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whether he has ever seen the dog, and, if so, he will probably know
who the owner is. And all this information comes at a glance!
The children love basking in the sand; and spend hours playing
with the glistening white and red drifts so plentiful in central and
northern Australia. Little mounds are built, upon which they sit to
defy the others to topple them; and oblong holes are scratched, into
which some of the younger are laid and almost completely covered
with sand. When the buried ones presently throw the sand from their
bodies, the rest of the players scamper off with a hullabaloo and tell
their elders the Kurdaitcha (devil-devil) is coming.
Along the north coast of Australia, the mud-banks of the tidal rivers
are a great source of amusement. When the water recedes during
the heat of day, the young folk make for the blue mud-banks to
indulge in sport and play. Mud-sliding is usually the first item of the
programme. Taking a long run over the firmer ground, the performers
reach the mud-bank with considerable velocity, and in consequence
of this, they slide over the slimy surface in much the same style as
our children in the Old Country do over the ice. They maintain their
balance with their arms. The sliding is effected either singly or in long
chains they form by joining hands. They endeavour to make their
slide reach the water, which, if they are successful, they enter with
no end of splashing and shrieking “Ai! Ai! Ai!”
Another method often tried is to run and then take the “slide” lying
upon chest and belly. As one is sliding this way, he turns his body
round its long axis and eventually disappears into the water. To the
observer a child sliding in this way looks deceptively like a stranded
dugong or other big fish endeavouring to make back to water.
Occasionally one of the sporters breaks the monotony of the game
by negotiating the “slide” with his stern. Or he may bring along a
small oblong sheet of bark, upon which he sits or kneels and propels
himself along with his foot. In modern language this toy might be
called a “mud-scooter.”
On Cambridge Gulf the girls have evolved yet another variety of
this sport. One lies flat on the mud, face downward, whilst another
stands behind her. The one lying now places her arms forwards and
holds the palms of her hands together; at the same time she bends
her legs to a rectangle in the knees, and keeping them together she
holds them rigid in that position. Now the girl standing behind seizes
the legs of the one on the mud at about the ankles and pushes the
human sleigh along the “slide.” As a special favour a piccaninny
might be allowed to take a seat upon the sliding girl’s back.
In the same district the boys delight in carrying each other pick-a-
back to the brink of the softest mud, to precipitate the rider
backwards into the slush or into the water.
To break the monotony, the children place themselves in a row,
each with a number of flattish pebbles previously collected on the dry
land, and take it turn about to pelt the surface of the water at a very
sharp angle in order to make the stone ricochet as many times as
possible.
A new game is begun by the girls stamping the water with their
feet, as at a corroboree; the boys are preparing for a sham-fight.
They cover the whole of their body, including the hair, with thick mud,
which they maintain is the same as the ochre the warriors apply to
their bodies when on the war-path. They pick sides and stand face to
face on a bank, about half a chain apart. Upon a given signal they
commence bombarding each other with mud-balls! One is reminded
of the snowballing feats of European school children. The lads
endeavour to dodge the mud-balls thrown by their adversaries with
as little movement as possible, by just contorting the figure or lifting a
limb to allow a missile to fly harmlessly by. Much gesticulation takes
place during the friendly combat, and often does one hear an excited
“Ai! Ai!” announcing the fact that a player has effected a narrow
escape. The climax, however, is not reached until a hit is recorded,
and a ball, too carefully aimed, spatters the body of a neglectful
opponent. When the game is over, all participants rest for a while
upon the surface of the muddy bank, then dive into the water and
wash the slush from their heated bodies.
At Kurrekapinnya Soakage in the Ayers Ranges the bare, inclined
surface of a granitic outcrop is utilized by the children for
tobogganing. The same track has been in use for so long that the
“slide” has become remarkably smooth from the constant wear. The
tobogganer gathers a bundle of rushes at the soakage and makes
for the top of the outcrop. There he places the bundle upon the
polished “slide,” sits upon it, and starts himself moving down the
slope. Considerable speed is attained by the time he reaches the
bottom of the rock, whence he shoots into the sand adjacent to it.
The performance is repeated over and over again.
The Victoria River tribes arrange competitions among the boys in
tree-climbing, the lads being required to clamber up a number of
selected trees, and down again, in the quickest time possible.
On Bathurst Island a favourite amusement of the younger folk on a
breezy day is to collect the light globular seed-heads of the “spring
rolling grass” (Spinifex hirsutis), that grow on every sandhill near the
coast, and take them to the beach to release them on the hardened
sand. Driven along by the wind, these seeds travel over the surface
at no mean pace. Allowing them to gain a fair start, the children bolt
after them, endeavouring to overtake them and pick them up from
the ground while dashing past at full speed in “cow-boy” fashion.
In the same locality the children assemble on the beach and
compete in running and long jumping.
The Arunndta and Dieri children collect the dry tussocks of the
“roly poly” (Salsola kali) upon a windy day and take them to a big
clay pan. There they liberate them, and, as the wind whips them over
the level ground, the youthful gang makes after them with toy spear
or boomerang, each endeavouring to either stake a tussock with the
first-named weapon or shatter it with the latter.
In the Fowler’s Bay district the tussock is replaced by an artificial
target, such as a ball of fur-string, which is rolled over the surface by
an elder.
The Arunndta boys on the Finke River cut discs out of the bark of
eucalyptus trees, which they roll over the hard ground and chase
with toy spears. In the same district I have seen the bark disc
replaced by an iron ring the boys had been given by a teamster; this
was carefully kept in one of the huts and only produced when the
lads were at liberty and felt inclined “to tilt at the ring.”
PLATE X
2. Ponga-Ponga gin carrying pet opossum on her head while on the march.
“On Sunday Island the bark food-carrier, there known as “oladda,” is used as a
cradle; one might often see a busy mother, attending to duties which occupy her
hands, putting her child to sleep by simultaneously rocking the receptacle
containing it with her foot.”