Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/37

 INTRODUCTION. xxvii of Australia is precisely the same. Native children brought up amongst the settlers, quite away from their tribes and beyond the reach of their influence, almost always, and without apparent cause, leave their civilised protectors and rejoin the native camps. No matter what degree of culture they may have received amongst the whites, once back in the native camp they become quite as savage as if they had never quitted it. The Australian native is not industrious. He will hunt or fish when hunger prompts him, or perhaps sometimes for the sake of excitement, but by nature he is indolent, leaving all hard work to the females, who on their part do nothing they are not actually compelled to do. The contrast between a life of restraint and exertion and one of the most complete liberty is too great for a savage to show a marked preference for the former. At large, he can eat, drink, and sleep when and where he likes; amongst civilised people he cannot be his own master, but is constrained to live by rules which are foreign to his instincts and to his habits. While the general customs of the natives show a remarkable similarity all over the continent, the ceremonies they practise amongst themselves vary greatly in different places. In the limited space available in an introductory chapter, it will be impossible to do more than glance at them generally. Circumcision is common in the northern, western, and southern parts of the continent. In the south, south-east, and east, it is unknown.* The same thing occurs with regard to the practice of tatooing, each tribe that resorts to it having its own destinctive marks. "Some are marked all over the back and breast; some only on one half of each, others have rings or semicircles round the upper parts of the arms, and some are tatooed on the belly."† The woman whose back is to be tatooed is taken out early in the morning and squatted on the ground, with her back towards the operator (always a male). Her head is then bent down between the knees of a strong old woman who is sitting on the ground for the purpose. The operator then takes hold of a fold of the flesh
 * Eyre. †Ibid.