ANIMAL FRIENDS 



209 



(if ' domestic ' it can be called) is the dog. . . . They have no 

 food but the scanty game of the * bush ' or forest, such as the 

 wallaby and the opossum, and the natural products of the earth. 

 ... It is the custom to speak of the Australians and other savages 

 as living in 'tribes'. But the term is most misleading; for the 

 word ' tribe ' always suggests to us the notion of descent from a 

 common ancestor, or. at any rate, of close blood relationship. 

 Now there is ... a most important stage in human progress, in 

 which descent from a common ancestor plays a vital part in social 

 organization. But the Australian * tribe ' does not really play a 

 very important part in savage life, at least on its social side. It 

 appears to be mainly a group of people engaged in hunting 

 together, a co-operative or communal society for the acquisition 

 of food-supply. It would really be better to call it the 'pack'; 

 for it far more resembles a hunting than a social organization. 

 All its members are entitled to a share in the proceeds of the 

 day's chase, and, quite naturally, they camp and live together." 

 To make a complete list of wild animals that minister to the 

 appetite of mankind would be an unnecessary task, but a brief 

 summary is given in the sequel. Savages in particular are 

 often far from fastidious in such matters. Lord Avebury (in 

 Prehistoric Times] compiles from various authorities the following 

 somewhat varied bill of fare of these same Australians: "The 

 food of the Australian savages differs much in different parts of 

 the continent. Speaking generally, it may be said to consist of 

 various roots, fruits, fungi, shell-fish, frogs, snakes, honey, grubs, 

 moths, birds, birds'-eggs, fish, turtles, dogs, kangaroos, and some- 

 times of seal and whale. The kangeroo, however, forms only an 

 occasional luxury, nor are the natives, so far as I am aware, able 

 to kill whales for themselves, but when one is washed on shore it 

 is a real godsend to them. Fires are immediately lit to give notice 

 of the joyful event. Then they rub themselves all over with 

 blubber, and anoint their favourite wives in the same way; after 

 which they cut down through the blubber to the beef, which they 

 sometimes eat raw, and sometimes broil on pointed sticks. As 

 other natives arrive, they ' fairly eat their way into the whale, and 

 you see them climbing in and about the stinking carcase, choosing 

 titbits'. For days 'they remain by the carcase, rubbed from head 

 to foot with stinking blubber, gorged to repletion with putrid meat 

 out of temper from indigestion, and therefore engaged in con- 



VOL. IV. 108 



