consideration, we find the tribes of the mainland in very different stages of civilization, and differing also very materially in physical respects. Hitherto the piteous objects at King George's Sound, in the south-west corner of the continent, of which Dumont d'Urville procured drawings, have been generally regarded as samples of Australian humanity. We were wont to imagine them emaciated skeletons, with narrow pelvises even in the women, meagre feeble limbs, and swollen bellies; but according to all explorers the type improves towards the interior. In the lake district, at the north-east limit of South Australia, MacKinlay found the handsomest tribes that he had seen on the continent. Landsborough in April, 1862, in 23° south latitude, on the Thompson River, far from the coast, and Stuart in the north, met with natives whom they agree in describing as fine and powerful men. The settlers on the shores of Queensland also say that the natives of that district are well-built and strong-limbed. The social development visibly deteriorates both from north to south and from east to west; that is to say, in proportion to the distance from Cape York, the chief point which has served to connect Australia with the Old World, the customary mode of life of the natives becomes more and more degraded. For example, before the introduction of the Papuan pirogue the tribes of the peninsula of Carpentaria had long possessed boats, although the best specimens were not better than the bark canoes of the Red Indians of North America. On the east coast of Queensland, observers on board H.M.S. Fly were unable to discover any such canoes south of Rockingham Bay, (18° south lat.) 24 In Botany Bay, Cook found that the natives had pieces of bark which served as boats, and the tribes on the Murray were no better provided.25 In the neighbourhood of Port Essington, on the north coast, the people used rude floats, and Ferd. Müller who, with Gregory, discovered the Victoria River and Sturt's Creek, also observed among the tribes of the interior only floats of two or three trunks, which, for fear of alligators, were used in crossing. Lastly, Gregory's ship Dolphin, when lying behind Dampier Island, on 21 Jukes, Voyage of H. M. S. Fly. 25 George French Angas, Australia and New Zealand. Dwellings and Clothing. 331 the north coast (1861), was visited by natives who used trunks of trees in their natural form instead of boats. The Australians of the south coast have not been met with on the sea. James Browne 26 assures us that the West Australians of Swan River are not only destitute of any boats, but are even unable to swim. At King George's Sound the natives have only leaves for roofs; they spread a covering of leaves over curved stakes, the ends of which are inserted in the ground. In New South Wales, Queensland, and on the shores of the Bay of Carpentaria, the curved bark of a tree placed on the ground serves as a protection from the weather for a single person, or several pieces of bark spread upon a framework of stakes gives shelter to several. Thus the Australian builds no permanent dwelling, but lives as a roving hunter in a tent made of leaves or bark. Yet in West Australia there are wooden huts and spacious buildings in the peninsula of Coburg, and others with two storeys in the Cape York district.27 In the two latter cases, however, the favourable influence of Malays and Papuans may be inferred. The Australians when first discovered were living in the age of unpierced stone implements. Their arms and hunting weapons were projectiles, the most important being the spear, of which the point was either hardened in the fire for hunting purposes, or provided with barbed hooks for harpooning fish, or armed with sharp flints or shells for fighting purposes. The boomerang is found among all the tribes of the north, west, south, and east coasts, with the exception of the inhabitants of Cape York and a few tribes on the Lower Murray. Shields for defensive purposes are used by all the tribes both on the coast and in the interior, except in West Australia. The people of the east coast manufacture lines and hooks for fishing, the latter being made of birds' claws or mussel shells, while on the west coast nets are used for fishing purposes. 28 The wish to cover the body as a matter of sentiment is as yet unfelt in Australia, but on the west, south, and east coasts, cape-like cloaks, made of the skins of animals, are 26 Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1856. thrown round the shoulders as a protection against bad weather. Many tribes also fasten straps round their loins, which are drawn tighter in times of scarcity in order to diminish the feeling of emptiness. An attempt at clothing is first met with at Cape York, where the influence of the Papuans is evident.29 The monuments and works of art of the Australians consist almost solely of decorations of burying-places, and of hollow boat-like coffins, which latter do not occur only on the east coast, for one containing the body of a child was noticed by Mac Douall Stuart on May 12th, 1861, in the Ashburton mountains, in the northern half of Australia, and is described by him as the most artistic native production he had seen. There are also figures of men and animals drawn in chalk and ochre on the rocks of the Victoria River, which were observed by Gregory and Müller 30 in 1856, as well as still more remarkable etchings, an inch in depth, on the rocks of the east coast; in those, for instance, at Camp Cove, near Sydney, rude outlines of men and animals may be discerned. The women of the tribes on the Murray, and in New South Wales, showed