THE NATIVE TRIBES OF CENTRALAUSTRALIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE NATIVE TRIBES OF CENTRALAUSTRALIA.

Perhaps the best antidote for the De Rougemont trash, which has unworthily occupied so much public attention, is the really valuable and exhaustive work on the Native Tribes of Central Australia by Baldwin Spencer, M.A., Professor of Biology in the University of Melbourne, and F. J. Gillen, Sub-Protector of the Aborigines, Alice Springs, South Australia. The writers have approached their work in a truly scientific spirit, and by prolonged observation and familiar intercourse with the blacks inhabiting- the country traversed by the transcontinental telegraph line, they have succeeded in throwing a great deal of new light upon the manners and customs, modes of thought, and mental and moral conditions of these primitive people. Mr Gillen has spent twenty years in the centre of the continent, and succeeded during that time in gaining the confidence of several wild and nomadic tribes. Upon the whole, the facts collated by the writers tend to raise our opinion of the average intelligence of these rapidly dying people, who have heretofore, and not without justification, been classed as among the lowest races of the earth. The circumstances of their life have undoubtedly engrained upon them habits and traits of character which render them peculiarly unfitted to conform to civilised way's, but there are ideas underlying their strange customs and beliefs which redeem many of them from the stigma of mere barbaric and bestial practices. Perhaps the most interestingl chapters in the book are those dealing with the curious toteraic system/ that prevails with considerable variations among the blacks all I over the Australian continent. The ceremonies commonly observed by the blacks are also very minutely and entertainingly described, and by the aid of photography, which the auth; ors have made very liberal and judicious use of in illustrating their work, the reader is enable to obtain a vivid impression of this strange race of savages. The natural food supplies of the interior upon which the natives rely entirely for subsistence, doing nothing in the way of cultivation, are more abundant than one would suppose, but comprise articles of diet which would never be thought of in that light by anyone except an Australian black-fellow. With regard to clothing, the authors consider it singular that in a country where kangaroo and wallaby abound the natives have never utilised the skins for warmth in winter, although the temperature often falls several degrees below freezing point. They accept blankets and European garments readily enough, but use them with such little regularity or discretion that they would be very im:ch better off in their primitive condition of nakedness. Garments are worn and thrown aside, with the result that no sooner do the natives come in contact with white men than phthisis and other disease soon make their appearance, and hasten the tribe on to extinction in a very short time. The authors reject the theory that the Australian tribes are degenerate. There is no evidence whatever that their ancestors ever attained a higher state of civilisation or intellectual development; on the other hand, there has been no marked upward movement. The social organisation of the tribes is minutely described, and presents many curious features. Their forms of magic, traditions, and notions of the supernatural are also remarkable. Altogether the book is a monumental work upon a very interesting subject, and should be found on the bookshelves of every library. It has been published by Maemillan and Co., handsomely bound in cloth, and profusely illustrated, at 21/ net.