Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/30

20 of the bush. The term "mob," by which the tribe has learned to designate itself, is etymologically quite appropriate, since it would be difficult to find a race more mobile, unstable, and incapable of persistent effort in one direction than the so-called Negritos. With spears, clubs, and boomerangs they easily kill game enough for food; a few broad strips of bark set up in the form of a tent afford all the shelter they desire, and unless they prefer to go naked, as their ancestors



were wont to do, the tattered remnants of the squatters' castoff clothes supply them with all the raiment they want. Semon confesses a certain admiration for this inborn love of freedom and strong sense of independence, which they prize more highly than what we call the conveniences and comforts of life, although this unthrifty spirit of primeval savagery often seriously interfered with his plans, and in general presents an almost insuperable obstacle