Spinifex and Sand Part 23

1. The first law is that--Natives belonging to cla.s.s A may only intermarry with cla.s.s B, and natives belonging to C may only intermarry with cla.s.s D.

2. The progeny of a man and woman of intermarrying cla.s.ses is of a different cla.s.s from either father or mother.

Thus a man of cla.s.s B marries a woman of cla.s.s A, but their offspring (male or female) is of cla.s.s D.

Let Am represent a male of cla.s.s A.

Let Af represent a female of cla.s.s A, and similarly Bm, Bf, &c.

Let Ap represent progeny who belong to cla.s.s A, and similarly Bp, Cp, Dp.

Law 2 may now be set down as under--

Af + Bm Am + Bf Cf + Dm Cm + Df ------- ------- ------- ------- Dp Cp Bp Ap

3. The first law holds good with the progeny of these combinations, i.e., Dp can only marry one of cla.s.s C--though neither the father nor mother of Dp could marry into cla.s.s C; similarly for Cp, &c.

4. Dp recognises as father or mother all members of cla.s.ses A and B; similarly Cp, &c.

This explains the seeming absurdity of the answer one receives from natives to questions concerning their relations.h.i.+ps to others. An old man, for instance, may point out a young girl and say, "That one my mother,"

for the girl belongs to the same cla.s.s as his actual father or mother.

5. All the progeny of cla.s.ses A and B are brothers and sisters; similarly C and D.

Thus taking Dp2 to represent the progeny of an Ap and a Bp

Af + Bm Ap + Bp --------- ------- Dp Dp2

All of cla.s.s Dp recognise cla.s.s Dp2 (though of another generation) as brothers and sisters. For this reason there is no absurdity in a small boy pointing out a very aged woman as his sister.

6. A man may have as many wives as he can get, so long as these laws are adhered to.

Let us now see what degrees of kindred are prohibited by these laws.

Let us take the case of a man of cla.s.s A. He can only marry a woman of cla.s.s B, whose parents must therefore have belonged to cla.s.ses C and D her mother being a C and her father a D.

Therefore his wife's mother and father belong to cla.s.ses with which he may not intermarry.

Therefore a man may not marry--

1. His mother-in-law.

2. The sister of his wife's mother.

3. The sister of his wife's father.

4. Nor the sister of any one of the three.

5. Nor can he marry his sister.

But he may marry--

His wife's sisters (sisters by blood or tribal cla.s.s).

And as far as I can see, no law prevents a man from marrying his grandmother should he so desire.

CHAPTER II

STURT CREEK AND "GREGORY'S SALT SEA"

The Sturt Creek presents many points of interest. It rises in the Northern Territory, runs for nearly three hundred miles in a South-Westerly direction, and comes to an end in a large salt-lake, across the border, in the desert. It runs throughout its entire length once in every three or four years, though each yearly rainy season floods it in certain parts. In the dry season one might in many places ride right across its course without being aware of it. In the wet season such parts of it are swamps and marshes, over which its waters spread to a width of five and six miles. Permanent pools are numerous, and occur wherever a ridge of sandstone rock runs across the course of the creek. On either side of the creek fine gra.s.s-plains spread East and West. The further South the creek goes, the less good is the country on the East side; presently there is no gra.s.s country except on the West side. Not far below the station the creek is joined by the Wolf, which, like all Kimberley creeks, is fringed with gums, Bauhinia, and Leichardt-trees.

From the confluence downwards a war between the gra.s.s-lands and the desert is waged for the supremacy of the river-banks. For miles the sandy channel, cut out like a large drain through the country, less than one chain wide in places, is hemmed in on either side by desert gums and spinifex, and once out of sight of the creek the surrounding land receives no benefit from the water.

But lower down again, about the lat.i.tude of Mount Mueller, the gra.s.s plains gain the day; and a very pretty bit of country they form too, especially when the creek is running, as it was when we were there. In many places its waters had overflowed the banks, expanding into clay-pans and lagoons of beautiful clear water where teal and whistling duck disported themselves.

The Wolf rises on the opposite slope of the watershed to Christmas Creek and the Mary River, and floods twice or thrice a year. Below its junction with the Sturt the combined creek takes on itself the character of the Wolf, and at the point of confluence the Sturt may be said to end. Seeing how seldom the Sturt runs its entire length and how small its channel is at this point, smaller than that of the Wolf, I think that it is to the latter that the lakes (Gregory's "Salt Sea") chiefly owe their existence.

However that may be, the combined waters fill but an insignificant channel and one can hardly credit that this creek has a length of nearly three hundred miles.

On nearing the lakes the creek a.s.sumes so dismal an appearance, and so funereal is the aspect of the dead scrub and dark tops of the "boree" (a kind of mulga), that one wonders that Gregory did not choose the name of "Dead" instead of merely "Salt Sea." A curious point about this lower part of the creek is, that stretches of fresh and salt water alternate.

The stream, as we saw it, was only just running in the lower reaches; in places it ran under the sandy bed, and in this part the salt pools occurred. First we pa.s.sed a stretch of clear, brackish water, then a nearly dry reach of sand, then a trickle of fresh water lasting for a hundred yards or so; this would again disappear, and be seen lower down as another salt pool.

