Originâ —Languageâ —Marriage formalitiesâ —Infanticideâ —Relationshipsâ —Populationâ —Spitting Tribeâ —Encounter Tribeâ —Tribal divisionsâ —Intelligenceâ —Lawsâ —Customsâ —Ceremony of Depilationâ —Funeral customs.
Theorigin of this race is difficult to trace; they seem to have no traditions, and, although the country abounds in gold, copper, and iron, they never appear to have reached the metal implement age. Living principally on the chase, agriculture was not carried on by them, and their only domestic animal was the dingo. There are no remains of architecture amongst them; yet the same painted hand as is found in South America affords some faint trace of their connection with that country. The language, however, furnishes some clue; the grammatical structure of all Australian aboriginal dialects is the same. A few words show a connection with the Aryan rather than the Turanian race, and are, in fact, allied, both in sound and meaning, to words used by nations deriving their speech from the Sanscrit.
Many examples may be given of the affinity of the aborigines’ language and those spoken by the various Aryan nations. Possibly this may have been caused by the intercourse with Malays, who from time to time visited the northern coast. The diversity of dialects of the Australian language is deemed to be proof of their high antiquity as a race, as it is thought that a great length of time must have elapsed since they had but one tongue. Their numbers are small in proportion to the extent of the country, but this may have arisen from the want of food, in the absence of any cultivation, although in a fine country with few hardships from climate or other causes.
Some may be descended from the Arabs who spread themselves beyond the Indian Archipelago. From the mixture of Arab words, and the rites of circumcision in some tribes, and from the extensive spread of the Arab, there may be reason to suppose they have a large infusion of that blood.
The people of the adjoining islands resemble closely the aboriginals. They go naked, have no fixed habitation, use bone and stone implements, have no knowledge of metals or pottery, and in stature, colour, and appearance are similar; but they resemble more the Tasmanians, who are of purer blood. The natives lived under fixed laws, so when the whites arrived, and those that occupied the shore could not fall back, as their intrusion would have added to the wants of those behind them, they were therefore obliged to stand their ground and take the consequences of meeting a superior race, so that their skeletons were found in abundance in caves and amidst projecting rocks, having fallen victims to famine, especially about Sydney, and to the small-pox.—Collins.
The Rev. Dr. Lang enters largely into the origin of this people. He conceives they must have been originally a martial people. One thing is remarkable, they have no idol worship.
The aborigines afford us some information upon the original condition of mankind—that they have descended from a higher state of existence, and not risen from a lower state of barbarism. Their language is one proof that it is far above, as some assert to be, the original language of man, that of the imitation merely of the brute creation. It is remarkable for its complexity of structure and the precision with which it can be used. It is evidently derived from one root, although there are different dialects. The term for river is Mawersal; so with eye, Meyl. It is very euphonious and significant, combining great power with simplicity. Thus, the term for a cloud is both elegant and expressive, “Gabley maar,†the well of the sky or the fountain of the firmament. “Moorang toeen†is to weep, the same import as “gabley maar.†The “ong†of the Hebrew is of frequent use among these people. They have the dual number throughout, six cases in each declension of nouns and pronouns, and verbs with regular roots. They have names for relationship far more copious than we have in English. If they were only developed from a lower creation they would never have constructed this language. They must have descended, and their language is a remnant of their higher ancestry. Next their customs: these are of a most laborious and cumbersome character, having many curious rites observed with great exactness; yet they can give no account of theirorigin or even of their uses, so that we may well conclude that they descended to them, and were not invented by them. Of inventions: the present natives have no power of invention, and have no idea of numerals; yet we find the boomerang, and throwing-stick for the spear (woomera), the former on scientific principles, and other things which must have descended to them and not been invented by them, denoting a higher ancestry, from which they still draw much, handed down by use and tradition.
We have in these particulars strong evidence that the savages are upon the descending scale; while from the remains of animals that once inhabited the country, we have another evidence that in all these kingdoms there is a retrogression rather than a progression, except where man is elevated by copying and improving on the arts of nature to a certain extent in painting, architecture, statuary, &c., or where Christianity has elevated the human race. And so it is with these natives who have embraced Christianity; they build houses and churches, read, write, and learn agriculture, and thereby rise above the common degeneration.
