In The Above Cases, Also, The Bitten Part Was
Capable Of Being Removed; But For A Bite On The Wrist, Had Such An Extreme
Measure As Immediate Dismemberment Been Performed, The Cure Would Have Been
As Fatal As The Disease.
Poor Dunmore was terribly cut up at the premature death of his follower;
Lizzie, having smothered her head with
Fluffy feathers from some cockatoos
that had been roasted for supper, employed herself in chanting a most weird
kind of dirge over the body, to which she beat a species of accompaniment
on the bottom of a pint pot; while Ferdinand, by Dunmore's directions, had
set to work to strip a sheet of bark off a tea-tree, to act as a rude
coffin. A great difficulty now presented itself, for we had no tools
whatever, and how could we dig a grave? In such hard ground, knives would
make no impression, and the body must be buried deeply, or it would be
rooted up by the dingoes, whose howl we could plainly hear around us, as
they bayed at the moon. We spread ourselves out in different directions,
in the hope of finding some rift or recess that would answer the purpose,
but in the imperfect light, we failed to discover anything, so were
compelled to wait for dawn. I do not think any of us slept much. One of
our little party suddenly snatched away in so unforeseen a manner, gave us
all food for reflection - for which of us knew that the same fate would
not befall him to-morrow? When I dropped off into a slumber, it was so
light and broken, that I seemed to be conscious of Lizzie, continuing her
melancholy drone, and battering monotonously on the tin pannikin, nor was I
surprised when in the morning I ascertained that such had really been her
occupation all night; for the purpose of keeping the body from harm, she
avowed, but, I am inclined to think, much more from fear of sleeping in the
neighbourhood of a dead body, for the blacks are dreadfully superstitious,
and frightened to death of ghosts.
At daylight we were lucky enough to find a tree that had been blown down in
the late hurricane, leaving a hollow where its roots had been torn out of
the ground. In this natural grave we laid the poor trooper, wrapped in his
bark shell, and, having raised a pile of stones upon the spot, of such
dimensions as to preclude the probability of the body being disturbed by
dingoes, we went on our way, silent and melancholy.
AN AUSTRALIAN SEARCH PARTY - IV.
BY CHARLES H. EDEN.
OUR next day was a repetition of the last; camps in abundance, but no
blacks, and we had as yet seen no signs of the Townsville party. At night
we camped by the side of a large creek, and, after supper, were lying down,
with the intention of making up for the broken slumbers of the previous
night, when Ferdinand, who had moved higher up the stream to get a private
eel for himself and his lady, came back and shook Dunmore, saying -
"Many big fellow fire sit down up creek."
We were on our feet in a moment, and, stealing quietly through the bush,
soon saw the glare, and on our nearer approach, could make out many
recumbent figures round the fire, and one man passing to and fro, on guard.
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