Preface : PREFACE. ANY attempt to fathom the depth of mystery which surrounds the history of the Australian Aboriginal must necessarily be--in the main--a failure. The subject is surrounded with difficulty. Captain Dampier was the first Englishman known to have made the acquaintance of the Australian natives...
Laws Of Marriage : LAWS OF MARRIAGE One of the most interesting of their laws is that of p. 18 marriage, which is founded on the fact that they are divided into certain great families, all the members of which bear the family name as a second one in addition to their own. According to Sir George Grey the principal...
Languages : LANGUAGES Although marked differences exist between the various Australian languages, and also considerable differences in frame and physiognomy between the various tribes; still the fundamental unity of the population from Swan River to Botany Bay, and from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Bass's...
Contemporary Accounts : CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS From the foregoing extracts, which I have selected from the original journals in the British Museum, it will be allowed that the natives of West Australia seem to possess an average degree of intelligence, and cannot be said to belong to the very lowest rank of human beings...
Conclusion : CONCLUSION In concluding these remarks on the West Australian Aborigines, I would say a few words to English folk who flatter themselves that they belong to a higher order of created beings than the Western Australian Aborigines, who have been represented as mere baboons possessing an innate...
Land Ownership : LAND OWNERSHIP Although the natives do not cultivate the soil--subsisting entirely by hunting and fishing, or on wild roots and fruits--it must not therefore be supposed that they have no idea of property in land. Every tribe has its own district, and any intrusion for hunting, or other purpose, by...
Women : WOMEN Regarding Native marriage, I should mention that a female child is betrothed, in her infancy, to some native of another family, necessarily very many years older than herself. He watches over her jealously, and she goes to live with him as soon as she feels inclined. If she possesses personal...
Hunting And Gathering : HUNTING AND GATHERING The sympathies of travellers have been much wasted upon Aborigines, on the score of a supposed scarcity of food. As a rule they have an abundance, although they may run a little short in the height of the rainy season, or when they are overcome with laziness in very hot...
Humor : HUMOR I have often heard it averred that the natives are utterly wanting in a sense of humour, and therefore are certainly irredeemable savages. Well, I do not know the exact line by which humour and wit are separated, but I think the following anecdote has a savour of both about it. A well-known...
Title Page : THE ABORIGINES OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. BY ALBERT F. CALVERT, M.E., M.I.M.M., M.N. OF ENGLAND, INST. M.M.E., F.R.G.S., F.R.S. Of A., F.R.G.S.A., F.R.G.S. OF SCOTLAND, F.G.S. SCOTLAND, F.S.A., F.R.C.I., F.I. INST., MEMB. BRIT. ASSOCIATION, &c., &c. AUTHOR OF "Hints On Gold Prospecting, Western...
Music : MUSIC AND POETRY In his admirable play of the Mourning Bride, far too little known to modern readers, Congreve has the well known lines:-- "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," "To shatter rocks and rend the solid oak." If the dramatist overdoes it a little in the second line, he fall...
Funerals : FUNERALS The aboriginal funeral ceremonies vary somewhat in different parts of the Continent, as may be well supposed over such a vast area. For the readers' information on this lugubrious subject, I will set down briefly two or three description; culled from various sources. The first funeral we...
Childhood : CHILDHOOD The childhood of the little black, who has escaped his parents occasional infanticidal proclivities, is probably the "jolliest"--to use a word well understood by English school-boys--which can be well imagined. Do what he will the young hopeful of the wilds is never chastised. Solomon's...
Protection Of Aborigines : PROTECTION OF ABORIGINES Into the discussion--a warm one in the Colony--as to whether the present Aborigines Protection Board, which is independent of the Government, should be directly responsible only to the Crown, and should therefore, be abolished, and the charge of the natives left...
Introduction : p. 1 THE ABORIGINES OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. REGARDING the aborigines of Western Australia the materials at our disposal are somewhat scanty. There exists a theory that all savages are the degraded descendants of civilized ancestors, If this be true it seems to me that the Australian Blackboys'...
Boomerangs : BOOMERANGS I have already mentioned the kiley, or boomerang, as a native weapon; but this most extraordinary implement deserves special attention. Its possession alone, I contend, redeems the Australian savage from his usually assigned place at the foot of the human ladder. Doubtless other...
Early Accounts : EARLY ACCOUNTS The natives of Western Australia did not impress their first visitors from England very favourably. In Captain William Dampier's book, published in St, Paul's Churchyard, London in 1697, he describes his visit to the North Western coasts and quaintly calls the aborigines "The po...
Religion And Mythology : RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY Regarding the religion of the aborigines, the evidence is somewhat conflicting. Certain it is that their legends are full of evil spirits and malignant demons which destroy men, women, and children. I think it is very doubtful if they have any knowledge of a beneficient God...
Old Testament Parallels : OLD TESTAMENT PARALLELS It has been said elsewhere that the physical features of Western Australia resemble, in many respects, those of the Holy Land. Both suffer from periodical draughts, and largely depend upon wells for water. Then both have fertile and smiling pastures, side by side with barren...
Physical Strength : PHYSICAL STRENGTH The Australian is a very thick person, and hardness of the native skull is brought home to the European, who for the first time sees him using his head, as we sometimes use the thigh, to break obstinate pieces of stick across. I have seen them thus splinter tough boughs of nearly...
Law : LAW Death from natural causes is scarcely recognized by the savages of Western Australia. Murderers, by violent means, and sorcerers, by causing diseases, are held to alone prevent the poor people from living for ever. Someone is therefore always to blame; and this belief naturally keeps...