In fact, the very ruins of past nations show that mankind has sprung from an intellectual source and gradually descended, as with all the Eastern nations, and more so in social proportion as they lost the knowledge of the true God. The very licentiousness under heathen dominion, and the very cruelties of heathen rites, the degradation of the female sex, and constant wars, have all a downward tendency. So that however high Greece and Rome rose, they had within them the germs of decay. Hence the value of missions for conveying civilization and moral exaltation, renewing as it were the life of man upon the earth, regenerating humanity.
The Bishop of Perth, in his appeal on behalf of the aborigines, says:â —“The darkness of ignorance is dark indeed, but far darker is their state when to the darkness of ignorance has been added the degradation of the chequered vices of civilization, the consciousness of being treated and held as serfs of a race above them, while all illumination of soul or conscience has been denied them. The primitive state of these people was far better than their present debauched, degraded, perishing condition.â€
The Bishop says that in the Roebourne District, which has now been for some years occupied with cattle and sheep for some 300 miles along the coast, there is a population of nearly 2,000 aborigines. The majority of them are in the employ of the settlers, either on their stations or the pearl fisheries, of which the port of Cossack is the centre, while, in the Gascoyne and newly discovered Kimberley Districts the natives are very numerous, although mostly in their wild state. They are, through the Northern Districts, a fine, intelligent, able-bodied race, and when, as in the Roebourne District, they have been brought into the employment of the settlers, have proved valuable as shepherds, shearers, and divers. A solitary lady (the only labourer) it appears has gathered a few native children about her for instruction.
The Bishop then enters into the question of missions. Says he has £500 in hand, also £500 promised, hopes to obtain collections, and that the Government has promised every assistance in its power, such as reserves of land and pecuniary aid. There is therefore some promise of commencement here.
While they allow polygamy, they do not permit marriages within a certain descent, and it is a crime worthy of death to marry one of the wrong sort; the distinction of tribes by name is the distinction of marriage. Ippai may marry Kapota or any Ippata but his own sister, Murri may marry Buta only, Kumbo may marry Mata only. An infraction of these laws is death. Marriage is not conducted, as generally represented, as a forcible act, at least not in all the tribes. The female is given in marriage at an early age (ten or twelve years old). It is a kind of exchange; the man who obtains a wife promises to give his sister or other relative in exchange; the parties may never have seen each other.
These marriages are always of different tribes. During the ceremony the relatives camp apart. A man takes a fire-stick and conducts the bride into the midst of the parties and gives her away, walking silently away with downcast looks. As soon as they approach the hut is given up. The bride and bridegroom are placed near each other, and the relatives take their places. The party generally fall asleep; at daybreak the bride leaves the hut for her friends, and in the evening is conducted to her husband by their female friends; the tribes then separate and return to their various districts. The man is bound to provide animal food, the wife vegetables, if she pleases. The husband rubs her over with grease to improve her appearance. If there are several wives they seldom agree, continually quarrelling, and are regarded more as slaves, being employed to the husband’s advantage. The woman who leaves with her own consent to live with a man without the consent of her relations, is regarded as a prostitute and exposed to taunts. The sale of wives is frequent, for either money, clothes, weapons, &c. Woman gives consent by carrying fire to her husband’s wurley and making his fire; an unwilling wife will say, “I never made fire in his wurley.†The eldest wife is always regarded as mistress of the hut. Marriages take place after dark, and are always celebrated with great dancing and singing; sometimes licentiousness takes place, but there are as loving couples as amongst Europeans.
Many old men have three and four wives, while the young continue bachelors; the long suckling of children and infanticide both tend to keep down population.
Women near their confinement retire to be attended by women and to be secluded. After birth, the husband attends on his wife, and often nurses the infant, which, if spared, is most affectionately watched over; but infanticide is very common, so much so that nearly one-half to one-third of the infants are destroyed, and that in a shocking manner. Red hot embers are stuffed into the child’s ears, and the orifice is closed with sand, and then the body is burnt; sometimes a waddy is resorted to. If there be twins, or malformation, or illegitimate children, they are generally destroyed.
