How the Cannibals Presented Me With a Wife.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 484, 28 June 1890, Page 6

How the Cannibals Presented Me With a Wife.

Br Caiil Lum holtz, THE FAMOUS EXPLORER, Author of ‘ Among Cannibals.’

The aborigines of Australia are the lowest and most degraded human beings to be found on the face of the earth. Without any agricultural or mechanical implements except the rudest ones made of stone, wood, or bone, without any numerals above three (what is over that is to the Australian taggm —i.e., many), apparently without any higher ideas and religion, they lead a life of idleness, of robbery, fight and cannibalism. The men in so far may be said to a certain extent to cultivate their higher interests, as they during their hours of leisure can have, as it were, their club meetings, where they may discuss the happenings of the day or tho chances for to-morrow’s hunt for opossum or human flesh ; besides, the vicissitudes of hunt and fight—their lot in life—are replete with excitement and interest. The women, on the other hand, who .are compelled to do the menial work, to procure and prepare the food, must carry more than their share of the burdens of life, and therefore they are still deeper immersed in this base and thoughtless life than the men. The women are really only the men’s property, but ot the same time their most l valuable property, and the more a man possesses of these precious chattels the richer he is considered. Some men may even have five or six wives, although two or three is the more common number. It is generally only the old and leading citizens who have more than two wives, and, in fact, it is very difficult for a young man below 30 years of age even to get as much as one. Women may be acquired in the following ways:—l. By inheritance from some near relative or an older member of the tribe. 2. Sometimes the women already from birth are destined for some man, to whom they are given at 12 or 13 years of age ; but (3) the most common way of obtaining a wife among the Australians is by robbing her. If a man thinks himself strong enough he will rob or steal a woman from her father, or, if she be married, from her present husband. Even if she likes the man, it is always good form that she offers resistance to her lover, and that is the most violent form, kicking and screaming. The women are terribly abused and cruelly treated,and therefore they often run away from their husbands ; if they are found again, they are usually marked on the back with the tomahawk or even killed. The old men are surrounded by the youngest and prettiest wives, while a young man may consider himself happy if he ob- •. tains an old and ugly crone. He has, however, the consolation that the old women are the best workers, cleverest in finding food, while the young ones are, although more ornamental, less useful. When we take into consideration how highly the Australians value their women, because they actually feed the men, it is easily understood that I have every reason to feel flattered at the incident I am now going to narrate, and which brought me near marrying an Australian girl. There was not much courtship incident to this proposed marriage, however, nor did the passion run very high between tho parties in question. It came about in this manner : lb was a rather hot and sultry midsummer night. As the reader must not forget, midsummer is in Australia about Christmas time : in Australia, where the swans are black, where the birds don’t sing and the flowers don’t s*mell—everything is reverse of what we are accustomed to in other countries. The camp-fires were lit, and the blacks, both my own followers and some other friendly tribe, had gathered to a big festive dance. My men had the whole day been engaged in hunting boongary, the tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus Lumholtzii), which is the handsomest mammal of Australia, and for the first time made known to science through my efforts. I had finished my task for the day in skinning this valuable animal, and elated over my success and wishing to enjoy myself,l went down to the big camp of the natives, where they were sitting outside of their huts and around their small fires waiting for the moon to rise and the dance to begin, as soon as the moon rose, for they dance only by moonlight. Some of ray men suddenly came to me and asked me to fire my ‘ baby gun,’ as [ they styled my revolver, because, they said, they were fearing that some strange tribe would during the night attack our camp. I found their fears ridiculous, as there were so many of them together, but they asserted that their enemies, too, were numerous, and did not leave off importuning me till I had complied with their wish and discharged my revolver. The shot made a great resonance in the narrow valley, and immediately a hubbub arose in the camp of the dancers which was lying at some distance. Some of them came running at their utmost speed over to the place where I was and, in a hurried manner, asked the blacks there to make me come over to them. I at once yielded to their wish and followed them over to their camp, where I found a grand and excited pow-wow in progress. Unable to account for the shot in any other way than that the white man was angry for some reason or other, they had quickly made up their minds to appease my supposed wrath by presenting me with the finest-looking girl in their camp. All were talking simultaneously, and when I came near enotigh I cpuld catch a few words, such as kola (anger), nili (young girl), Kelanmi Matnigo [i.e., Kelanun—this was the name ot the girl—shall helong to Mami 1 —my name among them}. One of

my men explained to me, ‘The blacka want to give you a young girl, because they are afraid of the baby gun.’ I did not want to disturb their amusement by not accepting the offer, and, besides, I was anxious to know how the wedding ceremony would bo performed, so Iletthem fetch her to my hut. When we remember what a high value among the Australians is attached to a young and pretty wife, it is easily seen chat they were ready to pay a very high price fir my friendship. As soon as the natives heard chat I would accept the girl they evidently felt somewhat reassured, and their troubled countenances gave way to a relieved expression and even joyful talk. But Kelanmi did not feel at all edified at the thought of marrying ‘ Mami.’ The girls never like to leave their tribe, and in this Case she was to belong to a white man, the first she had ever seen. When I went away I heard the natives talk harshly to her and by threats compel her to go with the stranger. I learned afterward that she was originally intended for a young black, by name KaiDubbaroh, for whom it seems she really felt a kind of affection, an occurrence that sometimes if not often happens among them. She asked him as a precautionary measure to follow her. That he so easily and willingly submitted to losing his bride must nob so much be considered a fault of his, bub rather be taken as an example of the cowardice characteristic of the whole race.

I lit the fire in my camp and waited for tho blacks to arrive with Kelanmi. The moon was just rising, so I could distinctly discern the black figures approaching, bub I did notat first see any nili (young girl). She went behind one of the men, who held her by the wrist.' Although she apparently did not follow willingly, she did not ofier any open resistence, which would, of course, have been of bub little avail.

When the embassy reached my hub they left the peace offering without a word of explanation. The whole scene reminded me somewhat of the Homeric passages where Agamemnon’s messengers abducb the beautiful Brisils from Achilleus’' tent and bring her to Agamemnon's. I asked her bo enter my hub and sit down. It will never do, even among cannibals, not to be Dolite.

Sho seated herself on the ground near the fire, while I had an opportunity of looking at my matrimonial prize. She was dressed in her be3t garb, on account of the dance, but not with the ruffles and laces that Worth imposes on fashioh’s devotees. My belle of Australia had her face and the greater part of her body besmeared with red earth. I cannot say very much for her beauty, although she was the best they had. She was quite young, apparently 13 years old, and a< she sat there timidly awaiting tho orders of her new master she formed a rather picturesque figure. In order to quiet her, and at the same time to give the men around a lesson in gallantry, I at once brought her some meat and bread, which she, however, pub away under her legs, fearing the men, because such- delicacies are not for women. I then gave her a piece of tobacco, which she also pub aside. Probably she wanted to give it to her okl ‘lover,’ Kal-Dubbaroh, who doubtless expected some compensation for the loss he had suffered. 1 felt pity for the poor, cowed, trembling little thing, and when I saw how unhappy she was, and being, in fact, myself very anxious as: yet to escape the bonds of matrimony, I told her in her own language, ‘You may go.’ She looked at me, rose and ran away like a bird flying from its cage. This puzzled the blacks very much ; they could not imagine any other reason for my act than that she did not please me, and at once, therefore, they offered me another girl. But I told them that everything was now all right, and that we all would go down and look at the dance So we did, and all night through the natives kept up their amusement, merry and jolly after having appeased the terrible wrath of the white man.