra.
Hair. Kuttya.
Nose. Wula or Ula.
Water. Gabbi.
Dog. Pappa.*
[* This word "pappa" we found to be used by all natives encountered by us
in the interior. Warri uses it, and Breaden tells me that in Central
Australia it is universal.]
August 15th we again watered the camels, who were none the worse for
their dry stage. Breaden was suffering some pain from his strain, and on
descending to the cave was unable to climb up again; we had some
difficulty in hauling him through the small entrance.
CHAPTER VI
WOODHOUSE LAGOON
But for the flies, which never ceased to annoy us, we had enjoyed a real
good rest, and were ready to march on the morning of the 16th, no change
occurring in the character of the country until the evening of the 18th,
when we sighted a low tableland five miles to the North, and to the West
of it a table-topped detached hill. Between us and the hills one or two
native smokes were rising, which showed us that water must be somewhere
in the neighbourhood. From a high sandhill the next morning, we got a
better view, and could see behind the table-top another and similar hill.
I had no longer any doubt as to their being Mounts Worsnop and Allott
(Forrest, 1874), the points for which I had been steering, though at
first they appeared so insignificant that I hesitated to believe that
these were the right ones. From the West, from which direction Forrest
saw them first, they appear much higher, and are visible some twenty
miles off. From the North they are not visible a greater distance than
three miles, while from the East one can see them a distance of eight
miles.
I altered our course, therefore, towards the hills, and we shortly
crossed the narrow arm of a salt-lake; on the far side several tracks of
emus and natives caught my eye, and I sent Charlie on Satan to scout.
Before long he reported a fine sheet of water just ahead. This, as may be
imagined, came as a surprise to us; for a more unlikely thing to find,
considering the dry state of the rock-holes we had come upon, could not
have been suggested. However, there it was; and very glad we were to see
it, and lost no time in making camp and hobbling the camels. What a
glorious sight in this parched land!
