THE DIEYERIE. From the Tarn Herald.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 416, 14 January 1875, Page 2

THE DIEYERIE. From the Tarn Herald.

It has been truly said that one-half of the world does not know how the other half lives ; and there is no more engaging subject of research than the manners and customs of different branches of the human family. The Government of South Australia hare recently published a very interesting little book, of which we have received a copy, describing a queer set of people who inhabit the desert six hundred and thirty miles North of Adelaide ; in the very middle, thai is, of, the island continent of New Holland, they are called the Dieyerie, an unusually eupbonous name for Australia, where, as a rule, the native names are not too graceful. For instance, we Jearn that the four tribes whose country borders on that of the Dieyerie, are called respectively the Tandrawontha, Yarrawaurka, Auminie. and Wonkaooroo. The Dieyerie are not very nice people to live among, their only virtues being hospitality, reverence to old %ge, and lov« for their children and parents. The author of the book before us says :—: — A more treacherous race I do not believe exists. They imbibe treachery in infancy, and practice it until death, and have no sense of wrong in it. Gratitude is to them an unknown quality. No matter how kind and generous you are lo them, you cannot assure yourself of their affection. Iven amongst themselves, for a mere trifle, they would take the life of their dearest friend, and consequently are in constant dread of each other, while their enmity to the white man is only kept in abeyance by fear. They will smile and laugh in your face, and the next moment, if opportunity offers, kill you without remorse. They seem to take a delight in lying, especially if they think it will please you. Should you aak them any question, be prepared for a falsehood as a matter of course. They not only lie to the white but to each other, and do not appear to see any wrong in it. Although very much attached to such of their children as they choose to rear, they habitually destroy about thirty per cent of them by burying them alive in the sand, or dashing their brains out with a club ; indeed murder, infanticide and bloodshed generally, appear to b« mere ereryday amusements with them. Like most savage* they are very superstitious, without being susceptible of any religious feeling. Some of their traditions are curious and ingenious; here is their idea of the Creation :— In the beginning, say the Dieyerie, the Mooramoora (Good Spirit) made a number of small black lizards (these are still to be met with under dry bark), and being pleased with them he promised they should have power over all other creeping things. The Mooramoora then divided their feet into toes and fingers, and placing hiß forefinger on the centre of the face created a nose, and so in like manner afterwards eyes, mouth and ears. The Spirit then placed one of them in a standing position, which it could not, however, retain, whereupon the Diety cut off the tail, and the Lizard walked erect. They were then made male and female, so as to perpetuate the race, and leave a tribe to dispute their ancestry with Darwin's monkeys. Men, women, or children, do not varj in. the slightest degree in this account of th^ir creation. Perhaps a Colenso will be found some day to dispute the accuracy of the Dieyerie version of Genesis, but at present their unanimity of belief puts civilized races to shame. The subdivision of the tribe into families is said to have been brought about in the following manner : — After the creation, aa previously related, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and others of the closest of kin intermarried promiscuously, until the evil effects of their alliances becoming manitest, a council of the chiefs was assembled to consider in what way they might be averted, the result of their deliberations being a petition to the. Mooramoora, in answer to which he ordered that the tribe should be divided into two branches, and distinguished one from the other by different names, after objects animate and inanimate, such as dogs, mice, emu, rain, iguana, and so forth, the members of any such branch not to intermarry, but with permission for one branch tfo mingle with another. Thus the son of a dog might not marry the daughter of a dog, but either might form an alliance with a mouse, an emu, a rat. or other family. j Although inhabiting a region which is singularly poor in animal or vegetable life, and barely subsisting on snakes, rats, roots, and seeds, the Dieyerie a) c not cannibals in the usual sense of the word. They are, however, anthropophagous out of pure love and affection to their dearest re* lations ; for they substitute cannibalism for interment or cremation. The following description of their funeral rites j ia not appetising, but it is so very remarkable that we give j it intact. | When the old man stops beating the coonya, the men J and women commence crying, and the body is removed from the heads of the bearers and lowered into the grave, into which a native (not related to the deceased,) steps, and proceeds to cut off all the fat adhering to the muscles of the face, thighs, arms and stomach, and passes it round to be swallowed. The reason assigned for this horrible practice being that thus the nearest relatives may forget the departed and not be continually crying. The order in. which they partake of their dead relatives is this : — 1. The mother eats of her children. 2. The children eat of tueir mother. 3. Brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law eat of each other. 4. Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, grandfathers, and grandnotbers eat of each other. 5. But the father does not eat of his offspring, or the offspring of the sire. The Dieyerie method of assuaging grief is certainly original. When a wealthy English person dies, the relative* are anxious to learn how the departed will " cut up ; " those i who get no legacy are themselves " cut up " about it. But i both these phrases are merely metaphorical ; we never heard of a bereaved lady being induced to leave off crying through receiving a fat slice of underdone grandmother. A perusal of thia curious and interesting little i volume confirms, if anything were necessary to confirm, the ! conviction that there is no state ot existence 8O utterly miserable and void of enjoyment of every sort, as the con- ! dition of savages, who yet have intelligence enough to possess superstitions. AVild beasta aie a thousand times happier than they are, while the life of the simple, iudolent, inhabitants of Tahiti, Pitcairn, and many of the fertile Pacifio islands, is a perfeot paradise oompsred with theirs. From the moment when the Dieyerie mother decides not to murder her child, to that when the said child grown old and dead, is devoured by his relatives, he suffers incessantly. Tortures of the most horrible kind are inflicted on him, in obedience to the laws of the tribe, at various stages of hia existence ; he is drenched in blood, speared, mutilated, and tormented in order to make him brave and enduring ; if he wants it to rain, he plunges a sharp flint into hi» veins ; if he wants to find food, he pricks his flesh with a splinter ; if inguanas are not plentiful, sharpened bones are run through his ears ; if he meets with an accident or fails in any undertaking, hia frieuJs beat him till he bleeds ; if ho is only suspected of an injury, if he gets the best of the bargain, if he commiti the ernallest breach of the thousand and. one '

minute regulation* laid down by (ho Dieyerie *uper«titioni ; he knows he will either hare to undergo excruciating pain, or be inexorably put to death. It icon™ wonderful that any human being can owe to lire on auo v » terms fit nl! ; bu»; t!>,it whole races of mankind slioa'd oohtinuo for end!e-w aj." s t < support suoh an existence, anl jealoutljr to pro'ect it from innoratbn or improved eit, if on) of those mo*t marvel oug diapensattont of Proridenoc wtuoh neithei* priest nor •opher huytt explained.