Read Ebook: The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world; vol. 2 of 2 Being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs and of their physical social mental moral and religious characteristics by Wood J G John George

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 5132 lines and 522743 words, and 103 pages

Considering the trouble which is taken in the preparation of these bodies, and the evident respect which is felt for a brave warrior in death as well as in life, the after treatment of them is very remarkable. When a friend, or even an individual of the same tribe, sees one of these mummified bodies for the first time, he pays no honor to it, but loads it with reproaches, abusing the dead man for dying when the tribe stood in such need of brave and skilful men, and saying that he ought to have known better than to die when there was plenty of food in the country. Then, after contemplating the body for some time, he hurls his spear and club at it, crying out at the same time, "Why did you die? Take that for dying."

In the illustration No. 2, on page 775, two of these bodies are seen seated on the platform, supported by being tied to the uprights by their hands and heads, and having their weapons in their laps. On one side is one of the sentinels engaged in driving away the flies with his flapper, and on the other is a second sentinel bringing fuel for the fire. The seated figures belong to the same tribe.

Around Portland Bay, and toward the south-eastern parts of the continent, the natives have a curious combination of entombment and burning. They let the dead body down into one of the hollow trees, where it is supported in an upright position. A quantity of dry leaves and grass is then heaped upon the tree, and the whole consumed by fire, amid the dismal screams and cries of the women.

It is rather curious that funeral ceremonies are only employed in the case of those whose death is supposed to be a loss to the tribe. Men, and even boys, are therefore honored with funeral rites, because the younger men are warriors, the boys would have been warriors, and the old men have done service by arms, and are still useful for their wisdom. Even young women are buried with some amount of show, because they produce children for the tribe.

But of all beings an old woman is most utterly despised. She can render no service; she has never been considered as anything but a mere domesticated animal, and even for domestic purposes she has ceased to be useful. When she dies, therefore, no one regrets her. She is nothing but a useless burden on her people, consuming food which she does not earn, and sitting by the fire when the younger women are engaged in work. It is nothing to them that she has worn herself out in the hard, thankless, and never ceasing labor which constitutes the life of an Australian woman, and so when she dies her body is drawn away out of the camp by the heels, and stuffed away hastily in some hollow tree or cave that may be most convenient. Sometimes the body is laid on a bough, as has already been described; but even in such a case it is merely laid on the branch, without being placed in a canoe, or covered with matting, boughs, and leaves, as is the case with the bodies of men. The corpse is allowed to remain on the branch until it falls to pieces; and when any of her relatives choose to take the trouble, they will scrape a hole in the sand and bury the scattered bones.

The shee-oak, or casuarina, is the tree which is generally selected for this purpose, partly because it is one of the commonest trees of Australia, and partly because the peculiar growth of its boughs affords a firm platform for the corpse.

The time of mourning does not cease with the funeral, nor, in case of a tree-tomb, with the subsequent interment of the bones. At stated times the women, by whom the mourning is chiefly performed, visit the tomb, and with their kattas, or digging-sticks, peck up the earth around them, and make the place look neat. This done they sit down and utter their most doleful cries and lamentations. In some places they content themselves with vocal lamentations, but in others the women think it necessary to show their grief by repeating the head chopping, limb scarring, and other marks of blood-letting which accompany that portion of the funeral ceremonies.

In one part of Australia, near the north-west bend of the Murray, a most remarkable custom prevails. Widows attend upon the tombs of their dead husbands, and, after shaving their heads, cover them with pipe-clay kneaded into a paste. The head is first covered with a net, to prevent the pipe-clay from sticking too tightly to the skin, a misfortune which is partly averted by the amount of grease with which every Australian is anointed.

A layer of this clay more than an inch in thickness is plastered over the head, and when dry it forms a skull-cap exactly fitting the head on which it was moulded, and on account of its weight, which is several pounds, must be very uncomfortable to the wearer. These badges of mourning may be found lying about near the tumuli, and, until their real use was discovered, they were very mysterious objects to travellers. In the illustration No. 1, on the 781st page, is seen a burying place near the river. Several of the mound tombs of the natives are shown, and in the foreground are two widows, seated in the peculiar attitude of Australian women, and wearing the widow's cap of pipe-clay. Several other caps are lying near the tombs, having been already employed in the ceremonies of mourning.

So careful are the natives of the marks of respect due from the survivors to the dead, that a widow belonging to one of the tribes on the Clarence River was put to death because she neglected to keep in order the tomb of her late husband, and to dig up periodically the earth around it.

