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the tribe. This snake only appears to the old people and, as 

 soon as it is seen, an old man dies and mysteriously disappears. 

 Of course, out of the many tribes it is more than probable that 

 an old man will die every year. As soon as the fact is known 

 by the other tribes their cry is " Yes, snake take him." 



I have frequently tried to obtain from the young and more 

 intelligent natives a reason for this illusion, but they persistently 

 believe it to be true and nothing will shake that belief. It is 

 not generally understood that the chanting of past records, such 

 as of any wonderful or startling event, is customary with the 

 Australian native, and I am quite of opinion that it is only among 

 some of these Gulf tribes that such is the case. Perhaps the 

 reason is not so difficult to understand, when it is known that 

 some of the native races of the Celebes Islands, who have no 

 written history, chant their past deeds, and so hand them down 

 to posterity. May not this custom have been instilled into the 

 minds of these tribes by the visits of the Malays to our northern 

 seaboard ? Another corroboree, relative to the approach of the 

 white man, is sometimes performed. 



No much lower race of human beings exists than the Austra- 

 lian aboriginal. Although he is capable of improvement, he is 

 more than apt to go back into his wild state, to whatever extent 

 he may have become subject to the influences of civilisation. 

 We have instances in this locality in which boys have been taken 

 up by Europeans, taught to read and write and treated in every 

 w^ay as the equal of a white man, yet they have eventually 

 returned to their tribes. In the case of the late murder of 

 Clark and Dolitte at Bowgan, the ringleader of that dastardly 

 and inhuman outrage was a young blackfellow named " Box," 

 who had lived with Europeans for over nine years. 



I will now to the best of my al)ility state such information as 

 I have to offer concerning the Gulf triljes, in a form suggested by 

 a detailed set of " Questions on the manners, customs, religion, 

 superstitions, tfec, of uncivilized or semi-civilised peoples," by 

 J. G. Frazer, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge, which was sup- 

 plied to me by Dr. Stirling. The numbers in the text are those 

 of Mr. Frazer's questions, and they have been retained for con- 

 venience of reference and comparison. 



Tribes. 



1. The natives are divided into tribes consisting of a chief 

 and from 60 to 100 souls ; they are not subdivided again into 

 clans or castes. For the names of tribes and individuals see 

 appendix. 



2-8. The only difference in dress is the mode of wearing the hair, 

 i;hat is when any attention is paid to it at all, which is seldom. 