great dexterity in plaiting baskets of rushes. In the previous enumeration of weapons, we purposely omitted to mention the wummera, or throwing-stick, an invention common to all Australian tribes without exception, and indicates much greater intelligence than the boomerang, which, although more surprising on account of the eccentricity of its flight, is always an uncertain missile, the discovery of which was probably the result of accident. The throwing-stick fastened to the palm of the hand, or held by the three last fingers, and provided at the fore end with a diagonal groove in which the spear is laid, doubles the throwing power of the human arm. If it be imagined, says Jukes, that the forefinger is the same length as the throwing-stick, and that while the spear is held with the thumb and middle finger, the last joint of the forefinger is bent round the end of the spear, this explains the increase given by the throwing-stick to the initial velocity of the spear.31 Unfortunately, it cannot be positively ascertained that the Australians did not borrow this invention, for the New 29 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxxii. 1862. 31 Voyage of H.M.S. Fly. Language and Habits. 333 Caledonians also use a throwing-sling, although not the throwingstick. A similar plan is followed in other places: by the Aleutians and their neighbours the Eskimo, and was used by the ancient Mexicans. 32 The fact that the intelligence of the Australians is by no means contemptible has only been recognized since we have gained an insight into their languages. If the profusion of forms briefly expressing minute relations were to decide the rank of a language, we and all the nations of Western Europe might envy the miserable tribes of King George's Sound, for their language possesses four more case-terminations than Latin, and a dual as well as singular and plural. The verb is as rich in tenses as Latin, and has also terminations for the dual, and three genders for the third person; in addition to active and passive, it has reflective, reciprocal, determinative, and continuative forms. In point of structure of language, the highly cultured Polynesians, and even the ancient Chinese, must yield to the inventive Australians. We also find among them attempts at poetry and the names of renowned poets. Although their songs are rude they nevertheless contain expressions which no longer occur in daily intercourse.33 They have, moreover, many pretty and picturesque names for the constellations. They regard the Milky Way as a reflection of the River Darling, in the waters of which their dead are fishing, and the Clouds of Magellan as two old witches, transfixed to the sky for their crimes. 34 The most surprising fact is that they have names for eight different winds. They are peculiarly inventive in expressions of courtesy, which they both require and bestow freely in conversation. We have already stated that a great dread of incest prevails amongst them, and that wife-stealing is therefore customary; that they hold the duties of "vendetta" sacred, recognize property in immovable objects, and inherit the family name from the mother. Even in such a condition as that of the Australians, society is David Cranz, Historie von Grön 32 O. Langsdorff, Reise um die Welt. land. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 69. 33 Reise der Fregatte Novara, Fr. Müller. * Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi. regulated by various institutions. The Australian languages are indeed said to be without an expression for chieftain,35 and we look in vain among the western tribes for anything that might even in a broad sense be termed a priesthood. In New South Wales and in Queensland, which are the most highly civilized districts of Australia, we find on the other hand the Koradshi, who have so far discarded the vulgar terror of the dark that they will spend a night on the graves of dead men. By their Shamanistic arts they are likewise able to give comfort and reassure sick people, and they also know how to apply slight palliatives, blood-letting among others. It is a curious fact that among the wretched people of the west coast, the inviolability of ambassadors is respected till the gaping wound by which such a messenger is marked is completely healed. 36 Experience in Queensland and New South Wales shows that the modern Australians were quite capable of rising to a higher condition, for in those parts many learnt to speak English with fluency and correctness, became skilful and bold riders, and as shepherds were preferred to Europeans, on account of their adroitness in the bush, and also because it was found possible to train them into efficient guards for the more remote runs. That their condition has hardly improved is partly due to the isolation of their native land, which impeded any contact with other nations. Hence the inhabitants of Cape York were first influenced by Papuan immigrants, and they in their turn influenced for good their southern neighbours; for instance, on the east coast, according to Angas, all the new popular songs, and the dances which accompany them, have been propagated from the north in a southerly direction. 37 But the degraded condition of the Australians is principally due to their ignorance of agriculture, while they are not strictly maritime people like the Fuegians and the Eskimo. They were thus obliged to content themselves with the produce of the chase, with the fish and shellfish which they were able to obtain on the seacoast and the banks 35 H. Wilkes, United States Exploring Expedition, vol. ii. p. 186. 37 Australia and New Zealand, vol. ii. |