The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-16

often been brought against tho black
fellows as an indication Of their humble
position in the scale Of humanity. Some
Of them, We believe, made, before the
coming OF the whites rude drawings oil
a certain merit though not, OF course,
to be compared with the work oil the
admirable artists of the Early Reindeer
School
A pure blooded native who has been
in Europe "cen fully hold his own in the
discussion of European news. and has
addressed crowd Of whites on the eG-
travagance of the Australian State Gov
ernments on account of the whit OF the
Duke Of YORK. The aboriginal girls are
excellent house servants neat and quick
TO learn, In athletic sports. apparently
the most important part of the highest
modern civilization least, as our
authority says, "one of the most generally
accepted proofs of race eminence -
the blachellows seem to be as proficient
as the whites. They are daring, skilful
riders of buck Jumping horses, swift
runners, first class cricketers, even
mighty in football, the chief end of con-
temporary man.
But the blackfellows have small arith-
metio Was it five, or ten, that used to
be set down solemnly az the limit OF
their powers of computation? At any
rate, their numerals were sufficient for
their needs in the savage state. Their
language, not their intellect, was at fault.
1t is now mo unusual thing for an abo-
riginal to count sheep running through
gateway with the strictest accuracy,
no easy task, since an Australian flock
Of less than a thousand is considered
very small, and hocks Of 10000 are not
unusual.
The blacks who live among cultivated
whites speak correct English, seldom
mispronounce words and object to being
addressed in "pidgin English. In this
correctness OF speech they show supe-
riority, in at least one point, to the Chi
nese in English speaking countries and
to the American negroes
The Australian folklore and legends
reveal a power of Imagination at least
equal to that OF other primitive races
supposed to be Of higher mental capacity.
A still greater proof Of the intellect OF
Australian aborigines is not spoken of
in the Nineteenth Century article. Such
central Australian tribes as the Arunta
and Urabunna have highly complex sys-
TENS Of relationship, group marriages
and totem divisions, systems which an
educated man cannot comprehend with
out considerable concentration and
study. The initiation ceremonies, the
so-called mysteries" of certain tribes,
and their other religious or magical oper-
atoms also indicate memory and intelli-
gence in no small degree. When black
fellow gets a chance Of mental develop
ment he is apt to profit by IT,
Nearly twenty-five years ago Mr..
JAMES DAWSON related in his "Austral-
ian Aborignes" that the inspection of an
aboriginal school in Gippsland gave a
percentage of results higher than other
State schools in Victoria. The same
work relates that a black woman mar
ried to a white shepherd taught her
husband TO read and write. Yet the
legend of the mental degradation of
the Australian blacks continues TO
flourish.
Moral degradation, the gift Of the
whites, is more to be feared, and the po-
sition of an educated blackfellow among
the whites is necessarily one Of isolation.
Often he arises and goes to his own
people and lapses into "sayagery.