The Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK™

by Robert Reed

  of two parts lying nearly at right angles to each other . This was the

  same creek which we had passed in the morning, but here it was

  much wider and deeper . Gioro stopped short and signed to us to

  stop . We did so at once, for we saw that the farther part of the water

  was alive with duck, and on the wider part nearer to us were several

  black swans . We turned immediately towards a grove of trees that

  lay between us and the water, and we dropped down . Gioro laid his

  hand on me, looked at Jack, pointed to the water and said, “Shoot .”

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  Jack stole to the water-side and shot a swan easily . It was not very

  near the others and none of the birds flew away. It was most likely

  the first time that firearms had been discharged there. Jack then shot

  several ducks and rejoined us . Gioro threw off his kilt and swam out

  for the birds . The moment his woolly head was seen over water all

  the birds flew away. We lit a fire at once, prepared and cooked our

  birds, and made a hearty meal . As we began to eat I remembered

  for the first time that we had no salt. I suppose I made a wry face,

  for Gioro grinned and pointed to a small bag which was fastened

  outside his kilt . This was full of salt, which he had thoughtfully pro-

  vided for the dainty appetites of his white friends .

  We slept sound and long that night, and in the morning Jack and

  I had a delicious bath, and washed our shirts and dried them in the

  sun . Going back to our camp we found a pleasant surprise awaiting

  us . Gioro had snared some wild creature—I think it was a bandi-

  coot—and had baked it for breakfast . It was very nice, at least we

  thought so, and he was quite delighted when he saw that we enjoyed

  it . After breakfast we made an early start .

  Two more days passed like this one . Each evening Gioro guided

  us to water and food, and all the time our course was in the main

  west by north or west-north-west . It was clear that we were follow-

  ing some river or creek downward, and so there were considerable

  occasional variations in the direction that we took, but we never

  headed south of west or east of north . On the morning of the third

  day Gioro speared a large fish. I think it was a variety of perch; it

  was very good eating .

  This third morning we left the creek nearly at right angles and

  struck across the forest, and our guide was evidently more sharply

  on the watch than ever . He travelled very slowly now and he seemed

  to be looking everywhere for some local indications . After about two

  miles travelling we came again upon a creek, as far as I could judge

  a different one . It was very narrow and scarcely running . There was

  one very fair pond, however, but Gioro took scarce any notice of it,

  but ran on to the dry or nearly dry bed of the creek beyond . Here

  he set up a triumphant yell, and signed to us to come and see . I saw

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  plainly enough what I thought at first to be a cattle track coming

  from the north-east and passing right across the bed of the creek . I

  looked at Gioro and said, “Sheep?” “No, no,” he shouted, “no sheep;

  black fellow, black fellow,” and stooping down he pointed at the

  track . I stooped also and examined it, and sure enough I could see

  plainly the mark of human feet . “When shall we catch them up, Sir

  Gioro?” said I . “Tonight,” he shouted; “to-night, Corrobboree! Cor-

  robboree!”

  We followed the track without pause, and by-and-by more tracks

  joined it, all from the north or east or from some point between

  these . There could be no doubt at all that we were approaching some

  camping-place of the blacks . Our course was now almost directly

  westward, with a very slight trend to the north, and the country still

  continued much of the same sort, undulating perhaps a little more,

  well grassed and fairly but not very thickly timbered . Wild animals

  and birds were much more numerous .

  It was after sunset, the moon which was now nearly half way

  between new and full was well up in the sky, there was a strange

  glimmer in the west that looked like an aurora, and Gioro was in a

  state of high excitement when the pathway bending round the foot

  of a somewhat steeper hill than we had seen during the day suddenly

  brought us within sight of a single fire. It was evidently just freshly

  kindled, but there was no one near it now . Gioro stopped, looked at

  us, and put his hand to his mouth . Then we made a half turn silently,

  still following the track, and all in a moment we came in view of the

  most striking sight that I had yet seen in Australia, or for the matter

  of that anywhere in the world .

  We saw an irregular line of large fires burning before us, and

  immediately behind them stretched a sheet of water much wider and

  longer than any that we had yet seen in the country. The fires were

  vividly reflected in the water, and seemed at the first glance quite

  innumerable . After a time one saw that there were at least sixty or

  eighty of them. Near each fire was a group of black men, clad like

  Gioro, holding in their hands long staves or spears, and dancing fu-

  riously . They kept springing into the air with their feet quivering,

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  and striking their spears, butt ends downwards, violently upon the

  ground . Presently they burst into a wild shout, or series of shouts .

