36 
HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
exceptional articles, however, they attach extreme value and part from them with 
the greatest reluctance. Frequently indeed, after a barter, did I experience <a 
pricking of conscience in that it was a one-sided bargain, but I rarely saw an 
instance where there was any demur at the value offered for the exchange or any 
jealousy expressed at the idea that one man was getting better value than another. 
Of their physical courage we had no opportunities of judging, though Mr. 
Schulze* reports them as deficient in this respect, preferring the methods of stealth 
and stratagem to those of open attack, and this has been the experience of many. 
I have never had an opportunity of witnessing a tribal fight, but those who have 
done so agree that their encounters are characterised by a maximum of noise, boast 
and outward show of courage with a mimimum of actual casualties. If certain 
accounts I heard are true, in which women were l)eaten to death, they must 
sometimes show great cruelty. On the other hand they often manifest a good deal 
of kindliness in their disposition as shown by their treatment of children or of the 
aged and afflicted and, in their genuine affection, in many cases, for their wives 
and families. There was a case in point at Tempo Downs where a blind young 
man of another tribe was being kept in camp and fed out of their own scanty 
stores. Food and clothing that has been given to them they readily share with 
others and, in the matter of the former, literally carry out the injunction of taking 
no thought for the morrow. Indeed many of their dietetic hardships might be 
avoided if they had the foresight to lay up a store of vegetable foods such as seeds 
which are produced abundantly after the heavy, if precariously occurring, rains 
and which are capable of preservation for a long period. Prudence of this kind, 
however, cannot be reckoned among their virtues. 
The natives are generally reputed to be of extreme voraciousness. The facts 
are that the voracity which they undoubtedly display at times is due to the 
irregularity or frequent insufficiency of their food, and that when they ai'e well 
and regularly fed they eat no more than ordinary people; of this we had ample 
opportunity of judging. 
No sense of shame of exposure was exhibited by the men on removal of the 
diminutive articles worn as conventional coverings; they were taken off coram 
populo and bartered without hesitation. On the other hand some little persuasion 
was necessary to allow inspection of the effect of subincision, assent being given 
only after dismissal to a distance of the women and young children. As to the 
The Aborigines of the Upper and Middle Einke River, etc. Rev. Louis Schulze, Trans. R. Soc. of S.A., 
1891, vol. xiv. 
