It Was An Act Of Some Danger To Unloose Him In
The Morning, But Before Long He Was Laughing Away As Heartily As Before.
There Is No Doubt He Was As Mad As Could Be.
During the day's march he
was up to all kinds of pranks, going through all sorts of antics,
idiotic, sorrowful, angry, and vulgar in turn.
The space between the
ridges was greater now, and on them were numerous pointed ant-hills
some two or three feet high. One favourite trick of this lunatic
was to rush towards one of these, and sit perched on the top with
his knees up and feet resting on the side of the heap, a most
uncomfortable position. Another dodge he tried with indifferent success
was that of throwing himself under a camel as he passed, with the object,
I suppose, of diving out on the other side. The camel, however, did not
understand the game and kicked him severely. He was a most extraordinary
person, and indeed I can understand any one going mad in this dreary
region; and to think that these black folk have never known anything
different!
I could enumerate a score of strange tricks that our friend exhibited.
What surprised me most was to see him make use, in unmistakable
pantomime, of a vulgar expression that I thought was only known to
English schoolboys!
Between the Forebank Hills and the tablelands we were now approaching is
an open plain of spinifex some ten miles wide, bounded on North and South
by sand-ridges.
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