When native children are born, they are nearly as white as Europeans. Girls have children at the early age of fourteen. The girls wear an apron of fringe until they bear their first child, and if they have no child, the husband burns the apron, probably as an exposure.
The evil of prostitution is very great. The women are in some districts given up to promiscuous intercourse with the youths at certain seasons.
Relationships are very intricate, and difficult to unravel. They have the Tamilian system, which obtains amongst North-American Indians, and the Telugu and Tamil tribes in the East Indies.
A man looks upon the offspring of his brother as his own sons and daughters, while he only considers those of his sister in the more distant relationship of nephews and nieces. So, also, a woman counts her sister’s children as her own, but those of her brother by a kinship similar to nephews and nieces.
Thus, children look upon their father’s brother in the light of a father, but his sister as their aunt merely; whilst their mother’s sister ranks as a female parent, but her brother as only their uncle.
The scale of relationship is as follows:â —Nanghai is my father; Nainkowa is my mother; Ngaiowe is your father; Ninkuwe is your mother; Yikowalle is his father; Narkowalle is his mother.
Widow is Yortangi; widower is Randi; fatherless is Kukathe; motherless is Kulgutye.
One who has lost a child, Mainmaiyari; one bereaved of a brother or sister, Muntyuli.
From this scheme of relationship it seems possible that some came from Southern India—were driven southward by the Malays. Names are changeable, the parents sometimes bearing the name of the child. They are also significant—Putteri is the end; Ngiampinyeri, belonging to the back or loins; Maratinyeri, belonging to emptiness.
Property always descends from father to son.
Mr. Taplin observes that the general idea that there is a law by which the savage must disappear before civilized man is not true, and instances the South American and Dutch colonizations as still preserving the aboriginal races.
English settlers go forth to exercise their freedom, and the Government does not strictly watch their actions, while it makes no particular law for the aboriginal races suitable for their particular situation.
English law is forced upon them; whereas the French and Dutch Governments watchfully manage and regulate everything—the governing power goes with them; the roads, police, everything is kept under the governing power, even the aborigines are under the same.
This, no doubt, in some degree has its influences, while, on the other hand, the native laws to which they were obedient are removed, and the power of the chiefs is destroyed, so that the aboriginal is placed between two influences, the one to which he had always been subject is destroyed, and a new law of which he knows nothing is substituted, and thus he is left in a position of doubt and perplexity, while the food, drink, clothing, and vices of the whites soon gain supremacy.
Nothing can be more disgraceful to a civilized and professing Christian people than this wholesale ruin of their fellow-men, which they attribute to a law, but which is in fact a consequence criminally brought about by our depravity, selfishness, and want of Christian principles. The writer concludes his remarks by saying that they are not an irreligious race; he believes that nothing but the Gospel can save them from extinction.
A few extracts from the lecture of Gideon Lang, delivered in Melbourne, will throw some more light upon the habits of this race.
He says the inhabitants of the whole continent form one people, governed by the same laws and customs, with some allowance for the difference of localities; every tribe, however, has its own district. The government is most arbitrary, composed of old men and powerful men, but degrading to women, the old men often having from five to seven wives, which privilege is denied to young men.
The government is administered by a council of old men, the young not being admitted. There is also a class that go from tribe to tribe, and their medicine men.
The intelligence of the natives is quite underrated. Their skill and activity in war, and their subtlety as diplomatists, Mr. Lang says, are quite equal to the North American Indian. (Having mixed with the North American Indians, I think this is rather exaggerated.)
In the corroborees they have especial performances. 500 sometimes assemble and represent a herd of cattle feeding, the performers being painted accordingly; they lie down and chew the cud, scratch themselves, and lick the calves, &c.; they then proceed to spear the cattle; next are heard a troop of horses galloping; a party with faces painted white, and bodies painted whitey-brown, some blue, others to represent stockmen; then comes a body of natives, and a regular sham-fight takes place, in which the natives are conquerors. But, alas! the murderous hand of the whites has destroyed them by shooting them down, and even resorting to poison, while by our occupation of the country, the destruction of their game, and the introduction of disease, they are fast dying out and disappearing.
