About This Time I Again Became Deaf, Which Did Not
Tend To Make Me Any More Patient.
Another stretch of plain country, a mile or two in width, again raised
our hopes and again dashed them, as more ridges confronted us on the
other side.
A change of any kind is welcome, therefore the gloomy desert
oaks were greeted with joy; for though their sombre appearance is
eminently appropriate to a funeral procession, they give some shade and
relieve the eye. In due course we reached the burnt country for which we
had steered, and, after hours of tracking, singled out some footsteps
going straight away as if to camp. Warri and I were leading, riding
Highlander in turn; on cresting a high ridge we saw before us a little
clump of mulga and grass, amongst it a camp of some dozen or more
natives. As soon as we advanced they all ran, except two men, who stood
their ground for a short space, then, throwing a stick and boomerang in a
most warlike way, they followed their tribe. It was imperative that we
should have a fresh guide, so I followed on Highlander, and succeeded in
stopping the last man simply by wearing him out. He was a most diminutive
man, almost a dwarf, absolutely without ornament, not even a girdle of
string, with a most repulsive face, and wall-eyes like a Welsh sheepdog.
He was by no means afraid, and before long became friendly and returned
with me to their camp.
The tribe had left behind them a number of treasures - bundles of
firemaking sticks, bean-and-gum ornaments, and the usual bark
"portmanteaus" [Note at end of paragraph.] containing hair-string,
feathers, red ochre, and other knick-knacks. Amongst their weapons was a
curiously shaped boomerang; on one of the woommeras was a rough carving of
either a spider or crab. As soon as the camels arrived we unloaded and set
to work on the well, "soak-sucking" in our old style. By morning we had
watered the camels and horses. The former were of course pretty fit,
but the poor ponies had done a fair stage, especially so since they had
had no feed except the rank dry tops of the spinifex. May 3rd sunrise,
to May 8th sunrise, they had travelled on what water we could afford them
from our own supply, viz., three gallons apiece nightly, and six gallons
the first night. The grass around the well, though dry, was of great
benefit to them. For the camels we had to cut down the mulga trees, the
branches of which grew too high from the ground to permit them to browse
off the leaves. A number of dingoes serenaded us as we worked at night;
what they live upon is not quite clear, unless it be spinifex rats. There
were other small rats in the locality, two of which the dwarf had for
supper - plucked, warmed upon the ashes, torn in pieces by his long nails
and eaten; an unpleasant meal to witness, and the partaker of it badly
needed a finger-bowl, for his hands and beard were smeared with blood.
He did not take kindly to salt beef, for his teeth were not fit for hard
work, as he pointed out to us; and salt beef is not by any means easy to
masticate.
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