Within the last few years, Christianity has made wonderful progress among the Malagasy, although at first missionaries were driven out, and the native converts put to death with frightful tortures. The old superstitions, however, still remain, but they are of a more harmless character than is generally the case with the superstitions of a people who are only beginning to emerge out of the savage state. All reptiles, especially snakes, are regarded with great veneration. Whether any of the serpents are poisonous is not clearly ascertained, though the natives deny that venomous snakes are found on the island. Be this as it may, they never kill a snake, and, even if a large serpent should come into their house, they merely guide it through the doorway with sticks, telling it to go away.
They do not appear to possess idols, though Mr. Ellis found certain objects to which a sort of worship was paid. These were simply “pieces of wood about nine feet high, not square and smooth at the base, but spreading into two or three branches at about five feet from the ground, and gradually tapering to a point.” Near them was a large basaltic stone, about five feet high, and of its natural prismatic form, and near it was another stone, smooth and rounded, and about as large as a man’s head. The natives said that blood was poured on one stone, and fat burned on the other, but they were very averse to any conversation on the subject, and very probably did not tell the truth.
Some of their domestic superstitions—if we may use such a term—are rather curious. Mr. Ellis had noticed that on several occasions a spot of white paint had been placed on the forehead, or a white circle drawn round the eye. One morning, he found these marks adorning nearly the whole of his bearers. On inquiring into the cause of this decoration, he found that it was a charm to avert the consequences of bad dreams. As, however, they had partaken copiously of beef on the preceding evening, the cause of the bad dreams was clearly more material than spiritual.
Partly connected with their superstitious ideas is the existence of a distinct class, the Zanakambony. They are hereditary blacksmiths, and are exempt from forced labor except in their own line, so that, as Lieutenant Oliver writes, they will make a spade, but cannot be compelled to use it. They have the right of carrying deceased kings to the grave, and building monuments over them. They are very proud, and behave most arrogantly to other clans, refusing to associate with them, to eat with them, or even to lend them any article to be defiled by the touch of plebeian hands. As they will not even condescend to the ordinary labor of their countrymen, and think that even to build a house is a degradation, they are very poor; as they refuse to associate with others, they are very ignorant, but they console themselves for their inferiority in wealth and learning by constantly dwelling on their enormous superiority in rank.
CHAPTER LXIX.
AUSTRALIA.
THE NATIVE AUSTRALIANS — THE GENERAL CONFORMATION OF THE HEAD AND FEATURES — THEIR AVERAGE STATURE AND FORM — THE WOMEN AND THEIR APPEARANCE — CHARACTER OF THE NATIVES — THEIR THIEVISH PROPENSITIES — THEIR CUNNING, AND POWER OF DISSIMULATION — A PAIR OF CLEVER THIEVES — THE “GOOD NATIVE” — A CLEVER OLD WOMAN — INCENTIVES TO ROBBERY — HIDEOUS ASPECT OF THE OLD WOMEN — A REPULSIVE SUBJECT FOR AN ARTIST — YOUNGER WOMEN OF SAME TRIBE — THEIR STRANGE DRESS — THE CIRCULAR MAT CLOAK AND ITS USES — THE NATIVE BASKET — TREACHEROUS CHARACTER OF THE NATIVES — MR. BAINES’S NARRATIVE — THE OUTRIGGER CANOE OF NORTH AUSTRALIA, AND ITS PROBABLE ORIGIN — PIPE, AND MODE OF SMOKING — THE MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA, AND THEIR MARSUPIAL CHARACTER — CONFUSION OF NOMENCLATURE — EFFECT OF THE ANIMALS ON THE HUMAN INHABITANTS OF THE COUNTRY — PRIMARY USE OF WEAPONS.
Following up the principle of taking the least civilized races in succession, we naturally pass to the great continent of Australia and its adjacent islands.
This wonderful country holds a sort of isolated position on the earth, owing to the curious contrast which reigns between it and all the lands with which we are familiar. It is situated, as my readers will see by reference to a map, just below the equator, and extends some forty degrees southward, thus having at its northern extremity a heat which is tropical, and at its southern point a climate as cold as our own. But there is perhaps no country where the temperature is so variable as Australia, and there is one instance recorded where the thermometer registered a change of fifty degrees in twenty-five minutes. This sudden change is owing to the winds, which if they blow from the sea are cool, but if they blow toward the coast, after passing over the heated sand-wastes of the interior, raise the temperature in the extraordinary manner which has been mentioned. Still, the climate, changeable though it be, is a pleasant one; and the colonists who visit England nearly always grumble at the damp climate of the mother country, and long to be back again in Australia. Both the animal and vegetable products of this country are strangely unlike those of other lands, but, as we shall have occasion to describe them in the course of the following pages, they will not be mentioned at present; and we will proceed at once to the human inhabitants of Australia.
It is exceedingly difficult, not to say impossible, to treat of the aborigines of Australia with much accuracy of system. Differing as do the tribes with which we are acquainted in many minor particulars, they all agree in general characteristics: and, whether a native be taken from the north or south of the vast Australian continent, there is a similitude of habits and a cast of features which point him out at once as an Australian.
The plan that will be adopted will therefore be to give a general sketch of the natives, together with an account of those habits in which they agree, and then to glance over as much of Australia as travellers have laid open to us, and to mention briefly the most interesting of the manners and customs which exist in the several tribes.