3° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The organization of the Australian horde is es- 

 sentially communistic. Personal property consists 

 merely of such weapons and tools as each man can 

 carry with him on his wanderings. The hunting 

 grounds of every horde are well defined, and their 

 boundaries respected by their neighbors. As a rule 

 they live in peace, because there are no spoils to be 

 won, and therefore no temptations to plundering ex- 

 peditions. Most of the tribes choose a chief, usually 

 a skillful hunter or sorcerer, whose counsel carries 

 weight, but whose positive authority is very limited ; 

 he has no power to dictate laws to the community, 

 or to impose his will arbitrarily on other members of 

 the tribe. The checks upon individual liberty are 

 very slight, and with the exception of a few general 

 restrictions, prescribed by ancient custom, every 

 man is perfectly free and independent in his actions, 

 and even the children do pretty much as they please, 

 and are in this respect far better off than the women, 

 who are wholly subject to their husbands and made 

 to bear the heat and burden of the day. Old men, 

 owing to their long experience, exercise a general 

 oversight and enjoy a certain authority, especially 

 in the training of youth and in the formation of 

 matrimonial connections; occasionally a man of 

 strong character, superior intelligence, and con- 

 spicuous valor acquires great influence, as was the 

 case with the famous chieftain of the Dieri, Jalina 

 Piramurana; but what sovereignty he possesses is 

 strictly personal, and does not affect the position of 

 other members of his family, nor confer distinction 

 upon his descendants. His pre-eminence does not 

 lead to any recognition of hereditary rank, nor en- 

 title his children to any privileges of birthright;, 

 they are on perfect equality with those of every 

 other tribesman. 



The Australians were practical Malthusians long- 

 before Malthus, and take the strictest precautions, 

 and the severest measures in order to prevent an 

 increase of population beyond the means of subsist- 

 ence. The fact that a score of herdsmen and more than twice as 

 many husbandmen can live in comfort on an area of land that would 

 furnish only scanty food for a single hunter renders it an imperative 

 necessity for savages to keep their numbers within certain fixed 



Papuan Fish 

 Spear. (Aroma.) 



