-of some bewitcher, he having already made it all right with the old men, and his mates in the tribe, skips, on a moonlight night, to the topmost branch of a tree, in the mode already shown me by Davis. Bewitcher does the same up another at a little distance. The youth begins to plead in plaintive phrases; bewitcher replies with a laugh, and chaff, and "I wish you may get it!" Youth gets angry and retorts; chaff on both sides becomes more voluble; the squatting audience at the camp fire laugh when their fancies are tickled; grunt approval at any unusually smart rejoinder, or slapping their thighs, signifying our clapping the hands. And when an old man rises, and makes a speech to the couple perched above, no end of slapping denotes their applause. Much more feelingly than "hear! hear!" Down comes the wooing swain, and down comes she; and led by an old man to a cleared pathway, which traversed the bush some hundred yards, the happy pair find their "Gretna Green" at the end of it; on which is set up the humpy prepared for a honeymoon establishment. Blessed in their ignorance of the lawful privileges of a white sisterhood's British privileges, the sable belle would dare upon no domestic bargaining for her lord's birthright breeches! Woe, unto thee, bewitcher! if thou offendest the loving bridegroom but the next day, by some pert assumption of yesterday's past freedom! Woe, unto thee! if thou steppest over his feet while lying lazy on the ground of his new dwelling place! Woe, unto thee! if when called to the circle of your lords round the council fire, you dare pass through the royal ring! Woe, unto thee! if thou darest approach but as a half-starved dog-from behind! The spear or the waddie would surely end thy woes!

I have found that any account of native habits in the tribe cannot, as a rule, be accepted as accurate with respect to the practices even in a neighbouring district. Yet invariably, as their trees in Antipodean whim, would shed their bark, so would the sable belles their hair; not, however, in puerile pride, after the fashion of our ladies' "Diana" days nor (being guileless of Darwinian dishonour) in desire of evidencing cercopithecan descent, by wearing the burden of the nape's natural glory, in Simian frontispieced emulation of the ape'smuzzle. As to tribal characteristics no dependence can be placed upon the knowledge of those found in one of these bush families as applicable to the race aboriginal in the surrounding country. About Wide Bay, the

Parental Pathways.

315 mother's affection for her infant appears to have had no place among their instincts: and at Darling Downs' again I have known a young mother-at Rosalie Plains-deliberately sling her infant's head against a stump, because it cried and annoyed her; but tenderly suckled a young pup which had no nurse! Again, in the tribes about Moreton Bay,―that at Amity Pointthe "Malurbine," and "Moppys," maternal and paternal affection were indubitable and prevailed, I think; but was not so easily. observable among the natives of the Duke of York's, the NingyNingy and the Pine river districts. Stealing gins was the usual cause of quarrel in all their domestic life. They were very often fatal and in the heat of such embroilments, the wretched gin rarely escaped death. If she lose her husband, she dare not choose another: either the tribe or her relations choose for her: any reluctance on her part,—especially if she be suspected of a penchant elsewhere-is sure to be settled by the waddie. Blows are their lot from birth to the burning! for in those days they were undoubtedly eaten. In one point their nature never differs. They are marvellously observant of every object in nature, more particularly those connected with their own peculiar hunting-grounds; upon which they rarely find others encroaching except on some sensational occasion. I never found them hesitate in attaching a distinguishing name to every tree, shrub, grass, flower, bird, beast, or even insect: but yet each tribe, as far as I know, has its own dialect,-if not language -which stamps their locality much, I suppose, in the way that the provincialisms of our own counties in England do.

Again, they know every acre of ground belonging to their "house" by its own special name: every mile of a river or water-course bears its own appellation, from the highest source to the mouth, the mouth or junction itself always having a separate name of its own. I found this universal-as far as I had been amongst them-beginning at Cecil Plains, when I found that the spot on which I had built my first hut was called "Boyeer:" and pacing but a few hundred yards away up and down the Condamine was treading ground under another designation; and so, mile by mile, I found that there was no word given for the space we would walk over, approaching in. similarity by sound or length to what had been before pronounced. I know of no method they had of signifying distances but by the sun-journey by time.

