Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/146

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n.H MR. CALBER ON TEE TASMANIAN8. Sir Thomas Mitchell, in Australia, T;'as followed (within the author's knowledge from information in after years from the trihe) by an agile band whom be never saw, bat who did not return to their families till he had quitted their domain. The huts of the races were of the same temporary character, but it was ol>Berved that on the Btormv west coast of Tasmania they were more substantial than elsewhere. On the south and w^est eoaats, the island tribes used a catamaran of logs, or a bundle of buoyant hark bound together, but narrowing at the end. Cannibalism was re- jected hj them with horror. It is aifirmed that in no instance did the Tasmanians perpetrate outrages upon women during the war of extermination. Funeral cere- monies varied. Sometimes there was burial; sometimes burning ; sometimes the remains were placed in a hoUow tree. Grief for a distinguished or beloved friend was, as on the continent, attended with the cutting of the face with Units and the melancholy wait of mourners. White was also the suit of woe for both races. Mr. J. E, Calder, who had seen the Tasmanians in their degi^adation, and who compiled his account of them after reference to published and MS, authorities, thus described them: — ** It has been customary to rank the Tasmanian savages with the most degraded of tlie human family, and possessed of inferior intelligence only. But facts quite dis- prove this idea, and show that they were naturally very intellectual, highly-susceptible of culture, and, above all, most desirous of receiving instruction, which is fatal to the dogma of then* incapacity for civilization/'*-'* To a (piestion from Mr, Bonwick — whether they w^ere capable of true civilization — Mr, Calder answered : — " Y©B, undoubteiUy : and I give as an example (one, Arthur) whom I knew well, who was captured when a mere infant, and brought up and educatc<l at the Qiieen.s Orphan School at Hfdmrt Town. Bia ideas were perfectly Knghsh, iind there was not the aniallest dash of savage hi hini. He wa« a very eonversaV>le man, fond of reading, and spoke an^ wrote Kngliah <jnite grammatically. One of liis nei^ddiours was a gnmpiug and unprincipled fellow, who mistook Arthur for a peraou with whom ^ ■ " " The iVafivp Trihes of Taamauia," p. 'M. |J. K. Calder, Tnsuiauia.j