miles of each other, have often scarcely a phrase in com mon. This is more especially observed in Xew South Wales, a country much intersected by dividing mountain ranges. But one language is spoken all along the Pavers Murray and Darling, while the next neighbours of the Murray tribes, on both sides, are unable to converse with them. It is, nevertheless, tolerably certain that all the natives of Australia belong to one stock. There appears reason to believe that their progenitors originally landed on the north-west coast, that of Cambridge Gulf or Aruhem Land, in canoes drifting from the island of Timor. They seem then to have advanced over the continent in three separate directions. By one route they moved, in the course of ages, directly across to the south coast, near the head of the Great Bight, Spencer Gulf, and the Gulf of St Vincent. Another division followed the west coast to Swan Paver, and round by King George s Sound. The third and most important body, turning eastward, crossed the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria, then split and sub divided itself amidst the rivers and highland ranges of Queensland, while some of its tribes crossing the Upper Darling occupied New South Wales, overspread the Riverina, and peopled the south-eastern quarter of Aus tralia. The proofs and arguments upon which this hypo thetical distribution is based are set forth by Mr Eyre in his interesting essay on the Australian aborigines (Dis coveries in Central Australia, &c., by E. J. Eyre, resident magistrate, Murray River, vol. ii.) It is chiefly the pre valence of some peculiar customs, such as circumcision, or the removal of two upper-jaw teeth at a stated age of adolescence, that seems to mark the common descent of tribes, now widely distant in location, which appear to have belonged to one of the supposed main streams of population. The discontinuance of such customs among the tribes of the other main divisions is plausibly ascribed to local influences. From a comparison of their languages, the diversities of which have been already referred to, it appears that little aid is to be expected from them in ethno logical grouping. The natives of the north-eastern quarter a tropical region of diversified surface, with many rivers and thick forests, as well as open highlands are far superior in body, mind, and social habits to those of the rest of Australia. They bear, in fact, most resemblance to their rfeighbours and kindred in the island of Xew Guinea, but are still below these in many important respects. If a general view be taken of the tribes of Australia, and the state in which they existed independently of recent Euro pean intercourse, two or three extraordinary defects exhibit themselves. They never, in any situation, cultivated the soil for any kind of food-crop. They never reared any kind of cattle, or kept any domesticated animal except the dog, which probably came over with them in their canoes. They have nowhere built permanent dwellings, but con tented themselves with mere hovels for temporary shelter. They have neither manufactured nor possessed any chattels beyond such articles of clothing, weapons, ornaments, and utensils as they might carry on their persons, or in the family store-bag for daily use. Their want of ingenuity and contrivance has, however, undoubtedly been promoted by the natural poverty of the land in which the race settled. The sole dress of both sexes in their aboriginal state is a cloak of skin or matting, fastened with a skewer, but open on the right-hand side. Xo headgear is worn, except sometimes a net to confine the hair, a bunch of feathers, or the tails of small animals. The bosom or back is usually tattoed, or rather scored with rows of hideous raised scars, produced by deep gashes at the age when youth comes to manhood or womanhood. Their dwellings, for the most part, are either bowers, formed of the branches of trees, or hovels of piled logs, loosely covered with grass or bark, which they can erect in an hour, wherever they encamp. But some huts of a more commodious and substantial form were seen by Flinders on the south-east coast in 1799, and by Captain King and Sir J. Mitchell on the north-east, where they no longer appear. The ingenuity of the race is mostly to be recognised in the manufacture of their weapons of warfare and the chase. While the use of the bow and arrow does not seem to have occurred to them, the spear and axe are in general use, commonly made of hard- wood ; the hatchets of stone, and the javelins pointed with stone or bone. The peculiar weapon of the Australian is the boomerang, a curved blade of wood, of such remark able construction, that it swerves from its direct course, sometimes returning so as to hit an object behind the thrower. Their nets, made by women, either of the ten dons of animals or the fibres of plants, will catch and hold the strong kangaroo or the emu, or the very large fish of Australian rivers. Canoes of bent bark, for the inland waters, are hastily prepared at need ; but the inlets and straits of the north-eastern sea-coast are navigated by larger canoes and rafts of a better construction. Without claiming permanent ownership of the land, each native tribe was accustomed, till the English squatter came, to enjoy the recognised manorial dominion of its own hunting-ground, perhaps ten or twelve miles square. This was subdivided between the chief heads of families. The affairs of a tribe are ruled by a council of the men past middle age who are still in full vigour of mind and body. One may be their president, but they have no hereditary prince. Their most solemn assemblies take place when the youth undergo one or other of the painful ceremonies of ini tiation into manhood. In every case of death from disease or unknown causes the sorcerers hold a public inquest, and pretend to ask the corpse how it was killed. Such deaths are invariably ascribed to witchcraft practised by a hostile or envious neighbouring tribe. The bodies of the slain in battle are sometimes eaten, or the fat of the kidneys, at least, is extracted for a feast of victory. But cannibalism in Australia is not confined to the flesh of enemies, nor is it generally associated with an insulting triumph. It is rather, like that reported of the ancient Scythians, a rite of funeral observance, in honour of deceased kindred and friends. The reality of this custom is proved by the testi mony of trustworthy English witnesses, who have watched the revolting act. The only idea of a god known to be enter tained by these people, is that of Buddai, a gigantic old man lying asleep for ages, with his head resting upon his arm, which is deep in the sand. He is expected one day to awake and eat up the world. They have no religion beyond those gloomy dreams. Their notions of duty relate mostly to neighbourly service and social interest ; and they are not all thieves or liars, but are capable of many good deeds. The marriage bond is observed by the wife or wives, the penalty of its violation being death. But chastity upon any other account is a virtue beyond the native conception, though a certain delicacy of feeling in matters of sex is not unknown. The deplorable lack of moral restraint has involved this unhappy race in sufferings which may be easily under stood, from their contact with the more reckless and vicious representatives of foreign nations. The numbers of the native Australians are steadily diminishing. A remnant of the race exists in each of the provinces, while a few tribes still wander over the interior. Altogether it is computed that not more than about 80,000 aborigines remain on the continent. Perhaps the most complete and trustworthy informa tion on the Australian race is to be found in works pub lished some twenty or thirty years ago, before the country III. i =