The creek enters the first lake in a broad estuary; this lake is some four miles long by two miles wide, lying North and South. At the southern end a narrow channel, 150 yards wide, winds its way into the large lake beyond, a fine sheet of water, eight miles in diameter. A narrow belt of open country, overgrown with succulent herbage, fringes the margin of the lake; beyond it is dense scrub, with occasional patches of gra.s.s; beyond that, sand, sandhills, and spinifex. In the distance can be seen flat-topped hills and bluffs, and rising ground which encloses the hollow of the lake. The lake has no outlet; of this Gregory satisfied himself by making a complete circuit of it. At the time of his discovery the lakes were dry, or nearly so, and doubtless had the appearance of being shallow depressions, such as the salt lakes in the southern part of the Colony; so that having followed the Sturt for so many miles--a creek which showed every appearance of occasionally flooding to a width of five or six miles--he must have been somewhat uncertain as to what happened to so great a volume of water. However, the lake is nearly thirty feet deep in the middle, and, from its area, is capable of holding a vast amount of water. The creek, below its confluence with the Wolf, is continually losing its waters, throwing off arms and billabongs, especially to the west, which form swamps, clay-pans, and lagoons. So much water is wasted in this manner that near the entrance into the lake the creek is of a most insignificant size. The fall, too, is so gradual that the water runs sluggishly and has time to soak away into the enclosing sand.

Mr. Stretch tells me that it takes eight days for the water from rain falling at the head of the Sturt to pa.s.s his homestead, which gives it a rate of one mile per hour. Heavy rains had fallen at its source about a month before our arrival, and the water was still flowing. We therefore saw the lakes as full as they are ever likely to be, except in abnormal seasons. North of the lake are numerous large clay-pans which had not been flooded, and the lakes could evidently hold more water, and had done so in time past, so that it is pretty clear that the lakes are large enough for ordinary flood waters, and, with the outlying clay-pans, can accommodate the waters of an extraordinary flood.

I feel confident, therefore, that no outlet exists, and that beyond doubt the Sturt ends at the Salt Sea, and does not "make" again further South, as some have suggested. Standing on any of the hills which surround the lake, some distance (ten miles or so) from it, one can look down upon the water, certainly five hundred feet below the level of the hills, which rise no more than eighty feet above the surrounding plain.

It seems most improbable, therefore, that a creek should break its way through country of so much greater alt.i.tude without being seen by Colonel Warburton or myself, or that any connection should exist between the Salt Sea and Warburton's Salt Lakes to the South-East.

Had, however, the intervening country been of the same level as the lake, and flat instead of formed into high sand ridges and hills, there might have been a possibility of crossing a connecting creek of the same character as the Sturt without noticing it. This question has been much discussed by gentlemen interested in the geography of interior Australia, and therefore I have dealt with it at some length.

CHAPTER III

OUR CAMP ON THE "SALT SEA"

April 2nd to 7th we were the guests of Mr. Stretch, and whilst resting here G.o.dfrey's eyes soon became well enough to allow him to travel. On the 7th, therefore, we set forth on our journey and bade adieu to the last outpost of civilisation in the North. Our party was further increased by a Sturt Creek boy, Tiger by name--a very smart and intelligent fellow of whom Mr. Stretch was very glad to see the last, for smart boys are nearly always the most mischievous amongst the cattle.

Warri and Tiger were great friends, and the new boy's presence put Warri on his mettle, and no amount of work was too hard for him whilst he had Tiger to show off to. After I had cut his hair and shampooed his head with kerosene and soap, dressed him in trousers, s.h.i.+rt, and cap, he looked a most presentable youth.

Mr. Stretch accompanied us down the creek for the first few days, during which we pa.s.sed some of his cattle and horses. The flies and mosquitoes worry the poor beasts terribly, and all day long the horses stand in the water in pairs, or in a line, with head to tail, each one flicking the flies from his neighbour's face with his tail. This habit of standing up to the girth in water has given rise to a horse sickness known as "swamp-cancer." The skin under the belly becomes so soft that at last a raw place is formed, and this, aggravated by the flies, spreads until it becomes a serious disease. Another horse-sickness common in the North is called the "Puffs." A horse suffering from this pants and blows after the least exertion, and in the hot weather his skin becomes puffy, and any violent exercise would be fatal. The Monk, one of our horses, suffered from this slightly; as soon, however, as we had left the Kimberley district and entered the desert he recovered entirely. Numerous small families of natives were camped along the creek, all accompanied by dogs, which gave us some annoyance at night; for salt meat, at first, should be hung out during the night to get the benefit of the fresh air, and this roused their hungry instincts. A few miles below the Wolf, Mr. Stretch left us, and we parted from our kind host with regret--he to return to his cattle, and we to the task of laying bare the richness (we hoped) or the nakedness (we expected) of the untrodden land before us.

At first we did very small stages, for the joy of travelling alongside running water was too great to be quickly pa.s.sed over. The camels and horses became good chums very soon, and played about together without any signs of fear or surprise on the part of the horses, although they had never seen camels before--a different state of affairs from that in Coolgardie, where horses as a rule snort and plunge with terror on first acquaintance with an "emu-brother," as the black-fellow calls the camel.

As we neared the lakes we had some difficulty in finding water fit to drink, and camped about nine miles above the lakes, whilst G.o.dfrey and I scouted ahead to see if fresh water could be found lower down. We surprised two camps of natives, most of whom ran into the scrub as we approached--several gins and a boy remaining. One of the women had a most remarkable baby, quite a small thing, but with a tremendous growth of black hair, s.h.i.+ny and straight, altogether different from the ordinary coa.r.s.e hair of the aboriginal. They came with us, walking beside us as we rode, jabbering and gesticulating in their usual excited manner, and inviting us to their camp, pointing to the rising smoke. Water, however, was our requirement, so we continued on our way down the creek, the boy coming with us. We shot a few ducks which our young friend retrieved, and having found a reach of fresh water just above the first and smaller lake, returned campwards, surprising a hunting-party on our way; they retired quickly, the boy following them, taking with him the ducks which we had been at such pains to stalk!