The Van Buren press., 1897-09-18
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINE.
An UntamabIe Savage with the Stone
Age Habits,


The Central Australian alborigine is
the living representative of a stone age,
who still fashions his spear heads and
knives from flint or sandstone, and per-
forms the most daring surgical opera
tions with them. His origin and his his
tory 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 a type
Ct features occasionally pronouneedly
Jewish. He is by nature ight-hearted,
merry and prone to laughter; splen
did mimic, supple-jointed, with an un-
erring 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, except as regards
that which is not over-carefully con
cealed about his own person. I'm this
respect there are undoubtedly some
territorial magnates.) He eultiyates
nothing, but lives entirely on the spoils
of the chase, and although the ther
mometer frequently ranges from Is de-
gTees to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit in
"A hours, and his country is teeming
with furfed game, he makes no use of
the skins for clothing, but goes about
during the day and sleeps in the open
air at night perfectly nude.
He builds no permanent habitation,
and usually camps where night or fa-
tigue overtakes 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
tinguish a mark. He is keen observer
and knows the habits and changes of
form of every variety of animal or
vegetable life in his country. Religious
belief he has none, but is excessively
superstitious, living in constant dread
of an evil spirit, which is supposed to
lurk around his camp at night. He has
no gratitude except that of the antici-
patory order and is as treacherous as
Judas. He has no traditions and yet
continues to practice with scrupulous
eXactness number of hideous GUS
toms and ceremonies which have been
handed down from his fathers, and of
the origin or reason of which he knows
nothing. Ofttimes kind and even affec-
tionate to those of his children who
have been permitted to live, he still
practices, without any reason except
that his father did so before him, the
most cruel and revolving mutilations
upon the young men and maidens of his
tribe.
Nevertheless, he is philosopher who
accepts feast or famine without muir
nur either at the pangs of hunger or the
discomforts of repletion. His motto is
carpe diem, and when fortune sends
him a supply of game he consumes it
all, regardless of tomorrow. He is not
cannibaL No cold joint of missionary
graces his sideboartl, and should hun
ger, as a penalty for his improvident
gluttony, oyertake 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 abso-
lutely untamable. You may clothe and
care for him for years, when suddenly
the demon 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 stated, after
months of privation, he will return
again 10 clothing and civilization, only
10 repeat the performance later on.
Verify, his moods are as eccentric as
the fight of his own boomerang.-Ad-
vance Australian.