The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-06-23
AUSTRALIAN SAvAeEs.

Thsis Barbarous Existence and strangs |
Burial Customs.
. The marriage ceremony OF the Aus |
trslian savages consist oftsa in the sim.
pie process Of stunning a stray female
of . neighboring tribe by meAns Of q
club, and then dragging her away an
unresisting captive, just a. the males Of
the larger species of seal are said to at
tack and temporarily disable their in.
tended matea Another still uglier
analogy with 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 1t stray out of sight for the first four
years; but as soon as the toddling little
imp seems able to take care OF itself. Its
debt of gratitude to its progenitors has
to be paid by the worst kind OF slavery.
At the first sign of INSTRUMENTATION,
half-grown boy Is apt to be kicked out
II not killed, by his own father, while
the older squaws maltreat every pretty
girl as possible rival, so much so. in
deed, that the appearance even OF
club-armed sutton must often be well
, coined as an agreeable surprise party.
The marriage of Eear relatives Is dis
couraged with strictness not often
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 distance from the crab
swarming sea-coast 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
hundred miles of the east coast, per-
haps, no native in an uncrippled condi-
ton has ever died from lack of d.
1estible food-a rather comprehensive
term in a country where fern-roots are
boiled like potatoes, and snails and
orasshoppers are considered tidbits-
Strange to say, the martyrs of that hor-
rid diet get old, as proof that free
dom from care is, after all, the main
} condition of longevity. A similar phe-
nomenon may be observed in the vii
lapes of Central Russia, where mental
stapnation prevails in its ugliest forms,
but where charity and parish poor laws
protect every native from the risk OF
actual starvation. 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 it:
teeth for keepsakes, they deposit it or
q framework of rough poles, and bury
il under a few armfuls of rushes ant
old kangaroo skins, leaving the bush
wolves to sing its requiem. No mem
Der of the dead mans tribe will settl'
within a mile of his grave, for fear o
being haunted by the spooks making
the burial place their midnight rendez
yous. The metaphysical opinions o
the Australian aborigines prove, indeed
that savages can be afflicted with al
abundance of supernaturalism withou
betraying trace of anything deserving
the name of religious sentiment The.
believe in evil spirits whistling IN tn
blasts of the storm wind. and try to e1
orcise them by splitting in the directio
of the sky; but for the conceptions
the Deity, of future existence, OF re
nentance, atonement and conscience
their language has not even dehni'
word. From some where in the Land
their forefathers-Eastern Asia, pc
haps-they have imported a MOTTO
family resembling the Buddhist do
trine of metempsychosis, and belie'
that animals may be born as men, an
men as human beings of superior ranl
DIR. Felix L. Oswald, in Good Healtl