Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/20

15 altogether forgotten, even after a lapse of twenty-five years or so, and they will speak freely enough about it in a general way; but it is utterly impossible to get them to individualise or particularise upon the subject, as from the moment of a man's death (no matter how he may have come to an end) his name is never again spoken, and should there be another in the tribe bearing the same name, as frequently there chances to be, he immediately adopts another name.

Thus, much that would have been valuable information but for this superstitious foible, is totally lost. From this it will be seen that the aborigines are merely a people of the day, that it is their persistent endeavour to forget—unlike other races, whose whole aim, indeed whose every effort, is a straining to remember.

In all the tribes the males preponderate to a very considerable extent; this is not because fewer female children are born, as at birth the sexes are about equal. The mortality amongst the females after the age of puberty is attained, however, is far greater than it is amongst the males, and for this excess there are numerous very cogent reasons, amongst which the fact of their early maternity is not one of the least. We, ourselves, have known frequent instances of girls becoming mothers at the ages of eleven and twelve years, and child-bearing at these tender years entails future infirmities, which carry them off ere they have come to proper maturity; then, again, their husbands convert them into perfect beasts of burden, making them carry loads, sufficient almost to break down a horse, much more a weak woman. Besides that, they ill-use them in a most brutal manner, often, yes, very often, killing them outright