Governor Phillip supposed that there were 3,000 aboriginal inhabitants within 200 square miles of Sydney, but now there is scarcely one left.
For the whole of Australia the number is under half a million. Around Melbourne and Sydney the population is extinct. At Port Jackson there were but one male and three females left. And the old Brisbane tribe, which once numbered 1,000, is now nearly extinct. The Tasmanian race is extinct. And so the original inhabitants of this immense country will soon cease to be known. In the north they are a finer race; but they are likewise doomed to perish by European vices and encroachment. Yet these men have made excellent sailors, good policemen, and stockmen, and recently they were conveyed home to England as first-rate cricket-players. Can they want intelligence?
They seem very like the Gipsy race—prone to wander, therefore hard to domesticate. This arises probably from their having to seek their food over a widely scattered area.
Sir G. Grey’s party met with native huts in considerable villages of a more remarkable construction than those of South Australia, being very nicely plastered on the outside with clay and clods of turf; there were also well marked roads, sunken wells, and extensive warren grounds, certainly indicative of some advance in civilization.
The most singular tribe Mitchell met with was what he termed the spitting tribe. These savages waived boughs violently over their heads, spat at the travellers, and threw dust with their toes, and forming into a circle, shouting, jumping, spitting, and throwing up dust, sang war songs with the most hideous gestures; their faces seemed all eyes and teeth.
The Encounter tribe is remarkable for daring. In one case, where the natives were pursued by two police, the blackfellows rushed on the troopers, and knocked one down, and he was only rescued by the arrival of the other trooper, whom the blackfellows also attacked, but were captured.
The sealers on the islands had stolen three women, wives of the blacks. After a short time, two escaped in a miserable canoe; the third attempted with her child to swim, but was drowned.
The natives have suffered much from the whites. There are now three classes of the natives—the old blacks, who hold fast to the customs of the tribes; the natives who are inoculated with the worst vices of the Europeans, being drunkards, gamblers, and utterly lawless; and lastly, the native Christians, yearly increasing in numbers. The tendency of Christian civilization, when adopted, is to make them more vigorous and long-lived.
The country is divided into tribal possessions, which none can intrude upon, so that the tribes are confined within a space of country so small that food often fails.
The tribes are jealous of any invasion of territory. This accounts for divisions of districts, as well as a variety of feature, texture of hair, &c., the latter being sometimes, but rarely, found to be woolly in Tasmania. Long hair is generally met with, but in the interior whole tribes are found entirely destitute of the same, while others are remarkable for being very hairy, except on the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet, and a small space round the eyes; these last are remarkable for strength and stature. Some have frizzled hair like the Papuans, and others have hair over their shoulders like Maccabars, while their beards are as different as the hair of their heads; the colour of the skin varies from black to copper colour, and again to almost white. Their features also differ; the Jewish, Celtic, and Teutonic type are recognizable, from which the stockmen nick-name them Paddy, Sawney, John Bull. They make good seamen, stockmen, and policemen. The aborigines are not Papuans, but are probably cave-dwellers; having no fixed habitation or residence, they depend entirely upon the natural productions of the soil, game, and fish.
The formation of their skulls is sometimes low, but in many instances large and equal to the average of Europeans. The theory of their inferiority is not strictly supported; few persons who have had opportunity of judging will admit this inferiority of intelligence; it needs only cultivation.
They possess all the tender feelings of our common humanity, weeping over each other’s afflictions, as fellow mortals mourning with those who mourn. Exposed to danger and treachery, they are watchful; the rustling of a leaf will make them start to their feet. Acknowledging the law of retaliation, blood for blood, they seldom feel secure.
It would appear that the aborigines of the sea-coast had never ventured far inland, and had never passed the Blue Mountains, as they held to the belief that the interior was inhabited by white people, and that there were large lakes and inland seas.
