Notes on Kurnai 150 pages

Transcription - Page 82

52A

During the time Darby was marking it - another
old man was talking to the messenger. After
that the young man walked up to the camp,
without speaking to any one there, the stick
was passed from Darby to Morgan - after
that Morgan gave the stick to the messenger
([Bo- crossed out] Tarry Bobby) - who walked off with it.
He held it at one end upright in front of
himself as he went away. After he left
the whole of the camp mingled together
the same as ever. I enquired where ehe was
going and how long he would be away. I was
told he would never stop or sleep till he
had reached the blacks to whom he was
carrying the message to. And also that
so long as he carried the stick in from of
him the black fellows would not touch him,
but they would kill him if they caught him
asleep and the stick not in front of him.

Sometime after I saw Bobby after his return
and asked him where he had been to. He
told me he had been to "Baul Baul Blackfellow".

Another time, I think before the above
mentioned fight took place, some blacks were
here working for me at Tarraville. Darby and
Tarra Bobby and Bingi, and Diamond.
A strange blackfellow came past where they
were working in the paddock. He took no notice
of them nor they of him. I observed that he
carried a message stick in front of him in
the usual position. He had a spear in the
other hand pointing downwards and he
passed by the young men's camp. Darby said to