Volume II Part 20 (1/2)

They profess to consider it highly criminal for a man to marry a woman whose totem (family name) is the same as his own, and they relate instances when young men, for a violation of this rule, have been put to death by their own nearest relatives.*

(*Footnote. Volume 2 page 110 quoting from Tanner's Narrative page 313.)

And again: According to their own account, the Indian nations were divided into tribes for no other purpose than that no one might ever, either through temptation or mistake, marry a near relation, which at present is scarcely possible, for whoever intends to marry must take a person of a different tribe.*

(*Footnote. Ibid.)

The same feeling was remarked by Dobrizhoffer in South America; for, speaking of an interview with a native tribe to whom he was preaching, he says:

The old man, when he heard from me that marriage with relations was forbidden, exclaimed, ”Thou sayest well, father, such marriages are abominable; but that we know already.” From which I discovered that incestuous connexions are more execrable to these savages than murder or robbery.*

(*Footnote. Account of the Abipones Volume 1 page 69.)

PUNISHMENT OF SECONDARY OFFENCES. ORDEAL AND PUNISHMENT FOR OTHER TRANSGRESSIONS.

Any other crime may be compounded for by the criminal appearing and submitting himself to the ordeal of having spears thrown at him by all such persons as conceive themselves to have been aggrieved, or by permitting spears to be thrust through certain parts of his body; such as through the thigh, or the calf of the leg, or under the arm. The part which is to be pierced by a spear is fixed for all common crimes, and a native who has incurred this penalty sometimes quietly holds out his leg for the injured party to thrust his spear through.

When a native, after having absconded for fear of the consequences of some crime which he has committed, comes in to undergo the ordeal of having spears thrown at him, a large a.s.semblage of his fellows takes place; their bodies are daubed with paint which is put on in the most fantastic forms, their weapons are polished, sharpened, and rendered thoroughly efficient; at the appointed time young and old repair to the place of ordeal, and the wild beauty of the scenery, the painted forms of the natives, the savage cries and shouts of exultation which are raised as the culprit dexterously parries, or by rapid leaps and contortions of his body avoids the clouds of spears which are hurled at him, all combine to form a singular scene to which there is no parallel in civilized life.

If the criminal is wounded in a degree judged sufficient for the crime he has committed his guilt is wiped away; or if none of the spears thrown at him (for there is a regulated number which each may throw) take effect he is equally pardoned.

But no sooner is this main part of the ceremony over than two or three duels take place between some individuals who have quarrels of their own to settle; after these combatants have thrown a few spears some of their friends rush in and hold them in their arms, when the etiquette on such occasions is to struggle violently for a few minutes, as if anxious to renew the contest, and then to submit quietly to superior force and cease the combat.

NATIVE APATHY UNDER COMMON WOUNDS. ANECDOTE.

The natives pay but little regard to the wounds they receive in duels or which are inflicted on them as punishments; their sufferings from all injuries are much less than those which Europeans would undergo in similar circ.u.mstances; this may probably arise from their abstemious mode of life, and from their never using any other beverage than water. A striking instance of their apathy with regard to wounds was shown on one occasion in a fight which took place in the village of Perth in Western Australia. A native man received a wound in that portion of his frame which is only presented to enemies when in the act of flight, and the spear which was barbed remained sticking in the wound; a gentleman who was standing by watching the fray regarded the man with looks of pity and commiseration, which the native perceiving, came up to him, holding the spear (still in the wound) in one hand, and turning round so as to expose the injury he had received, said, in the most moving terms, ”Poor fellow, sixpence give it 'um.”

CHAPTER 13. SOCIAL CONDITION AND DOMESTIC HABITS.

POPULATION.

Several writers have given calculations as to the number of native inhabitants to each square mile in Australia. Now, although I have done my utmost to draw up tables which might even convey an approximate result, I have found the number of inhabitants to a square mile to vary so much from district to district, from season to season, and to depend upon so great a variety of local circ.u.mstances, that I am unable to give any computation which I believe would even nearly approach the truth; and as I feel no confidence in the results which I have obtained, after a great deal of labour, I cannot be expected to attach much importance to those which, to my own knowledge, have in several instances been arrived at by others from mere guesswork.

NATURAL PERIOD OF LIFE.

