A DESERT TRIBE


The next morning we were up betimes and ready to start as soon as ever
the tracks were visible; presently a smoke, their first hunting-smoke of
the day, rose close to us. Despatching Charlie on Satan, and Godfrey on
foot, with instructions to catch a native if possible, I hastened along
the tracks followed by the rest of the party. We reached their camp just
in time to see the late inmates disappear into a thicket of mulga close
by. Neither Charlie nor Godfrey was able to come up with the lighters of
the fire unseen, and these, too, fled into the scrub, where chase was
almost impossible. Their camp deserves description, as it was the first
(excepting travelling camps) we had seen of the desert black-fellow.

Facing the belt of mulga, was a low wall of uprooted tussocks of spinifex
built in a half circle and some two feet high. On the leeward side of
this breakwind, inside the semi-circle, half a dozen little hollows were
scraped out in the sand. Between each of these nests lay a little
heap of ashes, the remains of a fire which burns all night, replenished
from time to time from a bundle of sticks kept handy for the purpose. The
nest in the sand is the bed, a double one, and not only double but
treble, and more; for in it, coiled up snugly, may lie several of the
tribe, higgledy-piggledy, like pups in a basket. The fire takes the place
of nightshirt, pyjamas, or blanket--a poor substitute on a cold night!
Scattered about were several utensils, two wooden coolimans full of water
and grass--this showing that the owners contemplated a journey, for the
grass floating on the surface is used to prevent the water from spilling.
Two more coolimans were filled with seed--a fine yellow seed from a plant
like groundsel. Close by these were the flat stones (of granite,