THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA. 21 



in the camp, when they think an evil spirit is near, throw 

 firebrands at him to drive him away. We may not wonder, 

 then, that our Australian black fellows, if, as I believe, their 

 ancestors came from Babylonian lands, have not forgotten 

 the fire observances, and still trust in the protection of the 

 fire-god. 



So far the Bora and its analogies. I have thus considered 

 at some length the institution of the Bora, both because it is 

 the most important of all the social regulations of our 

 aboriginal tribes, and because its universal distribution among 

 them, although with slight local differences in the manner of 

 its celebration, seems to me a strong proof that our black 

 tribes are all brethren of the same race, and that they are of 

 the same common origin as the rest of mankind, their nearest 

 kin being the blacks of Africa. Is it possible that so many 

 tribes, differing in language and confined by their laws and 

 habits each to its own hunting ground, should have evolved 

 from their own consciousness ceremonies so similar, and 

 which, when examined, correspond in so many points with the 

 religiousness of the ancient world ? How is it that the blacks 

 of Australia and the blacks of Guinea have similar ceremonies 

 of initiation ? Is it not because they have come from the 

 same ethnic source and have a common ancestry and common 

 traditions ? 



And now to complete the task which I proposed to myself, 

 I would add a few words of aboriginal mythology, as another 

 point in the argument for the unity of the human family. 



Our native races are attentive observers of the stars ; as 

 they sit or lie around the camp fire after nightfall, their gaze 

 naturally turns to the starry vault above, and there they see 

 the likenesses of many things with which they are conversant 

 in their daily life ; young men dancing a corroboree (Orion) 

 and a group of damsels looking at them (the Pleiades) making 

 music to their dance ; the opossum, the emu, the crow, and 

 so on. But the old men say that the regions " above the 

 sky " are the home of the spirits of the dead, and that there 

 are fig-trees there, and many other pleasant things, and that 

 the head of them is a great man Miimy ; he is not visible, but 

 they all agree that he is in the sky. A greater than he is 

 the great Garabooung, who, while in earth, was always 

 attended by a small man, but now the two shine as comrades 

 in the sky the " Heavenly Twins." Both Garabooung and 

 Minny are " skeletons." In his mortal state, Garabooung was 

 a man of great rank and power ; he was so tall that his feet 

 could touch the bottom of the deepest rivers j his only food 

 was snakes and eels, One day, not. being hungry, he buried 



