Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) CHILDREN OF WILD AUSTRALIA [Illustration: BOY SPEARING FISH] CHILDREN OF WILD AUSTRALIA BY HERBERT PITTS AUTHOR OF "THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH" [Illustration: Decoration] WITH EIGHT COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON OLIPHANT, ANDERSON & FERRIER PRINTED BY TURNBULL AND SPEARS, EDINBURGH TO DEAR LITTLE MARY THIS LITTLE BOOK ABOUT THE LITTLE BLACK BOYS AND GIRLS OF A FAR-OFF LAND IS DEDICATED BY HER FATHER MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS, All the time I have been writing this little book I have been wishing I could gather you all around me and take you with me to some of the places in faraway Australia where I myself have seen the little black children at their play. You would understand so much better all I have tried to say. It is a bright sunny land where those children live, but in many ways a far less pleasant land to live in than our own. The country often grows very parched and bare, the grass dies, the rivers begin to dry up, and the poor little children of the wilderness have great difficulty in getting food. Then perhaps a great storm comes and a great quantity of rain falls. The rivers fill up and the grass begins to grow again, but myriads of flies follow and they get into the children's eyes and perhaps blind some of them, and the mosquitoes come and bite them and give them fevers sometimes. Yet though much of the land is wilderness--bare, sandy plains--beautiful flowers bloom there after the rains. Lovely hibiscus, the giant scarlet pea, and thousands of delicate white and yellow everlastings are there for the eyes to feast upon, but the loveliest flowers of all are frequently the love and tenderness and unselfishness which bloom in the children's hearts. I have left Australia now and settled down again in the old homeland, but the memories of the eight years I spent among the dear little children out there are still very delightful ones, and they, more than anything I have read, have helped me to write this little book for you. Your Sincere friend, HERBERT PITTS DOUGLAS, I.O.M., 1914 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTORY LETTER 7 I. INTRODUCTORY 11 II. PICCANINNIES 17 III. "GREAT-GREAT-GREATEST-GRANDFATHER" 23 IV. BLACKFELLOWS' "HOMES" 26 V. EDUCATION 31 VI. WEAPONS, ETC., WHICH CHILDREN LEARN TO MAKE AND USE 35 VII. HOW FOOD IS CAUGHT AND COOKED 40