The Human Race Part 45

At a signal from the chief, several youths dashed forward and in a few seconds showered down from the cocoa-trees a hail of nuts, the pulp of which in the liquid state is the most agreeable drink imaginable for allaying thirst.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 239.--YOUNG NATIVE OF NEW CALEDONIA.]

The village of Hienghene is one of the most considerable in the island.

Its dwellings are shaped like beehives, and are crowned with a rude statue surmounted by a quant.i.ty of sh.e.l.l-fish or sometimes by skulls of enemies slain in war.

These cabins have a single opening, very low and narrow. In the evening they are filled with smoke in order to banish the mosquitoes; the narrow aperture is then shut and the occupants lay themselves down to sleep on mats, whilst the smoke, by reason of its lightness, remains floating over their heads; but to sit upright without being half smothered by it is impossible.

Great numbers of aborigines dwell along the sea-coast. They came on board M. Garnier's vessel in crowds, bringing provisions and sh.e.l.l-fish, and examining everything with the greatest attention.

The natives of this tribe are of a fine type. M. Garnier noticed among the visitors several men admirably built, and with a perfectly developed muscular system; but he nevertheless remarked as a general defect of the New Caledonians, that they have too thin legs in comparison with their bodies, and calves placed higher than in Europeans.

Whether from habit, or in consequence of anatomical formation, these people a.s.sume positions at every moment which would fatigue us terribly.

They sit down on their heels for whole days, and when they climb up into a cocoa-tree, or rest themselves by the way, place themselves without any effort in postures that are really surprising.

The singular fancy which some of these tribes have for clay, has been already noticed, and M. Garnier convinced himself of the reality of the fact. The earth in question, is a silicate of magnesia, greenish in colour. It is ground by the teeth into a soft, fine dust, by no means disagreeable in taste. The habit of eating this clay, is, however, far from general; women only, in certain cases of illness, take a few pinches of it.

M. Garnier had an opportunity of being present at the _pilou-pilou_, a dancing festival which takes place on the occasion of the igname harvest. On a piece of high but level ground, overlooking a vast plain, were seated the chiefs and old men; the crowd were a.s.sembled below, and in front of them was piled a huge heap of ignames. Thirty or forty youngsters, selected from the handsomest of the tribe, advanced and each took a load, and then ascended the plateau in a body, all das.h.i.+ng at full speed to lay their burdens at the feet of the chiefs. Then, still running, they returned to the great ma.s.s of ignames to carry away a fresh cargo, and so on until the whole pile disappeared. They were pursued during this wild race by the yelling crowd, bounding around them with brandished weapons. Every European would have been interested in this strange spectacle; but a painter or a sculptor would have never grown weary of admiring the forms of the young performers: finer artistic models have seldom "posed" in any studio.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 240.--NATIVE OF NEW CALEDONIA.]

This _fete_ was interrupted by a mock fight, during which the warriors, either in complete nudity or with gaudy cloths tied round their waists, whirled their weapons about as they kept bounding, yelling, and taunting their adversaries. The old withered men, whose hands could throw neither stone nor javelin, animated the courage of the young people and showered insults on their opponents.

We are unable to retrace in its entirety, the curious and graphic description which M. Gamier has given of this contest, but a scene of cannibalism at which he was present, is too dramatic to be pa.s.sed over.

Near a large fire sat a dozen men, in whom the traveller recognized the chiefs he had seen in the morning, and pieces of smoking meat surrounded with ignames and taros were laid on broad banana leaves before them. The bodies of some unfortunate wretches killed during the day, supplied the materials for this ghastly banquet, and the hole in which their limbs had just been cooked was still there. A savage joy was pictured on the faces of these demons. Both hands grasped their horrid food. An old chief with a long white beard did not seem to enjoy so formidable an appet.i.te as his comrades. Leaving aside the thigh-bone and the thick layer of flesh accompanying it which had been served him, he contented himself with nibbling a head. He had already removed all the meaty parts, the nose and cheeks, but the eyes remained. The old epicure took a bit of pointed stick and thrust it into both pupils, then shook the horrid skull until bit by bit he brought out the brain; but as this process was not quick enough, he put the back of the head into the flames, and the rest of the cerebral substance dropped out without difficulty!... .

