The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-04

NAAAbS iiiNlA AlAN lAOL Wclll IllGs nus IOl something like twenty years I made
 my home with them in the mountain ous region near the center of the conti-
 nent, where I ultimately became king
 or ruler over a number of large tribes, From this mountainous home I made
 frequent long journeys and traversed at
 one time or another great part of the interior of the continent.
 Once followed on the camel track of white party with the tribe for the purpose of picking up empty tins and for other things useful to us, and came
 upon an Australian newspaper. I re-
 member it was the Sydney Town and
 Country Journal, bearing date some- | where between 1874 and 1876. It was a surprise indeed. I read it over and
 over, until had learned it by heart,
 and I preserved it in an opossum skin cover until it was literally worn to | pieces.
 Much of the information this newspa- per contained puzzled me greatly, and I nearly worried myself into insanity over a statement that the deputies of
 Alsace and Lorraine had refused to
 vote in the German parliament and had
 walked out" Turn it over how might
 I could not understand how the repre-
 sentatives of two great departments in
 my own country could possibly be in the German parliament-knowing abso- lutely nothing, of course, of the war of | 1870.
 | The tribe over which I reigned was | composed of beings who were certainly low down in the human scale, but at the same time they have elaborate laws
 which govern their daily life precisely
 as in the case of civilized people. They are savages, repulsive In appearance, who have not even risen to such point of civilization as to have permanent
 houses, addicted to cannibalism, and altogether of a very degraded type
 But, nevertheless, must say that they
 have many good qualities, and that
 their code of honor would bear compar- | ison with that of any civilized nation. | While my natives did not. as rule,
 paint the body on great occasions, such
 as corroborees, initiation ceremonies
 and other festivities, they paint and decorate themselves elaborately, each tribe having it's own design of decora- tion, and even a geometrical design for each ceremony. The pigments used in decoration are of many colors, but
 chiefly yellow, red, white and black Ordinarily the only clothing known con- sists of a coating of greasy clay, mixed with charcoal. This serves many pur- poses. It keeps off the cold during win ter, and Is also protection against the attacks of insects. In summer special
 kind of pigment is used to keep off in-
 sects, and this material is scented with
 kind of pennyroyal.
 Cannibalism prevails to very great extent, but is governed by many rules Usually it is the slain victims in battle
 that are eaten by the victorious side,
 and as the object seems to be to acquire
 the valor and virtue of the person eaten I endeavored to wean the tribes from
 cannibalism by assuring them that, if they made bracelets, anklets and neck
 laces out of the dead mans hair, they would achieve their end equally well. When family growstoo large, and the
 mother-being the beast of burden-is
 unable to carry one of the children the father orders it to be clubbed and eat en. This however is entirely actuated
 by love, as the natives have horror of natural decay. Manned and deformed children are also killed and eaten. Wo-
 men and people who die natural death are never eaten. When man has to be eaten there is always grand | corroberee. The natives are not
 ashamed to confess cannibalism, nor is an individual considered unclean after | joining in feast.
 ,ie.o fI,o my natives were not a pleasant people to live among. But I found the reverse to be the case. They were always cheerful obedient and deferential in their manner, and many times did I owe my life to the care exercised by my | faithful native wife. It was possible to devise many occupations, which were at | least sufficient to pass the time. For amusement I used to search the beds of the water courses for curious stones. In great many of these water courses l found both coarse and fine gold, and 1 in some instances the creeks were ex- tremely rich in alluvial gold. In some eases a bed of cement or concrete was found at the bottom of a creek, in which gold was sticking out at the sides, which proved that there was large proportion of that precious metal | in the concrete. I frequently picked up large nuggets, but had no use for the
 metal save to make ornaments for my wife; but these she did not appear to value, and promptly gave them away
 to some children wherewith to amuse them. Alluvial gold was found to the | north of my mountain home and reef gold to the south, the richest deposits of
 all occurring in the southwest.
 I found great quantities of gem stones
 of every shape and color, which could
 be distinguished by looking through them then wet. In some cases the pre- vailing color of the stones would be va
 rious shades of red in others blue and in rarer cases green. This I took re- spectively to be ruby, sapphire and en-
 erald. On occasion I came across
 range of granite hills extending several
 miles, and the adjacent creeks con-
 tained large quantities of pieces of
 broken reefs and holes and water-worn
 pebbles, also immense quantities of
 heavy black sand, which I supposed to
 be iron, but which I now know to be tin. In another district found large
 quantities of native copper lying about in pieces.
 My wild life came to an end at last.
 An epidemic of influenza swept over the country and carried off my wife. My
 surviving children were also swept
 away. Thus left alone, without the old