Living Simple Life On Crocodile Island

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7169, 17 March 1930, Page 10

Living Simple Life On Crocodile Island

In the Crocodile Islands, scattered over the Arafura Seas, off the Northern Territory of Australia, the men arc all teetotallers; a man with 17 wives is the rule; women do all the work, while men smoke. This is part of the picture of life on the islands drawn by Mr. W, Lloyd Warner, who has been studying thc| aborigines for the Australian National Research Council (says a message from Sydney) . The aborigines have no religion, but have an elaborate code of tribal etiquette. Among other things, Dr. Warner found that custom required tliat a youth, should marry his mother’s mother’s brother’s daughter’s daughter. But no marriage ceremony is required. Rood is cooked in holes heated by hot stones. The tribesmen have not even invented bows and arrows, and have no knowledge of firearms or their uses. The only weapon is a stoneheaded spear. Although -women do all the worn, they live on nuts and vegetables, men onlv eating meat. ‘‘‘Children,” declares Dr. Warner, ‘‘obey their parents in the Crocodile Islands, for incorrigible youths are taken out by the old men and killed. “There are about 4,000 of these primitive people left, living almost naked. They do not know the art of weaving. They have no liquors and do not know what intoxication i 3 ft Dr. Warner, who also made a study of life in the remote portions of the Northern Territory, had to travel for a month from Port Darwin to reach the Crocodile Islands.