  The shouts came in measured cadence, but were frightfully discor-

  dant . Their dance kept time to their music, and the whole effect was

  wildly barbarous . There were huts in great numbers built of branch-

  es, and covered with leaves and bark . As far as I could see there was

  a hut for each fire, and women and children of all ages were to be

  seen in front of the huts, some few of them apparently partaking of

  the excitement of the dancers, but far the greater number stolidly

  looking on . The dress of the women was nearly the same as that

  of the men . The kilt of matting was the same, but the head-dress

  showed more effort after ornament . It covered more of the head, and

  it was adorned with the feathers of cockatoos and parrots . The chil-

  dren who ran about were mostly naked . There were several dogs,

  not at all Australian dingoes, but miserable half-starved mongrels of

  European breed . Many of the women were engaged in cooking food,

  and some whiffs of smoke which reached us were by no means of

  unpleasant flavour.

  All the while the song and dance lasted we lay quite still, hidden

  by the scrub which grew very thick here, and seemed to be a sort of

  stunted eucalyptus, and very like the mallee of Southern Australia .

  Our horses were hidden by the turn of a hill, and by a large tree near,

  and when the song and dance would pause for a moment, we could

  hear them munching the grass. I was at first greatly afraid that they

  would be startled by tho noise and by the fires, but somehow they

  seemed to take no notice. They were accustomed to camp fires and

  singing, but not
to such singing as that . When the song and the dance

  were ended, Gioro touched us, pointed and whispered, “Bomero,

  boss black fellow, see!” We looked in the direction of his finger,

  and could easily see a very tall and bulkily built black, with a very

  massive head, and dressed with some attempt at distinction . His kilt

  of matting was larger than any of those worn by others, and was

  rather elaborately ornamented with feathers . His head-dress was

  very much larger, and he wore besides a sort of little cloak of skins

  thrown over his shoulder, and fastened with some kind of thong .

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  Gioro whispered again, “Stay! Gioro speak to Bomero, then come

  back .” With this he stood erect, spear in hand, and advanced towards

  the fire where the tall black stood, dancing all the time rather gently,

  and singing rather softly, but exactly the same step and tune which

  we had just heard and seen . We followed him closely with our eyes,

  and we were in a state of great excitement and suspense .

  He was noticed almost immediately, but there was hardly any

  sign of surprise, and none at all of hostility . I suppose that his dance

  and song secured him for the time from either . Bomero stepped out

  to meet him, followed by three or four other blacks . Gioro continued

  his dance and song till he came quite up to them, and then he went

  round them still dancing and singing . He stopped right in front of

  Bomero . And there seemed to follow a sort of obeisance and saluta-

  tion, and then a palaver .

  As the palaver proceeded the blacks became greatly excited, and

  more of them gathered round . No doubt he was telling them about

  us . I felt for my pistol, and looked towards the horses . I could still

  hear them munching the grass .

  Presently Gioro came towards us, looking quite cheerful and con-

  fident. He told us that Bomero wished to see us and bid us welcome.

  We fetched our horses, and we led them with us, holding ourselves

  in readiness to mount at a moment’s notice .

  As we marched up to the camp great excitement prevailed, and

  we were presently surrounded by a vast concourse of men, women,

  and children . Some half dozen of the blacks’ around Bomero armed

  themselves with boughs of trees, and kept the crowd at a sufficient

  distance .

  Bomero came towards us with spear in hand, and two men on

  each side of him also with spears . We made a sort of military sa-

  lute, which he seemed to understand, and made an attempt to return .

  Then he began to talk . When he ceased, I turned to Gioro and said,

  “What says Bomero?”

  Gioro looked first at Bomero, and then at me, then quite rapidly,

  “Bornere, say, know all about white fellow; white fellow ride on

  horse, keep cattle, keep sheep, carry fire spear. Bomero say white

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  fellow hold fire spear in hand, throw away only point, but point kill.

  Sometime one point, sometime two, three points, two three . Bomero

  say, Good-morrow to white fellow . White fellow all same black fel-

  low . Black fellow take white fellow to great Corrobboree far away

  west when the one white, star rise, and red star and little stars go .”

  I replied with all the dignity that I could muster, “Right, all right;

  say to Bornere, ‘thanks .’ King Bob and king Jack all same king

  Bomero . King Bob and king Jack will go with king Bomero to great

  Corrobboree when the one2 white star rises, and the red star and the

  little stars go .”

