Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-07-18
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
fho Natives Very Low In The Scale
or Barbarism.

MAI many OF the ndllNtS On luc HOllu-
eastern coast of Australia are cannibals,
but this charge has never been brought
against even the worst of the west Aus
tralian blacks. They are a hideous
race, and about as low III the scale OF
civilization as it is possible to go. To
see a native girl digging in the ground
for dalgeits and boobies their names
| for two kinds of small burrowing mar
supials, the flesh of which they esteem
very highly crouching on ner launches
and breaking away the earth with
| long stick in one hand, while with the
nails and fingers of the other hand she
throws it behind her. for all the world
like a dog burrowing after a rat, is as
disgusting a sight as 1t is possible for
man and brother to behold, unless II be
to see her lord and master lying asleep
and. If he had the opportunity of get
ting grog, drunk in the hut close by,
with perhaps two or three old hags,
couple of half starved kangaroo hounds
and mass of skins, opposum remains
and filth, which makes one turn away
with loathing from the scene.
! The huts which they build for them
selves are the most temporary and
roughest Kind of constructions. y
few large branches leaning together in
the share of a round hut, covered some
times with strips of bark off the paper
| bark - a tree that affords a tough and
fbrous covering, and only large enough
for three or four to lie down in, and
pretty close together, too. such IS
their idea of "home-"
Tie utmost limit of their clothing in
the bush is a kangaroo skin cloak and a
band of hair which they tie around their
heads to keep their own swarthy looks
out of their eyes. In the north and
where white men are scarce they go en-
tirely naked, and appear to be without
| the sense OF shame. livery man has
the right To three or four wives, and
they generally have them of very yarl-
Gus ages. An old gray haired man Of
ten las wife of Il years old among
Others. IL Is, of course, rather a stretch
of language TO call them wives, for they
have no kind of marriage ceremony,
and are as often secured by abduction as
by purchase. This way of winning a
wife is naturally conducive to constant
| fighting, which forms large part Of
| the interest of their lives. the more so
as owing to the low value set upon
women's lives, that sex (which II Is re-
/ ally impossible in this connection to
| speak of as the fair SEX Is scarce.
| They eat any kind OF food they can
/ lay their hands upon, meat OF any KIND,
| of course, and no matter how stale, the
| fat and entrails quite uncoOked and the
remainder scarcely more prepared.
Snakes, lizards, frogs, white ants, grubs
OF almost any kind and the bodies OF
some kind of moths they esteem highly.
| The women, who always have to do
| anything in the way OF carrying that
has to be done, carry their babies (pick-
aninies) Slung over their backs in
kangaroo skin, If a woman has not
got a baby TO carry, or sometimes even
If she has, she carries bag made of
the same material, the contents of
which constitute their only food against
future want. 1t is an awful thing to
see the contents of this bag. The writer
has seen two women, who had come up
TO an Australian station to beg for
food, given the remains of a rice pud-
ding in pudding dish. The one who
carried the bag took it down of her
shoulders and gravely began TO unload
it-on top, perhaps, two or three crusts
of bread, green with mold, then a piece
of raw meat half putrefied; an old to-
bacco pipe; an opoSsum's skin; some
red clay, "A little greasy; black hair;
and at last very dirty piece OF an old
flannel shirt was reached. This, which
was about a foot square. 49, spreaa
carefully ai- the ground. The contents
of the pudding dish were scoOped into
1t with most filthy hand. 1t was
neatly and gravely folded up and put
back in the bottom of the bag, and then
the other valuables were replaced on
| top of it.
And yet, though so degraded, they
are far from useless, these creatures.
They make tolerably good shepherds,
| can be taught to use their hands skill
| fully in any way that is desired, and
the good ones among them may be
trusted to do things that many 4 white
man would not do well and conscienti-
ously. Settlers will send their horses
long distances III charge of "black-
fellow" and sheep, too, are often in
trusted to them to drive to outlying
stations or down into the own to mar
ket.
Even those of them who have been
brought most near to a state of civiliZa-
tion require every now and then a
month in a savage state in the bush,
and after working, perhaps about the
stable yard, in clothes, and appearing
quite domesticated for months together,
they will suddenly inform their en-
ployer, ME walkaway morning, y
which is equivalent to saying that they
require holiday, And next morning
they may be seen airly clad in a single
kangaroo skin, their black hair all
stained red and clotted with a horrible
mixture of red clay and grease called
''wilgie," and carrying small shield,
a couple of spears and as many boomer
angs Tor keileys as they call theml, set
ting out for = month in the woods with
| tlrsa nr fDnr mora pf hair trihG
When natives are out in the bush il
is necessary for them always To 60 fully
armed, for almost every native of an
other tribe is their enemy TO the death,
and they are broken up into a great
number of tribes, If a native of one
tribes dies a member of another tribe
has to be killed. This IS the nearest
thing they have to any religious code,
and Il Is IN vain that white men have
tried TO stamp out the savage custom.
Their principal weapon of offenSe is the
spear, the bow and arrow being quite
unknown among them.
They have no ideas, however rudi.
mentary, of creator or supreme being
and the only consciousness of the super
natural which they seem to have is .
fear Of evil spirits; these they appear tC
associate with dead people who have
been LETT unburied- They attribute all
illness to the Vaccinations of these bad
spirits.
They are very cruel to their women
GINS" as they call them, making
them build the huts and carry firewood
and do all the work there is TO do, and
spearing them through the leg OF cruel.
ly beating them on the very slightest
provocation.
Girl babies they often kill. On the
day OF the writer's arrival ON one sta.
ton lsheep and cattle ranches are called
stations in Australia). he was shown
a little black pickaniny, only n week
old, as curiosity. and a most strange
looking inhuman little animal it was
The following morning some of the
gins, who came up to the house eact
morning TO beg for tea, announced quite
calmy that Monkey 1.-THE baby's father
was going to kill pickaniny, The own