Page:The Aborigines of Australia (1988).djvu/14

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

CONTENTS


PAGE
CHAPTER I.—Their Origin—Probable Period of their Arrival 1
CHAPTER II.—Causes which led to their Dispersion—Causes of Degeneracy—Superiority of Northern Aboriginals—Numerical Force of Tribes—System of Chiefship—Customs 9
CHAPTER III.—Ideas of a Supreme Being—Belief in a Future State—Idolatry Unknown—Germs of Artistic Skill 19
CHAPTER IV.—Faculty of Observation—Intuition-Stoicism—Rites of Sepulture and Reverence for the Dead 29
CHAPTER V.—Language—Music—Mode of Warfare—Hunting—Hunting Grounds—Mode of Punishment 38
CHAPTER VI.—Ceremony of Initiation—Half-caste Children—Belief in Spirits—A New Species of Food—Corroboree—The "Kradga Kibba" 48
CHAPTER VII.—General Councils—Mourning—Ornamented Opossum Cloaks—Ferry-boats—Juvenile Exercises—Culinary Process 54