Such are the alignments of the streets and highways made by the Australian aboriginal of the north. They can direct each other almost to within a hundred yards of an intended rendezvous. They have favourite haunts, whether through the fashion of the day-cést à dire, our Rotten Row in London, or marine esplanades, when the " season was over-or whether through the craving for some particular food, par example, our best-liked restaurants, chop houses, or fish dinners, I cannot tell; but I do know their dislike to camping near or frequenting places where a man has died a natural death and been buried, sometimes under ground, sometimes in a hollow tree.

CHAPTER XVIII.

God made the country, and man made the town.-Cowper.

A FEW days' rest in Brisbane-for I had none in Sydney, had looked at no newspaper, written no letters when last there, and had felt at one time too ill to care for news-gave me a chance of recouping the time of my inattention since my brother's arrival. The Sydney Gazette was still the accredited purveyor of information as to outside goings on, and this was attainable even in 1842. (Many an excised relic is now before me, 1887.) Almost the first thing that met my eye was of the date of June 19th, 1841, two days after I had left Sydney with my brother, last year! The name at the foot of the following announcement struck me, since it had become so familiar to these parts. I it for the name's sake, and here it is:

copy

"PENRITH RACES.-At a meeting held at the Rose Inn, Penrith, on Tuesday, 15th instant, for the purpose of establishing annual races at Penrith, it was unanimously resolved:

Club.

"That an association be formed, to be called 'The Penrith Racing

"That a general meeting of members and those favourable to the Club be held at the Rose Inn, Penrith, on Tuesday, the 29th June, at one o'clock.

"That Messrs. Hadley, Perry, Dawes, Templar, and Leslie be appointed to receive subscriptions.-PATRICK LESLIE, Acting Secretary." Well, after finding Darling Downs two years ago, I could not have settled down so restfully.

Then, I see, that the two blacks who had murdered poor Stapylton, at Moreton Bay, were hung on the 2nd of July, 1841, at Brisbane, near my old quarters, the gaol.

Let me try back. I was on the road at the end of the previous year. What became of those bushrangers, the Jew-boy and his gang? Day took them all, but what became of them? That was a plucky thing to do; Denny Day was indeed a good old soldier; now Police Magistrate at Maitland I hear! (Writing in this year of 1887 I do wonder what became of that gallant old fellow. I remember that time, and was not far from Scone when Graham was murdered at Dangar's store; also, that there was a J.P. near at hand, who refused to grant a warrant for the appre

hension of the murderers. That J.P.'s name was Robertson; what Robertson could it have been? Well, the country has paid little attention to the claim of so trusty, brave, and resolute a servant as Denny Day. I suppose he had no friend at Court; he was too true a man to be a tuft-hunter" in his advancing years. I passed through Doughboy Hollow but three days after his engagement with the captain of the outlawed gang, and was spared the quickened pulse and anxious vigilance which had inflicted many a dig of the spur in past months upon the wayfarer's jaded hack, as he passed the dreaded den of thieves. For such personal relief I yet am glad, forty-six years afterwards to offer my own tribute to his honest name, brave nature and memory.)

Ah! me Herclé! here comes something to recall that pleasing evening at Campbelltown last February. I must reproduce this newspaper cutting: the gist thereof has a certain bearing upon my present conclusions :

"ARRIVAL OF SIR THOMAS MITCHELL."

"(The concluding paragraph of a leader in to-day's Sydney Gazette of Saturday, February 6, 1841.)

"If any man deserve well of his country, it is he who explores and discovers unknown tracts of country. To men such as these, statues might be indeed erected during their life-time."

February 20th.

'DINNER TO SIR THOMAS MITCHELL."

"On Saturday evening last a number of highly respectable gentlemen met in Petty's Hotel at a dinner given to Sir Thomas, as a slight mark of the high esteem he was held in by them.

"In a late number we suggested the propriety of giving Sir Thomas Mitchell a public mark of that grateful feeling which all true Australians must feel towards the man who first opened the way to an extensive and important field of enterprise. We are still of that opinion, and we now call upon our brethren of the press, who feel as we do, to use their influence to accomplish this object; it is a matter apart from politics, for the benefits that have resulted from Sir Thomas's exertions in exploring the hidden recesses of this vast territory have fallen alike to all the rich and the poor have all been partakers, and surely there is not one amongst us that would not unite in offering their tribute of respect to one so worthy and deserving. Some base minds may say, 'what Sir Thomas did he was bound to do, and he was paid for so doing;' with these we have nothing in common. Up then, men of