Among cannibals; an account of four years' travels in Australia and of camp life with the aborigines of Queensland; . higher than my shoulders. Such is also the mztta, the abode of the natives, which isintended only for a short stay, and adapted to the nomadiclife of these people. I took care to have my hut made longenough to enable me to lie straight, and to see that my bedwas perfectly horizontal, a matter of no importance to theblacks. It makes no difference to them whether the feet liehigher or lower than the head. My people were on eitherside of the entrance to my hut, where they built fl
Among cannibals; an account of four years' travels in Australia and of camp life with the aborigines of Queensland; . higher than my shoulders. Such is also the mztta, the abode of the natives, which isintended only for a short stay, and adapted to the nomadiclife of these people. I took care to have my hut made longenough to enable me to lie straight, and to see that my bedwas perfectly horizontal, a matter of no importance to theblacks. It makes no difference to them whether the feet liehigher or lower than the head. My people were on eitherside of the entrance to my hut, where they built flimsy roofsof trees and grass ; if there was promise of fine weather forthe night, they simply cut down a tree and laid themselvesby the side of it. In the centre a fire was kept burning. Every evening, before going to sleep, I went outsidemy hut and fired my revolver to remind my companionsof the existence of this terrible weapon, and in case we wereon the territory of strange tribes, to keep them from attack-ing us. This precaution was my way of saying good-nightto my men. I may add that I never had exactly the. °0 e5 I*< VIII RESPECT FOR THE WHITE MAN iii same companions on these various expeditions, because it isnecessary that the blacks should not become too well ac-quainted with you : as long as they respect the white manit is less dangerous to camp with them ; but as soon as theybecome familiar with his customs and find out that there isno danger in associating with him, he is liable at any momentto a treacherous assault. That I was not killed by my men (a circumstance whichwhite people whom I have met have wondered at), I owedto the fact that they never wholly lost their respect for myfirearms. At first, at least, I was regarded by them as some-thing inexplicable—as a sort of mysterious being who couldtravel from land to land without being eaten, and whosechief interest lay in things which, in their eyes, were utterlyuseless, such as the skins and bones of slain an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectethnology, booksubjectnaturalhistory
