"Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, May stop a hole to keep the wind away."

THE PETRIFIED ABORIGINE.

THE following article appeared in the South Australian Register of December 3rd, shortly after the trial in the Supreme Court in Adelaide, in which Mr. Craig sued Dr. Wehl for the recovery of "the petrified aborigine" now on view in Sydney. The writer (very correctly, as it has since transpired) apprehended that the rest of the poor aborigine might be again disturbed, and that he might be carried round the world for exhibition.  

" The cause of Craig v. Wehl, recently tried in the Supreme Court, shows how irresistible is the law of supply and demand. Nothing can escape the public rage for curiosities. A new phenomenon is a new pleasure. It must be obtained at any price, and every corner of the earth must be ransacked in search of it. Of course, when there is work like this to be done adventurous spirits will be ever found ready to do it. Barnum, perhaps, is the type of the class, and is the one who has most nearly elevated his calling to a science. But a better known grade of the profession is represented by Mr. Grinnidge, the showman, who, in the drama of the "GreenBushes," is seen venturing with his " caravan " into the forests of America, where he secures the services of a native "injine" to dance the war dance to the British public at the low charge of one penny a head. Thanks to the genius of Adelphi actors, this character is now so firmly established as the representative of the stage showman that there is no danger of its being displaced, otherwise Grinnidge would certainly now have to make room for Craig, whose recent adventures in search of a preserved aborigine beat those of his predecessor hollow. But the facts of the case shall speak for themselves. We find them in the reported proceedings of the Supreme Court, where, as the Crown Solicitor has ably shown, they form the raw material of at least an excellent farce.

" Our readers must in the first place know that the South-Eastern District had until recently rejoiced in the undisturbed possession of "a natural curiosity." What the cedars are to Lebanon, and the rocks of Stonehenge to Salisbury Plains, the "petrified abori- gine" was to Mount Gambier. For a showman to have attempted the removal of either cedars or rocks would, we need hardly say, have been an outrage of the deepest dye; but not less so was it in the eyes of many persons to carry off from its resting place, near Mount Gambier, the preserved remains of the dead aborigine. The showman, however, had set his heart upon those remains. The scientific world had long wished to see a petrified man, and here, at least, was some distant approach to one -a dying black-fellow had crawled into the caves of Penola, had there after death become encrusted with lime, and was now a naturally preserved mummy, coated over with stone. To secure this phenomenon was worthy the enterprise of a Belzoni and a Grinnidge united. Science and curiosity both demanded that the effort should be made, and it was made. But to the glory of Mount Gambier it was defeated. It appears that a Crown Lands ranger was the first to get an inkling of the proposed desecration. It came to his ears that a mysterious stranger, with some- thing like a harp in a dark bag slung over his back, had been seen steathily moving through the district. Who could he be, and what could be his errand? Men noticed that he travelled on foot ; that he passed along by-places ; and that he never quitted his hideous-looking burden day or night. When he rested to eat and drink he sat upon it, and when he slept he hid it beneath his bed. Women and children soon began to look upon this mysterious stranger with terror. Perhaps a horrible murder had been committed - perhaps another Eugene Aram, doomed to carry hither and thither the body of his victim, was walking the earth. But the Crown Lands ranger soon put an end to all these horrid sus- picions, and roused the attention of the residents to a new danger. The black bag contained nothing less than the "petrified aborigine," and the mysterious stranger was no other person than a showman seeking, to remove that valued curiosity out of the district forever.

" This discovery led to a seizure of the stolen treasure, and the seizure led to the trial which took place last week in the Supreme Court. The showman brought an action, with damages laid at £500, against the magistrate who ordered him to be dispossessed of the property, and the jury, after hearing the case, had no alternative but to lind a verdict for the plaintiff, since, if he was not the rightful owner of the mummy, it was impossible to say who was. The damages given, however, amounted to only one farthing, which left the unlucky showman, not merely to pay his own law costs, but also to bear the whole of the expenses incurred by his excursion to Mount Gambier. In the meantime the interesting cause of the dispute has been replaced, we believe, in its former resting place. But now its value is known, how is it to be kept there ? 

The Commissioner of Crown Lands stated in Parliament a few days ago that, should he remain in office, he would   take care that the last rest of the poor aborigine should be no further disturbed. We hope he will keep his promise; but if the curious are determined to possess themselves of the mummy, we are afraid it will be difficult to prevent them. Nothing but locks and bolts will probably be sufficient to keep those encrusted bones in the caves of Penola. The unfortunate aborigine by selecting that spot to die in perhaps doomed himself to visit after death every part of the civilised world. The poet has said

"Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, May stop a hole to keep the wind away."

But more curious still would be the fate of the Australian aborigine, valued after death at £500 - fought for in the Courts of Law-taken jealous care of by a Commissioner of Crown Lands -and, after all, perhaps carried round the world for public exhibition. " Imperious Caesar" might have envied all this postmortem distinction; but he lived too early. The spirit of Barnum was not abroad in those days, and especially not in the strengtn and vigour which, judging from the particulars of the cause Craig v. Wehl, it seems to possess amongst ourselves."


Sydney Morning Herald 21st February 1862