Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/62

57 carrying her latest progeny with her in the most nonchalant manner imaginable, as though the penalty incurred by Eve had not descended to her aboriginal sisterhood.

During our very long experience of the aborigines, we have only known of one instance of death due to childbearing, and in that solitary case the woman, in our opinion, was physically incapacitated for the ordeal of maternity, even although it is such a simple matter from an aboriginal point of view, she being the veriest pigmy we ever saw; besides, she gave birth to twins on the occasion, which may have had something to do with it. Most singular, too, as far as we have been able to learn, this was the first and only instance of twins being born (and these were by a white father), known to the aborigines. 

CHAPTER VII.

THE MAKING OF THEIR WEAPONS, HOW USED, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSES. THEIR CANOES, AND HOW FASHIONED.

In the matter of arts and sciences, as we understand these industries, they have not any. The mere fabrication of their weapons, although displaying some small ingenuity, can scarcely be reckoned an art, nor do we think that the making of nets and opossum cloaks can be classed under either of the heads.

As we said above, there is certainly an amount of skill displayed in the construction of their weapons, and the same can be said of their nets; but really, neither the one nor the other has the smallest scintilla of science bestowed upon its manufacture. Even the far-famed angle of the