The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
Their marriage relations are of the most primitive and simple character, the noun love being entirely absent from their vocabulary. Nothing in the shape of courting or company-keeping is practised by the prospective bridegroom and bride. The bridegroom and father, or guardian, as the case may be, of the intended bride, come to a proper understanding, and the latter simply desires the mooroongoor[1] to pick up her belongings, and take herself off to the loondthal of her future lord and master. Should she demur, as is not infrequent, the coercion of a waddy is resorted to, and it seldom fails to have the desired effect. There are not any ceremonies connected with this tin; it is merely a matter of mating, still it is binding enough, at least, so far as the woman is concerned. The man at any time, however, can cut the knot, and send the woman back to her people, by whom she is received readily enough, and there is not any trouble or bother about it. There may perhaps be a slight coolness displayed by the father or other guardian of the girl, towards her sometime husband for a few days, but further than this there is no dispute or quarrel on the subject of the slight. The fact that their language is altogether guiltless of a synonym for that noun, may account for their calmness under the circumstances. The girl, of course, is again ready to be disposed of to the first eligible aspirant who may offer, even although her first matrimonial venture had resulted in the production of an infant. Her new lord has to take the encumbrance, which he does, and feels proud, too, of what will in the future be deemed his putative paternity. Polygamy is allowed to any extent, and the rule is generally taken advantage of by those who chance to be rich in sisters, or female wards, to give in exchange for wives. No man can get a wife unless he be the possessor of a sister or ward, whom he can give in exchange. Fathers of grown-up sons frequently exchange their daughters for wives to themselves, even although they had two or three before, instead of allowing their sons to do so. Cases of this kind are very hard indeed, but, being aboriginal law, they cannot be controverted, nor will the elders of a tribe permit the young men to go off to other tribes to steal wives for themselves, as such measures would be the certain means of entailing endless feuds, and much bloodshed in the attempts that would surely be made with the view of recapturing the abducted women. Young men, therefore, not having any female relatives under their control must necessarily live all their lives in single blessedness, unless they choose to take up with withered old hags whom nobody owns, merely to have their fires cared for, their water-vessels filled, and their baggage carried from camp to camp. This ill-assorted kind of engagement, however, is not of very frequent occurrence, as the young men are too much afraid of the ridicule which their more fortunate fellows would surely shower upon their uxorious heads.
In their matrimonial alliances great deference is paid to consanguinity, the very slightest blood relationship being a definite barrier to that connexion. In their sexual intercourse, however, they are not in the least bit particular, consequently incest of every grade is continually being perpetrated. Chastity is quite unknown amongst them, and it is a hopeless task endeavouring to make them understand the value of that virtue. In speaking to them on this not very choice subject, they point to all the animals in nature, and say, "These are not restricted in any way, why then should we be?" They say all such trammels and prohibitions may be quite correct as regards white men, but not being in accordance with aboriginal ethics, and never having been practised by any of their progenitors, they cannot see why they should (merely because a white man bids them) ignore that which their forefathers deemed good from the very earliest times, and which they themselves feel to be innate. Of course, to arguments of this kind, and so put, especially when your opponent is an untaught and nearly unteachable savage, there is no possibility of reply. We can therefore only shrug our shoulders and pity the poor, ignorant child of nature.
Much of this absence of chastity is due to the promiscuous manner they have of huddling up together in their loondthals, and to the coarse, obscene, and lewd character of the stories in listening to which they spend so much of their time round the camp fires at night. All their facetiæ, too, are of the same broad, gross nature. Were they not so they would fail to meet with the appreciative audiences which silently sit for hours together, with mouths agape, drinking in the foul pruriency of the savage story-teller. When we consider that all these descriptions of lewd tales, and their accompanying gross facetiæ are retailed in the presence of the children, it can scarcely be matter for wonder that they should grow up into men and women possessing but hazy notions concerning chastity and its many beauties. It frequently happens that two brothers-in-law fall out and quarrel. If the difference becomes serious, the first thing they do is—each sends off his wife to her brother, thus getting back their respective sisters.[2] The fact of their each having babies does not in any way militate against the custom; of course the children in these cases go with their mothers. Quarrels very often result in these summary denouements, against which the poor women dare not say one word, however much may be their aversion to the change. This law is one of the rights inherent in aboriginal manhood which cannot be controverted. As a natural consequence the right is often exercised because of the most trivial reasons. Sometimes, however, regret will supervene, when the wives are returned to their original partners. This is, of course, very laudable, but, being so, seldom. occurs. When a woman becomes a widow she falls back to her father, brother, or guardian, as the case may be. In no instance does she go to her late husband's relations. If she is not too old she is again exchanged away, her children, if any, going with her. If, on the other hand, she should be too old to tempt the owners of marriageable girls, she becomes a waif and drudge in the tribe, unless some one of of the enforced bachelors[3] should deem her fitted to attend to his wants; if so, he has only to make his wishes known, when the sable widow gladly accepts his protection.
