Four hours, procure as much food as
would last for the day, and that without fatigue or labour. They are not
provident in their provision for the future, but a sufficiency of food is
commonly laid by at the camp for the morning meal. In travelling, they
sometimes husband, with great care and abstinence, the stock they have
prepared for the journey; and though both fatigued and hungry, they will
eat sparingly, and share their morsel with their friends, without
encroaching too much upon their store, until some reasonable prospect
appears of getting it replenished.
In wet weather the natives suffer the most, as they are then indisposed
to leave their camps to look for food, and experience the inconveniences
both of cold and hunger. If food, at all tainted, is offered to a native
by Europeans, it is generally rejected with disgust. In their natural
state, however, they frequently eat either fish or animals almost in a
state of putridity.
Cannibalism is not common, though there is reason to believe, that it is
occasionally practised by some tribes, but under what circumstances it is
difficult to say. Native sorcerers are said to acquire their magic
influence by eating human flesh, but this is only done once in a
life-time.
[Note 70: The only authentic and detailed account of any instance of
cannibalism, that I am acquainted with, is found in Parliamentary Papers
on Australian Aborigines, published August, 1844, in a report of
Mr. Protector Sievewright, from Lake Tarong, in one of the Port Phillip
districts.
"On going out I found the whole of the men of the different tribes
(amounting to upwards of 100) engaged hand to hand in one general melee.
"On being directed by some of the women, who had likewise sought shelter
near my tent, to the huts of the Bolaghers, I there found a young woman,
supported in the arms of some of her tribe, quite insensible, and
bleeding from two severe wounds upon the right side of the face; she
continued in the same state of insensibility till about 11 o'clock, when
she expired.
"After fighting for nearly an hour, the men of the Bolagher tribe
returned to their huts, when finding that every means I had used to
restore the young woman was in vain, they gave vent to the most frantic
expressions of grief and rage, and were employed till daylight in
preparing themselves and weapons to renew the combat.
"Shortly before sunrise they again rushed towards the Targurt and
Elengermite tribes, who, with about a dozen of Wamambool natives, were
encamped together, when a most severe struggle took place between them,
and very few escaped on either side without serious fractures or dangerous
spear wounds. Although the Targurt tribe were supported by the Elengermite
and Wamambool natives, and were consequently much superior in number,
they were, after two hours hard fighting, driven off the ground and
pursued for about four miles, to where their women and children had
retired; when one of the former, named Mootinewhannong, was selected,
and fell, pierced by about 20 spears of the pursuers.
"The body of this female was shortly afterwards burned to ashes by her
own people, and the Bolagher natives returned to their encampment,
apparently satisfied with the revenge they had taken, and remained
silently and sullenly watching the almost inanimate body of the wounded
female.
"When death took place, they again expressed the most violent and
extravagant grief; they threw themselves upon the ground, weeping and
screaming at the height of their voices, lacerating their bodies and
inflicting upon themselves wounds upon their heads, from blows which they
gave themselves with the leangville. About an hour after the death of the
young woman, the body was removed a few hundred yards into the bush
by the father and brother of the deceased; the remainder of the tribe
following by one at a time, until they had all joined what I imagined
to be the usual funeral party. Having accompanied the body when it
was removed, I was then requested to return to my tent, which request
I took no notice of. In a few minutes I was again desired, rather
sternly, and by impatient signs to go. I endeavoured to make them
understand that I wished to remain, and I sat down upon a tree close to
where the body lay. The father of the deceased then came close up to me,
and pointed with his finger to his mouth, and then to the dead body. I
was at this moment closely and intensely scrutinized by the whole party.
I at once guessed their meaning, and signified my intention to remain,
and, with as much indifference as I could assume, stretched myself upon
the tree, and narrowly watched their proceedings.
"With a flint they made an incision upon the breast, when a simultaneous
shriek was given by the party, and the same violent signs of grief were
again evinced. After a short time the operation was again commenced,
and in a few minutes the body disembowelled.
"The scene which now took place was of the most revolting description;
horror-stricken and utterly disgusted, while obliged to preserve that
equanimity of demeanour upon which I imagined the development of this
tragedy to depend, I witnessed the most fearful scene of ferocious
cannibalism.
"The bowels and entire viscera having been disengaged from the body,
were at first portioned out; but from the impatience of some of the women
to get at the liver, a general scramble took place for it, and it was
snatched in pieces, and, without the slightest process of cooking,
was devoured with an eagerness and avidity, a keen, fiendish expression
of impatience for more, from which scene, a memory too tenacious upon
this subject will not allow me to escape; the kidneys and heart were
in like manner immediately consumed, and as a climax to these revolting
orgies, when the whole viscera were removed, a quantity of blood and
serum which had collected in the cavity of the chest, was eagerly
collected in handsful, and drunk by the old man who had dissected
the body; the flesh was entirely cut off the ribs and back, the
arms and legs were wrenched and twisted from the shoulder and hip
joints, and their teeth employed to dissever the reeking tendons, when
they would not immediately yield to their impatience.
