BY R. CLIFF K MACKIK. Ill 



A messenger carrying news to other tribes, Lefoie he 

 camps for the night, will cross the top end of the water- 

 course, follow down to the lower end, and re-cross. 1 his 

 latter manoeuvre is supposed to leave behind any malignant 

 spirit which may have dogged their footsteps. 



A myall (wild black) will not follow walking behind a 

 white whom he loves lest his savage instincts should lead, 

 him to take a treacherous advantage. 



They are not cruel, but, like children, are incapable of 

 mental sympathy. They will not drown or kill puppies, 

 but will put a whole litter into a hollow stump and abandon 

 them to show starv8.tion without compunction. They 

 seem to form no mental conception of pain which they do 

 not actually see or hear. 



It is not true that they abandon their aged or infirm 

 to die of starvation. In all cases such victims were volun- 

 tary martyrs, who, owing to senile decay, became despon- 

 dent, and, at their own request, were taken to the neigh- 

 bourhood where they wished to die, the whole camp demon- 

 strating in various ways their sympathy. 



Upon arriving there, the patient was laid on his sleep- 

 ing apparel with all his worldly goods. His friends then 

 departed, and the patient, by the mere exertion of his 

 will-power, died off in a sort of stupor or sleep, because 

 he had willed to cease living. It was only those from 

 other tribes, who, unable to brook the restrictions of the 

 white invaders, left their own hunting-grounds and sought 

 an asylum along their neighbour tribes that were left to 

 die neglected. As they had no blood relations, they were 

 left to meet their end as best they could, a tribal law for- 

 bidding sympathy to one who was not of their tribe. But 

 those of the same " totem " might, by consent of the tribe, 

 bury the stranger. ]So other blacks would venture to do 

 so, lest some evil might befall them. The stranger was 

 generally buried, it may be remarked. 



A man or woman might only marry according to certain 

 prescribed " groups." If a young gin were the destined 

 mate for a certain black, he allowed her to run about as 

 she pleased just as any mere animal might do till such time 

 as he felt inclined to claim her. From this time on, she was 

 for him alone. Should there be a piccaninny which, owing 

 to this prior freedom of conduct, he did not consider his,. 



