Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/40

30 The organization of the Australian horde is essentially communistic. Personal property consists merely of such weapons and tools as each man can carry with him on his wanderings. The hunting grounds of every horde are well defined, and their boundaries respected by their neighbors. As a rule they live in peace, because there are no spoils to be won, and therefore no temptations to plundering expeditions. Most of the tribes choose a chief, usually a skillful hunter or sorcerer, whose counsel carries weight, but whose positive authority is very limited; he has no power to dictate laws to the community, or to impose his will arbitrarily on other members of the tribe. The checks upon individual liberty are very slight, and with the exception of a few general restrictions, prescribed by ancient custom, every man is perfectly free and independent in his actions, and even the children do pretty much as they please, and are in this respect far better off than the women, who are wholly subject to their husbands and made to bear the heat and burden of the day. Old men, owing to their long experience, exercise a general oversight and enjoy a certain authority, especially in the training of youth and in the formation of matrimonial connections; occasionally a man of strong character, superior intelligence, and conspicuous valor acquires great influence, as was the case with the famous chieftain of the Dieri, Jalina Piramurana; but what sovereignty he possesses is strictly personal, and does not affect the position of other members of his family, nor confer distinction upon his descendants. His pre-eminence does not lead to any recognition of hereditary rank, nor entitle his children to any privileges of birthright; they are on perfect equality with those of every other tribesman.

The Australians were practical Malthusians long before Malthus, and take the strictest precautions, and the severest measures in order to prevent an increase of population beyond the means of subsistence. The fact that a score of herdsmen and more than twice as many husbandmen can live in comfort on an area of land that would furnish only scanty food for a single hunter renders it an imperative necessity for savages to keep their numbers within certain fixed