54 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



Australian native, we shall see this verified. The 

 male, as is mentioned elsewhere in this book, must 

 submit to have one or more of his teeth knocked out, 

 to have the cartilage of his nose pierced, to have most 

 painful cuttings and scarifyings in his skin. 



The youth, in the majority of cases, is seized when 

 about eighteen years of age, and forced to submit to 

 two especially terrible mutilations, which cannot be 

 described here. Besides, he is positively prohibited 

 from using a large number of the most tempting kinds 

 of meats and fruits throughout more than half of his 

 natural life. 



In this respect superstition alone is his motive 

 power. 



From his infancy he has been taught that violation 

 of these rules, which his fathers have observed from 

 time immemorial, will be sure to be followed by dis- 

 ease, calamity or death. So firmly fixed is this thought 

 in the minds of young men, that when hunting with 

 white ii\en, they could not possibly be induced to par- 

 take of the meat of the emu, or certain portions of 

 other birds and animals. 



From his earliest recollections the poor pagan boy 

 has listened to the wonders and horrors of sorcery, and 

 he constantly trembles lest some of these things should 

 befall him. 



