Page:Cyclopedia of Western Australia, volume 1.pdf/73
The amount of clothing worn by the natives varies considerably, a state of things easily accounted for in a country which extends over a large proportion of the temperate and tropical zones. In the southern districts kangaroo-skins are used by them as a cloak for the shoulders, with loin-cloths of opossum fur to cover their nakedness. Farther north the kangaroo-skins are dispensed with and the opossum-cloths give way to a thin strip of plaited grass rope, while among the wild tribes of the interior of the north-west even that tribute to decency is considered superfluous. In addition there is an adornment of the hair characteristic of the various tribes, and in some cases the bodies are painted with red-and-white colours. Among the Ngurla tribe on the De Grey River the men wear plumes in their hair and suspend pearl-shells from the waist-girdle, while the women hang pellets of gum on locks of their hair. The Nickol Bay tribe ornament themselves with pearl-shells and rat-tails, knot their beards, and smear their bodies with grease and red ochre. The natives who resided in the vicinity of the Swan River wore feathers in their hair, clothed themselves in a plentiful coating of grease, and used kangaroo-skins as cloaks, while the women wore upon their backs a bag made of kangaroo-skins, in which they stowed their babies and other impedimenta. The natives, as a whole, grease the hair and body, probably as a means of protection from the cold rather than as ornament. Additional ornament is sometimes provided by inserting bones in the septum of the nose and by scarifying the breast and other parts of the body so as to present an appearance of permanent weals.
A particularly concise, and at the same time fairly accurate, description of the natives of the south-west was given by Governor Hutt in a despatch to the Secretary of State dated May 3, 1839, when suggesting a Bill for the purpose of dealing with native offenders. He points out that
the aborigines are an anomalous though a most interesting race of people. Interesting, I mean, as offering points of character totally at variance with anything I have seen described of tribes or nations elsewhere. They are active, handy, daring, intelligent, and faithful; impatient of restraint; utterly hateful of work, even where rewards the most tempting and which they most covet are offered; careless of all European arts and comforts, remaining the same now as when the colonists landed ten years ago on the beach at Fremantle; totally free from the licentious courses of most savage peoples; uncontaminated, with some few exceptions, by the vices of their invaders; regarding every stranger as an enemy and therefore to be made away with on the first safe and convenient occasion; under no restraint even in childhood (I speak, of course, of the men; the women, as in all savage nations, being the household drudges, the slaves, or servants of all work), having no acknowledged heads of tribes or families; following no rule but the impulses of their own caprices and passions, blood for blood being their law, and every man the judge, jury, and executioner in his own quarrel; with no fixed place of residence, no habitations but those which the weather temporarily necessitates them to erect; with no idea of accumulation, whether as a means of barter or as a provision for the future; no personal property but their kangaroo cloaks and their implements of war or the chase; no means of subsistence but such as Nature affords them; they have, finally, a language in which there is no word for either love, want, or gratitude, and they live literally without God in the world. Not the slightest vestige of any religious sentiment or ceremony has yet been traced amongst them. From childhood to the grave they propitiate neither God nor devil. … They have been brought up to look upon crimes not only with indifference, but even as meritorious, which in England would be punished with death.
Later knowledge has modified some of Governor Hutt's opinions, but in the main they form a valuable statement of the characteristics of that section of natives which has practically now ceased to exist.
III.—TRIBAL OR POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.
The Australian aborigines, at first probably consisting of a single organization, have in the course of centuries become, by reason of climatic and other influences, separated into sections or tribes, each possessing a more or less definite area of country as its location. As a result of this segregation we find that the tribal organization is both simple and complex—simple as to the principles which form the bases of tribal law and custom, and complex by reason of local modifications which have brought about diversity in the application of these principles. Though to a superficial observer this organization may not seem apparent, there is no doubt that, like other savage peoples, the Australian blacks are subject to a system of tribal regulations that allows but little individual freedom of action in any department of life. According to Mr. Howitt a tribe consists of an aggregation of individuals occupying a certain territory in common, speaking the same language with slight dialectic variations, and acknowledging toward one another a relationship which is denied to the members of surrounding tribes. Extent of country and number of persons do not make any difference to this tribal connection. A tribe may, however, be divided into groups or clans, and these again into families, until we finally arrive at the unit consisting of those of the same blood, who possess their own portion (booja) of the common territory and manage their own domestic concerns.
As a general rule the tribe is divided into two sections which, in the opinion of many, represent the original stocks of which the present aborigines are the result. Each of these sections is then split up into two or more groups or clans, which again are subdivided into families. Each group and family has its own peculiar cognizance or family sign—the totem—known by the natives as kobong, which is usually some natural object.
The functions of government rest generally in the old or senior men of the tribe, one of whom is considered to be above the others and is for the time being virtual ruler. There is no hereditary right to this