With regard to the age occasionally attained by the natives I believe very erroneous ideas have been prevalent, for so far am I from considering them to be short-lived that I am certain they frequently attain the age of seventy years and upwards. As they themselves have no knowledge whatever of their age it is manifest that merely speculative ideas upon this point must be useless; the means therefore that I adopted to arrive at a probable conclusion may be ill.u.s.trated by an example: In the table I have given of a family descending from two natives, Nardooitch, and Kimbeyenung (Appendix A) the name of Yenna will be found as one of Wundall's children; now (1840) Yenna is a young man of about twenty years of age, and from the usual habits of the natives we must allow that his father, Beewullo, was at least twenty-three years old by the time he had married and had a child; such being the case, Beewullo must now be about forty-three, and Jeebar his father must by the same reasoning be about sixty-six, yet he is alive and in perfect health, and his elder brother Nogongo is likewise alive, and as upright as possible, although the infirmities of old age are creeping on him. Nogongo must be now at least sixty-eight years old, yet I have seen two other natives who, by his and their own account, are older than he is; and on making a calculation, in the way I have just done, to ascertain their age, it appeared that one of them was sixty-nine and the other seventy-one; so that, although probably none of these estimates are quite correct, I still think that we are at liberty to infer, from various instances of this kind, that the natives sometimes attain a very advanced age; yet were these instances of longevity contrasted with the great number of deaths which take place during the period of infancy, there can be no doubt whatever that the average duration of life amongst these savage tribes falls far short of that enjoyed by civilized races. There is however one species of death unknown to these barbarians and that is suicide. I believe they have no idea that such a thing as a person's putting an end to his own life could ever occur: whenever I have interrogated them on this point they have invariably laughed at me and treated my question as a joke.

CONDITION OF OLD AGE.

The period of old age must be as happy as any other time in the life of a savage, if not more so. Aged men are always treated with great respect; they rarely take a part in any fray; they are privileged to eat certain kinds of food which the young men may not touch; and they seldom appear to suffer much from the infirmities and diseases to which the aged are generally subject amongst us.

CONDITION OF YOUNG WOMEN.

Should a female be possessed of considerable personal attractions the first years of her life must necessarily be very unhappy. In her early infancy she is betrothed to some man, even at this period advanced in years, and by whom, as she approaches the age of p.u.b.erty, she is watched with a degree of vigilance and care which increases in proportion to the disparity of years between them; it is probably from this circ.u.mstance that so many of them are addicted to intrigues, in which, if they are detected by their husbands, death, or a spear through some portion of the body is their certain fate; indeed the bare suspicion of infidelity upon their part is enough to ensure to them the most cruel and brutal treatment. For these causes during youth they are compelled, whether pregnant or not, to accompany their husbands in all their excursions, and are thus subject to violent and continued exercise and fatigue at periods when repose is indispensable.

But even supposing a woman to give no encouragement to her admirers, many plots are always laid to carry her off, and in the encounters which result from these she is almost certain to receive some violent injury, for each of the combatants orders her to follow him, and in the event of her refusing throws a spear at her. The early life of a young woman at all celebrated for beauty is generally one continued series of captivity to different masters, of ghastly wounds, of wanderings in strange families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment from other females amongst whom she is brought a stranger by her captor; and rarely do you see a form of unusual grace and elegance but it is marked and scarred by the furrows of old wounds; and many a female thus wanders several hundred miles from the home of her infancy, being carried off successively to distant and more distant points.

These various circ.u.mstances render miscarriages more frequent amongst these uncivilized tribes than amongst European nations, and the first years and bloom of a female generally elapse before she has any children; but then a fresh cause exists to prevent their having very large families, which is that, from the nature of the food used by the natives, it is necessary that a child should have good strong teeth before it can be even partially weaned. The native women therefore suckle their children until they are past the age of two or three years, and it is by no means uncommon to see a fine healthy child leave off playing and run up to its mother to take the breast.

The native women suffer much less pain during the period of labour than Europeans; directly the child is born, it is wrapped in opossum skins, and strings made of the fur of this animal are tied like bracelets round the infant's wrists and ankles, with the intention of rendering it, by some supernatural means, a stronger and a finer child. They are always much prouder of a male than of a female child.