Interrupted Song

The wiry young Gubabwingu tribesman found lying in the bush near the Yirrkala Methodist Mission, 400 miles east of Darwin in North Australia's desolate Arnhem Land, was paralyzed in the arms and legs and could scarcely breathe. Suspecting polio, the missionaries radioed for an air ambulance, and soon a 20th century thunderbird flew in to take Lya Wulumu (nicknamed Charlie), 19, from his Stone Age hunting grounds to Darwin Hospital. There four white doctors went to work on him.

A thorough examination showed no sign of polio. X rays revealed nothing. There seemed to be nothing wrong with Charlie's heart or nervous system. Yet his breathing and swallowing were labored. So the doctors put him in an iron lung. Bit by bit the explanation came out: Charlie's mother-in-law had become angry with him, evidently wanted him out of the way so her daughter could marry a Groote Island aborigine. So, Charlie gasped from his iron lung: "I bin sung." Explained a fellow tribesman, acting as interpreter: "Him bin sung song of dreamtime snake. When you sung snake song, snake coils around legs and arms and chest, and you no longer breathe. If I bin sung, snake get around me, and I bin finished."

The doctors pitted white magic against black; they knew little about cases like Charlie's except that they are usually hopeless; an aborigine who has been sung is resigned to death, loses the will to live and simply stops breathing.

The "wind box" (iron lung) took care of Charlie's breathing and shook his faith in the infallibility of tribal magic. To clinch it, the doctors gave him his tucker (food) intravenously and by stomach tube. Charlie, half-starved, had wandered six days in the bush without food. As he regained some strength, Charlie seemed to regain some will to live.

After ten days of treatment, Charlie was taken out of his "wind box." Doctors still had their fingers crossed (black magic has triumphed over white in half of the cases such as this), but Charlie continued to improve. Paralysis disappeared. His appetite returned. Charlie seemed convinced he was going to make it. Still weak, he will have to remain in the hospital for a month to regain his strength. Then he will be returned to his tribe, perhaps fortified sufficiently to resist the further machinations of his mother-in-law. Said Charlie gratefully: "White man, him very clever. White man magic better than black fella magic."

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