Читать книгу The Black Troopers, and other stories онлайн

21 страница из 47

[ssss1] Ana branch is a channel which, leaving the main stream above, again joins it below. These ana branches are very characteristic of Australian rivers, often forming networks of creeks, which supply vast tracks of country, back from the main stream, which would otherwise be destitute of water.

As I walked past them on my way back to the hut, the blacks began one of their monotonous chants, to which the two women beat time with sticks, which they struck together, their eyes sparkling and white teeth glistening in the firelight, as they shouted a merry 'Good-night, doc, doc,' to me.

At the door of our hut I found the superintendent, who had just dismounted. Harris had gone to bed. 'I have some news for you,' Stevenson said to me when we had entered.

He hung his saddle up on a peg projecting from the partition which divided it into two parts, one being used as a storeroom, the other as a bed and sitting, as well as a dining-room. The beds being boards or sheets of bark, with sheepskins laid on them, on which were stretched mattresses stuffed with the 'wongul,' or down of the reeds which abounded everywhere near the river banks. There were four of these beds in the room, two on each side; they were placed on posts driven in the ground, and in the day-time were used as seats. The only other articles of furniture were a movable table standing against the partition, an easy chair made out of a flour-cask, and some shelves fixed on the walls. The centre of the room was therefore clear. After ascertaining that no blacks were lounging about the hut, Stevenson continued,—