superior to himself in intelligence, or with savage wild animals. Consequently he has had nothing to sharpen his wits, and remains the most backward race now existing. Professor Baldwin Spencer, the most recent authority on this subject, points out that though the natives make use habitually of numerous kinds of grass seed, which they grind, and make into cakes, it has never occurred to them to sow these seeds and secure a regular crop. And he adds: "In many tribes, at least, this is because he knows nothing of the relation between the seed and the adult plant, and thinks that the latter grows because he makes it so do by magic." The habits and character, the strange customs and ingenious superstitions of these interesting people have been charmingly delineated in a series of unpretending sketches called "The Little Black Princess," by Mrs. Gunn. It is a sort of popular Fraser's "Golden Bough," and is valuable as preserving a record of the everyday life of the Europeans in the Northern Territory under conditions that must of necessity soon pass away.
We could not hope to see the "myals," or wild blacks, and it was already drawing towards night-*fall. Our host, with delightful resourcefulness, proposed to take us to the local gaol, as it afforded the only opportunity of our making acquaintance
