customs, when watching their simple, thoughtless actions, as comparatively shelterless and homeless they indolently loll about in the woods or hunt for vegetable and animal food, would almost assuredly consider them not far removed from the animals they hunted. But upon looking beneath the surface he would probably recognise in them beings of an order higher than the public is generally pleased to concede. It has been published throughout the world that Australian natives are the lowest of all races in intelligence, but fuller observation will prove that this opinion is not quite correct. Although they believe in no God, and worship and give praise to no Invisible Being—although they cannot write, and have no history—although it is impossible to marshal them into armies or unite them in any way—although they are not agriculturists—yet their rites and many of their customs strangely resemble rites and customs perpetuated in profane history and in the Bible. Sir George Grey instituted comparisons between their customs and those of the Jews, and Mr. E. M. Curr in his voluminous work on the Australian natives, drew attention to a similar resemblance to the African negro. The cursory visitor to Australia, and even the mass of Australians, judge the whole race by the debased specimens they see lounging about the towns. These poor fellows exhibit the effects of white vice—disease, tobacco, drink, clothing—which have reduced them to the most abject depths of immorality on the one side and completely undermined their constitutions on the other. Before the European came they were a different people, and even now in uncivilised parts their movements are free, their faces bright; in them is no crouching terror, for they are lords of their tribal districts. But in the settlements they are spurned, scoffed at, driven from door to door; and when they imitate the ways of civilisation there is nothing to encourage them to competition with the white invader.
Scientists have taken little trouble to trace out their origin, in which the pioneer explorers took no interest. A few writers here and there have advanced theories, all of which are different. Mr. Edward M. Curr sought to prove their descent from the African negroes because both are without religion and have similar manners, language, and rites—particularly circumcision—superstition, customs and a tendency to cannibalism. He conjectured that they sprang from one canoe load of pioneers who landed in the north-west of Western Australia, and as their numbers increased, scattered over the continent. This is shown in their wonderful physical and moral homogeneousness all over Australia, and their languages. The slight differences in appearance and in a few characteristics Mr. Curr explained, were caused by a cross with some other race, but apart from that they have not mixed nor had relations with any other people. One thing is certain, they have led an isolated life; The Indian, Pacific, and Southern Oceans have laved Australian shores, and beyond the monsters in the deep, the natives have seen nothing but what the island-continent itself contained. In physical structure, Darwin said, they are more homogeneous than any other race. Mr. Flanagan, in the "Aborigines of Australia," decided that they originally inhabited the Peninsula of Malacca, and are of the same family as those of the finest groups in the South Seas—New Zealand and the Sandwich Islands, but crossed with an inferior race of men. Count Strzlecki believed their origin was involved in impenetrable obscurity. Dr. J. D. Lang regarded them as members of the Southern Papuan family and Huxley considered they were identical with the ancient inhabitants of the Deccan owing to their features being similar to those of the Indian blacks and the resemblance in Dravinian and Australian languages. Professor W. J. Stephens opined that the Australian aboriginal was driven from Northern Asia through India, and some branches into Africa; hence the relationship.
No one has seriously attempted to estimate the period during which the native has inhabited Australia. While the Druids were conducting their strange rites beneath the oak and mistletoe, and the Saxon aboriginal was startled by the invasion of the Romans, he was certainly here. Meantime England has become a famous nation, and the Australian native is as he was. No antique relic, no historical feature, exists to show his age or prove whether he has sunk lower or risen in intelligence. His days are wrapt in mystery.
The examination of language is always an important feature in considering the origin of any race, and those authors who have made an elaborate analysis of the Australian languages agree that they had a common origin. Captain Grey, now Sir George Grey, who spent 1837 and following years in Western Australia and other parts of the continent, was the first to remark this. He discovered that words used on the western coasts strongly resembled those on the eastern; indeed that there was less difference between them than that existing in the dialects of English counties and German provinces. There is a universal similarity in the sound and structure of words, and the stem of the same word with a similar signification, is used all over the continent. The native has names for every part of the human body, and in this is most particular and concise. The arm has one name, the upper arm another, the left arm a different one, and the right also. Similar words are used in South Australia and New South Wales and Western Australia, and the slight difference is all the more remarkable and striking when the immense distance of nearly 2500 miles is considered, and when it is remembered that there is no written language and no inter-communication. Some use cypher signs, which are not intelligible to the European, and count by tallies or sticks. In communion with each other they express themselves quickly and gesticulate expressively. Their pronunciation is almost soft and pleasant to the ear, and if perchance at night the European hears their voices raised in chanting he will be impressed by the weird cadences and soft protracted soundings of the vowels. Captain Grey once heard their chants wafted by the night breeze from a wooded hill. The wild cries of hidden women appeared to float in air, and left a pleasing impression of anticipation on the young captain. Whether in ordinary conversation, in songs of contentment, in loud long wailings, or in war and dance chants at the corroboree, the effect is decidedly striking.
The Australian native is not so black as the African negro. His skin has a dark copper colour, but in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet it is a brownish pink. His hair is generally black, but tribes or families are known who possess red hair, and others quite white, and still others are fair. But these are exceptions to the race. The bones of the face are large and prominent, the forehead receding, more developed in the perceptive than the reflective signs; the nose is full and broad at the point; the mouth is large, and the lips are thick and protruding. The eyes are dark, and in inaction are listless, but when in the hunt or during moments of excitement they flash on every object. The general expression of the face is kind, and in children pleasant and bright. The limbs are usually long and small, but in those regions where food is plentiful a more attractive development is observed. There is little superfluous flesh, much hard muscle, and the skin is generally soft and velvety to the touch. Some of the females have nicely rounded limbs, but this is not usual. The average height of the male is less than that of the Englishman, and more than the Frenchman. Certain tribes in the fertile north-west average more than six feet and are excellent examples of black manhood, activity,
