Facile Potest Intelligi, Amorem Inter Nuptos Vix Posse Esse Grandem, Quum Omnia Quae Ad Foeminas Attinent, Hominum Arbitrio Ordinentur Et Tanta Sexuum Societati Laxitas, Et Adolescentes Quibus Ita Multae Ardoris Explendi Dantur Occasiones, Haud Magnopere Uxores, Nisi Ut Servas Desideraturos.

But little real affection consequently exists between husbands and wives, and young men value a wife principally for her

Services as a slave; in fact when asked why they are anxious to obtain wives, their usual reply is, that they may get wood, water, and food for them, and carry whatever property they possess. In 1842 the wife of a native in Adelaide, a girl about eighteen, was confined, and recovered slowly; before she was well the tribe removed from the locality, and the husband preferred accompanying them, and left his wife to die, instead of remaining to attend upon her and administer to her wants. When the natives were gone, the girl was removed to the mission station, to receive medical attendance, but eventually died. In the same year an old woman who broke her thigh was left to die, as the tribe did not like the trouble of carrying her about. Parents are treated in the same manner when helpless and infirm. [Note 77 at end of para.] In 1839 I found an aged man left to die, without fire or food, upon a high bare hill beyond the Broughton. In 1843 I found two old women, who had been abandoned in the same way, at the Murray, and although they were taken every care of when discovered, they both died in about a week afterwards. No age is prescribed for matrimony, but young men under twenty-five years of age do not often obtain wives, there are exceptions, however, to this: I have seen occasionally young men of seventeen or eighteen possessing them. When wives are from thirty-five to forty years of age, they are frequently cast off by the husbands, or are given to the younger men in exchange for their sisters or near relatives, if such are at their disposal.

[Note 77: "Practised by the American Indians." - Catlin, vol. i. p. 216.

"The early life of a young woman at all celebrated for beauty is generally one continued series of captivity to different masters, of ghastly wounds, of wanderings in strange families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment from other females amongst whom she is brought a stranger by her captor; and rarely do you see a form of unusual grace and elegance, but it is marked and scarred by the furrows of old wounds; and many a female thus wanders several hundred miles from the home of her infancy, being carried off successively to distant and more distant points."]

Women are often sadly ill-treated by their husbands or friends, in addition to the dreadful life of drudgery, and privation, and hardship they always have to undergo; they are frequently beaten about the head, with waddies, in the most dreadful manner, or speared in the limbs for the most trivial offences. No one takes the part of the weak or the injured, or ever attempts to interfere with the infliction of such severe punishments.

Few women will be found, upon examination, to be free from frightful scars upon the head, or the marks of spear-wounds about the body. I have seen a young woman, who, from the number of these marks, appeared to have been almost riddled with spear wounds. Upon this point Captain Grey remarks, vol. ii. p. 249.

The menses commence to flow among the native females at an earlier age than among Europeans, frequently beginning at about twelve; they are also subject to many irregularities in their periodical return, arising probably from the kind of life they lead and the nature of the diet upon which they live. I have known cases where this irregularity has extended to three months. Child-bearing does not commence often before the age of sixteen, nor have I ever noticed pregnant women under that age. In inquiries conducted by Mr. Moorhouse among the natives of Adelaide, that gentleman ascertained, that as many as nine children have occasionally been born to one woman; that the average number is about five; but that each mother only reared an average of two. At childbirth, the placenta, which is considered as sacred, is carefully put away from the reach of the dogs as soon as thrown off from the uterus, and the female is up and following her usual avocations a very few hours after the accouchement. Instances have occurred of women sitting up, and asking for food an hour after confinement, though wet with rain, and having very little fire. Two days after it, I have seen a woman walking two or three miles, and going out to look for food in her usual manner. Infanticide is very common, and appears to be practised solely to get rid of the trouble of rearing children, and to enable the woman to follow her husband about in his wanderings, which she frequently could not do if encumbered with a child. The first three or four are often killed; no distinction appears to be made in this case between male or female children. Half-castes appear to be always destroyed.

The nomenclature of the natives is a subject of considerable difficulty, and is at present involved in much obscurity and uncertainty, so many different practices obtaining, and so many changes of name occurring to some individuals during the course of their life. In the Adelaide district, and among the tribes to the north, Mr. Moorhouse has found that numerical names are given to children when first born, in the order of birth, a variation in the termination constituting the distinction of name for male or female, thus: -

IF MALE. IF FEMALE. The 1st child would be called Kertameru Kertanya 2nd child would be called Warritya Warriarto 3rd child would be called Kudnutya Kudnarto 4th child would be called Monaitya Monarto 5th child would be called Milaitya Milarto 6th child would be called Marrutya Marruarto 7th child would be called Wangutya Wangwarto 8th child would be called Ngarlaitya Ngarlarto 9th child would be called Pouarna Ngarlarto

These are given at birth; but a short time after another name is added, which is derived from some object in nature, as a plant, animal, or insect.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 200 of 247
Words from 205557 to 206620 of 254601