Sadleir The Aborigines of Australia

1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-3-98826-084-0
Verlag: OTB eBook publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 151 Seiten

Reihe: Classics To Go

Excerpt: ?Shortly after my arrival in the Colony in 1826, I was appointed to a Commission of Inquiry into the state of the Aborigines. Previous to that, martial law had been proclaimed about Bathurst, where the blacks had been committing serious aggressions under Monday, their chief. My journey, extending over 1,600 miles, occupied six months. I lived partly with these people, so as to ascertain their number, language, habits, &c., and proposed a scheme of reserves, as in Canada, a border police, and missionary education, but the cost, £6,000 per annum, was considered too much, and my suggestion was therefore not acted on. I was subsequently examined, together with Mr. Robinson and the Rev. Mr. Threlkeld, before the Committee of the Legislative Council, about 1837, from which much information was acquired. The present work is part of a large manuscript, and I have thought it a favourable opportunity to publish it, now that fresh interest is awakened about these people, devoting any profits to the Missions lately established within New South Wales.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sadleir, R. N. Richard

Leseproben

CHAPTER I.
Origin?—Language?—Marriage formalities?—Infanticide?—Relationships?—Population?—Spitting Tribe?—Encounter Tribe?—Tribal divisions?—Intelligence?—Laws?—Customs?—Ceremony of Depilation?—Funeral customs. The origin of this race is difficult to trace; they seem to have no traditions, and, although the country abounds in gold, copper, and iron, they never appear to have reached the metal implement age. Living principally on the chase, agriculture was not carried on by them, and their only domestic animal was the dingo. There are no remains of architecture amongst them; yet the same painted hand as is found in South America affords some faint trace of their connection with that country. The language, however, furnishes some clue; the grammatical structure of all Australian aboriginal dialects is the same. A few words show a connection with the Aryan rather than the Turanian race, and are, in fact, allied, both in sound and meaning, to words used by nations deriving their speech from the Sanscrit. Many examples may be given of the affinity of the aborigines’ language and those spoken by the various Aryan nations. Possibly this may have been caused by the intercourse with Malays, who from time to time visited the northern coast. The diversity of dialects of the Australian language is deemed to be proof of their high antiquity as a race, as it is thought that a great length of time must have elapsed since they had but one tongue. Their numbers are small in proportion to the extent of the country, but this may have arisen from the want of food, in the absence of any cultivation, although in a fine country with few hardships from climate or other causes. Some may be descended from the Arabs who spread themselves beyond the Indian Archipelago. From the mixture of Arab words, and the rites of circumcision in some tribes, and from the extensive spread of the Arab, there may be reason to suppose they have a large infusion of that blood. The people of the adjoining islands resemble closely the aboriginals. They go naked, have no fixed habitation, use bone and stone implements, have no knowledge of metals or pottery, and in stature, colour, and appearance are similar; but they resemble more the Tasmanians, who are of purer blood. The natives lived under fixed laws, so when the whites arrived, and those that occupied the shore could not fall back, as their intrusion would have added to the wants of those behind them, they were therefore obliged to stand their ground and take the consequences of meeting a superior race, so that their skeletons were found in abundance in caves and amidst projecting rocks, having fallen victims to famine, especially about Sydney, and to the small-pox.—Collins. The Rev. Dr. Lang enters largely into the origin of this people. He conceives they must have been originally a martial people. One thing is remarkable, they have no idol worship. The aborigines afford us some information upon the original condition of mankind—that they have descended from a higher state of existence, and not risen from a lower state of barbarism. Their language is one proof that it is far above, as some assert to be, the original language of man, that of the imitation merely of the brute creation. It is remarkable for its complexity of structure and the precision with which it can be used. It is evidently derived from one root, although there are different dialects. The term for river is Mawersal; so with eye, Meyl. It is very euphonious and significant, combining great power with simplicity. Thus, the term for a cloud is both elegant and expressive, “Gabley maar,” the well of the sky or the fountain of the firmament. “Moorang toeen” is to weep, the same import as “gabley maar.” The “ong” of the Hebrew is of frequent use among these people. They have the dual number throughout, six cases in each declension of nouns and pronouns, and verbs with regular roots. They have names for relationship far more copious than we have in English. If they were only developed from a lower creation they would never have constructed this language. They must have descended, and their language is a remnant of their higher