286 THE NATIVE BLACKFELLOW 



slay her. An awful fact to state, but not one whit 

 exaggerated. Of course, colonial law affords her some 

 protection — in theory. Of late years I believe the natives 

 are more closely watched, and perhaps, on the whole, the 

 native woman has not so hard a time of it as she had 

 formerly ; but I fear it must be stated that her best pro- 

 tection lies in the fact that she is too valuable a slave to 

 her husband to be rashly destroyed. 



Once married or owned, the greatest part of her time 

 is taken up in providing for her husband and children if 

 she has any; and hard as her lot invariably is, she is 

 probably better off when married than when single. 

 Natural affection does sometimes assert itself even among 

 savages, and though the Australian man is too often a brute, 

 he does sometimes show a marked affection for his wife 

 and children. At any rate, the married woman has only 

 to provide for the wants of her husband and children, while 

 the young unmarried girl is the slave of all her male 

 relations, and suffers blows and other ill-usage from every 

 member of her family, besides having to toil incessantly 

 for their benefit. She it is who digs the warren patch, and 

 sees to the weeding and watering of the roots ; and she it is 

 who spends every moment which can be spared from her 

 other occupations in hunting the snakes from their holes, 

 and climbing the trees in search of the opossum, and 

 pursuing other small game for the provision of the family 

 which claims her as its property. 



Regarding the personal appearance of the aboriginal 

 woman, she is almost invariably described as one of the 

 ugliest of her sex. That is scarcely the truth, though it 

 is true that she is not a beauty. She is usually undersized 

 and shrivelled in flesh from semi-starvation and excess of 

 toil, and her features are those of a type usually found 

 amongst the uneducated and down-trodden ; yet they are 

 not lacking in intelligent expression ; indeed, this expression 

 is common to all the Australian blacks, in spite of their 

 misery and degradation. Whatever the woman is told to 

 do she does instantly, obeying orders with the alacrity of 

 a well-drilled soldier. She has, in fact, no will of her own. 



