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somewhat curly, without being woolly, and when cleansed from grease and dirt is fine and glossy.
In stature the native is not far short of the average European, but he is inferior to the latter in muscular development. The limbs are longer in proportion than those of the white man, but are lean and thin, with that absence of calves to the legs usual in dark races, though in some cases there is abnormal corpulency. Certain of the tribes in the north-west might be described as tall even in the European sense, and are splendid examples of muscular development. These, however, are anomalies of the general type, due in large measure to the influences above noted.
The cranial formation, somewhat finer in the male than in the female sex, is on the whole narrow and lengthy, with high cheek bones, the lower portion of the forehead about the eyebrows projecting, the upper portion receding rapidly. The nose, narrow above, giving the eyes the appearance of being drawn close together, becomes broader and somewhat squat lower down. The eyes are dark and, except during moments of interest or excitement, dull and listless, but the sight is quicker and longer than that of the European. The ears are inclined slightly forward, the mouth is large and unshapely, and the lips thick, though not so thick as those of the African negro. The teeth are fine and white, the upper row generally overlapping the lower. The jawbone is contracted and the chin small.
In carriage the native is erect and graceful, his movements being light and easy, free from the awkwardness which so often distinguishes his more civilized brother. The senses—taste, smell, hearing, and sight–are particularly keen, a fact to which they owe their value as guides and trackers.
The women, as a rule, are smaller than the men. Some of them when young have nicely-rounded limbs, but overwork and early child-bearing cause them to quickly lose any appearance of beauty, and the majority are distinguished even in early womanhood by pendulous breasts and general want of figure.
The mental characteristics of the native are comparatively of a low order. His intelligence is narrow and his reflective faculties are largely undeveloped, though the perceptive faculties are preternaturally sharp, making them invaluable as trackers and very useful under white direction as shepherds, stockmen, and at other callings not requiring heavy manual labour. To this quickness of apprehension is added a keen sense of the ridiculous and an excellent talent for mimicry. In Mr. Curr's opinion "the black is quicker in the action of his mind, more observant, and more self-reliant than the English peasant, but less steady, persevering, and calculating." Those who have been taught to read and write are quite as apt as white children, but when they return to a wandering life the results are not maintained. A native who has been educated and subjected to the influences of civilization shows little or no inclination to give his children the same benefits in turn. Whether a course of training maintained through successive generations would effect a permanent change we have no means of knowing, but it is practically certain that the native cannot be raised to the level of a civilized being in one generation. A story is told of a philanthropic lady in Western Australia who had a native carefully instructed in both English and French. Some years later a traveller spoke to a lonely native shepherd far out in the bush, and received an answer interlarded with French expletives from the learned native scholar. The lack of sustained interest may be due partly to the fact that the black recognizes that he can never compete on anything like equal terms with the white, and that his chances of fraternal recognition are absolutely nil as regards self-respecting white people. The principal cause, however, doubtless lies in the deficient quality of his intelligence. The absence of a reflective faculty is shown by their improvidence and want of forethought, as well as by the apparent inability to connect cause and effect. This, perhaps, does not altogether hold in the north-west, where they are said to make excellent boatmen, an occupation that certainly calls for some exercise of care and forethought.
Socially the aborigines are naturally polite, sunny in disposition, and inclined to good-fellowship, but those in contact with civilization often show a moroseness and sulkiness of character that is at times the cause of considerable trouble. From the standpoint of morality there is little to be said for them. The sense of right or wrong is not strongly developed; to lie costs them no pang of conscience. Toward the whites they are often treacherous and have little regard for human life. In courage they are weak, and will rarely undertake an expedition where death for some of the company is almost sure to be the result; yet they will follow a party of white men for days in the hope of getting the members of it alone, so as to kill them.
Industry and thrift are unknown to them, and chastity, in the sense that we understand the term, is entirely foreign to their natures. But though these shortcomings seem pitiful to us, nurtured in the lap of twentieth-century civilization, we have to remember that it is scarcely fair to measure them by our standards. Allowance must be made for heredity and environment, for tribal law and immemorial custom, and above all for a conscience that is little more than rudimentary. Low as they undoubtedly are in the moral scale they are not addicted to those cruel and barbarous practices that have prevailed among many natives of a higher type. The aborigines, too, have some redeeming qualities. Most observers agree that they are possessed of the virtues of hospitality, of reverence for age, and of parental and filial love—three characteristics not always a distinguishing feature of civilized life.