From the disposal of the dead, we are naturally led to the religious belief of the Australians. Like all savages, they are very reticent about their religious feelings, concealing as far as possible their outward observances from the white people, and avowing ignorance, if questioned respecting the meaning of those which have become known to the strangers. Some observances, however, have been explained by Gi'?m, the unfortunate Scotch woman who had to reside so long among the Kowr?regas, and others by native converts to Christianity. Even these latter have not been able to shake off the superstitious ideas which they had contracted through the whole of their previous lives, and there is no doubt that they concealed much from their interrogators, and, if pressed too closely, wilfully misled them.

The following short account will, however, give an idea of the state of religious feeling among the aborigines, as far as can be ascertained. And, in consequence of the rapid and steady decrease of the native tribes, it is possible that our knowledge of this subject will never be greater than it is at present.

In the first place, there are no grounds for thinking that the aborigines believe in any one Supreme Deity, nor, in fact, in a deity of any kind whatever. As is usual with most savage nations, their belief in supernatural beings is limited to those who are capable of doing mischief, and, although the conception of a beneficent spirit which will do good never seems to enter an Australian's mind, he believes fully, in his misty fashion, in the existence of many evil spirits which will do harm.

One kind of evil spirit, which is very much dreaded by the aborigines, is the one in whom death is personified. He is short, thick, very ugly, and has a disagreeable smell. The natives of the Moorundi district believe in a native spirit, wonderfully similar in attributes to the Necker of German mythology. Although, according to their accounts, it is very common, they have great difficulty in describing it, and, as far as can be ascertained from their statements, it is like a huge star-fish. This demon inhabits the fresh water, or there might have been grounds for believing it to be merely an exaggeration of the cuttle-fish.

Throughout the greater part of Australia is found the belief in the Bunyip, a demon which infests woods, and which has been seen, as is said, not only by natives but by white men. The different accounts of the animal vary extremely. Some who have seen it aver it to be as large as a horse, to have a pair of eyes as big as saucers, and a pair of enormous horns.

Others give a very different account of it, and one of the Barrabool Hill natives gave a very animated description of the dreaded bunyip. He illustrated his lecture by a spirited drawing, in which the bunyip was represented as having a long neck and head, something like that of the giraffe, a thick flowing mane, and two short and massive fore-legs, each of which was armed with four powerful talons. The entire body was covered with strong scales, overlapping each other like those of the hawksbill turtle. This creature he represented as half beast, half demon, and vaunted the superior courage of his ancestors, who ventured to oppose this terrible creature as it lay in wait for their wives and children, and drove it out of the reeds and bush into the water whence it came.

Thinking that some large and now extinct beast might have lived in Australia, which might have been traditionally known to the aborigines, scientific men have taken particular pains to ransack those portions of the country which they could reach, in hopes of finding remains which might be to Australia what those of the megatherium and other huge monsters are to the Old World. Nothing of the kind has, however, been found. Some very large bones were once discovered on the banks of a shallow salt lagoon , but when sent to the British Museum they were at once found to be the remains of a gigantic kangaroo. At present, the legend of the bunyip stands on a level with that of the kraken--every native believes it, some aver that they have seen it, but no one has ever discovered the least tangible proof of its existence.

To these evil spirits the natives attribute every illness or misfortune, and in consequence are anxious to avoid or drive them away. All meteors are reckoned by them among the evil spirits, and are fancifully thought to be ghosts which multiply by self-division. The aborigines think, however, that by breathing as loudly as they can, and repeating some cabalistic words, they disarm the demons of their power.

They have one very curious belief,--namely, that any one who ventured to sleep on the grave of a deceased person, he would ever afterward be freed from the power of evil spirits. The ordeal is, however, so terrible that very few summon up sufficient courage to face it. "During that awful sleep the spirit of the deceased would visit him, seize him by the throat, and, opening him, take out his bowels, which it would afterward replace, and close up the wound! Such as are hardy enough to go through this terrible ordeal--encounter the darkness of the night and the solemnity of the grave--are thenceforth 'koradjee' men, or priests, and practise sorcery and incantations upon the others of their tribe."

In Southern Australia, the natives believe that the sun and moon are human beings, who once inhabited the earth. The planets are dogs belonging to the moon, who run about her; and the various constellations are groups of children. An eclipse of either the sun or moon is looked upon as a terrible calamity, being sure to be the forerunner of disease and death.

All burial-places of the dead are held as liable to be haunted by evil spirits, and are therefore avoided. Promontories, especially those which have rocky headlands, are also considered as sacred; and it is probably on account of that idea that the skull monuments, mentioned on page 773, are raised.

