Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-08-27
BACK TO PRIMITIVE LIFE.

flirtatious actions of an island woman.
This naked daughter of the isle was
very tender and ardent toward young
black in the cutters party and it de-
veloped ere long that she had found out
that he and she belonged in the same
class and therefore she could marry
him if he could be wooed and won.
By careful inquiry DR.. Roth learn
ed that the islanders, with one excep-
tion, had never seen or heard of
white men. The exception was an
islander who. when the explorers ap-
preached, skipped behind bush and
presently reappeared with some grass
and leaves tied around him apron
fashion.
Fashions No Worry.
From this they surmised that this
fellow was once on the mainland or
at Lease had seen white men
enough to gain rudimentary notion
Of what clothes are, hence his
csSsert at breach-cloth in their pres
ence.
AS for the rest of the islanders they
were like Adam and Eve prior to the
serpent episode. And here let it be
said that few other savages on the
| earth are SO destitute of sense or
1nodesty as this. Investigation showed
that the islanders have been separat-
ed from the mainland aborigines for
many generations, and this observa-
ton is strengthened by observation of
their modes.
Are Very Primitive.
| mi, 81, -,
land blacks-which is saying much for
their primitiveness. The mainland ma
tives can and do build rude huts
! These Mornington Island blacks dc
not know what hut is, but simply
heap up handfuls of grass for the
night and then sleep to leeward OF
these heaps.
The natives on the mainland can
weave pretty baskets in which tc
carry about articles. The islanders
cannot weave, but simply wrap such
belongings as they wish to bear away
with them in the bark of the trees
The mainland aborigines make ca
noes. The islanders do not know
what boat or canoe is, but theil
craft are simply rude RATS consisting
Of two parallel logs with lighter wooc
set between them, one end of the raj
: being hacked rather sharper than thu
other end. These RATS they paddle
4 along tho shores of the land. Tit
1 islanders have no knowledge whatev
err OF the wonderful gum cement thu
mainland natives know how to max,
and to use in fastening together thei
shields.
i Traces of Large Bands.
The island is forty by ten miles il
size, and upon it subsist numerous ma
tives, for the explorers came once vi
on the embers of twenty-five fires il
one place, at each of which must hav
squatted two savages. At another tim
they came upon quite fleet of ma
tive RATS already described.
Though the explorers went arme
and acted with caution during tn
three days they spent upon the island
particularly at night. the islander
; were far from being hostile. On th
contrary, they almost invariably ra
away when the white men hove
8 sight which was another proof the
: they are not like their mainland brett
rem, who will kill a white without con
! junction If they can get a good oppo
!. tunity, that is, of course, in the viii
parts of Australia, like the Mitche
River region, on the western side c
the York peninsula.
!. Natives Not Surprised.
: Strange to say, these islanders wer
O a vary prosaic, stolid and matter {
ell fact lot, indeed. They took the tW