"I am happy now!" Would that such might be the experience of every thief and beggar! Does your heart respond to this wish? Then give your help. There are those who have hold of the rope whereby they trust to effect this deliverance, and there is no hand, however feeble, that may not give them some aid. Help the Society which sends out messengers of mercy into these dreary abodes. Help with your gifts, help with your efforts to awaken the sympathy of others,-help with your prayers!-Sunshine; or, Believing and Rejoicing. By M. A. Barber. LETTER FROM VICTORIA. Yeltha, Darling Junction, Lower Murray, Victoria, MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, PERHAPS you have not read much of the natives of Australia. It is with a view to give you some little account of them that I now write, having lived amongst them for some months. I have been able to gain a little information, as to their manners and customs. I dare say there are none of my young readers who have not heard of Australia-the Land of Gold! the attraction of almost all nations; yet, though the land is so rich, its original possessors are miserably poor, not only poor in worldly things, but also in spiritual. In giving a description of this people, I suppose I must begin with the colour of their skin. In colour they vary, some are nearly black, others are more of a copper colour; but, indeed, their colour is, in a great measure, hid by their uncleanliness. Their food principally consists of the opossum; this little animal has been of great service to them, not only as food, but also clothing. It has a fur covering, like our English rabbit. This makes them good rugs to keep them warm in winter. But of late years they have almost entirely neglected making those rugs on account of the introduction of blankets amongst them. There are other animals on which they subsist, such as the Kangaroo, and the Wallabie, this animal much resembles the kangaroo, only it is smaller. Those tribes who live near rivers, chiefly subsist on fish. Their mode of cooking is of the rudest description. They generally eat their food half-cooked. They have many things to observe as to what they eat; the boys are not to eat certain kinds of food which they are told will make them old men too soon. The girls are allowed more liberty as regards eating. They divide themselves into two classes, the one they call the Belyarra (that is the eagle hawk); the other is the Wakoo (the crow). It is very difficult to get anything from them, as to why they divide themselves thus. But it is connected with some tradition of a fight between the eagle and the crow. They look upon the eagle as something great, and if they have any idea of a Supreme Being at all, this is the object they look upon as such. But whatever idea they have as regards this, one thing is certain, they have no worship. In this respect they are rather different from many of the savages of other lands, for we find among many of them some idea of worship; although they may like those whom the Apostle Paul describes, Change the glory of the uncorruptible God, into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Romans i. 23. 66 In a people so destitute of all idea of religion or a future state, we need not be surprised to find cruelty, and all kinds of vice; their laws are imbued with the spirit of cruelty. If they put to death an enemy, they do it in the most cruel manner; their general mode is to take the kidney fat from the victim while alive; this they take as a trophy of victory. Sometimes they rub their bodies over with this fat; this they think, gives them the strength of the murdered victim, and inspires them with courage to kill their enemies. Sometimes a mother will kill her own child and eat it. How true is that Scripture which saith, "The dark places are full of the habitations of cruelty," Psalm lxxiv. 20. And here we have an instance, that it is even possible for a mother to forget her little child, how thankful we ought to be for our privileges. Born in a Christian land, blest with kind parents to watch over us in the time of sickness, and to point us to that Saviour who loveth us even more that they can. They have many superstitions. There are a certain class of men in the world, who call themselves Christians, who say, that ignorance is the mother of devotion. But every-day experience tells us that it is the mother of vice and superstition. As this people are very ignorant, so they are superstitious. They believe that some of their tribes have great power given them; one pretends to be able to make it rain when he pleases, another professes to have the winds at his command, another can make it thunder when he pleases. All these people have great influence over the rest of the tribe, and they are looked upon as some great ones. There is another class of men amongst them who profess to be able to cure all diseases. I was called by one of them to see him cured of the headache. A piece of cord was tied to a lock of his hair; his wife took the other end, and by rubbing it against her teeth, made them bleed, this blood he said came from his head and removed the pain. They seem to have no idea of using any kind of medicine, but think to cure all diseases by charms. But there is yet another idea they have which often leads to bloodshed. They think if any of their tribe dies, he has not died naturally; but some one has either been exercising some mysterious power over him, or has come to their camp at night, and done him some injury. After the death of a person, they generally hold a meeting to consider the case, perhaps a few days before a stranger visited them, perhaps while he was there something was broken belonging to the dead person, that with them looks rather suspicious, and after they have drawn together many such circumstances, they will perhaps fasten the crime on some one, they will determine to kill him, this they will do at the first opportunity, and in the most cruel manner. In trying to impress them, that by nature we all die, they persist, that it is different with them; they tell a white man if he were a black man, he would not be so stupid about it. They live in constant dread of what they call Warragee Waimbia (that is, the Wild Black man); they say he prowls about the bush to do them harm. They have good reasons for this fear, for often blacks, from other tribes, lurk about, and, when they have an opportunity, do them harm. In talking to them about this, they tell of many who have died in this way; and so, because a few have been so killed, they conclude that all who die, die from the same cause. They have a great respect for their dead, though they may have been very bad persons during life; yet, when they are dead, they always speak well of them. They never like to hear the names of their dead mentioned; even the names of the children, whose parents are dead, are changed. They give those children the name of Wanbingie. They have different modes of disposing of their dead. In some parts of the country they set them in a sitting posture on the ground, and make fires round them to dry them. They sometimes put them up in trees; others keep them in their camps, and many are the tears that are shed over them. But the blacks on the River Murray bury their dead; over their graves they place a mi-mi—that is, a few boughs or pieces of bark put together. They generally bury their dead on a sand hill-I suppose, that is because it is easier to dig there with such instruments as they have. There are other things which would be interesting to my young readers, but I must hasten to a close, promising that, the next time I write, I shall give you a fuller account of this! people. So I must conclude by giving you some account of the little children. There are many children who are being brought up in the same way as their parents, without a knowledge of God, ignorant of the good news of salvation. Sometimes the mothers are very kind to their children, but their kindness consists in letting them have their own way. I have heard them use very naughty words without being reproved by their parents. I know some of my young readers think it good to have one's own way; but remember what the wise man saith, "A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." My dear young readers, never think it hard because your mother corrects you. If you were left to yourselves, with a wicked heart, and at a time when habits are forming which will afterwards be a blessing or a curse to you, you would grow up "Haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." (Rom. i. 30, 31.) If you wish to avoid this catalogue of evil, be obedient to your parents, be altogether guided by their instructions, and the Lord will bless you and make you useful in your day and generation. If these little children had good parents they would grow up different; but so long as they are without the Gospel they will be bad; but get them to embrace the offers of salvation, and what a change will be seen. O yes! the Gospel alone is able to change the savage, and place him in that high position to which it is the privilege of man to rise. In conclusion, let me ask you, my young readers, have you given God your hearts? if not, let me advise you to do so at once. This alone will make you happy, will preserve you from the black catalogue of evils to which I have referred; this alone will make you fit to live and fit to die. Remember! that as long as you are without religion, you are only raised above this people in privileges and knowledge; you are still exposed to those evils into which they fall. Hoping that you will think on these things, I must for the present, bid you farewell. I remain, yours truly, JOHN BULMAN. THE FOUR P'S. John Barton was an excellent youth, and most earnestly desired to do all the good he could. He gave away almost all he had, and was always running hither and thither upon some good work. There was scarcely an institution in his native town in which he had not taken some part; but nothing seemed to thrive with him, he could not make out the reason why, but so it was, he was always trying, but yet always failing. |