Gabriel Marcel

“ He is brutal, and punishes the lightest offense with the lance or hatchet.
Polygamy is universal, but the oldest men of the tribe have the most wives, acquiring them in exchange for their daughters. A number of young men are thus compelled to remain bachelors. When a young man has, after cruel ceremonies and horrible tortures to test his courage, been proclaimed a warrior, he may take a wife. If he is a son of a great warrior, he will have little difficulty in the matter ”

“ When a savage has found a tree suitable for his purpose, he, with his stone hatchet (kul baling-carek, Fig. 1) , cuts a notch in the bark for his great-toe, raises himself up, makes a second toe-hole, and climbs up with a facility, rapidity, and skill, of which we can hardly have an idea. In Western Australia, the helve of the hatchet is pointed, and the natives, after making the notch, stick the tool in the bark and lift themselves up with it. ”

“ The disappearance of the Australian race has been promoted by certain peculiarities of its own, among which are the
belief that no person can die a natural death, and the general practice of infanticide. ”

“ Their numbers have fallen off very fast in the face of the extension of the white settlements, partly on account of the fierce wars that have prevailed between them and the colonists, but more in consequence of the inroads of the vices and maladies which they have contracted from the whites. ”

“ Recently the Government has established a bureau for their protection, has allotted lands to them, and opened schools for them, and the few of them that are left enjoy at least a promise of better times. ”

“ These first essays of a barbarous race possess a high interest, and cause us to regret that the circumstances controlling the condition of the people have not permitted them to give their tastes a higher development.—Translated from La Nature. ”