The rank
offensive smell which disgusts so much in the negro, prevails strongly
among them when they are in their native state, but it wears off in those
who have resided with us and have been taught habits of cleanliness.
Their hands and feet are small*, especially the former.
[*I mentioned this, among other circumstances, to colonel Gordon when I was
at the Cape, and he told me that it indicated poverty and inadequacy of living.
He instanced to me the Hottentots and Caffres. The former fare poorly,
and have small hands and feet. The Caffres, their neighbours,
live plenteously and have very large ones. This remark cannot be applied
to civilized nations, where so many factitious causes operate.]
Their eyes are full, black and piercing, but the almost perpetual strain
in which the optic nerve is kept, by looking out for prey, renders
their sight weak at an earlier age than we in general find ours affected.
These large black eyes are universally shaded by the long thick sweepy eyelash,
so much prized in appreciating beauty, that, perhaps hardly any face
is so homely which this aid cannot in some degree render interesting;
and hardly any so lovely which, without it, bears not some trace of insipidity.
Their tone of voice is loud, but not harsh. I have in some of them
found it very pleasing.
Longevity, I think, is seldom attained by them. Unceasing agitation
wears out the animal frame and is unfriendly to length of days. We have seen
them grey with age, but not old; perhaps never beyond sixty years.
But it may be said, the American Indian, in his undebauched state, lives
to an advanced period. True, but he has his seasons of repose. He reaps
his little harvest of maize and continues in idleness while it lasts.
He kills the roebuck or the moose-deer, which maintains him and his family
for many days, during which cessation the muscles regain their spring
and fit him for fresh toils. Whereas every sun awakes the native
of New South Wales (unless a whale be thrown upon the coast) to a renewal
of labour, to provide subsistence for the present day.
The women are proportionally smaller than the men. I never measured
but two of them, who were both, I think, about the medium height.
One of them, a sister of Baneelon, stood exactly five feet two inches high.
The other, named Gooreedeeana, was shorter by a quarter of an inch.
But I cannot break from Gooreedeeana so abruptly. She belonged to the tribe
of Cameragal, and rarely came among us. One day, however, she entered
my house to complain of hunger. She excelled in beauty all their females
I ever saw. Her age about eighteen, the firmness, the symmetry
and the luxuriancy of her bosom might have tempted painting to copy its charms.
Her mouth was small and her teeth, though exposed to all the destructive
purposes to which they apply them, were white, sound and unbroken.
Her countenance, though marked by some of the characteristics
of her native land, was distinguished by a softness and sensibility
unequalled in the rest of her countrywomen, and I was willing to believe
that these traits indicated the disposition of her mind. I had never before
seen this elegant timid female, of whom I had often heard; but the interest
I took in her led me to question her about her husband and family.
She answered me by repeating a name which I have now forgotten, and told me
she had no children. I was seized with a strong propensity to learn
whether the attractions of Gooreedeeana were sufficiently powerful
to secure her from the brutal violence with which the women are treated,
and as I found my question either ill understood or reluctantly answered,
I proceeded to examine her head, the part on which the husband's vengeance
generally alights. With grief I found it covered by contusions
and mangled by scars. The poor creature, grown by this time more confident
from perceiving that I pitied her, pointed out a wound just above
her left knee which she told me was received from a spear, thrown at her
by a man who had lately dragged her by force from her home to gratify his lust.
I afterwards observed that this wound had caused a slight lameness
and that she limped in walking. I could only compassionate her wrongs
and sympathize in her misfortunes. To alleviate her present sense of them,
when she took her leave I gave her, however, all the bread and salt pork
which my little stock afforded.
After this I never saw her but once, when I happened to be near
the harbour's mouth in a boat, with captain Ball. We met her in a canoe
with several more of her sex. She was painted for a ball, with broad stripes
of white earth, from head to foot, so that she no longer looked like
the same Gooreedeeana. We offered her several presents, all of which
she readily accepted; but finding our eagerness and solicitude to inspect her,
she managed her canoe with such address as to elude our too near approach,
and acted the coquet to admiration.
To return from this digression to my subject, I have only farther to observe
that the estimation of female beauty among the natives (the men at least)
is in this country the same as in most others. Were a New Hollander
to portray his mistress, he would draw her the 'Venus aux belles fesses'.
Whenever Baneelon described to us his favourite fair, he always painted her
in this, and another particular, as eminently luxuriant.
Unsatisfied, however, with natural beauty (like the people of all other
countries) they strive by adscititious embellishments to heighten attraction,
and often with as little success. Hence the naked savage of New South Wales
pierces the septum of his nose, through which he runs a stick or a bone,
and scarifies his body, the charms of which increase in proportion
to the number and magnitude of seams by which it is distinguished.
The operation is performed by making two longitudinal incisions
with a sharpened shell, and afterwards pinching up with the nails
the intermediate space of skin and flesh, which thereby becomes considerably
elevated and forms a prominence as thick as a man's finger.
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