“A ‘civilized’ black man entered a station on Georgina River and carried off a woman who belonged to a young black man at the station.  She loved her paramour and was glad to get away from the station; but the whites desired to keep her for their black servant, as he could not be made to stay without her, and they brought her back, threatening to shoot the stranger if he came again.  Heedless of the threat, he afterward made a second attempt to elope with his beloved, but the white men pursued the couple and shot the poor fellow.”

If Lumholtz had reflected for a moment on the difference between love as a sentiment and love as an appetite, he would have realized the error of using the expression “the sentiment of love” in connection with such a story of adulterous kidnapping, in which there is absolutely nothing to indicate whether the kidnapper coveted the other man’s wife for any other than the most carnal reasons.  It is not unusual for an Australian to risk his life in stealing a woman.  He does that every time he captures one from another tribe.  In men who have so little imaginative faculty as these, the possibility of being killed has no more deterrent effect than it has in two dogs or stags fighting for a female.  We must not judge such indifference to deadly consequences from our point of view.

GERSTAECKER’S LOVE-STORY

Gerstaecker, a German traveller, who traversed a part of Australia, has a tale of aboriginal love which also bears the earmarks of fiction.  On his whole trip, he says, in his 514-page volume devoted to Australia, he heard of only one case of genuine love.  A young man of the Bamares tribe took a fancy to a girl of the Rengmutkos.  She was also pleased with him and he eloped with her at night, taking her to his hunting-ground on the river.  The tribe heard of his escapade and ordered him to return the girl to her home.  He obeyed, but two weeks later eloped with her again.  He was reprimanded and informed that if it happened again he would be killed.  For the present he escaped punishment personally, but was ordered to cudgel the girl and then send her back home.  He obeyed again; the girl fell down before him and he rained hard blows on her head and shoulders till the elders themselves interceded and cried enough.  The girl was chased away and the lover remained alone.  For two days he refused to join in the hunting or diversions of his companions.  On the third day he ascended an eminence whence the Murray Valley can be seen.  In the distance he saw two columns of smoke; they had been maintained for him all this time by his girl.  He took his spear and opossum coat and hastened toward the columns of smoke.  He was about to commit his third offence, which meant certain death, yet on he went and found the girl.  Her wounds were not yet healed, but she hastened to meet him and put her head on his bosom.