AUSTRALIAN MORALITY 149 



may lawfully partake. Howitt says of these food rules and other sim- 

 ilar customs that they give us an entirely different impression of the 

 aboriginal character from that usually held. Adherence to the rales 

 of custom was a matter on which they were most conscientious. If 

 forbidden food were eaten, even by chance, the offender has been known 

 to pine away and shortly die. Contact with the whites has broken 

 down much of this primitive tribal morality. 



The oft-repeated description of the black fellow eating the white man's beef 

 or mutton and throwing a bone to his wife who sits behind him, in fear of a 

 blow from his club, is partly the new order of things resulting from our civiliza- 

 tion breaking down old rules (Howitt, p. 684). 



Under the influence of the food rules, a certain generosity of 

 character was fostered and unquestionably it was present in the blacks 

 to a marked degree. He was accustomed to share his food and pos- 

 sessions, as far as he had any, with his fellows. 



It may, of course, be objected to this that in so doing he is only following 

 an old-established custom, the breaking of which would expose him to harsh 

 treatment and to being looked upon as a churlish fellow. It will, however, 

 hardly be denied that, as this custom expresses the idea that in this particular 

 matter every one is supposed to act in a kindly way towards certain individuals, 

 the very existence of such a custom . . . shows that the native is alive to the 

 fact that an action which benefits some one else is worthy of being performed. 2 



The apparent absence of any excessive manifestations of apprecia- 

 tion or gratitude in the blackfellow has been interpreted by some ad- 

 versely. But giving, as far as the natives were concerned, was such a 

 fixed habit that gratitude did not seem to be expected. It does not 

 necessarily follow that they could not feel gratitude because they did 

 not show any sign of it to the white man when he bestowed upon them 

 some paltry presents, for, as Spencer and Gillen point out, they might 

 not feel that they had reason to be grateful to him who had encroached 

 upon their water and game and yet did not permit of them a like 

 hunting of his own cattle. 



Although as a rule perfectly nude, they are said to have been mod- 

 est before contact with the whites (Lumholtz, p. 345). Of the north 

 Australians, we are told that the women were never indecent in gesture, 

 their attitude being rather one of unconsciousness (Creed, p. 94f). 

 The low regard for chastity, reported by some observers (e: g., Mac- 

 kenzie, p. 131), may, in part, be explained by the failure of the out- 

 sider to understand their peculiar marriage customs, on account of 

 which the relation of the sexes is to be judged by different criteria than 

 with ourselves. Spencer and Gillen, the most recent and the most 

 scientific of all who have studied this race, say of the central tribes that 

 chastity is a term to be applied to the relation of one group to another 

 2 Spencer and Gillen, " The Native Tribes of Central Australia," p. 48. 



