Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/28



CHAPTER VII.

CLEANLINESS. It is worthy of remark that nothing offensive is ever to be seen near the habitations of the aborigines, or in the neighbourhood of their camps; and although their sanitary laws are apparently attributable to superstition and prejudice, the principles of these laws must have been suggested by experience of the dangers attendant on uncleanness in a warm climate, and more deeply impressed on their minds by faith in supernatural action and sorcery. It is believed that if enemies get possession of anything that has belonged to a person, they can by its means make him ill; hence every uncleanness belonging to adults and half-grown children is buried at a distance from their dwellings. For this purpose they use the muurong pole (yam stick), about six or seven feet long, with which every family is provided. With the sharpened end they remove a circular piece of turf, and dig a hole in the ground, which is immediately used and filled in with earth, and the sod so carefully replaced that no disturbance of the surface can be observed. Children under four or five years of age, not having strength to comply with this wholesome practice, are not required to do so; and their excreta are deposited in one spot, and covered with a sheet of bark, and when dry they are burned. It may be as well to say here, that, besides this sanitary use of the muurang pole, it is indispensable in excavating graves and in digging up roots, and is a powerful weapon of warfare in the hands of the women, who alone use it for fighting. In every respect the aborigines are as cleanly in their persons and habits as natural circumstances admit; and, although the universal custom of anointing their bodies with oily fat may be repulsive to highly-civilized communities, it is an excellent substitute for cleansing with water, and must have arisen, not only from the comfort it affords to the skin in various ways, but also from the difficulty of obtaining water in most parts of the country, even to satisfy thirst. Neither are they troubled with parasites to such an extent as their habits might lead one to suppose. They say they never saw the common flea till it was introduced by the white man, and the accuracy of this assertion seems to be