Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-06-04
AUSTRALIANS CANNlBALs s.
Queer Thlngs Seen by DR.. Lumholts IN
the AntlpOdean COntinont d. j. e


Queer Things Soon by DR.. Lumholts In
the AntipodeSn Continent. g.
One OF the most ouriously interesting
books we have read for long time is
Mr.. Carl IIumholtz's account Of his life
among the cannibals in Australia. It
IL curious and interesting not only for
the novel matter of it, but for the man.
ner, too, which is to the last degree
simple and informal. Whatever 1t may
have been In the original Norwegian,
the narrative is quite without what we
call style" In It's English; but we do
not mean by this that 1t is without
charm. In. fact, IL has very great
charm, which seems to reside in the
authors wish to realize without literary
parade OF any sort the facts Of an ex.
perience almost unique. In o field
that offered unrivaled opportunities
for pictoriality he has been con-
tent to give his adventures and
record his discoveries with tho
accurate drawing and faithful coloring
OF scientific illustration; they have in
this way value that they could have
won In no other; and they reflect with
admirable distinctness the training and
temperament of the author. AS men,
ber of the Royal Academy of Sciences
he went out to Australia, partly at the
cost OF the University OF Christiana, for
the purpose of studying the native life,
and making collections for the zoologio-
al museum Of that institution. He found
two now marsupials, one tree-dwell-
ing kangaroo, and he made other i'm
portant contributions to natural his
tory; but to the general reader the at
traction OF the book will be the close
at-hand Investigations Of the savage
habits and customs which MIR. Lum-
holtz could not have he'll ped carrying on
in the pursuit OF his scientific inquiries.
Upon the whole, life among the
northern Australians could hardly be
desirable on any terms, and on their
own it seems not acceptable. Their
religion is fear, their existence q
series OF escapes from starvation and
homicide, their morality mere tribal
obligation to the most elementary
fealties, their polity an ultimation of
the principle that might makes right
within the tribe as we'll as without; a
despotism of the strong hand tempered
by cunning. In the society of these
children Of nature certain persons
skilled in Devil-devil, as they call the
invocation Of their supreme demon, and
certain old ladies accomplished in
catering to their simple appetite for
human flesh, are the ruling influences.
They are all cannibals, as opportunity
offers; and in default of enemies
to eat they will sometimes eat their
friends; they will even eat the children,
though this is exceptional. Otherwise,
they live mostly upon poisonous roots,
which have to be carefully prepared;
upon worms and grubs; upon snakes
and lizards; and upon such birds and
beasts as they can kill. though they are
not good hunters and are poorly
weaponed for the chase. They 60 naked.
and almost houseless; shelter Of
boughs is their conception OF . house.
After four years among them, and the
bestowal of inestimable benefits in to-
bacco, Mr.. Lumholtz could not flatter
himself that he had ever succeeded in
to any sentiment but fear In
them; they did not kill him because they
imagined him an adept Devil-devil, and
because they were afraid of the
Baby of the Gun, as they called his re-
volver; but they would not have eaten
him, because they had found that, upon
the whole, white men did not agree
with them. In spite of their fears they
had accesses Of treachery in which they
longed so much to kill him that it was
never safe to let them get behind him;
and apparently no kindness could win
them to affection. On such conditions
life began to be for him at moments the
poor possession that it seemed to them;
and he experienced deep despon-
dency, mixed with Indifference, from
which he had to pull him together with
. strong effort Of tho will at last, in or.
der to escape from the psychical
miasm of their most miserable
existence. They were children, and
bad children, with no lovable traits
that he could discover, and cruel and
filthy in their ignorance. In spite of
their abominable customs and their
squalid conditions, the life of the open
air and Of the woods and hills is so
wholesome that fine physical types are
not rare; and in this fact there might
be some hope for the race, If it met the
least justice in contact with the whites
But on the frontiers, says Mr.. Lum-
boltz, ''any savage discovered by the
white men runs the risk Of being shot
Poison was laid in the way of the
blacks once when I was in Queensland.
co.. A squatter ...... shot all the men
ca his run because they were
cattle-killers, the women be-
cause they gave birth to cat
tle-killers, and the children be-
cause they would in time become cattle
killers" The blacks show the curious
readiness of our own Indians to merge
the tribal fealty in an allegiance to
government when employed as police,
and are murderously destructive when
used against their own race, as they
commonly are in Australia. Mr.. Lum-
holtz feels that their complete extinc-
ton is only question Of time; and lit
tie as he could like them, he denounces
with adherence the atrocious injustice
with which they are treated by the En-
lish law as we'll as the English lawless-
ness.-W. D. Howells, in Harper's Mag