, upon which they live when there is no "white fella" sitting
down. When Providence sends a "white fella," they appreciate flour, tea,
sugar, potatoes, meat, and all sorts of game, from cockatoos to
flying-foxes. Once Mickie was asked how he managed to win the favour of
such a fine gin. "Unkl belonga her giv'em me," he replied. There was no
marriage ceremony. There was no knocking out of a tooth, or the
administration of a stunning blow on the head with a nulla-nulla, no
eating of maize-pudding from the same plate, no drinking brandy
together, no "hand fasting," nor boring of the bride's ears by the
bridegroom, no tying of hands, nor smearing with each other's blood, nor
binding together with ropes of grass; simply, "Unkl belonga her giv
'em me!" Once in his possession, however, and Mickie proceeded to set
his mark on his bride, so that should any dispute arise as to identity,
he at least would have authentic brands. With an apparently studied
array of cicatrices, each 3 inches long and half an inch wide, on her
arms and shoulders, Mickie marked Jinny for his own. The couple have one
girl--Mickie prefers to use the word "daw-tah"--and his child had been
but lately received into the bosom of the family, after several years'
exile among the whites.
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