24 THE ABORIGINES OF THE LOWER MURRAY, LOWER 
This ill-assorted kind of engagement is, however, not of ve 
uent occurrence, as the young men are too much afraid of the 
ridicule which their more fortunate fellows would surely shower 
in accordance with our ethics, and never having been the rule of 
our progenitors, we cannot see why we should ignore that which 
our forefathers deemed good merely because white men, who do 
not understand black-fellows, tell us to do so.” Of course to 
arguments of this kind, and so put, especially when your opponent 
is an untaught and nearly, if not quite, unteachable savage, there 
is not any possibility of reply. 
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fir 
nature ; were it not so, it would fail to meet with the appreciative 
audiences which sit silently for hours together drinking in the foul 
pruriency of the savage story-teller. Considering that all these 
lewd tales with their accompanying gross facetize are related in 
the presence of the children, it can scarcely be matter for wonder 
that they should grow up into men and women, possessing 
notions concerning chastity and its many beauties. 
