but shutting them up for the night in an empty room, I was horrified the next morning to find that they had all been killed by rats.  The young ones have four broad longitudinal stripes down the back, which disappear as they grow up.  The emu is easily domesticated, and on many cattle and sheep stations tame specimens are funning about the paddocks.  To my mind they are an intolerable nuisance, always doing some mischief —­ either frightening the horses, or stealing things from the workmen.  I saw one cured of his thievish propensities for a long time.  He always loafed about the kitchen when dinner was being served, and if the cook turned his back for a moment, his long neck was thrust through the window, and anything within reach —­ from an onion to a salt-spoon —­ disappeared with marvellous celerity.  But my friend caught a tartar when he bolted two scalding potatoes, steaming from the pot.  He rushed round and round the little paddock, and at last dropped down as if dead, from pain and fatigue.  Poor wretch, he must have suffered dreadfully; and I am sure we all pitied him, except the cook, whose patience he had quite worn out.

Out sable allies were gratified beyond measure when we presented them with the game, and a great feast took place that evening.  We neglected no opportunity of gaining information about both the shipwrecked crew and the unknown white man, whose grave we were to visit on the following morning.  Through Lizzie we questioned different individuals separately, but they all agreed that such an event as the loss of a vessel and the arrival of her crew amongst the blacks, could not possibly have happened without their hearing something of it.  From their imperfect knowledge of time, and their difficulty in expressing any number higher than five, we could not form the slightest idea how long the white man had lived among them; but they pointed to the ranges behind the township of Cardwell as indicating the place where he first joined them.

We camped at the opposite end of the water-hole, not thinking it judicious to remain too close to our allies, and kept a strict watch during the night; but we might all have enjoyed a good sleep in perfect safety, for the blacks were far too busy stuffing themselves with emu meat to think of treachery.  Before sunrise we started, guided by our late captive and two of his companions.  After a tedious walk, we arrived at an open plain, on which the grass was trodden down in every direction, in some places worn quite away by the feet of the natives —­ for this was the great “bora ground” of the coast tribes, where the mystic ceremonies mentioned in a former chapter took place.  Traversing the sacred plain, our thoughts busy in conjecturing the weird scenes that the posts had witnessed, we came to a little creek whose clear stream babbled cheerfully among the rocks, and soon saw a giant fig-tree, which our guides indicated as being the spot we sought.  As we