THE AUSTRALIAN
Nomads of fhe Lonely Heart By Rev. E. J. Telfer of the Australian Aborigines Evangelical Mission
cally, they have powers of accomplish ment and endurance that would stagger many an athlete o f the white race. Men tally, they are capable of intense con centration, and their rules relating to marriage and social life are worked out in great detail, and are enforced with stern severity. The workmanship o f their weapons is, in many instances, an outstanding achievement, and is evidence of scientific deduction as well as o f artistic embellishment. It is true, nevertheless, that many of the native customs are crude and de basing. Spiritually, the aborigines are deep in the darkness of heathenism. They are saturated with superstition, and dominated by witch doctors who delight to deceive and terrify them by pretense of healing, or by threat o f death or disaster. On the other hand, these primitive folk have many laudable qualities, and are capable of brave deeds of devotion, and of unswerving constancy in friendship. The boys and girls are particularly attractive, and are the most affectionate and lovable children on earth. This was strikingly demonstrated to me during my recent visit to the interior with American friends. We planned to visit their.campfires as the dusk faded into the semi-darkness of a . (Continued on Page 18)
number more than a thousand unevan gelized aborigines. Beyond these there may be other war-like tribes of which nothing is known, but rumors of their existence and probable location are con veyed by isolated nomads who occasion ally drift in to the outskirts of civiliza tion. These people live under Stone-Age conditions, gaining a precarious exist ence by persistent hunting for animals, birds, reptiles, and even insects; and by tireless effort in collecting edible roots, berries and grass seeds. The men of the various tribes are warriors and hunters of big game. Tall, muscular, and com pletely naked, they walk about with sev eral spears, held haft forward, in the left hand, while in the right hand is the ever ready womera, or spear-thrower. In a sudden emergency, whether in the hunt, or in tribal •warfare, the spear is swung around by a circular motion in front of the body, the haft fitted to the hook on the end of the womera, and the spear hurled at its mark with amazing velocity and accuracy. The whole thing seems to be done automatically in the fraction of a second. Human enemy or unsuspecting kangaroo would have little chance of escape. The men concentrate their hunting en ergy on the larger game, such as kan garoo, euro, wallaby, dingo, emu or tur key; or it may be the large python of the rocks and sand-hills, or perhaps Australia’s giant lizard, known as the goanna. The native women, entirely primitive, are the burden bearers, carry ing cooking utensils and other require ments. When the nomad family is on the march, the woman usually walks some distance behind her husband. Balanced on her head, without hand support, is the coolamon, a shallow wooden vessel, filled with water. In her left hand she carries her implements, and her dilly bag for seeds, fruits, berries, witchity grubs, and other articles of food; and held astride her right hip is the young est child o f the family. She walks along cheerfully, with erect carriage, and takes her load as 'a matter of course,' while her husband strides ahead with spear and womera. The Australian aborigine is placed by anthropologists in a special group, in many ways unique. He is not European, or Mongoloid, or Negroid, but is worthy of a separate classification, now known as the Australoid. The aborigines are by no means the lowest race of human beings. This fallacy of their supposed inferiority has been disproved. Physi
An Australian aboriginal warrior with his womera.
f - r ^ H E MOST ISOLATED area in Australia is that broad expanse of -A. territory lying to the north and northwest of thé great central reserve for aborigines. Few white men have penetrated this region; some who have ventured therein have never returned. This great stretch of country is thought to be a waterless waste of desert, with countless miles of sandhills, spinifex, and mulga scrub, and here and there a barren mountain of limestone, granite, or red ironstone rock. This is probably a true, though inadequate, description of that lonely, unexplored heart of the continent. Geographically, the location is approximately one thousand miles north east from Perth, five to six hundred miles west from Alice Springs, and is mainly in West Australian territory. In this survey we are not primarily interested in the geography or geology of the area, but we are deeply concerned with the knowledge that in this remote region there are many tribes of wild nomadic natives without any enlighten ment o f mind or heart concerning Christ and His great message of redeeming love. A conservative estimate would Page Ten
Australian aboriginal woman.
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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