Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/112

30 or at any time when there is a prospect of an immediate reward; but prolonged labor with the object of securing ultimate gain is distasteful to them.

They are industrious and painstaking in fashioning things that they know are of value to them and to the use of which they have been accustomed; but they are slow in adopting the mechanical contrivances of the whites.

They love ease even more than pleasure. The natives hunt in order to procure food, not for the delights of the chase. Without being quarrelsome, they are always ready to fight—and, perhaps without premeditation, they are often cruel to the stricken foe.

They are superstitious, they are credulous, and they willingly surrender their reason and ignore their instincts when influenced by their doctors and dreamers. They believe in the existence of evil spirits, and are afraid to leave their camps in the night; but when they are impelled to avenge an injury, neither the dread of evil spirits nor the fear of darkness will hinder them.

As there are very few instances of bodily deformity amongst the natives —so equally rare are any mental peculiarities that might be traced to aberration of intellect. Indeed it is perhaps strictly true to say that insanity is unknown amongst the natives who have not mixed with Europeans. Dissipation, and drinking the poisonous liquors that are vended in the low public-houses in the bush, have no doubt produced their usual effects in some cases; but the wild black is always sane.

There are, it is believed, no idiots amongst them; and deafness and dumbness are exceedingly rare.