The aborigines of Tasmania / by H. Ling Roth ; assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. Backhouse Walker ; with a chapter on the osteology by J.G. Garson.

  • Henry Ling Roth
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The aborigines of Tasmania / by H. Ling Roth ; assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. Backhouse Walker ; with a chapter on the osteology by J.G. Garson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that some of the natives only eat the male wallaby, others only the female; and adds: “We were unable to learn the reason of this; but they so strictly adhere to the practice, that, it is said, hunger will not drive them to deviate from it.” His companion, G. W. Walker repeats (p. no) his statements and adds: “The morning we arrived -at Pea- Jacket, a wallaby was taken by Tommy, at a time when meat was by no means plentiful ; he however gave the whole of it away, nor could I induce him to taste it. It was a male, and the only answer I could get from him was, he never eat the male of that animal. The rest of the party partook of it.” We further learn from Calder (J.A.I., 1873) that no fish, except shell-fish, “ would any native of Tasmania ever touch; whether it was from natural aversion or superstition, is not known ; but scale-fish of afiy kind ” was an abomination to the entire race. This tabu of male and female wallaby, as the case may be, may probably be akin to similar tabu practised by other totemistic uncivilized races; but with regard to the Tasmanians, we do not appear to have any indications of totemism. Medicine. We have very little information under this heading. According to Calder, Robinson says: “ The savage of Tasmania was more than ordinarily liable to attacks (of epidemic disease), which ... he knew no remedy for, and sought only to relieve his pain by . . . the excessive laceration of his body with flint [«'c], or glass if he could get it, which, by producing weakness, made death only the more speedy and certain. I quite believe that the original cause of their decay lay in their own imprudence generating fatal catarrhal complaints, from which ... by proper remedial measures, resorted to early, (they) would have recovered. These imprudences were . . . practised only by a few tribes inhabiting the settled districts, but the consequences, which are epidemic, infected all before long” (J.A.I. p. 15). Robinson also relates of a sick woman who was affiidted, according to her hus- band, with sick head, breast, belly :—“ On each of these parts incisions had been made with a piece of glass bottle. The forehead was much lacerated, the blood streaming down her face. Her whole frame was wasted; she had a ghastly appearance” (Calder, J.A.I. p. 16). La Billardiere remarks (II. ch. x. p. 57) : “ One of the savages has several marks of very recent burns on his head. Perhaps they employ the adtual cautery in many diseases.” Holman says much the same (IV. ch. xii. p. 405) : “ Bleeding by scarification is a mode of treat- ment in general use among them, in cases of sickness.” G. W. Walker often told his son that the natives used to make cuts on their bodies, with a piece of glass “to let the pain out.” “Truganina, finding her husband in much pain, from a swollen thigh, made six incisions, which produced much sloughing, and cured him in nine days. Tight bandages, kept wet, relieved pain in the head and stomach,” (Bonwick, p. 89.) West records (II. p. 90) that “they suffered from several diseases which were often fatal. Rheumatism and inflammation were cured by incisions; the loathsome eruption, called the native leprosy,
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