Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/236

162 man, after having assumed semi-civilised habits, to revert after a time to his original condition of savage life.

In their dispositions they display strong affection towards each other,—great fondness for children and attachment to persons who are kind to them. On the other hand, they indulge in every evil passion to excess, and, estimating human life as of low value, do not hesitate to sacrifice it for a trivial insult. As their women are obtained from other tribes, by theft or otherwise, female infants at birth are not infrequently put to death for the sake of more valuable boys, who are still being suckled, though three or four years old, or even more. A female infant just born was thus about to be destroyed, for the benefit of a boy of about four years whom the mother was nourishing, while the father was standing by ready to commit the deed. Through the kindness of a lady to whom the circumstance became known, and our joint interference, this one life was saved, and the child was properly attended to by its mother, although she at first urged the necessity of its death as strenuously as the father.

During the progress towards adult age various ceremonies are practised, which are almost entirely confined to men and boys. About the age of puberty the boys are sprinkled with human blood, and this seems to be the first step towards an introduction into the ranks of manhood. I first witnessed this extraordinary ceremony by accidentally falling in with a group of men and boys, who were seated under a large gum tree in a very retired spot. On approaching them, I saw that two of the boys were bedaubed with a dark, shining substance, that I could not for a while distinguish; but, on looking round, I discovered another boy, resting upon his hands and feet, while an elderly man, with his right arm bound round about the elbow by a cord of hair, and the median vein opened by a piece of broken bottle, was letting the blood flow over the boy's back, until not a particle of the surface was to be seen; he then made him sit up, and sprinkled his face, neck, and breast, with his hair also, in the same manner. The boy then retired to a short distance, and sat drying himself in the sun; and I left a fourth boy undergoing the same process,