VOCABULARIES OF THE GEELONG AND COLAC TRIBES. 841 
was withdrawn, and private support grew lukewarm, and when 
hope of success died within him, a strong sense of duty kept him 
at his post, and not until the Government resumed possession of 
the Buntingdale acres, and marked them out for public selection, 
did he abandon the mission. Ten of the best years of his life 
were spent trying to Christianise and civilise the above-mentioned 
tribes. 
Having an aptitude for language, he soon learned the native 
dialects, but of his writings on the subject only a part remains. 
A large vocabulary was compiled in the first years of the mission, 
but it was unfortunately lost in a fire that destroyed the mission- 
house. Tuckfield himself, forced to leap out of a window, narrowly 
escaped with his life. His journal and copies of private letters 
contain a few brief remarks on the aboriginal language ; but in his 
note-book is preserved a collection of about two hundred short 
sentences, some translations of Scripture, and a vocabulary of 
over two hundred words. By the kindness of the Tuckfield 
family, it has been my privilege to inspect their father’s journal, 
letters, and note-book ; and when perusing the latter I unearthed 
a grammatical form of number hitherto practically unnoticed as 
a peculiarity in Australian language. That dual number is a 
feature of several Australian dialects is well known; but with the 
Wod-dow-ro, number as a means of precision was amplified yet 
another degree. And herein lies the discovery : these natives of 
the Geelong district used triple number. Although “it is not 
rare to find among uncivilised peoples a linguistic faculty superior 
to that of their neighbours or of their civilised kindred,” yet 
it is remarkable to find among these savages such an apparent 
sign of mental activity. Triple number is not found in the 
language of the Dravidians, who are regarded by some writers 
_as the progenitors of the Australian race. We may there- 
fore conclude, admitting that we must look for “the ancestors 
of the Australians in Hindostan,” that the Australian invented 
triple number himself, or else he preserved a form of speech that 
was lost centuries ago by his Indian congener. As to its use 
in Australia, it is difficult to believe that it was spoken only 
by the Wod-dow-ro, who in customs and daily life were typical 
natives: death-dealiug superstition stalked among them ; poly- 
gamy, infanticide, and cannibalism prevailed; tillage was un- 
known ; and, furthermore, in the speech of the three tribes, 
indications could be found pointing to original unity with the 
dialects of remote tribesmen. Using Threlkeld’s and Teichel- 
mann’s grammars, Francis Tuckfield compared the dialects spoken 
in the vicinity of Buntingdale and others of Victoria with those 
of New South Wales and South Australia; and this was his con- 
clusion: “In construction and character they are radically and 
grammatically the same.” Referring to the language of the three 
