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Miscellaneous Intelligence. 303 
Their color is a dark chocolate or reddish black, like that of the Guinea 
' negro, but varying in shade so much, that individuals of pure blood are 
sometimes as light-colored as mulattoes. That which distinguishes 
them most decidedly from other dark skinned races, is their hair, which 
is neither woolly, like that of the Africans and Melanesians, nor friz- 
zled, like that of the Feejeeans, nor coarse, stiff and curling, as with 
the Malays. It is long, fine and wavy, like that of Europeans. When 
neglected, it is apt of course to become bushy and matted; but when 
proper care is taken of it, it appears as we have described. It is some- 
times of a glossy black, but the most common hue is a deep brown. 
_ Most of the natives have thick beards, and their skins are more hairy 
than those of whites. 
The impression produced on the mind of a stranger by an intercourse 
with the aborigines, in their natural state, is that of great mental ob- 
tuseness—or, in plain terms, an almost brutal stupidity. They never 
count beyond four, or, in some tribes, three ; all above this number is 
expressed by a term equivalent to many. Their reasoning powers seem 
to be very imperfectly developed. The arguments which are address- 
ed to them by the white settlers, for the purpose of convincing or per- 
suading them, are often such as we should use towards a child, or a 
partial idiot. Their superstitions evince for the most part this same 
character of silliness. Some are so absurd as to excite at once laugh- 
ter and amazement. The absurdity, it should be remarked, is not the 
result of an extravagant imagination, as with some portion of the Hin- 
doo mythology, but downright childishness and imbecility. One in- 
stance, given on the authority of Mr. Threlkeld, missionary at Lake Mac- 
quarie, will probably be sufficient. In a bay, at the northwest extrem- 
ity of that lake, are many petrifactions of wood, which the natives be- 
lieve to be fragments of a large rock that formerly fell from heaven 
and destroyed a number of people. The author of this catastrophe 
was an enormous lizard of celestial origin, who collected the men to- 
gether, and then caused the stone to fall. His anger had been excited 
against them by the impiety which they had evinced, in killing vermin 
(lice) by roasting them in the fire. Those who had killed them by 
cracking, were speared to death by him with a long reed which he had 
brought from the skies. When all the offenders were destroyed, the 
lizard reascended to heaven, where he still remains. 
Although living constantly in what appears to us a most degraded 
State, and frequently suffering from actual want, they are nevertheless 
extravagantly proud. The complete personal independence to which 
hey are accustomed, gives to their ordinary demeanor an air of haugh- 
tiness and even of insolence. They appear to have a sense, or it may 
almost be termed an instinct, of independence, which disposes them on 
