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John Dunmore Lang was Australia's most prolific historian in the 19th century ... and a proponent of Queensland becoming a stand-alone colony (he wanted it named Cooksland). In 1847, Lang wrote a 500 page book about Cooksland and includes 132 pages on the Aboriginals. So many interesting anecdotes. Here's ten: 1. BOILING WATER "They never travel without fire, the moment the fish are out of the water they commence roasting and eating them, which they do without cleaning or any other preparation ; and when they have satisfied themselves, should any remain, they carry them home for their women and children, who have been employed during the day in procuring fern root and a part of which they give the men in exchange for fish. When Thomas Pamphlet (a ship-wrecked European who had been adopted by a tribe) arrived among them, they had no more idea that water could be made hot than that it could be made solid ; and on his heating some in a tin pot, which he had saved when wrecked, the whole tribe gathered round them and watched the pot till it began to boil, when they all took to their heels, shouting and screaming ; nor could they be persuaded to return till they saw him pour the water out and clean the pot, when they slowly ventured back, and carefully covered the place where the water was spilt with sand. During the whole of our countrymen's stay among them, they were never reconciled to this operation of boiling." 2. CATS AND GOATS "Pamphlet and Finnegan (survivors from a shipwreck), while among the Aboriginals, were regularly painted twice-a-day, and were frequently importuned to allow themselves to be further ornamented by scarifying the body and boring the nose ; but on their signifying that they did not wish it, the natives always desisted. Nor was any violence used against them during their whole residence. Our cats and goats struck them with particular astonishment. We could not prevail on them to approach the latter, of whose horns they seemed to have a great awe. They were, however, continually caressing the cats, and holding them up for the admiration of their companions on shore." 3. THE RUMBLE (AND THE RECONCILIATION) IN THE JUNGLE (this is an account Lang received from some shipwrecked Englishmen who who lived with the Aboriginals for 18 months near modern day Brisbane) "About the time of our first arrival at Pumice Stone River, the young native whom we called the Doctor had been wounded in the knee with a spear, while out on a hunting expedition, by a native of another tribe, at a distance of fifty miles to the northward. As the spear had broken in the wound, there was a good deal of inflammation in his leg, when he applied to me to cure him. This I effected by extracting a large splinter from his knee, and in a short time he was quite recovered. As soon as his cure was effected, and he was able once more to go out fishing and hunting, he sallied forth, accompanied by several of his tribe, in order to take revenge of the man who had wounded him. Having a great liking for me, on account of my having cured him, he insisted on my going with him. The spot appointed for the combat was a small ring, about 25 feet in diameter, about 3 feet deep, and surrounded by a palisade of sticks. The crowd assembled to see the fight amounted to about 500 men, women and children ; and the combatants, followed by those who were friendly to them respectively, approached the ring in single file, and drew up in a regular manner on opposite sides of the circle. The whole assembly were well armed, many of them having five or six spears each. The two combatants then entered the ring, and having laid down their spears in opposite rows, point to point, began walking backwards and forwards, talking loudly to each other and using violent gestures, as if to inflame their passions to a due height. The women had previously been driven away, and the most profound silence reigned in the rest of the assembly. After about ten minutes spent in this way, they commenced picking up their spears with their feet, keeping their eyes fixed on each other, so as to prevent either from taking advantage of the other's stooping. In this manner they proceeded till they had each three spears, which they stuck in the ground, ready for immediate use. At the moment when they commenced thus picking up their spears a tremendous shout burst from the spectators, who immediately relapsed into their former silence. All now being ready, one or two of the friends of each party spoke across the ring for a few minutes ; and as soon as they ceased, the Doctor threw his spear with all his force at the other, who, however, succeeded in warding it off with a kind of wooden shield called an elemang, into which, however, it penetrated three or four inches. The other then threw in his turn ; but his spear was also warded off in the same manner. The third spear which the Doctor threw penetrated quite through the shoulder of his adversary, who instantly fell, when one or two of his friends, jumping into the ring, pulled out the spear and returned it to its owner and the tournament concluded with loud huzzas from all parties. They all then retired to huts, which had been erected for the occasion, and the next day they again met at the ring, in order to give the friends of the wounded man an opportunity to avenge his quarrel. But it appeared that none wished to do so, as each had now wounded the other, and a reconciliation took place between the two tribes, which was announced by shouting, dancing, &c., and a parcel of boys were selected from each party and went into the ring to wrestle ; after which both tribes joined in a hunting expedition, which lasted a week : but my feet being sore, I was consigned to the care of the women." 4. WHITE MEN ARE REINCARNATED ANCESTORS Stray white men in the bush were very often considered reincarnated ancestors which gave them immunity from battle. This belief is attested to across the continent. "In September 1790, five convicts seized a small boat, with the intention of escaping, if possible, from the Colony ; but after suffering much hardship and privation, they were at length driven ashore at Port Stephen, about 150 miles to the northward of Sydney. They were kindly received by the natives, and, as Colonel Collins informs us, on their own authority,—for it appears they were discovered, and brought back to Sydney, several years thereafter. They were never required to go out on any occasion of hostility, and were, in general, supplied by the natives with fish, or other food. They told us that the natives appeared to worship them, often assuring them, when they began to understand each other, that they were, undoubtedly, the ancestors of some of them who had fallen in battle, and had returned from the sea to visit them again ; and one native appeared firmly to believe, that his father was come back in the person of either Lee or Connoway, (two of the number) and took him to the spot where his body had been burned." 