They are a very law-abiding people; the tribes are under government of the chief elders, who are chosen or elective; they are the leaders in war, and in fact rulers of the tribe.
One of their laws is that none but native weapons shall be used in their battles; another, that an unfair wound shall be punished. Capt. Jack Harvey had bitten a man’s lips; the tribe assembled and sentenced him to four blows of a waddy on his head, the justice of which punishment he acknowledged.
While the great change from their natural habits, diet, and mode of living, when brought under the restriction of civilization, and their natural love of freedom—the influence of the elder people on them when they reach the age of twelve, that they must undergo the ceremonies of piercing the nose and knocking out the tooth, &c., &c.—while these failures (not however destitute of civilizing and Christian evidences) are nevertheless disappointing, yet they have proved that these people are not so degraded as represented, that they are not, as has been openly declared, scarce human, and may therefore be destroyed—indeed, that this is the decree of God. The fact is now incontrovertible that they possess much capacity, considerable intelligence, and are capable of instruction; have the same affections, the same domestic and social relationships as ourselves; are subject to special laws, and defend their country with patriotism. That they have not risen to something higher is well expressed by Mr. Marsden, “They have no wants.†They live in a fine climate, with no ferocious animals to guard against, no mighty lakes and rivers to navigate; they are therefore in a position needing no exertion to quicken their energies, while by their seclusion from mankind for ages, it is only astonishing that they have not descended still lower in the scale of humanity.
They have much natural nobility of character, and much groundwork to work upon. Their case is far from hopeless: Faith removes mountains. Miracles, says Mr. Simeon, have ceased, but wonders have not. Let any man go forth with faith and prayer and perseverance, and he will accomplish wonders. Therefore, in great undertakings, give me the man who loves to trample on apparent impossibilities.
An aboriginal youth is not allowed any of the privileges of manhood, which include not only permission to take a wife (when he can catch one from some neighbouring tribe), but also the right to eat certain kinds of food, before he has undergone certain ceremonies, which, as they are extremely painful and revolting, are supposed to test his courage and power of endurance. These differ in various tribes. Knocking out the front teeth and tattooing the back are amongst the mildest operations. The most painful which is in vogue amongst the South Australian blacks is depilation. The unfortunate victim is laid on his back, his body daubed with clay and ochre, and then the old medicine man of the tribe deliberately plucks every hair from the body of the suffering wretch, accompanying the business with a low monotonous chant. It is a point of honor to endure these brutalities without a murmur, and, after their completion, the young man is hailed as a warrior by his new comrades, and from that time is treated as a man.
The boys are not allowed to either cut or comb their hair until they undergo the ceremony of manhood. They are also prohibited from eating certain game. When I have travelled with the tribes, I have observed when we obtained honey the young men dared not partake. When of age, the tribes assemble at night, the youth or youths are seized; the women trying to protect them, their beards are torn out, and their hair combed by spears; they are then smeared with grease and red ochre. For three days and three nights they are not allowed to sleep or eat, and only to drink water through a reed; for six months they are obliged to walk naked, with a slight covering round their loins; they have to undergo three times the plucking out of the beard, and must refrain from any food eaten by women. Everything is sacred from the touch of women. They are not allowed to marry until the time of trial has expired, but they are allowed promiscuous intercourse with the young girls.
In my travels I was shown places, on the tops of hills in general, where the trees were marked with various devices, and there was a circular path all round. Here the candidates were said to have undergone various initiatory ceremonies to qualify them for manhood, from which the women are strictly prohibited. Here, I believe, the front teeth were knocked out by a stick placed against them, and then a blow from a piece of wood. Thus is accomplished this piece of dentistry. On the sea-coast, the fisherwomen have the point of the finger cut off. Many perish undergoing these ceremonies, which are chiefly intended to make them hardy.
The custom of exchanging names with strangers is a pledge of affection and protection in common use. When meeting the natives in the bush alone or in camp, it is advisable to hold up the hands, displaying a branch of a tree, with the view of declaring peaceable intentions.
The tabooing of several kinds of food to the women and young men may arise from the want which has in some instances pressed so upon them that they have resorted to bleeding themselves to preserve life, and indulged in cannibalism to some extent for the same purpose.
