Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2Grey, George
History
Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2
Grey, George
Natural history -- Australia -- Western Australia; Western Australia -- Discovery and exploration
interrogated them on this point they have invariably laughed at me and
treated my question as a joke.
CONDITION OF OLD AGE.
The period of old age must be as happy as any other time in the life of a
savage, if not more so. Aged men are always treated with great respect;
they rarely take a part in any fray; they are privileged to eat certain
kinds of food which the young men may not touch; and they seldom appear
to suffer much from the infirmities and diseases to which the aged are
generally subject amongst us.
CONDITION OF YOUNG WOMEN.
Should a female be possessed of considerable personal attractions the
first years of her life must necessarily be very unhappy. In her early
infancy she is betrothed to some man, even at this period advanced in
years, and by whom, as she approaches the age of puberty, she is watched
with a degree of vigilance and care which increases in proportion to the
disparity of years between them; it is probably from this circumstance
that so many of them are addicted to intrigues, in which, if they are
detected by their husbands, death, or a spear through some portion of the
body is their certain fate; indeed the bare suspicion of infidelity upon
their part is enough to ensure to them the most cruel and brutal
treatment. For these causes during youth they are compelled, whether
pregnant or not, to accompany their husbands in all their excursions, and
are thus subject to violent and continued exercise and fatigue at periods
when repose is indispensable.
But even supposing a woman to give no encouragement to her admirers, many
plots are always laid to carry her off, and in the encounters which
result from these she is almost certain to receive some violent injury,
for each of the combatants orders her to follow him, and in the event of
her refusing throws a spear at her. The early life of a young woman at
all celebrated for beauty is generally one continued series of captivity
to different masters, of ghastly wounds, of wanderings in strange
families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment from other females amongst
whom she is brought a stranger by her captor; and rarely do you see a
form of unusual grace and elegance but it is marked and scarred by the
furrows of old wounds; and many a female thus wanders several hundred
miles from the home of her infancy, being carried off successively to
distant and more distant points.
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