THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



very fond of honey (from the banksia and xanthorrhcea), and show great ingenuity in tracking 

 bees to their nests. A certain kind of eucalyptus provides them with " peppermint-gum," from 

 which they make a sweet drink by adding water. They appear to have had no intoxicating 

 drink before the advent of our colonists, with the exception perhaps of a sort of mead in New 

 South Wales, mentioned by Braim. They have no objection .to rotten eggs, or even the 

 contents of the intestines of animals. Their capacity for eating meat is almost incredible. 

 When a man is fortunate enough to catch a kangaroo, he will go on eating, with short 

 intervals, until he has consumed it all. The lazy disposition of the Aboriginal makes him 

 alternate between gluttony and starvation. 



Cannibalism used to be a frequent occurrence, but was not universal. Fat people were 

 liable to be stolen and eaten; for this reason a man who had a fat wife was unwilling to 

 allow her to wander about alone. Ati "unprotected female" of that sort might be made 

 away with to replenish the larder of some neighbouring tribe! Human skulls are used as 

 drinking-cups. 



The natives have special words to denote every minutest portion of the human body. 

 Their language is in harmony with their low mental condition; it is rich in terms for concrete 

 objects or expressions of sensuous pleasure. Abstract terms hardly exist. It is said they 

 cannot recognise accurate portraits of themselves, but only large outlines with big heads. 

 They have little sense of number, few of them being able to count beyond three, or at most 

 five. Anything further is expressed by compounds. They are not altogether without poetry, 

 but their verse is of a very humble order, consisting of short, disconnected snatches of thought. 

 They have plenty of legends and fables. 



It would not be true to say that the Australians have no kind of government beyond 

 what may be exerted at home by parents. Though chiefs are neither elected nor hereditary, 

 yet each tribe has its leader, chief, or king. It gradually recognises the greater activity and 

 prowess of its ablest man, who, by general consent, becomes its head. He rules partly by 

 selecting men who will carry out his wishes. Generally speaking, as we have already said, 

 women are despised; but there is one exception. In West Australia an old woman under- 

 takes the office of grandmother to the tribe. She settles quarrels, separates men who tight, 



and summons the 



tribe to war. 



Every tribe is 

 divided into two, 

 four, or even six 

 classes, each of which 

 has a class-name, 

 taken from some 

 animal or totem as 

 Dog, Rat, or Emu. 

 These classes are 

 sometimes called 

 clans or totems, and 

 all the members of 

 each are considered 

 to be blood relations. 

 So a man of the 

 "Rat clan" must 

 not marry a girl of 

 that clan, but must 

 aspire to the hand 

 of, say, an " Emu " 



NATIVES IN OUTRIGGER, RIVER ENDEAVOUR, NORTH QUEENSLAND. g' r l- The 



[Briftol. 



