Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-02-10
QUEENSLAND BLAcks.


est Type OF Humanity.
1t is impossible to imagine . lower
type Of humanity-whosel lowest depths,
however. is to be seen only about the
inland villages Of Queensland; for the
Queensland .blackfellows'' seem to pre-
sent the climax of native degradation.
The men are spare, wiry fellows, of .
dull, iron-like blaclSness, which is
strangely set Off by thick hair
and boards, having in them de-
cidedly reddish cast of color-stolid,
impassive and slouchy; begging whom
they have no money, and when they are
possessed of it drunk; filthy in dress and
appearance, their feet with soles like
horn from a lifetime of walking over
the hard, hot soil OF their semi-tropical
country. Accompanying them are their
women, fat, oleaginous, their forehea6s
low, their eyes small and keenly gilt
tering under masses of banged" hair,
hollow-chested and. with pendulous
breasts, their skin like parchment, and
in age wrinkled into appalling hideous-
ness-bearing on their backs, wrapped
in dirty shawls to apparent suffocation,
their children swathed like Indian
pappooses, and equally stolid, with
beady eyes, inexpensive either of pleas
ure or discomfort. These interesting
family groups are invariably attended
by half a dozen gaunt, half-starved
Kangaroo dogs, mongrel progeny of
many species, of which the traits of
mastif and of greyhound are most APP
parent, their hides SCARED from en-
counters with the terrible claws of the
kangarco-a sneaking, Pariah race of
CANNES, which seems to have been
evolved for the express purpose of af-
fording appropriate companionship for
this most debased race of men. The
Australian blacks have no neighbors in
degradation among the tribes of the
South Pacific, even the Tasmanians,
whose last member died some twenty
years ago, were few degrees
above them, although evidently their
nearest relations. The New Zealand
Maories are as far above them as the
ancient Romans were above the Goths
and barbarians; even the diabolical
man-eaters of New Guinea and the Solo
mon islands, in all the arts of building,
fashioning of utensils and weapons,
decoration of their houses, garments and
domestic vessels, present touches of in
genLity, thought and artistic instinct of
watch the native Australian race gives
no hint whatever. Some suggestions
they afford, however, of an ancient in
telligence-the race that invented
the boomerang and the notched
stick for throwing the spear. are worthy
OF some respectful consideration.
This latter contrivance is less we'll
known than the boomerang, but it is
hardly less ingenious. 1t consists of a
stick of hard wood, about two feet in
length, with a projection at one end,
notched so as to receive the butt of a
long, slender spear. When the spear is
launched at any object the stick is re-
tanned in the hand, and, by a dextrous
movement, gives an added impulse to the
weapon, like that which a sling imparts
to stone. So great is the force given
by this continuance that a spear Jun
tlppe1 with metal or bone, as it is, and
consisting simply of shaft of hard,
pointed woody thrown by it has been
known to pass completely through the
pody OF an enemy at distance Of |
nifty yards. This aid to efficiency
IN spear-throwlng was evidently |
the result of applied reasoning by |
some ancient philosopher among the |
'blackfellowS. AS for the boomerang
that was probably discovered by acct |
dent. Its shape is almost precisely that |
OF the eucalyptus leaf: nor can any one |
who has sat under Il gum tree and seen
the whlrllng flight in which one Of these |
leaves settles to the ground in cratic
curves when dislodged from a lofty
Dough, fail to remark the resemblance |
Of its movements to those of the boom
erang, and to see in it, at least, the DOS
'ible origin of that paradoxical weapon.
Beyond these two appliances, the native
race possesses nothing what
aver as evidence of an intelligence much
superior to that of the brute.-Boston
Journal.