CHAPTER XXIII 



THE NOMAD 



Nomadism in a manner long prevailed, and still pre- 

 vails, with the AustraUan pastorahst. Wlien the grass 

 has been browsed bare, the sheep or cattle are removed 

 from one tract or (since fencing has been adopted) from 

 one paddock to another ; as is done by the nomad tribes 

 that still roam over the steppes of Central Asia, Siberia, 

 and Eastern Russia. Had a precocious airman fluttered 

 over the riverside tracks of New South Wales and 

 Victoria in the late thirties and early forties, and over 

 those of Queensland in the forties and fifties, he would 

 have dimly seen from his airy heights long processions 

 of sheep and cattle being driven from the coast and 

 coastal districts inland towards the river-flats and well- 

 watered plains. They were in search of stations, it is 

 true, but for long after a nomadic movement in quest 

 of better conditions was ever in progress. As in ancient 

 days, on the banks of Tigris or Euphrates, when the 

 stock expanded beyond the capacity of the region oc- 

 cupied to supply grass enough, or when the pent-up 

 energy of the younger members of a family craved for 

 elbow-room, a migration was made to another district. 

 Thus, Esau " went into the country from the face of 

 his brother Jacob ; for their riches were more than that 

 they might dwell together, and the land . . . could 

 not bear them because of their cattle." Sometimes 

 patriarchal families quarrelled, it might be about wells 

 and springs, and then they separated. " Is not the 

 whole land before thee ? " asked Abraham of Lot. 



183 



