Note 187 — Chapter II · HUNTERS AND FISHERS.

3º. Fixed habitations, large groups, preserving of food. Gerland states that to find sufficient food, the Australians must continually roam over the country. These wandering tribes cannot be large, else food would fail them; so the division of the Australians into numerous small tribes is a consequence of the nature of their country187. Spencer and Gillen speak of the natives of Central Australia as living in small local groups188. Brough Smyth remarks: “It is necessary for a tribe to move very frequently from place to place, always keeping within the boundaries of the country which it calls its own—, now to the spot where eels can be taken in the creeks; often to the feeding-grounds of the kangaroo; sometimes to the thicker forests to get wood suitable for making weapons; to the sea-coast continually for fish of various kinds; and, at the right season, to the lands where are found the native bread, the yam, and the acacia gum”189. According to Eylmann, the natives of South Australia, in their barren country, are forced not only to continually move on, but to live in small hordes190. And Thomas states that “the tribal areas are almost invariably small”191. The writers who describe separate tribes also often state that these tribes are nomadic and live in small groups. We shall quote here only the statements of our ethnographers concerning one significant fact, that presents a striking contrast to the state of things on the Pacific Coast, viz. the improvidence of the Australians. In the Moore River District of W. Australia food is abundant in the summer; but the natives are reckless of the future; they consume whatever they have got. The natives of S. W. Australia preserve no food; if the game killed is too much for a family to eat in one day, neighbouring families are invited and a feast is given, till nothing is left. They do, however, store up acacia gum, and carry roots with them. The Queenslanders on Herbert River think only of the present moment. The Cammarray of N. S. Wales eat as long as they have anything; they never lay up provisions, except when a dead whale has been cast on shore. Of the aborigines of N. S. Wales in general Fraser tells us: “When the fish are abundant, the fishers cannot use a tithe of the fish they catch, and so sell them to all comers at a few pence for a backful. As for themselves, they have a noble feast, they and all their tribe; and, as is their habit whenever they have abundance, they gorge themselves so that their bodies are swollen to unnatural dimensions and seem ready to burst. When they can hold no more, they go to sleep like snakes, and sleep for twenty-four hours or more.” Similar particulars are gives by Angas. Spencer and Gillen, in their description of the natives of Central Australia, remark that “when times are favourable the black fellow is as lighthearted as possible. He has not the slightest thought of, or care for, what the morrow may bring forth, and lives entirely in the present”192. As for the Tasmanians: “They lay up no store of provisions, and have been known in winter time to eat kangaroo skins”193. Matthews, speaking of several tribes of Queensland and South Australia, states that they “are very improvident, and accumulate no property beyond their weapons and rugs”194. And Forrest tells us that the natives of Central and Western Australia “live from hand to mouth, never collect more than enough for the day, and each morning have to look out for their day’s food”195. Thomas remarks, that it is not true that the Australian does not store food. “Much of his food he must perforce eat quickly, or natural processes would make his labour in vain. But the bunya-bunya nut, grass and other seed cakes, and possibly other kinds of food, were certainly put aside for future use”196. He evidently means to say, that their preserving relatively little food is not due to improvidence, but to necessity. But however this may be, the fact that most of the collected food is consumed quickly remains, and this fact, not the underlying motives, has important consequences with regard to the economic structure of their society.