The lad, like Achilles among the maidens of Skyros, hid himself among a band of youths undergoing initiation, but the old lady twigged, venturing into the corroboree, and, catching him, bundled him into her dilly bag, to haul him back home.
[9] Lancelot Threlkeld, using reports from a castaway who had survived among the Moreton Bay blacks, argued in 1824 that they were far more advanced than the more southern tribes, dwelling in hut settlements that had the appearance of small villages.
[10] One important site for habitation was the southern side of the Cape Moreton headland, since this was the only area where outcroppings of sandy ironstone existed.
One old porpoise was well known and spoken of fondly.He had a piece of root, or stick of some sort, stuck in his hack, having evidently at one time run into something, and by this he was recognised, for it could be seen plainly The blacks told me it had been in him for years, and they declared that the great man of the island had put it there, thus making him the big fellow of the tribe of porpoises.I have seen this creature take fish from a spear, and the white men working on the island told me they often saw him knocking about with the blacks.
[13]Several Ngugi names survive behind European transcriptions of their language, for the Cape Moreton headland area: Mijin Boowell, Gunemba, Boogaram-calleem, and Cangallioon.
Nearby, according to Thomas Welsby who visited the island in 1900 and collected local lore, there was a cave in which, were anyone to enter it and scratch his head, he would be killed by a stone dropping from the cavern ceiling.
[15] A Ngugi headman had a repute for developing fresh corroboree dances and songs, which he would think out after retreating to a place of solitude, and then introduce on his return.
[20] As part of a campaign of retaliation also involving the Nunukul, after reciprocal hostilities broke out over the setting up of British military stations on the islands, Captain Clunie despatched armed parties on punitive raids.
In one such sortie soldiers of the 17th Regiment encircled Ngugi camped at the fresh water lagoon on the southern end of Moreton Island, and killed a score of them.