midnight
A corroboree or native dance was beginning . No more sleep till that was over -- so all hands turned out . A space was cleared in the wood , women stood on both sides with flaming boughs and threw a bright red light upon a particular portion of that space ; the rest was dark as pitch . Time , midnight . When the white men came up the dancing had not begun . Kalingalunga was singing a preliminary war song . George had picked up some of the native language , and he explained to the other that Jacky was singing about some great battle , near the Wurra-Gurra River .