Some of these places are rendered interesting by specimens of native drawings, showing that the aborigines of Australia really possess the undeveloped elements of artistic power. Owing to the superstition which prevails, the natives can scarcely be induced to visit such spots, giving as their reason for refusing that "too much dibbil-dibbil walk there." Mr. Angas was fortunate enough, however, to discover a considerable number of these drawings and carvings, and succeeded in impressing into his service an old native woman. His description is so vivid, that it must be given in his own words:--

"The most important result of our rambles around the bays and rocky promontories of Port Jackson was the discovery of a new and remarkable feature connected with the history of the natives formerly inhabiting this portion of New South Wales.

"I refer to their carvings in outline, cut into the surface of flat rocks in the neighborhood, and especially on the summits of the various promontories about the harbors of the coast. Although these carvings exist in considerable numbers, covering all the flat rocks upon many of the headlands overlooking the water, it is a singular fact that up to the present time they appear to have remained unobserved; and it was not until my friend Mr. Miles first noticed the rude figure of a kangaroo cut upon the surface of a flat rock near Camp Cove, that we were led to make a careful search for these singular and interesting remains of a people who are now nearly extinct.

"With some difficulty we prevailed upon the haggard old creature to venture with us into a whale-boat; so, with Queen Gooseberry for our guide, we crossed to the North Land. After examining the flat rocks in every direction, we found sufficient examples of these singular outlines to confirm at once the opinion that they were executed by the aboriginal inhabitants; but at what period is quite uncertain. From the half-obliterated state of many of them , and from the fact that from several of them we were compelled to clear away soil and shrubs of long-continued growth, it is evident that they have been executed a very long time.

"Some of the figures of fish measured twenty-five feet in length; and it is curious that the representations of the shield exactly corresponded with that used by the natives of Port Stephens at the present day. These sculptured forms prove that the New Hollanders exercised the art of design, which has been questioned, and they also serve to corroborate Captain Grey's discoveries of native delineations in caves upon the north-west coast of Australia, during his expedition of discovery. At Lane Cove, at Port Aiken, and at Point Piper, we also met with similar carvings. Whilst on a visit at the latter place, it occurred to me that on the flat rocks at the extremity of the grounds belonging to the estate where I was staying, there might be carvings similar to those at the Heads; and on searching carefully I found considerable numbers of them in a tolerably perfect state of preservation. Of all these I took measurements, and made careful fac-simile drawings on the spot."

In the appendix to his work, Mr. Angas gives reduced copies of these figures, some of which are executed with wonderful spirit and fidelity. Even the human figures, which are shown with extended arms and spread legs, as in the dance, are far better than those usually drawn by savages, infinitely superior to those produced by the artists of Western Africa, while some of the animals are marvellously accurate, reminding the observer of the outline drawings upon Egyptian monuments. The best are, perhaps, a shark and a kangaroo. The latter is represented in the attitude of feeding.

In some parts of Australia, the carvings and paintings are usually in caves by the water's edge, and of such a character is the cave which is shown in the illustration No. 2, on the following page. These caves are in sandstone rock, and the figures upon them are mostly those of men and kangaroos, and it is a remarkable fact that in the human figures, although their eyes, noses, and even the joints of the knees, are boldly marked, the mouth is invariably absent.

Human hands and arms are often carved on rocks. One very remarkable example was discovered by Captain Grey in North-West Australia. When penetrating into a large cave, out of which ran a number of smaller caves, the explorers were struck by a really astonishing trick of native art. The sculptor had selected a rock at the side of the cavity, and had drawn upon it the figure of a hand and arm. This had then been painted black, and the rock around it colored white with pipe-clay, so that on entering the cave it appeared exactly as if the hand and arm of a black man were projecting through some crevice which admitted light.

Their belief in ghosts implies a knowledge that the spirit of man is immortal. Yet their ideas on this subject are singularly misty, not to say inconsistent, one part of their belief entirely contradicting the other. They believe, for example, that when the spirit leaves the body, it wanders about for some time in darkness, until at last it finds a cord, by means of which a "big black-fella spirit" named Oomudoo pulls it up from the earth. Yet they appropriate certain parts of the earth as the future residence of the different tribes, the spirits of the departed Nauos being thought to dwell in the islands of Spencer's Gulf, while those of the Parnkallas go to other islands toward the west. As if to contradict both ideas, we have already seen that throughout the whole of Australia the spirits of the dead are supposed to haunt the spots where their bodies lie buried.

And, to make confusion worse confounded, the aborigines believe very firmly in transmigration, some fancying that the spirits of the departed take up their abode in animals, but by far the greater number believing that they are transformed into white men. This latter belief was put very succinctly by a native, who stated in the odd jargon employed by them, that "when black-fella tumble down, he jump up all same white-fella."

