The St. Johns herald., 1897-11-20
AN uNTAMABLE SAVAGE.
The Australian Aborigine Is the
 strangest of Human Creatures.

The Australian ADOriEIne IS the
 strangest of Human Creatures.
 The Central Australian aborigin Is the living representative of a stone age. who still fashions his spear heads and knives from flint or sandstone, and performs the most daring surgIcal op- erations with them. His origin and his history are lost in the gloomy miss of the past. He has no written rec ords and few oral traditions. In ap- pearance he is a naked hrsute savage, with a type of features occasionally pronouncedly Jewish. He is by nature light-hearted, merry and prone to laughter; a splendid mimic, supp-e- jointed, with an unerring hand that works in perfect unison with his eye. which is as keen as that of an eagle. He has never been known to wash. He has no private ownership of land, ex- cept as regards that which is not over carefully concealed about his own per son. He cultivates nothing, but lives entirely on the spells of the chase, and although the thermometer frequently ranges from 15 degrees to over 90 de- grees Fahrenheit in 24 hours, and his country is teeming with furred game, he makes no use of the skins for cloth ing, but goes about during tfe day and sleeps in the open at night perfectly nude.
 He hTil6s -~ rr---7- -----t habit ion. and usually camps where night or fa- rigEa orertakes him. He can travel from point to point for hundreds of miles through the painless bush with unerring precision, and can track an animal over rocks and stones, where a European eye would be unable to dis tlnguish mark. He is a keen observ- CT, and knows the habits and changes Of form of every variety of animal or vegetable life in his country. Relig- ious belief he has none, but is exces- siVeIy superstitiOus, living in constant dread Of an evil spirit, which Is sup posed to turk around his camp at night. He has no gratitude except that of the anticipatory order, and is as treacher- ous 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 fath- CTS, and of the origin or reason of which he knows nothing Ofttimes kind and even affectionate to those of his children who have been permitted to live, he still practices, without any reason except that his father did so be- fore him, the most cruel and revolting mutilatiOns upon the young men and maidens of his tribe.
 He is not a cannibal. No cold joint of missionary graces his sdeboard, and should hunger, as a penalty for his inn proVident gluttony, Overtake him, he simply ties a thin hair glrdle tightly round his stomach, and almost per suades himself that he is still suffering from repietion. He is absolutely un- tamable. You may clothe and care for him for years. When suddenly the de- mon of unrest takes possession he throws off his clothing and plunges into the trackless depths of his native bush, at once reverting to his old and hideous customs, and when sated, after months of privatiOn, he will return again GO clothing and civilization. only To repeat the performance later on. Verify, his moods are as eccentric as he flight Of his own boomerang.