262 NATURAL SCIENCE. April. 



former superstitions which are now lost and forgotten. In his 

 masterly essay entitled " Over de Mutilatie der Tanden etc," the late 

 Dr. Wilken showed that among the Malay races the breaking and 

 filing of the teeth originated as an exorcism of an evil spirit, although 

 in many races at the present day the original meaning of the custom 

 has been forgotten. Again, the widely distributed hair-myth shows 

 itself in the girdle of human hair worn by the Australian warrior who 

 believes that it imparts strength, courage, and accuracy of aim to the 

 wearer. It is difficult to believe that this myth could have arisen 

 independently in a race of savages who did not believe even in one 

 devil. The white paint v^^ith which the Australian savages and other 

 dark-skinned races of mankind daub themselves when they mourn the 

 loss of a relative was in all probability, as Mr. Frazer and others 

 have suggested, merely a disguise used to confound the returning 

 ghost of the departed. 



The peculiar marriage customs of the Australians also point to 

 degeneration. The marriage of the Australian is what Maclennan 

 called from an Arabic word a " Deega " marriage; that is to say, the 

 man takes his wife to his own camp. Moreover, polygamy occurs, 

 and occasionally at any rate a man captures by force a wife, belong- 

 ing of course to a proper sub-phratry, from a neighbouring tribe ; but 

 associated with these patriarchal customs we have the fact that the 

 child of the marriage belongs to the phratry of the mother and the 

 man may never on any pretence speak to or look upon his wife's 

 mother. The marriage customs then show at least a change from a 

 more primitive matriarchy to a mild form of patriarchy. 



The rude art, and the songs at the corroborrees also show that 

 important changes in their history have taken place. The very 

 valuable series of drawings copied from inscriptions found at Ayers 

 rock and elsewhere by members of the expedition, are but conven- 

 tional signs of which, in many cases, the meaning could not even be 

 guessed. What, it might be asked, was the character of the origmal 

 drawings from which these signs have been derived ? The modern 

 Australian cannot draw like his neighbour the Papuan savage, but, in 

 all probability, his ancestors could, and the art has been to a great 

 extent lost. As regards the songs too, surely they must have had a 

 meaning in bygone times. Is it not at least probable that they were 

 formerly of the nature of incantations or exorcisms, and that their 

 significance has been lost with the ghostly beings to whom they were 

 addressed, and that they remain now merely as formalities ? 



It might perhaps be urged that, as changes similar to those 

 referred to have also occurred in the history of more civilised races, 

 they ought not to be spoken of as signs of degeneration. Standing 

 by themselves they are not ; but it seems to be a peculiarity of the 

 Australian race that no indigenous lines of progress have been made, 

 and the resultant of the changes has been a loss of tlie principal 

 features of social organisation. And where, it may be asked, are 