ANDAMAN FAMILY.

We comprise in the _Andaman_ Family those Eastern blacks who possess the characteristics of the Negro race strongly marked. These nations are as yet but little known. The inhabitants of New Guinea, the aborigines of the Andaman Isles, in the bay of Bengal, the blacks of the Malacca peninsula, those dwelling in some of the mountains of Indo-China, the natives of Tasmania, and, finally, the indigenous population of Australia are included in this group.

Among all these people the facial angle does not exceed 60 degrees; the mouth is very large, the nose broad and flat, the arms short, the legs lanky, and the complexion the colour of soot. The women are positively hideous.

The tribes which form these groups are, in general, numerous and subject to the arbitrary authority of a chief. Language is extremely limited among them; they possess neither government, laws, nor regularly established ceremonies, and some do not even know how to construct places of abode.

In order to convey to the reader an idea of the people composing the Andaman Family we shall give a glance at the inhabitants of the Andaman Isles and also at those of Australia.

_Andamans._--The dwellings of the Andamans are of the most rudimentary kind, being hardly superior to the dens of wild beasts. Four posts covered with a roof of palm-leaves const.i.tute these lairs, which are open to every wind, and "ornamented" with hogs' bones, turtle sh.e.l.ls, and large dried fish tied in bunches.

As for the inhabitants themselves, they are of an ebon black. They seldom exceed five feet in stature; their heads are broad and buried between their shoulders; and their hair is woolly, like that of the African blacks. The abdomen is protuberant in a great many cases, and their lower limbs lank. They go about in a state of complete nudity, merely taking care to cover the entire body with a layer of yellow ochre or clay, which protects it from the sting of insects. They paint their faces and sprinkle their hair with red ochre.

Their weapons are, however, manufactured with much cleverness. Their bows, which require a very strong pull, are made of a sort of iron-wood and gracefully shaped. Their arrows are tipped with fine points, some of them barbed, and they shoot them with much skill. They handle expertly their short paddles, marked with red ochre, and hollow their canoes with a rather rude implement formed of a hard and sharp stone fastened to a handle by means of a strong cord made from vegetable fibres.

The Andamans are ichthyophagists, for the seas which wash their islands abound in excellent fish and palatable mollusks. Soles, mullets, and oysters const.i.tute the staple of their food, and when during tempestuous weather fish runs short, they eat the lizards, rats, and mice which swarm in the woods.

Though not cannibals, the Andamans are nevertheless a most savage race, who do not even exist in a state of tribedom, but who are merely gathered into gangs.

The bitterest contempt has been lavished on these rude inhabitants of the islands of Bengal, and people have been willing to consider them as brutes of the worst cruelty, and most extreme ugliness; but more recent observation, and the few facts which we have mentioned, show that this estimate should be somewhat mitigated.

_Australian Blacks._--We have arrived at the black people who occupy part of Australia, and take advantage of some valuable information concerning them, found in M. H. de Castella's "Souvenirs d'un Squatter Francais en Australie," and which was acquired by the author's personal experience of these uncouth beings.

The wild state in which the aborigines of Australia exist is the result of the poverty of their country, which affords no other source of sustenance than animals. True, these abound there; kangaroos, squirrels, opossums, wild-cats, and birds of all kinds are so numerous, that the natives need, as it were, only stretch out their hands in order to take them. In this mild climate they can live without any shelter.

According to M. de Castella, the Negroes of Australia are not so ugly as they have been represented. Among the men whom he examined, some were tall and well made. Their slow, lounging gait, was not devoid of dignity, and the solemnity of their step reminded one of the strut of a tragedian on the stage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 241.--ENCAMPMENT OF NATIVE AUSTRALIANS.]