These numberless choppings and changes makes it almost impossible to tell the true paternity of many of the children, but as there is not any property depending upon heirship, legitimacy or the contrary is of very little consequence, and a bar sinister in their genealogical trees is not deemed derogatory in any way. The children do not receive any schooling. When old enough to run about they do just whatever pleases them, without the slightest reference to any one. Their parents never by any chance endeavour to guide them aright; in short, they do not possess the very remotest control over their actions. It is true that sometimes in a burst of passion a father will lend his child a clout with a waddy, which will well nigh brain the little savage. This, however, only induces a wild fit of bellowing, together with a period of sulks, more or less long, according to the evanescense or the contrary of the pain inflicted.
They are altogether lacking in any system calculated to inculcate patience, endurance of pain or privation, into the youthful character. Therefore both adults and children are woefully deficient in the exhibition of these virtues, which are so essential to the well-being of mankind, be they heathen or so-called Christians.
Unlike children of other races, these have no sports or pastimes relating to the years of childhood alone, their youthful amusements being merely the occupations of their riper years in miniature. Thus, it may be said, that there is not any period of boyhood and girlhood amongst them, boys and girls being men and women from the time they can run alone, only of a lesser growth.
Infanticide prevails amongst all the tribes to a very considerable extent, and in too many instances the poor little victims are eaten. Mothers frequently sustain nature by making food of their own offspring. This latter horrible practice occurs generally when the tribes are making long journeys. At such times carrying the children becomes burdensome to the mothers. That, in conjunction with being short of provisions (which is of no unusual occurrence when large numbers travel in a body through an inhospitable region such as the Mallee Scrub), is to a great extent the cause of this unnatural crime. In the winter time they make a common habit of trailing through the Mallee Scrub for hundreds of miles. They are extremely partial to these rambles, as they can be done with the utmost impunity—that is, they have no fear of meeting with hostile tribes during such journeyings, and even although they have difficulty enough at these times in procuring a sufficiency of food, still they like the vast and arid desert, because of the immunity they enjoy there from the everlasting bodily terror which continually preys upon their spirits in less remote districts, keeping them awake at night, or colouring their dreams with no pleasant lines, when "tired nature's sweet restorer" weighs down their eyelids. In the very barrenest portion of the barren Mallee Scrub there is a considerable depression or dry lake, distant from the Murray River about eight miles. The bottom of this lake is composed of a bright red ochre, which the natives use in large quantities in the ornamentation of their own bodies, and decorating their opossum cloaks as well. To procure this paint the tribes nearest thereto make yearly journeys to the lake, and in doing so frequently undergo serious privations by reason of the scarcity of food and water on the way. They take a supply of water with them in bags formed of wallaby skins, but as it takes them ten days or more to make the journey both ways and prepare the paint, their water supply usually runs short long before they return to their starting point. When this occurs they resort to the root of a peculiar kind of mallee, which they call weir, from whence they obtain a supply of sweet and limpid water, even in the warmest weather. The roots of this tree grow near the surface, and run laterally, sometimes for thirty or forty feet, without any appreciable difference in diameter. These roots they tear up and break into short lengths, which pieces are placed on end in an improvised coolamen. In half-an-hour the roots will be drained quite dry. From half-a-dozen such roots—that is, twenty or thirty feet long—as much as three or four gallons of water will be procured. The water is very nice and cool, having the very faintest sub-acid flavour, which makes it a most delicious, as well as refreshing beverage for hot and thirsty travellers.
