“Pleasem White Pfeller”— An Australian Corroboree

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 170, 8 October 1927, Page 26 (Supplement)

“Pleasem White Pfeller”— An Australian Corroboree

(Written for THE SUN by It. C. MACPHERSOX)

HE launch was slipping along at an easy ten knots toward Palm Island after a successful day’s fishing on one of the outlying reefs of

the Great Barrier, when one of the party happened to mention the fact that the blacks in the penal settlement on the far side of tne island were holding a corroboree in the evening. It was thereupon decided that we would put in to the settlement instead of proceeding straight to the bay where we were camping. The course of the launch was altered, and in due time we dropped anchor off the beach and rowed ashore in the dinghy. On entering the native village we were informed that the participants in the big corroboree were not yet ready. While we were waiting, the small boys of the village, in order to “pleasem white feller” put on a small show of their own. This consisted of’outlandish native dances, to the accompaniment of a stickbeaten on an empty kerosene tin, anc. soft wailing chants in the nativetongue. Just as the boy finished, a low chant and the sullen beat of a | tom-tom was heard coming from the direction of the scrub, where the bucks were preparing for the ceremony. Ther. came two giant islanders, naked but for a short grass skirt and a few shells, dancing down the track toward the firelight. On coming into the circle |of light cast by the ceremonial fires, w e got a better view- of these magni-ficently-proportioned men. Their huge shoulders matched perfectly their

, great height, for they were both over six feet. In fact, they were tne tallest blacks I had ever seen. Tn™ dancing was quite as wonderful* their physical perfection, for the • they whirled and flung would B made a Dervish white with envy, weird chanting of the crowd, clicking of the dancers’ shell anue“ and the fitful firelight playing 0® clay-streaked bodies of the bucks g ■ the scene a singular touch o unreal In the quiet, soft warm ; the tropical night. As the dancers came faster in their movements audience, squatted round the nr , • their chanting in perfect time wii beats of the dancers’ feet on the dry earth, and in turn the j Iments of the chief performers - . to be governed by tbe hollow thro a skin drum being beaten i ßo ® warout in the darkness. As the 1 riors took up the song. on f. _ ir K j\i, that these islanders singing barbarous war songs were ..-j. moved from the fierce cannibals, their ancestors, pillaged the peaceful island ™ « ' [l]e ir ing and eating all who cros tlieir path and looting the homes , victims. - -vo By this time, the bodies of - men were glistening w ?* h , v J v w oulif tion, but they seemed as if t > . never tire, and the speed of t j ße tions did not flag right up t of their final swing, when tn g* into the shadows and aw a. bush. _jv Jo*® Then came the pleasant • , r|S the beach when the rl3ing just beginning to throw a s j,e path of light over the "' ate h beat® turtles were shuffling abou in search of clean sand e gboaf® Too soon, it seemed, we j or our ! the launch and under j own camp. I .