CIVILIZED ABORIGINES.
"At starting let me say," he remarked, "that the aborigines of Australia are about the lowest type of the human race that can be found, with the possible exception of the natives of Terra del Fuego. They belong distinctively to the black race, though their hair while curly has not the woolly crispness of that of the African negro. In the interior, away from settlements, they go entirely naked, and when white men first came to Australia the natives had no knowledge of the uses of clothing. Around the settlements they have adopted civilized customs in the matter of dress, but only upon compulsion. I have known the blacks who were employed at a sheep-station to go naked when away from the dwelling of their employer, and only resume their clothing on returning to the house."
"What kind of houses do they live in when by themselves?" Frank asked.
"They had not learned to build houses until the Europeans instructed them," was the reply, "and the wild tribes of the interior still continue to live as they did of yore. They occasionally build rude huts of bark by inclining two or three strips against each other in the form of a cone, but more frequently their only protection against the weather is a single strip of bark, or a large bough of a tree, inclined towards the wind, and held in place by an upright stick.
"In my younger days I owned a station in a region where the blacks were numerous, and though they occasionally stole some of my sheep and cattle, and committed other depredations, our relations were, on the whole, of a friendly character. I allowed them to visit my house, but only on condition that they were properly dressed, the dress consisting of a skin or piece of cloth around the waist. As a single garment lasted them a long time, it was evident that they wore it only when coming to my house, laying it aside as soon as they were out of sight. When going into battle they paint their bodies with red earth, to give them a hideous appearance, and if they can obtain European paints of different colors they are especially happy; they imagine that the more hideously they are decorated the more likely are they to be victorious in fights with other tribes.
ABORIGINAL METHOD OF MAKING FIRE.
"Like most other savage people, they obtain fire by rubbing two sticks together; but the operation requires so much exertion that they take great care to preserve fire when once they have obtained it. A tribe will wander about for days and weeks carrying fire in coals carefully protected by strips of bark; some of the old women are designated as fire-carriers, and are generally exempt from other work. When they build fires at night they surround them with shields of bark, so that their locality will not be revealed by the glare of light.