Thomas County cat., 1889-08-08
NATIVE AUSTRALIANS.
Information Obtained From tho Last
Survivor of Mighty Clan.

Information Obtained From tho LAST
Survivor of a Mighty Clan.
In the magnificent city OF Mel
bourne, Australia, there lives a
..prince'' named Berak, who is the
last surviving son of the Australian
chieftain Yarra-Yarra, who once
possessed the land upon which Mel
bourne and its environs stand.
Berak does not now live in prlncely
style. His badly-worn clothes are the
gifts of benevolent persons, and he
lodges and subsists upon charity. He
can hardly be called beggar, for he
never asks for any thing; but if
bit of silver is slipped into his hand
to buy tobacco with, he accepts 1t
with thanks.
For all his poverty, Berak is said
to be fne-looking man. He is
about sixty-five years old, quite black.
a little under medium height, white
bearded and straight-haired. He has
fine forehead, a Grecian nose; large,
mild and expressive eyes, and thin
lips. When he smiles, as he often
does, he shows all his thlrty-two
teeth. still perfectly whole, white and
shapely.
Berak, who takes his own reduced
circumstances and the decline OF his
race quite philosophically, is fond of
telling the story of his people, the
Australian natives.
Before the arrival of the English,
these people had neither cattle, horses.
sheep nor hens. They did not culti-
vate the ground and lived wholly by
hunting and fishing. Their chief
game was the kangaroo, the small
Australian bear, paroquets of various
kinds, a sort of wild duck or widgeon
and the black swan-for in Australia
the blackbir are white and the swans
black. The natives fshed neither
with the hook nor with the net but
lanced both fish and eels.
Berak acknowledges freely that his
ancestors were cannibals; he even re-
members taking part in cannibal
feast in his own childhood. But his
people, he says, never ate any OF the
Engiishmen. 1T is the Englishmcn
who have eaten the Berak!"
The native Australians were cruel
in their punishments. Great Grim
inals were beaten to death with clubs
in the presence of the tribes. At
the same time, they were not without
kind feelings. When, upon the march,
an old and feeble man had fallen out
of the line, it was their custom to send
back two or three stalwart warriors
to guard and assist him.
Such of the native Australians as
still survive in a savage state possess
many peculiar customs. Strangers
meeting must remain some time silent,
and if they become good friends, they
signify it by exchanging names The
name, they think, is a part of the man
himself, and to possess it gives a
power for evil, so that it should be
known only to friends.
Although the Australians are not. as
rule, pOlygamists, they hold their
women should be kept in subsection,
and cut off the last joint of the little
finger OF females as sign of their
subordination. The men undergo a still
more remarkable mutilation as sign
of subsection to their chiefs; they have
their teeth knocked out by their
"koradger men," Or priests. Berak,
being chief by birth, escaped this
ceremony.
Hagarth, a traveller who has de-
scribed the ways OF the Australians.
writes of u semi-domesticated native
that said to him one day, with look
of Importance, that he must 60 away
for a few days, as he had grown up to
mans estate, and it was high time
that he should have his teeth Knocked
OUT
The Australians have long been re-
garded as one of the most degraded of
races, but they possessed. at least
when first visited by the Europeans,
many excellent and friendly qualities.
They have diminished until they now
number only about seventy-five thou
sand. and no doubt will. before many
generations, completely disappear, AS
the natives of Tasmania have already
done.-Iouth's Companion.
Al ,Ar-rorc-,A~