The names of deceased persons are not mentioned during mourning, nor the names of the mother by a man seeking marriage of the daughter, nor can he look at his intended mother-in-law.
Sir Thomas Mitchell seems to think that many of their customs were of Eastern origin. Their manner of fishing is described by him, the young men diving down, and spearing the fish under water. This I have witnessed myself. Sir Thomas also describes their villages. The huts are substantial, holding fifteen persons, and having large tombs for burial-places.
They lived much on fish, and took them and birds, especially ducks and geese, with nets.
The enormous powers of the aboriginals in eating is described by Mr. Eyre, in his exploration towards King’s Island Sound.
His native boy Wylie managed to kill a kangaroo. He commenced his repast by eating a pound and a half of horse-flesh and a little bread, they having had to slaughter a horse; to this repast, he added the entrails, paunch, liver, lights, and two hind legs of the kangaroo; to this he added the hide of the kangaroo, having singed off the hair; and having found a dead penguin on the shore, he wound up by eating it all, including the tough skin of the bird. Admitting that his belly was full, he made a little fire and laid down to sleep, this apparently being the happiest moment of his life. On an average this boy could consume 9 lbs. of meat per day—rather a dangerous companion on short allowance; but these people can fast as long, in proportion, as they can gormandize.
Funeral customs differ in tribes. The Narrinyeri tribes point out several stars, and say they are deceased warriors who have gone up to heaven. These are Wyungare and Nepelle, the Manchingga, and several others; and every native expects to go to Wyirrewarre after death, so that there can be no doubt of their belief in a future state. They also believe the dead descend to and walk the earth, and that wicked men will injure them. They are very much afraid of ghosts, and seldom venture in the scrub in the dark, yet they travel long distances to surprise an enemy. The name of the deceased must not be mentioned until the body has decayed, lest they should be considered wanting in feelings of respect. When a man dies they conclude that sorcery has been exercised, so the nearest relative lies with his head on the corpse so that he may dream of the sorcerer. Next day the body is raised on men’s shoulders on a bier, and several names are called out as suspected persons until the impulse of the dead body, which the bearers pretend they cannot resist, confirms the name of the sorcerer.
In some of the tribes the body is placed over a slow fire until the outer skin is blistered, when it is rubbed over with grease and red ochre and placed within the wurley in an upright position. Then great lamentations are made, while they besmear themselves with charcoal and oil, and the women with disgusting filth, and they all beat and cut themselves. The corpse is then subjected to a further slow fire, to dry the humors, while the relatives eat, drink, and sleep under it; and there is great weeping, especially among the women. But the deceased’s spirit must be appeased by the death of the sorcerer. Messengers pass through the tribes to find the suspected person; this often leads to battles, should the tribes be at variance, but otherwise a few spears are thrown and some abuse passed; the old men then pronounce that satisfaction has been made, and the ceremony ceases. The hair of the dead is spun into a cord and made into a head-band; they say that thus they smell the dead. The whole body is skinned with the nails attached, and with this they cover the sick.
In the Polynesian tribes there is a somewhat similar ceremony. In these islands the body is dried and preserved in a sitting position for months, and an offering of food, fruit, and flowers, is daily placed before the dead body, the priest attending to the ceremonies continually. The skeleton is finally burnt within the temple of the family and the skull carefully kept.
Death is certainly a terrible visitor, and people of all nations seem to desire to retain the identity, as it were, amongst them. They do not like to consider the separation as final, and the being with whom they have been so familiar as removed from all intercourse. On the death of a husband, the widow is not permitted to look at any of the relatives for some time. Should she meet with any of the relatives, she immediately prostrates herself on the ground and conceals herself in her cloak. In some districts they bury the body in a sitting posture.
In some districts they bury the dead with the face towards the east, depositing the arms, &c., of the deceased in the grave, and tying the legs of the corpse to the head, probably to save labour in digging.
Their grave-yards are rather singular. They lay various casts of heads made of gypsum or lime on the graves as marks of friends, and a number of oblong balls connected with each end, and of the same material.