This idea of transmigration into the forms of white men is very remarkable, as it is shared by the negro of Africa, who could not have had any communication with the black native of Australia. And, still more strangely, like the Africans, they have the same word for a white man and for a spirit. The reader may remember that when Mrs. Thompson was captured by the natives, one of them declared that she was his daughter Gi'?m, who had become a white woman, and the rest of the tribe coincided in the belief. Yet, though she became for the second time a member of the tribe, they always seemed to feel a sort of mistrust, and often, when the children were jeering at her on account of her light complexion and ignorance of Australian accomplishments, some elderly person would check them, and tell them to leave her in peace, as, poor thing, she was nothing but a ghost.

It has been found, also, that numbers of white persons have been recognized by the blacks as being the spirits of their lost relatives, and have in consequence been dignified with the names of those whom they represented. Mr. M'Gillivray mentions that the natives of Port Essington have a slight modification of this theory, believing that after death they become Malays.

Of their belief in the metempsychosis, or transmigration into animal forms, there are but few examples. Dr. Bennett mentions that on one occasion, at B?rana Plains, when an European was chasing one of the native animals, a native who was with him begged him not to kill it, but to take it alive, as it was "him brother." When it was killed, he was very angry, and, as a proof his sincerity, refused to eat any of it, continually grumbling and complaining of the "tumbling down him brother."

The Nauo tribe preserve a tradition which involves this metempsychosis. Once upon a time, a certain great warrior, named Willoo, fought their tribe, and carried off all the women, and killed all the men except two. The survivors climbed up a great tree, followed by Willoo. They, however, broke off the branch on which he was climbing, so that he fell to the ground, and was seized by a dingo below, when he immediately died, and was changed into an eagle hawk, which has ever afterward been called by the name of Willoo.

The natives of the Lower Murray have a curious tradition respecting the origin of the river, and the Alexandrina and Albert Lakes. The river was made by Oomudoo, the "big black-fella spirit," already mentioned. He came down from the sky in his canoe, and ordered the water to rise and form the river, which he then clothed with bulrushes and populated with fish. He brought two wives with him, but they unfortunately proved intractable, and ran away from him, whereupon Oomudoo made the two lakes in question, one of which drowned each wife.

ARCHITECTURE AND BOAT-BUILDING.

PARALLEL BETWEEN THE BOSJESMAN AND THE AUSTRALIAN -- MODES OF BUILDING HUTS -- A SUMMER ENCAMPMENT -- RUDE NATURE OF THE HUTS -- RETREATS OF THE WOMEN -- BONE HUTS OF ENCOUNTER BAY -- WINTER HOUSES -- HUTS NEAR THE COORUNG -- FIRE-MAKING -- BIRD-SNARING -- A SELF-ACTING SNARE -- BOAT-BUILDING -- USES OF THE STRINGY BARK -- A FRAIL VESSEL -- CANOE FOR GENERAL USE -- THE REED CANOE -- GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF NATIVE TRIBES.

In many points the Australian savage bears a curious resemblance to the Bosjesman of Southern Africa, of whom a full account has already been given at 242-268 page.

So similar, indeed, are they, that the colonists use the word Bushman to designate the native savage, just as they call the spotted dasyure by the name of cat, and the wombat by that of badger. Much confusion has consequently arisen; and there is now before me a book descriptive of savage life, in which the author has mixed up the Bosjesman of Africa and the Bushman of Australia in the most amusing manner, actually transplanting a quotation from a book of African travels into the account of Australia.

He cultivates no land, neither has he the least notion of improving his social condition. He cares nothing for clothes, except, perhaps, as a partial shelter from the elements, and utterly ridicules the notion that there is any connexion between clothing and modesty.

Indeed, on one occasion, when a girl had been presented with a petticoat by a white lady, and returned to her people, displaying with pride her newly acquired property, her companions instead of displaying envy at her finery, only jeered at her, inquiring whether she thought herself so much better than her forefathers, that she should want to wear clothes like the white strangers. The consequence was, that in a day or two the solitary garment was thrown aside, and she walked about as before, in the primitive accoutrements of her tribe.

Like the African Bosjesman, the Australian native has no settled home, although he considers himself as having a right to the district in which his tribe have taken up their abode. Contrary to the usage of civilized life, he is sensitive on the general question, and careless in detail. With civilized beings the hearth and home take the first place in the affections, the love of country being merely an extension of the love of home. With the Australian, however, as well as the Bosjesman, the case is just reversed. He has no home, and cares not for any one spot more than another, except that some spots are sheltered and others exposed. He passes a semi-nomad existence, not unlike that of the Arab, save that instead of pitching his tent on a convenient spot, and taking it away when he leaves it, he does not trouble himself even to carry the simple materials of a tent, but builds a rude hut in any spot which he may happen to fancy, and leaves it to decay when he forsakes the spot.

