Australasia: Eight Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office — John Shaqi
Australasia: Eight Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial OfficeSargent, A. J. (Arthur John)
History
Australasia: Eight Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office
Sargent, A. J. (Arthur John)
Australasia -- Description and travel
His only possible clothes were the skins of animals, and his
weapons and tools all belonged to the Stone Age. The axe, knife,
and hammer were in universal use, and long journeys were made to
obtain the right kind of stone. This involved a certain amount of
intercourse among the tribes. For weapons of offence the native
had the club, and the spear tipped with bone or stone; while
some tribes used a special spear-thrower. The boomerang was a
curved bar of heavy wood, often five or six feet long, which was
used for killing or stunning at a short distance. The smaller
boomerang, which returns to the thrower, was merely a toy and
used in sport; here we see it in use. The stone implements are 39
all similar to those which are dug up in Europe, the relics of
the Neolithic Age of man. One of the chief uses of the axe was to
cut notches for climbing trees, in search of honey among other
things; though they had another method which we see here. 40
The natives were divided into tribes and sub-tribes, and had some
form of tribal government, under headmen. In the south-east of
the continent these chiefs had considerable authority and were
sometimes treated by us as representing the tribe. Here is one
of them, though he does not look imposing in his European dress. 41
They had an elaborate social system and curious marriage customs
about which the learned still dispute. They had a strong belief
in spirits of various kinds, though it could hardly be called a
religion, and a whole series of tales and legends handed down
orally, some of them showing considerable power of imagination.
They even had the beginnings of some ideas of art and ornament, 42
as we can judge from the crude paintings shown here. 43
The most interesting of their social customs was the corroboree,
a great gathering for feasting and dancing, often combined with 44
some religious or social ceremony. Such meetings represented the
only real social intercourse of the people and tribes, except
messages by ambassadors who were sacred everywhere.
On the whole, then, they were not so low in the scale of
civilisation as the early observers imagined. Even the language,
with its many dialects, due to the absence of writing and the
nomad life of the people, is elaborate and inflected like those
of Europe.
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