They judge the case to be
a common one and agree to support him.
Battle ensues; they discharge
their spears at each other, and legs and arms are transpierced.
When the spears are expended the combatants close and every species
of violence is practiced. They seize their antagonist and snap like
enraged dogs, they wield the sword and club, the bone shatters beneath
their fall and they drop the prey of unsparing vengeance.
Too justly, as my observations teach me has Hobbes defined a state of
nature to be a state of war. In the method of waging it among these
people, one thing should not, however, escape notice. Unlike all other
Indians, they never carry on operations in the night, or seek to destroy
by ambush and surprise. Their ardent fearless character, seeks fair
and open combat only.
But enmity has its moments of pause. Then they assemble to sing and dance.
We always found their songs disagreeable from their monotony. They are
numerous, and vary both in measure and time. They have songs of war,
of hunting, of fishing, for the rise and set of the sun, for rain,
for thunder and for many other occasions. One of these songs, which may
be termed a speaking pantomime, recites the courtship between the sexes
and is accompanied with acting highly expressive. I once heard and saw
Nanbaree and Abaroo perform it. After a few preparatory motions she
gently sunk on the ground, as if in a fainting fit. Nanbaree applying his
mouth to her ear, began to whisper in it, and baring her bosom, breathed
on it several times. At length, the period of the swoon having expired,
with returning animation she gradually raised herself. She now began
to relate what she had seen in her vision, mentioning several of her
countrymen by name, whom we knew to be dead; mixed with other strange
incoherent matter, equally new and inexplicable, though all tending to one
leading point - the sacrifice of her charms to her lover.
At their dances I have often been present; but I confess myself unable
to convey in description an accurate account of them. Like their songs,
they are conceived to represent the progress of the passions and the
occupations of life. Full of seeming confusion, yet regular and systematic,
their wild gesticulations, and frantic distortions of body are calculated
rather to terrify, than delight, a spectator. These dances consist of
short parts, or acts, accompanied with frequent vociferations, and a kind
of hissing, or whizzing noise. They commonly end with a loud rapid shout,
and after a short respite are renewed. While the dance lasts, one of them
(usually a person of note and estimation) beats time with a stick on a
wooden instrument held in the left hand, accompanying the music with his
voice; and the dancers sometimes sing in concert.
I have already mentioned that white is the colour appropriated to the
dance, but the style of painting is left to every one's fancy. Some are
streaked with waving lines from head to foot; others marked by broad
cross-bars, on the breast, back, and thighs, or encircled with spiral
lines, or regularly striped like a zebra. Of these ornaments, the face
never wants its share, and it is hard to conceive any thing in the shape
of humanity more hideous and terrific than they appear to a stranger - seen,
perhaps, through the livid gleam of a fire, the eyes surrounded by large
white circles, in contrast with the black ground, the hair stuck full
of pieces of bone and in the hand a grasped club, which they occasionally
brandish with the greatest fierceness and agility. Some dances are
performed by men only, some by women only, and in others the sexes mingle.
In one of them I have seen the men drop on their hands and knees and kiss
the earth with the greatest fervor, between the kisses looking up to
Heaven. They also frequently throw up their arms, exactly in the manner
in which the dancers of the Friendly Islands are depicted in one of the
plates of Mr. Cook's last voyage.
Courtship here, as in other countries, is generally promoted by this
exercise, where every one tries to recommend himself to attention and
applause. Dancing not only proves an incentive, but offers an opportunity
in its intervals. The first advances are made by the men, who strive
to render themselves agreeable to their favourites by presents of
fishing-tackle and other articles which they know will prove acceptable.
Generally speaking, a man has but one wife, but infidelity on the side
of the husband, with the unmarried girls, is very frequent. For the most
part, perhaps, they intermarry in their respective tribes. This rule is
not, however, constantly observed, and there is reason to think that a
more than ordinary share of courtship and presents, on the part of the
man, is required in this case. Such difficulty seldom operates to
extinguish desire, and nothing is more common than for the unsuccessful
suitor to ravish by force that which he cannot accomplish by entreaty.
I do not believe that very near connections by blood ever cohabit.
We knew of no instance of it.
But indeed the women are in all respects treated with savage barbarity
Condemned not only to carry the children but all other burthens, they meet
in return for submission only with blows, kicks and every other mark
of brutality. When an Indian is provoked by a woman, he either spears her
or knocks her down on the spot. On this occasion he always strikes
on the head, using indiscriminately a hatchet, a club or any other weapon
which may chance to be in his hand. The heads of the women are always
consequently seen in the state which I found that of Gooreedeeana.
Colbee, who was certainly, in other respects a good tempered merry fellow,
made no scruple of treating Daringa, who was a gentle creature, thus.
Baneelon did the same to Barangaroo, but she was a scold and a vixen,
and nobody pitied her.
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