The chief object of the ordinary hut made by an Australian savage is to defend the inmates from the cold south-west breezes. Consequently, the entrances of the huts may be found, as a rule, turned toward the north-east, whence come the warm winds that have passed over the equator.

The summer encampment of an Australian family is very simple. A number of leafy boughs are stuck in the ground in a semicircular form, the size of the enclosed space varying with the number of the family. These boughs are seldom more than four feet in height, and often scarcely exceed a yard, their only object being to keep off the wind from the fire, and from the bodies of the natives as they squat round the flame or lie asleep. That any one should expect a shelter while he is standing never seems to enter the imagination of an Australian savage, who, like other savages, never dreams of standing when he can sit, or, indeed, of taking any trouble that is not absolutely necessary.

All the stories that are told of the industry of savage life are pure inventions, and if labor be, as we are often told, the truest nobility, we ought to hear no more of the "noble savage." Consistently with this idea, the native Australian's only idea of the hut is a place where he can sit and gorge himself with food, and lie down to sleep after his enormous meal. A fence a yard in height is therefore quite good enough for him, and, as long as no rain falls, he thinks a roof to be a needless expenditure of labor.

In the illustration referred to we have an example of an encampment on which the natives have bestowed rather more care than usual, and have actually taken the pains to form the branches into rude huts. The spears, shields, and other weapons of the natives are seen scattered about, while round the fire sit or lie the men who have satisfied their hunger. The reader will perceive that from a little distance such an encampment would be almost invisible; and, indeed, except by the thin smoke of the fire, the most practised eye can scarcely detect the spot where natives are encamping. Even the spears which project above the bush huts look at a little distance merely like dried sticks; and, if the inhabitants be very anxious to escape observation, they establish their encampment in a retired spot, where the surrounding objects harmonize as closely as possible with the rude shelter which answers all their needs.

In many places the natives construct a habitation similar in principle, but differing in structure. Should the locality abound in the eucalypytus, or stringy-bark tree, the natives make a hut altogether different in appearance. With wonderful dexterity, they strip off the bark of the tree in large flakes, six or seven feet in length. A few large branches of trees are then laid on the ground, so that they form a rough sort of framework, and upon these branches the flakes of bark are laid. An hour's labor will make one of these huts, so that the natives have really no inducement to take any care of them. Even the very best hut which a native Australian ever made would be inferior to the handiwork of an English boy of ten years old. For my own part, I remember building far better huts than those of the Australians, though I was at the time much below ten years of age, and had gained all my knowledge of practical architecture from "Sandford and Merton."

There is, however, one great advantage in these bark huts--namely, the rapidity with which they can be made, and the shelter which they really do give from the traveller's great enemy, the night wind. Even European travellers have been glad to avail themselves of these simple structures, and have appreciated the invaluable aid of a few sheets of bark propped against a fallen branch. Those who have been forced to travel without tents through a houseless country have learned by experience that the very best shelter from the night winds is not height, but width. A tree, for example, forms but a very poor shelter, while a low wall barely eighteen inches high and six feet in length keeps off the wind, and enables the wearied traveller to rest in comparative comfort. Such a shelter is easily made from the sheets of stringy bark, one or two of which will form a shelter for several sleepers.

Perhaps the simplest huts that human beings ever dignified by the name of habitation are those which are made by the women of a tribe when the men are away. It sometimes happens that the whole of the adult males go off on an expedition which will last for a considerable time--such, for example, as a raid upon a neighboring tribe--leaving the women and children to take care of themselves. These, knowing that they might be pounced upon by enemies who would take advantage of the absence of their defenders, retire into the recesses of the woods, where they build the oddest houses imaginable, half burrows scraped among the roots of trees, and half huts made of bark and decayed wood. These habitations are so inconspicuous that even the practised eye of the native can scarcely discover them.

On the shores of Encounter Bay may be seen some very curious habitations. Every now and then a whale is thrown ashore by a tempest; and in such a case the tribes of the neighborhood flock round it with great rejoicings, seeing in it an unlimited supply of food. Huge as the animal may be, it is ere long consumed, and nothing left but the skeleton. Of the bones the natives make the framework of their huts, the ends of the ribs being fixed in the ground, so that the bones form the supports of the arched roof, which is nothing more than boughs, grass, and matting thrown almost at random upon the bony framework.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet