Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/329

 FIGHTS. 247 and very probably supposed by them to be possessed of superior skill and courage also; but any one who has had opportunities of seeing the natives’ battles would not come to any such conclusion. They are very sensitive on this point, deeming it a most degrading insult to be called a coward. That their fights seldom terminate fatally must be attributed partly to their skill in warding off the spears, and partly to the fact that they have no thirst for bloodshed. As the natives on the one hand are susceptible of an uncommon degree of hostile feeling, so also are they, on the other hand, possessed of sincere and deep sympathy, as is evinced in cases of severe illness, dangerous wounds, and especially after the death of any of their friends; they will, on such occasions, assemble and weep most bitterly, the females generally taking the lead. The loud lamentations simultaneously poured forth by them at such times may perhaps be looked upon as an hereditary custom, since they always cry together and make use of external means, such as rubbing the eyes or scratching the nose, to produce tears if the mournful disposition of the mind should not be sufficiently affected by the example of others. The cries or sobs are also, at the commencement of a wail, rather formal and apparently forced, leading one strongly to suspect that their desire for a mournful frame of mind is greater than their feelings warrant. Still, I am persuaded that the natives feel keenly and regret sincerely the loss of their friends, for these reasons: They lament their decease for weeks and even months after the event; very frequently in the evening, on arriving at their resting places, when they are tired and may be supposed to be in mood suitable for recollection and reflection, one person will suddenly break out in slow and sorrowful cadences, gradually inducing all the others to follow his example; after a wail, they preserve for a while a demure silence, and exhibit every other symptom of persons in affliction. Never, upon any account, is the name of the deceased mentioned again for many years after, not from any superstition, but for the professed reason that their mournful feelings may not be excited, or, to use their own expression, "that it may not make them cry