Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-10-31
AUSTRALIAN sAVAoES.
Their Strange Methods OF Marriage. Liv-
ing and Burial

L
ing and Burial
The marriage ceremony of the Aus
tralian savages writes Professor Felix
L. Oswold in Good Words, consists Of
ten 10 the simple process OF stunning
stray female OF a neighboring tribe
by means OF a club and then dragging
her away an unresisting captive, Just
as the males Of the large species of
seals are said to attack and temporari-
ly disable their intended mates.
Another still uglier analogy of the
brute creation is their indifference to
the welfare OF their own children after
they have once outgrown the age of
absolute helplessness. An Australian
mother will coddle her baby with ape
like fondness and hardly ever let it
stray out Of sight for the first four
years but as soon as the toddling little
imp seems able to care for itself its debt
OF gratitude to its progenitors has TO
be paid by the worst kind OF slavery.
At the first sign Of insubordinatiou a
half-grown boy is apt to be kicked out,
If not killed by his own father while
the older squaws maltreat every pretty
girl as a possible rival--so much so,
indeed, that the appearance Of even a
club-armed sutton must often be well
coined as an agreeable surprise party.
The marriage Of near relatives Is dis
couraged with a strictness not ctlsn
FOUND among barbarians. and pOlyg-
amy, though sanctioned by public
opinion, is restricted by the difficulty
OF providing for the wants of a large
family AT a distance from the crab
swarming seacOast famines are rather
frequent; but the natives have devel-
oped a faculty for starving, or half
starving. for weeks without permanent
injury, and rely on the experience
that sooner or later nature will renew
the supply of spontaneous food
Within 100 miles of the eastcoast
perhaps no native in an uncrfppled
condition has ever died from a lack OF
digestible food-a rather comprehend
bic term in a country whore fern roots
are boiled like potatoes, end snails
and grasshoppers are considered It'd
bits. Strange to say, the martyrs OF
that horrid diet get old, as proof
that freedom from care is. after all
the main condition OF longevity. A
similar phenomenon may be observed
In the villages OF Central Russia
where mental stagpntlon prevails in
Its ugliest forms, but where charity
and parish poor laws protect every
native from the risk of actual starva-
ton.
OF all the modes of burial ever
practiced by creatures in the shape Of
human beings the method OF the
Queensland nomads is certainly the
most uncouth. After drying the
corpse in the sun and knocking out its
teeth for keepsakes they deposit it on
q framework Of rough poles and bury
1t under an armful of rushes and old
kangaroo SKINS, leaving the bush
wolves to sing its requiem.
No member of the dead mans tribe
will settle within mile OF his grave
for fear OF being haunted by the
spooks making the burial place their
midnight rendezvous. The metaphy-
steal opinions Of the Australian abort
gines prove, indeed that savages can
be afflicted with an abundance Of
supernaturalism without betraying a
trace Of anything deserving the name
of religious sentiment They believe
in evil spirits whistling in the blasts
of tho stormwind and try to exercise
them by splitting in the direction Of
the sky; but for the conceptions of the
Deity, Of future existence of repent
ance atonement and conscience their
language has not even a definite word.
From somewhere in the land of their
forefathers-Eastern Asia, perhaps
they have imported a notion family
resembling the Bhuddist doctrine Of
metempsychosis, and believe that ami
mails may be reborn as men and men
as human beings Of a superior rank.