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6 2 6 ABORIGINES COROBBERY DANCE. M a l'c ll
called « Cocotu,’ had lately arrived from a distance, and as the
residents wished to conciliate them, a ‘ corohhery ’ was proposed,
and Mr. Darwin ensured the compliance of all the
savages hy providing an immense mess of hoiled rice, with
sugar, for their entertainment.
Ahout two hours after dark the affair hegan. Nearly
all the settlers, and their visitors, had assembled on a level
place just outside the village, while the native men belonging
to hoth tribes were painting, or rather daubing and
spotting their soot-coloured bodies with a white pigment,
as they clustered round blazing fires. When aU was ready
—the fires burning brightly—the gloom at a little distance
intense, hy contrast, and the spectators collected together
—a heavy tramp shook the ground, and a hundred prancing
demon-like figures emerged from the darkness, brandishing
their weapons, stamping together in exact accordance,
and making hoarse guttural sounds at each exertion. I t was
a fiendish sight, almost too disagreeable to he interesting.
What pains savage man takes—in all parts of the world where
he is found—to degrade his nature ; that beautiful combination
which is capable of so much intelligence and noble exertion
when civilized and educated. While watching the vagaries
of these performers, I could not but think of our imprudence
in putting ourselves so completely into their power :
ahout thirty unarmed men heing intermixed with a hundred
armed natives. The dancers were all men ; a short kangaroo-
skin cloak was thrown ahout their hips, and white feathers
were stuck round their heads; many were not painted, hut
those who were had similar figures on their breasts ; some a
cross, others something like a heart. Many had speara, and all
had the ‘ throwing-stick’ ; and a kind of hatchet,* in a girdle
round the waist. Much of the dancing was monotonous
enough, after the first appearance, reminding me of persons
working in a treadmill; but their imitation of snakes, and
• This hatchet is made of two pieces of stone, joined together hy a
lump of gum, almost as hard as the stone : it is used for notching trees,
that the men may climb after opossums.
1836. DOCTOR— DOG— APPEARANCE. 627
kangaroos, in a kind of hunting dance, was exceedingly good
and interesting. The whole exhibition lasted more than an
hour, during most of which time upwards of a hundred savages
were exerting themselves in jumping and stamping as if their
lives depended on their energetic movements. There was a boy
who appeared to be idiotic, or afflicted with a kind of fit; but
the man who was holding him seemed to be quite unconcerned
about his convulsive efforts, saying, “ by and bye he would be
a doctor” (as I was told by a resident who understood the language),
which reminded me of what Falkner says of the Patagonians.*
After the corobbery the natives collected round
the house where the feast was preparing; and it will not be
easy to forget the screams of delight that burst from old
and young as they looked in at the door and saw the tub in
which tlieir rice was smoking. Before the food was distributed
they were told to sit down, which they immediately did, in a
circle'round the house. They separated, of their own accord,
into families, each little party lighting a small fire before them.
Their behaviour, and patience, were very remarkable and
pleasing. One family had a native dog, which in size, colour,
and shape, was like a fox, excepting that the nose was not
quite so sharp, nor the tail so bushy.
Most of the aborigines had rather good countenances, and
well-formed heads, as compared with those ahout Sydney, or
in Van Diemen’s land. The lathy thinness of their persons,
which seemed totally destitute of fat, and almost without flesh,
is very remarkable. I have since seen some drawings of South
African aborigines, executed under the critical eye of Doctor
Andrew Smith, by the correct hand of Mr. Charles Bell, which
are so like the natives who live near King George Sound in
colour, as well as countenance, and extraordinary shape, that
they might be taken for full-length portraits of the latter
instead of Africans.
Many of these natives have features smaller and less marked
than are usual among savages; but their foreheads are higher
and more full : they are not tall, few exceeding five feet eight
* Page 163.
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