5. HOW THEY CHOSE A TRIBAL CHIEF "Each of these tribes is under a distinct chief, whose dignity, however, is rather equivocal, and whose position, as well as the way in which it is obtained, resembles pretty much that of the chiefs of the ancient Germans, as described by Tacitus. Heroism and success in battle, and not supposed hereditary rights, constitute the only title to chieftainship recognised by the Aborigines, and the influence and authority of the chief are acknowledged only in time of war." 6. DEMOCRATIC CONSENSUS "When Moreton Bay was a Penal Settlement, and the country at some distance from Brisbane very little known, Moppy, a chief or influential native of the tribe in which Baker (an escaped convict) had been naturalized, happened to visit the colonial Settlement. Hoping to conciliate his tribe with the British, the Colonial Commandant, among other marks of favour bestowed on him, caused a brass plate to be made for him, to be suspended on his breast by a chain of the same material hung round his neck, as is frequently done in New South Wales, with the inscription, "Moppy, king of the Upper Brisbane Tribe." The rest of the tribe could not, of course, read the inscription on the plate, but being shrewd enough to discover that it had a meaning, they requested him to explain to them what it meant. And when he told them that it signified that Moppy was their master, and that they were all his servants, they got into an argument at his supposed usurpation of kingly authority over themselves, as free and independent natives of Australia. They insisted that Moppy should carry back the plate to the British Commandant, under pain of death. It would seem, therefore, that their form of government is rather democratical than patriarchal or kingly. Their internal polity is far from being arbitrary, being very much regulated by certain traditionary laws and institutions, of which the obligation is imperative upon all, and the breach of which is uniformly punished with death." 7. MARRIAGE The conjugal relation is maintained by them with great decency and propriety, every family having its own separate hut and fire. They are remarkably fond of their children, and the idea of whipping a child, or thwarting its wayward inclinations in any way, appears monstrous to the natives as does also the practice of Europeans in this particular. The wife is rather the drudge or slave, than the companion of her husband. The lending of wives to one another is occasionally practised, as it was even among the ancient Romans, and the prostitution of their women to Europeans is, I am sorry to say, but too frequent on the part of their lords and masters. Marriage is generally contracted with the consent of the relatives of the parties, and the sanction of the tribe, and it is never contracted between near relatives. The parties join hands in the presence of the tribe. A native sometimes steals a wife from a strange tribe, which usually leads to reprisals and ends in war ; but the idea that courtship among the Aborigines of Australia consists generally, or even frequently, in simply knocking down the female and dragging her away by the hair, is a mere calumny upon the race, as silly and incredible as it is injurious. Instances of savage cruelty to their females are by no means rare, especially when under the influence of European rum ; but instances also of warm and deep affection are not infrequent. My brother was crossing one of the tributaries of the Hunter River a few years ago, in a boat in which there was an old grey-headed native who had just been away burying his wife, and the tears were chasing each other down the poor old desolate man's cheeks, in a manner quite affecting to behold. 8. TRIBAL PAYBACK Generally speaking, they exhibit a good disposition towards white men, and the instances in which they have received and treated in the kindest manner solitary Europeans who were completely in their power, are numerous and unquestionable. Like all other barbarous nations, they are very revengeful; and considering all white men, as they uniformly do, as of the same tribe, they not unfrequently visit upon innocent persons, in the way of reprisal, injuries they have received from other white men, perhaps at a great distance off. In this way the Aborigines are frequently charged as the aggressors, in cases in which they conceive they are only taking the requisite satisfaction for injuries committed either on themselves or on others of their nation. A person of the name of John Brown, a half-caste Anglo-Indian from Calcutta, who had been for some time (I presume as an emancipated convict) at Moreton Bay, seized and carried off with him in his boat, two native women, from the neighbourhood of Brisbane. The circumstance, as well as the place of Brown's destination, was immediately reported to the natives at Amity Point, on Stradbroke Island, and by them to those on Moreton Island, some of whom carried the report across the northern entrance of the Bay to Bribie's Island, from whence the report was conveyed along the coast towards Wide Bay, where Brown and his party, with the exception of the two black women, were all murdered as soon as they landed." 9. ABORIGINAL COMEDY They have a keen perception of the ludicrous and grotesque, and a decided taste for what may be called dry humour, and their talent for mimicry is really wonderful. If there is anything uncommon or unusual in the appearance or demeanour of any European in the district, as for instance if he is lame, if he has a proud overbearing manner, or anything peculiar in the tones of his voice, they are sure to mimic him with the most ludicrous effect. In the older Settlements of the colony, the sight of a whole company of black natives —both men and women—in a state of beastly intoxication is, unfortunately, by no means uncommon ; but at Moreton Bay they have happily not yet learned to relish ardent spirits, and the sight of a European under their influence affords them the greatest amusement. Many of them have been at the German Mission Station, near Brisbane, and they always behave with great propriety when present at Divine service ; but I was sorry to learn that certain of the young Squatters, when they come to the Settlement, occasionally get them to mimic the missionaries, which it seems they can do to great perfection, going through the various parts of Divine service with wonderful accuracy, as far as the tones and manner of the missionaries are concerned. This would doubtless be very amusing, if it were not exceedingly profane. 10. BE MY BROTHER "On the 14th of December, 1845, Mr. W. Kent, a brother of the Commissary's at Brisbane, told me that when taking a walk that morning before breakfast, he had met a black-fellow of the name of Wogan, who requested Mr. Kent to shoot another native whom he named, and who he alleged had killed his Mr. Kent's brother. The natives are in the habit of adopting any particular European with whom they are on good terms as their brother, and of exchanging names with him ; and they conceive that they have not only peculiar claims upon the adopted brother, but that the latter is bound to take up the quarrels and to avenge the wrongs of his supposed relative, as if he were a real one. Of course Mr. Kent would neither shoot the supposed murderer himself, nor allow Wogan to shoot him for him, by lending him his gun for the purpose, as the latter proposed he should." Link to entire book below in comment.