Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1897-05-05
Al SAVAGE PHIL. osoPHER.
The Australlan AborIgiao . Living

Representative Of the Stone Age.
The central Australian aboriginc
is the living representative of a
stone age, who still fashions his
spearheads and knives from flint OF
sandstone and performs the most
daring surgical operations with
them. His origin and history are
lost in the gloomy mists of the past.
He has no written records and few
oral traditions. In appearance he is
a naked, hirsute savage, with type
of features occasionally pronounced
" Jewish. He is by nature light
hearted, merry and prone to laugh
ter; a splendid mimic, supple joint
ed, with an unerring hand that
works in perfect unison with his
eye, which is keen as that of an
eagle. He has never been known to
wash. He has no private ownership
of land, except as regards that which
is not overcarefully concealed about
his own person. I'm this respect
there are undoubtedly some terri
torial magnates.) He cultivates
nothing, but lives entirely on the
spoils of the chase, and although
the thermometer frequently ranges
from Is degrees to over 80 degrees
f. in "a hours, and his country is
teeming with furred game, hemakes
no use of the skins for clothing, but
goes about during the day and sleeps
in the open at night perfectly nude.
He builds no permanent habita-
ton and usually camps where night
or fatigue overtakes him. He can
travel from point to point for hun
dreds of miles through the painless
bush with unerring precision and
can track an animal over rocks and
stones whore European eye would
be unable to distinguish a mark. He
is a keen observer and knows the
habits and changes of form of4eyery
variety of animal or vegetable life
in his country. Religious belief he
has none, but is excessively super
stitious, living in constant dread of
an evil spirit which is supposed to
Turk around his camp at night. He
has no gratitude except that of the
anticipatory order and is as treach7
erous as Judas He has no traditions,
and yet continues to practice with
scrupulous exactness a number of
hideous customs and ceremonies
which have been handed down from
his fathers, and of the origin or rea-
son of which he knows nothing.
Outlines kind and even affectionate
to those of his children who have
been permitted to live, he still prac-
tees, without any reason except
that his father did so before him,
the most cruel and revolving mutila-
tons upon the young men and maid
ems of his tribe
Nevertheless he is a philosopher
who accepts feasts or famine with 1
out mu1mur either at the pangs of
hunger or the disco,nforts of reple-
tion. His motto is "Carpe diem, Z and
when fortune sends him a supply of
game he consumes it all regardless
Of tomorrow He is not a>cannibal.
No cold joint of missionary graces
his sideboard, and should hunger,
as a penalty for his improvident
gluttony, overtake him, he simply
ties a thin hair girdle tightly round
his stomach and almost persuades
himself that he is still suffering
from repletion.
After an experience of many years
say without hesitation that he is
absolutely untamable. You may
clothe and care for him for years,
when suddenly the demon Of unrest
takes possession He throws off his
and plunges into the track
less depths of his native bush, at
once reverting to his old and hid
eous customs, and when stated, after
of priyation, he will return
again to clothing and civilization,
only to repeatthe performance later
on Verify his moods are as eccen-
5ric as the flight of his own boom
srang From w. A. Horns "Ad- |
vance Australia.