MYSTERY SKULL.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 November 1923, Page 4

MYSTERY SKULL.

BLOODTHIRSTY BLACKS. SYDNEY, No/. ]. A little while ago somebody digging in the deanery garden in Perth, West Australia, came upon a skull, which has since been the subject of much controversy. Anatomists have pronounced it to be that ol an aboriginal, but how it came, in its truncated form, to be reposing in that sof|Uostored spot i- tlm -übjeet of a variety of speculation. One thing seems certain. The deanery garden has not always been n plea-ant spot. In fact, in the early days of the township it was a sort of prison, and antir|tianans insist on the probability of there having been so unpleasant a structure as a gallows in the vicinity. That much ascertained, opinion has been busy amongst distinguished and notorious blacks who were brought to the town for the he(fit of their lives l,y reason oi some bloodthirsty escapades or oilier. Heading these convinces one that at least some of these native- in the early days settlement there wore oi'-vvry ferocious disposition, and though the reminiscences of old families may not succeed in eslablishincr the ownership of the skull, they at lea-1 have afforded some vivid pictures of what the early whites had to contend with. One of the latest of these relates to a sinister personality by the name of Thiel Midpargnrro. whose hones arc somewhere in the environs of Perth. Mr C. E. Layton, who relates the story say- dial although he cannot be certain exactly where the chief' was buried after the hanging, he knows that it was in Perth ahum 1.-vfl). "lie was ehiei of the Perth tribe.' says .Mr Layton. "This account was given to me by my lather, William Layton, who landed at Swan Diver in September. l'2!h or January, I'd!!), In the ship Protector. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and was employed at different places in the scattered sett lent: tit. and when employed n( one of

these places he was captured by a gang belonging to this same chief or his son-in-law, another chief. just as bloodthirsty a- Midjargat to. Ilis name was Ynganbulyet. lie was eltiel of another part of the district. It was their custom, it they captured anyone in the daylight to strip iff his shirt. Iwo blacks would bold hint to a tree, and the others would stand In front of itint working themselves into a passion. They would also prick the prisoner over the heart to draw blood (as (hey did to my fat her), and when they got ihcm.-elves into a passion they would drive their spears into the pri-

‘‘ mr. !i happened when lay latiiei "a- raptured l hat just at the critical memeiti, a native by the name of Mil! ego, to whom my lather some time previously bad given his breakfast mi cold winter morning. came ot. the scene with bis parly, and a light ensued in which M ulego’s pa*tv won. and so saved my father. Both of these vuels were very bloodthirsty. and -flared none whom thev captured. About an hour before i bey captured mv iatber they bad killed a white man "ho was minding sheep lor one ol the -eldin'-, My father knew both these (hud- well by retntlation. anil dreaded Mem, a- lie wa- lost twice in the hash. I bate no doubt that the skull I- I bat of Mhi iargan e. The oilier. T believe, was -hoi.'