66 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



falling rope discarded by a spirit which has succeeded in climbing up to heaven; but if the 

 meteorite bursts with a loud noise, it shows that the rope has broken. 



The Rev. Charles Greeuway, speaking of the Kamilaroi tribe of New South Wales, says 

 they have a legend that the stars forming the constellation known as the Pleiades were 

 young women of extraordinary beauty who once lived on earth. The young men, becoming 

 enamoured of their charms, pursued them. The girls prayed for deliverance, and Baiame and 

 his mediator, Dhuramoolan, helped them to climb to the top of some very high trees, whence 

 they sprang up to the sky. One of them, not being so beautiful as the rest, hides behind the 

 other six. The leader of the young men who pursued them now appears as Orion, with a 

 boomerang in his belt. The natives of Encounter Bay say that the souls up above, in the 

 clouds or in the stars, leave their habitations in the evening, and go about their business as 

 they used to when they dwelt on earth. The Milky Way is said to be a row of huts, and 

 natives profess to see therein the ash-heaps and columns of ascending smoke, as from 



an encampment. 

 Meteorites, according 

 to these tribes, are 

 the children of the 

 stars. The outer and 

 inner bands of colour 

 in the rainbow are 

 male and female. The 

 moon is a good in- 

 fluence, but the sun 

 a bad one. 



It is always diffi- 

 cult to generalise 

 about the mental 

 characteristics of any 

 race of people, and 

 only those are justi- 

 fied in the attempt 

 who have lived among 

 them for a good many 

 .years even then they 

 may fall into serious 

 errors, so reserved are 

 all' the lower races. 

 But we cannot be 



far wrong in quoting the opinion of Mr. Curr, who was for many years "Protector of 

 the Aborigines" in Victoria. lie says: "The black, especially in his wild state, is 

 quicker in the action of his mind, more observant, and more self-reliant than the English 

 peasant, but less steady, persevering, and calculating. In our aboriginal schools it has 

 been found that the pupil masters reading, writing, and arithmetic more quickly than the 

 English child. He will also amuse himself with reading stories as long as he is under the 

 influence of the whites. At this point, however, he stops. Could our blacks part with their 

 knowledge of reading and writing, I am persuaded that they would do so for a trifle. . . . 

 Socially, the black is polite, gay, fond of laughter, and has much bonhomie in his composition. 

 As regards courage, he is inferior to the white man; for, though his nerve is superior, his 

 resolution is less. His tactics in war are such that he will never undertake an enterprise in 

 which the death of even one of the party is inevitable, or nearly so. Hence, no blacks, 

 however numerous, will attempt to rush a hut in which there is one armed man on guard. 

 On the other hand, a black has been known, in a place far removed from civilisation, to 



Photo by Ml. K. P/iiUi/i*] [KrMnl. 



WOMEN IN MOURNING THEIR BODIES COATED WITH WHITE CLAY. 



