Billy Muck, the Rainmaker, was now King, and I suppose that Bett-Bett was Queen Consort. But the tribe will never be afraid of the new King, for he is neither cute nor clever, and I dont think the wise men will take much notice of him. He is head man, of course, and knows all his Corrobborees, but he is only a kind, simple-hearted old blackfellow, and will never be the absolute monarch that Goggle Eye was.
They buried the poor old King in a very shallow grave, just where he had died. They laid his spears, and his pipe, and all that belonged to him on the top of his grave, covering them over with a sheet of paper-bark, which was kept in place with a few large stones. After that they built his bark humpy over him again, and then went away, leaving him all alone in the deserted camp; for a camp is always deserted after a death. Their new camp was two or three hundred yards away, and never again would any one willingly enter the old one.
South of the Roper River dead men are always put away in the branches of a tree for a long time before burial, but I never heard of this being done at the Roper. I know Goggle Eye was buried at once, and there was a big cry-cry in the camp. Every one ran about and pretended to cut themselves with knives, but I noticed that it was nearly all pretence. I dont believe that any one of them cared as much as I did.
Next day Tommy Dod started on a journey to try and find out, by different magic signs, who had sung his brother, so that he could sing them in revenge. That was his duty, you know. As far as I could find out, somebody was always looking for somebody else, in order to sing him. If Tommy found the murderer he would sing him, and if the murderer died his relatives would all sing Tommy, and then Tommys relatives would sing the murderers relatives, and that is how it goes on, till the wonder is that anybody is left alive.
Nobody ever mentioned Goggle Eyes name again. It really didnt matter, but it was just as well not to do so, because if he heard his name he might think some one was calling him, and come to see.
When they needed to speak of him, they gave his name in the sign language. To do this, they crooked up all their fingers till their hand looked like a birds claw, and then suddenly jerked it forward, and that meant