“The Kangaroo ran very fast,
But I ran faster still.
How fat he was,
How plump he was!
What a fine roast he made!
O Kangaroo, O Kangaroo.”
FIG. 70.—Bushman playing on the “gora.”
(Partly after Wood.)
War-songs are not unknown to Australian savages, but the beauties of nature and the feelings of love are subjects only occasionally met with in the poetry of uncivilised hunters. They begin to appear among the Eskimo, and are highly developed among half-civilised nomads, contemplators of nature, whose lyric poetry is sometimes inspired by very elevated feelings, as is shown, for example, by Kalmuk songs.[235] As to epic poetry, it is met with only among half-civilised peoples who possess a history.