  Then we were told that our miami must be built and that we must

  have meat and sleep, as we should have to start with the sun . They

  fell to work, Gioro and two or three others, and built a sort of hut in

  an incredibly short time, and then we supped on fish and wild duck

  and paste made with water of the seeds of some native grass . I think

  it was “nardoo .” We had also a fruit which I have seen nowhere else,

  about he size of a loquat, of a pinkish colour and subacid in taste .

  After supper we had a palaver, Gioro being the interpreter, and then

  we went to bed . Jack and I slept well and rose before sunrise in order

  2

  The red star is certainly Aldebaran, and the little stars the

  Pleiades . I could not for a long time understand “the one white star .”

  There is at present no large white star in opposition to Aldebaran .

  I first thought that Arcturus might be meant, and that the feast had

  perhaps come down from a period when Arcturus was a white star .

  But I now think that Spica Virginis is “the one white star .” I think

  that by “rises,” or more properly, “has risen,” Gioro meant “has

  culminated;” for Gioro usually spoke of “rising” and “setting” as

  “coming” and “going;” so if he had meant to speak of stars in op-

  position he would have said, “when the white star comes and the red

  star goes .” Spica culminates about the time that Aldebaran sets; also

  there are no large stars near Spica, this maybe why it is called “the

  one white star .” I think I have read that some people for the same

  reason call it “the lonely one .” Gioro probably meant, “When the

  lone white star has culminated, and the red star and the little stars are

  est .”—R . E .

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  to get a bath before starting . Several of the blacks followed us to

  the water’s edge and some of them plunged into the water after us .

  I didn’t half like it as they swam round and round us; but they were

  more afraid of us than we of them .

  Then we breakfasted and made a start . For twelve days we

  travelled on, still heading mainly westward, running down a water-

  course, then crossing to another . Bomero was the leader always, and

  he seemed to know the way quite well . We always camped at water,

  and when we crossed from one creek to another the distance was

  usually no more than three or four miles . We passed a good many

  hills, but none of them I should say rising more than a thousand feet

  from the plain, and few of them so much as that . As far as I could

  reckon we must have travelled twenty-five to thirty miles a day, and

  the greater part of that was westing . I believe that on the evening of

  the twelfth day after we fell in with Bomero’s people we must have

  been all of three hundred or three hundred and fifty miles to the west

  of the telegraph wire .

  During those twelve days we did our best to study the people

  and the country so as to prepare ourselves for anything that might

  happen . Jack made a rough chart of each day’s march, and we both

  made an attempt to keep a sort of dead reckoning . It was very hard,

  however, to make any available record of our observations . The

  curiosity and perhaps the suspicion of the blacks made it next to

  impossible to write or draw by daylight, and at night we had only

  the light of our fires and a sort of torch that we managed to make of

  bark and fat .

  We were beginning to know something of the language . There

  was a p
alaver every night, or, to speak more exactly, there were

  several palavers, in one of which we always joined, with Gioro for

  interpreter . And on several occasions Bomero harangued the tribe .

  These harangues were very interesting, even before we could under-

  stand any part of them or before Gioro explained a word of them .

  The manner and mode of delivery were very remarkable . Bomero

  was highly demonstrative, but he was never carried away by his

  own eloquence . The spirit of the prophet was always subject to the

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  prophet . He could pull himself together in a moment and be as cool

  as you please. The matter of his harangues was chiefly the greatness

  of his tribe, and above all of the king of the tribe, the king’s ability

  to guide his people to food and water, to beat any two or three men

  of his own tribe, and as many as you like of any other tribe, the

  great Corroborree that hey were going to keep out away west, and

  the greatness of the tribes who kept it, of which tribes they were the

  greatest, and Bomero was the greatest of them .

  These harangues were his method, it seemed, of keeping up his

  influence over his people in time of peace. And one could not but

  liken him, as Carlyle says, to “certain completed professors of par-

  liamentary eloquence” nearer home .

  The Pleiades were now seen to be setting earlier and earlier ev-

  ery evening . They were for a few nights obscured by clouds, and

  the next time they appeared they were perceptibly nearer the sun .

  This fact was observed at once and they hailed it with what at first

  seemed to be a series of shouts, but which proved to be a sort of

  barbaric chant, each stave of which ended with this refrain:—

  Go, go,

  Red star and little stars."

  And this was a chant as Gioro told us (and Bomero confirmed

  him) which their fathers and their fathers’ fathers had sung before

  them from time immemorial . I wish that some of our savants would

  investigate this matter, for I cannot but think that this festival and its

  obvious connection with the constellation Taurus would throw some

  important light on the origin of these people and their connection

  with the other races of mankind .

  Jack and I for obvious reasons gave them some illustrations of

  the use of our “fire spears.” Mine they said was a “fire spear” of one