ancestry. Next their customs: these are of a most laborious and cumbersome character, having many curious rites observed with great exactness; yet they can give no account of their origin or even of their uses, so that we may well conclude that they descended to them, and were not invented by them. Of inventions: the present natives have no power of invention, and have no idea of numerals; yet we find the boomerang, and throwing-stick for the spear (woomera), the former on scientific principles, and other things which must have descended to them and not been invented by them, denoting a higher ancestry, from which they still draw much, handed down by use and tradition. We have in these particulars strong evidence that the savages are upon the descending scale; while from the remains of animals that once inhabited the country, we have another evidence that in all these kingdoms there is a retrogression rather than a progression, except where man is elevated by copying and improving on the arts of nature to a certain extent in painting, architecture, statuary, &c., or where Christianity has elevated the human race. And so it is with these natives who have embraced Christianity; they build houses and churches, read, write, and learn agriculture, and thereby rise above the common degeneration. In fact, the very ruins of past nations show that mankind has sprung from an intellectual source and gradually descended, as with all the Eastern nations, and more so in social proportion as they lost the knowledge of the true God. The very licentiousness under heathen dominion, and the very cruelties of heathen rites, the degradation of the female sex, and constant wars, have all a downward tendency. So that however high Greece and Rome rose, they had within them the germs of decay. Hence the value of missions for conveying civilization and moral exaltation, renewing as it were the life of man upon the earth, regenerating humanity. The Bishop of Perth, in his appeal on behalf of the aborigines, says:?—“The darkness of ignorance is dark indeed, but far darker is their state when to the darkness of ignorance has been added the degradation of the chequered vices of civilization, the consciousness of being treated and held as serfs of a race above them, while all illumination of soul or conscience has been denied them. The primitive state of these people was far better than their present debauched, degraded, perishing condition.” The Bishop says that in the Roebourne District, which has now been for some years occupied with cattle and sheep for some 300 miles along the coast, there is a population of nearly 2,000 aborigines. The majority of them are in the employ of the settlers, either on their stations or the pearl fisheries, of which the port of Cossack is the centre, while, in the Gascoyne and newly discovered Kimberley Districts the natives are very numerous, although mostly in their wild state. They are, through the Northern Districts, a fine, intelligent, able-bodied race, and when, as in the Roebourne District, they have been brought into the employment of the settlers, have proved valuable as shepherds, shearers, and divers. A solitary lady (the only labourer) it appears has gathered a few native children about her for instruction. The Bishop then enters into the question of missions. Says he has £500 in hand, also £500 promised, hopes to obtain collections, and that the Government has promised every assistance in its power, such as reserves of land and pecuniary aid. There is therefore some promise of commencement here. While they allow polygamy, they do not permit marriages within a certain descent, and it is a crime worthy of death to marry one of the wrong sort; the distinction of tribes by name is the distinction of marriage. Ippai may marry Kapota or any Ippata but his own sister, Murri may marry Buta only, Kumbo may marry Mata only. An infraction of these laws is death. Marriage is not conducted, as generally represented, as a forcible act, at least not in all the tribes. The female is given in marriage at an early age (ten or twelve years old). It is a kind of exchange; the man who obtains a wife promises to give his sister or other relative in exchange; the parties may never have seen each other. These marriages are always of different tribes. During the ceremony the relatives camp apart. A man takes a fire-stick and conducts the bride into the midst of the parties and gives her away, walking silently away with downcast looks. As soon as they approach the hut is given up. The bride and bridegroom are placed near each other, and the relatives take their places. The party generally fall asleep; at daybreak the bride leaves the hut for her friends, and in the evening is conducted to her husband by their female friends; the tribes then separate and return to their various districts. The man is bound to provide animal food, the wife vegetables, if she pleases. The husband rubs her over with grease to improve her appearance. If there are several wives they seldom agree, continually quarrelling, and are regarded more as slaves, being employed to the husband’s advantage. The woman who leaves with her own consent to live with a man without the consent of her relations, is regarded as a prostitute and exposed to taunts. The sale of wives is frequent, for either money, clothes, weapons, &c. Woman gives consent by carrying fire to her husband’s wurley and making his fire; an unwilling wife will say, “I never made fire in his wurley.” The eldest wife is always...