The Australian blacks recognize family ties. None of them have more than one wife, but they do not marry within their own particular tribe. They live encamped in bands, and now that they are reduced to small numbers, in entire tribes. They do not build permanent huts, but protect themselves in summer from the sun and hot winds merely by a heap of gum-tree branches, piled up against some sticks, thrust in the ground.

When winter comes on, they strip from the trees large pieces of bark, eight or ten feet high, and as wide as the whole circ.u.mference of the trunk, forming with these fragments a screen, which they place at the side whence the rain is blowing, and alter if the wind happens to change. Squatted on the bare earth, in the opossum skin which serves the double purpose of bed and clothing, each of them is placed before a hearth of his own. Fig. 241 is an engraving taken from a photograph of Australian natives.

The Australian Negroes of the present day have guns, and employ little axes for chopping their wood and cutting bark, but it is not so long since the only weapons they possessed were made of hard wood, and their hatchets consisted of sharp stones fastened to the end of sticks, like the flint instruments used by men before the Deluge. There is in fact little or no difference between the people of the age of stone, and the Negroes of Australia, and consequently an acquaintance with the wild manners and customs of these races has been of great advantage to naturalists of our day in throwing light upon the history of primitive man.

M. H. de Castella was greatly struck by the agility of the Australian blacks in climbing gum-trees whose straight stems are often devoid of branches for twenty or thirty feet from their base, and are besides too thick to be clasped. When by perfect prodigies of acrobatism the native reached the wild cats and opossums' nests, he seized the animals, and threw them to his wife.

This wife carried everything; her last-born in a reed basket hanging from her neck, the slaughtered game in one hand, and in the other a blazing gum branch, to light the fire when the family took up fresh quarters. The man walked in front, carrying nothing but his weapons; then came the wife, and after her, their children according to height.

A batch of Australian blacks is never, by any chance, to be met walking abreast, even when in great numbers, and if a whole tribe is crossing the plains, only a long black file is to be seen moving above the high gra.s.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 242.--NATIVE AUSTRALIAN.]

M. de Castella was a spectator of the curious sight which eel-fis.h.i.+ng affords among these natives. Holding a spear in each hand, with which to rake up the bottom, they wade through the water up to their waists, balancing and regulating their movements to the even measure of one of their chants. When an eel is transfixed by a stroke of one lance, they pierce it in another part of the body with the second, and then, holding the two points apart, throw the fish upon the ground, the quant.i.ty which they take in this manner being enormous. They dispense with saucepans and cooking utensils of all kinds in the preparation of their meals, simply placing the game or fish on bright coals covered over with a little ashes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 243.--AN AUSTRALIAN GRAVE.]

Everyone has heard of the skill with which savages navigate their rivers in bark canoes, but the people of whom we are now speaking render themselves remarkable above all others by their adroitness in guiding their little crafts over the rapids. Only two persons can sit in their boats, while a spear supplies the place of an oar, and is used with astonis.h.i.+ng dexterity.

No one acquainted with this kind of barbarous life will be surprised to hear that the blacks of Australia are diminis.h.i.+ng at a wonderfully quick rate. Of the whole Varra tribe, formerly a numerous one, M. de Castella could find no more than seventeen individuals.

What most struck the author of an account of a journey from Sydney to Adelaide, which appeared in the "Tour du Monde," in 1860, was the small number of aborigines which he met in a distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles. Sturt and Mitch.e.l.l, in the middle of the present century, had visited tribes on the higher tributaries of the Murray river, which then consisted of several hundred persons, but M. de Castella found them only represented by scattered groups of seven or eight famished individuals. Fig. 242 portrays one of the types sketched by this gentleman.

Mitch.e.l.l has given a description in his "Travels," of the "groves of death"--those romantic burial-places of the Australians--but the writer in the "Tour du Monde" found them no longer in existence. The tombs of the natives at the present day are as wild and rude as themselves. In the bleak deserts of the land of the West four branches driven into the ground and crossed at the top by a couple more (fig.

243), support the mortal remains of the Australian aboriginal, whose only winding sheet is the skin of a kangaroo.