Food, however, is not so easily obtained, by reason of the aridity of the land. The scrub is not large enough to contain opossum, and the distance from water makes creatures of the reptile class very scarce. Thus they are compelled to look for grubs in the roots of the smaller kinds of shrubs. These root grubs, though, are so small it takes a considerable amount of bush grubbing to procure a satisfactory meal. During these meagre days infanticide and anthropophagy are of frequent occurrence. They have sense enough to feel a certain amount of shame because of this horrible practice; at least, when chance induces someone to ask of the whereabouts of a certain child which has been made food of, they give some evasive answer, whilst hanging their heads in a very guilt-stricken manner. In dress there is not the least difference between that of the male and the female. The opossum rug is the only covering of both sexes, and in both it is worn in exactly the same manner—that is, somewhat after the fashion (as seen in paintings) of the Roman Toga, across the shoulder, with one arm free. On the very old men and the young women it is an exceedingly graceful garment, and infinitely more becoming to them than the conventional garb of civilised life is to those belonging to that higher order of humanity. The men wear a belt round the loins under the cloak, whilst the women wear a band round the same portion of the person, said band having a thick fringe all round it of about a foot in depth. The fringe is made of innumerable strips of opossum or wallaby skin. Of course neither of these bands or belts are seen unless the rugs are thrown off. Both sexes wear armlets made of opossum skin on the upper portion of both arms, and a netted band about an inch and a half wide round the brow. This band is coloured red by means of ochre mixed with fat. Round the neck both sexes wear strings of reeds cut into sections of an inch long, which, when carefully dried, are of a clear pale straw colour, admirably calculated to form an agreeable contrast to their glossy, ebon-hued necks and shoulders. They also make necklets from the autennae of the lobster, which, when the fishes have been cooked, are of a bright red. These, with a kangaroo tooth or two dangling from their hair by the sides of the head, and a bone or short section of reed through the middle cartilage of the nose make up all the ornaments with which they feel proud to decorate themselves. These ornaments are not donned on great occasions, such as high days and holidays (not having any such festive periods in their calendar), but merely as the whim takes them, or for want of other occupation.
The only distinctive mark whereby there can be no mistake made as to the sex is that all the men have the two upper front teeth knocked out. This operation is performed when the boys arrive at the age of puberty. For three months after this torturing ordeal the youths are not permitted to look upon a woman young or old, as the sight of one during this probation would be the means of entailing countless misfortunes, such as the withering of the limbs, loss of eyesight, and in fact general decrepitude.
Youths, prior to the extraction of the teeth, dare not eat of emu flesh, wild turkey, swan, geese, or black duck, or of the eggs of any of these birds. Did they infringe this law in the slightest possible manner, their hair would become prematurely grey, and the flesh of their limbs would waste away and shrivel up. Any members of their tribes having malformations of limb or body are pointed out as living examples of the dire fate of those who knowingly commit a breach of this aboriginal law. These cripples that are thus put forth as living illustrations have had it impressed upon their minds from their earliest youth that their respective infirmities are entirely due to such indiscretions, and this has been impressed upon their minds so persistently, they have not a doubt on the subject, therefore give implicit credence to the story.
Having such dread penalties continually placed before them, the various kinds of tabooed food are carefully avoided by the aboriginal youth; thus the full-grown men and women of the tribe come in for many of the good things, which they would not, but for this wise decree. Nevertheless, the makers of this law were wise in their day and generation, and thereby conferred a grand benefit upon themselves and their descendants, which is perceptible even to the present day.
As a rule the aborigines have not any great capacity for physical exertion; at least, they cannot compete with average white men, when violent and long drawn out fatigue chances to be the order of the day; they have thews and sinews enough, too; in fact, usually their whole physique is unexceptionable, but they lack what is commonly termed pluck; therefore, it takes but a small matter beyond common to make them give in. They, however, always evince a certain amount of shame at those times, as is evidenced by their invariably attributing their apparent want of stamina to the fact of their having a sore finger, or some equally trivial ailment.
They can bear the pangs of hunger, however, wonderfully well; a whole week's starvation is not by any means an uncommon occurrence with them. At those times, they will not stir out of their camps; indeed, they will scarcely turn themselves round, unless perhaps when they think it will lessen their discomfort somewhat if they give their waist-belts an extra twist, thereby contracting the vacuum which lack of food has made so painfully apparent.