When he did realise the true
state of the case he wasted no breath in explanations. The blacks
catered for themselves in the future, and got fat and saucy on the diet
of plain flour and water, so cooked that sometimes it was like
half-burnt deal, and as often a sticky, ropy mess.
EVERYTHING FOR A NAME
To the blacks of North Queensland there is a great deal in a name. When
a piccaninny is born, the first request is--"You put 'em (or make 'em)
name belonga that fella!" When a strange boy, a myall, "comes in" he
wants a name, and until he gets it he is as forlorn as an ownerless dog.
Anything does, from "Adam" to "Yellow-belly" or "Belle Vue." He seems
as proud of the new possession as a white boy of his first pair of
trousers, and soon forgets his original name. "What name belonga you,
your country?" I asked an alert boy. "I bin lose 'em; I no find 'em.
Boss, he catch 'em alonga paper!"
THE KNIGHTLY GROWTH
Wallace, in his MALAY ARCHIPELAGO, gives an amusing account of a native
who was superbly vain of an isolated tuft of hair on the one side of his
chin, the only semblance of beard he possessed. A black boy on one of
the inland stations left with a mob of travelling cattle for the south.
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